Xero Personal - Cloud Accounting software

Xero has come up with a competitive price for their cloud based personal accounting software (£24 a year).  That's the good news.

The bad news is that the only way to get your data into their system is to download bank statements.  This gives me 2 problems - one technical and one more fundamental.  Technically, my main bank (Smile, part of the Co-Op) does not support export in the right format.  The bigger problem is that it only allows you to put your history into their system.  Call me forward thinking but I see accounting systems as ways of looking into the future not just recording the past.  If the system cannot let me take into account my known outgoings to see if I will have enough money in the right accounts in the future, it's not really doing the basics.

To be fair, their web site says that they are'working on' adding manual transactions, so this may be worth watching for the future - especially if they maintain this price point.  To me, having an inexpensive personal accounting product is a really good way to raise their profile and then introduce people to their business editions.  But if the personal system can't cope with personal banking, it makes you wonder if the business version will do the business...

Password security

The link is to a really useful article about password security. Skip the top bit if you are in a hurry but don't miss the concise reviews at the bottom about software that will let you use hundreds of different passwords without having to remember them.

Lifehacker Password Hacked | Productivity501

Electronic notes (in the cloud)

I have long been keen on keeping notes electronically.  The main reasons for this are that it make it easier to search them and that it makes it easier to share them.  Working as an interim, you never know when you might need to be able to do (or get someone else to do) something you once did.  If you can email a note you prepared earlier it saves a lot of time.  Better still, if it is a frequently asked question, you can share it and start creating a knowledge base.

Until this week, my electronic notebook of choice has been Blogger.  I use a blog as a notebook and only share it if appropriate and then only to those who need to see it.  Often cutting and pasting part of a note is enough.  I am now taking a serious look at Evernote.

Evernote and Blogger are both simple to use (Evernote is simpler).  They have many similarities including one click tools to grab content from your web browser.  The table below highlights the differences:

Blogger Evernote Cost Completely free Free for upto 40MB upload each month - probably enough for most people and $5 a month above that for 500MB. Offline availability No. Yes.  A desktop version is available for PCs, Macs and most phones (not Nokias though). Levels of heirarchy 2: spearate blogs per subject then each post can have multiple 'labels' which can be easily filtered on. 2 and a bit: separate note books are equivalent to Blogger's blogs, multiple 'tags' are equivalent  to Blogger's labels.  Evernote does allow saving search criteria which could give a bit more flexibility. Display Designed as a blog so notes are vertical Designed for notes so can show thumbnails

Encrypt your USB stick with True Crypt

Although most of the time I prefer not to use memory sticks, and use cloud based storage solutions instead (such as Dropbox), there are times when only a memory stick will do. For these occasions it's really good to know that any data you are carrying would be safe if for example your memory stick broke off your key ring. True Crypt is free software that provides high-level security to do this.

The good bits:

It's free. There is no cost to download and use, although though they do accept donations.
No need to install on PC. The software runs from the USB stick so does not need to be installed on the PC.
It's quick and easy to use. Once you have set it up, after plugging your USB drive in, you click a file and enter your password. After this, your USB drive appears on a laptop as if it were another hard drive. You can drag-and-drop , read or save without having to put your password in again for that session.
It comes with detailed instructions. There is a very detailed manual which has a novice users guide at the beginning and enormous amount of details and security experts.

The bad bits:

Original setup takes some concentration. You cannot just install this and use it, you need to allow 10 minutes to read the novice guide.
Routine use is easy but could be simpler It would be nice if all you had to do was plug your USB stick into your computer added it asked you for the password. It's not quite that simple but you could say that this just adds to the security.

Although I have used this software for protecting a USB stick, it is also designed for protecting laptops, desktops and data on other platforms.

For a more detailed review or to download True Crypt, click here.

The small print
I am not an expert on data security, although I am interested in keeping my data is secure. If you are looking to protect acutely sensitive data you would be well advised to seek specialist advice.

Dictation software

I'm amazed that dictation software is not more widely used. I have been using Dragon 10 for about three months, and I have found it excellent. I speak with a fairly standard British accent and found voice recognition pretty good straight from the box, and has become better over time. A really useful touch, is that you get extra tips every time you start the software; this allows you to build your knowledge gradually.

A more detailed review (less complimentary) is available here. For the record, I dictated the whole of this post with only a single correction. Current price at Amazon is £39.95

I have no commercial interest in Dragon, or any of Dragon's distributors.