1. Special Edition Newsletter NANY EVE 2011

Four years ago at DonationCoder.com we tried an experiment where we invited programmers who hang out at the site to release a brand new freeware utility to share with the world, to be released on the first day of 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.

This year we are broadening the event, reducing the complexity and rules whilst providing the same encouragement to software authors of all types and backgrounds to successfully complete the NANY 2011 challenge. You can form a team to work on the one project, you can re-write one of your old applications, publish an online web service script, you can write a plug-in for another program: you can almost do whatever you like as long as it's new, yours and free.

I hope you will join us in celebrating this year's NANY event, by stopping by and saying hello and checking out the new programs.

And if you are a programmer, stop by and pledge to release a new program -- you still have 30 days left to code something!!

You can read more about the NANY event here: https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=22721.0

-Mouser

My next micro-review is for first impressions of: Dixit

Dixit is really more of a card and party game than a board game.  The concept is very simply, players (or teams) take turns coming up with an ambiguous description of a hidden card in their hand, and other players try to choose cards from their own hands that best match the description.  Then all cards are shuffled and laid out on the table and everyone tries to guess which card the player originally described.  A simple scoring system advances pawns on a board.

I brought dixit to a family gathering last week that had players ranging from 7 to 70, and everyone got a big kick out of it.

Why is it a perfect game for family gatherings:

• Super easy to teach and transport
• Plays fast and everyone is involved and engaged every moment of play.
• Little or no real competition, very lighthearted and entertaining; no one really has to care about winning and losing.
• Little kids love the artwork, adults like coming up with clever clues.
• Older players who *enjoy* deep thinking can get satisfaction from thinking hard about clues and details.
• Fosters discussion and chatting about the clues and pictures.
• Fun when people don't agree with each other

Game Designer Interests

• Clever scoring rule that ensures people come up with ambiguous but reasonable description clues.

Summary:

I'm sure groups of adults would enjoy this, but I definitely think that Dixit (and its expansion Dixit 2) is a perfect game for family gatherings, especially when you have a variety of ages including very young (6yrs or so) kids.  I highly recommend it.

Final Rating: 9 of 10

It's the end of 2010 and it's time each of you to share your favorite new sites you've been reading lately. I'm constantly updating my "start page" and if you have time to read when standing in line, waiting on a meeting/flight, etc., here are five I've been surprised by:

• Give Me Something To Read -- The best from Instapaper, which was designed as an iPad app, but works as a standalone page. Install a little java bookmark, and anything you want to “Read Later” gets saved to your instapaper page (and synched to your iPad).  You can create folders for different groupings of stuff. It's a simple, single-purpose page, but it works well.
• Longreads -- What the name suggests: Longer form journalism, magazine stories, and interviews (1500 words+).
• zunguzungu -- From California to Tanzania, here's an excellent blog about how small the world is, and no matter where you are, you're affected. Politics, literature, film, nothing is exempt.
• Five Books -- Five Books interviews a leading expert each day, and asks them to recommend -- you guessed it -- five books on their area of expertise. Another simple idea, well executed.
• Fake Name Generator -- When you need to not give your real name and detailed info about yourself. Gender and country appropriate!

_____________________________________
Mine is focused on reading, but yours will be your interests, of course.

I'm impatient to try it : http://www.lightworksbeta.com/

Feature list :

Editing
    * Resolution, format and codec independent timeline
    * Edit at 23.976, true 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, or 60 fps
    * Advanced Multicam editing with unlimited sources
    * Source/Record three-point editing
    * Insert and Overwrite editing
    * Replace, fit to fill, backfill
    * Drag-and-drop replace editing
    * Extend and Split edits
    * A/V Sync indicators on timeline
    * Single-click re-sync of whole timeline
    * Multi-colored markers for edits and clips
    * Matchframe for clips and subclips

First things first, English is not my native language so I apologize if I'm not very clear.

When using a notebook, I usually don't hide the taskbar for three main reasons: quick launch, clock, and battery notification. I like my app launcher (in this case Quick Launch) to be always visible, so that to launch a program I only need two actions: locate the program's icon and click the icon. Setting to auto hide means more actions: show the launcher, locate the icon, and then click the icon. I also need the clock to be always visible as a quick reminder for lunch break or other small things that just don't worth having a dedicated reminder program for them. The battery notification is to remind me when I need to plug/unplug the adaptor.

But I also have a netbook, and with netbooks, screen estate is very limited, so I choose to auto hide the taskbar. I'm OK with trading quick launch for screen height, but I still need the clock and battery notification to be always visible. So, what I'd like to have is a small bar that stays on top of the screen, about 12 pixels or so in height, just to show the current date, time, and battery status. The bar should also resize the screen work area so that it doesn't cover the titlebar of a maximized window. I attached a simple mock up to show what I mean.

Additionally, it is also nice if the battery status info changes color, let's say red when in critical battery level and green when the battery is fully charged. I also prefer 24-hour format.

Similar programs are StatBar and Rainlendar I believe, but they are too complex for what I need.

From PC World this morning:

http://www.pcworld.c...h_process_tamer.html

Process Tamer would be especially useful on older, single-CPU PCs. Where there's no dual core (or more) to share the load, CPU management is essential. The best part is, ProcessTamer runs in the background with little to no intervention required. No setup is needed: Just launch and continue working normally.

ps.
Process Tamer 3 is being planned as we speak.