keeping the community informed...

Neither Dani nor Davey has had much sleep this past month, courtesy of the admin team working overtime to ensure that DaniWeb remains simply the best it can be. To this end Dani has introduced the new Job Offers section that can be accessed directly from the category sidebar on the right of the screen. This not only brings together all the most recent position vacant postings in the fields of software and web development, Internet marketing and consultancy on one page. But also lists those job offers, by category and in most recently posted order for your convenience. Finally, there is even an opportunity for members to advertise jobs here in a prominent banner advert format. Look closely and you will see that we at DaniWeb have Staff Writer vacancies for bloggers right now.

Davey, meanwhile, has been burning the candle at both ends to breathe new life into the DaniWeb Tutorials section. The first thing that you will notice is that there are now a lot less postings here, and the reason is a simple one: quality over quantity. As part of our ongoing effort to ensure the highest possible quality of content at DaniWeb, only the very best tutorials have survived. Every tutorial you will find here is of sufficient quality that it would not be out of place in a magazine or book. That is the standard we strive for, because that is the standard you expect. Please do check them out, we hope you will agree that the new layout makes the tutorials much easier to read, and consequently the knowledge much easier to absorb.

Your feedback regarding both the Job Offers and Tutorials sections is, as always, greatly appreciated in the DaniWeb Community Feedback forum.

welcome to the latest addition to the DaniWeb team

We are always on the lookout for great writers here at DaniWeb, and the first of our new Staff Writer appointments can now be confirmed as joeprogrammer. This should come as no great surprise; after all it was joeprogrammer who won our year end blogging competition as reported in the Digest last month. We felt that the quality of his Right On – What IT Really Is blog was so high that DaniWeb would be a much better place if we could ensure a regular dose of postings. So we did the right thing and brought joeprogrammer onto the DaniWeb staff, and you will now be able to read about the world of IT through his eyes on pretty much a daily basis.

have you played the word association game yet?

DaniWeb is home to many different people covering many different IT disciplines, but one place where everyone can hang out together and participate in the same threads is our Geek’s Lounge forum. This is the place to kick back, chat about off-topic, not-IT stuff and just enjoy the company of other DaniWeb members. Oh, and it is also the place to play games. Indeed, the hottest thread in the Geek’s Lounge is the Word Association Game which has been running since Feb 2003 and, at the time of going to press, has enjoyed 5500 replies and been viewed 147,500 times. They say that the simple ideas are the best, and you do not get much simpler than posting the first word that comes into your head when you read the one on screen. Go on, drop in and add your word but be warned, it really is hugely addictive.

every month one member makes the DaniWeb hall of fame

This month we welcome ~s.o.s~ to the ‘Member of the Month’ section, and award him his ‘Featured Poster’ badge as a result of his excellent contributions to DaniWeb, in particular with regard to his contributions in the C and C++ as well as Geek’s Lounge forums.

~s.o.s~ joined DaniWeb in June 2006 and has clocked up more than 4000 postings at an average rate of 16 every single day. We interviewed the fifth most prolific poster on DaniWeb ever, and moderator of the IT Careers and Business, Microsoft Windows, Site Management, and Software Development forums to find out a bit more about him.


How old are you?

I guess I am old enough to address most of the members as "Kids". But seriously I don't think that my age would help anyone in knowing me better, so I guess we are better off without it.

Whereabouts in India do you come from?

I was born and brought up in Mumbai, a metropolitan city, also called by some as the financial capital of India. I am really glad that I live at a place which satisfies my ever growing hunger for technology along with providing all that is required for living an interesting life...

What are your interests outside of IT?

Anything that involves computers interests me. I normally prefer spending my time doing something constructive like reading good books (technical), keeping in touch with the latest technological developments, solving puzzles etc. And if I manage to squeeze in a bit more time, I like listening to music, playing RPG's and the best thing ever "watching anime" (which are far from being constructive)

What brought you to DaniWeb originally?

Well actually, an innocent Google search for helping out a beginner on another forum, brought me to Daniweb. It looked different from other forums, I signed in instantly. Before I start contributing to any forum, I generally post a innocent question to see the helpfulness the forum has to offer and also note the attitude of the members there. The replies which I got were pleasing and friendly, so I began contributing here. From that point, there was no looking back.

What made you stay here?

I have always liked helping deserving and inquisitive beginners who have just jumped on the programming bandwagon and are struggling to get a firm foothold. I don't want them to go through the same struggle as I and many others have gone through to find the information which we needed. Also I have got pretty good friends on the moderation staff (Wolfpack, WaltP, Ancient Dragon, Salem, goldeagle2005, jwenting..) as well as the regular members (joeprogrammer, infarction, chaky, mattyd, iamthwee...). And considering that DaniWeb is an ever growing community, it really makes me feel good that I am contributing to it in my own way.

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

The best thing about DaniWeb is the friendly atmosphere and the well mannered and forgiving crowd. Go to some other forums and you will find that unless you know what you are talking about, you either get flamed real bad or suffer rep death. (-ve rep till your rep icon turns all red). To the best of my knowledge, such is not the case with DaniWeb.

Oh and if I wanted to change something about DaniWeb, I would add PM notifications when someone comments on the tutorials and code snippets contributed by me...

What is your occupation?

I have got a Bachelors degree in Computer Science and am currently working as a full time Software Engineer at a reputed multi-national software development company. My work normally deals with software development using Oracle and Java.
And if I were to get a chance, I would be really interested in getting involved with Research and Development in the fields of AI and Computer Graphics.

What is your main programming interest - what code excites you the most and why?

Being interested in game development and the likes, I had created a FPS game in my college days using a third party graphics engine which was a big hit there. But since game development jobs are sparse in our country and they don't generate the requisite revenue, I had to jump on the outsourcing bandwagon. But yeah, anything related to graphics, game programming and AI excites me.

Talking about languages, I like C and C++ the most because of their flexibility and the power they pack. But since application development time using C++ is much more than Java, C# and its likes, I don't get to use it a lot in my day to day life.

Why the Rebellion Revamped sign off?

Oh, this is to spread the message that whatever challenges life throws at you, just deal them like a rebel for a cause i.e. never give up. And every time you feel downcast, try to rise up to the challenge, revamp your spirit. "Rebellion Revamped" means I have accepted the challenges and will try to rise up to the expectations of the people for whom I care.

You are one of the most prolific posters on DaniWeb, what motivates you?

The environment and the people here motivate me. Lets say that DaniWeb makes up for my daily dose of enjoyment. This is the only forum where I socialize whenever possible along with rendering help to people in need.

How long do you spend, on average, on DaniWeb every day?

It all depends on my work schedule. Under normal circumstances, I spend around 4 - 5 hrs on DaniWeb. If I am on a tight schedule or up against a project deadline, I try to at least complete my moderation duties by logging in for at least 30 minutes. I joined DaniWeb somewhere around June 2006 and currently have made around 4.5K posts and lots of friends. So I guess I am very much involved with DaniWeb and the people here.

There are two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there was much less competition.

by happygeek

Security specialists Sophos has released a warning regarding the inevitable malware posing as a message of love on this, Valentine’s Day. The Dref-AB worm is said by Sophos to be spreading fast across the Internet, helped by a clever distribution campaign which saw it emailed to inboxes late last night so that unsuspecting office workers and home users alike would find it waiting for them first thing this morning. Needless to say, the con worked and since midnight GMT the Dref-AB worm has accounted for an astonishing 76.4 percent of all malware coming through the Sophos global network of virus monitoring stations.

Although the subject lines being used in the attack email are varied, as usual, the romantic theme remains throughout. Some examples that Sophos has seen include:

• A Valentine Love Song
  
• Be My Valentine
  
• Fly Away Valentine
  
• For My Valentine
  
• Happy Valentine's Day
  
• My Lucky Valentine
  
• My Valentine
  
• My Valentine Heart
  
• My Valentine Sunshine
  
• Send Love On Valentines
  
• The Valentine Love Bug
  
• The Valentines Angel
  
• Valentine's Love
  
• Valentine's Night
  
• Valentine Letter
  
• Valentine Love Song
  
• Valentine Sweetie
  
• Valentines Day Dance
  
• Valentines Day is here again
  
• Your Love on Valentine's

Look out for files called flash postcard.exe, greeting postcard.exe, greeting card.exe, or postcard.exe which are attached to the email and carry the worm payload itself. Again, exactly the kind of files the unsuspecting romantic fool would be expecting to get on today of all days. Sophos believes that the worm code is designed to download further malicious code from the Internet in an attempt to take over the PC, convert it into part of a zombie network, and use it to send spam on behalf of hacking gangs.

"This new Valentine attack is spreading hard and fast across the net, accounting for over three quarters of all the malware we've seen at email gateways around the globe since February 14 began," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "People will be truly love sick if they let the virus run on their PC."