The Daily Grind 917 by Mike Gunderloy Monday, July 3, 2006

As you can see, the fall giveaway kicks off today. It's not too late to become a sponsor, or just offer a prize, if you want to join in the fun.

• DocMorph -  Online tool from the National Library of Medicine that converts various file formats (including Word) into PDF, TIFF, plain text, or synthesized speech.
• SpreadsheetGear for .NET 2006 - New version of this Excel-compatible spreadsheet for .NET  includes Windows Forms support and many other new features. 30-day trial download is here, pricing from $799.
• SocketTools .NET Edition 4.5 - 100% managed code classes for adding Internet functionality to your .NET projects. Trial download is here, licensed copy $395.
• Json.NET - Read and write JavaScript JSON objects directly from .NET code. Read more here.
• Smart Client Software Factory - June 2006 - Guidance and Visual Studio extensions to help you build smart clients.
• LLBLGen Pro 2.0 - New release of this n-tier application generator and ORM, with .NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005 support, as well as a whole bunch of other enhancements. Read more here, download the trial here, pricing from Eur 229 per seat.

• Technology Overview: Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 - MS Word document describing the new goodies.
• How to prevent an agile face plant - Steve Eichert reflects on learning in an agile team.
• Should SubText Move to CodePlex - Phil Haack considers the pros and cons. Interestingly, he got a quick answer Answering Questions About CodePlex and TFS on the CodePlex Weblog. Whatever you think of the site, it's nice to see such a responsive team within Microsoft.
• Atlas M2.2 - Dynamic UpdatePanels (finally) - Nikhil Kothari has the scoop on the June update to Atlas.
• Deploying Microsoft .NET Framework Version 3.0 - I'm sure I'll be tearing my hair out over this eventually.

• PayPerPost - New service offering paid product placement services to companies looking to hook up with bloggers. It's getting plenty of bad press in the blogosphere, but I suspect PostBubble has it nailed in "Pay per post isn�t evil, it�s a failure." Scoble takes the extreme position and says reputable journalists don't even accept free review copies. I've worked for a lot of reputable trade magazines in my career and that's a lot of hooey. You'll find my own disclosure statement over on the Guide page.
• Free SmartInspect license for your user group - Got a user group? Get some software.
• Museum of Modern Betas - OK, there are just a scary number of Web 2.0'ish sites in beta these days. (via Ned Batchelder)

Mike Gunderloy is the editor of Larkware, the daily .NET newspaper of record.