Experts Exchange Newsletter

What's New at Experts Exchange

Scheduling change: We're a week early with this issue, in part so we don't have to actually work on Christmas Day, and in part so we're synchronized with the announcement of the Expert Awards on January 18. We'll be back the first week in January.
Kudos: Thanks, ameba, for your help in keeping us up to date on who EE's best Experts are.
From the Feedback page: psenn wanted to leave a message of gratitude to adathelad for his solution in this closed question, so we decided to pass the word along.

cepes has been an EE member since September 2004, and posted this message: "I just wanted to say that I've been here for almost a year, I think(!) and I've always gotten expert, courteous, fast, and varied advice. Thanks to you all!" Thank you, Charlie -- time does, indeed, pass quickly when you're having fun.
Letters: IainMacb enjoyed our first round of Christmas gifts, especially the Powers Of 2 Clock. "But alas," he wrote, "it's only available with a 7-bit power supply. Over here in Europe, we need an 8-bit power supply."
jellywick took a little issue with the heretofore unseen nature of the phishing attempts received by Nata. "As ever, nice column BUT degrees of uniquity -- I think not," he said.
Finally, since we'll be getting them for Christmas, GadgetDude had an email discussion with virgil00, the Expert Care Manager, about backing up legally purchased DVDs. "Some members have stated that it is illegal to backup (duplicate) your DVDs. It is not. According to a "Fair Use" provision in the Telecommunications Act it is perfectly legal to backup legally purchased DVDs," he wrote.
The purpose, he says, is so the consumer can protect his investment by playing backup copies of his DVDs and safely storing the originals. The reasoning: not only is the cost of some DVD sets well in excess of $100, but some DVD sets are irreplaceable. An example: Disney has some of its offerings available for only a limited time, and then they become unavailable. In an instance like this, if something should ever happen to the original DVD, you are out of luck. Therefore, backing up the original, storing it safely, and playing the backups make most sense.

GadgetDude ends with the following: "I have found the membership to be extremely helpful and fun. Experts Exchange is the best thing ever!" We can think of a few things that might be better... but none of them involve the Internet. Thanks, GadgetDude!

Click here to from the newsletter.

Last minute holiday gifts

If you haven't gotten around to that one special person on your list, perhaps one of these hot items will be the perfect gift to leave under the tree.

Mocks Socks for your mobile phone
We're not sure if these are available in North America, but they should be. There's a huge variety, and it's also possible to design your own. No online store, and there's no mention of shipping costs. You order either by mail or by SMS.

About $10 Australian. - Details here.

Logitech Curve Headphones for MP3
Designed for today's portable digital audio players, these headphones use optimized 30mm neodymium drivers for premium audio with your music, games, and movies. And their behind-the-head design and detachable comfort rings keep them in place securely.

About $30. - Details here.

Honda ASIMO
To quote Will Smith, "I have got to get me one of these." ASIMO has two degrees of freedom on its neck, six on each arm and six on each leg. A lightweight magnesium alloy structure, combined with computers in its backpack and 26 servo motors throughout its body help ASIMO walk and move smoothly.

Price not listed. - Details here.

DLO TransPod
No driver who has an iPod should be without one. Contains a little FM transmitter that both plays your tunes over your car stereo system and recharges the iPod in the process -- it connects to "any available auto power outlet." And no special installation is needed.

About $100 - Details here.

Archos AV 500 Portable Video Recorder
Pricey, but it beats a 2-inch screen. The 30GB version holds about 130 hours of video, and there's a 100GB version as well. Or if you really want to splurge, get the AV 700 with the 7-inch screen that weighs all of 1.5 lbs.

Starting at $500. - Details here.

The RadarGolf System
For your favorite Administrator, if you're so inclined. It uses a radio signal to locate a lost golf ball, and provides visual feedback as you get closer to it. The balls are USGA legal, too.

From $350 - Details here.

A few more sites worth visiting

Courtesy of our friends in the Lounge:

Dogopoly is a board game, based on Monopoly, for the canine fan.
Mark & Spencer is in Great Britain; mostly clothing and such.
Cocktail Equipment is great; check out the Champichute.
Lee Valley & Veritas was described as Disneyland for big boys.
Reseller Ratings doesn't have gifts, but does tell you about online stores.
The New York City web store: This is linked off www.christmas.com.
Skechers: As Analog_Kid says, everyone needs shoes.
firstSTREET has techy type gifts, like noise cancelling headphones.
ImageStation will sell almost anything that can have a photo put on it.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

In 1897, the editor of the New York Sun received a letter -- remember those? -- from a reader asking if there really is a kindly old man who delivers gifts at this time of year. We hope you'll pass this along to your children, as our parents -- both journalists -- did to us. Here's a nice article that gives the whole story.

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor --

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Have the best of holidays, friends.

Sony HDTV 60" Rear Projection HDTV
Before buying one, you should read up on why you might want to wait. But this one is still the best of the new HDTVs on the market; three Silicon X-tal Reflective Display panels, Advanced Iris shutter to create brighter whites and better contrast in dark scenes, and the BN Smoother which reduces block noise.

About $5,000. - Details here.

DoubleSight Dual 19" LCD Monitor
Buying two 19" monitors is cheaper -- but that's not the point. The point is that you want to have two monitors on one screen with only one fairly small footprint. Did we mention that everyone else in the office will want one too, just because you have one?

About $1,000. - Details here.

Nikon Camera Nikon D2X Digital SLR Camera
You won't find this at WalMart. We grew up with the good old F4s that could take a beating and keep working, and this is about the next best thing. 12.4 megapixels, 1/8000 second shutter speed, Wireless connectivity using 802.11g technology (optional).

About $3,600 (body only). - Details here.

Slingbox
Until the last road trip we took, we always wondered why anyone would want one of these. But the Kings were playing, and we couldn't find the game. This sits on top of your TV, and feeds to your computer through a broadband connection. Currently only for PCs, but it will be available for PDAs and such soon.

About $250. - Details here.

OQO Handheld Computer
This little handheld has a 1GHz processor, a 30GB hard drive, WiFi and Bluetooth, USB and Firewire ports, and comes with a fully functional Windows XP operating system (no comments from the peanut gallery, please). Has a complete thumb keyboard, mouse buttons, digital pen and thumbwheel.

About $1,900 - Details here.

The New Yorker
We have been getting this magazine -- as a gift -- for as long as we can remember. One thing about it -- there's almost nothing in it that isn't worth reading; you won't find better writing anywhere.

$47 for a year. - Details here.

Tip from the Moderators: Think before you click [Submit]

huji sent us an email asking why threads like this aren't referenced in the newsletter. "Perhaps they can be practical lessons for some people?" he wrote. "Perhaps seeing what can be done in action, is better than reading the advice of 'do not reply to insults. Just report it to CS.' You know what I mean?"

That got us to thinking: you should take a long look at your post before you click the Submit button.

It's not just that you might say something that you might later regret, like a flame. It's that you might post something like an IP address or an email address or some sensitive information. The Moderators will certainly remove it for you, but it makes everyone's life a lot easier if you don't post it in the first place.

So please, think before you click.

The Premium Services include a number of features not available to "limited" members. Among them:

> Unlimited question points

> VIP Search

> Bookmarks

> Quick Links

> Collapsible menu

> No ads

You can purchase Premium Services on a month-to-month, semi-annual or annual basis, and take full advantage of all that Experts Exchange has to offer!

Page Two: More News and Notes

All I want for Christmas is a 386: Department of Homeland Security computers crashed at various border checkpoints last week, leaving thousands of travellers waiting in line. The reason: aging computers and incompatible systems.
Not to worry, though. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also wants to gather information on passengers. All of this is coming at a time when the US Congress is preparing for what will probably be a very nasty fight over renewal of the Patriot Act.
And the winner is...: "A source" said Friday that Google is buying five per cent of AOL from Time Warner, beating out Microsoft and also-ran Yahoo in the process. One possible side effect: advertising images on Google search result pages.
What to give for Christmas: Every once in a while, we see something that reminds us of the true good that can be done with Internet technology. If you have some spare change, it's a good place to send it.
Ghost of Christmas Past: Commodore will be at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show next month.
What NOT to get for Christmas: A player for the movie technology that's supposed to replace the DVD. The big movie studios are divided. The major manufacturers are divided (except for HP, which is hedging its bet). And it's a prudent wager, all things considered, that the ... um ... adult entertainment industry will actually lead the parade.
Speaking of which, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names, Numbers (ICANN) has tentatively approved the .asia top level domain, but again ducked the issue of a top level domain designation for the ... um ... adult entertainment industry.
Ghost of Christmas Present: EE doesn't endorse products, but these two are rapidly becoming favorites: Skype and LogMeIn. Both are free, and both have versions that are worth paying for. And while we're at it, WesLennon, the Director of Community Services, loves this little tool from Microsoft that tells you what time it is in any time zone.
What to get for a Blackberry user: The San Jose Mercury News, THE newspaper in the Silicon Valley, offered up some counseling for those people facing the prospect of losing use of their devices if talks via a mediator between RIM and patent holder NTP break down. NTP says it will drop the dispute if RIM just pays a royalty.
The soap opera doesn't end there, though. NTP has signed a licensing agreement with Visto, a RIM rival... and Visto, taking a page from its new partner's business plan, sued Microsoft for [insert drumroll here] patent infringement.
This is real, according to snopes.com.
Like long lines in stores: Two items of non-news that are worth noting. First, Microsoft is finally dropping Internet Explorer for the Mac, and second, a Microsoft patch for IE 6 is causing problems for another piece of Microsoft software: IE 7.
Sony: Japanese for "trojan horse" Part IV: Who knows. Maybe they want to be like Microsoft. Sony announced last week that yet another security flaw had been found in the anti-piracy software it uses on its CDs.
How the Grinch Stole Chrismas: BellSouth withdrew its offer to donate a building to the New Orleans police department after the city announced plans to set up a city-wide WiFi network. Yes, we've heard: charity begins at home, especially at Christmas.
I saw it on the Internet so it must be true: Wikipedia has begun requiring registration for people who want to contribute after a biography of a former Robert Kennedy aide was posted suggesting that the man, John Seigenthaler, was suspected in the assassinations of both Robert and John Kennedy. The post was a prank.
This comes on the heels of accusations that Adam Curry, one of the people regarded as a podcasting pioneer, edited articles to make himself look better at the expense of someone else. Wikipedia fans need not fret too much, however: Nature magazine says that it's nearly as accurate as the Encyclopaedia Britannica, but there's a new player on the scene as well.
Ghost of Christmases Yet To Come: Google has done it again. Last week, the search firm announced Google Music, which helps you find CDs of your favorite artists. There isn't a little icon on the Google help page yet, but the search box here works.
Do they have a billion of them hiding?: Microsoft plans to release the Xbox 360 in Korea February 24 and in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore a week later. The folks at eBay can't wait.
Legal Notices:
Gateway and HP: Gateway, which is battling HP over patent issues all over the place, won an appeal before the International Trade Commission over "legacy circuitry for parallel-port printer technology".
This week's Sign of the Apocalypse: Adware maker 180Solutions sued Zone Alarms for saying it is "high risk" software.

Nata's Corner: Get set for the next round of Sober

Nata Christmas Every anti-virus and anti-spam company has had the same message for the last week or so: make sure your systems are patched and updated before January 5, 2006. I know this must make me look like a broken record, but the Sober virus is scheduled to send out another round of emails on either the 5th or the 6th, and you don't want to know how bad it could possibly be.

Sober seems to have originated in Germany, and what makes the latest version -- which showed up a little over a month ago -- so nasty is that while it "sleeps" for a while before it actually starts sending out its requests to download the next version, it also has the IP addresses it's sending those requests to encrypted. Since there are millions of computers out there that aren't protected very well, we can all expect a lot of email starting on January 5 (the 12th Day of Christmas, by the way).

As you might expect, phishing attacks are becoming rampant -- I even read about one that looks like you've missed a tax refund and another that is supposed to be from a charitable foundation named for Princess Diana -- so when I read about a company that has developed a system for authenticating email before it gets to your inbox, I thought it was pretty neat. Iconix isn't available for email clients yet, but it is available for the four best known webmail systems.