09.13.2007

New Geniuses: It's a little inaccurate to call either of the two Experts who earned Genius certificates in the last couple of weeks "new". oBdA's second certificate is in the Windows 2000 zone, while angelIII has earned his fourth -- he's the fourth EE member to do that -- in the Visual Basic Programming zone. Nice work, folks!

Another MVP: mahesh1402, who joined EE in November 2005, has been named as a Microsoft MVP for Visual C++. Congratulations!

Milestones: zorvek, one of the Zone Advisors for Excel and Spreadsheets, went over the 7,000,000 point mark, and Zvonko, who has been around EE since January 1997, reached 6,000,000 points overall.

New Zones: Experts Exchange is adding new Zones to its existing cornucopia of more than 950 technology Zones. Experts, make sure to update your question filters to include these new Zones. Because no points have been awarded in these Zones yet, this is your chance to earn your place in the Top 15 in the following Zones:

Netminder is one of the two Site Administrators at Experts Exchange. Contrary to popular belief, he does sleep.

I like to think that one of the reasons EE lets me be a Moderator because I'm an unabashed fan of the site; it has been a godsend to me since the first time I logged in, and has never failed to teach even an old dog a new trick on a daily basis. Nonetheless, EE can be an intimidating site to a new member; one is constantly amazed -- even awed -- at how much the Experts know, and how easily solutions for what seem to be unsolvable problems come to them.

One of the things about the site that I admire most is the tenacity of the Experts in trying to resolve a problem. One is tempted to write that such an attitude was never more evident than in purkissbecky's question from back in November, which took nearly two months to finally close, and featured eight Experts who not only showed patience with a new member who, by her own admission, was "new to computers" and had been given an old one running an outdated operating system, but also gave her the confidence to consider starting to answer questions as well.

The question itself is pretty direct:

Gotta love it. I'm pretty sure that mtz10d4, coral47, Bartender_1, blue_zee, yessirnosir, Booda2us, BarryTice, and especially BillDL, had no idea what they were getting into.

Most of EE's most knowledgeable Experts have a ton of points; they have been rewarded, in the only official way they can be through EE's structure, richly and deservedly. But the eight members who guided purkissbecky through her journey -- during a time when EE was conducting live testing on its new interface and systems, no less -- showed how EE is supposed to work. Their regard for the circumstances of purkissbecky, with not a single canned response in the bunch, in collaboration with the asker and each other, should be required reading for everyone who answers questions.

Equally, we have to tip our hat to the asker of the question as well. She responded to posts as quickly as possible, and was completely clear in telling the Experts what was happening, and what she had done based on the suggestions. Finally, when it came time for her to close the question, she noted each participant's contribution and thanked them.

Thank YOU, Becky, for reminding us all why we like EE as much as we do.

TechSoEasy: There have been a number of recurring themes in the few thousand questions I've participated in during that time, but none that causes more controversy than whether the SBS Wizards should be used, or if you can configure an SBS without them.

Since I've always taken the stand that in order to properly configure an SBS you must use all the wizards. I guess this has often been interpreted as "you cannot properly configure an SBS unless you use all the wizards". But since the wizards are really just advanced scripting tools, you could obviously make all of the same settings or even different ones manually.

So, the question I now pose to all who care to respond is: Why?

Why would you want to manually make these settings when there is a tool that will do it for you in a fraction of the time? On this point, I believe there is no debate on whether or not working with the wizards will take less time if one were to make ALL of the same settings manually. The issues seem to be that either the wizards do things that you don't want them to do, or that you have special circumstances which seem to conflict with the way the wizards configure things. So, to clarify the question, I will ask, "What situations have you found that they prevent you from implementing a customized solution?" or "What situations have you found that the wizards do something you don't want them to do and your only option is to not run them (ie, the wizard makes 10 settings and you like 7 of them but don't like 3)?

leew: I don't/didn't like the wizards because you don't know what they are doing. You do, but it's like Microsoft saying "sit back and relax, just answer a few questions and we'll take care of everything." I don't trust the government and I don't trust Microsoft either. I want to SEE what they are doing. If the wizards displayed a log or created a clear log that said "creating user account in ad, setting permissions, blah blah blah" in FINE detail, I would feel much better. I would know, it's doing this, no problem, now that I KNOW what it's doing, I'll trust it to do it later.

That said, there is more than sufficient evidence for me to acknowledge the use of the Wizards, to ensure things are setup in a STANDARD manner that any other semi-literate computer person can pick up where you left off. When you deviate from best practices, you create complexities that may well be unnecessary and ultimately more costly to the client.

That said, there is ONE wizard I refuse to use. The backup wizard. Primarily because the only option is a full backup.

redseatechnologies: I don't think it is as black and white as this Jeff -- I have never installed SBS without at least 1 wizard - the CEICW to kick off. After that, I generally don't use them at all. I have a few tiny sites of >5 users where I have walked the full path of the wizard, but to be honest, I don't think it made much difference in the end.

If I had time, I would build some test SBS networks and watch, but honestly, I would rather focus on Exchange 2007 or Windows 2008 -- which is going to probably just prove that SBS isn't something that I am terribly interested in, I just see it as a cheaper way to get licensing, like it used to be.

Netman66: Single NIC installations where I have an upstream proxy/firewall cause problems in themselves. You need to really bypass CEICW and ignore the nags about not being complete -- not clean IMHO. I have it running in my lab on a VM and it works fine, but I continue to get nagged about running this wizard even though there is no option for my configuration.

Other than that, the wizards do a lot of the dirty work for you and rarely make a mistake. Since so much of SBS depends on exact configuration of assets and the corresponding assumptions of the locations of things (like the default OU structure), unless you configure things in the right order and correctly then all sorts of things don't work as expected.

DHCP also comes to mind. If I don't want SBS to manage DHCP you don't really have the option with the wizards -- you have to disable it afterwards.

I'm not sure what you're moving towards on this question - it's simply not a good idea to bypass the wizards unless you know exactly what you are doing and have a specific case to do so. Many server guys like myself prefer to do things manually, but realize that's not in the best interest of a proper installation.

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

Many years ago, William F. Buckley noted that "Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive."

He wasn't talking about the Internet, but he would no doubt be mildly amused at hearing about the demise of the plan for free city-wide WiFi in San Francisco. A couple of weeks ago, Earthlink, which was the lead contractor to build the network, laid off about half its employees in a major restructuring of its business.

Earthlink -- and every other one of the national Internet providers -- has always had the same problem: It has to use someone else's infrastructure. So in order to be profitable, Earthlink had to add value above and beyond access, but there were financial pressures on it from all sides. Microsoft, for its part, began including the tools to access the Internet in with its operating system. Software companies provided tools -- at a much lower cost -- to protect one's computer from malicious intrusions. Telephone companies and cable companies provided much higher access speeds, and they were always on; no more "dooooo wedoooo-ssssshhhh-kkk xxxxxxxx". What was Earthlink to do?

The answer, though apparently not a very well thought out answer, was wireless access. That's when reality stepped in. It still costs money to design, engineer and implement a network across 49 square miles, especially if those square miles are full of hills and tall buildings. Earthlink cut a deal with Google -- help with the financing in exchange for serving up advertising -- but that didn't really address the fundamental issue for Earthlink: If Earthlink is giving away access, how is it supposed to make any money?

The plan included tiered services; you would get free access, but it would be slower to begin with, and some of the bandwidth would be clogged with advertising; even if Google does own YouTube, the site wouldn't work very well at 300kbps. You could pay more, but the maximum speed would still be somewhere around a megabit per second, slow by the standards set by the phone and cable companies. When you factor in AT&T's or ComCast's ability to bundle their Internet services with others they provide at no significant increase in the cost of infrastructure (the cable line is still the same cable line), being competitive was going to be a problem for Earthlink under any circumstances.

Is there any hope for Earthlink (or NetZero, or PeoplePC, or even AOL)? Absolutely, but they're going to have to be a lot smarter about it than they have been. We live in a rural part of California; we have cable only because thirty years ago, this is where the then-local cable company built its receiving system. We can't get DSL, because the cost of the equipment to the phone company makes any return on investment a fairy tale. WiMax would work here, though, and probably at a cost to the consumer lower than the $95 it costs us for basic cable and Internet access. Throughout the Midwest, it's the same story -- if you even have access to cable or DSL. There's a huge market out there; it just happens to be spread over lots of miles, and not concentrated in places where well-established utility companies can out price them, outperform them, and outlast them.

Q: A profile? You mean... like... a Profile?

One of the Zone Advisors sent us a link to a question in which the Asker -- not a new member, but also not one who has been around the site for years -- didn't realize that he had a profile he could fill out and edit. In and of itself, that's not a crime, but the question does point out the value of posting in your profile.

You may know a lot about some subjects, but not much about others. Posting what you do, and how long you have been doing it, goes a long way when the Experts try to get you answers to your questions. Telling them what time zone you're in doesn't hurt, because it gives them an idea of when you're most likely to see the responses. If you're in the same time zone, they can write up something quick for you, and then explain it in more detail if you need it. But if you're halfway around the world, they know they can take a little more time, and give you a more complete explanation right away.

Some members post the configuration of their most frequently used machine. They include the operating system, the programs they use most of the time, and what they do with the computer. They also post information about what they do for a living, so others have an idea of what their areas of expertise are. Many post the dates on which they reached various plateaus at EE or awards and honors they have received in their chosen fields.

To reach your profile, click the Edit button in the box in the upper right corner of the browser window. You can also use this link.

Yeah? Well, your mother wears combat boots!: Never let it be said that Microsoft is not a sensitive company. On the day that it announced that the first service pack for Vista will arrive in early 2008 (like anyone familiar with Microsoft meeting a deadline believes that), the company sent a takedown notice to AutoPatch, a service that made it easier for people to update their systems. Microsoft has also started banning dirty words -- like Linux -- from its XBox Live game site.

Oh, yeah? Well, so's your old man!: Not to be outdone by its friends to the north, Apple has started acting a lot like Redmond in how it deals with customers. We're not convinced that the decision to reduce the price of the iPhone was based on slumping sales or higher-than-expected inventories, nor was it made in the spur of the moment, but it's pretty obvious that the decision the next day to offer a credit of half the difference (?!) is a result of the backlash. Steve Jobs doesn't like people saying nasty things about him. At least one iPhone user figured out a way to offer some comeuppance to Apple and its iPhone partner, AT&T: he hacked it and earned a new car for his efforts.

It couldn't have been planned any better: The day that Apple cut the price of the iPhone (and debuted new versions of the iPod), Microsoft discounted the Zune.

"Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.": Those of you who appreciate the simple elegance of Catch-22 will marvel at the Justice department's reasoning when it argued there was nothing wrong with telling ISPs to turn over data without a warrant, and then telling the ISPs that they couldn't talk about it or they would be subject to sanctions. Judge Victor Marrero disagreed as he invalidated sections of the Patriot Act. In a similar case, another judge declined to accept the government's argument that it could not tell him why they were withholding documents because it was a secret. The government will press on in its attempts to get the lawsuit against the telcos dismissed.

Products of the week: A map of the 200 most successful websites, and a collection of tools for designers, including some freebies (thanks, Susan!).

Monster mashed: If you were one of the people who posted his/her resume on Monster.com, you might want to consider checking your bank accounts and credit card statements. The site suffered the effects of a trojan that stole 1.6 million records and another 160,000 names, email addresses and phone numbers of people who had posted at USAJobs.gov. More disturbing, though, is that Monster took five days to tell users, which gave the thieves plenty of time to start phishing. The list of breaches keeps getting longer.

Site of the week: Cheat sheets for darn near every language and standard we've ever heard of, and a few we haven't.

Chopping through the suey: China has been in the news a lot lately. We won't bother with the lead paint and poisoned pet food; instead we'll mention these tech-related items:

• The Chinese government can be pretty ... compelling... when it comes to making sure that it knows what its citizenry is doing on the Internet. As of September 1, the Beijing Public Security Ministry will send out a little popup -- cute little animated figures -- that will warn users when they try to access sites deemed improper. We can't wait until next summer, when the world's best athletes descend on Beijing for the Olympics; can you imagine the hullabaloo when some teenaged gymnast can't get to her MySpace page?
• Unfortunately, the Chinese government isn't so diligent (or maybe it is, but doesn't see any problem) when it comes to the kinds of things that come out of its borders. The Chinese companies that build the iPhone, and presumably other devices, for American companies are quite willing to allow those products to show up on the black market at no benefit to their owners, and we'll bet that the half-billion-dollar bust a few weeks ago won't put much of a dent in the software piracy business.
• Almost half of the malware sites in the world are hosted in China. And then there are the reports that the Chinese have been hacking American and German military networks, which have understandably been denied by the easily offended Chinese. Not everyone is buying it.

Sign of the Apocalypse: Christopher Knight is being sued by Viacom for posting on YouTube a Web Junk 2.0 segment featuring a commercial he made for his school board election campaign -- that Viacom stole from YouTube to include in the segment.

Okay, so I look for bargains -- is that a crime? Last week, much to my other half's dismay, I wound up bringing back from vacation enough stuff found in clearance sales to fill a suitcase. But I'm not one, usually, for sending in requests for rebates. I don't like the fact that I have to provide copies of invoices and cut little pieces out of the corners of boxes, and then dig up a stamp and go to the post office for a measly $3.50 that I won't see for seven weeks. Now, I'm beginning to think that my instincts about rebate offers were right. A lot of us have had rebate requests disappear, but there's at least one company out there that seems to have turned it into an art.

The federal government is finally beginning to get tough with people who steal personal information by phishing. Michael Dolan, who stole logins from AOL users, and then phished their credit card information, has agreed to a plea bargain that could keep him locked up for seven years. With all the laptops being stolen or lost and websites being hacked, sending a strong message of the consequences for stealing identities should be a high priority for the government, especially since we know that they're not immune from thefts -- just ask the Veterans Administration.

If you have teenagers, then it's time to start paying a little more attention to the emails they get. Sophos is reporting that the phishers and hackers of the world have moved from trying to get the Paris Hilton fans and using PDF documents to going after the younger set by offering videos for free downloading. Clicking the link has well-known results: a script that downloads a Trojan that is both a thief and a zombie.

And finally, for all you Mountain Dew addicts (you know who you are -- every time you restock Pepsico's stock jumps two points), they have a new product and they're appealing to your worst instincts: games, prizes (the Halo 3 XBox and a bunch of other stuff), and of course, the product. Have fun...