A funny flowchart for figuring out whether you should work on a particular job for free:

http://shouldiworkforfree.com/

Most of you here know and love Gizmo's Freeware site (TechSupportAlertNews), one of the best freeware sites out there.

Gizmo has been a *great* friend to DC, and many of our forum members even discovered us from reading about something on that site!

Well Gizmo's is a completely volunteer community, and I've received word from Gizmo that they are having a little trouble at the moment recruiting enough volunteers to keep the site going. What they need is more people to manage review sections.

Since we have some serious software reviewer types here on DC, Gizmo asked if I would help him put out the call on DC for anyone who might be willing to help them do reviews and be section editors.

Gizmo says:
There are a lot of different software categories than need editors at the moment but these are the one of greatest need:

• Best Free Adware-Spyware-Scumware Remover
• Best Free Disk De-fragmenter
• Best Free Program Un-installer
• Best Free Drive Imaging Program
• Best Free Portable Apps

And if none of these interest you then you can see a full list here: http://www.techsuppo...lert.com/unallocated

You can help by selecting a category to review and then letting them know here: http://www.techsuppo...ecome-a-reviewer.htm

According to Gizmo you should allow about two hours a month as a volunteer reviewer.

---

Gizmo is one of those those treasures of the web -- if you've been itching to get more serious about doing reviews, this would be a great thing to try -- and you could share your reviews with us too, so everybody benefits.

Interesting essay:

Create a service experience around what you publish and sell. Whatever “customer service” means when it comes to books and authors, figure it out and do it. Do it in partnership with your readers. Turn your readers into members. Not visitors, not subscribers; you want members. And then don't just consult them, but give them tools to consult amongst themselves.

http://www.ftrain.com/wwic.html

Nifflas new game, NightSky, has been released a couple of days ago. Previously believed to be developed solely for the Wii, turns out Nicklas also planned versions for both PC and Mac. Unlike his previous titles, NightSky seems to be much more of a puzzler, as you have to guide a sphere through levels filled with various mechanical contraptions.

http://nifflas.ni2.se/?page=NightSky

The game is available for 10 bucks, but until Monday, Nifflas is offering the game for a mere $7.20.

JayIsGames introduces us today to an outstanding and very polished sniper/shooter flash game called Sierra 7.  One of the better ones i've tried.

Gameplay is fairly realistic; aim for the head and you'll always take an enemy down as long as you're a decent shot, guns behave and load realistically, and not every enemy has magical scoping laser headshot vision when they fire at you. There's even a level where you're required to snipe certain targets from afar, taking into consideration factors like wind speed and direction. The fact that enemy locations are randomised each time you reload a level takes some of the sting out of having to replay a level when your checkpoint was a ways back.

http://jayisgames.com/games/sierra-7/

Welcome to DonationCoder's month long Super Celebration of Software!

N.A.N.Y. 2011
NANY '11 has closed and we're busily going through the entries with a fine tooth comb to package them up for the grand unveiling toward the end of January 2011. In the meantime you can see all the Entries on the NANY 2011 board.

We tried something new with this year's NANY: in an effort to maximise the fun and productivity of the event we decided to start NANY midway through the year giving the coders the ability to start the process early and aim to build a substantial new project. And it's certainly been exciting to see activity increase on the NANY board through the year. Many coders posted Teasers both to whet the appetites of the members and to get feedback on their projects.


The end of the year is often a hectic time, which only increases the challenge to complete the NANY Entry. Some Pledges have been fulfilled early whilst others have had to be withdrawn due to other commitments and other Pledges have remained open or not progressed past the Teaser stage but will hopefully be developed later.

From my perspective NANY 2011 has been a wonderful success that has allowed greater flexibility in the Event. 47 Pledges through the year is huge, and to get 31 completed NANY's is an awesome achievement that the DC community can be very proud about!

• NANY 2011 Release: AskAPic.com
• NANY 2011 Release: Auspex
• NANY 2011 Release: Bard
• NANY 2011 Release: BlackJack
• NANY 2011 Release: CardCreator
• NANY 2011 Release: Cautomaton
• NANY 2011 Release: Color Warlock
• NANY 2011 Release: Crush Sniffer
• NANY 2011 Release: DCDisplay
• NANY 2011 Release: Duplicate Photo Deleter
• NANY 2011 Release: Ethervane Radio
• NANY 2011 Release: FindColor
• NANY 2011 Release: Goodness
• NANY 2011 Release: JottiQ
• NANY 2011 Release: LinkToText
• NANY 2011 Release: List Numberer
• NANY 2011 Release: Llama Tray
• NANY 2011 Release: NANY Excuse Manager
• NANY 2011 Release: NetLauncher
• NANY 2011 Release: Park Cursor Aside
• NANY 2011 Release: Partial Download
• NANY 2011 Release: Quick Cliq
• NANY 2011 Release: Snap DB
• NANY 2011 Release: Speed Monitor
• NANY 2011 Release: SpeedTracker
• NANY 2011 Release: TaskDaddy
• NANY 2011 Release: Ten Timer
• NANY 2011 Release: Treat Yourself Nicely
• NANY 2011 Release: UpdateVersion
• NANY 2011 Release: UserQuotes.com Web Service
• NANY 2011 Release: Webcam Video Diary
• NANY 2011 Release: WhirlyWord
• NANY 2011 Release: WordCaster

Teasers (Unfinished - though look out for updates and late completions)

• NANY 2011 Teaser: ContactFX
• NANY 2011 Teaser: Scion Character Manager

Pledges (Unfinished)

• NANY 2011 Pledge: Backup Verification Utility
• NANY 2011 Pledge: FScript2
• NANY 2011 Pledge: MyHelp
• NANY 2011 Pledge: Reliable File Watcher Batcher Robot
• NANY 2011 Pledge: Teddy Pro
• NANY 2011 Pledge: VegieWorld

Withdrawn Pledges

• NANY 2011 Withdrawn: Apps Something
• NANY 2011 Withdrawn: Backup Verification Utility
• NANY 2011 Withdrawn: Deozone
• NANY 2011 Withdrawn: Dominion Rules Character Creator
• NANY 2011 Withdrawn: LogFileParser
• NANY 2011 Withdrawn: ProtoCards
• NANY 2011 Withdrawn: SAMSA

Huge Software Give-a-way

As part of the New Year Celebration we've been joined by some very generous software developers who are offering full licenses to their professional programmes! This software has been specially selected to enable our hard working coders (and their helpers) to produce high quality packages.

• Help & Manual Pro: Documentation Authoring
• Dr Explain: Help Authoring
• Axialis IconWorkshop Professional: Icon Creation
• Camtasia Studio 7: Screen recorder
• BB FlashBack Pro: Screen recorder
• Sagelight Image Editor: Graphics Editor

More details will be posted in the next couple of days...

A Word About DonationCoder

DonationCoder.com is a site for people who love computer software, and like the idea of supporting each other's work through donations - it's funded entirely by individuals who join the site. Since its founding in 2005, the site has grown steadily and has well over 200,000 registered members from around the world. Of course it's free to sign up at our site and join in on the community forums. Our DonationCredits system was designed to make it as easy as possible for users to make small donations to specific authors and fellow site members (read more about our DonationCredits here: https://www.donationcoder.com/Donate/Credits.php).

The programmers at DonationCoder.com are dedicated to providing professional quality software and professional quality support; other DonationCoder.com members are active in the forums reviewing and discussing all types of computer and software issues.

The New Apps for the New Year event was started as a fun way of celebrating the New Year. Dubbed NANY (New Apps for the New Year), this experiment has become a yearly tradition on the site, and represents the playful and generous spirit of the site and the people who visit it.  The event celebrates the joy of programming and is open to coders of any ability, whether they are regular members of the site or not.  All participants receive a mug featuring our beloved bird/duck mascot Cody -- there are no winners or losers.