Free Software

 

 

I make most of my money writing software.  From time to time I need a utility program which I can’t find elsewhere, so I write it.  Here are some that I use all of the time, and that you might find useful.

 

I’m always interested in unusual programming challenges: let me know if you need assistance with custom software.

 

BTW, most of these programs will not work well if you have Large Fonts enabled on your desktop…

 

I write all of my software in Borland’s Delphi (Pascal for Windows).  Unfortunately, this software will not run on the Mac or under any Unix variants unless you can provide a 32-bit Windows emulation box in which it can live.

 

Some people have experienced problems downloading the files below.  The downloads terminate prematurely and the resulting files are corrupted.  Since only some people have these problems, it is not clear where the bug is; it seems unlikely that it is a bug in the server.  In any event, if you want any of the software and are unable to download it, please email me at jbondy@sover.net and tell me which software you want and I will send it to you by email.

 

 

Clipper

 

I often find myself filling in the same forms with the same values, over and over again.  Whether it’s an address or boilerplate for something I’m writing, I kept needing a way to grab the same text, over and over again, quickly.

 

The Clipper program stuffs text into the clipboard.  You create a text file (like ADDRESS.TXT), enter some text into the file (like your name, address, phone, email, etc), and then tell the Clipper program about that file.  The result is a series of buttons, one for each text file, which stuffs the clipboard with a single mouse click.

 

You can download the Clipper Setup program here (250 KB).

 

Duplicate Picture Finder

 

At one point, I felt as if I had too many pictures on my computer.  I wondered how many of the pictures were duplicates, copied from place to place thoughtlessly.  I wrote the Duplicate Picture Finder program to try to cull out the duplicates.  This program will not only find exact duplicates, it can find near-duplicates.  This means that two pictures that are the same, but differ in brightness can be matched.  It can also match two pictures which differ only slightly (say two pictures of the same person in the same pose (more or less), only with their head turned).

 

Once the duplicates are matched, you can move or delete the duplicates.

 

You can download the Duplicate Picture Finder program here (820 KB).

 

Image Viewer

 

I had a favorite image viewer when I used Windows 3.1.  It ran under Windows 95 and Windows 98, but Windows 2000 seemed to kill it dead.  I re-wrote it from scratch. 

 

The main focus is on displaying images quickly, wasting as little screen real estate as possible on program controls.  I then added what I thought were the minimal tools I needed to “tweak” pictures.  That “minimal” list became quite large after a while. 

 

You can crop the image by dragging the mouse from one edge of the crop to the other. You can pan the image with the right mouse button.

 

The most useful features are the “Make White” and “Make Black/White” features.  In the former case, you click on a single point which you know to have been white originally: the program makes it white.  This usually makes any image much more “punchy”.  It also has the side effect of removing color casts in a single click.  Here is a before-and-after sequence: it took three clicks to make these changes:

 

 

 

The “Make Black/White” feature allows you specify white and black spots on the image, and the brightness and contrast are calculated automatically.

 

This is the program I use the most: I use it all of the time.

 

You can download the Image Viewer program here (600 KB).

 

Stirling Engine Simulators

 

You may have read about my interest in Stirling (hot air) engines.  My friend Ralph Lemnah and I have designed and built a few of them, but before we started cutting chips, I wrote some simulators, just to get a feel for the physics involved.  These are not sophisticated simulations, but they can help one understand how Stirling engines work.  Lots of graphs showing temperatures and pressures, while the engine animation moves around: cute.  A bit of a work in progress: there are a few rough edges here.  Simulations for the Ringbom, Gamma, and Rider configurations are provided.

 

You can download the Stirling Engine Simulators program here (2 MB)

 

The above simulators are “uncalibrated”. That is, the dimensions are not given in inches, or meters; they are dimensionless.  Because of this, the power output is not in watts or horsepower: it is dimensionless.  This makes the simulations interesting, but not useful for engineering.

 

I am working on a more accurate simulation for Ringbom engines, based on the work of James Senft.  It is not ready for prime time yet, but when it is, it will appear here.  If you need a pre-release copy, please email me at jbondy@sover.net.

 

Engine Tachometer and Dynamometer

 

This is a specialty item, but if you have a working Stirling engine and need to monitor its speed (RPM); or need to balance the engine; or need to measure the power generated by the engine, then this software may be useful to you.  Given an old CD-ROM, two resistors, a cheap mail order sensor, and a little fabrication time, you can use any computer with a microphone input to acquire and display this kind of data.  This program is working, but not yet validated.  That is, I presume it to provide accurate output, but no one has been able to confirm this for me.  Please download the software, read the Help file, and let me know what you think.

 

You can download the Tachometer/Dynamometer program here (1.5 MB)

 

Steganography

 

Steganography is the science of hiding information.  Traditionally, this has been the province of spies and counter spies.  I started playing with this when I ran across what appeared to be a hidden message in an image I was viewing.  The program I wrote is not a useful tool for spies, but it will help you understand a few ways information can be hidden in images.  You will be able to send secret messages to your friends when you are finished, for all the good it will do you.

 

You can download the Steganography program here (1.2 MB).

 

 

 

Please send any comments to jbondy@sover.net.