Microsoft offers free small-business software
Company offers two versions of accounting software
By Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service October 30, 2006
Microsoft Corp. has turned its accounting suite for small businesses into two separate offerings, one of which users can download for free starting Monday.
Office Accounting Express 2007, an updated version of Office Small Business Accounting 2006, will be available here for free, said Rajat Taneja, a Microsoft general manager for small business applications and services.
Microsoft also will begin offering a slightly higher-end version of the software, Office Accounting Professional 2007, from retailers early next year.
The professional edition of the software has more robust features than the free version for handling inventory management, budgeting, cash flow and other tasks mature small businesses require, Taneja said. Office Accounting Express 2007 is aimed more at small businesses that are just getting off the ground and need help starting up.
... Microsoft also has expanded the Web-based offerings that are available through the software from two to seven. These are services from Microsoft partners -- such as eBay Inc.'s auction and eBay's PayPal payment services, Verisign Inc. security services, Automatic Data Processing Inc.'s payroll service and Equifax Inc.'s credit-check service -- that small businesses may find useful.
The services cost extra, and range in price depending on the provider and the service, Taneja said. They are available in both the express and professional editions of the software.
Patriot Act now Okay?
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/30/0337236&from=rss
ACLU Drops Challenge Over Patriot Act
Posted by kdawson on Monday October 30, @07:44AM from the declare-victory-and-withdraw dept. The Courts United States Politics
An anonymous reader writes, "The ACLU announced on Friday that they were dropping their case against the US Government over the highly contested section 215 of the Patriot Act. ACLU Associate Legal Director Ann Beeson stated: 'While the reauthorized Patriot Act is far from perfect, we succeeded in stemming the damage from some of the Bush administration's most reckless policies. The ACLU will continue to monitor how the government applies the broad Section 215 power and we will challenge unconstitutional demands on a case-by-case basis.'"
No worries! Elections in the banana republics have be remarkably honest... Haven't they?
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/29/1921226&from=rss
Venezuelan Interest In U.S. Voting Software
Posted by kdawson on Sunday October 29, @02:29PM from the just-what-we-needed dept. Security Politics
A number of readers wrote in about a U.S. federal investigation into the Venezulean ownership of Sequoia Voting Systems, which makes voting machines used in 17 states and the District of Columbia. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States wonders whether the anti-U.S. government of Hugo Chávez could be trying to influence the U.S. midterm elections.
From the article: "Government officials familiar with the Smartmatic inquiry said they doubted that even if the Chávez government was some kind of secret partner in the company, it would try to influence elections in the United States. But some of them speculated that the purchase of Sequoia could help Smartmatic sell its products in Latin America and other developing countries, where safeguards against fraud are weaker."
I can see the editorial board meeting: “How late can we hold this story? We don't want anyone fixing this before the elections...”
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1552054,00.html
Can This Machine Be Trusted?
The U.S.'s new voting systems are only as good as the people who program and use them. Which is why next week could be interesting
By MICHAEL DUFFY
Tools for winning friends and influencing people... I can't wait until the 976 crowd get hold of this one!
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/29/1938226&from=rss
How To Make Your Friends Call You More
Posted by kdawson on Sunday October 29, @05:26PM from the not-funny-mcgee dept. Communications
B0bReader writes, "Simply sign up to something called jajah (a VOIP service that connects real telephones) using your friend's number (mobiles included), then log in and dial your own number. Your friend's phone will ring and after they hear a brief 'Jajah is connecting your call' they will be calling you and incur all charges. As an added bonus you will quite probably receive your friend's latest voice-mail message as your own (at least on Irish networks), which you may or may not wish to hear. There is even a Jajah Firefox extension — which at the time of writing is the Firefox featured add-on — so you can do it right from your browser.
This is about the best example of a bad idea, with terrible implementation, that I have seen all day. And with the wonderful publicity the Firefox page offers it should reach a wide audience in no time."
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72019-0.html?tw=rss.index
Feds Leapfrog RFID Privacy Study
By Ryan Singel 02:00 AM Oct, 30, 2006
The story seems simple enough. An outside privacy and security advisory committee to the Department of Homeland Security penned a tough report concluding the government should not use chips that can be read remotely in identification documents. But the report remains stuck in draft mode, even as new identification cards with the chips are being announced.
Jim Harper, a Cato Institute fellow who serves on the committee and who recently published a book on identification called Identity Crisis, thinks he knows why the Department of Homeland Security Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee report on the use of Radio Frequency Identification devices for human identification (.pdf) never made it out of the draft stage.
"The powers that be took a good run at deep-sixing this report," Harper said. "There's such a strongly held consensus among industry and DHS that RFID is the way to go that getting people off of that and getting them to examine the technology is very hard to do."
... But critics argue that hackers can skim information off the chips and that the chips can be used to track individuals. Hackers have also been able to clone some chips, such as those used for payment cards and building security, as well as passports.
The draft report concludes that "RFID appears to offer little benefit when compared to the consequences it brings for privacy and data integrity" -- a finding that was widely criticized by RFID industry officials when the committee met in June.
If you have only a million readers, and they contribute only a dollar a year, are you poor?
http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/meganiche.html
Tiny Slice, Big Market
Now that a billion people are online, even sites aimed at a narrow slice of the Web audience can attract huge crowds. Make way for the meganiche!
By Clay Shirky
... I define a meganiche as a thin slice of the Web that nonetheless represents roughly a million users. The meganiche is something new, and it will have a lasting impact on online business and culture.
When did Choicepoint become the NCIC?
http://techdirt.com/articles/20061027/185311.shtml
Arrested Due To A Database Error
from the doesn't-sound-like-fun dept
Well, here's a story that combines a few different things we've seen lately, from police (and star basketball players) raiding the home of the wrong person due to a faulty IP address to the fact that all these big data mining companies often have wrong info about you, including incorrect criminal records. In this case, a guy who got a job as a security guard as a retailer ended up spending a week in jail after the company did a background check on him and data mining firm Choicepoint (whose name became well known when they sold info to a group of identity theft scammers) incorrectly found that there were arrest warrants out for this guy for child molestation and rape. The problem was that the guy had been a victim of identity theft earlier, and while he had reported it, Choicepoint didn't take that into account. It's somewhat amusing (if disturbing) that a firm that had sold data to identity thieves later was unable to fix the false data in someone's file that was due to identity theft. Still, at what point do people realize that a single piece of data from these unreliable sources just isn't enough to arrest someone?
http://news.com.com/2100-1026_3-6130354.html?part=rss&tag=6130354&subj=news
Revver puts money where its talent is
The video-sharing site has landed YouTube stars through revenue sharing. Is this the future for online clips?
By Greg Sandoval Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: October 30, 2006, 4:00 AM PST
SANTA MONICA, Calif.--When it comes to profits, there's no sharing in the video-sharing sector.
Not enough, anyway, fumes Steven Starr, a former talent agent, Bob Marley devotee and now the impresario of Revver.com, the video-sharing site he co-founded in 2005.
... By sharing advertising revenue with makers of popular clips, Revver has begun shaking things up in the burgeoning sector. The industry, where amateurs post homemade movies to the Web, is looking for the next rising star now that YouTube has gone corporate. An heir apparent has yet to emerge, but Josh Martin, an analyst with the Yankee Group, said that paying top video makers is "where the sector is headed."
If this was used in Italy, would the furniture be sexy?
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/29/1540241&from=rss
Sketch Your Furniture in the Air
Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday October 29, @11:10AM from the thats-just-a-neat-idea dept. Graphics
justelite writes "Is it possible to let a first sketch become an object, to design directly onto space? The four FRONT members have developed a method to materialize free hand sketches."
This could work for any subject. Want to be “The Expert?”
http://digg.com/political_opinion/Want_to_Learn_Some_Basic_Economics_the_Easy_Way_Try_this
Want to Learn Some Basic Economics the Easy Way? Try this..........
Rhiannon1214 submitted by Rhiannon1214 21 hours 36 minutes ago (via http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0503g.asp )
The wonderful Walter Williams, Professor of economics at George Mason Univ. has put together a ten-part series entitled "Economics for the Citizen". Williams uses plain language, common-sense examples and his special brand of humor to make the whole thing easy to understand. It's evident that Williams loves to teach and that he's a master at it.
Free is good, but cheap is okay too.
http://digg.com/tech_deals/Bugmenot_com_launches_collaborative_coupon_code_site
Bugmenot.com launches collaborative coupon code site
bufferout submitted by bufferout 2 days ago (via http://www.retailmenot.com/ )
Bugmenot.com has launched a similar service where users can find and share discount coupon codes for online stores. It's cunningly named RetailMeNot.com. How long until someone writes a firefox extension for it?
The future?
http://digg.com/tech_news/Free_Video_email_requiring_no_download_installation_or_registration
Free Video email requiring no download, installation or registration!
webtech submitted by webtech 18 hours 40 minutes ago (via http://freegabmail.com/ )
Free, Incredibly Simple Video e-mail!
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