Welcome to the official (and only?) community and development site for Blue
Onion Software. From downloads to documentation, this site offers information, resources, support and
the occassional bad pun. All of the software on this site is free. I really do appreicate email about
how you're using these programs and what you like or don't like about them. - Mike
/mike@blueonionsoftware.com/
Projects
Bloget™ is a Web log (often referred to as just "blog") control
for use in ASP.NET 2.0 Web sites. Bloget is implemented as a control meaning you add it to an ASP.NET
2.0 Web page in much the same way you insert other ASP.NET controls. This allows you to integrate your
blog into your Web site rather than designing your Web site around the blog software.
Calendar Gadget® is a skinable desktop calendar and appointment program.
It features alpha-blending (transparency), a way-cool skin editor and some really nifty controls. Unlike
other skinable calendars, this one can have multiple elements (like months for instance) keyed to different
backgrounds, timezones, and styles. CalendarGadget is still in development but you can get a sneak peek
here.
FreeSnap™ is the oldest of my freeware offerings. Here's how PC World
described it - "Manually resizing windows can be a pain, and getting them to line up along the
side of the screen is an unwelcome dexterity test. With FreeSnap, you can move and resize windows with
your keypad. Just fire up the program, and you can use hotkeys to center windows or send them to all
corners of the screen. You can use the "plus" and "minus" keys to resize windows
without tiresome clicking and dragging". [August 2005 - PC World]
Desk Drive™ solves a really annoying problem. You pop a USB thumb drive
or DVD into your computer and then you have to open Window's Explorer and find the mapped drive
or folder. Desk Drive adds a desktop icon pointing to the drive automatically. Remove the media and
the shortcut goes away. Brilliantly simple and effective.
Calendar was my first attempt at a useful desktop calendar program. It
is still a great program but feedback from users suggested they wanted more customizations and better
desktop integration. Calendar strikes a great balance between features and ease of use.
NonContiguousMemoryStream
is an implementation is an implementation of a .NET memory stream that does not write to the large memory
heap. This can reduce out of memory conditions in situations where large memory streams are used. Includes
source code.
SimpleZip
is a C# class that creates .ZIP compatible archives. It consists of a single file of 450 lines of code.
Unlike other implementations, this one can stream to non-seekable streams. While not as full featured
as commercial implementations its free, easy to understand and modify and can be added to a project
without introducing a third-party dependency. Includes source code.
Stopwatch Sidebar
Gadget is a Vista sidebar stopwatch gadget. Nothing fancy, just functional and easy to use. Click
to start, click to stop and double-click to reset. Hey, even I can handle that. It's part of a tutorial
I wrote on how to author Vista Sidebar Gadgets.
Calculator Sidebar
Gadget is a Vista sidebar gadget with a purpose. It's not pretty, but it's small, powerful and much nicer than
those fancy "button" calculators.
Throw.zip
- A handy set of C# routines for checking conditions and raising exceptions. Intended primarily for checking
parameters on methods, these routines make it easy to validate parameters in a single line of code.
Just for the record, there is no spyware, adware or underwear in any of these
programs. Enjoy them, send me feedback, tell me what a great guy I am for giving this stuff away, etc.
And what does it cost? Nada, zip, zilch, zero, like in free. Yep, for now and in the future, they're
free. Of course if you would like to send money my way, a donation is always appreciated. - Mike