Experts Exchange Newsletter

New Geniuses: war1 has set a new standard, as he is the first member of Experts Exchange to earn his seventh Genius certificate, this one in Internet Explorer. Also earning Genius certificates in the last two weeks were boag2000, who picked his up in MS Access, and donjohnston, who has earned 1,000,000 points in Routers.

Since 1996, the Experts have solved more than 2.1 million problems. The resulting 2.1 million solutions represent countless hours saved and business bailed out of sticky situations time and time again. Throughout this newsletter you can find success stories and tales of member appreciation. These stories show Experts Exchange at its best and hint at what a Corporate Account can do for your business.

Experts Exchange Corporate Accounts are annual licenses for multiple users within an organization. Each licensee receives unrestricted access to Experts Exchange, including our knowledgebase of more than 2 million solutions and the ability to collaborate with the Experts responsible for success stories in this week's newsletter. Corporate Accounts start at $449 for a 5 license workgroup.

The following new corporate clients are now enjoying the same support that produced these success stories:

A good number of people have been saying a number of very nice things lately, so we're passing along a sampling.

BrianMc1958 made a good number of Experts happy with his offer of a beer. The post itself is a bit on the long side, but in brief:

I just left the tiny company I've been working for on and off since 1989. Five years ago we tried a do-or-die switch from COBOL to Java, with me, an ignorant COBOL guy, as the lead. The owners, Charlie, Janet and Dave, now have enough to retire on if they're careful not to be extravagant. I didn't get any of the profits, but now I have a viable career, and my wife Sheila and I should be OK. We all worked hard to make this happen. But without you folks at Experts Exchange, we never had a chance.

I really want to thank you.

And then I want to buy you beer.

When I didn't know things, I used to try to look them up in=1Cmanuals. On shelves. Like a lot of people, over time I learned about Google. Then I learned about Experts Exchange.

What really blew me away was the first time I actually asked a question myself. It was another one of those desperate situations with no where else to turn. If I didn't find an answer real soon, we were toast. The guy who answered -- you can't make this stuff up -- was called GrimToaster. I couldn't understand why he would take the time to write some perfect technical answer for someone he had never met. I still can't.

This is probably a familiar story to readers of Experts Exchange, but the answers kept coming. I was literally all on my own, knowing nothing about Java, OO, database intricacies. It's a long and twisted road and at every turn, you solve it or you die. Over and over and over again, when there was no real possibility of figuring it out, you folks came through. There were literally hundreds (literally!) of this-is-how-to-do-it answers. Each one moved us from stuck to unstuck. Usually they meant we had a new chance to meet some deadline.

But there were also little manuals written just for me. This absolutely blows me away. I wanted to link to some of the older ones, but they're not stored anymore. But I would write a good, clear, complex question, and I would sometimes get back literally a whole page of absolutely cogent, absolutely pertinent response. And it wouldn't be just some intellectual understanding. It would have the stink of experience about it.

It goes from there, and will go down as one of the great stories at Experts Exchange. You really do need to read it for yourself.

Our old friend and correspondent SidFishes came up with a solution to a ColdFusion question for StellaBob, and in addition to the points was reworded with this: "YOU'RE AWESOME!!! We knew it couldn't be as difficult as all the other answers we found (which didn't work.) This solution just paid for our membership + !!! We're just sorry we didn't join sooner. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!"

Finally, jkr was on the receiving end of a compliment from mythran in a question regarding WlxDialogBox: " Man that was fast, you totally pinpointed my problem in seconds. I'm glad I subscribed to this site. Thanks!"

zorvek is another one of the great Experts EE has in the Excel zone, and is also a Microsoft MVP. He was asked how one becomes an MVP, and this is his reply.

That's a question I have asked often because I sometimes wonder how I became one and can remain in the program.

The answer I got from one of the MVP leads is that the prospective candidate has to have a strong presence in the community and a demonstrated set of skills with the technology of interest. The classic set of measurements are: books, articles, instructional courses, presentations, and forum participation. I got the distinct impression that they also look at how involved the candidate is in the various Microsoft sponsored events to which MVPs are invited (we were scanned at every event including the social events). The key element in all of this is a strong desire to be involved in the community of users and developers who use the technology in which you choose to specialize.

In my case I have no books, articles, instructional courses, or presentations. All I have is my work in Excel for various companies and my posts on Experts Exchange. When I asked about how someone like me (forum participation only) was evaluated, the criteria involved three basic elements: quantity (the average MVP posts about 10 times a day), quality (how effective we are communicating our ideas and solutions to the people in need), and cooperativeness (how well do we get along with users and other experts).

Part of understanding what Microsoft looks for in an MVP is to understand why they have the program in the first place. The primary object is to establish a first level group of users who will evangelize the various Microsoft products to the general user community, and to evangelize the user community's needs back to Microsoft. Every discussion we had with Microsoft representatives had two themes: 1) to show us what they have done recently and are planning to do, and 2) to solicit feedback from us on their direction. To play this role effectively the MVP must be well-connected to the user community and be willing to put out the time and effort required to maintain that connection as well as establish and maintain connections with Microsoft representatives.

Participating in the MVP event (or any Microsoft sponsored event for that matter) gives one a different perspective of the company. The people we met were genuine and real -- just like any of us. They have a real sense of humor and readily let their hair down when given the chance. We were quite amused when Steve Ballmer made fun of the fact that few of the MVPs used Live Search and even fewer (about three out of a few thousand) used Yahoo Search. Bill Gates drives a regular car (by himself) and gives obscene amounts of money back to the community. Sure they have piles of cash and swallow up companies like we eat M&Ms, but how else would you expect a company with cash flow to operate? I agree that they are certainly an easy and fun target though.

Now, what would be of concern is how MVPs are actually awarded. In the recent past one of the MVPs made it public that he felt that the process had become more a process of who knew who and less about skills, demeanor, and presence in the community. That may be the case in the initial part of the process when nominations are sought, but I have asked the people who do the actual vetting and the nomination is nowhere close to a guarantee the nominee will be accepted.

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

Nature, someone once said, always sides with the hidden flaw, so we're not really all that frustrated that our three scenarios, listed in our last issue, for what would happen next in the ongoing drama that is Yahoo's continued existence as an independent company all turned into so much wasted bytes. We spent several decades in the weekly newspaper business, and we've found that things like this happen all the time.

In case you weren't watching, Yahoo managed to outface Microsoft's not very friendly bid to acquire the search company. Microsoft offered a lot more than Yahoo was worth ($31 a share when Yahoo was selling for just under $20), but Yahoo decided that it's worth more -- like 25 per cent more -- so they told Microsoft to go away. For some reason, Microsoft did.

That didn't set very well with a few of Yahoo's bigger stockholders, who saw a tidy drop in the value of their assets; during the two weeks that Microsoft and Yahoo were "negotiating" -- if one doesn't mind stretching the definition a bit -- Yahoo's value went from the $19.xx a share up to about $30, which was great if you sold when it was at that price. If you didn't, you saw the price nosedive to $23 on the first day of trading after Microsoft pulled its offer off the table, and now sits at just under $28.

It isn't that Yahoo isn't trying. First, it signed up with Google [?] to have it provide the paid advertising for Yahoo; that was probably the step that caused Microsoft to back off, when it gets down to it. (Of course, the whole deal could easily fall apart of the new systems Yahoo has implemented continue to show Google as malware, but that's another story.) Second, last week Yahoo cut a deal with WPP to help sell some of Yahoo's ad inventory. Both will help Yahoo's balance sheet, but it might not be enough to satisfy some shareholders, who filed a lawsuit against the board over the declining of the Microsoft bid.

It definitely didn't satisfy one of those stockholders -- Carl Icahn, who has made a lot of money by being an annoyance to boards of directors of Motorola, Time-Warner and BEA Systems among others -- so he has started a proxy fight, the step Microsoft decided to not take. Yahoo should take note; when Icahn, over a three-week period in September 2007, went from owning 8.5 per cent of BEA to owning 13.4 per cent, he started pushing BEA to sell itself; Oracle bought BEA in January 2008. The first step: a new board of directors.

BooMod is a Moderator at Experts Exchange. He spends much of his time behind the scenes, but we all know he's always around somewhere. He forwarded the following:

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it.

This is the kind of information people don't mind receiving, so pass it on to your family and friends.

It isn't terribly surprising that people who have a passion for a subject like a specific programming language also have some strong opinions on how things "should be done" when it comes to that subject. Also not surprising that there are other passionate people within the same subject who also have strong opinions on how things ?should be done? and in some cases, these strong opinions may be in direct opposition with one another.

We see this a lot, and from time to time, this kind of situation result in actions that concern us and often can escalate into a serious problem. If you find that you are one of these people who are passionate about what you do and how you do it, please keep the following ideas in mind when providing solutions involving members with differing opinions:

Charter lands surprise role as big brother: Charter Communications says it is going to monitor its customers' internet use with the specific purpose of sending them targeted advertising. A couple of US Senators aren't so sure it's one of Charter's better ideas. Prediction: Lawsuits.

Can you IM me now? A few people in Congress want to auction off an unused band of radio frequencies, but with a condition: that the winner provide free internet access that reaches 95 per cent of the US population. In a delightful bit of serendipity, Sprint/Verizon is reviving its WiMax venture. Prediction: Lawsuits and campaign contributions from the telcos and cable companies. Yes, we're that cynical about them.

Freedom of the press belongs to the guy who owns the press: Jim Brady, the online editor of the Washington Post, is taking aim at what he calls "toilet stall" commentary on the site. He has suggested that the site hold people responsible -- at least to the extent of banning people who abuse others. Prediction: No lawsuit, but lots of hand-wringing.

And the award goes to... The Webbies for 2008 are out. Our personal favorite: http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/. We can't put the text of the May 16 entry, and it contains some language that we can't use here... but it's awfully funny. So is Steven Colbert, who received a special award. Prediction: Someone should file a lawsuit.

It's beginning to look more like a scrunched up ball of string: First there was a web; we all had our home pages that gave us quick and easy access to all the sites we thought were interesting. Then we got search engines, so we could just look for the things we're interested in, and let them do all the work. Then came sites that let people with common interests communicate with each other. Then there came the sites that let people who weren't interested in anything other than communicating with other people. Somewhere along the line, there came sites that let you link your site to others just by posting a link to something you found interesting. Now you can mash it all together, so that you and everyone else can all look at the same lists of links to other things nobody has actually read. How very cool. Prediction: Guys in suits will fall all over themselves trying to spend a lot of money to get a piece of the action.

Maybe they should have asked the VA: This should be a sign of the apocalypse, but it's way too serious. The state department was reported to have lost and then found hundreds of laptops -- including many that are used by anti-terrorism specialists.

So THAT'S what they look like: We've talked about the nice letters the federal government can send out to internet service providers, telephone companies, financial institutions and the like demanding logs that include the note that it is against the law to mention that you have received the letter. They're called "national security letters", and they let the government collect information about you without telling you. Brewster Kahle, who founded the Internet Archive, got one, but challenged it.

Sign of the Apocalypse: Steve Ballmer is now making the key decisions at Microsoft. How long will it be before we see a chair that boots itself across a room?

There's good news and bad news on the spam front. The good news is that MySpace won a $234 million judgment against Sanford Wallace, AKA the Spam King. The bad news: first, Wallace was nowhere to be found, and second, it's not likely MySpace will ever be able to collect anyway. I know Rupert Murdoch has a lot of money, but if it was me, I'd find a way to get my pound of flesh somehow.

The Experts Exchange newsletter had an item a while back about how the harassment suffered by a young teenager on MySpace drove her to commit suicide. Now, while the law enforcement officers in Missouri determined that they couldn't do anything, a federal grand jury has indicted the woman whose comments led directly to the 13-year-old's death. They're saying that Lori Drew violated the MySpace terms and conditions when she posted using an account created by someone else. That means, the prosecutors say, that she violated federal law regarding the legal use of a network.

My other half has spent a lot of time working on his laptop lately, which means he has been taking files with him on a little flash drive, and since he works for himself, that makes a lot of sense. But at one time, he worked for a company that does a lot of security-related stuff, which is why an article on disabling flash drives seems like prudent reading for IT staffs.

Finally, my little image aside, I have a whole bunch of old vinyl records -- some real classics. I know they're on CD, but why should I buy them again, and besides, I like them -- for one thing, you can actually see the detail on the cover. Anyway, I've always wanted to burn them to CDs, but until I saw an article about it, I never knew how. It's actually pretty easy: