levendis writes: "This has got to be the strangest piece of hardware I have ever seen. It's a PCI card with 6 embedded processors and a flash rom containing Linux and the SETI@home client. The manufacturer claims it can process 6 SETI work units in 16 hours, completely independent of the host CPU."

cstaples asks: "I came into a bunch of hp C3450A's. They are basically a 486 DX 100 mini computer, built in video, Ethernet, 2 com ports and 2 ps2 ports and 1 ltp. You can also connect a HDD to this thing, it's a nice little package, 2"H X 14"W X 14" deep. I can see a couple of uses for it, Linux router(there is what appears to be an expansion slot on the motherboard for a 2nd NIC), DSS hacking box, Linux firewall, etc....great little toy to play around with, -if- I could find some info on it somewhere on the Web. Even HP seems to deny its existence: product #C3450A, model #4100DX and it was made around 1995. Any ideas?"

xtremex asks: "I just had an online conference with a company called Ensim and they have made an appliance that takes all the servers in your data center and chops them into 'virtual' dedicated servers, so instead of a dedicated server client wasting 50% of his space and server power, it'll take one server and issue a percentage of processor power, memory and disk space, each virtual server having their own root password, etc., and a Web based control panel for both resellers and owners...this thing got me salivating..until the told me the price..$25,000. I almost fell off my chair. It looks REALLY good, but is it worth $25,000? They even offered to come down and install it and I have the unit for 30 days free..Does anyone know about this amazing product? Is it worth the price?"

pdxChris asks: "I'm assembling a new PC for digital audio recording and music production. I'd like this machine to be absolutely silent, with no fan noise at all -- actually, no mechanical noise of any kind outside the hard drive spinning. While browsing at an ecology products vendor I found information on thermoelectric panels: they pump heat from one side to the other when supplied with DC, without making any noise. As this is new to me, I did an AltaVista search for more information on the topic and found a nice overview. I'd like to replace all fans in my new PC with thermoelectric panels, so that the machine could be right in front of me (for swapping audio cables, popping in new blank CD's, etc.) without making any sound at all that could distract from the music or be picked up by my microphone. As for the hard drives, perhaps I could put them into an external SCSI case with an extra-long cord to get them into the closet I'm willing to put up to a few hundred dollars and a few dozen hours into the project if it's feasible to obtain a totally silent PC!"

Jason Prini writes: "Take a look at ZDNET for pics of the new Palm pilots." They talk about the wireless models, as well as the new entry level models to compete more with Visor (which feature 25% smaller screens, but only a $150 price). I find it amusing that they offer changable color face plates (ala those Nokia phones).

Vantage asks: " A recent project of mine has run into a snag. I am looking for something that would alow me to extend the reach of some phone lines out to the parking spaces of a truck stop. www.smartrunk.com almost does this, but the cost is very high. Around $50,000. Does Slashdot know of any better solutions?"

debren writes: "Just as I fork out the cash for a pair of 60GB drives, Maxtor brings out an 80-gigger, which they're claiming is a world record. It's the big story on their main page." Yeah I bought a 40 weeks before they released 60s. Remember when a harddrive was still a big deal?

toph42 asks: "I am impressed by the technology of the IEEE 1394 interface, but I am disappointed at the performance of the hard drives I have seen. I need to find a hard drive that leaves out the IDE bottleneck and attaches to Firewire natively, without an IDE bridge. Does such a thing exist?"

Obiwan Kenobi (you're our only hope!) writes: "This article located at Business Wire tells about how the second generation Panasonic DVD-RW's are going to be supported in Unix and Linux by Tracer Technologies software." 9.4 gigs baby, yeah!

Clinton Work asks: "There are tons of cheap/high quality inkjet printers on the market, but all of them use proprietary Windows printer drivers. The older HP inkjets have Linux drivers but are no longer on the market. Your only option is too choose a more expensive inkjet or a cheap laser printer with postscript support. I have looked at the modern printing software like LPRng and CUPS without any luck. Does anybody have a solution?"

Nearly a year ago, hemos posted the news that the indefatigable NetBSD project had ported NetBSD to the Hitachi Super-H microprocessor which powers the Dreamcast. Now, hubertf writes: "The port of the NetBSD operating system to Sega's Dreamcast game console is reaching a state where it's near to single user mode. Utilizing the NetBSD/evbsh3 port's simple structure and the fact that it supports both big and little endian architectures as well as the general clean design of the NetBSD operating system helped for this port. Device drivers for the game pad, keyboard, etc. are next on the to-do list of Saitoh Masanobu, who works on this port.

El Precioso asks: "I'm working on a university where the campus is distributed throughout the city. Every building is connected through 2Mbps Wavelan. The antennas are connected to an old Lucent equipment (blue boxes) which have a ISA wavelan card. These things work terribly but it's all we can afford now. Recently I've been asked to get Multicast running through these things and I wonder if anyone has done anything similar and how? BTW: There is one central point with a omnidirectional antenna. Thanks."

Pac writes: "The U-Match mouse has an embedded fingerprint scanning device. It is currently available only for Windows 9x/NT, but Biolink says it will have a Unix\Linux version by the end of the year and a Mac version in the beginning of 2001." I've been eyeballing finger scanners since I saw a nifty one that worked through PAM at a tradeshow one time: I still think it'd be very convenient if it worked, but I'm very skeptical that something like this could gain widespread acceptance.

An Anonymous Coward offered this curious query: "A friend of mine lives four houses down from me. Of course, we're both flaming geeks, and have gotten it into our heads to network our computers over this distance. We've tossed around a few ideas, such as a few of the available wireless kits, or stringing up Cat-5 along with the phone lines. The problem is, we haven't found anything that can send a signal far enough, or else the process of connecting our houses together with wire would surely leave us electrocuted, and in jail. Anyone know of something that might work?" Interesting thought. Shaking my Magic 8-ball for an answer, it responds: "Possible, but solution may be expensive."

nd writes "It seems the MP3 CD players (previously thought to be complete vaporware after literally years of delays) are finally starting to hit the market. IGN has posted a review comparing the Mambo-X vs. MPTrip. Both players are discman-like in appearance, and play CDR/CDRW's containing MP3 files."

Josiah Dykstra asks: "I have a dying laptop computer, but a 14.1 inch LCD that still works fine. With the high cost of flat panel LCDs for desktops, is there a way to modify my laptop LCD and use it as the display device on my desktop?" Hmmm....homemade webpads, maybe?

cg asks: "Like many others, I come across a cool hardware project that I feel like getting into from time to time. I can usually find the hardware I need and get things working. My biggest problem is enclosing the final product. I've used everything from cheap RadioShack project enclosures to cardboard boxes. What I want are suggestions on how to build professional quality enclosures for these devices (from remote control size to small PC). I am not worried about it passing FCC standards, but asthetics are important."

xinit asks: "The company I'm working with is moving into a new, large space and we're just in the process of throwing up a couple of walls and such in the new space. We're going to need to wire the place pretty heavily, and I'd prefer to avoid the cabling snarls that I've seen in some places that were setup wrong from the start. We've got approx 8000 sq. ft. split up a little bit with some hollow walls splitting off meeting rooms, some offices, etc. Since we're all pretty much using laptops at the moment as our workstations, what if we were to just go with a wireless solution that would allow us to move our laptops around at a whim..." We've given wireless networks alot of coverage on Slashdot. How do some of solutions rank in terms of practicality?

isaac was the first of many to point out: "Gambit Studios has finally released Liberty, a Gameboy emulator for PalmOS." Here's the FAQ; there are reviews and comments on PalmInfocenter and re-Visor.org. Speed appears to be an issue and everyone keeps suggesting Afterburner. And for the impatient, here's the Liberty download page. Update 3 hours later: Gambit says: "It has come to our attention that Liberty is having some problems with a number of devices (and many devices NOT having problems). Due to this we have decided to stop the download of this application until the problem is fully investigated and a solution is found." Oh well; ref. the first noble truth of the Buddha. Update another 3 hours later: OK, it's available again.

rhyder asks: "I have seen articles on Low Power Computers , and articles on Cool Cases, and a few on Very Small Servers. What I would like to do is use a generic Pentium-Class to Pentium II Motherboard inside a small case with a power supply enough for 1 drive and a single CPU. My intention is to build a box which will run the NetBSD-I386 Firewall Project . Check it out, it is a remarkable free firewall. I already have enough juice polluting the atmosphere, and I would like to keep it to a minimum with this and future projects. Where can I find either slim X86 Clients or cases which meet the above description, and of course, get the best value for the $$$?" We've discussed firewall appliances before, but I think size and power consumption were never really discussed.