Ultrus,
Good to hear from you.
I read a bunch more from the book last night. You are right, this is a FANTASTIC book! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]
With your grasp of networking software, at least that part of the book should be easier.
As I should have realized, this book appears to be mostly a networking introduction, with experiments drawn from hardware and software. The cutsey illustrations draws you into thinking this is an "easy" book, but it isn't.
I don't have the funds to do every experiment, so I will have to pick and choose which to do. At this point, the ethernet experiments seem most interesting, but that may change. I have a little better grasp of the need for web hosting, but your idea of using home Linux servers is a cheap alternative. Since I am already running Ubuntu, I may try this also, but in the long run, I want the connectivity that a hosted site would give me.
On another point, I think it is clear that Processing is a huge topic, and requires a lot more attention than the length of this book affords. Maybe there is a related book on Processing?
One thing I want to do is assemble a bill of goods showing the parts and costs for each of the exercises, the total cost of which I am sure would surprise many. This should not be a deterrent to buying the book, just a dose of reality. :o
Let's talk more later.
Steve.