Newsletter for February 21st, 2008
Codename "Vertigo"
1. EditorialGreetings! Darwin here with another installment of the DC newsletter. I'd like to start with congratulations to DC member yksyks and a big welcome to his NEWBORN SON Nathaniel, who was dropped down his parents' chimney at about 2:50 am today (Prague time) by Cody, in a stork suit. Other than our best wishes, all we can say is sign him up at the forum!
We've enjoyed another busy period "on the boards" and will be pointing out some highlights below.
2. February 2008 Software DiscountsCongratulations to the
February Giveaway Winners and a reminder that this month's discounts are active until February 28th, which means that you have one more week to take advantage of the 33% discounts on products from
Metaproducts.com, who make a variety of truly excellent programs. Mouser feels that several of their programs are at the top of their respective classes, recommending Offline Explorer, Mass Downloader, and Startup Organizer, in particular.
Discounts end on February 28th:
- Flash and Media Capture, Inquiry Professional Edition, Inquiry Standard Edition, Offline Explorer Standard Edition, Offline Explorer Pro Edition, Portable Offline Browser, Mass Downloader, Picture Downloader, MetaProducts Web Studio, LightPad, Links Organizer, Disk Watchman, Startup Organizer, Net Activity Diagram, AutoDialogs, DeskTool, TrayIcon Pro
In addition, due to late posting in January, the following discounts are running through February:
Supporting Members can access the discount codes:
Here (you must be a
supporter of DonationCoder to access them).
3. Our Software: Find&Run Robot NewsA very exciting thing has happened in the Find and Run Robot (FARR) section of our forum. New DC member czechboy has used ecaradec's Javascript SDK for FARR to create a ton of new and very cool plugins. Really wonderful stuff here... If you haven't tried out
FARR version 2 yet, this may be just what you've been waiting for.
4. Other DC-Related-Software NewsDC member Timns offers us two new puzzle games and damax presents a VBS script that will upload a file to an FTP server and put a link to it in your windows clipboard.
5. Living RoomThe Living Room is an area of the forum set aside for postings that don't quite fit neatly on the other boards. Thus, it attracts an esoteric assortment of posts, ranging from announcements about software releases ("Vista 64-bit - Service Pack 1 Arrived") to requests for help and advice on hardware choices or issues ("Should I get my new laptop with hard drive partitioned?"). Highlights from the past three weeks appear below.
6. Fun and GamesEveryone needs to kick back and relax, even if it's only for ten minutes grabbed out of a busy day. Check out some of the links below for some interesting links to take your mind off work for a moment.
7. Your Input RequestedWe're just about 110,000 members strong and have a very dynamic forum. This can be a bit daunting for new and old members alike. All those posts, where does one begin reading and how can one possibly have anything to contribute? Well, below are a few threads in which we'd love to see your participation. There, point one is already taken care of! For the second, EVERYONE has something useful to contribute AND it's a forum - who said every posting has to be useful?
8. General Software DiscussionThe majority of the discussions on the forum are about software -- here's a few general threads from the last couple of weeks you might be interested in.
9. Specific Software DiscussionsA number of interesting threads in the General Software Discussion highlighted specific applications. Read on for a few stand outs from the past three weeks. And don't miss the fact tht DC member Erwin has created a cool program that lets you create new fonts from your handwriting called "Scanahand". Erwin has also provided a 50% discount for DC members who want to try the new beta release.
10. Mini-Reviews and Coding Snacks by DC MembersAfter a long and secretive vacation, Skrommel has come back with a vengeance and gone on a rampage writing new Coding Snacks. It's impossible to list them all, so stop by the
Coding Snacks section of the forum and have a look, or post a new request for a small freeware utility you want to see created. CWuestefeld also weighs in with a mini-review of Media Monkey 3. If you have a favourite application that you would like to review, visit the
mini-review board and check out the template. The template provides you with all the formatting that you need. If you're feeling more ambitious, and would like to write a comparative review (reserved for categories of software, rather than individual applications), visit the
Reviews and Features page to see what has already been reviewed and for some ideas on how these are usually handled.
11. Developer's CornerSome fun stuff to read in this edition of the newsletter if you are a programmer. A nice find is an article on how to earn income with an Open Source project, which mirrors some of our own findings about asking for donations and support. Also, find a good discussion on PHP IDEs, and a nice video from Richard Stallman on why GPL was designed the way it was.
12. Member Site SpotlightThis newsletter we're highlighting DC member Mark0s's
File Extension Seeker site. File Extension Seeker is an on line tool that allows you to query a huge list of file extensions and their corresponding descriptions. So, if you ever run into a file extension on your computer that you are not familiar with, wander over to Mark0's site for some help.
Any member that has a website that they'd like to see highlighted in the newsletter, feel free to contact either mouser or myself.
13. In closingThat's a wrap on another newsletter. Thank you, every one, for your continued participation in the forum and providing the content for the newsletter!
Recent Posts
). I've managed to cram a three year British PhD into 7.5 years and counting (kids arrived, I got a job, bougth a house... I'm making excuses). I'm saving the Martini method and will refer to it often. Thanks urlwolf 
Now, don't forget to get some sleep - you're not going to get many opportunities for the next few years!
