Newsletter for July 14th, 2010
"Friends of a Feather"
1. Newsletter EditorialWell, we've arrived at another DC newsletter, where I provide a peek into some of the best and most interesting posts on our forum in the last 30 days or so. If this is the first DC newsletter you've received, congratulations you lucky ducky -- your mission is to quickly scan it and see if there are any forum threads you want to stop by and read about or -- even better -- add your comments to.
I've been working on a new website project that is long overdue and should be revealed on DC in the next 30 days, so I haven't been updating my apps as much as I should be. I hope to be back to that soon and to start working on some new big apps to reveal by the end of the year as part of the NANY event (New Apps for the New Year). I *really* want to see some bigger applications released for NANY this year, so if you are a coder, please do come by and pledge to work on something. I'm also looking for a few collaborators for some ideas I have so don't be shy about saying you want to code something but need some ideas(!)
Our feel-good forum thread of the month has to be the one about using a 7" usb touchscreen with the DC program CircleDock. After a forum member posted a video showing the cool use of the device with the program, other forum members agreed to chip in and donate enough to pay for the two current maintainers of the software to get their own. It was a great example of how a small donation can make a difference and bring a smile to someone's face. A big thank you to all who have donated and continue to donate to support the website and the authors who live on it. Your donations make this site possible.
And Lastly, I would be remiss not to acknowledge a couple of DC members for accomplishments in the last month. DC member Jody Holmes (aka Skwire) became the recipient of a very generous donation from Chris Hanscom of Veign.com, a valuable Microsoft VisualStudio/MSDN bundle, in recognition of his work over the last year or so writing Coding Snacks for people. Now I happen to know that it would take a a nuclear explosion to keep skwire from the Coding Snacks section and so he doesn't need any encouragement to keep working on them, but it's nice to see all the people turn out to congratulate him. And DC member mnemonic became the first person to complete all 10 assignments in the Self-teaching Programming School section for Python. That's a pretty big accomplishment given that I really hit him with a couple of insane assignments at the end, which went well beyond what I normally assign. It's great to see the Self-teaching Programming School continue to be a useful resource for coders to get motivation to learn, and I hope it's one area that we can improve going forward.
2. NANY 2011Don't be shy about helping us kick off the NANY (New Apps for the New Year) process early. If you're a coder, start thinking about some new program you can start working on. Or stop by and look for ideas and collaborators and helpers. If you're not a coder, why not volunteer to help out in other ways, or try to reach out to other coders you know on other sites and see if you can't work together to come up with a great idea for a NANY application.
3. User-to-User: Your Input RequestedWe welcome everyone's participation on the forum, no matter what your level of computer knowledge or how long you've been a DC member. If you're still waiting to make your first post, see the links below for some good places to jump in.
4. Coding Snacks and RequestsOne of the best areas of our forum is the Coding Snacks section, where people can request small custom free utilities that get written by volunteer coders.
5. DC Stuff: Mini ReviewsNew member-written stuff since the last newsletter:
6. Website Discoveries, Debates, and DiscussionsWhat's new on the world wide web? What fun new sites have forum members discovered? What's the current hot topic and debate? Let's find out..
7. Fun, Games and Amusements on the WebIf you've read the newsletter up to this point, take a break and check out some of the lighter fare from the forum - humour, videos, and games..
8. General Software DiscussionAlmost half the posts on the forum fall into the category of general software discussions, questions, recommendations, etc. This is one of the most active sections of the DC forum and a great resource if you're trying to solve a software or hardware-related problem. We get so much traffic on this board that we've split the recent content into two sections in the newsletter - general software and specific software discussions.
9. Specific Software DiscussionThis section of the newsletter draws attention to some of the standout discussions about specific programs that have been started since the last newsletter.
10. Announce Your Software or ServiceAlthough I don't often highlight it in the newsletter, we do have a section of the DC forum where we are happy to have shareware authors post about their latest creations. While we are always concerned about spam on the forum -- unlike many sites we welcome the participation of shareware authors on our forum, as long as they clearly identify themselves and their relation to the commercial software they are discussing. This section let's them openly tell us about their stuff and get some feedback.
11. Developer's CornerIf you're not a programmer, don't let the title of this section scare you away - there is likely something of interest to you here! It's more than just a forum for the discussion of software development, it's also where we discuss web design, entrepreneurial struggles, and general productivity issues. It's great to see that the section has been pretty active recently.
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