Help Me Narrow Down the DonationCoder.com Best Of 2006

[mouser]

Im preparing a set of the "Best Of" stuff from donationcoder in 2006, using past newsletters.
There are much too many entries, so please help me by suggesting items to remove!



Software

• Favorite Firefox Extensions" - see what other people use and recommend
• Firefox extension, COOLIRIS
• Useful Firefox Extension - Cooliris Previews
• Firefox Extensions of the Day: Link Alert and TargetAlert
• Firebug: Web development tools that integrate with Firefox
• Mp3 catalog tools
• Subsonic: Free,web-based personal media streamer/server
• More personal mp3 web servers.. Jinzora, Songbird, and more
• Serve your mp3 files remotely
• Vaselis freeware - lots of nice freeware
• Mediachance freeware (multimon taskbar)
• Good programs for helping you manage what programs start with windows?
• A beginner's guide to customization, skinning, and shell replacements
• Good Logo Creation Tools?
• Need Virtual Desktop software recommendations
• Ninotech Free Context Menu Tools
• bCheck: a site of several useful freeware applications
• Live Documents - Web enabling Microsoft Office
• What slows Windows down? See for yourself....
• Motherboard Monitor, or Something Else?
• My favorite software! What's yours?
• Screensaver Maker Recommendations?
• JackAss JoeJoe's Freeware Utilities - Nice Collection
• 12 Windows Explorer Alternatives Compared
• Cool Open Source file-sharing app: HTTP File Server (HFS)
• Free 3D Box Shot Maker
• Scrybe: an online organizer that goes offline just as easily
• Godlike Software
• Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
• Anyone know of some good voice mail software?
• Utility to rename taskbar buttons/window titles?
• Really good spell check tool wanted
• Eight security sandboxes reviewed by Gizmo
• Best free firewall for Windows?
• Enter TiddlyWiki
• Process Monitor from MS+SysInternals (evolved from Regmon+Filemon)
• Bear Bottoms Freeware: A very nice high-quality software site
• TOP 11 Tools for Sending BIG Files
• musikCube 1.0 Final Released

Website Discoveries

• Pandora - free Internet jukebox - https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=1880.0
• Free audio books - https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=1923.0
• Silkwood online free mmorpg - https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2334.0
• Learn about SiteAdvisor - see security ratings of sites as you surf - https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2624.0
• Social Bookmark Sharing - learn about StumbleUpon, delicious, and more - https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2584.0
• Gabbly - add chat feature to your website - https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2803.0
• Frugal for life website - https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2721.0
• Make-style tutorial blog - https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2728.0
• Services that make rss feeds from any webpage - https://www.donation...index.php?topic=2702
• Trade your real stuff online website
• Visual task tips
• Software to help you quit smoking
• New diverse search engine: gada.be
• Article, Children's Story about Open Source
• Website, Educational Podcast Collection Site
• Escape Pod - Free Science Fiction Audio Stories/Podcasts
• 40 years worth of GUIs
• Swaptree ... a new concept in trading?
• Website for people to arrange (legal) trading of stuff
• VisualComplexity gallery collection - very cool
• Processing 1.0: hobbyist scripting code for art
• Longbets... very cool idea - get your prediction on the record
• BookMooch - exchange your used books
• ChipIn - Collect money from social network donation
• techTAGG - digg like site with revenue sharing
• Software Frustrations - the new sh*tware forum
• The Great Software List Site Gets a Big Update
• Cool website: usbgeek.com
• Top Ten Video Sharing Websites
• Best places to get information on web hosts - (Best Of Web Series)
• Flashforward Conference and Film Festival: Sep 11-14, 2006
• For you visual learners with existential issues, VideoJug Explains Life on Film
• Slashfood: Cool Website for Food Lovers
• Typetester: Compare fonts for the screen
• Great tips for doing a good podcast
• CreatingMinds - Great creativity excercises
• Article: The Social Bookmarking Faceoff
• Nice blog essays on Fixing Peer Reviews and Collaborative Research
• Farecast - Know When to Buy Your Airplane Ticket
• Mind Performance Hacks Book
• Omgili - Google Like Search But Limited to Forums
• OpenDNS - safer, faster and smarter DNS?
• Citizendium - Wikipedia with More Expert/Editor Control
• Neave.tv - clever use of online videos
• gliffy - collaborative diagramming on the web
• Comparison of online music services Pandora, Last.fm, and Yahoo Music
• Is your favorite site missing an RSS feed?
• Caedes, the Desktop Wallpaper and Artist Community
• OneLook Reverse Dictionary - Enter concepts and get related words
• Wiki of the Week: Wikimapia
• Draw Function Graphs: A Website for Graphing Math Expressions
• Ed Bott's Microsoft Report - Great Site for Windows Vista Info
• Mood Music - Very Cool Site
• ColorBlender: free online tool for color matching and palette design
• Podiobooks.com - Free (Serialized) Audio Books - Donations Shared with Authors
• Geek 4 Sale: Geek Bloggers and Interns Wanted
• DonorsChoose: Pick a Project You Want to Fund
• Zamzar - Free online file conversion. (up to 100 MB)
• A like minded micro-donation community omidyar.net
• Corante: Many-2-Many - A Group Weblog on Social Software
• Freewaregenius.com site - freeware reviews
• ShowMeDo - Video Tutorials
• Instant Domain Search as you Type
• Pligg.com - An Open Source CMS for Creating Digg-like Sites
• Onstartups.com blog
• Wikia, Inc. gives free software, computing, storage and network access
• Diigo - social bookmarking and annotation
• Looking for a wiki? Compare, compare!
• Doodle - super easy web service for scheduling/polling participants
• 100-downloads.com: Top freeware for Windows XP and Vista
• USB Drive (Portable App) Must haves list
• KnowledgebasePublisher v2.0 - Nice CMS Software for Hierarchical Articles
• Top XP Freeware Every User Needs - Parts 1-3
• Tweebox: Simple Wiki-like System Designed for Making Simple Interactive Stories
• Office Tools and a Music Player - Right in your Browser?!
• Read/WriteWeb, a very well-written technology blog that has posted some lengthy essays comparing web2.0 sites, as well as some excellent opinionated commentary on the businesses end of these websites. A reliably informative and professional site which still manages to be fun to read.
• Our website of the month in November is boingboing - a directory of wonderful things.
• The Coding Horror Blog - Jeff Atwood's Coding Horror Blog, which is rapidly becoming one of our very favorite programming-related blogs. New entries are posted frequently, and they are consistently entertaining and insightful, with useful links and no filler, and excellent comments from readers. Most of the articles are not on hardcore coding techniques and non-programmers may find it the perfect peek into the mind of a programmer.
• Downloadsquad - a great fun blog with new software discoveries to try every day - https://www.donation...com/Links/index.html
• Jay is Games - great flash review site - https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2758.0
• BetaNews.com, one of the few sites that treats Beta releases as special treasures.
• StumbleUpon.com is Site of the Month for August 2006
• "Photoshop Retouching Sites" - if you haven't visited the photoshop friday type contests on http://www.somethingawful.com and http://www.worth1000.com you owe it to yourself to check out these amazing satirical images - https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2227.0

Flash Games

• Violent Mafia Flash Shooter -
• Escape from rhetondo puzzle
• Flow, an extremely cool flash game that has touches of "spore" in it
• Orboxb - Simple, satisfying, and addicting puzzle game
• Dungeon Escape flash game - charming
• Great multiplayer flash shoot-up game
• Black: Nice simple well-done flash shooter
• Beakins' Mango Quest - fun funny flash game with tons of character
• Replicator - great retro galaga+robotron mashup flash game
• Mr. Tumpkins - cool flash adventure
• Cool myst style flash click game
• Blast Off, a fun flash click game
• Gamma Bros - For all you retro arcade fans
• Within A Deep Forest one of the best free games in YEARS
• Chasm: Wonderfully animated flash game
• Extremely well done 3rd person stealth flash game: Stealth Hunter
• Here's a brilliant example of thinking outside the box in flash games
• Avoider! Extremely Clever and Whimsical Flash Game
• zen flash toy - FlyGuy
• Addictive Dice Game
• Legend of Pliskin 2 - very well done flash click adventure
• Security2: Very well done simple stealth Flash game
• Tactical Assassin - another very cool flash game for you to try
• Here's a another very cool flash game for you to try
• Hyper Sphere - Excellent Flash Action Puzzler
• N-Game flash platformer
• Flash Game: Fulltime Killer
• StagNight: The Boyscout Slayer - a funny violent Flash Action Game
• Stickman Sam 4: Fantastically Good Flash Platform Game
• Warthog Launch - another fun flash game
• BowMaster, Cool Flash Game
• BowMaster: Prelude - Flash Game of the Day
• Flash Game: Deal or No Deal
• Hungy Space: today's flash game - Super Addictive!!
• Gateway - Control a Robot - clever click puzzler adventure
• Starship Eleven - A Modern Lunar Lander
• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
• Artificial Lifeform Intended for Assassination and Sabotage
• Ball Revamped I through IV - One of the Most Addictive Flash Game Series Ever
• (Defend the) Final Fortress - Flash Game of the Day
• The Good Ghost: Flash Game of the Day
• Black Ops - Flash Game of the Day
• Domino Pressure: Flash Game of the Day
• Amazing Flash Stickman Shooter Platformer (WPN Fire)
• Brainsplatters 2: Flash Game of the Day
• Scribble: Flash Game of the Day
• Weboggle: A New Implementation of a Familiar Game
• Tower Defence: Flash Game of the Day - Very Clever!

Other Fun Diversions

• Visualizing music relationships
• An interactive map of electronic music
• The Universe Within - very cool flash image zooms from galaxy to atoms
• Photobooth
• Japanese rube goldberg videos - addictive!
• Dynamic image generators - hundreds
• Big list of programming-related games
• Rock Paper Scissors 25 - an old game, a very cool twist
• Animator vs Animation - one of the best flash animations i've seen in years.
• Making the Bellagio fountain with soda and Mentos
• Extremely cool visualization of global statistics over time.
• Baby Name Wizard - see how choices of names change in time
• Make your own funny motivational posters online
• Make your own funny warning posters online
• ReligionFacts Big Religion Chart
• Zidane's head butt mashup videos
• Cool and weird flash movie
• Humans recreate Space Invaders in a lecture hall (video)
• "Maps" of Cyberspace
• IDEA: Control Freak - living in the game
• Found currency experiment
• Very cool site of stuff found by others on the street, etc.
• Mario Brothers Epic Flash Opera Series
• Quick change artists — WTF?
• xkcd.com - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.
• Icon's Story: fantastically whimsical flash movie
• 17 Different Ways To Tie Shoelaces
• Fake scientific paper generator - watch the funny presentation video
• Very cool story about an elaborate "virtual heist" in a multiplayer online game
• Think you are safe? Bumbkeys and lock picking
• Planet Perplex: Art for the mind
• Once Upon a Forest - A Web Art Site
• website: Cute Overload will make your head explode
• Save the web! Hillarious video
• Just HOW do you tie a *censor* tie?
• Physics Games Website
• RTFM
• Roller Coaster of Death - Machinima Video
• Starship dimensions
• Invisible Bike And Other Cat Signs
• 1 Sheet of Paper - wow
• Games by Ville Mönkkönen
• Free Hugs Campaign Video.. Wow.. A Must See..
• Animator vs. Animation II - Sequal to one of the best flash cartoons ever..
• 12th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition Results
• Tony vs. Paul - The Coolest Stop Motion Video Ever Made
• Ask A Ninja?

Gadgets

• Tshirt folding machine
• 10 most annoying clocks
• 10 coolest clocks
• Projection clocks and Weather equipment from Oregon Scientific
• Top 10 Strangest Watches
• Hydroflyer: amazing driving flying watersurfing remote controlled toy
• Sensual Massager for Women that comes with Programable Software
• OhMiBod - Another computer sex gadget for women
• What's Your Favorite Gadget? Here's mine with a Discount - A Seltzer Maker
• A pentop computer to help with homework...
• Cool Parent Gadget - Hipseat Baby Carrier
• Frigits Deluxe: Fun and addictive marble madness for your fridge!

Debates and Blog Essays

• Companies paying people to say good things about them - https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2341.0
• Digg.com rigging corruption?
• 10 stupid mistakes by newly self employed
• How to price a project
• Usenet alt.comp.freeware debate about DC - the meaning of freeware?
• Article, Inside the Spyware Scandal
• Article, Blog Flair
• Digg, the wisdom of crowds, the hive mind, netscape, and competitors
• Broken Windows Theory
• Why is so much software cracked?
• Article Find: Fundamental issues with open source software development
• Article: The Six Sins of the Wikipedia
• The Long Tail and it's Doubters
• Recent Blog Discussions of Open Source Donations, etc.
• Really interesting post about new netscape digg-clone and paying bloggers
• The Hive: New Long Article on Wikipedia
• Blog article: web2.0 puts users in control of everying, but wont share profits
• Blog Discussion: Piracy is Progressive Taxation
• Why is it that so few people do what they love? Paul Graham does it again
• Blog Post: A Pile Driven Life
• How Digg Gets Everything Backwards.. And How to Fix It
• Is Cybersex Cheating?
• Money tips for Students — much needed advice!
• What we believe but can not prove
• Blog Article - Social Networking: Time For A Silver Bullet
• Blog Entry: The Field of Dreams Strategy
• Blog Article: Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute
• Blog Review: Making Comics - How to communicate visually
• A set of Essays about Web2.0 on Topic of Fake Sharing vs. Real Sharing
• Nine Ways to Combat Spam
• Want to be a name-dropping, annoying, self-absorbed, blogger? Scoble Tells How
• Nice analysis on why Google Answers Failed where Another Succeeded
• FTC Unmasks Word-of-Mouth Marketing: Endorser Must Disclose Link to Seller

DC Reviews and Mini-Reviews

• Address book tools - https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2292.0
• Renaming Tools - https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=1146.0
• Tray tools 1 - https://www.donation...ndex.php?topic=997.0
• Tray tools 2 - https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2315.0
• Virtual Desktop Tools - https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2485.0
• Icon Tool Shootout - Compares the best icon tool editors.
• SuperboyAC's Notetaking Software Roundup #1

Developers Stuff

• Hunt for the best CMS (Content Management System)
• Indie Game Devs: Forget It
• The Change Function: Why some technology ventures fail?
• The Koolaid point and Popularity Breeds Contempt
• The Standalone Programmer: Tips from the trenches
• Bruce Eckel releases some mp3 interviews with luminaries in coding
• Firefox for Web Developers
• Web-based logo design companies
• Creating Passionate Users: Don't give in to feature demands!
• Blog Post: 40 ways to be a better (game) designer
• When to fix bugs and when to leave well enough alone
• Paul Graham's Essays ("What Business Can Learn from Open Source" and more)
• cambrainhouse.com - crowd-sourced software
• Joel On Software: "It's not about me!"
• Steve Palina's 10 Myths About Self-Employment
• Presentation Zen Blog
• The start-up inflection point: Nice Blog Article
• Programmer Meet Designer Website
• Why Smart People Defend Bad Ideas - Essay #40 by Scott Berkun
• What Every Computer Scientist Should Know About Floating-Point Arithmetic
• Short Article, Hindsight 2.0: Lessons From A Failed Web 2.0 Startup
• A very nice text about developing open-sourced software
• To Limit Or Not To Limit
• Examples of Collaborative Development and "Open Source Intelligence"
• An example of how social networks can be used to assist in decision-making
• Tales from the Proprietary: OSS is good for your business model
• Thoughts on What's Wrong with the Business End of Blogging..
• Economics of virtual communities
• Bad Design is Harder than Good Design
• Blog Essay: Important Questions Startup Co-Founders Should Ask Each Other
• 5 Easy Ways to be a Better Developer
• Blog Essay: Open Source vs. Closed - Another Look
• Game Engines and Apps
• Nice blog on rapid game prototyping
• What Is An "Unconference" And How Do You Run One?
• Blog Essay: 5 Reasons Why Recent Graduates Should NOT Found Startups
• Do the Simplest Thing That Could Possibly Work
• You Should Pay Me to Read This Post - Web Ad Alternative
• Linked In: Web social networking for professionals
• Cognitive Seduction and the "peekaboo" law - Nice Blog Essay
• An Entrepreneur's Take on "The Long Tail"
• Joel Spolsky's Recent Essays Opposing Simplicity
• Radical Transparency in Web2.0 Publishing - Then+Now / Upsides+Risks
• Dos and Don'ts for Entrepreneurs, from those who Should know ...
• Interactive fiction tool: Inform7
• Storytronics: Interactive Story Telling Software

Other DC Discussions

• Catch up on the continuing discussion of note taking tools and methods - https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2362.0
• Read the font comparison discussion that generated so much (mostly external) traffic on our forum that it brought the server to a virtual standstill - https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=2499.26

[mouser]

i think id like to cull these lists down to 20 in each category.

[mouser]

ps. i've decided to split that last section into two sections:
Best Programmer Stuff
and Best Entrepreneur Writing

[mouser]

ok never mind.. i'm almost done.

12 hours spent so far.

[zridling]

Man, I've got some catching up to do.