[geeks] a warning to the self assured

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Tue, 2 Apr 2002, alex j avriette wrote:

> for years, i have been not keeping a checkbook. i make enough that i am 
> not worried about "running out" of money. the only time ive ever really 
> been bitten by this system is every once in a while (its happened two or 
> three times), i find out i have less money than i thought i did. so, i 
> pay the $20 (or x checks * $20) "being cocky" tax, and move on.

Eeek!

> i literally get my statements from the bank and throw them away without 
> reading them because i dont want them cluttering up the house. i check 
> my online statement every other day or so, and things mostly stay in 
> check. im pretty happy with the system.

Augh!  Pain!  Make the bad man stop!

And the punchline:

> i realize, looking at my statement, that there is no way i can prove i 
> paid these damn comcast people without paying significant bank charges - 
> $X per copy-of-check and $Y per copy-of-statement. plus time and hassle 
> when my account is overdue and im applying for a damn DoD clearance (so 
> I cant afford any "black marks" right now!).

I'm anal-retentive about a lot of things.  Anyone who knows me knows this.
One of these things is finance.  I literally cannot sleep at night if I
have a check or deposit that is not recorded in my check register.

I'm sure this is partly my anal-retentive nature (the same that makes me
compulsively clean things, roll my own GCC binaries from source, check
SunSolve weekly, etc.), and partly due to the fact that I grew up broke-ass
poor and watched my parents deal with a lot of money issues that were only
accomplished by virtue of very tight management.

In short, you've broken my poor little mind.

FWIW, I'm currently writing some accounting software.  It started out as a
checkbook/finance manager (since no -good- such software exists for free
on Unix that doesn't require GNOME[1]) but developed[2] into a multi-server
generalized transaction system with double-entry accounting and inventory
management written on top. :)  The accounting software probably won't
interest too many folks on here, but the transaction system is completely
generic and would probably make a decent, if limited distributed computing
platform.

If anyone's interested, I'll drop a URL as soon as the preliminary docs
are on the web.

--Jonathan
[1] Why the hell is the most bloated piece of software in the history of
    Unix named after a tiny mythological being?
[2] At this point, I'm still spec-ing and documenting things, but I have
    every intention of pushing this project through to completion.