Projects > Work In Progress

Below are a bunch of projects that are sitting on my hard drive (well, stored in my personal source code repository, but let's not get too geeky). Some I'm working on, some have been gathering dust for months (or even years), and some are just twinkles in my digital eye. Not all of them will see the light of day, but I thought it might be interesting to share some works in progress.

What Did I Do All Day?

Why fear Big Brother when you can be your own Big Brother (in a manner of speaking)? This is a tool for monitoring what you've used on your computer all day, all week, all month, and indeed all time. It does this by logging how much time you spend using each application, down to the detail of how much time you spend on an individual web page.

Status (updated March 2010)
In active development.

Photo Notes

I'm concerned with the preservation of digital information (you're right, not my most successful chat-up line), and this application is part of my attempt to future-proof my own digital heritage. Expect a lengthier post on the subject in the not too distant future...

Status (updated January 2011)
In active development.

Model City Generator

I harbour a secret ambition to build a miniature scale model of an entire city (well, not so secret actually). I don't have the time, space or money to do it for real, so until I win the lottery I'm settling for building a digital city instead. More specifically, I'm building an app that generates a random city from scratch - the app is written in C#, and I'm using POV-Ray for the rendering.

Status (updated January 2011)
In active development.

Source Code Line Counter

Talk about reinventing the wheel! I wanted a rough idea of the amount of code in my day job project, so I downloaded a couple of freeware apps. I was annoyed by the range of results I was getting. In all fairness it's a deceptively difficult task - do you count comments, code statements that span multiple lines, generated code, etc.? In the end I thought it would be quicker to write my own. At least that way I could have complete control over what data I was counting.

Status (updated October 2009)
The basic functionality is all there, and it has a rudimentary GUI. It might wind up on this site one day.

Disk Space Monitor

A very simple Windows service that monitors the disk space usage of the host machine. The service triggers an email alert if particular conditions are detected (e.g. free disk space falls below a certain threshold, free disk space drops by a certain amount in a certain time period, etc).

Status (updated April 2009)
The basic functionality is implemented, though currently only as a command line app. To be useful it will need to be implemented as a Windows service with its own installer. It might wind up on this site one day.

IIS Log Hotlink Checker

A tool that parses a directory of IIS log files and generates a report of which files are being hotlinked, and from where.

Status (updated June 2008)
Completed, but unlikely to get a public release.

MrCeri Backup Manager

A tool for managing backups for my portable hard drives. In particular it keeps track of when I last backed up, and nags me when a backup is overdue. There are lots of backup solutions out there, this one just happens to be nicely customised to how I use my portable drives.

Status (updated August 2006)
Completed, but unlikely to get a public release.

MrCeri Task Master

I needed a portable app for managing my various task lists. We're not talking about trivial "buy some milk" tasks, we're talking about software feature lists, bug lists, etc. Each task needed a lengthy note section, the ability to mark a task as completed, the ability to prioritise, indicate whether it's a bug or feature, etc. There are lots of tools out there for managing such lists, but most of them are overkill for my needs.

Status (updated March 2007)
Completed, but unlikely to get a public release.

Smartphone Salary Timer

A smartphone port of the wildly successful Salary Timer. At one time this would have been a Windows Mobile app, but it's now more likely to appear on the Android platform.

Status
Just an idea at the moment.

Football Scores Predictor

Just like it sounds - an application that predicts football scores. Expect a lengthier post on the subject in the not too distant future...

Status
Just an idea at the moment.

Smartphone Football Manager

I had some time to kill before starting a new job a few years ago, so thought I'd try implementing a non-trivial Windows Mobile app. I actually took it quite far, and had considered selling it at one point, but I gave up on it as soon as I started working again. I was also beaten to market by a large commercial developer, so it seemed a little pointless pursuing my version.

Status (updated March 2007)
Abandoned.