Pet Project Ideas

As I mentioned in the previous post, I will soon start on a pet project to keep me busy over the next few months. Although I do have some current uni stuff which may develop into an interesting tool, I plan to keep that separate from my own path into the development world.

Just for interests sake, if you are wondering what this tool I am doing at uni is, its something that would help a programmer understand code by use of structured presentation and / or diagrams. If you are interested then post a comment with some ideas.

Pet Project Possibility - Firefox Extensions / Redesign

The first pet project idea that I have had concerns redesigning the entire bookmark system in Firefox. The bookmarks in my opinion have not changed much from the link with name and sorted into folders. The firefox bookmark extensions currently available kind of already do the original idea I had about synchronising bookmarks with an XML doc. Therefore, I believe that I should rather than cover old ground try designing something new and innovative.

Pet Project Possibility - ToDo List App

The original idea I had which is about cross device interactivity, regards designing a ToDo List app which can store information in one place, but different devices and applications can use the info in their own manner. This has a lot to do with the flexibility or XML, which at the end of the day is just a structured text file. My original idea was to design this in .NET but now I am thinking about more java and XML since my language of expertise is Java. Furthermore, it would simplify the portability aspect for various devices as Java is excellent for running on Linux/PC/Mac etc. Oh yeh and on a mobile too.

Pet Project Possibility - ????

I am open to suggestions for ideas which are not too big. I'll list below some ideas that I have thought about : -

• Convert a MHT file to standard HTML to view in Firefox. Implement as firefox extension
• Make ToDo List app in XUL so it can be made as firefox extension. Like QuickNote but much better
• Blog program / Quick Email - as a firefox extension - Nothing too complex....just like a quick emailer
• ToDo List / Calendar using Gmail's "+ tag" - for those who don't know my email is utills@gmail.com and so if I email a message to utills+ToDoList@gmail.com then I can use this keyword as a filter to a specific label.
  
• Redesign the whole preferences menu in firefox - make it more user friendly...Don't like the current design...nor the new one they've put up on Ben Goodger's site.
• Create an internet browsing profile account....then an extension to utilise it. That way all the browsers I use can be plugged into this one file on the web, where it can retrieve my important cookies, bookmarks, and general plugins/stuff i've added to a browser. It needs to be cross browser, specifically firefox and IE compatible so that if i'm at uni its same as if I am surfing off any of my comps at home.
• Slightly off topic.... an Algebra teaching tool...for years 8-10....basically using animation to teach key rules bout algebra. With randomly generatable Qs for them to do...that way they can basically get hours and hours of learning. Might need to do as Java Applet. or a java backend using servlets. Animation might require flash or javascript...dunno....i'll think bout this one!
  

If any of these exist i'd be happy to look at them and find ways to improve them.