keeping the community informed…

DaniWeb is proud to announce that we have now exceeded the half a million members landmark, with more than 505,000 people joining the DaniWeb community. Here's looking forward to the next half a million!

and in with the new, homepage that is...

Yes, as you have probably noticed, Dani the Queen of DaniWeb has been burning the midnight oil again and the result is a brand new and improved look to the DaniWeb homepage. The new design retains a familiar DaniWeb feel while at the same time making the site more user friendly. One of the main problems that we had was that it's all but impossible to fill a homepage with stuff that would cater for everyone who comes to DaniWeb, as our community is so diverse. Dani therefore came up with the idea to create a custom-tailored homepage for every member which uses some clever coding in order to present you with the kind of content you are actually interested in, no matter who you are and what those interests might be. There is even a customized forum index in the sidebar which can act as a quick link to your favorite forums, or at least the ones where you are most active. Be sure to let us know what you think in the Community Feedback forum.

our pick of the best tech pranks online...

Although April 1st has been and gone, we thought it might be fun to compile a top ten of the best tech related April Fools' Day pranks from this year just in case you missed some of them.

We have to start with our very own Ken Hess who kicked things off just after midnight with a spoof news story claiming that IBM had bought Linus Torvalds and would be using him for advertising purposes.

Google got in on the April Fool act with CADIE, or the Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity which it said was a Google labs developed "global-scale neuro-evolutionary learning cluster." In other words an artificial intelligence system that did everything from turn the Google Chrome browser into a 3D application to providing automatic replies for all your Gmail email.

Sticking with Google, it also flipped all the video clips on YouTube upside down for the day.

Meanwhile, Palm told us it was releasing the PomaGranate phone which would be an all-in-one device complete with a harmonica and global voice translation capability.

Travel stories appeared online, with Hotels.com offering trips to the moon and Expedia going that little bit further with cheap trips to Mars.

Security company ElcomSoft put out a press release claiming to have developed the first supernatural amulet that could recover passwords, called the tambourine. "The new tambourine is produced with genuine deer skin and requires training supervised by a qualified Yakutsk shaman" it said.

Online retailer Firebox also had a new product on offer for April 1st, a pair of GPS Sat Nav shoes that would help you get from A to B.

The Opera web browser folk insisted that the software client would be adding facial gesture recognition as a navigational device, and even produced an instructional video to help you use it.

Microsoft reckoned that a new Xbox 360 game called 'Alpine Legend' would involve players having to yodel through a mountain village to record a yodelling record and finally compete in an online 'live' yodel competition.

But I think the funniest prank of the day probably went to The Guardian, a British newspaper with a history stretching back over 100 years, which declared it was scrapping the print version of the newspaper and going Twitter only. There were even some examples of stories from the archive which had already been converted for the Twitter 140 character limit, such as: "1927 OMG first successful transatlantic air flight wow, pretty cool! Boring day otherwise *sigh*"

profiling deserving members of the DaniWeb community...

Please welcome our newest member of the DaniWeb hall of fame, iamthwee who has been a member of the DaniWeb community since joining way back in August 2005.

During those years he has proved himself to be both a knowledgeable and helpful member with some 5000 posts and more than 500 Community Reputation Points. However, iamthwee has also earned a reputation as something of a joker in the pack. A quick peek at his profile is all you need for proof: "From a very early age I was recognised by my contemporaries as an unparalleled genius. By the age of two I was sipping champagne with aristocracy and comparing notes with Stephen Hawking regarding the theory of Black Holes. (He was wrong by the way.)"

We tried to get him to keep a straight face while answering our questions, here is how we got on.

Where do you live and how old are you?

"I was born in the UK and have lived here all my life."

How old are you?

"19 and a half."

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

"Studying modern History. I find history fascinating. I haven't done anything unusual in the past. Well not that I can remember anyway."

What is your favorite computer and why?

"My Windows XP laptop. It does everything that I need, and has more choice when it comes to good quality programs."

What first brought you to DaniWeb?

"I needed help on my Java assignments. I was pretty much clueless."

What makes you stay here?

"It's interesting to learn different things and learn from others."

What is your favorite forum and why?

"I spend most time in the C++ forum although I have posted across multiple forums."

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

"I love music, art and socialising."

Name the best thing about DaniWeb.

"It's free and everyone is friendly and helpful."

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

"I'm quite bashful and prefer to help behind the scenes."