In typical TROLOV form, this weekly TechRepublic community video highlights the top discussions and members on the forums. And speaking of the TR Community, the big Event is less than one month away! You can find out more about the TR Community Event in the “other links” section below. If you’re not a fan of video (sorry about the Flash, Jaqui), you can choose to just listen to the audio file.

Notes:
Top discussion threads:

  1. Vacation? What a quaint concept
  2. 10 ways you might be breaking the law with your computer
  3. Linux and Windows compromised at boot
  4. Video: TR Out Loud – May 22, 2009
  5. FNM 22-05-2009

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.  We’d also love to receive some Garden Club pics (hint hint).

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. Peconet Tietokoneet (13 thumbs)
  2. Jacky Howe (12 thumbs)
  3. OH Smeg (10 thumbs)
  4. Wizard-09 (7 thumbs)
  5. OldER Mycroft (5 thumbs)

Most Comments in the TR Forums this week

  1. jdclyde (183 posts)
  2. The Scummy One (172 posts)
  3. Jacky Howe (167 posts)
  4. Deadly Ernest (158 posts)
  5. boxfiddler (112 posts)

TR Member participation

Thanks to Jacky Howe, Hal 9000, Bill, J.Ja, BFilmFan, NickNielsen, Deadly Ernest, and Kitty Puff for participating in this episode of TROLOV. These folks are eligible for some free swag!

Last week’s Question of the Week was sent in by jdclyde: “Do you dictate to business partners what format they’re allowed to send you, or do THEY dictate to you?” And the follow up question: “Does anyone out there use an open format?” Here are some of the responses we received:

NickNielsen: I use the Open Document almost exclusively for personal use. If I have to send documents to others, I usually export as PDF or, if the file must be edited, I use Microsoft Office 97 or 2003 format.

Hal 9000: I use Microsoft Office 2003 and Word Perfect Office as well as Open Office and several different PDF Readers, so I can view files in most formats – but from past experience, as most of my clients do submit Government Tenders, they have to submit these as Microsoft .doc format so that Office 2003 is the staple Office application for all of them.

Deadly Ernest: Yes, I use an open format for all my documents now. I dumped Office 2003 back in 2004 because every time I opened an older document created in Word for Windows 2a, or Word 6, or Excel 4 the file got corrupted by Office 2003 – thank heavens for back up copies. I tried Open Office and they all opened up OK, as did the newer documents. I do run into the odd organization that insists documents sent them be in MS Office or MS Excel format, so I simply save as such in Open Office. The recipients all report that the documents are perfectly formatted.

This week’s Question of the Week is a “Who is this?“ photo. Check out the video to see the photo, and then send your guesses to trol at techrepublic.com.
Voice messages, e-mails, and photos = swag
To earn some free TR swag, send in an e-mail with an answer to the Question of the Week, a brand new Question of the Week, comments, and/or photos 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.