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[Biowraith]

My graphics card (a GTX 460) just died a sudden and unexpected death.  I have 1 hour to choose and order a new one if I want it delivered tomorrow (which would be ideal, since day job during the week).

This is, according to 3dmark11, the beastliest you can get right now. (If you have enough money to throw)

Thanks for the suggestion, a smidgen outside my price range though.  I've plumped for an MSI GTX 760 - seemed to get a lot of good reviews, and a touch easier on the old wallet.

[Karkov]

I can totally confirm, GTX 760's are the way of the awesomeness.

[Frumple]

Forget one thing -> Have to re-enter roughly an hour's worth of data entry. Because, of course, there's no means of correcting the mistake. At all.

Fuck. Quickbooks.

Just... if it hasn't been implied. Going through school now to help make getting into the accounting field a bit easier. Once I'm there? I will never. Ever. Purchase any piece of Intuit software for professional use. I will also strongly suggest to anyone who asks: Do not buy from those incompetent pieces of shit.

I will sooner do the goddamn accounting by hand, scribing the numbers on parchment made from my own flesh with ink forged the blood of my customers. Than ever willingly add another iota of profit to that godforsaken company.

[nenjin]

Forget one thing -> Have to re-enter roughly an hour's worth of data entry. Because, of course, there's no means of correcting the mistake. At all.

Fuck. Quickbooks.

Just... if it hasn't been implied. Going through school now to help make getting into the accounting field a bit easier. Once I'm there? I will never. Ever. Purchase any piece of Intuit software for professional use. I will also strongly suggest to anyone who asks: Do not buy from those incompetent pieces of shit.

I will sooner do the goddamn accounting by hand, scribing the numbers on parchment made from my own flesh with ink forged the blood of my customers. Than ever willingly add another iota of profit to that godforsaken company.

If you want to be an accountant for small businesses, unfortunately, Quickbooks is what there is, because it lets small businesses run without having to shell out for a CPA.

If you're going to be an accountant for serious, non-small businesses, you really should be learning something like Sage MAS 90.

Our developer constantly bitches about having to work around the Quickbooks API. Even better, the APIs are significantly different between regions. So, for example, the Canadian QB API doesn't let you do all the things the American QB API does.

[Frumple]

... that mildly boggles my mind. How are they managing that kind of market control when they've got a UI that's less consistent than the game this freaking forum is built around?

Seriously, no shit, I've had more alternate control schemes between windows with QB, so far, than I have with DF. It is painful. I would honestly call QB's interface worse than Dwarf Fortress, right now.

E: Jesus hell I just clicked on two different entries in the same window, under the same conditions (clicking into an entry box from a different one), and got different reactions. KILLFRENZYKILLFRENZYKILLFRENZYKILLFRENZYKILLFRENZYKILLFRENZY

[nenjin]

... that mildly boggles my mind. How are they managing that kind of market control when they've got a UI that's less consistent than the game this freaking forum is built around?

Seriously, no shit, I've had more alternate control schemes between windows with QB, so far, than I have with DF.

because it lets small businesses run without having to shell out for a CPA.

Trust me. I spend a lot of time on the phone with non-CPAs who are the ones tasked with pumping financial information out of their business to the state. I have the enviable position of not only explaining how our software tracks cost and inventory, I have to sometimes explain how QBs does it too. (Since our software pumps data into QBs and I have to explain the discrepancies.)

These people are not tech-savvy, and most of them probably have a high school diploma. Maybe not even that. They're average people who have had to pick up the software to produce reports that the State will accept as proof of business, and it's the last thing they want to do with their day.

And that's who QBs is targeted at. I sort of automatically have more respect for anyone at a business that works with Quickbooks, because I know they had to put up with it and learn it, which is no mean feat for Southerns living in BFE selling truck parts.

But yeah, there are several layers of stupid built into QBs, from the user level to the developer level. Why they have two different APIs for Canada/US boggles the mind. And I guess the reason they have retained market control, I think it's a combination of factors. The software is certified with practically all state governments. They were one of their first. Their consumer base isn't what you'd call discriminating. Desperate would probably be a better description. These are people who are still running a few Windows 2000 or older installs at their businesses. I don't want to harp on those things too hard because they manage. But it means they're liable to buy the thing everyone still recommends for people who honestly just don't want to think about it, and that thing is still QBs.

[Knit tie]

Putin going full imperialist on poor Crimea recently has been quite infuriating for me.

[Frumple]

And that's who QBs is targeted at. I sort of automatically have more respect for anyone at a business that works with Quickbooks, because I know they had to put up with it and learn it, which is no mean feat for Southerns living in BFE selling truck parts.

But yeah, there are several layers of stupid built into QBs, from the user level to the developer level. Why they have two different APIs for Canada/US boggles the mind.

... and ah. Yeah, respect for that, but what I picked up from it is they don't know software well enough (well, more like haven't been exposed to it long enough to pick up a sense of decent aesthetics re: functionality.) to know they're getting shit peddled to them. Which... I can understand. I don't have beef with people that use QB. Just the bastards that made it, who I currently want to strangle the incompetence out of.

Also tells me there's a potential market there, which I'm terribly surprised someone hasn't exploited. It wouldn't be terribly difficult (in a relative sense -- it'd still take a lot of work, s'just the bar to pass isn't exactly high) to make something that's less of a train wreck than QB. Doubly makes me wonder why the blazes QB hasn't fixed their mess and locked the market down. Someone is being monumentally stupid, it seems.

[Descan]

* Descan wonders about OpenSource...

[misko27]

* Descan wonders about OpenSource...

From what nenjin says, the thing is that the market is inherently less discriminating to quality, just to reliability and "it works I don't need a better thing", so Open Source can't really compete there.

The markets aimed at people who don't change their ways and aren't educated on the issues are always going to be hard to be competitive in. Even if free. Especially if free even, since it is free and therefore not backed by cash-based reliability.

[nenjin]

You'd be surprised how little people care about stuff like UI, UX, when they consider using computers a distinct and separate part of their job. I mean, I'm talking engine mechanics here and (to abuse a stereotype here a minute), middle-aged Southern Trucker Wives. The phrase "i'm not a computer-person" comes across the phone to me about 3 times a week, at least. We here are part of the internet cohort, and spend half or more of our waking hours on a computer. These people do not. And I know this because I'm wrist-deep in their aging, crusty, virus-ridden workstations. People that care about their computer time don't put up with this crap. People that don't use it til it explodes.

Personally, I hate QB's cramped ass menus and poor use of screen real-estate, how it filters its lists. The fact I always forget to change a company name in the right place to avoid a duplicate name conflict. (Here's a thought geniuses, USE SOMETHING THAN A STRING AS THE PRIMARY KEY.) That stupid links page, ugh.

Also tells me there's a potential market there, which I'm terribly surprised someone hasn't exploited. It wouldn't be terribly difficult (in a relative sense -- it'd still take a lot of work, s'just the bar to pass isn't exactly high) to make something that's less of a train wreck than QB.

The real barrier to entry is certification. That's what QBs has going for it. It's been around a long time, is accepted as a legitimate income and asset statement by most state governments and the US government. (And plenty of international governments.) It's not an insurmountable barrier and they do have competition. But at their level in the market, they have put in the time and have the household recognition. Consider them the McDonalds of Small Business Accounting Software vs. that new, great burger place that opened 6 months ago downtown.

Like I said, there are other, higher-end accounting systems to manage businesses like McDonalds. We only integrate with QBs at my company because so many of our customers use it. We recommend everyone use something entirely different. (Although that ****ing thing has its own issues, as I've ranted about before.)

[Frumple]

That... sheds some light on things, N. Danke, heh.

I think you've officially taught me more important things about QB than this course will.

... mind you, understanding diminishes not the wroth. But... yeah.

Though I do half wonder if it's not, like... what's that word, something like burden? Not quite a responsibility, but somewhere in there. For the folks that are of the electronic cohort to, like... shield the poor folks that aren't. What good our glory if we cannot save our brethren from depredation, ahahaha!?

By which I mean we totes need to get our mob on and go burn down Intuit headquarters. Something along those lines.

[Descan]

By which I mean we totes need to get our mob on and go burn down Inuit headquarters. Something along those lines.

You can try, but I don't think igloos burn all that well.

[nenjin]

Though I do half wonder if it's not, like... what's that word, something like burden? Not quite a responsibility, but somewhere in there. For the folks that are of the electronic cohort to, like... shield the poor folks that aren't. What good our glory if we cannot save our brethren from depredation, ahahaha!?

As corny as it sounds, this is the mentality I use doing tech support. It helps I don't work in some soul-crushingly large company. I have a real personal relationship with my customers because I talk to them (way too often because of problems with our software) and I level with them as often as I can. I try not to get frustrated with them because I know that they honestly don't care about computers, and that ain't a crime. I've been to a lot of truck yards at this point. When they complain about Windows 8, or shitty printers I'm the first one to go "I hear you loud and clear."

So I empathize with them and try to steer them to stuff that doesn't make their life or my life harder. Better internet service, ditching or at least reformatting old computers, what AV sucks and what AV works well enough without being in your face. What not to let people do on their computers. That sorta stuff.

And I think the word you're looking for is duty.

[Descan]

Or noblesse oblige if you think of the electrohort as the Master Race.