Getting connected to the Net, it turns out, is a lot easier than getting disconnected. A couple of months ago, I finally switched to cable from dial-up, but I never got around to disconnecting from Earthlink or from AOL, which I've been on for years, clinging to the hope that with more than 25 million subscribers, something would eventually happen there that would be interesting enough to write about. Last week, looking over my expense invoices, Hemos pointed out that this hadn't happened once in three years. So I cancelled Earthlink and AOL. Or, I tried to. The next two hours drew me into yet another customer-service scandal in the tech business -- getting offline.

These are Robert's answers to questions about GnuCash you posted on June 18th. He says, "Some of the answers to the questions here were the result of discussions with the other people at LDG, where others were more qualified to speak on various topics, so the readers are really getting the benefit of our collected wisdom (well, we hope it's wisdom :) )"

It used to be simple to know what we were supposed to pay attention to. We usually relied on third-party judgments by gatekeepers and screeners -- journalists, producers, academics -- to tell us what we needed to know. Technology has changed all of that. Soon, the products, services or information judged worthy of people's attention may be those whose providers pay the most money. Business, magazines, websites, software developers, entertainment companies may soon be paying you to pay attention to their creations, rather than the other way around.

Okay, the answers to your questions for U.S. Representative Rick Boucher are in. No, his staff didn't write them. Everything you see here is straight from the Congressman himself. This is a nice bit of insight into legislative thinking about the Internet, and gives a little info on how you can help change laws you don't like, too.