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Ideas for Computing

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Re: Ideas for Computing

#81

Post by jodrellblank »

unimpressive wrote: post #19

I've thought of some of these independently. (It's good to see somebody else did too.) We could probably make more progress if we all kept a list like this publicly. Or even privately, with snippets shared where appropriate. I know if I went through some old journals I could scrounge up a decent list myself. One I had: Bash scripting in the style of hypercard. Hypercard was described to me as a system that had a set…

A utility that allows you to create a GUI window from the command line

See PowerShell with ShowUI, on Windows.

http://huddledmasses.org/showui-tutorial-walkthrough/

Re: Ideas for Computing

#82

Post by andrewguenther »

maged wrote: post #80

The added features of email metadata can be achieved without the added complexities of adding metadata to all email, with a simple NLP solution. Gmail already does this with date recognition and google calendar integration, as well as the new email 'categories.' It'll be cool to see it expand so any application can take advantage of it (i.e. key management software and joining a new website).

Gmail will actually recognize Schema.org markup in your email as well

Re: Ideas for Computing

#84

Post by grinich »

maged wrote: post #80

The added features of email metadata can be achieved without the added complexities of adding metadata to all email, with a simple NLP solution. Gmail already does this with date recognition and google calendar integration, as well as the new email 'categories.' It'll be cool to see it expand so any application can take advantage of it (i.e. key management software and joining a new website).

    simple NLP solution
famous last words.

Re: Ideas for Computing

#85

Post by calibraxis »

mseebach wrote: post #60
sparkie wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is most modern computing is driven by the single question: "How can I monetize this idea?" It's only hobbyists and academics that really try to improve the state of computing, rather than having a primary focus on revenue. It's unfortunate that groundbreaking ideas are usually not the moneymakers, else we'd see innovation at a quicker rate. Software patents are another hindrance to innovation too. Often t…

> The problem is most modern computing is driven by the single question: "How can I monetize this idea?" It's only hobbyists and academics that really try to improve the state of computing, rather than having a primary focus on revenue. It's unfortunate that groundbreaking ideas are usually not the moneymakers, else we'd see innovation at a quicker rate. That is an absolute silly notion. Money is a token of value, so…

The "absolute silly notion" you (unfortunately) rudely deride is also correct. For more information, you might be interested in: (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/02/technology/02darpa.html?_r...) and (http://books.google.com/books?id=n6PGe0TZuKMC&lpg=PA193&ots=...)

The statement, "Money is a token of value, so if you're creating value for someone, it shouldn't be too hard to get some money for it," is ideological and doesn't withstand scrutiny. For example, a mansion would represent enormous value for someone in abject poverty, but they may have no serious ability to compensate you. (This is why we may have bizarre outcomes like roughly as many homeless people as empty hotel rooms and apartments. The allocation system is profoundly irrational.)

Re: Ideas for Computing

#86

Post by maged »

maged wrote: post #80

The added features of email metadata can be achieved without the added complexities of adding metadata to all email, with a simple NLP solution. Gmail already does this with date recognition and google calendar integration, as well as the new email 'categories.' It'll be cool to see it expand so any application can take advantage of it (i.e. key management software and joining a new website).

What would be great is a kind of gmail (or any email client) app store. You give permission to different applications to work on top of your email client to react to different email content. ie Mint/your bank automatically adding item receipts to the card purchase it has access too.

Re: Ideas for Computing

#87

Post by icebraining »

calibraxis wrote: post #85
mseebach wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem is most modern computing is driven by the single question: "How can I monetize this idea?" It's only hobbyists and academics that really try to improve the state of computing, rather than having a primary focus on revenue. It's unfortunate that groundbreaking ideas are usually not the moneymakers, else we'd see innovation at a quicker rate. That is an absolute silly notion. Money is a token of value, so…

The "absolute silly notion" you (unfortunately) rudely deride is also correct. For more information, you might be interested in: ( http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/02/technology/02darpa.html?_r... ) and ( http://books.google.com/books?id=n6PGe0TZuKMC&lpg=PA193&ots=... ) The statement, "Money is a token of value, so if you're creating value for someone, it shouldn't be too hard to get some money for it," is ideological…

I don't see how does your example invalidates mseebach's claim. It wasn't that the compensation was proportional to the value gained, just that if you can provide value, it shouldn't be hard to get money for it. Clearly mansion sellers can get money for the value they provide, even if that means selling to people who have less to gain from the mansions.

Re: Ideas for Computing

#89

Post by DanielRibeiro »

Erwin wrote: post #22

This reminds of this: http://www.squidi.net/three/ which attempts to define a large number of computer game gameplay mechanics. Maybe we need more forwarding-reaching fiction in our world. More essays on computing futurology, grand envisioning of what we can achieve with software. Even ambitious prototypes of a new way to do something (like Lighttable) A lot of what I see are tooling details, lot of boring effort dup…

Where's our version of "The Mother of all Demos" ?

Bret Victor, who has been inspired[1] by Doug Engelbart, has showcased plenty of innovations on his presentations/writtings:

* Magic Ink[2]

* Stop Drawing Dead Fish[3]

* Drawing Dynamic Visualizations[4]

* Media for Thinking the Unthinkable[5]

* LearnableProgramming[6]

* Inventing on Principle[7]

[1] http://worrydream.com/Engelbart/

[2] http://worrydream.com/#!/MagicInk

[3] http://vimeo.com/64895205

[4] Drawing Dynamic Visualizations

[5] http://vimeo.com/67076984

[6] http://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/

[7] http://vimeo.com/36579366

Re: Ideas for Computing

#90

Post by miguelrochefort »

I came up with most of these ideas independently. If you look at them, you'll realize that most share the same patterns, and actually are similar ideas.

I'm currently working on something that superficially looks like #4, but includes at least 20% (potentially more) of these ideas (or make them obsolete).

Most of them are trivial, and I'm sure much of us didn't get anything new from this list. Heck, I could come up with 50 more just like that (but maybe not that related to programming).

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