I am going through a similar exercise right now, all of my music CDs have been ripped to flac format and I'm 3/4 of the way through my DVD collection. In my case I have a server in the basement running Linux Mint fitted with two 3TB hard drives. Linux Mint is the secret as all of the audio and visual codecs are pre-loaded and so far I haven't found a single file that I can't play.

Ganty

Fifteen years ago I worked in I.T. Support at a company making paper products. One of the salesmen was quite proud of his 120 slide Powerpoint presentation on toilet paper.

Ganty

The quality of reporting in this article really sucks. The printed circuit boards on top of the tins are not 'telegraph keys', they're the transmitters and the white box is the iPhone interface. Quite where the 'sodium clouds' come in I have no idea because in thirty years of ham radio operation I've never seen one, heard of one or used one to make a contact with a fellow ham.

Ganty

1) Lots of natural light, ideally a corner room with lots of windows. You'll also need at least one of those magnifying lamps.

2) Deep benches, at least forty inches, this is because your test equipment will take up at least a foot of space at the rear.

3) Lots and lots of mains sockets, you'll never have enough. Wire the power through a residual current circuit breaker and a big red emergency stop switch. Make sure your family and other people around know where that emergency switch is.

4) Four channel scope, signal generator, lab power supply (0-40V 5A) with a couple of channels, a second fixed power supply with 12V, 5V and 3.3V outputs and a bench multimeter. DON'T buy cheap, it's better to get a good second hand unit than a piece of cheap Far-East test gear. I like Hameg but I know that opinions will differ here.

5) Anti-static mat and wrist strap.

6) Lots and lots of storage for parts, as with mains sockets you'll never have enough storage.

7) Decent tools, as with the test equipment don't buy cheap. I'm still using some tools that I bought twenty years ago.

8) A set of drawers underneath your workbench for storing your tools. The plastic inserts that go inside kitchen drawers will help keep things in order.

9) A burglar alarm and a lock on your workshop door. All this lot is expensive and you don't want it to vanish and reappear on Ebay.

10) Air conditioning and/or heating depending on your location. Equipment calibration will drift in temperature extremes and the standard of your work will suffer.

Ganty

For those of us on the other side of the pond there is a reasonably good computer history museum at Bletchley Park. The computer section at the Science Museum in London is also well worth a visit providing you remember that the Pilot Ace is on the ground floor.

Ganty

It's 'Syngergy', along with maybe 'Wellness'.

And why are salesmen now called 'Sales Executives'?

ARRGGHHHH!!

Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase 'your ass is mine'.

Ganty

Here's the problem, if the probe lands in 2026 I'll be 67 years old and I might not be able to appreciate it. Some speed here would be appreciated guys!

Oh, and GET OFF MY DAMN LAWN!!

Ganty

Many of the latest movies are not shown here in English, downloading the DVD is therefore the only way I can watch the movie.

Ganty

OK, technically interesting, but these are the people who build notebooks where the letters rub off the keys and ship rootkits.

Friends don't let friends buy Sony.

Ganty

All we need are the Patriot Guard in black turtlenecks to even up the numbers.

www.patriotguard.org

Ganty

A few paragraphs about the latest Arduino developments and then a single paragraph bolted on the end talking about vulnerabilities in industrial control systems and healthcare environments. What's the link between the two?

Ganty

Seven Billion is about two Billion too much, a fact that Pope Benedict should bear in mind the next time he speaks against contraception. Still, I don't suppose he will ever go hungry or thirsty.

Ganty

Not on the list but here's why I'll never buy anything Sony ever again. Three years ago I purchased a Vaio notebook and within six months the letters had started to wear off of the keyboard, the battery had failed and the DVD writer could only read disks. Sony refused to honor the warranty because I had wiped the hard drive and installed a Linux distro, they regarded it as an 'unauthorized modification'.

Friends don't let friends buy Sony.

Ganty