Nutria writes "This article got me thinking: What's a poor Unix-using guy to do, when he needs to grep text, compressed tarballs, OO.o documents, Debian archives, mime-encoded files, Evil Microsoft documents, PDF files, compressed AbiWord files, etc." Is there an extensible searching program for Unix that can handle a variety of different file-types? Search engines like ht://Dig can accomplish part of this task, however currently it doesn't index the whole file (just portions of the metadata). If you had to perform a substring search on a set of documents of different types, what tools would you use to accomplish this task?

nial-in-a-box asks: "I just started my software engineering course today at Loyola University Chicago and I found out that I will be learning hands-on about outsourcing. My classmates and I will be outsourcing parts of projects to students at another university, and then those students will be doing the same for us. This seems like it could be rather interesting. Has anyone out there been in a class like this before? Any other ideas on how to effectively teach about the implications of outsourcing (especially pointing out that outsourcing doesn't necessarily mean no jobs upon graduation)?"

Olivier Van Acker asks: "Since I started working at my current job a year ago I've installed on average one (Gentoo) Linux machine a month. Included are developer desktop machines, development servers, router/firewall, web servers, video server, MPEG encoders, etc. (It's a platform for interactive television). Since I'm the only one who is able to maintain them I want to train two of my colleagues. I've got three days dedicated time, three computers to work with and they are both Linux/Open source newbies (A technician and a programmer). What should this crash course include, what is the best learning method and what resources are available online?"

ReallyCurious asks: "Recently, I've noticed a lot of junk email in my inbox reporting 'Mail delivery failure' or 'Undeliverable'. Some of these had documents attached, so I figured this was just a worm variant. But these messages keep coming. I worry that my machine has been turned into a 'Spam Zombie'. I don't see any suspicious processes running, but maybe it only runs for a few seconds, and at irregular times. I run a Windows 98 laptop, sometimes wirelessly connected to broadband (a few hours a day, on average), but I had to remove my virus software years ago because it was locking my system up, so I'm wide open. I've tried to be a good citizen and have been shopping for new virus software, but prices are running $40-$70, and most of these are just for upgrades (not even counting the mandatory 'subscriptions')! Is there an open or free virus fighting solution that's reliable and available for Windows? I'd be happy to run it ASAP."

Harpa wonders: "Having spent more years than I care to count living and working with various Windows machines, I'm about to get my first Apple (an iBook). While eagerly waiting for the machine to be shipped, I'm starting to realize that changes I'm going to have to deal with may involve more than getting used to one less mouse button!I'm wondering if any Slashdot folk can help. What does an old-time Windows user have to learn/unlearn? To what extent can my Apple live happily with my existing PC's, my printer, my network? Everything I've found so far seems to be either geared for people who've never used a computer before or for existing Mac users. Is there any info available that supports us 'converts'?"

PigAlien asks: "I use my wireless network to sit outside in the backyard and surf the internet. I'd like to be able to watch TV outside on my laptop. I see that the new Qosmio laptops come with a WiFi TV router. Is this the only one available (in Japan only)? I couldn't find any others with a google search. Alternatively, I have an extra computer in the office. Is there streaming software I can install on that computer that can handle a live cable TV signal and software to change channels remotely?"

kengreenebaum asks: "Perhaps not the most exciting of topic; however it is storm season and I have a couple of UPS's that need new batteries. What is the best source for high quality, long lived replacement batteries for these devices? I assume it takes a special chemistry to survive continuous trickle charging and an occasional deep cycle. Has anybody tried connecting larger capacity batteries external to the UPS enclosure to attempt longer run times? (Obviously the load capacity is based on the inverter itself and can't easily be modified) Also what software do you use for monitoring and automatic shutdown on Linux? I have collected quite a few APC and Belkin UPS's 700VA or smaller as they go on rebate/sale."

Joshua Johnston asks: "Yesterday, my roommate and I picked up a used (and slightly abused) VA Linux 2231 2U server system at a computer show here in New Hampshire. Given the manufacturer, I had expected that support documentation would be a piece of cake to locate. Unfortunately, I couldn't have been any further away from the truth. Only the Internet Archive copies of the VA Linux/VA Software website had any information whatsoever on the system, with even Google striking out badly on almost any reference material. This comes as a complete surprise, as I had expected much more to be available in regards to a system once touted as a success for the Open Source movement. The current VA Software site has nothing even mentioning the fact they once made some solid server-class hardware, let alone a buried archive of the PDF manuals. What kind of options still remain for reviving some kind of community archive of these files? In the span of three years, are we left with nearly no trace of information on these machines?"

pHatidic writes "My college dorm room is never dark, even with the lights turned off. This is because of LEDs. Between the Airport Express, laser printer, surge protector, and Logitech mouse there is the constant nuissance of light polution. The powerbook has to take the cake though, with a green LED built into the power adapter and a white pulsating LED indicating it's in sleep mode so bright that I can actually detect it even with my eyes closed. Short of actually unplugging all of my devices every day, is there any way to disable all of these LEDs so I can actually get some sleep?"

ATomkins asks: "The school where I work has 128 new G5s which will be set up in a couple of labs. We want to completely re-image all G5s at least every semester. Ideally, we would want to use something like Ghost to push the image out to all the Macs at once; with Dell boxen, under similar circumstances, this takes about 20-30 minutes. Is there a viable alternative for OS X?"

SupaFox asks: "I was reading through the specs of the soon to be released Nvidia GeForce 6600 and on the last line of the features and benefits page it reads: 'Integrated HDTV Encoder Provides world-class HDTV-out functionality up to and including 1920x1080i resolutions.' I don't see this listed explicitly on the features page for the potentially more expensive 6800. Does that mean using a 6600 is a better option for someone building a media center or HTPC or getting a fancy new LCD or Plasma display as a primary or secondary display option for a PC or is the 6800 just as good? Any thoughts?"