Often I hear from people, especially younger ones, that they don't know what
to do.  I have compiled a list of ideas that I think would be great for someone
to work on.  Next time someone says they can't think of something to do, or
that they are bored, point them to this page.

This page is kinda old so check around and make sure the problem hasn't
already been solved.

# Programming and development ideas:

Create a tool that figures out (like make) in what order to run the
startup scripts on Linux.  Get rid of /etc/rcN.d altogether.  Cheat by
checking on how other OSes do it, NetBSD had a tool like this IIRC.

Create a web front-end for managing asterisk.

Create a web front-end for a firewall like OpenBSD's pf or Linux's
iptables.  Show the last N blocked packets, the top N destination
ports of blocked packets over different periods of time, the top N
source IPs of blocked packets, etc.  This is open-ended; you can get
creative with graphics, such as the gd library for PERL, or even
visualization packages like graphviz, LGL, VolSuite, OpenQVIS, etc.

Create a secure and standard way to tell routers and firewalls
(e.g. my DFD) to open up a port to a particular machine.  See SPA, uPNP.

Create a FLOSS standard, possibly based on XML, for calendar entries
that works with cell phones, and a format for mailing meeting
invitations to people, and MUA plug-ins or helpers to add them to your
calendar.  Also let it scrape sites (like RSS aggregators) for import
into your own calendar. Like Google Calendar, but on your own systems.

Linux programmer to take over dynamic firewall daemon from me.
http://www.subspacefield.org/security/dfd_keeper/
Look for link to dfd_tbk

Write a graphical password entry program for a cell phone platform.
Then write an app to keep data encrypted, using the graphical
password.  Consider interoperating with gnukeyring.

Compile programs and create packages for them for your favorite distro.
For example:
OS			package
OpenBSD 3.7		apcupsd
FC3 source		apcupsd
OpenBSD 3.7		Twisted (www.twistedmatrix.com)
OpenBSD 3.7		ZopeInterface (www.zope.org)

Write regression tests for your favorite distro.  That's where you write a
test for every fixed bug to make sure it doesn't get re-introduced.

C program or PERL script that takes an image or other file and
converts it into an array for use embedded within a program.

Write a version of "the bodyguard" that logs you out when root logs
in.  The idea is if you're tunnelled through a system and interacting
with the next hop, if root logs in and starts poking his nose around,
you disappear.  For extra credit, re-establish the tunnel around the
node where root logged in.

Write a good [security/auditing] footprinting tool.  Make it modular,
and write it in python or ruby.

Write a replacement for TITAN, the system tightening script.  Make it
modular, and write it in python or ruby.  Allow the user to say things
like:
	mailman module: "list such-and-such should never be open to public"
	DNS server module: "no recursive resolutions, except for XXX"
	postfix module: "all traffic should be secured with TLS"

Write a replacement for the old Kuang expert system.
Make it modular, and written in python or ruby.

Write something like tcpdump or wireshark, but write the protocol
decoding routines in a safer language.  ruby and python come to mind,
but ocaml might be faster.

Write a version of the old AT&T PathServer, but integrate it with a
keyserver and support new GPG keys.

Write a network daemon in a "safer" language than C (java, perl,
python, ML).  See privilege.py for examples of how to drop privs:
http://www.subspacefield.org/~travis/python/privilege/

When you subscribe to a mailing list, they often send you a
verification message.  Write a tool that sends the subscription
request, and automatically responds to the verification message.
Optionally, have it respond to ANY verification message it receives
(less safe, but convenient).

When you receive an email from a list, you have to examine RFC 822
headers to see how to filter it (unless you like all copies of
messages cross-posted to 2 or more lists to end up in the first
mailing list's folder).  Write a tool which automatically figures this
out and creates a .procmailrc entry for the new list.
http://www.subspacefield.org/~travis/email_config/

Write something like "password safe" but for Unix/X.  Basically it's a
database of names, and when you click on them they put the password
into your cut-and-paste buffer.  So it never gets printed.  Of course
there is one main password that unlocks the whole deal.  Come up with
some way to make the database readable in case people want to migrate
away from the tool, because cut-and-pasting each entry would suck.

Take over maintenance of an abandoned software project.

Write a user/directory service that is:
Like NIS but doesn't use portmapper/RPC, and is secure
Like LDAP but without the x.500 baggage and for just one thing

Write a secure replacement for NFS.  It should not be limited to
8 supplemental groups, and it should use soemthing like SSH keys
for authentication.

Work with the FSF on a Skype replacement.

Do something like rdiff/rsnapshot that can back up multiple machines
without creating new config files for every machine.  Or look at
duplicity and try doing something similar to that.

Create a PDF replacement format that's open and not full of security
holes.

The Makefile language is difficult to read and obtuse (GNU make
moreso, BSD make less so).  Perhaps it is time to make something
better than make.  In fact, it might be a great idea to write it as
python, because python's syntax is so clean and simple that most
programmers can use it, even if they haven't learned python.  Plus, it
will be so extensible; imagine the difficulty of modifying how GNU
make worked, and compare that to modifying a python program.

Create a way to synchronize bookmarks between multiple machines
without relying on someone else's servers.  It should be FLOSS, and
could do neat things like de-dup, update when hitting permanent
redirects, show bar graphs of reachability, automatically redirect
to archive.org when the page disappears, etc.


Write a firefox plug-in or web proxy that allows you to seamlessly
navigate through archive.org's archives.

# Creating Unix distros

Create a distro that specializes in anonymity services, crypto,
defensive network security.

Create a distro that specializes in p2p and filetrading

Create a distro for kick-ass anti-spam mail servers

Create a distro for a dedicated email server.  Be sure to include tons
of anti-spam measures, so that the spammers don't have a single target
to optimize against.

Create a Linux distro specifically for gaming.  Include as many games
as you legally can.  Include Wine and Windows games, if you can.

Create a distro specifically for game development, and/or a slim
run-time that can run easily under any OS (e.g. via VMWare or Xen or
Virtualbox).  Wouldn't it be cool to pop in a CD/DVD and boot directly
into a OS optimized for the game, or run it efficiently in a VM?

# Writing and/or documentation ideas:

Summarize conversations on mailing lists.  There's one like this
for LKML, which is just too high traffic.  Someone needs to do
this for full disclosure and BUGTRAQ.

Summarize conference proceedings (DEFCON, Black Hat, etc.)

Write a better RAID FAQ.

Write a homepage for the mdadm tools with good usage info.

Write some documentation on bluetooth network stacks in Linux.  You
may even dive into bluetooth networking models and basics.  But please
create documentation on hidd and other userland tools.

Write some documentation on USB.  Answer the question: If I have an
arbitrary USB device that only comes with windows software, how do I
make it work on Linux?

Document ACPI well.  For example, if my laptop's sound and wireless
don't work after closing the lid, how do I fix it?

Write a HOWTO on SELinux that isn't super boring.

Start archiving and indexing email lists and sell CDs as reference
material.

Create a web site comparing and archiving various software licenses.
Explain what kind of situations demonstrate the advantages of one over
the other. (probably done)

Write a book for O'Reilly on build systems.  Not just GNU make, but
how to structure your source code repositories to build programs,
documents, etc. quickly, consistently, easily.