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Rigs of Rods

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Rigs of Rods (also known as RoR), is an Open Source truck, car, airplane and boat simulator. You can drive, fly or sail in total freedom in an open environment. What makes RoR different to most simulators is its unique soft-body physics: vehicles chassis and wheels are simulated in real-time as flexible objects, giving the simulation an extremely accurate behavior, while allowing the vehicles to be simply specified by their structural composition, as a network of interconnected nodes (forming the chassis and the wheels). Crashing into walls or terrain can permanently deform a vehicle in a realistic manner. In addition to its unique soft-body physics, RoR also features an advanced flight model based on blade element theory, allowing the accurate simulation of any airplane, base on their physical dimensions and wing airfoils. It also features an accurate buoyancy model based on elemental pressure gradients, enabling boats with complex hulls to move realistically in the swell.

Some screenshots:



Requirements:

  • CPU: P4 or equivalent AMD at 2GHz or more, better with HyperThreading technology or dual-core (RoR has dual-core support)
  • RAM:512 MB of RAM
  • Video Card: 3D Accelerated with 128MB of VRAM or more
  • DirectX 9c on Windows, or GLX on Linux
  • Supports force feedback joysticks and wheels (except on Linux)
  • Supports 3D sound effects with multichannel sound cards (enable the hardware sound renderer)

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Blender

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If you've ever thought about making professional-quality animations but decided not to because of the cost of the software, your excuse just got up and walked out the door. Blender is a free, open-source 3D rendering program that puts the power of the medium back into the hands of the artist.

What would you say to a free, open-source 3D program that had almost everything you could find in those expensive professional applications that cost hundreds, even thousands of dollars? It may sound too good to be true, but Blender 3D delivers amazing power at an unbeatable price.

Blender combines 3D modeling, rendering, animation, video sequencing, and game development in one application. It is also available on every major platform, meaning Mac, Windows, and Linux users can all work and play together with exactly the same tools.



Blender features a laundry list of animation essentials that can be broken down into categories: Interface, Modeling, Rigging, Rendering, Animation, UV Unwrapping, Shading, Physics and Particles, Imaging and Compositing, and Real Time 3D/Game Creation. The interface, though loaded with complicated tools, is remarkable for neither obscuring nor interfering with the image being worked on. A brief sampling of tools and functions includes 3D paint for vertex weighing, polygon meshes, 2D and 3D procedural brushes, edge rendering, textures, collision simulation, and support for around two dozen 2D and 3D file formats. Extras can be added with Python scripting, and since it's open source, many scripts can be easily found for download in the user forums.




Blender is not for the faint of heart. Learning to use it is time-consuming and best done by following the detailed tutorials available on the Blender Web site. There is also an extensive online Blender community, making familiarization with the app less painful--if not pain-free. However, none of these detracts from the overall experience or usefulness of the program, and we strongly recommend it for advanced users.


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Cash Register POS (DHPOS)

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DHPOS is freeware software that will convert any DOS or Windows computer into a fully functional cash register / point of sale(POS) system.


This project was originally started (2001) by Dale Harris as a way to alleviate boredom one summer and to prove to himself that he could write a better POS system than the professionally written POS software that he was forced to use in the chain store that he worked at. After completing the software he uploaded it to his website for anyone to download for free.
Interest was immediate. Soon users worldwide were downloading the software and emailing him with suggestions for new features and other ways to improve it. Many of these suggestions have been added to the software and new versions come out with new features several times a year (as of 2007).
The project continues because, according to its author, it is needed. While large corporations can afford to pay for expensive POS software many small and medium enterprises cannot. A plain cash register may be affordable for them but it will not provide the information that modern businesses must have to compete.


The current version (2007) of the software has hundreds of features that make it suitable for most small to medium enterprises. The major limitations are a maximum 13,000 different items in the stock table and a maximum of 60 lines in a sale. This would make it unsuitable for a large grocery store, bookstore, or hardware store. The software will drive receipt printers, cash drawers, pole displays , barcode readers and other POS hardware.
As of 2007 there have been over 200,000 downloads of this software (to more than 60 countries) from the main website, and it can be also downloaded from many other freeware websites. Considering that users may receive the program directly from others, instead of downloading it, there is no reliable way to estimate the number of computers that are running it.

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Inkscape

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An Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.

Inkscape supports many advanced SVG features (markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.) and great care is taken in designing a streamlined interface. It is very easy to edit nodes, perform complex path operations, trace bitmaps and much more. We also aim to maintain a thriving user and developer community by using open, community-oriented development.

The main goal of Inkscape is to create a powerful and convenient drawing tool fully compliant with XML, SVG, and CSS standards. The guys over at Inkscape aim to maintain a thriving user and developer community by using open, community-oriented development.

inkscape-design-2The term Inkscape is made up of the two English words ‘ink‘ and ‘scape‘. Ink is a common substance for drawings, and is used when the sketched work is ready to be permanently committed to paper, and thus evokes the idea that Inkscape is ready for production work. A scape is a view of a large number of objects, such as a landscape or ocean-scape, and thus alludes to the object-oriented nature of vector imagery.

What is 'Scalable Vector Graphics'?

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an open, industry-standard XML-based format for vector graphics developed by the W3C. Its acceptance is growing fast. Most vector editors these days can import and export SVG, and modern browsers (such as Firefox and Opera) can display it directly, i.e. without requiring any plugins. (For Internet Explorer, there's an SVG Viewer plugin from Adobe.)


Is Inkscape ready for regular users to use?

Yes! While Inkscape does not have all the features of the leading vector editors, the latest versions provide for a large portion of basic vector graphics editing capabilities. People report successfully using Inkscape in a lot of very different projects (web graphics, technical diagrams, icons, creative art, logos, maps). For example, thousands of images on Wikipedia are created_with_Inkscape, as is the majority of the content on openclipart; many examples of Inkscape art can be seen here and here. We try to always keep the codebase usable for real users, as we believe that a tight iteration cycle between users and developers will give best results. You can start using Inkscape alongside your other tools now!

What platforms does Inkscape run on?

Binary packages for Linux, Windows 2000/2003/XP (fully self-contained installer), and OSX (dmg package) are provided. We know that Inkscape is successfully used on FreeBSD and other Unix-like operating systems. Note that Windows 98/ME is no longer supported.



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GnuCash

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GnuCash is the leading GPL'ed Desktop Financial Manager Application. Appropriate for personal and small business use, it is meant to be easy to use and full of features. It is a free and open source accounting software program that implements a double-entry bookkeeping system. It was initially aimed at developing capabilities similar to Intuit, Inc.'s Quicken application, but also has features for small business accounting. Recent development has been focused on adapting to modern desktop support-library requirements.

GnuCash is part of the GNU Project, and runs on Linux, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Solaris, Mac OS X, other Unix-like platforms, and even on Windows.


Designed to be easy to use, yet powerful and flexible, GnuCash allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses. As quick and intuitive to use as a checkbook register, it is based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and accurate reports.

Despite the overall simplicity of using the program, the sheer number of terms and actions may require a dictionary for some people. Fortunately, GnuCash has an excellent tutorial that outlines not only the program, but also financial terminology as well. And novice users will appreciate the wizard that walks you through the setup process.

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