Software Solutions &
Application Development

Below is a list of products developed by Apriori Enterprises. All of them can be downloaded for free from this page. Source code can be made available upon request (send requests to apriori@bluegosling.com).

The products are listed with the most modern programs at the top. We started developing programs in the early 90's, when DOS was the typical environment for home PCs. The oldest program below was developed for DOS (and, luckily, runs quite nicely on modern operating systems thanks to DOSBox). The other programs were developed for Windows -- all before the dawn of Windows Vista. As such, some of them have quirks (if they run at all) when using a modern OS like Windows Vista or Windows 7.

Future work we do will likely be web-based and thus a little more widely compatible. They might even run on your mobile device. Wouldn't that be a nice step into the modern era of computing? (We've been checking out Google's App Engine for Java as it looks to be a cool platform for developing software.)

Homebrew Helper

Homebrew Helper is for new and experienced brewers alike. Its key focus is recipe formulation for brewers of all skills (though home brewers are the target audience as it is currently missing some particularly sophisticated calculators and tools that might be needed by commercial/professional brewers). It also enables you to easily manage and maintain a library of homebrew recipes and could even be used for making wine, ciders, or other fermented beverages (though most of the tools and features lean strongly towards making beer).

We originally released it as trialware -- use it for free 15 days and then pay to continue using it. The trial installation is still available, though perhaps only for nostalgic reasons. Today, the full version of the product can be downloaded for free.

Both of the links below are to Windows executables that will automatically extract and install the software:

Note: This software has some minor quirks when running under Windows Vista or Windows 7. Navigating to particular help topics -- like using context-sensitive help or when using the Help » Contents screen -- do not work as expected. Also, if you want to pin the application to the taskbar, you will need to actually rename the program so that it does not include the phrase "Help" in the name (a known oddity in the new task bar in Windows). Note that renaming the actual program (the EXE file in your Program Files directory) will also require you to manually update shortcuts that launch the program.

Tivo-to-Mpeg Converter

Tivo-to-Mpeg Converter was a tool for conveniently converting a library of TiVo movie files, downloaded from a TiVo DVR using TiVo Desktop software, into MPEG format movie files. The MPEG format is much more flexible and allows for easily backing up movies to recordable DVDs with most software as well as transferring to handheld devices, including iPods with video capabilities.

This tool was a bit ahead of its time, but we didn't get an opportunity to market and sell it when it was first developed. Today, tools that can handle this type of conversion are commonplace.

The link below is to a Windows executable that will automatically extract and install the software:

Note: This software may not be compatible with Windows Vista or Windows 7. It has only been tested on older releases of Windows, up to and including Windows XP.

Colors for Windows

Colors for Windows is a simple tool for navigating various color-spaces. It looks a little like a color-picker that one might encounter when using a drawing/painting program or even office-productivity software, but with some interesting extra features.

The link below is to a Windows program -- no installation necessary. Just download the file and then run it to use the tool:

MIDI Compozer

MIDI Compozer is a music composition tool written for DOS (before the saturation of Windows in the PC market in the 90's). Its user interface is all keybaord driven (sorry, no mouse), but once you get used to it you'll find it's faster and more precise than many mouse-based music composition user interfaces.

It was designed to playback music on Yamaha OPL2/3 synthesizer hardware so it doesn't fully take advantage of MIDI. In particular, it is limited to ten voices -- either all ten melodic or six melodic plus four percussion. It supports exporting compositions to the standard MIDI format, but does not allow for importing MIDI files.

The link below is to a ZIP archive containing all of the files necessary to run the program - just unzip and run:

Note: The archive includes a configuration file for running the program using DOSBox, a great tool for running older DOS-based programs and games on today's computers. Unfortunately, that configuration file is for an older version of DOSBox and specifcally for running under Windows. To run with the latest version of DOSBox or on other operating systems like MacOS or Linux, you will need to tweak it.