Ask MetaFilter questions in the computers & internet category

ISProblems

eviemath — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:31:16 -0800

What is it with CenturyLink, and some ISP in Hong Kong whose name I forget, that every so often it will decide that it can't "find" a web page... usually one that I was just at, and often including metafilter! Instead of going to the page I want, it redirects me to a CenturyLink search page, like this, which has the link I want at the very top (www.metafilter.com in this example), yet when I click on that link from their completely extraneous search page, it just goes back to the same search page?! I am travelling, and this is not my home ISP. I am using Firefox, with NoScript. But I only have this problem with certain ISPs (namely, CentruyLink, and whatever it was in Hong Kong).

Help find the Italian script of this clip

sanskrtam — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:13:05 -0800

Can anyone find or type down the script of this clip from the game StarCraft II? It's in Italian.

Software to monitor network activity AND which program is active?

gnossos — Wed, 22 May 2013 08:59:17 -0800

I am looking for some software (cheap, free) that will tell me which program is currently accessing the net AND how much traffic is being transferred. I have found lots of software that will tell me which port is in use, or which port is assigned to a certain program on my computer, but I can find no software that will tell me which program on my computer is currently transferring files to and from the net and the current transfer rates.

I am using Win7 on both 32 bit and 64 bit machines.

Can anyone help?

Thanks.

Gnossos

Which 32GB flash drive?

bluecore — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:07:30 -0800

I need a recommendation for a 32GB USB 3.0 flash drive, please. I'm confused about the price spread in this product category. For example: is this $59 Lexar drive really worth almost twice as much as this $36 Patriot drive?

I want reliable and fast, but the USB 3.0 is really a future proofing thing for me since my current computer (due to be replaced) doesn't have it yet, so going for this (apparently) ultra fast Kingston drive probably doesn't make sense (as well as it only being available in 64GB or higher.)

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you make.

Tell me about video conferencing equipment and best practices?

barnone — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:32:32 -0800

Our organization is growing, and we need to improve our video conferencing capabilities. The usual setup is a 'home base' room with 5-10 people in it. That room is about 20' x 20' or so, and it has speakers built into it. The other folks calling into the meeting are usually solo workers, on their own computers, wearing headsets. The people in the 'home base' room can hear the people calling in, with fairly good audio quality. However, the other users have a very hard time hearing the people gathered in the main room. That microphone situation needs to be improved. Right now there is one Jabra USB Speakerphone - this model, I think. We use GoToMeeting and Skype. What are the options for improving the audio quality coming *from* the main room? Can we daisy chain those speakerphones together? Is there a better speakerphone model which can be daisy chained to have multiple bases around the room? Do the connected mics figure out which one to use or does it cause distortion or delay? Is there another model that is significantly better that doesn't have to be hardwired? Any other suggestions? Though the 'home base' room is a larger, the people in the room are about 10' feet apart from each other. The speakerphone is in the middle of their group. There is a large projector and screen for the video component, and that's not as much of an issue.

The room doesn't have a phone line. We don't own the room - it belongs to our parent organization and we probably can't have a phone line installed. They occasionally video conference from another room, so whatever option we pick should be fairly portable.

To sum up:
- need help with the microphone situation in a medium-sized room, for 5-10 people at a time.
- needs to be fairly portable and not require a phone line
- must work with Macs (some solutions are apparently PC only)
- what else should we consider or know?

Thanks for any help.

How do I find all of my photos that are NOT on Flickr?

soelo — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:47:46 -0800

I have a few thousand photos on my hard drive and a few hundred of them have been uploaded to my Flickr account. With the new space available on Flickr, what is the easiest way for me to identify all of the photos that I have not yet uploaded? I am using a Windows 7 PC and use Picasa to organize my photos. I would be open to other software to do this, of course.

I use Clone Spy to find and delete duplicate files. It will just give you a list of duplicates instead of deleting them. Most of my ideas involve getting a folder of all my Flickr pics and using this software. Is there a simpler way?

tool to reblog and share a collection of web pages?

incandescentman — Tue, 21 May 2013 08:54:29 -0800

Is there a tool that will let me store/archive web pages or parts of web pages, and then create a little mini library of reblogged content along with navigation links? I'm planning a road trip with some friends, and I am collecting information from various relevant websites—national parks, campgrounds, Google Maps, etc.

I want a way to easily share this web content with my friends.

All the obvious ways to do this seem suboptimal:

1. Send an email with a bunch of links (they have to click through to see the content)
2. Copy/paste web content INTO an email, which gets long and cumbersome and is hard to reference/search/find later on
3. Build a website from scratch with relevant content

Is there a tool that will let me store/archive web pages, or parts of web pages, and then create a little mini library of archived content that we could all refer to and browse through? I'm envisioning a little mini website, with hierarchical navigation links in the left pane, and the reblogged web content in the right pane.

Sharing an Evernote notebook kind of does this, but there doesn't seem to be much control over the navigation on the left, nor the ability to easily add my own content.

Spotlight a moving subject using an online video editor

walla — Tue, 21 May 2013 07:36:59 -0800

I'd like to use an online video editor to highlight (make brighter or draw a circle around) a specific dog in a playgroup. I have a Chromebook and work almost completely in the cloud. I feel like this shouldn't be difficult, but I'm having a heck of a time finding this feature. YouTube's "Spotlight" feature seems to be for interaction and doesn't work this way as far as I can tell. Am I missing something obvious? Recommendations for online video editors are welcome as well. I've used Pixorial and YouTube, not much luck with WeVideo. Thanks in advance!

Non-Constant Contact Email Listserver

miss tea — Tue, 21 May 2013 05:15:48 -0800

I would like to set up an email group for occasional communications, and would prefer something other than Constant Contact. Any suggestions are much appreciated. Specifications desired detailed inside. - Simple and automatic subscribe/unsubscribe by recipients
- Some formatting available, but doesn't need to be fancy; header and footer fine
- The template should be set up once and then used by default
- Simple to use (I'm setting it up for a friend whose site I host, and who isn't super savvy)
- Free or cheap

How to safely mod minecraft?

H. Roark — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:35:17 -0800

My kid wants me to install a bunch of mods to minecraft, I'm confused about the process. Installing mods seems much different then say on Steam games where its integrated into the application. I'm uncomfortable just following sketchy links on message boards to download and install jars/executables, but thats the process as I've seen it described. Is there a more obvious way to do this? Given a named mod like the "more animals mod" are you really supposed to go to a place like this and just trust the links? Is there some kind of registry where you know you are getting some non-malware code? Some examples that seem overly complicated: how to mod 1, example2. Thanks.

Help me find a decent, cheap Android tablet for my kids.

Crotalus — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:47:13 -0800

I can never use my tablet because the kids are always on it. Where can I buy a budget Android tablet that my kids can use for games and videos. I want something cheap enough that if it gets dropped, spilled on, stepped on, etc, I won't worry too much about it. I've seen some pretty good Chinese tablets. If you were buying a cheap Android tablet that will still play games and videos for kids, what would you buy. I can change language settings, but I'd rather not have to root it. Any form factor is OK, but something 8"+ would be ideal. I know that some sellers of these items are sketchy, and I need it before we leave for vacation soon, so if possible I prefer to buy through a seller I can trust: Ebay, Amazon, NewEgg, TigerDirect, etc. Thanks in advance for your wisdom.

Laptop overheated, now connectivity problems

Put the kettle on — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:19:14 -0800

My laptop overheated, I took it to get cleaned, now it's having Internet connectivity issues. I think the repair place may be at fault. What do I do now? I have a Packard Bell Easynote TJ68 laptop that I purchased (in the UK) in September 2010. It's a little slow, but runs decently. I noticed that it had started to overheat in recent months, and on Friday, it got so hot it shut itself down. On Saturday, I took it to the local laptop repair place to have the dust cleaned out. I got it back, and it's not overheating - yay! But now there's another problem - the Internet connection isn't as strong and keeps dropping out. I have a wireless Internet connection and used to have full bars - now there's only one or two. My computer will connect to the Internet, but the connection crashes several times an hour, and it doesn't come back if I wait - I have to restart the computer. I've tried another router and the same issues happen. I've also checked my phone and my flatmate's laptop and their connections are fine. So I think it has to be something that was done at the repair place.

I found this question which looks very relevant. But since I'm not entirely sure what happened, and this is an independent place rather than an authorized repair carried out under warranty, I don't know how to go about this. Other complication: the owner of the shop was pretty rude to me for no reason when I took my laptop in, so I really want to make sure I know what I'm doing when I walk in there so I don't just get shouted at and fall to pieces as I tend to get anxious in these sorts of situations. I'd really appreciate any advice.

How to download text of Facebook posts and comments from a fan page

trbrts — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:34:30 -0800

Mefites, can you help me come up with a quick and dirty way to download the text of all the comments and posts from a given Facebook Fan page? I'm trying to do a word cloud visualization of our Facebook presence. Thanks.

Big data meets big city

carbide — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:02:49 -0800

Can you recommend nerdy things (papers, sites, podcasts, books, articles, whatever) about spatial and urban data, and things people are doing with them? I'm really interesting in getting into data analysis of urban systems, and I'd love to read and learn about what's new and interesting in the area. Are there any particularly good blogs I should be following, or Twitter accounts, or any research that would be good to jump into?

I'd really love to read things that aren't trend pieces, but other than that, nothing's too obvious or too nerdy. Thank you!

iPhone4 + GmailContacs = Wrong Contact Photo. HALP!

Fuzzy Dog — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:33:16 -0800

I have an iPhone4, running iOS 5.1.1. From day one it has always pulled the Contacts from my gmail account via the "Exchange" option and has worked flawlessly...untill now... Now some contacts have a the contact photo of someone else and because of synching, the photos are ending up in my gmail contacts.

Long ago, before I has an iPhone, but had an iTouch, I enabled the connection for contacts to pull their photo from Facebook. But in the latest FB app there is no way to turn it off.

So how do I get the right contact to show the right photo...if not possible how do I remove all the contact photos?

Please do not suggest upgrading to iOS 6, as it is not an option.

Thanks for your help and ideas.

Is there a better type of spreadsheet?

htid — Mon, 20 May 2013 11:40:50 -0800

I'd like to make a spreadsheet, which would include not just text but images and sets of tags, and maybe other interesting fields of information. Is there a better spreadsheet out there which is more flexible and more like a database? For example, what I'd like to include in a spreadsheet is:

- images, so that as you scroll through, you can see an image (e.g. a thumbnail) in each entry
- tags, so that a single field could contain multiple tags (or multiple of anything) and there'd be an option to search or categorize within those tags.

Excel and Google Docs Spreadsheets (afaik) don't support images, and each field is supposed to basically contain one thing rather than a list. You can use hacks/kludges to make a field act like a list, but it's not straightforward. Or maybe I just don't know how to use Excel well enough.

I'm wondering if there is some kind of software that's a spreadsheet 2.0, that supports different types of information. Maybe something with plugins? Web based / web interface would be nice to have also.

Thanks for any pointers!

Help a longtime Mac user switch to Windows.

hwickline — Mon, 20 May 2013 10:20:45 -0800

I haven't used Windows since the year 2000, but a new job means this longtime Mac user needs to learn how to. A couple specifics related to image editing and task management software plus general words of wisdom/ encouragement requested within. In addition to the general feeling of at-seaness of starting a demanding new job, I find myself needing to learn a new OS: Windows 7, used in a large institution context, with all the Outlook, help ticketing and other systems stuff that implies. I've always been a Mac person (and in fact was the de facto IT guy for some small teams I've worked on in Mac shops), and find myself fighting decades of muscle memory and maybe even a little prejudice in this switch. So, my questions:

1. One of my first tasks is creating a set of images (photos overlaid with text, nothing too fancy really) that will live on a couple lobby computers as screen savers and be given to a retiring employee on a digital picture frame. On my Mac, I would fire up Keynote, size the slides pixelwise a couple different ways, drop some nice text with a partially opaque background text box on 'em, and call it a day. Here on my Windows 7 machine, I tried PowerPoint (sizes only in inches?), Paint (no transparency on text boxes?), and spent a whole morning banging my head against the problem with unsatisfying results. I don't know Photoshop, and can't believe I really need it to do what I want to do. What software would you use to complete this (really, terribly simple) task on a PC?

2. I'm a GTD person, and have happily used OmniFocus for the past several years to manage tasks. I'm trying out ThinkingRock right now, but it seems like more than I need (I generally just use projects/ tasks, start and due dates, and contexts) and that added complexity makes for more time-consuming data entry. Also, it's ugly. Do you have a favorite GTD app for Windows? Bonus points for iPhone syncing. Bonus bonus points for full cross platform so I can use it on my home Mac, too.

3. More generally, are there apps it took you a while to find, but now love, when switching from Mac to PC? Are there apps that have no Mac equivalent that you love on your Windows machine? Are there shortcuts (keyboard or otherwise) that you can't live without that you wish someone had told you about right away?

Any help much, much appreciated. Thanks!

Mac/iPhone filter: picture to GPS coordinates, as few steps as possible

chrisinseoul — Mon, 20 May 2013 08:41:19 -0800

I'm a travel blogger - the sort that tries to give *good* directions to places I've traveled. Here in Thailand, there's no easy way of figuring out the address system (the locals barely seem to use them - and the Thai script is admittedly still a mystery)... The solution has been to snap a picture with my iPhone's built-in camera app, with the GPS turned on. The idea is to provide the GPS coordinates and a URL to those coordinates on Google Maps. This captures the place, but then involves loading it onto the computer, matching up features on Picasa's map to Google Maps, then right-clicking the 'What's Here?' to get the coordinates. What I'd love is a website or an app on the iPhone or for the Mac that can look at a picture and display the GPS coordinates - bonus points if it shows the point on Google Maps... Is there anything like that out there? :)

Mac: Mount ejected flash drive without reinserting

Slap*Happy — Mon, 20 May 2013 07:55:10 -0800

I have a nifty little USB thumbdrive that I want to use to make backups of various documents; it will live on the powered hub in my office, as I'll only need to use it in the office. It's something of a pain to unplug and re-insert every day, or every time I need to leave the desk with my laptop. After ejecting, the drive is no loger visible using diskutil on the command line, tho I can see it in the system profiler. Is there a way to have the system recognize the device and mount it whenever the Macbook wakes from sleep? I've got sleepwatcher installed, but I'm not certain how to get the system to recognize the USB device without unplugging it and plugging it back in. Shutting down and restarting the mac every time I want to leave my desk with it is not a viable option, either. I'm running 10.7.5 on a Core i7 15" MBP.

Poor Little Old Laptop...

polly_dactyl — Mon, 20 May 2013 07:44:33 -0800

Is my PowerBook G4 officially dead? My PowerBook G4 (purchased in 2007) spontaneously stopped working this morning. It is a sad day in the 'dactyl house. It's old, it's not worth much money, but it's my favorite out of the laptops I have and it's been my primary machine for six years.

When I open it up, the machine seems to start processing, but the monitor stays black. Then there are three beeps (sounds like a weather alert thing), and then the sleep/indicator light starts to blink. I took the battery out and let it cool down, I tried again and got the exact same thing.

I can accept that it might be dead for good -- I have absolutely gotten my money's worth out of this machine. I'm wondering if the beeps/blinks are a known thing (code?) Later today I can try hooking it up to a monitor but in the mean time I guess I was hoping you smart people might have seen/heard of this before.

There was no trauma, and it was working fine last night. The original battery just died around Christmas and I replaced it. I'm pretty sad right now, even though I knew this day was coming...

Web to Print Online Software

toocan — Mon, 20 May 2013 07:37:44 -0800

Currently we are using an efi.com solution for out back office print management but are looking to move into offering a web interface so clients can print and build there own products (a web to print solution similar to moo.com) EFI offer a solution however its build on .asp and the layout is very restrictive which suggests it hasnt had much love. Does anyone know of a good web to print solution that can be heavily customised?

Is anyone familiar with 90 Second Web Builder?

fruitopia — Mon, 20 May 2013 05:30:00 -0800

Has anyone used it or does anyone know anything about its functionality? Posting this on behalf of my boyfriend. He asks:

"I'm thinking of purchasing a web developing tool called 90 second website builder to create the building blocks for an article selling website. I was wondering if the community had any dealings with it and what they thought of its features and how much depth (development-wise) it has. Also, would anyone know if it was possible for a web developer to modify the created website and add his/her own code easily, or would they need specific knowledge of the builder itself?"

He wants to be able to do the first part of the website by himself (to cut down on some costs) and then hire a website developer to do the hard bits.

One app to keep track of my calendar, todo list and scrap notes.

ptsampras14 — Sun, 19 May 2013 19:04:57 -0800

I need ONE app to keep track of my calendar stuff, todo list, and scrap notes. I am looking for an all encompassing app which allows me to handle the my calendar (with mobile reminders) and my "scrap notes" (to-do lists, links I want to check out in the future, cool stuff I find around the internet).

To explain a little further, I want to be alerted (especially on my mobile phone) of my well planned out calendar tasks: ("Return my library books.") and my leisure general future stuff: ("Learn more about improving my posture.")

My current method is terrible and involves Apple Calendar along with scattered Reminders lists, plain text files in my Dropbox, starred Gmail email, and links in my Bookmarks toolbar in Firefox.

I currently use a Mac computer and iPhone. Just today, I've started exploring OmniFocus, which has a steep price tag. Do you have any other suggestions?

Are laptop screen parts autodetected by the system?

laconic skeuomorph — Sun, 19 May 2013 12:33:21 -0800

Can I simply physically replace the 1366*768 LCD in my HP EliteBook 8440p with the 1600*900 part and have the laptop autodetect the new screen and show the proper resolution? Or is there extra logic or connectors or dongles or whatever in the main body that must also be modified in order for the display to work, (or maybe it Just Won't Work)? Put simply, is HP 594090-001 plug-and-play? I am familiar with ribbon cables and ZIF sockets. I am confident in laptop repair and have done many, I've just never attempted a complete swap-out for a different screen part such as I would like to do here.

The DVI Port on my Gigabyte Motherboard no longer seems to work.

cloeburner — Sun, 19 May 2013 11:52:53 -0800

The DVI Port on my Gigabyte Motherboard no longer seems to work. I need the DVI port as I am running a Hackintosh and Apples are not compatible with VGA. What are some of my options and what is your diagnosis? So, I installed Mountain Lion successfully a few days ago and it was running fine, then the day after install I shut down my computer and restarted it and since then the DVI port has not been recognized by the monitor.

I have used several different monitors and several different DVI cables and still the monitor display the message that there is no cable plugged in.

Some questions I have:
1. Would any setting in the Bios of the Motherboard affect whether or not DVI is recognized by the monitor?

2. Would buying a Graphics Card (right now I am just running I7 3770 with the Intel Internal Graphics 4000 HD) presumably fix the problem. I was intending to purchase a graphics card anyway and if that fixes it maybe I should just do that.

3. Why would a restart break the motherboard's DVI port?

I am reluctant to send back the Motherboard because that requires unplugging everything and removing the CPU which I am not eager to do. I'd rather just deal with broken DVI ports on the motherboard and use external graphics if possible.

Thanks so much in advance.