COBOLdinosaur

When we first thought about profiling some of EE's more accomplished and/or colorful people that haven't gotten some of the attention received by the Experts of the Year or the Most Valuable Experts, one of the first people who came to mind was COBOLdinosaur. His appearance in this space was usurped by two equally deserving Experts that had significant EE events occur at the right time, and we pushed Cd& back a bit. Then we realized that nobody really knows that much about him outside of EE, so we asked Senior Admin Netminder if there was anything he could share.

"Cd&? Easy. He's EE's second biggest fan, and probably one of the most consistent thorns in the heel for the last ten years as far as the Mods are concerned. I don't think I'd change him for the world."

COBOLdinosaur joined Experts Exchange in May of 2000, which was about as bad a time to join EE as ever existed. The company had received some venture capital funding a few years before, but income was minimal and reserves were being depleted while expenses were comparatively high -- none of which was revealed to the membership. His relative newness on the site didn't stop Cd& from jumping into the fray about how EE should work, and that resulted in his being selected as one of the first Moderators (he quit because he "didn't want to be a cop", which was in keeping with his Moderator username), one of the members of the Expert Advisory Board, an early and steadfast member of the Cleanup system, and as one of the first Page Editors (now known as Topic Advisors).

Cd& did take a hiatus from EE for a few years, but came back with bells on when asked to help beta-test EEv.10 -- the current look. No non-Badger contributed more to the testing and bug-filing than he did. "Every time I have been asked to do something to benefit the Community I have responded in the affirmative," he says. "All I have ever needed is to have a feeling I could help benefit the community." He admittedly shows little patience for those who won't try to figure things out for themselves -- but he will bend over backwards to help someone understand the issues at hand.

But for as well-known around Experts Exchange as Cd& is -- especially in the web development topic areas -- he chooses to keep his private life private, expressing only his fondness for the Detroit Tigers baseball and Red Wings hockey teams -- and Experts Exchange, and for that, if you've ever needed a style sheet fixed, you should be grateful.

Editors' Choice Article

How to synchronize forms using own events - for example "split form" with any Access version
By Bitsqueezer

After experimenting a while with the new split form in Access 2007 I found that it has too many problems to be usable, especially if you need subforms.

The idea is good but internally Access uses two different form objects to create a split form and that's often a big problem. I tried to use an object variable inside of a split form and after a lot of tests, wherein I asked myself "why am I not able to access the stored data inside of the datasheet object", I found out that two objects are instantiated when opening a new split form -- one for the single form and one for the datasheet form. Access handles the form in VBA "as one" so any access to the form uses only the single form. Only constructs like "Screen.ActiveDatasheet.Form" can be used to access the datasheet form.

Another annoying point is the automatic creation of subdatasheets if a subform is created on the single form part. Every line in the datasheet part gets a "[+]" sign and you can open the subform directly at the chosen line. That would be good if both forms would be synchronized -- but if you change something in one subform it is not shown in the other part.
Read more...

Nata's Corner

If you've ever wondered which browser crashes the least, there's a company that can tell you that.

Maybe it's just me, but in my younger days, I worked, raised two children and managed to take care of all the household stuff without once using a smartphone to start the dishwasher or cook a roast -- and all things considered, even though I have a smartphone, I don't think I'd want to. Never mind the security issues (okay, maybe pay some attention to them); have you ever come home to find that the hot water line to the washing machine split about twenty minutes after you left the house? I know, I know -- there's an app that will tell you when the water level on your carpet reaches seven millimeters.

I can understand why people would want to go from Los Angeles to San Francisco in half an hour. I just don't understand why anyone would want to go back.

If you have a Windows 7 computer, and you've started getting the message that "Smartbar has stopped working", you should consider yourself lucky, because it's one of those plugins -- a lot like the AOL, Yahoo, McAfee, AVG, and YourAuntMartha toolbars -- that software manufacturers get paid to include in their installation packages. Since that's the case, not having the Smartbar is probably better than having it; the companies that want you to install it assume you're not very smart. To check for it, go to your Control Panel, select Uninstall A Program under Programs, do a search for "smartbar" and then remove it.

I know I've mentioned that we travel to the Midwest a lot. One of my children lives where she can't get DSL, and the cable company, which has a line across a two-late street, won't provide service unless she pays something like $3,000, and even a wireless provider keeps trying to charge her for downloading 9GB a month when she's on the computer for maybe half an hour a week. So it wasn't very surprising to read that cable providers and ISPs in general rank at the bottom of the list for customer service. Of course, they didn't ask about Congress.

And finally, a kids' guide to the Internet from just about the time Experts Exchange was getting started.

In Brief

Ball[mer] four, and he walks: After fouling off a couple with Office 365 and any phone, striking out on Zune, Vixa and Windows 8 and Surface, getting a couple of bloop singles in Win7 and the Xbox and putting the entire company on the disabled list with stack ranking, Steve Ballmer has decided to retire, but you knew that. We just hope you enjoyed the popcorn. We haven't gotten around to setting odds on candidates to succeed him, but the over/under on when the board of directors will announce his successor is probably less time than it takes to boot a PC with Vista installed (are you sure?). He'll have the last laugh though.

Data doesn't work there though: The worst kept secret since Google Maps has been declassified.

Ask anyone who owns a ranch: When you put up a fence, is it to keep other animals out, or your own livestock in? Especially if there are cameras everywhere?

"I told you and Sergey you should pay her more!" It depends on who you talk to if you want to know why Marissa Mayer left Google for Yahoo a year ago, but one thing's for certain: after the first round, she's winning.

What part of "neener-neener" don't you understand? Guess who loses...

In requiem: Groklaw. It makes sense; the rule of law is dead anyway. On the other hand, there's a whole new industry opening up: keeping data out of governments' hands. It's pretty simple, really: keep it away from Google. (You'll love the insane logic employed by Google's lawyers; they'd better be getting Class B stock.

Give us a few: Experts Exchange is not yet optimized for Pirate Bay's browser. Maybe in Q4.

It's only play money, right? A flaw in the Android operating system cost someone some [bit]coins. Ooops. No doubt Apple's problems make them feel better.

Just shoot me: The Supreme Court is still trying to find the "any" key. Then again, maybe they're talking about the NSA.

In requiem: Charles Pollock, who probably designed the chair you're sitting in; another one of Microsoft's alternative "standards".

If at first you don't succeed: Khaili Shreateh tried to get Facebook's attention about a vulnerability, but got the "sorry, but it's not a bug" treatment, so he escalated the issue by posting to CEO Mark Zuckerberg's page. Somehow, that worked; the bug was fixed within hours -- but then Facebook's PR folks took over, blaming Shreateh's English for not taking him seriously. Since Facebook is going chintzy (see the next item), others have helped Shreateh out.

See? Larry Ellison isn't the only one: $91 million a week and you can't pay an intern? (Of course she can. All it takes is some bad publicity.)

Lisa and Newton: The Steve Jobs movie got tepid reviews (including 26 per cent on the TomatoMeter and damning with faint praise from Steve Wozniak) and a worse reception at the box office. We'll wait for it on Redbox.

Signs of the Apocalypse: As if Google doesn't have enough pictures of people on Florida beaches, now they're getting their own -- to map the beaches, of course. Uploading files to torrent sites and then suing downloaders, followed by a really stupid threat. A North Korean smartphone called Arirang... arirang... arirang...

Milestones

New Genius: Subsun has earned his second Genius certificate, in Powershell, to go along with one in Exchange. Congratulations!

Milestones: nobus is the 14th member of Experts Exchange to reach 14,000,000 points.