Recent Posts

34776

Living Room / Just thinking out loud - DonationCoder.com as a formal non-profit organization?

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 11:46 PM »

Just thinking out loud here about the possibility of DonationCoder.com becoming a non-profit organization..

anyone have any experience with non-profit organizations, setting one up, etc.?

I was reading a little bit about non-profits in the bookstore today, and while it's surely way too premature for us at this point, it's something i'm thinking about and i'd be interested in hearing feedback on the idea if anyone has any strong opinions on it either way..

34777

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Visual CD is pretty incredible catalogue software

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 11:21 PM »

this really is a category ripe for a full serious donationcoder.com review -
and there aren't that many candidate apps, so it shouldn't be nearly as painful as most of our reviews to write..

anyone want to take a shot at doing a guest review of this category?

remember our two part review system - first week the review preview lays out the category and candidate programs, second week is the full review and awards..

34778

Official Announcements / Re: ANNOUNCING - DonationCoder.com Logo Contest

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 06:08 PM »

just bumping this topic - we really do need some designs for logo / cartoon mascot /etc.

anyone know any artists who could work up a few sketches?

34779

Living Room / Re: Top 100 toys of the 70s and 80s - what were your favorites?

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 06:03 PM »

sears catalog!!!!! my sister and i used to spend DAYS marking up the pages with what we wanted for chrismas!

that football led game was amazing...
and that's an amazing site you found that will emulate it and others! nice find 

34780

Living Room / Re: Shopping for a DVD player

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 05:46 PM »

i would generally agree with jpfx, they are very cheap now, regularly < $70, and all seem to work quite well.
and you can throw it out in a year and buy another at that price.

in fact i have same exact model as jpfx, and it playes quite well.
however, one thing i dont like a lot is no controls on the machine itself to go back and forward chapters, etc.(!!)

my advice: go to this site: http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers
check some checkboxes for features you want, and then pick the one with best reviews < $100

34781

Screenshot Captor / ragged edges needed

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 04:27 PM »

we could really use some ragged-edge masks/borders for screenshots were you crop away a section (see for example the pics here: https://www.donation...74;topicseen#msg8583)

34782

Site/Forum Features / Re: Instructions for making a PayPal link people can follow to donate money to you

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 04:24 PM »

see i used those numbers this time stefan, and when i get the new round "step #" cliparts then pictures will be even better  

34783

Living Room / Re: Interested in teaming up for good web hosting / website accounts?

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 03:41 PM »

its a very very bad idea to have your domains on a site that forces you to buy combo domainname+hosting accounts - i didn't know there were any that still do that.  i suggest you move them immediately to a proper domain name+host.  godaddy.com is one, totalchoicehosting is another.  its a bit of a process to move domain names but not that bad and it will be worth it in the long run.

i think i'll probably start setting up accounts for people this weekend, just so people can play around, without having to make any commitment about donating for anything.

34784

Best ScreenCaster / Re: Open Source Alternative (CamStudio)

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 09:28 AM »

really nice long review of it here:
http://georgeh123.bl...-tool-camstudio.html

along with other good reviews.

34785

General Software Discussion / Re: NOD32 - default settings solution

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 07:43 AM »

just the very fact that they have someone who uses the program responding to email inquiries is a terrific sign.
(btw nod32 has a generous student discount).

34786

Living Room / Top 100 toys of the 70s and 80s - what were your favorites?

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 06:12 AM »

This has been around for a while i think, but linked to from boingboing today:

http://tv.cream.org/extras/toys/

great list with pictures, of toys from the 70s and 80s...
what were your favorites?

My Favorites:

I loved the XX in one electronics kits (#91)
our mother bought us merlin (#81) - a very very cool thing.
stay alive and connect 4 rocked (#74 , #71)
perfection! (#68)
simon (#41)
magic rocks (#28)

34787

Finished Programs / Solved javascript for forum

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 05:49 AM »

i've got one or two small ideas for an improvement to the javascript tools that are used here in our forum (and every smf forum), for the little tool buttons available when you create/edit posts.

i'll describe one briefly and i can provide much more info later if desired.

[Select]

basically there is a snippet of javascript executes when you click the bullet list button when editing a post.
right now it just adds a sample [li][/li] around your entire selected text.
i want it to add an [li][/li] around every line.

i can paste the existing code if someone wants to try it.
or if you write a function to add a string to begining and end of every CR separated line in a string, i'll take it from there and integrate it into existing javascript code.  shouldnt be more than a few lines of javascript i think.

there are other things that might be nice also, like a popup dialog when clicking the url link tool button and maybe some other stuff?

34788

General Software Discussion / Re: NOD32 - default settings solution

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 05:31 AM »

that is useful info, thanks carol.

34789

Site/Forum Features / Instructions for making a PayPal link people can follow to donate money to you

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 05:24 AM »

Here's a little tutorial for how to create a link people can click on to donate to you (note first you have to sign up at PayPal - i won't go into how to do that here):


log in to your paypal account


click "merchant tools" tab



click "donations" in box on right hand side



enter a donation name that will remind you and donator what this is for
(you can leave id number blank or use it to help you keep track of donations from dif places)

fill in a *suggested* donation amount, user can change it as they wish.
select the currency you prefer (or that your donators will prefer).

choose a button image (doesnt matter what you choose if you are only interested in a html link).

choose *NO* for encryption for maximum flexibility in using the link to donate - not a big deal
important: if you don't select NO then you wont get a nice pure url link which is what you want.




Click the "Add More Options" button, and go to the next screen,
and then set "no shipping needed" if its a donation,

and select YES for collect additional info, which just lets people type in a note to you -
(i've seen many a donation page which has forgotten this step which is sad).

you can fill in urls that they will get taken to after donation if you have some, otherwise leave blank.

click "create button now"




you'll then get a page with two results, an html code for websites (it's code for an html form) with the button image,
and a pure url you can paste into emails:

that pure url for emails is exactly what you want for adding to your profile here on donationcoder.com, just copy it and paste it into your paypal donation link in your profile page to get a little dollar sign next to your name that people can click on to go to your paypal donation page.




EXTRA STEPS FOR PUTTING THIS LINK IN YOUR DONATIONCODER.COM FORUM PROFILE:


click on "profile" button on the forum to go to your forum profile




click on "Forum Profile Information" link on left hand sidebar




paste the link you got from paypal site into your "PayPal Link:" field

34790

Living Room / Re: Domain names and how they are set up

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 04:38 AM »

ok first thing is, it has nothing to do with the domain name provider or anything on that end.
all you ever do at the domain name side is point it to your site.

UNLESS you are using some very funky thing at yahoo where you are merely giving it a full url to redirect people to - in which case you want to go and edit that and what you want to do is change the nameserver of the domain to point to your hosting accounts name server.  depending on the control you have their you may need to get them to add the entry for the new domain name.

then in your cpanel for your hosting account you would add cliffnotes.net to your list of PARKED domains (if you want it to be like an alias for your entire site), or else as an Addon domain if you want it to appear like its own complete site but really live in a subdirectory of your existing server [note many hosting providers do not give normal clients the ability to create addon domains].

i'm sure there are other people more expert in this stuff than me who can help out - struggling with this stuff can be extremely confusing when it doesn't work right 

34791

Living Room / Re: Shopping for memory and came accross this funny spelling snafu.

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 04:29 AM »

 

34792

Finished Programs / Re: Help req automating some typing type stuff - autohotkey? skrommel?

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 04:24 AM »

yes, i think that's it, with perhaps text from clipboard already in the dialog maybe (if its url format)?

so maybe a small dialog with 2 edit boxes, one for typing the url and one for typing the title of the link, and then a radio group with options like:
"format for bb code"
"format for html link"

and then finally a button to close dialog and copy result to clipboard?

actually sounds like a fantastic idea to me for those of us who paste urls a lot.

34793

Living Room / Re: nice article on "Open Source Versus Commercial Software"

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 04:21 AM »

it's interesting that in recent years quite a few open source projects have been very smart in securing complete financial funding from one or two big commercial vendors who use their stuff.

and companies like TrollTech who make Qt, are getting rich off their dual open-source - commercial license.

although i'm not all that fond of TrollTech, i think the dual license model has real appeal from an ethical standpoint - those who use something to make money from it must compensat developers; those who use it in free work can use it freely.

the only thing about these models is that they tend to work for only a very few open source projects which have big companies willing to fund them.

i think the second route to providing open source authors with some reasonable compensation would be the move in this society towards more ready donating by users to support the work.  if people got into the habbit of making small donations, it would be enough to support independent coders, writers, musicians, etc., who really aren't motivated by the idea of getting rich, but would just like to be able to do good work and get enough to survive.

34794

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Visual CD is pretty incredible catalogue software

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 04:15 AM »

and let me also suggest, while we're at it:

that anyone who is writing more than one or two mini reviews, should get a paypal account, and add a link to it in their forum profile, which will then show as a little green Dollar Sign next to their name in their posts, just so that users (and the site itself!) can make an occasional donation to you to show appreciation for your work.  see my post here for instructions: https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=1283.0

34795

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Visual CD is pretty incredible catalogue software

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 04:11 AM »

Just to clarify my views in case people read them the wrong way:

I think it's fun and great to have the reviews on other pages, especially Cliff's since cliff has a great site and is exactly the kind of site we want to support  and because information should be shared.

I just want to make sure there is always a nice clear link back to the original source of the review, and an inviting statement to welcome them to take part in the discussion thread on it. 

34796

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Visual CD is pretty incredible catalogue software

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 04:04 AM »

another possible idea which would be fun is if someone could make a little fun looking button, maybe with pic of little funny creature speaking or something. that said like

"Read the full review and
"discuss it with others.."
"at the DonationCoder.com forum"

something that sites which link to our reviews could add whenever they excerpt a review from our site.. seems like it would be a good idea and be a benefit of the readers.

any graphic artist people want to give that a try? (we really need to find some gfx people to help out here on this site!)

34797

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Visual CD is pretty incredible catalogue software

« Last post by mouser on October 21, 2005, 03:52 AM »

Cliff,

what do you think about adding to these dc-based reviews a nice prominent link to the forum post here discussing the review, from the wiki and any newsletter which might contain the review?


so maybe below one of the author lines or at the bottom or top of review, someplace where readers won't miss, something like this:

"Read the full review and join in an extended discussion of this program at the <a>DonationCoder.com forum</a>. "

or (has the advantage of making clear they are traveling to an explicit discussion of the program):

"For the full review and to read dissenting views on this program, see <a>this thread</a> on the DonationCoder.com forum."


i think it would be very useful for people to be able to take part in the discussion if they are interested in the program.

34798

Finished Programs / Re: Best "automation" program?

« Last post by mouser on October 20, 2005, 09:46 PM »

we have a resident autohotkey exper on this forum, he can surely shed some light.
im moving this to coding snack section where skrommel roams 

34799

UrlSnooper / Re: Filtering "does not contain"

« Last post by mouser on October 20, 2005, 08:43 PM »

we release beta versions all the time -
i've spent the last 10 days non stop coding scripts and upgrading the website but i'm finally finishing off that stuff.

we are going to try to make november a really special month here and so all the programs will be upgraded then at the latest.

i think this function should be added by first week of november.

34800

Living Room / Re: Who are you & what do you do?

« Last post by mouser on October 20, 2005, 08:40 PM »

great to see more posts here - welcome jpfx and giant

i got some bad news for you giant, time just seems to go faster and faster as you get older - 

when you get a chance, pick out a graphic avatar image for your forum identity.