Latest blog/rant from the developer, Mike Towle . . . . . . . .

2026-01-28 Wednesday: Is AI going to help us, be a hindrance, or exterminate us? Should we welcome it, or fear it? Whatever we feel about it, it's no longer something that's in the future. It's here, now. Type something into Google, and if you typed in more than a couple of words, there's a good chance that top of the search results you'll see Google's AI (Gemini) offering an informed opinion.

I used the word "informed" because large language models like Gemini, learn most of their knowledge by analysing vast data sets. Much of that data has been scraped from the web, from publicly available sites. But just how informed are they?

I asked both Gemini and ChatGPT a fairly obscure tax question. I presented both with exactly the same text for the question. Gemin got it wrong, while ChatGPT got it right. That increased my confidence in ChatGPT substantially. I asked another question. This one was a genuine question, to which I was unsure of the answer. Gemini and ChatGPT provided different results. Gemini's answer made sense, but ChatGPT actually provided some legal references. I confidentially followed these up. They turned out to have nothing whatsoever to do with the question I had asked or the answer ChatGPT had provided! I pointed this out to ChatGPT, and it admitted the references were incorrect. It provided some others. I followed those up, and while not as completely divorced from the subject as the previous references, they were dubious at best. So, I still don't have a reliable answer to my question. But I'm leaning towards Gemini.

It's my understanding that some large companies are not taking on junior staff, instead they are relying on AI to do the kind of research junior staff would have performed. I would like to think those staff would not confidentially provide references that turned out to be completely wrong! Is anyone checking the work done by AI, or just accepting whatever it reports? Based on my admittedly limited experience, making decisions based solely on the advice given by an AI could be disastrous. If it's a business, it could cost money. If it's healthcare or military, it could cost lives.

Of course, AI is improving all the time. And some people might point out that it's still in its infancy. And that's true, there is a long way to go yet. Along the way, AI creep into almost every aspect of every day life, from your phone, car, through to your doorbell! Door bells that allow you to see who's on your door step, from anywhere in the world, are becoming common, and are fairly inexpensive. You can even have a chat with that person. But imagine an AI having a chat with them instead. I've no doubt that's in the product development pipeline of several doorbell manufacturer's right now.

Let' walk into the kitchen. Wouldn't it be so much easier if your oven saw what you're putting in it, and set the time & temperature accordingly? Or if it was uncertain, it just asked you a couple of questions. No dials or buttons to worry about. Most of us would find it a time saver. Those who are visually impaired would love it. AI driven toaster? Why not. It could ask how you like your bread, keep a close eye on it, and toast it accordingly. Just how you like it, accurately, every time. All you need to do it put the bread in, and take the toast out. If you're not in the room when your toast is ready, the toaster might send you a text. Next decade, it might display a message on your various devices in the house, in case you haven't got your phone with you.

Of course, all these things still require you to actually do something. You have to find your bread, make sure it's in date and not mouldy, put it in the toaster, and when done, you've then got to take it out the toaster and put it on a plate, then put stuff on it, like butter, jam, marmalade, or what ever. Some of this stuff doesn't spread well, and some of it is unpleasantly sticky. What a LOT of work! So, what about an AI driven robot? Robotics is another technology that is developing rapidly. AI has introduced a new impetus. Elon Musk believes Tesla will become a massive company not based on car production, but on the production of domestic robots. If he's right, he could become the world's first trillionaire. These are robots that are designed to mimic the actions of human beings. And will even look vaguely human. You will be able to have a conversation with them, they will be able to complete increasingly sophisticated chores. Including putting your food in the over and bread in the toaster. We'll love them because of the time they'll save us, and because fundamentally most of us are a bit lazy! Why clean the house when your 'bot can do it while you're at work (if you still have a job…)? Imagine people who need care, and currently really struggle to get that care (and that's a LOT of people). These robots would change their lives. Imagine people who are lonely, having an intelligent companion in house, doing the chores, and entertaining with interesting and humorous conversation. How many lives would be immeasurably enhanced.

So, as AI gets better and better, and with the introduction of robots with human like capability just around the corner, whose job will be safe?

Probably no ones. Including most politicians (I can but hope…). And this is my main worry. This isn't something that's going to happen next century. It isn't something that's going to happen at some point during the second half of this century. This could happen very soon. It could be a couple of years away, five years away, ten at most. And, as far as I can see, no government is preparing for it. They don't seem to have a clue what's coming down the road. The change that will be forced on us by AI and robotics will be simply MASSIVE. Bigger than any other technological development in human history.

I don't have the answers, I can only sound the alarm. Capitalism will need to be redefined, reshaped in order to deal with a future that is going to be vastly different. Previous leaps in technology, such as the industrial revolution, naturally cost a lot of people their jobs, but at the same time generated employment in other area's. Many people working the fields had to re-skill and work in factories (of course, whether that work was better is open to discussion, it was certainly better paid). That's not going to happen this time around. This time, the jobs that go are not going to be replaced. The number of people without jobs will start to soar. Two issues here: the obvious cost to the state of funding all those without jobs, and the less obvious issue, if large numbers of people are without a job and living on the bread line, they can't afford to buy the AI driven robots that would make their lives so much easier, or any of the other the products manufactured, most likely, by AI driven robots. It would be a doom spiral, that would lead goodness knows where. Probably to a subsistence society, where 0.0001% have fabulous wealth, and lead fabulous lives and the rest of us just exist. Wealth would be more imbalanced than at any time in history. Crime would probably soar too. There would be a lot of bored, frustrated, even desperate people out there. Of course, the AI driven robot police would be everywhere, AI driven law courts would be busy, as would the prisons - full of AI driven robot prison officers…

So, a potentially dystopian society is looming. We need to make sure it's avoided by starting the conversation now about how we do that.


2024-03-28 Thursday: Adminsoft Accounts has been completely free to use since December 2006. In recent years the new Sales Prospecting and Sales Order Processing modules have not been available (in theory…) to those using the software for free. But there have been few other limitations.

However, as revenue from purchases of the software and advertising has been falling for some time, in order to continue developing and supporting Adminsoft Accounts, we have had to make a difficult decision. We're very happy for small businesses, charities, clubs etc. to continue using the software for free, but larger concerns may want to consider paying for the software. So, from v4.275 (due out in April), there will be a limit of 2 concurrent users (for those on a network), and 2 companies/organizations. More companies/organizations can be added, but will have the following limitations:

Customer and supplier accounts: each ledger will be limited to 100.
Sales and purchase transactions: each ledger will be limited to 1,000.
(this includes invoices, credit notes, payments, etc.)
General Ledger (Nominal Ledger) transactions: will be limited to 4,000.

Purchased versions of the software have no practical limit on the number of accounts, transactions or companies/organizations (there is a theoretic limit of 100,000,000). The number of permitted concurrent users over a network depends on the purchase (different levels are available).

Around 80% of users will not be affected. The remaining 20% have been able to use the software extensively, completely for free, for many years, at considerable benefit. But this is now unsustainable. If you find your company/organization in that group, you now have to make a choice: either purchase the software or stop updating your current installation. By purchasing the software, you will be able to continue using it, unhindered, and benefit from continued support, bug fixes, the Sales Prospecting and Order Processing modules, extra features/options that will inevitably be added as the product moves forward, and enjoy numerous other advantages.

We hope you understand the necessity for this change in approach, and look forward to continuing the development and support of Adminsoft Accounts long into the future.

[NOTE: this blog was heavily edited on 9th April'24, as the limitations to be implemented are now rather less onerous than the original proposal]

2023-01-01 Sunday: Energy is a really big issue for most of us right now, and yet it is solvable, and should never have even become an issue. What was Germany thinking as it made itself so heavily reliant on Russian Gas? Apart from the fact it was handing a lot of power to Russia, it was actively increasing it's use of fossil fuels, when the world desperately needs to reduce fossil fuel consumption. What was the United Kingdom thinking when it dragged its feet over the development of new nuclear power stations? By 2030 it wants all new car sales to be electric. But appears to have made no plans to cope with the likely huge additional demand for electricity. We don't have enough power now.

It takes a long time to build a nuclear power station. The power stations the UK has finally started to commission won't be operational until sometime in the 2030s. In the meantime, we should be doing far more about generating power from the wind and the sun than we are doing. Wind turbines and particularly solar panels are relatively very inexpensive and quick to construct. You would think the government, and not just the UK government, would be pushing these technologies hard. Yet few are, the UK government certainly isn't. Instead, in the UK we're going to get a series of adverts about how we can save power. As important as that it is, it falls so far short of what's required it's laughable. A laugh of despair.

Given that nuclear fusion on a commercial scale is still decades away, we have to work with what technologies we've got. We need lots of cheap power, and as the internal combustion engine gives way to the electric engine, and using gas for heating gives way to electricity, that requirement for electric power will only increase. Substantially. The burning of fossil fuels will diminish. Substantially. It's SO obvious where this is all going. My fear is, in 10 to 15 years time as we lurch from black out to black out, and our economies are a shadow of what they used to be, we'll look back and wonder why we didn't see it coming.

Most politicians and political parties are so consumed by short term thinking, they're just not looking out the windscreen to where they're headed. To what they're steering their countries into. They see only two or three years out, but to continue the analogy, that doesn't get them much beyond the end of the bonnet! They need to be looking down the road, 20 to 30 years out, and very few are. Sure, some will talk about long term goals and aspirations, but then do little or nothing to bring them about. Their main aspiration is to ensure they've voted back in come the next election. I can understand that. But it shouldn't be at the expense of their country.

2021-07-03 Saturday: As I write this, a Florida based IT company called Kaseya is reportedly dealing with a 'colossal' ransomware attack. As I understand it, the ransomware got into Kaseya's VSA product, and from there infected 200 of their business customers. Kaseya VSA security incident One would imagine, being a prestigious IT company, they would be a very difficult target for hackers. Yet they have been found vulnerable.

I am mentioning this, not to single out Kaseya at all, but to highlight the increasing danger posed by hackers. Kaseya are certainly not the first, neither will they be the last. For all the great things the internet makes possible, it also has a dark side. A destructive side.

My other business, Media Hut, based in the UK suffered a ransomware attack in late March last year. Literally the week staff were leaving the office to work at home due to Coronavirus. As if we didn't have enough problems, we found ourselves with a ransomware attack to deal with. We didn't pay the ransom, all our data was well backed up, we just lost a few hours worth. Nevertheless, it was hugely disruptive as our system was down for a couple of days. Ironically, due to Coronavirus sales had slumped at that point to almost zero, which actually helped! (as Media Hut is heavily involved in the events industry, sales are still very low as there are no events! But that's another matter....)

How safe is your system? That's an interesting question. While I would of course beat the drum for keeping your accounts data on your own hard drive rather than in the cloud (where it could be anywhere), the fact is, your own computer system is still vulnerable. It's true that businesses that hold data as part of a cloud service, particularly data that may be of value, like accounts data, are going to be targets. Potentially lucrative targets, as hackers would see it. But one would hope their security is robust. I dare say people thought Kaseya's security was robust, until today.

Chances are, if you're reading this then you're probably using Adminsoft Accounts, and your data is safely stored on your own PC. My point is, it may not be that safe. While it's unlikely your PC or network will be a specific target (I don't think Media Hut was specifically targeted), there is lots of malware out there just waiting to be downloaded from a dodgy web site or from a link in an email. One nasty side effect of this, is Anti-virus software is supersensitive to anything that looks like it could potentially contain any kind of malware. If you download and install software from any organization that is not from a big company, there can be problems. I get frequent reports from users installing or updating Adminsoft Accounts, who say their anti-virus software is reporting it as possibly containing malware. If you download the software from this web site, I can assure you it does not! My advice is often to disable your anti-virus software while installing Adminsoft Accounts. But it really shouldn't have to be that way.

I don't know what the answer is, and of course the large companies, the organizations that could do something about it, are not affected by issues of false positives. So they don't.

2021-04-20 Tuesday: You may have noticed a new book has appeared called 'Using Adminsoft Accounts'. Check out the 'guides' section of this web site, or click here. I foolishly thought putting this book together would be quick and simple.....

It wasn't! As a lot of it already existed, all I had to do was add the various documents together into one big document, and add in some extra bits, job done. Simple. Except when I did add all the documents together, and wrote all the extra bits, based on a book size of 9 inches by 6 inches, it came to well over 600 pages! I'm publishing the book via Amazon, and so ended up using the largest size book they will handle, which is A4. It still came to over 400 pages. Next I reduced the font size to 11 (small, but not too small), and rearranged most of the images so as to reduce the number of pages which were only partially covered due to the location of some images. I made the text flow around some of the smaller images. I also made the borders as small as possible. Eventually I got it down to 369 pages. This was important, because the more pages there are, the more expensive the book would be due to printing costs.

All that mucking about took LOADS of time. It wasn't helped by the production process. Although Amazon's self publishing process is actually very good, as I was pushing things to the limit, using the slenderest of borders I could get away with, and printing right up to those borders, I kept having problems with some images, and even some bits of text just going out of the printable area. I used Word 2016, and in that application they were within the printable area, but when uploaded to Amazon's platform, they weren't, it rendered the Word file slightly differently. Only slightly, there was only maybe 1mm or so in it. But that was enough. It took some trial and error to get the book into a format that Amazon would print.

Having completed the book, I then went to the final stage of publishing. That's when I discovered just how expensive it would be to print such a large book in color! Sadly, far too much. So, it's being printed with all images in monochrome (as in greyscale). As most books of this type are.

Was it all worth it? Well I hope so. The book contains some information you can't get anywhere else. It also contains a detailed index, which will be really useful when you're looking for something specific.

I strongly recommend everyone buys the book (what else would I say.....). There's something in there for both the beginner and the experienced user. But, don't forget the book written by Yogesh Patel. If you're not familiar with bookkeeping at all, or you're a bit rusty, you may find his book the best place to start. It's called 'Free Accounting with Free Software' and can found here.


2021-01-01 Friday: I can't believe my last blog was in April 2020. Where has the time gone? I talked about Coronavirus, but at that time I thought the worst would be over sometime in the summer. But eight months later, and here we are in the middle of a second wave.

While the economies of most countries took a hit, they have recovered to some degree. But the persistence of the virus is holding back a full recovery. Any industry that involves getting groups of people together, such as sports, airlines, hospitality, and so on, are really suffering. Businesses have proven more resilient than I expected, in no small part due to the continuation of various government schemes supporting them. But the human cost has been enormous. I don't have the words to express how shocking it is. I can't imagine the pain and loss that so many families are suffering.

Although I expect the first half of 2021 to be tough, vaccines have provided us with some light at the end of this very dark tunnel. The second half of 2021 should finally see us put Coronavirus behind us. I wish you all a healthy and prosperous new year.


2020-04-09 Thursday: It's news to no one that Covid-19 is sweeping the planet, leaving thousands dead in it's wake. The human cost is tragic. But what of the economic cost? What will business look like when we come out the other side of this?

It depends, of course, on how long the lock downs in various countries last. I would guess, and it's only a guess, that most countries will be relaxing the laws restricting the movement of people during June/July. But some rules, such as social distancing could remain in place for some time. Most governments are providing a lot of financial support to business at the moment. I suspect that support will be withdrawn during June/July, as shops are allowed to open and employees are allowed to return to work. It leaves us with two major issues. Firstly, most businesses (and people for that matter) will be short of cash. They won't be able to spend the money necessary to kick the economy back into life. Secondly, the continuation of some restrictions could prevent large gatherings of people, such as sporting events, exhibitions, concerts, etc. They could also restrict the number of people allowed into restaurants, bars, shops, gyms, etc. at any one time. Severely limiting the potential for the business to make a profit.

In economic terms, the real impact won't be felt until the summer. When government support for businesses is withdrawn and they are struggling to re-establish sales and cash flow. The global economy was already looking a bit shaky before Coronavirus came along. My worry is that it doesn't have the strength for a bounce back. The cash simply won't be there. Many businesses, like many governments, will be up to their eyeballs in debt. Sadly, I expect a lot of businesses to go under. When the Coronavirus is finished with us, the economy will be left reeling for some time. The second half of this year will be tough. It will get better, but it will be a slow process.

There is no silver lining. But however long this nightmare lasts, the economy will come back. However many people lose their jobs, they will eventually be re-employed.

Covid-19 has taken many lives, and continues to take lives. Economics and business are not our primary concern, and rightly so. Stay at home, and stay safe.


If you would like to comment on any of the issues covered in Mike's blogs, or would like to suggest some improvements to the software, please email: mike@adminsoftware.biz