This section of the ActivityWorkshop is intended to house a variety of software projects for free download. At the moment there are a small number of applications available, of greatly varying complexity.
All of this software is available for free, without charge and without obligation. If, however, you'd like to support the creation of this stuff, if you'd like to help cover some of the hosting costs and encourage further development and maintenance, then there's an experimental yellow button over there on the right with which you can buy me a coffee!.
GpsPrune is a java application for viewing, editing and converting coordinate data from GPS systems. It can load data from arbitrary text-based formats (for example, any tab-separated or comma-separated file), or XML, or from a GPS receiver. Then it can display the data (overlaid on OSM maps, altitude profile and rotatable 3d view), edit the data (for example delete points and ranges, sort waypoints, compress tracks, edit fields), and save the data (in various text-based formats). It can also export data as a Gpx file, or as Kml/Kmz for import into Google Earth, or in Pov format for import into Povray. It can even automatically correlate your photos with your GPS coordinates too. java gui
Md5 checker is a java application for generating and checking Md5 checksums. It can be useful if you want to verify that a downloaded file is exactly as it was intended and hasn't accidentally got corrupted along the way. For example, it's useful for checking live linux CDs for errors before burning. java cli
Jarcomp is a java application for comparing two jar files or two zip files. It can be used to see which files have been changed in subsequent versions of the archive, which files have grown and which have shrunk, and which files are really the same in both archives. For example, before releasing a new version of a jar file, it can be used to verify that only the files which should have changed, have been changed. java gui
This more ambitious project is still in the development stage, but is now working. Murmeli is a proposal for a completely new, decentralized, fully encrypted information-sharing platform. It lets you send fully-encrypted messages in private to your friends, without going through any server and without leaving an audit trail of who is contacting whom. All messages are signed, so it's not anonymous, but it uses Tor's hidden services to direct traffic, so it is difficult to intercept. It might appeal to those for whom email is too restrictive and insecure, and central platforms like Facebook and Twitter are too open to abuse. python gui
Mkgmapgui is a graphical frontend for calling the mkgmap utility to convert or combine GPS maps. It lets you select the files to convert or combine by clicking on them rather than having to remember the command line parameters. java gui
The new application Beaver is still in the prototyping phase, but the aim is to create an interactive web log analysis tool, allowing you to drilldown into the information inside your web server logs, in a way not possible with scheduled reports. The free download of version 0.2 is now available. python gui proto
Calendar is a simple script to generate a blank HTML calendar for any given year. You can then edit the HTML file with any editor, view it in any browser, and search through your calendars easily. python cli
This project, still in the early stages of prototyping but progressing nicely, is called Brainstorm and is intended to be a brainstorming tool for linking your ideas together. A bit like an interactive, wobbly mind map but with cleverer, multiply-connected bubbles. So ideally you could just throw your ideas in there and it would lay them out and let you brainstorm. An early version is now available for download. python gui proto
This mini-project, called QStopWatch, is an extension of an existing stopwatch application written by Dominic Battre. It's a simple timer, using python and Qt, but I've now upgraded and updated it so that it works again and with an improved time display. python gui
This is an open-source gui frontend to gdal which can chop up a map image (or aerial photo) into tiles suitable for use with OpenLayers and other online map viewers. The old code, called MapTiler, was abandoned, and the author requested that the name no longer be used for this open-source project. So I was involved with some people from OsGeo to re-brand, clean up and update the gui code. The results are on github. python gui
Everyone hates forgetting birthdays. So this little java program Oops, Forgot aims to prevent that embarrassment, reminding you when birthdays (or anniversaries) are coming up or have just been missed. Plus you can search for people by name or month, and see how old they are or how old they're going to become. java gui
This one is something for geocachers. Some geocaching websites display the coordinates of the cache (or each of its stages) in a format which isn't easy to work with. So this Firefox extension TheCoordinator grabs those coordinates out of the web page and presents them in ways which are easier to paste or load into other software. javascript firefox
This one is something for MMA fans, maybe also fans of other combat sports, and especially those who get their information from Wikipedia. Wikipedia has a habit of showing you the results of professional bouts in great detail before you've decided whether to watch it or not. If an event has happened, it's very difficult to check who took part without finding out who won. So this Firefox extension MmaBlindfold lets you browse through the Wikipedia pages on such events while cleverly obscuring the information about winners and losers. javascript firefox
Still at the concepts, ideas and basic prototypes stage, GpsQuest is a project which hopes eventually to provide a smartphone app which lets you complete outdoor quests with the help of GPS. It will be a bit like a Wherigo/Whereyougo geocache but without the cache. java cli prototype
Not really fitting quite so well into the "software" category, but hopefully useful to somebody nevertheless, a very simple online metronome, with audio and visual cues to help you keep your rhythm. javascript svg
Some animations to visualise a selection of problems in the 2023 Advent of Code. python povray
The software here is released under the Gnu GPL, which means it's not only free, it's also Free.
Some software calls itself free just because it costs no money, but it still includes catches like limited trial editions or compulsory registration. If you don't get access to the source code and the rights to modify it to suit your needs, it's not really Free.
All software under the Gnu GPL comes with license restrictions, but these restrictions are only there to prevent people from making the software non-free. You can download GpsPrune for free, you can make copies and give them to your friends, you can download the source code and see how it works, you can even edit the source code and make a customised version for yourself. That's free. What you can't do is stop other people getting the same benefits, so for example you can't edit the code, and sell copies without giving them access to the source code too. For precise details see the included file license.txt or read about it at gnu.org.
Obviously, if you do make changes to the software, we would love to hear about it so that we can include the improvements here.
There are some more ideas flying around too, which for various reasons haven't been fully developed into real things. Maybe you're interested in the ideas for an OsmWrangler, a Timetabler, a TextRactor or something called "Rock my Slocs"... but these are probably just going to stay ideas for now.
Or, if you're interested in having your own custom software project being created for you by the author of GpsPrune, maybe it would be possible to organise something. This is also a little speculative right now, but let's see if there is any interest.