Donationware | Hillel Stoler (and other cool stuff)

Archive for the 'Donationware' Category

Interviewed @ Successful Software

Yes, we're using the same theme.

Successful Software just featured an interview with me about donationware and about my free software: GetSocial & GetSocial Live.

Successful Software is a blog about MicroISV life. It’s authored by Andy Brice, creator of PerfectTablePlan and a man who actually write software for a living (as opposed to fighting his way up the corporate ladder from nine to five every day).

His blog is usually very interesting (well, if your in the software industry), and it’s an honor to be featured there.

Check it out: Donationware – An interview with Hillel Stoler of GetSocial

PERMALINK / SHORTLINK

GetSocial Live: a cross-platform social bookmarking widget for WordPress.com

Published Wednesday, October 21, 2009 Blogging , Creative , Donationware , GetSocial , GetSocial Live , getsociallive.com , Social Bookmarking , Software Development , Web Design , Wordpress.com 22 Comments
Tags: AdSense, Cross-platform, GetSocial for Mac, Hillel Stoler, Javascript

GetSocial is now a web service!
It works with PC, Mac & Linux and no download is required:

getsociallive.com

I’ve just launched a new (and very special) version of GetSocial:
GetSocial Live is a web service that generates script-less social bookmarking toolbars for your WordPress.com blog. It’s fast, extremely easy to use and absolutely free!

Here’s an example of what you’ll get:

GetSocial for Mac
GetSocial Live is similar to good ol’ GetSocial, but it offers only the basic functionality of the Windows application. On the other hand, it’s got some huge benefits too:

1. GetSocial Live supports every OS and every web browser (Mac users, this time I totally came through for you!).

2. No download is required.

3. GetSocial Live will be centrally updated (so you will always use the latest version).

How can you help?
GetSocial is free, but manufacturing and maintaining it sure isn’t!

You can help by donating (even in Euros and Pounds) – Contributors of 25 USD or more will receive a 50 USD worth* promotional Google AdWords coupon code for free!

I’ve also embedded some Google AdSense into GetSocial Live, and while Google policies forbid me from directly encouraging clicks – I’ll merely say: CLICK ON THOSE ADS!!!!!!

If you like (or even if you just use) GetSocial – tell your friends about it! Post about GetSocial/GetSocial Live, add getsociallive.com to your blogroll, share getsociallive.com via social networks and generally let people know that there is a new social bookmarking service in town!

Known issues:
‘Copy to clipboard’ will only work with IE. FF and chrome users need to right-click and copy the code manually…

Check out GetSocial Live!

* The coupon code is only valid for new (less than 14 days old) Google AdWords accounts. The coupon marked value is 200 NIS, actual value in USD may vary. Available while supplies last.

PERMALINK / SHORTLINK

Get social with GetSocial 1.04

Published Tuesday, September 22, 2009 Blogging , Donationware , GetSocial , hillelstoler.com , Social Bookmarking , Software Development , Wordpress.com 1 Comment
Tags: Blinklist, Del.icio.us, Digg, Email to a Friend, Facebook, Hillel Stoler, Newsvine, Press This, Reddit, Stumbleupon, Technorati, Twitter, Yahoo! Buzz

GetSocial 1.04 – new and improved :)

There is a new version of GetSocial, what are you waiting for? Go get it now!

What is GetSocial?
GetSocial is a slick application that will help you add Social Bookmarking buttons to your WordPress.com blog! It’s fast, reliable, user friendly and absolutely free! :)

What’s new in version 1.04?
Well, there are all sorts of neat stuff:

Yahoo Buzz: Diigo.com purchased and then scrapped furl.net , so a free spot became available in the GetSocial toolbar. It was rapidly occupied by a shiny new Yahoo Buzz button (via AddToAny).

3rd party functionality: GetSocial 1.04 can generate AddThis & AddToAny buttons in a snap! Also, ‘Email to a friend’ and ‘Press This’ buttons are now available (via AddToAny).

Try it:

Press This

Email to a friend

Technorati Fix: GetSocial 1.04 is fully adapted to the modifications that were implemented by the Technorati team.

Better SEO: GetSocial 1.04 marks all outgoing links as nofollow. It’s okay if you don’t know what I’m talking about :)

Optimization: Some tweaks and a smaller executable, as usual.

Where can I download GetSocial?
You can always find the latest version of GetSocial here.

How can I help?
Make a donation, give as much (or as little) as you want :)

Contributors of 25 USD or more will receive a 50 USD worth* promotional Google AdWords coupon code for free!

* The coupon code is only valid for new (less than 14 days old) Google AdWords accounts. The coupon marked value is 200 NIS, actual value in USD may vary. Available while supplies last.

PERMALINK / SHORTLINK

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger: GetSocial 1.03 is here!

Published Thursday, February 26, 2009 Blogging , Creative , Donationware , GetSocial , Social Bookmarking , Software , Software Development , Wordpress.com 30 Comments
Tags: Add To.., Blinklist, CSS, Del.icio.us, Digg, Facebook, Free Software, Furl, Hillel Stoler, Newsvine, PLEW Bug, Reddit, Stumbleupon, Technorati, Twitter

Oh boy, have I got some neat stuff for you today – GetSocial 1.03 is ready, and it’s jam-packed with new stuff, go get it now!

What is GetSocial?
GetSocial is a program I’ve made, that will generate social bookmarking toolbars for your blog or website within seconds! Because it makes pure HTML code without scripts, GetSocial is the ideal social bookmarking solution for WordPress.com bloggers. Oh, and it’s also absolutely free!

What’s better in GetSocial 1.03?

Add to Twitter
I’ve considered replacing the Ma.gnolia button with either Twitter or Yahoo! Buzz, but apparently there was nothing to consider: Twitter it is! I’ve decided to go with the following twitting format: “Title @ Permalink”.

Character limit handling
Twitter has a 140 characters limitation, so I’ve designed GetSocial to handle long inputs when necessary. Realizing that your link is the most important bit of information, the title will be automatically trimmed if the total length of the message is too long. If there’s only enough room for 5 characters of title or less, only the permalink will be sent to Twitter. Note that your permalinks will never be trimmed, even when the link itself is longer than 140 characters.

Inspired by the Twitter thingy, I’ve also added auto handling for Digg (which has a 60 characters limit for its title field).

Permalink verification & Automatic error correction
Okay, I’m officially sick and tired of this bug in WordPress.com where you get the permalink all messed up if you copy it from the edit window (the PLEW bug). The first thing I did with the new version of GetSocial was to add a permalink check feature. This (optional) feature pings your website while making the toolbar, and makes sure that the permalink you’ve entered actually exists.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to solve the permalink bug because WordPress.com generates error pages, so if you’ve got the domain name right, there is no (simple) way for the program to know that the post address is correct.

This is why I’ve also added a special algorithm that detects and autocorrects permalinks that are affected by the PLEW bug. This is a heuristic algorithm, but tests have shown very high (>95%) rates of success in detecting and repairing affected permalinks.

Support for CSS effects
If you’ve got the CSS upgrade from WordPress, you’re going to love this! With GetSocial 1.03 you can easily add special graphic effects to your GetSocial buttons, simply by pasting some CSS code to your blog.

For example (Internet Explorer only):

(Hover your mouse over this toolbar and see what happens)

CSS Code:

#primary .getsocial img {
filter:gray
}
#primary .getsocial a:hover img {
opacity:1;filter:alpha(opacity=100)
}

Add the above code to your blog’s CSS, and your GetSocial buttons will appear in B&W. When visitors to your blog will hover over them with the mouse – they will change to full color. There are tons of other effects you can make, but if you want to support browsers like Firefox you can only use alpha effects (you can find an example at the bottom of this post).

Text links
In additional to the regular buttons, GetSocial is now capable of producing a text-only version of the social bookmarking toolbar:

Better support for Mozilla Firefox and Google chrome
Your toolbars will now have tooltips for Firefox/Chrome in addition to the previously available tooltips of Internet Explorer.

Code and image optimization
I’ve managed to remove a few extra bytes from the images GetSocial puts in your blog, and there are also 5 new mirrors for the images. Some tweaking I’ve done also slightly reduced the size of the GetSocial executable (so this time you’re actually getting more for less!)

As usual, I’ll be absolutely delighted if you’ll click either one of these buttons (preferably both!):

PERMALINK / SHORTLINK

Doctor Tray – Open & Close your CD/DVD/Blu-Ray with a keyboard hotkey

Published Thursday, January 22, 2009 Creative , Doctor Tray , Donationware , Media Center , Software , Software Development 9 Comments
Tags: Blu-Ray, CD-ROM, Close, DVD, DVDA, Eject, Free Software, Hillel Stoler, Keyboard Shortcuts, Open, Screenshot, Tray

UPDATE (April 20, 2009): If you’re looking for an easy way to open and close your disc drive (CD, DVD or Blu-Ray) with a keyboard shortcut of your choice, Doctor Tray is perfect for you! It’s fast reliable easy to use and absolutely free. Go get Doctor Tray!

Doctor Tray (DVDA) is a new windows application that will enable you to open and close your disc drive(s) using keyboard shortcuts. It is generally intended for media centers, where the user is usually far from the computer, but will probably prove to be just as useful for normal desktops. Doctor Tray supports systems with up to three optical drives, and works with CD-ROM, DVD and Blu-Ray disc drives. As usual, it’s 100% free – download it now!

Screenshot of Doctor Tray v1.00

The works
With doctor tray you’ll be able to define keyboard shortcuts of your choice for each drive operation, and also control your system drives using the mouse. As with GetSocial, I’ve made some serious efforts in order to make Doctor Tray as simple, intuitive and easy to use as possible with a non click wheel product :)

About Doctor Tray
A friend of mine bought a dedicated multimedia computer for his living room. He’s using an infra red remote keyboard & mouse to control this computer from the comfort of his couch and asked me if I could make a program that will allow him to open and close his Blu-Ray door using a keyboard shortcut. I’ve made DVDA (DVD Assistant) which was later renamed “Doctor Tray”.

How does it work?
After you download Doctor Tray (which is 100% Virus/Adware/Whatever free), extract and run Dvda.exe (No Installation is needed, but you will need to have Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 installed: nothing a quick visit to Windows Update won’t solve).

Free software?
Doctor Tray is a donationware, which means you can use (and share) it for free & for as long as you like (you can’t sell it or tell people you’ve made it yourself though). It is neither limited nor crippled in any way. If you use/like it, please show your love by giving me a kiss or by donating 5.00 USD (why five?) Thanks! :)

Download DoctorTray.zip (109KB) here.

PERMALINK / SHORTLINK

GetSocial 1.01

Published Monday, June 2, 2008 Creative , Donationware , GetSocial , Social Bookmarking , Software , Software Development , Technology , Wordpress.com 25 Comments
Tags: AddThis.com, Blinklist, Del.icio.us, Digg, Facebook, Free Software, Furl, future-old-release, GetSocial, Hillel Stoler, Ma.gnolia, Newsvine, Reddit, Stumbleupon, Technorati, Update

GetSocial v1.01 (huh?) is now available! It’s exactly the same as good old version 1.00 except that the image border/padding issue that occurs in some WordPress.com themes is now resolved. Download GetSocial v1.01 now!

If for some reason you really need the first release (version 1.00), or any other future-old-release(tm) you can always get every version of GetSocial here.

UPDATE (June 23, 2008): GetSocial v1.02 is now available. Go get it!

PERMALINK / SHORTLINK

GetSocial – Social Bookmarking for WordPress.com

Published Sunday, May 18, 2008 Creative , Donationware , GetSocial , Social Bookmarking , Software , Software Development , Technology , Wordpress.com 167 Comments
Tags: 5$, Add To.., AddThis, AddThis.com, Blinklist, Del.icio.us, Digg, Facebook, Free Software, Furl, GetSocial, Hillel Stoler, Ma.gnolia, Newsvine, Reddit, Screenshot, Stumbleupon, Technorati, Wizard Interface

GetSocial is made especially for WordPress.com bloggers. It automatically generates a (specially designed) social bookmarking toolbar for each one of your posts. This is a 100% scriptless way to create social bookmarking links, which makes it a perfect solution for wordpress.com users. It is also based on a 3 step wizard interface which is very friendly and easy to use. Oh, and it’s 100% free!

Download GetSocial now:

Great, but what is a Social Bookmarking toolbar anyway?
Well, here are some fine examples (made with GetSocial v1.00) – Try it!

Screenshot of GetSocial v1.00

How does it work?
After you download GetSocial (which is 100% Virus/Adware/Whatever free!), Extract and run GetSocial.exe (No Installation is needed, but you will need to have Microsoft .net framework 2.0 installed: nothing a quick visit to Windows Update won’t solve).

You can then select between adding Social Bookmarks to a post or an AddThis.com button to your blog (more on that later). You will need to enter a permalink to your post (which is the web address of your post) and the title of your post.

Click next and select your preferred type of Social Networking toolbar design (there are four of them!), after you get your code, paste it to your post (while in HTML Edit mode) and that’s it! Sounds difficult? Try it, and see for yourself just how easy it is! :)

UPDATE (July 23, 2008): Teck, from the Teck~Line blog, wrote a post about how to use GetSocial here.

UPDATE (August 24, 2008): Lee Aase, from Social Media University Global (SMUG), made a YouTube movie about using GetSocial – watch it!

Free software?
GetSocial is a donationware, which means you can use (and share) it for free for as long as you like (you can’t sell it or tell people you’ve made it yourself though). It is neither limited nor crippled in any way. If you use/like it, consider donating 5.00 USD (you can do it!) to the author of the software (that’s me!) Thanks :)

What did you say about AddThis.com earlier?
GetSocial lets you create an AddThis.com button for your blog as a whole. It is a little known fact, but when you put an AddThis.com button in your blog’s sidebar (even if you selected ‘WordPress’ when you generated the code on their website) your button will not link to your blog, instead it will link to the AddThis.com website! This is due to scripting limitations on wordpress.com that removes important parts of the script. I have found this error on every single AddThis.com button I’ve seen on wordpress.com so far!

UPDATE (May 19, 2008): Netty Gritty wrote a good article about the AddThis.com problem here.

How to check if my AddThis.com button links to my blog?
It’s very simple really: click it, and on the Bookmark & Share page click on ‘Favorites’ (See photo). This will add a website to your browsers favorites – if it’s your blog then everything is okay, but if it adds AddThis.com then everyone who ever used it promoted AddThis.com, and not your blog!

The good news: GetSocial can fix this for you in no time :)

What else?
Enjoy GetSocial!

Oh, and one more thing, GetSocial is not affiliated in any way with WordPress.com, AddThis.com or any of the Social Bookmarking providers.

Download GetSocial.zip here.

UPDATE (June 02, 2008): I’ve received some requests regarding a spacing/border issue in some WordPress.com themes. A new version, GetSocial 1.01, resolves these issues. Every download link in this post has been set to point to the most recent version of GetSocial. Scope this.

UPDATE (October 21, 2009): There is a new cross-platform on-line version of GetSocial. No download is needed, and it will work with every OS (Yes, it will work on a Mac). It’s called GetSocial Live, and it’s fast, easy to use and free! GetSocial Live is always up to date and currently features the latest Twitter and Yahoo Buzz buttons, read all about it here.

PERMALINK / SHORTLINK

	zpwytglyd on Guestbook
	reading on GetSocial – Social Bookm…
	playstation 2 cheat… on GetSocial – Social Bookm…
	Rueben on GetSocial – Social Bookm…
	vnihgbynp on Guestbook

Hillel Stoler (and other cool stuff)

Archive for the 'Donationware' Category

Interviewed @ Successful Software

Doctor Tray – Open & Close your CD/DVD/Blu-Ray with a keyboard hotkey

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Archive for the 'Donationware' Category

* The coupon code is only valid for new (less than 14 days old) Google AdWords accounts. The coupon marked value is 200 NIS, actual value in USD may vary. Available while supplies last.

* The coupon code is only valid for new (less than 14 days old) Google AdWords accounts. The coupon marked value is 200 NIS, actual value in USD may vary. Available while supplies last.

What’s better in GetSocial 1.03?

Welcome!

Visitors Since April 1st, 2008

Free Subscriptions

That’s what SHE said!

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