Welcome to the December 2010 DaniWeb Digest

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Seasonal gifts for geeks

If you have been wondering just what to buy that special geek in your life this holiday season, even if that geek is yourself, then DaniWeb just might be able to help. No, we haven't started selling stuff but we have been getting our hands on the must have technology, having a play and then reporting back with what we think.

According to the latest research the most wanted technology amongst kids this year is an iPad, but what are the alternatives? DaniWeb has got hands-on with no less than FIVE Android-powered tablets: the Archos 101, Next 7", Samsung Galaxy Tab, Toshiba Folio 100 and ViewSonic ViewPad 10. You can read the ultimate Android tablet round-up here. Or maybe you fancy something a little less expensive but just as useful, something like a wireless and solar-powered keyboard perhaps? You can read the DaniWeb review of the Logitech K750 keyboard here. If you are feeling really lazy there's a 'universal' remote that can even control your Sony PS3 games console, as well as your other home entertainment tech. You can read our One-For-All SmartControl PS3 review here. Sticking with the gaming geek for a moment, who doesn't want a Microsoft Xbox Kinect controller? The future of gaming has just changed forever, and you can read about the hardware and the games in the DaniWeb Microsoft Kinect review here. Finally, our Editor-in-Chief has put together a 2010 Holiday Season Wish List here which includes a look at the Polk Audio HitMaster, Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 Ultra 3D, Dyson AM01 10" Fan, AVATAR Extended Collector's Edition on Blu-ray, The Peregrine Glove and Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router. So why not pop along and take a look? Happy Holidays!

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Although the vast majority of questions that get posted to DaniWeb get quickly answered by the experts that comprise our enthusiastic community, there are always some that either stump them or get overlooked for whatever reason. Which is where you come in, as we ask the wider community for help in solving those unsolved threads. This month we have the following questions which are just begging for someone to come along and provide the answers, and that someone could be you!

DaniWeb member petercpwong asks in the JavaScript/HTML/AJAX forum about using XMLHttpRequest (XHR) to upload an image: "I was just wondering if it was possible to upload an image using XHR rather than a hidden iframe? If so, do all modern browsers support it?"

DaniWeb member theweirdone asks in the Python forum about using a Mac hard drive in a Windows computer: "I was trying to use my friends hard drive the other day, but my Windows computer would not recognize it because it was in a Mac file format. I'm now trying to create a program (simple cli), pretty much a file folder, but that would be able to read (and eventually copy from) Mac and Linux file formatted drives as well. I'm still at the starting stages (I'm still a newbie) and I've been looking around the web trying to find a way to simply look at the drives connected to the computer. So far, the only way I've found to do it is to use WMI. The thing is, if I use WMI, will I still be able to read file formats that windows does not recognize? If there are any other ways that anyone can think of to do this, I would be very grateful."

DaniWeb member mullinyu asks in the VB.NET forum about a DataSet ReadXML query: "I'm using DataSet ReadXML() method to load XML files of records different tables, and all are working fine. But, I would like to have the exceptional handling that in case there are records in XML files with a problem, e.g. invalid data format or exceed column width and etc, it will skip those records and continue loading remaining XML records into DataSet. Any ideas?"

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The DaniWeb member of the month for November is SgtMe who joined our community in October 2009 and since then has risen to a rank of 189 out of 860,000 members by post count and 581 by reputation. When it comes to being a highly active member of DaniWeb, though, there aren't many more so than Andre who is ranked number five by activity points at the time of writing. If you want to catch up with SgtMe you are most likely to find him contributing in the Posting Games, C++ and Python forums, but in the meantime let's find out what makes him tick:

Where are you from?

"I was born in Kent, South-East England, where I have lived for my whole life so far."

How old are you?

"I am 14 years old! I guess I have a lot ahead of me!"

What is your favorite OS and why?

"My favourite OS would probably be Mac OSX Snow Leopard. Even though I don't own a Mac (too expensive for me) I have got to use several. I just love the smooth, sophisticated look - and the lack of viruses. I currently using Windows 7 Home-Premium, which is fantastic, but I don't believe that it is as good as OSX."

What first brought you to DaniWeb?

"I have been an avid gamer since the age of 6, and, being in the 21st century, I have come into contact with a lot of technology. By the age of 11, I was much more interested in games and technology. I started out by using Game Maker, but I moved onto programming with C++ about 6 months later. I joined DaniWeb so that I could get help with any problems I encountered and would hopefully be able to solve other peoples' problems in the future."

What makes you stay here?

"What made me stay here was the sheer knowledge contained by the huge number of users. Simply the fact that people would help me out very quickly, and would offer their best advice and knowledge. The warmth and friendship of the members here made stay as well. I don't think that there's another forum like DaniWeb that has those properties."

What is your favorite forum and why?

"I think that my favourite forum would probably be the C++ forum here. It's got a large number of people with extensive knowledge who can help resolve issues, there are plenty of threads and C++ is something that I have some knowledge about, so I can help out other people, which is the main thing I try to do here."

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

"I don't have many interests outside of IT. I guess my main passion is music. I listen to music everywhere I go (particularly metal and the inclusive sub-genres!), and I like to play as well! I was learning Piano (now given up), but I have recently started to learn playing electric guitar. I also love being around my friends as we always have a good laugh."

Name the best thing about DaniWeb, and one thing you would change if it were in your power?

"I think that the best thing about DaniWeb is the number of users; we all have so much to contribute. One thing to change...I'm not sure if I would change anything too important, as the site is brilliant as it is. If I changed one thing, it would be either a way of making sure people upvoted posts and marked threads as solved, or an automatic 'code tag' device!"