Quickbooks Online Crashes Safari

I’ve been a QuickBooks user since I started my first company back in 1997. It’s been a love hate relationship mostly because I don’t enjoy working on the books. Recently though, QuickBooks has kicked things up a notch by drop kicking my browser when it prints more than one time.

When I switched to the Mac back in 2006 I wasn’t happy with the Mac version and so I continued to use the Windows version. In 2009-2010 I switched to Quickbooks Online because it looked like the product had become more stable and relable.

Why didn’t I get QuickBooks for Mac? Well, for starters it’s almost $200 and (from what I’ve heard) lacks many of the features found on it’s Windows counterparts. Of course QuickBooks Online charges me a monthly fee, so I suppose it’s all the same in the end.

I have looked for alternatives, trust me. I bought Cha-Ching, but they were acquired by Intuit. I signed up for Mint and they too were acquired by Intuit, but they’ve at least kept the service running. Even today, I did a search on AlternativeTo.net, but I just don’t see any viable alternatives.

There are some great invoicing products out there, like FreshBooks, but I need the full accounting package, not just invoicing.

Why am I so down on QuickBooks? Because of a new little gem that happens every time I need to print more than one item. I can consistently crash QuickBooks Online meaning that my browser completely shits the bed and crashes. What special magic does it require? Simply print more than once. Don’t use Safari you say? Well, the same thing happen in Firefox and Chrome as well. It’s a pain in the ass, but at least it’s consistent.

Here’s a video that will show you how the crash ~~works~~ happens.

QuickBooks Online Crash Issue When Printing from Michael Ashby on Vimeo.

I posted a question in the Intuit Community [link] and was surprised that I got a response. Unfortunately, the response was to call customer support. I’ll be sure to get right on that when I have an hour to waste.

In the meantime, if anyone has any other suggestions, I’m all ears.

305 days ago • technology • Tags: crash, mac, quickbooks, safari

Oh My Stars…

This really takes me back to my heydays with my lust for Palm and all things clear. And the fact that all it takes is patience and paint thinner is driving me nuts. I can’t tell you how badly I want to run to Home Depot right now.

383 days ago • mobile • Tags: clear, iphone

Going Flashless

Taking a page from Daring Fireball and going flash free. I like the fact that I can fall back to Chrome when I need to for Flash, but I’m eager to see how much content is out there in HTML 5.

I’ll keep you posted.

460 days ago • internet • Tags: flash, mac

How To Import A Movie Into Keynote

I had a client ask me to walk them through how to import a movie into Apple’s Keynote presentation software. I took the opportunity to use ScreenFlow and play with the new features, like text overlays.

I encourage you to open the video in a new window and then the pop up to see it at full resolution.

543 days ago • technology • Tags: how-to, iwork, keynote, mac, screencast, video

No Buyer’s Remorse Here

Apple just came out with their latest iMacs yesterday, so I took a look at their specs to see how much has changed in the last six months. I’m happy to say very little!

An iMac displaying iPhoto

If I were to replace my 27″ i7 iMac today, I would get the following:

A processor that is .13GHz faster.
Memory that is 266MHz faster.
An upgraded video card (ATI Radeon HD 5750) with twice as much RAM (1GB).

All-in-all, that’s not a huge bump and certainly one I can live with. This iMac is still the most insanely powerful, gorgeous computer that I’ve ever owned. I often feel unworthy to own such a pristine piece of technology, but there’s no way I’d ever think of giving it up either.

561 days ago • technology • Tags: Apple, imac

My Thoughts Exactly

I just read a great article on Gizmodo by Peter Serafinowicz regarding the various reasons he chooses to pirate music and video entitled “Why I Steal Movies… Even Ones I’m In. It’s a pretty funny read, but it’s also very much on the nose for why I too sometimes download content through illegal means.

I recently directed the music video for Hot Chip’s “I Feel Better.” Contractually, the video had to be hosted on EMI’s official YouTube channel, which disabled non-UK users from viewing it, limiting its audience by around 80%. Frustrated, I put it up on my own YouTube channel with no region restrictions, and at time of writing is just shy of a million views. EMI then remotely disabled embedding on my version, thereby limiting its audience again. If you’re in the business of promoting a band, why would you want to stop people watching their promotional video? (emphasis added)

What I liked about this article is that it isn’t just another geek railing about how business just doesn’t get it and old people are stupid. Peter is incredibly talented and is a content creator himself — and yet he pirates his own content too!

If you don’t know who Peter Serafinowicz, then here’s a couple of nuggets:

Played “Sctanley” in the movie Couples Retreat and “Pete” in Shawn of the Dead
Done some great voiceover work, including Darth Maul from Star Wars: Episode 1 and “The IT Crowd”.
There’s a nice interview with him from last February on Boing Boing.
And last, but certainly not least… wait for it… he freaking created “Look Around You“.

If you’ve never heard of “Look Around You”, then go bit torrent it right now! Just kidding. You can watch it on YouTube [link]

573 days ago • technology • Tags: bit torrent, humor, movies, television

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