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Author Topic: Useful/Fun/Interesting Program database  (Read 14783 times)

piecewise

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Useful/Fun/Interesting Program database
« on: April 25, 2010, 07:14:01 pm »

THE USEFUL, FUN AND INTERESTING PROGRAM DATABASE

There are a lot of useful, cool or otherwise interesting programs out there, so many that it becomes hard to keep tabs on them all. So rather then spending hours sifting through the Internet and various software sights looking for the few gold nuggets I propose that we keep a list of everything we've found in our individual journey's through cyberspace. If you wish to contribute simply tell us about a program you know and include a link to where we can get our hands on it. You can include examples like screenshots or video as well if you like. So, without further ado lets get started. I'll post a few of my favorites just to get things running.

The work of N Fyre
Various neat little programs such as a "Cult symbol generator" and a "popup maker" as well as prank programs to cause all sorts of annoying effects to your friends.

http://www.nfyre.com/programs.html

Electric sheep
Probably the best screen saver ever, electric sheep uses a fractal animation combined with "breeding" to create some truly beautiful works of mathematic art.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e7lPYTIaRQ
http://community.electricsheep.org/

RPG City Map Generator
A neat little program that allows you to randomly generate city maps of wildly varying size and complexity, everything from tiny hamlets to entire modern cities. Quite easy to use as well.

http://www.stargazersworld.com/2009/02/27/roleplaying-city-map-generator/

The works of DonJon
Literally dozens of extremely useful tools for the DM or fantasy lover. Includes dungeon,weather, name, item and world generators with many different variables each.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
http://donjon.bin.sh/

Audio surf
Sort of like a combination of f-zero and guitar hero and Rez in which the music you choose determines the layout of the track you're on. THE COLORS MAN,THE COLORS
http://www.audio-surf.com/


Rainmeter
A neat little application that allows you to run thousands of applications on your desktop to do things like track core temp of the pc, network traffic, battery life, cpu usage and even keep up on the news. I use it myself and it's pretty nice.
http://rainmeter.net/RainCMS/


Algodoo and Phun
2 programs that are basically the same thing, but Algodoo is more in-depth and cost roughly 50 bucks while phun is slightly less advanced and is free. They're physics simulators that allow the manipulation of several different effects like springs, gears, liquids and solids.Strong user base of people who can do shit x1000 times better then you.
BEST UNDERSTOOD WHEN SEEN IN MOTION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-Aplr8nijM&feature=fvst
www.algodoo.com/ and www.phunland.com/
Algomusic
A program that takes user input, specifically a word or phrase, and makes music out of it. Some of the music is actually quite good for being random.
http://www.wikihost.org/w/doodleblog/dunc_s_algomusic

Interactive toys
Little apps that are fun but generally have no real use outside of entertainment value. The possible exception is that Of Neave's "Flash earth" which allows for simultaneous viewing of several different map systems such as nasa world maps and google earth.
http://mrdoob.com/
http://www.zefrank.com
http://www.neave.com/

Dust and Powder games
Games which use the interaction of different particles as their main method of gameplay. The ones I recommend are Burning sand 2 and Danball's Dust.

http://dan-ball.jp/en/javagame/dust/
http://siebn.de/burningsand/bs2
Make sure to check out these awesome mods for Burning sand 2 (I actually wrote the planet descriptions in the preflash Omni.)
http://fallingsandgame.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=7137
http://fallingsandgame.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8096
http://powder.unaligned.org/

Universe Sandbox
Basically a universe gravity simulator more then a true sand box, but still pretty fun. Can simulate some pretty complex systems as well as just looking pretty.

http://universesandbox.com/

Notepad++
Its note pad with a bunch of other useful features, mainly geared toward programing and the like
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

RainyMood
Website for when you want to listen to the rain. 30 minute rain sound loop.
RainyMood.com

Bumptop
A program that allows your desktop to act more like the top of your desk, eg be very very messy. Basically makes your desktop into a physics simulator and your icons into "paper" for you to fling about. The official site went down a while ago but Aklyon has been nice enough to reup the free version of the program.

http://www.mediafire.com/?dljmjumdw3u

« Last Edit: May 27, 2010, 10:17:51 pm by piecewise »
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Supermikhail

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Re: Useful/Fun/Interesting Program database
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2010, 01:17:10 pm »

Bringing out my "Things for an aspiring fantasy writer" basket. Pretty handy stuff. Also, posting to watch.
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Outcast Orange

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Re: Useful/Fun/Interesting Program database
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2010, 02:31:34 pm »

Audiosurf fits in well with this list,
 so does Rainmeter.
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piecewise

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Re: Useful/Fun/Interesting Program database
« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2010, 02:50:58 pm »

Audiosurf fits in well with this list,
 so does Rainmeter.
Done and done

Supermikhail

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Re: Useful/Fun/Interesting Program database
« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2010, 08:32:21 am »

Being broke and living on a Linux is tough.
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EagleV

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Re: Useful/Fun/Interesting Program database
« Reply #5 on: April 27, 2010, 09:51:10 am »

I'd like to add 'Phun' and 'Algodoo' to the list, two physics sandbox games. The first demo video is here, but there are thousands of user-created ones as well. Phun is the free beta version of Algodoo, but the latter has a free trial as well. Oh, and Supermikhail, this is on Linux too ;)
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Re: Useful/Fun/Interesting Program database
« Reply #6 on: April 27, 2010, 05:46:45 pm »

 There was a thread here on it, but still, Dunc's Algomusic. And Life too.
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Re: Useful/Fun/Interesting Program database
« Reply #7 on: April 27, 2010, 06:06:11 pm »

Similar to that life link, there is MCell, an old windows program with support for countless rules sets(even support for very unusual ones, through external .dll files), but it hasn't been updated in 5 years, and freezes if you flood-fill something with it's own colour(as the flood-fill fills over itself perpetually)

Supposedly it is somewhat slow, but in my opinion at least, it is faster than many web-based implementations and it's rich features more than compensates. (It comes with 315 rules 13 ways to create your own. Also, a huge library of samples.)
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runrobotrun

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Re: Useful/Fun/Interesting Program database
« Reply #8 on: April 28, 2010, 11:17:25 pm »

may I suggest harmony?

and then just all the general awesome "interactive toys" on this guy's site

edit: also; the great, the amazing, the spectacular... DUST
« Last Edit: April 28, 2010, 11:19:17 pm by runrobotrun »
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Quickfort utility, Chromafort

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soundtrack to your regicide, the Dwarven Mixtape

ein

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Re: Useful/Fun/Interesting Program database
« Reply #9 on: April 28, 2010, 11:47:37 pm »

If we're talking about Life, this site is the best I've ever found.
Attached wiki, pattern database, pattern saving, apparently infinite grid.
Really awesome.

Also, character generators.
4e gen link is located on the 3.5 gen.

piecewise

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Re: Useful/Fun/Interesting Program database
« Reply #10 on: May 02, 2010, 05:42:59 pm »

Things have been updated a bit.

alway

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Re: Useful/Fun/Interesting Program database
« Reply #11 on: May 04, 2010, 08:14:22 am »

This: http://www.stellaralchemy.com/lee/virtual_creatures.php
Artificial creature evolution program. It can have some pretty awesome results (here's my favorite).
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Re: Useful/Fun/Interesting Program database
« Reply #12 on: May 04, 2010, 01:57:53 pm »

OpenOffice - Do I win the thread?
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Omegastick

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Re: Useful/Fun/Interesting Program database
« Reply #13 on: May 05, 2010, 10:57:35 am »

OpenOffice - Do I win the thread?
Yes, good sir, you win the thread.
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Re: Useful/Fun/Interesting Program database
« Reply #14 on: May 05, 2010, 12:31:45 pm »

I'm already in love with electric sheep. Some day I'm going to trip balls and watch that.

In the meantime, is there any possible way to make my linux desktop an electric sheep?
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