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iAnnoyance Challenge: Red means Stop, Green means Go

Swad

By Swad

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Earlier this week we announced the iAnnoyance Challenge, a series of challenges in which we give you the weekend to code up a fix to something annoying in OS X. Oh yeah, there's cash involved too. While we initially said we'd give $100 to the winner (plus all donations sent in by others), we decided that, to kick things off, we wanted something special. That means that before donations, the prize money stands at an awesome...

$500

And now, introducing the world's first iAnnoyance challenge... (drumroll)

 

Red means Stop, Green means Go

How many times have you thought the red "Close" button was going to quit your application when it was actually still running? Ever looked at your dock to find all of your applications still open? How many times have you clicked the green "zoom" button in anxious anticipation, having no idea whether the window would get a little bigger or go full screen? Ever shaken a fist at a developer who didn't read the Human Interface Guidelines? It's happened to us all. But no longer.

 

We're looking for an app we're calling Red means Stop, Green means Go that will allow any Mac user to...

 

- Make the red x always quit an app

- Make the red x always hide an app (as in, close all windows but keep the app open)

- Make the green Zoom button always go full screen.

- Change these setting on a per application basis, so that the features can be disabled or enabled for specific apps. There should also be a universal setting.

- Use one or all features

 

There are several obvious benefits that this app presents. First, it'll mean one UI action where there are currently thousands, making the OS easier for children and seniors to understand. Secondly, it will save RAM, processor usage, battery life by closing unused apps in one click. Finally, if you're a stickler for Apple's HIG rules, you can tweak to your heart's delight.

 

You have until Sunday night (Midnight CST, 6 am GMT) to email me (mashugly [at] gmail.com), PM me, or IM me your solution. It should be in good enough shape to release at that point, but if it's still in a beta stage (as in, still has a few bugs) that's fine too. Since we'll be open sourcing this app, the cleaner the code, the better.

 

Best of luck!

 

Rules:

1. All applications must be universal.

2. All applications must have a cool name (we'll stick with ours, unless you have a cooler one).

3. Every application must be easy and fun to use.

4. If a solution is not found within the 3 day challenge, the prize money drops to $300 for the week after the challenge and $400 for the weeks after that. Just a little extra incentive to beat everyone to a solution. Donated funds will stay the same. (Props to DiegoMax for ideas on the prizes)

 

Donation List (Click here to donate) :

None so far. :)

 

To share this contest with the world (which will result in a better pool of applicants), digg it!

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other

I've definietly experienced the "having everything open" illusion though I'm never too sure what the little green button is for :P

 

A fix for the green button would be great.

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Swad

The cool thing about this app is that you can use all or nothing. It's up to you!

 

Also, if you want this thing to do well, digg it!

 

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Swad

The idea is that if we make it over the weekend, folks will have more time to do it. But also, if the competition ran for months, it would get forgotten (by most people). ;)

 

If no one comes up with a solution this weekend, though, that's ok - the contest continues.

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Mr. Bond

It would be interesting if we could slowly reduce the amount of money you would earn, the longer a person goes past the Sunday deadline. That way, we'd give them an incentive to get it done within the time limits, but still provide a good enough prize if extra time was needed.

 

EDIT: Well....serves me right for not reading the rules completely. Btw Mash, is there a typo in rule #4, when you specify the amounts?

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unstatusthequo
We're looking for an app we're calling Red means Stop, Green means Go that will allow any Mac user to...

 

- Make the red x always quit an app

- Make the red x always hide an app ...

 

Um do you mean make the yellow button hide an app?

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Swad
Um do you mean make the yellow button hide an app?

 

Nope, I mean the Red X should just close all the windows but not quit the program. I'll edit it above to make it more clear.

 

MrBond-

I think I've got #4 right up there - we want to make sure that people still have incentive to work on it after the deadline if no one gets it working, but at the same time we'd like for it to be done this weekend. If, after all this is done, we realize that more time is needed for these projects, we can make the time longer.

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moksha

Ah, thanks for the fast response. The other thing I noticed was that the emoticon gets displayed as a stolen notice from osx86project.org, as you can see in the screenyshot. Stealing from your own website! How could you, Mash?

insanelymac74901.jpg

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Swad

Lol - it's for hotlinking protection, since a TON of our bandwidth was being sucked by hotlinks. We'll fix it. Thanks for letting us know. Good RSS feeds, btw. :help:

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Mr. Bond
4. If a solution is not found within the 3 day challenge, the prize money drops to $300 for the week after the challenge and $400 for the weeks after that. Just a little extra incentive to beat everyone to a solution. Donated funds will stay the same. (Props to DiegoMax for ideas on the prizes)

 

Yeah, I understand Mash. It's just that shouldn't the prize money keep dropping by $100 each week, instead of going to $300 the week after the challenge, and then back up to $400 again? Seems a tad wonky. :help:

 

You'll have people waiting an extra week to complete the challenge, just so they can snag an extra $100. :D

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Swad

Yeah, MrBond I considered that, but if someone got it done and waited the week, they run the risk of having someone else beat them to it. :help:

 

After we've done this contest and see how it goes, we might adjust some of these rules. Also, this is the only $500 contest, since this one is our first and is kinda special. All others will be about $250.

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Swad

Start now, unstatusthequo - just stay up all weekend and do your best. You'll get enough sleep when you're dead. :P

 

Looks like our digg story got buried - apparently Mac Digg users think that OS X is prefect enough to not be tweaked. Oh well.

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A Nonny Moose

Just to throw out helpful hints, but one might want to make this work under the Application Enhancer (APE) framework. Can't remember if their SDK is free or not, but it's worth looking into

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Swad

selectodude-

 

The idea is not for OS X to be Windows, but instead to correct behaviors that developers sometimes make mistakes on. Also, it's a setting that a lot of people want. :)

 

Edit:

 

Regarding APE (which may be a good route to go)

 

http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/ape/sdk

 

It's $100 but there is a lite version available (meaning, if you bought it, you'd make a net of $400 or more. There's also no licensing cost since it's a free app.

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jonz14

Wow $500, that will go great towards that real mac I have been wanting...I think I am gonna give a shot at learning the whole coding thing (although I doubt I can learn it and do the coding in a single weekend) but it will still be a good thing to learn. Earlier today I started downloading the xCode developer tools and while i've been waiting i created a pretty cool looking icon (goes along well with the "Red means Stop, Green means Go" theme)

 

post-42993-1157227956.png

 

Edit: Nevermind on this current project, coding seems incredibly hard so far and I would like to have a lot more time to learn all it well before I dip into something big like this.......in the meantime I will just keep playing around in photoshop

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