I know that all of you are looking forward to break and you probably feel like doing nothing would be a welcome change from school. However, if you are anything like me you will have a least a few hours of boredom to contend with over the break. If this is the case then you might as well learn something and it just so happens that I have suggestions.
I have recently watched a few "Google Tech. Talks. (http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=type%3Agoogle+engEDU&so=1)" These talks are given by notable speakers to employees of google on topics that interest them. Google, in turn, posts video of a number of these talks to the web for anyone who wants to see them.
The Videos are in â€Ã...“gviâ€Ã, format, but are actually just DivX & MP3 (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Codec_Pack.htm) so you can play them without the Google Video Player (http://video.google.com/playerdownload.html) (although you may find it hard to stream them without the player. If you are planning to watch them somewhere with I-net access then you can just stream them from the Google Video Page (http://video.google.com).
All the Tech Talks (http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=type%3Agoogle+engEDU&so=1)
Here are some that look interesting (I have not seem all of them yet):
How To Break Web Software - A look at security vulnerabilities in web software (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5159636580663884360)
Urban Sensing, Social Networking, And The Third Thing (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7829327427683569548)
General Purpose, Low Power Supercomputing Using Reconfiguration (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4969729965240981475)
"EFF Confidential!" (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8241129141644158456)
The videos are about 1 hour long each. Or just about one lay-over.