The Soap Box

Welcome to this week's issue of the DeveloperShed newsletter. It's been a pretty exciting week for us, as we brought the February 2005 Plug-in through the final polishing stages and made it go live. Be sure to check it out! You'll find links to all of this month's Plug-in articles in this newsletter.

It's funny the way that some programming terms and languages come from nature. For instance, on our sites this week you can learn about a Python that doesn't bite, trees that you can't burn for heat, and even a PIMPL that isn't a sign of a case of acne. Sometimes even company names borrow from nature; Apple is of course the first one that comes to mind, but it's hardly alone.

Is this a symptom of a need for more "nature" in our work? Maybe, and maybe not, but at least it makes for a more colorful...environment.

Until next week,
Terri Wells

Blog Banter

Microsoft: MS to Pirates: We Won't Secure Your Windows No security updates for pirated software.

Open Source: Novell Neglecting its Own Apps for Open Source? Some customers are worried.

SEO: Yahoo Goes from Computers to Cell Phones Get the information where and when you need it.

Old Favorites
		Stump the Crew
		Tips & Tricks

Trees by Mohamed El Dawy, 2005-02-01 -- Learn about some of the applications of trees as data structures. Read the full article here.

File Management in Python by Peyton McCullough, 2005-01-31 -- File management in Python is surprisingly easy, especially when compared to other languages. Read the full article here.

Data Definition Language, Part 2 by Sams Publishing, 2005-01-26 -- This second part of a two-part article will help you test yourself in preparation for the MySQL certification exam. Read the full article here.

Cover Story

11. Apple--The Next Schoolyard Bully? by Anthony Hart. Apple is riding high with the success of iPod...perhaps a little too high. Does the recent Apple-related legal action signal that the beloved company has gotten too big for its britches? Plus, check out our luxurious gadgets, IBM's 500-patent invitation, and more! Read the full article here.

Editor's Corner

02. It All Comes Down to the Personal. by Terri Wells. The term "personal technology" is getting redundant.. Read the full article here.

MS Tech

04. Lucky You! Microsoft Has Sent You an Email! (Think Again). by Eliana Stavrou. Security patches decrease your security when they're not really from Microsoft. Spot the differences and protect yourself. Read the full article here.

Open Source

08. Exploring PHP Documentation -- How to Learn More, Faster. by James Murray. Find what you're looking for quickly in PHP documentation so you can avoid frustration and spend more time developing. Read the full article here.

10. What is Behind IBM's Generosity? by Terri Wells. Big Blue just released 500 patents for the open source community to play with. Are they generous, or what? Read the full article here.

Hardware

13. Luxury Lovin' Gadgets by Anthony Hart. Get a little taste of how the other half lives...and maybe even find a gift for your sweetheart for Valentine's Day. Read the full article here.

Site Promotion

15. Landing Pages: Tighten Them Up for Increased Sales by Wayne Hurlbert. Learn how to make the most of landing pages. Read the full article here.

Web Services

17. Search Engine Spam Rules: As Complicated as the Tax Code? by Tony Wright. What do CPAs and SEOs have in common? Read the full article here.

Extra Feature

19. Starting a Business by Romeo Marquez. Learn from someone else's mistakes and avoid a few battle scars. Read the full article here.

grep this:

21. News from the weird end of the tech spectrum. Comet-smashing spacecraft, dinosaur-eating mammals, and more! Read the full article here.

shutdown -h now:

23. The Dimensions of Disaster by Terri Wells. How do you wrap your mind around the mother of all tsunamis? Read the full article here.

Potpourri

- Developer Resources Links to Related Resources

Implementing a PKI, Part III: Managing Microsoft Certification Services by Eliana Stavrou, 2005-02-01 -- Learn how to manage certification services and avoid security risks. Read the full article here.

Introducing C# and the .NET Framework by Michael Youssef, 2005-01-31 -- Learn what features C# introduces to software developers and how rapidly you can develop software applications for the .NET platform. Read the full article here.

Managed DirectX First Steps: Direct 3D Basics and DirectX vs. GDI+ by Apress Publishing, 2005-01-26 -- Learn how to create graphics using DirectX. Read the full article here.

C++ in Theory: Bridging Your Classes with PIMPLs by J. Nakamura, 2005-02-01 -- Make your header files insensitive to change and avoid massive, time-consuming rebuilds. Read the full article here.

Dynamic Galleries with DOM and CSS by Chris Heilmann, 2005-01-31 -- Learn how to create and maintain a browser-friendly thumbnail gallery. Read the full article here.

Using Proper DOCTYPE to Fix Browser Compatibility Issues by Anthony Hart, 2005-01-26 -- Learn how to avoid the dangers of outdated DOCTYPE, and to make sure your website is compatible with a variety of browsers. Read the full article here.

iRiver H320 by jkabaseball, 2005-02-01 -- Does this MP3 player pack enough features to beat the iPod? Read the full article here.

Arctic Cooling Silentium T2 Review by Mike Mackenzie, 2005-01-31 -- Getting your computer to run quietly and cool involves a bit of work...or maybe it just takes the right case. Read the full article here.

x86-64: The Golden Handcuffs by DMOS, 2005-01-26 -- What does the x86-64 architecture mean to the hardware and development communities? Read the full article here.

Good Old Fashioned Networking by Wayne Hurlbert, 2005-02-01 -- Learn how to reach your customers where they live.Read the full article here.

Your Business, Your Story by Wayne Hurlbert, 2005-01-31 -- Find out how talking about your area of expertise could increase traffic to your website. Read the full article here.

PHP Search Engine Optimization by Roger Stringer, 2005-01-26 -- Learn how to make your dynamic Web pages look friendly to search engine spiders. Read the full article here.

The Web Production Process by Cliff Ritter, 2005-01-28 -- Learn the steps to take when creating a quality website. Read the full article here.

Blogs: Optimizing for Blogger as a Free Blog Host by Wayne Hurlbert, 2004-01-19 -- Learn how a free blog service can benefit those who take advantage of it. Read the full article here.

Configuring Apache -- Intermediate by Michael Swanson, 2005-01-12 -- Learn about serving multiple domains on a single server, authorization, and authentication. Read the full article here.

Internet Direct Mail is Different (2005-01-31) Here are 14 points to remember about Internet direct mail. Read the full article here.

10 Per Click: Do They Know Something We Don't? (2005-01-31) How do companies justify their high pay-per-click ad prices? Read the full article here.

The Marketing Person You Think You Aren't (2005-01-31) Learn about the transition from corporate worker to independent business owner.Read the full article here.

Scripts is dedicated to developer and programming related scripts both commercial and free, and for all OS platforms.

Stump the Crew

Q: "Hi Frank, I am trying to develop an online email application for a client. The main problem is that they want to import their addresses from their Outlook address book. I am hoping that they can export them as a comma separated value (CSV) file and then have ASP read the values into an array to allow the user to choose which database column the exported CSV fields will be submitted to. It sounds good to me in theory, but how can I go about doing it?" - Fergus Davison

Hi Fergus,

Unfortunately, Microsoft Outlook doesn't include built-in abilities to export an address book to a CSV file. Outlook Express does, however, include support for this. Searching around the Microsoft site, I came across a page which does show a workaround for exporting an address book to a CSV file from MS Outlook. You'll certainly be able to export your client's address book into a workable file.

Page address: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/
Q256/8/52.ASP&NoWebContent=1

As for parsing in the CSV file with ASP, Code Avenue has an article that shows how to parse a CSV file and display it in an HTML table. You can definitely build on the code base the provides.

Code Avenue Article:
http://www.codeave.com/asp/code.asp?u_log=101

That's it for this week's edition of Stump The Crew. If you have any questions relating to design, development or marketing that you would like answered, then email me.

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Tips & Tricks: More Email Masking Methods

Last week, we explained one technique for masking your email address to prevent spammers from harvesting it from your website. One of our readers, David Reed, wrote to tell us how he does it.

Thank you David!

If you have a tip you`d like to share, feel free to email us. Your tip might just appear in the next issue of the Developer Shed Weekly Newsletter!