Neuros is offering "Cash Money" FastBounties for the launch of our new Neuros OSD; There are seven "FastBounty" projects:

1) Youtube or Google video "browser."  Srobertson has a proposal for this, which should be a good starting point. Basically we're trying to get  Youtube on the OSD before Google Video shows up on the Apple iTV:) See Online Video Browser for one hackers view.  Use your imagination.



FastBounty: $1000

Standard: has to work.

2) Browser for flickr:  Assume much of the setup and interactivity is done on the PC, but should be able to view recent photos from your friends and your own photos, with automatic login, etc.  Basically the project is not to show a jpeg on the OSD, that already works, the project is to show how browsing flickr with a remote can be a good experience.  This is pretty much entirely a UI project.

FastBounty: $600

Standard: has to be usable.  Given that most folks already have a PC nearby, it hasn't be easy and automatic enough to be useful enough that the big screen is not overwhelmed by the cumbersome nature of using it.

3) Digital Music Receiver:  This is essentially another UI project to get the OSD to play music using a WiFi PDA (or PSP) as the remote.  A lot of the basic pieces are there, per sitwon's recent blog, but the UI needs to be tweaked, and it's not  working yet.  This would be the foundation for us putting out a wifi, non touchscreen remote.

FastBounty: $500

Standard: has to be usable, and should not require a stylus.  If no one completes it without a stylus, we'll consider entries with a stylus.

4) TiVo for radio:  hook up the OSD to a FM/AM or Satellite receiver,and do timed recordings, or FF/RW and Pause Live Radio.  In addition, timed recordings could be easily copied to a card or portable (listen to pre-recorded radio on an iPod for example)

The OSD can handily do simultaneous encode and decode of audio on the ARM9 core, so the horsepower is there. 

One other added benefit of this is that it could insert a delay into the radio that would allow sports fans to listen to the radio while watching the video from the TV.  For those of you who are not sports fans, take my word, this is an issue.

FastBounty:  $700

Standard: has to be usable.

5) Voip on the OSD:  Plug a USB phone into the OSD and make calls without touching any of your PCs.  General consensus is to go with an XMPP/Google Talk implementation

as this is a truly open, well documented approach.  Skype is works pretty well but is still a proprietary, hardly documented protocol which comes with no Linux ARM code and is only suited for powerful desktop Linux systems at the moment.  Other protocols would not be ruled out.



FastBounty: $500

Standard: has to be usable.

6) Cleaning up the build environment: Although it seems like a basic task that the internal team should take care of, there's been enough discussion in the community about this that we figured we'd throw it up here and see if you can't beat them to it.  If you don't know what's wrong with the build environment, check this google group thread

FastBounty: $500

Standard: must clean up the build environment, ask the judges.

7)Create a package manager for the OSD:  This would be something that allows the OSD to download apps directly through the network without having to reflash the whole memory, kernel and all, as is currently done.  This is another one that the internal team has on their to-do list, but if some clever hacker can beat them to it, well it wouldn't be the first time. Obviously, you're strongly encouraged to draw upon what's been done for the various Linux distributions.

FastBounty:$500

Standard:Must work.

1. If you are primarily interested in making money for hacking, please just contact us at developer at neurostechnology dotto com, and we can talk about serious contract opportunities.  We have such opportunities available on a project basis. 

These FastBounties are a community style thing that is just a modest way to put a little money back into the Neuros community as a token for our appreciation.  We  hope and expect for people to collaborate, split bounties and credit and share information, etc.  The deliverables and rules are sketchy and the interpretation is completely subject to the whim of the selection committee.  In short, not an appropriate way for you to put food on your family's table.

2. All code must be licensed under GPL (or LGPL or GPL compatible licenses as appropriate).  You are allowed to use code from other GPL projects, but please obey the wishes of the authors.  Even though our code is GPL, we do link to proprietary modules for the OSD implementation, and this is not OK with some free software authors.  Also, if it works, we intend to implement this code on our production product.  Make sure the authors are cool with this too. Respect their wishes.

3. The judgment of the bounty committee is final.  They might decide a bounty should not be issued at all, or split or something else.  They will interpret the words "work," "usable," etc.  Usable might mean that they can use it, it might mean that their parents can use it.  Again, if your family is depending on this money to eat, please contact us about contract opportunities, or get a regular job or something.

4. Who is this bounty committee?  The bounty committee is comprised of three longtime Neuros Hackers:DeepB, derobert and Cool4u2view.  They are doing this out of support for the the community, and they are not getting paid for this.  They are generally around and helping with Neuros hacking, but again they are volunteers, please respect them as such.  They have full time jobs and Neuros is a hobby to them (like you).  We promised them this would not be a headache for them. If you are angry or frustrated, please spew your venom, death threats, etc. at me (JoeBorn on IRC, jborn at neurostechnology) — at least I get paid to deal with this aggravation.