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Linux Business

Submission + - Needed: Simple Business Management Software

Submitted by
justinchudgar
justinchudgar writes: "I'm starting to work as an independent IT consultant; and, I have pretty much switched to Linux on my systems. Overall, I am very happy with the transition away from proprietary software; but, I need a software package to manage the dirty details of my business. For me, that is basically tracking my time and creating invoices/statements for clients and then receiving payments against them. I do not resell hardware as a line of business; and, I do not (yet) have employees which makes it easier for now. What I want is:
  • integration with standard calendaring packages so that billable time can be entered via a browser anywhere and be accessible to the AR package
  • handle different bill rates for different service classes
  • generate invoices and statements without much manual labor
  • track account balances and service charges
  • have the capability to integrate credit card payment processing
  • not require endless hours of HOWTO or manpage slogging to get up and running


While I can muddle through with OO.org documents and spreadsheets + evolution calendar; this is not very efficient or clean. I have searched around the web, read innumerable articles, blogs and tried a bunch of stuff. Yet, I have yet to find a nice simple and user friendly package for my needs.

Compiere/Adempiere are overkill for what I need, and the personal finance apps that I managed to find are not good at doing things like handling multiple bill-rates and tracking receivables. I know that it is possible to get SlowBooks running with CrossOver or Wine, but, I have had so much misery with Intuit products in my clients offices that I will not allow them in mine.

I would really appreciate learning what open-source or commercial Linux apps you have seen working well for professional services firms that you run or serve. Thanks!"
NASA

Submission + - Lunar Eclipse, Saturday, March 3rd

Submitted by Quince alPillan
Quince alPillan writes: According to NASA's website, the will be a total lunar eclipse Saturday evening visible from every continent.

In the USA, the eclipse will already be underway when the moon rises on Saturday evening. ... Rising moons are often reddened by clouds or pollution, but this moon will be the deep, extraordinary red only seen during a lunar eclipse.
Businesses

Submission + - Businesses Can't Quantify Outsourcing Value

Submitted by
narramissic
narramissic writes: "According to a KPMG survey of CIOs and senior executives at more than 650 major enterprises worldwide, more than 4 in 10 businesses are unable to quantify the benefits of their outsourcing deals. And nearly 4 out of 5 respondents admitted they did not accurately know the cost of selecting their outsourcing providers. Still, the 'overall sentiment of the companies surveyed was that they were generally happy with their outsourcing arrangements,' giving credence to the old adage that ignorance is bliss."
Displays

Submission + - Protecting your eyesight in tech

Submitted by
trainsnpep
trainsnpep writes: "I'm a sophomore undergrad CS major. I'm also lucky enough to have better-than-average eyesight. Now how do I keep the two? I've heard from various anecdotal sources that staring at a monitor too long is bad for your eyes, but I don't recall ever seeing an actual scientific study on it. How long is it safe to work before I should take an eye break, and how long should the break be? Do you know of any way to ease the supposed strain on my sight? Is it even an issue?"
Businesses

Submission + - End of life for small businesses wireless email?

Submitted by
BillS
BillS writes: "Good Technology (now owned by Motorola) recently announced they will not support their Good messaging product for mobile wireless email after May 31, 2007. As an IT manager for a small business, I'm asking the Slashdot community what to do? We have come to depend on this product and cannot justify upgrading to an Exchange Enterprise (including purchasing new hardware) just to keep this functionality. Furthermore, after having Exchange run in-house for many years, how could we possibly consider a hosted option. Are any of the open-source products ready for small business prime time?"
Software

Submission + - OpenXML to/from ODF Translator Available

Submitted by
WED Fan
WED Fan writes: "A translator that can be plugged into Microsoft Office and competitors to translate ODF to OpenXML or OpenXML to ODF is now freely available, under BSD licensing.

The completed Open XML Translator enables conversion of documents from one format to the other and is available for anyone to download and use at no cost. When plugged into Microsoft® Office Word, for example, the Translator provides customers with the choice to open and save documents in ODF rather than the native Open XML format. The Translator may also be plugged into competing word processing programs that use ODF...


Now, you can use either format and maintain your own choice of word processor. Coolness."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Hiring Student Propagandists

Submitted by
Ed
Ed writes: "It seems Microsoft is looking to hire students for "word of mouth advertising" on college campuses. The marketing service's code of ethics stresses the importance of honesty, but somehow I doubt they'd be willing to pay me to give my honest opinions..."
The Internet

Submission + - Why Digg Failed (or may)

Submitted by beakerMeep
beakerMeep writes: David Marcus, a user on Kuro5hin, recently put together an excellent piece on the perils and faults behind the workings of Digg.com. From the article: 'As I write, the top story on Digg is "Transparency in Social News", a newspaper-as-blog item that the Digg community have used as a little self-congratulatory pat on the back. I understand why Digg's users feel like they deserve to toast themselves now and then — after all, they've made the place one of the Web's Top 100 sites, and they've made Digg, Inc. upwards of $200 million.' Incidentally, as I submit this story to Slashdot, Digg has appears to have removed the story from the list of upcoming stories.
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - Apple to re-enter the sub-notebook market

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: AppleInsider is reporting that Apple has plans to reenter the sub-notebook market this year. FTFA: "This new tiny MacBook, people familiar with the project say, remains in development ahead of its target launch date around the time WWDC rolls around mid-year. It will be both lighter and more compact than any other Mac portable Apple has put forth in recent years, bundling a display of similarly smaller proportions."

http://appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2500
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - Build A World

Submitted by
queenb**ch
queenb**ch writes: "A new open source development is roaming the net. They've found a home over at BuildaWorld.net. They're taking the Delta3D engine and turning it into something a bit more user friendly and ready to build a game with. It's getting the networking components added back in along with avatar inventory and a user interface. That should make it ready for a RPG or FPS game. Their "mission statement" and "purpose" is as follows... Now a small bird told me that they're getting close to releasing the network code and that the avartar inventory and UI won't be far behind it. You can visit them at http://www.buildaworld.net/ for more information.

Mission Statement

We are an alliance of smaller teams that are working to build a rules-independent world-independent Free Software-licensed game engine that we can share.

Purpose

Our purpose is for several teams to come together to create tools that let you build your own virtual world, roleplaying game, or whatever else you can imagine. Our purpose is to create a game engine and at least one "reference world."

1 — The license must permit anyone to use, modify, and distribute work based on our products.

2 — All decisions will be made by participating teams, not by a few individuals.

3 — Creation, administration, and maintenance of the demonstration shards will be shared by participating teams.

4 — The reference world will demonstrate that the game engine functions.

5 — The reference world will serve as a working "HOWTO" with examples of some basic tasks."
Hardware Hacking

Water Logic Gates Built at MIT 239

Posted by CowboyNeal from the flood-gates-opened dept.
ndogg writes "This story is all wet. Paulo Blikstein at MIT has created a water computer. The one boolean logic gate he created functions as a half-adder (i.e. both XOR and AND). He then proceeded to create a four bit adder."

Feed World Business Briefing | Europe: Finland: Layoffs at Nokia (nytimes.com)

From feed by nytfeed
The Nokia Corporation said it would lay off up to 700 people globally, mostly in its enterprise business operation, to increase efficiency and improve competitiveness. The layoffs, expected within the next few months, include 340 workers in Finland. The cuts will affect research and development, related sales and marketing, as well as internal information technology operations, the company said. Nokia said it would try to transfer some workers to different posts.

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