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[Newsletter for August 21st, 2011]

Newsletter for August 21st, 2011

"What's New With You?!"

1. Newsletter Editorial - A New Editor?

Good day fellow DonationCoder members (or Docodians as I like to say), I hope this epistle finds you well.  Mouser has tasked me with preparing the newsletter this month, so here I am sitting at my desk on a Saturday night, composing this circular so you can enjoy the very latest, and most informative subject-matter from the DonationCoder forum.

If this is the first of our newsletters that you've received, let me explain a bit how we create the newsletter.  Each month we go through our forum and try to select noteworthy topics and discussions and compile them into newsletter form.  If you have any suggestions for ways the newsletter might be improved in the future, please let me know.


2. User-to-User: Your Input Requested

We welcome everyone to participate on the forum, regardless of your level of computer knowledge or how long you've been a DC member. If you're still waiting to make your first post, see the links below for some good places to get started.

• What special character do you use to have a file sorted at the top?
• Are we allowed to avoid the "My Docs" mess in Win7?
• Win 7, XP mode, & other first install queries?
• Flashcard Creator w/ caveat?

3. Hardware Hangout

DonationCoder is not just about software!  Quite often our members like to discuss their new computers, or ask for help.  This month we had quite a few hardware related threads, including several by DC member Nudone, the well known curmudgeon and creator of the DC Mascot (Cody the Bird).

• Why My Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone
• Yet Another Help-Me-Build-a-New-Computer Thread
• What are the merits and limitations of the different types of flash memory?
• When is a cable not a cable - when it's a DVI-D
• I was wrong - again! (cheap monitor theory invalid)
• Teflon pressing sheet as mouse pad?
• Problem: I can't understand how to get a W7-64 machine into an XP-32 network
• Undervolting -- my hands are thanking me

4. DC Community Mini Reviews

We love it when readers post new mini-reviews.. and are thrilled that a couple of new ones have been posted since the last newsletter:

• SageThumbs - Thumbnails all over the Windows
• Captcha Brotherhood

5. DC App Updates, Screencasts

Mouser released several small updates to some of his larger programs this month:

• MultiPhotoQuotes 1.33.01 - Autowatching directories for changes
• Screenshot Captor 2.96.01 - Bug and a bunch of small features
• Clipboard Help+Spell 2.03 - Bugfixes
• Little Voice Commander Review - Mouser's app for toddlers

6. Coding Snacks, and DC Member Software Threads

One of the best areas of our forum is the Coding Snacks section, where people can request small, free, custom-utilities to be written by volunteer coders.

• DONE: Make folder with current date
• DONE: EXE File Version
• IDEA: File replacer
• IDEA: Mute sound from all windows/applications except Whitelisted
• DONE: Tell me who said what first!
• Launcher local area network folders
• Copy (and Auto-Paste) Directly to New Excel Worksheet
• Work Estimating Tool
• Auto-renumbering email attachments
• Windows management script
• Controlling Windows w/ gamepad like a PS3 or XBOX
• Mircryption (CBC-Mode) compatible clients for MacOSX (Lion)?
• Gridmove showcased on hak5

7. Fun, Humour and Amusements on the Web

If you've read the newsletter up to this point, take a break and check out the lighter side of the forum - humour, videos, and games..

• Fake Apple Store
• Top 10 Survival Tricks for When the Zombie Apocalypse Hits :: Lifehacker
• Flash TD Game of the Month: Kingdom Rush
• A Cat and Dolphin Love Story
• Cool Web Comic - Developer Centric
• Amazing algorithms to enhance or transform images
• Steam: Savior or Slayer of PC Gaming?
• It's official: IE users are dumb as a bag of hammers
• 50 Typografical pieces of art

8. General Software Discussion

Almost half the posts on the DC forum take the form of general software discussions, questions, recommendations, etc. These posts wind up in the General Software Discussion section and make it one of the most active sections of the DC forum. This is a great resource if you're trying to solve a software or hardware-related problem. We get so much traffic on this board that we split the recent content into two sections in the newsletter - general software and specific software discussions.

• How necessary is the UAC in Windows 7?
• Speech to Text Software?
• Software Patent Absurdity Catching On
• Software Hall of Fame
• Realtime backups
• File system monitoring utilities?
• In search of alternative wifi management software
• Any Software that would record the Activity in a PC

9. Specific Software Discussion

Here you'll find some of the standout discussions about specific programs that have been started since the last newsletter.

• SoftMaker Office 2012 BETA testing
• ColorSchemer ColorPix
• Jello Dashboard + OneNote as PIM/GTD tools - user experience/feedback/advice?
• Google Apps vs. MS Office 365: Your Choice
• DotNetNuke 6 RC is SEXY!
• Opera wand. Does it work well? Enough to abandon lastpass?
• Firefox fixes the version number problem
• Mac OS Lion opinions
• CDF interactive document file format from Wolfram / Mathematica
• Full-screen calculator (free and portable)

10. Developer's Corner

The title of this section shouldn't scare you off - there is definitely something of interest for everyone here! It's more than just a section for the discussion of software development, it's also where we discuss web design, entrepreneurial ideas, and general productivity issues.  It's great to see that the section has been pretty active recently.

• Free CryEngine 3 SDK Released!
• Want to be in Amazon's App Store? Think again!
• The Most Expensive One-byte Mistake: Nice article about programming design goofs
• Aviation Business Project using a Flight Simulator
• Next step up from Autohotkey
• HyperNext, anyone?
• In search of ... opinions/reviews of IDEs & Editors for Web code
• Stupid question ... what is the difference between != and <>?
• Implement features that are known to be loved in other programs, on your own

11. Website Discoveries, Debates, and Discussions

What's new in cyberspace? What exciting new sites have been discovered by forum members?  What's the current hot topic and debate? Read on to find out..

• BoingBoing Update on Bitcoin Alternatives
• Block a FOSS release because being free interferes with commercial interests?
• How to Build a 'Paywall' That Doesn't Break the Web
• Kick procrastination's ass: Run a dash
• FBI Arrests 12 in 'anonymous' raids
• HP announces it's discontinuing all WebOS device development
• Sites we like: GeekMom

12. Announce your Projects

We love it when long-time DC members to post about projects they are working on.

• Edit Text Anywhere with Your Favorite Editor [Freeware]
• Announcing our new company: Complex Imaginary
• A new web project: YUMPS
• Doc Report Ep. 1 - Interview with Nico Westerdale of Bits du Jour
• GameManagerV2

13. NANY 2012

At the very end of each year DonationCoder runs an event called NANY (New Apps for the New Year), where we invite the programmers who hang out on our site to release a brand new (free) application to the world.  Long time NANY organizer Perry Mowbray will be on vacation for most of NANY this year, but DC member Kyrathaba has been extremely generous in volunteering to shepherd this year's NANY through to completion. Three cheers for Kyrathaba!

In an attempt to encourage larger applications we've started banging the NANY drum a little earlier this year, and we're encouraging people to start pledging application ideas or start requesting help for beta testing or coming up with ideas.  NANY is open to coders of all backgrounds, so please help us spread the word to anyone you know who needs some encouragement to release something new.

• NANY 2012 Pledge: Dungeon AI
• NANY 2012 Pledge and Early Beta: Found Money
• NANY 2012 Pledge: You Have Files

One typically rambunctious UK tabloid labelled the current German administration as “The Fourth Reich” last week – and a German state is playing its part by banning the Facebook “Like” button from all websites in its jurisdiction.

The Eurozone financial crisis has produced far-reaching recommendations from the Germans and France which will impact upon the entire EU, prompting the always over-the-top Daily Mail to carry a headline hailing the arrival of the Fourth Reich.

One of the characteristics of Hitler’s regime – apart from the millions of executions, of course – was the arbitrary outlawing of run-of-the-mill activities such as reading certain books or listening to a particular type of music.

And while the latest thing to be banned in one part of Germany may not exactly be a 21st century echo of that time, it does appear to be an arbitrary decision to clamp down on something people all across the world might look upon as one small definition of freedom – the ability to “Like” something on Facebook.

As well as encouraging the public at large to avoid Facebook, the state of Schleswig-Holstein has ordered all government offices to remove the Like button from their websites and take down any Facebook fan pages.

Why? Because the overlords there see Facebook’s data-gathering technique as a violation of German and European data privacy laws.

Anyone who doesn’t comply is liable to face a €50,000 fine.

Still, it beats a one-way ticket to hell, eh?

[Main picture via owenwbrown/Flickr Creative Commons]

One thing I was ammused with, was the significant lack of the "Like" button on the quoted website (No...Share isn't the same thing!)...Irony strikes again!



Source: http://www.joe.ie/tech/te...nned-in-germany-0015139-1

OK, was just checking to see if it could save you some headaches - Although, Win7 will put your pc to sleep after X minutes, and there are several readily available peices of software that will send (via commandline) the shutdown request to all machines.

Also if your the network admin, you can also simply commandline this yourself at the end of the day (maybe write a batch file for ease) which will simply shut down every workstation on the network of your choice

Would the default Windows Power Options not do what you require for the most part?

I think #7 should be "Have you ever noticed that worstje can't count?"

As I already informed you on IRC, I was mousering that particular one. You have been successfully mousered in good DonationCoder tradition.

 

My experience according to those five tips:

Guilty, Not So Guilty, Yes, W000000000000000000t, eBay sucks.

I think #7 should be "Have you ever noticed that worstje can't count?"

 

[Waking Up]

Here are a few tips for you!

1. Waking Up

Do you wake up and think..."Hmm, I wonder what's new on DC today?"

2. Spending your life on IRC

Have you gone as far as having an IRC Bouncer that keeps you logged in to the DC IRC at all times of day?  Does it log stuff while your offline so you never miss a thing?

3. Wtf is he on about?

Does Josh make sence to you?

4. OMG NANY

Does mearly hearing the phrase "NANY has started" make you clap like a retarded seal?   

5. eBay says no...

Do you get dissapointed that eBay won't let you sell your wife/husband/children so you can donate during a fundraiser?

6. I was talking to you and you wasn't there

Have you been mousered?




If you answered yes to 4 or more of those questions, your an official DonationCoder Fanatic!




If not, put your hat back on, and get stuck in!

[attach=1]

[attach=1]

On another note, something within this seems to eat your SMF posts and spit out corrupt style data...no idea why...no idea if its 100% CE not liking something else on my PC, but if you witnessed my posts in the living room about 10 minutes ago, you will have seen what i meant.

Heres a copy/paste from MouserBot in IRC:
 
<MouserBot> [DC Forum] ileVersionAttribute System.Diagnosticš  Ï êc c š  #§ - Living Room - by Stephen66515 - http://www.donationcoder....27688.msg258879#msg258879

See how the message is all screwed?

Strange times!

Clearly, you're from the land of Oz.

neigh, I'll not fall into your trap

I would have thought Troy

There you go again, playing follow the Leda!

Indeed, I'd go to helen back

Time to stop horsing about!

Have you something to say or is this one of those meaningful silences?

maybe he just stopped horsing about

Do you think mesohippus to believe that? 

Just wanted to join in 

And not one bad remark about Opera...need I say more?

Im with wors on this one, as I simply never delete contacts, luckely though, Spambots seems to have run away and I have not had one for about 6 month

I havn't got around to the scripting part, but I think its C++.

Theres already a post about it

http://www.donationcoder....27673.msg258744#msg258744

Cheers for the help guys.  For the moment, I have put this project on hold as I am somewhat in-love with the new CryENGINE SDK and wanna learn more about it!

I will back Beatz up on this as I do know him.

I _tried_ to help on this subject but I kinda failed lol

*edit*

Downloaded the rar file and uploaded it to my post, its legit (Couldnt upload as a direct .dll so had to re-rar it lol)

If you wanna download it DIRECTLY as ONLY a .dll, then use this link:

http://86.28.143.246/MySqlHandler.dll (MY Web Server)

Well, just finished yet another map on CryENGINE, this time with a hell of a lot more detail, roads, usable vehicles, realistic terrain, trees and other vegitation etc.  Spent a good few hours creating it, only to find out that you simply CANNOT share your work with ANYBODY.

For the moment, if your thinking about using this, check the forums first at: http://www.crydev.net

Probably worth learning how to use this, but don't waste your whole day as you will be mega pissed when you come to sharing it with a friend to show of your creativity!

As of now, all its good for is creating screenshots or tiny screencasts...thats about it.

CryENGINE Free Use

Anyone can now download a full version of the best All-In-One Game Development Engine, for free and use it without charge for non-commercial game development. You can try out the fastest toolset for creating game worlds and use the power of CryENGINE 3 in your own games


CryENGINE Free Use
You can use CryENGINE 3 for free in educational facilities, even if you are charging tuition. We have always offered our engine for free to educators, but now individual students can also freely download the engine and use it to learn about real-time 3D development.

CryENGINE 3 is also free for non-commercial use; if you are distributing your game or application for free (and not charging for your work in producing it, whether directly or indirectly), no additional license is required.

CryENGINE 3 Independent Developers Platform
We want you to make games with CryENGINE 3 that people will want to play. We hope that your work will lead to a product you can commercialise. If this is the case, before you can sell your work or your game, you must seek a development license for CryENGINE 3.

CryENGINE 3 for Independent Studios, Free To Play Games or Downloadable Games
Crytek has attractive options for smaller games built with CryENGINE 3, with shorter development timescales. If you want to move your game onto platforms other than PC, or you need access to CryENGINE 3 source code, please contact Crytek to find out more about our licensing for Independent Studios.

Source


You know what this means right?

This means small developers like you and me now have a supremely powerfull tool at our fingertips.

I would LOVE to see what some people here at DC can come up with!

Get Creative!


Heres what I made rather quickly with this amazing tool!

[attach=1]

Awesome review!  

Just downloaded it based on your findings and will give it a better test-drive in the morning when im a little more awake!  

For now thoguh, I can see this coming in handy!  Especially with the fact it not only converts files, it also does it as a copy, so the original is not modified in any way! - Very very cool indeed!

Due to an attack on the servers at mibbit.com, Mouser has decided to disable the live chat from the DC forum until further notice.

If you would still like to chat with us on IRC, please download something like mIRC and connect to #donationcoder on the efnet network.

Mibbit AJAX IRC client service being hacked. The proof of hack is further backed up by Mibbit’s official statement. Mibbit is a web-based client for modern web browsers that supports Internet Relay Chat (IRC). Mibbit connects to IRC from anywhere on almost any device. There are Mibbit and hundreds of IRC networks for places to chat. The Anonymous sabu tweet that the Mibbit Chat network was Hacked and he had posted a Pastebin link on the tweet about the Mibbit details. On the pastebin Data there where many Personal Data and many links.

 The Mibbit had detected the unauthorized access to the server which runs their blog. Mibbit shut it down and began investigating . Later today at around 8pm GMT Mibbit shutdown the IRC services after it became clear that several pieces of backed up data had been accessed maliciously from another server, tools.mibbit.com.

 Mibbit now know the data's included The personal information of 9 Mibbit operators including their names, accounts and e-mail addresses . A backup of nickserv data from April 2011 with up to 10,000 user nicknames and their credentials andTwo sets of backup data for one operator user account PMs and Channel logs, used for testing are Leaked. Currently Mibbit are working on securing and restoring the affected services. Mibbit are treating this as a significant and malicious attack on Mibbit services which impacts users and which has placed user data at risk. Mibbit are continuing to work to remedy this situation and bring back affected services online as quickly as possible. Mibbit asked apologies for the disruption, inconvenience and difficulty this attack has caused to you and your users. As Mibbit have updates about the attack, the backup data which was stolen from tools.mibbit and the next steps to recover services we will share it via the blog and the #help channel.

http://www.thehackernews....lient-service-hacked.html

Wow...just thought...imagine how many people this going to affect OUTSIDE of facebook...

All those websites that use Facebook Connect to allow customers to play games, share data etc...bye bye accounts lol

Am I the only person in the world who uses (and prefers to) Opera 'out-of-the-box'?

No addons, no plugins, no nothing.

Opera Wand has never let me down to date, and because I know exactly where the wand data is stored, I can easily back it up in-case of format or loss of HDD

Im not stupid enough to store paypal, banking, eBay or such usernames and passwords in ANY software so I never need to worry about that and I have no intention of storing username and password data on a 'stealable' USB data stick anytime in the next thousand years!  

When I used Opera on the PC (Opera Mini still in use for mobile devices), the wand was the stupidest thing I'd ever seen. Here's the deal: Every other browser on the planet will auto-fill your login information when you revisit a page (that you've saved). We're talking only username and password. With Opera, you have to go and press the Wand button, or use a keyboard shortcut, to have it fill the username and password with your saved info. No auto-fill without invoking the 'wand'. This was an unnecessary extra step. Sure, I suppose it could fill more stuff in than standard browsers, for those much more rare occasions when that's needed, but for the every-day chore of logging into your favorite web sites, you had to go hit that stupid wand. Did they ever change this?

Don't really understand your problem with hitting Ctrl-Enter to invoke the wand.  This step helps with "hiding" your login details until requested.

If logging into your favorite websites is a 'daily chore' then may I suggest finding better websites?  I love nothing more than logging into a website to see if I have any new messages or replies, or something good to read! (Although I rarely have to login to anything anymore unless a cookie expires cause my PC is on 24/7!)

Also, never underestimate the effect of a well made molotov.

This is a booking photo (I swiped off a news site) of a woman that attacked a guy in Datona Beach with a molotov cocktail. (see attachment in previous post)

I can't look at it without laughing (for an hour). Talk about the ultimate poster-child for flat out nutz.

That photo just screams "They are coming, and they are not pleased, What has been seen, cannot be unseen"

[attach=2]

[attach=1]

Here in England, I know I use the term 'Film' more than 'Movie'  ("Hey, you wanna grab some food and watch a film tonight?")

My take on the difference in this context though, is as follows:

Film:
     Documentary Recording
     French Subtitled Stuff

Movie:
     Any other feature length title (Spiderman, Mr. Poppers Penguins, etc)

They can only shut it down until the DNS registers the new nameservers/IP's - Pretty sure Facebook has plenty of both to play with if Anon do try anything.

Nobody is FORCED to use facebook, people have chosen to...so what they are doing makes zero sence.

For the majority of my passwords, I use a variation of my primary one, which is a 32 character password, with some characters from the website, or services' name placed into certain points of the password.

Secret answers never represent the actual question and are usually random sentences (depending on haracter limitation)

Hack that you b***ards