If you've followed the discussions about the SMF forum software which we use here on donationcoder, you know that (despite some strong complaints from me about how they have dealt with mod coders which led me to remove my mods from their site), i think it's a really terrific piece of software and a great achievement.

They recently posted an interested interview which discusses some of the historical underpinnings of the Simple Machines Forum software:

The start to SMF was almost by accident really. We were starting code work on YaBB SE 2 but were fighting with other issues that were not code related at the time so we weren't progressing as much as we had hoped right away. One of the newer developers on the team named [Unknown] had been working on cleaning up YaBB SE and making some big changes in what he coined his "Secret Project". We had known YaBB SE needed some optimization as ultimately it was the same older functions used since the port to PHP and they drastically needed updating. When we saw what [Unknown] had in place, we scrapped what we had started and the "Secret Project" became SMF. One of the first things we did was decide on a name and a process of making the switch from YaBB SE to SMF.

During the development of YaBB SE 2 (usually referred to YSE2) we had a lot of mixed opinions on direction for the project as a whole, and on the software version itself. We had also just made it though a tumultuous encounter with a competitor that had been trying to steal our code, so the entire team was a little uncertain about which route to go.
...

http://www.simplemac...x.php?topic=208875.0

Freeware Genius reports on a free program called FastKake which basically just creates a bunch of shortcuts to do things on your computer (log off, start screensaver, etc.).

As a commenter on a lifehacker post about FastKake points out, such short cuts are *perfect* for using with a launcher like our own Find and Run Robot (FARR) and others, since you can search for them so easily.

http://www.freewareg...2007/12/03/fastkake/

I thought my blog post on the subject might be useful to everyone at donationcoder.

Everybody who’s ever tried it knows the problem. Life as a regular user on Windows is a pain: who wants to switch users just to install software, sometimes even to run it? However running software as a non-admin increases security. It’s impossible for spyware to install itself into the system when it is not allowed to.

Using SetSAFER, a program created by Microsoft employee Michael Howard we can run just any applications as a regular or limited user, while still using an administrator account. After testing for side effects, which I explain below, I recommend you give this a try. I no longer have to run a realtime spyware scanner, and now just schedule routine scans.

-http://blog.amasan.co.uk/

Downloads and Resources

• Download SetSAFER with my configuration. (it requires the .NET Framework 2.0)
  
• If you prefer you can download SetSAFER directly on the author’s website.

I came across techlife for the first time today, while browsing the website for the very cool screensaver "electric sheep".

Looks like a really nice small blog focusing on computers, and discoveries in software and on the web. Looks like a new regular read for me.

So, CyberNet News is now two years old! Ashley gives a quick overlook over how everything started (pretty ironic if you ask me), and a rundown in numbers over what happened during these two years. They surely came a long way, from being a small blog to being now linked from the most important sites. A well done job, congratulations!

And to celebrate... they're celebrating a massive giveaway of software! Some of the apps include xplorer², Object Desktop, MediaMonkey and SyncBackSE for now. It seems that they're going to include web services as well (Flickr?). Go over there to participate, the rules are in the post above.

Hi all,

Following a recent thread, I'd like to share this with you great folks at DC!
I've never been too fond of screensavers, most of the time I simply used the default windows screensaver... but recently a friend of mine showed me Electric Sheep. It generates beautiful animated sequences (some might call them hypnotic!)...

In the creators' own words:
"Electric Sheep is a free, open source screen saver run by thousands of people all over the world. It can be installed on any ordinary PC or Mac. When these computers "sleep", the screen saver comes on and the computers communicate with each other by the internet to share the work of creating morphing abstract animations known as "sheep". The result is a collective "android dream", an homage to Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep."