DC member Justice writes to tell us about his new commercial software offering:

"I'm very proud to launch my BARD software today!

BARD is a tool to organise your audio / sample library with minimal hassle. I made it in response to the posts about organising your library on the nuskoolbreaks forum. Music producers and other audio enthusiasts can use it to preview samples and instantly file them in a folder of choice. Everything in BARD has been crafted to help you get back in control over the thousands of sounds you have lying about in a variety of places.

Get BARD now and enjoy all the powerful features for less than the price of a night out. Or try out BARD Lite without limits and nags for free."

Website: http://getbard.com

Welcome to the final official write-up for the DonationCoder.com NANY 2012 event!

NANY stands for "New Apps for the New Year". It's an annual event here on DonationCoder.com where we challenge coders of all experience levels to release a brand new freeware / donationware application to celebrate the coming of the new year.  It represents the playful and generous spirit of the DonationCoder.com site and the people who visit it.

Some of the releases are full featured polished, professional-level applications, while some are just experiments by new programmers.

Click here to discuss the NANY 2012 event and learn more, or watch videos of the entries below.  Click the program name to visit the forum thread for that application to discuss and download it.  As always, if you like what you see, consider making a donation to the author.

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Ethervane Echo

Written by DonationCoder member tranglos, Ethervane Echo is a lightweight clipboard extender designed to speed up typing repetitive text. For writers, translators and coders. Fast and lightweight, with instant search. I have to say, the amount of time and effort that tranglos put into this program really shows. The help file is extensive and documents the program extremely well.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3piWKz-q3Y" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3piWKz-q3Y</a>

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Qatapult

Written by DonationCoder member ecaradec, Qatapult is a keyboard launcher reminiscent of the QuickSilver program on Macs that has this super nice feature that allows to run commands on objects with completion on object and command and possibly extra arguments. It also has a very slick and customizable design UI. Ecaradec has adapted ideas from QuickSilver and made them available for Windows as Qatapult.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beyP2LmOir4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beyP2LmOir4</a>

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MPQ Screensaver Builder

Multi Photo Quotes Builder, by DonationCoder member mouser, let's users package screensavers for their friends and family that contain images and quotes of their own creation.  Based on mouser's Multi Photo Quotes screen saver engine, it offers a high degree of customization on the installed machine, and has unique abilities to tile images on multiple monitors and support random text quotes integrated with the images.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUpRSyTGfjw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUpRSyTGfjw</a>

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Web Link Captor

Mouser's Web Link Captor is a program that takes a list of plaintext items, and builds an output document containing a list of url-linked results based on web searches for the items. It's a way to quickly build a clickable list of items from just their names, suitable for posting on your blog or a forum, etc. This program took some time, folks. You'd normally expect to pay for software that is this useful and polished. Being able to obtain software like this for free is one of the great things that DonationCoder offers the virtual community.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT6loA1ui1U" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT6loA1ui1U</a>

(You can also watch a longer tutorial here).

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Image Grid

This tool, by DonationCoder member vlastimil, allows you to take several smaller pictures and create one big image with all the smaller pictures arranged in a rows and columns. This tool will prove useful to create custom wallpapers from photographs, create previews of multiple images for sites like deviant art or for designers' client, create pictures for a printing service that only supports pictures of certain size and the client needs lots of smaller pictures.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8rQ0DMmrg8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8rQ0DMmrg8</a>

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Recursiview

Written by DonationCoder member skwire, Recursiview is a simple image viewer that will allow view a flat list of all images in a folder and subfolders.Keyboard-driven operation; Unicode-path compatible; Configurable thumbnail size.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbg7juXeaB8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbg7juXeaB8</a>

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MPH (Media Player Hotkeys)

Written by DonationCoder member skwire, MPH (Media Player Hotkeys) is a hotkey application designed to allow you to control various audio, video and media players from one set of global hotkeys..

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyBjNt7-kl8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyBjNt7-kl8</a>

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PDFInfoGUI

Written by DonationCoder member skwire, PDFInfoGUI is a Graphical user interface front-end for pdfinfo.exe from the Xpdf package at FooLabs..  It can show a table of pdf information for a large collection of pdf files, and export to csv.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeyzyvxrTjw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeyzyvxrTjw</a>

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GotSpace?

GotSpace?, by DC member Stoic Joker, is a small simple portable utility that will list the available drives and the space available on them. It's actually a clone of another program SJ had been using for years which had never been updated and lacked some of the features that SJ has added to Got Space?

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F8RBNk9gvo" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F8RBNk9gvo</a>

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Portable Extension Warlock

Using this tool by DonationCoder member hamradio, you can build a launch file to launch files of certain types in certain applications skipping the system file associations.  You should be able to use this as well on portable devices as long as the computer you intend to use it on has .NET 4.0. by using the DropZone that is included.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKh4QLl7Ml0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKh4QLl7Ml0</a>

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Uncle Cody's Dice Game

DonationCoder members Mouser and Krishnean collaborated on this game, which is a simple Solitaire dice game based on Martian Dice by Tasty Minstrel Games.  Fun!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz9W4lAeA9k" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz9W4lAeA9k</a>

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PinPics

Written by DonationCoder member NinJA999, PinPics maps out geotagged photos from a folder.  It's a great way to see where you've been and to bring back old memories.  Try it with the pictures on your smartphone!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDXTixRmbzY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDXTixRmbzY</a>

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Stick A Note

Stick A Note, by DonationCoder member anandcoral, is an application to create focus-less notes that can be associated with application windows.  The note moves with the associated window, and in saved in text format. The note auto-hides in the associated program window is hidden or inactive, and a hotkey can be used to show/hide the note.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiFiaoKb0f0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiFiaoKb0f0</a>

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Tell When Done

Tell When Done, by DonationCoder member anandcoral, watches a program window, which is doing some process, and tells when it has done it's processing. Effectively freeing the user to do another job in another window, without worrying about it.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdlJUW4vmPM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdlJUW4vmPM</a>

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Paste Like Text

Written by DonationCoder member anandcoral, Paste Like Text gives option to paste the text from clipboard, in different format, like Proper case, valid file name, hex color value, remove blanks etc. Also option for mimic typing, auto pasteboard and view the color, if possible.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF79mRqOqoQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF79mRqOqoQ</a>

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Kyrathasoft Christian Prayer Minder

DC member kyrathaba has this to say about Christian Prayer Minder : This program will likely appeal to a narrower audience. As you might infer from the name of the program, the program provides informative texts on prayer-related topics, plus enables easily save/retrieve/edit/search prayer files. Searching prayer files is based on tags and/or author, or the user can search within the actual words of the prayer itself for a word or phrase. In its future incarnations, the program will have the ability to use user-configurable prompts to remind the user to pray at certain times, and/or about certain topics. Designed for use by people of faith, CPM is a tool that will continue to grow more refined and useful with each new version that becomes available. And if you love beautiful religious artwork, be sure to check out the program, which currently features a score of very attractive images, many of them created by John R. Bell.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KAQqpHlHmE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KAQqpHlHmE</a>

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Fentwiss

Fentwiss is a java-based, keyboard-centric calculator and converter written by DonationCoder member timns. The program features simple and natural syntax for fast calculation and conversion, and tries to present the results in a human-friendly way (mixed units, fractions).

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0zdZDJmdNM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0zdZDJmdNM</a>

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Desktop URL Embed

Desktop URL Embed was written by DonationCoder member wraith808. Active desktop was supposed to be a big feature on Windows, but it has faded into the annals of history.  Or has it?  It's still there, just not as prevalent.  So when wraith808 wanted to embed a webcam view in his Evil Genius desktop setup, he decided to learn about Windows Gadgets.  This program allows the user to embed a URL into their desktop, and set a refresh if desired and the size of the gadget.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUuk7aFScHw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUuk7aFScHw</a>

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Kyrathasoft Source Code Line Counter

Are you a software developer? Do you ever find yourself estimating a project's size ("Oh, what you're wanting will probably amount to about 5,000 lines of code...") in terms of lines of source code? Kyrathasoft Source Code Line Counter, by DonationCoder member kyrathaba, makes counting lines of source code easy and fast -- within a single project, or across multiple projects. It has the option to discount blank lines and/or comments, and to count/discount IDE-created code. This donationware program supports the following programming languages' source-files: Visual Basic, C, C#, Delphi/Pascal, Bash, Java, AHK, and AutoIt.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zABQ36dbwZ8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zABQ36dbwZ8</a>

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Kyrathasoft Found Money

Found Money when DonationCoder member kyrathaba responded to a coding-snack request made by DonationCoder member caddo. The program allows you to keep track of money that you find -- under your car seat, in the washing machine, etc. Features record creation, saving, editing of saved records, and even searching against criteria ("show me any records in which the number of pennies is less than six", or "show me any records in which the number of one-dollar bills is exactly equal to three"). Use it for its original intended purpose, or as a digital piggy bank.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE-XUgvymR0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE-XUgvymR0</a>

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Kyrathasoft Hangman Game

This program was kyrathaba's first submission for NANY 2012, although he later added three more programs. This is a Hangman variant that presents well over nine-hundred hangman puzzles to be solved. As you continue to solve puzzles, the amount of time you have in which to solve each puzzles decreases -- to a point. You can opt to register a username on the online database in order to compete against others who are also using the program, seeing who can get the highest score. In the contest I ran, $30.00 of DonationCredits were distributed to monthly high-scorers. I very much enjoyed everyone's participation, and assistance in improving the game!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns74DIOR2M4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns74DIOR2M4</a>

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Visual Perimeter

Visual Perimeter, by DonationCoder member hegearon, is a very simple-to-use, barebones application whose inner width/height can be set via a "Control Panel" that drops down from the top of the mostly transparent form. Use this program to visualize a perimeter that is so many pixels in width, by so many pixels in height. A nice first effort, by new DC member hegearon!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T1Z_1vtQ8k" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T1Z_1vtQ8k</a>

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Treat Yourself Nicely

Treat Yourself Nicely, by DonationCoder member Stephen66515, is designed to be used in conjunction with a healthy diet.

Using this software will give your computer control over when you are able to have a snack! Simply enter your name, and timer options in the settings menu and your good to go!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFZwKpkExjk" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFZwKpkExjk</a>

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NoteMe

Using NoteMe, written by DonationCoder member justice, you can quickly send mail to yourself. NoteMe makes it possible to blog using WordPress or Posterous, to send stuff to evernote or pinboard, or label these messages (use NoteMe as a work log). Anything that can accept email can be used with NoteMe. Choose an email address from the dropdown combobox, enter a brief message, click Send. Voila! You've sent a note via email.  This program can also be invoked by a script or batch file.  NOTE: This program currently sends all messages through a central sever script using http protocol, and then from a gmail account, so you may not want to use it for ultra-sensitive private messages.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SNYgPnLhxY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SNYgPnLhxY</a>

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Chess PGN Processor

Written by DonationCoder member TaoPhoenix, is a free program for filtering and compressing the data in PGN chess game files.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClRUpDftBXw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClRUpDftBXw</a>

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GoogolBar

GoogolBar, by DonationCoder member app103, is a replacement for the Google Toolbar for Windows. It does not contain anything questionable, unethical, shady, sneaky, privacy invading, etc. Nice, clean, and simple. It is a deskbar that integrates with your taskbar to provide convenient searching of various Google services (20 in total) right from the desktop in your default browser. It will work with all major browsers and most obscure ones, too. It will work with both horizontal and vertical taskbars. It will not store a search history, not phone home, not report statistics, no automatic installation of updates without the user's knowledge or consent, no tracking of personally identifiable surfing activities, no tracking of "anonymous" statistics, no changes to your default search engine, no changes to your default "new tab" page, no changes to any web page you view, no collection and storage of personally identifiable information, no loading of dynamic content from the web, no advertising, no 3rd party bundled software, no BS. NOTE: It currently works with WinXP 32-bit ONLY, but soon a version is coming that will be Vista/Win7-compatible.

And for those that really care about privacy, there is an option to search using Scroogle.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2u8REfd3Ds" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2u8REfd3Ds</a>

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Nea

Nea, by DonationCoder member ewemoa, starts and stops certain AHK_L scripts -- though the current intent is for FARR-focused scripts.  Over the years a variety of FARR-related AHK scripts and snippets have been posted to the DC forums and this app might make it convenient to manage a collection of these.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gQoS9Hy81o" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gQoS9Hy81o</a>

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PerceptualDiff

PerceptualDiff is authored by DonationCoder member JoTo. The program is used to batch compare two branches of image files in a human visible (perceptual - not binary) way. It permits the user to Move and Rename files depending on match results. It is a GUI front-end to the Perceptual Diff utility authored by Hector Yee, and has been offered back to the SourceForge project.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksb-GCZoMok" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksb-GCZoMok</a>

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Flipside

Flipside, created by DonationCoder member Deozaan, has a very simple premise. You have a single board, where you play on both sides of it simultaneously. Basically, one side tries to kill the other side. Take turns moving units and attacking each other. But wait, you say, if they are on two different sides of a plane, how do they fight each other? You notice that each side have two different looking units in the corners. They are special units. They cannot be killed, but they also cannot attack either. If they are targeted and hit, they will be pushed back a square in the opposite direction of the attack. But if they aren't combat units, what do they do? They can flip specific squares from one side to the other. The unit with a + on his helmet flips all the squares in the same row and column (orthogonally), while the unit with an X on his helmet flips all the tiles going out diagonally from his position. The special units do not change sides at all, ever, but any other unit on a flipped square is moved to the other side regardless of which side he started on, unless of course one of the special units is occupying a tile that a regular unit would flip to.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSApZ-sbE50" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSApZ-sbE50</a>

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Reverse Dictionary (for Android devices)

Reverse Dictionary (for Android devices), created by DonationCoder member lotusrootstarch, is a powerful word finder that lets you describe an idea/concept and get back a list of words and phrases related to that concept.  Also functions as a thesaurus.  For android devices.  Ad supported.

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Big Bang Theory Sound Quotes (for Android devices)

Reverse Dictionary (for Android devices), created by DonationCoder member lotusrootstarch, presents you with the ultimate collection of sound quotes from The Big Bang Theory. For android devices.  Ad supported.

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Printer PaperSource Explorer

Written by DonationCoder member Ath, Printer PaperSource Explorer displays information about your printers Paper Trays (the source of the paper). Ever needed to setup Tray numbers in an application for a complicated, multi-tray, office printer? Then here's the way to find out the correct tray/bin numbers.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixQ7y95e_Ok" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixQ7y95e_Ok</a>

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APK loader

APK Loader, by DonationCoder member limelect, is used to load APK files to an AVD simulator. The program makes use of Eclipse and an Android simulator.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUO6WWDx3nw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUO6WWDx3nw</a>

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Habanero Simple Software Licensing - Early Beta Release

Habanero Simple Software Licensing, by DonationCoder member josant, is an early beta release of a new software licensing solution for developers that will be released eventually as commercial software.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko_8KIG8GQ4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko_8KIG8GQ4</a>

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Ghacks, one of our favorite freeware sites, has posted their list of top new Windows programs for 2011:


http://www.ghacks.net/201...windows-software-of-2011/

Nice list with some new apps to discover.  Number 44 happens to be a program (Ethervane Echo) created by a DC member for this year's NANY.


http://www.addictivetips....f-year-2011-editors-pick/

No DC apps on the list, but Samer at FreewareGenius is always finding great software, so definitely worth a read:


http://www.freewaregenius...st-free-programs-of-2011/

1. Newsletter Editorial

Greetings and happy holidays!  It's 45 degrees here in Illinois as I write this -- a mild winter so far.  Personally I prefer to see a little snow on the ground in December.   There are about 12 days left until the new year (it takes 48 hours to send out the newsletter to all of you so your mileage may vary).  And that means less than 12 days until our year-end NANY event: New Apps for the New Year 2012.

You should know about NANY by now -- it's where we ask the coders of all skill levels who hang out on our site to try to release a new program to celebrate the upcoming year.  Some of the programs are just experiments, some are large full-featured applications.  The event is open to all coders, and there is no winner -- everyone who participates gets a coffee mug featuring our mascot Cody.  If you're a coder, or you know someone who is, there's still plenty of time to take part -- just drop by our forum and announce your intent to do so.

And please do join us on New Years to cheer on all of the participants!

This thought provoking essay addresses some important concepts that may be of interest to DonationCoder readers.

I think the key message here is sustainability -- charting a path that is sustainable.  And that's something we have always been very big on here.  We try to avoid embarking on projects that we can't sustain, and don't bite off more than we can chew.



http://blog.pinboard.in/2.../12/don_t_be_a_free_user/

From PC World on Saturday (December 9, 2011):


After recommending a bunch of tools, the article wraps up thusly:

DC member Edvard writes:

So I'm going to be laid off at the end of this month, and I've come to the conclusion that short-term contracting is my best bet in this economy until I can rack up a few certs.
As experienced as I am with many things, I don't have any real marketable skills or fancy pieces of paper to impress potential employers on places like ODesk or Guru.com, BUT...

Looky what I found...  

TaskRabbit
http://www.taskrabbit.com



Fees run around 15%, and folks can get paid via check in the mail, or PayPal.
If you are a good TaskRabbit, you can gain reputation and do pretty well.
The top guy on there is making ~$5000 USD a month  
Too bad they're not in the Seattle area yet...  



DoMyStuff
http://www.domystuff.com



Very similar with a feedback system and reputation building, and they have a private message board for communication between employers and bidders.
Says they charge a "small fee" to get contact information for the prospective employer.



Zaarly
http://www.zaarly.com



Zaarly seems more informal and kinda like an open market; stuff you want to buy or sell are mixed in with job offers.
They've got a mobile app, and you can sign up through Facebook.
They only charge a fee if you do a credit card transaction (10%) and they use PoundPay for all their transactions, though the Help says you can get paid via direct deposit or PayPal, or even cash from the buyer.



Neat ideas, I hope these catch on.
I like the idea of community-level economy building like this, and just like they say in the spam ads, I can set my own hours and work from home (more or less...).  

Well, folks, we have about 3 days remaining until the preferred Pledge deadline (although we will undoubtedly extend this deadline for anyone wishing to submit a pledge, the idea was that working to a deadline should help spur pledges).  So if you haven't pledged an app yet for NANY 2012, please do so!  And if you can't pledge it until next week (or later), we still want it, by all means!

Having encouraged your participation, let me give a synopsis of the pledges we've had to date.  In the following list, you'll see the name (sometimes only a temporary name) of the application that has been pledged, then the author's name in parentheses, then in squiggly-brackets the total number of unwithdrawn pledges by that author.  As with the Pledge Deadline, the limit on the number of pledges is only a guideline, not a strictly enforced rule.  This is a competition with the goals of fun and creativity above all else.  Out of that we always wind up with many quite useful applications that draw attention to themselves from all over cyberspace!

NoteMe - Mail Myself (justice) {1}
Desktop URL Embed (wraith808) {2}
Track My Stuff (wraith808) {2}
Nea (ewemoa) {1}
Printer Papersource Explorer (Ath) {1}
Stick-A-Note (anandcoral) {3}
Kyrathaba's Hangman (kyrathaba) {3}
Quicksilver Like Launcher (ecaradec) {1}
Flipside (Deozaan) {1}
Ethervane Echo (tranglos) {1}
LL Robot (mouser) {1}
Kyrathaba's Source Code Line Counter (kyrathaba) {3}
Fentwiss (timns) {1}
Portable Extension Warlock (hamradio) {1}
Tell When Done (anandcoral) {3}
Got Space (Stoic Joker) {1}
Dungeon AI (Stephen66515) {1}
Paste Like Text (anandcoral) {3}
FLAK (capitalH) {1}
You Have Files [Abandoned] (anandcoral) {3}
Kyrathaba's Found Money (kyrathaba) {3}
De-Stress (worstje) {1}
Crush Turbochecker (Crush) {1}

That's 23 pledges, to date!  Awesome!!  Last year, we finished with 24 NANY apps.  It looks quite likely that we will beat that this year  

Let me just once again extend a huge thank-you to all the authors who have pledged, to date, and let me greatly encourage everyone reading this to pledge any idea you may have for an application.  It's a great community-building event.  I have three NANY mugs on my desk to attest to that, and will soon add a fourth!

Regards, and Happy coding!!

- kyrathaba

At the risk of duplication, I thought this latest list could be interesting/useful to DC members.
Quite a selection of tools here: List of freeware and other releases from The Windows Club

Just installed it:

From the "About" drop-down:

EDIT 2011-11-30 1526hrs:
I should probably mention that I am also using Malwarebyles" Anli Malware 1.51.2.1300, because I discovered in December 2010 that some annoyware/malware can apparently get past MSE. This was on a friend's laptop on which I had installed MSE. He had clicked on a link in some spam email and it hijacked his laptop - switched off MSE and then stayed dominant/resident, even after boot, insisting you pay via credit card for a "security scan". You couldn't do anything with the laptop - it was effectively locked-up.
The only way I could get rid of it was by taking the hard drive out and running Malwarebytes over it as a USB drive. MSE was broken though, and I had to uninstall and then reinstall it before I could get his system back to normal. I also installed the pro (paid) version of MWB, as that does real-time scanning, and even catches bad/suspicious URLs when you are browsing (if you enable that feature).