masteritrit asks: "I have seen some really outrageous markups from IT companies. Cisco sells memory for a router I have for $1500 bucks and I bought it directly from Kingston for $56 bucks. I also had someone at storagetec accidentally reveal that their standard markup is 700%. What are some examples of this that others have seen and how do you feel about it?"

doggkruse asks: "I recently purchased textbooks for the current semester in college only to end up with an empty wallet and a sore back. I have been looking into digital textbooks so that I will not have to lug around the real ones any more. I have found one site that seems to offer a very limited number of digital books. Does anyone know of a more complete solution. Especially one that works with Mac OS X. As laptops in classes are becoming more prolific, I think it is time to ditch the paper and save my wallet."

leprasmurf asks: "Here I sit with Administrative rights to a public computer at work, and I'm trying to think of how I can have fun with my co-worker's profiles. I'm running low on ideas. I've done the 'copy 50 million folder shortcuts to their desktop' one and if he forgets to lock his terminal one of these times I'm going to do the print screen and hide all his icons one, but what else is there? Surely there are some harmless pranks an administrator can do without resorting to downloading programs for assistance. Any suggestions?"

doggkruse asks: "For a while I have been trying to come up with a way to attach my USB devices, wirelessly. Today I stumbled upon this Bluetooth wireless print link. It appears to simply replicate a usb cable because it works on OS X which lacks support for Bluetooth printing. Is it possible to use this for other devices? Could I simply plug this into a hub and make all USB devices wireless." It's an interesting thought, but that depends entirely on the device. Has anyone tried doing this, with this or another device?

crustythecrab asks: "My company wants to take a web-based data management system I wrote which runs on a closed network not connected to the internet and put it out on the net so everyone can access it remotely. The number one issue of course is security, and I've been asked to write a paper on how to make the system 'secure' in order to convince management that it will be safe to proceed. But the question runs through my mind: How secure is 'secure'? I'm running all UNIX, no Windows of anything on the server side, and I'll certainly recommend a VPN, but since nothing is 100% secure, I was wondering what the current state of the art in 'Intranet' security is. Are there any novel new concepts out there. Or do you just put up a VPN and hope for the best?"

Michael asks: "I'm in the market for one of those portable, pocket audio recorders, to use primarily for dictation and spoken-word recording in the field. Previously, I used microcassette for this purpose but it's time to go digital. My only two prerequisites are that it use SmartMedia cards (as with my digital camera), and write a file format that can be used with Linux. To my surprise, this is turning out to be a difficult request."

Klaus Thorn asks: "As a member of a technical team that plans a radio station with several audio-editing cabins I'm thinking about separating the noisy heat-producing computer from the cabin using one VGA cable and one USB cable. The computer is in the computer storage room. In the cabin there is (besides LCD) an USB hub with keyboard, mouse, soundcard and CDR-drive. Has anyone tried this? I need to know whether this all-USB-solution is clean and stable or a bunch of problems. I need to know what distance I can put between cabin and computer-storage room. Let's assume USB 2.0 and amplifying USB cables and Windows XP."

ConceptDog asks: "Co-Founder and current Director of Red Hat, Bob Young, is going to be conducting a presentation at my school. In addition to his presentation, there will be a question and answer session. Considering that my school is rather small (less than 3000 students at my campus), there is a good chance that I might be able to ask a question of Mr. Young. So I'd really like the Slashdot community's help in coming up with a good question to ask. If I get an answer, I'll post what it is, here."

A not-so anonymous, Anonymous Coward asks: "I work for a college that offers undergraduate computer science classes, and the school would like to add a new lab with about a hundred computers for students to use, for various class projects. After some non-trivial effort, we convinced the school to set up a Unix lab rather than a Windows one. However, we can't decide whether to go for Solaris or Linux. Regardless of the cost of hardware, I couldn't get agreed with my colleagues about the amount of efforts required to manage a hundred of Linux PCs vs. a hundred Sparc boxes. I believe that there are many Slashdot readers are actual managers for labs like this if not in large scales. What are your experiences of managing Linux PCs versus traditional Solaris boxes?"

TwistedSquare asks: "I like to write small games from time to time, and have often wondered about adding sounds. Searching around on the internet, I can find loads of GPL sound libraries but no sound effects/samples that are both royalty-free and free (as in beer). Can anyone suggest how I could find such effects and does anyone else find it odd the contrast between the amount of GPL software and non-GPL-type items in areas such as sound effects?"