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Newsletter for November 6th, 2009 - Codename "Bird Meets Frog"

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mouser:
Newsletter for November 6th, 2009Codename "Bird Meets Frog"




1. Newsletter Editorial

Greetings everyone and welcome to yet another edition of the DC newsletter.  It's been 40 days since the last newsletter -- well off of our goal of getting a newsletter out at least once a month (preferably twice a month).  So go make yourself a hot cup of tea and prepare to spend some time going through this edition, because it's big and full of some real gems.

Because of the large number of items in the newsletter this time, I'll try to keep the editorial short.  I did want to mention a few things, though.  First, long time members of the forum know about the big event on the site that gets the most attention each year: NANY (New Apps for the New Year).  NANY is really a celebration of software and programming -- we ask all coders who hang out at the forum (new coders are welcome!) to release a brand new freeware/donationware program on January 1st.  Actually, most of the activity happens in December as coders pledge to release something and we try to coordinate all of the participants.  Keeping with the spirit of the site, there are no winners or prizes, but we do try to make sure every coder gets some exposure and a commemorative mug celebrating the event.  It's great fun for new and old coders alike.  We've just started the NANY 2010 section on the forum and I encourage you to stop by and get a good seat for the show.

Second, I wanted to mention a new and very cool website created by longtime DC member Chris Hanscom.  It's called Plarker, a site where people can create maps of their favorite places and share them.  The main thing I want to say is that we want to hear from more of you about projects that you are working on, computer-related or not.  In a world in which corporations buy their way into people's consciousness with marketing dollars, we need to support the small and lesser known projects in which DC members and friends are engaged.  Don't be shy to post about stuff that you are working on and to ask for feedback.

Third, in that spirit, I want to tell you about a new website that I just finished and am opening to the public. It's called "The Tree Form Machine" and is based on a desktop application that I wrote quite a while ago called "The Form letter Machine."  The basic idea of the website is to make it possible for users to create interactive forms that people can use to prepare documents by simply marking checkboxes and mixing and matching paragraphs.  I'm hoping that it will be useful for people who want to create easily-customizable legal documents, form letters, support replies, etc.  The desktop program was pretty much a niche product and judging from the near unanimous yawns of disinterest in the website I expect nothing different from the website.  But if it sounds like something you might be interested in, please please do drop by and see if you can create something interesting with it.  Nothing would make me happier than to see someone create a cool form or two that actually has some value to someone.

Fourth, I just want to highlight a nice blog entry I stumbled across, written by someone who discovered the Coding Snacks section of our forum and wrote about his experience of requesting a custom program and having DC member Skwire code it for him.  It brought a smile to my face.


* NANY 2010
* Discover new places with Plarker
* Dr.Frog - Nice blog entry about DonationCoder.com and Coding Snacks
* Announcing tfdocs.com (Tree Form Documents)

2. Your Participation Requested

We 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.


* You have a computer backup plan.. but does it work?
* What books are you reading?
* What's your favorite LOL joke?
* Beerware and Otherware categories besides Donationware, good or now gimmicky?
* What are you waiting for?
* On free speech in forums?
* FIFA 2010 coming up.. should we update the World Cup Predictor?

3. Official DonationCoder Stuff

I've been trying to make sure all of my software is updated for, and running well on, Windows 7; expect some more updates in November as well.


* Does Process Tamer work with Windows 7 (64-bit)? Yes
* Does Browser Tray Switch work with Windows 7? Yes
* Desktop Coral Updated to v1.08.01 (Win7 Support)
* URL Snooper Updated to v2.25.01   (Win7 Support)
* Screenshot Captor Updated to v2.75.01 (Scanning/PDF Improvements)
* Clipboard Help+Spell Updated to v1.27.01 (Bug Fixes and Text Export)
* Popup Wisdom Updated to v1.07.01 (Win7/Timer/Multimon Improvements)

4. Website Discoveries, Debates, and Discussions

What'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..


* Federal Trade Commission (USA): Bloggers Must Disclose Payments for Reviews
* NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month 2009 - Starts November 1st!
* Volery Makes Installing Software Incredibly Simple
* Win7: Anyone else getting excited?
* Worst Win7 reviews (ongoing)
* Surprised by Win7
* 10 things to do after installing Linux
* Windows vs. Mac: I'm starting to change.
* Google vs. the rest: Is it fair?
* Lenovo Reliability Rated Worst

5. Discounts and Giveaways

The winners of October's giveaway of the duplicate file manager DupeTrasher have just been announced on the forum.  The discount will be available for a few more days, so act quickly if you want to take advantage of it.


* October 2009 DupeTrasher Giveaway Winners and Discount Reminder

6. General Software Discussion

Almost 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 two sections in the newsletter - general software and specific software discussions.


* Putting All My (Legally Obtained) Music Online
* Looking for a sound effects generator
* Best PLAY-LIST EDITOR, please?
* Wanted: Web Banner Maker (Between MS Word and Gimp-Inkscape)
* Wanted: SysAdmin-focused Account Information Keeper
* Needed: WordPress Plugin(s) for Photographers
* Wanted: Freeware (commercial use allowed) Anti-Virus Tool For Small LAN
* At last: MP3 Lossless
* Simple drawing or floor plan program?
* Play Media Files on my Network House-wide?

7. Specific Software Discussion

This section of the newsletter draws attention to some of the standout discussions about specific programs that have been started since the last newsletter.


* Windows Security Essentials
* McAfee Online Backup - New Web Service
* BlueScreenView by NirSoft - find driver causing blue screen
* Complaint: FeedDemon is now adware, but does not disclose it?
* NirLauncher tools package
* n2ncopy: copy/move stuff to multiple locations
* Paragon Drive Backup+Recovery 10 Free - good full drive imaging tool
* How the mighty have fallen: TuneUp Utilities 2010
* ThoughtX - Interesting Early Beta MindMapping Software
* Windows Home Server as a SOHO business server. Your thoughts?
* What's required for Aero in Win7?
* Anybody Here Use SeaMonkey (2.0)?

8. Fun, Games and Amusements on the Web

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..


* The Soda Pop Stop - Giant store that only sells soda.. what a sweet video
* Flash Tower Defense Game of the Week: When Penguins Attack TD
* Flash TD Game of the Week: Bloons Tower Defense 4
* Carl Sagan sings (with help from Stephen Hawking)
* DIY - Home made in-car camera mount
* Reocities: the GeoCities one-man rescue project
* Open source remake of the classic game Elite
* Baby Cody with Ampa... and time to move on.
* A Map of where Baby Cody Visits?

9. Coding Snacks

The Coding Snacks Section is where people can request small utilities to be coded while they wait.  Since the last newsletter we've had a lot of new requests that have been filled -- several forum members are on fire lately!  And there have been some really cool new tools developed.


* Tool to Warn that I'm on Battery power
* Group files from within folders
* SuperClick - automatically press form buttons
* Looking for a 'polite' reminder/diary system
* IDEA: File/Folder Deleter Based on Text File
* IDEA: alarm when net connection *restored*
* IDEA:Check for program exit and offer to close other programs
* IDEA: Memory usage pie-charter
* Request: Left-mouse-click triggers a PrtScr press in the background
* IDEA: Monitor a folder and send shortcuts to desktop

10. Other DC Member Software and Projects

We love to hear about 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.


* Circle Dock v0.9.3.1 is released!
* Discover new places with Plarker
* What's planned for the next (unofficial) CircleDock release
* Beta: fSekrit 1.40 needs some abuse!
* Announcing tfdocs.com (Tree Form Documents) - online version of The Form Letter Machine

11. Developer's Corner

If you're not a programmer, don't let the title of this section scare you away - there is probably 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 month -- keep it up people!


* Essay on artists asking for support: why i am not afraid to take your money
* 10/GUI - ideas for user interface design
* Inside Windows 7 Redux
* What's your Programming Language?
* Unity Game Engine now free
* Free Unreal Development Kit released by Epic
* Switching to Linux: A Windows developer's view
* Lazy Productivity: 10 Simple Ways to Do Only Three Things Today
* NaNoWriMo Workbooks (for Writers)
* For those who write articles on CMS, a question.

12. News You Can Use

DC Member Ehtyar produces wonderful weekly summaries of important tech/computer/security news articles that he comes across on the web.  They're a big hit on the forum - click one of the links below to see why.


* Dr.Frog - Nice blog entry about DonationCoder.com and Coding Snacks
* Tech News Weekly: Edition 40-09
* Tech News Weekly: Edition 41-09
* Tech News Weekly: Edition 42-09
* Tech News Weekly: Edition 43-09
* Tech News Weekly: Edition 44-09
* Bug in latest Linux gives untrusted users root access?

13. NANY (New Apps for the New Year) 2010

Every year on DonationCoder.com we host an event that gets everyone really excited: NANY.  It's an event in which we encourage all of the programmers who hangout on the forum (new coders are welcome!) to release a small new freeware/donationware to the public on January 1st of the New Year.  We try to give out special mugs to commemorate the event to all coders who participate, but it is not a contest and there are no "winners".  It's just a celebration of software development.  In the newsletters leading up to the event, you'll find a section here that highlights the latest developments.  The real NANY activity will be in full swing come December.  If you're a programmer, please do stop by the NANY 2010 section and pledge to participate.


* NANY 2010 - Let's get started
* NANY 2010 Idea Thread Skwireification Embargo Policy
* In the past there was the carrot.. for NANY 2010 there is the stick..

mouser:
Thanks to Darwin for helping me edit this edition of the newsletter  :up:

TucknDar:
Great newsletter, mouser and Darwin :up:

I guess I spotted some errors that you obviously put in on purpose:

There are strange things going on in the section in bold here (taken from the third paragraph):
The main thing I want to say is that we to hear from more of you about projects that you are working on
--- End quote ---

mouser:
thanks Tuck

lotusrootstarch:
THanks 4 the NL mouser. Somehow I get the feeling that this site is now a lot less active than it used to be (less frequent posting, few new apps just more maintanence bugfix releases). Is everything losing momentum? :-\

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