Brenton Fletcher's Portfolio

Works by category

ajax art assembler c C++ Delphi featured_sites fun_&_games interchange java javascript media mobile php ruby useful_tools widget Windows

Works tagged with 'useful_tools'

Mapit!

This digital map displays an interactive map of the walking path at Picton Botanical Gardens. It reads a set of data from a file, then plots the data on the maIf you click on the edge of the map it will generate the next segment of the path. You may have to wait for it to generate the new segment.

Features:

Can plot multiple lines in different colours on the same map;
Features 13 different symbols, which can be plotted at any angle or distance relative to the map;
Map can be scrolled up or down, left or right, so you can see the map more easily (than if the map had to be put on the screen all at once). You scroll the map by clicking the far top, far left or right, or far bottom of the map.
The map can be zoomed in or out by quite a large amount;
Coordinates and symbols can be shown or hidden.

How the data file works:

You only need a compass, a pad and pencil, and a pedometer to count your steps.
Assuming you are following a path, road, or track, you check your starting point, then use your compass to specify the angle
of the path ahead. You write down the angle, and note any scenery, and it’s direction from the path, that you find at this position.
You follow the path, counting your steps, until the path turns. You write down how many steps you took and the angle of the pathahead.
You repeat the previous step until you reach the end of the path, or where you want to stop.
This data is then entered into a file in a defined format, then Mapit! will draw the map.

The map you see when you click “Mapit!” above is of our local Botanical Gardens walking track, created my me and my mum over a series of days.

This work is completed using a Java derivative called ‘Processing’.

KonStat

A tiny Widget – minimum of 8×20 pixels – that monitors a URL you choose, and simply tells you whether the URL is working or not in an unobtrusive fashion.

uptime

Is your computer as stable as a rock?
Can your PC stay up for longer than anyone else?
Want to see which OS can hold out the longest?

The uptime project lets you compare computer ‘uptime’ with other people. The tiny client software ensures your uptime is always shown with accuracy!

Uptime was created with C, PHP, HTML, JavaScript and CSS.

Acronym Lookup Tool (with GUI)

ALT (Acronym Lookup Tool) is a useful software tool for anyone who’s starting out in chat rooms or email,
or just if you’ve been dumbfounded by acronyms such as AWGTHTGTTA.
ALT allows you to enter in an acronym, and it will tell you what it means. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3:

1. Enter the acronym you want to look up
2. Click “Lookup”
3. The meaning of the acronym is displayed to you in an instant!

You can download the tool by clicking the link above (187KB – 30 seconds on a 56.6Kbs modem).
Just select “Save” when asked, wait for it to download, then go to where you downloaded ALT,
and double-click the file.

Once ALT is running, an icon will be put in your system tray:

You can launch ALT by clicking with the left mouse button once on this new icon.

The GUI version is written in Delphi, and uses the CiaTrayIcon toolkit.

JSON 2 HTML

From the JSON home page:
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate.

JSON 2 HTML allows you to instantly view a string of JSON text as a set of nested boxes, corresponding to the objects, arrays and values in the JSON string. You can even have the page get the JSON string from a URL and automatically parse and display the string.

A link to this page is included in the home page for JSON, which was established to promote the JSON format.

JSON 2 HTML is written entirely in HTML and JavaScript, except for one php script which simply proxies requests to 3rd-party servers.

Flipper

Ever typed in some text, only to have it come out lIKE tHIS? Well, Flipper can correct this type of mistake and more with just a click of the mouse.

RSS 2 HTML

RSS 2 HTML allows you to embed RSS ‘feeds’ into your web pages in only a few minutes. Just copy the URL for the RSS feed into my page, then click ‘submit’ and my page will spit out the right HTML to copy into your web page, resulting in feeds on your web page.

You can even style the feeds with CSS.

RSS 2 HTML is implemented in PHP, with the front end implemented in HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

A recent search of pages using my rss2html feed script show it embedded in the following sites:
http://needsofthemany.blogono.com/
Needs of the Many is an American political blog.
http://e-selides.gr E-Selides is a Greek education resources web site.

These sites using my feed generator generate hits to my site in the order of 100,000!

Project Management Calculator

This page is a tool which can be used for estimating project your timeframe. I coded this using HTML and JavaScript.

Mathematical Applets

The page linked above (created 2002-2003) consists of Java applets (small programs embedded in a web page) based around mathematical themes created for my own enjoyment including a Fibonnaci Sequence Generator, Sierpinksi Fractal Generator & Quadratic Equation Solver.

WikiWatcher

WikiWatcher shows Wikipedia changing in real-time. Every change to Wikipedia instantly shows up on WikiWatcher; just sit back and watch to see the world’s largest encyclopedia change!

This site is implemented in Ruby, on the Camping microframework.

Internet Explorer Retitler

The Internet Explorer Retitler is a useful program that allows you to change the titlebar
in Internet Explorer to anything you want. It’s written in Delphi. Click the link above to download it.

Westend Theatre Booking Management System

The final assignment for my last unit CPT33 (Object Oriented Programming (C++)) at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University was a Bookings Management System for an imaginary theatre company called the Westend Theatre. My mark was 100%.

The application allows you to make/change/cancel bookings for shows that you insert into the program. It also calculates the amount of money owing for each show. You can download a windows executable for it using the link above.

FEdit

FEdit is a Java application that makes it easy to administer a website via FTP.
Instead of having to download, edit and then upload files, FEdit allows you to make changes instantly.
The application presents a list of files on your FTP server. To edit a file, you just double-click on the filename.
The file is downloaded, and then opened in your selected editor. Once you have edited the file, save it and go back to FEdit.
Your file will then be automatically uploaded for you. No more need to keep a local and a remote copy!
Check it out using the link above.

miniapps

I’ve written nine text-based games that you can play. The games are:

Pig dice game; Pig is a simple jeopardy dice game. I’ve made a modified
version you can play against someone else.
The game of Nim (easy and hard version); The game of Nim is a classic
Chinese game in which players take turns removing marbles from a pile according
to set rules. The player that removes the last marble wins. You can play
against the computer with 2 levels of artificial intelligence.
Guessing game (easy and hard version); There are 2 guessing game. In
the easy version you play a game of higher/lower against the computer. The
hard version requires you to guess the square root of a given number to one
decimal place within 8 guesses.
Jackpot!; This is a simple poker machine game (pretend!). It’s highly addictive.
q2q; This displays a random quote from the Q2 Quotes Database.
dicer; This program allows you to roll a dice with the syntax from Dungeons & Dragons.
mathp; This program can break down mathematical expressions and tell you the result.

You can download all the games at once here.
Download the file, then open it using a program like WinZip.

Number Generator Applets

The page linked above (created 2002-2003) consists of two Java applets (small programs embedded in web pages). One generates whole factors of any given number. The second applet produces the square of any given number.

num2text

num2text is an online service that instantly converts numbers to their text equivalents. Example: 40,000 → forty thousand. The service includes PHP source code too, so you can reuse it wherever you want.

Number Generator Applets 2

The page linked above (created 2002-2003) consists of two Java applets (small programs embedded in a web page). One generates palindromic numbers of any number of digits. The second applet generates the constant e to your specified number of decimal places.

Countr

Countr lets you count stuff. Anything you want, cups of coffee, cigarettes, whatever. Of course,
the count will be saved so you can come back to the page whenever you want. The site also logs
every counter “Bump” and “Reset” so you can track how often the counter is increased.

Acronym Lookup Tool (command line version)

If a familiar graphical interface is not paramount to you, there is a command-line version of ALT.
You can download it by clicking the link above (58KB – 5 seconds on a 56.6Kbs modem).
Just select “Save” when asked, wait for it to download, then go to where you downloaded ALT,
and double-click the file called “ALTDOS.exe”.

The console version is hand-written in ANSI C.

PNP: Political News Page

The Political News Page collects a whole bunch of leftist news feeds on one page (updated hourly).
Instead of having to search the net to find the latest news, you only have to look to one source!

ImageScroller

This Class for the Processing programming language allows the user to scroll an image vertically inside a scrollbox. You can find out how to use it here.