Topic: Freely available and legal software.

[Nemesis]

I just uploaded more pages to the website.  I still haven't done the OS page(s) yet.  They are next on the to do list for the site.

All pages display properly on Firefox and Opera.  Some have been checked on Konquerer and IE 6.  IE 5 does have issues that I will look at when I work on the CSS (see below).

I did minor fixes to some existing pages and added an E-Mail link at the bottom of each list that should automatically set the subject to indicate the fix/addition is for that sublist.  Feel free to post problems and suggestions here or PM me or use the E-mail links.  I'll do my best to fix the problems and at least consider the suggestions and respond to them.

All pages have passed Xhtml 1.0 strict validation.  The CSS does have some items marked as weak but is compliant, once everything else is done I'll look at strengthening its compliance to eliminate the weak points.

Once the website is up to date with the current Master List I'll look at updating them both with recent suggestions.  That way I can keep both synchronized more easily.  My time constraints wil be continuing at least until after New Years so don't expect fast changes.  Most changes will be posted on a Saturday or Sunday to both the Master list and the Web site.

[Nemesis]

I have the next set of pages ready to validate for the web site but I have had to put it low on my priorty list for now.  Over the next week some time I should be able to validate them and upload. 

Sorry about the delay but the choice between visiting my father in the hospital and validating the web pages you know who wins.  I'm on vacation now until after New Years and once I catch up on the Christmas shopping I'll be able to put a little time into the list. 

[Nemesis]

I've updated the web site.  It should now be fully in sync with the list posted here.  As I get the chance I'll begin to work on updates to both lists of items posted "recently".  I added the Operating Systems sections and slightly modified the CSS which makes it somewhat more compliant with the specification (no errors just some warnings on the validation of the CSS).  Other minor corrections and the "under construction" notice removed.

Now I'm off to continue my Christmas shopping. 

[Sirgod]

You've done as an awesome service here Nemesis. I just wanted to mention our thanks to you once again bro.

Stephen

[Nemesis]

The web page was interesting to do.  Things have changed a lot since I created a homepage on my computer to make it easy to keep my links when upgrading computers or changing the OS.  I always enjoy learning so that was fun .

The list itself has many contributers all of whom (including yourself) deserve credit.  I also benefit from the list.  Mutual benefit is the soul of Open Source software. 

In many ways it resembles the old frontier farmers and their barn raising parties.  The internet is the new frontier and along with the conmen and bandits (spammers  and black hat hackers) are the farmers (Open Source programmers and forum operators) and sherrifs (global moderators ).   Life on the new frontier is much easier than on the old ones.

[Nemesis]

BartPE

What is BartPE and PE Builder?

Bart's PE Builder helps you build a "BartPE" (Bart Preinstalled Environment) bootable Windows CD-Rom or DVD from the original Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 installation/setup CD, very suitable for PC maintenance tasks.

It will give you a complete Win32 environment with network support, a graphical user interface (800x600) and FAT/NTFS/CDFS filesystem support. Very handy for burn-in testing systems with no OS, rescuing files to a network share, virus scan and so on.
This will replace any Dos bootdisk in no time!

Useful as a rescue CD.

[Nemesis]

On one of the other threads here GermzSlap posted the following  program:

Security Toolkit 0.6.37 Beta

The Security Toolkit allows you to create encrypted virtual drives, encrypt your hard drives, USB (flash) drives and CD/DVD’s. Also included is a secure file shredder, Internet & Application History shredder, encrypted password manager, random password creator, spyware remover and more. You can even create your own deletion algorithms and spyware removal routines with the fully scriptable deletion engine. Freeware for non-profit use.

(The second program listed was non free and so I am not adding it to the list).

In the same thread Javora added:

AbsoluteShield File Shredder

Why do you need a File Shredder?

Windows does not physically remove deleted files from your hard disk. Emptying your Recycle Bin does NOT protect you at all. Your sensitive files can be recovered, even after you format your hard disk! When you delete a file from Windows, the OS just marks the file as deleted in the file allocation table, but the data of the file is still on your hard disk. There are many tools available which can let others easily recover your sensitive files even after you format your hard disk.

I hope on this Sunday (or worst case the Sunday after) to dedicate some time to updating the list to make it current.

[E_Look]

Are there any freely available and legal .pdf file converters (and reverse)?

[Nemesis]

Are there any freely available and legal .pdf file converters (and reverse)?

Link to list of pdf software

For the little PDF creating that I need to do I either just use Open Office to save as pdf or use PDFCreator wihich allows me just to "print" to pdf.

[Sirgod]

Found another Game for you, http://frictionalgames.com/penumbra , It looks to be a pretty good horror game.

Stephen

[Nemesis]

For the musically gifted among us.

Frinika

Frinika is an open source (GPL), complete music workstation software for Linux, Windows, Mac OSX Tiger and other operating systems running Java 1.5 (J2SE5.0). It features sequencer, soft-synths, realtime effects and audio recording.

Frinika is compact, self-contained and simple - yet powerful enough to boost your musical creativity.

[Nemesis]

Not exactly software but still I think of interest here.

OER = Open Educational Resources
Link to courseware page

OER Commons is a teaching and learning network of shared materials, from K through college, from algebra to zoology, open to all to use.

Want to find new courses or lesson plans? Lab activities or syllabi that are open to adapt for your own use? Browse Categories or Collections to find what interests you.

[Nemesis]

Thunderbird has an extension that I just became aware of for downloading web based mail.  A set of add ons actually.  One is the main part then you can add additional modules for GMail, Yahoo etc.

Link to WebMail

[Nemesis]

Back on June 8th SkyFlyer sent me this link and due to lack of time (and forgetfulness) I didn't check it out until now.  Sorry for the delay.

XAMPP

Many people know from their own experience that it's not easy to install an Apache web server and it gets harder if you want to add MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use - just download, extract and start.

At the moment there are four XAMPP versions:

    * a version for Linux systems (tested for Ubuntu, SuSE, RedHat, Mandrake and Debian),
    * a version for Windows 98, NT, 2000, 2003, XP and Vista,
    * a beta version for Solaris SPARC (developed and tested under Solaris ,
    * and a beta version for Mac OS X.

This Mac OS X and Solaris versions of XAMPP are still in the first steps of development. Use at you own risk!

[Nemesis]

Death Merchant in another thread posted about Apple porting the Safari browser to Windows.  Link to site.  It is currently beta software so the usual "use at your own risk" is more significant.

[Nemesis]

For the Firefox users out there.

Xultris

Xultris is a Firefox extension developed by mackers that brings Tetris addiction to your favorite browser. Once installed you start it via the Tools (?) menu with options to start a single or two player game, display a background image and a grid to help guide the tetraminoes as they fall.

Like in the original Tetris you can set a starting level and add some junk to the base for additional difficulty.

[Nemesis]

Scientific Linux

Welcome to Scientific Linux (SL)

SL is a Linux release put together by Fermilab, CERN, and various other labs and universities around the world. Its primary purpose is to reduce duplicated effort of the labs, and to have a common install base for the various experimenters.

Q. Where are all the 'science' programs?
Q. Is Scientific Linux better for scientific applications?

A. This linux distribution is called Scientific Linux because it is made by scientific labs, for scientific labs and universities. It is not named Scientific Linux because it has the largest collection of scientific programs. It was named back when it was small, and only the scientific labs were using it.

There are already a variety of Linux versions on the list but because of the origins I thought this one interesting enough to add.

[Nemesis]

Firebug is a Firefox plug in for Web page develping.

Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of web development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

Just the way you like it

Firebug is always just a keystroke away, but it never gets in your way. You can open Firebug in a separate window, or as a bar at the bottom of your browser. Firebug also gives you fine-grained control over which websites you want to enable it for.

Inspect and edit HTML

Firebug makes it simple to find HTML elements buried deep in the page. Once you've found what you're looking for, Firebug gives you a wealth of information, and lets you edit the HTML live.

Tweak CSS to perfection

Firebug's CSS tabs tell you everything you need to know about the styles in your web pages, and if you don't like what it's telling you, you can make changes and see them take effect instantly.

Visualize CSS metrics

When your CSS boxes aren't lining up correctly it can be difficult to understand why. Let Firebug be your eyes and it will measure and illustrate all the offsets, margins, borders, padding, and sizes for you.

[Nemesis]

Stephen sent this link to a page of Flash based games.

[Nemesis]

ISO Recorder

Welcome to the ISO Recorder download page. ISO Recorder is a tool (power toy) for Windows XP, 2003 and now Windows Vista, that allows (depending on the Windows version) to burn CD and DVD images (DVD support is only available on Windows Vista), copy disks, make images of the existing data CDs and DVDs and create ISO images from a content of a disk folder.