This is basically a wiki system that has been specialized (slightly in function, mostly in content) to provide information comparing similar things.  For example, if you are interested in the difference between "brass" and "bronze", or between "disinfecting" and "sterilizing".

What is Diffen?

Diffen is a free collection of comparisons that people all over the world help write and maintain.

Diffen is informational:
What is the difference between DVD+R and DVD-R? What is the difference between a pub and a bar? An alligator and a crocodile? What is the difference between 401(k) and IRA? Treasuries and bonds? AMD Turion and Athlon processors? How is a Pentium Core 2 Duo different from Pentium Dual Core? How does the work environment at IBM compare with working at Microsoft? How does living in Seattle compare with living in Amsterdam? What is the difference between a Plasma TV and an LCD TV? Cal Tech and UCLA? Yankees and the Red Sox? Diffen can help you find (and write!) all these comparisons and more.

http://www.diffen.com/

A DC member writes to us about his software:

"I want to recommend you about new software called LangOver.
You can download it for FREE from here:
http://www.LangOver.com

LangOver 5.0 - is a freeware that helps when you tried to type in one language but the result was in another... Annoying, eh?! That's because the keyboard layout was in a wrong language, and you forgot to use "ALT+SHIFT"... NO MORE! With LangOver 5.0 you'll be able to convert your text quickly between languages. Just click "F10" and your text will be fixed! LangOver 5 is free and Supports ANY language!

'F10'        Change language
'Shift+F10'       UpperLower Case
'F6'       Reverse a text
'Control+G'       Search in Google
'Control+T'       Translation New!

thanks, Oded"

A DC member writes in to tell us about his new program:

"Hi all,
Text Filter is a simple, lightweight yet powerful software program that lets you browse, search and filter text files with ease..

Text lines are filtered when you type search terms, with all matched texts highlighted.

An Animated Demo:
http://www.musetips.com/demo.html

Home Page:
http://www.musetips.com

Post Your Suggestions/Comments Here:
http://www.musetips.com/suggestions.html

Any comments will be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance!"

Wibiya is a great, free toolbar utility, that you can add to any website, blog, or forum, quickly and easily.

The toolbar itself, is not like the one's you will be thinking about (The one's that fill up the top of Internet Explorer).  Instead, it is one, that sits at the bottom of your website (The pages you choose to put it on) and can be minimized by the user.

With handy utilities like the 'Facebook Like' button, Google Translate, Games, Share and Chat (And much more), that do not take the user off your website, your visitors will have even more reason to come back, day after day.

Tom Vassel of the Dice Tower Begins his YouTube Series: Top 100 Board Games of all Time

Fans of board games have probably watched Tom Vassel's great board game review videos.  He's done best-of-the year roundups before, but this video series discussing his Top 100 Board games of all Time is bound to be great.

From reading Eric Raymond and Richard Stallman, i'm starting to get a better feel for the different philosophies behind some of the driving forces of the Open Source movement, and i'm starting to see where i don't fit in, and why.

This is a caricature but i think it captures key points:

Eric Raymond^w: Open Source is a much more efficient and financially profitable way to develop great software.  Large companies can make more money from Open Source software and it leads to better software; since most programmers and companies don't try to sell their software and are hired to produce internal software, most programmers will not be affected jobwise.  The small minority of people who create software in hopes of selling it are out of luck and cannot survive in such a model.

Richard Stallman^w: All software should be Open Source, where it can be modified and distributed as users see fit.  This gives the most freedom to the users of the software.  This may make it impossible for software authors to make a living creating software, while helping middlemen and large corporations to make big profits by providing distribution, consulting, marketing, and support.  This is ok because it's not important whether programmers can make money creating software, only that software users have the freedom to modify and share code.  People should donate to support Open Source projects, but it isn't that important -- if programmers can no longer make a living from creating software that is ok -- they can always get consulting jobs if they need money.

I'm still trying to nail down my own personal philosophy about this stuff, but i think it's something like this:

• As a community, the best solution in terms of maximizing happiness, satisfaction, freedom, and security, occurs when we have the freedom to modify the programs we use and when we can pay what we want for them, *AND* when we support the programmers who create such software, financially and in other ways -- such that these programmers and artists can devote themselves to the creation of content for their users, instead of try to find indirect, convoluted, and compromised ways to get their work funded by corporations with ulterior motives.
• The key is that it is the mutual compact, in terms of users directly supporting/financing the programmers/artists, which is essential in my mind, in creating a sustainable healthy system that leads to the maximum benefit for all; the more direct the relationship the more beneficial the resulting system.
• Simply advocating an Open Source future is *not* sufficient to get us to such an ecosystem.  Indeed it seems that the market forces embracing Open Source are incentivized to explicitly avoid such an ecosystem, and our cultural biases are antagonistic to this concept of voluntarily donating to support software (music, art, etc.)  if it is free/opensource.  A much more serious cultural shift is required within the Open Source and Artistic communicty is needed if we want to see such an ecosystem thrive.