My PowerBook
came with QuickBooks New User Edition v5.0. Although it's free you do
have to register by calling an 800 number. The computer registration
wasn't working so I got a live person who apologized that the Mac
registration was broken. He took a bunch of information (mailing
address and email address) Got a registration code and now it works.
I used Quicken 5 and Quicken 97, back when the program was smaller,
lighter, and faster. I stopped upgrading because it just seemed like
there were too many paid upgrades. Sure, you don't have to buy the
upgrades, but once your product goes on maintenance mode you tend to be
SOL when you upgrade system software (especially going from Mac OS 9 to
Mac OS X).
The QuickBooks that I have is much like the old Quickens. Fast and easy
to use. I was using Moneydance which is a Java application and although
not slow it's not fast. Compared to QuickBooks, Moneydance is glacial.
Since QuickBooks is designed for small businesses you have to be
careful when you're setting up. Going thougj the setup wizards I turned
off many things. As a personal checkbook application it's fine, though
I'm only going to use a small portion of the features.
The budget feature is useful. I set up my budget categories as classes,
which are tags that can be applied to any transaction. This way I'm
only keeping track of certain purchases and without messing up with the
categories. It replaces my old method of keeping track of my budget,
which is just to keep track of the running totals.
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I bought
Starbase Defender, a demoware game written by Nathan Lamont of Bigger Planet. Nathan was
interviewed by The Gamesome
Mac which is how I heard of the game. It's a fast paced arcade game
where you control a starbase gun, shooting raiders as they try to steal
your six Cores. You don't move around the screen — all you are doing is
moving the target reticle and firing from the middle of the screen.
It's a fast paced game with a good amount of strategy. Your shots are
rather slow so you have to time your firing and lead your targets. 18
different enemies with different behaviors and weapons. There are some
bonus items you can get like Power Shots and an extra gun.
The graphics are superb and silky smooth on my 1.33 GHz G4 (not a good
test to see if it's processor intensive). Lots of sounds of exploding
things, the alien commander taunting you, and a techno beat though no
soundtrack. Interestingly, there is a techno soundtrack in the menu
screens but not the game itself.
For $16 (on sale until April 4th, $20 regular price) it's $1 more
expensive than what I would normally consider for a shareware arcade
game (I'm cheap and I don't play that many games). Mostly I bought it
because it was featured on The Gamesome Mac and it's a well-made retro
arcade game.
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