Experts Exchange Newsletter

What's New at Experts Exchange

What's missing: We gave the Page Editors and our good friend, ameba, the rest of the year off -- so no New Certificates list, no questions that need your help, and no featured Experts. In their place, we've collected some goodies we think you should check out. But that doesn't mean the rest of the world has stopped.
Coming soon: The next issue of the Newsletter is a biggie, in more ways than one. It's definitely going to be longer than they usually run, so clean out some of that old email. We'll be publishing the names of Experts Exchange's Expert of the Year and Rookie Expert of the Year, along with a number of other awards.
Not the best week: Time-Warner, the parent company of America On Line, had its coffers lightened to the tune of over $500 million last week. The settlement with US government agencies clears the way for Bugs Bunny & Co. to join Comcast in acquiring a bankrupt cable company, Adelphia Communications.
The case involved allegations by the US Justice Department and the Securities & Exchange Commission that AOL employees "aided and abetted fraud" in connection with the buyout by AOL of one of its European partners. The AOL personnel allegedly falsified company revenue reports.
What to do with noobs: Experts Exchange never has problems with new Member, and never has problems with Experts who mistreat new Members -- but EE is an exception. The problem of "griefers" -- online gamers who love nothing more than frustrating new gamers account for 25 per cent of the complaints to companies that run online gaming sites.
The companies who host online gaming sites are beginning to fight back; Microsoft has gone so far as to set up a feedback system that allows users to leave comments about other players. If an X-Box user gets too many bad comments, they're fdisked and formatted from Microsoft's online service.
Spirit of the season: We can't resist, although there are probably a few who think we probably should. We saw the Legalese Christmas Card a couple of years ago, but the version of The Night Before Christmas, as written by a contract lawyer was too much to let go by.
And old, curmudgeonly newspaper types that we are, we couldn't let the season go by without at least one reference to Francis P. Church's famous note to one of his subscribers.
Have a merry holiday season, gentle friends, and a healthy and properous new year. We'll see you in a couple of weeks.

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.

The palmOne Treo 650 Phone
This is the upgraded version of the Treo 600 EE's owners use and love. palmOne has enhanced the video capture, built in a vibrant 320x320 color screen, included an MP3 player and added Bluetooth® technology -- so there's no excuse for missing a question at EE.

About $450. - Details here.

Roomba vacuum The Roomba DiscoverySE robotic vacuum cleaner
Push one button and this self-propelled, self-navigating sweeper-vac covers your entire floor, freeing you to work or relax elsewhere. Because it works around obstacles as it sweeps, it provides a truly effortless way to stay on top of daily touch-up floor care.

As shown, about $280. - Details here.

Halo2 shirt Halo2 Gear from Headliner
We don't play a lot of video games, but there's little doubt that Halo2 is at the top of every gamer's wish list. If you're not into braving the crowds at that big store, fighting to pick up the game, try getting the shirt. His friend will think it's cool.

Priced from $12.50. - Details here.

Apple iPod 60
The latest from Apple is an iPod with 60Gb of storage space — enough for all of your favorite music (up to 15,000 songs) or enough photos (as many as 25,000) to cover all of your walls. The LCD display lets you see your photos in 65,536 colors. The bad news: Apple has announced an 80 Gb version that isn't ready for delivery.

About $600. - Details here.

Lexar flash drive
Announced last week... The new USB card form factor is based on the USB Type A connector as outlined in the USB Specification. A mere 12 mm wide, 4.5 mm high and 31.75 mm long the card is no longer than the diameter of a penny. 16mb - 1Gb sizes are promised.

Pricing not available. - Details here, and remember your favorite editor.

Canon Optura 40
The Canon Optura 40 includes a 14X optical zoom and adds a video light and audio levels adjustment and a microphone attenuator. This camcorder is compact, has a very bright 2.5-inch LCD, and shoots clean footage as well as 2-megapixel still photos.

About $700. - Details here, and turn your sound down.

Nokia 6610 Camera Phone
This is my kind of camera phone -- unlocked Triband GSM 900/1800/1900 ... FM radio for while you're on hold. New color screen with the "classic" Nokia 6000 series style...Mobile Internet capability ...Includes polyphonic ringtones, speakerphone, and an integrated stereo FM radio ...Phone book capacity for 300 contacts.

About $125. - Details here.

Red Sox win Boston Red Sox DVD
It's the season for miracles -- there was that famous one on 34th Street -- but baseball fans will tell you there is nothing more miraculous that Boston's comeback win over the Yankees. So soon they forget Coogan's Bluff and the 1969 Mets, but that's another story. Get the DVD -- it's compelling drama.

About $20. - Details here.

EA Sports Games
Pick your favorite -- EA Sports has them all, for every different game box on the market. Madden Football, FIFA Soccer, Tiger Woods Golf, the NHL (which is a fantasy game at this point), even boxing and car racing -- and you can play on line as well using XBox or PlayStation2. Why would you ever want to work again?

Range from $30-$40. - Details here.

Internet Fridge LGE Internet Refrigerator
No home should be without one of these. The Internet refrigerator presents a refined kitchen with a 15.1-inch TFT-LCD TV that, with LG's own digital technology, provides much clearer and brighter pictures than conventional TVs. Also available: Internet microwaves, washing machines and air conditioners.

About $8,000. - Details here.

Samsung TV Samsung HL-P5085W Television
DLP™ TV that is guaranteed to catch your eye whether it's on or off. The new HL-P5085W combines award winning styling with high definition performance. Experiencing the 50 inches of wide-screen viewing area is the only distraction that will draw you away from its unique floor standing pedestal styling.

From $2,600. - Details here.

Sony Cyber-shot Silver Cyber-shot® Digital Camera
1/1.8" 7.2 Megapixel Super HAD™ CCD imager ...3X optical zoom lens with up to 14.0X Smart Zoom™ feature ...Carl Zeiss® Vario-Tessar® lens 1.8" high-resolution LCD monitor1 ...Real Imaging Processor for improved picture quality and camera response.

About $450. - Details here.

One of the least-known new features at Experts Exchange is our new Link Exchange. Our Link Exchange program is beneficial to both sites in a couple ways:

The number of resources available to users on both sites will increase
Site relevance is increased within all major search engines when a site provides links to and from quality resources

If you would like to swap links with EE, just fill out the form at the Link Exchange page.

Nata's Corner: 'Tis the season to be wary

woman in specticals I love this time of year. I should be baking or buying presents, but instead, I'm worrying about all of the horrible things that can happen to people.

I was in a store today, and the owner was telling me about how he hadn't upgraded his adware protection and antivirus software. He just happened to check his bank account -- he was going to pay some bills -- and found that he was short about $6,000. He called the bank, and fortunately, the transactions were stopped before he actually lost the money. But it DOES happen. So I have three items for you this issue.

The latest phishing scam is an offer of a free laptop or other such valuable item. You have to enter a credit card number to pay for the shipping, and the thieves are off and running. Your next bookmark: The Antiphishing Working Group.

Item 2 is that a Maryland judge has ruled state's anti-spam law unconstitutional, not surprising since California and Washington (state) courts ruled the same way. However, in both California and Washington, the rulings were overturned by appellate courts. We'll just have to wait and see how this all plays out.

ZafiD The last item is a note from Sophos that there is a new variant of the Zafi worm spreading disguised as a Christmas greeting. It does all the normal nasty things viruses do, and puts the little smiley figure at left into all your emails.

Have a Merry Christmas...

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Tip for New Members: Be patient -- everyone's busy

It's that time of year, when everyone's rushing around, or entertaining visitors, so Experts might not be spending as much time around the computer, and therefore at Experts Exchange, as they might ordinarily.

The Experts who help you are all volunteers; they spend their time at EE because they enjoy helping others -- not because it's a full-time (or even part-time) job for them. So take a little extra time and thank them when they help you, if only because they could be doing something else.