Contributor gijsterbeek

When the screensaver starts, this mostly means the user isn't using his computer for a while. It should then start executing tasks which have a high demand of resources but a low urgency (to the user) and require no interaction. For example:

1. Finish downloading that large torrent
2. Check for and install (security) updates for installed applications
3. Get new mail
4. Put the - still running - media player into full screen mode (like AmarokFS for Amarok)
5. Run a backup

This of course should be totally configurable (which applications, wait time after starting screen saver, which one first, etcetera)

There are some email notification apps for gnome and kde today, like Korn and mail-notification. But: They all eat memory, and what for? In my opinion, querying a mailserver can't be that hard.

I propose a notifier that is both light and easy to use:

Functions:
- support pop/imap/mbox and more
- small footprint on memory and cpu
- can import mail server settings from installed clients like Thunderbird, Evolution, etc.

Interface:
- tray-icon
- right-click on tray displays notification-settings
- left-double(!)-click launches preferred e-mailclient
- tray icon displays counter on mouse-over
- counter is reset after mail client is opened
- multiple users/multiple accounts per user possible

Sometimes I run an upgrade in Synaptic, only to find out half an hour later the progress bar has stopped. When clicking on 'view console window', it appears I have to answer some question with Yes or No. This isn't obvious to all users.

Solution 1: Auto-expand the built-in console when a response from the user is needed
Solution 2: Capture the prompt and wrap it in a nice GUI.

It would be cool if BRAINSTORM admins would be more visible on this site.

Who are they?
What are they currently working on?
How many of them are online now?
How many admins exist anyway?
Which features are going to be added to the BRAINSTORM site?
Can we mail them?
Why not?
What is the 'code of conduct' they expect from the users?
How can I become one?
Why not?
Etc...

This increases the feeling of empowerment that Ubuntu is all about.

The development of Xara Xtreme (the best open source vector graphics editor ever) which beats any other vector graphics application, like Inkscape or SK1 by mere lightyears, seems to have come to a halt. It still stands out in performance, functionality and usability, but sadly enough not a lot of people seem to be willing to dedicate their time to the development of this beatiful application.

The last stable build was published in 2006 and after that, new development seemed to focus on the OSX version. There are many Ubuntu users making extensive use of Xara, but sadly enough it is not getting the focus it should get.

Still, there are some bugs in Xara that should be solved, like crashing after exporting a file to jpg.

Development of Xara must be picked up!

I propose the possibility to make a backup to a remote trusted location over the internet instead of using another partition/DVD/local network. They would just as easy go down in a fire.

At present, there are some paid services that offer just that, but they offer a) centralized intermediate storage or b) anonymous p2p storage. Centralized storage is ok, but there are lots of people having a desktop with space to spare. Shouldn't be wasted. Also private data should not be stored underway. Peer to peer backup is ok, but it could happen that one of the peers hasn't his machine hooked up, preventing me to restore my backup. Or one of those peers just hacks into my data.

Example:
I do have a friend living in a city 60 miles away, and we would both like to reserve some of our disk space to store each other's backups. When my house gets hit by lightning, at least I have the backup at my friends house, and vice versa. Chances are very low his house will get hit by the same thunderstorm. If there is a larger group (at least three people), even some sort of RAID-over-Internet could be considered. Each file stored locally will also be written to at least two remote locations.

Advantages:
- Don't need to bring my backup DVDs to my sister every month
- Don't have to worry about my sister watching my DVDs
- The data is sent and stored encrypted, so it's secure
- The space I donate for others backups equals my own backup capacity
- I get to pick my own -trustworthy- friends
- Don't have to pay a one time fee for a service that doesn't really do anything.

Examples that come close:
http://www.crashplan.com (the best I found but why pay?)
http://www.zoogmo.com (no rdiff possible)
http://wua.la/en/home.html (more a share than a backup)

[....]

Brainstorm queries take a long time to load. Please optimize your queries. Especially the 'most popular ideas [..]' queries don't return too fast.

When I switch off my computer, sometimes it had a torrent client running in the background or some music player.

When I turn it back on later, I would like to have Ubuntu remember which applications it stopped due to the last shutdown and restore them.

I know there is an option to restore sessions over shutdowns, but in my experience this is buggy and not too configurable. I always switch it off right after installing an Ubuntu upgrade.

The current scoring model is flawed. The only way to keep track of fresh ideas, is to wait while they roll by in the 'Last ideas' section. Popularity creates popularity. This generates polarization and bias to old ideas. I propose a better measurement and ranking system:

Each idea should be ranked against more dimensions than just popularity. Sure, appreciation is important, but so is controversy, clearness and time. Let's say we have a brainstorm idea X, which was posted 3 days ago and has 40 votes pro, 20 votes contra and 5 comments. We also have idea Y, 5 days old, which has 300 votes pro, 320 votes contra, and 100 comments. In the current situation, idea Y will be on top - forever. But we can derive several more useful indicators from these ideas.

Average appreciation (AA):

This is the current way of scoring, which is the amount of 'pro' voters minus the amount of 'contra' voters. This is how much the idea is liked by the brainstorm visitors. For idea X the AA would be +20, for idea Y it would be -20. This would indicate that action should be taken on idea X, rather than idea Y, because the nett amount of pro-votes was higher then the contra votes. This would however ignore the fact that idea Y has 300 pro votes, while idea X has left many people indifferent and generated only some 60 votes total. This brings us to another factor:

Controversy factor (CF):

Tells us something about the attention an idea gets from the BRAINSTORM visitors. Does the idea instantly 'trigger' the viewer? The amount of 'pro' voters plus the amount of 'contra' voters, divided by the absolute average appreciation. This would give idea X a CF of (40+20)/20 = 3. This is low compared to idea Y, which has a score of (300+320)/20, which results in 31. Now we see that idea Y has a higher visibility than idea X, even though the average appreciation of the idea is negative.

Comment-to-controversy factor (CC):

Tells us something about the completeness of an idea. If an idea is clear and evident, people will only vote. When information is missing, people will add comments. It would be wrong to confuse the comments with a discussion, because the current implementation of the comment system only allows for comments on the idea. Threaded comments (commenters commenting commenters) are not allowed. So the amount of all votes divided by the amount of comments would tell us something about how clearly scoped the idea is and what has to be done to implement it. Lower values mean sharper ideas.

[....]

Computers are often left running for quite some time while not really doing anything but creating heat and being vulnerable.

Powersave options should include the option to completely switch off the computer after x time, or when application y is stopped/no longer downloading that file.

X and Y would of course be configurable.

EDIT: Hibernation - when implemented in the right way, see brainstorm #80 - would even better. This way, no data would be lost.