unflyingobject

I developed my initial idea sometime in 2004. It was supposed to become a search-based file browser prototype and I was really excited about it. The idea wasn't totally my own actually - Kadri was the one who asked the first question why file management has to be so hard. For the "average user" it shouldn't matter where something is or what it's extension is - it should "just work". We decided that folders could actually be saved search queries. I actually got some time to parade this idea around until 6 months later - Apple introduced Tiger for the first time and you already know the rest...

My next plan was to build a knowledge base application. This was born out of a practical need for documenting experiences in the service shop I used to work for. The idea was great - make a Core Data -based app with an iTunes/Outlook Express-like UI that'd make entering information really simple and fast. Add tag support for indexing and automatic categorisation and a little check-box in the preferences that would allow you to share your knowledge to the local sub-net. And then I discovered Yojimbo. It's basically the same thing sans the sharing and cataloguing. Since I had already started to work on this, I decided to keep going and concentrate on the theory part. The subject is quite interesting and while there's a lot of info out there on ontologies, little (or actually none at all) practical P2P examples/applications exist. But then my greatest fear realised - I got bored. Being a geek, I'm used to and enjoy building things. I can't sit behind a paper for days and just write specs and explanations, knowing that this will all only work on paper... So I sent them my ideas and BareBones was kind enough to answer and analyse my ideas and give some insight into their design decisions. Thanks!

So I changed the topic once again. The working title is "Anatomy of Digital Video". It's a handbook for anyone dealing with the inner workings of video and file formats and I think it's pretty good and useful. I hope it was a good move - if nothing else, I've been able to write 10 pages in the first week, which is twice as much as I was able to conjure up in 6 months with my previous topic. There will also be a practical side to this. A QuickTime -based playback app that does playlists, batch-encoding and subtitles.

And the moral of all of this? Long-term projects are hard, especially for a "starter" like myself. Working alone certainly has it's merits, but it can also be very stressful and error-prone. If you do (or have to) take on a big project yourself, by all means, do it, but try to "keep it interesting" for yourself. Trust your instincts - if you feel that the topic is "hot", get a prototype out as fast as possible. Concentrate on the core idea and leave all the polish for a later time. Document as you go.