Welcome to the September 2010 DaniWeb Digest

[happygeek]

One of the things that we pride ourselves upon here at DaniWeb HQ is our commitment to being a part of rather than apart from the community. So when we asked you about our news section and the community spoke, we listened and we acted. So from now on you'll spot a few changes as far as the editorial side of DaniWeb is concerned, and we hope you'll agree they are worth making. You told us that you don't want to read news that's already been covered to death all over the Internet, so from now on our team of staff writers will be concentrating on bringing you content that's unique to the DaniWeb community. That means breaking stories first and getting insider information from our sources by way of analysis and comment that you won't find anywhere else. It also means that when you click the new Editorial tab on the DaniWeb home page you will uncover a source of exclusive interviews with the IT people that matter to you the most, in-depth product reviews that allow you to make truly informed purchasing decisions, exclusive tutorial articles to help you get the most from IT be it a coding masterclass or an Internet security primer, and running commentaries from our staff writers attending special industry events that you haven't been invited to or couldn't attend for whatever reason.

As usual, the community side of all of this remains central to what we are doing here at DaniWeb. Which means we are asking you, the community, to suggest inside scoops on hot IT-related news stories you think we should be covering via the Contribute Hot News Tips forum and a staff writer will get in touch to follow it up. What about products you would like to see DaniWeb review? No problem, suggest them or how about reviewing them yourselves? If the review is good enough our Editor-in-Chief will promote it to an official DaniWeb review for the world to see. As for our interviews section, if there is a company or person you think we should be talking to then let us know and suggest some questions you would like us to be getting answers for. We can't promise we'll be able to interview everyone you suggest, but we do promise we will do our best. For example, we were asked to interview Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak a while back and after much behind the scenes activity it looks like that interview will be going ahead around the time you are reading this!

[happygeek]

DaniWeb prides itself on being a friendly community, and like any community we depend upon everyone abiding by certain rules in order to maintain this environment for the good of all members. The nature of these rules tends to evolve over time, and we have recently found it necessary to make some changes. The good news is that the new rules are now much shorter and easier to understand than before, and can be summed up by five simple requirements: Keep It Legal, Keep It Spam-Free, Keep It Pleasant, Keep It Clear and Keep It Organized.

Keep It Legal

• Do ensure you own the intellectual property rights to everything that you post
• Do not post copyright-infringing material
• Do not post pornographic material, nor link to it
• Do not ask about obtaining pirated software, nor link to it
• Do not ask for help to pursue any illegal activity including, but not limited to, hacking and spamming
• Do not pursue any illegal activity within forum posts or by PM

Keep It Spam-Free

• Do ensure that all posts contain relevant content and substance and are not simply vehicles for external links, including signature links
• Do not mention, plug or refer to any product, service, or website you are affiliated with anywhere outside of Business Exchange forums specifically designated for this purpose
• Do not post any affiliate links or links to off-site ecommerce sites or auctions
• Do not sign your posts with 'fake signatures'; Use the signature facility from your control panel

Keep It Pleasant

• Do not post anything with malicious intent against another member, including, but not limited to, racist, sexist or religiously prejudiced remarks
• Do not post insults or personal attacks aimed at another member
• Do not use offensive or obscene language
• Do not try to bypass the DaniWeb inappropriate language filter

Keep it Clear

• Do post in full-sentence English
• Do wrap your programming code blocks within [code] ... [/code] tags
• Do use clear and relevant titles for new threads
• Do not write in all uppercase or use "leet", "txt" or "chatroom" speak

Keep It Organized

• Do read the forum description to ensure it is relevant for your posting
• Do provide evidence of having done some work yourself if posting questions from schoolwork assignments
• Do not hijack old threads by posting a new question as a reply to an old one
• Do not ask anyone (member or moderator) for help by email or PM
• Do not post the same question multiple times
• Do not post support questions in the Community Center
• Do not post articles that you have already published on another website

[happygeek]

The DaniWeb member of the month for July is the unlikely sounding Bariby Quance-Hearn, better known to the DaniWeb community as Lusiphur who has been part of the DaniWeb community since June this year, but has managed to make quite an impression already with his 11 posts per day on average. He is most often to be found helping out in the C# forum and ASP.NET forum but is also something of a fixture in the DaniWeb Community Feedback forum as well as helping us to keep things running smoothly by reporting spammers and the like. So what makes this new DaniWeb member, and DaniWeb sponsor (thanks for your support Lusiphur!) tick?

Where are you from originally, and where do you live now?

I was raised in Toronto, Canada and am currently in Vancouver, Canada. I've been to New Zealand (for three months), Vancouver (for one and a half years), Toronto again (for three years), Calgary, Canada (for two years) and have been back in Vancouver now for just over two years. Who knows where I'll be in three years time but I'm sure it'll be somewhere near the ocean if I'm not still here.

How old are you?

Old enough to start resenting that question! For the next few months at least I'm 31.

What is your current occupation, ever done anything unusual in the past?

Current occupation is 'Job Seeker' although I'm actively seeking a career in programming or IT (hint hint, anyone out there?) Have I ever done anything unusual... hmm... define unusual? I've certainly had a full life with lots of ups and downs but not so sure I want to go into detail on the 'unusual' parts of it.

What is your favorite computer platform?

Well I've always been a PC person, I just don't like the Mac OS's that much and they tend to give some issues in running what I like most (which would be games) or at least they used to. These days they're much better at handling them but I'm jaded now and stick to what I like I've tinkered with Linux in the past but always ended up getting frustrated with software compatibility issues so... as much as I hate to say these words... I'm a Microsoft person.

Thankfully, Windows 7 actually seems to WORK (for a change) and I finally found an OS to switch to from XP Pro in Windows 7.

What first brought you to DaniWeb?

I was working on a personal project at my website and had run into a snag that I just couldn't wrap my head around. After looking for hours for an answer online I stumbled across DaniWeb and figured I'd try asking here. While that first question wasn't actually answered in a way that solved the issue per-se, my first impression of the site was very positive so I figured I'd stay and see if maybe I could lend my knowledge to others who needed it.

What makes you stay here?

While I feel like I fell off the boat lately (with the release of Starcraft II) I still try to pop in to answer questions where I can (and where I don't see other qualified posters answering before I can). I just enjoy the feeling of being able to help people out. So long as they put some effort into it themselves I'm always happy to help others where I can and I get some strange feeling of fulfilment when someone actually says thanks afterwards.

What is your favorite forum and why?

Well... my most posted-in forums would be the C# and ASP.Net forums but... that's just because those are what I know. My favorite forum would actually be a toss-up between the feedback forum and the introductions forum. The feedback forum seems to get some rather intense conversations in it sometimes and the intros are just a genuinely friendly place to be.

What are your interests outside of IT and outside of DaniWeb?

Games and Sci-Fi movies. And did I mention Games? I'm a big fan of PC gaming, ranging from RTS (Real Time Strategy) to MMORPG (World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Final Fantasy XI, etc.) and even Sim type games I just enjoy gaming a LOT. Recently I got immersed in Starcraft II, been waiting 12 years for a follow-up to the original Starcraft and I can definitely sense some influences from 2 of my favourite sci-fi series' in this new game. It's kind of like Babylon 5 meets Firefly/Serenity

Name the best thing about DaniWeb?

I'd have to say that the best thing I've seen so far of DaniWeb is between the moderation team and the 'veteran' posters. The mods do a pretty effective job of quickly dealing with those occasional idiots that appear? The 'veteran' posters (by which I mean those who post regularly and with legitimately helpful intentions) are the lifeblood of this site. Both of these factors played a big part in my decision to be a part of this community in the first place.

Any fascinating facts about yourself that you would like to share with the DaniWeb community?

Nah, I'm a boring person.