If you got $5M USD...

[ATC]

This is just for fun; and hypothetical. But let's imagine you're offered a free and clear grant from some eccentric millionaire on the grounds that you spend ALL the money developing some sort of software; maybe an OS, a game, whatever. You can keep 50% of the profit from any sales (if its retailed), but the entire grant must be used for development. What do you think you'd do with it? What people would you hire to be on your team? What would be your target system/processor? Why? Unleash your inner-nerd and fantasies!

Me? I'm a little torn! But definitely something to do with robotics &| AI systems. I absolutely <3 AI programming (and physics). I've never built a real robot before, but always wanted to (nerd alert, lol!). I don't really know enough about the circuitry and electrical work to build one from scratch. Interestingly though, I have a friend who's got a PhD in CPU design and architecture, and loads of experience in electronic engineering. Some of the stuff he's made just for fun would knock your socks off (like motion controllers that can do all sorts of odd and often humorous things). So I'd definitely get him aboard full-time and have him hand-pick the hardware team. I know tons of excellent software developers, so I could easily assemble a full team of programming gurus provided the money. After skimming some of the project threads here and seeing some of the high-quality work in this community, I wouldn't be at all opposed to hiring some of you total strangers! I was very impressed with several of the desktop systems here.

Well, don't be shy! Tell us about your dream project you'd pursue with a big bank roll! Dream big and nerdy, and ramble away!

[Love4Boobies]

This is already business we're talking about - anyone here in their right mind (or not too young to realise) should treat it as such. The CPU architecture would probably have to be the x86 and some market research would need to be done to see what's more profitable. I wouldn't really care if it's something I liked or not, I can develop my hobby projects in my spare time.

[AndrewAPrice]

I'd build a VR system. You strap down horizontally on a platform which can move in 6 degrees of freedom according to the gyro of an RC aircraft, put on a headset with stereo vision and audio connected to cameras and microphones on the RC aircraft. Have a fan that blows against your velocity vector and the speed increases when the plane does to simulate the feeling of speed when you're up high in the sky.

[earlz]

Let's see... I'd pay out $500,000-$1M for someone to write unencumbered open source BSD licensed nvidia drivers for the latest cards with full 3D support.

Donate $1M to OpenBSD so they can get the resources to support my netbook's wireless card and to just plain be more awesome.

Pay myself enough to have a constant supply of good food such as Pizza and other italian goodness. (Since, I'm an employee and should be paid for developing open stuff)


idk what'd I'd do with the rest lol

[piranha]

A vehicle that is both road legal and can fly. Fast. The R/D would take up most of it though.

Or, a really really fast multi-processor computer that runs an AI system connected to a learning system connected to a language parser (which can adjust itself to learn how to understand better), which is connected to an I/O system so I can see it's 'thoughts' and communicate with it. And once I was satisfied that it was intelligent enough to understand normal English, I would hook it up to wikipedia, teach it how to read a wikipedia page and search for terms that it doesn't know, then start it at the beginning human history, and make it read and processes all pages it comes across.

I'd come back when it's done and talk to it. That'd be interesting. Course, I might want to unplug it from the internet, because for all I know, it will have learned how to hack and take down the internet, and with it the human race.

Edit: And then I'd teach it about music, and make it listen to every type of music there is, and see which one it likes best. But I already know the answer to that, it'd be....see the quote in my sig.

-JL

[neato]

Believe it or not, there is a device already like that. It hooks around the neck and allows you to speak to others on the phone without actually speaking, and it has plans to link up to the Internet to find answers to questions to whatever you think. The idea is that even when thinking, if done forcefully enough that the vocal cords do still vibrate and those vibrations are analyzed and made into speech. The demo I saw was where he made a phone call and spoke to a helper without actually talking. He said that he planned to add the Internet thing later.

[Brynet-Inc]

I'd hire myself as an employee, my hourly rate is $5M USD.. it would be the best hour of my life.

[Solar]

5 million might sound like much, but as a budget, it's not enough to start something truly great. I've seen budgets like that being blown in a year, without anything "great" coming from it.

My past experiences with the Pro-POS project told me that I never want to hire a team of developers unless the product in question has already been outlined and prototyped.

As such, I'd probably take the money, finish the PDCLib, and probably revive Pro-POS as a one-man project for others to take over once I've properly outlined my ideas and concepts. All the while enjoying the freedom of working my own timetable, to my own quality standards (and spending lots of time with my family instead of brooding in the office).

[ATC]

Even if you're a millionaire, having $5M handed to you IS still a large amount of money! But you are correct. You can burn through that in a heartbeat. With proper resource management, you can make every penny count though. That's part of the "challenge" of the question.

Been a lot of fun to hear everyone's ideas, and a few of the funny ones have been great!