Walt's Corner

I eagerly mounted the install volume when I returned from work for the day. My mission: install Quicken Essentials for Mac. I’ve been using Quicken for Mac for some time. Quicken has never been the most aesthetically pleasing application by any reach of the imagination, but it has always done what I’ve required of my money application: it must connect to my financial institution via a direct connection, download my transactions, and automatically reconcile them to what I’ve already entered. That is the only feature I have ever used. That also happens to be the standard by which I choose a bank. It must allow for direct connection; not the other commonly used “download a file and import it manually” that most banks prefer to deal with.

I don’t care about budgeting. I don’t care to print checks. I don’t care to follow investments. I don’t want to use any bill pay features. I don’t even want to export to some tax program. I simply want my money program to talk to my bank and match up to what I’ve entered, and somehow tell me if I’ve made some mistake. So this is the mindset that I have coming at the new Quicken Essentials for Mac.

My first impression was how pretty the eye candy was. Nice revised icon. When importing my existing Quicken data file it gave a pretty cool show, symbolically illustrating the fact that it was importing all my information. That was a 3 step process that could have been shaved down to an automated procedure asking you one simple question: Where is your existing file that you would like to import? Instead, you select File > Import, another window opens telling you to select a file, the file gets converted to a new file and dumped into your Documents folder, and then you have to drag it over to the dialog window you started from so that it can import that converted file.

Now I’m all set. Or so I thought. It imported everything but my password that I use to connect to my bank in order to download all my transactions. I had to dig that password up, because I only used it once: to put into the original Quicken. From that point on, I never typed that pin number again. I found it after much digging (1Password anyone?). It connected to USAA and downloaded all my new transactions.

That’s when the initial panic settled in. How in the name of Zod do I tell what has been reconciled by the bank and what has not? In older Quickens, every transaction was matched to the one I entered and marked as “reconciled.” This made for a simple task of looking down the columns and identifying which transactions that I have previously entered that do not have a big bold “R” in it. This is no longer the case. A quick trip to the user guide PDF informs me that this no longer happens, but I can still perform a manual reconcile if I desire to. Not cool. The whole reason I use this program is so that I do not have to manually reconcile.

After mucking around in the column chooser (control/right click on one of the column headers) I notice one that is labeled “match” and enable it. Now I see the status. All say “downloaded” except one deposit I had entered. It said “downloaded/matched.” So maybe this is how I will be able to keep an eye on my mistakes when I happen to make one. Unfortunately, I won’t know for sure until tonight after I download the new transactions. I’ll follow up on that later.

Speaking of downloading transactions, that process has been immensely improved. There is an update button on the bottom that connects to the bank and downloads transactions in one simple click. Kudos. I hated the fact I had to enter a password every time connected in previous versions.

Tonight’s download and matching will be the determining factor as to whether or not I stick with QEM. My other options will be to stick with Quicken 2007, or go use MoneyDance for a while, as I own that one too.

Follow-up on Downloading transactions

Downloading transactions was very smooth, as I wrote above. This time, entries already entered in were matched correctly to their corresponding download transaction, marked as “Matched (auto)” and the reconciled checkboxed became checked. It looks like I’ll be able to use this.

I’m seeing a lot of people talking ill of this last year before the double digit decade. I feel for them and wish them a better year this time around, but I had a great year. I had an absolute blast.

January I was enjoying my newly purchased 2009 Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Classic. My first Big Twin HD Motorcycle that replaced my Sporty. Not to say I didn’t enjoy it throughout the rest of the year.

2009 Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Classic

February brought even more rides, including our HOG Chapter’s annual trip to Tombstone, Arizona. My wife and son even went with. Beautiful scenery. Loved the Lavender Pit.

The Lavender Pit, near Tombstone, Arizona

March was my first time out visiting Elephant Butte, New Mexico.

Elephant Butte, New Mexico

April brought a whole new aspect to my life for the first time – house hunting. Carol and I had planned on purchasing a house after our current lease expired, but thought it would be nice to go look at the market, just to see what it was like. Turns out we found a house that day that we both liked. And bought it. By the end of the month we were packed and ready to go. We even got out of our lease.

Our unfinished house

Finished house

Finished house with landscaping

The beginning of May is when we moved and spent most of that month getting the house right…

June was when we picked out Dolli, our dog. Part chihuahua and part terrier. And spent more time getting the house right. The garage and entertainment center were the focus of the handy-man. Installed speaker jacks in the walls and ceiling/attic so that no wires would be running visible in the living room.

Cut-outs in the wall for the jacks

Jacks installed

Speaker wire drops down from attic

Carol started working at her high school in July. Did I mention we did more work on the house? The main focus that month was the kitchen sink and the cupboards. I also rode out to Sitting Bull Falls, New Mexico.

Replaced generic faucet with this one

August was the really big project on the house – the back porch/patio, rock wall on the sides of the property, and another little side porch to hold the trash and recycle bins that connected to the driveway. We also rode out to Alpine and Fort Davis, Texas. It also marked the birthday of Carol!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cswz6rV9qCk

September I received my new Bunn STX Brewer that I won in a video contest. Poor Dolli got shaved at the groomers “by accident.” Had to buy her a sweater because she was so cold.

Dolli, shaved and wearing a sweater

October brought the changing of the leaves and some very nice rides. Not too hot, not too cold. Rode through the Gila National Forrest and Emery Pass in New Mexico. I also turned another year older. This was the month that Carol bought me my KitchenAid professional stand mixer. That has really come in handy.

November was the usual. All the holidays and 4-day weekends come en masse. Time to start eating like there’s no tomorrow, and that lasts through December and into January.

December saw all our toy rides and poker runs for the ramp up to Christmas and the New Year. I also finished up hiding the cables running to and from the entertainment center and the speaker jacks I put in the wall.

Wire panelling installed and painted to match wall

Wire panelling installed and painted to match wall

There we have it. The year in review. There are big plans scheduled for next year as well. I hope everyone has a great New Year!

Carol and I

Was somebody fired from Dave Letterman’s show and subsequently picked up over at eWeek? Or are eWeek’s editors losing creativity when assigning names to their articles? Seems like every other feed that comes down the pipes have “10 reasons” or “10 Ways” in the title. This is getting very boring.

I give you 10 recent reasons to drop eWeek from your feed list:

1. 10 Reasons Why the Windows 7 Upgrade Is Unlike Any Other
2. 10 Reasons to Stick with Windows XP Until Windows 7 Service Pack 1
3. 10 Reasons Why It’s Time for Enterprises to Embrace Netbooks
4. 10 Reasons Why Reliable Windows 7 Security Is Crucial to Users
5. 10 Reasons Why Microsoft Released Windows Marketplace Too Early
6. 10 Reasons Why Having Both Macs and PCs Spells Trouble for Apple
7. 10 Reasons Why Chrome, Firefox Threaten Internet Explorer
8. 10 Reasons Why Windows 7 Could Be Best Microsoft OS Yet
9. 10 Reasons Why Chrome OS Will Outshine Nokia, Linux on Netbooks
10. 10 Reasons Why Palm Pre May Become the Smartphone Flop of 2009

Be careful what you ask for. It’s easy to jump on the bandwagon and hope like hell that Microsoft finally gets what it deserves. Of course I’m speaking of its latest bag of hurt that is the Word patent infringement ruling. After years of putting out applications that, for the most part, were straight up theft or at least someone else’s idea, I hope as much as the next person that they reap what they sow.

But let’s walk down that glorious path, shall we? In today’s economy and politically motivated decisions, the clouds have parted and I see a future. A future where Word does indeed get banned. Here’s a quote from eWeek, “But if these efforts fail, even a company of Microsoft’s wealth and resources would be hard-pressed to recoup the potential financial losses and competitive setbacks if it has to keep Word off the market for an extended period.” That’s their opinion and I pretty much subscribe to it. In this future of mine, Microsoft is in deep financial trouble. Word gets pulled. Office has to get repackaged. Competing companies come out and flourish. Microsoft begins to go under. What happens next? Government bail-out.

Don’t think that could happen? Think again. Remember when RIM was playing the patent infringement case? They were on the receiving end of a stay of execution. Why? Because the government would cease to function without the use of their Blackberries. The government was not going to bite the hand that feeds it. What applications are on every government computer? Why, Microsoft Office, of course!

Reason 1 Microsoft will not be too severely punished: Office is on every modern/recent government computer.

Reason 2 Microsoft will not be too severely punished: Even if a court sided against Microsoft, the way the government runs now in the aftermath of this recession, the government would financially bail-out Microsoft from the burden and we would all become stockholders of the biggest software company in the world.

I don’t really know what triggers iTunes to close out a bill before it charges me. Does it wait a week? I have bought songs and rentals where I was charged that same night. Other times, like this week, iTunes takes its sweet time. Monday I bought Monster Pinball for iPhone. Tuesday was a song. Wednesday I bought pzizz Relax for iPhone. Thursday I rented “Last House on the Left” so that we can watch it tonight during our Pizza and a Movie Night.

Today I received the email that charged me for my purchases this week. There doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason to the settling of the bill.