Pet Projects

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Just wondering if anyone has pet projects that they are working on at home or in their spare time. Nothing work related, or at least primarily so.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

I'm working on redoing my website (complete overhaul). At work, I'm working on a side project that involves user authentication to the domain and it is kicking my arse.

 

[Ken g6]

This through this.

I'm now trying to figure out how to either benchmark the BSF instruction or otherwise differentiate an AMD K8 and maybe the occasional 64-bit P4 from other 64-bit processors.

 

[BornTwice]

I'm working on redoing my home network. I'm adding a Linksys WRT54Gv2 that will act as a wireless bridge to the main Belkin wireless AP/router that is wired to the DSL modem. The two wireless routers will be located in different rooms of the house (no long CAT5s in my house!). I haven't gotten started yet, just got the hardware and done some reading on it. Sounds like it shouldn't be too awfully difficult.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Ugh, that reminds me of hardware projects. I need to get the two 4-fan bay things put into my server, but before I do, I need to do a lot of soldering in that mod (4 fans to go to a 9-pin serial port, and then connect to a fan controller; and there is one for the left side, one for the right).

Yet another thing on my list to do this weekend....

 

[BornTwice]

Be careful not to overload the circuit. Smoke is an awful thing.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: BornTwice
Be careful not to overload the circuit. Smoke is an awful thing.

They are low-amp fans. Amber Akasa 92mm fans. Everything shouldn't be too hard--just a matter of having the time to get around to doing it.

 

[KIAman]

After a full day of work, I don't even feel like touching a keyboard for the remainder of the day.

When I get home, I do pet projects around the house. My next project is re-tiling the 3rd bathroom floor.

 

[aceO07]

I'm currently doing a web application to help manage my expenses. I did a simple one in ASP a long time ago. I tried to do it in Java years ago. Now I'm doing it again but in Ruby on Rails with major improvements. Unfortunately I haven't focused my time as much as I would like. Based on what I dreamed up for functionality, it's about 5-10% done with lots of work to be done. Lots components to do. I was trying to do it all at once, but I've decided to focus on one component at a time instead.

 

[Markbnj]

I'm sort of in KIAMan's shoes: work has been pretty intense lately, and I haven't much felt like programming after hours. For that reason my pet projects this last week or so have been Battlefield 2/1.5 patch, and GTAIV .

I did recently do some work on the blog - coded up some page templates to display categories and redid the file hosting, and I wrote a little class to make it easy to format fixed-width text into columns (how's that for a 21st century project?). I have one or two small things on the back burner, but I don't know when I will get back to them. They're both Silverlight apps, and Silverlight is also my day job, or a big part of it, so I'm kind of meh on picking up more of it after hours.

 

[Dimmu]

I'm working on a number of projects right now, perhaps too many, looking at this list now...

phpMyAdmin: I've been a developer for phpMyAdmin since the beginning of the summer. I got hooked up with them via Google's Summer of Code. I added a set of heuristic algorithms, and an API, to the pre-existing import system. Now PMA is capable creating a table structure based on Excel and OpenOffice spreadsheets, CSV files, and other formats, and importing all the data. Pretty nifty. I liked PMA so much I'm sticking around to lend a hand with the more everyday development tasks that relatively large open-source organization must tend with.

CppExcel: This is a project of mine that I am working on with a couple friends, but we really haven't had time to dig into it since classes just started. It's a C++ library for reading, writing, and manipulating native Excel spreadsheets (XLS and XLSX). I figured I've been working with the Excel format all summer, and have become quite familiar with it, and there doesn't appear to be many C++ libraries that provide this level of functionality without using the Excel COM interface.

All2SQL: This pet project is solely my own. Essentially, it's a stand-alone version of what I contributed to phpMyAdmin for Google's Summer of Code.

Other than that, I have a few things going on through school. The most interesting of which is a virtual robot soccer tournament, using the same rules as the official RoboCup competition that uses real robots.

Between all that, classes, and college life, I stay pretty damn busy.

 

[Schadenfroh]

My two side projects are in my sig. Both are on hold due to massive work load (classes, homework and research). Graduate school sucks

 

[clamum]

Dimmu, that CppExcel project sounds pretty neat. :thumbsup:

Myself, I need to re-design my personal website (from PHP to ASP.NET) which I've been putting off for like half a year when I first got a domain name and hosting. I started the initial concept of a Windows application where you can import photos, browse them, and tag them with keywords, which would make finding photos that much easier after you've tagged them, but haven't really done much on it. I'm sure the idea has been done a million times but I thought it would be something at least useful to myself and a chance at improving my existing .NET skillset.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: clamum
Dimmu, that CppExcel project sounds pretty neat. :thumbsup:

Myself, I need to re-design my personal website (from PHP to ASP.NET) which I've been putting off for like half a year when I first got a domain name and hosting. I started the initial concept of a Windows application where you can import photos, browse them, and tag them with keywords, which would make finding photos that much easier after you've tagged them, but haven't really done much on it. I'm sure the idea has been done a million times but I thought it would be something at least useful to myself and a chance at improving my existing .NET skillset.

If I may ask, why the change from PHP to ASP.NET?

 

[Modelworks]

Embedded related projects mainly.
Microwave oven control boardd died and I like this microwave, can't find a replacement pad so I am going to program a pic micro to emulate the old control board and implement my own.

Universal IR receiver for my home that works in every room with any remote and relays the commands back to a pc that then sends out control signals to household devices. Remote protocols are a pain to sort through, so many and each has its own quirks.

Remote control for my thermostat. Need to write some code to control the temperature better. Already works well but not remote, I am going to wifi it.

 

[Dimmu]

Originally posted by: clamum
Dimmu, that CppExcel project sounds pretty neat. :thumbsup:.

Thanks, clamum!

I'm modeling the library after PHPExcel (hence the similar naming convention), as it is the most well-formed native Excel library that I have worked with. Very easy to do advanced formatting, formulas, color schemes, etc.

Should be a breeze to work with.