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it's that time of the year again…

Happy Hanukkah, Happy Yule, Eid Mubaruk, Merry Christmas, Seasons Greetings and Happy Kwanzaa to DaniWeb members everywhere...

are you displaying your DaniWeb badge?

Did you know that all members of the DaniWeb community get a free badge? We call it a Member Certificate and you can choose exactly what you want it to display from a number of available options. Using a simple bit of cut and past code that we supply, your badge can appear on your web page or blog and show the world that you are a proud DaniWeb member. It is also interactive, displaying an automatically updated and refreshed posting count alongside your username, title and avatar. Prefer not to show this information? No problem, just choose one of the badges which display nothing but the DaniWeb logo instead. If someone clicks on whichever badge you have opted for they will arrive at DaniWeb, and if they join the community as a result you get the kudos of introducing them. Visit your member page and you can see exactly how many people have clicked on your member badge and visited DaniWeb as a result.

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read all about it...

Here at DaniWeb we like to think that we have put together a team of staff writers as good as any of the giants of IT news publishing. Indeed, our news team consists of experienced journalists who write for some of the worlds' best known technology magazines, daily newspapers and online publications. Every day we strive to bring you the best in breaking IT news stories and technology related opinion pieces. You can see the results on the newly re-designed DaniWeb front page or by visiting our individual news blogs for archived stories. What you will find, and we say this with no small amount of pride, are articles that not only break the news but also make the news. Perhaps our proudest moment so far was when DaniWeb Admin and Staff Writer, happygeek, put in the investigative journalism work required to break a story about how a number of GPS Satnav devices had become infected with a virus before leaving the factory. His tale of the first satnav to get a virus infection was covered by major news agencies such as Reuters and CNet, as well as technology and motoring publications the world over.

If you have any information that you think would make a good IT news story, why not PM one of our writers to let them know. If it grabs their attention, and the facts back it up, you could help us to make and break the news right here at DaniWeb, the number one IT discussion community on the Web.

every month one member makes the DaniWeb hall of fame…

Please welcome our newest member of the DaniWeb hall of fame, jasimp who is one of our unofficial community greeters, as you can tell if you pop over to the Community Introductions forum where he has posted 977 assorted welcomes to new DaniWeb members. A prolific poster, averaging more than 7 posts a day to take his total up to in excess of 3400, jasimp can also be found in the Posting Games forum, the Geeks' Lounge and the Java forum. We cornered him to find out what makes him tick...

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

I was born in Manchester, New Hampshire but at the age of five I moved 15 minutes south to Nashua, NH, where I have spent the rest of my, albeit short, life living. When I get enough money I plan on moving to New Zealand (I don't know which island yet), and hopefully spend the rest of my life there (I can always hope).

How old are you?

I'm 16 years old, 17 in June; although a five year old brother and six year old sister make it seem a lot younger.

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

As of now I am a student, and probably will be for awhile yet. I also do a little landscaping for neighbors. You know, the usual stuff, mowing, shoveling, weeding, it pays well (12 bucks an hour, sometimes more) and keeps my financial situation pretty well off. In the future I plan on being a teacher, probably Math, maybe computers. Personally I think being paid to program would be better but there is a high demand for teachers, and I enjoy teaching whenever I can. One of the more unusual things I have ever done to make money was... well two things actually. One was smashing aluminum cans when I was ten, the other was scrounging around train tacks to sell the steel I found (when the tracks were repaired they just threw all the old stuff to the side). Naturally I was never able to sell the steel but it was fun while it lasted.

What is your favorite operating system and why?

I don't know...this is a hard choice; Windows due to it compatibility with almost everything and because it is a lot easier to find compatible everything. However Ubuntu is free, and compatible with most of my hardware. My final answer is...Windows. I don’t even consider Mac’s because they are overpriced and over hyped.

What first brought you to DaniWeb?

My first DaniWeb ‘experience’ was when I was interested in Python, and I was looking for code examples to help me learn it. I found the Code Snippet section from a Google search, which led me to the forum and then to vegaseat’s incredibly helpful, Projects for Beginners thread; right then and there decided I wanted to join the community.

What makes you stay here?

I stay here because I really enjoy helping people when I can and it's nice to talk in the Geeks' Lounge, or at least read other people's thoughts and opinions. I rather enjoy the gathering of intelligent people, and DaniWeb has been one of the friendliest of its sort, so I stay.

What is your favorite forum and why?

The Geeks' Lounge would have to be my favorite, due to the people who bombard the technical forums with demands in the guise of a question. The Java forum would be a close second though.

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

I am a very big reader, especially Stephen King. I personally believe he is the greatest author ever. His Dark Tower series is one of the greatest things ever written. John Irving and Pat Conroy, here’s your free advertising as well. Another hobby of mine is photography, just got into that one a few months ago, oh, I can’t forget hiking and skiing. I think everyone should hike Mt. Washington in NH, but then again I think everyone should read too, Crime and Punishment, another great book.

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 moderating team. I hardly ever see spam and things of the such, and their fair attitude about what is right and wrong. I really can’t think of anything to change.

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

I spend more money on books than anything else all year ***collective gasp from the audience***

by Techwriter10

It's been about a week now since the now infamous Motrin ad hit the air waves. It caused a social media firestorm the likes of which the internet might never have seen and that's saying something. If for some reason, you haven't heard, you can go to parenting.amuchbetterway.com and see the ad for yourself along with a couple of comebacks. In fact, there have been many comebacks to this ad. My friend, copywriter extraordinaire Julie Roads, wrote her own ad, then recorded a podcast. Of course the ad was condescending to parents (not just Moms) and it was stupid, but I've been thinking maybe that was by design.

What if the ad agency behind the Motrin ad was counting on social networking to take a condescending message, let it float in the blogosphere, let the Mommy bloggers pick it up and get people talking about Motrin? What if they were operating on the premise that there is no such thing as bad publicity? What's if they were thinking it's easier to apologize afterward? Is it possible? Anything's possible.

What is Viral Marketing?

The idea behind any viral marketing campaign is to get people talking about your product. Motrin has certainly had people talking about their product. It had people analyzing the ad, dissecting the ad, parodying the ad, attacking the ad. You name it and it was there everywhere you looked. It was all over Twitter for about 4 days with people going back and forth. Everyone had an opinion.

One of the running themes in the post-mortem analysis of the ad was that Motrin didn't bother to do any focus groups before releasing the ad into the wilds of the internet. When I saw the apology earlier this week and saw it was from a female VP, I was surprised. You could write it off as a bunch of stupid men, but there were women who were moms in the room and they didn't scream? Something was clearly wrong with this picture.

It's Alright Now, I've Learned My Lessons Well

Last summer JC Penney supposedly released a "risque" viral ad on YouTube "by mistake" then tried to back off from it immediately. It depicted two teens getting ready for a date by timing how fast they could get dressed and undressed and JCPenney thought it linked them to promoting teen sex. I took JC Penney to task in the post JC Penney Fails to Grasp the Value of Viral Marketing because people were talking about JC Penney on the internet, perhaps for the first time ever. My guess is that the lesson from that incident was not lost on Motrin. They learned it very well, or at least the ad agency they hired did. When you figure the ad was timed to coincide with International Baby Wearing Week, it's just another hard-to-believe coincidence surrounding this video. If they didn't know, it just gave it them a little more lift on their social marketing experiment.

I asked a marketing pro if it were possible for this to be contrived and this person thought it was unlikely a drug company would take such a risk. Maybe not, but even if they didn't intend to do this, it was more publicity than Motrin could have ever dreamed of. Remember when you were a teen and blew through your curfew because it was easier to apologize afterward. Motrin might have counted on this too. Maybe this ad was released with malice aforethought. Maybe it was just a stupid and boneheaded move by completely clueless corporation. Either way, it worked out great for them.