What can I do about application software?

I know that application software represents one of the biggest problems facing us as we move forward into the next century. I know it seems like an insurmountable obstacle to the future of computing. But there are things we can all do to fight code bloat, and the terrible lethargy it induces in our systems.

Ideafiles about application software:

• Enhancements for Word Processors and Page Layout Programs (not available yet)

Man, I could write a book on this topic. Maybe I will. In the meantime, here are a few ideas.

• Tools for Presentations (not available yet)

Giving a presentation to potential customers, or trade-show audiences, or your management, or any important audience, is difficult enough without having to cope with all the inconveniences of viewgraphs, slide projectors, notebook computers, etc. Here are some suggestions for A Better Way.

• Business-Card Management Products (not available yet)

Do you have a huge, essentially unmanageable collection of business cards? Have you thought about getting one of those business-card scanners? So have I. People just keep telling me they don't work well enough. What's needed here?

• Graphics Compression (not available yet)

JPEG's pretty good for still images. MPEG's pretty good for moving images. What are the theoretical limits here?

• Video-Capture Enhancements (self-contained here)

Some video still-frame capture products are smart enough now to average more than one captured frame to reduce the inevitable noise in the captured image. This feature ought to be used in every frame-grabbing program, but there's even more that can be done. I suggest grabbing several successive images and using a motion-detection algorithm to align them with sub-pixel accuracy before performing the averaging pass.