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Newsletter for August 27 - Codename "Mouser reinvents the wheel"
Darwin:
Newsletter for August 27th, 2007Codename "Mouser re-invents the wheel"
"If you read nothing else on our site, read our BLOG"
1. Message from the Editor
Greetings, donationcoders and welcome to the latest edition of the Donationcoder newsletter. It's Darwin here, I've taken the helm of the newsletter for a bit while mouser does important stuff, like work on FARR2!
Summer is winding down (at least in the sense that summer vacation is, or is just about, over for high school and university students in North America) and thoughts are turning to salmon runs, the riotous colour that accompanies the advent of autumn, and hopes for a long Indian Summer. Here at donationcoder, we've had another fantastic couple of weeks of updated software releases, vibrant forum discussions and have been joined by a bunch of new supporting members.
So, let's begin with a warm welcome to the 80 new supporting members who have joined us since the last newsletter went out on August 8. Support from people like you make the site possible (check out the yearbook of supporting members).
2. Mouser releases a host of updates to his software titles
Mouser is more than just a fickle feline (and our fearless leader) - he's a damned fine coder too. He's released updates to a number of his titles, adding support for his newly released DCUpdater. These include:
* Screenshot Captor - v2.33.01
* Process Tamer - v2.09.01
* LaunchBar Commander - v1.61.01
* The Form Letter Machine - v1.06.01
* Clipboard Help+Spell - v1.14.01
* Flipbook Printer - v1.08.01
* URL Snooper - v2.20.01
* Unicode Image Maker - v1.03.01
* JrDebugLogger - v1.05.01
So, if you haven't already done so, download and install the DCUpdater and keep your favourite mouser software up to date.
3. Writing on the Web
Some great new finds to report in this newsletter. If you're at all interested in the approach we have taken to raising funds for programmers, you need to go check out microPledge -- it's somewhat similar to what we do at DonationCoder.com, but much more systematic and focused on coordinating larger projects. Very interesting stuff.
* microPledge: Funding Software by Pledging to Donate Money
* Bugs of collective intelligence: why the best ideas aren?t selected? Blog Essay
* The software awards scam
* Smashing Magazine's Best of July links ? holy freakin' moly
* Wikipedia Scanner: Finding Who Games Wikipedia and a Service Tracking Them
* Hacking Starbucks - Tricks and Sites to Manipulate The Matrix of Reality
* Link Story: 100 things you can make yourself
* "Content-Aware Image Resizing!! OMG!!!!!!!".. Calm down: it's useless
* Jeff Atwood's School of Blog Writing, Episode 999
4. Your input requested
I'd like to take this opportunity to direct our readers to the post from KenR, who has been a big part of this forum since joining in April of last year. His integrity, sense of humour, thoughtful, well-reasoned posts, and uncanny ability to track down and post about some very esoteric websites, blogs, and applications have made him a fixture here. Earlier this year, he was forced to curtail his activities on the boards due to health issues and has been sorely missed. I hope everyone will join me in wishing him a speedy recovery (of course, we're being selfish, because what we're really after is his speedy return to donationcoder!).
Don't be awed by the vast, friendly and informative forums - everyone posting here took a tentative step toward the water and dipped a toe into it. Donationcoder actively encourages everyone to post questions, comments, and opinions. The forum only works if people take the time to post and the community as a whole benefits. If no one posts, there is no community. Here are a few topics for you to consider:
* Wish KenR's good luck!
* How do you organise your 'My Documents' folder?
* Top 3 programs you use?
* Acceptable expletives?
5. General software discussion
The common thread that binds us all together is our love of software. If you are researching your options for a particular category of software, you're in the right place because one of the 84,379 members of this site has probably been through the process before and will be in a position to offer advice and alternatives for consideration.
* Gizmo's TechSupportAlert Recommends (our own) Mobysaurus Thesaurus
* Custom submenu on the start panel?
* Do you know a good image viewer with CMYK support ?
* Inventory software to keep track of my stuff?
* Looking for a simple, inexpensive Video Editing Software
* How do this in a screenshot?
* Recommendations for a screen resolution manager?
* Download all updates for XP in one go?
* Anywhere.FM: Upload your entire music collection - play it anywhere
* Slickr: Flickr Screensaver
* Shareaholic: Firefox add to quickly submit links to stumbleupon, digg, delic,..
* Need a mass email program
* Ed Bott Vista Tip: Login Automatically
* Is there a way for Firefox to automatically login to websites.
* CCleaner 2.0 Beta Released - Clean the Crap off your Computer
* Cybernet Recommendation: Windows Sidebar Resizer (Resize the Vista Sidebar,etc.)
* CastleCops Wiki - A complete malware resource
* WinSplit Revolution
* RunScanner -autostart and antihijack control/analysis program
6. Reviews and Review Planning
The reviews at donationcoder are what drew me to the site two years ago. Things have changed since then, in that the huge reviews that were characteristic of the site when it first went live are not as common now and have been replaced by mini-reviews. Mini-reviews tend to be a contributor's take on a single app rather than a review of a number of apps from a particular category, such as the justifiably famous text editor review from 2005 or Zaine's tour de force on Word Processors from this spring. Here is a recent mini-review that you may not have noticed when it first came out, along with a call for reviews of educational software and a discussion about how reviews should be organized in the future:
* xplorer^2, a powerful windows file manager and explorer replacement / alternative
* Educational Software reviews?
* Organizing Reviews
7. Coding Snacks
Do you know about our Coding Snacks section? If not then you need to fire your personal assistant. In the Coding Snacks section of our forum people can post ideas for small utilities that they need, and coders who hang out on our site try to implement them as freeware for everyone to use. Do you have an idea for a small tool you really wish existed, post it!
* Silly Idea? A program that counts out loud
* SubDude, a subtitle renaming program
* Count-as-you-type: Show number of characters as I type in email
8. Harmless fun
All work and no play makes Darwin a dull boy... er, how'd that go? Anyway, donationcoder is not just a serious, dour technical site (in fact it's not dour at all!). Oh no! Far from it, just ask wreckedcarzz, a.k.a. Brandon, creator of MazeCraze. Here are some threads discussing free or opensource (FOSS) games, humour, and other lightfare from the past couple of weeks.
* Flash Game of the Week: Escape Game [RGB] - Great
* Flash Game: Anti Tower Defense
* Ball Revamped V Just Released: One of my Fave Flash Game Series
* Bloons Tower Defense - Very Well Done
* Video Humour: Internet Commenter Business Meeting (foul language warning)
* Game, game, game, and again game - Surreal flash game
* Moto Race Challenge 07
* Exercises for most of us spending time in front of a computer
9. Developer's Corner
Are you a programmer or someone interested in starting their own business? Perhaps you are a website developer, student, or entrepreneur? Then drop by the Developer's Corner section of the forum.
* Blueprint: A CSS framework to help you make grids and stuff
* Best Language for Employability?
* Bjarne Stroustrup (creator of C++) talks about the development of C++0x
* YSlow: FireFox plugin to diagnose how long it takes to download your website
* How do you write a .chm file?
* Dot Net Preacher Show - Interview with Grant Frisken from Infralution
10. Site of the Month
Just a reminder that this month's website of the month is Nirsoft.net:
NirSoft is doing amazing work. Their power utilities for windows reach into the very guts of the operating system and do things no other utilities can do. And they are all free. Our only warning is that you please don't visit their site unless you have some serious time to kill.
Some of the tools NirSoft makes are completely unique and wonderfully surprising. Some of our favorites include:
* OfficeIns
* ZipInstaller
* ShellExView
* ShellMenuView
* Volumouse
* NirCmd
* SmartSniff
* GDIView, the newest addition to their line.
They also have a ton of password recovery tools, browser investigation tools, and much more.
cranioscopical:
Nice job with the newsletter!
Darwin:
Thanks Chris! It was a team effort and a week late (courtesy of the server outage). I'm relieved to have released it into the wild.
momonan:
Fantastic newsletter, Darwin!!! I know it's a lot of work, but don't think we don't notice. :-* Some donationcredits coming your way. :D
Darwin:
Many, many thanks momonan. I really appreciate it. It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed it.
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