binaryhead asks: "Well, the semester has just ended, and I have graduated from school! :-) I start my full-time job in a month and want to read a good book in the mean time. Having read Snowcrash, Neuromancer, and most of the hacker biographies, I am trying to find a scifi-geek-hacker book that people like. I might try the new Kevin Mitnick book, but I wanted to see what Slashdot preferred. Thanks."

arys asks: "I've been looking around for a good book on the GRE Computer Science subject test but all I found were a book that is out of print and an other that has the worst reviews possible. What I want to ask is those of you that have taken the test, how did you prepare for it?"

ExcerLee asks: "Our team is going to build a MySQL (load-balancing and fail-over) cluster for the Cluster World Expo in the end of June. This cluster is going to have at least 10 nodes, and will use dual-opteron systems from Polywell Computers and SuSE Enterprise Linux for AMD64 from SuSE. While we are working on this hefty cluster, we wonder if this is the biggest MySQL cluster has ever been built. I googled with terms like 'biggest mysql cluster', but didn't find much." If you've run a MySQL cluster before, how large was it and how well did it perform? Krow: I have been told of much larger clusters then this; Slashdot DBs total 6 machines with 18 processors, and LiveJournal has one of the most complicated clusters I have ever seen set up.

MoreDruid asks: "Not long ago, I was asked to do some research for a blind relative from a friend of mine. I tried searching the sites of Red Hat, Debian, and some other distro's, but only SuSe came up with really useful information. I did find Blinux, but I think it's not really mature yet. Do any other Slashdotters have any experience in this field? What is a good distro to start with? This research is geared towards a blind newbie user, so are there any decent resources for vision impaired people so that he can get going with Linux?" This topic was discussed, in a more general sense, some two years ago, and there have since been questions dealing with several pieces of the puzzle. However, is there anything else out there, aside from the developing Blinux, that puts it all together in one nice package?

Rob writes "Ok, so I've finally gotten my TiVo configured to let me extract and archive video, now I'm wondering what is my best solution? I currently have a CDR that I've been able to use to save both VCD and SVCD. Unfortunately I have a very old DVD player that will only play VCD's. So I decided that it's time to look at recording to DVD, but what is the right answer? Has any format won? I just got back from Fry's and I could get either -R/-RW or +R/+RW and there were even drives that did all of the formats. This is all well and good, since I'll have to buy a new DVD player to play any of them, but which format is most widely accepted? Even if I get a drive that will record in any format what do most DVD players accept? Sure I can make sure that my DVD player will play whatever format I produce but what about my parents and friends?"

it0 asks: "I'm writing a web application and since I can't create good graphics, I'll be ripping them from other places on the web. The decent thing to do would be to ask permission, and at least specify where you got the graphic, however I don't see this happening much on other websites. Here's an example: I copied a trashcan icon that seems to be used by everyone and nobody seems to specify its original source. What about wallpapers? I've see a lot of models without references? I've also seen a lot of images that imitate the Windows GUI, and I've yet to notice anyone getting sued! For those interested, here is more information on the subject."

Mattcelt asks: "While we're all discussing the eventual demise of the RIAA and the triumph of the MP3, what should a small independent music publishing company do to sell a new artist to the public? My publishing company recently ran a $4,000 advertising campaign on a local radio station (107.9 the Link in Charlotte, NC). Despite reaching an average audience of more than 10,000 during peak times, we netted *0* sales. That's right, absolutely nothing. I've made the entire album available in MP3 format on the Ephelian Records website to facilitate adoption, and I know some people have downloaded the songs, but I can't figure out why no one has pre-ordered the CD. How does an indie artist make a living when gig prices for unknown artists will barely cover the gas money and CDs won't sell? Are we really wrong about the availability of MP3s affecting music sales?"

pixelgeek asks: "Security has not only become an important topic but also a critical issue for admins and even the average user in their home. To someone new to the topic the wealth of material can be a bit daunting and, you can imagine, a little confusing. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to start getting a handle on the concept of network/computer security and what are the most important and useful applications (CLI primarily) that a person should examine and learn?" We've touched on these issues before, but it was a while ago. Taking a network security class, could help, but which classes are really worth the money and might there be enough information on the web to make such a choice, unnecessary?

Greg asks: "Some will remember the finger protocol which is barely used now. Although this tool was useful in some case, today this tool would be a nice tool for spammers. However, could such be used against spam? Most spammer use bogus email, and most spam-fighters talk about changing SMTP is to implement a certificate system to make sure the sender is valid. While this is great, it'll require a complete re-write of the SMTP protocol, adoption and re-write of all software using SMTP. Wouldn't it be easier to use a 'finger'-like protocol? When receiving a mail we could check if the sender is valid or not. What people think about this?"

uvince asks: "Sure, the air is on all day at work, but when you are at home and it warms up (as the west coast is now) what do you do when a fan just won't cut it? Do you install a swamp cooler, set out a standing air conditioner, or install some air conditioner that fits in the window. How can I keep my apartment, or at least my bedroom cool? Anyone have any creative, green ideas?"

lxs asks: "Let's face it, CDs are a pain. They are a great way to store your data, but when you have hundreds, or even thousands of CDRs and not much physical space, storage becomes a problem. With the advent of DVD+/-Rs DVD-RAM and Blu-ray this problem will not go away, since we all will collect thousends of those in the coming years. Jewel cases take up too much space; CD folders are better, but still wasteful (and expensive); and spindles are great, but you can't find anything. I've toyed with the idea of buying paper CD envelopes, and fill up a couple of old-fashioned 5 1/4" floppy cases with CDs (those were efficient: 200+ floppies in a plastic shoebox!), but there may be a better solution out there. So, Slashdot: how do you store your CDs?"

Stront asks: "No doubt like many on Slashdot, I am an avid reader of popular science, and am constantly on the search for good examples of the genre. Now, The Elegant Universe is probably the best on Superstrings; the excellent Genome received a very favourable review on Slashdot; and probably the most anticipated book on Quantum physics is the soon to be released The New Quantum Universe, the follow up to the highly rated The Quantum Universe. Now of the thousands of Popular Science books available, what does Slashdot recommend for the other innumerable sciences such as of relativity, molecular biology, consciousness, astronomy etc?"

bigattichouse asks: "Having just finished my first batch of home-brew beer, I've been thinking about my attraction to 'lost arts', and collecting books on 'how to do stuff'. Some I try, some I just read: metalsmithing, sewing, baking bread, making soap, knot tying, brewing beer, woodcarving, yogurt and cheese.. there are so many skills 'lost' in the modern 'american' lifestyle... but I find my fellows tend to have books on these subjects lying around, too. Is this common in geekdom? Is this an expression of 'hacking' outside of machinery/engineering?"

dhclab49 asks: "Recently, I wrote a data-driven web application for a customer, and when it came time for them to select a hosting company, what I found was that most hosting companies charge a LOT for disk space. Most of them have accounts for $10-$30 per month, a bit more if you add in a database account. However, they almost all limit you to around 250MB of disk space, with extra space costing like $1/month per additional MB of storage. The app I wrote manages the customer's workflow and is meant to allow them to generate PDF documents and store them online, so I really need a few gigs. In an era where hard disks cost about a buck a gig and are getting cheaper by the day, how can hosting companies charge $1000 per gigabyte per YEAR?! And are there any alternatives out there for hosting a data-driven website at a reliable datacenter with a few GB of space for under $500/mo?"

Adam Kiger asks: "I have written two programs with patents on both. The first program captures the keypress and keyup events per letter of a typed password in milliseconds and returns a numeric value per letter. I am also capturing the keypress of the first letter and the keyup of the next and returning a numeric value in milliseconds. My second program takes these values and runs an analysis of the values after 20 entries of your password to determine what I call a 'keyprint'. 91% of the time you enter the password my values captured matched each letter entry and the time between letters entered. I also can show the results of these tests in 2D graphical representaion. I used my wife as a test subject, gave her my password and she couldn't login to either Windows or my website! I have wrapped these programs around Windows Login and a Website's login control, and it works fine so far. The only problem I have found and not researched are the user using different keyboards. So I've come to ask Slashdot: Is this a viable security function?"

geoff lane asks: "I've used computers for about 30 years and over that time their hardware reliability has improved (but not that much), but their software reliability has remained largely unchanged. Sometimes a company gets it right -- my Psion 3a has never crashed despite being switched on and in use for over five years, but my shiny new Zaurus crashed within a month of purchase (a hard reset losing all data was required to get it running again). Of course, there's no need to mention Microsoft's inability to create a stable system. So, why are modern operating systems still unable to deal with and recover from problems? Is the need for speed preventing the use of reliable software design techniques? Or is modern software just so complex that there is always another unexpected interaction that's not understood and not planned for? Are we using the wrong tools (such as C) which do not provide the facilities necessary to write safe software?" If we were to make computer crashes a thing of the past, what would we have to do, both in our software and in our operating systems, to make this come to pass?

TheMadReaper asks: "I recently had to replace my laptop battery and couldn't decide whether to go for a new battery or a refurbished one. The refurbished ones are sold at a lot of places, but then I ran across this article that claims that refurbished batteries suck. For sure a bunch of you out there have tried refurbished batteries. So tell me, are they a good buy or a scam?"

daemondev asks: "As a software engineer and FreeBSD user, I've had no problem setting up and using the early anti-spam solutions like Spam-Assassin, TMDA and PopFile. I'm reasonably happy with where I am today, but it certainly could still be better! On the other hand, these solutions are not at all appropriate for my mom, who now has a huge spam problem (she really doesn't need all of that Viagra). I'm looking for something that works "out of the box" and doesn't require a lot of in depth knowledge about email and text filters, and which ideally doesn't need to be updated and replaced continuously. She uses Outlook 2000 on Windows ME. Has anyone found a good package that they would trust to stop spam but that's easy enough for their mom to use?"

tedgyz asks: "I have declared war on the pests in my house. I am tired of hearing the scurrying of mice and squirrels in my walls. Worse - I am tired of the nests littered with droppings buried in boxes in the attic. I have used standard traps, and although successful, it seems that new rodents or more than happy to replace the ones I've killed. Are ultrasonic deterrents effective?"

Gabe Anast asks: "The recent article on Microsoft's market dominance referred to an article at the International Herald Tribune, which I read until I became engrossed in the natural readability and intuitive interface of that site. It's amazing! I'll have to say that site has the cleanest design of any I have ever used. So, of course, I thought 'What are the other "best designed" sites? Would Slashdot know? My personal criteria for site design is: graphic design/appeal; an intuitive interface; and content that flows naturally (eg: high content density that does not sacrifice clarity). What are your favorite sites, and by what criteria do you judge such?"