Newsletter for December 9th, 2009
"The NANY Event Begins"
1. Newsletter EditorialGreetings everyone, and welcome to another edition of the DC newsletter. It's 19 degrees where I am in Champaign, Illinois, the wind is howling outside, and 2010 is fast approaching. And once again it's time for everyone's favorite event on DonationCoder: N.A.N.Y. (New Apps for the New Year).
The N.A.N.Y. event is where we invite, cajole, blackmail, bribe and just generally beg all of the programmers who pass through the site to pledge to release some new piece of free software on January 1st.
The idea is simple, and everyone is welcome to participate regardless of their skill level. There are no winners, but everyone gets a prize -- a very handsome DonationCoder mug commemorating the event.
Last year's NANY event saw over 30 applications submitted (including some really spectacular ones!) and was written up all over the web. And your favorite characters from last year are back again this year to help make it another success -- especially DC member Perry Mowbray (himself a coder) who has so generously taken on the task of coordinating everything. Let's make him proud and show him that we appreciate his efforts by creating some cool new software.
If you're a programmer, stop by now and pledge to participate. Especially if you're a long-time DC regular: We *NEED* you to participate! But even if you've never posted to our forum before -- we'd love to see some new faces along with the regulars, and this is your perfect excuse to jump in and say hello.
And if you're not a coder, stop by and give some feedback to those who are, as they post teasers about the projects they've chosen to work on. If you're a blogger or have a website, there are some badge graphics you can put on your web page to let your readers know about the event. There's also a thread where you can post ideas for coders who are having trouble coming up with a project idea to work on.
You'll find more information about NANY in the threads below, along with photos of the awesome coffee mugs we'll be sending to participants, but let's review the basic guidelines for participants here:
- Pledge that you are participating on our forum well before the New Year -- post a teaser about what you plan to create.
- Release the application on or before 31st December 2009 (we'll be posting a roundup article about all the entries on Dec 31st).
- Any type of application is acceptable: Windows, Linux, Mac, Web, iPhone, Android, Script, Plugin, etc.
- It must be free (or donationware) for personal use.
- It needs to be something that hasn't been released publicly before November 2009 (updates to existing programs don't qualify).
- You keep all the rights to and control of your software, this is just an event to encourage coders to release new free tools.
2. NANY 2010 (New Apps for the New Year)The NANY event is one of the very best things we do on the site. If you know any coders, please give them a nudge and ask them to come by and give us a little bit of their time. We know sometimes it's hard for coders to come up with good ideas, so we started a special thread just for people to post project ideas for others to consider working on; don't be shy posting your ideas. And if you're a programmer, why not stop by the Pledge thread now and pledge to release something new by December 31. Help us make it something special -- we promise to make it fun!
3. 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. DonationCoder Software UpdatesI've released minor updates to several of my programs this month, getting them all running smoothly on Windows 7.
5. Other DC Member Software and ProjectsWe love to hear what DC members are up to, projects related to software or otherwise. I guess the really big news in the last month or so has been that Eric Wong's CircleDock program has been revived by DC member Markham and a couple of other people on the forum, and is enjoying a well deserved and exciting rebirth. If you haven't checked it out yet, it's a very cool dock/launcher utility, that is one of the more popular software downloads on the website. Plus f0dder's very cool simple text self-encrypting executable notepad tool has been updated.
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. Discounts and GiveawaysWe've got some fun discounts and giveaway drawings in December, on a new notetaking application (
AllMyNotes Pro) written by a nice indie developer, and on a heavy duty professional-grade background backup tool that some power users on our forum have been raving about (
ShadowProtect Desktop). Drawing will end on Dec. 15 and discounts at the end of the month.
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 to 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. 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 over the last few months -- keep it up people!
11. News You Can UseDC Member Ehtyar produces wonderful weekly summaries of important tech/computer/security news articles that he comes across on the web. A big hit on the forum. We're still wondering how he keeps up the pace and when will he collapse from exhaustion?
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