thefreecountry.com

[Free] New System Programming Language: The Go Programming Language

13 Nov 2009 04:25:10 GMT

The new system programming language from the legendary Rob Pike, Ken Thompson and Robert Griesemer, currently named "Go", has been added to the Free Compilers and Interpreters for Miscellaneous Programming Languages page. Unlike the other commonly used system languages today, this one has built-in support for concurrent programming, a must with today's multi-core processors, and communication between concurrent processes. It is designed to be lean and mean, and have very fast compile and link cycles. Lovers of C and other lean systems programming languages should really take a look at it.

[Free] Portable Encrypted Password and Text Note Storage

13 Nov 2009 04:23:43 GMT

For those who like to store their passwords, telephone numbers, serial numbers, etc, in a text file, the newest entry in the Free Secure Password Managers and Password Savers page lets you do so in a portable yet secure way. Your passwords are encrypted, and the entire file can be placed anywhere (a USB flash drive, your main hard disk, a floppy disk, whatever). No installation is needed and the whole program is extremely small. And free.

[New] Free PHP Web Based File Managers

11 Nov 2009 06:16:11 GMT

Install a web-based file manager on your website so that you can manage the files on your site simply by using a web browser. These PHP web-based file managers let you do things like upload/download files, create directories, rename, delete, move, copy files, change file permissions, etc. Some of them even let you do things that you can't do with a normal FTP client, like extract files from archives (eg zip files, tar files) directly on your web server.

[Free] Unreal Engine 3 (Game Engine) Now Available

6 Nov 2009 04:23:10 GMT

Exciting news: Unreal Engine 3, the game engine used by lots of games, has now been added to the Free Game Engines, Game Programming Libraries and Source Code page. Both the engine and its associated tools are available in the free development kit, although you can use them only for non-commercial and educational purposes. Now you can take advantage of the game engine used by professional game developers to create your own games, complete with a realistic game environment, artificial intelligence (AI) for the computer controlled characters, 3D location-based sound effects, and so on.

It's all very exciting. And I almost fell off my chair when I found out it's available. If you've not heard of the Unreal Engine, chances are that you don't play many FPS (first person shooter) games.

[Free] Sell Goods, Services on Your Website (even Ebooks or Software): New PHP Shopping Cart

2 Nov 2009 05:25:19 GMT

Looking for a way to sell goods, services or even virtual goods (like ebooks or software) on your website? The newest entry on the Free And Open Source PHP Shopping Carts page is PrestaShop, an open source shopping cart that has lots of features (a very long list; too long to mention here) that probably has the facility you want for your online shop. Check it out.

[Free] New Free Web Host with Free Domain Hosting

27 Oct 2009 06:30:02 GMT

A web host has been added to the Free Web Hosts with Free Domain Hosting. This one provides 110 MB of disk space, 10 GB of traffic, PHP (with limitations), the ability to host your own domain name, etc.

Sorry, I know that the list of free web hosts on that web page is getting a bit short nowadays, what with the frequent abrupt closure of free web hosts. I'll try to add more as time permits. As the maintainer of that list, I can tell you that free web hosts close very frequently, sometimes within a month or two of adding a new entry, so keeping that list up-to-date and populated is a big hassle. If you can afford it, it's really better to just go with a commercial web host. Just saying.

[Free] New Forum Software: Set Up an Interactive Community on Your Website

20 Oct 2009 05:44:13 GMT

Are you thinking of creating a community for your website where users can interact in a forum? A new PHP message board software has been added to the Free PHP Forum Scripts page that may be just what you're looking for. Like all forums, your visitors can sign up and post messages and interact with each other (and you). The software supports customizable themes, setting up of sub-forums belonging to different categories, assigning users to different groups with different rights, setting up of polls and calendars, and so on (too many features to list here).

Check it out. It's free.

[New] Free Electronic Circuit Simulation Software / Circuit Simulators

13 Oct 2009 06:03:55 GMT

Build and analyse your electronic circuits using these free circuit simulation software. It's more efficient, more practical and quicker. Oh, and did I say that they are free?

[Free] Write Web-Based Programs that Run in Your Visitor's Browsers in Python: Skulpt

8 Oct 2009 04:30:36 GMT

Do you want to write a web-based program for your website but hate the JavaScript programming language? The newest addition to the Free Python Compilers, Interpreters and Implementations page lets you use the Python programming language to write programs that run in your visitor's web browser. Now you can harness the power and readability of Python to create a dynamic website.

[Free] New Image / Photo Editor: mtPaint

4 Oct 2009 06:26:56 GMT

A new painting program for Windows and Linux has been added to the Free Drawing and Painting Software, Image and Photo Editing Programs page. This program, mtPaint, supports layers, undo, pressure-sensitive graphics tablets, a variety of effects, brush patterns, user-defined gradients, as well as the usual assortment of features such programs have. Check it out, or any of the other (numerous) free image editors listed on that page.

[Free] Microsoft Security Essentials: Free Antivirus

30 Sep 2009 03:41:53 GMT

The Microsoft Security Essentials, a free antivirus software from Microsoft, has just been released, and has been added to the Free Antivirus Software and Free Online Virus Scans. The software is reported to be lightweight and unobtrusive by many testers.

Note: even if you don't like this program, there are numerous other free antivirus programs listed on that page, including free versions from commercial antivirus vendors, so there's no reason for you not to have some sort of antivirus program protecting your system.

[Free] New Free Web Host with Site Builder and Free Web Templates

24 Sep 2009 03:58:31 GMT

Google Sites has been added to the Free Web Hosts with Site Builders or Free Web Templates page. They provide free web hosting with a rudimentary online web editor, and may be useful if you want to create a hobby website. It doesn't allow the use of a domain name, though, so it probably isn't all that useful if you want your site to last. (See my article on Is it Possible to Create a Website Without Buying a Domain Name? The High Price of "Free". if you don't know why this is so.)

[Free] New Clipboard History Manager: Essential Utilities for the Frequent Computer User

21 Sep 2009 04:44:48 GMT

A new clipboard history manager has been added to the Free Clipboard History Managers and Extenders page. Clipboard extenders like these are useful if you are a programmer or webmaster, since they make your job of cutting and pasting snippets of code or text very much easier, allowing you not only to use the standard cut and paste but also to copy multiple separate chunks of text (or whatever) for later pasting. They are also very handy for normal computer use, and you'll soon wonder how you ever lived without them.

[New] Free Make Utilities: Automate the Building of Your Computer Programs the Easy Way

16 Sep 2009 05:21:27 GMT

The MAKE software on this new page allow programmers to automate the building of their computer programs in a convenient and efficient way. As usual, they're all free.

[Free] New Device Driver Backup Software: Back Up Your Computer's Device Drivers

14 Sep 2009 03:43:36 GMT

A new utility to back up and restore the device drivers on your computer system has been added to the Free Device Driver Backup and Extraction Utilities. Such a program is useful if you ever want to reinstall Windows and your computer manufacturer did not give you a CD containing all the drivers for your system, a very common situation if you bought a pre-built system like a notebook.

(That is, you can use the program to make a copy of your drivers before reformatting or upgrading the hard disk or whatever, then allow your newly reinstalled Windows to install those drivers, giving you a working system again.)

[Free] New Duplicate Files Finder: Free Up Wasted Hard Disk Space

9 Sep 2009 04:17:11 GMT

A new duplicate file finder has been added to the Free Find / Delete Duplicate Files Utilities page. This program lets you search your hard disk for files that have identical content, even if they are given different names, so that you can free up wasted hard disk space. If you have many digital photos, ripped audio CDs or downloaded music, etc, and are not sure if you have duplicates littered across your hard disk, these are the programs to use.

(Deleting the files is optional; sometimes, you just want to know.)

[New] Free Banner Rotation and Photo Slideshow JavaScripts: Rotate Advertisements, Photos, Banners

7 Sep 2009 05:50:14 GMT

Do you have advertisements for your website that you want to alternate between? Or do you want to put a photo slideshow on your website? The free JavaScripts on this new page will automatically rotate the banners, pictures, photos, images, Flash files that are displayed on your website between a set of pictures/banners of your choice. This allows you to automatically vary your advertisements without having to manually adjust them yourself. They are also useful for putting on a slideshow of your photos.

[Free] New Ecard PHP Script: Allow Your Visitors to Send Greeting Cards from Your Website

26 Aug 2009 11:36:30 GMT

I've added another free electronic postcard PHP script to the Free Electronic Greeting Cards PHP Scripts page. Such a script allows your visitors to send their friends electronic greeting cards from your site.

[Free] New PC Emulator: Run Another Operating System on top of Your Existing One

25 Aug 2009 05:24:30 GMT

A novel new PC emulator has been added to the Free x86 / PC Emulators and Virtual Machines page. For those who don't know what that means, emulators and virtual machines let you run a completely new system (like Windows or Linux) on top of your existing one (like Mac OS X, Windows or Linux), thus allowing you to run things that cannot normally run on your system. It is also used by many people to safely test programs that they don't dare install on their main system (in case it disrupts operations).

[Free] New Smalltalk Compiler: Write Your Own Computer Program with Smalltalk/X

24 Aug 2009 04:08:07 GMT

A new Smalltalk compiler has been added to the Free Smalltalk Compilers and Interpreters page. Smalltalk/X is a complete implementation of the Smalltalk programming language, and comes with an IDE that has an editor, a debugger, a GUI builder, a compiler that can generate standalone programs as well as DLLs, etc. Check it out and write your own computer programs with this development environment (or use one of the other free Smalltalk compilers listed on the page).