mijoe asks: "I have been using various HDDs in my boxes with the exception of Western Digitals since I had some problems with them in the past. My recent issue was with a pair of Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 120s. I had both drives fail in about a 2 month span. One of them is 14 months old, and is out of warranty. The logic board is bad (I swapped with a good one and recovered my data), but Maxtor was very short with me when I asked where I could buy replacement boards. Since then, I've switched to Seagate drives for the 5 yr warranty and quiet performance. Is there any place I can buy parts? It seems like a huge waste to throw out a 120 gig drive with the mechanical bits in good working order. What can I do when drives break down? Should I just switch to another manufacturer until I suffer a rash of failures again and then move to the next company?"

A frustrated troubleshooter asks: "I've recently been asked to fix a friend's computer, and for once, I'm stumped. There is a piece of malware on his computer that puts up Aurora popup windows. Neither Spybot nor Ad-Aware detect this, so I've had to try to manually clean the system. However, the files re-write themselves, making the malware grow back as fast as you can remove it. The only "solution" is to run an uninstaller written by the people who wrote the Aurora pop-up itself. Has anyone dealt with this particularly painful piece of pop-up programming, and if so, how have you successfully removed it?" What other pieces of Malware have you found that was difficult to remove? Aside from using programs like the afore mentioned Spybot and Ad-Aware (and others of their ilk), what other methods of Malware removal have proven to be the most successful?

emmjayell writes "You've been there, loaded up a new application (think server-based app like Apache or Samba ...), it's working okay for a few days or a few months, then the intermittent problems start. Usually it's the CEO or someone else of relative importance that is the first victim. You can't readily duplicate the problem, so you go to find out where the application put's it's logs - maybe it's in var/log/messages - maybe in it's own directory - sometimes it's right there and available in some administrative GUI. So what makes you happiest when diagnosing the problem? Do you want tools to access it? UI or command line? Do you want it formatted to use tools like cut and sed? Do you have any examples of an app that does a great job with system logging and diag logging? Background: My team is working on an application that is gearing up for a first release. We have a logging framework in place already (we are using Apache: logging.apache.org/) -- so that covers how we are logging, but not what we should log and how it should be laid out for optimal use."

Detritus writes "Many companies have stopped providing hardcopy manuals with their products, electing instead to deliver the manuals in the form of PDF files. This becomes a problem when you have an 800 page reference manual and you need a usable hardcopy that is double-side printed and bound. What is the most cost-effective way of turning a PDF file into a bound document? Cheap ink-jet printers are not designed to do this task at a reasonable speed and cost."

PoochieReds writes "My credit card company has just introduced some pretty foul new rules (shortening grace periods, raising fees, etc.), so I've started shopping around for a new one. I use this card for most of my purchases and pay off my balance at the end of each month. One thing that my old CC company had was the ability to use one-time CC numbers. This was really handy for Internet and over the phone purchases, and I like the safety it provides. The downside was that this co. used a flash-based app for this feature. Does anyone have recommendations of a CC company that can provide one-time CC numbers via a regular browser-based web form?"

thefluxster asks: "The company I work for considers efficiency and automation two of the most important standards to live/work by while employed for them. To further this cause, several individuals have been employed specifically to design and implement various programs, scripts, and (where APIs aren't available) macros designed in Macro Express 3. Using these methods, the group has been able to shave very significant amounts of man hours off various projects. To the Slashdot community I ask: What, if any, applications, processes, etc. have you or your company put in place to increase productivity?"

captnitro asks: "A particular research project I'm developing right now needs to compare 'potential' (idle/none) and 'load' for various hardware capabilities, and quickly -- maybe up to a several times every minute. For disk space, for RAM, it's relatively easy -- find what's used and what's not and report the ratio. For CPU, I have plenty of time to test 'potential' when the app starts. But for testing CPU load, I need a standard 'ruler' that will be able to compare across varying platforms and processors (e.g., x86, PowerPC, embedded, single and multi-proc) -- so for example, idle percentage won't work. At the same time, I don't have the ability to time 'openssl speed' every 25 seconds without bringing the system to a halt. I'm willing to sacrifice precision of the measurement for generalization of the unit -- that is, the operations that this test is for would be primarily mathematical and not say, text sorts -- but I'd prefer a generic, quick test of the current processor load rather than an average of 25 different tests. Regardless of hardware, the OS distribution is mostly *nix-based -- NetBSD, Linux, and even Mac OS X. Wild ideas are perfectly acceptable -- any thoughts?"

out-of-order asks: "I recently became a member of a large software organization which has placed me in the role of preparing the Unit Test effort for a component of software. Problem is that everything that I've read about Unit Testing pertains to 'test-driven' design, writing test cases first, etc. What if the opposite situation is true? This organization was writing code before I walked in the door and now I need to test it. What methodology is there for writing test cases for code that already exists?"

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?"