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Newsletter for April 10th, 2010 - "Nesting Feathers"

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mouser:
Newsletter for April 10th, 2010"Nesting Feathers"




1. Newsletter Editorial

Hi all, and welcome to another edition of the DonationCoder.com newsletter.  April seems like a good month to get into the renewal spirit, wipe the sleep out of ones eyes, and get back in the spirit of living life to its fullest.  Have you embarked on any new projects lately?

In addition to my software projects I've been experimenting again with making a board game or two.. The one thing that never ceases to surprise me is how often what seems like a good set of rules on paper does not translate into a fun game.  I think it's just another example of the value of putting ideas into practice, and the importance of being humble when estimating your own ability to translate an idea into something real in one shot.

The bottom line is: Don't just sit in your room dreaming up with ideas -- pick one idea and follow it through to a complete implementation and evaluation.  And then tell us about it on the forum!


2. User-to-User: Your Input 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.


* DonationCoder: How did you find it and what's your experience so far?
* Should I switch from Windows7 32bit to 64bit?
* Windows 8 Requests?
* Updating Firefox plugins sucks?
* Recommend a Data/Info Organizer?
* Recommend some Music Videos

3. April Discounts

This month we have a discount on the VTrain vocabulary trainer, as well as copies of VTrain and the Linkman Pro bookmark organizer to give away.

* April 2010 Special Discounts and Giveaways
* VTrain 44% discount

4. DC Member Software Updates and Mini-reviews

This month a few new member-written mini-reviews were posted on the forum, as well as some new coding snack utilities and software updates.


* Mini-Review: Linkman Bookmark Organizer
* Mini-Review: Proto, another approach to file managing
* Mini-Review: Monkey Dash board game
* Update: MultiPhotoQuotes Beta Release - Quickly set away text
* Update: JrDebugLogger - C++ lib for debugging
* Coding Snack: Program to automatically delete files with specified file extensions.
* Coding Snack: Line-Numbered textfile
* Coding Snack: ReplaceAbsolutePaths (RAP)
* Coding Snack: SelectAll - Using the Control and A Keys to Select All Text

5. 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..


* C-Span Finishes Project to Put Full (US Govt) Video Archives on the Web
* 35 Beautiful Photography Websites
* How the big boys win the race for most popular website and rake in the dough
* How GPU came to be used for general computation
* The little bug who grew up to become a feature
* How I'd Hack Your Weak Passwords
* Deceitful Software Awards
* Leveraging what Google has to offer
* The More You Use Google, the More Google Knows about you

6. 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..


* Flash Tower Defense Game of the Week: Penguin Attack TD 2
* Flash Tower Defense Game of the Week: Azgard TD
* Watch a game instead of playing it - NextgenWalkthroughs.com and others?
* 10 Pretty Stupid Business Moves
* Let the Raptor show *you* how to be a man....
* TowerDefense Game: Sol Survivor
* Sniper Elite for $2 on Steam
* Transcendence: Free EV Nova like 2d space exploration / battle / adventure game

7. Hardware Help

While we talk a lot more about software than hardware on the DC forum -- that doesn't mean we don't have some pretty serious discussions about computer hardware and building custom computers.  The last month has seen a bit more of this than usual, maybe because people are getting that new-year itch to build a new computer..


* Low energy use always on pc -- what's better, a laptop or a mini (htpc) pc?
* Yay, Upgrade time! - Inspire me with hardware I can buy =-D
* Motherboard issues? What's my problem?
* First compelling reason to switch to Windows 7
* Windows doesn't recognize HDD.
* Need a new sound card (non Creative)
* First iPad Reviews Are In
* File Size vs. Size on Disk: Why such a difference?

8. 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 to sections in the newsletter - general software and specific software discussions.


* How to watch folders and perform certain actions automatically?
* Putting a Classic Menu on Windows 7 - Redux
* Undelete utilities?
* Screensaver program to display text (read for explanation).
* Simple CRM and biz management tool for a small business?
* Lifehacker's Guide to Ripping and Converting Flash Videos
* In search of: installation tracker (akin to InCtrl)
* Video Editing software - Any recommendations?
* save ebay auctions webpages

9. 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.


* Sagelight Image Editor - pay what you want promo (April 2010)
* Great utility FTPSync
* Weather Watcher isn't freeware anymore
* StreamTransport: Free Stream (youtube,hulu,etc) Downloading Tool
* Macrium Image Virtualization Tool Beta
* GleeBox - Web browsing just got better.
* Agent Ransack 2010 freeware lightweight - Desktop Search
* Anyone familiar with Oops!Backup?
* GoogleClean 2011
* Moving outlook express to a new computer

10. Developer's Corner

If you're not a programmer, don't let the title of this section scare you away - there is likely 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 recently.


* Cafepress Alternatives - Find out the truth about 'CP's' biggest competitors.
* Applying "A Pattern Language" To Online Community Design
* Defending Against Frivolous Software Patent Infringement Claims - Nice Talk
* Smashing Magazine: A Short Guide To Open-Source And Similar Licenses
* Free ClipArt and Photos you can use in commercial projects without attribution
* Release the source without the program being open source?
* Article: Donation-based Funding of Basic Research
* Ars Technica on the problem with adblocking
* Society Doesn't Know How To Deal with Abundance?

11. Authors Announce Their Software

We don't often include it in the monthly newsletter, there is a section on the forum where shareware and other developers are welcome to post occasional announcements about new software they have been working on.  Usually these are posts by non-regulars, and we require that the poster state clearly their relation to the company; we prefer if the author of the software is the one that posts.


* P2QR - Freeware utility for Quick Response Codes from P2Labs
* BatchBlitz - Freeware batch process digital photos
* Dr.Explain 4.0 -- Rapid Creation of Help Systems to Speed up Software Rollouts
* Dictionary .NET 2.4 - Smart multilingual dictionary and translation
* Audio Comparer - duplicate MP3 finder for Windows
* KnowledgeNotebook: Free Note-taking Software for Windows

12. News You Can Use

DC Member Stephen66 has been filling in for Ehtyar in posting weekly summaries of interesting tech/computer/security news articles that he comes across on the web.  He even forced me to create an archive page where you can browse through past editions.


* Stephen's Weekly Tech News - Edition 5
* Stephen's Weekly Tech News - Edition 6
* Stephen's Weekly Tech News - Edition 7
* Stephen's Weekly Tech News - Edition 8
* 'Digital Britain' to become 'Cloudy Britain' - The Digital Economy Bill  
* TechNews Archive online

KynloStephen66515:
12. News You Can Use

DC Member Stephen66 has been filling in for Ehtyar in posting weekly summaries of interesting tech/computer/security news articles that he comes across on the web.  He even forced me to create an archive page where you can browse through past editions.
--- End quote ---


Forced?

Do it, or ill get the dragon to eat you!  ------>     :Wizard:

LOL, Cheeky sod  :D

housetier:
w00ten! another newsletter, another 4 hours of trying to catch up with DC

y0himba:
A new DC newsletter is like a satisfying meal.  Instead of "makes my belly happy" it Makes my brain happy!

Darwin:
Great work, Mouser  :Thmbsup:

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