NANY 2010 - Update

[Perry Mowbray]

NANY 2010 Update

This year marks the 4th annual NANY Challenge: The NANY 2010 Challenge!

The aim of the NANY Challenge is to release a new programme, utility, game, etc on January 1st; you first have to have pledged your commitment to release the application in the Pledge Thread: Read the full instructions if you're interested in participating: we're always happy to meet like-minded coders who are keen to celebrate and have fun with new Freeware / Donationware. There's also an Idea Thread and Offers of Assistance to help you with your entry.

The NANY event is a community celebration, not a competition and therefore there can be no winner; apart from the obvious rewards for the software using community, everyone who participates in NANY, either as a software author or volunteer, will receive a stunning DonationCoder mug or T-Shirt with a brand new and very collectible NANY 2010 image designed by the artist Nick Pearson (See NANY 2010 Prize Graphics).

Look for Web Badges that'll be appearing across the internet that mark applications as Pledges or Entries in this Year's NANY:


This thread will include regular updates that will focus on the various entries (in no particular order), but first some interesting details about this year's Challenge.

NANY 2010 Challenge Details (as of December 31^th)

• 27 Pledges
• 7 Teasers
• 15 Entries

One of the wonderful surprises of each NANY is the wide variety of entries, and this year is no different, though there is (understandably) a strong bias towards Windows:

• 16 Windows Based
• 2 Interpreted (Python, Java)
• 3 Web Based

Teasers / Releases

• The Garden Social Club
• DupFind 0.9
• DocMerger
• Crush MCP
• Leap of Faith 0.01.2009.12.10
• fenixContacts
• FARR Plugin ProcessInfo 1.0.0
• Artwinauto BlitzType 0.9
• What's My Share?
• Create Dummy File 1.001
• UQ
• Countdown 0.0.25
• Reimbursement Tracker 0.3.0
• FarrWebMetaSearch
• SubDiv 0.0
• Traitor 0.01
• Anuran 1.0.12
• ClipTrap 1.0.0
• Piggy Banks 1.0.1
• Multiboot ISO Maker Alpha 7
• Page Countster
• Twigatelle 0.0.0.0.0.0.0.1
• LittleRunner 1.0

Congratulations to all our Coders!

[Perry Mowbray]

STOP PRESS: Pledge Deadline extended to December 18th

Due to popular demand we've extended the Pledge Deadline by a week to December 18th. There's still time to make your pledge in the NANY 2010 Pledge to Participate Here thread and get in on the fun!

N.A.N.Y. is the annual event on DonationCoder.com is where we invite, cajole, blackmail, bribe and just generally beg all of the programmers who pass through the site to pledge to release some new piece of free software on January 1st. The idea is simple, and everyone is welcome to participate regardless of their skill level.  There are no winners, but everyone gets a prize -- a very handsome DonationCoder mug commemorating the event.

Twigatelle Update
Each year we focus on Teasers and Entries that are being developed through December; this year we have a very special opportunity to journey with one of DonationCoder's intrepid coders, Twiggles, who is developing Twigatelle for N.A.N.Y 2010. Thanks to Head in the Clouds for allowing us this view into the whole NANY process!



Featured Teasers
DupFind: A simple, graphical application that scans a directory tree and reports any duplicate files found. OS's supported: Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, MacOS/X (and possibly others like OpenSolaris)

Traitor: Traktor doesn't have a sampler. A DJ set is not complete without the annoying siren. Teddy doesn't do MIDI nor ASIO. You figure it out.

FARR Plugin ProcessInfo: I'm a sysadmin by trade, and I frequently need to get quick information about processes running on a machine (either my own or a remote PC).  I also frequently need to know what files the process is actually using at any given moment.  And I don't necessarily want to have to access the machine directly to get that information. While there are tools already available that give me that information, none of them are particularly fast about giving it to me, and none of the are as intutive as a FARR alias/plugin could be.  So I wrote this to be the fast, simple tool that I as an admin need to get information quickly.


Recent Releases
ClipTrap: ClipTrap watches the clipboard and keeps track of copied text in its window.  I initially wrote it for my workplace where we use terminal emulators (SecureCRT, PuTTY, etc.) constantly and often need to capture several successive bits of output from various routers, switches, and other devices on the network.  I fleshed it out and prettied it up for NANY 2010.  I use this in conjunction with ArsClip, a fantastic clipboard caching tool.

Page Countster: The company I work for re-manufactures laser printer toner cartridges as a primary (cost center) product. We needed a way to quickly find out how many printers were on a customers network, what model they were, their page counts, serial numbers, toner levels & etc. The application had to be small, portable, fast, & simple enough for the sales staff to operate...


Mini NANY Submissions
A Mini NANY does not come under the same stringent rules that a normal NANY does and can include script and other submissions that don't really fit into NANY proper.

• Gobbledegook: Mix up your sentences and keep readability.
• Gamers Alarm Clock: GAC is a simple alarm clock, albeit with a slight twist.

[Perry Mowbray]

The NANY Challenge is an annual Challenge at DonationCoder where coders of all levels are challenged to pledge a New Application for the New Year and release it on January 1, 2010.

The NANY 2010 Challenge is generating a lot of interest again this year: so far we've had:

• 27 Pledges from our brave coders
• 16 Teasers to whet our appetites
• 6 Entries for us to try from the NANY Board

There's still time to join the NANY celebration! The idea is simple, and everyone is welcome to participate regardless of their skill level.  There are no winners, but everyone gets a prize -- a very handsome DonationCoder mug commemorating the event. If you know any coders, please give them a nudge and ask them to come by and give us a little bit of their time.  We know sometimes it's hard for coders to come up with good ideas, so we started a special thread just for people to post project ideas for others to consider working on; don't be shy posting your ideas.  And if you're a programmer, why not stop by the Pledge thread now and pledge to release something new by January 1 2010.  Help us make it something special -- we promise to make it fun!

Twigatelle Update
Here's the next update on Twiggles progress with his NANY 2010 entry: Twigatelle. Thanks to Head in the Clouds for allowing us this view into the whole NANY process!


Teasers / Entry Focus
Leap of Faith 0.01.2009.12.10
This is a Platformer game where the goal is to climb to the top of the screen and reach the exit.


BlitzType 0.9
BlitzType is utility that helps to reduce repetitive typing, speed up typing and increase productivity in work that involves typing, writing and coding, etc. It does so by autocompleting frequently typed words and phrases or expand abbreviations into complete form for the user. BlitzType learns and saves repeated phrases as the user types. When the user is about to type a same phrase again, he/she can rely on BlitzType to autocomplete the phrase or expand the abbreviation for him/her.

Multiboot ISO Maker Alpha 7
Multiboot ISO Maker is an unrestrained graphical front end for mkisofs for Windows and a multiboot ISO creator. It supports all mkisofs options and it is aimed at people who know what mkisofs is and what is not. It is unrestrained because it supports all mkisofs options without any limits and you are not restrained to the bundled version of mkisofs. Multiboot ISO Maker works by placing all mkisofs options in a check list. You can activate and deactivate any mkisofs option by clicking on the item in the list.


Countdown 0.0.25
Simple, unobtrusive countdown app which counts down to a user-selectable date.  Resizable and movable, so it can sit anywhere on your desktop.  Countdown options range from DD:HH:MM:SS to just DD, and everything in-between.
Created because I love counting down to dates and times, and I'd like to have a small app sitting on my desktop doing exactly that.
Plus, it has cool red led graphics!

[Perry Mowbray]

The NANY Challenge is an annual Challenge at DonationCoder where coders of all levels are challenged to pledge a New Application for the New Year and release it on January 1, 2010.

The NANY 2010 Challenge is generating a lot of interest again this year: so far we've had:

• 28 Pledges from our brave coders
• 13 Teasers to whet our appetites
• 8 Entries for us to try from the NANY Board

If you're desperate to get an entry in for this year and you have not Pledged: There's still time to join the NANY celebration! The idea is simple, and everyone is welcome to participate regardless of their skill level.  There are no winners, but everyone gets a prize -- a very handsome DonationCoder mug commemorating the event. If you know any coders, please give them a nudge and ask them to come by and give us a little bit of their time.  We know sometimes it's hard for coders to come up with good ideas, so we started a special thread just for people to post project ideas for others to consider working on; don't be shy posting your ideas.  And if you're a programmer, why not stop by the Pledge thread now and pledge to release something new by January 1 2010.  Help us make it something special -- we promise to make it fun!

Twigatelle Update
Here's the next update on Twiggles progress with his NANY 2010 entry: Twigatelle. Thanks to Head in the Clouds for allowing us this view into the whole NANY process!

Teasers / Entry Focus
fenixContacts
The main idea is just to create free and good contacts book application. For a long time I've seen dozen of tools which could make me happy but none of them did. The only reason is the lack of one feature: customisable information fields. This is the most important thing to me because in most of the cases I don't really need to see emptiness. I have never had a need for (i.e.) twenty business fields to be kept if all of them are blanks. I had found one application which could be OK but it was not free... so I've decided that someday I will write it by myself. And here I am!

Features

• Customizable Information Fields
• nice searching - both: LiveFilter and Advanced search
• import / export tool - with support for the most common file types (like vCards) or something more complicated (online databases handling)

Create Dummy File 1.001
This software is to make files, of variable size, which do nothing. It's uses can be to test a disk, internet speed or to fill a free space on a USB disk. Once the USB is full, there will be no space left to write, so a virus will not be able to write to the USB disk.

FarrWebMetaSearch
FarrWebMetaSearch is another generic web retrieval FARR plugin. Unlike ewemoas Webgrab this plugin will show results in list mode. It is therefore targeted at web sites delivering list-like results.

Features

• searches are configured via an ini files, one for each 'search'. The file will specify search url and a regular expression to capture the result.
• search terms will be specified through the FARR input box

[mouser]

ps i love the new head in the clouds cartoon 

[Perry Mowbray]

The NANY Challenge is an annual Challenge at DonationCoder where coders of all levels are challenged to pledge a New Application for the New Year and release it on January 1, 2010.

The NANY 2010 Challenge is fast approaching the climax of the Event -- this is definitely the exciting bit of the Event when we see the NANY Entries unveiled! So far we've had:

• 27 Pledges from our brave coders
• 13 Teasers to whet our appetites
• 8 Entries for us to try from the NANY Board

This is the last call to all programmers within earshot to drop by the forum and pledge to participate in the event.  Remember, there are no winners, but everyone gets a prize -- a very handsome and unique DonationCoder mug commemorating the event.

Even if you're not a coder, you may find something fun to check out from the early NANY releases and teasers.  Stop by and request some features or make some suggestions to the participating coders -- they need your feedback!

NANY 2010 Prizes
The NANY 2010 Store has opened with a great selection of items available for the Entrants in this year's event. Full details in NANY 2010 - Prizes

Twigatelle Update
Here's the next update on Twiggles progress with his NANY 2010 entry: Twigatelle. Thanks to Head in the Clouds for allowing us this view into the whole NANY process!


Teasers / Entry Focus
Crush MCP
The Master Control Program is a small tool running in the background that monitors all tasks and programs. After making a snapshot of all running processes, new ones will be tracked in a deletion list. This will allow you to see and get protected if a virus or other unknown programs are automatically starting in the background without your permission to raise your security while working.

LittleRunner 1.0
A little application that records a runners schedule.


Features

• Records routes and descriptions
• Records runs and times, along with comments
• Shows individual run speeds and overall average
• Allows both DD/MM/YY and MM/DD/YY date formatting
• Allows specification of distance units in either miles or kilometres
• CSV export
• (Very) basic printing

Twigatelle 0.0.0.0.0.0.0.1
Twigatelle is a simple game developed in Java inspired by any number of those pachinko-type games where little thingies bounce around hitting other thingies in a slightly hypnotic way. The name is a contraction of ""Twiggles"" and ""bagatelle""


Features

• Bouncy balls.
• Things that bouncy balls hit.

Reimbursement Tracker 0.3.0
Keep track of the money others owe you! This is a tool created to help a user manage his/her reimbursable expenses and designed to create an attractive, easy to read, and easy for the boss to understand list.  It has the ability to print, or to print a professional-looking receipt to a thermal printer (receipt printer).


Features

• Keep track of date, location, description, and price of each expense.
• Negative prices (e.g. returns or rebates) supported.
• Print to thermal printer!  (Note:  only the Custom Neo's is officially supported right now -- as it's the only printer I own to test on!  However, I am working on a plugin-like system to allow other printers with different commands to be easily added.  Most printers share similar serial commands, so this should not be a big problem.)

Mini NANY Submissions
Mini NANYs are submissions that don't fit under the same stringent rules that a normal NANY does and can include scripts and other submissions that don't really fit into NANY proper. Now just about anyone can enter a NANY!!

• Gobbledegook: Mix up your sentences and keep readability.
• Gamers Alarm Clock: GAC is a simple alarm clock, albeit with a slight twist.
• Miranda Alias pack for FARR: Let's you control Miranda with FARR.

[Perry Mowbray]

The NANY Challenge is an annual Challenge at DonationCoder where coders of all levels are challenged to pledge a New Application for the New Year and release it on January 1, 2010.

The NANY 2010 Challenge climax is just around the corner -- all the Entrants will be putting the finishing touches onto their Entries and submitting them! It's a very busy and exciting time on the NANY Boards: all our coders are working extremely hard -- why not drop by and encourage them with some feedback?  Currently NANY 2010 has:

• 27 Pledges from our brave coders
• 12 Teasers yet to be converted to a Release
• 10 Entries for us to try from the NANY Board

Twigatelle Update
Twiggles is battling the competing demands of a NANY Entrant over Christmas as he works to get his NANY 2010 entry, Twigatelle, ready for the big unveiling on New Years Day. Thanks to Head in the Clouds for allowing us this view into the whole NANY process!




Teasers / Entry Focus
SubDiv 0.0
SubDiv was built to organize folders that are constantly being filled with new content, such as a 'Downloads' folder.  When you are continually throwing files from the Internet into a folder on your computer, that folder becomes very disorganized (at least for me).  SubDiv will take those files and put them into folders based on the day they were created.

Features

• Portable

Anuran 1.0.12
Anuran is rotating, automatic-prompting personal text log.  The original idea came from a request from doctorfrog on this thread.


Features

• Completely configurable.
• AnuVu log viewer included.
• Log files are standard text files.  No proprietary formats.

Piggy Banks 1.0.1
Piggy Banks makes it easy for you to keep track of 'fund' accounts where a little money is put away each day.  For example, your family might decide that every day $1 will be put aside to help pay for a new board game.  Piggy Banks will make it easy to see how much money is saved up in the board game fund at any time.


Features

• Track as many funds as you would like.
• Real-time updating of funds and projected completion dates as you adjust the data.
• Export to CSV option.
• Icon turns from a silver medal to a gold medal when your fund completes.  Wooo.

FARRSpell
This will be a plugin for Find and Run Robot to help people who quickly need to spell a word or look up synonyms.


Features

• Selectable Dictionary

Mini NANY Submissions
Mini NANYs are submissions that don't fit under the same stringent rules that a normal NANY does and can include scripts and other submissions that don't really fit into NANY proper. Now just about anyone can enter a NANY!!

• DisablePortableAppSplashScreen: Disables the splash screen of Portable Apps

[Perry Mowbray]

T'was the night before New Year, when all through the forum
we were all waiting patiently with a modicum of decorum.
There were lots of Pledges, and suggestions too
and the number of Teasers just grew and grew.

The Coders were all busy, they were finishing their Apps
burning the midnight oil and probably near to collapse,
but we're all here to celebrate the start of a New Year
with the wonderful efforts of our NANY Volunteers.

So here's to all our members, who were involved in the Event
who coded and tested, and volunteered 101 percent,
who suggested and commented and gave their requests
and made this year's NANY Event another success!

...with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore:

The NANY Challenge is an annual Challenge at DonationCoder where coders of all levels are challenged to pledge a New Application for the New Year and release it on January 1, 2010: and we're nearly there!! Tomorrow is the big day when the full list of Successful Entries will be released!

As the poem says, it's the night before New Year when all the NANY 2010 Challenge Entrants will be submitting their Entries! It's a very busy and exciting time on the NANY Boards and you can literally watch as the Teasers are converted into Releases.

• 27 Pledges from our brave coders
• 7 Teasers yet to be converted to a Release
• 15 Entries loaded onto the NANY Board

Twigatelle Update
Twiggles has just about completed his NANY 2010 entry: Twigatelle. Thanks to Head in the Clouds for allowing us this view into the whole NANY process!