It’s Masters Sunday! And also Sid-vs.-Ovi-For-the-100th-Time Sunday. And also Baseball-Sunday (that’s every Sunday, but I won’t lie, I’m here for it every week). Overall, it’s just a great Sunday on the sports calendar.

It also happened to be a great week for space exploration. Our whole family spent Friday night in front of the TV, watching NASA’s dedicated feed for Artemis II’s return to Earth. I think, for my kids at least, it wasn’t as momentous as I was perhaps expecting — maybe there’s something about the fantasy worlds created or advanced technology surrounding them that takes away an allure of a trip to the Moon. Rewind to 1969-1972, and you don’t have the Internet, you don’t have AI, you don’t have cell phones. You don’t even have Star Wars! Perhaps there was an absolute bout of wonder 54 years ago that my girls just didn’t have this time around. Even for me — given all the remarkable feats of technology that hit the news every single day — it was challenging to envision the speeds, the precision, and the engineering required to bring those four brave astronauts home. There’s something about space that is so unforgiving and so vastly different from this beautiful Creation. I’m not sure a lowly accountant can fathom the challenges involved.

I’m going to steal a link from Nick Heer’s Pixel Envy to top off the Artemis II trip here on The newsprint. Most readers will have already visited the Artemis II-dedicated Flickr page. If you haven’t, there are some truly stunning photos here that no human camera has ever captured before.

My Review of the Nuphy Node 100

This review turned into a longer bit of writing, so I made it a dedicated post instead. Maybe it’ll do better for SEO as well? Who knows?

I purchased one of Nuphy’s base-line low-profile Node mechanical keyboards a few months ago and have used it on and off each week since. I figured it’d be good to get some thoughts out there — this is one of the most price-accessible mechanical keyboards you can find right now.

The Second Cup

Astropad’s Workbench for Mac

For years, the default remote desktop app for the Mac and iPad was Screens. I’ve tried Screens multiple times and can never work through all the firewall settings in place. I have a pretty simple Eero network, and everything I’ve tried with Screens has failed to get through. Perhaps there’s a new kid on the remote desktop block.

The Martyr’s Crown

Now, this is an interesting thought experiment. I like the discussion.

Notebooks Are Coming to Gemini

I was perplexed this last few weeks when I went into Gemini to add a group of documents — Excel sheets, PDFs, etc. — only to find that Gemini didn’t really have the capability to do this a few weeks ago. I immediately jumped over to Claude and came away pleased with Claude Projects. Of course, give it a week in the AI world, and Gemini now has the same features.

AI-Powered Google Finance

Another Google upgrade this week. I always get a little iffy when talking about stock research apps. I think, for most people, the only barometer you need to measure is whether you think the company will still be here in 40 years. If the answer to that is “No”, don’t invest. Use your own brain and second-order thinking to figure it out.

Quote of the Week

Concerning AI, and after my experiences with AI in accounting this week—

I should mention something before moving forward here. It’s interesting how often my definition of “accounting” or “taxation” or “financial reporting” differs from what people think I do each day. I am sure the same can be said for doctors or lawyers.

In the case of the following quote, “accounting” probably means “bookkeeping” — data entry and record keeping to ensure excise tax compliance, timely data for decision-making, or base data provided to professional firms for financial reporting. “Taxation” is an entirely different thing — I wouldn’t even consider it accounting. Sure, accountants do tax, but not all accountants do tax, just like not all doctors are surgeons. And “financial reporting” would align more with the production of year-end financial statements, reporting to management and shareholders, and reporting to lenders or other users of the financial statements.

So when you hear “accounting”, I think 9 times out of 10, you should think “bookkeeping”, which is something not many CPAs would work through these days.

""Doing it" goes first. Current models can parse accounting data and reformat it faster and more accurately than any accountant working manually. If a significant portion of your revenue comes from charging clients for data entry and coding, that model is already dying. Within 12 months, there won't be a justification for spending human hours on those tasks... What survives? Confidence. In 5 to 10 years, some clients will hire a CPA for one reason: insurance. The tax pro doesn't prepare, only reviews and grades his confidence level in case of litigation or an audit. Underwriting of returns and compliance will be a massive industry. Clients will be able to handle 90% of the prep, but will always want someone on their side to talk to the IRS in case of an audit. That's not worth nothing."

Roger Ledbetter, The Slow Death of Tax & Accounting Work

Happy Sunday. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.

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