The following is a list of open source software and Gadgets that are educational but also fun. Some require a username and login and some need to be installed , but they are free!!!!
Enjoy
http://www.typeflash.com/swfs/temp.php?var1=&var2=&var3=molecule
Flash based Fun Type creator. Select different type at the top bar. Embed the code in your website or email to a friend.
http://www.wordle.net/ Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.
http://www.fontself.com/create/
- Create your own smileys and illustrated words
- Use them instantly to send and post messages to your favourite blogs or social networks
It's easy to use and it only takes a few minutes to create your first smiley.
http://www.picnik.com/app#/home/welcome
“...Picnik offers the editing capabilities of photo-editing software that costs $80 or more and also syncs up easily to your favorite photo-hosting sites...”
—www.pcmag.com, December 14, 2007
http://fontstruct.fontshop.com/
FontStruct is a free font-building tool brought to you by the world’s leading retailer of digital type, FontShop.
FontStruct lets you quickly and easily create fonts constructed out of geometrical shapes, which are arranged in a grid pattern, like tiles or bricks
http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/TheFormLetterMachine/
The Form Letter Machine is a program that will help you to write letters and emails by mixing and matching from pre-written paragraphs.
It's useful for people who regularly need to send out emails which include different components in different circumstances. For example if you field technical support requests, or if you need to reply to various inquiries, etc.
http://tekzel.dcmembers.com/dctiles/
DC Tiles is a customizable tile matching (memory) game where you turn over tiles to try to find matching pairs.
However, what's special about DC Tiles is that you can easily use your own images (and sounds even) and create fun games to send to your friends and family, or make a game using pictures of your kids or pets. The game supports multiple difficulty levels and scores you on your performance - great fun to compete with your kids.
http://www.exploratree.org.uk/
Exploratree is a free web resource where you can access a library of ready-made interactive thinking guides, print them, edit them or make your own. You can share them and work on them in groups too.
Syncing files between different computers, Macs and PCs alike, isn’t a new idea. But Dropbox does it better than any service I’ve yet seen. The transfers are fast and seamless, and the first two gigabytes of storage space are free.
And one of my favorite features of Dropbox is its built-in version control. If you change a file and later regret the changes you made, don’t worry—you can go back to Dropbox’s web site and retrieve an older version. Pretty cool stuff.
From macworld
Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer, phone or device you use. For free.
ipadio - Talk to your World ipadio allows you to broadcast from any phone to the Internet live. Phone blog, collect audio data, record and update the world, or simply let your mates know what you're doing - ipadio is integrated with Social Media & Blogging platforms.
http://www.artrage.com/artragedemo.html
Try out the full feature set of ArtRage Studio Pro for 30 days with this demonstration version. The demo installer includes sample resources such as stickers with presets for the sticker spray to demonstrate what they can do, stencils and canvas presets, and the full manual as a reference. The demonstration runs for 30 days, has limited ability to add user resources and allows limited image export.
http://www.mono-1.com/monoclops/
http://toy-a-day.blogspot.com/ a toy to print, download and make everyday. Download the template and make your own or just print the ones out that are made.
http://www.fontcapture.com YourFonts.com is an online font generator that allows you to create your own OpenType fonts within a couple of minutes. Go make your own handwriting as a font!
http://www.inkscape.org/ 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.
Scribus is an Open Source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/UNIX, Mac OS X, OS/2 Warp 4/eComStation and Windows desktops with a combination of "press-ready" output and new approaches to page layout. Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, Spot Colors, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.
GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.
http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ QR –code Generator. For mobile phone use.
If you have any Gadgets/ Open source software that you want to ad please feel free to do so at the link below
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AeWT63Amft7cZGc5bWpyYjlfODUzNmhibXdkOQ&hl=en
