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Super-sized Newsletter for April 2nd, 2018 - A Fundraiser to Celebrate 13 years
mouser:
Super-sized Special Newsletter for April 2nd, 2018"Celebrating 13 years with a Fundraiser"
1. Newsletter Editorial
Greetings all! It's been over a year since the last newsletter, and we've been super busy in that time -- so busy that this is going to be a super-sized newsletter, packed to the brim with news and links.
But first: I need to ask for your financial support and your non-financial encouragement. It's been 3 years since our last fundraiser, and 13 years since the start of DonationCoder.com. I hope we've earned your renewed support by continuing to release and update clean, quality software free of toolbars, ads, bundled software, or other unwanted junk, and by making our forum a friendly place where people can discuss technology issues and help one another.
This past year in particular we spent a *huge* amount of time completing a long-awaited major overhaul of our website along with a move to new hosting servers. These changes will help us do what we do better and more securely, and help us update our content more regularly. I hope you'll show us that you appreciate our hard work by making a donation during the fundraiser. In section 4 below you'll find a new long article by me on the changes to the site, as well as a request for your input about new ideas for the site.
Our goal this April is to raise at least $4,800 to pay for the next year of hosting. If we can raise substantially more we'll get a chance to pursue some exciting new projects -- like funding members on our forum to write regular columns about different areas of the tech landscape (software, hardware, open source, kickstarter, etc.).
The fundraiser is also our chance to say thanks to our supporters and newsletter subscribers, by organizing a massive software giveaway and month of discounts on popular 3rd party software (see section 3 below).
Lastly, if you haven't seen it already, don't miss the wrap-up of the new free software released as part of our NANY (New Apps for the New Year) 2018 event in January (see section 5 below) .
-Jesse (mouser)
2. The April 2018 Fundraiser Begins
We need your support to help the DonationCoder website thrive. This year, our 13th year of operation, we're proud to announce a whole bunch of improvements to the site, and a major upgrade to our servers that will ensure we can keep on making and sharing our free software. Our hosting costs have gone up slightly, to $4,800 a year, and our goal is to raise at least that much during our April fundraiser. We'd love to be able to raise more and add even more features to the website. Will you put a few dollars towards letting us know you appreciate what we do, and letting us know what you'd like to see more of?
* Make a donation to help us celebrate 13 years of clean, no-nonsense software
* Visit the 2018 DonationCoder fundraiser page for the latest updates
3. Fundraiser Bonus - Software Giveaway and Discounts
As part of our fundraiser celebration, a couple of forum members (cranioscopical and wraith808) have rounded-up a whole bunch of companies willing to donate software for us to give away and provide discounts for our members. The discount codes are valid through our fundraising month of April 2018 only, and are available to everyone who is on our mailing list. The giveaway is open to everyone, but all prizes will first go to people who have donated to our site. Deadline for entry to the giveaway drawing is April 9th. We may update the list of software as the fundraiser goes on, but current discounts and giveaways include: AtomicScribbler, Bvckup2, Beyond Compare, CintaNotes, TechSmith's Camtasia, DisplayFusion, DoogiePim, Help+Manual, HD Sentinel, JAlbum, Macrium Reflect, Softmaker, SmartEdit, RitLabs TheBat, Website Watcher, IDM's UltraEdit, VueMinder, ZeusEdit, The Journal 7, Zentimo, VMWare, Terragen, Write!, Writer's Cafe, ProWritingAid, Jutoh, and others.
* Get the software discount codes
* Enter the software giveaway (deadline April 9th)
4. Major Site and Server Upgrades
It's been 5 years in the making -- a huge upgrade of the DonationCoder website and servers. We've completely redone our entire website, changed the way free license keys work, and even moved to a new hosting company with much more powerful servers.
* Long behind-the-scenes article about the 2018 DonationCoder remodeling and server upgrades
* Check out the new DcMembers.com web pages, hosting programs written by friends of the site, like skrommel, skwire, and many more.
* The new CMS is now LIVE! - Please report any bugs/issues here.
* New DonationCoder, New Ideas?
* Have you visited the new DonationCoder.com blog?
5. NANY 2018 - New Apps for the New Year
For the last 10+ years on the DonationCoder.com site we run a friendly event called "NANY" (New Apps for the New Year), where we invite forum visitors to help us celebrate the new year by releasing a new freeware program on the first day of the new year. We typically get a variety of entries -- some are genuinely useful tools designed to be shared widely, and some are programming exercises for new users. All participants receive a free deluxe DonationCoder NANY Mug, and we may have some additional prizes donated by members. The 2018 entries are in and we've posted a long wrap-up describing them. I've also linked to the 2017 entries from last year in case you missed them.
* NANY 2018 (New Apps for the New Year) Wrap-up Posted
* NANY 2017 (New Apps for the New Year) Wrap-up Posted (last year's entries in case you missed them)
6. User-to-User: Your Input Requested
We love nothing more than having interesting discussions on our forum -- and we love when new people participate in the discussions. In each newsletter we try to highlight a few topics that we think might interest casual readers and that are good candidates for making your first post.
* Artists: Share your artwork with the forum
* Any bug tracking tool suggested?
* Gencon board (and video) game convention, Indiana Aug 2-5, 2018 - Ill be there
* Just tried using a 4k monitor in my setup, did not like it
* Who uses a 3d printer?
* Wildlife webcams?
* Hardware and software for quality youtube podcasting (for boardgaming)?
* Project Idea: Distraction Free Retro Coding Computer
* I'm so fed up with (software or hardware) KM / KVM switches working so badly
* An Idea: Providing some small funding for a yearly (or 6 month) regular coder
* Thread on 3d Printing Cody Model
7. Mouser's Software Updates
I've uploaded some updates to many of my large applications since the last newsletter. As always, you can find the list of what's new both in the online help pages (linked from each program homepage) or in the forum thread about the application (also linked from each program homepage). I'm particularly excited about my codenames play-on-paper printable open source word game -- I hope more people get a chance to try it.
* Screenshot Captor v4.29 Update Released
* NEW GAME: Codenames Play-on-Paper v3.1 Released
* NEW APP: Image Card Printer v1.2 Released
* Find and Run Robot v2.233 Released
* Clipboard Help and Spell v2.42 Released
* URL Snooper v2.42.01 Released
* MiniCap v1.39 Released
* LaunchBar Commander v1.153 Released
* Easy Screencast Recorder v1.117 Released
* MultiPhotoQuotes v2.07 Released
* Automatic Screenshotter v1.08 Released
8. Skwire Empire Software Updates and New Releases
DC member skwire is one of the more prolific coders of utilities on our site -- he roams the coding snack request section and pounces like a jaguar when he finds something that catches his eye. He's released a ton of updates to his software since the last newsletter, including some updates and a few brand new releases:
* Media Player Hotkeys (MPH) - v1.1.5 released
* OMDb Tool - v1.0.2 released
* PlayTime - v1.5.3 released
* SFV Ninja - v1.3.6 released
* sLyrics - v1.0.3 released
* Spews - v1.0.8 released
* SubAHK - v1.0.2 released
* sWeather - v1.7.2 released
* Tray Host Checker - v1.0.2 released
* WHAT (Window Hotkey Activator Tool) - v1.0.2 released
9. Member Coding Projects
We love to keep up with projects that our members are working on, and hearing what our forum members think of software they use. If you're working on something interesting -- let us know!
* T-Clock updates and nightly version
* Clicador- A simple and fast free auto clicker
* Timestamp Clamper - for hammering file/folder timestamps into a reasonable range
* StackNotes - Note taking app
* MGEN - Next generation music AI
* Icon in system tray to show when there in no internet connection
* Directory Squasher: taking the in out of inconsistency
* Announcing SpaceMan, my new Alexa skill
* Reopen file after Wifi reconnects
* Hourly chime software (like Cuckoo for Mac)
* Close/run a program when another program is run/closed
* Folder Icon Generator - Customize the picture inside your folder icon
* Speed It Up, or Slow It Down
* Play a sound when a color appears on screen
* SeqBox - A file container that can be restored after total loss of FS structures
10. Member Mini-reviews
Here are some recent short reviews that members have posted on our forum.
* Mini Review of jAlbum web site creator
* Google Picasa "Sunset" version - Mini-Review and anchor-point
* Legend Of Zelda - Breath Of The Wild
* pCloud - cloud based file sharing
11. Website Discoveries, Debates, Essays, and Discussions
What's new in cyberspace? What exciting new sites have been discovered by forum members? What's the current hot topic and debate? Read on to find out.
* Essay: Designing Windows 95’S User Interface
* On Medical Research Bureaucracy and the Institutional Review Board
* What really happened with Microsoft Vista
* TempleOS - A Constructive Look
* Do you know how the "I am not a robot" anti-spam checkboxes work?
* The future of Ghacks
* The Story Behind Mass Effect: Andromeda's Troubled Five-Year Development
* How a researcher hacked his own computer and found 'worst' chip flaw
* KRACK - WPA2 Vulnerability Exposed
* Interesting read: Apple is really bad at design
* World Wide Web Consortium abandons consensus, standardizes DRM, EFF resigns
* Get legal access to paywalled research and science papers free with Unpaywall
* The White Box and Book - Game Design Kit
* Long behind-the-scenes article about the 2018 DonationCoder remodeling and server upgrades
12. Fun, Humor, and Entertainment
Like everyone else, we love sharing amusing and funny things they find on the web.. We are no exception, though our tastes may be somewhat unusual.
* Jumpy: Animated videogame short
* Fascinating interview with director Ridley Scott about an emergency reshoot
* How Star Wars was saved in the edit
* Entertaing story: I Forgot My Pin: An Epic Tale Of Losing $30,000 In Bitcoin
* The CIA releases the board games it uses to train its agents
* The animal friends thread - an ever growing collection of photos and stories
* Awkward humor videos
* The Faery Tale Adventure: A personal history of making a video game
* Star Wars Last Jedi movie discussion
* Photographer Tutorial Company Release Satire Version for Pirates
* One man's engineering quest to add a headphone port to an iphone
* Organizing videos for OCDers - The Most Organized Home in America
* Breakdown of Juicero expensive juice-pack squeezing machine travesty
* 1986 dial-up bulletin board system has brought the old Web back to life
* The remains of the anonymous exhibitionist site Chatroullette
13. Software Discussions
Some noteworthy software discussions on the forum since the last newsletter.
* OpenSCAD is a game changer for 3d printing
* For those with a CrashPlan
* Easy way to rename a file using the contents of a text file in batch or script
* In search of a lightweight multi-user cms/blog for hosting coders
* Microsoft releases update to disable Intel's Spectre mitigations
* How AV can open you to attacks that otherwise wouldn’t be possible
* Backup4all v.7 supports 37+ online backups (!)
* RUSSL - Really Useful Software Sites and Links
* Modern forum software: Discourse
* Anyone know a file searcher than can search for X near Y?
* Security vulnerability found in movie subtitle files
* Multi countdown timer to scheduled events which are likely to change and affect?
* When testing untrustworthy software, remember virtual machines can be escaped
* Windows 10 - Collection of Hacks, Tweaks, Improvements
14. Mouser's Software Discussions
Here are some discussion threads about Mouser's software that might be of interest.
* Some long-overdue updates to my more popular apps
* Find and Run Robot: Getting output from a batch file
* Find and Run Robot: How to search for specific file types?
* Find and Run Robot: Access "Shell Context Menu" and "Properties" from keyboard? (without mouse)
* LaunchBar Commander: Run As Administrator
* Screenshot Captor: Images pasted into onenote are half size
* Screenshot Captor: Selecting a region slow/delayed - Fixed
* Screenshot Captor: Minicap - how to disabled error message box
* Screenshot Captor: Close SC Window After Naming Captured Image
* Screenshot Captor: Keyboard nudge x 10 and pan last region
* Screenshot Captor: Gathering suggestions for improving region select mode
* Screenshot Capture: How do I 'Backup' my settings
15. Developer's Corner
This section highlights some discussions that might be relevant for not just coders and developers, but also people interested in entrepreneurial issues.
* Thonny simplified Python IDE for learners
* Update Drupal ASAP - Over a Million Sites Can Be Easily Hacked by Any Visitor
* Two amazing talks on the creation of "Legacy" style board games
* Google opens Maps to bring the real world into games
* Article: 20 months tracking down an elusive bug in code
* Design difficulties of making the stealth game Thief
* Create maps for your board/table games!
* The hands-free creation of a full video game
* Packt free programming ebooks every day
* Some talks from CppCon 2017
* Long thought-provoking essay on programming
* You could instead be making your own dungeon crawler game
* Daniel Lemire on Best programming language for high performance
mouser:
IMPORTANT NOTE: We no longer send newsletter announcements to all forum members by default, so to make sure you are emailed when there is a newsletter, you need to make sure you sign up with our new mailing list.
I need to say that the amazing number of discounts and giveaways that have been lined up for April would not have happened if not for the tireless work of DC member cranioscopical.
He did an incredible job. And also DC member wraith808. They both spent a lot of time on this and deserve a huge thanks from all of us.
tomos:
Very impressive !!
I'm looking forward to checking out the discounts / giveaways :up:
Had a query about donating credits already in my dc account (whether they will count towards the total if I donate them to the site) but see you locked the thread: Fundraiser 2018 Discounts and Giveaways Discussion Thread (that must have been by mistake?)
mouser:
I have unlocked that topic; though that thread is for discussing the discounts.
I will make a new thread for discussing the fundraiser in general:
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=45305
rgdot:
Thanks mouser and everybody :up: :up:
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