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1.1 How to Get Your Five Minutes of Fame
I'm looking for experienced users to help with the "46 Best-ever Freeware" list.
The plan is to convert the list into a Wiki and allow site visitors to make suggestions and alterations along the line of WikiPedia.
For this to work, each software category needs an editor to moderate user comments, so I'm looking for experienced individuals to fill these roles.
If you feel that you are knowledgeable about a particular software category such as "program editors" or "file managers", then why not share your knowledge by becoming the editor for that category in the "46 Best-ever Freeware list."
As a category editor you will be fully credited for your efforts, unless, of course, you wish to remain anonymous.
It's a great way to get your five minutes of fame. It's also a way of becoming an internet "giver" rather than just a "taker". And you will be surprised at just how much you will learn from the suggestions of others; I certainly have.
If you are interested check out the current categories in the "46 Best-ever Freeware" list [1] and the "Extended List" [2]. Select categories that you would like to edit and email me at [email protected] with your selections plus a very short description of your background and experience. If you have any commercial affiliations related to any of the categories, please state them.
Feel free to select as many categories as you like but be aware that editing each category could take 1-2 hours of your time per month. Also feel free to suggest a new software category if you feel it is needed.
Thanks guys.-Gizmo's Support Alert Newsletter Free Edition, Issue 151
I am completely new to anything Flash. I have never written a single line of Actionscript. I don't know the difference between Flash and Flex. I don't know in what forums Flash developers hang out. I don't even know what kind of coffee they drink, or if they drink tea instead.
However, I have developed games and have been thinking about developing some casual games and have heard rumors that Adobe is "pushing" causal game development with Actionscript 3 and their latest releases. So I went to adobe.com expecting to see a link for something like "learn how to develop games in flash" or some such. I poked around the developer related pages and didn't find anything I thought useful.
What I did find were plenty of stuff for *existing* flash developers. Links to articles and HowTos for specific topics and information about products that cost a minimum of several hundred dollars. I can't learn how to develop games and create a prototype with a 30-day trial, and I am not going to buy a $1000 pro-grade tool when I am an indie developer without a budget or a pre-funded project that would justify such expenditures.
I have seen some open source stuff, but don't know if it can do anything more than build some annoying shaking banner ads.
So let me introduce myself as a possible use-case for Adobe Marketing and the Flash (Game) Developer community.
I am an educated experience software developer who has a day job doing "enterprise" software stuff. I want to *play* in my free time (evenings and weekends) with "Flash Stuff" and learn enough to be able to build a simple game that I can put on my personal website and have my friends download. I am not a student, so I can't get student discounts. The money I have goes toward toys^H^H^H^H tools for my other coding habits^H^H^H^H^H projects. I am not interested in 30-day trials, as I may go 45-days or more between the first and second weekends I get to play with this. I know OOP so I want to start out learning how to do the "advanced" stuff from day one and not have to start with dragging and dropping PNGs w/o any coding and then "relearn" how to do it in code so I can do anything beyond having the image appear and rotate.
I *am* willing to put time into this endeavor, but only after I have a few things spoon-fed to me by "advocates" who's job is to get me "hooked" and willing to invest my time to go beyond Hello World. At the same time I am download and playing with GarageGames, TGE/TGB, Game Maker, Dark Basic, Blitz Basic, etc. and many complete development environments that are full-featured and completely free if I limit myself to releasing only freeware games, or cost me less than $50 for the "professional" version with all the bells and whistles.
I have heard rumors and rumblings about some open source tools being available and Adobe maybe open sourcing some of their previously pay-to-play tools, but also understand that Adobe can probably provide a better "comprehensive" package of tools, documentation, tutorials, and support, *if I can find the right place to ask/start.*
And, most of all, I don't know where to start my search as I have no personal contacts to bug about stuff like this.
So, where can I find the big red button to push and get everything I want handed to me on a silver-platter.
[please understand I have written this with some attempt at self-mocking humor and am not some clueless n00b]
Thank you for taking the time to read my lengthy posting. I hope to find some helpful replies and start down an interesting learning path.
--Chaim
This is doubly bad, as I took a vacation day from my real job to get this work done. 
mp3toys... great for getting massive cover art and enjoying your collection in a very visual way.-urlwolf (October 04, 2007, 12:11 PM)
I use MediaMonkey Gold, but I'm a sucker for a pretty face. I'll have to give that a try.Software 'Chipper' Speeds Debugging
September 28, 2007
Computer scientists at UC Davis have developed a technique to speed up program debugging by automatically "chipping" the software into smaller pieces so that bugs can be isolated more easily.
Computer programs consist of thousands, tens or even hundreds of thousands of lines of code. To isolate a bug in the code, programmers often break it into smaller pieces until they can pin down the error in a smaller stretch that is easier to manage. UC Davis graduate student Chad Sterling and Ron Olsson, professor of computer science, set out to automate that process.
"It's really tedious to go through thousands of lines of code," Olsson said.
The "Chipper" tools developed by Sterling and Olsson chip off pieces of software while preserving the program structure.
"The pieces have to work after they are cut down," Olsson said. "You can't just cut in mid-sentence."
In a recent paper in the journal "Software -- Practice and Experience," Olsson and Sterling describe ChipperJ, a version developed for the Java programming language. ChipperJ was able to reduce large programs to 20 to 35 percent of their former size in under an hour.
More information about automated program chipping is available on Olsson's Web site at http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~olsson/.
I am looking for a serious discussion. Please don't turn this into a Windows vs. Linux/Mac/Whatever religious debate/war. There are plenty of other threads covering that territory. Thank you. 
Are you a Flash games developer? Whether you're a beginner or an expert, hobbyist or professional, you can put your Flash Lite games in front of a big audience, with the chance to build a following. Start now by entering the launch contest, and you can also win significant prizes.
Bits du Jour is having StyleSread on sale October 3. It is $20 instead of $100. I am wondering if anybody has used it, and if so, how it compares to others. The video tour makes it look worth purchasing. 
