Gewirtz is a former professor of computer science, has lectured at Princeton, Berkeley, UCLA, and Stanford, and has been awarded the prestigious Sigma Xi Research Award in Engineering. He is the author of four books including Where Have All The Emails Gone? and The Flexible Enterprise.

Earlier in his career, he held the unusual title of "Godfather" at Apple, was an executive at Symantec, and served on the board of the Software Entrepreneurs Forum (now SDForum) in the heart of Silicon Valley.

David is the creator of ZENPRESS, a breakthrough technology for Internet magazine production. He is also the lead developer of the MySQL and SQLite database extensions for the open-source Frontier Kernel project and has designed embedded database technology used by more than 2,000 companies, universities, and government agencies.

An accomplished author and photographer, David is also an entertaining and electrifying speaker. His commentaries on technology, industry, and emerging nations have been broadcast into more than 40 countries (all in their own unique translations) by Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.

Weaving a tapestry of art, industry, politics, and technology, he brings a unique and powerful perspective to all his audiences. Known for their clarity and insight, his articles reach nearly a million people worldwide each week.

You can contact David at david@ZATZ.com or visit his personal Web site at http://www.Gewirtz.com. In addition to the articles below, you can find his complete bibliography at http://www.Gewirtz.com/biblio.

Published articles
The following 563 articles by David Gewirtz have been published in ZATZ magazines.

The White House email controversy: it's time for a Special Prosecutor
These have not been good weeks in our cause to repair the systemic problems with White House email. This week, we have a judge who's directing the White House to look in many of the wrong places. We have a White House CIO who claims that asset management is a new invention, so it's tough to keep track of those pesky hard drives. We also have a White House who can't account for any email messages at all during the months of the initial Iraq invasion. And we have a Congress who's decided we don't need any real form of record management for another four years. Sadly, officials in Washington are not making the situation any better. In fact, it's getting worse. [DominoPower Magazine, May 2008]

The White House email controversy: it's time for a Special Prosecutor
These have not been good weeks in our cause to repair the systemic problems with White House email. This week, we have a judge who's directing the White House to look in many of the wrong places. We have a White House CIO who claims that asset management is a new invention, so it's tough to keep track of those pesky hard drives. We also have a White House who can't account for any email messages at all during the months of the initial Iraq invasion. And we have a Congress who's decided we don't need any real form of record management for another four years. Sadly, officials in Washington are not making the situation any better. In fact, it's getting worse. [OutlookPower Magazine, May 2008]

The worrisome implications of the Mexican theft of White House BlackBerry devices
Our ongoing story about the security of White House email took a strange turn on Friday, proving some of the national security concerns I've been discussing to be true in a particularly tangible and unfortunate way. What makes this topic so troubling, of course, is the serious national security breach that may have occurred. But there's more to the story, including issues of the relationship between the United States and Mexico, and even how racial stereotyping may have contributed to spinning this story in a way that may be obscuring the true magnitude of the possible damage to our national security. [DominoPower Magazine, April 2008]

The worrisome implications of the Mexican theft of White House BlackBerry devices
Our ongoing story about the security of White House email took a strange turn on Friday, proving some of the national security concerns I've been discussing to be true in a particularly tangible and unfortunate way. What makes this topic so troubling, of course, is the serious national security breach that may have occurred. But there's more to the story, including issues of the relationship between the United States and Mexico, and even how racial stereotyping may have contributed to spinning this story in a way that may be obscuring the true magnitude of the possible damage to our national security. [OutlookPower Magazine, April 2008]

The White House email controversy: hearings spotlight disturbing IT practices
Last week, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held hearings into the missing White House email messages. After watching the three hours of hearings and reviewing the various supporting transcripts, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz' first impression can be summarized in three words: what a mess! Editor's note: We originally ran this article last week in OutlookPower, but due to certain editorial calendar priorities, couldn't run it until this week in DominoPower. >. Even so, certain explosive elements of the OutlookPower article were picked up on by members of our Lotus community and a bit of a small storm ensued. Read on for the full article that started the fuss, and some updated information about what's been happening since. [DominoPower Magazine, March 2008]

The White House email controversy: where have all the computers gone?
In the melange of technology and politics that describes the story of the White House email controversy, there is yet another chapter. In our latest plot twist, the White House CIO claims that email messages from 2003 to 2005 either can't be produced because they're not missing, because the computers they were on have been destroyed, or because it's too hard to find them. In this article, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz digs in and provides a detailed analysis and point-counterpoint to the White House's response, along with exploring a key element that all of the parties to this controversy seem to be missing. And, sadly, he's also uncovered at least two new serious security risks at the White House. Read on. [DominoPower Magazine, March 2008]

How to email yourself reminders so they get your attention
As you may have noticed, there aren't a whole lot of options in Outlook for customizing how reminders display. If you want to make sure you notice your reminders, there are really two available approaches you could take. In this article, David Gewirtz explores those options. [OutlookPower Magazine, March 2008]

The White House email controversy: where have all the computers gone?
In the melange of technology and politics that describes the story of the White House email controversy, there is yet another chapter. In our latest plot twist, the White House CIO claims that email messages from 2003 to 2005 either can't be produced because they're not missing, because the computers they were on have been destroyed, or because it's too hard to find them. In this article, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz digs in and provides a detailed analysis and point-counterpoint to the White House's response, along with exploring a key element that all of the parties to this controversy seem to be missing. And, sadly, he's also uncovered at least two new serious security risks at the White House. Read on. [OutlookPower Magazine, March 2008]

How to unlock your iPhone (and what it all means)
Unless you've been under a rock, you've heard about the iPhone. You've probably also heard terms like "unlocking" and "bricking" applied to this handy, if pricey gadget. What's it all mean? Is Apple purposely destroying phones? If you want to add software to your phone, are you voiding your warranty? What if you want to switch carriers? We asked wireless expert Shawn Zade to explain it all. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, February 2008]

The White House email controversy: hearings spotlight disturbing IT practices
On Tuesday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held hearings into the missing White House email messages. After watching the three hours of hearings and reviewing the various supporting transcripts, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz' first impression can be summarized in three words: what a mess! [OutlookPower Magazine, February 2008]

More power to Forbidden LEGO
Nothing beats sifting through months of Congressional testimony to make the prospect of building a ping-pong shooting machine virtually irresistable. This was the opportunity facing me when the book Forbidden LEGO arrived at Computing Unplugged for review. What happens if you marry a power drill to a LEGO kit? This and other questions are answered in this wonderful article. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, January 2008]

A perfect 10: celebrating 10 years online
On December 23, 1997, we wrote our first news story. We wanted to get in a week of practice and testing before we went live. On January 1, 1998, PalmPower Magazine went live and we published our first issue online. This week, we reached a huge milestone: 10 years of continuous publishing online here at ZATZ. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, January 2008]

A perfect 10: celebrating 10 years online
On December 23, 1997, we wrote our first news story. We wanted to get in a week of practice and testing before we went live. On January 1, 1998, PalmPower Magazine went live and we published our first issue online. This week, we reached a huge milestone: 10 years of continuous publishing online here at ZATZ. [Connected Photographer Magazine, January 2008]

Prominic.NET, a hosting provider that will actually reduce your stress level
Anyone who's ever had to manage a rack of servers knows just how much of a headache dealing with ISPs, hosting providers, and co-lo providers can be. We certainly do. And, with one exception, dealing with ISPs and hosting providers could be characterized by a non-stop series of seemingly unnecessary headaches. The one exception is our current co-location provider, Prominic.NET. In this review, we share with you our good experiences with Prominic.NET. [DominoPower Magazine, January 2008]

A perfect 10: celebrating 10 years online
On December 23, 1997, we wrote our first news story. We wanted to get in a week of practice and testing before we went live. On January 1, 1998, PalmPower Magazine went live and we published our first issue online. This week, we reached a huge milestone: 10 years of continuous publishing online here at ZATZ. [DominoPower Magazine, January 2008]

The White House email controversy: the concern over recycled backups
Even though our book is finally out, that doesn't mean the story of White House email is over. Far from it. In fact, this week saw a number of new developments in Washington. In this article, David Gewirtz gives you an overview of the latest developments as well as my analysis. [DominoPower Magazine, January 2008]

A perfect 10: celebrating 10 years online
On December 23, 1997, we wrote our first news story. We wanted to get in a week of practice and testing before we went live. On January 1, 1998, PalmPower Magazine went live and we published our first issue online. This week, we reached a huge milestone: 10 years of continuous publishing online here at ZATZ. [OutlookPower Magazine, January 2008]

The White House email controversy: the concern over recycled backups
Even though our book is finally out, that doesn't mean the story of White House email is over. Far from it. In fact, this week saw a number of new developments in Washington. In this article, David Gewirtz gives you an overview of the latest developments as well as my analysis. [OutlookPower Magazine, January 2008]

A perfect 10: celebrating 10 years online
On December 23, 1997, we wrote our first news story. We wanted to get in a week of practice and testing before we went live. On January 1, 1998, PalmPower Magazine went live and we published our first issue online. This week, we reached a huge milestone: 10 years of continuous publishing online here at ZATZ. [WebSpherePower Magazine, January 2008]

You can help bring security and safety back to White House email
This has been a very exciting week for us here at ZATZ. After many long months of work, ZATZ Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz' book Where Have All The Emails Gone? is now available. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, December 2007]

Consumer Alert: Do not buy the GE Halogen toaster oven
This isn't a vacuum cleaner, but it sucks. This isn't a fan, but it blows. This isn't a dog, but it bites. Wow, who knew GE could make something so sucktacular? I'm talking about the GE Halogen toaster oven. This thing is firing ass on all cylinders. It's dangerous, it's annoying to operate, and it works poorly. It's also the most expensive toaster oven Wal-Mart sells and you should not buy it. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, December 2007]

You can help bring security and safety back to White House email
This has been a very exciting week for us here at ZATZ. After many long months of work, ZATZ Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz' book Where Have All The Emails Gone? is now available. [Connected Photographer Magazine, December 2007]

You can help bring security and safety back to White House email
This has been a very exciting week for us here at ZATZ. After many long months of work, ZATZ Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz' book Where Have All The Emails Gone? is now available. [DominoPower Magazine, December 2007]

You can help bring security and safety back to White House email
This has been a very exciting week for us here at ZATZ. After many long months of work, ZATZ Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz' book Where Have All The Emails Gone? is now available. [OutlookPower Magazine, December 2007]

You can help bring security and safety back to White House email
This has been a very exciting week for us here at ZATZ. After many long months of work, ZATZ Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz' book Where Have All The Emails Gone? is now available. [WebSpherePower Magazine, December 2007]

Get with the gratitude
Thanksgiving is upon us here in the United States. While the true history of Thanksgiving is subject to some controversy (isn't pretty much everything, these days?) there are certain elements of the modern Thanksgiving celebration we can all take to heart -- even for those of you who don't live in these United States. We discuss those in this article, and end with a must-read caution for anyone going out and buying stuff on Black Friday. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, November 2007]

Get with the gratitude
Thanksgiving is upon us here in the United States. While the true history of Thanksgiving is subject to some controversy (isn't pretty much everything, these days?) there are certain elements of the modern Thanksgiving celebration we can all take to heart -- even for those of you who don't live in these United States. We discuss those in this article, and end with a must-read caution for anyone going out and buying stuff on Black Friday. [Connected Photographer Magazine, November 2007]

Get with the gratitude
Thanksgiving is upon us here in the United States. While the true history of Thanksgiving is subject to some controversy (isn't pretty much everything, these days?) there are certain elements of the modern Thanksgiving celebration we can all take to heart -- even for those of you who don't live in these United States. We discuss those in this article, and end with a must-read caution for anyone going out and buying stuff on Black Friday. [DominoPower Magazine, November 2007]

Recovering lost email from Outlook Express
We're always a little bummed when we get an email from a reader asking for help with lost email. First, we get so many messages that sometimes it can take us a long time to get to an individual letter. Second, there's often not a lot that can be done. Sometimes, though, we can help. [OutlookPower Magazine, November 2007]

Get with the gratitude
Thanksgiving is upon us here in the United States. While the true history of Thanksgiving is subject to some controversy (isn't pretty much everything, these days?) there are certain elements of the modern Thanksgiving celebration we can all take to heart -- even for those of you who don't live in these United States. We discuss those in this article, and end with a must-read caution for anyone going out and buying stuff on Black Friday. [OutlookPower Magazine, November 2007]

Trapped in Carbonite?
In space, no one can hear you scream. Apparently, the same is true if you're Han Solo and you're trapped in carbonite. It's the whole trapped in carbonite theme that made us very curious about Carbonite, a company that does Internet-based backups. Their offer is compelling. Unlimited backup for $49.95 per year. But, we wondered, if you back up your data to Carbonite, would you then be trapped there? Just how unfortunate might the name Carbonite be? [Computing Unplugged Magazine, October 2007]

An interview with PC industry pioneer Bill Lyons
A little over a year ago, we ran an interview with AXS-One's Marie Patterson on email storage and retrieval. Normally, we don't like to run more than one executive interview from a company with any frequency, but when we had the opportunity to interview AXS-One CEO Bill Lyons, we jumped at the chance. Bill is a true PC industry pioneer. Back in the olden days, when the "big three" were Microsoft, Lotus, and Ashton-Tate (remember dBASE IV?), Bill Lyons was CEO of Ashton-Tate. He also was CEO of Parc Place Systems. Many of you might not have heard of Parc Place, but that was the company form to commercialize SmallTalk, a technology out of XEROX Parc that's influenced personal computers in so many different ways. So, when we had the chance to sit Bill down and pick his brain, we took it. Here, then, is our interview with Bill Lyons. [DominoPower Magazine, October 2007]

A quick tip that'll block bajillions of unsolicited messages
Ahhhh! What a great week. My junk mail load has dropped so much that I've regained almost an hour a day. And all it took was one little configuration change to our mail server (and reading a manual). [OutlookPower Magazine, October 2007]

Two essential Outlook 2007 books
If you're getting started with Outlook 2007, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz reviews two must-have books that'll help you out. [OutlookPower Magazine, October 2007]

Powerful data exporting from Outlook
If you're interested in exporting data from Outlook, the normal Outlook export functionality might not do it. In this helpful article, we highlight some great (and free) resources that'll really help you get the job done. [OutlookPower Magazine, October 2007]

Palm performs Foleo mercy killing
Palm has just announced that they've cancelled their ill-advised Foleo laptop wannabe before it will ever ship. And we say "about time". [Computing Unplugged Magazine, September 2007]

We're going to Disneyworld with Photoshop CS3's Black & White filter
Adobe Photoshop CS3 has a neat new feature. It's an adjustment called Black & White and it works quite nicely as an adjustment layer. What's neat is this new feature gives you a lot more control over black and white images than you ever had by just desaturating or converting an image to grayscale. [Connected Photographer Magazine, September 2007]

The White House email controversy: the final questions
This is it. This is our final article on the White House email controversy (barring any new news from Washington, of course). It seems only fitting then, that we began our series with the question "Where have all the emails gone?" and we end this series with the questions that, in the main, remain to be answered. [DominoPower Magazine, September 2007]

The White House email controversy: the final questions
This is it. This is our final article on the White House email controversy (barring any new news from Washington, of course). It seems only fitting then, that we began our series with the question "Where have all the emails gone?" and we end this series with the questions that, in the main, remain to be answered. [OutlookPower Magazine, September 2007]

Hands on with the (somewhat infuriating) Apple TV
The Apple TV is Apple's first set-top box, designed to play your iTunes movies and music through your TV and home entertainment system. Like most Apple products, it's both impressive and disappointing, inspired and crippled. We love it, but we're not sure we like it. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, August 2007]

Don't be mockin' our articles
Sometime life imitates art and it gives me the excuse to be insufferable and mock one of our readers. While I don't always get to mock readers, I often feel that the best way to respond to a mock is with one of my own. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, August 2007]

Editing photos can be a Picnik
What if you could make some simple photo changes without installing anything on your computer? Or, what if you want to resize, crop, or do a little retouching while you're at school, in a library, or someplace else where you're using someone else's PC? Now, with a fun little Web site called Picnik, you can. [Connected Photographer Magazine, August 2007]

The White House email controversy: understanding the root causes
We started this investigation asking the same question Senator Patrick Leahy and Representative Henry Waxman asked: where have all the emails gone? However, after five months of very in-depth research, we've come to the conclusion that the missing email messages are the least of our concerns. In this critical article, we provide our analysis of the priorities that need to be considered. We look at the root causes for the problems with White House email and lay the groundwork for what will be our final recommendations. [DominoPower Magazine, August 2007]

The White House email controversy: our formal recommendations
In this critical article, we provide our final analysis of our investigation into White House email. We make a series of six important recommendations. This is the article you need to read if you want this problem to be fixed. [DominoPower Magazine, August 2007]

The White House email controversy: understanding the root causes
We started this investigation asking the same question Senator Patrick Leahy and Representative Henry Waxman asked: where have all the emails gone? However, after five months of very in-depth research, we've come to the conclusion that the missing email messages are the least of our concerns. In this critical article, we provide our analysis of the priorities that need to be considered. We look at the root causes for the problems with White House email and lay the groundwork for what will be our final recommendations. [OutlookPower Magazine, August 2007]

The White House email controversy: our formal recommendations
In this critical article, we provide our final analysis of our investigation into White House email. We make a series of six important recommendations. This is the article you need to read if you want this problem to be fixed. [OutlookPower Magazine, August 2007]

How to get a hundred bucks back from your overpriced PlayStation 3
Apparently, Sony has decided that being dead last in the next generation console wars is a loss of face. Perhaps selling a game console for $599 wasn't such a hot idea. On July 9th, Sony dropped the price to $499, leaving the console expensive, but no longer mind-blowingly expensive. Here's where we've got good news for you recent purchasers. Read this article to find out how you can get $100 back, as long as you act fast. Right now, fast. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, July 2007]

The White House email controversy: a historical perspective
It may seem that our story of the controversy over White House email is unique to the George W. Bush White House. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, controversy over how the White House uses email dates back almost as far as email's very existence. In this fascinating (and slightly disturbing) article, we take you through White House email and the White House's attempts to hide email records for the past 25 years. [DominoPower Magazine, July 2007]

The White House email controversy: prepare to be freaked out
As Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz dug deeper into how the White House manages email, knowing what he does about how email works, the tiny little hairs on the back of his neck started to stand up. As he started to think about the implications from the perspective of our country's security, he realized this was no longer simply about some missing email messages. Unchecked, some really, really bad things could happen. Prepare to be freaked out. [DominoPower Magazine, July 2007]

The White House email controversy: a historical perspective
It may seem that our story of the controversy over White House email is unique to the George W. Bush White House. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, controversy over how the White House uses email dates back almost as far as email's very existence. In this fascinating (and slightly disturbing) article, we take you through White House email and the White House's attempts to hide email records for the past 25 years. [OutlookPower Magazine, July 2007]

The White House email controversy: prepare to be freaked out
As Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz dug deeper into how the White House manages email, knowing what he does about how email works, the tiny little hairs on the back of his neck started to stand up. As he started to think about the implications from the perspective of our country's security, he realized this was no longer simply about some missing email messages. Unchecked, some really, really bad things could happen. Prepare to be freaked out. [OutlookPower Magazine, July 2007]

The White House email controversy: migrating from Notes to Outlook
We continue our analysis of the White House email controversy by looking at the what might have happened to the alleged 5 million missing messages. A key factor may have been a migration from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook in 2002 or 2003. Read this article for our technical analysis and to learn about some of the freaky questions we've turned up in the process. [DominoPower Magazine, June 2007]

The White House email controversy: help us find those missing messages
Over the past few weeks, we've been talking a lot about the problems with email at the White House and what's broken. We've talked very little about possible solutions to the problem. Between our OutlookPower and DominoPower magazines, we probably reach more active Notes/Domino and Outlook/Exchange experts than any other organization. In this article, we're calling on you, asking for your help in coming up with some possible solutions to the many problems we've uncovered. [DominoPower Magazine, June 2007]

The White House email controversy: why does Karl Rove keep losing his BlackBerry?
Karl Rove, Senior Advisor to the President of the United States, is one of the most powerful people in Washington. He conducts a vast amount of political and official business via his BlackBerry. He also apparently regularly loses his BlackBerry. Why do we here at ZATZ have this scoop when everyone else missed it? Read our special report to learn what else is disturbing about White House email in this latest article of our special report series. [DominoPower Magazine, June 2007]

The White House email controversy: migrating from Notes to Outlook
We continue our analysis of the White House email controversy by looking at the what might have happened to the alleged 5 million missing messages. A key factor may have been a migration from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook in 2002 or 2003. Read this article for our technical analysis and to learn about some of the freaky questions we've turned up in the process. [OutlookPower Magazine, June 2007]

The White House email controversy: help us find those missing messages
Over the past few weeks, we've been talking a lot about the problems with email at the White House and what's broken. We've talked very little about possible solutions to the problem. Between our OutlookPower and DominoPower magazines, we probably reach more active Notes/Domino and Outlook/Exchange experts than any other organization. In this article, we're calling on you, asking for your help in coming up with some possible solutions to the many problems we've uncovered. [OutlookPower Magazine, June 2007]

The White House email controversy: why does Karl Rove keep losing his BlackBerry?
Karl Rove, Senior Advisor to the President of the United States, is one of the most powerful people in Washington. He conducts a vast amount of political and official business via his BlackBerry. He also apparently regularly loses his BlackBerry. Why do we here at ZATZ have this scoop when everyone else missed it? Read our special report to learn what else is disturbing about White House email in this latest article of our special report series. [OutlookPower Magazine, June 2007]

If you're going to doctor a photo, don't forget the shadows
While doing our detailed forensic analysis of the White House email controversy, we bumped into a very strange story that has a doctored photo at its core. We're not going to put you through the full story of the email controversy, but we thought you'd get a kick out of the wacky photo retouching aspect of it. [Connected Photographer Magazine, May 2007]

'Deep Mail' on the White House email controversy
It appears we may have our own Deep Throat on our hands, as we continue our investigation into the White House email scandal. After we published our second article, we got an interesting email from someone with a very anonymous Gmail account. Having no self-control ourselves, we've nicknamed him "Deep Mail". Here are his letters to us. [DominoPower Magazine, May 2007]

The White House email controversy: a detour into mob journalism
We continue our technical analysis of the White House missing email controversy. Earlier, we learned that the President's staff uses at least two domains for email: EOP.GOV for official business and GWB43.COM for political business. Last week, we explored GWB43.COM for clues into the White House email infrastructure and came up with some disturbing questions. This week, we take a strange detour into mob journalism as we continue to dig for the truth. [DominoPower Magazine, May 2007]

The White House email controversy: the nightmare scenario
Since we've been following the path of the GWB43.COM domain name through SMARTech, and we know that Karl Rove and 21 other White House officials, abiding by the Hatch Act, run political email through GWB43.COM and SMARTech, we thought it best to look at the national security implications of this practice. In this article, we'll also look at questions of BlackBerry security with a security expert and the nightmare scenario compliance with the Hatch Act might inadvertently cause. [DominoPower Magazine, May 2007]

The White House email controversy: an archiving plan only FEMA could love
We continue our exploration into the missing White House emails we've all been hearing about. Aren't these emails archived? How do they manage their mail flow? Do they have an archiving system? For that, we turn to the White House itself. In this article, we'll learn what White House spokesfolk Dana Perino and Tony Snow have been saying about the topic. After listening to them and reading the transcripts of press briefings in-depth, we've got with even more questions than we started with. And the shakes. [DominoPower Magazine, May 2007]

The White House email controversy: can email messages just disappear?
We continue our analysis of the White House email controversy by looking at the what might have happened to the alleged 5 million missing messages. In this article, we're going to look at how many messages may be missing and then deconstruct some of the damning statements made by the loyal opposition. Don't worry, though. While this week it'll look like we're mostly picking on the Democrats, fear not. Next week, we'll be asking tough questions of the White House about why they chose to migrate email systems in the middle of a build-up to war. [DominoPower Magazine, May 2007]

'Deep Mail' on the White House email controversy
It appears we may have our own Deep Throat on our hands, as we continue our investigation into the White House email scandal. After we published our second article, we got an interesting email from someone with a very anonymous Gmail account. Having no self-control ourselves, we've nicknamed him "Deep Mail". Here are his letters to us. [OutlookPower Magazine, May 2007]

The White House email controversy: a detour into mob journalism
We continue our technical analysis of the White House missing email controversy. Earlier, we learned that the President's staff uses at least two domains for email: EOP.GOV for official business and GWB43.COM for political business. Last week, we explored GWB43.COM for clues into the White House email infrastructure and came up with some disturbing questions. This week, we take a strange detour into mob journalism as we continue to dig for the truth. [OutlookPower Magazine, May 2007]

The White House email controversy: the nightmare scenario
Since we've been following the path of the GWB43.COM domain name through SMARTech, and we know that Karl Rove and 21 other White House officials, abiding by the Hatch Act, run political email through GWB43.COM and SMARTech, we thought it best to look at the national security implications of this practice. In this article, we'll also look at questions of BlackBerry security with a security expert and the nightmare scenario compliance with the Hatch Act might inadvertently cause. [OutlookPower Magazine, May 2007]

The White House email controversy: an archiving plan only FEMA could love
We continue our exploration into the missing White House emails we've all been hearing about. Aren't these emails archived? How do they manage their mail flow? Do they have an archiving system? For that, we turn to the White House itself. In this article, we'll learn what White House spokesfolk Dana Perino and Tony Snow have been saying about the topic. After listening to them and reading the transcripts of press briefings in-depth, we've got with even more questions than we started with. And the shakes. [OutlookPower Magazine, May 2007]

The White House email controversy: can email messages just disappear?
We continue our analysis of the White House email controversy by looking at the what might have happened to the alleged 5 million missing messages. In this article, we're going to look at how many messages may be missing and then deconstruct some of the damning statements made by the loyal opposition. Don't worry, though. While this week it'll look like we're mostly picking on the Democrats, fear not. Next week, we'll be asking tough questions of the White House about why they chose to migrate email systems in the middle of a build-up to war. [OutlookPower Magazine, May 2007]

SnagIt is a completely insane screen capture program
Over the years, we've reviewed bundles of bundles and sweet suites so many times, it sometimes feels like our heads are about to explode. We've reviewed office suites, graphics suites, media management suites, and even game suites. But, until now, we've never reviewed a screen capture suite like SnagIt. This isn't feature creep, it's feature diarhea. It slices, it dices. As Crazy Eddie would have said, this product is insaaaaane! We'd expect to have product with this many features when reviewing Photoshop, but not a frickin' screen capture program. [Connected Photographer Magazine, April 2007]

Portraiture can make you beautiful
"Make me beautiful." Every photographer has heard this at least once. For those of us who've taken many fashion or glamour photos, we've heard it a lot. Enter Portraiture, a $169 Photoshop plug-in from. Portraiture can help you get the most out of your portraits with the least amount of work. Is it worth your money? Read the review to find out. [Connected Photographer Magazine, April 2007]

Is Photoshop Elements good enough?
In light of Adobe's recent release of Photoshop CS3, many readers are wondering whether they need to spend upwards of $650 for the new program. Of course, if you've already got Photoshop CS2, the $195 upgrade is something of a no-brainer. But what if you're considering buying your first editing program? Should you spring for the full monty and buy Photoshop? Or is Photoshop's little brother, Photoshop Elements, good enough? [Connected Photographer Magazine, April 2007]

What cameras are the most popular?
It's perhaps the most common question we get asked -- and one we hate answering. With a big pile of new cameras coming out each week, it's almost impossible to keep track of which is which. Of course, if a photo magazine like Connected Photographer can't keep track of all the new cameras, who can? In this helpful article, we spotlight some very interesting ways to find out what cameras other photo enthusiasts love to use. [Connected Photographer Magazine, April 2007]

An interview with Roger Matus on email archiving and retrieval
We continue our series of interviews with Lotus Business Partners. This week, I had the opportunity to interview Roger Matus, CEO and co-founder of InBoxer, Inc. In this very timely in-depth interview, Roger helps us understand some of the issues involved in making sure your organization's email is archived and can be found in the event of a legal situation. [DominoPower Magazine, April 2007]

Technical analysis: the White House email controversy
Over the past few weeks, it's come to America's attention that some emails from the White House have gone missing. As the publisher of two of the largest publications dedicated to email and electronic communication, OutlookPower Magazine and DominoPower Magazine, ZATZ is investigating this issue. Our goal is to make clear the technical elements of the discussion. We are strictly publishers of technical information, so we're going to do our best to completely avoid the political discussion. [DominoPower Magazine, April 2007]

The White House email controversy: who runs GWB43.COM?
We continue our technical analysis of the White House missing email controversy. Last week, we learned that the President's staff uses at least two domains for email: EOP.GOV for official business and GWB43.COM for political business. This week, we explore GWB43.COM for clues into the White House email infrastructure. We've come up with some disturbing new questions. [DominoPower Magazine, April 2007]

Why won't my email download automatically?
This week, we've got two questions: one about why send/receive no longer works automatically and another about exporting email dates. The good news is we can answer the first question. The bad news is that we don't have a good answer for the second question. Such, of course, is life with Outlook. [OutlookPower Magazine, April 2007]

Technical analysis: the White House email controversy
Over the past few weeks, it's come to America's attention that some emails from the White House have gone missing. As the publisher of two of the largest publications dedicated to email and electronic communication, OutlookPower Magazine and DominoPower Magazine, ZATZ is investigating this issue. Our goal is to make clear the technical elements of the discussion. We are strictly publishers of technical information, so we're going to do our best to completely avoid the political discussion. [OutlookPower Magazine, April 2007]

Microsoft improves Outlook 2007 performance
We've been covering some of the performance issues regarding Outlook 2007 and summarized a bunch of reports in our recent article "Outlook 2007: a cautionary tale". This week, I received the following letter from Michael Affronti, Microsoft Office Outlook Program Manager with news on an Outlook 2007 performance upgrade you can download immediately. [OutlookPower Magazine, April 2007]

The White House email controversy: who runs GWB43.COM?
We continue our technical analysis of the White House missing email controversy. Last week, we learned that the President's staff uses at least two domains for email: EOP.GOV for official business and GWB43.COM for political business. This week, we explore GWB43.COM for clues into the White House email infrastructure. We've come up with some disturbing new questions. [OutlookPower Magazine, April 2007]

Dremel, Dremel, bo-bemel, banana-fanna-fo-femel, fe-fi-fo-memel...Dremel!
Back in December, we included a number of helpful Dremel tools in our holiday gift list articles. However, it was pointed out that we've never formally reviewed or rated the various tools we discussed in those articles. Dremel-style tools are incredibly useful around the computing shop. Here, then, is our formal review of three cool tools. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, March 2007]

Will the Unotron Washable Wireless Keyboard sink or swim?
Nothing, well almost nothing, is more compelling to boys of any age than destroying things, especially if you know you're not going to get in trouble doing it. With that in mind, you can begin to understand our excitement when the Unotron Washable Wireless Keyboard showed up for review. To us, the word "washable" doesn't mean what it means to normal people. To us, the word "washable" means "OK to sink and drown". Read this review to find out if the Unotron Washable Keyboard managed to swim...or sink. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, March 2007]

More gotchas from ClickArt products
Back in February, we ran an article, "ClickArt contains 1,200,000 images you can't use", that described how Broderbund's ClickArt 1,200,000 product contains both misleading marketing and unreasonable usage restrictions. Upon running the article, we got a number of interesting letters from readers. [Connected Photographer Magazine, March 2007]

Bring out your inner Van Gogh with Snap Art
If you've ever used Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, most likely you've played with the filters. Even more likely, you've tinkered with the various painterly effects that have long come with both programs. Back when Photoshop first came out, these were the cat's meow. Amazingly, you could take a run-of-the-mill picture and turn it into something that seemed like you had an artist's talent. Into this reality comes Snap Art, from Alien Skin Software. Snap art updates the Photoshop artsy-fartsy plug-ins for the modern world, adding ten new artist-like effects. [Connected Photographer Magazine, March 2007]

How to add an add-on spam filter to Outlook Express
Even more fun than letters that are quick and concise are those where the answer's right on the Web page in question. Here's a question on managing spam with Outlook Express. [OutlookPower Magazine, March 2007]

Outlook 2007: a cautionary tale
Excellent software is hard to create and big software products are even more of a challenge. So it comes as no surprise that Outlook 2007 is having its growing pains. But what about now? Should you upgrade now? Unfortunately, we're getting steady reports of degraded performance, not increased performance. This could be a deal-breaker. [OutlookPower Magazine, March 2007]

Moving contacts from Excel into Outlook
A reader asks, "Is there any way to import an Excel File containing names, email addresses (and phone, fax and address) information directly into Outlook to create individual contact address files?" But, of course. It's pretty easy, too. [OutlookPower Magazine, March 2007]

Getting to know how RFID works
What is RFID, really? What are the advantages and issues? In our quest to provide you with an in-depth understanding of the topic, we've been very fortunate to enlist the help of Martyn Mallick, one of the leading experts on RFID technology. This is the second of three articles where we have the pleasure of talking to Martyn and learning all about RFID. If you're interested in emerging technologies, this is a series you won't want to miss. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, February 2007]

Real-world privacy implications of RFID
Over the past few weeks, we've been very fortunate to enlist the help of Martyn Mallick, one of the leading experts on RFID technology. This week, we'll discuss the real-world implications of RFID, including privacy, tracking, embedded tags, and more. This is truly a fascinating conclusion for a very informative series. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, February 2007]

Playing with my Wii
That title sounds so bad. After having it sit in a box for five days while he worked on various publishing deadlines, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz finally hooked up his very own, personal Wii gaming system. This article contains his first impressions. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, February 2007]

Imagine if George Washington was God
Imagine if George Washington was still alive today. Imagine that even though he was born in 1732, he was still hale and hearty and large and in charge 275 years later. Unrealistic? Farfetched? Frickin' crazy? Well, of course. Nothing like this could ever happen. Or could it? [Computing Unplugged Magazine, February 2007]

ClickArt contains 1,200,000 images you can't use
We don't like to write negative reviews. We'd rather have the company fix the problem and then tell you about products you should buy. But when a company goes out of its way to snooker our readers, we need to let you know. In this case, the company is Broderbund, the product is ClickArt 1,200,000. Don't buy this product. [Connected Photographer Magazine, February 2007]

How having your own Web site can help you promote your photos
Here at Connected Photographer, we like to bring you information straight from leading experts on various photographic topics. This week, we had the opportunity to interview Andy Patrick, a social entrepreneur and CEO of liveBooks, a resource for photographers. In this interview, we'll cover issues ranging from how you can promote your photography to how we can all save the planet. Never say we don't think big. [Connected Photographer Magazine, February 2007]

Inside the liveBooks photo portfolio service
Last week, we had the opportunity to speak with Andy Patrick, a social entrepreneur and CEO of liveBooks, a resource for photographers. We learned about how you can promote your photography to how we can all save the planet. This week, we continue our interview letting him dive deep into liveBooks. You'll learn both how it might help you promote your own photography and learn more about the inner workings of the site itself. [Connected Photographer Magazine, February 2007]

Daylight Savings Time changes and Lotus products
We interrupt our regular programming for a special announcement. As you know, we've been analyzing the Lotusphere 2007 announcements in substantial depth, and we've got a lot more analysis to come. However, Daylight Savings Time has been moved forward three weeks, to March 11. As you might imagine, this has all sorts of implications. Howard Greenberg of The Learning Continuum Company, a longtime friend of the magazine, has been studying this issue in some depth. Read this article to learn what you can do to prepare. [DominoPower Magazine, February 2007]

Defend yourself from phishing
A recent study reported that 63 percent of phishing attacks are targeted from three major Web sites: PayPal, eBay, and Bank of America. These top Web sites signal dollar signs for cyber-criminals as many people unknowingly open and use the links contained inside phony emails. This week, we had the opportunity to interview Adam Schran, an Internet and PC security expert on what constitutes "phishing" and how you can defend yourself. [OutlookPower Magazine, February 2007]

Lots and lots of open PST files
Reader Rich Cunard wants to know if he can have lots of open PST files to get around a corporate-imposed 500MB limit. Read on for our recommendation. [OutlookPower Magazine, February 2007]

Understanding RFID
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is both a fascinating and controversial technology. It came to the general public's awareness in discussions about embedding RFID tags in clothing, to track the purchase of clothing items in stores. The general paranoia from that, of course, is the idea that RFID could be used to compromise individual privacy -- a new version of Big Brother is watching you. What is RFID, really? What are the advantages and issues? In our quest to provide you with an in-depth understanding of the topic, we've been very fortunate to enlist the help of Martyn Mallick, one of the leading experts on RFID technology. Over the next three articles, we'll be talking to Martyn and learning all about RFID. If you're interested in emerging technologies, this is a series you won't want to miss. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, January 2007]

Making Notes and Domino work with SharePoint and .NET
We continue our series of interviews with Lotus Business Partners. This week, I had the opportunity to interview Proposion Software's Peter Burns. In this in-depth interview, Peter helps us understand SharePoint and .NET and how Lotus developers can better coexist with software from the Redmond giant. [DominoPower Magazine, January 2007]

Understanding SharePoint and .NET migration issues
We continue our interview with Proposion Software's Peter Burns. This week, we discuss some of the technical aspects of implementing the migration product as well as his company's relationship with Microsoft. [DominoPower Magazine, January 2007]

Lotus is alive and well, thank you very much
In this important pre-Lotusphere editorial, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz refutes the claim that "Lotus is now a forgotten division of IBM". [DominoPower Magazine, January 2007]

When should you upgrade to Outlook 2007 and Vista?
With Vista and Office 2007 coming out soon, should you upgrade right away? Both Office 2007 and Vista will be available for you to buy on January 30th. What should you do? Read on to find out. [OutlookPower Magazine, January 2007]

How to delete old calendar entries in one shot
.SUMMARY [OutlookPower Magazine, January 2007]

A developer's perspective on Outlook 2007
As we move forward into integrating Outlook 2007 into our lives, we'll be exploring the new software from a wide variety of perspectives. In this interesting interview, we've had the opportunity to talk with Deva Hazarika, founder and CEO of ClearContext Corporation, a maker of a popular organization add-on to Outlook. Deva's been hard at work updating the ClearContext Information Management System, but took a few minutes to answer OutlookPower Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz' questions about Outlook 2007 from the developer's perspective. [OutlookPower Magazine, January 2007]

Super-expensive gifts for the rich and excessive
This year, we're doing things a bit differently. Rather than just the dull recitation of popular products, we've turned to the ZATZ editors, to a bunch of experts in the Internet Press Guild, and to a bunch of tech gaming enthusiasts, my own gaming buddies in the Iron Phoenix gaming community. Together, we've put together a series of articles that take you from the wildly super expensive to the incredibly cheap. From the taste and style of a Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR to the incredibly sad $1.99 English Soldier Mini Massager Vibrator (yep, it's sex toy). To feed your inner Bill Gates, we defined the super-expensive category as anything from about $5,000 up to, well, absolutely no top end. You ain't gettin' it, but you can dream. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, December 2006]

Expensive (but worth it) gifts for the truly worthy
So, no one's going to buy you that Bugatti Veyron you're dreaming of, eh? Well, perhaps you're loved enough to merit a gift that's just expensive ($500-$5,000), rather than something in the millions. If you're looking for geek toy love, you've found the right place. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, December 2006]

Nice gifts for givers on a $50-500 budget
Bummed that the WestBay yacht is going to someone else this holiday season? Dejected that no one would share Alienware love with you? Perhaps you're still moderately worthy. Here's our $50-500 gift guide. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, December 2006]

Cheap and disturbing gifts under $50
Couldn't find a Wii? No one going to buy you that fancy laptop? Someone else is going into space with Virgin Galactic? There's no need to fret. No matter how down on your luck you are, we can find a fun, inexpensive, or completely weird and possibly insulting gift for you. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, December 2006]

Looking forward to 2007
Another year is coming to an end, which of course means another year is about to begin. Funny how that works. As the new millenia turns one year older, our thoughts turn to the happenings of the past year and wishes for the year to come. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, December 2006]

Producing and printing your own 2007 photo calendar
We continue our 2007 photo calendar project by creating the actual calendar. As you'll recall, we've already selected 13 images to be used for each month, plus a cover. Next, we learned about proper image formatting and created the cover image. In this final installment, we'll upload the images to CafePress and show you how the whole calendar came together. [Connected Photographer Magazine, December 2006]

Looking forward to 2007
Another year is coming to an end, which of course means another year is about to begin. Funny how that works. As the new millenia turns one year older, our thoughts turn to the happenings of the past year and wishes for the year to come. [Connected Photographer Magazine, December 2006]

Deleting corrupt icons may save your Notes database
A few weeks ago, in "Before you reinstall the Notes client, try this", we discussed some ways to clear up problems dealing with mail files. In response, Marleen Overkamp, a senior application developer with Exedra Solutions in The Netherlands, had some interesting suggestions. [DominoPower Magazine, December 2006]

Looking forward to 2007
Another year is coming to an end, which of course means another year is about to begin. Funny how that works. As the new millenia turns one year older, our thoughts turn to the happenings of the past year and wishes for the year to come. [DominoPower Magazine, December 2006]

A quick trick for deleting enormous amounts of junk email
Ever wanted to clear out your Junk E-Mail folder quickly. Here's an interesting technique that's bound to make your day. [OutlookPower Magazine, December 2006]

More ways to delete junk email quickly and easily
Last week, in "A quick trick for deleting enormous amounts of junk email", we wrote about a trick we use for quickly deleting the large mounds of junk mail we get regularly. As you might have expected, this is a hot topic and we got a bunch of letters and questions. In this article, we go through the letters and answer them as best as we can. [OutlookPower Magazine, December 2006]

Looking forward to 2007
Another year is coming to an end, which of course means another year is about to begin. Funny how that works. As the new millenia turns one year older, our thoughts turn to the happenings of the past year and wishes for the year to come. [OutlookPower Magazine, December 2006]

Is voting security in Florida still a problem?
Today is Election Day here in the United States. As a registered voter, I did my duty and went down to my local polling place, and cast my vote. It was, without a doubt, the most disturbing voting experience I've ever had. In particular, we had issues of both inappropriate electioneering and a complete lack of privacy. Our interest here at Computing Unplugged was initially the touchscreen machines, since this is a computing technology that touches on our coverage areas. However, we're also interested in the optical-scan systems, since they, too, are managed by computers and computing technology. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, November 2006]

Privacy, not machines, was the big voting issue last week
Last week, I discussed my personal dismay at the privacy violations I saw at my voting place. I asked readers to tell us about their experiences, and we got a number of fascinating comments from here in America and as far away as Australia. Read on to the end, because Bernard Bolch's comment about mandatory voting in Australia is fascinating. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, November 2006]

Making money taking real estate photos
Last week, we ran an interview with Web designer and photographer Kelly Thomas. In that installment, we talked about taking 360 degree real estate photos. In this installment, we continue to talk with the fascinating Kelly, but about how to make money. As topics go, you gotta like that! [Connected Photographer Magazine, November 2006]

Permanently turning off the automatic Adobe Photo Downloader
We're very big fans of the new Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 product. There is one complaint, though, we have about Elements. It's really just a nit, and it's easy to fix. When you install Elements, the program installs something called the Adobe Photo Downloader. By following these instructions, you can quickly reclaim almost 2MB of your system's RAM. It's not a huge amount, but every little bit adds up. [Connected Photographer Magazine, November 2006]

Creating your own 2007 photo calendar, step-by-step
This year, we decided to illustrate the use of print on-demand technology by demonstrating the creation of our first Connected Photographer calendar. In addition to the printing on-demand process, we'll show you how you can offload the fulfillment process (taking, packing, and shipping orders). To accomplish this, we used CafePress, a service that specializes in one-off production. In this article and the next few, we'll take you through the process of selecting the images, setting up the online store, and creating the calendar. [Connected Photographer Magazine, November 2006]

Images and a cover for your own 2007 photo calendar
We continue our 2007 photo calendar project by preparing the images for publication. As you'll recall from last week's article, we selected 13 images to be used for each month, plus a cover. In this article, we'll learn about proper image formatting and create the cover image. [Connected Photographer Magazine, November 2006]

DocLogic and optimizing the UI in Domino applications
We continue our series of interviews with Lotus Business Partners. This is the second part of our interview with Marek Szymanski and Scott Tomlinson of DLI.tools. Marek's the Product Development Director and Scott's their Marketing and Alliances Director. In this in-depth interview, Scott and Marek take us through their DocLogic product and help us understand how they approach the development of an intuitive user interface for Domino applications. [DominoPower Magazine, November 2006]

Developing an intuitive UI for Domino applications
OK, so we can definitely talk a lot. But when we get an interesting Business Partner into a discussion where key developers are tell us their inside secrets, we figure it's good to listen. We continue our series of interviews with Lotus Business Partners. This is the third (and final) part of our interview with Marek Szymanski and Scott Tomlinson of DLI.tools. In this third installment, Scott and Marek help us understand how to create an intuitive interface and discuss the process of developing for ND7. [DominoPower Magazine, November 2006]

A sneak peek at Vista's Windows Mail, Windows Calendar, and Windows Contacts
The name Outlook Express will go away when Windows Vista ships. Instead, there's going to be a free email client called Windows Mail. For a sneak peek at Windows Mail, plus Vista's Windows Calendar and Windows Contact, read this interesting article. [OutlookPower Magazine, November 2006]

The great Windows Vista antivirus war
Is Symantec trying to force Microsoft to create Vista security holes simply so they could sell more copies of their antivirus program? That's what some claim. But what's the truth? What's really going on? There are always two sides to every story and this one seemed no different. To get to the bottom of the issue and try to derive a better understanding, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz decided to speak with both Symantec and Microsoft. He had the opportunity to conduct exclusive interviews with Cris Paden, Manager on the Corporate Communication Team at Symantec and Adrien Robinson, Director of Communications, Microsoft Security Technology Unit. This is our special report. [OutlookPower Magazine, November 2006]

Readers clock in on Microsoft v. Symantec
Our Special Report last week on the antivirus wars between Microsoft and Symantec generated a bunch of interesting letters to the editor. We've chosen three for your entertainment and edification. [OutlookPower Magazine, November 2006]

Incredibly cheap iPod stand
So you've just spent your last few Benjamins on one of Apple's slick new iPods. Now, though, you want to accessorize your lovely new songbird. When even the least expensive iPod goody costs a good twenty dead presidents, how can you get your bling on and still have a few bucks left over to buy the latest Battlestar Galactica download off iTunes? In this fun article, we'll show you a Wacky iPod Accessory that costs less than four dollars. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, October 2006]

Preparing for the impending IE7 release
Like a hurricane on the horizon (which, fortunately, we've managed to avoid this season), Internet Explorer 7 is getting closer and closer. In fact, if reports are to be believed, IE7 is about the make landfall in the next few days -- and it's coming to your PC whether you want it or not. In this important article, we show you how to prevent it from automatically installing. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, October 2006]

Taking 360 degree real estate photos
Here at Connected Photographer, we like to bring you information straight from leading experts on various photographic topics. This week, I had the opportunity to interview Kelly Thomas, a Web developer and entrepreneur who's managed to make money from real estate photography. His specialty is setting up virtual tours. In this interview, he tells us how he does it. [Connected Photographer Magazine, October 2006]

Preparing for the impending IE7 release
Like a hurricane on the horizon (which, fortunately, we've managed to avoid this season), Internet Explorer 7 is getting closer and closer. In fact, if reports are to be believed, IE7 is about the make landfall in the next few days -- and it's coming to your PC whether you want it or not. In this important article, we show you how to prevent it from automatically installing. [Connected Photographer Magazine, October 2006]

Insights into workflow with Scott Good
We continue our series of interviews with Lotus Business Partners. This week, I had the opportunity to interview Scott Good, President of Teamwork Solutions. In this in-depth interview, Scott helps us understand workflow applications, gives us some deep background on the history of Notes, and looks forward to the upcoming Hannover release. [DominoPower Magazine, October 2006]

Preparing for the impending IE7 release
Like a hurricane on the horizon (which, fortunately, we've managed to avoid this season), Internet Explorer 7 is getting closer and closer. In fact, if reports are to be believed, IE7 is about the make landfall in the next few days -- and it's coming to your PC whether you want it or not. In this important article, we show you how to prevent it from automatically installing. [DominoPower Magazine, October 2006]

Integrating AJAX and RSS into Domino applications
We continue our series of interviews with Lotus Business Partners. This week, I had the opportunity to interview Marek Szymanski and Scott Tomlinson of DLI.tools. Marek's the Product Development Director and Scott's their Marketing and Alliances Director. In this in-depth interview, these gentlemen help us understand document management, AJAX, RSS, and more. In fact, we started off with our usual 10 question interview and the discussion got so in-depth we wound up with more than 20 questions -- and an interview that will span both this week and next week's issues. [DominoPower Magazine, October 2006]

Sending sound in Outlook after SP2
OutlookPower reader John Dunigan has an interesting complaint. Microsoft has disabled certain sound functionality in Outlook 2003 SP2. That's because the sound capability was written as an ActiveX control and ActiveX control is great, big, open security nightmare. But John wants sound back. We have some ideas. [OutlookPower Magazine, October 2006]

Preparing for the impending IE7 release
Like a hurricane on the horizon (which, fortunately, we've managed to avoid this season), Internet Explorer 7 is getting closer and closer. In fact, if reports are to be believed, IE7 is about the make landfall in the next few days -- and it's coming to your PC whether you want it or not. In this important article, we show you how to prevent it from automatically installing. [OutlookPower Magazine, October 2006]

How to backup your rules
Your rules are not stored in your .PST file. If you want to move your rules from one install to another, you'll need to back them up. This article will show you how. [OutlookPower Magazine, October 2006]

Microsoft Office Outlook vs. free email choices
Although most of us are pretty familiar with Microsoft Office Outlook and Outlook Express, there are still some people out there who are confused by the similar names. With the upcoming release of Office 2007 and Windows Mail, there's bound to be even more confusion. In this article, we'll help you get a handle on what's what. [OutlookPower Magazine, October 2006]

Escalade your iPod with the Corgi iCar
Corgi recently introduced a unique approach to iPod speakers. Their iCar is a Cadillac Escalade that "flashes, jumps, dances, and pumps up the volume" in tune to the iPod's music. Just how good or bad is this thing? You'll have to read our review to find out. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, September 2006]

Is the iCush the perfect iPod accessory for your iTush?
In the last installment of our Wacky iPod Accessories series, we reviewed a $39.95 product that we described as "tacky, crappy, cheesy, and disappointing". Before we pulled it out of the box, we fully expected to give the $99 HoMedics iCush, a digitally-enabled massage pad, a similar beating. We were very, very wrong. Read this article to find out why. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, September 2006]

A no-cost way to learn some LotusScript
We've reviewed a many of the Lotus courses offered by The Learning Continuum Company (TLCC) over the years. In each case, the course reviewed got excellent ratings. When we found out they were offering some training for free, it was a no-brainer for us to share that information with you. [DominoPower Magazine, September 2006]

Good project ideas from the Microsoft Outlook Ideas Book
We get a lot of books in for review here at ZATZ. Most of them aren't for Outlook, though. So, when The Microsoft Outlook Ideas Book came in, we had a lot of ideas. This is an interesting book. Read our review to find out if it's for you. [OutlookPower Magazine, September 2006]

Where Outlook hides its secret stuff
Ever wonder where Outlook stores all its information? You might think it's in the PST file, but Outlook actually drops its load all over your hard drive. If you're saving, backing up, or recovering files, it's probably a good idea to know where to find all of Outlook's droppings. In this article, we'll clue you into the secret locations you might not know about. [OutlookPower Magazine, September 2006]

When all else fails, rebuild your profile
Outlook is a complex beast and when something fails, it's often difficult to figure out what's going wrong. In this article, we'll take a look at a weird problem one of our readers experienced and how, when all else fails, you might want to turn to Outlook's profile to fix the problem. [OutlookPower Magazine, September 2006]

When anti-spam programs corrupt your profile
Last week, we ran an article entitled "When all else fails, rebuild your profile". In it, we attempted to answer Ian Steptoe's answer about why his POP3 email settings seemed to be continually corrupted. Ronald Goers, an engineer at XEROX, sent us the following, very interesting insight. He's noticed that anti-spam programs sometimes muck with Outlook's profile settings. For details on what's happening, you'll have to read this article. [OutlookPower Magazine, September 2006]

Why are we giving BPL all this coverage?
By now, everyone who regularly reads Computing Unplugged has noticed that our summer editorial has been devoted to a single topic. We've been devoting our article-level coverage to a single, apparently obscure topic called broadband-over-powerline, otherwise known as BPL. Why? In this article, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz explains why this issue is important for us all to understand. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, August 2006]

An expert's analysis of BPL
If you've been following our Broadband-over-Powerline (BPL) coverage these past weeks, you can see we've come up with more questions than answers. As part of our attempt to expose all sides of this issue, we've been looking for true experts who can help us understand the issue. As part of that research, we turned up Glenn Elmore. We're very grateful for Glenn in helping us understand this issue in far more depth than we've been able to thusfar. As a radio amateur and a BPL researcher, Glenn's getting us answers as close to the core of the problem as we think we're going to be able to find. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, August 2006]

Inside the ARRL's objection to BPL interference
When we first began our coverage of Broadband-over-Powerline (BPL), members of the ham radio community who also read Computing Unplugged made sure we understood that there's actually a controversy here, an important one. As we began to research the topic further, one organization's name kept coming up over and over: the American Radio Relay League, better known as the ARRL. After some back and forth dialog, Allen Pitts, Media and Public Relations Manager for the ARRL, agreed to be interviewed by Computing Unplugged. What follows is that interview. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, August 2006]

A BPL manufacturer responds to all the complaints
Poor Chano Gomez! When he pitched us an interview on Broadband-over-Powerline (BPL), little did this BPL manufacturer know that he'd be touching off a firestorm of debate. Two months and more than a dozen articles later, Chano's graciously consented to another interview, this time to answer the charges against BPL from its detractors. We have to give special "props" to Chano. Not only did he agree to step up and answer some tough questions, he also did so while on vacation in Europe. So, special thanks go out to him for taking the time to help us understand this issue more fully. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, August 2006]

Computing Unplugged passes judgement on BPL
Is BPL the helpful key to nearly universal high-speed Internet access or a technology that could cripple our critical radio frequency infrastructure? This is the question that Computing Unplugged Magazine set out to answer. This article contains the result of our in-depth analysis. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, August 2006]

A line of camera bags you'll probably never buy
In this strange, little review, we take a look at a very sweet line of camera bags worthy of a 4-star review. It's just that you're probably never going to buy them, even though you should. Sadly, while you and I live in 2006, the company selling these products is pretty much stuck back in 1986. [Connected Photographer Magazine, August 2006]

Create your own Mac-like gel effects
My buddy Steve loves Macs. They're all he can talk about. All you need to do is simply say the word "Mac" and he's off on a run, telling you exactly what he thinks of them. Given his enthusiasm for all things Macintosh, you can understand how he was excited by a site that he discovered that helps you make "those really cool Mac OSX gel styles that are really popular right now." [Connected Photographer Magazine, August 2006]

The folly of WiFi cameras
What happens when you pair up WiFi networking with photography? Is it like oil and water or chocolate and peanut butter? Is anything really like chocolate and peanut butter? I mean, really? Take your protein pills and put your helmet on. Commencing countdown. WiFi, as we'll show, isn't the best use of your camera's silicon. [Connected Photographer Magazine, August 2006]

Kingston Technology and the future of flash memory
This month, we had the opportunity to interview Mike Sager, a VP at Kingston Technology, the world's largest independent memory manufacturer. Mike helped us explore two interesting issues: the future of flash memory and how Kingston supports its flash memory customers. [Connected Photographer Magazine, August 2006]

An interview with Phil Sheehy on mobilizing Notes applications
We continue our series of interviews with Lotus Business Partners. This week, I had the opportunity to interview Phil Sheehy, Vice President of Wireless Solutions at iEnterprises. In this in-depth interview, Phil will help us understand what's involved in mobilizing Notes applications. [DominoPower Magazine, August 2006]

Striking the mother load can remind us what's important
As developers and administrators, we often see our mail systems as never-ending lists of action items, user complaints, hand-holding, and ongoing maintenance. Sometimes we forget that our email systems can also be very special. [OutlookPower Magazine, August 2006]

How to combine PST files
We've recently gotten a few letters about how to move your PST file data from one PST file to another. If you've been using Outlook for a long time, it's likely you've got an old-format PST file that has a 2GB limit in storage capacity. If you're running close to that limit, you might want to use the new PST format that became available with Outlook 2003. In this important article, we present a tutorial on combining PST files. [OutlookPower Magazine, August 2006]

PST files, PR boneheads, and more rules than sense
This week, rather than provide one long answer to a particularly vexing Outlook problem, we've decided to gather up a few recent letters to the editor and present them for your reading pleasure. [OutlookPower Magazine, August 2006]

What to do when Outlook won't send or receive
What do you do if Outlook won't send or receive. One of our readers had this problem and we've got a few possible solutions. [OutlookPower Magazine, August 2006]

Understanding broadband over powerline technology
Broadband technology is changing at a wildly accelerated pace. Whether it's EvDO technology in your new Treo 700p or WiFi in your local coffee shop, it's clear Internet access is leaving POTS (Plain Ol' Telephone System) connections behind. One of the most exciting areas of innovation is broadband over powerline (BPL) technology, which distributes high-speed Internet connectivity over your household powerlines. We examine BPL in-depth this week in a detailed, exclusive interview with Chano Gomez, one of the leading experts on this technology. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, July 2006]

Implementing broadband over powerline
We continue our examination of broadband over powerline technology this week in the second part of our exclusive interview with Chano Gomez, one of the leading experts on this technology. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, July 2006]

The broadband over powerline controversy heats up
Wow! All I can say is "Wow"! We ran what seemed like a perfectly innocuous interview with an expert on what seemed like a perfectly innocuous topic: broadband over powerline (BPL). It seemed like the perfect no-brainer: more broadband, no extra wires, and high-speed Internet to countries with no other infrastructure. Apparently, not everyone agrees. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, July 2006]

Create a forward-looking feel with a blend
This week, we look at how to use Photoshop to create an interesting blend effect to merge two pictures together, creating a special mood. [Connected Photographer Magazine, July 2006]

Amazing art with Microsoft Paint (of all things)
Can you use Microsoft Paint to create great digital art? We didn't think so either. But, apparently, you can. In this Site of the Month, we show you what one artist was capable of producing with this most-primitive of paint programs. [Connected Photographer Magazine, July 2006]

Viewing RAW images in the Windows Explorer
Most Windows users are familiar with the Windows XP Explorer, the file navigator that forms the basis of the Windows desktop interface. If you're a photographer who likes to take pictures in the RAW, you also know that the Windows Explorer thumbnail view can't render RAW images. Fortunately, there's a new little "PowerToy" that will update your Windows Explorer and make those thumbnails visible. It's free and this helpful article tells you how to get it. [Connected Photographer Magazine, July 2006]

A customer's perspective on Portal 6
We continue our popular series of interviews. This week, rather than interviewing a Business Partner, we had the opportunity to talk with an actual customer using Lotus technologies. Bill Jenkins is the Senior Director of Information Technology for UNICCO Service Company. UNICCO's a 19,000 employee, privately held services firm that uses Lotus technologies heavily within it's IT organization. We had a chance to talk to Bill about his impressions of Portal 6 and how UNICCO's using Portal and Lotus tech throughout the organization. [DominoPower Magazine, July 2006]

More resources for LSI_Info
A few weeks ago, we ran Mick Moignard's "LSI_Info: obscure but useful information in LotusScript", a neat little article explaining how to get additional status information in Notes. Reader Julian Robichaux sent us a message that adds a little more information to LSI_Info. [DominoPower Magazine, July 2006]

Inside a Notes consultancy
We continue our series of interviews with Lotus Business Partners. The DominoPower Interview series has become very popular, in part because it really gives Lotus professionals out there a deep and personal insight into many of the companies (and, more important, the people) that make up the Lotus professional community. Over the past year, we've gotten to know the team at Teamstudio and this week, we're able to learn more about what's going on with the company and some of the changes that have taken place recently. [DominoPower Magazine, July 2006]

Which reminder is screwing things up?
This is another in a long list of the same class of questions: my reminders are broken. We did a great article recently that goes over some of the best steps for fixing reminder problems. Since we published the article, we've come upon one other step you might want to take. Read this article for that magical command-line instruction. [OutlookPower Magazine, July 2006]

Red state vs. blue state software for your PDA and laptop
For whatever reasons (and they're twisted), we didn't manage to kill this article. So, it's in this spirit of newly discovered brotherhood (and grits, did we mention the grits?) that we bring you our review of red state vs. blue state software for your PDA. To be fair, we've discovered we really love grits, and, frankly, there's been no really good hate mail for months. And, with all the warmth made possible by a sunny Florida summer, we bring you Red vs. Blue, state edition. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, June 2006]

Kingston Technology and the meaning of U3
This month, we had the opportunity to interview Heather Skinner, an executive at Kingston Technology, the world's largest independent memory manufacturer. Heather was kind enough to help us understand a fascinating new technology called U3. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, June 2006]

The Treo TripKit contains everything but the kitchen sink
Are you one of those people who likes to buy all the accessories and goodies for a gadget? If so, we've got the product for you: the Palm Treo TripKit. Is it worth the $199 price? You'll have to read this article to find out. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, June 2006]

Using diagonal composition to give a photo impact
There are many great tricks for composing better pictures. In this article, we'll talk briefly about one of my favorite: diagonal composition. How the eye tracks an image often helps determine how the image feels. Remember, all photos are static, but not all photos need to feel static. [Connected Photographer Magazine, June 2006]

Fill the frame for maximum impact
One of our favorite tricks for turning what might be a ho-hum picture into a high impact picture is filling the frame. If you just move in close to your subject, your image will appear more compelling. This article shows you how you can create maximum impact by filling the frame. [Connected Photographer Magazine, June 2006]

Photo effect fun from the TwistingPixels Sampler
Whenever I talk about digital photography to "regular" people, I'm always asked if there's any way to do digital image effects without buying expensive software. That, of course, is what our Budget Photo Secrets series is all about. This week, we've got a very nice photo effects tool that's available for download from TwistingPixels, the TwistingPixels Sampler. Read this article to learn about all the cool effects it'll do. [Connected Photographer Magazine, June 2006]

More twisted effects from the TwistingPixels Sampler
We continue our survey of the twisted effects possible in the free Twisting Pixels Sampler product. This week, we talk about a few interesting effects and our impressions, overall, of the package. [Connected Photographer Magazine, June 2006]

Keep track of your backups with BackupTracker
This month, we spotlight a free, OpenNTF application called BackupTracker. If you want to keep track of your backups, this is a simple database you can download for free. [DominoPower Magazine, June 2006]

How to set Notes 7 to open in the Workspace
Are you an old school Notes user? Are you someone who's used Notes since Notes 3 or Notes 4 and has grown to love the traditional Workspace? Notes has certainly improved over the releases, but one of the things I've missed most about the newer releases was the Workspace. Oh, sure, it's in there (and so's pretty much everything else). But how do you set up Notes so the Workspace loads as your default screen, just like in the good ol' days? In this article, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz tells you how. [DominoPower Magazine, June 2006]

10 bonehead mistakes PR people make when they send email
PR people often get a bad rap. To many editors, the folks pitching stories are annoyances, constantly trying to get an editor's attention for some useless story idea or another. But here at ZATZ, we've found that public relations professionals are, in the most part, key assets, helping us bring you the most complete and rounded stories possible. It would be far harder doing our jobs without the regular help we get from the great folks in PR. And so, knowing we truly value PR people, we bring you this article. It's not intended to poke fun at boneheaded PR mistakes. It's honestly actually intended to help our favorite PR professionals be more successful in using email as a communication vehicle. [OutlookPower Magazine, June 2006]

Who knew PR email was this controversial?
Last week's Email Etiquette article, "10 bonehead mistakes PR people make when they send email" apparently awakened deep feelings among certain reader. In this installment of our Letters to the Editor column, we publish two letters from readers who found the material helpful and one really fun letter who found the article "deeply offensive". Seriously. You gotta stick around and read this one! [OutlookPower Magazine, June 2006]

The Sprint A920 phone: should you buy it, or a PDA smartphone?
We continue our battle of the phones with a review of a multimedia-equipped cellular phone, the Samsung A920 from Sprint. Over the past few months, we've reviewed the newest and hottest smartphones: the Palm Treo 700w, the Sprint PPC-6700, Verizon's variation on the theme, the XV6700, and compared them all to the venerable Treo 650. This month, we'll be looking at a few new devices, starting with the Samsung A920 phone profiled in this article, graciously provided to us by Sprint. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, May 2006]

Treo 700p, E3, Halo 3, PS3, and taking a Wii
Hang onto your hats, boys and girls. We've got one heck of a ride for you. So much has happened this week in the world of gadgets that you're going to need to keep your tray tables up and your seat belts locked to hang on through our whirlwind tour. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, May 2006]

Boostaroo's Revolution will boost your iPod's beat
The Boostaroo Revolution is a tiny, mini-amplifier designed to boost your headphone's volume. The manufacturer makes a number of claims regarding this $60 box. First, it claims it will boost the overall sound volume, helping you hear your favorite audio device better on airplanes, buses, and in other noisy environments. Does it work? You'll have to read this article to find out. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, May 2006]

Save yourself some tech support hassles with Computing Unplugged
It's a holiday weekend here in the U.S. We all know what that means: extra work doing family tech support. Mom and Dad, Grandma and Aunt Lucy have all saved up their dumbest and most annoying tech support problems, just waiting for you to arrive and fix them. But, in the spirit of the Memorial Day, we'll take pity on all our readers who are in the trenches of the tech support war. For a short time, we'll waive our usual site-license fee and sign up your company, group, school, or organization en mass to Computing Unplugged at no charge. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, May 2006]

Bring beauty into your day by visiting the Vietnam photography community
A picture really is worth a thousand words, especially if you don't understand any of the words. We recently received a letter from Pham Thanh Long, telling us about his Web site, the Vietnam photography community, what he claims is the largest photo Web site in Vietnam. [Connected Photographer Magazine, May 2006]

A great, safe painting program for little kids (and dads)
A few weeks ago, we published an article about how to create romantic picture effects using a free software program. Now, with Mother's Day just behind us, it's only fitting that we talk about free software for the kids that may eventually arrive after some good romancing. [Connected Photographer Magazine, May 2006]

Save yourself some tech support hassles with Connected Photographer
It's a holiday weekend here in the U.S. We all know what that means: extra work doing family tech support. Mom and Dad, Grandma and Aunt Lucy have all saved up their dumbest and most annoying tech support problems, just waiting for you to arrive and fix them. But, in the spirit of the Memorial Day, we'll take pity on all our readers who are in the trenches of the tech support war. For a short time, we'll waive our usual site-license fee and sign up your company, group, school, or organization en mass to Connected Photographer at no charge. [Connected Photographer Magazine, May 2006]

An interview with Keith Vozel on AJAX and Web 2.0 acceleration
We continue our series of interviews with Lotus Business Partners. This week, I had the opportunity to interview Keith Vozel, Director of Marketing for Stampede Technologies, a company that specializes in what it calls Web 2.0 performance acceleration. This interview contains our first article-level editorial coverage of AJAX, an interesting new technology mash-up, so it's a worthy read. [DominoPower Magazine, May 2006]

Editing LDAP settings without the server running
Back in 2004, we published a couple of short articles about dealing with LDAP problems in Domino. Since then, we've gotten a regular stream of reader letters asking how to solve specific LDAP problems. One such letter is from Venkat Jayasankar, who wants to change LDAP settings without starting the server. [DominoPower Magazine, May 2006]

Save yourself some tech support hassles with DominoPower
It's a holiday weekend here in the U.S. We all know what that means: extra work doing family tech support. Mom and Dad, Grandma and Aunt Lucy have all saved up their dumbest and most annoying tech support problems, just waiting for you to arrive and fix them. But, in the spirit of the Memorial Day, we'll take pity on all our readers who are in the trenches of the tech support war. For a short time, we'll waive our usual site-license fee and sign up your company, group, school, or organization en mass to DominoPower at no charge. [DominoPower Magazine, May 2006]

What to do when reminders go kapooie
We once again revisit the problem of reminders in Outlook. In this article, we present a number of detailed steps you can take when your reminders go kapooie. [OutlookPower Magazine, May 2006]

Save yourself some tech support hassles with OutlookPower
It's a holiday weekend here in the U.S. We all know what that means: extra work doing family tech support. Mom and Dad, Grandma and Aunt Lucy have all saved up their dumbest and most annoying tech support problems, just waiting for you to arrive and fix them. But, in the spirit of the Memorial Day, we'll take pity on all our readers who are in the trenches of the tech support war. For a short time, we'll waive our usual site-license fee and sign up your company, group, school, or organization en mass to OutlookPower at no charge. [OutlookPower Magazine, May 2006]

Read your water meter, find a handheld cheaper and sweeter, and get HDTV sans satellite receiver
This week, reader letters take us all over, from HDTV on the roof, to the water meter, to anywhere a cheap PDA can go. This one's interesting, so read it and learn. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, April 2006]

Portable hard drive hit parade
Product shootout articles are more difficult to do than a single product review. It can often take a huge amount of coordination among manufacturers, PR reps, and our editorial team to get all the devices in and compare them side-by-side. Fortunately, we've managed to assemble an interesting collection of portable drives. Among our contenders is a drive that could have been great, but's a terrible failure do to a stupid marketing decision and two drives that rate perfect 5 out of 5 scores. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, April 2006]

Learn to fly RC planes and helicopters with RealFlight G3
If you've ever wanted to fly RC planes and helicopters, but were afraid of crashing your very expensive toys, you should check out RealFlight G3. In this in-depth review, we examine whether or not this program can get you in the air. [Computing Unplugged Magazine, April 2006]

Using RAW import to create cool color effects
A few weeks ago, we ran an article in Connected Photographer that reviewed the weird, little Lensbaby lens attachment for SLR cameras. In that review, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz used a sample image to showcase how the Lensbaby transformed the image into something more surrealistic. A bunch of you wrote in asking about the blue effect on the image. The answer is amazingly simple. This article will show you what we did. [Connected Photographer Magazine, April 2006]

A free program for creating black and white effects
One of the wonderful things about the world of software is that there are often free ways to accomplish what you want without spending money. Certainly, some of the commercial products might give you more control and options, but they're often harde