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Ask Slashdot: What Does the FOSS Community Currently Need?
First time accepted submitter d33tah writes "In the summer term of my final year of IT's bachelor's course in my university, every student is obliged to develop his own project; the only requirement is that the application would use any kind of a database. While others are thinking of another useless system for an imaginary company that nobody would actually use, I'd rather hack up something the FL/OSS community actually needs. The problem is — how to figure out what it could be?"
Better hygiene. Less beards. More women.
...I'd be working on it. Interesting question, though. Hopefully you'll get some good answers and not just an argument regarding the merits of one type of database versus another...
Move sig!
What are we missing.... while its easy to ask what we need, what ever you've found lacking in the past is the best place for you to start.
- http://www.milkme.co.uk
And for that matter, the big social networks and their apps or app-like interfaces. These are two sides to a common threat: the partitioning of the internet into a device- or social network-delineated series of ecosystems.
Definitely need another web framework option
warehouse and inventory control. integration with commercial erp software
Something like sparkleshare, bit with support for huge repos and without mono :)
Minimalist web based quiz system but with dynamic question and answer generation, for questions relating to engineering and mathematics etc. plus all the typical logging, trends etc.
How about something fun, like filesystem statistics? Keep track of the most used files to make sure you spread the disk and your mental load equally. Quite possibly useless, but could be fun to do. The hooks into the FS might be the hardest part about this, though.
Write a generic ETL app. Quite useful. Might be many out there, though. Probably few good free ones..
Or something that converts a (well known) log format into database entries for the purpose of easier statistics than what grep can provide?.
For instance, take a webserver log, dump it into the database and generate something like a visitation path..
The database isn't technically needed for this, of course, but with a large dataset, you can't keep it all in memory, so it would be useful..
Move sig!
High Priority Free Software Projects
Bad !!
And not the ugly ones !!
An app that streams free porn onto your computer as fast as possible.
DB can be used to rate/categorize the porn so that the user can choose to start off with donkey porn, midget porn etc
It's not really any particular project...There's tons of them out there. There are some areas that are lacking, though...QA, RE and documentation practices suck. The major projects tend to be better at them, but most of the smaller projects are pretty terrible at all three.
You've identified a problem, the FL/OSS community need a database of applications that the FL/OSS needs.
...database for the useless systems for imaginary companies that nobody would actually use!
"another useless system for an imaginary company that nobody would actually use"
is what everyone I know thought of twitter.com when it was first appearing on the radar.
Also, writing such a 'useless' system might actually be what your professors are looking for, since it's what you are likely going to work on much of your time as a corporate code monkey. 'Useless' here meaning: in your perception, not to the corporate bottom line.
You should really be thinking of what your course teachers expect from this project. From their point of view they are likely after their students building a basic CRUD program (create, retrieve, update, delete) to show that they understand the basics of designing and implementing a system and have some basic database skills.
The thing is, CRUD programs are not really that interesting or really, that difficult to make. There will be dozens of them available open source, and these will likely cover all the high impact general cases. What you could contribute relatively easily is a a program for a specific case.
For example: I play around with 3D printing, and I have lots of various coloured filament in varying quantities. I want to know how much I have of each so that I can use up the scraps on little prints, and save the longer lengths of filament for bigger prints. At present this means a little guesswork and some time with a tape measure.
This problem could lead to a nice simple project: build a simple database backed system to monitor filament stock levels, which allows putting in info, saying "I have used x much of this spool to print" and asking "which is the shortest spool with enough for this print?". If you kept it to the assumption that it would be a light weight program not requiring an existing database environment that would make it easy to demo as well - jsut use one of those lightweight DBMSs that dumps it's stuff in a single file. Nice and simple, but extensible.
The extensible bit is important, since it means if you get the basics done you can add on some features for extra credit. I don't mean shiny to the user features, but rather shiny to the markers features.
For example: you could make it pseudo distributed, so that I could have it running on two machines independently and synch them at will; this would mean you could look into transaction systems where you store what was done on each and synch them by applying in time order (something that is useful in big commercial database setups such as retail management systems).
Another example: you could have it capable of generating QR code labels linked to the particular spools records, and have a mobile app. Scan the QR code and have the phone call a web service front end to the database and look up exactly how much is left, and offer the option to mark it as printed with.
Basicly: pick something which is simple, but lets you show off your technical skills. If you can help the OSS movement now that's just icing, but you're better off looking after yourself at the moment so that later you can help with less constrained projects.
Mapping tools for mobile devices. Like "OSMPad", but better, if it possible at all.
Take your pick among media apps; good image, video, animation, composition editors would all be needed. Some commercial ones do exists, of course, but the trick is the "quality" and that would be hard to produce in short amount of time.
Probably the target is something that can be done by you alone and resulting in something functional in short term, then kick it into open source (not sure if could be considered yours for the course if had major contributions from a community).
A web app or a webservice to be used by a mobile app could be popular. Think in something in that categories that you could need (so you'll be your own client, knowing the requirements), and don't find in F/OSS (or what you found don't match your exact needs).
Another alternative would be extending an existing open source program with a plugin or extension with a functionality that it don't have currently (it could be implemented already in alternative, maybe commercial, software) and you would like and understand (but must to be one that actually uses a database). CMSs and similar are good candidates for that.
Specifically, taking into account the high incidence of atypical neurologies, and the problems caused by things like "but I *really really* need to concentrate so only interrupt me if it's genuinely that important", stuff like that. But underneath it all, that implies a pretty solid database of items.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
If your comfort zone can be stretched into biotechnology, there are many opportunities for analyzing huge volumes of data in genomics/proteomics. As one modest example: a select number of model organisms are commonly used for basic research. Is it feasible to build an app/tool that can gauge the suitability of an experiment subject for a particular scientific inquiry based on available genomic data? Recently, I heard a talk by a researcher in autism attempt to find a mouse model of the disorder based on observed behavior in cognitive experiments across many different laboratory strains that have been inbreed to very exacting parameters for other experiments. Given the level of detailed information on these particular strains, it is easy to see how convenient it would be to have a tool that can mine their genomes for a particular trait or set of traits or perhaps even do an in silico genetic engineering experiment before any resources are physically committed. Even if hardcore biology isn't your forte, you might maybe talk to someone who teaches the subject and ask what tools can be developed to help visualize or otherwise communicate conceptual information that derive from databases of the type kept by organizations like NCBI.
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
Double check your university's policy on copyright of student work.
That takes an ean-code (bar code) for a movie and creates a database entry of the movie with information from imdb. I would love such a concept and hook it up with a bar code scanner app on my phone so I could easily catalog my movies. If you create this as a REST-service it can be used on any platform. As for database anything doing replication or using something you haven't used before could be a very interesting experience. I'd also suggest creating a wiki for yourself so that you can keep track of what you do for later reference. I did it after finding that I spent time looking up pages I've looked up before because I didn't remember the steps.
Write a cross platform easy to set up and use peer code review software (take hints from CodeCollaborator theirs is good but expensive). It should have hooks into Git/SVN and be easily extended in the future to include other version control systems. It would also be cool if it had the ability to have source code scanning plugins like phpcs (code sniffer) or phpmd(mess detector)... I'm a PHP guy you can tell, but I'm sure the guys from the java, c++, and other communities could use similar tools. Make sure it has an easy to set up web interface (you could package a webserver into the deal that listens on whatever port is configured during the setup process).
If you want to learn a lot about code, really help out the community, and get a lot of love, write some documentation for other people's code.
Now how you work the database requirement into that, I don't know. Perhaps you could write a documentation request tracker for ReadTheDocs.org - their site is on GitHub at https://github.com/rtfd/readthedocs.org so you can fork it, write something that lets people request and prioritise projects that need docs, then submit a pull request.
If you're really ambitious, write a web-based environment for writing, editing, and submitting documentation to projects on GitHub, BitBucket, etc.
Apparently, as long as it's a patch, it's a positive contribution. I learnt that from: https://twitter.com/zeenix/status/303136468627509248
Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
Just give them what they want and move on.
If you want to "change the world", do it in your own time because the academic and work world, its all bullshit anyway and about just getting your promotion (even in academia).
Debugging, documentations and GUIs is what most FOSS projects out there are lacking. Sadly, you're expected to actually write code so this isn't going to fly.
The next best thing you can do is re-writes:
1. You could find some old yet still in common use python2 \ bash scripts that uses deprecated libraries and update it to python3. I'm not you can actually "sell" this as a legitimate project though...
2. Find an old \ undocumented but still commonly used non-C code and rewrite it in modern C. This is essentially the same as the python2 to python3 idea but it should be an easier sell and if done properly would be brought into common use very quickly.
Just thinking about all the ugly pointer tricks people used to do just a decade ago before compilers were any good and now deprecated... And all those pascal programs that are now mostly abandoned... Just stat with something like that.
I'm not sure if people like Stallman are helping the scene at all.
+1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
the free software world needs a good video editor.
a database would be very helpful in the editing workflow - strangely enough no edit suites have it but most photo programs do.
to be able to assign tags to clips and subclips and all media, sort by timecode, sort by who is in it, sort by how good a take it is, right-click a shot in the sequence and be able to see a list of things relevant to that particular clip would be amazing.
of course, there's way more than a bachelor's in a project like this.
you could always just make an innovative xmms plugin that implements a database of the tags in your music library, and maybe helps you to choose what to play next...
What I've been planning to look into as a project is the following problem:
I have several instances of a platform, each with several customers. I'd like to be able to move customers around, but this would cause all kinds of problems with primary keys and foreign key relations in our database. To make matters worse, the database doesn't contain actual foreign keys all the foreign key relationships that are used and it contains a few text-fields which would require search-and-replace on some of the foreign keys.
I know of no standard solution to fix this, but it should be possible to do. It should be possible to make a tool, feed it with a configuration file that maps out all the relationships (ideally this could be generated from the database meta-data itself) and search&replace actions. Supply it with a list of "start" keys (in my example, this would be a customerid) from which it would scan all linked records. Have it export a file format which can be imported using the tool on a different database, generating new keys and properly setting foreign keys to the new keys. For bonus points, have it de-duplicate records as specified in that configuration file.
Such a tool would probably be very interresting to a lot of people.
Benefits of the project is that (AFAIK) it's not been done before, it's quite technical in nature (no need to understand non-IT stuff) and would produce code that would be useful after it is no longer a school project. Down side is that it's going to take quite some effort to make it truely effective. Also, as of now, you can't patent it ;)
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Complete.
If you have to ask, it's pretty obvious that there isn't any need for anything right now.
I could use a nice native Linux program with a good GUI to read, set and LOG data from my cars ECU with OBD.
The possibility to read and write ECU maps (with right checksums generated) would be higlhy appriciated too!
Tell me when it's ready!
Thanks!
Why not set up a database system which can be used to keep track of which database systems are used (mysql, postgresql, etc) in which opensource projects and which version of the database is used along with the table/memory/thread-usage limitations of each instance?
.
Example: firefox uses sqlite for its internal database needs. What do others use? You can populate your database with info like that, and perhaps build a good LAMP/web based front end to allow more entries to be collaboratively updated.
Knowing your potential customers is essential. A databse of neighborhoods and survey results could be used to expand FIOS offerings to include more potential customers.
For example, how many people want Internet and NOT the bundled Telephone and Subscription TV packages? This package is hard for customers to obtain at reasonable prices due to the pushing of Value Added services the customer does not want or wish to pay for.
ISP phone packages for example are $30 + with taxes in the US. Great you can call all of the US. Big deal. My current VOIP with Google Talk I can call all of the US and Canada for FREE. Out of area callers can have the same package with their cell phone or Google Voice to call me free.
If I want unlimited calling to overseas numbers, there are packages out there for under $10/month which includes 40 countries, + low rates to other countries.
For TV I have great over the air for local news. I care less about armchair quarterback sports, so Netflix is fine.
I just want Internet at reasonable speed, low latency, and no throttling or blocked ports. I can block ports I need blocked at the router firewall.
If a bundled FIOS solution is $150, and no unbundled Internet for a reasonable price, I'll stick with other broadband solutions.
Use gathered data to increase your market penetration, instead of maintaining a high average selling price with poor market penetration.
Remember when the market went crazy a few years ago when Intel released the Atom? TM on Intel and Atom.. because it would canabilize the desktop market?
Intel had a record year, and has continued to grow year over year. They prevented greater market loss to tablets by competing in the sub laptop market. Now they are in the Ultrabook market with high performance chips drawing low power.
If an ISP does not grow with the market and sticks with only high end bundles, they will leave open a hole for competion to grow.
Use the database to optimize your market offerings. Be aware that your competion will also be adjusting to market threats, which includes your offerings. Plan for it. The pool is limited in scope. Are you planning on serving the under employed who drop the ISP and only use a smart phone because of high broadband cost?
Survey your market..
Do you have a smart phone?
Do you have home Broadband?
If yes, DSL, Cable, WiMax, Fiber?
Is your broadband speed OK?
Is your internet Bundled?
Are you using a VOIP device or service such as Google Talk, Magic Jack, Skype, etc?
Further questions can define price points for various package offerings. Try to meet most of the market segments as possible.
The truth shall set you free!
OSM is now growing. There is tonnes of mapping data available,
How about improving offline navigation capabilities.
For example, currently OSM AND simply does offline navigation based on POIs. How about integrating an offline address search.
My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
FB : https://www.facebook.com/TanveersPhotography
A tabular data app. Think MS Access, but without the hassle of having to set up tables or fields beforehand. Actually, forget MS Access. Its just a white graph-paper canvas, and you control it using your digitizer/tablet pen.
The ideal tool no more complicated as sketch paper, enabling to quickly count inventory in your tablet (handwriting recognition and tally) the way you always have, but it understands and helps to plot your data if you decide to do so afterwards. It would also work if you start with a photo of your (actual paper) sketch.
This idea is mine (but have no time to build it according to my vision) and the idea may be freely used IF open source and not developed commercially.
I see practical uses for people who do dislike computers, but need something slightly more faster/powerful than wielding a notepad and calculator while on the go.
Hivemind harvest in progress..
I really need an interactive web based database of software, such as is on distrowatch.com, but, that updates itself with the use of web crawlers. (And, does ballistics for the Mosin Nagant 1891/30 using the various loads and bullet weights that are available to buy or load in the 7.62x54r cartridge! Or, a one click movie/book/music database? ) Does abc programs work with, supported in, the XYZ OS? If I give Jane her Linux Mint 13 program, will it function to output viable info that is readable in the abc program on the XYZ OS of Bob, Jim, Pat, and Carol? Does 48 grains of AA powder cause excessive pressures if behind a .3105" Boat Tail jacketed bullet, in a 28.7 inch barrel?
Can the range increase from a useable 2000 meters to the 3000 meters the bullet is capable of traveling?
Owners/users of 42.5 million Rifles/Carbines, might want to know!
git handling for big files.
It is really difficult to use git with large assets (i.e. in the video game industry) because it stores all history, whereas it would be better to store those assets outside (some of them are really assets, and some of them can be auto-generated but take long time).
Existing solutions are:
- git annex (seems good but linux only, rely on symlink)
- git media (ruby so hard to make it a default module, and not so maintained)
Ideally, it should be along the lines to http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/BigfilesExtension or http://www.plasticscm.com/features/archiving.aspx.
Seems quite related to database. Would be very helpful for many open-source git projects!
Kudo and many thanks if you would consider it!
There's a few idea's I have:
1) Open Sourced risk management tool. Add in the risks, controls, and likelihoods - store to a database (allows for risk templates like PCI/DSS) and output a report. As far as I know this is only available as commercial software.
2) Open Sourced approach for home finances - like a quicken or the like.
3) A simple open replacement for evernote - with a database as the backend. i.e. something like Evernote 2.2, back before it became cloud - perhaps with greater emphasis on text - and searching information.
A simple database driven offline content management system, i.e. a CMS which generates static HTML from content in a database, with a (local) web interface for editing content and regenerating modified pages.
Static web pages are easy to host, the hosting is cheap because they don't demand much from the server, and they're almost inherently secure because they don't process data on the server.
There are a lot of utilities that convert log files (from Apache for instance) to databases and perform data mining on them but there are still a lot of services that do not yet have these tools. This would make for an interresting database project as you could do a lot of really complex queries and have it create human readable reports.
If the OP really means what the community as a whole needs rather than one useful thing for part of that community, then ironically I think you've just nailed it: more than anything else, the community needs a way to match up willing and able contributors with projects that could benefit from their contributions.
To do that, the OP could develop a simple database that understands things like:
Provide some sort of keyword store (extension: recognise related entries/common aliases) or defined scale for each property, let projects say what they need and volunteers say what they're willing to contribute, and help people get matched up.
This has the handy advantage for the OP of being readily scalable from a simple proof of concept with a simple native or web-based UI right up to a full-blown and genuinely useful service if you can find a way of getting it hosted properly. It might help particularly with contribution in areas other than programming, which in practice is often where OSS projects run by volunteers for free start to fall behind commercial projects run by businesses with cross-disciplinary teams.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
The FOSS community rarely needs anything. At least in terms of tools. they're the sort of people who are willing to make tools themselves if they have an itch to scratch.
But there are all sorts of utilities you could produce that will be useful to someone. Maybe a free utility that handles mp3s allows the user to add tags, and create a playlist based on arbitrary searches. Or something that manages photos. Or a recipe app that can find a recipe for the ingredients you have
The profit motive.
Send your spendthrift head of state this
Sex.
not some tablet wannabee.
If you want to help the FLOSS community, you might convert all the various databases to one type, so we can reduce the number of libraries we need.
Basically, if your assignment is to write a basic tool, We don't need it unless you have done something really cool with it, and preferably it's compatible with something else that has a decent market share already.
So, either you find a database performance problem that you need to write your own to get the level of performance you need, (or better yet, you modify, or add a mode to an existing database)
Or you just make something and keep it to yourself. Write you fancy application that we need to work on something that we already have, rather than introducing new dependancies
Semi-serious. I think Slashdot's got one of the best content/comment/moderation systems around - certainly better than Reddit, way better than the ashes of Digg, and more useful than Usenet.
Build a FOSS database with whatever improvements you design, as the underpinnings for a new Slashdot not owned by some mega-corporation intent on shoveling crap articles at us, like "how to get employed by RedHat" or video interviews about random horse crap?
If this were Usenet, I'd killfile the lot of you.
I love what Ubuntu has done with the idea brainstorm (http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/). But I would love to see a similar platform but in general for open source ideas. I'd be happy to offer web hosting for this. An additional feature could indeed be matching savvy people with projects, but we need to identify great ideas first.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Rather than yet another database application, what is needed is a database layer, much like a graphics layer. This could then be a common resource for all applications.
Part of the problem is that each application has its own database. Users want to access data from multiple applications which usually means exporting from one or more databases and importing the data into another before you can run any queries against it.
The relational model is two restrictive for the sort of things a user needs to do. Something based on RDF or OWL might be a lot more flexible and hence useful.
Write a (Linux, BSD) filesystem driver that keeps its file metadata in a database.
Use queries to construct the filesystem layout. E.g.
...and so on. Don't ask me what the exact queries should be - the idea is just that files are arranged in the filesystem because of their attributes rather than having a single home.
Add a chattr command (or somesuch) to modify metadata for a particular file, or implement the inverse of the queries as attribute changes (i.e. mv /bin/ls /sbin/ls causes the owner=root attribute to be set on the file).
I'm not saying it'd be useful to anyone in the FOSS world, but it would be great fun.
What the parent says is generally true in science (I am a physicist). Modern science is filled with examples of being able to collect information faster than scientists can organise it. Aside from universities, you could find many such opportunities at so-called "large scale facilities" such as synchrotron X-ray sources (http://www.lightsources.org/), neutron sources, etc. where data collection rates are enormous. It shouldn't be too difficult to find someone who would value your work.
As a professional graphic artist, I know first hand that the GIMP really doesn't have the quality that Photoshop does. I wish it wasn't the case! I can tell the difference in rendering.
And how about movie maker type programs that rival Corel VideoStudio or Sony Vegas? That's a black hole in the list of open source apps.
How about decent WAV/MP3/music file editing? Seems like there is a lot lacking in programs for musicians but it has come a long way.
Not to forget that there are no drivers for my USB speaker with mic, my Logitech G13 gaming keyboard, or my EMU 1212m sampling sound card.
The OS/2 community is in need of open source clone for our beloved OS.
We have partially open source components on all the layers, but some need to be finished and glue them together.
We need:
- Workplace Shell replacement (xWorkplace can be used)
- SOM replacement (FreeSOM can be used)
- OpenDOC (docshell)
- PM (Presentation Manager) replacement (FreePM can be used but is missing a more)
- OS/2 Kernel replacement
- TCPIP replacement.
- Drivers
- OSFree project code can also be used.
How many people here can't read the fucking summary? here's a shot at it. How about a de-duplicator for music/photos that would (nicely) hunt for media, throw the metadata in the database, search for identical and almost-identical files, and then beautifully show the output. Bonus points if you beat the standard interface to these things which is just a list of duplicated files. I'd suggestb bubble diagrams that show how many files in which folders are duplicates of others.
Business analysts, QA analysts, technical writers. I could keep going. There is too much coder and not enough developer.
PostgreSQL has a wonderful wiki todo list. Just pick your task.
My pet peeves are on domains, localisation, derived relations, and integrity constraints.
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
Getting the various open source software talking to each other is a major issue.
It can be done via ldap, but most hosting providers do not support that.
How about developing a back end database that will do the following:
1. Run in a typical hosted environment
2. Interface with all of the modern CMS systems
3. Provide single registration, authentication and group management for all linked applications
Plug-ins for drupal, mediawiki, moodle, Wordpress, CVS/subversion, and a mailing list software would do well.
On the database side you will have to figure out how to deal with the groups thing. Maintaining the same groups on all of the software will be an issue, but hopefully one you can figure out.
From the submitter:
Well, there we go, you already have a problem that needs fixing! So how about this:
A database that keeps track of FL/OSS community needs. Some possible features:
1/ People go to your website/program and input their software needs. Could be a form with relative requirements on each need. You put the requirements and users in a database, with some sort of relationship between user and need.
2/ People with projects can put their project in the database by stating its goals, as well as state of completion. The state of completion implies (negatively) what requirements still need to be fulfilled for each project.
3/ Your fancy program tries by some algorithm to match 1+2, using some sort of database. Your program brings people's needs and the projects needs together in some form that allows the needs to be fulfilled. Bonus points for making it some sort of social site. Your software is not only open source, but even "community driven".
Actually your question points out a need - how about fulfilling that need? You have already tried to find something that would help you, but couldn't find it - how about doing something about it? This is the best way to do software - not by taking an arbitrary list of stuff from others, but actually experiencing the need yourself. Since you know the requirements in some degree, you should put your energies in fulfilling them. Would make an interesting and useful project.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
Other than the unkempt state of many nerds (I am one of them), the other big problem is pick up lines
A database of excellent pick up lines, and examples, preferably video demos, would be a plus
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
I especially like the PERL/Ruby APIs, but the thing is written for Rails2 and would need some refactoring.
I know there's GLPI - but I don't need most of the stuff it provides (and I'm not sure if it would fit our use-cases) and I'd rather want something that can be plugged into existing solutions via APIs...
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
Since you are finishing school, you know something about what students want, and could easily get feedback about what teachers want. Many schools do online classes using the Moodle framework, a modular learning management system. The Moodle forums and bugzilla have ideas for new modules. Someone above mentioned a fast, lightweight quiz system. That's something that Moodle users need - there have been multiple requests for it recently. Specifically, people have need for a quiz system which loads separately from Moodle, but talks to the Moodle database or webservice. Currently the existing quiz system is integrated into Moodle, so opening a quiz page drags in a MILLION lines of Moodle code. That's not scalable. People want a lightweight quiz so that 20,000 students can take the quiz at the same time, then send the data to Moodle, either directly to the database or import it from a file.
Make software for a router so it doesn't care what it routes, takes packets from any source, and moves them closer to their destination, and is resistant to the whims of users ignorant of how it all works, but wants to be a part. make a box that connects to other boxes and doesn't particularly need to be directly connected to an ISP... a router five boxes down the chain is good enough.
help with this
http://villagetelco.org/mesh-potato/
or this
https://fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/free_open_secure_communications/
or this
http://freedomboxfoundation.org/
Figuring out what Android HW has your detailed requirements is a pain. Figuring out what "ROMs" are available takes ours of research. Figuring out which *current* ROMs are any good may take several unbrick iterations. Needed: Good HW spec filtering and ROM "leaderboard" with filtering like distrowatch.with voting.
Why not contact some (local) charity's and see what you can do for them?
You get your project, you help a good cause and it looks good on your resume.
42
A network mapping software with a modern UI. It should be able to use CDP, LLDP, MAC tables.. Bonus points for IPAM.
Making the puppet for network devices more complete and / or providing an alternative.
is a good FOSS version of a program similar to printmaster or printshop, something to do simple signs and other designs - you could have an address lebel component that uses a database... or the database could manage the graphics... (this is probably way more work than a simple class project though)
so down to some easier data driven application....
Hers one that I think has postential and not too terribly complex - a "movie tagging database" web-based where you can plug in basic details of your favorite films (title, rating amazon URL, etc.) then have a method where users can review and, more importantly, tag the movies.
Why tagging? How easy is it to find all your vampire musicals or time travel westerns? How about rounding up your mad scientist flicks, or ones that are rainy? Having tags where one can identify obscrure/fringe/fetish genres would make finding particular films much more useful.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
The FL/OSS community usually makes what it needs. Can you simply join an existing (database-driven) project and make a nice contribution? Or do you have to make a stand-alone project? Many a project is not "complete", but to find an empty niche?
It is hard to come up with anything that is sorely needed. When I look around, open source already have superior alternatives to most commercial software. Exceptions seems to exist mostly when there are secret hardware specs around. So there is no good open-source raw converter for my camera, for example.
Consider running a company with only open-source software. Would any software be hard to get, that is database-driven? Maybe accounting software, or some sort of management/administration stuff?
People sometimes complain of low 'market share' for open software. Maybe a database of success stories, making it easier to discover that open software is an option that works for many already?
Could probably use help in its DB component. Thank you for being willing to make a contribution.
Seriously, FOSS is a self limiting activity. For example, since I lack the patronage of a mother and a basement, and I'm not still at university, I have to make actual money to support my luxurious lifestyle, which includes eating every day and shoes. Being single is a big plus for FOSS, but against all odds, a few of us have managed to engage in actual reproductive activity with a single partner for a sustained period (We even got a license for it!). To really give a boost to FOSS, this sort of thing should be abolished.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
I also found the line "While others are thinking of another useless system for an imaginary company that nobody would actually use, I'd rather hack up something the FL/OSS community actually needs." quite arrogant.
Web based IP Address Management software. There are a few out there, most of them dead. Some are add-ons to bigger projects (NOC Project, Infoblox,) or doesn't work like I want (GestióIP), or cost too much for us (Solarwinds). DB backed with auto-discovery and a useable web interface. I use NOC, but most of it is wasted since I don't use any of it. Mostly just the IPAM stuff.
Here's a cool idea: modify a package manager to install software concurrently. Probably all the siblings in a dependency tree could be installed in parallel, resulting in a quite measurable performance improvement, if we are talking about a multicore CPU and fast enough storage.
It's not a new concept, but as we get more massive filesystems on all sorts of backend storage, there should be a way to abstract the backend. Certain types of operations are expensive from a traditional filesystem standpoint but trivial from a database. For example, metadata on files often requires a multi-step process of looking up the filename in an index then opening each file to query the data. I have multiple computing devices with local storage. When I want to search for a file, it is sometimes a tedious process of searching multiple systems to try to recall where I wrote the file (It happens more often than you'd imagine; many of my systems are accessible only via ssh so there are no other memory cues such as "I was at my home desk"). Imagine if the files from all my systems could be searched from one interface? I have thought of using map-reduce or even a combination of locatedb and mysql to do this, but what I really want is metadata to be stored automatically and natively in the database.
The downstream utility would be interesting and could change how we approach storage (e.g., for de-duplication, multi-tier storage based on cost, streamlining of layered applications, etc.).
The existing hardware auditing and survey tools are pretty poorly integrated to actual hardware configurations. MAC addresses for DHCP reservations, combined with DNS, could be invaluable for storing usable system data in a way that does not require people to maintin 3 disjoint spreadsheets. The critical data are:
* serial number
* system owner
* MAC addressees
* IP addresses to go with MAC addresses
* Hostnames to go with IP addresses
Bonus points should be awarded if you deal corectly with pair bonding.
Funny, I was thinking about a project last night. I wanted to do some work with LibreOffice, and didn't know where to start. Even verifying a bug requires me to find and download the right build, and then look up the reproduction instructions. Not a big deal, but it didn't seem easy to me to find bugs that exist only on Linux, that are just bite-sized enough. But what if there were software to automatically find these bugs, match it to your hardware/OS, download the appropriate build (I heard LibreOffice has binaries for every commit), and present the software in a window with the bug instructions. Then I could take 15 seconds to reproduce the bug or not, and hit a button or two to indicate what happened. The results could then be uploaded back to the bug database. Please tell me Slashdot. Why wouldn't this work? It would seem to draw in more people like myself, who have a willingness to help but like software to do as much as possible...
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Comment removed based on user account deletion
A browser based game that plays on the web or mobile phones. The player travels around the world based on Wikipedia content. Rewards are based on learning real concepts from Wikipedia eg math, geography, physics.
The game should be playable by a 10 year old and take years to complete. At the end of the game, a player should have learnt the equivalent of a college degree in hard sciences. Free to play and open source community maintained content. Hosting companies could make money from ads.
Get Cinelerra to be better than sony vegas with plugins, and get some audio thing going with plugins that you can fuck with the maths
Right now almost all non-single-user programs and websites are caught in the throes of the centralization problem.
In order to be useful, they have to have a reasonably large user base. They have to be the central focal point of many people.
This artificially hampers the success of many great ideas. You can have the best solution in the world, but it's useless unless it's popular. Isn't being a nerd all about how you can be successful even if you aren't one of the popular kids?
We're starting to see this emerge with e.g DHTs, Bitcoin, etc. What we really need, though, is an even more generic decentralized framework for the exchange of knowledge so that the benefits of the informational hunter-gatherer existence are broadly available.
Too arrogant to bother replying in his own thread too. Make a database of submitters vs those who actually interact in their own questions.
How about a text game driven automatic database app creator?
Catalyst (perl application server) and firehol (firewall editor) both introduce some very simple syntax but something closer to a simple AI or a text engine such as that used to develop and play interactive fiction games (TADS, Inform, ADRIFT, z-engine, etc.), or simple natural language processing (like NLTK) would be fun and very useful for many people. Have a dialogue with the system, which could be saved as a list of text commands, to build a database (i.e. generate an sql build script you can pipe to mysql) and have it generate a running crud viewer for the web.
Extra points if you can design different templates easily (via text description) and provide an Android app. You could also use your database to store the rules and code for designing a UI, so that text snippets can be translated into code blocks. Basically everything could be in the database, so you can bootstrap and the app can start writing itself..! Well if you get that far you win the compiler geek medal with crossed lighting bolts. Seriously though applying simple text language to app creation is powerful but underutilized. Needing to figure out a new grammar is hard so it should be well-documented and flexible.
I'd really like an auto-tagger and cover art finder that works in the terminal. Something like VortexBox that's not an OS, just a terminal command.
This is what I currently do (using long args for readability):
cdparanoia --verbose --batch --never-skip
flac --verify --best *.wav
rm *.wav
Then I open up MusicBrainz Picard and use this to get tags and cover art. Can this already be used in the terminal? There are tagging programs out there for the terminal, but they're either manual or don't auto-grab cover art, etc. It'd also be nice to specify a different source (musicbrainz for regular, something else for classical). Then I use SoundConverter to convert to OGG Vorbis or MP3, and it does a pretty good job of preserving tags. I just hate having to do so much GUI work. I'd rather just have one script file.
The G
Another post... This is lacking in the F/OSS world. Wiki List. For lack of better words, Julius and Sphinx suck. They use acoustic models I believe. I'd like to see one using some of the latest Artificial Neural Network algorithms. Since you're in school, get them to pay for IEEE so that you can see all of the great articles and work already done. Then make it free and open source! Most importantly, make it easy for users and developers and integration into DEs.
The G
At Haiku-os.org we are in need of developers who can create applications using the BeOS API. We have a great FOSS OS but a scarcity of native applications. We could use a decent word processor, a decent spreadsheet, some decent productivity apps, some graphics applications, some better screen savers, more cooler games. You name it and we need it. We would love to have new developers writing code for Haiku. We have sponsored a number of Google Summer of Code students in the past and have an infrastructure in place for working with interested students. We would welcome any school related projects. Check out our web site and drop us an email.
All the great FOSS projects so far have come from someone "scratching an itch"; Linux was made because Linus didn't like the networking and terminal emulation on MINIX, gcc was created because Richard Stallman needed a Free compiler. Take that thing that always bothered you, but that you never got around to solving, and solve it.
With a database.
A few examples might be:
-a database management system that actually works (for your own definition of "works")
-an interpreter for the programming language you always wanted to build but never got around to (the standard library for this language comes with a database API)
-port the concept of a database to a platform which has never seen one, eg.: write one in PDP-1 asm, or build a database program for the ENIAC (extra credit if you build your own ENIAC emulator)
AccountKiller
A video editor that is actually usable.
And a real Photoshop alternative.
US businesses are increasingly subject to federal regulations that require professionally supported software. For example my employers are audited for compliance with HIPAA, GLB, HITECH, and SOX. The auditors red-flag any "unsupported" softwares, such as Debian or Fedora for example. They are OK with commercially maintained stuff like Red Hat, or if you self-support by keeping a financially draining stable of developers on hand for every single FOSS package you use.
However, Microsoft underbid Red Hat for our 400 person enterprise by a factor of half. And the only FOSS maintainers we could find who could underbid Microsoft were individual contractors who were capable of maintaining patchlevels for a few dozen softwares at best, which is not sufficient for our needs. Red Hat threw up their hands; they weren't willing to compete.
So we'd like to do FOSS, but we can't sell it to management, since the bosses want to stay out of bankruptcy court and keep paying our salaries. Microsoft was cheaper in terms of fulfilling our regulatory requirements.
an address storage system.
I frequently need to save addresses in my programs. An _international_ storage system for addresses would be really helpful.
Not only is it pretty hard to find out how different nations store their addresses, it's not that easy to find an acceptable storage representation. You could then also add bindings for open street map to verify/show actual addresses and even allow users to contribute to open street map if they want to.
I could even imagine paying a service for address verification with bindings for ups, gls, fedex, ...
Reading through this, I just had a goofy idea. Might be fun. Wants, needs, risks and weightings.
Have people input their income and expenses. The product of that is some nice presentation of where their money currently goes.
Add value by doing the math, and if the inputs do not come within a few percent of income, prompt them for more spending.
For each spend, give it some data fields that detail the kind of spending, when, why, how and variances. Break it down so they get a screen with some great picks that tell the system what they are spending and might spend in rough ways.
eg:
Type of spend
Electric Bill, recurring, 15th of every month. Time base = quarter (as opposed to weekday, week, day, year, month, etc...) Summer = $100, Fall = $150, Winter = $200, Spring = $75
Smokes, recurring, every other day (give options here, day of month, pattern, weekly, annually, quarterly), $5
Oil Change, recurring, Quarterly, $35.
Savings, recurring, bi-weekly, $200.
You get the idea.
The more they input, the more robust the data is, and show them that as often as you can, or ideally as they are inputting so you are flexing that database and using spiffy features too.
Now they know what they are spending. Ask them about risks based on the input and some stuff you've thought up.
Car repair? Theft? Get sick? Have them input those.
Wants.
New car, $10K. Given that want, and the spending, show them options to save vs finance. As they add more wants, highlight where they overshoot their means and how the risks might screw them.
Then they can select weightings of various kinds...
Lots of fun there, uses database, might actually get used too.
Blogging because I can...
Most monitoring systems that exist are garbage. Even the more modern ones fall prey to the same set of rules that made sense 10+ years ago. Today we monitor thousands of machines, instead of hundreds. All alerts need t be trackable over time. Thousands of machines means thousands of responses and a lot of wasted network bandwidth on OK messages. Why are there only three alert levels in this world (good, warning and bad... I I'm ignoring unknown)? What happens with all our magic monitoring when our top level monitoring host dies? Why have so many people,e focused on bad UI and failed to focus on great APIs? Why is adding/removing/changing a host monitoring config so damn hard? And why have we still not figured out a simple way too understanding cascading failures and intelligently alert once?
This is something we need. All of the interesting companies that new engineering grads flock to have a Big Data or cluster/cloud component. Monitoring will be a challenge you end up touching, at least in brief. Help yourself now and solve it before you run up the brick wall of Nagios.
While some of the answers above suggested that you answered your own question, that's only a beginning. My answer encapsulates some of the responses above - in a single word, software, software, software! I'm talking here about real software that people need, be it FOSS equivalents of Office, QuickBooks, good image, video, animation and composition editors, Media format converters, device drivers of the most popular hardware out there, and even games.
The important thing here is that the community, to the extent that it exists beyond just scratching one's own itches, should focus on filling in the blanks that are not there. In other words, we don't need more distros (of either Linux or BSD), more filesystems, more package managers, more desktop environments and all that. We already have more than enough on that front, particularly if one counts the different version numbers separately, since not everybody upgrades things, since that would cause considerable breakage (more on that below). Nor do we need more developer toys like the GNU toys - Texinfo, Gnash, Coreboot, GNU bazaar, bison, and so on. But the things that are there in Windows or OS X but not there in the form of liberated software - that's the stuff that FOSS people ought to be focusing on, if the long term success of FOSS is what they have in mind.
On the OS side, since there is already too much going on, I'm hesitant to suggest more. But one thing that devs would do well to do - make incompatibilities b/w versions a thing of the past. Like if an application requires Qt 3, then an environment that has Qt 4 should automatically be capable of supporting it, w/o any changes needed to the software. If an application is built for Gtk 2, it should work easily on Gtk 3 as well. In fact, given that this is open source software that we're talking about here, in an ideal situation, even patches that enable forward compatibility ought to be optionally available. So that let's say somebody is happily using KDE 3.5, but needs to run something written using Qt 4.8 libraries, there should be something that can be optionally installed in the KDE 3.5 environment that enables the software to run. Similarly, it would be good to have QRE/Test Engineers who test various software version combinations to see whether they work together, like ALSA version x on Linux version y. In the event that they don't, have devs whose sole job it is to provide a patch that would enable them to work together.
Another thing - while Linux has a central kernel that Torvald's controls, there are 3 such in the BSD family (4 if DragonFly's fork is counted). Suggestion here - combine the best of all - say FBSD's utilities, OBSD's security and pF, Minix's kernel, NetBSD portability utilities - and make a central BSD OS, from which different distros can be derived. That way, all other BSDs - PC-BSD, GhostBSD, Bitrig, MidnightBSD, DragonFly, et al can exist as separate distros, each w/ its own USP. Right now, FBSD is almost a de-facto standard, but there are things about NBSD, OBSD, DFBSD and Minix that are appealing enough to consider such a project.
One more thing - each of the software projects that I mentioned above should focus on being the best, not just live on the merit of being 'free software', as RMS desires. Ultimately, it's its quality that will determine whether it can dethrone its closed source rivals, and not the fact that it's open source alone. Like if it is an app that is supposed to dethrone QuickBooks, for instance, it should do everything QuickBooks does, and better, and more. Come out w/ at least ONE software in every category of applications, and FOSS will find much more widespread acceptance - one would even see entrepreneurs lining up to start businesses based on FOSS, the way VA Linux once did. But unlike VA Linux, they'd be much more likely to be successes.
Also, on the issue of licenses, do what's prudent, and don't just blindly follow RMS/FSF. GPL will force you to share everything w/ everyone, not just to
1) Build a conventionally-designed desktop OS (perhaps from Linux or BSD components): It would have an SDK with a clearly defined but rich set of interfaces/libraries making it easy to write programs that run on just about any installation of that OS without getting tangled in a lot of fuss. To that end, apps would be fully contained in each of their own app directories (like GoboLinux and OSX) and there would be a default IDE along the lines of Xcode and Visual Studio. Most apps need only check the OS version to satisfy their dependencies.
2) Restore mouse cursor feedback to Qubes AppVMs... http://www.qubes-os.org/
3) Add desktop sharing capability to X11 or the freeNX protocol (not sure now, but this still wasn't done a couple years ago when I last checked). Currenty X11 systems can only share a screen between two or more people by inefficiently tossing bitmaps around (using VNC). Windows and OSX have had the abstraction layers to do this efficiently for about a decade.
4) Write a great CAD program to compare with AutoCAD (though this may be tough even for a PhD level project).
Oops... too many suggestions.
Good luck with whatever you choose!
Pick an implementation and chip in?
Write up a case for using Open Office instead of Microsoft Office for a business.
For the database portion of the code, have something simple in C that can identify all the users/companies current MS office files (excel, ms word, etc) and track the files that are accessed / used, prioritize based on that and write another program to do a simple conversion of the files from MS Office to Open Office.
Then finish with a business case on how much money a company can save every year from not having to buy MS Office Licenses.
Sell the idea to cash-strapped state departments / schools and make a million dollars.
Difficulty: The conversion / tracking software must be easy to access / use with a web interface and the converted files must be of better quality than current conversion from *.xls to *.xlsx (The worst upgrade for Office yet).
*THAT* is what the OSS *NEEDS*. It is also something businesses need, both to save money and to kick MS into gear to actually innovate in office products (Or at the very least, get rid of ribbons).
doodie boobies wiener kittens monochrometer
Aww, pickles, I fudged up again --- have to start all over!
How about a nice Vala development environment with a visual debugger and code completion to encourage developers to develop for linux? Vala/GTK/Clutter have so much to offer and yet there are a ton of developers out there who do not want to code in C. Great work goes on to make these technologies work together and provide the means for developing really cool applications; I think if you brought them together in a decent IDE and provided a proper debugger and code completion that just worked, you would encourage linux application development in general. I have seen a few attempts at getting this done (Valama being the latest), but nothing ever materializes. Must be a really difficult problem.
I think the obvious thing would be an associative database filesystem for the /home directory.
Essentially this would be a filesystem that responds to requests to open... a file by copying it off to something like /var/tmp/home and allowing normal sequential access. On file close the file gets fully indexed and put in the associative database. The directory location should be tagged and end users should be able to tie keywords to files using an associative scheme.
So for example /home/steve/homework/Math232/2011-Mar-14.odt
comes up in a query for all Math homework since the database contains an association between Math and Math232 and 2011-Mar-14.odt is associated with Math232 automatically. Further if problem 7 is about a cubic equations this file should pop up in an association of "cubics" because of the association cubics -> cubic equation -> 2011-Mar-14.odt
An associative database can be implemented using a relational in the normal ways.
some thing free I actually want to use.
1) Finds files
2) Auto searches for metadata
3) Files the duplicates once keydata is entered by group -> album
4) Allows you to sort the list by about 40 criteria
I'm sure most of the other music players do the same thing.
Both very good ideas.
For the former, what would be good would be a good open & versatile DHCP6 client which could be used to manage IPv6 addresses in a very flexible manner. Like have a subnet control which could tell the OS how many subnets there are, based on whether it's a /64 or /60 or /56 or /48 or more. Windows 7 already asks you that in the IPv6 configuration properties. The other thing they could do is allow for 4 programmable segments within the interface ID - like have any combination of them fixed, and any combination of them variable. That way, within a link the network could have a certain number of static addresses, and a certain number of dynamic addresses - depending on what's needed. So that within that link, one could be hosting HTTP, SMTP, IMAP, NIS, NFS, FTP, SCP and a whole host of other servers, and several of them (up to, say 65536) while at the same time having a certain range marked for dynamic addresses. In fact, also have an IPAM that can assign unique local addresses (fd00::/8) to the network. That way, if this solution is widely adapted, everybody will have unique local as well as global IPv6 addresses, which would help tremendously when it comes to setting up VPN networks (where Link Local addresses won't work).
The latter is a particularly fantastic idea. Have a software that tests the compatibility between any software and any distro. Like say somebody wants to run, say, Calligra Suite on a Debian 6.0 running XFCE rather than KDE, the software should either tell the user what more the OS needs before Calligra works, or if possible, offer to install it for them. That way, let's say Calligra requires Qt 4.10, then the software would install Qt 4.10 and then tell the user that he can proceed and install Calligra. Or prompt him to switch his UI from XFCE to KDE. Note that I've only mentioned one set of dependencies here, but there could well be more, like which version of glibc is used by the OS and which version of the same library is used by the software, and so on. So this application would be somewhat like EasyPBI, in that it would identify all the mismatches and tell the user what needs to be done before Software S can be installed on Environment E.
I'm a crappy coder. I could use a way to find people who wanted small coding jobs. I pay them, they code for me. I just got a new laptop. The wireless card doesn't work with Linux yet. (Damnit Realtek!) I could use a website that would tell me who's working on that, and what they need to succeed. Actually, I really like this one. I have a piece of hardware. I want to make sure it works.... Just match up the hardware IDs (obda:0127) with the real world name, and if it has a working driver. Simple, but I don't think it exists... If it does, someone please tell me! I could go into the store, look at the hardware, hit your database on my phone, and know if the stupid thing would work for me or not. If it doesn't work, tell me who's working on it, and what they need. I would gladly donate time, money, pizza, hardware, etc to the right people that were working on my problem. I just don't know who they are. Go man, go!
Have you looked at osFree? (It had a different website, but now, that one requires authorization) It is something similar to IBM's Workplace OS that they tried to design for PowerPC, except that instead of Mach 3, it's based on the L4 microkernel. It has 4 user-interface, or personality APIs and shells - the native one that provides all the L4 services, the PM shell, a win32 shell and a win16 shell. (In case one is wondering about Linux, there is already a Linux distro called L4Linux, similar to the MkLinux that Apple once helped make.) Of the items in your above list, only the OS/2 kernel is totally replaced by the L4 microkernel. The neatest part of this is that the L4 microkernel is written entirely in C/C++ and the little that was written in x86 assembly has been replaced as well. Its portability to various RISC platforms has been verified. So anybody who takes this could port it to other CPUs, such as PPC, ARM, MIPS, OpenRISC, Itanium et al. You mention osFree code at the end - why not just adapt that, and solve your problems? You'd still have the issue of native apps - something that was always there w/ OS/2 as well, but you have a clean start. As long as all the software being used is open sourced, they can be ported to this and supported. And best part - the multi core architecture, as well as the bonanza of RAM available (compared to when OS/2 was running on 16MB) would make such an OS really fly!
Or Calligra Suite. Help them improve Kexi and other parts of the suite
How about a database .. of all the OS projects, their goals, their toolsets (source control, language, interaction, etc), their similar projects, their disagreements between each those projects? If there are few disagreements, the possibility of a merge.
I think the FOSS community could use the appearance of a community. Something like IMDB with wiki-editable sections. Some of the data can be gathered by spiders (language, license, git-files (or similar).
Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
get-iplayer is a perl script that downloads BBC TV shows (for those in, or with a proxy in, the UK). It gets the show listings in CSV form. Load that into sqlite and present it in a nice GUI with season tickets that set up cron jobs, etc.
I thought about doing it using a tab-box with tabs on all four sides but QT doesn't allow you to set the label angles so I gave up. Maybe you could add that to QT and everyone would benefit.
Add a working zero-fuss DB Structure and Data Sync to some DB Tool project. Sequel Pro, the web-based PHPmyAdmin or something else. That's a feature desperately needed.
My 2 cents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
They might also need to at least trim their beards, take a shower every day, wear clean clothes and use deodorant.
More crowd funding to get more commercial features in applications, to get more feature parity in applications.
Concept done, now we need software to run it on top of the existing USENET:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/didipus/files/DiDiPuS.pdf/download
The Dilbert Killer Application cartoon seems relevant.
Ever since TopoZone was purchased by Trails.com there hasn't been a good way to view USGS topo quads. Take all the 7.5' pdfs and assemble them so they can be used as a single contiguous map and add in the National Elevation Dataset. Add measuring tools for distance and area. Allow users to create waypoints and routes for upload to GPS units.
Centralized Servers are always susceptible to pressure and censoring. Renovate USENET:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/didipus/files/DiDiPuS.pdf/download
that's inexpensive, has good support and a UI that's usable, doesn't change very often and isn't designed for a child.
I can think of at least 2 that need to be replaced...
Netflix
One that will allow you to search for files based on multiple strings. Read headers well enough to tell what type of file it is ( especially shebang lines). Keep checksums to identify copies. Keep sizes. etc.
Well, sorry about that! I actually got out of the bed (Opera Mobile for Android doesn't really seem like to like Slashdot commenting system) to let you know that I found out that the story was submitted... about an hour ago. And I spent the whole hour flicking through the three hundred comments there. Kind of overwhelming! I wanted to mod up what I've found most interesting, but from what I just read, the changes will be undone because of this comment. And BTW, I didn't mean to be arrogant. Again, sorry to whoever felt insulted. Thanks for the input, you spared me quite a few hours of research!
To me, although there's good OSS photo management software, there's really none I'm aware of that is able to work well with multiple machines. The easiest way to do this would be pick one of the photo managers that uses a database to store photo information, then you basically write the sync agent that pushes updates to one database(+ associated photos) to the others.
Would be a very useful project, and nicely database heavy. Am considering doing the same thing myself using digikam as a base if ever I find the spare time...
One thing that would be awesome is a 64bit coLinux port!
coLinux is a win32 application with drivers that lets you run a Linux kernel with userspace natively in Windows - it is much lighter than any virtualisation option out there, and using Xming you can easily run GUI apps that launch and run just as well as if they were natively ported to windows.
Unfortunately the drivers were never ported to 64-bit, and thus is it now useless on all but the oldest computers out there. A 64-bit coLinux port would be a requirement to getting this awesome project back on its rails.
See:
http://www.colinux.org/
http://colinux.wikia.com/wiki/Dashboard_for_developing_a_64_bit_coLinux
And also andLinux - which offered an easy way to install and configure coLinux - think of it like coLinux being the Linux kernel and andLinux the Linux distribution...
http://www.andlinux.org/
I would love to be able to use coLinux again on my work PC, which (unfortunately) has to run Windows.
What if every Computer Science student had to improve the code of a major open source software project, the world would be an amazing place.
Just think of how many bugs could be fixed - how many needed features created and how code could be refined and improved.
What if every Marketing Student had to help market a major open source software, just think of how many more users there would be.
What if every Language major had to write or edit part or all of the help manuals, just think of how much easier the software would be to use.
What if every economics major had to build a case for using open source software, just think of how many more companies would adopt it.
What if every Law student had to research existing software patents in order to disprove their originality, just think of how much we would save on software.
What if every student teacher were taught to use open source software so that those less fortunate than them could learn to download and install it, just think of how many more people would be using FOSS.
What if every geography major had a project to add to Open Street Maps, every History Major to add to Wikipedia and every engineer to add to the design of Open Hardware?
What we need is to change the mind-sets of our University Professors to include these projects in their curriculum.
*** Don't be dull.***
Honestly whatever you choose, there's a few tips I can give you.
1) Create a list of features that your software must accomplish and a rough target date you want to meet it by. Don't make it a very comprehensive list and try not to be overly vague about goals. If you don't know what you want your software to do, pick one or two things, write those first and then go evaluate from there. Don't let anyone say, "This one little extra feature would be cool and won't take much extra time." It won't until that person starts doing it over and over and over and over and over again.
2) Don't ever think that writing unit tests is a bad thing. Don't ever let anyone make you think that you're wasting time writing those tests; The amount of time debugging that could've been saved if those tests had been written in the first place cannot ever be understated.
3) Plan plan plan plan. Make a solid overall architecture. The nitty gritty code itself can be messy and fixed later on, but overall design flaws will haunt you forever.
I read a lot so I have an ever growing collection of books. Naturally I'm keeping a database of books I own. But entering books is a tiresome task as there is no freely available database to look up all the books relevant information from its ISBN. The databases that exist are either closed or require a key and give limited access per key, shared between all users of a software. So the more successful a software the more often ISBN searches are blocked due to excess use.
So what we could use is a nice, free, distributed database software where everyone could input their own books and share. Something to build a crowed sourced and maintained free ISBN database.
A Legit Open Source IPAM solution.
Something similar to Infoblox or OpenIPAM
This is a huge undertaking.
-Cody
Shun software patents
Casteism
don't read tufte
read naomi robbins instead
in the 1990s , I had a 70ish year old professor very sad that heathkit was no longer: how were the future generations of engineers going to get their start in life (this guy was an internatinally known professor)
well, FOSS is the answer to his question
FOSS doesn't need to actually produce any useful programs (although it isn't bad if it does)
if
FOSS serves to introduce young kids to STEM
* A nice, modern AJAX webmail. (The few FLOSS ones are horrible) which uses standard stuff like IMAP or Maildir, not a custom LDA and a custom DB schema.
* A desktop address book, which can sync to stuff like CardDAV and other standards.
* A desktop calendar, which can sync to stuff like CalDAV and other standards.
Actually, within FOSS, there is a need for some applications to help a small or medium sized municipality to manage their operational responsibilities.
What are the responsibilities.
a) Regular scheduled jobs (garbage collection, street cleaning, and anything of a repetitive nature.
b) Emergency jobs -- water-main breaks, cleanup after car accident, traffic light bulb replacements
c) Resident requests -- burned out street lights, repaving requests, and more
d) Preventative maintainance.
If you visit a municipality, you will be able to augment my list.
A database would be used to setup a catalog of tasks, of initiating them etc.
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
Just what does an ERP system actually do? I understand that you can use it for planning enterprise resources, but what does that actually entail?
Maybe more recognition for people contributing to open source. Scanning the web for all open source projects, names, comments, and coming up with some sort of ranking of the top contributors, based on various criteria. Something like a "open source coders rank" algorithm.
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/