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December 24, 2008 - Merry Christmas >>

What's New at Experts Exchange
Features, Moderators and Geniuses

Cut Your IT Costs with a Corporate Account
Get more out of your technology

Yes, Virginia, He's Still Around
Revisiting a classic; read it to your kids

Holiday Shopping Guide II
More toys are here, here, here, here, and here.

More News and Notes
No "one more thing" no more

Nata's Corner
Tidbits I've been meaning to mention

New Certificates
New certificate holders, through December 21

Tips From The Moderators
Getting ready for the new year

What's New at Experts Exchange

Tag Clouds: Tag Clouds have now been added to the zone pages on the zone pages. This gives members an alternate way to navigate through the site and narrow searches. With the launch of the tag clouds we also added the ability to "add tags" to a question on the question page and also "narrow results by tag" on the EE search page.

Cleanup: Since sometime in 2002, the Moderators have enlisted the services of dozens of members in helping close old, abandoned questions, making sure that the Experts are rewarded for their efforts. As part of that process, boomod built a couple of tools to help automate the various steps, and has maintained them since. As of last week, Experts Exchange has integrated the cleanup process into the site (if you would like to participate, please contact AnnieMod or write to the Moderators), so we will be retiring the tools in the near future. In the meantime, a special shout-out to boomod, without whose work our task would have been immeasurably more difficult.

New Corporate Account terms: Experts Exchange has started accepting checks and purchase orders for corporate accounts. For more information, please contact the customer service department.

New Moderator: ModernMatt is the newest member of the team of Moderators at Experts Exchange. Welcome aboard!

New Genius: ChiefIT is the twelfth day of Chr... er... the twelfth member of Experts Exchange to earn a Genius certificate in Windows 2003 Server. Congratulations!

Milestones:

• angelIII went over 26,000,000 points in his career at Experts Exchange. He also become the third member to have more than 2,000,000 points in each of four zones.
• mlmcc has earned 9,000,000 points overall.
• SysExpert has reached 6,000,000 points overall.
• LeeTutor is the 41st member to reach 5,000,000 points overall.
• LSMConsulting has earned 4,000,000 points in the Microsoft Access zone.

Kudos: Many companies will take the occasion of their annual holiday festivities to celebrate the achievements of their employees. At the one held by mbizup's company, she was due -- after taking time out to raise her children -- to receive her 10-year award, even though it has been her only employer since 1989. She was gratified almost as much by the information posted about her: "My supervisor has always seen the value of answering and reading questions on Experts Exchange as a form of cheap education, and has been encouraging me to do so between tasks at work. Even so, I was not expecting to see the few sentences about my participation and rank at EE that my company had included in my profile on the service awards display board. It was a nice surprise." Thanks for letting us know, Miriam; they cannot appreciate you more than we do.

ficose's question about spam being generated on a client's server got a response from kieran_b in a matter of minutes, and a solution in under three hours. His appreciation shows in both the comment he posted after the fact ("This is the first time I have asked a question and was blown away by the quick response. I definitely will not struggle for a week by myself again with a problem.") and when he closed the question: "I have been fighting with this for over a week now and deleted over 1/2 million emails from the queue (and that takes hours!). This is a customer's server so I have spent a lot of time remotely controlling their server as the email system would overload and lock up. I now wish I had logged a question sooner."

dacIT was looking for some advice on a 3-server setup, and received it from leew, who not only guided him through his options, but gave him a short course on virtualization as well. For dacIT, it was just what the doctor ordered: "Not only was this a great help, but the follow up was terrific. Thanks!"

Mea culpa: The last two issues of the newsletter have had lists of certificate awardees, but those lists were significantly affected by the problems the site has had with the zone and member rankings. To that end, we're publishing an accurate list that covers the past six weeks.

Cleanup Volunteers: Below is a table of the CVs who have helped us close questions recently, with their cumulative total of questions closed along with their production through December 16, when we started using the new tool. We'll have all new numbers beginning in January.

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Cut Your IT Costs with a Corporate Account

In theory, technology should make your business run smoother, more efficiently and reduce costs. In practice though, getting hung up on your Exchange Server setup can wound your ROI and turn your technology into a sunk cost.

An Experts Exchange Corporate Account is a perfect way for your business to ensure that your technology contributes positively to your bottom line. Starting at $449 for a 5 license small workgroup, you can support your business for an entire year for less than it costs to hire one consultant for one day.

More than 900 organizations, including Microsoft, IBM, Intel and eBay, have already reduced their IT costs. What are you waiting for?

>> Create Corporate Account
>> Learn More

Tips From the Moderators

We want to take this space to offer our thanks to everyone who has helped us out this year: the Zone Advisors, the Cleanup Volunteers, the customer service staff at EE -- Chris, Matt, Dani, Kristyn, Kari, and Mayra -- without whose support and assistance we would be frequently lost; and of course, Danae and Katie, whose tireless work (and invariably cheerful demeanor) at getting bugs logged, tracked and fixed should be celebrated by everyone.

But most of all, we want to thank, and wish the best of holidays and new years to you -- the members of Experts Exchange. Your prompt responses to our requests for help for Askers, your unceasing support for what we try to do, and your frequent kind words for our efforts on your behalf make the job of moderating the Internet's best technical help website a lot easier.

So when you're making your holiday toasts, include yourself, on us. We'll be looking forward to seeing you in 2009.

Oh... and Vee_Mod asked us to make one final request of you: How about closing your open questions before you celebrate a little too much...

Robotic Flutist
My sister will go nuts -- all those years taking music lessons. If the guys at MIT are impressed, then you know there's a market for this baby, and we're betting it's a lot more patient than most music teachers. It's in development still, but it can play Flight of the Bumblebee without sheet music -- can you?

Last year, it was the Eye Cyclops; this year, these folks have come up with night vision goggles that have a range of about fifty feet. I'm getting a pair for my mother's next trip to Yosemite. The goggles run about $70 at WalMart.

Cut Your IT Costs with a Corporate Account

In theory, technology should make your business run smoother, more efficiently and reduce costs. In practice though, getting hung up on your Exchange Server setup can wound your ROI and turn your technology into a sunk cost.

An Experts Exchange Corporate Account is a perfect way for your business to ensure that your technology contributes positively to your bottom line. Starting at $449 for a 5 license small workgroup, you can support your business for an entire year for less than it costs to hire one consultant for one day.

Create Corporate Account
Learn More

More than 900 organizations, including Microsoft, IBM, Intel and eBay, have already reduced their IT costs. Take a look at 20 of our newest corporate clients:

Progreso
Bayfront Medical Center
Idaho Department of Labor
Randall Group, Inc.
Expro International Group Ltd.
Commerce CRG
PBM Graphics
Babcock & Wilcox Company
Genesys Telecommunications Lab
TYBRIN Corporation

OM Ships International
Systems Consulting Group, Inc
VML Insurance
Edwards Air Force Base
Jefferson Regional Medical Center
Harvard Business School
Ness Technologies India Private Limited
Safety National Casualty Corporation
Lytron, Inc.
Select Portolio Servicing

Create Corporate Account
Learn More

Milwaukee Tool M12 M-Spector Digital Inspection Camera
Everyone has a brother-in-law who loves gimmicky tools that come with something free as a bonus; this comes with a free cordless drill if you buy it (about $250) at Home Depot.

19-in-1 Microtool
No holiday list would be complete without something from ThinkGeek, so we picked this as an excuse to let you browse. All the goodies: screwdrivers, pliers, a bottle opener, and it can double as a keyring -- but don't try to get it past the TSA.

Blackberry Storm
Computer101 loves his Blackberry. The Big Guy loves his. Even the President-elect uses one. So far, we have managed to not really need one, but if someone out there wants to give us one, we probably wouldn't turn it down. At $200 and another 2-year contract, I'm not going to hold my breath.

Yes, Virginia, He's Still Around

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

Long, long ago, my third-grade teacher had her class draw pictures depicting what we wanted to be when we "grew up"; there are a few people who will tell you that there are times when they think I will do that sooner or later. My picture showed me sitting with my hands poised over a typewriter -- no comments from the peanut gallery, please -- doing what I was eventually lucky enough to get paid to do for most of my life.

But alas, not everyone who writes gets the chance to come up with just the right combination of words, sentences and paragraphs that capture the imagination and hold it for more than the briefest of times, let alone generations. I've had a few moments, but there aren't many like the words written by Francis Pharcellus Church, who wrote this in 1897 for the long-defunct New York Sun.

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:

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
115 West Ninety-Fifth Street

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what 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.

And yes, there really was a Virginia. In keeping with Mr Church's sentiments, we wish you all the best of holidays.

Embody Chair
Over the years that we have been working, we've spent a lot of time in chairs -- most of which have made us feel like it might have been prudent to consider a vocation that required standing. Until, that is, we started reading about this one. If it's half as good as it sounds, it's worth the $1,600.

Espresso machine
At the sale price of $1200, this bad boy had better make a good cup of coffee. The blurb says "The zero-energy switch ensures that the ENA 5 consumes no stand-by energy"; does that mean it has an on-off switch? The good news is that you can use the used grounds to make diesel fuel (thanks, Susan!).

More News and Notes

No "one more thing" no more: Apple has told the organizers of MacWorld -- the annual post New Year's party held by the faithful in San Francisco -- that this year is its last as an exhibitor, and that Steve Jobs won't be there. Oh... and the "one more thing" that will be announced? Best guess is a netbook.

Reach out and iTouch someone: If this works, or even this, I've got the coolest phone going -- without having to go through AT&T. Speaking of reaching out to get your attention, the Give One Get One computer folks have some pretty edgy commercials out that are anything but touchy-feely.

Bad news and good news: A "computer glitch" has kept the widows of hundreds of thousands of veterans from receiving benefits they were entitled to, and even caused some to have their bank accounts seized by the federal government. The good news is that they should start getting the money in February, after the current administrators, who haven't been able to fix the problem, get replaced.

Bad news and good news II: The shutdown of McColo a few weeks back has cut down on fraud, but the dent that was put into spamming has all but disappeared; spam levels are back to "normal". Grand.

Why I won't be giving anyone a Wii for Christmas: Ooops. Between that site, Fail Blog and Pundit Kitchen (thanks, Kieran!), those days in between Christmas and New Year's will pass more quickly.

"All I Want For Christmas Is A Senate Seat": It only took hours after Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested on corruption charges, including a plot to sell President-elect Barack Obama's US Senate seat, for ads to start appearing on eBay and Craigslist. Most of the good ones from eBay had been taken down (they were to benefit the Salvation Army and Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, respectively). The ones that got us chuckling were the people who think someone will pay thousands of dollars for variations of the domain name BarackObamaSenateSeat.com/net -- but we'll give one guy credit for his Photoshop skills.

Putting her money where her mouth is: Internet Evolution has a fascinating interview with Esther Dyson, who has reported on, and now invests in startups. Our favorite quote, in response to a question about whether "badware" can be stopped: "Not unless you kill all the humans. [laughs] There are lots of badware that exploit loopholes, and in the end, a loophole is human behavior... There are certainly technological fixes for these traditional loopholes, but in the end, no... Badware can't be stopped, and you can at least give these guys a challenge." There's also Christian Science Monitor interview with Ethan Zuckerman that has some interesting things to say about how the Internet isn't being used.

All the news that's fit to hide from a billion people: The New York Times website is now being blocked by the Chinese government. There's an editorial comment in there just crying to get out, but we'll let it slide.

Listing ever so slightly: We're going to try to resist lists this year, unless we think they're something really worth seeing. Lifehacker had one such list of lists that included a list of Google tricks and geek pranks. Speaking of listing (as in the Titanic), it's not a good time to build a social networking site.

Yah-uh-ohhh: The ongoing high-tech train wreck that is Yahoo just won't stay out of the news; we keep giving you tidbits because we can't help but think there are lessons to be learned -- or maybe the moon will fall out of the sky. As everyone knew, 1,520 "Yahoos" are out of work, including Flickr's chief designer, with pink slips accompanied by one of J jerry Y yang's shift-key unfettered memos. More than a few people think they're better off, and none of them are sending in resumes for the CEO's job -- all of which is making Time-Warner annoyed. Just another day in Paradise.

It's a start: Delta Airlines is going to start offering in-flight Internet access on a few of its shuttle routes. Also, the recording industry is apparently going to stop suing 12-year-olds. Instead, the RIAA is going to try intimidating ISPs.

Maybe if we keep saying it over and over, it will appear magically so we don't have to actually do any work: The department of homeland security still doesn't have a "cyber-crisis" plan. We're betting that a dozen Experts with laptops and a wireless connection in a hotel bar could come up with one.

Fixing the toob: Marshall McLuhan made the point about TV decades ago: for the most part, it's a passive medium in which creativity is shoved down your throat. That's changing for some children in Minneapolis, MN, where a teacher is using video editing to teach children to express themselves.

Signs of the Apocalypse: Dell is going to start charging customers who don't want to talk to a call center, and Sacramento, CA is is taxing texters. But we don't quite know what to think about Aiko.

Wooden Keyboard
Last year, everyone was hyping the steampunk keyboard -- there's even an ergonomic one if you don't want to build your own -- but at $650, the relative serenity of wood is more our style. We just shudder to think of what would happen to it in this environment.

Infinitely Popping Bubble Wrap
You know you want this. You know that looking out of the office window, musing about the next big thing while absently popping bubble wrap is the sure path to being the next Sergey and Larry. And it's only $9.

Annoy-a-tron 2.0
Also known as "Parents' Revenge", this is the gadget that emits a mosquito-like buzz that teenagers can hear, but adults can't. The upgraded version plays six sounds (including the ubiquitous computer beep) and has a volume control. $13.

Nata's Corner

It's not easy being motivated this time of year -- so many distractions -- but since I managed to get virtually all of my holiday shopping done before Thanksgiving, I figured I would clean out some of the notes I've gotten, including those sent to me by the editor.

At the top of the list is a warning that you should consider using something other than Internet Explorer. Microsoft pushed an emergency patch on Wednesday -- but it's either get it installed or risk having any number of very nasty trojans on your computer.

From jimpen (thanks, Jim!) comes word that Acer is offering a netbook through Radio Shack for $99, which sounds like a bargain until you remember that you have to pay AT&T around $1,400 in order to use it. All in all, the laptops WalMart is selling sounds like a better deal. Still, if you're going to pay the money for the wireless data plan anyway, it might be easier than lugging your laptop through airports.

The Miami Herald has a list of the kinds of things we will probably all need in a week or so after all the holiday festivities: high tech fitness gadgets. Okay, so that's Miami. Where it's flat and warm.

OpenDNS is a content-filtering system that doubles as a backup system in case your ISP's DNS system goes down. It's free for home users; given that we are fairly frequently having... issues... with our service, I'm looking at it very seriously, but I think most of our problems have to do with old wires.

The Center for Democracy and Technology has a great list of tips on how to protect your privacy when surfing the web. While you're at it, even if you don't always understand the things they're talking about, the FireEye blog is fascinating, as you watch these guys go after the hosting services of botnets.

A few more lists of places to order those ... ummm ... "New Year's gifts" in case there's someone you forgot to get something for:

• I would never suggest that you use some site other than EE to get information on how to do basic things with your computer, but WorldStart does have some neat -- and inexpensive -- stuff in their store.
• ABC News has ten gadgets under $150. Some are actually worth thinking about.
• The Boston Globe says that the best Christmas deals are going to be found by looking at last year's hot items, rather than spending top dollar this year.
• ESPN has the ultimate gift guide for sports fans, along with some clunklers for NFL fans.

• Technology Review has some last minute gifts. Please feel free to send us a $2,500 11-inch television.
• For all of you "look for bargains after the holidays" types who wind up waiting until several months down the road, you can take a look at some of the stuff that will be shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.

Takaratomy AeroSpider Zero Gravity Remote Controlled Car
The name of this alone is incentive enough to say when someone asks you what you want. Just think of the mischief when combined with the Annoy-a-tron -- the possibilties are astounding. $80.

I just hope my wife doesn't see this. She's never had any real need for 8gb of portable storage; we have several flash drives floating around. But combine 8gb with 18 carat gold and one carat of diamonds... [shudder]. Even the site says it's ridiculous. At just under $12,800, I'd say.

New Certificates