telstar asks: "Lately, it seems like an almost weekly occurrence: confidential customer data is exposed online, despite the assurance that security measures were in place to prevent such a problem. ChoicePoint Inc., LexisNexis, and DSW Inc. were all victims of online security breaches. Ameritrade and Bank of America both admitted lost physical data tapes containing confidential client account information. Recently, Carnegie Mellon notified 19,000 students, alumni, faculty and staff that their confidential information may have been compromised. An April 2005 GAO report found that though the IRS is making progress fixing security holes in systems that it operates, they aren't keeping pace with new vulnerabilities, risking exposure of sensitive financial data of the taxpaying population of the country. To top things off, these are only the cases that we're aware of, which begs the question of how many security breaches have gone unnoticed, or unannounced. What about companies like Google? As they expand their service offerings with GMail and Google Search History, where they are increasingly responsible for retaining client data, will they become a bigger target for attackers? This is the problem. What is the solution? Are there any tips for people to help protect their identity and confidential financial information? What firms go above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that their client data is secure?"

An anonymous reader asks: "I am an independent consultant working in Sweden. After working over here for nearly 10 years, I'm considering moving my family back to Canada. I enjoy working through my own company and the freedom it offers. One of the concerns I have is whether it is feasible for me to even try to work as an independent consultant in Canada, since I have no contact network over there to speak of. I'm also considering the idea of working as a regular employee for a consultancy company until I can build up a contact net. The major disadvantage of doing so is the lack of freedom and vacation time. Over here in Sweden, 5 weeks vacation is standard and 6 weeks isn't that uncommon. As we have relatives in Sweden we would like to spend a few weeks here a year, and still have some vacation left over to do something else. How hard is it to negotiate a 5 week vacation at an employer even if 3 weeks are unpaid? Is going through a company, that charges a commission for finding consultants work, a viable option? What cities in Ontario have a large enough customer base to support independent consultants? As much as I like Toronto, I don't want to raise my family there, nor do I want to spend hours commuting to it everyday."

elambrecht asks: "We've got a _lot_ of data we'd like to archive and make sure it is accessible via the web 24/7. We've been using a NetApp for this, but that solution is just waaaay to expensive to scale. We want to move to using a cluster of Linux boxes that redundantly store and serve up the data. What are the best packages out there for this? GFS? MogileFS?"

An anonymous reader asks: "How do governments (esp. US and Australia) deal with possibility of a patent lawsuit from some company against a specific OSS product, which might be deployed by a given government department? Is there any danger for various (government or not for that matter) agencies being told 'not to use this or that software from now on' because some commercial company might be winning the patent battles in court against this particular piece of software? I can see how a small business may take such a risk, but government agencies in the US and Australia could be put off by possibility, since the costs associated with migrating to open source and then back would be rather extreme (note that we are not talking about Europe which has different take on Software Patents and consequently Munich case is not really a strong example in the US/AU context). Personally I do not like software patents and think that they only inhibit software development processes, but how would Slashdot community reason for government-wide adoption of OSS in view of possible trouble with patents?"

An anonymous reader asks: "For university I am looking for a program to make some nice 2D or 3D graphs to represent some data for statistics. I am currently using RedHat Fedora as my Linux distro but KChart, Gnumeric, OpenOffice, and the other ones I found weren't suitable. It would be nice if the "template" was easily configurable so I could standarize all of my work. i.e. have the actual value next to the bar etc.. It's mainly bar graphs that I need. Does anyone have any recommendations for good easy Linux programs to graph general data? professor didn't have any ideas for Linux."

Anonymous Coward asks: "After trying to merge several sets of media files that I've had laying around across several PC's (and looking at the short-comings of my own Perl script), I began looking at some commercial products and was overwhelmed. Does Slashdot have advice for organizing MP3 collections and what software works well for them?"

Saqib Ali asks: "What are the best practices for managing Code Signing Digital IDs for Open Source projects, where the developers are dispersed throughout the globe? For our project there is NO central office, where we can secure the private key for the Code Signing Digital ID. Who should have the possession of the private key? Multiple people, or just the project manager? What Key Escrow (recovery) techniques can be used, in case the private key holder is not available? Who should be allowed to digitally sign the build? Currently one person handles the signing responsibility, but I think that is surely a single point of failure. Any thoughts/ideas?"

looper_man writes "I'm a hardware design engineer, and our tools have been migrating to Linux over the last years. I've been running Red Hat Linux 9.0 on our compute servers for a while now without a problem. The latest release of one of our CAD tools requires Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0, and will *not* run with RH9.0. I'm not very happy with the (yearly!) licensing fees that Red Hat wants for RHEL3.0, so I'm looking for alternatives. I plan on running one real RHEL3.0 server (for any OS/tool issues if I need to verify that the problem is real), and the rest of the machines running a RHEL3.0 clone. I've seen CentOS, TaoLinux, WhiteBox, and a few others. I don't have the time to spare to test these out, so I was looking for recommendations from the Slashdot masses. I need something that's stable, easy to install/maintain, and closely tracks RHEL3.0. Any words of wisdom?"

plisdku asks: "My research advisor wants to create an online, collaborative science education game for middle- to high-school students; we need a 3D engine! A pioneer in internet-assisted laboratories (iLabs), he has developed real experiments that students can operate remotely over the internet. We envision a game where students wander a campus, solving Caltech-style 'stacks,' and learning collaboratively as they perform the great experiments of the history of science in simulated and real laboratories. What we need is a 3D engine and content creation system with which our team of artists and bright student developers can produce a prototype within a year. Requirements: customizable avatars, flexible integration with other technology (iLabs, CompEdu, etc.), and reasonable licensing fees (open source would be great). Our last project used SGI tools -- what are our modern-day options?"

faisaladeem asks: "Are there such mesh routers that can re-route the traffic based on QoS? (I'm not talking about traffic shaping) For example, if data rate of a video stream decreases due to an increase in congestion along the path then the router will re-route the stream dynamically to a different path to ensure the QoS for the video traffic. Since a mesh network has many paths or routes, it can be assumed that a less congestive path can be found if the existing path becomes bandwidth constrained. I heard that MPLS supports this kind of functionality? Secondly, can a router estimate the latency/bandwidth on a specific route ?"

An anonymous reader asks: "Recently I've gotten a (volunteer) job looking after a small (approximately 500 computer) network, located within a large block of student flats. We've been having numerous problems with viruses over a few years. They spread like crazy on our network, with 100megabit connections in every residents room. Every so often they 'go off' and start a flood, which of course takes the entire residence network down. I've tried desperately to educate users on the virus problem, but those that are the problem don't care - they ignore every warning they get and just buy a faster computer to compensate for their systems sluggishness. As we only need two or three ping flooding computers to bring down the network it's hard to keep our network up whenever a worm starts its payload. What solutions have Slashdot readers came up with this and similar problems?"

Meostro asks: "I've run several distributed computing clients in the past, and it felt nice to contribute to these projects that are saving the world. I recently became the admin of my company's branch datacenter, so my access to computing power has gone from 4 assorted boxes up to 20 servers and around 400 desktops. My ambition has grown by equal bounds, so I want to do some distributed processing on at least a few of these. We do food warehousing and distribution, so there's no protein folding, DSP or weather modelling work that would significantly contribute to our business. I've done some simple work with optimizing routes for our trucks, but our business doesn't seem to present many other problems that require lots of processing. What are some good business-specific tasks you have used distributed or grid computing to work through?"

bergeron76 writes "It seems like it's been ages since I heard of any advances in "Virtual Reality" technology. Was Virtual Reality just hype? Are there any new or existing projects that have made any significant inroads (aside from the first-person shooter games)? Is total virtual immersion a worthless persuit / dead industry? If not, what are the bottlenecks that are delaying it?"

demondawn asks: "Countries around the world are researching and adopting high-speed rail systems, but the U.S. seems to be behind the bandwagon. How do Americans feel about the adoption of a high-speed rail system in the U.S.? How do people in nations that have already adopted high-speed rail feel about their services? And how about tourists who have travelled either to or from the U.S. feel about public transportation around the world?"

Volkov137 asks: "As I ponder where to go after high school for a future job in Network Administration, I have a couple of choices. Either go to a University and get a 4-year bachelors degree in Computer Networking and Administration, or go to a 2-year trade school that will be much more focused on what I need to know. Is the University really worth paying for, and will it mean anything more in today's IT world? Also, how important are certifications (Network+, Cisco, Linux+, etc) when entering this job market?"

metalhed77 asks: "I have a ton of bank statements I need to dispose of and am wondering what I should do with them. Googling for solutions I just find banks advising me to tear them up, which seems like more an inconvenience to a thief than a real preventative measure. What do Slashdot readers do with their sensitive documents? With so much data theft occurring in today's society, what else do you all do to protect your personal data?"

Anonym1ty asks: "I am currently looking into MPEG2 DVB FTA (Free-to-air) satellite systems and was wondering what experiences others have had with it. What type of systems are better? Multi-LNB or Rotor? What is the content like on the FTA end? I am not really interested in ways to get premium services for free, I'm looking into it as a pass-time just to see what is out there. With box/dish combos around $300.00 I want to know can I really find neat stuff out there, or is it just foreign language stuff with the occasional random broadcaster? I'm looking into this not from a TV viewer's angle, but more like an upgrade for a scanner/SWL listener's perspective."

An anonymous reader asks: "Paul Murphy at CIO Today reports that a specific Windows buffer overflow vulnerability ' depends on the rigid stack-order execution and limited page protection inherent in the x86 architecture. If Windows ran on Risc, that vulnerability would still exist, but it would be a non-issue because the exploit opportunity would be more theoretical than practical.' And implies that other Windows vulnerabilities are actually facilitated by having an x86 chip." How does the x86 processor compare with other architectures when it comes to processor based vulnerabilities? How well have newer additions, like the Execute Disable Bit, helped in practical situations?

An anonymous reader asks: "I went to my gym (Rocky River, OH branch) yesterday and there was a huge line of people at the counter. When I went to the scanner to swipe my membership card, I noticed they were training people in the use of their new security system that requires the input of your thumb print. There currently a story on boingboing that mentions a tanning salon in Arkansas that is enacting a similar policy. I'm going to call the gym later today and see what type of security they have on their network. I guess we can look forward to a future where these sorts of personal services clubs require the submission of biometric data. I was wondering how the members here at Slashdot feel about the security risks involved in submitting biometric data to small private companies?"

fa1uzure asks: "Recently, there have been many articles on Slashdot about the lack of people enrolling in IT courses in post-secondary, as well as the need for more people in these areas. Being a Computer Science student, this is great news for me, meaning I may be in demand in the future. But CS at WLU is essentially a software-only course, as it is in many other universities around the world. In most of these articles, it generally says that the IT industry is loosing the new graduates, but it does not specify which area of IT is most at risk. As I move into my second year, I would like to know, are hardware people going to be far more in demand than the software people, or would software still be a better choice than a hardware-centred degree? I could easily transfer to a hardware oriented program but would like to know in which direction the future is moving before I make any choices."