Aren Cambre’s Blog

This blog post was to be about converting to Mint.com. I’m instead sticking with Microsoft Money.

Mint.com’s philosophy, and biggest failure, is low effort. They want a low effort user experience, but they have a low effort technical staff: instead of finding simplified ways of doing complex tasks, they just leave them out!

For example, recurring transactions. Microsoft Money has a “bills” feature that tracks and auto-enters my recurring transactions–paychecks, investments, mortgage payment, church donation, utility bills, etc.

Sure, this is “complicated” because I must manually schedule these transactions. But it removes complexity because they are pre-entered before my monthly bill-paying session.

Mint.com doesn’t have a hint of this. It even lacks logic to suggest recurring transactions–that could have allowed them to simplify an otherwise complex feature.

Another is manual transactions. Mint.com is reactive: it only has what it downloads from financial service providers. You can’t enter transactions.

This works fine for my credit cards because I am never near my limits. But it’s a disaster for my checking account. I have no record of a check until it’s deposited!

How do you track outstanding checks, including ones that have sat undeposited for months or weeks? How do you know your true available balance? Currently, it must be some other log that you must constantly monitor and update. No way, that’s terribly error-prone!

Thanks to Microsoft Money, I have minimal checking account padding and don’t bounce checks!

Mint.com, on the other hand, requires a gigantic cash pad, loins girded for overdraft fees, or tricky accounting using other programs.

Mint.com is a fail. Its slick user interface redeems it from epic fail. But behind the user interface is a painfully simplistic system. I can appreciate the complexity of the infrastructure needed to support this system, but I cringe at how little it really does for its users.

Above, I wrote I am using Microsoft Money “for now.” I don’t know where I’m going. Quicken suffers from a kludgy user interface and Intuit’s anti-consumer business practices. Plus it can’t convert my Money data yet.

Rumor has it that Quicken 2010 will have better Microsoft Money import capabilities. I’m still with Microsoft Money for a few more months.

I predicted this last August, and it came true: Microsoft ditched Microsoft Money, effective the end of this month.

Time to find a new product. Argh.

I have a Drupal site where I will propose major changes to a policy document. The site has nodes with current and proposed versions of document sections.

I want auto-generated diffs to make the proposed changes obvious. The diff needs to look like legislation, where deletions are struck through and additions are underlined.

Here’s all the steps to make this work. This assumes you already have a working Drupal install.

1. Drupal Computed Field module

The Computed Field module is a great concept: it executes PHP code to populate a new field with calculations based on other fields or any other data accessible to the PHP engine. Since the module can execute any PHP script, you can actually do anything available to the PHP system or Drupal API upon node save. It doesn’t have to save values to a field.

Computed Field for Drupal 6 has rough edges, however. It has been stuck on beta 1 for 7 months, and its MySql’s longtext field type is broken (I found a workaround).

How to configure the module:

• Create a new Computed Field type in your node with Store using the database settings below set to varchar with a large enough Data Length to prevent data overflow errors. (This is the workaround to the broken longtext field.)
• Put this code in the Computed Code field:
  $path = ‘/pathToPear’sParentDirectory/pear/PEAR’;
  set_include_path(get_include_path() . PATH_SEPARATOR . $path);

  require_once ‘PEAR.php’;
  include_once “Text/Diff.php”;
  include_once “Text/Diff/Renderer.php”;
  include_once “Text/Diff/Renderer/inline.php”;

  $diff = &new Text_Diff(’auto’, array(array($node->field_nameOfOneFieldToCompare[0]['value']), array($node->field_nameOfOtherFieldToCompare[0]['value'])));
  $renderer = &new Text_Diff_Renderer_inline();

  $node_field[0]['value'] = $renderer->render($diff);

TechRepublic confused me: they got the Text_Diff constructor signature wrong in Compare file contents and render the output with PHP and PEAR. You don’t pass two files, you pass a string and an array. I credit them, however, for pointing me to the inline renderer.

2. Install your own PEAR

Dreamhost’s main PEAR install is out of date. It cannot install up to date  PEAR components such as Text_Diff 1.1.0.

Solution: install your own PEAR.

I used http://pear.php.net/go-pear. Save that page as go-pear.php in a pear directory off your account’s home directory (if you’re not sure, get to it with cd ~ from the command line). Run it from the command line using php -q go-pear.php.

I accepted all defaults.

It will instruct you to fix your php.ini. You may not need to do anything; see the optional section below.

3. Install Text_Diff

As simple as pear install pear/Text_Diff. You may need to prefix the pear executable with the path to your new install so you don’t run Dreamhost’s old install.

OPTIONAL: Override Dreamhost’s PHP configuration

Dreamhost runs PHP in CGI mode. That gives security and usability improvements, but it disallows local php.ini files or the php_value include_path “path statement goes here“ in the .htaccess file.

To change values in the php.ini, you must either use PHP’s set_include_path or override Dreamhost’s master php.ini.

I chose set_include_path. I probably won’t have many PEAR-dependent computed fields, so this is easy to maintain.

However, if you will use PEAR a lot, you may want to override the php.ini. Use the Custom php.ini across Multiple domains section as it is the most flexible solution.

A pitfall with overriding the php.ini is you won’t get php.ini changes made by Dreamhost. I just checekd, and the last update was only 5 days ago. While I can manage my own php.ini, I use a hosting provider because I’d rather let someone else handle infrastructure and operations.

The result

Field A: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

Field B: The red fox is awesome.

Difference (auto generated): The quick brownred fox jumped over the lazy dogis awesome.

This week I formed Limitless Technologies LLC.

I’m not rushing into long term plans: computer and information technology consulting need little physical capital, so I can use a “pay as you go” system for now.

I have two objectives.

First, the obvious one: As a separate legal entity, Limitless Technologies LLC bears almost all liabilities for all actions performed through it, protecting me and my family from financial harm.

Second, I have political aspirations. The citizen politician ideal is a myth for ordinary citizens like me, mostly because you can’t make up for lost wages and benefits while campaigning. That’s a huge dent for families, especially in a time-consuming competitive race. I need to develop an asset pool and a more flexible income stream that can bridge me through a leave of absence from my main job.

This is the closest I have come to publicly annoucing a run for office. Don’t worry: we don’t see it happening in 2010!

I titled this “back in business” because I used to co-own Scarsdale Computers, Inc. in the late ’90s. Supposedly I was the brains to back up the sales acumen of the other guy, but I really couldn’t contribute much. My IT knowledge dropped off a cliff past computer hardware and desktop OSes back then.

Twitter is chatter. Disconnected, random, sporadic thought-lets. What’s the point?

Its sub-140 letter messages don’t stand on their own. Chatter needs to be with something bigger. A blog, text messages directed to specific people, or Facebook profile can help.

But thought-lets on a simple web page? Meaningless!

So what makes Twitter special? Beats me. Maybe if it was a platform, some kind of technological innovation? But it’s not. WordPress already has Prologue, Facebook has largely cloned Twitter’s strengths. And it’s outrageously simple.

Twitter remains unprofitable. I’m not surprised. It’s dumb.

I’m not jumping on the Twitter bandwagon. How about you?

Palm finally did what they should have done years ago: they killed Palm OS.

Palm OS was junk when it came out and outclassed even by Windows Mobile 2002. Thankfully, it’s gone.

It’s about time!

(OK, technically Palm OS isn’t dead. Palm sold the software to a Japanese company a few years ago and licenses it back. When the largest licensee ditches an uncompetitve product, the product’s probably dead.)

[CORRECTION: I lost no prepaid domain registration time. Dreamhost's domain transfer requires purchase of a 1 year additional registration on top of existing registration. Existing registration time is retained.]

1and1.com lost my business.

Yesterday, that web host screwed up my hosting package, causing a multi-hour email and web outage.

Being sick of 1and1’s routine incompetence, I already plotted my escape. I changed settings so my domains would no longer auto-renew. I probably had $30-$35 of prepaid domain registration time left with the 6 domains I am keeping, so I figured I would keep them registered at 1and1 and transfer later.

Instead, 1and1 screwed up all my DNS settings and initiated a total package cancellation, causing a major service outage.

This was the last straw, so I expedited my move to Dreamhost.

I am almost running again. Let me know if you got any bounces on emails sent to me.

Even though Dreamhost has a mixed reputation, it can’t be worse than 1and1.com. Some of my web apps run noticably more quickly. And their support staff responded with a coherent answer. Wow!

Wikipedia logo

Last night, I finally gave up Wikipedia editing. It’s not worth it.

Wikipeida is a bona fide nonprofit, and work on it is charitable. But what makes charitable work “worth it”? Here’s a few reasons:

1. Have a connection. Charity work with a group of friends counts, as does charity work for an organization in which I have a relationship.
2. Get value out of it. I like my volunteering with Boy Scouts and my neighborhood association because it’s as much an education for me as it is a benefit for them. Also fulfilling a religious calling is a value.
3. Some kind of permanence. My charitable effort must make a lasting difference in someone’s life.

Wikipedia does none of these.

I have no connection. I only know two editors, and I have met netiher in person. I value relationships, but I only have “so much time” to develop them. I’m not interested in spending that scarce resource on people whose connection is only editing an encyclopeda.

I get little value out of it. I see no religious merit. Sure, maybe a little entertainment on the debates, maybe a little pride in knowing I affected some articles. But whatever value I get is totally offset by the lack of permanence described below.

Among Wikipedia’s largest flaws is the lack of authority. Any clown can destroy your changes. Content that is both not part of common sense of laymen and not easily verifiable will be destroyed by successive edits.

I think it was Science magazine that found that Wikipedia is remarkably accurate for scientific articles. Maybe so, but it’s only because the facts are so easily verifiable. The accuracy and verifiability of other articles are debatable. I’ve especially noticed this in articles with a political slant; way too often they conform to how political authorities market things in ways they aren’t.

Good bye Wikipedia. It was interesting, but you’re not worth my time.

Canon PIXMA MP970

Canon’s PIXMA printers have a defective duplex mode. (Duplex is where you print on both sides of a page.)

Canon says that when using duplex mode, “grayscale will be created using a combination of the color (dye) inks to prevent smearing.” Even when you print black and white, the printer still approximates the black color using the color tanks.

This is stupid:

• Gratuitous waste. Color inks are expensive.
• Duplexing is slow. Color printing considerably slows printing.
• Poor quality. Approximating black with color inks produces a murky, greenish black, not a true black.

Summary: to prevent smearing, they make the printer use more ink. Does that make sense? Maybe if the goal is to sell more color ink cartridges!

Microsoft Money Plus Deluxe

Last Wednesday, Microsoft announced the end of Microsoft Money’s annual release cycle.

I think Microsoft actually killed it. Here’s why:

1. The announcement was routed through a fanboy, not an employee. Bob Peel is a “MVP,” which really means he is not an employee and donates a lot of time to Microsoft. (As much as I like Microsoft products, I think it’s absurd to donate time to a for profit corporation.)
2. “Customer feedback” apparently convinced Microsoft that yearly upgrades weren’t helpful. I have no idea why they suddenly realized this. The microsoft.public.money news group has lambasted the annual upgrades’ minimal net value for years.
3. The current version, released in mid 2007, is Money Plus. Normally it would be named Money 2008. By removing the date, the current product’s name won’t expire.
4. Microsoft discontinued retail sales. Why would you abdicate retail sales channels to Quicken? Because your product is dead. All future sales will be over download channels.

I suspect Money was unprofitable. The frequency of and poor added value of upgrades suggests that Microsoft’s true goal was milking the revenue out of a dead product. Money Plus is so long in the tooth–it’s slow, its database is terribly inefficient, and it doesn’t work well with other products–that it needs a huge rewrite.

What’s in store for Microsoft Money? Probably nothing, at least not anything I can install on my computer. If it has any future, Money will probably morph into a web site. But knowing how poorly Microsoft does web products, don’t hold your breath.

My recommendation? The desktop version is dead, and Microsoft sucks at online services, so explore alternatives.

Quicken is more primitive than Money, but Intuit promised major enhancements for the upcoming Quicken 2009. Barring that, there’s online services like wesabe.com and mint.com.