Paul Stovell says…

Us developers are a creative bunch; our purpose is all about finding creative solutions to problems. As a side effect of this, I find my mind is also inventing solutions to problems that don’t exist yet. I’m sure that someday, one of my ideas is going to make me a truckload of money. So far, though, none of the ideas I’ve had look like they will :) 

To de-clutter my brain, some months ago I started writing down my hair-brained ideas on a Readify internal wiki. A few other people have contributed ideas too. We’re currently up to 43 ideas. Today I thought I’d pick my 3 favorite ideas, and share them with you, dear reader, in case they help spur your own creative juices.

1. Extreme Flights!

I fly between Adelaide and Pt. Lincoln (35 minute flight) every now and then, and there is often turbulence, which makes the ride kinda fun. One flight, I started imagining what the reaction would be if the plane suddenly did a barrel roll.

My friend Greg doesn’t seem to enjoy flying QANTAS. I bet he’d have a much better experience if the 747 he was on did a tailside followed by an inverted spin into a snap roll.

Since planes fly between capital cities many times a day, I estimate at least 10% of passengers would be enjoy this experience, and thus airlines could advertise certain flights as “Extreme Flights!”, and charge a little extra for something that wouldn’t cost them too much to do.

2. GOTO Filter

Many applications are comprised of Windows, Dialogs or Web Pages which are designed to fulfil a specific purpose.

Each Window, Dialog or Page could be assigned a set of keywords, and every screen in the application would have an auto-complete TextBox at the top of the application. When you type, the list is filtered until you just have to click “Enter” to go to the screen you want to view.

For example:

• In Outlook, typing “new m” would filter until “New Message” appeared - hitting Enter would open the New Message window (the one where you write your email).
• In Microsoft CRM, typing “new u” would filter until “New User” appeared, which would take you to the screen you’d normally have to go via Settings->Business Unit Settings->Users->New Users.
• In Internet Explorer, the filter would filter your list of Favorites and browsing history to figure out where you want to go - this is faster than both the Address auto-complete and doing a search.

The commands that appear could be prioritized based on how often they are used (like Intellisense), could be contextually aware, and might be different depending on the screen you are currently viewing.

3. Deployment Detonator

In the Readify Dev Centre we are big on automated deployment and continuous integration. But deployments are generally a quiet event; someone clicks a button, a new build is deployed, and people are happy.

I think we need to make deployments more exciting. I imagine a fake TNT detonator, hooked up electronically via a serial port into a computer, which then triggers our deployment. On Friday nights, we all meet up, crowd around a secure bunker, and deploy!

What half-baked software ideas would you like to share?

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