A non-Anonymous Coward asks: "More and more these days, small businesses are selling their goods on the Internet, and are looking for a way to process their sales. Aside from purchasing a merchant account, and setting up systems that meet the requirements set forth by the payment processors, what alternatives do small business owners have? There are a few online companies that will process the money for you, and take a small portion of that, such as PayPal, authorize.net, 2checkout.com, and a few others, but what is the easiest to setup, with little hassle?"

jomammy writes "According to a recent Wired article, the majority of Americans are becoming increasingly dependant on their gadgets. High speed internet seems to be the one most determined to be a 'necessity'. A third of the country is said to pay more than $200.00 a month for their addiction, where 4 out of 10 pay between $100.00 and $150.00 a month. Other items in this list of 'gadgets' include, mp3 players, dvd players, laptops, handhelds, etc." How addicted are we? How addicted are you?

Deemo asks: "I use Mozilla Thunderbird on the Windows machine. Recently I installed kUbuntu, on a separate computer. Since I'm using KDE, the obvious choice is to use KMail as my default mail application. However, I tend to like Evolution's interface better, and I like Thunderbird in general from extensive use of the Windows version. I was wondering what the advantages/disadvantages are of each, and which one Slashdot users recommend for everyday use."

AlexDV asks: "I'm currently a second-term, CIS major at DeVry University. This coming term, I will have the choice of studying either Java or C# for my Object Oriented Programming class. Now I'm a diehard Linux user, so I'm slightly conflicted here. Which should I take?"

ShadowDawn asks: "I'm looking to develop a website for average computer illiterate users and I'm just curious what the average users screen resolution is, now a days? I know 800x600 used to be the main size to develop for, but last I had seen 1024x768 was taking over. I was just wondering if anyone out there ran a 'normal' site that 'normal' people visit and would have some insight."

goldenglove asks: "With the recent boom of Podcasts online, there seems to be a glaring hole when you try to search for free podcasts that have fictionalized stories, and semi-concrete plotlines. The podcast videocast scene seems to be saturated with content that is about news or about personal life, centralizing around information rather than entertainment. Why is this? The only exceptions I've found are the recently released Marcus Hates His Job free TV show sponsored by Sprite, and the Finnish distributed movie: StarWreck -- although entertaining, a very thin selection. Does Slashdot have any recommendations of uninhibited, undiscovered content in this field?"

amrust asks: "I've set a New Year's Resolution for myself. Starting next year, I want to teach myself Spanish. However, looking in local bookstores and online, there are so many different programs and systems to choose from, that I can't decide which method is best. I'd like to learn the Spanish language itself, not just a few choice phrases and words, for traveling. I have a lot of patience for serious in-depth study, at home. I would prefer an easy-to-learn (but comprehensive) system that includes audio CDs, as well as textbook material, to follow along with. Which system can you recommend for someone just starting out, assuming they currently speak English, and have never previously taken a foreign language course?"

KevlarGorilla asks: "I'm sure Slashdot users have done their fair share of university exams. A good portion may be going through the process right now. Many tales have been floating around the internet about cheating (successful and not), cram stories, and tales of post-test celebration, most often in the testing room itself. Recall any first-hand experiences and write them down in a few short paragraphs. If you've been waiting to clear your conscience, or share your experiences, now is the time."

kesuki asks: "Right now, the state of the art captcha only works for the visually-abled. Some people are trying to start a grass roots opposition to catcha using existing anti-discrimination laws. However, without any captcha at all, spammers would have a field day. Audio captcha would work for the blind, of course, but they still leave out the deaf-blind using brail interpreters to use their computers and navigate the web. What system of captcha can you dream up that would work for the deaf-blind?"

America-bound asks: "I'm a senior Java developer living in Europe with the wish to move to the US eventually and live with my significant other. Over here, I have a diverse set of experience working on in-house development and freelance/project work. I don't intend for this to look like a resume or request for work, so I won't go into specifics. Europe, or at least my country, has very healthy prospects for those working freelance, but I'm not sure how things are in the USA (California to be more specific). My timespan for achieving this is realistic; I'm looking at making the move within 2-3 years, giving me time to work on my skills, experience and do more networking, as well as get used to life in the USA. I would like to know if my plans for working freelance, or as my own company, are very realistic in the US. Perhaps there are other good alternatives that I haven't explored yet. Hence, I turn to Slashdot hoping for some clues by others who have either made the switch to living in the US or are working there successfully, as freelancers."

kale77in asks: "I've become a big fan of Ruby over the past few months, but I'm not at all sure about Ruby On Rails. Automatic code generation sets of alarm bells in my mind; so that, to RoR's promise of 'Web Development that Doesn't Hurt', I automatically add '...until you have to maintain it'. On the other hand, some writers and coders I respect (like the Pragmatic Programming mob) seem to be fans. I've mainly written generators in Python, to produce PHP/SQL/Java from SQL files, but I've always gone back to well-constructed objects, where extension and overloading offers more precise and maintainable customization than auto-generation allows. So is Rails just a nice RAD tool for disposable, cookie-cutter apps (which have a place, of course)? Is high-level generation just a bad OO substitute? And what has your experience of Rails' maintainability been?"

Ronin asks: "We are a young startup developing a yet another collaborative platform for academic users. Our platform (a) requires users to log-on to the website for extended period of time, and (b) is content intensive - stuff like courses, quizzes and assignments gets posted regularly. We're using a LAMP setup on a 1 GB P4 server. Our user base is small (about 1,200 users, 5-7% connected at any given time) but we expect it to grow rapidly. We expect sharp traffic growth, and are working to scale our server software & hardware setup linearly. What kind of server setup plan should we go for keeping in mind our content heavy application and that we may have to scale up rapidly. Can anyone share his/her experience with LAMP in dealing with scalability of high-traffic sites? Taking clues from the Wikimedia servers, we understand that the final configuration involves proxy caching for content, database masters/slave servers and NFS servers. We of course don't have such a high traffic, but it will be interesting to note what kind of server config you'd go for."

Germ-X asks: "My city's IT Manager is proposing a dedicated firewall system to protect the IT infrastructure. The solution, that is going to be presented to the City Council, is based on Windows 2003 and Symantec Enterprise firewall. It will be running on an HP DL380 G4, and will cost the city about $13,000. Most of that amount will be going to software licenses. I don't know the features of Symantec Enterprise Firewall, I just think that the city could do much better going for an applicance kind of solution, even if they stay with Windows. What do you guys think? Any other ideas? Keep in mind that this is a small town and I don't think we can count on any big time sysadmins, like most of yourselves, being on staff."

miahrogers writes "The IRS Scam from a few weeks ago was not the the usual canned phishing attack; it exploited a vulnerability in the IRS benefits website to make users think they were at a government site. Also, according to Infoworld, eBay's own fraud team was tricked into thinking a phishing email was legitimate eBay correspondence. Mix the above IRS exploit with a phony email and you have misplaced trust that foils even professional fraud teams. Interestingly enough, the newest addition to my bookshelf predicted these attacks in full detail. From chapter 4: 'Combined with vulnerable Web servers allowing the "trusted" domain to launch the attack, it will be harder to determine whether the email is or isn't legitimate. When a person turns in the e-mail to question its legitimacy, due to the known marketing campaign a tech support representative may overlook the fraud report and tell the customer that XYZ company did send out such a marketing e-mail and it is OK to click the links.' Are phishers using this book as a tool, or is it a legitimate prediction? As an IT professional, what efforts should our corporate IT department be making to proactively to eliminate these vulnerabilities?"

InsurgentGeek asks: "I'm about 25 years into my career in technology. Over that time, I've done the standard progression from developer to architect to team leader to program leader to business unit leader. While I've stayed up to date on general technology trends (perhaps more than about 95% of my peer group) - I have started to really miss hands on coding - something I haven't done for almost 20 years. It's not for my job, and I don't plan to make any money at it - but I'd like to get back to coding on at least a recreational basis. Here's the rub: what are the right tools?"

coronaride asks: "One of the things that always seems to leave me stumped in a job interview is the dreaded 'Do you have any questions for us?' question. I was always taught that while it's great to have the answers, almost equally important is to ask the right questions. When interviewing for a development position, what are some good questions to ask? For you employers, how much weight, if any, do you put on this open-ended question? A few obvious things come to mind regarding benefits, atmosphere, development style, etc., but I'm curious to see others' opinions on not only what is expected, but what is appropriate as well."

smilingbandit2 asks: "For the past several months, I've wanted to dive into the world of webpage design. I'm not looking to creative anything cutting edge or even terribly useful, just hobby pages and weblogs that look professionally made. Unfortunately, my knowledge of website design consists of one basic HTML class I took in highschool, about 8 years ago. I feel comfortable enough coding in HTML, but it doesn't give me the results I want, and I know nothing about any other coding languages. Now, I'm not scared of learning new software or languages - in fact, I'm eager to expand my skillsets - but I don't know what to study. XML, Perl, AJAX - nothing but alphabet soup to me. I don't about anything beyond HTML. I'm completely uninitiated in advanced web design. Now, I turn to Slashdot for help. Where should I begin on the path to design enlightenment? What're the languages, programs, or whatever that are worth knowing? Are there good guidebooks, useful websites, or insightful forums? Are formal classes worth a damn? What do you frequently use on your websites? Any helpful advice, generally?"

brainee28 asks: "I work in the IS department for a manufacturer in Arizona (a one-man-show). I do mostly everything; from systems, to networks, to procurement, to implementation. I can't mention who I work for since we deal with government contracts. My problem is this: The company didn't start out with an IS department. Up until 6 years ago, a few computers were scattered around, but processes and business was still being done the old-fashioned way (with paper). When the IS department was started, it was started by a hobbyist (he was named IS Manager before I showed up), who knew nothing about management or any of the major issues that befall a traditional IS dept. I joined 6 years ago (I have 5 years of IS Management experience, and 15 years of experience with IS in general) with the idea that I would be managing day-to-day operations. That has still not come to pass. The hobbyist left the company 4 years ago, and I've been on my own ever since." What is the best way for new IS managers to convince their superiors of the need for widespread change?

DevanJedi asks: "Many people around the world plan their charitable giving around this time of the year, for religious, tax or other similarly benevolent reasons. As a geek who spends an inordinate amount of time around his computer, I have compiled a list of entities that have made my geek life easier, in the past year. Which other projects does Slashdot believe to be worthy of praise, money, recognition, developer time or general applause?"

Extrudedaluminiu asks: "With the recent news about domestic spying by the NSA, American citizens are put in a very difficult situation. Citizens in other countries, around the globe, also find themselves in situations where their lives can be examined by government agencies or other groups of questionable ethics. What can people in this kind of world do to defend themselves? Are there any approaches to thwarting or mitigating surveillance that will work on a mass scale? What technologies can people use to hold on to their freedoms, in a difficult world?"