Ok it's day 4 of the fundraiser.  We're at $5,270 donated by 239 individuals.  Not bad!  We may have to push the final thermometer goal value up.

Yesterday I talked a little about the different areas on the website, including the Coding Snacks section of the forum, where anyone can post a request for a program that they would like to see created, and where coders implement those ideas as freeware.

Today's "Fundraiser Release of the Day" is the results of a Coding Snack request.

As described in this thread, WinButtons is a program launcher with large buttons, designed for touch screen displays.  It was released today by DC member Ath, based on a request from back in January of this year.

You can learn more about WinButtons, download it (exe and source code), and request new features, all on:

• WinButtons forum thread.

App Name	Realtime Landscaping
App URL	http://www.ideaspectrum.com/

Intro:

Realtime Landscaping is a software program for helping you design and visualize landscaping ideas.  It's used mainly to plan walkways, fences, flower beds, and other outdoor structures. 

While it has some support for 3d building model constructions, it's not meant to do interior modeling, and cannot support the kinds of detailing building architectures that the serious building modeling tools can (like Chief Architect).  However it does excel at letting you super rapidly sketch and render quite complex outdoor landscaping plans, and the 3d walkthrough rendering is quite pleasing.

To celebrate the fundraiser, DC member skwire has released a new application: sWeather.

But before I describe sWeather, I need to say a little bit more about Skwire.  Over the last year he has released an absolutely astounding number of brand new freeware programs over the last year - almost all in response to requests from everyday people who have stopped by and posted on the DonationCoder.com Coding Snacks Request board.  He's almost threatening to break the record for releases by DC member Skrommel.  It's great fun to watch Skwire create new tools based on user requests.

Ok back to the new app, sWeather.  It's a tray-based weather tool.  There are a few of these kinds of tools around, some good, some bad.  sWeather is nice because it looks great while being pretty minimalist, and does all of the important things well.  There are tray icons for weather condition and temperature, and it's easy to switch quickly between locations and perform update checks. Overall a very sweet tool.

• Program Web Page: http://skwire.dcmemb...oftware/sweather.php
• Direct Download Link: http://skwire.dcmemb...weather/sWeather.zip
• Forum Discussion Thread: https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=25940.0

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Important Note: During the fundraiser we ask people to make new donations into the site.  And these donations help cover site hosting costs and other expenses.  But we also have a system we created (called DonationCredits) in order to let people direct their donations to specific members on the site who they would like to show support to.  The best thing you could do with your donation is actually to send your donation credits out to specific people on the site like Skwire, whose work you want to support - as a way of letting them know that their work is appreciated.  So don't just donate, spread the love a little by sending your donation out to people on the site like skwire.  Actually skwire has his own direct paypal donation button on his website, and that would also be a great way to let him know he is appreciated.

It's day 3 of the fundraiser, and we're doing well: Almost $4,500 raised from about 200 donors so far!

I thought today I'd make a post to introduce the site to those of you who may not be so familiar with it.

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Many people arrive on our site for one of our larger free software applications, like Screenshot Captor, Process Tamer, URL Snooper, or Find and Run Robot.  You'll find these and many more on our main Software page (you can also watch some recent videos of these).

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Recently one of the busiest areas of the site has been our special "Coding Snacks" section, where anyone can post a request for a small custom utility that they would like to have created.  Coders on the site regularly read the requests and code the programs which are released as freeware.  You can visit the Coding Snacks forum section to post a new request, or view a list of finished requests to download.

And speaking of our forum, you'll find that there are always some interesting discussions going on there, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We pride ourselves on quickly responding to requests for help.  We have some serious software addicts on our site and if you're wondering what's the best tool for a job, you're likely to find someone on our forum with a strong opinion.  Most of the software discussions are Microsoft Windows related, but we also have quite a few Linux users and a handful of Apple users.

Don't be shy about registering at our forum and making your first post -- whether it's a question about a particular software program, a feature request for one of our tools, or just to post a photo of your dog or cat.  We are a friendly and diverse bunch from all walks of life.  You can also sign up at the forum to receive our monthly newsletter where we recap the month's most interesting forum discussions and new web/software discoveries.  We even have an online (text) chat channel where people come to unwind any hour of the night.  There's an About page if you want to learn more about the history of the site.

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In the past we really focused on writing big long comprehensive software comparison reviews.. But most of those reviews are a bit long in the tooth now, and we have shifted focus in the last couple of years more and more to what we call member "Mini-Reviews", where forum regulars write and share their (usually) brief reviews of software packages, both commercial and free (and sometimes other things like Board Games or gadgets).

Look a bit deeper on the forum and you might stumble onto our "Self-Teaching Programming School" section -- a progression of increasingly difficult assignments in dozens of different programming languages for people who are learning to program.  It's our fun way to encourage and motivate new students to join the exciting world of programming.

Let's see, what else?  You may have heard of us through our yearly NANY (New Apps for the New Year) event, where we encourage coders who hang out on our site to release a new free application at the start of the new year.  There were over 30 entries in the event this past January.  Some are just small toys, but some are seriously cool and useful.  They are all free.  We also provide hosting space for those members on our site who need a place to host their software and website.   

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So that's a quick tour of the site. I'm sure I left out a few things but hopefully it's enough to help you decide if the site is something that appeals to you.

Many of us spend our days going through life on rails, avoiding strangers.. Films like these make you appreciate how special it can be to step off the track and make a connection with someone you don't know for no other reason than to put a ripple in the waters and share a human moment.

As part of the fundraiser celebration, every day this month (March 2011) we're going to post or release something brand new.  A new software application, a review, a screencast video, etc.

Today DC member timns, author of the wonderful Head in the Clouds web comic, posts his mini-review of Centerbase CRM and explains why he thinks its a good Customer Relationship Management program.

It's a good example of what our mini-reviews are all about (you can find more mini-reviews here).