Comment Re:Python / SciPy / NumPy (Score 1) 254
Numpy / SciPy isn't just for use at home. I work in an office doing research with a bunch of Ph.D.s and we all use python exclusively. No $4,000 MATLAB licenses for us!
Comment Compiz (Score 1) 654
I loved the rotating cube!
Comment Re:I thought I disabled ads. (Score 1) 304
I disagree. As long as your books are kept correctly, the accountant only needs three things:
1) Profit and Loss
2) Balance Sheet
3) Depreciation Schedule
Gnucash does all of those. Print them out. Hand it to your account. And you're done.
Comment Re:I thought I disabled ads. (Score 3, Informative) 304
Bologna. I've been using Gnucash for years on a sizable business with no problem. I'm also very familiar with QuickBooks (I worked as a staff accountant for several years). Sure, there's a lot that quickbooks can do that Gnucash can't, but there's nothing fundamentally missing from Gnucash to prevent someone from using it for business purposes.
If FOSS means anything to you, Gnucash is the only way to go.
Comment Re:Found happiness elsewhere (Score 4, Informative) 818
I've also found happiness elsewhere. A combination of XFCE + OpenBox does EVERYTHING I need *and* want.
Submission + - Fedora 17 Released
ekimd writes: Fedora 17 aka "Beefy Miracle" is released. Some of the major features include: ext4 with >16TB filesystems, dynamic firewall configuration, automatic multi-seat, and more. Major software updates include Gnome 3.4, GIMP 2.8, and GCC 4.7. The full feature list can be found here.
Personally, I still find Gnome 3 to be an "unholy mess" so I'm loving XFCE with Openbox.
Personally, I still find Gnome 3 to be an "unholy mess" so I'm loving XFCE with Openbox.
Submission + - The more science you know, the less worried you are about climate (theregister.co.uk)
infodragon writes: A US government-funded survey has found that Americans with higher levels of scientific and mathematical knowledge are more skeptical regarding the dangers of climate change than their more poorly educated fellow citizens...
Thus it is, according to the assembled profs, that the US government should seek to fund a communication strategy on climate change which is not focused on sound scientific information.
Thus it is, according to the assembled profs, that the US government should seek to fund a communication strategy on climate change which is not focused on sound scientific information.
Submission + - Pirate Bay Ready For IP Address Whac-A-Mole
jones_supa writes: Last week The Pirate Bay added a new IP address which allows users to circumvent the many court-ordered blockades against the site. While this proved to be quite effective, the Hollywood backed anti-piracy group BREIN has already been to court to demand a block against this new address. But that won't deter The Pirate Bay, who say they are fully prepared for an extended game of whac-a-mole using the hundreds of IP addresses they have available. Courts all around the world have ordered Internet providers to block subscriber access to the torrent site, and the end is still not in sight.
Submission + - Adobe to Abandon Flash Player on Linux (adobe.com) 1
ekimd writes: Adobe has anounced their plans to abandon future updates of their Flash player for Linux. Partnering with Google, after the release of 11.2, "the Flash Player browser plugin for Linux will only be available via the 'Pepper' API as part of the Google Chrome browser distribution and will no longer be available as a direct download from Adobe." Viva la HTML 5!
Comment Obligatory (Score 3, Insightful) 150
But will it support Linux?
Comment Gnome 3 sucks (Score 1) 249
'nuf said.
Comment HDBaseT (Score 3, Informative) 396
Looks like we'll just have to adopt the HDBaseT spec instead.
Fan-Developed Ultima VI Remake Released 161
An anonymous reader writes "20 years after the original game launched, a fan-developed Ultima 6 remake has finally been released! The Ultima 6 Project was formed in 2001 by Sliding Dragon to develop a remake of Origin's Ultima VI: The False Prophet with newer graphics and a more immersive engine. Soon assembled under the banner Archon, the team members, who hail from all over the globe, have set about recreating the world of Britannia, adding an enhanced storyline to bolster intraseries continuity and building on the Ultima legacy in a way that will please fans new and old."
Supreme Court Throws Out Bilski Patent 232
ciaran_o_riordan writes "The US Supreme Court has finally decided the Bilski case (PDF). We've known that Bilski's patent would get thrown out; that was clear from the open mockery from the judges during last November's hearing. The big question is, since rejecting a particular patent requires providing a general test and explaining why this patent fails that test, how broad will their test be? Will it try to kill the plague of software patents? And is their test designed well enough to stand up to the army of patent lawyers who'll be making a science (and a career) of minimizing and circumventing it? The judges have created a new test, so this will take some reading before any degree of victory can be declared. The important part is pages 5-16 of the PDF, which is the majority opinion. The End Software Patents campaign is already analyzing the decision, and collecting other analyses. Some background is available at Late-comers guide: What is Bilski anyway?"
More analysis of the decision is available at Patently-O.
Ranking Soccer Players By Following the Bouncing Ball 142
sciencehabit excerpts from an interesting report on statistics for soccer, in the stats-obsessed world of sports: "Only a handful of soccer ranking systems exist, most of which rely on limited information: the number of goals scored in a match, the number of goals assisted, and some indices of a match's difficulty and importance. ... So researchers turned to an unlikely source: social networks. Applying the kinds of mathematical techniques used to map Facebook friends and other networks, the team created software that can trace the ball's flow from player to player. As the program follows the ball, it assigns points for precise passing and for passes that ultimately lead to a shot at the goal. Whether the shot succeeds doesn't matter. Only the ball's flow toward the goal and each player's role in getting it there factors into the program's point system, which then calculates a skill index for each team and player."
