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I have a few ideas on what I want to do. Please tell me which one I should actually follow up with and which ones are just a stupid idea. Thanks.

Mouseless and python scriptable web browser:

Very similar to how the Ctrl button in Konqueror and Arora allows you to quickly access a link without having to click on it, this kind of browser would be able to access just about any link or button on the page by you hitting the Ctrl button and then typing the first few letters of the words that are in the linked text. The basic idea is that you don't have to use your mouse for anything and you can just use the keyboard for all your browsing needs (just like in Lynx, but with proper graphics). I plan on writing this using PyQt so I can just use Qt's Webkit and perhaps add in python scripting such that a person can make a script to "open in a new tab any link that has the word 'new" in it" or whatever he or she desires.

Non-linear Presenter:

Most presentation systems like Powerpoint and Open Office's Present assume that you are going to present, in a very linear fashion, from one topic to another. However, there are times where:

  • You want to skip a topic at the very last minute because it doesn't seem like the audience is interested at all.
  • You want to jump to a more important topic due to time restrains
  • You may want to have some interactivity with your presentation (for example, if you have a small audience, you may ask "name me some ways a memory can become corrupted" in which you will have many answers and you want to write them down as people are saying them which is a pain to do in Powerpoint or OpenOffice-Present.)

This app would make it easy to do these kind of "changes" in real time.

Redo NeHe's tutorals from scratch and have it based on OpenGL 4.0:

Many people have noted that NeHe, which is one the best guides out there, is horribly outdated and does things that would be rather silly in the OpenGL 3.0+ world. I would have to make a wikibook or blog website and make new code that would be a better replacement.

Organic Chemistry Note taker:

There is no good application out there that would allow people to quickly write out Organic Chemistry reactions using their laptop (you can use your Tablet PC, but then it is almost the same as if you wrote it on your notebook). This app would make it easier to write notes quickly while you are in class and not have to deal with your own messy handwriting.

+1  A: 

I have a few ideas on what I want to do. Please tell me which one I should actually follow up with...

I would suggest working on the application you want badly. This will both inspire you and get you started immediately. Believe me, getting started on an idea is difficult (quite a few people never begin!). So as soon as you decide which application to build, just code.

Regarding "mouseless web browser", I did some search few months back. You may find these links useful (sorry, I am sort of VIM biased):

  • Vimprobable, webkit based browser written in C, operates with VIM key bindings
  • PyKHTML, toolkit for web automation in python (might not be useful since you want to work with webkit)
  • Vimperator, firefox plugin for vim like key bindings
  • Conkeror, browser with emacs like key bindings
Arun Mahapatra
+1  A: 

The non-linear presenter seems interesting and non-trivial, but will probably require in-depth knowledge into presenting graphics, coming up with a document format, etc. that you didn't indicate whether or not you had.

The chemistry notepad sounds like a domain you're an expert in and is therefore my biggest recommendation for you.

The tutorials aren't really my traditional definition of a an open source project.

The browser presents a range of challenges that most small projects won't handle nearly as well as any mainstream browser does (and even they have problems). I don't recommend this at all.

marr75