General/Education Software
GREAT CIRCLE DISTANCES : EARTH.EXE can take files of GPS (global position system) latitude and
longitude in degrees, minutes, seconds and convert these to distance on the surface of the earth between
two such points, or from a central point to many surrounding. Nearest neighbors can be determined as well
as distances sorted. 326 World cities can also be compared for 52975 combinations of distances between pairs.| Computer Image Conversion: | |
*.PCX to QuickBASIC - Comput. Appl. Biosci. (1996) 12:185-189. Download: PCX.ZIP 70K | |
CZ-SOUND.EXE - some insect and bird sounds plus rain dripping and wind
whistling. The sounds are continuous and are used to either fool a relative or friend (crickets)
or to relax with (crickets, frog, sparrow, rain drops, wind). All sounds are made with
QuickBASIC so no sound card is needed.
Download: CZ-SOUND.ZIP 46K
MUSAK.EXE (Sound Blaster):
- Ok, so you aren't impressed with the BASIC sounds above? MUSAK.EXE will play some random music on your
Sound Blaster compatible card (if you have one). There are two versions of what I call "good music"
that is sometimes pleasant to listen to, 2 versions of "bonker/chime" music, and one radiowave wierdo sounds - all
accompanied with some visually stimulating random-moving line art, which together give
quite an effect (if I don't say so myself). However, MUSAK.EXE will not work in Windows NT/2000, only
in Windows 95/98 (in DOS shell).
Download: MUSAK.EXE 50K
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Test ?
Reminder of important date:
REMIND.EXE is a reminder that shows large text about some
past or future date, as seen at left in the 50% reduced image of the computer VGA screen. The Day of the week is
shown along with the current time - this is to let you verify that your computer's clock and calendar
are correct (you must check this independantly). I have found that one of my computers loses time
and finally reports the wrong date if left off for over a week. This is serious if I make changes to a file
on this computer and the file is given an older, incorrect date which is older than a copy of the file on another computer.
Then if I try to update both copies with a program (e.g. Laplink) that always copies the newest file to the older file,
the actually newer copy with the current changes, but older date, will be overwritten
by the older copy, but newer date. The number of days until the event are shown, or the number of days after
the event, whichever is appropriate. The event is also shown, and this can be edited at any time. Put the path to REMIND.EXE, e.g.,
c:\basic\remind.exe in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and the program will be run in DOS or Windows 95/98 on start up.
Download: REMIND.ZIP 39K
Speed-Test your Computer:
SPEED.EXE - This program will test the speed of your video card, math coprocessor, and main processor.
The speeds can be compared to those I've found on a 386-33 MHz, 486-100 MHz, and Pentium-233 MHz.
Also, in 1996, INTEL shipped some Pentium chips that had a bug in the math coprocessor. If you have an older
computer with a Pentium chip, then you might want to check this. In practice, this bug is almost never
a problem, unless you do millions of math calculations such as in simulations.
Download: SPEED.ZIP 49K
Fractal Screen Saver -
SS.EXE - Any of 11 screen saver programs are run at random:
6 are random fractals types, one is a line-kalidoscope, another pretends to list BASIC code "ad infinitum",
one shows Lorenze attractors, and still another Lissajou geometric designs.
The main function, however, is to let you have a password as many screen savers do
(you choose password, so don't forget, but you can erase file that stores the password). A readme file is included
to explain where the password is stored.
Anyone who presses a key while the screen saver is running will be asked for the password, but if they fail within 30 seconds,
then this failure is recorded by date and time to let you know that someone attempted to
tamper with your computer while you were out. When the correct password is finally entered by you,
for example after you return to your desk, then any attempted intrusions are displayed - this is
for those of you who are worried about snooping people
and want to know if your paranoia is justified.
Download: SS.ZIP 57K
"Screen Saver" -
NEW-YORK.EXE - Running this program shows a VGA picture (640x480) of New York City at night, and
lights blink on and off in the distance - looks pretty nice in a dark room - You don't have to have a penthouse
window! - although that would be better (believe it or not). The image is self-contained in the program.
Download: NEW-YORK.ZIP 149K
Norwegian fjord opening image in Windows 95:
- Unzip WINLOGO.ZIP and put LOGO.SYS in your root directory (usually C:)
to start up with this picture in Windows 95. No difference in startup times.
Uninstall if you want by simply removing LOGO.SYS from the root directory. This is just a bitmapped
image so it can not do anything but be loaded. Or you can use LOGOSYS.EXE and 9 nature images (Norway,
Sweden, USA, France) that will rotate and show one of the nine each time you start Windows.
Download: WINLOGO.ZIP 818K
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Software for DOS/Windows 3.1/95/2000/XP (not VISTA). The ZIP files must be unzipped before use. To uncompress *.ZIP files you must have PKUNZIP.EXE or UNZIP.EXE. After downloading you must be in DOS and type: pkunzip geo-card.zip or whatever the name is. Download: PKUNZIP.EXE 29K - or you may download my general setup program JB-SETUP.EXE 50K which will install any of the program systems here. |
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