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January 7, 2009 - Happy New Year! >>

What's New at Experts Exchange
A Moderator, Geniuses and Kudos

27 Fortune 500 Companies Save with Corporate Accounts
Enlist the same help as America's top corporations

Saving Trees — And Newspapers
Getting out of the finance business

Communication Etiquette for Professionals
stone5150 on the tools we use every day

More News and Notes
The Dreaded Y2K9 Bug

Nata's Corner
Texting, banking and dealing with the phone company

New Certificates
New certificate holders, through January 4

Tips From The Moderators
A picture's worth a thousand words

What's New at Experts Exchange

New Moderator: The Moderator team got an early holiday gift with the arrival of coolleomod as the newest member. Please welcome him.

New Geniuses: In a career that has been studded with milestones, angelIII ended 2008 by picking up his eighth Genius certificate, in PHP and Databases; he is the first member of Experts Exchange to reach that number. Sembee brought the number of members with three Genius certificates to an even dozen, picking up his third in Outlook. LSMConsulting has earned his second Genius certificate, in Access Coding/Macros.

Milestones: hielo became the fifth member of Experts Exchange to go over 2,000,000 points in more than one zone.

Kudos: Strif came looking for a problem with developing a search engine. A few hours later, with some help from angelIII, he had his solution, and said, "I HAVE NOT WORDS TO SAY! When I opened that thread (few hours ago) I didn't think that I will find a solution! Thanks angelIII, thanks EE!!"

a466-ub52 posted a question about redirecting web pages, and got the answer from caterham_www. a466-ub52 was impressed enough that he asked the Moderators for assistance in raising the ranking from 8.2 to 10; "Please HELP. This question should be ranked a 10. The final answer was PERFECT! Please can you change it so that it is a 10?" While there is little the Moderators can do directly, b0lsc0tt gave him a brief explanation for how the rankings work, and the question is now rated 10.0.

andre_st was having difficulty getting his Active Directory system test environment to work with XP clients. tigermatt offered a few suggestions, and was rewarded: "As I mentioned earlier, I am setting this up as testing environment, and somewhere in the process I forgot to change back to the correct DNS address on the xp-client. What had me looking for the wrong solution, was the fact that although I had the wrong IP address all along for the DNS, I could still log in to active directory... I had no problems connecting to shared folders and such on the server. I didn't think that was possible with a client using a faulty address!? Thanks a lot for your advice - If it weren't for you I would still be looking with my head buried down in the sand..."

mikael6 spent about 40 hours trying to set up a VPN before turning to EE, and got a response about half an hour after posting his question from lrmoore. mikael6's comments: "Perfect answer. I was playing around so much trying to get this to work and trying every network configuration possible and I missed resetting the ip address in the crypto map... To all: I just began using this service and I am astounded. I got so many replies to my issue so quickly and they were so good. This issue was driving me nuts and I couldn't find an answer online through my google searches and through the Cisco books. I know this sounds kind of stupid, but the vpn documentation I read didn't explain that you needed to pass traffic to actively establish the vpn. I was just playing with this stuff at home to learn more and am so happy I got this working. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH. THIS MADE MY WEEKEND."

Just A Taste: Below are a couple of tables showing some of the people who are not likely to receive the Expert of the Year awards, which are due in our next issue in a couple of weeks. The table on the left is a list of the Experts with the most points without also having a Genius certificate; the table on the right is a list of the Experts with the most points without having any certificates. Point totals are through January 3.

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27 Fortune 500 Companies Save with Corporate Accounts

Experts Exchange is proud to support 27 Fortune 500 companies with a Corporate Accounts. Equipped with their Corporate Accounts, these companies are primed to reduce their technology costs by arming their IT departments with the help of the smartest Experts from around the world and access to more than 2.4 million solutions.

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Tips From the Moderators

One of the Zone Advisors — Kdo — sent us an image that sums up what it would probably take Netminder a couple of hundred words to say.

Okay, so it's a funny picture (we've actually seen worse examples of contractors following engineering drawings, but that's another story), but it does point out how critical it is that both the Asker of a question and the Experts trying to help him communicate. Failing to do so usually winds up in our being asked to moderate a question — which we don't mind, but it's still usually avoidable — or worse, an all out flame war, complete with salty language, vague threats, and lots of ill will.

For Askers, you need to be as clear as you can about the problem — but don't assume your analysis of the symptoms has you pointed in the correct direction as far as a solution is concerned. When the Experts offer suggestions, reply to them, and when you have an answer that works, close the question by selecting the comments that best helped you and award the points.

For Experts, make sure you understand the question before launching into a solution that doesn't pertain to the problem. If you need more information, ask for it; and don't leave the Asker hanging in the lurch.

27 Fortune 500 Companies Save with Corporate Accounts

Experts Exchange is proud to support 27 Fortune 500 companies with a Corporate Accounts. Equipped with their Corporate Accounts, these companies are primed to reduce their technology costs by arming their IT departments with the help of the smartest Experts from around the world and access to more than 2.4 million solutions.

Take a look at the top American companies that have already recognized the value of a Corporate Account:

1. IBM
2. Goldman Sachs Group
3. CVS Caremark
4. Microsoft
5. Lockheed Martin
6. Walt Disney
7. Honeywell
8. American Express
9. Northrop Grumman
10. Comcast
11. General Dynamics
12. Liberty Mutual
13. Deere & Company
14. Raytheon

15. Constellation Energy
16. L-3 Communications
17. ONEOK
18. EMC
19. BJ's Wholesale Club
20. Qualcomm
21. eBay
22. Goodrich
23. Newell Rubbermaid
24. XTO Energy
25. BorgWarner
26. DaVita
27. Graybar Electric

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Saving Trees — And Newspapers

An editor by trade, a writer by avocation and an Expert by happenstance, ericpete puts together the newsletter for Experts Exchange.

About fifteen years ago, give or take a few months, a very pleasant couple walked into our office and wanted to buy some advertising from us for their new venture. Given the rural location in which we operated our newspapers and our curiosity about new businesses that weren't second-hand stores, hairdressers or tourist attractions, the idea of getting something called an "Internet service provider" — we were told that the word "Internet" should be capitalized — was intriguing and even potentially useful.

So we cut a deal; like all good small newspapers, we swapped advertising for access, email and a domain. That's where the boss threw up his hands. "Why would anyone pay $10 a month, plus go out and buy a computer," he said, "when he can buy the paper for 25¢ and read it whenever he wants?" Simple, we said: First, people want to read other newspapers from other parts of the world, and second, we can sell people advertising on our website. Just think — someone who owns a second home up the hill can order his supplies from the hardware store on line and have them waiting for him when he arrives.

Okay, so we'll admit to having a fairly naive view of the world that would arrive a lot more quickly than we anticipated. But we did recognize something about the news business that is only now beginning to be seen by the big guys: that the business model that had worked so well for a century or two was not going to last more than a couple of decades — except maybe for little guys like us.

There are really only a couple of reasons why we've seen the following in just the last couple of years:

• The New York Times wants to borrow money against its building in Manhattan. It would also like to unload several other assets, including its share of the Boston Red Sox.
• The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones was sold by the family that had managed it since 1902 to News Corp.
• Knight-Ridder, parent company of the San Jose Mercury, was sold to McClatchy.
• Strapped with debt, McClatchy sold the Merc and both newspapers in Philadelphia among others. Additionally, the Miami Herald — also part of the Knight-Ridder acquisition — is on the block, and McClatchy's stock has sells for less than a Sunday paper.
• The Chicago Tribune has filed for bankruptcy protection and is selling its assets. The Tribune Co. also owns but is trying to sell the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and the Chicago Cubs.

The first reason is that the newspapers aren't being run by news people; they're being run by hedge fund managers, real estate magnates, and a host of others whose [legitimate] interest is in seeing the bottom line increase. Unfortunately, newspapers — in no small part because newspaper people don't get it when it comes to the Internet — are seeing advertising and circulation revenues decrease and expenses (paper, people, printing and — in our case — postage) increase. Lower profits mean lower dividends and generally speaking, lower stock prices, none of which sets well with stockholders. It doesn't help that the people who have been buying newspapers have been borrowing against the newspapers to buy them.

But more to the point, newspapers have had a hard time figuring out this whole Internet thing. They're damned if they do, and damned if they don't. Nobody wanted to read the Times on line when it charged for the privilege; you can read much of the same news on any number of other sites for free. On the other hand, giving the news away for free — making the site publicly accessible to anyone — meant the Times was cutting of a revenue stream while at the same time increasing its costs; after all, someone has to make sure the web servers are running.

Reliable sources of information, in this day and age, are few and far between compared to the number of sites that publish rumor, allegation and hysterical opinion as if it is verified fact. So what do those sites have that the newspaper sites don't? For one thing, they're committed (and whether they're accurate or not isn't a significant part of the equation) to getting their perspective out there. Second, they are responsive to their readers; they pay attention to the issues that matter to their constituencies, and they cover their own turf. Third, the bottom line isn't the primary motivation.

There are indications that some parts of the industry are beginning to get it. The two Detroit papers have announced that they are scaling back their print editions in favor of their websites, a move that follows on the heels of a similar announcement from the Christian Science Monitor a few weeks ago.

In both cases, the idea is to save money; the question now is "Can they actually make money?"

Communication Etiquette for Professionals

stone5150, when he isn't being the IT guy for a non-profit agency in Kansas, can be found variously making candy, jerky and other foodstuffs, avoiding extreme weather, and acting as a Zone Advisor at Experts Exchange.

There have been many articles in various publications that have covered etiquette, but I have yet to see one that went over the basic rules and expectations where it concern professional communication. I hope to demystify the basic rules and hopefully provide you something to give to the worst offenders you know in your office or workplace.

The major drawback to communication that doesn't occur face to face is that you have no reference to the person's facial expression or body language and in the case of electronic means you miss out on tone of voice and inflection as well. A significant portion of the intent and mood of a communication is conveyed using these; often more of the message is in the non-verbal portion than the actual verbiage. This is why it is important to as clear as possible, especially when using a text only form of communication. Patience also seems to have gone by the wayside in this era of immediate communication; however, instant gratification via instant communication isn't a given, nor should one expect it.

This isn't meant to be personal. Everyone makes a few mistakes now and then, but being aware of them is the first step in improving your professional communication skills. Below are a few basic rules of etiquette that have up to this point been so unspoken that surprisingly few people seem to know them.

Communication is good thing, and communicating courteously and professionally is a great thing. Your peers, customers and boss will appreciate it and you will be more effective in doing what you need to so you can have more time doing what you want to.

More News and Notes

The Dreaded Y2K9 Bug (also known as the Z2K bug because some people think it's cuter): No, it wasn't computers crashing and causing worldwide disruptions in commerce, but it did cause one of the world's largest companies to end 2008 with the prospect of hiring a whole bunch of customer service reps (good thing, too — the economy can use a boost). The 30gb version of the Microsoft Zune stopped working at midnight Redmond time on December 30, the result of someone forgetting that the world added a second to 2008 (in addition to the day added for Leap Year back in February) so the world's clocks don't get out of synch with the sun. One has visions of a legislator somewhere writing a law prohibiting the earth from getting ahead of everyone.

Auto shop classes canceled: Given the attention [finally] being paid to the use of electricity as a source of power for automobiles, it seems reasonable that eventually, your teenager will be trading in his socket wrenches.

In Memoriam: Jack Kuehler, who as IBM's chief technologist guided the company during its heyday in the personal computer market, died December 20 at the age of 76; and the last major US distributor of VHS tapes has shipped his last truckload.

Long day's journey into night: Okay, so we're not going to go so far as to predict the end of days or anything like that. Microsoft still has a ton of market share, gobs of money, and tens of thousands of very bright people. But its revenues from the search advertising business are, to put it politely, a distant third behind Google and Yahoo: not good. Then there's the trend in operating system use: also not good. Finally, there's the browser war, which is slowly turning into Redmond's version of Vietnam: very not good. Couple all that with the news that someone has managed to get Android running on an ASUS netbook, and we can envision an increased need for grief counseling in the Pacific northwest.

Just for fun: Infoworld's 11 stupidest moments for tech in 2008, and a great story about the PS3 circa 2004, and Facebook on feeding babies. Then there's one about Thailand blocking websites that are largely insulting to the king, which is only slightly sillier than what Australia and Great Britain are thinking. Feel free to send us nominations for ones they've skipped.

It's kinda like the drug business — but bigger: Most economists will tell you that when you make something illegal, you might decrease the supply for something, but you're likely to make the demand for it go up — and there's always going to be someone willing to take a risk in supplying it. So it should come as little surprise to anyone that the most popular printers in Iran — where US companies are prohibited by the US government from doing business — are made by Hewlett-Packard.

Maybe they'll find the MWDs: The National Archives is preparing to receive about 100 terabytes of electronic information from the Bush Administration when it leaves office in a couple of weeks. By our calculations, a good 85 per cent of it will be email caught by spam filters.

Sign of the Apocalypse ... or maybe it's just a New Year's resolution: The Chinese government has arrested software pirates.

Nata's Corner

I love living in California — most of the time, anyway. The weather's usually not too hot, and not too cold, and the seafood you get here is a lot better than it is in the Midwest. Yes, there is this pesky budget crisis, and I still laugh every time I hear the Governor pronounce the name of the state, but all in all, it's pretty nice. But sometimes I do wonder. For instance, I can't understand, given the number of people here, and the number of cars everyone owns, why it was the seventh state to outlaw texting while driving. Why wasn't it the first?

For a long time, all of us have come to depend on that little lock that shows up when we're looking at a secure website. But a lot of people who are getting on line for the first time need to learn about these things, so AARP recently came up with a good FAQ on online banking. Good thing, too, because last week, an international team of researchers published a paper describing how to forge the certificate of authority that are at the heart of website security. It's time for everyone to become a little less trusting. Again.

Finally, I got an email from a good friend — younghv -- about getting scammed by those fly-by-night telephone companies. I'm reprinting it here because he says it about as well as it can be said:

New Certificates