David Frascone asks: "A few months ago, I got a bug up my sphincter and decided to convert all of my MP3 files into Ogg-Vorbis files. I've been pretty happy with the conversion, even though it was supposed to be a bit lossy (I can't hear any difference) . Anyway, now I'm looking for a portable music player that plays Ogg-Vorbis files, and I'm coming up empty. I *really* don't want to have to convert the tunes back to MP3 on the fly to put them onto a portable player. Does anyone know of any ogg players out there?" While Ogg compatibility has been slow to catch on, most of the tools necessary to create a player are already available. However no one has yet taken that final step to update existing MP3 players or to introduce new units with the added functionality and bring them to the market, yet. If someone has info on Ogg-enabled players that may be in the pipe, please let us know.

braek asks: "I have been approached by a few locations (Hotels/Convention centers) in regards to providing high speed Internet to clients. Now, I'm sure this has been done a million and one times with a small x86 box running some flavor of Unix or BSD, however the thing that makes this somewhat of a more difficult chore, is the fact that the hotels and convention centers want absolutely NO reconfiguration to be required on the users laptops. So for example, the router must be able to route packets for people who have DHCP, as well as someone who has a static reserved IP address of 192.168.4.8 and someone who has a static global of 206.10.3.9. Basically the router should be able to route packets for the user regardless of their IP configuration. I Have looked around the web ad-nauseum but have found very little help. I'm thinking some form of transparent bridge or proxy-arp solution may be the key. Has anyone ever been in a situation like this, or have any ideas as to how this could be accomplished?"

George Thomas asks: "Since Centurytel bought out my local teleco, my internet access has been limited to about 14k compared to the 48k I previously enjoyed. I am interested in reader experiences and/or comments about internet access by satelite dish, specifically Dish Networks, because they offer 128k up and 350k down. I live in a rural area and cable is not a viable option. I am currently running Red Hat 7.2 on an old Supermicro LX series dual PII MB. I have USB ports native to the board, but don't have a clue whether they will work with the USB modem supplied with the hardware package. Also I can boot to Windows95 with LiLo, but my copy of Windows doesn't support USB. I can replace the MB if necessary, but would rather not if I can avoid doing that. Any help will be gratefully appreciated." Of course, Dish Network used to be a reseller for Starband. Now, it appears that things have flip-flopped and Starband is now offering 'upgrades' for Dish Network service. So are any of you Slashdot readers current Starband customers? If so, please share your thoughts on the service.

Simon D. Levy asks: "I am consulting in a biology lab that collects data on fruit-fly mating behavior, and we would like to migrate our data collection to a Linux box. Our primary concern is being able to digitize incoming audio signals (at 8kHz sampling rate), but we would also ideally like to be able to monitor the flies' behavior using a digital camera connected directly to the computer. Crucially, we need to be able to isolate the audio component of the signal, as well as having access to an API (C/C++ would be nice) that allowed us to start and stop the recording. Any experience that anyone has had with this sort of problem would be much appreciated. We haven't bought anything yet, and are looking to build this system (CPU, video camera, A/D cards) from the bottom up. Thanks!"

The Plan 9 Bunny asks: "A company I work for is just getting starting to work with GIS and they want me to get it up and running. However, I don't know a damn thing about it. There's a slew of information on the Internet -- of widely varying quality. If the software is from ESRI, what would be a satisfactory starting point when it comes to laying the latticework for learning GIS? A plethora of books have been written about it, but like any subject, some are better than others. Also, I'm interested to hear about GIS horror stories: what to avoid, what NOT to purchase, etc... The ultimate goal is to have the data available on a publicly accessible webserver so clients can access it without needing the $30,000 worth of hardware and software. Can this be done with a UNIX-based solution, or are we yet again stuck in an NT world?" Those interested in GIS may wish to check out the last article we did on the subject. Considering the question, this older article on GIS mapping may also be of interest.

badBillStomper asks: "In the next few days I will be meeting with my Congresswomen to discus the effects of a Sen. Hollings CBDTPA on your average customer/techie. I have read tens (if not hundreds) of comments on the various OSDN sites explaining the very obvious reasons why the CBDTPA would cause a great deal of harm to the technology sector as well as consumers. Unfortunately the only postings/articles I have seen which offer a resolution to online piracy have been limited to ways in which the entertainment industry needs to change its business model. While this may be a valid argument, it does not provide a legislative alternative (something which many on Capitol Hill are scratching for). Therefore my question to the slashdot community is what new legislation would you support which would make those who engage in online piracy easier to track? Most internet users are familiar with the fact that someone with an intermediate amount of network knowledge can tap into data which is sent from one location to another. Vice President Al Gore was the first to link the internet to the idea of the 'information superhighway.' Since Americans are already used to this term, what would the effects of the creation of a kind of 'net traffic cops;' i.e. a law enforcement type of agency which monitors web traffic and fines individuals which break laws, i.e. distribute copyrighted information?"

mtm_king asks: "Has anyone had any experience with Magellan GSC 100 Satellite Communicator? It is a GPS that does email. (Their web site pricing and info is out of date.) The GSC costs $850 unit, $130 for case and antenna, another $50 in sign up fees, then it is $30 a month for the service. My parents live full time in Mexico (outside of Todo Santos, cool place) and just have a cell phone which is expensive and flaky ($1.00 a minute+ from the US) . Trying to communicating with them is really frustrating. I am thinking about buying one of these units for them,but it is getting close to some 'serious money' considering I do not know how well it works. I know I could try to get their PC on the internet through the cell phone but considering that they have to stand by a window or go outside to use it, and the cost of an ISP and more minutes on the cell phone...well, I am looking for cheaper/more reliable alternatives than that." Would the GSC really work better in this case than using the cell phone modem?

Steven Haigh asks: "I'm the president of a community based group on trying to establish a community owned and operated wireless broadband network in Melbourne, Australia. The Australian Government have started an inquiry into wireless broadband. As can be expected, community groups like ours are not even mentioned in these inquiries which seems to be tailored to big businesses and telcos. As submissions are now being accepted, what do we include in our submission?" Looks like someone is trying to follow in the footsteps of the UK, here. Is anyone looking to do similar here in the US? It would be interesting to note how many communities worldwide are interested in implementing broadband wireless services, especially since commercial interest in the "last mile" market have dwindled, recently.

GiorgioG asks: "Am I the only one who sees US vacation policies as outdated compared to Europe? If I have 3-4 weeks of vacation time, why is it that most companies won't allow you to take more than 1 or 2 consecutive weeks of time off - especially if you aren't performing a 'mission-critical' function. I find it quite frustrating, considering I only want to take 1 long vacation a year (to visit family in Europe.)" This depends, of course, on the types of vacation policies found in Europe and those types found here in the US. So what do both sides of the fence have to say about what they have seen on the other side when it comes to vacation time?

irwinr12 asks: "Well, I've spent hours and hours and hours scouring though pages of google search results, trying to find a medical billing software package that will run on Linux. (Or Solaris or even Mac OS X for that matter) I've come out pretty much empty handed. Perhaps I'm just not looking in the right places, or perhaps such software does not exist yet? I ask this, because we are currently using MediSoft on Windows 98. We are very displeased with the service from medisoft, and the instability of Windows(MediSoft is partly to blame too) is costing us alot of money in downtime. We are a fairly small billing office, only billing for 5 doctors at this time, so some of the large 'hospital' billing systems want much more than we can afford for such a small operation. If anyone could send any information my way, i'd appreciate it." We did a similar story on Ask Slashdot over 3 years ago with very little in the way of definitive answers. Has the intervening time made any difference in the answers?

Mainframe asks: "I am a student at a small (550 student) private school in Connecticut. I'm trying to bring theater here to a more professional level on a budget that is for all intents and purposes $0. I'm the sound tech, and at the moment we have a reluctantly two channel system with an amplifier and an 8 channel mixer. No CD player, no effects boxes, although everything is rack-mounted. Is there any software package that would make it simpler for me to run a show off of a computer? I need something that would allow me to play sound effects, mix in ambient sound, and perhaps even act as an effects processor for reverb, delay, etc through sound in/out. Right now I have an iBook running OSX doing effects, but it's hacked together using iTunes and a spectacular piece of software called Playthrough FX. OS is not an issue, since we have a robust IT department, so getting a PC with Windows, Linux, Unix, or a Mac with OS9 or X is not a problem."

noGarnishMe! asks: "I was just reading about a Chicago-based company that has told all its employees earning over $60K/year that they will have to accept a 50% percent paycut for the month of May. This cut might be necessary in these times but keep in mind that the bozos in senior management just finished buying up several failing companies and paying some large bonuses to themselves. The memo announcing the cut is here. This cut, coming in such large chunk and in May, seems like a draconian shot to boost the 2d quarter financials. True, the annual paycut of 3.8% is modest but it ignores that fact that many folks won't be able to pay their May bills with only half their salary. I know that many of us have been through rough times these past 18 months and so I ask, what has been the approach at your company?" There are graceful and non-graceful ways for a company to handle a lack of cash flow. In the scramble for survival, especially in an economic downturn, many companies are caught off-guard and have to show their shareholders that they are doing something to get the company back on the road to profitability (which seems to be the issue, here). In many of these cases, the group most affected by such changes are the employees. It would be interesting to note how many of you have gone through this before and what you had to do to survive the shortfall.

mike asks: "I'm mulling the logic of my company building its own desktop computers. As the IT Manager (plus sysadmin, janitor...) of a struggling-yet-thankfully-still-alive dotcom, money is really tight. We have around sixty ~400MHz desktops which are increasingly showing their age. Acceptable P4 systems from the big guys run at least $1000. By recycling the OS (Win2k), case, cdrom, floppy, and K/V/M, I figure I can assemble a good AMD system for about $600. That's a 40% savings. Is it worth it? The cost difference could very well determine whether this project proceeds or gets put on the back-burner again."

fidget42 asks: "I was wondering what types of experiences people have had with using some of the 'real-time' variants of Linux. I have looked at some of the choices (RTLinux, RTIA, etc.) but would also like to tap the experiences of the Slashdot readers. I am not looking for an embedded solution (while I will be on a single board computer, it will not be for a 'set-top box'), but one that will live happily on a PowerPC running in a VME chassis or something similar. Have you had good luck controlling VME devices from within a real-time Linux system? What problems did you encounter? While I do not need to run hard real-time, I still need tight tolerances on my timing. Our current platform gives us 5ms of jitter per 50ms cycle (very bad) and we would like to get down to 0.5ms, or less, of jitter per 50ms cycle. I also need guaranteed deadlines. One vendor told me that '97% of the time, you should be able to make the deadline' but 97%, and should, is still not good enough. Any and all help would be appreciated."

NZheretic asks: "Microsoft will be including Interix in it's next release of Services For Unix (SFU). How can Microsoft use GPL licensed products, such as GNU GCC, for the express purpose of 'interoperating' with Unix and Linux systems and at the same time deny everybody else the right to use GPL licensed products to interoperate with Microsoft's own products?"

neuroticia asks: "I recently purchased a cellphone and went with voicestream service with the expectation that I would be able to send emails through the cellphone using that service. However, my experience thus far is that only one out of every 5 outgoing emails gets through, and only 2 out of 3 incoming emails gets through. Has anyone found a wireless carrier who has a higher rate of success for delivery of emails sent through their service? Or even better- does anyone know of a wireless provider that *notifies* you when your email will not get through?"

screenbert asks: "My employer has just dropped a bombshell on me. He's offered $50,000 in training over the next year to each person in our group. Yes per person. Normally I wouldn't think twice about it, but he's having legal draw up contracts that will require us to pay for the training if we leave. I'm not really happy with my current employer due to changes company-wide. I've worked for companies in the past that had programs like this, but never with that kind of money, usually 5-10K. Should I take the training and stick it out for the 3 years, or just put it off?" That's a lot of money to drop in training, but given that it's always wise to keep up your skill set, might this be worth it.

MetaHiro asks: "I'm going to be upgrading my system in a couple of weeks. I've been looking around the net for reviews and/or benchmarks for ECC vs. non-ECC in both speed and whether or not it's worth it to shell out the extra bucks for ECC. I'm also wondering whether or not i should buy PC2100 ECC instead of PC 2700 non-ECC ram or wait until PC2700 ECC becomes available."

fallen1 asks: "My company is engaged in making trusses for various home, business, and industrial applications. One thing our truss plant does not have is a signal device to keep everyone on schedule for shift starts, breaks, lunch, and so on. Currently the plant manager is responsible for making sure everyone takes off when they are supposed to. This is, of course, highly inefficient and is causing problems. They approached me, asking to research into time control devices that can signal all the starts and stops (our time clock is integrated into our POS/sales system). Of course, one of my first stops was Slashdot ;-). Please keep in mind I am fairly new to Linux. So, in the interest of trying to keep the cost down, does anyone know of a Linux software/hardware combo that can control a horn or bell - as well as length of ring/tone - for multiple events? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated." A friend of mine once wired his CD remote control to the computer and wrote a simple timer in C: Voila! A simple alarm clock (assuming the remote was pointed in the right direction). A similar principle would also work here. You could tie a computer to the aux-in of an amp, which is in turn tied to LARGE speakers at both ends of the plant, and have it make the right noises at the right time. I'm sure this has been done in a variety of ways, before. If you've done something like this with a computer, particularly at an industrial scale, please share the details.

KinsmanCa asks: "Lately I've been thinking of opening a website - but looking over what web hosts provide, I don't like the idea of having a bandwith limit of so many gigabtyes per month, or having to be mindful of what the provider considers community standards. How can I create a website that's as independent as possible? By which I mean, pay as few bills to as few people as possible, and have to answer to nobody but the law itself as far as my content goes? Assume that I'm willing to pay a lot as far as hardware or initial setup costs go. How much autonomy can a regular person get on the Internet?"