It's an old joke, but it's still funny:

Because it makes e-mails really hard to understand.

> Why?

>> Top-posting in e-mails!

>>> What annoys you the most?

And it looks like James Murdoch will be adopting the top-posting defence to show that, no, he really didn't have any knowledge about the phone hacking that was taking place at the News of the World:

Emails showing James Murdoch was copied into messages where the potential scope of phone hacking at the News of the World was discussed in June 2008 have been released by MPs.One mentions a "nightmare scenario" arising out of a case brought by PFA footballers' union boss Gordon Taylor.Mr Murdoch has said he only read the most recent email in the chain, requesting a meeting.

In the good old days, it was generally seen as better 'netiquette' to not forward great gobs of e-mail on to people. Instead, you were encouraged to include only enough of the earlier e-mails to make it clear to what you were replying, and to include your response below the text, not above it. Now, had this approach been adopted, someone would have had to take a conscious decision precisely what to inform James Murdoch about.

The top-posting craze, which is largely Microsoft's fault, means that enormous chains get constructed very quickly. A great deal of it consists solely of other people's legal disclaimers, so people tend to simply ignore it altogether. Unless expressly instructed to do so, I certainly never go back through pages and pages of old e-mail just in case there may be some nugget I'm expected to have picked up.

An additional defence which James Murdoch may wish to consider is the "I get lots of e-mail, you know" defence. As a director of a major international business, it's naive to presume that he can read and retain all salient information from every e-mail he has ever received. If prosecutors want his head, they're going to need a gun with rather more smoke coming out of it than they have at the moment.

Filed under: Technology with tags bbc, e-mail, hacking, james murdoch, microsoft, news of the world, top-posting
57212 Comments »http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F2011%2F12%2Fjames-murdochs-e-mail-defences%2FJames+Murdoch%27s+e-mail+defences2011-12-13+23%3A51%3A43Christie+Malryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F%3Fp%3D5721

In the world of Android mobile phones, lots of essential software is provided not by the operating system itself but by third party programmers. The operating system doesn't provide an easy way to turn off mobile data, which can be problematic if you don't have an unlimited data plan or you are travelling in a foreign country. Under those circumstances it can be a very costly mistake to leave your phone connecting to the Internet via its 3G modem.

The de facto gold standard solution is a little fix called APNdroid. This tricks your phone by temporarily renaming its data settings so that it simply cannot connect when you don't want it to. When you want to connect again, it renames them back. APNdroid is so widely used that other software providers often provide hooks to it in their software so you can use them together.

Yet recently, APNdroid's author, Martin Adamek, has been trying to increase the meagre amount of advertising revenue he makes from APNdroid. He has been experimenting with different formats; each time this has pushed an 'update' through the Android Marketplace encouraging users to upgrade to the latest version. This has upset some users. But the very latest update has got them erupting in fury. Because, unlike previous versions, this one sticks an advertisement in the status bar once a day. When users click on the advertisement, it takes them to a webpage where they can buy ringtones. 

Having been a very highly rated application, recent reviews have given it and its author a right kicking. 

Martin has, to his credit, gone into damage limitation mode, firstly pointing out that users can pay for an ad-free version (although £1.50 is perhaps a bit steep for something that the operating system really ought to provide by itself), then dealing with disgruntled customers on Twitter.

But a lot of users will just walk away and, if Martin ever decides to revert to a less intrusive system, they'll never see it. Alternatives to APNdroid are now available, including one that looks virtually identical to it. Having become the market leader, it's just possible that he's squandered his advantage by getting just a bit too greedy.

For the technically minded, the offending service is called Airpush, which has an extensive list of questions and answers about its service here. Curiously, they don't seem to have an answer to "Will Airpush irritate my users and get them to uninstall my software in rage?" 

Filed under: Current issues, Ethics, Technology with tags airpush, android, apndroid, gerald ratner, martin adamek, reputation, spam
47743 Comments »http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F2011%2F04%2Fhow-quickly-reputation-is-lost-an-android-case-study%2FHow+quickly+reputation+is+lost+-+an+Android+case+study2011-04-27+20%3A53%3A31Christie+Malryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F%3Fp%3D4774

I got spammed the other day.  Ordinarily my spam filters kill spam before it gets to me, but the occasional one gets through.  And, trust me, I don't take kindly to my time being wasted by people sending me unsolicited e-mail.  If I want your service, I will come find you.  Never presume that it's okay to do it the other way around.

Spam is a really bad idea.  Don't do it.  It doesn't give a good impression of your business and a real internet guru, such as Mark Lee, will eat your spam for breakfast.

What the spam was trying to sell me was a training course.  And the training course was going to be completely free for me.  But, TANSTAAFL. So, where's the catch?

The catch is that the training course actually costs £500.  But it's paid for by a government grant given through Business Link.  From another internet marketeer offering a similar service:

Would you like a business grant that you can use towards a private training/coaching session with me to develop your Internet marketing skills?

Small business owners/managers are eligible for a grant of up to £1000 towards the cost of business training and development designed to develop their strategic skills to drive their company forward.

One grant is available per organisation of up to a maximum of £1,000.  The first £500 is 100% grant funded, with an additional £500 available for you to match at 50%, for a total grant value of £1000.

Both business, public sector and charitable organisations with between 5 to 249 employees are eligible to apply. Organisations who accessed previous Leadership and Management funding initiatives from the LSC are not eligible. Funding is made available for the development of a senior manager or key decision maker.

Our training and consultancy services are a approved [sic] by Business Link in both the East Midlands and West Midland, and our training courses rated amongst the top three in the country.

So, broadly speaking Business Link gets the money from taxpayers and then hoses it around to any Tom Dick and Harry with a training course.  Haven't we seen the problem with this before?

The basic idea is a fair one - it's right that directors of small businesses should get the training they need.  But I'm distinctly uneasy about seeing all these wannabe internet entrepreneurs spamming clients in order to charge them £500 for a course of unproven value until "the money is gone".  This sort of thing would be an excellent and pain-free area to cut, in the interests of reducing our deficit.

Filed under: Politics, Technology with tags business link, deficit, fiona hudson-kelly, individual learning accounts, mark lee, spam, twitter
38932 Comments »http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F2010%2F07%2Fwhy-you-shouldnt-spam-and-how-to-cut-the-deficit%2FWhy+you+shouldn%27t+spam%2C+and+how+to+cut+the+deficit2010-07-21+10%3A11%3A16Christie+Malryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F%3Fp%3D3893

Dennis Howlett enquires:

Is ICAEW failing?

Well, one could simply answer "no" and be done with blogging for the weekend.  At least, I'm pretty sure the answer is "no".  Chartered accountants are still fairly well respected, even if people aren't quite sure what we are, and we are proud enough of being chartered accountants that we continue to cough up our subscriptions every year.  Heck, loads of us continue to pay our subscriptions even when we're retired, just because we like our letters.

Dennis is, as you might expect, being characteristically grumpy.  This time, it's about IT Counts, the little community set up by the ICAEW to talk about techy things affecting accountants, such as Excel and XBRL.  It would seem that he's complaining that only paid contributors and axe-grinders will be posting on IT Counts going forward, and he won't be, which suggests they've stopped his payday.  It's a shame to see that he's resorted to sniping at IT Counts from the sidelines, which is most unbecoming.

Dennis is like Marmite - you either love him or hate him (Richard Murphy loves him).  He has engendered a curious fan-following in @fakedahowlett, a Twitter account and website dedicated to taking the piss out of the real Dennis Howlett through the cunning use of retweets and requotes of his own material.  I find real DH's material to be rather boring and shambolic (although admirably opinionated).  Fake DH takes all the worst bits and sews it together into artwork and is infinitely more entertaining.  It's true - imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery.

Filed under: Institutes, Other blogs, Technology with tags dennis howlett, fakedahowlett, icaew, richard murphy, twitter, xbrl
3338No Comments »http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F2010%2F06%2Fwould-the-real-dennis-howlett-please-step-forward%2FWould+the+real+Dennis+Howlett+please+step+forward%3F2010-06-11+09%3A35%3A46Christie+Malryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F%3Fp%3D3338

There's a superb Monty Python sketch called "How to do it", in which an overly jovial and rather creepy bunch of adults teach you how to do things such as how to rid the world of all known diseases ("first of all become a doctor and discover a marvellous cure for something, and then, when the medical profession really starts to take notice of you, you can jolly well tell them what to do and make sure they get everything right so there'll never be any diseases ever again").  It just goes to show - even Blue Peter has never been beyond parody.

And HMRC has now published a guide to iXBRL which is in the "How to do it" mould (thanks ICAEW Tax Faculty for the heads up).  Clumsily entitled "XBRL - when to tag, how to tag, what to tag", it's really pretty unhelpful to all but those who are completely ignorant of the iXBRL project.  For example, it sets out the main options for preparers - buy commercial software, instruct a tax agent to help you, prepare your accounts in Word or Excel and convert them, or outsource iXBRL conversion.  This is as useful as teaching the flute by telling someone to blow in one end and waggle their fingers at the other.  The whole problem with iXBRL is that too many companies will instruct their agents to do the conversion, leaving them totally swamped and unable to cope.  HMRC's guide doesn't deal with this issue.

It does, however, inform readers gleefully that there are 6,320 tags in the full list of UK GAAP tags and 4,549 tags in the corporation tax computational list.   This sounds like an astoundingly high number for the smallest companies to be dealing with.  Even the minimum tagging list of 1,253 items, which must be used if the accounts contain them, seems much too long for companies to deal with.

Worst of all, the six-page booklet achieves its brevity by failing to deliver the promise in its title.  It doesn't tell you how to tag in a practical way, it just points you towards a long list of tags.  While it might be more sensible to expect accountants and other tax agents to take the strain, this guide doesn't explain just how they're expected to do that.

Filed under: Taxation, Technology with tags hmrc, icaew, monty python, uk gaap, xbrl
3097No Comments »http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F2010%2F06%2Fixbrl-how-to-do-it%2FiXBRL+-+how+to+do+it2010-06-01+09%3A26%3A11Christie+Malryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F%3Fp%3D3097

So, the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) has launched a brand new website. And it looks pretty good, all in all.

However, there is one amusing feature. On most pages there is a function that allows you to rate each page. As of the time of writing, this function is broken, meaning that every page has a ranking of 0.5 stars out of 5.0... i.e. fantastically unpopular. Even pages that have only one user ranking have an average of 0.5, so it must be a bug. It's a pretty funny and unfortunate error on what's otherwise quite a neat site.

Filed under: Exclusives, Institutes, Technology with tags aicpa, fail, website
28401 Comment »http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F2010%2F05%2Fexclusive-the-aicpas-new-website-is-really-unpopular%2FEXCLUSIVE%3A+The+AICPA%27s+new+website+is+really+unpopular2010-05-18+09%3A42%3A34Christie+Malryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F%3Fp%3D2840

Harry Mount fumes at the price of an iPad here compared to the US:

I had one sent from America. My 64GB device retailed for £500 in America; it’ll cost £600 here. The cheapest 16GB version costs £340 in America; it’ll go for £429 in Britain.

He doesn't provide sources for these prices. US prices are usually quoted before relevant state/city sales taxes are added. But the retail price of a machine sold here will include VAT at 17.5%, which accounts for the bulk of the difference in price.

Case closed?

Update: Telegraph fesses up - VAT is the answer.

Filed under: Other blogs, Taxation, Technology with tags apple, harry mount, idiots, iPad, telegraph, vat
26741 Comment »http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F2010%2F05%2Fthe-price-of-an-ipad-as-evidence-of-rip-off-britain%2FThe+price+of+an+iPad+as+evidence+of+rip-off+Britain2010-05-08+11%3A38%3A39Christie+Malryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F%3Fp%3D2674

Rachael Singh is a good sport and has another go at the article I so cruelly lampooned a couple of weeks back. Here's the intro to her second attempt:

A press release passed over my desk recently in which claims were made that nearly all accountancy firms would close in the next year if they did not take better precautions against internet viruses and back up information on a daily basis.

The person mentioned in the release declared more than 90% of accountancy firms would close in the next year, if more due diligence in risk assessment of their systems were not taken.

She concludes that businesses take the security risks from social networking for granted and that for some firms, if not 93%, it will cost them a fortune. If not their business. And that's a reasonable conclusion.

Filed under: Other blogs, Technology with tags accountancy age, certus it, rachael singh
1096No Comments »http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F2010%2F03%2Fmore-than-93-of-accountancy-firms-will-go-bust-within-a-year-redux%2FMore+than+93%25+of+accountancy+firms+will+go+bust+within+a+year+-+redux2010-03-15+19%3A40%3A50Christie+Malryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F%3Fp%3D1096

There is another peril lurking in wait for an unsuspecting, ham-fisted accountant. Following the financial crisis, we have seen massive growth in, er, the public sector. See, I can type. But many of my colleagues can't. Here, for your pleasure, are three accountancy bodies who might wish they were more careful:

In third place, it's the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. Don't you think they would get their own name right?

In second place, it's the ACCA. The ACCA have a pretty poor record when it comes to misspelling 'public' as this google search should demonstrate. But here's my particular favourite: smack bang in the middle of the title.

But leading the way it's the ICAEW. In a piece explaining how their disciplinary hearings work, they say the following:

[Because] details of the hearing will already have been published on this website, members of the pubic may be there

The icing on the cake is the next sentence:

and your oral application may be refused

So childish, I know, but when your strapline is Inspiring confidence, making sure you can avoid the two killer accounting typos ought to be a higher priority.

Filed under: Entertainment, Technology with tags acca, cipfa, icaew, pwned
7761 Comment »http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F2010%2F03%2Fthe-second-most-popular-auto-correct-option%2FThe+second+most+popular+auto-correct+option2010-03-06+19%3A03%3A34Christie+Malryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F%3Fp%3D776

If you're a chartered accountant, you'll have welcomed the advent of newer and better word processing and e-mail programs. As well as making our working lives easier, they have a life-saving feature that can spare you from utter humiliation.

The feature that auto-corrects text as you type.

Every accountant I know has gone into the options screen and entered in that typo so that it automatically changes back to 'accountant' and spares their blushes.

Occasionally you come across a few howlers in the field. Such as this one I stumbled across today. The poor Irish lambs appear to have been hacked too. They have a thing or two to learn about safe hex.

Filed under: Entertainment, Technology with tags hacked, jobsfinance.ie, pwned
7631 Comment »http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F2010%2F03%2Fauto-correct-as-you-type%2FAuto-correct+as+you+type2010-03-06+13%3A08%3A00Christie+Malryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcablog.org.uk%2F%3Fp%3D763