Beyond Software Project!

[Dritto]

Hello people! I've had a fun and interesting idea for forum members and myself. It'd be really cool if we could get some kind of software project started on the board, using members feedback to guide the development.

I am a professionally employed developer, but as a fun side project I'd love to spend some time working on an application with Beyond members.

So what I am hoping to gather is this... ideas from anyone who has them! This is an automotive forum, so I'd be expecting to get ideas for software that would be useful to the car crowd. I am TOTALLY open to suggestions,
and if some people are willing to spend a bit of time brainstorming I would love to hear ideas. Big or small, just start with ideas.

If there are any coders out there on Beyond who would like to help, that's totally cool too. It won't matter to most people, but Java is my prefered language. I can code in VB and C++, but Java is where my expertise is, so I'd be looking for someone with some Java knowledge as well. No experts needed though! It'll hopefully be a learning experience for everyone involved, I'll teach you to code if you're interested enough to learn.

I'd want this freely available to everyone, both the program and the code (think GPL), so this is for fun and learning only!

Thoughts and suggestions?!

[Zero102]

I'd be interested in helping, my java-foo is not as strong as my C++-foo because I have always been revolted by the overhead so I never bothered to fully learn the command sets.

No real ideas for software but I'd like to help out on the condition that whatever is produced is open-source.

[Fcuk]

this is a great idea however some peoples projects would include profit then you have to divy it between rage etc if you associated it with beyond.

I have a really sick sick idea but no team.

[ga16i]

Currently working as web monkey. Did other stuff in school like Java and C, graduated 2k4 from UC w/ BSc. in Comp. Sci.

Idea is to have compilation of complex car schematics and such, as seen in the first Fast and Furious.

[adam c]

im down with this

[benyl]

Originally posted by Fcuk
this is a great idea however some peoples projects would include profit then you have to divy it between rage etc if you associated it with beyond.

I have a really sick sick idea but no team.

I think he is talking about getting Beyond members together to do this, not "associating" it with Beyond or the owners or the site.

We should do it in C#

Close enough to Java and close enough to VB/C++ and everyone learns something new.

[Dritto]

Originally posted by benyl


I think he is talking about getting Beyond members together to do this, not "associating" it with Beyond or the owners or the site.

We should do it in C#

Close enough to Java and close enough to VB/C++ and everyone learns something new.

Exactly, I think it'd be fun to get the forum members involved, but not necessarily have it affiliated with the board.

As for language selection, I'm definitely biased to Java as it's 90% of what I do at work every day. But firm decision would be made when a solid project idea is decided on. Maybe one language will be better suited over others to a particular project, eh?


Good on ga16i for making the first suggestion, but elaboration is important! It's also been years since I've seen that movie and I can't say I really enjoyed it in the first place... so I honestly have no idea what you mean!


Ok so here's an idea:

A desktop app used to buy/sell/auction parts. I say a desktop app instead of web app because of this.. there are all kinds of desktop applications that people can use with Ebay (and others) to analyze their bids, help place bids, etc. So that could be built right in to help a user.

Also, there's all kinds of fraud and perceived security issues around Ebay, so a desktop app could be positioned in a way to eliminate some of these negatives when compared to a typical buyers portal. Example, I'm sure Paypal has a SOAP web service (or something similar) that you could use to do transactions, and using the SOAP interface from a desktop app prevents the problem when people are redirected to a site that looks like Paypal, but is fact not.

So there it is! An idea. Good?! Bad?! Awful!? We need more ideas, too!

[BrknFngrs]

What about some kind of desktop app that would give beyond members a list (think msn-ish in appearance) and on the list would be threads they have posted in. Then at the top have it connected to PM's and what not so you can see when you get new ones of those as well?

[Zero102]

I like the c# idea, I picked that language up last year and I always call it 'Microsoft Java'. If you know Java, you know C#, you just don't know it yet, follow me? ;)


Why does the software have to be beyond related? IMO beyond is running bulletin-board php software already, and any development for it should be done by the people who wrote the BB software. The threads list and such should be managed with an RSS feed and some kind of desktop RSS reader and for all we know that functionality may already be there?....


I don't have any good suggestions, sorry, I've pondered over this several times but am out of ideas that are viable.

[Fcuk]

If you guys are serious about this i'd really like to introduce the idea to specific group.

Edit: We can assign each skill to certain tasks. we'd need a pretty large team.

[jav_]

make a beyond toolbar

[sexualbanana]

you should make that program that chad uses to build the supra in fnf :D

[ga16i]

Originally posted by Dritto


Good on ga16i for making the first suggestion, but elaboration is important! It's also been years since I've seen that movie and I can't say I really enjoyed it in the first place... so I honestly have no idea what you mean!


I'm talking about the floppy disk that Jesse put into his machine that loaded up a up of schematics for his supra and allowed him to design the car. Perhaps have like virtual tuning and wind tunnels and stuff.

Another idea is to have software that allows you to hook up to your ODBII reader or something that monitors your car for potential damage to manifold. You know, to prevent your floor boards from being busted out.

[ga16i]

oh oh!!! yet another idea is something that I've always wanted, but never found yet is a rally style GPS system. Basically, it's your run of the mill GPS software, but the directions are like: left 3 into right 2 tightens don't cut rocks inside, long straight 400, over crest, left 2, over finish.

So, the biggest difference is to attach relative speeds to upcoming sections of road.

[Stine]

how about a beyond car game? you could race in Calgary and get some members cars on there.....

should be some SDK software out there for some race platform that you could use

[dreamchaser]

OBD II Scanner in c#
ECM Programmer
Carputer Touch Screen app or plugin

[A790]

I'm not a programmer, but if y'all want to have access to an online DB or something I'm more than happy to provide the server/wedspace for it :)

[GoChris]

I can help, I write vb.net. so c# would be ok with me

[Zero102]

I like the carputer software idea... maybe because I'm half done my carputer project? :D

[Dritto]

Originally posted by ga16i
oh oh!!! yet another idea is something that I've always wanted, but never found yet is a rally style GPS system. Basically, it's your run of the mill GPS software, but the directions are like: left 3 into right 2 tightens don't cut rocks inside, long straight 400, over crest, left 2, over finish.

So, the biggest difference is to attach relative speeds to upcoming sections of road.


So far this is my favorite idea.

Can anyone elaborate on the carputer application? What kind of carputer application are you coding Zero102?

I'd like to see a carputer application maybe designed around a microATX form factor and a small-ish touch screen for input. Not only would the GPS idea be totally ideal for the carputer application, there are a million other ways you could expand on the project. Think like... a GPS rally tool with directions (as described) plus performance statistics. I dunno, seems to have a lot of potential to me... Worth looking into!

Does anyone have any experience coding a GPS application? I assume they have APIs available to use with their devices? And then of course, what languages do they have APIs available in?

This is a little device I found that might be usable for this kind of idea. https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=6445


*Edit* There are some good looking GPS Java APIs available on Sourceforge.

[MidnightDreamer]

I was thinking a car app would be a cool idea... There are already a number of implantations out there on the web that are reasonable, but seem lacking in key areas...

This would be a huge undertaking tho...

[Zero102]

Sorry, I'm not 'coding' anything yet, I just finished up all the hardware. I relocated every control off of a Dell Inspiron 600M laptop and mounted most of them into the old ashtray panel for my 951. Now I have a touchpad, power and volume controls as well as all indicator lights up front.

For software/OS, it's running Ubuntu 7.10 (thinking about Fedora tho...), with pretty much all the apps from backtrack2 installed. Looking for good open-source GPS software now since I have everything else covered. I'm connecting the internal speaker wires to the aux inputs on my old deck and mounting it in the glove box so I still have proper volume control (things like system beeps and such can't be turned down with the other volume controls and would really suck at full blast in a car). No pics yet since there are no covers and stuff on the parts and it all looks real ugly. Let me make it look nice first :) It's all part of a big system I am building, 2 fiberglass sub boxes to fit in the un-used spaces in the back, and a big amp/carputer rack across the back of the hatch.

[GoChris]

I've been doing some .Net compact coding for a mobile application. There should be GPS APIs with that. Again that would work if we wanted to use C#. But I'm up for anything. Haven't used Java since university.

[Dritto]

Ok, to prove I am serious about getting this started, I've got a GPS device for my PC.

So first things first.. USB APIs! Again I'm open to Java or C#, what ever is going to work best, seems to me like Java does not have a good USB API that works with Windows. I haven't really looked into a C# solution yet, but I am starting to look into this as well.

Anyone have any API suggestions for accessing USB? Either Java or C#?

[Zero102]

I just received a USB GPS receiver for christmas, apparently one of my friends knows of my carputer and the hardware requirements :)
It's the microsoft one which apparently is very easy to work with under 'alternative' OS's as well

[Dritto]

Yeah, the Microsoft one is definitely a decent unit. I've got that one too!

The more I look at this the more I wonder... The device driver for the GPS provides us access to the GPS, so if the device is being provided this way is any USB code really necessary? It'd be like accessing a USB thumb drive for instance, the driver provides access to the drive and we can access it just like any other storage device. The fact that it's a USB device is invisible to the coder, could a GPS be accessed this way?

One downside I see is, if you code around a particular driver you're definitely tying yourself into a particular device, so direct access to USB might still be the way to go.

I think I've got this USB/Java thing almost figured out... Time will tell!