Each year, Dana "Rick" Richardson provides his technology outlook to thousands of CPAs. His presentation is a staple for state CPA socities at their annual conference. In this summary of his presentation, Richardson shares his views of what's head in a wide variety of technology sectors.

Microsoft is ending support for the Windows XP today. And with millions still using that operating system will probably find out very quickly whether dire warnings of widespread hacking come true and systems are trashed or become part of a zombie computer army. Or is this is the 2014 version of the Y2K problem, the supposed catastrophe that was supposed to happen when computers went from 1999 to 2000? And nothing much happened.

Portals may have been one of the hottest discussion topics for people buying technology products for the tax and accounting community. But hot topics don't equal hot sellers and a recent study of technology use by accounting firms showed that their use of portals is not quite what headlines and stories would lead us to believe. And there may be a very basic reason for that.

Microsoft has given users of its Windows XP operating system more time to adjust to the company's decision to end support on April 8. Although Windows XP will no longer be a supported operating system, Microsoft will continue "to provide updates to our antimalware signatures and engine for Windows XP users through July 14, 2015."