Well, that's nice of them. In Soviet Russia, he would simply have bee#RC@HREU

NO CARRIER

I agree.

I dabbled with Debian 2.1. I used Windows, mostly, but kept trying to learn unix with it.

Then I found a nice book on FreeBSD (Greg Lehey) which taught me a lot about unix. So I ran FreeBSD on a home server from 3 - 6 series. I dabbled with Debian, loved the packaging system, but still couldn't give up Windows.

Then I got tired of build-world-ing on FreeBSD, and tried Ubuntu around 5.x. It had everything I needed, so I used that until Ubuntu 10.x. Ran it everywhere.

Then Unutty came about. It was so awful I tried Windows. And it was pretty good! I missed apt-get, but it was fine for home use, and at work I used Ubuntu 10.04 (gnome 2) until mid 2012. I hated Ubuntu 11 and 12 with a passion, until I tried Kubuntu 12. Ah, finally, a sane desktop system that doesn't hide my scroll bars.

So now I use Kubuntu for work/coding, Windows for home stuff, and Debian for servers.

life is good.

There is general misunderstanding of what "accounting" means.

There are three things involved in accounting:
1. Book keeping - keeping track of your expenses, inventory, invoicing, cash flow, and other data.
2. Business accounting - using #1 above to generate reports that give insight into how well the business is running, plan for growth, reduce waste, etc.
3. Tax accounting - Using #1 and #2 to calculate how much you owe in taxes, and how much tax credits are due.

Many businesses are small enough that they can't (or won't) pay someone to do #1 and #2, and chooses to use a software or spreadsheets.

First of all, I've been using GnuCash for my personal finances for 10 years now, and I'm very happy with it. It taught me double entry book keeping, and basic accounting concepts that I found useful in other situations.

Having said that, I would not recommend GnuCash for your business because:
1. You will need to share your data with your accountant, and they understand QuickBooks or PeachTree only.
2. GnuCash's business functions (invoicing, inventory, paychecks for your employees, loans, etc) are woefully inadequate.
3. GnuCash's reporting functions are inadequate.

I would say go with PeachTree, and support open source software in some other way (say donating some of your profits).

Good luck

I was never a KDE fan, until Gnome3/Unity was forced down my throat. I stuck with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS as long as I could. KDE maked ubuntu (12.04 LTS) usable for me again.

Remember the guy in Norway who killed 69 people? He used a Mini-14, a hunting rifle he purchased with a permit to "hunt deer."

When the California's assault weapons ban, which is the most stringent in the US, was being drafted, they could not figure out ways to ban the Mini-14.

So would I, *if* these restrictions actually saved "tens of thousands" of lives.

California has all of those things, plus a mandatory waiting period, assault weapons ban, additional state background check that include mental health status, limitations on model of guns you can purchase, a bullet forensic fingerprinting, restriction on sales of ammunition, etc etc. Brady campaign calls CA a model on gun laws for everyone else to follow.

So, where does CA in per capita gun violence statistics?

Smack in the middle of all other states.

If strict gun control is no more effective than no gun control at reducing gun violence, then I don't see how more gun control will result in additional reduction in violence. What has actually been shown to reduce gun violence is social services, psychological services, and better economic opportunity. So why not work on those first?

Bingo. You win slashdot today.

US was (is) the major innovator of computer technology, and her influence in the global "culture" of computers will be felt for a long time. People stopped trying to translate terms like "internet" and "http" a long time ago, and new computer terms appear as English first, even if the inventor is a non-English speaker.

This won't dissuade some misguided people, though. You just hope them to disappear quickly.

At least they have the "blink" tag right: Blinken.

From Das Blinkenlights!

It is hard to spend money on infrastructure (*any* infrastructure) in the US. I imagine most of government revenue will be eaten up by tax cuts for the rich and for programs for retirees who vote. Perhaps we can figure out a corporate sponsored infrastructure improvement program (say privately owned bridges, or paying for highway segments for rights to display ads there). I'm not holding my breath.

What's different about thin client computing this time around is that internet is ubiquitous and wireless. Gmail is 8 years old, and Google maps is 7 years old. Siri is a thin client.

Thin client computing is just computing now. The big switch already happened. It just takes 10 years for all the legacy apps to get replaced, like it took 10 years for DOS to be discontinued after Win 3.0 came out. We are basically half way through this process, which means about 1/5 to 1/3 of the apps have switched. The rest will inevitably follow.

You are absolutely right. Apple products are luxury goods items. People forget this fact in the endless Mac vs PC debates--Luxury goods are "aspirational", meaning it gives the owner a sense of smugness and status over owning a "regular" item. Apple has always been in the "making people feel good" business, rather than a "computer company".

Slashdot is following the normal media company business model: sell the same material over and over.

And us here bitching about it are actually helping them, with increased "participation" statistics and click throughs. Aren't media companies wonderful?

Costello: What's the name of the new iPod?
Abbott: The new iPod.
Costello: What's the name of the new MacBook?
Abbott: The new MacBook.

Am I the only one who sees a pattern here?