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Newsletter for December 1, 2008 - Codename "Winter Wondercode"
Darwin:
Newsletter for December 1st, 2008Codename "Winter Wondercode"
"If you read nothing else on our site, read our blog!"
(new rss feed with images)
1. Newsletter Editorial - NANY 2009
Greetings and welcome to winter! It sure is getting cold out there, so why not bundle up and stay indoors and catch up on the DC forum discussions?
There is one major thing I want to tell you about in this newsletter's editorial, and that is our yearly N.A.N.Y. ("New Apps for the New Year") software celebration.
The NANY 2009 event looks like it will have more participants than ever before.. Let's review the basic ground rules:
We encourage all programmers, of any skill level (many are just beginners), to write a new, small, free program to be released on or around December 31st. You'll find that some submissions are silly, some are horrific, some are quite useful. It's a really fun event for the coders and the non-coders alike, and there are always some interesting surprises.
As with all of our previous NANY events, this isn't a contest to see who can write the best program. It's mostly a celebration of creating something new. So, in that spirit, we don't really award prizes, but we will be sending out a special commemorative DonationCoder.com coffee mug featuring our cute bird/duck mascot Cody to all participating programmers. If you know a programmer who you think would get a kick out of participating, please let them know!
* New Apps for the New Year (NANY 2009) - Learn more and download preview releases
* NANY 2009 Intro
* NANY 2009 Communal Idea Thread
* NANY 2009 Rewards
2. Official DC Software Updates
OK, a few minor updates to DC software has come out over the past month:
* Clipboard Help+Spell - Clipboard management tool and much more; new pasting and macro abilities
* Desktop Coral - Reserve an area of your screen; multimonitor support added
* Find and Run Robot v2.34.01 - Search for and launch programs and a whole lot more using just your keyboard; minor update
* New FARR plugin : FSubScript enable loading of multiple javascript plugins
* FARR Alias: SokuGin - Some More Web Searches
3. Your Participation Requested
No matter what your level of computer knowledge, or how long you've been a DC member, we'd love your input! See the links below for some good places to jump in and make your first post.
Let me also point you to a revived thread on the forum about suggested changes to the DonationCoder.com approach to raising money. We haven't had a fundraiser in a few years and depend entirely on donations from users to keep this site running. With the worldwide economic crisis, things feel a little scary.. so we need to make sure that we continue to provide a service to the community that people feel is worth supporting, and provide a mechanism for them to do so that they don't find alienating.
* What's on your flash drive?
* What is Donation Coder?
* Is XP really that good?
4. Help and Advice from Member to Member
If you need get some input on tech related issues and decisions, the DC community is a great place to turn. Read on for some recent discussions and feel free to join in the conversation or post an issue of your own.
* Recommendations on Alternative E-Bay/Auction & Selling Sites?
* Need some college advice/assistance
* Thumb trackball wanted
* Need some comparison help on laptop coolers.
* advice needed.....FirstDefense-ISR, ShadowProtect, ShadowUser, Rollback Rx???
* Do I need to get worried if my external HD keeps getting undetected?
* Making a recovery partition?
5. Fun and Games
If 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..
* Now that is one happy cat!
* Christmas Gift Ideas Under $25... Make a List!
* Tower Defense Flash Game of the Week: Snafu TD
* Show/World: A new way to look at the world
* Why does it say paper jam when there is no paper jam?! -- hillarious must see
* How to tell if your cat is plotting to KILL you
* The little computer that nobody wanted
* Add a computer to a cable
6. News You Can Use
DC Member Ehtyar has taken to producing wonderfully weekly summaries of important tech/computer/security news articles that he comes across on the web. A big hit on the forum.
* Tech News Weekly: Edition 45
* Tech News Weekly: Edition 46
* Tech News Weekly: Edition 47
* Tech News Weekly: Edition 48
* Microsoft drop OneCare subscription product
* Ghacks christmas giveaway and reviews
* Distrowatch is looking for an editor
7. The Weird Wide Web
Here are some recent items from around the web that Donationcoder forum participants thought were noteworthy. As always, your input is encouraged, so if you come across something interesting while you're surfing the web, feel free to post a link to it on the forum.
* Why Vista's DRM Is Bad For You and other jewels by Bruce Schneier
* Why Windows Rules: the QWERTY phenomenon?
* Can someone help with my understanding of TOR (The Onion Router)?
* How To Keep Hostile Jerks From Taking Over Your Online Community
* A fork in the road - dangers of web services
* Opencourseware about Openness
* Backup Review Webite: Compare online backup services
* Lessons from 2 years without Windows
* RSSFWD.com - RSS straight into your email inbox
8. General Software Discussion
Below are some threads of interest about categories of software posted to DC since the last newsletter:
* Church managment software?
* What application is stealing my keystrokes?
* Multi string search in file
* Best App to save whole webpage AND its linked pages?
* Check&Get or Power Favorites or Linkman
* Editor for PDFs: recommendations, please?
* I am looking for a file browser that is optimized especially for networks
* MakeUseOf.com: 3 More Tools to Bring Power to the Right Click Menu (Windows)
* Windows Countdown Timer Showdown
* Tool to make screenshots of web site using command line
* Want to add a subtle embossed watermark to a couple hudred photos
* How to make a local copy of an ancient Web forum?
* Making Mockups ...
* Is there a context menu editor which works with Vista?
* Simple free commandline text search and replace tool?
* Does anyone know any free alternative to Driver Updater Pro?
9. Specific Software Discussion
Here are some threads of interest about specific applications posted to DC over the past month:
* SideSlide...does anyone use this?
* Amazing games from coder Kenta Cho
* Transmute Bookmark converter - free & works with most browsers
* JauntePE - freeware virtualizer
* Tidy Favorites
* easy backups on linux: timevault
* WSCC - quick access to Nirsoft & SysInternals utilities
* JetStart Launcher
* Acronis total dirt OS selector - kills hard drives!
* Regular Expression Designer: Free Program to Help you Build Regular Expressions
* Install and use multiple versions of Internet Explorer
* Open Link Host - Firefox Add-ons
* Hmm, looks like a copy of gridmove.
* Ehterpad - Text Document Collabration
10. Member Contributions and Coding Snacks
Each newsletter we highlight some of the quality software coded by DC members that is available on Donationcoder. Read below for some recent announcements about new applications or updates to applications. Pay special attention to our Coding Snacks section. Coding snacks are lite treats for the software afficiando. If there is some tool that you've been looking for, without success, you have nothing to lose by asking... Post a clear description of what you're looking for and one of Donationcoder's resident coding gurus might just take up the challenge.
* IDEA: Simple line by line truncator -- see this for a good example of what DonationCoder is all about
* DONE: Redirect screen output to clipboard
* IDEA: programs that I have uninstalled
* Global Hotkey Management?
* IDEA: Directory Tree Shortcut, Directory Tree SendTo, DirectoryTree Toys?
* DONE: ETC : Emerge Tasks Companion
* REQUEST: Using Special Keyboard Keys to Control USB Speaker Volume
* Countdown timer with elapsed time shown in tiny docked strip
* REQUEST: audio comparer
* REQUEST: Do It Tomorrow reminder - Anti-Procrastinator
* DONE: JustToDoIt - Fast ToDo lister
* DONE: To Do Tree
11. Developer's Corner
If you're not a developer, don't be put off by the title. There is likely something of interest to you on the Developer's Corner. It's more than just a forum for the discussion of software development, it's also a place in which entrepreneurial issues, how the current direction of hardware and software development will impact on end-users, how current DRM models affect developer and consumer alike, and much more are discussed. Looks like after a period of slowdown, discussions have picked up again in this section.
* Dumdum - Aero Shake clone project in AHK (was : Minimizing all windows[...])
* F# (Ocaml) looks like a killer language on paper. Opinions?
* C# Drag and Drop fail
* A very experienced mIRC scripter, at your service
* Looking for a "Cover Flow" component/widget
* CSS and field width
* Microsoft releases SmallBasic for Newbie Programmers
* GameSetWatch: The Quandary Of 2D Vs. 3D
* Programming strategies -- dealing with exceptions (... in Java)
* Patent trolling or not?
* Visual Basic: finding out dependent OCX/DLL files
* Blog Essay: Why does failure inspire some and demoralize others?
* AutoHotkey: LiveSearch example
* Teach computer science without a computer
* Forum link click statistics?
Darwin:
Just wanted to note that mouser and I are continuing in our tradition of collaborating on the newsletters - my name may be on it as the poster, but mouser did the bulk of the work :Thmbsup:
housetier:
Thanks again for these newsletters. :-*
They are very very important for me as a user and I would not want to miss them!
AHMalik:
Just wanted to note that mouser and I are continuing in our tradition of collaborating on the newsletters - my name may be on it as the poster, but mouser did the bulk of the work :Thmbsup:
-Darwin (December 01, 2008, 06:30 PM)
--- End quote ---
Hello Sir!
Are yo the SAME DARWIN who was running some " DARWIN Engineer ..." News-letter?
Regards
Darwin:
Just wanted to note that mouser and I are continuing in our tradition of collaborating on the newsletters - my name may be on it as the poster, but mouser did the bulk of the work :Thmbsup:
-Darwin (December 01, 2008, 06:30 PM)
--- End quote ---
Hello Sir!
Are yo the SAME DARWIN who was running some " DARWIN Engineer ..." News-letter?
Regards
-AHMalik (December 02, 2008, 01:59 PM)
--- End quote ---
No - different Darwin. A very popular username, I've discovered (along with Huxley, my usual default if Darwin has already been taken) :)
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