Future Applications!

[Pekka]

Neutrino, Some good things you have on that list.

[yoda]
Actual programming projects they are
[/yoda]

[mrmitchell]

reverse image lookup on google.

don't know your porn star's name? not a problem. give the image to google and voila, you've got everything but her address and phone number.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Neutrino
Anti-spam software (I wish...)

You need AI for that.

Assassin robots (to kill spammers).

[Urban Ranger]

I always wanted the application of "paper."

Advancing computer technology notwithstanding, the best thing for jotting down ideas is still paper (and a suitable writing implement).

Paper is unsurpassed in making formless, unrestricted input. For example, suppose I am in the process of creating a new game. So, I can write down a few ideas of how the games should play. Then jump on to making some sketches about game pieces. Then move onto jotting down some numbers in the form of a table. Then go back to the sketches to annotate parts of them.

So, computers should be able to do that.

Consider a flat surface. I can write on the surface (probably with a stylus) anywhere. Anything I write on it will be displayed immediately. It must have a very high resolution so I can make sketches and draw pictures and have them look actually nice. The surface should be just a viewport into a very large area, and I can freely scroll around.

Anything I wrote I should be able to revise, including erasing, modifying, inserting, and deleting. I should be able to use "pens" of various colours and thicknesses. I should be able to highlight parts of the written material. With a command, a badly drawn table would become a nice neat one.

But that's just the beginning. You can ask it to spellcheck, to bring up a calculator, to provide shapes for charts, to convert your speech into text, to do matrix calculations or numerical analysis.

Feel free to add your own.

[Neutrino]

some more:

Genetic algorithms - very powerful technique, responsible for some new inventions and ideas

multi-agent learning and coordination systems - AI topic, lots of apps including game AI

large-scale distributed systems

machine planning - AI topic, involves the machine to 'plan' its actions depending on input

crytography and computer security

automated reasoning

graph theory

combinatorics

parallel processing

computer graphics

programming languages

[Pekka]

Have any of you guys ever tried Python? I took a look for it and I think it seems nice. I think it has lots potential.

if you're interested, check out www.python.org
What made me interested is that it's very easy to learn, it's good language to start from, it's that easy. But still it's quite powerful.

[Starchild]

I second the reverse image google idea. I've been wanting that for quite some time.

[monolith94]

I want a program that'll unpartition my drives.

[Pekka]

What do you mean by unpartitioning? Something that Partition Magic can't do?

[monolith94]

Well, I partitioned my drives, and I want to undo that, but I don't want to have to deal with an external hard drive to put all my data on...

[Pekka]

You can do that already no problem?

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Neutrino
Genetic algorithms - very powerful technique, responsible for some new inventions and ideas

That's not a standalone thing, it's just a method to be applied.

Originally posted by Neutrino
large-scale distributed systems

We already got that. It's called the Internet

Originally posted by Neutrino
crytography and computer security

Former is math and latter is black art

Originally posted by Neutrino
programming languages

We got too many already!

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Pekka
What made me interested is that it's very easy to learn, it's good language to start from, it's that easy. But still it's quite powerful.

Python is very nice. If you like it, you should also look at Smalltalk, the grand daddy of all pure OO languages.