Newsletter for December 22nd, 2006 - Codename Software Snowflakes

[mouser]

Newsletter for December 22nd, 2006

"Software Snowflakes"

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

1. Official News and Announcements
As the year draws to an end, it's time for a little reflection and celebration.. Time for us to get together and figure out what we're doing right, and what we can improve, and what new stuff we want to do in 2007..

• DonationCoder.com has just reached 50,000 members
• Find and Run Robot selected as Best Launcher Tool in Dutch magazine PCM, Dec. 2006
• *MAJOR* Preview Release - FARR v2 !
• ProcessTamer featured on Lifehacker and On Digg's Front Page
• Suggestion Form Added to Blog Page
• What changes would you like to see on DonationCoder.com in 2007?
• What the heck is the DonationCoder.com Internet Citizens Club (Cody's Club)??

2. Accessibility Game Programming Contest - Deadline Dec 22nd - Dec 31st
Do you fancy yourself a game programmer, or have you been looking for an excuse to give it a try?  We've just announced the prizes for the contest and they are outstanding.  You should submit your game by December 22nd - then you'll then have until Dec 31st to improve it and resubmit.  We will choose two top winners, one for each category (Audio-only or Switch game), and also provide some runner up prizes.  We're giving out over $15,000 worth of prizes including some deluxe passes and proceedings for the 2007 Game Development Conference:

• See the giant prize list and read more on the DonationCoder.com Accessibility Game Programming Contest Webpage.
• Preview some beta entries now

3. The N.A.N.Y. Programming Challenge
N.A.N.Y. stands for "New Apps for the New Year", and it's our challenge to all coders who visit our site to release a brand new app (even if it's just a small beta tool), on Jan 1st 2007.  You don't need to host the program with us if you don't want, just put it on your web page and send us an announcement.  But you need to sign up a pledge to participate now!  All participants get a limited edition Cody Mug.

• Read details about the N.A.N.Y. challenge, and pledge to participate
• And to all non-participants, the results of the NANY challenge will be released to the public for download on January 2nd - so stay tuned!

4. December  Discounts
Only one more week to take advantage of December's Special Discounts and Giveaways - they end on December 31st!

• Tidy Start Menu (50% discount)
• Vista Start Menu (50% discount)
• My Life Organized (50% discount)
• Surfulater (35% discount)
• Direct Access (30% discount)
• Check out other member-discovered discounts on the web
• See the results of December's Software Giveaway

EXTRA SPECIAL HOLIDAY BONUS: The author of Vista Start Menu has decided to give a special gift to all DonationCoder.com newsletter readers - a free copy of the full version of Vista Start Menu without any time limits (the only catch is you don't get any updates).  Redeem your copy: here.


5. Skrommel Returns from Vacation!
One of the favorite areas of our site is the Coding Snacks Section, where everyday users can make suggestions or requests for new small freeware utilities, which may be coded by various coders who hang out at DonationCoder.com.  The most prolific of such coders, Skrommel, has been on a bit of a vacation, but he recently came back with a vengeance!

• Visit Skrommel's One Hour Software page for updates and new programs every week.  Each release comes precompiled and with AutoHotkey source code for you to customize and learn from.
• Updates: ToddlerTrap, HideDesktop, Ghoster, LabelControl, ShortCutter, GoneIn60s
• New Release: LowToSleep - Stop a PC from falling asleep until the CPU is inactive.
• New Release: UnderCover - Automatically hide a window's buttons and other controls.
• New Release: Accents - Press a key three times or more to apply accents.
• New Release: MoveOut - Make rules to move files automatically.

6. Other Mini-Reviews and Software Updates
Some minor software updates to report, plus a great new software mini-review from one of our members:

• Mini-Review of Fineprint (Virtual Printer) - Hot! (Discount coming in January)
• Screenshot Captor 2.28.06 - Multiple minor improvements
• Mobysaurus Thesaurus v1.0.45 - Multiple minor improvements and bugfixes
• New Disclosure Line Required When you Write a Mini-Review

7. Software Discussion
What's new in the world of software? Are you good at finding new software discoveries? Stop by the forum and help us find stuff!  And don't miss our Found Deals and Discounts section where people post great software discounts they find on the web.

• Useful Firefox Extension - Cooliris Previews
• What do you think about the new MS Office 2007?
• Holiday Seasonal Software discounts — links here!
• CPU Utilization Alerter ?
• Align Icons 2.0
• Batchrun 4.1
• CustomBar
• Bobyte.com - Some nice freeware/donationware multimedia software incl. 3d boxart
• Freewaregenius.com site - freeware reviews
• ITSD Organiser (Organizer Officially I guess..)
• Simple, freeware, soundcard output recorder?
• Office Tools and a Music Player - Right in your Browser?!
• Heads Up!!! Font Xplorer Now Freeware!!!
• Wanted: Advice on Nlite'ing Windows
• Not free, but free, X-Setup
• Need: a program to track the exact time that you spend on each webpage
• Batch Image Converter
• Best Free and Pay FTP Client
• Have you always dreamed of being immortalized in a program easter egg?

8. Fun Games, Gadgets, and Diversions
Everyone needs a break from work every now and then..

• Tower Defence: Flash Game of the Day - Very Clever!
• Word Snap: Flash Game of the Day
• Pirates of Sillicon Valley
• TED Videos etc..
• International Candy Exchange
• BowMaster: Prelude - Flash Game of the Day
• Child's Play I+II - Little Kids Commenting on Yesterdays Games - Funny Stuff
• I wish there was some way to Encrypt my bike so it won't be stolen
• Share your Pandora Stations
• Top 10 Worst Portrayals of Technology in Film
• Nietzche Family Circus
• 2nd Annual 2006 Reader's Choice Awards for Massively Multiplayer Online RPGs
• Brief History of Home Video Game Consoles
• Then and Now: Updating Google’s Corporate Philosophy

9. Website Discoveries, Debates, and Discussions
There are always new website services popping up every day, and lots of debate about the future direction of the web.

• ScienceBlogs 2006
• New Mozilla CERT Vulnerability Alert
• Microsoft Confirms Another Word Zero-Day Flaw
• Phishtank
• ShowMeDo - Video Tutorials
• wanted: free web-mail + forwarding
• Nice analysis on why Google Answers Failed where Another Succeeded
• FTC Unmasks Word-of-Mouth Marketing: Endorser Must Disclose Link to Seller
• A Website Not Trying to Maximize Profits - Global Media Freaks Out in Confusion
• New: Google Patent Search
• StumbleUpon Launches StumbleVideo
• Social Networking Awards 2006
• Blog Piece: The Shrinking Long Tail - Top 10 Web Domains Increasing in Reach
• MyBlogLog - Creating online groups

10. Developer's Corner
The Developer's Corner section of our website isn't just for programmers, it's for people interested in starting their own business, website developers, etc.

• Firebug: Web development tools that integrate with Firefox
• Links For Developers, digg style
• Free and legal e-books on open-source technologies
• Wikia, Inc. gives free software, computing, storage and network access
• What non-programming tools do you use for programming?
• How will Web 2.0 affect desktop applications?
• XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 Released
• Joel Spolsky's Recent Essays Opposing Simplicity
• Radical Transparency in Web2.0 Publishing - Then+Now / Upsides+Risks
• Tweebox: Simple Wiki-like System Designed for Making Simple Interactive Stories
• MouseBreaker Game Development Contest - Member Deozaan Entry
• AddictingGames Flash Game Contest - Beware the rules!
• Bcc32Pch and other C++Builder IDE Plugins that speed up and enhance BCB
• RoundedCorner: Web Rounded Corner and Gradient Generator
• Instant Domain Search as you Type
• Dos and Don'ts for Entrepreneurs, from those who Should know ...

11. The Great GOE (Getting Organized Experiment) of 2006 (GTD)
Well it's almost over and we've taken a bit of a breather - but we're not done yet! If you haven't participated yet, it's still not too late!

• Understanding Burnout - The Last Part of a 3-Part Essay
• What tools are you using for GOE. My list

12. Website of the Month
Did you know that DonationCoder.com has a list of all of our past best-of-the-web recommendations and a list of recommended websites arranged by category?

• Our website of the month in December is Gamasutra - a site about professional game development.

[mouser]

Allow me to express my sincere thanks to everyone who was a part of DonationCoder throughout this year.

Whether it was by donating money, or by helping out on the forums, posting news, answering questions, writing reviews, coding software, etc., i think we are working pretty well as a team, and I think the site just keeps getting better every day.  And I feel honored to be part of it.  I'm looking forward to 2007 and what new fun things we can think of to do together.

And for those new visitors who are just checking us out, welcome to our site. Please pull up a chair and make yourself at home..  Whether you donate or not, post on the forum or just lurk about, we are happy to have you here.  And by all means if you have a suggestion about how we might improve the site, let us know!

[vegas]

great job on the newsletter, AGAIN!  and thats a cool cody graphic there.

[mouser]

You can thank nudone for the image - he is darn good.

[tonyp]

50,000 huh?  This place sure has grown.  Looking forward to FARR v2.

[dmd]

I would like to thank everyone here for this website, I have received so much valuable information from here and learned so much.  I won a contest for one of the software drawings which was pretty cool .

I have also taken advantage of many of the discounts for members this is a great service.  Although I am not a programmer I wish I was.  I would like to donate more this year and I will compared to what I received and what I gave I feel like the worlds biggest FREELOADER.

My biggest problem for donating is going to be who to donate to as so many of you deserve it.

Thank You again for this forum and all of your contributions.

To your success

Have a great 2007


Dennis M Driscoll

[Tony Dodd]

Outstanding newsletter that gets better all the time! Thank you all who make this one of the best reads on the internet. Happy holidays to all.

[AnalogJim]

Thanks everyone for some simple, very efficient software. DonationCoder is a real find.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays.

Jim
 

[mouser]

I had an idea that I think would be great:

DonationCoder.com Best of the Web 2006
Featuring the best items from the last 24 DC newsletters of 2006.
It could be organized into lists like Top 10 Best Freeware Discoveries, Top 10 Best New Flash Games, Top 10 Cool Websites, Top 10 Best Blog Commentaries, Top 10 Funniest Stories, etc
(doesn't have to be Top 10, could just be The Best).
All items would be culled from the past newsletters.

I think the page should be some fancy nice thing which looks beautiful and can be immortalized forwever, maybe with some fancy rollover effects, etc.

And each item should have a single sentence or two, and a nice thumbnail image (maybe 160x120).

In other words, i want it to really look nice and be visually appealing, not plain text like our normal newsletters.

But this means some real work, selecting items, making images, designing web page..

AND it has to be done by Dec 26.

Does anyone have the skill and fortitude to volunteer for this?  It would be an amazing thing. 

[mouser]

Ok i've given up getting a volunteer to help with this, such is life.
Still if anyone has any good examples of "Best Of" web pages that they particularly like the LOOK of (not content), send me a personal message through the forum please.