Socket Programming and Data transer 'advice'

[Abah Joseph]

I am planning to develop School Database Management System that will run on
Windows, Linux and Mac. The application will be Server/Client and GUI based.


Modules I intende to use are: Python socket module, wxPython for GUI, Open
GL for image processing , email and so on.

This is my first real python project and I really want to test myself with
this application.

Some planned features is:-
SERVER
Manage Client connections
Handling Student/User registration
Handling backup
will also act as IM server (that will allow users to chat sometime)

CLIENT
Connect to sever
Act as IM client
Retrieve data from server.

I will not be able to list all features.

My Question is:

What is the best database to use? (Flat file, cPickle, MySql, Sqlite,XML
etc)

Security to make sure data is safe

How are binary data transferred from location x to y?, and during the
transferring what should happen if not fully transferred and assume power
goes off. Start all over again or continue?

What is the secret behind transparent file transfer like the one in Yahoo IM
(I can see what i`m transferring to you, u as well).

Audio streaming.

My intension here is to know what to do or read more and not asking you to
write code for me

Just your advice.
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