Miscellaneous software packages
Graphics Software
Textograph
Textograph is a little Java utility for PC’s (Windows / Mac OS / Linux / Unix) that takes an image in JPEG, GIF, or PNG format and converts it to a black and white image pixelated by text characters. The utility uses different text characters to represent different grayscale levels based on the “density” of the characters – the amount of black in the characters’ glyphs. The resulting images can be saved as plain text files, and used to present pictorial images in text-only media (e.g., for pictorial signatures in email messages, etc.)
The image below is a photograph of the author transformed into a text image with textograph. (The image below is a screenshot to simplify embedding into this webpage.)
Computing Software
Operating System Memory-Management Simulator
This Java application shows graphically the state of a simulated multiprocessor computing system allocating memory to jobs of random sizes created at random times and with random lifetimes. Processes are allocated memory according to either standard first-fit, next-fit or best fit-algorithms, with or without memory compaction. Memory is displayed as a bar, with blocks colored gray, green or white to correspond to free blocks, runnable processes, and running processes, respectively. The simulator displays a running tabulation of statistics relevant to job scheduling and memory management, such as average process completion time, average memory utilization, number of compactions, etc., which can be used to compare the benefits of each allocation strategy. Finally, all pertinent parameters are configurable on the fly, such as average process size, interarrival time and completion time; in addition, the application is multi-threaded, permitting the operation of up to 10 processors (each implemented as a separate thread) to be simulated.