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Microsoft Makes Basic Tools of Accounting Free for Taking
In my life, "accounts receivable" means chits written on scraps of paper during poker games. "Gross" is the thought of Richard Nixon pouring ketchup on his cottage cheese. "Net" is something through which one slam dunks a basketball. In other words I'm a terrible choice to tell the world that it looks like Microsoft Corp. is giving away for free a decidedly simple yet powerful accounting software package sufficient for handling the books for small businesses. Office Accounting 2007 Express looks like a QuickBooks killer to my severely dim-sighted eyes for business process management _ whatever that is. Accounting challenged as I am, I do know this much about business: There is no quick fix and there certainly is no free lunch. So when you download Office Accounting Express 2007 at IdeaWins.com you are in for some pretty persuasive sales pitches aimed at getting you to shell out for the $149.95 Office Accounting 2007 Professional.
Prescription drugs may be factor in family murder-suicide
PUTNAM VALLEY - The nuclear engineer who killed his family in a drawn-out murder-suicide may have been under the influence of two prescription drugs, including a potent sleep aid linked to bizarre behavior and suicidal thoughts. State police found a bottle of Ambien prescribed to Steven Lessard and a bottle of other unidentified pills inside the Lake Peekskill house where he strangled his wife and teenage daughter before stabbing himself with a steak knife, Capt. Keith Corlett said yesterday. "There is an indication he was on two medications," Corlett said, adding that police are reviewing the contents of four computers seized from the Lessard family home at 18 Maple Road. Ambien carries warnings that uncommon side effects can include "changes in behavior and thinking," including "strange behavior" and "suicidal thoughts." Toxicology tests will show whether Lessard, 51, had any drugs in his system during the murder-suicide discovered Monday, but the results won't be available for at least six weeks, Corlett said.
All the dirt on the floral industry
California garden writer Amy Stewart is all over the media this month with the release of her latest book, Flower Confidential. CBS' Sunday Morning program, Diane Rehm on public radio, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, even People magazine have featured it. The 306-page book is a journalistic behind-the-scenes account of the international floral industry – where flowers come from and insightful speculation, if you read between the lines, about where they are going. Ms. Stewart traveled the world to learn about industry developments, to Amsterdam, Ecuador, Miami and up and down the coast of California, visiting flower factories as well as family farms established, in the case of California, by immigrants from Italy and Japan. There's plenty of high-tech and history in her well-researched (and annotated) accounts.
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