NANY 2011 :: Entry Ideas & Requests

[Perry Mowbray]

NANY has always been a community event, and this thread is about helping users connect with coders:

• If you are a user with an application that you've always wanted to see coded then this is the place to mention it and discuss it. Hopefully a coder will wander by and get as excited about it as you are and it will materialize this coming New Year!
• If you are a coder looking for a new idea for this year's NANY then this may well be the perfect place: the ideas hear already have some user interest and people who are interested in its development.

When a coder decides to develop an idea from this thread, they should mention that here with a link to the Pledge Thread where further discussion can continue.

[bob99]

I'm not sure if this would fit NANY 2011 but I'll throw it out for review.

As a recent forced convert to an Android smartphone(?) there is a need for a program/app that will easily allow someone to access their Outlook contacts, calendar, tasks, journal, etc.  There are postings on a number of Android related forums looking for the same thing.  At least in my case this wouldn't necessarily and would prefer it not happening "in the cloud."  Via a USB cable is fine.  There is a Google sync app but it only does basic contact & calendar sync.  There is a 3rd party program but it will only work if you are on an exchange server. 

That is the basics.  I can point anyone to some of the forums or provide suggestions if it would help.

Thanks

[mouser]

I have a large, serious, cross-platform (desktop/mobile/ipad/etc.) donationware project related to this post i made a while ago that i would like to collaborate with someone on, which i am currently envisioning using a combination of simple python, and heavy-duty javascript.  If there are any experienced/serious/reliable javascript coders who are interested in teaming up on a large project let me know.

[daddydave]

@mouser:
Off topic, but are you going to call it Card and Board Robot?  

[mouser]

[sgtevmckay]

I have a big one to tackle.

A proper sync and communication tool for Thunderbird/lightning!!!
As of now, be it that you have a smart phone, or a simple flip phone. All applications that I am aware of only sync and communicate with Outlook (Evil incarnate).

I envision, for many years now, a tool that will allow me to sync with my contacts and calendar utilizing Thunderbird/lightning.

Something easy and intuitive, and a third party tool

I would not have this tool care about what phone make or model it is, but communicate and transfer Calendar and contacts.
As easy as that sounds.....as far as I know; it has never been done.
Therefore there must be a hitch some where!?!!!

If I am way off, please someone point me in the right direction 

[Perry Mowbray]

Have you looked at SyncML?

I set up a trial account at Funambol and tested some of these with Open Contacts and managed to make a huge mess with my aggregated Google Contacts, ThunderBird Contacts and my Open Contact Contacts. 

http://www.clipclip.org/clips/detail/10722/synchronize-outlook-google-calendar-gmail-with-funambol-scheduleworld is an interesting read too.

Funnily enough, I've dropped Open Contacts (it just didn't click with me), and I'm hoping that Cfx (that I'm doing for this years event) will satisfy my contacts needs.

But sync'ing it all together is the holy grail... 

[sgtevmckay]

Thanks so much, I will look into it 

A-Men about the Holy Grail, but I have faith, even one of King Arthur's knights returned with the knowledge of the grail
Hopefully we can have a knight that is as valiant and inventive to us this grail 

Never hurts to hope 

I will have further ideas, when Markham gets his API going with Circle Dock, assuming that a sound API is still a possibility.
Will keep ya'll posted.

I am off to post another promo for the N.A.N.Y. Project....I do hope I can get folks to come through.
I have a vision of where this could be in a couple of years 

[mouser]

I have another idea i'd like to work with someone on for NANY..

This one is a windows-specific application, a kind of simple framework for providing a very simple kiosk-like interface for browsing and switching between different full screen applications that are treated like plugins.

The basic idea is to provide a user interface for a wall-mounted touchscreen lcd picture frame like computer.  Users will be able to configure and switch between fullscreen "modules" easily.

These "modules" are just normal fullscreen applications, screensavers, or webpages -- so we're not talking writing some whole new complicated system.  But there will be a fair amount of work making a nice looking interface for selecting modules, and making a neat little API that applications can use to make themselves available to the program, and i expect there will be a few cases where some tricky windows API stuff is needed to get this kiosk overseer application to behave elegantly and ensure that all launched processes feel and behave like proper kiosk applications (i.e. like a screensaver and suitable for display in a picture frame).

[sgtevmckay]

Greetings folks.

Many of you will not know that I have been in negotiations with Dexpot Virtual Desktop Manager for Collaborative efforts with Rainmeter and Circle Dock.
A couple of weeks ago Sebastian and Patrick (Dexpot Programmers) agreed they would release a Universal SDK that could be built upon for Dexpot.
This week they delivered.  

For any one using Virtual Desktops, like I am, as I am monitored challenged on my craptop, Then this information may make for several great N.A.N.Y. Projects.

There is no current Documentation, but there is the base code and an example plugin build.

If you would like more information regarding Dexpot or the new Dexpot SDK for plugins check out the following:
Dexpot Home Page:
http://dexpot.de/index.php?id=home

What information is currently available for the new SDK:
http://dexpot.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=2554

Do I have any suggestions for a plugin?
No.

I just offer this up as a project possibility for this years NANY Project, and to help the folks at Dexpot with getting the word out on the SDK

Have fun folks  

[justice]

I have an idea: a personal spending habit report tool.
Now that Wesabe is gone, I'm looking for an app where you can tag, catagorize and report on your spending and income using exported bank statements from online banking sites. So you import a series of bank statements, catagorize them and report so you see via graphs where your money goes and how spending habits have changed. It would be an app that would have a big market.

what was great about wesabe for me was that it recognised similar lines in bank statements so the second time you shop at shop x it would already catagorize that line for you.

[kimajac]

I have been looking for a program that will float an-always-on-top icon showing the current active printer for the window in focus.  Most programs show the default printer.  That does not help if I have changed the active printer in Word, excel etc.  When print often I end up sending the doc to pdf or other destination.

The color of the printer icon can be set for each of the installed printers.  As the focus changes, the icon would change color and maybe have a small caption if the cursor hovers.  That way, at a glance I know which printer is active.  When the program cannot determine the active printer for a window, it would show a question mark. 

Thanks

[superboyac]

How about a simple tool to hide the disconnected network icons in the system tray?  See this thread for the issue at hand:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=23792.0

Right now, most people disable the network that is not being used so the icon will disappear from the system tray.  But I don't like to do that, especially for laptops, because you do want to connect it with the wire occasionally.  Also, i just don't like the idea of disabling a device just because XP is too lame to simply hide it.

[nkormanik]

Small program request:

Context menu item in Windows Explorer.

shortened name: "Move To Parent"

long name:  "Move Selected Items To Parent Directory"

In the old DOS days, it was easy to type in "move xyz.txt ..", or "move *.jpg .."

In Windows there is nothing similar.  And searching through Google turned up no simple program to accomplish this.

Can any of the gurus here do it?

Thanks,
Nicholas Kormanik

[lanux128]

Small program request:

Context menu item in Windows Explorer.

shortened name: "Move To Parent"

long name:  "Move Selected Items To Parent Directory"

In the old DOS days, it was easy to type in "move xyz.txt ..", or "move *.jpg .."

In Windows there is nothing similar.  And searching through Google turned up no simple program to accomplish this.

Can any of the gurus here do it?

Thanks,
Nicholas Kormanik

this sounds like a coding snack.. what OS are you on?

[nkormanik]

How exciting.  Thank you.

By the way, I did come across a more elaborate shareware program that included the feature in it, along with many, many other things.  That program is called Moo0 RightClicker.  I think they wanted about $40 for the whole package.  All I really want is this one single function.

[skwire]

Small program request:
Context menu item in Windows Explorer.
shortened name: "Move To Parent"
long name:  "Move Selected Items To Parent Directory"
In the old DOS days, it was easy to type in "move xyz.txt ..", or "move *.jpg .."
In Windows there is nothing similar.  And searching through Google turned up no simple program to accomplish this.
Can any of the gurus here do it?

I can do this...

[lanux128]

i guess Skwire will have his version soon enough but here's my take on this, MoveToParent. this tool will create a menu item in the SendTo folder, which will move selected file(s) to its parent folder. do give this a try and let me know if it works. a word of caution, please do some tests with sample files first before committing important files.

incidentally i borrowed the filename collision routine from Skwire..

[attach=#]

[nkormanik]

Thank you lanus128.

Your little compilation works fine on files of all sorts, and on a number of files at once.

For some reason it does not work with folders.

Too, it would be one less step to keep it in the main context menu itself.

Good work, though.  I appreciate it.

[lanux128]

Your little compilation works fine on files of all sorts, and on a number of files at once.

For some reason it does not work with folders.

Too, it would be one less step to keep it in the main context menu itself.

you're welcome, nkormanik..

MoveToParent doesn't detect folders in its current state, i could that if you want. i'll also move the menu item to the main context menu as well.

btw, i've created a new thread here for this tool so that we won't go OT in this thread.

• http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=24095.0

[MaxEvilTwin]

[Apologies - previously posted this in the wrong thread  ]

In an attempt to organise my life, I bought a ScanSnap scanner and have been scanning (and occasionally shredding) all sorts of stuff - bills, receipts, etc etc.

A faint irritation is the requirement to organise the files post-scan.  I hoped to be able to use some sort of tagging system, but couldn't find anything suitable.  Picasa would have been great, but I am scanning to pdf (for the post-scan search capability) and Picasa only does jpg files.  So I have many folders.

What I would really like is a program which would examine pdf files in a folder and, based on past history, recognise them and suggest a folder (and/or tag) for them.  So rather than scanning and separately filing credit card bills, utility bills, etc, I would just scan and run the program on the unfiled files.  Then I would accept suggestions or create a new folder (thus advancing the learning for the future).

It's very similar to Picasa's face recognition software:  when it detects new photos of people it recognises, it suggests who they are based on past history.  Presumably the suggestion would be based on some sort of jpg recognition algorithm - my AmEx bills all look pretty similar! - but there is also text from the pdf aspect which could be used.

Is this the sort of thing which would work for NANY 2011?  Any interest?

MET

[timns]

Here's one I would love to see: something a lot better than "right-click and choose properties" to edit a desktop (or other) shortcut's target and parameters. Stupid little dialog has a tiny edit box and having just spent 20 minutes helping someone set some up, I'm ready for a little app!

Or does someone know of one already extant?

[toddcarnes]

I have an idea: a personal spending habit report tool.
Now that Wesabe is gone, I'm looking for an app where you can tag, catagorize and report on your spending and income using exported bank statements from online banking sites. So you import a series of bank statements, catagorize them and report so you see via graphs where your money goes and how spending habits have changed. It would be an app that would have a big market.

what was great about wesabe for me was that it recognised similar lines in bank statements so the second time you shop at shop x it would already catagorize that line for you.

Sounds like GnuCash

[insert_nick]

Here's my proposal for the NANY challenge. Only expert developers should try this, it's not an easy thing to do - but it would be a very useful and powerful tool, good as a web service, and as an iPhone app.

"Stuffind": find your stuff.

Read this document where I've explained the project and also designed (with words) how the UI/UX should be:
https://docs.google.com/View?id=ddb43z89_52d8sntxwk

I've seen other apps for this need, but they're not as effective as this one.

UPDATE: I've posted the idea here too.

UPDATE: I've created a (public) BetterMeans space for this project, here.

[bzeng]

Request: User-Editable Help Menu

I have always wished there were some way to annotate or add to a program’s Help file, so that I could add my own notes to myself about how to use to program.

For instance, if I discover a quick and easy way to perform some function in my photo editor, I would like to add it right to the program’s  Help menu instead of creating some text file somewhere named “Helpful Hints on using the Photo Editor” and trying to remember to open that file when using that program.

Virtually every program has a Help menu.  Is it possible to create an application that would add a new menu item called 'Notes' to every program’s menu bar, either inside or next to the Help menu?  This new Notes menu would be user editable to let the user add personally helpful information about using the program, for instance, how-to tips and tricks, file naming conventions, file saving location, etc.

If anything like this already exists I would love to know about it. If not, I hope someone thinks it a good enough idea to develop.