smoon asks: "I've got a boatload of .CHM files, and have recently run across some .MHT files. The .MHT format appears to be how MS Internet Explorer saves a web site for offline viewing, and appears to be a basic MIME-format with all images inlined as base64 encoded data. I've poked around a bit looking for a utility that will extract the HTML files and associated graphics so that I can view these in Linux, but no luck so far. The .CHM format is billed as a 'compiled' HTML, and boils down to the equivalent of a tarball, in some Microsoft proprietary format, that shows a series of web pages. MS has a .CHM developers kit that allows you to extract all of the data, but the links stop working and it ends up not being very useful. Anyone know of a code that can extract the HTML and associated images from .CHM or .MHT files?"

ikioi asks: "There seem to be plenty of books to help long time Macintosh users acclimate to the new details of Aqua, but does anyone know of a good 'Mac OS X for Unix-Heads' type book? I'd love to have one aimed at unix-admins. Maybe something that talks about netinfo, boot up process/scripts, filesystem details, Apple's GCC extensions, and so forth." For those interested in OSX who may have missed it the first time around, Ask Slashdot has handled a question on books about programming under OS X.

Dolmen asks: "In few days I will live my 10.000th day. My last 'common' birthday was no fun at all, so I'm preparing something special this time. I'm wondering what special uncommon date you, as geeks, did already/plan to celebrate. What did you do for those special dates that most ignore?" Hey, this is kinda cool. Maybe I'll do something special for my 10-Gigasecond day, due to occur sometime in December, 2002. What about the rest of you?

sireenmalik asks: "As part of Network Management Systems development team i am developing an IP traffic optimizer. There are both online optimization(non-deterministic) and offline optimization algorithms (deterministic). The question is if we do Online optimization on the flows in real-time, is Offline Optimization afterwards worth it, at all? Has anyone ever made quantitative measurements? Any studies undertaken? What is the improvement in network utilization? Is it significant? Any comments?"

Dave Bieler asks: "With such a broad range of interests in science and technology, it was not easy for me to decide on a major in college. Currently, I am an Electrical Engineering major at Penn State, however I have considered several other majors: Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Physics. Since science and technology is booming, it may be possible to get into a career in an area other than that traditionally associated with certain majors. ex - a Physics major becoming a Computer Security specialist. I'm curious to hear about any careers that were preceded by non-traditional paths." Speaking as an Electrical Engineer who decided to drop that and go into computers, this question strikes a bit of a chord with me. Has anyone else gone to college intending to prepare for one career, only to fall into another, either by luck or design?

borgquite asks: "At the school that I work for students waste a lot of paper and toner because they print without thinking. I've been looking at printer quota / charging software, but unfortunately I can't seem to find any for Linux, and the Windows based software is all priced far too high. What I need to do is to say that students can print a certain amount per day/week/month/year, and provide a system where they can pay to increase their quota. I've looked for Linux / BSD based solutions, but all I could find is lots of references to a tool called lpquota, but no information on how I can obtain and implement this on my network. Does anyone know of such a system?"

slander writes "I have in my shelves a secondhand, bent-folded-stapled-and-mutilated copy of "Numerical Recipies". Thinking I could do better, I googled a little to find Numerical Recipies in the Universal Library. A very neat nerdy resource indeed. Slashdot's attention was drawn by a re-release of MathWorld in Nov 2001. What other dead-tree classics are hiding out there?"

A not-so Anonymous Coward asks: "I'm the lead developer of SciGraphica, an open source application for scientific graphics that runs under Linux, and is based on Microcal Origin, the commercial application for Windows. When we contacted this company, they let us know that a port for Linux or other operating systems was not in their plans, and that they were not willing to make their proprietary file format available. However, we realized that it is in fact easy to reverse engineer to create a filter that would allow our program to read Origin files. Are we walking into a case of patent infringement, or this is a legitimate solution? If this is problematic, is there a way to allow people to legally have access to the filter?"

shawarma asks: "Due to a recent power outage, I've had to shut down a server running a process that had been running for ages calculating something. The job it was doing would have been done in a few days, I think, but I had to shut it down before the UPS ran out of juice. This got me thinking: Why can't I freeze down the process and thaw it back up at a later time? It ought to be possible to take all the connected memory pages and save them in some way, preserve file handles and pointers, and everything. Maybe net-connections would die, but that's understandable. Has any work been done in this field? If not, shouldn't there be? I'd like to contribute in some way, but I think it's a bit over my head.." Laptops have been doing this in some form for years: most laptops, when they run out of power, or when told by the user will go into "suspend" mode which is similar to what the poster is describing, however outside of laptops, I haven't seen this done. Sleeping processes also do something similar, sending their memory pages into swap so other running processes can use the memory. What, if anything, is preventing someone from taking this a step further?

Adam asks: "I'm an undergraduate math and CS major, and as such, I would like to write some programs that do basic math, from finding perfect numbers to solving basic algebraic equations--just for fun. However, I only have experience with Java, and BigInteger and BigDecimal suck pretty hard as far as writing equations with them is concerned. So, to all you mathematicians and math lovers, what languages do you program mathematics in, and why?"

PalmKiller asks: "I have been using DPT (now Adaptec) SmartRaid controllers for years with great results in Linux, but with the advent of the Adaptec assimilation they became more unreliable in current kernels (in the 2.2 or 2.4 tree)...at least for the DPT SmartRaid V and Adaptec branded equivalents, ie: the kernel panics under stress...you know when you try to use it for anything but an idle uptime box. The crashes have something to do with 5 minute long command queues creating havoc in the kernel. I have a few SmartRaid IV controllers that plug away without issue, but they use a different driver. I suspect the programmers and people who knew how to program the Adaptec/DPT controllers got lost in the buyout, or perhaps driver quality control took a dive. I would greatly appreciate other Slashdot readers opinions on a good replacement that is available in the US."

AnalogBoy asks: "I figure, with the diverse backgrounds offered here on Slashdot, at least 1(,000) of you would have an astronomy background, in some way, shape, or form. I've always had a passing interest in all things space, in particular, i've always been captivated by whats 'out there'. I was wondering if any of youse guys had suggestions on books, programs (Windows or Unix), and especially GOOD telescopes (Sub-$500-range). I've looked through Google, etc - but I want a community opinion! "

darthtuttle asks: "With the recent news of document destruction at Enron and the emails that have been discovered in high profile cases such as MS -vs- DOJ document retention seems to be a hot item right now. What document retention policies do people have at their companies, and what steps do companies take to make sure that documents are destroyed according to the policy when their time is up so they don't come back to haunt the company later? Note: the purpose of a document retention policy is not to keep documents, but to make sure they get destroyed according to policy before someone outside the company decides to use it against you. The big issues seems to be backups and documents stored on peoples desktop/laptops. You don't want those email server backup tapes from 2 years ago to be found, and you don't want to find out that the CFO was saving -every- email they ever got on their laptop."

chipperdog asks: "I know this gets asked every year about this time, but are there any free alternatives for e-filing tax returns? In previous years, HD Vest offered free filing, but has discontinued it this year. I can't justify spending more than $10 for filing a return that I can send through the post office and IRS data entry people for approx $0.50-0.75. It would be nice if the IRS would just publish a standard submission format, so open source developers can work with it.."

HawaiianMayan asks: "Sure, if you're a collector you might have a working computer from the 60s or even the 50s in your basement or garage. But what about from the 20s or 30s? Lately I've been dreaming of a retro-futuristic computer, with all the convenience of a modern desktop (I don't want to deal with punchcards!), but styling from the early part of the 20th century. I'm wondering if any of the hardware hackers out there are working on anything like this. It would need an appropriate case, a manual typewriter keyboard, a black and white screen, preferably enlarged by a nice freznel lens, and lots and lots of nixie tubes, knobs, and blinkenlights. Would it be too much if the numeric keypad was a rotary dial?" Think about the computer props used from such classics like Max Headroom (both the movie and the TV series) and Brazil, and you'd be very close to what the submittor is looking for. I must admit, making a computer in this fashion would certainly be a break from the beige box and monitor!

danmm asks: "Recently, I've been trying to combine clip-art-style illustration with animating code into GUI components within Macromedia Flash (for distribution as an .mxp file via the company's Exchange site). Now, I'd like to start open-sourcing some of these things -- but this is a matter of curiousity: how does one open-source an amalgam of creative (art) content and software code? How's it different from pure code? If anyone is curious, my project is located here"

$hy_guy asks: "I have been totally striking out finding some info on how to do port forwarding in Linux. I am currently running Mandrake 8.1 as my router and i would like to forward a particular port to another machine on my LAN. I'm pretty sure I have to use iptables but I have been very unsuccesful at the proper syntax. I have scoured through Google and I have not really found any useful info. I would appreciate just a link or something to point me the correct direction. Thanks for the help" I know many of you may think this is an FAQ, but it seems that IPTables confuses many people as this is not the first time this question has hit the bin. If someone has a good general reference on the use of IPTables, please share.

Wheeler asks: "I am currently writing a book ('The Directory Services Cookbook', shameless self-plug), which I plan to publish under some form of open license, once it's finished. At this point I am really looking for clues on which license would be appropriate for your classic, not-necessary-digital work of creation. And while we're at it: Can other OS book projects share experience on how to tackle the process of writing in general. I personally think a little Linus T. should be in every project doing editing, checking for style and layout, the works. Any comments?"

schvenk asks: "Firewire (IEEE 1394) has been accepted as a standard for peripherals, from hard drives to CD-RW drives to digital video cameras. It's a 400 Mbps technology. At the same time, many machines are shipping with Gigabit Ethernet, a 1000 Mbps equivalent of an more widely accepted standard. I'm not a hardware guy, but at first glance it would seem more efficient to eliminate Firewire altogether and equip peripherals with Ethernet ports, ultimately moving all wired communication to a unified standard. Am I missing something?"

timmgrant asks: "Inspired by a love of technology I have always wanted to develop embedded software for consumer electronics. I have just finished a computer science degree and have now been looking for work in that industry but it seems that every job in this field requires previous professional experience in embedded programming. For those that have made it into this field (or any other specialised field) what path did you take? What steps do you propose would take me closer to my ultimate goal?"