PlainCalc

From the author of Print2PDF (an absolute necessity in the pre Mac OS X days), comes an amazing little gem for us math geeks.

From the website:

PlainCalc is a buttonless, algebraic-entry, mathematical calculator with variables. To use PlainCalc, type an expression or assignment and press Return or Enter. Unlike most calculators I've seen, PlainCalc allows you to indicate multiplication by juxtaposition, e.g., you can write 2πr instead of 2*π*r.

And:

You can define your own functions, and you can save worksheets, including values of variables and functions. Version 2 requires OS 10.4 or later. This version was built as a universal binary. 

[Site]
[Download]

Soulver

Soulver looks very cool. It's $24.95 price tag seems a little steep even if it is one of the most innovative calculators/math pads ever.

Basically, Soulver lets you type math problems in with words the way that you think of them. The developers claim that it is:

It's quicker to use than a spreadsheet, and smarter and clearer than a traditional calculator.

Use Soulver to play around with numbers, do "back of the envelope" quick calculations, and solve day-to-day problems.

[Site]
[Download]

OmmWriter Dana

As far as I know, OmmWriter Dana is truly unique. It is a word processor designed to free you of distractions and let you focus on your writing. To that end, it takes over your screen, gone is the Mac menubar, all operating system notifications are disabled (they get re-enabled when OmmWriter Dana quits) and you are presented with a white snow covered field and some quite decent ambient music.

There are three different backgrounds and audio tracks to choose between. Simply move the mouse and a minimalist set of of configuration options appear just to the right of the writing area.

When I first read about it, I wasn't convinced that it isn't just some gimmick, but, having tried it, I'm now convinced that this is the way to go if you need to force yourself to focus on your writing and quit posting on Facebook or Reddit every 5 minutes.

OmmWriter Dana I is free (free as in beer, not free as in speech), all you have to do is provide your email address to receive a download link. OmmWriter Dana II is a premium version for which you get to choose your price. The suggested price is a paltry $4.11 considering it adds new background images and new background tracks.

[Site]
[Download]

PySolFC - The Mac's Missing Solitaire Collection

I don't understand why, but OS X only comes with one game- Chess. Well, not counting the games that are in Gnu Emacs, but, that's for another blog and another post. PySolFC is the community fork of PySol. It's actually available for Mac, Linux, and Windows. It's absolutely free, as in beer and as in speech.

Here's the description from the website:

PySolFC is a collection of more than 1000 solitaire card games. It is a fork of PySol Solitaire.

There are games that use the 52 card International Pattern deck, games for the 78 card Tarock deck, eight and ten suit Ganjifa games, Hanafuda games, Matrix games, Mahjongg games, and games for an original hexadecimal-based deck.

Its features include modern look and feel (uses Ttk widget set), multiple cardsets and tableau backgrounds, sound, unlimited undo, player statistics, a hint system, demo games, a solitaire wizard, support for user written plug-ins, an integrated HTML help browser, and lots of documentation.

PySolFC is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

The important thing is, that is has Freecell, as that is my current Solitaire addiction. I found that once I turned off the sound and set the mouse to "Point-and-click" instead of "Drag-and-drop" (both settings are under the Options menu) that I was totally comfortable with this interface. Oh, and don't forget to check out PySolFC's impressive collection of cardsets.

[PySolFC Site]
[Download]

Sudoku Susser

This great, free Sudoku program has risen a little closer to the top of Google's search results. It now comes on page 2, just a couple from the top. But, back when I stumbled onto it, it was after an exhaustive search for a decent Sudoku program for the Mac. This one was written in Real Basic (now Real Studio) and is available for Mac, Linux, and Windows. Not only can it pull puzzles from the web, but it can generate puzzles and it has a ton of tools to help you solve the puzzles as well.

[Site]
[Download]

Senuti - GPL version

Plenty of people have been in this situation- you've just lost files on your Mac for some reason. It could be due to a dead hard drive or accidental deletion; it doesn't matter why. But, there's that sinking feeling of vulnerability when you realize there's music that is only on your iPod now that you'd like to restore to your computer. (MacBook owners with Time Capsules, or iMac and/or Mac Mini owners with large external hard drives who are configured for Time Machine won't be in this bind.)

For songs purchased in the iTunes Music Store, this is no problem, iTunes will restore these for you. But for songs that you ripped from a CD, or downloaded from another online music store, then you need another method of restoring them from your iPod to your computer. Senuti does this beautifully and it used to be free (as much of it is GPL code) and they asked for donations. Now, they want $18 for it. Which is not unreasonable, but fortunately, there's still a free version available.

The last time I used the free version with Snow Leopard and iTunes 9, it still worked perfectly.

[Site]
[Download]

SyncTwoFolders

Have you ever gone looking for a simply folder sync utility for OS X? Have you come back frustrated at either the absolutely crappy or overly expensive options? I had. And, I had almost given up when I finally stumbled upon SyncTwoFolders. It works really well and it is free.

It looks like the developer's website may have gone dark, but this program should be downloadable at the following sites:

• MacUpdate 
• cnet Download
• Softpedia