This book teaches you to think like an experienced programmer.

It's a great way of refreshing your algorithm skills and an easy ready compared to other (heavier) algorithm books.

This is exactly what I have and it's a great solution.

In a small 4U network cabinet, you can fit a patch panel and a 24 port switch. That leaves you an extra 2U for other things. I also have a PoE enabled switch and a network server: The SuperMicro 1U Atom servers are small, cheap, energy efficient and quiet. For the switch(es), go for quiet (fanless if possible) and energy efficient. Most switches are made in the same factory in China and from the same components, so it doesn't really matter which brand you choose.

I recently downsized from a 42U to a 21U rack. A 42U rack is was inconvenient and too heavy to handle. Having a smaller rack on wheels is more convenient and 21U is probably more space than you'll need in a home environment if your main purpose is "just for fun". I've got a separate switch in the rack and an uplink connecting the two switches.

I recently set up my own VPN network and wanted a generic solution with access to a number of countries, mainly the US, Canada and the UK. I wanted something that would work naturally with all the devices on my home network, including the Wii, Playstation, etc. The problem with a regular VPN services is that they only give you one country at a time, plus you will probably tunnel more traffic than you want. Your ISP is usually the best route for traffic that doesn't have to originate inside a specific country.

So I've got a number of VPS instances in different countries, all running OpenBSD. These routers are connected with IPsec tunnels. That's not really necessary (ip encapsulation would work just fine) but gets me around national packet sniffing (Australia, I'm looking at you). Then I use OpenBGPD to dynamically announce routes between the routers. Finding out the routes for a provider is easy: just lookup the whois information for an IP number and you get the corresponding CIDR. Add that route to BGP and it's visible across the network in seconds. You also need to forward the appropriate DNS traffic, to get around the load balancing based on originating IP used by some CDNs.

This solution may seem too complicated and overkill, but it works incredibly well. You could of course achieve the same thing by having multiple VPN connections from a single router and add a bunch of static routes. But where's the fun in that?

As an added bonus, it's trivial to set up redundant gateways to the US and load balance traffic between them. This is a natural feature of BGP: if a router goes down, the BGP connection dies and traffic is routed through another path. Since OpenBSD is very light, I only pay for the smallest VPS instances, usually 128MB ram and a tiny bit of cpu for a few $/month per instance.

This was discussed on slashdot in 2007:
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/07/07/27/2312257/toyota-unveils-plug-in-hybrid-prius#comments

And it's not a very good idea:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/automobiles/02POWER.html
"The V2G potential of Honda’s full hybrid vehicles is unexplored, but the company is doubtful of using them to power homes. “We would not like to see stresses on the battery pack caused by putting it through cycles it wasn’t designed for,” said Chris Naughton, a Honda spokesman. “Instead, they should buy a Honda generator that was made for that purpose.”

I'm glad to see some positive news coming from Oracle. Solaris is a great OS and I'm thankful that I can keep using it for free on my servers at home.

Now if we could also get full ZFS support for Linux, that would be great.

I remember AT&T slapping on $10 of "government fees and taxes" to my $60 plan, without specifying what those fees and taxes were.

I really hope they get to pay for that one day...

It all depends on what you look like and where you are. Technically, you're probably supposed to carry your passport as a foreigner in a ton of countries. But if you stay out of trouble and look like you're there for a reason, you've got nothing to worry about. Countries with lots of tourists don't want to annoy tourists for no reason.

I've travelled and lived in a large number a few countries over the last 15 years, including the US. Let's take the US as an example. If you speak good English, you'll never have a problem, except maybe getting into bars. If you don't speak good English and look like you're from somewhere else, carrying your passport would probably be a good idea.

As someone else pointed out, bringing your foreign driver's license is usually fine. As long as you've got some kind of ID, they can give you the benefit of the doubt.

Google is working on a translation system that's based on the massive information they've gathered off the internet. To get an idea of how this works, have a look at the 2009 Google Wave developer presentation. Fast forward to about 1h 12min
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ

In another demo (which I can't find right now) they show how the translation engine understands the context of the conversation.

It's easy to see how this could be applied to a phone call using the right voice recognition software.

I've been using 1.1.1.1/8 at home for years. It's by far the quickest to type and remember.

I'll probably keep using it for a while, until I need to reach any of those officially allocated addresses in 1/8. Hearing they got allocated in Africa and Latina America is really good news, since I rarely go to African and Latin American websites.

My Linux server is in our basement too. Even in our warm climate (Australia) there's more than enough cool air without some fancy cooling solution. I don't see why the guy needs extra cooling. Isn't his basement not cold enough for a few computers ?

I just did the opposite. I got a number of wireless access points and connected everything in a WDS setup, thinking that would cover all my network needs.

Last weekend, I wired the whole house with gigabit ethernet. For some things, like streaming large files and IP based phone systems, wireless just doesn't cut it. Laptops and phones connect to the wireless network and everything else use plain reliable ethernet.

I've been to Siggraph a number of times. There are always a lot of creative display devices, virtual reality setups, 3D displays, etc, so that doesn't surprise me. But the scratchable input device is actually really cool: I wish I could get ahold of the source code for that one. Just imagine what you could do to automate your house:

1) Put one in your favorite TV chair and get rid of the remotes
2) Get rid of locks and door handles. Only the correct tap or gesture on the wall opens the door. When you've got friends over, you can semi-quote Back to the Future: "Door handles ? Where we're going, you don't need door handles..."

Technically, I don't think mail order is a loop hole as much as it is a tool of free trade. I think the origin to this "loop hole" is a free trade agreement between states established by the federal govt. Not having taxes between states benefits competition in the market place.

In CA, the state charges a tax on everything that is sold. This tax is paid by the business for the privilege of operating in CA and of course passed on to the consumer. If I live in CA and buy something from another state, I'm technically supposed to declare "use tax" for the goods bought elsewhere, but used in California. Of course, no one does that, but that's another problem.

Within the European Union, there is a similar free trade agreement. Countries are no longer allowed to tax goods and services coming from other country. The difference to the US is that EU countries are better at collecting the "use tax".