In one of the last TR Out Loud videos of 2009, Sonja Thompson recaps the weekly highlights at TechRepublic, including the top discussions and most active members on the boards. If you’re not a fan of video, you can choose to just listen to the audio file.

Notes:
Top discussion threads:

  1. The market has rejected Linux desktops. Get over it.
  2. Has Microsoft found an answer to beating Google?
  3. KDE Plasma desktop: A failure that just won’t go away
  4. Some Firefox extensions may be exploited to install malware
  5. What pet would you recommend for geeks?

Here are a few other links that you should check out:

If you’d like to contribute to the pics galleries, please send us your photos.

Also, don’t forget to sign up for the TechRepublic Community Central newsletter!

Most “Thumbs Up” in the TR Questions arena over the past week

  1. Jacky Howe (15 thumbs)
  2. seanferd (7 thumbs)
  3. OldER Mycroft, OH Smeg, and JamesRL (3 thumbs)
  4. PurpleSkys (2 thumbs)

Most Comments in the TR Forums this week

  1. OH Smeg (71 posts)
  2. seanferd (68 posts)
  3. Jacky Howe (60 posts)
  4. JCitizen (59 posts)
  5. Oz_Media (57 posts)

TR Member participation

Many thanks to Darryl, jamesski, Hal 9000, DMambo, Jacky Howe, shasca, and Nicole Bremer Nash for participating in the show. Also, thanks to wthimmes and Gary Elder for sending in e-mail over the holiday break.These folks are eligible for some free TR swag!

Please take the poll below to vote for your favorite caption of this picture of Maxwell Edison.

The outstanding TR Question of the Week was submitted by jck: “What’s your all-time favorite PC/technical gadget that you’ve either purchased or received as a gift?” Here’s the only response:

Hal 9000: “I absolutely love my TR pen that I received a while ago. It’s up there with the better pens… smooth to write with and a pleasure to have in your hand. The other thing that I always use is a key ring given to me by ACL, the Head Gasket crowd, and it’s a 4 Cylinder Head Gasket that I have on my person at all times. Both of these are the best gifts that I’ve ever been given by any company, including the ones that I used to work for.”

Voice messages, e-mails, and photos = swag
If you’d like to earn some free TR swag, send in an e-mail with a Question of the Week, and answer to the Question of the Week, comments, photos/photo captions, or original video clips to trol at techrepublic.com. You can also leave a voice message — our toll free number is (866) 414-CNET (2638) and our Skype ID is tr.out.loud.

We have lots and lots of swag. If you’d like a complete listing, shoot me an e-mail, and I’ll send a reply.