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Newsletter for January 7th, 2007 - Codename "Who's Your NANY?"
mouser:
Newsletter for January 7th, 2007"Who's Your NANY?"
"If you read nothing else on our site, read our BLOG"
1. N.A.N.Y. Challenge Programs Released For Download!
N.A.N.Y. stands for "New Apps for the New Year", and it was our challenge to all DC coders to release a brand new app on Jan 1st 2007. And wow did they ever respond!
* Download over 24 brand new freeware utilities from the N.A.N.Y. challenge.
2. BEST OF THE WEB 2006 - A Massive Round-up from DonationCoder.com
We've scavenged through 28,000 posts made on our forum over the last year to bring you the very best discoveries and controversies we could find. Organized into 9 different sections, with over 200 of our favorite links with accompanying screenshots. We hope you enjoy our massive 2006 year-end wrap up..
* Explore DonationCoder.com's "Best of the Web 2006"
3. Cody's Internet Citizen's Club is Revealed!
Cody, our rambunctious little bird mascot, has decided to form his own club and he wants you to join it! What's it all about? Mainly it's about being good internet citizens and active DC participants, and working as a team.
In each newsletter you'll have a small assignment or two - like finding a freeware author you like and emailing them a thank you, or participating in a forum poll. As a Cody Club member, we ask that you perform the Cody Club newsletter task (or else invent one of your own if you object to the one we've chosen). Occasionally you'll get a little treat, like a postcard in the mail, or a Cody Club iron-on. Only Cody knows for sure.
* Read more about Cody's Club..
* Cody's Club Task #1 - Configure a picture (avatar) for your forum identity.
* Cody's Club Task #2 - Post a little something about yourself on the "Getting To Know Each Other" thread.
* Cody's Club Task #3 - Fill in a little biography blub in your forum profile.
* Note: You don't have to be a donating member to participate!
So.. have you completed this month's Cody Club tasks yet?
4. January Giveaway and Discounts (Deadline Jan 14th)
Supporting Members, you've only got until January 14th to enter this month's Free Shareware Giveaway (discounts run until January 31st). Only two programs available this month, but both are very highly thought of by our members.
* Fineprint (35% discount) - read fineprint minireview.
* Net Transport (30% discount) - read my comments.
5. Other Official Announcements
* The results of our Accessibility Game Contest are about to be published, but you can get a sneak peek and try out some of the entries right now
* Feel like doing some semi-regular original blogging at donationcoder?
* Jay is Games Flash Competition 2: Help with a DC Entry!
6. Mini-Reviews and Coding Snacks Releases
Software releases and reviews by our members:
* Hardware Mini-Review: DYMO Labeler
* DONE: Tool to find selection box
* DONE: An indication that "start-up" is finished
* DONE: LockWorkstation - Software that asks all x minutes before locking
* DONE: Program to prevent specified programs from being closed without confirm
* DONE: Friends C drive space monitor
* DONE: Barnacle - Add toolbars to your favorite programs
7. Software Discussion
What's new in the world of software? Are you good at finding new software discoveries? Stop by the forum and help us find stuff! And don't miss our Found Deals and Discounts section where people post great software discounts they find on the web.
* CodeXApps: Information sharing and management
* FileMenu Tools: Customize Windows Explorer's Context Menu
* VicMan Software Now Offering Their Programs as Freeware
* Long Windows Vista Review on Paul Thurott's SuperSite for Windows
* Good Freeware Video Editor?
* Looking for Helpdesk/Incident Tracking software
* TeamTime, track teammates timnezones
* Good Web-Based Integrated Calendar/ToDo (Better than Google/Yahoo Calendars) ?
* Yadis! - a free backup tool
* Osalt.com - A Guide to Open-Source Software
* Looking for a freeware .mov to .mpeg4 converter
* Time Tracking Tool?
* Hide icons from desktop
* SandBoxie?
* CyberNotes: 10 Firefox Productivity Extensions
* Tray-stuff: free tray minimizer: trayIt; free tray ordering: ShellTrayInfo
* Top 150 Popular Firefox Extensions and Opera: a comparsion table
* Ways to optimize your (Windows XP) computer
* Utilities to make text file listings of directories
* Email backup need help
* 2000+ Freeware Links
8. Fun Games, Gadgets, and Diversions
Everyone needs a break from work every now and then..
* I Need You to Hack Into My School Computer. Are There Pigeons on Your Campus?
* Planet Freeplay: About 4 Years-Worth of Flash Games of the Day
* Spluch: Piggy bank with a life
* Enigma - One of my most favourite games
* Very Cool Flash Game: Tunnel Rush
* Art in your morning coffee
* JayIsGames.com Releases Results of Best Casual Gameplay of 2006 Voting
* Just cancel the @&@$(!#*! Account!
* Bzflags: Free Multiplayer Tank Game
* Master of Defense - Another Great Tower Defense Game
9. Website Discoveries, Debates, and Discussions
There are always new website services popping up every day, and lots of debate about the future direction of the web.
* ScienceBlogs 2006
* Comparison of Social Question-and-Answer Websites
* Game Giveaway of the Day - Giving away commercial games
* ExtremeTech's Ultimate Mouse Smack-Down
* Keyboard Shootout - Best and Worst
* Reminders made simple
* Bribing Bloggers - Joel, and Others, Weigh In
* Some thoughtfull worries about google misbehavior from FireFox developer
* Search Wikia - Project to Build an Open Source Non-profit Web Search
* Russinovich on Malware Cleaning
* Build Your Own Laptop
* BooksFree.com - Renting Paperback and Audio Books
* Web 2.0 Magazine's Ranking of the Top 100 Web 2.0 Sites
* How to think, act and live better - great books and other material!
* Why Blurring Sensitive Information is a Bad Choice for Hiding It
* How to sell a good domain name?
* Shellcity'S Best Of 2006
10. Developer's Corner
The Developer's Corner section of our website isn't just for programmers, it's for people interested in starting their own business, website developers, etc.
* What Websites Offer Free Multimedia Resources For Use In Software?
* Website Analyzing Website
* Tutorial movie - how to animate a character in flash
* The Escapist - Boutique Massively Multiplayer Online Games
* Latest Creating Passionate Users Essay: Don't make the Demo look Done
* Thefreesoundproject
* Public Domain Stock Photos
* SectionZ Electronic Music Community
* TinyXML Library for C++ (I Love It)
* How to Share Your Programs with the World (PAD Files, installers, etc.)
* Hacknot: Contract vs. Regular Employment
* Smashing Magazine - Smashing You with Information
* Sorting Algorithms Compared
* How To Create Games Incredibly Fast
11. The Great GOE (Getting Organized Experiment) of 2006 (GTD)
Well it's almost over and we've taken a bit of a breather - but we're not done yet! If you haven't participated yet, it's still not too late!
* GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TEN ASSIGNMENT
* LifeHack.org 2006 roundup - 50 Best Hacks for your Life
12. Website of the Month
Did you know that DonationCoder.com has a list of all of our past best-of-the-web recommendations and a list of recommended websites arranged by category?
* Our website of the month in January is Cybernet News - a software/technology news site.
mouser:
You might notice (or you might not) that I have re-enabled the google ads on the site today.
We're going to do this as an experiment or a week or two, and see what kind of income they bring in.
For those who don't know or don't remember, we tried the google ads for several months in the first half of 2006, because it is a potential way for non-donators to still bring us some income even if they don't donate.
In the end, however, decided that it wasn't bringing in enough to offset the annoyance. I am curious to see if anything has changed since then.
ps. Supporting members may not see the ads at all (you can go to your forum profile to change the chance of seeing an ad from 0 to 100).
mouser:
Google Ads Update:
For those who are interested, i'm not seeing much improvement over the google ad revenue compared to last year, even though traffic on the site has increased a lot since then. Part of it may simply be google taking time to properly index the pages for adsense.
Regardless, I think we will most likely go back to removing them from the website for another year - though let's keep them running for at least a week or 10 days to get a reasonable estimate. It looks like the ads also may be discouraging people from donating, since they think we are making enough money on these ads that we don't need donations.
Instead of hawking other people's stuff and paying middlemen advertisers i think maybe we should instead expand the idea of the "Cody Quotes" thing we were using before, to include random screenshot thumbnails of programs on the site, and maybe even site members website thumbnails etc. It seems to me we might all be happier by spreading the word about members projects rather than some strangers pay per click stuff.
nudone:
extending the cody quotes is a much better idea - especially if promoting things related to members of the forum.
mouser:
Just a confirmation: By monday all google ads will be removed from the site, and like the ground hog will not be showing their face again for at least another year. Good riddance.
We are going to try to do something where supporting members can make a little banner or link to their own projects which will get shown occasionally - i think it might be something fun and different.
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