Topics

176

Automatic Screenshotter / Automatic Screenshotter v1.17.01 - Jan 3, 2020

« on: June 24, 2018, 04:33 AM »

Automatic Screenshotter is a tool that lives down in your system tray and takes regular screenshots of your desk or the active window. The intention is to be a fairly lightweight primitive "backup" tool, like an airplane black box, so that in a case of last resort (app or system crash) you can go back and see what was on your screen at a certain time in the past.

Features:

• It's made to run in the background, taking screenshots of either the currently active foreground window, or the entire desktop.
• You can configure how often the screenshots are taken, and how they are named. The naming can include putting them into subdirectories and can be based on the data,time, and application name.
• It will automatically prune older screenshots based on limits you set regarding screenshot age, # screenshots to keep, and total file space you want to use.
• It will also try to be smart about avoiding saving multiple screenshots when the window (desktop) contents don't actually change, with some configurable tolerances, to minimize disk space used.
• It can also be told about certain applications to never capture, or alternatively a small list of applications that it should only ever capture.
• It can be configured to ignore capture when your pc has been idle for a certain amount of time, or when screensaver is running, or when full-screen games are running.
• You can also manually trigger a capture with a hotkey.
• You can also toggle capturing on-and-off easily from system tray menu.
• Screenshots are saved as standard png files.
• In summary, the focus is on an automated system of recording recent activity on the screen, and trying to be well behaved regarding disk space usage. You should be able to set it and forget it, until you need to go back and see what was on the screen at a certain time in the near past.

Official web page: https://www.donation...omatic-screenshotter

Original thread: https://www.donation...ndex.php?topic=42090





v1.17.1 - Jan 3, 2020

• [Improvement] Better catching and display of errors (main screen will show last error if any)

v1.16.1 - Dec 30, 2019

• [BugFix] Specification of maximum folder size for autodeletion could get confused with large values over several gb.
• [Improvement] New options to individually enable/disable different autodeletion criteria.
• [BugFix] Setting image quality to 1 in options resulted in error.
• [MinorFeature] Double-clicking on image thumbnail in main window will open the image in default image viewer.
• [Improvement] Improved logging and display of pruning delete events.
• [Improvement] Improved bundled version of Mouser's Media Browser.
• [BugFix] Screenshot save directory was not being listed in options tab.
• [BugFix] Compression level option was inverted.

v1.12.1 - May 8, 2019

• [BugFix] Capturing active window on older versions of windows could result in unusual screen corruption.
• [Feature] New preview of last capture shown on main window (see options on Misc tab).

v1.11.1 - Feb 23, 2019

• [BugFix] Region capture mode would not accepted negative coordinates, which are needed for some multimonitor setups.
• [Feature] You can now select the region to capture graphically.
• [MinorFeature] New menu item to open last screenshot.
• [BugFix] Automatic Screenshotter would sometimes store duplicate screenshots if the active window/process name was changed, even if screen contents had not.

v1.09.1 - June 24, 2018

• [Feature] Added option to disable auto-deletion of older screenshots (and disabled this feature by default)
• [Improvement] Updated the Internal Media Browser tool.

@v1.08.1 - Aug 5, 2017

• [Feature] Added option to enable (default) automatic renaming of files if a file exists with the same name already.  This was always done in previous versions, now it can be disabled.
• [Feature] Added option to save a LastCapture.EXT file in current settings directory after each capture; useful with other tools if you want to react to the latest capture.

@v1.07.1 - May 9, 2017

• [BugFix] Capturing of active windows could result in partial capture on high-dpi systems.
• [Feature] You can now specify custom DPI for saved images (default is now 96dpi).
• [BugFix] Start with windows option was not working.

@v1.06.1 - May 3, 2017

• [BugFix] Fixed GDI leak that could cause app to hang after thousands of captures.

@v1.05.1 - Mar 21, 2017

• Support for High-DPI displays (where text magnification setting is over 100%).
• Improved default sound.
• New option for capturing a specific region by coordinates.

@v1.01.01 - Jan 1, 2016

• [Info] First release

177

Living Room / Mini-documentary about tricking using loopholes in Mario Kart's video game

« on: June 21, 2018, 08:10 PM »

Mini-documentary about the race to conquer Mario Kart's Choco Mountain in seconds

It's amazing to see the dedication some people have to some small niches in the world -- in some ways it seems to me the best part of humanity..

Enjoy this surprisingly dramatic and gripping YouTube mini-documentary about one of gaming's strangest and most obsessive cults: racing around Mario Kart 64's Choco Mountain track. Thanks to glitchy shortcuts, racers winnowed times down to just a few seconds. But getting the trick right for all three laps of a time trial?

from https://boingboing.n...y-about-the-rac.html

178

N.A.N.Y. 2018 / MOVED: micro Tool contribution that list all connected Volumes / WMI

« on: June 16, 2018, 05:43 PM »

This topic has been moved to N.A.N.Y. 2019.

https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=45729.0

179

N.A.N.Y. 2018 / MOVED: micro Tool contribution that list all connected Drives

« on: June 16, 2018, 05:43 PM »

This topic has been moved to N.A.N.Y. 2019.

https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=45728.0

180

N.A.N.Y. 2019 / N.A.N.Y. 2019 Begins

« on: June 16, 2018, 01:33 PM »

Since 2007 we have held an annual event that we call NANY (New Apps for the New Year), where we ask the coders who hang out on DonationCoder to create some new piece of free software and share it with the world on January 1st of the new year.

NANY is really the funnest thing we do on this site, and it's one of the few times we can all play together.  There are no winners or losers, it's simply a celebration of programming and creating new software and sharing it with the world.  You can target any operating system (desktop or mobile) or even make a web-based tool.  It can be a game, utility, large application, whatever.  DC takes makes no claim on your software, it's just an event to encourage you to share a creation with others.  Best of all, everyone who participates gets a free commemorative coffee mug.

Browse previous year entries here: https://www.donation...pps-for-the-new-year

181

Automatic Screenshotter / Automatic Screenshotter Forum Section

« on: June 13, 2018, 10:30 AM »

This is the first post in the new dedicated forum section for the Automatic Screenshotter program.

I'd like to add more features to the program so I'm looking forward to hearing more ideas and bug reports.

Originally Automatic Screenshotter was part of the NANY 2016 event and most discussion occurred in that forum section: https://www.donation...ndex.php?topic=42090

182

Living Room / Hating on AVG antivirus/firewall (internet security)

« on: June 04, 2018, 10:58 AM »

I've been using AVG Internet Security antivirus and firewall for last few years (I like that it's an integrated tool).

Each year it seems to get worse and worse -- more bloated, more opaque, more intrusive into system, more convoluted, slower, etc.

Today I plugged in one of my backup drives, and slowly started getting notices that AVG was deleting files from it that were dangerous mail attachments.  It was a backup of an older mail folder, so the problem is not so much that it was deleting malicious files (the attachments in the old mail folders were surely spam and bad) -- the point is --- I don't need my pc slowed down by an antivirus scanning entire backup drives the moment i plug them in.. It's just one more example of AVG trying to "help" me by doing a million things behind my back that slow down my pc.  STOP DOING THINGS I DIDN'T ASK YOU TO DO!

I think I am basically at my breaking point and need to move to another software.

Any other suggestions for a NON-BLOATED antivirus + firewall combo?

183

Living Room / Clever simple gadget - usb stick that lights up in color on notifications

« on: June 01, 2018, 11:56 AM »

Here is a cute little idea and you can code your own scripts to have it notify you about different events.  It's $30.

blink(1) is a small USB light to give you glanceable notice of anything on your computer or the internet. blink(1) makes it easy to connect data sources in the cloud or on your computer to a full-color RGB LED so you can know what’s happening without checking any windows, going to any websites or typing any command. Connect blink(1) to IFTTT, your mail, URLs or your favorite scripts.

https://blink1.thingm.com/


from http://kk.org/

184

Living Room / Fake reviews are now a firmly entrenched business model

« on: May 31, 2018, 07:03 PM »

It isn't just fake reviews, it's also fake accounts on web services, etc.  It's an arms race where business are constantly trying to one-up their competitors and everyone has accepted that fake reviews and inflating their user numbers is, at the very least, a necessary first step to jump-starting their product.

Outside the publishing industry, the practice known as “review brushing” exists on a vast, industrial scale. In 2014, Haitao Xu, a thirty-year-old researcher now at Northwestern University, monitored five black-market Internet boards where companies and individuals advertise jobs posting positive reviews of their products and services, along with negative ones on those of their rivals. In just two months, Xu saw more than eleven thousand unique sellers post close to a quarter of a million jobs, paid at anywhere between “tens of cents, up to five dollars,” he told me. Since consumers typically see positive customer reviews as a more reliable indicator of quality than advertising, the effects can be major. “Stores using brushing services can increase their reputation ten times faster than normal seller stores,” Xu, who, in 2016, spent six months working in Alibaba’s fraud-detection team, told me. “A store with a high reputation is displayed higher up a Web page, attracting more customers and increasing sales.” Online sellers who do not employ brushing services, meanwhile, often find their products overlooked.

https://www.newyorke...-war-on-fake-reviews

from https://boingboing.n...w-generally-nec.html

185

Living Room / Working with time on computers

« on: May 30, 2018, 08:46 AM »

OSNews recommends today a nicely put together multimedia rumination on the issues of representing and working with time on computers. Looks pretty good.

This is one of the best articles - experiences? - I've ever read. It's funny, well-written, deeply informative, and covers everything from programming with time, to time and UI design, to time and accessibility. This is simply an amazing piece of work.

https://zachholman.c...h-for-everyone-right

from http://www.osnews.co..._for_everyone_Right_

186

Living Room / A simple one-parameter equation that can be used to reproduce any plot

« on: May 29, 2018, 11:10 PM »

Pretty neat stuff.  The full short paper PDF is linked on the page below.

In a very surprising paper Steven Piantadosi shows that a simple function of one parameter (θ) can fit any collection of ordered pairs {Xi,Yi} to arbitrary precision. In other words, the same simple function can fit any scatter plot exactly, just by choosing the right θ. The intuition comes from chaos theory. We know from chaos theory that simple functions can produce seemingly random, chaotic behavior and that tiny changes in initial conditions can quickly result in entirely different outcomes (the butterfly effect). What Piantadosi shows is that the space traversed in these functions by changing θ is so thick that you can reverse the procedure to find a function that fits any scatter plot.

https://marginalrevo...it-scatter-plot.html

187

Site/Forum Features / Just FYI: Privacy page faq updated for GDPR compliance info

« on: May 24, 2018, 02:44 PM »

Just FYI, I have updated our privacy page with information concerning our compliance with new GDPR laws in Europe:

https://www.donation...mpliance-information

188

Developer's Corner / Interesting article discussing how C on modern architectures is convoluted

« on: May 22, 2018, 11:14 AM »

Here's an interesting article that argues that using C to write low-level fast code that operates close to the bare metal is no longer a straightforward task, and is becoming increasingly virtualized..

One of the key attributes of a low-level language is that programmers can easily understand how the language's abstract machine maps to the underlying physical machine. This was certainly true on the PDP-11, where each C expression mapped trivially to one or two instructions.  Since then, implementations of C have had to become increasingly complex to maintain the illusion that C maps easily to the underlying hardware and gives fast code... In light of such issues, it is difficult to argue that a programmer can be expected to understand exactly how a C program will map to an underlying architecture.

https://queue.acm.or...etail.cfm?id=3212479

from osnews.com

189

Living Room / The quest for a completely silent PC

« on: May 15, 2018, 09:39 PM »

I’ve been trying to make my computers quieter for nearly three decades.  Custom liquid cooling loops, magnetically-stabilised fluid-dynamic bearings, acoustic dampeners, silicone shock absorbers, you name it.  Well, last week I finally managed to build a completely silent computer.  Without further ado…

https://tp69.wordpre...ely-silent-computer/

from http://www.osnews.co...tely_silent_computer

190

General Software Discussion / eff says immediately disable or uninstall tools that auto decrypt PGP email

« on: May 14, 2018, 10:30 AM »

Security warning: eff.org says that you need to immediately disable and/or uninstall tools that automatically decrypt PGP-encrypted email.

This looks pretty serious.  Although they are not saying what the flaw is yet, the key seems to be if you have a mail program that AUTOMATICALLY decrypts pgp encrypted emails, somehow that can be hijacked.

A group of European security researchers have released a warning about a set of vulnerabilities affecting users of PGP and S/MIME. EFF has been in communication with the research team, and can confirm that these vulnerabilities pose an immediate risk to those using these tools for email communication, including the potential exposure of the contents of past messages.

The full details will be published in a paper on Tuesday at 07:00 AM UTC (3:00 AM Eastern, midnight Pacific). In order to reduce the short-term risk, we and the researchers have agreed to warn the wider PGP user community in advance of its full publication.

Our advice, which mirrors that of the researchers, is to immediately disable and/or uninstall tools that automatically decrypt PGP-encrypted email. Until the flaws described in the paper are more widely understood and fixed, users should arrange for the use of alternative end-to-end secure channels, such as Signal, and temporarily stop sending and especially reading PGP-encrypted email.

https://www.eff.org/...-you-take-action-now

from https://arstechnica....mails-uninstall-now/

191

General Software Discussion / Unstoppable Copier -- freeware that saved my bacon

« on: May 09, 2018, 11:54 PM »

Today I had a hard drive crash.. Not fun.

Turned out that most of the files were still readable, the problem was that the handful among the 100,000 files that were not readable were causing major troubles.. Causing windows to hang when trying to access them, and causing all attempts to backup/image the drive to fail.

These days, looking for "free" software is an utter nightmare.  As most of you know from experience, most "free" software nowadays is basically non-functional trial software whose main job is to trick you and then make you buy the full version after you install a bunch of adware.

Imagine my surprise at finding an amazing piece of real freeware: Unstoppable Copier.


This wonderful savior of a program let me very quickly back a copy of all of the files on the hard drive, SKIPPING over the bad, unreadable ones, and giving me a nice list of the ones it couldn't copy.

It has some functions to try to repeatedly read corrupt files, but I have to admit that my hard drive was not having any of that.  No matter, the fact that I was able to quickly copy all of the readable files was enough to save me and let me just restore the bad ones from a separate backup.

This is a keeper.

It's donationware, and truly fully functional and free.  I made a donation.

192

Skwire Empire / Free weather APIs

« on: May 05, 2018, 02:03 PM »

Saw this article and thought it might be worth posting for your reference. It talks about 5 free weather APIs:
http://www.ilovefree...ree-weather-api.html

193

N.A.N.Y. 2019 / NANY 2019: RegexCaptor - Simple app to extract email or other patterns from text

« on: May 04, 2018, 06:36 PM »

This is a very simple beta release of a program to extract email addresses or other regular expressions from text files.

• https://www.donation...RegexCaptorSetup.exe
• or https://www.donation...exCaptorPortable.zip

Motivation:

This is a very simple task.  I needed to extract email addresses from bounced emails in order to remove them from the donationcoder mailing lists.  This is a fairly simple task for a commandline regular expression extractor tool, but I like to be able to drag+drop and get some visual interaction.

I tried a few "free" tools for doing this and they were ALL adware, shareware, feature limited.  Just horrible.  I don't know when we got to a point where people think they can list software unambiguously as "free" and have it be filled with adware or be horribly crippled until you buy the full version. 

So I decided to write my own tool, with hopes for improving it.  The goals are similar to CodeByters Linebyter which I have used in the past but whose source code was lost.

Again this is a very simple tool, it has a few minor features that make it useful for specific tasks:

• You can create your own list of common regular expression search patterns and select between them easily.
• You can specify a portion of the expression that should be extracted and listed.
• You can specify additional patterns to be ignored (in regex or plaintext format).
• The final list is sorted and duplicates removed.
• Easy to search multiple files; remembers file list.

Again this is a very niche tool but I may add features to it to make it more useful for other tasks.  If you already have a good regular expression "extractor" that you are happy with, this is unlikely to replace it.

194

Living Room / Simone Giertz, Building bad robots, making videos, and coping with a brain tumor

« on: May 01, 2018, 12:47 PM »

I think quite a few of you have seen the videos made by Simone Giertz.  She has gained fame by building small household robots that work to perform a task, but rather than expending huge efforts to make everything work perfectly, she basically settles for a first draft rough prototype experiment, and the results are funny, fun, and inspiring.  I think there is something we can all learn from her spirit -- and enjoying the pleasure of creating something that doesn't quite work.

Her very latest video has taken a sad turn though, as she posts about her discovery that she has a brain tumor.  She talks about her upcoming operation.

Some of her videos, including the last one:

195

DC Website Help and Extras / Fundraiser 2018 Money - Help Decide Where it Goes

« on: May 01, 2018, 08:28 AM »

We raised about $13,200 during the fundraiser in April. Time to decide how the money should be allocated.

Here are my thoughts:  I would like us to set aside $4,800 x 2 = $9,600 to pay for the next 2 years of hosting.
That leaves $3,600.

I think we want to allocate some of that to give to coders who hang out in the Coding Snacks area to encourage their work in writing code based on user requests, and maybe other coders who share their software and for whom dc is their main "home".
I suggest $1,000.    I have no idea how to divvy it up, but maybe some of the DC moderators and coding snack "consumers" can decide?

That would leave $2,600.

Speaking of moderators, I think it would be nice to give a little of the money to the moderators who take time away from their day to ban spammers, etc., so they can at least go out for a meal or drinks.  Maybe $500 total?

Lastly I would like us to try an experiment of "funding" one or two dc members who are interested in writing small but regular/consistent write-ups about news in software, technology, etc.  Maybe $1,000 x 2? = $2000?

Maybe set aside $100-$200 to help pay shipping costs for me to send out some custom painted 3d cody models..

Those are just my thoughts, I am happy to do whatever the community wants.

196

Living Room / Public thanks to the person from Belarus who sent me a postcard

« on: April 11, 2018, 07:06 AM »

I wanted to say a public thanks to the person who sent me a deluxe postcard in an envelope from Belarus.  It was very fun to receive.
It had a proper wax seal on the back of the envelope, a rouble taped to it, and a hand made silver scratch-off message!
It was very fun opening it.



ps.
If this was you, send me a message, since it had no identifying information so I could associate it with a forum member or email address to send license key to, etc.

197

Developer's Corner / 3d Printing: Influence of color, printing speed, temperature, age

« on: April 06, 2018, 08:06 PM »

What is the influence of color, printing speed, extrusion temperature and ageing on my 3D prints?

Article: http://my3dmatter.co...ing-on-my-3d-prints/

In February 2015, 3D Matter conducted a study on infill %, layer height, and infill pattern. We wanted to continue this initial effort by studying another set of very important FDM 3D printing parameters: filament color, printing speed, extrusion temperature and ageing. These are parameters that 3D printer users have frequently singled out as making a difference on the outcome of prints. So the goal of this study is to distinguish the factors that have a large influence on the printed parts from those that have limited influence. This helps users optimize their prints by focusing on the important parameters.

ps. I'm thinking we might expand this board of the section to be "Developers, Makers, and Entrepreneurs".  Thoughts?

198

Official Announcements / DonationCoder 2018 Fundraiser

« on: April 02, 2018, 08:52 AM »

The official DonationCoder.com 2018 Fundraiser has begun!

You can read all about it here.
Or better yet, read about it in the latest newsletter.

Feel free to use this thread to discuss any questions, suggestions, or ideas.

199

DonationCoder.com Newsletters / Super-sized Newsletter for April 2nd, 2018 - A Fundraiser to Celebrate 13 years

« on: April 02, 2018, 07:00 AM »

Super-sized Special Newsletter for April 2nd, 2018

"Celebrating 13 years with a Fundraiser"

1. Newsletter Editorial

Greetings all! It's been over a year since the last newsletter, and we've been super busy in that time -- so busy that this is going to be a super-sized newsletter, packed to the brim with news and links.

But first: I need to ask for your financial support and your non-financial encouragement.  It's been 3 years since our last fundraiser, and 13 years since the start of DonationCoder.com.  I hope we've earned your renewed support by continuing to release and update clean, quality software free of toolbars, ads, bundled software, or other unwanted junk, and by making our forum a friendly place where people can discuss technology issues and help one another.

This past year in particular we spent a *huge* amount of time completing a long-awaited major overhaul of our website along with a move to new hosting servers.  These changes will help us do what we do better and more securely, and help us update our content more regularly.  I hope you'll show us that you appreciate our hard work by making a donation during the fundraiser.  In section 4 below you'll find a new long article by me on the changes to the site, as well as a request for your input about new ideas for the site.

Our goal this April is to raise at least $4,800 to pay for the next year of hosting.  If we can raise substantially more we'll get a chance to pursue some exciting new projects -- like funding members on our forum to write regular columns about different areas of the tech landscape (software, hardware, open source, kickstarter, etc.).

The fundraiser is also our chance to say thanks to our supporters and newsletter subscribers, by organizing a massive software giveaway and month of discounts on popular 3rd party software (see section 3 below).

Lastly, if you haven't seen it already, don't miss the wrap-up of the new free software released as part of our NANY (New Apps for the New Year) 2018 event in January (see section 5 below) .

-Jesse (mouser)


2. The April 2018 Fundraiser Begins

We need your support to help the DonationCoder website thrive.  This year, our 13th year of operation, we're proud to announce a whole bunch of improvements to the site, and a major upgrade to our servers that will ensure we can keep on making and sharing our free software.  Our hosting costs have gone up slightly, to $4,800 a year, and our goal is to raise at least that much during our April fundraiser.  We'd love to be able to raise more and add even more features to the website.  Will you put a few dollars towards letting us know you appreciate what we do, and letting us know what you'd like to see more of?

• Make a donation to help us celebrate 13 years of clean, no-nonsense software
• Visit the 2018 DonationCoder fundraiser page for the latest updates

3. Fundraiser Bonus - Software Giveaway and Discounts

As part of our fundraiser celebration, a couple of forum members (cranioscopical and wraith808) have rounded-up a whole bunch of companies willing to donate software for us to give away and provide discounts for our members.  The discount codes are valid through our fundraising month of April 2018 only, and are available to everyone who is on our mailing list.  The giveaway is open to everyone, but all prizes will first go to people who have donated to our site.  Deadline for entry to the giveaway drawing is April 9th.  We may update the list of software as the fundraiser goes on, but current discounts and giveaways include:  AtomicScribbler, Bvckup2, Beyond Compare, CintaNotes, TechSmith's Camtasia, DisplayFusion, DoogiePim, Help+Manual, HD Sentinel, JAlbum, Macrium Reflect, Softmaker, SmartEdit, RitLabs TheBat, Website Watcher, IDM's UltraEdit, VueMinder, ZeusEdit, The Journal 7, Zentimo, VMWare, Terragen, Write!, Writer's Cafe, ProWritingAid, Jutoh, and others.

• Get the software discount codes
• Enter the software giveaway (deadline April 9th)

4. Major Site and Server Upgrades

It's been 5 years in the making -- a huge upgrade of the DonationCoder website and servers.  We've completely redone our entire website, changed the way free license keys work, and even moved to a new hosting company with much more powerful servers.

• Long behind-the-scenes article about the 2018 DonationCoder remodeling and server upgrades
• Check out the new DcMembers.com web pages, hosting programs written by friends of the site, like skrommel, skwire, and many more.
• The new CMS is now LIVE! - Please report any bugs/issues here.
• New DonationCoder, New Ideas?
• Have you visited the new DonationCoder.com blog?

5. NANY 2018 - New Apps for the New Year

For the last 10+ years on the DonationCoder.com site we run a friendly event called "NANY" (New Apps for the New Year), where we invite forum visitors to help us celebrate the new year by releasing a new freeware program on the first day of the new year.  We typically get a variety of entries -- some are genuinely useful tools designed to be shared widely, and some are programming exercises for new users.  All participants receive a free deluxe DonationCoder NANY Mug, and we may have some additional prizes donated by members.   The 2018 entries are in and we've posted a long wrap-up describing them.  I've also linked to the 2017 entries from last year in case you missed them.

• NANY 2018 (New Apps for the New Year) Wrap-up Posted
• NANY 2017 (New Apps for the New Year) Wrap-up Posted (last year's entries in case you missed them)

6. User-to-User: Your Input Requested

We love nothing more than having interesting discussions on our forum -- and we love when new people participate in the discussions.  In each newsletter we try to highlight a few topics that we think might interest casual readers and that are good candidates for making your first post.

• Artists: Share your artwork with the forum
• Any bug tracking tool suggested?
• Gencon board (and video) game convention, Indiana Aug 2-5, 2018 - Ill be there
• Just tried using a 4k monitor in my setup, did not like it
• Who uses a 3d printer?
• Wildlife webcams?
• Hardware and software for quality youtube podcasting (for boardgaming)?
• Project Idea: Distraction Free Retro Coding Computer
• I'm so fed up with (software or hardware) KM / KVM switches working so badly
• An Idea: Providing some small funding for a yearly (or 6 month) regular coder
• Thread on 3d Printing Cody Model

7. Mouser's Software Updates

I've uploaded some updates to many of my large applications since the last newsletter.  As always, you can find the list of what's new both in the online help pages (linked from each program homepage) or in the forum thread about the application (also linked from each program homepage).  I'm particularly excited about my codenames play-on-paper printable open source word game -- I hope more people get a chance to try it.

• Screenshot Captor v4.29 Update Released
• NEW GAME: Codenames Play-on-Paper v3.1 Released
• NEW APP: Image Card Printer v1.2 Released
• Find and Run Robot v2.233 Released
• Clipboard Help and Spell v2.42 Released
• URL Snooper v2.42.01 Released
• MiniCap v1.39 Released
• LaunchBar Commander v1.153 Released
• Easy Screencast Recorder v1.117 Released
• MultiPhotoQuotes v2.07 Released
• Automatic Screenshotter v1.08 Released

8. Skwire Empire Software Updates and New Releases

DC member skwire is one of the more prolific coders of utilities on our site -- he roams the coding snack request section and pounces like a jaguar when he finds something that catches his eye.  He's released a ton of updates to his software since the last newsletter, including some updates and a few brand new releases:

• Media Player Hotkeys (MPH) - v1.1.5 released
• OMDb Tool - v1.0.2 released
• PlayTime - v1.5.3 released
• SFV Ninja - v1.3.6 released
• sLyrics - v1.0.3 released
• Spews - v1.0.8 released
• SubAHK - v1.0.2 released
• sWeather - v1.7.2 released
• Tray Host Checker - v1.0.2 released
• WHAT (Window Hotkey Activator Tool) - v1.0.2 released

9. Member Coding Projects

We love to keep up with projects that our members are working on, and hearing what our forum members think of software they use.  If you're working on something interesting -- let us know!

• T-Clock updates and nightly version
• Clicador- A simple and fast free auto clicker
• Timestamp Clamper - for hammering file/folder timestamps into a reasonable range
• StackNotes - Note taking app
• MGEN - Next generation music AI
• Icon in system tray to show when there in no internet connection
• Directory Squasher: taking the in out of inconsistency
• Announcing SpaceMan, my new Alexa skill
• Reopen file after Wifi reconnects
• Hourly chime software (like Cuckoo for Mac)
• Close/run a program when another program is run/closed
• Folder Icon Generator - Customize the picture inside your folder icon
• Speed It Up, or Slow It Down
• Play a sound when a color appears on screen
• SeqBox - A file container that can be restored after total loss of FS structures

10. Member Mini-reviews

Here are some recent short reviews that members have posted on our forum.

• Mini Review of jAlbum web site creator
• Google Picasa "Sunset" version - Mini-Review and anchor-point
• Legend Of Zelda - Breath Of The Wild
• pCloud - cloud based file sharing

11. Website Discoveries, Debates, Essays, and Discussions

What's new in cyberspace? What exciting new sites have been discovered by forum members?  What's the current hot topic and debate? Read on to find out.

• Essay: Designing Windows 95’S User Interface
• On Medical Research Bureaucracy and the Institutional Review Board
• What really happened with Microsoft Vista
• TempleOS - A Constructive Look
• Do you know how the "I am not a robot" anti-spam checkboxes work?
• The future of Ghacks
• The Story Behind Mass Effect: Andromeda's Troubled Five-Year Development
• How a researcher hacked his own computer and found 'worst' chip flaw
• KRACK - WPA2 Vulnerability Exposed
• Interesting read: Apple is really bad at design
• World Wide Web Consortium abandons consensus, standardizes DRM, EFF resigns
• Get legal access to paywalled research and science papers free with Unpaywall
• The White Box and Book - Game Design Kit
• Long behind-the-scenes article about the 2018 DonationCoder remodeling and server upgrades

12. Fun, Humor, and Entertainment

Like everyone else, we love sharing amusing and funny things they find on the web.. We are no exception, though our tastes may be somewhat unusual.

• Jumpy: Animated videogame short
• Fascinating interview with director Ridley Scott about an emergency reshoot
• How Star Wars was saved in the edit
• Entertaing story: I Forgot My Pin: An Epic Tale Of Losing $30,000 In Bitcoin
• The CIA releases the board games it uses to train its agents
• The animal friends thread - an ever growing collection of photos and stories
• Awkward humor videos
• The Faery Tale Adventure: A personal history of making a video game
• Star Wars Last Jedi movie discussion
• Photographer Tutorial Company Release Satire Version for Pirates
• One man's engineering quest to add a headphone port to an iphone
• Organizing videos for OCDers - The Most Organized Home in America
• Breakdown of Juicero expensive juice-pack squeezing machine travesty
• 1986 dial-up bulletin board system has brought the old Web back to life
• The remains of the anonymous exhibitionist site Chatroullette

13. Software Discussions

Some noteworthy software discussions on the forum since the last newsletter.

• OpenSCAD is a game changer for 3d printing
• For those with a CrashPlan
• Easy way to rename a file using the contents of a text file in batch or script
• In search of a lightweight multi-user cms/blog for hosting coders
• Microsoft releases update to disable Intel's Spectre mitigations
• How AV can open you to attacks that otherwise wouldn’t be possible
• Backup4all v.7 supports 37+ online backups (!)
• RUSSL - Really Useful Software Sites and Links
• Modern forum software: Discourse
• Anyone know a file searcher than can search for X near Y?
• Security vulnerability found in movie subtitle files
• Multi countdown timer to scheduled events which are likely to change and affect?
• When testing untrustworthy software, remember virtual machines can be escaped
• Windows 10 - Collection of Hacks, Tweaks, Improvements

14. Mouser's Software Discussions

Here are some discussion threads about Mouser's software that might be of interest.

• Some long-overdue updates to my more popular apps
• Find and Run Robot: Getting output from a batch file
• Find and Run Robot: How to search for specific file types?
• Find and Run Robot: Access "Shell Context Menu" and "Properties" from keyboard? (without mouse)
• LaunchBar Commander: Run As Administrator
• Screenshot Captor: Images pasted into onenote are half size
• Screenshot Captor: Selecting a region slow/delayed - Fixed
• Screenshot Captor: Minicap - how to disabled error message box
• Screenshot Captor: Close SC Window After Naming Captured Image
• Screenshot Captor: Keyboard nudge x 10 and pan last region
• Screenshot Captor: Gathering suggestions for improving region select mode
• Screenshot Capture: How do I 'Backup' my settings

15. Developer's Corner

This section highlights some discussions that might be relevant for not just coders and developers, but also people interested in entrepreneurial issues.

• Thonny simplified Python IDE for learners
• Update Drupal ASAP - Over a Million Sites Can Be Easily Hacked by Any Visitor
• Two amazing talks on the creation of "Legacy" style board games
• Google opens Maps to bring the real world into games
• Article: 20 months tracking down an elusive bug in code
• Design difficulties of making the stealth game Thief
• Create maps for your board/table games!
• The hands-free creation of a full video game
• Packt free programming ebooks every day
• Some talks from CppCon 2017
• Long thought-provoking essay on programming
• You could instead be making your own dungeon crawler game
• Daniel Lemire on Best programming language for high performance

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Official Announcements / Fundraiser 2018 Discounts and Giveaways Discussion Thread

« on: April 02, 2018, 01:56 AM »

This thread is for discussing the discounts and giveaways in the April 2018 Fundraiser.

The discounts can be found here: https://www.donation...fundraiser/discounts
And the giveaway entry form here: https://www.donation.../fundraiser/giveaway