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Useful Freebies

Started by Ed, March 23, 2006, 05:35:52 PM

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Ed

http://www.spacejock.com/ several free proggies.  Writers should look at 'Sonar' to keep track of story subs and responses.  Webmasters should maybe take a look at yGen.  Have fun :smiley:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

Ed

yWriter, if you're writing a novel :afro:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

canadian

Cool! Just downloaded Sonar and it looks great ... simple, easy to use.
If people stand in a circle long enough, they will eventually begin to dance. -- George Carlin

Geoff_N

Excellent.

I downloaded Ybook.
Couldn't find where I told it to go, so downloaded another.
Installed and now I read my stories like a book - loads almost instantly really long stories. Change font in a trice - easier than Acrobat or MS Reader.

Thanks Ed

Geoff

Ed

Kewl :afro:

I'm a fan of little programmes like this.  They're so tiny to download, and yet they're so very useful too.  Makes you wonder why the progs by the big companies are so massive :scratch:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

canadian

I've also downloaded BookDB2 (one day when I'm bored, I'll finally get around to cataloguing my book collection!). As you say, blunt, these are lovely small programs that just get on with it and do the job.
If people stand in a circle long enough, they will eventually begin to dance. -- George Carlin

doolols

Aaah, takes me back to the good old days, when you could get a whole database package in 4k of memory, AND have room for some data.

[Wipes away a nostalgic tear, as he surfs the net, plays some music, has 5 MS Word documents open and is showing a live video stream, all at the same time, on something that fits into a (very) small briefcase]

Things certainly ain't what they used to be
My name is Gerald, and I am a writer (practicing for AA - Authors Anonymous)

Geoff_N

I am still impressed with the chess program I typed into my Sinclair ZX81 with its 1 (ONE) k of memory. (Before the 16K RAM pack came). It played a reasonable game of chess too though I could beat it, so not that clever.

G

doolols

You still got that ZX81, Geoff? I had one too. Never had a Spectrum, and progressed (??) onto an Amstrad 1512. Who ever needed more than a single floppy disk drive? And 512k of memory was oodles  :afro:
My name is Gerald, and I am a writer (practicing for AA - Authors Anonymous)

SharonBell

If you use the software, he suggests a donation or subscription to Andromeda Spaceways, which looks like a fun SF mag from down under. And, they take submissions from all over the world! http://www.andromedaspaceways.com/slush.htm#trope
"Be good and you'll be lonesome." Mark Twain

www.sharonbuchbinder.com

Ed

I never had any of those Sinclair or Amiga computers - a few of my friends had them, but their parents were rich.  It all seemed very interesting to me, until I watched my friend write a ton of code onto the screen, which took him about an hour, then press the enter button and get an error message.  A couple hours later he'd have the typo fixed and could run the 'programme' he'd written.  Whoop de doo... a spinning triangle :scratch:

The first thing approaching a PC that I bought was when I was about 22 and I needed a word processor.  Bought a second hand Amstrad (like the one Doolols talks about above) for £300.  Got it home, set it up, switched it on... couldn't work out how to use it, so put it back in a box under the stairs for a year before trying again :grin:

About 12 years ago, I bought my first PC for £1500, with its dot matrix printer and something ridiculous like a 33mhz cpu and 256k of ram, 560k (?) hard drive?  Something like that.  Looking back at how long it took to do anything (egg timer hell) it makes me wonder how I stuck with it. :scratch:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

Geoff_N

Quote from: doolols on March 26, 2006, 06:58:14 PM
You still got that ZX81, Geoff?

I have! It worked last time I hooked it up to a TV a year ago.

My BBC Master packed up years ago.

Yes, Ed, all that typing in code from mags could be frustrating unless you accepted the challenge of detecting the typos.  My party piece was a one line program that simulated the nature of river meanders via the principle of least effort meandering fluidity. (making a dot do an endless wobbly LOL)

Using Visual Basic doesn't give me the same frontier-buzz...

Geoff

Ed

If only I knew how those little bits of code could multiply to swell a person's bank balance later down the line, though ::)  A friend of mine stuck with it and started writing simple games.  By the third year of comprehensive IBM were sending a limo to pick him up from school and drive him to work every evening.  Needless to say, he's extremely wealthy now.
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

Geoff_N

That's where I went wrong. I wrote loads of programs for both the ZX 81 and Spectrum and for the BBC series then later in RM BASIC. They were all educational games and statistics utilities. I sold some but hardly sufficient for a limo to replace my bike!

Geoff