[andrewas]

Im not a massive fan of security. Its a bugger to set up and in an ideal world it would be totaly unneccesary. But we dont live in an ideal world and if anyone breaks into our system and gets into the database im in some serious trouble. But I reckon a Cisco firewall + NT security + MS Access native encryption should keep most folks well clear. Im also maybe perhaps putting in PGP, which should be fun. Getting folks to use it though will be shear hell.

That said I have played around with some encryption algorithms before now, for fun and because it makes a good uni project. I still have the source of a nice Enigma Emulator that I did for Uni. It wont compile because the uni system I wrote it on wasnt ANSI/POSIX compliant, and at the time I didnt know which features I shoudnt be using. Needs a fairly major rewrite.

For compilers - under windows, djgpp, which is a gcc port. For linux, gcc. For whatever, some port of gcc. I happen to like not having to rewrite X-thousand lines of code when I need to port something to Solaris or something. Although if I had to use something more sophisticated it would have to be Kylix. Its all in the portability.

Interested in that SMP info - I must confess ive never worked inside a multi-processor box before - but I doubt you can get it on a budget tight enough for me.

Oh and on cooling the bugger, a suggestion. Build an oil cooler and have the heat exchanger on some kind of flexible hose (Im not sure of what to use, just make sure it dosent melt below 100 celsius). Hang it out the window in summer (some kind of bracket arrangement perhaps) and bring it in when you need the heating.