stalebread queries: "Me and a team of other students have been tasked with reverse engineering a massive C/C++ (mostly C) computer game of about half a million lines. We have most of the source, but no clue of how to approach a task of this magnitude. Anyone have suggestions of programs, or techniques we could use to understand the structure of the game?"

An anonymous reader is curious about this: "A company called TippingPoint (3com) sells an Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) that promise 'to block phishing attempts and guard against identity theft'. What I found interesting is the wide spectrum of actions they take to acheive a single goal: 'The IPS uses a variety of mechanisms to detect and prevent phishing scams including vulnerability protection, pattern-matching protection, and behavior-based protection.' What do you think about the effectivness of IPS?"

AnimalCoward writes "I teach a Continuing Education courses in OO programming at our local state university. An email was just sent out from the program director asking if any instructors were interested in developing, and teaching, a course in OSS. My question to the slashdot crowd is: What would you want to see in an OSS class? What should be included? Should I bring up all the discussions about liability and multiple OSS licenses? The request didn't state it, but from experience I believe the students would have a programming background ranging from only mainframes to C++ to those with some Java experience."

Wescotte asks: "While the priority of moving paperless at my company is very low I've made it my personal mission to get rid of as much paper as I can. Creating a basic electronic form and approval system for our internal documents is a big job but I feel the largest hurdle will be creating a system in which the average employee can scan in additional documents to attach to these forms. For example am employee scanning in all receipts to attach to an expense report. Ideally I would like to find a piece of hardware that allows for print/copy/scan, and would allow for some personal identification by swiping our employee id card or even finger print identification. Does such a product exist and nearly compete price wise with the Xerox products?" Is anyone aware of a system or hardware additions that could streamline this process, and provide centralized document storage for document scans?

duncan bayne asks: "I'm sure many developers in salaried, permanent positions have been tempted by the self-management, flexibility and higher pay that are the perks of being a contractor, while at the same time looking nervously at the uncertainty and irregular income. So, to all those in the Slashdot crowd who've made the change - what was it like, was it worth it, and what advice can you share?"

DeliBoy asks: "After getting tired of the noisy power-sucking IBM PC Server 325 that I've been using as a JBOD server, I've decided to purchase a small network disk. Specificially, I'm looking at the Buffalo HD-HG300LAN. With FTP, a USB print server, and expandibility options, this unit looks very attractive. I was wondering what other NAS solutions Slashdot readers were purchasing for their home or small office. Is there anything better out there for around the same price?"

Eric Lennon Bowman writes "I've been using Bugzilla for a few years, and it has one particular shortcoming that is motivating me to look for alternatives. We very often find that a bug or feature requires changes to be integrated into several code branches, and there just isn't an elegant way (that I can see) to get Bugzilla to do that, short of creating a bunch of bugs, and linking them together as dependents (which is a bit inelegant, and error prone). I'd love the opinions of the Slashdot community on ways to deal with this problem, since it seems pretty widespread: How do you track the same bug across multiple versions of a product?"

papa248 asks: "I have moved into a Launch Project Manager position within my company. The business is with automotive component manufacturing in a Just-In-Time scale, located in the heart of the Motor City. My job will be to facilitate the setup of IT systems in a new assembly plant. This would be office systems, customer broadcast (parts are sequenced so they arrive at the OEM to match a particular vehicle's VIN), shop floor systems for robotic control, PLCs for error-proofing, lot traceability, the whole nine yards. The company (large, Fortune 500) has some very specific specifications for office systems (HP hardware, Windows, Office, etc) but leaves lots of opportunity for the actual production systems. I've been burned in the past because my predecessors have used 'turnkey' solutions from some lesser known, local vendors that write such custom, specific code on ridiculous, non standard PCs and hardware. I'm in a jam right now, because I've got tons of NT4 systems with a semi-custom OS and VB 6 code on it that are literally falling apart. What are your suggestions for setting up manufacturing control systems that leave the flexibility to be upgradeable and redesignable without being locked in to one particular vendor or solution?"

Quinthar asks: "For years I've been reading of amazing extensions to wifi-range, but they always seem to include external hardware rather than what's built into regular laptops. As wifi makes it almost everywhere, is there anything I can use to eek out extra coverage in the coffeeshops? I've read of USB antennae -- are these snakeoil? If not USB, how else can I plug a real antenna into a simple Centrino chipset without the hassle of an external card? My dream would be a tiny parabolic dish with a tripod that folds up neatly. Does such a thing exist? Can I hold a Pringles can up to the right spot and expect results? Basically, what are my options, and which do you recommend?"

008 asks: "My work requires me to travel to some harsh climes with my laptop and other equipment, and the data I collect there is potentially very sensitive. Currently I use the PGP family to secure my drives, but my paranoia always demands more. IBM's biometric-ready Thinkpad really piques my interest, but getting one isn't feasible for me because it's too wimpy for the physical stress I'd inflict on it. I'd much prefer a way to biometrically lock a computer I already have. What options are out there?"

ExTex asks: "I am a commercial photographer, and I also run a very small stock photography company. Most of the sales that I make are to existing clients or from referrals. Currently, when I make a sale I upload a ZIP file of the image and create a unique web page for the customer to download. I pull the page shortly after the client has confirmed receipt. This is easy, when I'm in the office, but can be a challenge if I'm out in the field on a shoot. At some point I'd like to be able to have 400 of my best images already pre-zipped and loaded to my web host for quick download. I'm wondering how best to secure the images to prevent unauthorized download but also make it relatively easy for the typical un-savvy client."

slashmicah asks: "Internet partitioning and Tier 1 ISPs are something most people don't know much about (myself included). Today, however, some Slashdot readers might have run into some issues involving these two topics. Cogent Communications and Level 3, both Tier 1 ISPs, are apparently having some 'undisclosed' disagreements, causing an Internet partition by turning-off or deactivating their peering point. Cogent Co. has released a statement explaining their side of the problem, however they have no mention of when the problem will be fixed, or when they will sort it out. This partitioning is a problem because any [single-homed] computers that are connected through Cogent Co, can not connect to [single-homed] computers connected through Level 3. Having spent all day sorting out this problem, I ask Slashdot: Isn't there a better way that the issue of peering can be handled/regulated? If not, does the future hold a scenario in which the Internet is split into several separate networks, only to be connected at the whims of large corporations?"

juanescalante asks: "I graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science about 9 months ago and I have been working as a software developer for more than a year now. I keep looking for ways to improve myself in what I do, and seeking to gain knowledge from those who have a lot more experience than me. I've been reading books like 'Code Complete' and 'The Pragmatic Programmer' and I would also like to subscribe to a couple of great magazines. So, to all you experienced developers, which are the top software development magazines?"

E-bot & Ro-bert asks: "I volunteer for my campus radio station and, as the only techy there, I've been asked to help design their new network. We're on a very fixed budget and we're working with win98 PCs. The network needs to provide the ability to simultaneously stream and transfer large files (uncompressed WAV data) w/o interruptions to the stream. I know their current idea of using a simple hub and connecting all the computers won't work, but I'm drawing a blank on what to suggest. The specifics: Two of 6 Win98 PCs need to have the ability to broadcast audio data from any source on the network. The other 4 of 6 computers must be able to transfer files on the network w/o taking too much bandwidth away from the streams. I'm thinking of QoS, but how should it be implemented? What does the slashdot community look for, and suggest, in making a high-bandwidth network?"

MankyD asks: "I'm almost done loading up a new Gentoo installation paired with MythTV and a hardware MPEG2 encoder. I'm looking forward to finishing but before I let it loose upon my television, I was wondering what else I should compile in. Samba File sharing? A webserver (for watching shows on the road)? A CPU/Memory monitor? An additional media player? Not to start a flamewar, but should I do KDE, Gnome, Enlightenment, or some other window manager (especially when viewed on a TV screen)? What bells and whistles can I add to make my system that much more complete?"

Fear the Clam asks: "My wife and I figure that if we plan for the worst, it'll never happen, so we've been putting together 'If public transportation bites it and we have two minutes to grab our stuff and start walking, never to return to NYC' getaway knapsacks. With luck they'll live in the closet forever. Coincidently, this morning the New York Times has an article about what to take when you have to leave home in a big hurry [DNA verification required], and they suggest making a list of all of things like Social Security and credit card numbers, scanning birth certificates, marriage license and tax returns, and saving it all on a USB flash drive. Since this would be a complete identity kit, encryption is of utmost importance. What's the best solution? A flash drive that claims to encrypt or a platform-independent, self-extracting, encrypted file on a regular drive? Any suggestions for sturdy drives?" Of course, the choice of USB flash drive covers only a part of the problem. What other data would you put on this piece of "contingency hardware", and how would you protect the drive itself in case you did have to "swim for it"?

wbav asks: "Recently there's been a trend to user published content. A couple of examples of this trend include Wikis, Podcasting, Blogs, and the resulting RSS Feeds. Last night I was asked if any other similar technologies exist. As I did not have a good response, that is my question to the slashdot community. Are there any other similar technologies which deal with user publishing that I have not mentioned?"

HumanCarbonUnit asks: "Here's a question for all of you XP SP2 users out there. When connecting to any WEP (64 or 128) encrypted wireless network the laptops connect but an IP address isn't given out and even with a static IP address, the internet is in-accessible. I have a Linksys WAP54G access point and an Airlink 101 Wireless router for connection and two laptops, a new Sony Vaio and an HP L2000 Special Edition. Both laptops are running Windows XP SP 2 fully updated including newest drivers. For a router, I have a Netgear FR114P that issues the IP addresses acts as gateway / DNS for the two wireless access points. When either wireless access point is un-encrypted or uses WPA encryption, the IP is assigned and everything works. So, Slashdot: what's up with Microsoft Windows XP SP2 and Wireless WEP encryption?"

SA_Democrat asks: "As a geek who has recently discovered that he has a voice, I find myself looking for a particular style of software. I've joined a local chorale group, and am often the only bass singer in attendance. This means that I have to puzzle out fairly complicated pieces of music and pick out the melody on a keyboard between rehearsals. As a person who decodes music rather than someone who sight-reads, I find this extraordinarily difficult, especially when managing differing key and time signatures within a given piece. Does anyone have any experience with open-source software that allows the user to enter a piece of music using musical notation, and then plays that piece? I have found an astonishing array of programs that will play MP3, WAV files etc. but have not located anything that uses this more old fashioned method. If possible, the software should understand common notation like time signatures, keys, glissades, and so forth. What does Slashdot recommend?"

lousyd asks: "We all have our CLI amor. That two- or three-letter command that fiddles our heartstrings. 'mv' is pedestrian, but 'mmv' is so cool. 'cp' can lug bits around all day to no applause, but 'cpio' will excite even the most jaded of command line linguists. 'How perfect!' you exclaim. So what's your poison? What turns you on? What little known command performs just the right function for you?"