Sitting in the office bored and confused.

I thought about building a mouse tracker. Basically for each day, store all the clicks a user makes to a db.
Time
coordinates x,y
process
and maybe if website record the domain not the full url.

eventually you can get a historical view of activities by having a screen over-layed with all the clicks and a little bubble appearing on mouse over to display time and related info. Over a period of time with huge data set, you can do more cool stuff with visualization and design patterns. This was going to run as a service obviously.

Coworker said dont do it. lol I was thinking maybe for website if you implement this type of thing you can see areas most likely to be clicked that users are accustomed to moving their mouse to. For better control placement and usability study. This would be better with access to over 100 users. So you can get valid data for application designing and better compliance with human computer interaction.

I will assume something like this has been done but who cares. SO for now that is aside. Now if you have an application to build, depending on the scope of such an application I may take it up as a challenge to build it for FREE. Everyone likes free things.

I will write this in either C# or VB.NET.
.NET framework v4
If a database is needed. I will be using Mysql for storage v5.
Visual studio professional 2010.

If I do anything for anyone, I will not be providing detailed documentation maybe a simple how to quicky guide.

All types of application suggestions are welcomed.

So submit your ideas and I will take them into consideration to build for free.

hi hi hi,u ve got the knowlegde,thats gr8,am a young man trying to get roots in the field,could you help me with course wares to learn programming, am interested in being like you guys,you know a good programmer. Takia

ok,could you help me create a programme that would do calculations,you know scientific calculator,customized to my person,with my name as the softwares's you know,that will be really cool,

I want to build a web server that runs from mobile phone. It should have apache, mysql, sqlite and filezilla. I'd love it to come with phpmyadmin. It should be php5, mysql5,sqlite3.
I've been thinking of this but i got many projects at hand now. If i can run my own webserver from nokia or blackberry, i won't have to worry abt all these power problems we have in Nigeria.

Are u up to the task?

@jeezfreak7

I will recommend you first read about programming on www.wikipedia.org
Then you can search for web programming, desktop programming, cross-platform programming, programming languages. Read about all those then you will have more information to assist you and remember, Google is your best friend never lets you down. whatever programming language tutorial, you can also try youtube for video lessons.


@lojik
I previously did windows mobile but that was long ago I am not into porting. Not familiar with the techniques involved. Sorry to disappoint you. My knowledge is limited. I am glad google came out with the inventor stuff that should hopefully make more people develop for the android platform which rox. Learning java has put me off android but seems google is working towards making it user friendly.


@jeezfreak7
I can definitely take this into consideration if you can provide the formulas and how to solve the formulas that will be cool. Last time I did statistics and or mathematics was 2002. Definitely rusty. So you provide all formulas and steps to solve the formulas, then we can talk and hopefully with your name thing we can come to an agreement.

hmmmmmmm

hope u r not just looking for a project topic or ideas to use for urself , "JUST A THOUGHT"

Kindly refer to my older posts to understand who this is.

I am not a student if you care to know. And this is not the first time I am offering to do stuff for free.

if u say so

Instead of doing stuff for free here, Y not code stuff and put them online as opensource or freeware. If u dont av webspace to host them on, i can give u space, u get all the credit and the world gets to benefit. Abi?

@lojik

Thats what I wish to do but I am empty. Dont have ideas. Thats what is holding me back now

@netghost

I approve

Write a Ludo game in WPF @Poster. That should keep you excited for a bit!

Cactus:

@lojik

Thats what I wish to do but I am empty. Dont have ideas. Thats what is holding me back now

@netghost

I approve

Can u help write a script/program that monitors printer and shows the number of pages printed, colours and other details??

ojesymsym:

Can u help write a script/program that monitors printer and shows the number of pages printed, colours and other details??

I shall explore this more. Looks like this is a top choice for now.
That is interesting. Are you in an office or cybercafe?
Will the information be stored on a daily basis.

Can u help write a script/program that monitors printer and shows the number of pages printed, colours and other details??

Nice one there bro. dat would really help owners of cybercafe and business centers.
I recommended the following features:
1. Ability to run in stealth mode like keyloggers
2. Must not be uninstallable through normal process like deepfreeze
3. Must require password to launch like deep freeze
4. Must support smtp mail protocol for automatic emailing of logged results to the owner
5. Must startup with the OS as a service not startup item.
6. Should be able to disable or terminate print processes before they start based on some owner specifications.
7. Must be free and probably open source so that others can develop on it (Afterall, you are developing it for free).

This is getting more and more interesting. Definitely doing the best I can to come up with useful information to accomplish this.

This is definitely possible. Most of lojik's suggested features can definitely be implemented if and when this is a go.

But if anyone else is interested. So far these are the resources I have working with.

1. Looks like one should be focused more on Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI).
2.http://www.codeproject.com/KB/printing/prntjobcontrollerusingwmi.aspx
3. http://www.codeproject.com/KB/printing/printwatchvbnet.aspx
4. This component is aimed at achieving the above, havent gone into details  reading. http://www.merrioncomputing.com/Download/PrintQueueWatch.htm   and loooks old not sure how old
5. If by chance anyone is trying this and looking to do this in visual studio,

Imports system.printing

there is also

Imports System.Drawing.Printing        looks like this is the one most needed gotten list of printers, settings etc

This namespace is not added by default so you need to go to the property of your project and navigate to references. click on add. select the .NET tab. and look for ReachFramework. Select that and voila you have the printing namespace.     lost where i found this tip. Will keep my sources properly.

6. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.printing.aspx

Not yet giving up. Still looking into this



This seems like one of the easiest options free to use
http://www.merrioncomputing.com/Download/PrintQueueWatch/PrinterQueueWatchLicensing.htm

This looks like something you guys are thinking about
http://www.merrioncomputing.com/Products/Puma/puma_overview.htm

I have a solution. I have the list of information I need.

I have tried posting it on NL but keeps getting deleted.

I guess I will be using an external link for updates. I cant even post pictures it gets deleted. I wanted to give you guys a demo app to see but gets deleted. I will work on getting a link up shortly

send me an email

gixroq@gmail.com

So i keep you on a mailing list of updates.

I plan to have a website next week.

Just been slow about that thought about it long ago just slow now it is needed.

nice! this is really getting interesting.

This is just a screenshot of what I am working with now.

I plan to turn it to a service later. Just putting codes together for now.

Things to consider.
1. Multiple printers, this means one has to be looping through all printers to get jobs in queue.
2. Now i am using a timer control to check if there are new jobs available. so that keeps running. I am trying to find if there is a way to automatically detect new print jobs without the timer control.

Size is in bytes. those are the info that will be stored in the db. My db structure goes something like this. I may add more tables for printer etc still have to decide.

COMPUTER
compid
date (now)
computername
macaddress
signature*

*(an algorithm generated unique identifier for each computer, this is. incase a user changes name of computer or macaddress

USER
userid
date (now)
name (currentuser)
compidfk


PRINTJOB
printjobid
date
description
size
color (T/F)
status (Printed/Canceled etc)
pages (number of pages to print)
copies (number of copies of each page to print)
totalpages (pages*copies)
landscape (T/F)
printername
printresolution (resolution used for printing)
queuetime (total time the document has been waiting in queue to print)
useridfk

This is getting complicated.  The challenge is to get the status update of the print job

I have to account for all printed jobs that is 100% complete
If a job is cancelled, I need to store the information and number of pages printed

The time it takes when the status changes is too fast to catch

I have tried running at 5 milliseconds to check for jobs and status updates still not able to catch the rapid changes.

This is actually complicated because assuming a job is sent to the printer, i am thinking of storing all jobs sent regardless if it was later canceled or deleted.

Then as the job is being processed check for status updates. I am thinking I will need another one for this to speed up the application now we are talking multithreaded client-server application.

This will be beneficial when this is running in an environment that has many clients.  and potentially if about 10 or more jobs are sent to the printer. also knowing there is a possibility of sending to multiple printers .

I have the methods to get the status changes but as I read them and my grid refreshes, it clears back to normal which is not yet done = false.


I am going to try the multithreaded stuff, one for storing the info to db of jobs another thread to check for updates.

Ideas welcomed and if you are not sure of what I am talking about ask for clarification

There is also an issue of virtual printers and like send to one note. Hopefully I can figure out a way to determine a real printers? I can exclude cutepdfwriter, and some of them but I dont know all that exist. So would be unrealistic to exclude each one individually.

Should I also count virtual printers like cutepdf, send to onenote, microsoft xps document writer?

@Cactus
Are u still bored ? I have a little stuff i'd like to get done do you mind coding it for me?
It's a small quiz application it sends questions to clients connected to it and the clients sends their response and it validates this response and tells them if they are right or wrong. Just like a quiz program

Cactus:

I shall explore this more. Looks like this is a top choice for now.
That is interesting. Are you in an office or cybercafe?
Will the information be stored on a daily basis.

Sorry I did not respond on time, I am glad u r taking up the challenge, it is something that I always knew will be relevant to biz centres and cyber, even offices, I have not yet taken up d challenge coz i dont feel grounded enough to do it. How do I make contact with you.

Regards

Cactus:

This is getting complicated. The challenge is to get the status update of the print job

I have to account for all printed jobs that is 100% complete
If a job is cancelled, I need to store the information and number of pages printed

The time it takes when the status changes is too fast to catch

I have tried running at 5 milliseconds to check for jobs and status updates still not able to catch the rapid changes.

This is actually complicated because assuming a job is sent to the printer, i am thinking of storing all jobs sent regardless if it was later canceled or deleted.
Then as the job is being processed check for status updates. I am thinking I will need another one for this to speed up the application now we are talking multithreaded client-server application.

This will be beneficial when this is running in an environment that has many clients. and potentially if about 10 or more jobs are sent to the printer. also knowing there is a possibility of sending to multiple printers .

I have the methods to get the status changes but as I read them and my grid refreshes, it clears back to normal which is not yet done = false.


I am going to try the multithreaded stuff, one for storing the info to db of jobs another thread to check for updates.

Ideas welcomed and if you are not sure of what I am talking about ask for clarification

There is also an issue of virtual printers and like send to one note. Hopefully I can figure out a way to determine a real printers? I can exclude cutepdfwriter, and some of them but I dont know all that exist. So would be unrealistic to exclude each one individually.

Should I also count virtual printers like cutepdf, send to onenote, microsoft xps document writer?

Suggestion on the bolded part, record wat is sent to the printer for printing and record wat is successfully printed, u can den wrong wat was cancelled.

@adewaleafolabi

about the quiz application. I built one recently. It can be deployed as a client server application. But right now I cannot release it to the public. Hopefully I can get some clearance from my office if they do not plan to use it then I can release.

@ojesymsym
The printer stuff is a big challenge really, I am just about conceding. Computer 1 : Me 0. lol
I will still take a look at it. But I have done a couplel of useless applications that really are not useful in anyways. I shall put them out to the public once I get a site up.

you can send me email to devbean@gmail.com

well no need to concede yet, jst keep us updated on d challenges, suggestion could flow in on the solution.