torok asks: "Recently my optometrist prescribed corrective lenses, which is new for me. Being a programmer and staring at a screen all day doesn't help anyone's eyes, of course, but the default white backgrounds appear to be particularly troublesome. I wonder if others on Slashdot have noticed the same thing, and what they've done to help alleviate the problem. Is a grey or black background with white or grey text easier on the eyes, or worse due to lack of contrast or imperfect foreground colors? What about different lighting conditions and, of course, LCD vs. 100Hz CRT?"

Dethnyte asks: "At my office, we currently use Calendar Creator Pro, it's just not a very good or user-friendly program for multiple people entering data into a calendar. We don't want to use Outlook or anything that requires a server, or at least a server program we have to pay for. Is there anything Open Source that can help us out? We'd use Sunbird, but it still has too many bugs. We need something simple that can keep dates, multiple schedules, and still be readable when printed out."

gik asks: "I'm in the need for a quota-managing, multi-account capable, class-1 WebDAV server (for remote file storage for clients). I've been researching WebDAV for a long long time now, and have only found one all-in-one implementation: Xythos webfile server, which is a very costly (but a very good) solution. I know that some online storage companies use a hacked Apache, but as anyone who's worked with WebDAV knows, doing this with Apache can be hard. So I'm asking: Does anyone out there know of a good WebDAV server with (hopefully) quota management that is as reliable and free as Apache? Oracle's IFS, Novell Netware, and the like are acceptable as possible candidates."

hdurdle asks: "I'm helping a teacher friend with a project to demonstrate some simple TV and Movie special effects to some of his students (14-16 year olds). I've already recreated the lightsaber effect (every geek has done that before, right?) and I've tried the Goauld eyes from Stargate, so now we're looking for more inspiration. What SFX shots would Slashdot readers like to recreate given a few DV cameras, copies of Premiere and Photoshop and lots of time? I intend to write up any HOWTO information, and of course display the footage we shoot!"

dallastgi asks: "Sitting at my desk (a bargain second hand, due to lack of drawers) I looked at the side and realized I could build a nice little cluster, on either side of it. It already has wooden rails for rack mounts, holes in the back (from previous cables for computers) for cooling, and several computers in the cupboard. I just needs a door, power and cooling ducts. What is the best possible way to power 6+ motherboards, with a minimal amount of power-points and heat dissipation? What is the best way to cool those CPU's in minimal space? I'm sure many others on Slashdot have thought about their own clusters, so what are your recommendations on how to go about this?"

ajius asks: "Over the last 3 months, I have developed a solution for a client that, in order to minimize costs, decided to allow me to retain copyright. So that I could resell it. Now I see tons of services offering payroll services for contractors (in fact I use one of them), but I can't find a service that will act as the corporate wrapper for someone selling a product. So is there a service that takes care of the bookkeeping, benefits, and tax payments for those of us selling software/components/games/training videos/books/etc."

zagman asks: "I am doing some research on SpyWare / AdWare, and how to prevent/contain the problem, and am looking for some of those 'Bad Sites' - you know, the ones which take advantage of any of the known exploits and installs a whole bunch of software without your knowledge (or sometime with it). I am testing this on IE6 on an XP-SP1 box (no further patches) and also IE6.02 on a XP-SP2 box. Can anyone out there recommend some 'good' bad-sites for me to go? Benjamin Edelman did some similar work, and posted his results, but I also want to compare Mozilla and FireFox's response as well. Thanks out there!" Update: 11/24 4:05pm EDT by C : In case it hasn't been mentioned already, a considerable amount of infection can be obtained from a single website. Any other infectious goodies out there?

Parenting Pains asks: "I've got two teenagers, whose peer group have 'discovered' the Internet over the course of this year. We've gone from two bright happy lively teenagers at the start of the year, to now having two people who rarely venture outdoors except under duress and are close to unbearable unless they're ensconced online with 'friends' on MSN for hours at a time. Over recent months, this has gone from mildly amusing to out of hand, with them spending up to 10-12 hours a day on weekends online with friends. Many Slashdot readers must have confronted this situation; how have you dealt with it, and what were the outcomes of what you did? Do you just let the kids stay online till they got sick of it, and how long did it take? Do you ban them from using MSN? Do you limit the number of hours they can be online?"

TrippTDF writes "I just took a new job at a small software company as an assistant project manager. While I have a little management experience, none of it is related to software. What advice can you guys give me on not becoming a PHB? What are qualities that you wish your manager(s) had?"

nepheles asks: "I've recently been asked to teach some electronics classes for a group of 12-year-olds. They're all new to it. Electronics always seemed boring in school, so for them, I've been looking at hands-on projects: I've considered making basic motors, steady-hand games, and Morse-code communication systems. What experiments have you seen in electronics that amazed you, and that could be recreated in the classroom? What cool things have you made that would be simple enough for a kid to do? At a meta level, how would you like to have been taught electronics?"