Kudos

Customer Service on the Experts: EE's Customer Service department sent us the following email from hibbsusan: "I recently looked at my question history and saw that it is up to 40. Just about 100% success rate. I'm taking this opportunity to thank you -- and the experts. This is a great site; it houses a lot of motivated people, eager to learn and to teach. I'm very happy to be a part of it. Thanks!"

alanhardisty on Exchange... In one of the most recent examples of what makes a good article, CinchIT asked how to get emails from an Exchange 2003 server on his iPhone4. alanhardisty pointed him to an article written two years ago on Activesync connection problems that was exactly what CinchIT needed.

... and on SBS: alanhardisty also showed his persistence in resolving 12vltmn's question about emails being received on a Blackberry but not in Outlook. What appeared to be a simple problem turned complicated very quickly, but throughout, Alan stayed with it, earning the following: "Alan is awesome! The experts on this site have been very helpful to me. Thanks to all, thanks to Experts Exchange. alan: IF you ever do come over my way, I'll buy you lunch. Thanks for everything!" RockMod on community support: One of EE's newest Moderators, RockMod, responded to a relatively commonplace Community Support request, but the response from gbzhhu (one of the few members who has been a member longer than RockMod) surprised him: "Thank you. I think the zones you added are probably enough. I should have replied to the experts soon but this issue is almost costing me a client and I was running around trying to get a solution in as many places as possible and now decided perhaps EE is the only place I am likely to get a solution. Please montor this question so that I get as much response as possible from best experts. Could you ask The_LearnedOne (Bob) to participate, he usually beings in fresh thinking."

Scissors85 and younghv on malware: We always like to see Experts work together to help solve a problem like removing DoubleClick's toolbar, but digisel was pretty effusive in his comments for Scissors85 and younghv: "Thanks to BOTH of you. You have been really great. You might be interested to know I posed the same problem last week and received five well meaning participants. None of them came up with what you both did. I want to say that I think Scissor was really fair and justiably generous to younghv. It really show the real and deep quality of input from both of you. It was a worthwhile experience to encounter two experts who were so dedicated. I can't thank you enough. I wish I could award 10,000 points to each. I hope you accept my allocation as my best response to an excellent response from both of you. Thank you so much. All is well now - and I have upgraded both of you to super genius."

keith_alabaster on Internet routing: tigermatt is no slouch when it comes to running a network, as his Genius certificates in Exchange and Windows Server will attest, but sometimes even the best people get stumped, and when that happens, EE is fortunate to have people like keith_alabaster around. "Keith, I was in difficulty over this yesterday. With your assistance I now fully understand each of these options and how they apply to my environment, and I am happy to go ahead and send the documentation with option 1 selected. I don't tend to ask questions, but when I do it is generally because I am outside my comfort zone. This is one of the best solutions I have received here at EE. Words cannot explain how much I appreciate your help! Many thanks."

billprew on scripts: Once billprew saw hoshie329's question on using VB Script to parse a file, it took him only a few minutes to come up with a solution: "This works perfectly, great solution. Thanks"

In Brief

We know what's paved with good intentions: A story came across the wires Sunday about a US senator waying that GM's OnStar vehicle location service invades privacy because even after a car owner cancels, the system stays connected, and because GM has reserved the right to sell the data collected. We will admit that a change to OnStar's terms of service could have something to do with the Senator's concerns, and maybe we're a little jaded, but the following observations can be made:

• OnStar was launched in 1996, and the Senator is just now getting around to thinking about this? The US and Canadian governments are part owners of the company, and there was at least one court case on the issue decided about government use of vehicle cellphone techology -- in 2003. More to the point, telephone companies have been sharing who knows how much information with the federal government over the last ten years or so.
• The Senator is a member of the Senate subcommittee that was all over the Internet and television last week as it had its conversation with Google chairman Eric Schmidt (see below), but maybe he didn't think he got enough air time.

High stakes poker: Facebook is going to wait a while before cashing in its chips. Yahoo probably doesn't have that luxury, and GroupOn may not have any chips left to cash in.

Netflix raises Yahoo, AOL; HP checks: In my next life, I'm going to come back as one of those people who gets paid to tell corporate big wigs when they're making really stupid decisions. First the Yahoo board and Carol Bartz. Then Tim Armstrong and Arriana Huffington of AOL and Michael Arrinngton of TechCrunch. Surely there was no way to top those. Then along comes Netflix, which effectively raised its prices, then tried to sugar coat it but forgot to look up the Twitter name of the new company. The stock dropped to a new low, the twittosphere went nuts, and bloggers villified CEO Reed Hastings -- but we're betting that they've figured it out. HP, on the other hand, probably doesn't, because it's stock dropped to a six-year low

Google looks at hole cards: Google's Eric Schmidt apparently decided that adult supervision was needed in Washington last week (if only because Larry Page was busy in court), since the company was simultaneously being raked over the coals by a US Senate subcommittee and investigated by the FCC.

Taking the vigorish: Amazon has agreed to start collecting sales taxes for California.

Waiting for a seat at the table: It's going to be February before AT&T and the US justice department square off in court over the T-Mobile acquisition.

Taking forever to bet: Just be glad you're not on dial-up.

Pushing away from the table: Sometimes you need to know when to quit.

Amazon sweatshops: No, we're not talking about Apple or Nike having new factories in South America. We mean Amazon Dot Com. Amazon wiggled in response.

Department of No Surprises:

• China denied hacking a weapons manufacturer.
• Patent trolls have cost innovators $500 billion. Patent wars between big companies probably cost consumers just as much, if not more.
• Microsoft's Bing search system is losing money.
• Now that the FCC has issued "net neutrality" rules, there will be sharks suits blood.

They're as good reasons as any: Why coworkers make bad decisions like tweeting about unreleased products (unless you're a board member and the product is the iPhone). It's also an object lesson in the observation that "most people who reply to blogs don't have much of value to say -- and prove it."

In other news, Zefram Cochran will be born in two years: CERN physicists have apparently made a neutrino move faster than light.

Sign of the Apocalypse: A pattent on booing the Yankees. Or the Red Sox -- take your pick. Or simply check your emotional baggage if you're a Dodgers fan. It's all the emoticon's fault. Also, Google hosts malware.

Milestones

New Geniuses: Two members of Experts Exchange earned Genius certificates in the past two weeks. rindi has picked up his second, in the Windows XP topic area, while epasquier reached his first 1,000,000 points in the Delphi Programming TA. Congratulations to both on their accomplishments.

Milestones: In a career full of "firsts" at Experts Exchange, it is a little odd that angelIII has become the second EE member to earn over 4,000,000 points in each of three topic areas by reaching that level in the SQL Syntax zone.