November 16, 2006  

Welcome to another issue of the Developer Shed newsletter! We have an extra treat for you this week. If you've ever tried to host a meeting where some or all of the participants can't be gathered around the same conference table, you know how much of a hassle that can be. GoToMeeting offers a web-based application that can take a lot of the hassle out of these kinds of meetings - and if you're curious about how it works, we have an instructional video on our site! Just point your browser to our GoToMeeting Tutorial, and see how easily you can conduct your next video conference or conference call.

Of course, we still have everything you expect from us this week. On Dev Shed, Alejandro Gervasio finishes his series on the chain of responsibility pattern, and Leidago finishes his series on creating a PHP email application. On ASP Free you can learn a secure way of building connection strings. Visit Dev Articles and you'll read about plug-ins and how to build a search engine!

Our Dev Hardware writers take a hard look at inkjet cartridge prices (it's a conspiracy I tell you!), Microsoft's Zune MP3 player, and the recent consolidation in the storage market. And of course we haven't forgotten our SEO readers! Check out SEO Chat for what we think Google will do with JotSpot, the second part of a two-part article on how well vertical search engines for health and medical information perform, and why you should include offline publicity in your website promotion plans.

Of course you'll want to watch our newest tech news show, updated at noon today. If you do, you'll learn about a new venue for reality shows, how you can learn something by sleeping on it, and more!

Canobeam Provides the Right Prescription for Exempla Healthcare
When it comes to patients' medical records, security is not only essential, it's the law.

Console Management in the Data Center
With the current shift to decentralized, dispersed networks, efficient and cost-effective network management, remote or local, is critical to business success.

2006 Annual Study: Cost of a Data Breach
Lost or stolen company information can be costly, but exactly how costly?

A Strategy for Implementing Encryption
Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (ACS) needed to protect data from unauthorized access.

All White Papers.

White Papers Weird and Cool News You Can't Use

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Introducing Tech News by Developer Shed. News you can't use!

It's edgy, it's irreverent, it's all about technology. It's news you can't use, and you won't want to miss! View this week's edition to learn the answers to these burning questions:

• Can flipping a coin with your belly win you money online?
  
  
• What happens when reality show producers discover a new medium?
  
  
• How did our Geek of the Week fulfill a science fiction dream?
  
  
• Who lost his job for being a "smug little twit"?
  
  
• How is Google protecting your privacy?
  

Watch the video!

Coding Folders for a PHP Email Application by Leidago, 2006-11-15 -- In this article, the fourth and final one of our series covering the creation of a PHP email application, we are going to look at the code for some of the remaining pages of the mail application. Chief among these is the NewMsg.php page, which is where items, to be more precise, new messages, are either saved as drafts or saved as sent messages. Read the full article.

Inserting Sub-Queries in SELECT Statements in Oracle by Jagadish Chatarji, 2006-11-14 -- This is the second article in a series concentrating on working with sub-queries in Oracle. My previous article (first in this series) explained the “dual” table in detail and gave a few practical examples of sub-queries. In this article, I shall introduce sub-queries at various interesting places within the same SELECT statement. Read the full article.

Expanding an Error Logger with the Chain of Responsibility Pattern by Alejandro Gervasio, 2006-11-13 -- Do you want to know how to build an error logging system using the chain of responsibility schema with PHP? If your answer is a loud yes, then in this group of articles you’ll find what you’ve been looking for! Welcome to the concluding part of the series “Understanding the chain of responsibility between PHP objects.” This set of three tutorials shows you how to define a specific chain of responsibility that involves several PHP objects, and applies this concept to creating an expandable error logging mechanism. Read the full article.

Managing Email by Sams Publishing, 2006-11-09 -- If you want to write PHP scripts that handle email, there are a few things you need to understand first. This article, the first of two parts, introduces you to these concepts. It is excerpted from chapter 8 of the Zend PHP Certification Study Guide, written by Zend Technologies (Sams; ISBN: 0672327090). Read the full article.

Web Site Navigation Using a SiteMap by Jayaram Krishnaswamy, 2006-11-15 -- This article will explain how to implement site navigation using the ASP.NET 2.0 infrastructure consisting of SiteMap, SiteMapDataSource and navigational controls. These pieces can help you to quickly put up an aesthetically pleasing web site. Read the full article.

A Secure Way of Building Connection Strings by Jayaram Krishnaswamy, 2006-11-14 -- Data sources hold some of the most important enterprise information. Securing this information is a top priority for any enterprise. Data sources are accessed through the connection string, a collection of name/value pairs connected with UserID, Password, Data Source Name, etc. that specify the run time parameters for connecting to databases. This article covers the use of SqlConnectionStringBuilder for MS SQL Server in securing information. Read the full article.

Binding Data to the ReportViewer Control Dynamically in ASP.NET 2.0 by Jagadish Chaterjee, 2006-11-13 -- This is the second article in a series focusing on designing and presenting native reports using ASP.NET 2.0. Throughout this series, I will focus on working with the “ReportViewer” control in local mode to develop web-based applications. Read the full article.

Using Data Sources with the DataGridView Control by Murach Publishing, 2006-11-09 -- Last week, we began our discussion of using data sources with databases in Visual Studio 2005. This week, we conclude the tutorial. This article, the second of two parts, is excerpted from chapter 14 of the book Murach's Visual Basic 2005, written by Anne Boehm (Murach, 2006; ISBN: 1890774383). Read the full article.

Creating the Front End of a Search Engine with AJAX by Alejandro Gervasio, 2006-11-15 -- Welcome to the first part of a three-part series that will show you how to create a search engine that fetches content from a database. We will use PHP and AJAX to create this engine. This article will focus on creating the search engine's front end. Read the full article.

J2EE Design Patterns: The Presentation Layer Patterns: Model-View-Controller by A.P.Rajshekhar, 2006-11-14 -- In any application, it is the presentation that matters most to the end user. The usability of software depends heavily on the User Interface or Presentation Layer in the case of J2EE. Since it is the Presentation Layer that presents the UI to the user, the solutions for recurring problems have to be standard. That is where Presentation Layer Design Patterns come into the picture. Read the full article.

Plug-ins Explained by Leidago, 2006-11-13 -- In this first part of a two-part article about Delphi Packages, we are going to discuss what packages are, and how they can aid in designing plug-ins for Delphi applications. We will also look at the disadvantages and advantages of creating a plug-in with Delphi Packages compared to DLLs. I'd like to send a word of thanks to the chaps on the Delphi news groups who pointed me in the right direction and made helpful suggestions. Read the full article.

Developing Your First Beans by O'Reilly Media, 2006-11-09 -- If you're looking for a good place to start learning how to create a Java Bean, look no further. This article explains how to create an entity bean. It is taken from chapter 4 of the book Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0 Fifth Edition, written by Richard Monson-Haefel and Bill Burke (O'Reilly, 2006; ISBN: 059600978X). Read the full article.

A New Spin on Storage by Robert Dunham (Nilpo), 2006-11-15 -- This past year has definitely seen some changes in the world of data storage and backup. With several company mergers to contend with, the industry's face is barely recognizable. So who's left out there and what can we expect in the future as a result of all of the changes? Read the full article.

Zune Too Soon? by Akinola Akintomide, 2006-11-14 -- Microsoft thinks it may finally have an iPod killer in its Zune MP3 players. But there are certain uncanny resemblances between the Zune and the iPod. Should the software giant have given a little more thought to its plan of attack? Read the full article.

The Inkjet Conspiracy by Dngrsone, 2006-11-13 -- If you've compared the prices of new printers with the prices of the printer cartridges used to fill them and wondered whether there was a conspiracy going on, you're not alone. This widespread problem has even led to legal action. Keep reading to see what's going on, and what, if anything, we can do about it. Read the full article.

The Value of Offline Publicity by Akinola Akintomide, 2006-11-15 -- Do you think you've done enough for your web site by optimizing it for the search engines and engaging in an online marketing campaign? Think again. If you're not looking offline, you're overlooking one of your most important ways of building traffic. Read the full article.

Vertical Search Engines in a Healthy Space by Terri Wells, 2006-11-14 -- Have you ever tried to search for medical information on the major search engines, only to come away disappointed by your results? You’re not alone. In this article, the second of two parts, we take a look at the vertical search engines focused on health-related information that are trying to fill this need. Read the full article.

Google Acquires JotSpot by Terri Wells, 2006-11-13 -- At first glance, Google’s binge of buying Web 2.0 companies looks a lot like Yahoo’s. But there are some clear differences, which become apparent when you consider the search engine’s purchase of JotSpot. The purchase fits into a puzzle whose picture is becoming very clear. Read the full article.

Phishers Grow Clever, Focus on the Money by Terri Wells, 2006-11-15 -- If you thought the torrent of spam was getting ugly, there are even worse things to worry about. Two reports, one from the Anti-Phishing Working Group, and one from Websense Security (who contributed information to the first report) tell an unpleasant story about phishing trends in the first half of 2006. It’s worse than a jungle out there. Read the full article.

Hosting Companies Sport Unconventional Marketing Techniques by Robert Dunham (Nilpo), 2006-11-08 -- Fierce competition in the web hosting world has led companies to take some strange approaches to marketing. Hosting companies have begun to employ some rather unusual marketing techniques in an effort to gain attention, but you have to ask yourself, “Is this really the kind of exposure they are looking for?" Read the full article.

What to Look for When Choosing Hosting Automation Software by Terri Wells, 2006-11-01 -- If you’re a small web host, and especially if you’re a web hosting reseller looking to grow your business, the number of tasks you have to handle will quickly become enough to overwhelm even the most organized person. You won’t be able to grow past a certain point without software to automate at least some functions. In this article, I’ll take a look at some of the parts of your business that can benefit from software automation. Read the full article.

Finding The Best Home Based Internet Business Opportunity For You (2006-11-13) The best home based Internet business opportunity for you is determined first on how high your love for that business. Read the full article.

How Friends Became Business Partners -- 7 Ways to Build Your Business and Stay Friends (2006-11-13) If we had read the books out in the market in selecting the perfect business partner for success, we may not have gone forward together with our business. Read the full article.

Evaluating Website Performance (2006-11-13) Setting up a website is the very first step of an Internet marketing campaign, and the success or failure of your site depends magnanimously on how in detail you have defined your website goals. Read the full article.

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Weird and Cool

Indiscretion Protection
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They say that information wants to be free - and once it's released to the Internet, it can be very difficult to control. It can come back to haunt you, sometimes at the worst times. What will a current or prospective employer discover when he Googles your name? Are you comfortable with that? If you're a parent, do you want your child to be haunted by an old MySpace profile upon entering the work force?

Fortunately there's an answer to these concerns. ReputationDefender will, for a modest fee, keep tabs on your reputation online (or your child's reputation, if that's what you wish). The company will give you regular reports, and if you see any item you don't like, for an extra fee it will endeavor to have the item taken down. The company also seems to be preparing a service that will help clients remove data from online data-brokering sites that store such information as Social Security numbers, home addresses, and phone numbers. ReputationDefender's board includes a Harvard law professor, and its founder is a graduate of Harvard Law School.

While this may sound a bit stifling, ReputationDefender insists it really is pro-First Amendment - and anyway, certain requests just won't work. "Some clients and prospective clients would like us to get news articles in major publications or court records removed from the internet," explains CEO Michael Fertik. "We've had to tell them that these requests are extremely difficult to fulfill and sometimes impossible." In such cases, ReputationDefender offers a full refund.

Mirroring Earth on Mars
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Those who have dreamed of terraforming Mars to make it more Earthlike for human settlers have been held back by the huge amount of time (figured in centuries) and resources needed to thicken the atmosphere and warm the planet. What if you could heat up just a small patch of the planet to make it habitable?

Arizona University engineering student Rigel Woida received $9,000 from the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts to work on the idea. He came up with a concept that would put 300 reflective balloons, each as wide as one and a half football stadiums, side by side in orbit around Mars. The balloons would produce a mirror nearly a mile wide, which would reflect sunlight onto a patch of Mars slightly larger than half a mile wide.

Colonists living in this area would experience temperatures around 68 degrees Fahrenheit, or the equivalent of a lovely spring day. That's certainly much more hospitable to humans than Mar's current temperatures, which typically don't rise above -76 degrees Fahrenheit. Humans would not need heavily insulated suits in this area, plus the extra light could be used to charge solar cells for power and melt indigenous water ice. Many details remain to be worked out, but the plan is not inherently flawed.

Virtual Reality for Real-World Trauma
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Call it "battle fatigue" or "shell shock," but veterans from every war have suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. Understandably, they'll do anything to keep from being reminded of their time in a war zone, but that can make things worse. "The root of PTSD is unprocessed emotional memories" that haunt the veteran in nightmares and flashbacks, explains Skip Rizzo, a clinical psychologist at the University of Southern California. So what can be done to treat it?

"It's almost brain-dead simple ... the more you're exposed to something, the more you get used to it," notes Rizzo. But many veterans don't respond well to the standard clinical treatments. That's where Virtual Iraq comes in. It's an immersive simulation of Iraq that engages all the senses, including touch (vibrations from a vehicle you're "driving") and smell. Virtual reality has already been used to treat people with flying phobias, and proved to deliver results as good as traditional therapy.

There's another advantage to using a virtual, video game-like environment to help treat modern vets: they're comfortable with it. "If you think about who the Iraq war veterans are, it's a very video-savvy, electronic generation," says Barbara Rothbaum, an assistant professor of psychology at Emory University who has been treating anxiety disorders for years. "For people who don't want traditional therapy, the idea of virtual reality might be attractive. They might get curious and try it."

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