Dennis Faas

Synopsis: Are you an information freak? Do you visit your favorite websites 2, 3, 4, or more times a day eagerly waiting for news and other updates to appear? Keeping an eye on a list of your favorite sites can not only be time consuming, but also ... confusing (and frustrating)! If this sounds all too familiar, then you should give DeltaSpy a try. With DeltaSpy, you can monitor your favorite websites and be notified only when there is new content available. And best of all: when you visit the web site using DeltaSpy's built in web browser, the new information is highlighted so you don't waste ... (view more)

Today's article was submitted by Bill Hudgins and is the 1st Place Winner of our Editorial Contest . The original article was put forward by one of our contributors (Sheila Foss), only a few days before the contest began. With Sheila's permission, I ... edited the article to include erroneous mistakes and later used the composition as the inspiration for the contest. If you would like to compare the contest article before reviewing the winning submission [below], you can do so by clicking here (recommended). Without further adieu, here is the Bill Hudgins' version of the article, "Make it a ... (view more)

An application programming interface (API) is the interface that an application provides in order to allow requests for service to be made of it by other computer programs, and/or to allow data to be exchanged between them. For instance, a computer ... program can (and often must) use its operating system's API to allocate memory and access files. Many types of systems and applications implement API's, such as graphics systems, databases, networks, web services, and even some computer games. API: Description One of the primary purposes of an API is to provide access to a set of commonly-used ... (view more)

Synopsis: Got any 'oldies but goodies' stored away on records and tapes? Wish you could port those precious memories over to a more robust medium, like CD or iPod (MP3 player)? With Acoustica Spin It Again -- you can! Dust off your old 33's and ... 45's, because Spin It Again can rip through your old vinyl records and cassettes and convert them to CD or MP3 format in no time flat! Not only can Spin It Again split an entire album recording into individual tracks automatically, but it can also clean the sound by getting rid of click and pop record noise, and by removing the hiss and hum off old ... (view more)

As promised, today's newsletter will announce the winners of our Editorial Contest. To recap: On September 23rd , I announced that infopackets would be opening its doors and allow new contributors to submit articles to our audience of 250,000 ... Readers. On November 30th , a contest was held (lasting only 5 days) for a seat on our Editing Team. From that point forward, I've been implementing many changes to the web server to accommodate our new contributors and editors. Moving on -- With so many volunteers cramming for a seat on the Editing Team, I knew it was going to be difficult trying to ... (view more)

A plugin (or "plug-in") is a computer program that interacts with another program to provide a certain function. Typical examples of plugins include: a web browser plugin (such as "adobe acrobat reader"), a program to display specific graphic ... formats (such as "video codecs" for Windows Media Player), and the like. Plugins are slightly different from program extensions, which modify or add to existing functionality. The main difference is that plugins generally do not change a user interface and run within well-defined boundary; comparatively, extensions generally ... (view more)

Last week was a very busy week for me. I spent an obscene amount of time writing a plugin for the new publishing system ("Movable Type") so that our Editing Team would be alerted (via an RSS feed ) when a new draft article has been submitted by our ... Team of Bloggers . My notification plugin, aptly named "RSS Draft Notify", is used in conjunction with another plugin (called " Workflow "). In a nutshell: the Workflow plugin changes the dynamics of the publishing system (Movable Type) such that "Contributors" may only submit draft articles, while " ... (view more)

Synopsis: Need a way to run a CD or DVD directly from the hard drive? CD Anywhere is a powerful CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive emulator that allows you to emulate up to 23 virtual CD/DVD-ROM drives. And because the CD image is stored / read directly from the ... hard drive, data transfer is *significantly* faster than running a program straight from CD or DVD -- just imagine what it would be like to own a 200x CD-ROM drive! With CD Anywhere, you can also create image files from CD or DVD, burn CD image files to a disc with the built-in burner, erase CD-RW discs, and many other useful functions. CD Anywhere ... (view more)

Movable Type is a proprietary weblog publishing system developed by a Californian-based company, called "Six Apart". Movable Type is widely used and supports most popular weblogging features, including: user accounts, comments, TrackBacks, ... categories, and themes, and is extensible through a large library of third-party plug-ins. The TrackBack feature was actually originated by Six Apart, and version 2.2 of Movable Type was the first weblog publishing software to include support for it. Movable Type is free of charge for a single author, and paid licenses are available to allow more ... (view more)

Today's issue of the Gazette is a synopsis of what's been happening with our web site. On November 25th , I wrote an article which asked for volunteers to edit article submissions from our team of Bloggers . The response to that article was so ... strong (with over 120 candidates volunteering to lend a hand), I decided on November 30th that it would be best to host a contest for a seat in our Editing Team. The contest was simple enough: edit a sample article and correct it to the best of your ability. The contest deadline was very brief and ended December 5th (lasting only 5 days); as expected, ... (view more)