Nothing is cooler than the iPhone!

The date of this post is 7/2/07 which means that the iPhone was released last Friday. On Sunday I visited the Apple Store at the Burlington Mall in Burlington, MA and got to play with one. The first thing to hit me was the size. I have a 15GB iPod. the iPhone appears a little longer, not as wide and about 1/3 thinner! And it's light. The screen is amazing - vivid color. The interface is very intuitive, however, I kept looking for a close or back button. It appears that you simply hit the home button to leave an application. I was able to send an email and make a telephone call. The keyboard is a little awkward at first. I assume my fingers would easily get used to it. The pop-up nature of the keyboard letters does help with typing. Surfing on the web is incredible. It's amazing to see full web pages and then just tap and zoom. Surfing is a bit slow but very usable. I would expect this to improve as data services improve. As I said before, I'm waiting for the second generation of this device. In the meantime, I strongly urge you to go to an Apple Store and take the iPhone for a test drive. You won't be disappointed.

I'm Back!

Greetings! Well the last post was at the start of tax season and it's now July 2nd. Needless to say, I was too busy during tax season to post anything. I have many things to report. Patti and I have scheduled a number of concerts. We already attended the Martina McBride concert and the Brad Paisley concert. I'll comment on those in a later post. We'll vacation in Newport, RI for a week and then we will be attending the following summer concerts: Kenny G, Kenny Chesney and Jimmy Buffett. In the fall we be attending Phil Vassar and Lonestar.

In other news, I'll be returning the Bentley College in the fall to attend the Graduate Certificate in Taxation program. It's a four course program with the option of continuing on for 6 courses and obtaining a Masters in Taxation.

In May I purchased a Nikon S50 Coolpix digital camera. I have been spending a great deal of time testing it out and preparing a section in my web site demonstrating the functionality. I hope to have the website section up soon and I'll be posting a review on this blog.

In the interim, I got a look at the iPhone. My comments about it are the next post...

iPhone - Cooler than the Newton

I predict another winner. What makes this product so cool? Why is it better than a Blackberry or a Treo? The interface. It's designed to do many things elegantly but not do all things.

Notice the one thing they left out - handwriting recognition. It's not a note taking device. Instead, they make it highly efficient in the areas where it was intended - phone, web, and mail.

What about music? It does have iPod functionality however, it's not big enough. I use a old 15 GB iPod and I have filled it. I want most of my music collection with me, not just the top x%. I plan on replacing my iPod with a 60 or 80 GB version. I would love the iPhone if it didn't have music, however, when they come out with a 60 or 80 GB version I'll be in heaven.

Will I get one? Absolutely. The question is will I be patient enough to wait for version 2 . I hate being a pioneer.

One more thing, 1 billion downloads on iTunes? Am I the only person left who still buys CDs?

95% of Americans Have Premarital Sex

A poll released December 20th stated that 75% of Americans have had premarital sex by the age of 20 and 95% by the age of 44.

Hmmm, that must mean the other 5% are really ugly. :-)

Wall Street Journal Informal Poll - Who would be the Strongest Republican Candidate in 2008?

Today the Wall Street Journal had as its question of the day, "Who would be the strongest candidate for Republicans in the 2008 presidential election?

Here are the choices and the results when I voted this afternoon:

Sam Brownback - 2%

Newt Gingrich - 10%

Rudy Giuliani - 31%

John McCain - 34%

Mitt Romney - 12%

Someone Else - 11%

I posted the following in the WSJ Forum:

I must admit I was surprised to see Giuliani score so high.

Sam Brownback - An unknown to me and I consider myself a bit of a political wonk. Doesn't have the name recognition.

Newt Gingrich - I was a big Newt fan when he was the speaker of the house. He's intelligent and very well spoken. However, I don't believe he has done enough during the last 18 months to rebuild his name recognition and reputation.

Rudy Giuliani - Loved by all. However, I don't see Giuliani possessing the "X" factor - that unexplanable factor that causes people to say " He's Presidential". He also hasn't been very visible on the political landscape. I believe Barack Obama possesses the "X" factor and that makes him a strong democratic candidate even though he hugely lacks legislative, executive and foreign affairs experience.

John McCain - He's ruffled some feathers in Congress and with the political pundits but he comes accross loud and clear to voting public. The question is whether he can get past South Carolina during the primaries. The difference this time is McCain has the experience of having run for president and has had several years to gain recognition and build allies. I believe all the work he has done since running against Bush will payoff big time. He is the strongest candidate, but watch out for #2 - see below.

Mitt Romney - Watch out! I'm from Massachusetts and I can tell you Mitt has the intelligence (MBA and JD from Harvard) and the "X" factor. He now has executive experience (Governor of Mass) and is a proven problem solver, e.g., fixing the Winter Olympics in Utah. The question is whether he has enough national exposure to win over the voters. He's doing his homework and is building a very strong foundation, e.g., meeting the right people and putting together a team. I expect Mitt Romney will win the presidential election in either 2008 or during the next Republican opportunity. In worse case, the 2008 election will simply build his character and provide him with the necessary experience to win a national election.

The Cost of Loyalty

Today it was announced that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld is resigning after the Republican party lost the House and is likely to lose the Senate.

Bush '41 was a man who believed in loyalty and passed that trait onto his son, Bush '43. Bush '41 demonstrated it when there was pressure to get rid of the Vice President Dan Quayle. Unfortunately, this lesson doesn't carry over well into the Bush '41 administration when applied to the current situation. Loyalty is always respected but corrective action, even when it negatively affects those closest to you, is respected even more when it's done for the good of the country.

Would things be different now if Rumsfeld had been removed from office 12 months ago? It would be hard to imagine them worse. The cost of delaying this decision? The control of Congress, the greater risk of terrorism and a more challenging task to achieve democracy in Iraq.

What about the lives of our military? Unfortunately, I don't believe there would be a reduction in loss. What corrective action should be taken in Iraq and when would we feel the positive effects of that change? No one knows. However, I anticipate change would be slow and the benefits will not be seen for months.

I can only see two possibilities at this moment. Pull out or step up. I absolutely believe that we should not pull out. I believe in the Powell doctrine which was fully demonstrated during the first Gulf War - fight with overwhelming force. Unfortunately, during the second Gulf War we fought with overwhelming technology and did not have enough boots of the ground to provide proper policing action after the Iraq government was toppled.

We also failed in another way. In past victories we destroyed the armed forces of our enemy and took total control. We even demonstrated this in the first Gulf War when we destroyed the Iraqi military on route from Kuwait back to Iraq.

In the second Gulf War we minimized our interaction with the Iraqi forces and allowed them to return to the general population without proper screening and transition. This allowed new forces to organize. Add to this the lack of boots on the ground to secure the borders and police the country and you create an environment ripe for insurgency.

The cost to fix this error will be great. I believe that we must dramatically increase the number of military in Iraq and take complete control of the country until it has time to heal. Do you have enough personnel in the military to achieve this? I honestly don't know. If we don't, then the concept of a draft must be considered for the good of the country. Take control and destroy the insurgency with the aid of the Iraqi people in order to avoid a significant terrorist attack from those trained, funded and supported by insurgency and its mutual associates.

Thank You U.K. Authorities

As you have heard, U.K. authorities discovered and interrupted a terrorist plot to smuggle, assemble and explode a bomb simultaneously on several international flights from London to the U.S. This investigation has resulted in the arrest of 21 people in the U.K.

It has not yet been definitively determined that this is the work of al Qaeda. However, in 1995 al Qaeda plotted to explode 11 U.S. flights over the Pacific. The similarities clearly point in the direction of al Qaeda.

Suppose this story broke a week or two ago. Would it have affected Senator LiebermanÂ’s primacy loss? I believe so. It would have sent a loud reminder to all that the war of terrorism is not over and is an on-going battle that we must win.

Collin Raye at Indian Ranch

Yup - Another concert. This time Patti and I saw Collin Raye at Indian Ranch in Webster, MA. Indian Ranch is a great intimate outdoor venue for a concert. We sat in the third row for $40 a ticket. Parking was free and it took us literally 5 minutes to get out of the parking lot.

As always, the show was great. Collin Raye is one of my favorite singers. I suggest you check out his greatest hits CD if you have never heard of him. He is the master of strong emotional ballads. This time he brought out his daughter Brittany who accompanied him for one or two songs. Additonal photos (limited quality - cell phone photos) are at www.garrettharding.com.

So what's next? Jimmy Buffett at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, MA. Unfortunately no third row seats for Buffett. I bought the tickets the moment they went on sale and I'm in section 11 - the boonies.

3rd Annual New England Country Music Festival

Yesterday Patti and I attended the Country Music Festival at Gillette Stadium. The line up consisted of Carrie Underwood, Dierks Bentley, Big & Rich, Gretchen Wilson and Kenny Chesney. Tickets were $85.50 each plus $9.80 convenience charge.

The show started at 3:30 and we attempted to arrive at 2:30. At 2:30 we hit a heavy backup at the exit ramp off of 495. We arrived outside the stadium after a long walk from lot 9 (parking - $35) and Carrie Underwood was performing. We then had to locate the floor seating entrance which was mobbed because everyone had to obtain a wristband.

Our seats were on the floor, section B1, row 27. It was very hot in the sun. The sun went behind the stadium from our perspective at about 5:30. Thank god.

The show was excellent. We went to the same festival two years. At that time we also saw Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson. Both acts had more elaborate shows this year.

Kenny Chesney’s show was excellent. The surprise was the opening. He rose from a small platform in the center of the floor seats just behind the sound booth. We were 50 feet to the right at that point.

At the end it took 1 hour and 50 minutes to get out of the parking lot.

Was it worth it? Yes, because of the number and quality of the acts.

Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett Interview

I'm watching an incredible interview - Charlie Rose is interviewing Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. This show is the third of a three part series on Warren Buffett. The series will be available on Google Video.

Apple #4 on BusinessWeek Top 100 Info Tech Companies

Not only is Apple #4, it is the highest ranking US corporation on the list. Click here to see the list. Take careful note of how BusinessWeek determined the ranking.

Garrett R. Harding, CPA

Yesterday I received a letter from the Division of Professional Licensure of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. On June 15th the State Board of Public Accountancy granted me my Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license.

This little journey began in 1980 - 26 years ago. In the fall of 1980 I was a senior at Bentley College. While I had no strong intention of going into public accounting, I decided to take advantage of the newly acquired knowledge and sit for the uniform CPA exam in May 1981. Therefore in the fall of 1980 I started attending a CPA review course with several fellow Bentley students. I passed two parts of the CPA exam in May 1980 and passed the remaining two parts in November 1980. The rules at the time required that I obtain 2 or 3 years of public accounting experience. During college I worked part-time for Jim Mills, CPA. Unfortunately the part-time experience did not meet the experience requirement and I never entered public accounting on a full-time basis.

Earlier this year someone mentioned that they could obtain a CPA license with simply a master's degree. This provoked my curiosity and I investigated the current rules. I discovered that on October 13, 2000 the rules were changed. It was now possible to obtain a CPA license if you pass the CPA exam, have a bachelor's of science degree in accountancy and a master's degree, such as a MBA (the exact requirements are available from your state board of public accountancy). I met the revised qualifications. The license does come with a "non-reporting" restriction. This means that I cannot issue reports on financial statements in my practice of public accounting. I am authorized to use the CPA designation and practice all other aspects of public accounting, namely management advisory services and taxation. This meets my particular needs. The restriction can be removed by obtaining the necessary experience or CPE hours.

I must admit that at times I felt like a second class accountant even though I was a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) and had the privilege of being a full-time faculty member of the Accountancy department at Bentley College. Now, after 26 years, I can now proudly say that I'm a CPA.

No deadline for Iraq

Congress is debating two democratic proposals to establish a pull out date for Iraq. In my opinion there are two basic views. First, a pull out date pressures the Iraqi military to step up recruiting and training so that the Iraqi military and government will be ready to assume control. The second, opposite viewpoint is to get the job done without a pull out date.

In the world of project management, deadlines are crucial and provide motivation to get the job done. I recognize and support that methodology in a business environment. However, in the world of warfare, you never give your enemy an advantage and a pull out date would do exactly that. A pull out date would encourage the enemy to sit back and give the appearance that the insurgency had been defeated. Then, once the superior training, technology and firepower of the U.S. military had left the area, the insurgency would reappear and provide a challenge that may be too great for the newly formed Iraqi military and government.

Ending the Iraqi war has nothing to do with whether or not you believe in the decision to go to war. (I will state for the record that I supported going to war.) As stated by former secretary of state Colin Powell, gift store rules apply - we broke it, we own it. What does this mean? A necessary result of the Iraqi war was the removal of Saddam Hussein and the dismantling of the previous Iraqi government. We now must support the creation of a new government and associated infrastructure. Afghanistan provides us with a model of what can happen when a governmental void exists. In Afghanistan, the U.S. did not support the redevelopment of a government structure after the Soviet Union's military left the area. That void was filled with the Taliban. We cannot allow the formation of a Iraqi government to fail. Such a void would allow a terrorist environment to thrive. Are terrorists already in Iraqi? Of course they are and that provides the fundamental reason why we must prevail. How long will it take to destroy the terrorists in Iraq, put down the insurgency, stabilize the political environment to remove the threat of civil war and establish a fully functional Iraqi military and government? Simply put - a very long time and pull out date cannot be arbitrarily assigned. Our goal should be get the job done right, not get the job done by a particular date. We take on this task because it is the right thing to do, regardless of difficulty of the challenge or the amount of time and resources required. There is nothing more expensive or worthwhile than freedom.

Welcome FeedBlitz

Today I registered with a new blog email subcription service called FeedBlitz. My prior service was Bloglet. Bloglet's developer started the service as a hobby and never had any intention to take it beyond the hobby stage. Bloglet was the true pioneer in this particular service and the success of the concept demanded support beyond the original intention of its developer. Unfortunately this may have translated into email notifications not going out. In spite of that, I would like to thank Bloglet for being the pioneer and welcome aboard FeedBlitz.

Dr. Joseph Chamie, Demographer

On June 2nd Guy Kawasaki posted a great interview he had with Dr. Joseph Chamie, a demographer. Dr Chamie is the director of research at the Center for Migration Studies (CMS) and editor of the International Migration Review. Prior to this position, he was the director of the United Nations Population Division. I found his answer to question #7 interesting. Here's the text:

Question: Based on historical lessons, what should America’s public policy be regarding immigration?

Answer: To begin with, it should not be what we have today. America’s current immigration policies and programs are ineffective, inconsistent, unfair, divisive, and harmful.

Should legal immigration be stopped? Of course not. The government needs to consider and decide regularly on the appropriate levels and types of legal immigration that are in the best interests of the country.
Should illegal immigration be stopped?

Of course it should—or at least limited to the lowest level possible. The country needs to get control of illegal immigration. And what about the proposed temporary guest worker program? The bipartisan U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, which reported to the U.S, Congress and President in 1997, advised in the strongest language against the kind of temporary worker programs that are currently again being promoted by various advocates and politicians, including President George W. Bush.

Such programs, the U.S. Commission wrote, would be ’a grievous mistake.” They concluded that temporary worker programs for lesser-skilled and unskilled workers exert particularly harmful effects on the US. Such programs, for example, have depressed the wages and working conditions of US workers. Foreign guest workers are also more exploitable than lawful US workers, particularly when an employer threatens deportation if workers complain about wages or working conditions. Moreover, the Commission stressed that guest worker programs fail to reduce unauthorized migration and often the guest workers themselves remain permanently and illegally in the country.

As I have stated before, I strongly believe that illegal immigration must be stopped and that begins with securing our borders. After that we need to address how to resolve the millions of illegal immigrants that are already in the U.S.

Dr. Chamie's answers to other questions at can be found at http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/06/ten_questions_w_1.html and http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/06/addendum_to_ten.html.

ZoomClouds

Here's a neat little API to add to your blog - Zoomcloud. ZoomCloud scans your rss file and creates an interactive graphic comprised of tags. When you click on a tag you are taken to the corresponding posting. The tags vary in size based upon relevance/popularity. The tags are automatically generated by a content analysis tool. Check out ZoomCloud.

Guy Kawasaki - The Legend Continues...

If you're a Mac fan then you should know the name. Guy was the ultimate Macintosh evangelist. If you cut him with a knife he would bleed the colors of the Apple logo.

For two years (1988-89) I was a product manager for Layered, Inc., developer of the Insight accounting package for the Mac. The software was an award winner and the Mac industry was an exciting place to be. At the same time Guy was (and still is) a phenomenon in the marketing world. His book, The Macintosh Way was the bible for Macintosh marketing. I've read three of his books - The Macintosh Way, Selling the Dream and How to Drive your Competition Crazy and have had the privilege to see Guy speak more than once. The books and the presentations were enjoyable and, more importantly, made you think.

Now Guy has gotten into blogging. You absolutely must check out Signum sine tinnitu--by Guy Kawasaki. Ok, the title doesn't roll off the tongue but the content is excellent.

As for the Mac fans out there, check out the post entitled The Top Ten Lies of Guy Kawasaki. You will find number ten interesting. At least he believed it at the time. Hats off to Guy's openness and honesty.

To Guy - thanks for joining the blogosphere.

Congratulations to U.S. Special Forces

Congratulations to the U.S. Military for an outstanding job in killing Abu Musab Al-Zaqawi.

This clearly demonstrates the dedication and hard work of many individuals. One bad guy down, many still left. Go get 'em.

www.GarrettHarding.com is operational

It is with great pleasure that I announce that www.GarrettHarding.com is operational. One thing you might find of interest is my reading list detailing the books that I have read for the last 10 years. I look forward to updating and expanding the content of the site. I hope will you find it enjoyable.

The DaVinci Code

Hopefully you have read the book. However, if not, I suggest you first read Dan Brown's book Angels & Demons and then read The DaVinci Code. The depth of research is amazing and both are truly enjoyable thrillers. In fact, I would rank these two books as two of the best pieces of fiction I have ever read.

With regards to the movie and book and the concern expressed by some as to the historical accuracy, I simply say IT'S FICTION! Get over it.