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Last post Author Topic: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"  (Read 52120 times)

Darwin

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Newsletter for October 14th, 2007
Codename "I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK"


"If you read nothing else on our site, read our BLOG"





1. Newsletter Editorial

Hello, Donationcoders! Darwin here once again, reporting live from the wilds of British Columbia. It's an exciting time at Donationcoder because this month we're featuring a Cody drawing contest.  Get out your crayons (or any other media of choice) and start drawing! Nick (aka nudone) announced the contest moments ago, so head to the Draw Cody competition - win incredible prizes! thread to find out what you need to do to win.  Children's submissions are encouraged!

And Josh created a great new master list of all the companies/programs from whom we have received discounts, and a list of companies we have requested discounts from but not heard back from.  It should be easier now for everyone to suggest new companies we should contact.

It's been a busy couple of weeks with a number of very active new threads. Read on to find out what Donationcoder members have been discussing.


2. We want your help and participation!

First, though, a big welcome to the new members who have joined over since the last newsletter went out. If you are one of those new members, we'd love to see more of you around Donationcoder. Every Donationcoder member is encouraged to participate in the various boards on the DC forum, so if you've never posted before, or if it's been a while since your last post, please drop by and leave a comment or two. You can even comment on this newsletter! If that doesn't strike your fancy, here are a few threads that we'd love to have your participation in:



3. Official DonationCoder.com News

What's new at DonationCoder.com?



4. General Software Discussion

Our tour of the forum starts with this excellent suggestion from contributing member tinjaw: Tell Them You "Learned About It On DonationCoder.com" . Following tinjaw's advice will have a number of positive effects for the donationcoder community, not least of which is raising our profile with software developers and other online service provides. First, it encourages developers to offer discounts to our members (always a good thing!) and second, and perhaps less obviously, it gives us a stronger voice. Over time this could give us real power as a block of dedicated software users in a number of ways - advocating end-user's rights, helping direct software development, and so on. Finally, just to highlight one final posting, if you're a FireFox user be sure to check out tinjaw's post about TweakGuides.com - Firefox Tweak Guide. Very comprehensive and very interesting. Nice find, tinjaw!



5. Living Room

We start with this interesting discussion of how do you represent 'time' in your head? . Not having ever given this much thought, I read the thread with interest. I was sad to finish it with the realization that I simply do not represent time in my head. Rather worrying... Anyway, lots of interesting discussions to take part in here. You can discuss everything from mouser's facial hair in the DC Unofficial Meeting #5 Took Place - Veign and Mouser meet thread or debate the ramifications of institutional access to private information in the UK Government wants your crypto keys... by law. thread. See below for more conversation topics.



6. Fun and Gaming

Everyone needs a break from work now and then..



7. Coding Snacks

Want a small application? Can't find it? Post a request on the Coding Snacks board and some kind hearted soul might just whip something up for you. Be sure to read BrotherS' important Read This First note before posting.



8. Developer's Corner

The developer's corner is an interesting place, even if you're not a developer. Witness the thread that John2k started on a Strange Customer that he was dealing with. There are a range of comments and suggestions from coders and non-coders alike. There's also the thread on Microsoft providing .NET Framework source code that raises some interesting issues and perspectives.



9. Member Site Spotlight

In this issue of the newsletter we're highlighting a DC member blog: Jonathan Plutchok's Tool Bar & Grill.

Jonathan explores "handy little utilities that have won [his] heart". He focuses on "useful free and cheap software tools and Web sites that can save you time, boost your productivity, improve your computing environment, do some vital task you otherwise couldn't easily do — or are just too much fun to ignore." It's a lot of fun, so check it out.

Remember, if you run a website that you think should be featured in the member spotlight, do let us know!


10. Site of the month

Each month we like to highlight a site that offers excellent advice, service, and/or software. This month we're highlighting a site that provides a great area for discussion of security related applications and issues: Wilders Security Forums.

If you are at all concerned about the security of your data and computer, and in this day and age this should be everyone, head over to Wilders Security Forums to find out what threats are out there, how people are responding to those threats, and what solutions people are using to secure themselves.  There are actually quite a few subsections dedicated to specific programs, that are better resources for help and information than the official program websites.
« Last Edit: October 15, 2007, 08:56 PM by Darwin »

cranioscopical

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2007, 05:57 PM »
Another good one, Darwin!  :Thmbsup:


Darwin

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #2 on: October 15, 2007, 06:18 PM »
Thanks Chris - it's another team effort.

Beth UK

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #3 on: October 15, 2007, 07:32 PM »
Thanks from me too Darwin! So much happens on DC I find these newsletters really useful!  :Thmbsup:

ljbirns

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2007, 07:46 PM »
Great Newsletter - as always.   :up: :up:

Lew
Lew

TucknDar

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #5 on: October 16, 2007, 10:37 AM »
a couple of :up: :up: more!

Grorgy

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #6 on: October 16, 2007, 11:01 AM »
Gotta love these newsletters, and i do so love buttered scones for tea, i lurk around DC for hours when i should be doing other stuff, but I always find something I've missed in the newsletter, thanks Darwin and all the rest who help put it together  :) :up:

tomos

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #7 on: October 16, 2007, 11:15 AM »
thanks from here too,
to Darwin & his Lumberjack crew  :up:


Newsletter for October 14th, 2007
Codename "I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK"
so,
ye work all night & sleep all day then !?!
  :D

Tom

cranioscopical

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #8 on: October 16, 2007, 01:46 PM »
ye work all night & sleep all day then !?![/size]  :D[/center]

Can't wait for the next version, don't keep us in suspenders!

plutchok

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #9 on: October 17, 2007, 04:46 AM »
 :up:  :) Thanks very much for another great newsletter, and especially for plugging my utilities blog in your member Site Spotlight. I see a number of readers already have visited. I hope everyone finds the information there useful! Meanwhile, I drew attention to Screenshot Captor and Clipboard Help+Spell in a comment to an article on 20 indispensable utilities on pcworld.com.

ssoundman

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #10 on: October 17, 2007, 11:41 AM »
Good job again, Darwin and everyone!  :Thmbsup:

Deozaan

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #11 on: October 17, 2007, 05:17 PM »
The newsletter is great but how come I just got the e-mail about it today?

mouser

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #12 on: October 17, 2007, 05:18 PM »
it takes 2+ days to send the newsletter emails because there are 45,000 of them and they have to be staggered over time or they will kill the server.

hhdawrs

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #13 on: October 17, 2007, 05:57 PM »
Thank you.  I'm still a newbie and poking about.  I trust the candy in each issue is non-fattening, or I'm in trouble. :Thmbsup:

Aloha,
Herb
Aloha,

'erbie

housetier

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #14 on: October 18, 2007, 10:17 AM »
I wonder how those spammers send millions of emails a day...

Darwin

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #15 on: October 18, 2007, 10:54 AM »
I wonder how those spammers send millions of emails a day...

Probably have servers dedicated to sending out SPAM (DC has to contend with 1000's of visitors a day, probably tens of 1000's a day, all of them downloading content and some of them uploading it as well in the form of attachments to forum postings, etc.).

housetier

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #16 on: October 18, 2007, 11:26 AM »
sp dc would need dedicated servers for distributing emails as well. Can't we get a good deal at amazon's web service thingie? Or a few volunteers setup a "relay host" only for DC.

You can tell I have never had to send 45K mails in one go... :)

Darwin

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #17 on: October 18, 2007, 11:30 AM »
Ah, you've reminded of my other thought (which I lost in the course of writing my previous note) -I'm speculating, but I'm wondering if some of the smaller operation spammers use some sort of trojan/malware to use people's machines as drones to assist them in dealing with the volume of mail they send out each day?

Lashiec

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #18 on: October 18, 2007, 01:02 PM »
I see where you're headed... and I completely agree! Let's build a Cody botnet, yay! ;D The trojan is in the works :P

Seriously, yes, do a search of "spam trojan" in Google and you'll get tons of hits, just an example

Darwin

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #19 on: October 18, 2007, 01:12 PM »
Crumb, I don't know if I was being incredibly (and atypically) insightful or if I've read about this in the past and simply forgotten  :-[ about it, but sometimes it sucks being right! That is truly scary.
« Last Edit: October 19, 2007, 05:19 AM by Darwin »

tomos

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #20 on: October 18, 2007, 01:57 PM »
I see where you're headed...

 ;D ;D ;D
Tom

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #21 on: October 18, 2007, 04:33 PM »
Glad I don't receive the announce mail in my work-email, as I just spent over an hour reading all the fun and interesting stuff, and I would also have if I where at work :-[

Thanks for this and all previous nwesletters, the're indispensible for keeping up with all the info on the site. :-*

Armando

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #22 on: October 18, 2007, 11:06 PM »
Thanks Darwin (and team ;))!!!
Much appreciated, as usual.

Deozaan

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #23 on: October 18, 2007, 11:39 PM »
it takes 2+ days to send the newsletter emails because there are 45,000 of them and they have to be staggered over time or they will kill the server.

Maybe you could change it so it gives Supporting (donating) Members some higher priority in the list?

Nod5

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Re: Newletter for October 15 - Codename "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK"
« Reply #24 on: October 19, 2007, 04:51 AM »
These newsletters are great! Thank you Darwin!  :Thmbsup: