numLocked writes "Of the few hundred autistic savants in the world, none have been able to explain their incredible mental abilities. Until now, that is. It seems that Daniel Tammet, a mathematical savant who holds the record for the most digits of pi recited from memory, is able to explain exactly how he intuits answers to mathematical problems. Tammet is quite articulate and speaks seven languages, including one he invented. The Guardian is running an article about his amazing abilities."

pmadden asks: "I'll be building a house this summer (standard straw bale construction, earth plaster, the whole low-tech gig). Naturally, I'll be putting gobs of ethernet in the walls, with drops to the rooms, on the roof, and so on. I'll add wireless too, once it's secure enough to keep all of you out. What gadgets should I plan for, so that I don't have to do a major retrofit? I'll have cables for TPZ cameras, for when they get super-cheap. We'll leave niches for putting in routers and stuff like that. What else? What cool thing will be cheap in a couple of years, leading my wife to ask, 'why didn't you plan for that'? Any recommendations for good Christmas light control systems, and so on?"

MarcQuadra asks: "I've been a Linux user since 1998, and I admin Mac OS X machines at work, but I have yet to find a distribution that comes out-of-the-box with modern directory services. Sure, there are guides to kerberize and set up OpenLDAP, but before I can start pushing Linux as an alternative at work I'll need a few things. Are there any distributions out there that can auto-mount SMB shares as home directories without heavy modification? How about a distro that's based on OpenLDAP and can easily be configured with LDAP-enabled SAMBA and Kerberos? Am I missing something, or is this not a priority with the community at-large?"

hattig writes "According to BBC News Microsoft is to replace 14 million XBox power cables due to a fire hazard. XBoxes made before 23rd October 2003 or 13th January 2004 (Europe) require replacement." From the article: "The company said the move was a "preventative step" after reports of fire hazard problems with the cables."

egburr asks: "I just purchased a used retail box of World of Warcraft. After reading the EULA in the manual and the Terms of Use, I expected to be up and playing quickly. I soon ran into a problem. I haven't even installed the software yet, since the first thing I have to do is go online and create a user account and then subscribe to play. Simple enough? I thought so too, until I tried entering the Authentication Key found on the CD case. This produced an error that my key had already been used. Note that it says 'already been used,' not 'currently in use.'" Note that section 3B in the EULA explicitly grants its users the ability to transfer the physical property and "all of your rights and obligations under the License Agreement", presumably including the Authentication Key which is needed when creating a new account. What Blizzard expressly disallows is the transfer of accounts, according to Section 1E of their Terms of Use, which is not at issue here. Apparently, Blizzard is allowing each Authentication Key to be used only once, preventing anyone with a used copy of the game from creating a new account. Is Blizzard violating the terms of their own EULA?

rickbassham asks: "With VoIP really catching on these days, I decided to look into it for keeping deployed soldiers in touch with family and friends. I am currently a soldier in Iraq, and have the ability to get satellite-based internet, thanks to a few of the locals. While individually it is prohibitively expensive, a group of soldiers can come together to purchase a decent-to-high-speed internet connection. One of my plans is to link other soldiers to Vonage or another VoIP provider, so they will be able to keep in touch. Understanding the latency issues with VoIP via satellite (not to mention the other disadvantages), what upload speed does Slashdot recommend as a minimum for a QoS enabled connection for about 15-20 soldiers? The same for a non-QoS connection? What recommendations do you have for a good VoIP provider?"