AUGUST 3, 2011

FEATURED CONTENT

What's New at Experts Exchange
From the Central Coast and beyond

Kudos
Some outstanding efforts to help

Nata's Corner
The sticks in the age of broadband

Microsoft's MVPs
436 of MS's best are also EE's

In Brief
Thinks you might have missed

Milestones
Who did what through July 30

WHAT'S NEW AT E-E

Helping the Community: Most of the time, the items we mention here are about Experts helping members get solutions to their problems through the question and answer process, or by writing an article that can be used over and over. But in EE's case, solutions aren't exclusively an Expert domain; the people who work at EE are just as capable. A few months back, we made note of the work of system administrator Jason Helfman, who committed a new software port for FreeBSD, the operating system used on EE's servers. Then a couple of weeks ago, Jason's colleague at EE, Phil Phillips, wrote a piece of software that allows the automatic installaation of an important set of tools to the FreeBSD system. Both sets of contribututions are truly commendable work and important to the FreeBSD community.

Haiku Contest: Another way to get your hands on one of the great mugs we have been showing you is to enter our haiku contest. We have convinced the Guardians Of The Mugs that Experts Exchange would be well-served if it gave one of those mugs to each of ten people who can come up with the best haiku poems about EE.

Your wit, style and grace
On display for all the world
Passion for the X

Here are the rules:

1. All entries must be posted as comments to this blog post. You may include more than one haiku per post, but they must be distinct.
2. All poems must be written in the 5-7-5 syllable format. Deviation from this format will cause your poem to be disqualified for a prize. In order to be eligible for a prize, the haiku must convey the essence of Experts Exchange.
3. Technically, each line of the haiku should convey a distinct thought; this is not mandatory, but it will give you a leg up for getting one of the prizes. Also, EE is considered two syllables when it is used as an abbreviation for Experts Exchange.
4. There is no limit to the number of times you can enter. However, a higher number of entries is not likely to increase your odds of winning, and only one prize will be awarded to any individual member. Simply put, one really good entry is better than 27 mediocre ones.
5. Haikus will be judged on originality and on how well they convey the essence of Experts Exchange. Haikus must also be posted to the user's Facebook wall [haiku / link to post] or Twitter [haiku]/link to post @ExpertsExchange #haiku] to be eligible for a prize.
6. Contest runs through 11:59 pm on Thursday, August 25, 2011 PDT, and winners will be announced here and in the Experts Exchange blog. Contest open to current Experts Exchange members in good standing only.
7. Decisions by the judges are final.

Social you despise?
Your entry will be dismissed
To win you must share

Entries, let them flow
Your words will astound masses
Web becomes orange

Meet-up in Seattle: Site Director Andy Alsup, accompanied by Matt Nguyen and Jonathan Hoekman, hosted a meetup at Pike Pub and Brewery in Seattle. About a dozen members took advantage of their hospitality; a good number of the attendees were new to EE, so having the opportunity to meet other users was a huge benefit to them.

EE Add-ons: Experts Exchange has built its first set of add-ons members can use to find solutions on the site. There is a desktop widget (Windows XP on, Mac OS 10.4 on, and Linux) that lets you search directly from your desktop; it opens up your default browser with a list of EE results. The browser plug-in, for Firefox or IE 7 and above, lets you choose either the Experts Exchange search engine or search EE using Google, or you may install both if you'd like. The iGoogle Gadget lets you search Experts Exchange directly within your iGoogle home page. Enter a term and a new tab/window will open in your browser to a results page on Experts Exchange.

Webinar: The next webinar in our Cloud Class webinar series will be held Tuesday, August 23 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Back by popular demand, Visio MVP Scott Helmers will be going in-depth with Visio. Scott's first webinar, Organize Your Visio Diagrams, can be found on the Experts Exchange YouTube Channel. Keep an eye on your inboxes for your invitation to join Scott's upcoming webinar on August 23!

Where in the world: If you were one of the people who entered and won the Where In The World contest you'll be receiving an email telling you how to redeem your goodies. Enjoy!

Podcast: Jennifer Prentice and Gary Weyel will be airing their podcasts every other week; they will be available on EE's iTunes page the Friday morning after the newsletter comes out. This week's guest is DrDamnit, whose webinar presentation on running your small business successfully is now available on EE's YouTube channel.

Kudos

mlmcc on Crystal Reports: The Experts Exchange Team wants to acknowledge mlmcc for his hard work on CrystalReportsExperts.com and becoming the First Microsite Ranked expert. Check out his extensive background on his Crystal Report Experts page. If you've helped answer questions on some of the other Redsource Interactive tech microsites be looking here for your shootout in future newsletters. For more information on our Microsites, check them out on RedsourceInteractive.com.

rpggamergirl on malware: rpggamergirl is one of the best anywhere at solving malware problems; her experience and training was on display over the last few weeks. In a question aboutGoogle results being redirected she and four others solved HMCS's problem (and learned a lot about shopping carts). philw3995 had an issue with Windows not opening files correctly that she solved 12 minutes after it was asked: "Dam, that was slick! Thanks gamergirl, the link you gave me for the exe fix was super easy to follow and quick! WOW!!!" She followed up on responses by SSharma and Jonvee to solve unrinoceronte's follow-up question on vulnerabilities: "Thanks you again Sharma, Jonvee and RPGGamergirl for your assistance." And finally, she and Zone Advisor younghv teamed up to help cpatte7372 make sure he wasn't infected: "Brilliant."

The subject of redirects was also answered in zehran's question regarding a Windows XP computer; younghv was credited with the reply: "Thank you and as always you people have the answer I can't find."

byundt on Excel: KenHadley was trying to plot anywhere from a few days to a full month worth of data taken from an entire year of blood glucose measurements (diabetes research). The chart was taking far too long to render, so he posted a question. rspahitz tried to help, then ran up the flag in the Excel Regulars thread asking for assistance. After a number of comments back and forth, the Asker posts this: "I would like to extend a huge thank you to you. My original question was about the scrolling taking 3 seconds. I've now fully implemented your "way" and the result: Scrolling takes about 0.2 - 0.4 seconds, which is an amazing feat. Loading my initial graph used to take 9 minutes. Now it takes anywhere from 15-20 seconds, and the variance simply ties in to how much processing power is being used up by other applications at run-time. These benchmarks are made with 220,000+ rows of data. Needless to say, with just 10,000-15,000 rows, loading takes less than 0.7 seconds and scrolling shows up as 0.003 or, as is more often the case, 0. Thanks again, Brad. You've gone above and beyond what I expected to get from this site. :)"

mbizup on Access: It took some back-and-forth for mbizup to figure out what RossDagley1 was trying to accomplish in his question about the syntax of an Access query, but when they were both on the same page, she gave an inspiring response: "mbizup -- that was outstanding -- thank you very much indeed. Your solution works perfectly, and you have saved me a great deal of time trying to write this on my own (going through my huge "Access 2007 Inside Out" book!). Thanks once more - a perfect solution :)"