programming projects

[ged25]

I need to write a programming project for my final semester. Can someone give me any interesting ideas? I'd prefer it to include encryption but it isn't necessary.
Thanks in advance

[Tony Flury]

Presumably you are studying computer science or something similar - are there any particular themes that you have studied in more depth, or maybe particular areas of further work that you are interested in ?

I think what will help is to think about the area of future work - what are you interested in.

In my final year (many years ago) there was a large number of potential projects on offer - everything from graphics processing to developing compilers and debuggers. Similarly now there could be hundreds of possible projects - these off the top of my head.
* Alternatie compilers or interpreters
* Additional kernel functionality
* Command line utilities (maybe to interface to online systems)
* GUI interfaces to some command line program

It really does depend on what you would like to do.

[wd5gnr]

How about encrypting things using steganography? I did a program one time (for a column I used to write) that encoded secret messages in spam e-mails. So the e-mail would say:

Would you like to be Rich? ....


And the actual text was encoded in the spaces between the words (but not at the start and end of lines). You could vary that in many different ways. Some use "noise pixels" in JPEG files, for example. The idea is that if you were 007 and had an encrypted file on your computer, that gives away the information that you have something to hide or protect. With steganography, you hide the data in plain sight as something innocent.

Or if you want something hard, look at FUSE which lets you write Linux file systems in user space. An encrypted FUSE file system would be pretty do-able and probably some good examples out there already.

Just some random thoughts.

[ged25]

Yes, I am studying computer science. I am required to write an application in my field of interest. My interests are basically in cryptography and networking but I don't mind doing other stuff as well. I need around 4-5 so that I can discuss with my prof and select one.

wd5gnr: Thanks, those are some good ideas. I wanted something along those lines. Something thats kinda creative and interesting and not the usual common stuff.

[nvteighen]

Yes, I am studying computer science. I am required to write an application in my field of interest. My interests are basically in cryptography and networking but I don't mind doing other stuff as well. I need around 4-5 so that I can discuss with my prof and select one.

wd5gnr: Thanks, those are some good ideas. I wanted something along those lines. Something thats kinda creative and interesting and not the usual common stuff.
An academical advice: do something related to encryption and/or networking... if it's your interest (and you're being given the chance to do any project you like), then you'll enjoy much more doing something you already like... even if it's more difficult, you'll be motivated.

[ged25]

Anybody else has interesting ideas?