ledger123

Homeopathy takes the body as a whole instead of independently working parts (hearts, lungs, brain etc.). You cannot prescribe correct homeopathy medicine for headache, for example, without taking into account all the mental and physical symptoms.

Though I am not going to start another controversial thread (about homeopathy), I just wonder why the mainstream medical science does not looks at human malfunctioning as a whole system. In other words why there are so many organ/tissues/functions specialists?

May be (with main stream medical science) we are on wrong path and have made things so complicated that it has impossible to consider the whole human body in one shot in any particular disease. Though we fully know that analyzing/treating the parts in a complex system won't take us too far.

I love RT. Real solid product with great hackers behind it. And you did not mention that it is open source and takes hardly 1-2 hours if you know your way through CPAN and Apache.

The latest 3.8 is not that bad with new theme.

I can even do a free install/setup for any non-profit.

http://bestpractical.com/rt/

And don't forget the http://hiveminder.com/ from same company.

EDIT: Added links.

I am not sure what response you get here because accounting is traditionally a non-hacker domain. In my own research, there is a huge need of a service like yours for the particular segment you are aiming for.

I have been offering SQL-Ledger (and its fork LedgerSMB; both open source) hosting, training, support, customization for many years. (See my info)

Though both packages are targeted to small to medium sized business, the biggest problem I find with new users is they always find it difficult to learn. This is mostly because of a large number of features even for smbs (and also because accounting software does require you have a basic understanding of accounting) And no one has time to read the fine manual.

I have been experimenting for the last few months by removing/rearranging menus, adding context sensitive help/tips, making it more user-friendly but still not satisfied with the results.

So yes I also want to target exact same segment (bare basics accounting system for freelancers, micro-isvs, and small businesses) but I need to do a lot of work/testing before doing that.

"The answers are longevity, maturity, and a rich ecosystem of development tools and modules that developers can leverage for almost any programming task. Consider the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). CPAN is an enormous collection of software and documentation, largely unmatched outside of the Perl community. Yes, other languages have similar repositories patterned after CPAN -- but thus far none have matched CPAN for its size and scope. CPAN continues to grow at a rapid clip."

Any trick I use is to mindlessly start doing anything, just anything, related to work. You will gain momentum after a brief period of activity.

While procrastinating, don't do anything which feeds it. (like facebook, browsing, HNing etc.)

The easiest way to bookmark HN articles is to leave a comment.

I have not read this book but the list of tips seemed to be bit too much. I am really a fan of all simplicity and tips from getting real book.

But someone who has read both books can explain it better.

I am working on simplified hosted accounting service for startups based upon open source sql-ledger. There will be a free single user version.

Keep yourself updated via blog or mailing list (see my info)

I don't think anyone has a generic formula for success yet (other wise we would be busy working on it and everyone would be a success story). And in my experience other's people success formula is not going to help me much even if I copy it bit by bit, unless it tune it to my personality/environment/limitations/resources etc.

So I just read these articles (or watch interviews) in the hope of just getting new insights and not looking for a sure way to make millions.

I was expecting "Answerly" similar to stackexchange but from a cursory look, it just seems a search engine. I think some integration of stackexchange like features might be useful.

I came to know about Linux first and than Linus and always wondered why Linux was not called Linus.

"Diet is 85% of where results come from"

I thank Michael Pollan for a simple and motivational advice which works. He is a must read for anyone concerned with diet.

I don't know what other value addition (identifying slow queries, scaling, replication etc.) you will be doing but setting up and maintaining a MySQL db is one of the easiest thing for me, a developer. And developers are your clients.

That's why I first see couple of comments before jumping to the article.

Minimal features and instant usability seem to be two (of probably many others) characteristics of these superficially high priced products.

Any thing sufficiently complicated or with steep learning curve is not going to be purchased by deep-pocket people.

"Of course, I'm highly biased in that regard."

This prompted me to look at your info and now reading your website (http://www.healthgazelle.com/) and I am pleased, to say the least.

I added my comment above (or below where ever it appears) without reading your website.

This article is scary.

To me it seems that we are just creating more powerful strains of various bacteria with our use of anti-biotics.

May be it is time we need to look at alternate ways to enhance our immunity so that we are not that much susceptible to bacterial (or virus) infection.

May be alternative medicine or Michael Pollan way of eating.

Any ideas?

Taxes in sql-ledger are configurable. You can add taxes with %ages etc. A large number of people are using it in Europe.

SQL-Ledger has really helpful user community behind it. I would suggest you to join the mailing list (http://bit.ly/bsCbV5) and ask your questions about your concerns there. There must be someone with Danish experience.

May be I am gone make some changes to sql-ledger to make it this much easier (and release open source). Stay in touch. (See my info)

Really sound advice.

When I started my small business many many years ago, I kept records/folders like a big company, maintained books like a big company. This was what I had read in books on how to run a business.

Couple of years later, I read a book on simplicity/time management. This changed everything. I slapped on my face and got rid of almost all useless formalities of running my business.

Even though I support SQL-Ledger (open source) as part of my business, my own use of accounting software limited to bare essentials.

From first link: Unknown effectiveness - 46%

Unlike other sciences, medicine is mostly empirical science. The "new research" results we get every other day are evidence of this.

Unless we discover a law which governs our sickness and health, we are still in stone age in medicine whatever the progress this field claims.

This is interesting. Could you elaborate a bit?

"I'm hard pressed to name a single business in which consumers have been well served by call centers."

And certainly not in health support. A doctor/nurse needs to look for clues by looking at patient present physically. His expressions, general health, walk, any marks on his skins etc etc. Sometimes a patient will not tell something really important to his doctor because he (patient) might think it irrelevant.

"And trained lay health workers, paid perhaps a fifth of a doctor’s salary, handle 80% of the calls, so only 20% get passed on to doctors."

This is what need to be done in an organized way even without a call center. A lot of patients don't need a person with knowledge of every tissue/bone, salts and systems knowledge. Just the diagnostic knowledge for common ailments.

In most of countries today a patient goes to a doctor (with 4-5 year education) and then to a specialist with a complicated issue. We need to add another "doctor" category which 1-2 years education to filter the patients.

The problem is that this idea will be vigorously opposed by the doctors associations/cartels who are going to lose because of reduced number of patients.

I would tend to think they are. Bloggers have to worry about much smaller scale of income/loss than a newspaper as big as new york times. Higher percentage also helps.

Is there a still need for a watch when we have one in cellphones? I always wonder this. (Except perhaps as a piece of jewelery for men)

You seem to be doing only general ledger accounting with the first iteration.

Accounting is a domain with tough competition from open source solutions (SQL-Ledger, LedgerSMB, WebERP among many others) as well as new SaaS services like freshbooks, lessaccounting etc. Just suggesting to have a look at those solutions too.

I would suggest to showcase a demo/trial without asking for credit card detail. Or at least make such a demo available for HN evaluation.

I had to use instapaper to read it.

I had a lot of investment of time in learning Oracle database and tools. I made an XL freeware addon which accessed Oracle database using OO4O, built an application using Oracle designer CASE tool, learned PLSQL in detail (and built SQL Plus Plus).

But the feeling of being controlled by a big corp was so strong that finally I left Oracle world and embraced open source; Perl, PostgreSQL.

I can now build better solutions in less time and still find time to browse HN many times a day.

My customers were few small to medium sized businesses so I could dictate technology.

But I am still happy to read it again. I think we need to constantly remind ourselves with advice like this. I am going to print this essay now and give copies to my wife and kids.