Technical Tidbits

In planning the new website, I decided there were certain things we needed. One of those was a knowledgebase management system. I wanted users to be able to search for answers to their questions in a much more user friendly manner than Microsoft offers. So, I went on a search.

I tried many systems. Lost some money purchasing systems that never kept their promises. But then, I came across WebWork KB Manager developed by Dean Greasley in the UK. His site gave me a very awesome offer. Try before you buy for 14 days!

Most of the systems I tried failed to install properly so I figured that would be my first test. And low and behold! It installed on first try as easily as it said it would! After playing around with the script for a bit to see how it worked, I bought it within a few hours of trying the trial.

Then with Dean’s helpful assistance, I customized it to fit our site.  If you’d like to see how it looks and works, feel free to check it out here: http://mice.org/kb/

I’m the first to rant and complain when software vendors screw things up and companies treat us poorly, but this is something I need to rave about.

First of all, the customer service that Dean provides is EXEMPLARY! He’s friendly, helpful, and answers the support forum frequently despite the difference in our hours.

He explains things in a clear, concise manner that anyone can understand. Although I’m learning PHP the hard way - by having to use it - I was able to easily manipulate the script to customize it with little knowledge and under the careful tutelage of Dean.  Who’s patience with students matches my own!

Every company should provide such prompt friendly service as Dean and WebWork does! He is a model of how companies should do customer service! And his script is outstanding! I’m anxiously awaiting version 3!

Kudo’s to Dean, his company WebWork, and his KBManager Script.  When others have failed me in delivering on their promises, the script came through. Where others failed me in their customer service, Dean met and exceeded my expectations.

If you are in need of a knowledgebase script, check out his site: http://www.webbwork.co.uk/products.html

And this is an UNPAID endorsement and we are not affiliates!

Dean Greasley and KBManager rocks!

Thanks Dean!

written by Admin \\ tags: Dean Greasley, kb management, KB Manager, kb script, KBManager, knowledge base, knowledge base management, knowledgebase, knowledgebase script, Webwork

Sometimes we have to celebrate those little victories!

Direct Magazine reports that:

Robert Alan Soloway has a long history of thumbing his nose at authority. Now he’s going to jail.

The man dubbed “Spam King” by prosecutors was sentenced in a Seattle federal court Tuesday to 47 months in prison and ordered to pay $708,000 in restitution for sending millions on unsolicited e-mails in violation of the Can Spam Act.

This is also the spammer who Microsoft sued - and won - for spamming hotmail and MSN accounts!

There is justice in this world from time-to-time!

To read the whole article on Direct Magazine see: http://directmag.com/news/reputed-072408/

Thanks Directmag! You made my day!

written by Admin \\ tags: can spam, direct magazine, jail, Microsoft, Robert Alan Soloway, soloway, Spam, spam king, spammer

As we move closer to our 10th Anniversary celebration and the relaunch of our website, we’ve encountered obstacle upon obstacle. Along the way however, there are some people, software, and services that we’ve also encountered that deserve recognition.

If you’ve seen our main website then you are familiar with the pure CSS dropdown menus.

Our first obstacle happened when I went to my daughter’s house for a visit and pulled up the website to show her what we’ve been doing. I was horrified! She was using IE 6 and the menu’s were all justified left in a column! I thought I’d checked that????

I didn’t have time to track down the problem and fix it. So, I went back to Steve Gibson’s site (GRC.com) to see if I could find what I did wrong. While there I re-read the information on the menu and the credits to others who’ve helped contribute to the GRC menu. For some reason, I got stuck on the Stu Nicholls CSSplay website link so I clicked it!

Imagine my delight when I saw a link at the very top of his page that offered assistance!

Stu did an OUTSTANDING job on fixing our menu, did so within less than 24-hours, and at a reasonable cost!

Considering the time difference (Stu is in the UK) I could not have asked for a more helpful, knowledgeable person! Once we finally get this Anniversary celebration and relaunch up and running, Stu will be doing some more work on our site to remove the mouse-over Javascripts and replace them with pure CSS.

If you need any help with pure CSS coding, I highly recommend Stu Nicholls!

I cannot say enough kind things about him. He’s eager to help, priced well within range of someone with his coding knowledge, efficient, friendly, approachable, and just an all round great guy!

I am extremely grateful for his work on our menus! They now look good in every version of IE from 4 to 7 and still look great in Firefox!

Thank you again STU!

And if you haven’t seen our drop-down menus on the main site, you can check them out here: mice.org

And if you need a FANTASTIC CSS coder, please contact Stu Nicholls at CSSPlay and tell him MICE sent you!

written by Admin \\ tags: css, css drop-down menu, css dropdown, css dropdown menu, css play, cssplay, gibson research, grc.com, stu nicholls

Microsoft has revised two Security Bulletins dealing with DirectX and upgraded them to CRITICAL.

What is extremely important about this and the reason why I felt the need to issue an alert is that their bulletin MS07-064 was originally issued in December 2007!

For Microsoft to revise this now means that it IS CRITICAL!

Why is this important?

DirectX handles WAV and AVI files among others. We all watch YouTube videos and pass around videos in e-mails. That’s why this is important!

If you do not want to wait for the updates to come automatically, you should go to the Windows Update site at: http://www.update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/default.aspx

PATCH NOW!

written by Admin \\ tags: Avi, critical alert, DirectX, Microsoft, Updates & Maintenance, video, Wav, youtube

In catching up on some reading during breakfast this morning, I came across a “Dear Techie” column in May 2008, Certification Magazine.

The reader asked whether certain certifications help in an economy like this.

While I agreed with both Ken Wagner and Wayne Anderson and their takes on it, the thing that surprised me the most was this statement by Wayne Anderson:

In the training arena, for example, I have seen much of actual course production at Microsoft and similar vendors go overseas.

So, if you can’t figure out why the training you’re receiving stinks, there you have it!

And if you are curious about what the answer was as to whether certifications help in this economy, feel free to read the full article here: Dear Techie: Struggling Economy Increases Competition Among Job Candidate.

And of course, you knew this had to be coming………

MICE Training & Education is developed here in the United States of America!

written by Admin \\ tags: certification, certifications, economy, education, Microsoft, training