Topics

3651

General Review Discussion / Review Templates

« on: July 03, 2005, 12:45 PM »

this is not of import to anyone except potential reviewers.
its a download with some html files that just have the skeleton of a review (and review preview),
to be filled in by reviewer.

http://donationcoder...m_ReviewTemplate.zip

3652

Official Announcements / A way you can help DonationCoder.com

« on: July 03, 2005, 10:29 AM »

Just thought i would mention something - DonationCoder.com relies on word of mouth to let people know about our site.

If you come across one of our programs on a freeware/shareware download site, and they have a place for users to add their comments/ratings, and you are an actual user of that program and like it, please consider adding a comment or rating.

Note that I don't want anyone to leave comments or positive ratings for programs they don't use(!) - i'm just asking that you consider taking the time to add comments and ratings for programs that you actually use when such a facility is available.

People really like to know that others are using a program and like it, and like the company that makes it.  And so few programs ever get rated or commented on that i think it can mean the difference between someone visiting the site to check out a program or ignoring it.

In a similar spirit, if you see a discussion about "what's the best program to do ..." and DonationCoder.com has done a review on this topic, consider giving them a link to our review of the category.

Of course always be considerate of any forum guidelines, etc. - the last thing we want to do is be guilty of spamming.  I'm just asking that you keep your eyes open for the appropriate place to point people to our site/software, and asking that you take the time to do so when appropriate.

I usually ask people how they heard about us when they donate, and they almost always mention some blog or forum post, which alerted them to one of our programs or reviews, so it makes a huge difference.

thanks!!

3653

General Software Discussion / free IE extra context menu tools

« on: July 03, 2005, 02:19 AM »

http://mattkruse.com/contextmenu/

This is a set of tools which extend the right-click context menu of Internet Explorer. By simply installing these tools, your browser will have added functionality which can greatly help in debugging pages, designing sites, diagnosing form problems, tweaking design, etc.

looks useful and should work on any browser based on ie engine (ie netcaptor, etc.)

found on our site of the week site (freeware world team)

3654

ProcessTamer / also check out process lasso (new free lite version)

« on: July 02, 2005, 01:38 PM »

the maker of process lasso has newly released a freeware lite version:
http://www.bitsum.com/prosuper.asp

process lasso has the same aim as process tamer (and actually came out before process tamer), so it's definitely worth checking out if you like process tamer.

3655

Living Room / how to give out software gifts

« on: July 02, 2005, 12:01 PM »

ok this might be a delicate question since people might have a conflict of interest
but..

when a company donates some copies of a program, what i think we'd like to do is, save some to give out as rewards for guest reviews or for programmers writing coding snacks.

but then i think we should give out one or two to members of the forum (ie donating members).

but how should we decide who to give to?
based on subjective view of their contributions on the forum (ie have they helped people etc?)  but this might hurt people's feelings who feel they are being over looked?
or totally at random?
or based on whether they have some need for the program in question?
or some probabilistic function based on all these things?
do we end up giving to someone who doesnt need it?

any thoughts? we don't want this to be a big thing, with people trying to make their case why they should get some piece of software, since it could create antagonism.  im just looking for innovative ideas on the matter.

3656

Mini-Reviews by Members / Backup4all

« on: July 02, 2005, 10:20 AM »

i put my mini review of backup4all in a thread related to backup guide review:
https://www.donation...=461.msg2887#msg2887

3657

Screenshot Captor / memory leak

« on: July 02, 2005, 08:30 AM »

got a good report that the latest version of screenshot captor may be failing to free memory as it takes screenshots, which could result in it crashing.

a new version of screenshot captor will be uploaded this weekend with bugfixes and a couple new features.
anyone have any quickie suggestions, now is the time to suggest

3658

General Software Discussion / free diary app..

« on: July 01, 2005, 09:58 PM »

i keep meaning to write a diary type app.
this one looks quite good and is free:
http://www.csoftlab....dvantages_Diary.html

3659

Screenshot Captor / bug: screenshot directory changes to c:\

« on: July 01, 2005, 09:31 PM »

i've had this report from 2 people now so i know it's real - i will try to fix this weekend.
(if anyone can figure out a reliable way to cause it to happen it would help me figure it out).

3660

Living Room / It's the first of the month.. you know what that means..

« on: July 01, 2005, 08:05 AM »

time to do a full system backup to an external drive, removable media, or offsite ftp.

3661

Found Deals and Discounts / discount on backup4all

« on: June 30, 2005, 05:58 AM »

Softland, the makers of backup4all (http://www.backup4all.com/)
have posted a 20% discount code in a thread in the backup guide section:

https://www.donation...ndex.php?topic=461.0

3662

Living Room / anyone know a tool to empty recycle bin when drive gets full?

« on: June 30, 2005, 01:31 AM »

anyone know a windows setting or resident tool that does this?

3663

Living Room / If you ever get email from DonationCoder.com telling you to execute attachment..

« on: June 29, 2005, 03:57 PM »

we would NEVER send anyone an attached exe and ask you to run it.

i got this in my email today; i don't know if anyone else has gotten or will ever get one of these, but if you do, its a virus trick, and not from us:

"Dear Donationcoder Member,
 
Your e-mail account was used to send a huge amount of unsolicited spam messages during the recent week. If you could please take 5-10
minutes out of your online experience and confirm the attached document so you will not run into any future problems with the online
service.
 
If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choice but to cancel your membership.
 
Virtually yours,
The Donationcoder Support Team

 
+++ Attachment: No Virus found
+++ Donationcoder Antivirus - www.donationcoder.com "



total fake email - always beware such things - never execute any attached exes even if your mom sends it to you and says it's your birthday present.

3664

General Software Discussion / For those who like all-in-one utils

« on: June 29, 2005, 12:31 PM »

http://www.martinsof...rol/screenshots.html

freeware, found via snapfiles announcement:


Take Control is a small application with many tools and utilities. It can help you with:
Virtual Desktops
Virtual Clipboards
HotKeys manager
Minimize to tray other application
Windows Startup apPlication manager
Kill process
Notes on desktop
Mail notification
Split and merge files
Search files or directories
Magnifier
Picker color

3665

Found Deals and Discounts / ratetheoffers.com

« on: June 29, 2005, 12:55 AM »

http://ratetheoffers.com/

interesting site where you can see how people rate various offers for free stuff on the web.

3666

General Software Discussion / Google Earth - free tool/toy

« on: June 28, 2005, 02:08 PM »

http://earth.google.com/

Google Earth – Explore, Search and Discover
Want to know more about a specific location? Dive right in -- Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world’s geographic information at your fingertips.

   Fly from space to your neighborhood. Type in an address and zoom right in. 
   Search for schools, parks, restaurants, and hotels. Get driving directions.
   Tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings.
   Save and share your searches and favorites. Even add your own annotations. 
 

3667

General Software Discussion / Posteriza - free (donationware) poster printer

« on: June 27, 2005, 10:40 AM »

http://posteriza.com...index.php?lang=en_US

someone was asking me not too long ago about a free poster printer.
this one looks nice; supports multiple languages.

they are asking for donations.
(ps - when you make a donation to a program you hear about at donationcoder.com, tell them you heard about them on our site).

3668

Living Room / Welcome Langalist newsletter members!

« on: June 27, 2005, 04:05 AM »

Find and Run Robot was mentioned in this week's Langalist newsletter: http://langa.com/new...005/2005-06-27.htm#8

i wanted to thank publically the person (Rajeev) who took the time to write in to them about F&R; it's a really nice feeling to see letters like that, and it's really only by word of mouth like this that people find out about our site.

and wanted to welcome langalist members to our site - hope some of you decide to stay and join us

it's always nice to have new people come and find a home here.

3669

Mircryption / New Mircryption Packages (v1.11.27 - June 27,2005) uploaded

« on: June 27, 2005, 03:24 AM »

ok the setup packages have been updated with the latest version of mircryption.

https://www.donation...cryption/index.shtml

3670

Living Room / The Onion - from the year 2056

« on: June 26, 2005, 01:29 PM »

anyone not know about The Onion? one of (if not hands down the) funniest online magazines has a special issue now peeking into the future:

http://www.theonion....56-06-22/index_b.php

3671

Living Room / DonationCoder.com Mascot needed

« on: June 26, 2005, 12:35 PM »

we need an original mascot for donationcoder.com
something we can use for the upcoming DonationCoder.com club and tshirt, and maybe in new award logos..
submissions wanted.. fame and prizes await winner.

3672

General Software Discussion / alphabetic file mover

« on: June 26, 2005, 02:49 AM »

as seen on freeware world team site today:
http://users.skynet....ultibox/filesort.htm

takes a big dir of files and sorts them into subdirs.

3673

Mircryption / Norton antivirus false alarm

« on: June 26, 2005, 01:55 AM »

there is a known false alarm about a virus in mircryption full pack.

first things first:
it is a known false positive, and norton seems to be the only
antivirus that is upset about the file (stdio).  email to norton to
get them to correct their database to not false alarm on this file
have been unheeded.

however, it's an
optional file (stdio.mrc) that it not used in a normal install.
its only used if you want to run the mcboard addon to mircryption from
your local mirc (instead of using an eggdrop bot).  in other words
only .01% of people would ever use this file.

so, i really need to just remove it from the setup and re-upload a
version without it and tell people where they can download this file
if they want to use it.

the mircryption .exe setup files are purposefully made to be zip
compatible.  so if you like you can open the .exe in any zip program
like winzip and extract the files and you will see that norton is only
mad about that one useless file which you can just let norton delete.

it's LONG overdue that i upload a new version of the setup packages, and leave out this file, etc.
i will do it this weekend.

sorry for any worries.

3674

Living Room / Software Listing Sites - Hall of Fame vs. Hall of Shame

« on: June 25, 2005, 02:31 AM »

i think i'm going to make a web page with this info but i thought i'd start it as a thread here to get comments and additions, etc.

I don't know if you guys know how software submissions work.. basically there are tons of sites that list shareware and freeware.  A very few of these sites have some really dedicated people who go and find software on their own (i've heaped well deserved praise on freeware world team for example).

most other sites rely on authors to submit their software announcements.

now there are two basic main ways that an author can submit software announcements, with lots of minor details different between sites.

the main ways are using an industry standardized PAD file, which describes the program, its license, download and screenshot urls, etc.

sites which support PAD file submissions are 1000x easier to submit too, and much less prone to mistakes.  such sites get much love from me.  here are some noteworthy sites that i have gradually accumulated that support PAD file submissions:

RocketDownload
Sofotex
Softpedia
DirFiles
SixFiles
3d2f.com

other sites insist on having their own unique forms which gather exactly the same info as a PAD form but make you type everything manually. REALLY ANNOYING.  thumbs down to these sites. i am seriously thinking about trying to mount a letter writing campaign/boycott to get them to convert to PAD file support:

FileForum
SnapFiles
MajorGeeks
Shareware Junkies
NoNags
Tucows

There is absolutely NO EXCUSE for a site not supporting PAD files, except plain laziness.  These sites are in my hall of shame - if you know people at these sites, or you are a member of their forums, or just want to help, please drop these sites an email and tell them to get with the 21st century and add support for submitted PAD files.

3675

Programmer Libs / JrDebugLogger and other tools

« on: June 24, 2005, 11:31 PM »

Feel free to post any questions or bug reports regarding JrDebugLogger here.
https://www.donation...buglogger/index.html