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Author Topic: Newsletter for November 19th - Codename "Postcard Club"  (Read 21840 times)

Darwin

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Newsletter for November 19th - Codename "Postcard Club"
« on: November 18, 2007, 11:24 PM »
Newsletter for November 19th, 2007
Codename "Postcard Club"


"If you read nothing else on our site, read our BLOG"





1. Newsletter Editorial

It's Darwin here, welcoming you to another edition of the Donationcoder newsletter. I'm going to keep my initial comments brief, so that you can get right to the meat of the newsletter, but would like to take this opportunity to say a big welcome to everyone who has joined over the past two weeks and to encourage everyone to participate on the forum if you haven't already.

We'll soon be having our 3rd annual fundraiser, and we're asking for your help in deciding how to celebrate and how we should approach the delicate issue of asking for financial support from the public.  Let us know how we can make the site more useful for you!


2. Official Announcements

Calling all programmers -- we need your participation! Throughout November and December we are running some fun programming contests.  To help celebrate our Getting Organized Experiment 2007, November's programming contest is to pick some small productivity-related utility you can code in a few days and enter it in the Getting Organized Programming Challenge.  You only have until December 1st to submit something, but everyone who enters will be recognized.  Now's your chance to participate on the site and create something others will find useful.

Josh has arranged another excellent discount and giveaway for this month. If you don't already have a HIPS solution on your machine, you should check out Defense Wall HIPS, which is offered to all supporting members at a 30% discount and is available as a prize in the November Giveaway.



3. Your Input is Requested

Donationcoder is first and foremost a community and thrives because of member activity and participation. Not sure where to jump in?  Here are some good threads to get you started:



4. Living Room

JoTo is a frequent poster and prominent member of DonationCoder.  He's recovering from a serious health scare and we'd like your help to cheer him up! Please visit mouser's post about this ("DonationCoder Postcard Club Activate!"), and send him a postcard in the hospital.

Mouser, inevitably, ran afoul of a mouse a couple of weeks ago and posted about it in a thread called "Pet Peeve: I will never buy a rechargeable mouse again for as long as i live". Not only did he find that he is not alone, but he also found that DC'ers have strong opinions, and are divided, on the subject of wireless mice.

Finally, it is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Using this logic, plagiarism is high praise indeed. Our own zridling (Zaine) maintains an excellent resource called The Great Software List that someone liked so much they copied the entire homepage and pasted it into a blog. Read about it in this thread: "Blog steals Zaine's Great Software List" and post your thoughts.



5. General Software Discussion

Here are a couple of threads that come from completely different perspectives but that should give you pause for thought. In the first, "What’s Your Backup Strategy?" , jammo sparks a conversation about sensible backup strategies and how best to implement them. In the other, urlwolf points us to a thought provoking piece on the demise of a music sharing service and the politics of DRM. Look for it at "oink is dead: what is next?" .



6. Software Solutions Requested

Donationcoders constantly seek ways to increase their productivity while they are on their computers and often post requesting suggestions about how to do this. Frequently, this is posted as a request for software options. Below are a sampling of some recent requests. Alternatives are always welcome, so please, post away.



7. Specific Software Discussion

Wreckedcarzz posted about his experiences with iTunes and what finally "drove him over the edge". He posted about it in a piece called "A rant about how I finally ditched iTunes" .



8. Fun and Games

Work, work, work. Yawn. Reinvigorate yourself with some downtime - play a game or have a laugh. Here are some suggestions posted over the past two weeks.



9. Developer's Corner

Donationcoder is a community of software enthusiasts, but it is more than that. It's also a place where you can discuss and learn about software developement. You can start learning about software development in the Programming School on the Developer's Corner board. For some of the recent discussions on the Developer's Corner, read on:



10. Coding Snacks

Looking for a simple application to make life easier? Can't find it? Post a request to have one of Donationcoder's able coders write one for you in the Post New Requests Here section of the Coding Snacks board. Below are a few recent requests.



11. Site of the Month

Our site of the month for November is one of my daily reads: MakeUseOf.com.  Though perhaps relying a little much on the "top 10 tools" genre, MakeUseOf does a great job of summarizing the top tools or tips in an area, while adding enough of a personal informed recommendation to make their frequent blogs very enjoyable and educational reads.  Combined with an occasional longer instructional post, MakeUseOf is a terrific addition to the software blogging field, and well worth your attention.  ps. They accept donations as well.

« Last Edit: December 06, 2007, 02:45 PM by Darwin »

Armando

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Re: Newsletter for November 19th - Codename "Postcard Club"
« Reply #1 on: November 20, 2007, 03:20 PM »
Thanks Darwin!  :up:

f0dder

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Re: Newsletter for November 19th - Codename "Postcard Club"
« Reply #2 on: November 20, 2007, 05:41 PM »
Nice newsletter, I really like the style of it :) :up:
- carpe noctem

mouser

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Re: Newsletter for November 19th - Codename "Postcard Club"
« Reply #3 on: November 20, 2007, 05:46 PM »
I like the format where there are fewer items in each section.  :up:

The one thing i'm not sure about is the links inside the paragraph intros to sections.. on one hand it might make the section intros more useful, but on the other hand it makes it harder to find things at a glance -- i sort of have a preference for everything in the newsletter being in a bulleted list.  Anyone else agree or disagree?

It might be nice to have more sections too.. Looks like we forgot to do a "Member Spotlight" this newsletter -- i think we should have one every newsletter; there are enough interesting members of this site to always have an interesting site run by one of our members to spotlight.

Darwin

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Re: Newsletter for November 19th - Codename "Postcard Club"
« Reply #4 on: November 20, 2007, 05:58 PM »
Heh, heh - I'm of two minds about the links in the section intros. It would probably result in a "cleaner" and easier to read newsletter if we avoided using them in the intros (a lot easier to edit, too  :Thmbsup:). I have been doing it this way because I don't usually have a good handle on what each of threads in a section is about and sought to avoid listing comments next to some of them but not next to the majority of them, if that makes sense.

I, too, like this move toward having more sections with fewer links in each - it's not so daunting when you approach it (as a reader) and I think makes it more accessible! tinjaw's admonition to everyone to stop posting so that he can catch up really resonated with me because there are always so many interesting discussions going on at DC that trimming them down to 10 or so links per section is VERY difficult.

Anyway, I'd like some input on mouser's points as well. Paraphrasing Thomas Huxley, how silly of me not to have thought of posting something similar myself before this  :o :-[
« Last Edit: November 21, 2007, 03:19 PM by Darwin »

zl_225

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Re: Newsletter for November 19th - Codename "Postcard Club"
« Reply #5 on: March 15, 2008, 10:42 PM »
Nice newsletter :up: