As much as I hate to nit pick one specific company, but Amazon Web Services is used by a LOT of people and groups, are they going IPv6? I know their Elastic Load Balancer is, but what about everything else? Is Route 53 v6 glued? v6 accessible?

More importantly what about CloudFront? Try going v6 only now and you'll have a lot of "functional" websites which look like hell because they use Akamai or CloudFront which aren't v6 enabled (Though Akamai has commited)

I have a similar setup (less locations, but the same sort of cluster foxtrot of non-documentation) and I use a wiki. I'm not sure what you're using, but I used MediaWiki. I created a name space for "servers" (actually VM's) and document their function, specs and what hardware (as a link) they are on. Now I can go to any hardware page and click "what links here" and see all the VM's on it. Of course that isn't perfect because there can be other links to the hardware, etc. I'm going to be trying out Semantic Mediawiki next because it'll let me query better (What servers are under X ip address, or Y location).

It's not a perfect system, but it works for me. I like working with MediaWiki and know it fairly well. It also allows me to keep other documentation with it that, yes, sometimes just tossed in there but at least I have search. I've tried some specialized "rack inventory" software but I haven't been terribly enthused by any of them.

"going to force everybody that uses Amazon to go through their server " ??? Once again, congress has no idea how computers work.

#1 - Amazon isn't going to "force" everyone that uses Amazon. Silk is only available on a single device, the Kindle Fire (For now).

#2 - According to Wikipedia [1] and several dozen news stories, you can turn off Silk.

Granted, It is still a privacy concern, but lets at least get the facts remotely close first.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Silk

"must come in at one corner" and " no new wiring" read to me like: You definitely need mesh wifi (really, really good mesh).

I've installed Meraki at a few businesses (nothing huge like a hotel, granted) and the web interface works wonders. They build in features like QOS, traffic shaping and splash pages. Basically _anyone_ who isn't a total technophobe can manage a Meraki install. Their meshing is, so far as I've seen, very strong. I think you'd want to have more than 1 "gateway" device (That which is connected to the internet), but you don't have to unless it's a problem (so you can skip most new wiring, except for power of course).

Outlook Web App, at least as of Exchange 2007, sucked. 2010 is probably better, but IMO Outlook is still the main method of access that Microsoft is concerned with. The other issue with Exchange is typically poor anti-spam/anti-etc, at least built in. If you're willing to run your mail through another anti-spam service first... then you're ok.

Otherwise, it actually isn't a bad option.

You do know that he makes zero money from the foundation? He's on the board of trustees and it's unpaid. I don't think you could cut everyones salaries to zero and still have any staff at all.

Lets be honest. Google has spoiled us with a masterful search. Every other search that isn't google... sucks (Have you tried Thunderbird's search?)

Any forward thinking group worth it's weight will have enough money in reserves so they can run for a decent amount of time without any income. In this case, I believe the amount on hand is about 6 months worth which isn't bad. If the foundation kept too much more than that on hand - the contributors wouldn't be happy because their money wouldn't be going anywhere.

I'm not a hardcore programmer (PHP/Perl... lite stuff), but I thought it would be fun to try out mobile app development. I happened to have an iPhone, mac, etc... so I started there. Even with the books and intro material, I found it very difficult to get into. My C and similar is very rusty, so that was part of the problem. For the heck of it, I tried android and that was MUCH easier to get into. My Java was never great, but better than my C - which again - helped. All in all, I much more enjoyed the experience of working on the Android platform because it tended to have lower barriers to entry (less hardware, less software, etc), be easier (Java _is_ a simpler language) and be fun.

Though get a good book for android. Last I checked, the official docs online from Google were for like 1.0-1.5 and we're on 2.2. In short, horribly out of date (usable in some cases, but out of date).

I'd have to agree with this. The cost to take the ham test is $15, and the basic exam is not rocket science (Do you understand what electricity is? Congrats, you're halfway there). You can get el cheapo chinese knock off raidos (not that I recommend it, but you could) for less than $100 that'll run 5W on a single band. I've got a Yaesu VX-8R also and while it costs $400, it is very rugged (water resistant) and runs on 4 bands. I've used it up in Tahoe (North lake) to hit repeaters in South Lake, 30+ miles away, while in a building. No problem at all. Of course the repeater 1 mile away I can barely hit because I'm in the shadow of the Mountain... but thems the breaks.

If you get the license, get a used radio that'll do 5W on the at least single band (which ever there are repeaters for in your area)... it wont cost you much. You program it, pack it with some long lasting batteries, toss it in your bag, and forget about it. It's there if you need it. Plus, who knows, you might even try taking it out and testing it on a trip when there isn't an emergency. Worse comes to worse you find it doesn't work what so ever, and you re-sell the used radio. Net loss? Maybe $20-30?

KJ6FNQ

Depends on your clients. If you're talking about a mostly technical crowd? No, probably don't need IE6. If you're talking about a site for corporate users, yea, you need IE6. There are many major companies out there still running IE6 on XP. It sucks, they should all switch to Firefox (Or Chrome, or Opera, or anything but IE), but unfortunately most don't have a choice in the matter. Oh and if you're trying to sell people something, then most likely yet again.

Of course it all depends on what your usage stats/analytic say. Personally, I've not supported IE6 for a long time, but then on most of my sites Firefox is more than 50% of the market.

I am writing this post on an Eee PC 1000 that arrived yesterday. It is running Jaunty Netbook Remix. Everything (for me) worked "out of the box" in Jaunty, even web cam and wireless. Just because it is in Alpha doesnt mean it cant be used. The one down side is that it is the i386 build and no LPIA, but I can live with that till it goes live in April.