You should check out Hyperic (www.hyperic.com). We designed it with a lot of this in mind.

-javier

My favorite anecdote from Sun is riding up and down the office on top of an e450 (purple & grey monster the size of a dorm room fridge and with 4 convenience caster-enabled wheels on the bottom).

They sure dont make em like they used to...

Although one could argue that GEB would be too much for an 18 year old. Even the first 3 chapters of GEB would be awesome reading for anyone even remotely interested in the subject.