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Newsletter for September 8th, 2007 - Codename "All Fall Down"

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Darwin:
Newsletter for September 8th, 2007Codename "All Fall Down"

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


1. Greetings from the Editor

Hi all, it's DC member Darwin speaking to you, at the reins of the newsletter once again.  Greetings and welcome to the Back to School edition of the Donationcoder newsletter. It's a breezy, sunny day here in lotus land as we head into fall and it's impossible to move around town - bumper to bumper traffic and every pedestrian crossing is crowded with pedestrians, all hefting big book bags. Yes, the leaders of tomorrow, our future software developers, and all of our hope for the future are back to school, at least in my region. Minds to mould... This is an exciting time for me because my oldest is off to kindergarten and my youngest is back to pre-school. Happy days - quiet mornings with a cup of coffee and Donationcoder!

The past couple of weeks have been productive in Codyland and I'd like to take the opportunity to welcome new members, highlight some interesting topics you may have missed and extemporize on life and the pursuit of happiness. For me, a lot of my own happiness is tied up in donationcoder. I joined in July of 2005 and am not quite sure why now - if memory serves I was drawn here by a mention somewhere of Find and Run Robot, version 2 of which is about to be released as a beta. You can follow the discussion about the development of version 2 here - it includes a few teasers about what might be introduced in version 3 (warning: the thread is 35 pages long)! This is one of the reasons that I believe mouser's software is so special - and this quality spills over into, and permeates, Donationcoder itself - it's user centred. Mouser is a developer, and now also the leader of a significant on-line community, who actually listens to his user base and responds to them. That personal touch really makes a difference and it shows, in his software and on the Donationcoder forums.

Donationcoder member tinjaw has setup a map on Frapr so that we can visualise where all of the Donationcoder membership is located. Check out his post about it here and then head over to the map and add your location. It's kind of nice to put a location to the face, er, avatar, er username... You get the idea. At the moment, our distribution appears to be limited to NA and Northern Europe, yet I know that there are active members from throughout Asia so let's see how many people Codyites we can get to add themselves to the map over the next two weeks!

Finally, if you're reading this newsletter through the Donationcoder forum but are not receiving it via e-mail, here's a discussion on how to update your DC profile so that you receive e-mailings from us.


2. Welcome to our newest members

The Donationcoder user base is growing, and growing, and growing. The small site that mouser started in March of 2005 has grown into a vibrant on-line community of 86,144 members, as of 7 AM PST, Sept. 7. That's an increase of 1765 members since the last newsletter went out. Thus, my original plan to greet each new member by name isn't practical, so I'll have to content myself with a blanket Welcome! Please drop by the forum boards and join in! We are a very diverse group of people (and felines!) with equally diverse perspectives. This is one of the things that makes Donationcoder such a great place to hang out. Donationcoder is unique, too, in that discussions here very, very rarely break down into flame wars. Remember, the advice that Ms. McGillicutty gave you in grade five is TRUE: there's no such thing as a stupid question! Allow that old chestnut to liberate the poster within and join in with a comment, question or observation - you'll be very welcome!


3. September 2007 Discounts and giveaways

Supporting Members, you've got until September 15th to enter this month's Free Shareware Giveaway.  The Discounts run until at least September 30.

This Month's Special Discounts and Giveaways:

* BufferZone (30% discount)*
* Prevx 2.0 Individual (12 month license) (33% discount)
* RecentX (33% discount)
* Tech Support Alert Newsletter Premium Subscription (12 month) (30% discount) - A great newsletter about computer software, etc., and our site of the month for June 07.
Discuss this month's discounts: here.


4. It only hurts when I laugh...

There's a lot to be said for the healthy benefits of a cheerful disposition and greeting the day with a smile. Of course, I'm not in a position to offer advice in this regard (see this thread and this one to illustrate what I mean - KenR even suggested that the community pick a new nickname for me... Fortunately, we have many members who post in the forums, directing readers to interesting articles on the net about games, puzzles, jokes, even humorous videos.


* Knytt Stories - New Game (plus level editor!) from "Within a Dark Forest" author
* The impotence of proof reading
* Very funny video commentary on the Game Console Wars (foul language)
* Not Just Free Games

5. General software discussion

It is safe to say that most people who drop by Donationcoder are crazy about software. This is reflected in the fact that the bulk of postings on the forum are made on the general software boards... Our members are constantly seeking out new solutions to old software problems and post about their findings on the boards. Of course, a great thing about Donationcoder is that it's a great place to START looking for solutions to software problems, or to keep up to date on the development of a favourite application or plug-in. Thus, many threads start as requests for help - because Donationcoders are always willing to leap into the fray with suggestions, most requests are answered quickly and in detail. If you have a question or a problem, start looking for a solution by using Wordzilla's new search feature to see if your problem has been dealt with on the boards already and if it hasn't, start a new thread! Here's a sampling from the last couple of weeks (WARNING: highly addictive!):


* New interesting features for Firefox 3
* Change title bar name (in any application)
* File vault for web site
* Context Menu Editor?
* Program (or 2.0 site) to track my life, like a Gantt
* Family/Household Personal Information Organizer/Manager
* File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
* browse text files
* Stay Away From Microsoft VISTA
* powerful search for files program
* Settings backup software?
* What is the best RSS feed generator software for a small web site?
* Looking for a rich text editor
* Tiny apps
* screen capture software that uploads to free image host
* Realtime Screencasting Software

6. Recent software discoveries

Here are a few gems found by our members:


* SubmitToTab - a Firefox add-on
* OpenProj: Free cross-platform, ms-project-compatible project management tool
* Switcher2: Expose Clone (Window Arranger) for Windows
* Adblock Plus: the nuclear plug-in (nice blog post)
* Free Download Manager 2.5 released
* Family Tree Pilot
* Help Authoring Gem

7. Reviews

This doesn't *quite* qualify as a Donationcoder mini-review, but frequent contributor urlwolf has written a blog post about his experiences with a number of mp3 players and organisers and posted a note directing DC members to it. Check it out, it's a very interesting read.

Also, DonationCoder software gets a nice mention in Scott Hanselman's 2007 Ultimate Power User Tools for Windows.


8. Writing on the web

Our members are active web surfers and love to swap tales about their travels and discoveries in cyberspace. These posts are a wonderful way to see parts of the internet and aspects of software and development that you might not otherwise have been aware of... During the past couple of weeks we've had some interesting posts regarding everything from the stimulating effects of various soft drinks to a link to a (really infuriating - read "I didn't get past the gate keeping question") logic puzzle.


* A new technology for optical discs
* Where'd my video memory go?
* Interesting article on OSS licensing
* 64 bit Vista - help and advice
* Food for thought: Measuring Soft Drinks' Jolt
* For Discussion: Search engine query repository and bookmarking service
* [REQ] Keyboard locale auto-switcher?
* Mac OS X Leopard - All show and no go, or is it worth a try?
* Étonné - logic, math, crypto and programming problems
* MS OpenXML formats fail IOS approval (LOL)
* question on compression and storage: help me be less stupid
* ShopCV.com -- A Scam or Legitimate?
* Open Source Graphic Programs

9. Official Announcements

Wordzilla announced his online thesaurus FreeThesaraus.net to DC on May 07, 2007 and has been tweaking it ever since. Recently, he announced that new features, including a spell checker and ajax dictionary (based on WordNet) have been implemented, and that the kernel was almost totally rewritten to further speed up searches. In addition, longtime DC resident illustration guru and Cody's companion nudone has created a number of new logos for use on the site. Check them out, they're absolutely beautiful, and don't forget to send some credits in the direction of Wordzilla and Nudone (for goodness sake, don't forget to mention how wonderful Cody is to have sat still for the drawings and how handsome he is - he's notoriously vain and jealous of the attention being diverted away from him!).


10. Developer's Corner

There's a whole world beyond the end user (more like "before" the end user, but no matter), the world of software development. Many Donationcoder members and guests are software developers and they post about development issues as well. Software development needn't be mysterious, drop by the Developer's board and you might just find yourself working your way through assignments in one of the more than a dozen languages in the Self-Teaching Programming School. Have fun!


* VB6 - where to go now?
* What about web-based (php, ruby, python, etc) DC coders doing some web snacks?
* FreeForYourSite.com - fun blog about website developer tools
* What would you consider your biggest waste of time project?
* Sun Releases Darkstar Under GPL v2
* CodeGear (Borland) Announces Rad Studio 2007 (Delphi, C++ Builder, etc.)

11. Site of the month

One of my favourite rss feeds is from lifehack.org, our site of the month for September 2007. They offer up advice and tips on how to make the best use of your time and how to accomplish things without spending a fortune. They are also are platform agnostic and always recommend interesting and helpful apps for Windows, Mac, and Linux users to try out. Content is upbeat, lively, and constantly changing. Check out their site and sign up for the RSS feed and start hacking yourself!

Wordzilla:
Great job Darwin, you did it again!!  :Thmbsup:

Darwin:
Thanks Wordzilla! It was fun - there were a lot of interesting things to highlight this time, though trimming the number of threads to be highlighted back to a manageable number was TOUGH! The newsletter is really the work of everyone who posts at DC - you guys make it possible. Keep the posts coming!

cranioscopical:
Nice job, very readable.
Thanks for taking the time to do this for the rest of us!

lanux128:
another job well done, Darwin! :Thmbsup: reading your discovery of DC reminded me of mine, which was also for Farr and a request that led to WinWarden by Skrommel. btw, the Frapr map idea is a cool one & i'll add mine as soon as i get to a Flash-enabled browser.. :)

• http://www.frappr.com/?a=constellation_map&mapid=68719625367

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