Pacific Photonics: Favorites

Other Favorites

Here is a collection of other useful programs, engines and services to help you get through the day. The buttons are all live and in no particular order. Let us know if you have a favorite we should add.

	Mapping Engines
	General Utilities
	Search Engines
	Multimedia Players

	Web Computing Projects
	Obscure Shopping
	File Download Archives
	More free stuff

To the next shelf in ...

The Bookcase

Mapping Engines

Each of these map services gives a little different view of the world. Some include driving directions, links to local hotels, attractions and shopping and trip planning. Most are interactive so details can be seen. Not all are in English.


	Dozens of countries but highly variable data details. Street maps in US and most of Europe but only regional maps for many countries. Oddly, Israel has a street map without street names.
	You can get at maps for (probably) every local country Yahoo! but each Yahoo! has only its own country maps and they are in only in the local language.
	Illustrated street maps of 50+ German cities (in German). Very nice interface.
	Pretty much the entire UK Ordnance Survey data base.
	Worldwide maps. Street-level data only in Europe, North America and Australia plus a few other places. Shows locations of major buildings.
	5,000 scanned and digitized paper maps of everything on earth.
	Free satellite imagery down to 8 meters of most of the world.
	Pima County, Arizona planning map site. This is an example of what every county on the country should be doing. You will need the Autodesk MapGuide Viewer to see these.

Back to Top

General Utilities

No matter how much expensive software you buy there is always some little important thing missing. These utilities fills some of those gaps. For the thrifty among us, they can often fill many of the main computing requirements, too.

	Free open source full-featured office suite for many operating systems. Produces Microsoft Office^® compatible files.
	Calculators, clocks, web tools, navigation tools, personal finance manager, ....
	CuteFTP is an excellent FTP client. The free trial version is limited and has ads but works fine.
	TrayDay is a really useful shareware calendar - now in Version 7.

Back to Top

Search Engines

These are not set up on our website for automatic submission because each search engine has its own set of preferences that can be set only from its main search page.

	Easy to use, extensive directories. Finds images, music, maps.
	Searches in many languages and allows restrictions by country; does translation with the Babelfish engine.
	Started out as a student project at Stanford. Now a verb. if you are looking for journal articles, try Google Scholar. Also check out Google Labs for new search tools. Some of them work.
	Find phone numbers, addresses and e-mail for people and businesses. Has a reverse business number directory. Also, zip code and area code lookups.

Back to Top

Multimedia Players

In our main site, we list graphic viewers especially useful for technical images. Here are some viewers and players mostly intended for fun. These are all standalone players. There are also a lot of browser plug-ins, but these will usually be accessed automatically when you encounter an online file needing them.

	Play thousands of internet audio & video channels; try Shoutcast for some files to audition. If you like the idea, Shoutcast has a free program to let you do the broadcasting.
	Yes, there is still a free Real player. This may be the link for it. If not, try the Real homepage and look hard for a "FREE" link.
	The movie player from Apple now handles many other file types including some very complex VR and audio files. As you surf, Quicktime will advise you when additional modules are needed and manage the download.
	This is ASFRecorder. With it you can capture .asf audio streams and save them for later. Don't violate copyrights.

Back to Top

Web Computing Projects

Also called Peer-to-Peer or Grid Computing Projects, these are voluntary, free programs that use thousands of computers simultaneously to perform small parts of giant tasks, generally for scientific purposes.

	Search for life out there by running FFTs on radiotelescope signals. The biggest, oldest web computing project, SETI@home operated out of UC Berkeley.
	The original United Devices/Intel grid computing engine is now run by grid.org. After finishing cancer, anthrax and smallpox projects, it is now working on human proteome folding.
	Study protein folding to help Stanford University beat Alzheimer's and amyloidogenic diseases.
	Run by IBM and currently engaged in a folding project, this also uses the United Devices grid computing engine.

Back to Top

Obscure Shopping

Here are some of the places where we've bought odd items that we've needed for our business and some places where we've sold items, too.

	A huge collectibles mall. A lot of these items end up on the auction sites but here you can see the actual merchants.
	Home of amazingly obscure titles including a lot of technical and text books.
	Well-designed on-line and printed color selection guides for website designers. Also includes free web color palette files for many graphics programs.

Back to Top

File Download Archives

These are well-known sites that catalog and archive freeware and shareware programs for almost any application you can name.

	Source for free software with no nag screens reminding you to buy something else.
	A main source for shareware and upgrades. Also host to shareware.com.
	Shows how a little hobby site can grow into something very large and professional.

Back to Top

More free stuff

A potpourri

	Free outline maps of the world and its parts.
	The National Institute of Standards and Technology maintains a comprehensive Physical Reference website free for all to use containing measured data on many phenomena and physical constants and conversions.

Back to Top

Home | Markets | Technologies | Services | Feedback | Contact | E-mail

Please refer any difficulties or suggestions to our webmaster.

Copyright © 2006 Pacific Photonics, Inc. All rights reserved.