Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Online and software

How to build a community website that does almost everything?

Magnakai — Wed, 29 May 2013 10:51:03 -0800

Can anyone recommend a feature-rich web app for online communities. Must be able to manage documents, permissions, events etc. Hosted or self-hosted will do. Full details inside. I've been asked to create an extremely feature-rich bespoke web app for a Resident's Association. The feature requirements are extremely high and their budget is predictably relatively low, around £800 ($1000), which entirely prevents bespoke development of this app. Are there any solutions that might tick all their boxes?

A summarised list of the requirements:

Four distinct user levels - Superadmin, Property admin, property user, and temporary user. All users have a whole barrel of data associated with them.

22 Properties, each with per-property admin, set by superadmin.

Property admins can set up property users and temporary users for their specific property.

Superadmin can set up all users, and temporary users for the entire association.

Each user level has different arrangements of notifications.

Full document management, with different documents available to members of different levels and properties.

Event management, with notifications, reminders, user level support and attendance support.

Online polls, with optionally anonymous results, and user level support. Email prompts for votes missing.

Online summaries of lots of the data of these various systems.

Now, I'm aware that I could hack together some kind of hodge-podge of plugins on Wordpress, but I'd be very surprised if that didn't cause way more headaches than solutions. I've suggested setting up forums and wikis, and both have been rejected. I've suggested various online groups solutions, like Google Groups and Facebook Groups, but they're not happy with the feature set of those.

Are there any pre-built web apps around which cover these bases? As mentioned, I'm happy with either hosted or self-hosted.

If there are no suggestions, I'm going to suggest a combination of Dropbox/Google Drive, a Google Calendar, and an email mailing list.

Tutorial-ception.

Stacey — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 11:06:48 -0800

Are there online trainings/tutorials for...well, creating online trainings/tutorials? (Books or other resources also welcome.) I need to train a reasonably large user base (most researchers and business managers at a university, as well as some random people across the globe who'll need to remote in and use the software) on a new online system we'll be rolling out this spring for some required reporting to the university.

We'll do some in-person trainings and can handle that, but most people are going to want to figure out the system on their own at two a.m. the day the report's due, or they'll be in other countries at random times of day when we won't be available to answer questions, or whatever. So we'll want to have some online materials for them. Probably some written, some video-capture - we're still figuring out the best way to structure and create these materials.

Which is where the question comes in. None of us have any background in this and the university resources who do have background, cannot be available to us in the very short timeframe in which this has to happen. They may be able to help us put together better materials later - but we have to get some materials out the door in the next few months so we're pretty much on our own.

I'd like to do this as right as I can for an amateur, so I'm looking for some reading material on instructional design for online asynchronous training. Books? Blog posts? Short online courses about how to design short online courses?

I'd like to cast a wide net here - I'll take whatever you've got and sort through it from there to figure out what might suit our needs for this particular userbase and project.

checkButton1 = Tkinter.Checkbutton(master=root, command=lambd GAH FORGET IT I GIVE UP

Salvor Hardin — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:38:18 -0800

I'd like your recommendations for online learn-to-touch-type software! I'm planning on running a programming club at a high school. I expect many of my students will not know how to touch type, and I'm sure it's a lot less fun to program without being able to type quickly.

Therefore I'm asking for recommendations for learn-to-touch-type software to help my students learn to type and therefore be successful in learning to program.

Requirements:
1. Free (or real close to it)
2. Available online, runs in a browser - FF or Safari (I'm not sure I'm going to be able to install software on these computers)
3. Provides some kind of guidance/framework for going from hunt-and-peck to touch typing.
4. Likely to be fun for 14-18 year old students.
5. Bonus if it has optional typing practice in other languages!

If you know of Mac software that is so incredible it would be worth figuring out how to get permission to install it, I'd like to hear about that too.

Very Simple Collaborative Solution??

doub1ejack — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:59:00 -0800

Need very simple collaborative software for a new organization.. We've got a new local business group and we need a way to organize ourselves a little bit. We need to be able to 1) view/share/edit different documents and 2) manage emails for our members and 3) needs to be *very * user friendly - google docs challenges some of our users. And we need this (documents, emails and the ability to send letters) to be available to everyone in the organization.

I've looked at google wave, basecamp, google apps, and things along those lines, but in most cases the learning curve is too great for the folks on our committee. And a lot of it gets into project managment, which really isn't applicable here. Mad Mimi has a nicely dumbed down way of sending newsletters; I'm looking for something on par with that..

And just to complicate the search, it really needs to be free. Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

What is the best tool for webinars

kenzi23 — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:37:24 -0800

Best software/site for webcam seminar with students who pay to attend? I want to give a class online to students all over the world. I am looking for the right tool (program/site) for the job with the following requirements:

- students must pay to "attend"; it would be nice if payment, or at least password, were integrated into the solution
- it can be run via webcam over DSL
- we can use our Keynote presentation in the class
- we can do a series of 2-4 classes at different times over a week to cover all the time zones where we have students
- not crazy expensive or any long term commitment to a service; we might need it for a couple of weeks.

Need an Online Day Planner/To Do List with Times

kjhosein — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 13:46:29 -0800

I'm looking for an online day planner that lets you schedule your To Dos. I like to plan my day by assigning a time estimate to each to do item and then sticking it somewhere in my daily calendar. For example: "laundry" 1-2:30PM. I realize that you may just say 'well use a calendar!', but I love the satisfaction I get from checking a box and seeing an item crossed out!

I love TeuxDeux, as it's pretty simple, includes the 'Someday' lists at the bottom, and automatically moves things over to the next day, but doesn't let you put things into a time grid.

Nice to haves: subtasks, 'raw' to dos without any times assigned to them, scheduling down to the closest 15 mins, automatic refreshing that also shows if you're behind schedule.

Scanning family photos: The Best Way.

Carius — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 19:25:13 -0800

What is the best way to digitize old family photos yourself? I'm planning to scan all my family photos (~200)and digitize all of it this weekend using Canon imageCLASS MF3240 I'm wondering what's best way to accomplish this task.

What software should I use? I've been using Windows XP scanning wizard and I don't like.

What resolution should I store the photos? As high as possible?

What file format should I store the photos as? JPEG or something else?

Is there way to scan multiple pictures at same time and crop them up later?

Finally, what's the best way to share and store the pictures online for long term storage? Picasa, Flickr or something else?

Best desktop interactive video conferencing software?

tessalations999 — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:35:46 -0800

What is the best desktop interactive video conferencing software that can accommodate a group of 20 participants all capable of interacting during the session? I will be using the application to teach a college course online; each class meeting will have 20 students and they will all need to participate in the video discussion using laptops and webcams from their dorms.

Here's a list of possibilities that I have complied; there might be more:

Adobe Connect
DimDim
Glowpoint
Go To Meeting
HearMe
HearMe Advantage
HP Virtual Rooms
Lifesize
Microsoft Meeting
Polycom
TokBox
VuRoom
WebEx

Many thanks!

I'm looking for an online photo album solution that can dynamically resize and layout photos in "pages" based on a few rules.

chrisch — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:17:37 -0800

I'm looking for an online photo album solution that can dynamically resize and layout photos in "pages" based on a few rules. Does something like this exist? This is a little tricky to explain, but here goes. I want to host some photos in a different way than the typical grid view of clickable thumbnails where every photo is treated the same. I'd like the layout to be on pages (where each page can have one or multiple photos), and the user can page through the album much like a real photo album. The layout of these pages should be dynamic and somewhat intelligent. For example, a page with one portrait-oriented photo (labeled PP) and two landscape-oriented photos (labeled L1L & L2L) would have the following layout:

P L1L
P L2L

or

L1L P
L2L P

The software should also resize the images to align things. In the above example, the height of PP would match the sum of the heights of L1L & L2L (also taking padding and margins into consideration, but I digress).

Photos should also be given a ranking of how important it is. Photos with the highest ranking would get a page for itself (full size), while photos with a small ranking would be resized much smaller and share a page with other images.

So my question is, does something like this already exist?

Make it speak English!

crazylegs — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:35:47 -0800

Just downloaded Play65 but it isn't in English! Help! I want to play backgammon online for money. I just downloaded some online backgammon software called 'Play65'. When I open it on my computer it is written in a language I don't recognize, possibly Hebrew? How do I make it into English?

Taxes for NJ dwellers working in NY.

spacefire — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:13:14 -0800

Online Tax help specifically for people who live in NJ and work in NY? My wife and I both lived in Jersey and worked in NYC last year. I prepared and filed our taxes as a married couple, but going through all the steps was a bit of a pain.We also got some correction letter from the IRS.
I'd like to find an easier, less error-prone way for this year.
Tax preparers charge over $200 dollars for our combined income bracket. We can't afford to pay that because my wife was laid off at the end of last year. (by the way, are there any tax rebates for people who were laid off last year?)
The main difference between this year's filing is the added income, not too much, from my wife's books.
So, can TurboTax help for this situation? IIRC we need to file federal, NY and NJ, with some 'robbing Peter to pay Paul' deductions involved at state level. Are there any other e-file programs or websites that can actually handle this process for people working in one state and living in another in a more streamlined manner?
I don't mind paying under $50 just to make sure we're doing it right and fast.

Thanks mefites!

Should I pay an accountant to do my taxes? What are my options to protect me if I do them myself but make an error?

mintchip — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:33:50 -0800

Should I pay an accountant to do my taxes? What are my options to protect me if I do them myself but make an error? Ideally, I would like to do my own taxes. However, I have several W2s, some self employment income, a period of 2008 when I was still a full time student, etc...these things make one's taxes that much more complicated.

I did a test run of my 2008 taxes online using H&R Block software. There are a bunch of things on the return I have questions about and I'm wondering if it would just be better to go to a professional. It would cost at least $300.

Is the peace of mind offered by a professional accountant worth it or is it better to learn it oneself? How "dummy proof" is this software? I'm not sure how to handle the questions I have...I guess I'm really afraid to make a mistake and get dinged with back taxes at some future date! I feel that what I really need is a second set of eyes to review my return and check it for errors and also to make sure I didn't miss any deductions...is there any service that offers to check your return for errors without charging a full fee for completing it?

Online expert system/decision tree software?

hatmandu — Tue, 20 May 2008 09:46:59 -0800

I'm looking for a script (ideally PHP) to run a website which asks various questions and then suggests the 'best fit' answer, in the manner of an expert system. Examples of the sort of thing I have in mind are the Search by Sight facility at Fonts.com or the 20 Questions game at 20Q.net (the latter uses some sort of neural network simulation, I think). Even just a decision tree tool would be good, though I guess that's more rigid. (I've seen this thread but that doesn't seem to answer my question.) Any ideas?

Self-hosted LiveJournal replacement?

tommasz — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 07:27:05 -0800

Self-hosted LiveJournal replacement? I would like to have my own journal displayed on my own site and besides some usual requirements, I have one or two that seem to be difficult to satisfy. When I had my LiveJournal, I displayed it on my personal website via a javascript write() and some custom CSS so it looked like the rest of my site. I would like to do something similar, with the journal hosted on one site (that has MySQL and PHP) but displayed on another. I've looked at Journalness, but there's no obvious equivalent to what I was doing with LiveJournal. Obviously, I can simply open a new page instead of displaying the journal on a page, but I'd like to replicate the past behavior if I can.

My hosting site is Linux-based, with MySQL and PHP (I primarily use it for Wordpress) so open source solutions based on that would be the best fit.

We need some simple mapping software!

theantikitty — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:58:40 -0800

Calling online gamers! My husband is looking for a (seemingly) simple mapping program to make his life a little bit easier. He's basically looking for a program that will allow him to create maps of areas. All the program in question would need to do is be capable of responding to directional commands (n, ne, nw, s, etc) and create a little visual indicator of the location. For example, if he were to input N, the program would create a new little square linked to the previous location. It would also be helpful to be able to input some information (numbers, or location names, for example) onto each of the little location blocks. He would like to use this program without attaching it to a specific game -- he's creating stuff offline on his own. Is this possible!?! It doesn't seem like such a tall order, but he's looked high and low for something close to this and hasn't found anything. Preferably, the program would be free, but he'd be willing to shell out a modest amount for the software. Thank you thank you thank you!

Flickr for Clothes, y'all! Good idea?

Firas — Sat, 12 May 2007 23:36:14 -0800

Wardrobe software. Has nobody done this? Wouldn't a social webapp for clothing be fiercely awesome? I'm not the target user really (I assume a hypothetical userbase would skew heavily towards the other gender) but even to the extent that I see it being personally useful, it does seem awesome.

Think something like: being able to list everything, add pictures, define combinations, take pictures of yourself in those combinations, get people to suggest combinations for you, etc. Basically a heavy emphasis on organization and communication instead of just spreadsheet-style itemization.

I know that 'social shopping' is an exploding niche and that people have done this with eg. perfumes (basenotes), but I'm concerned that this may be a solution looking for a problem.

Whatcha think?

Online tools for novel-writing?

tastybrains — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 12:12:23 -0800

Are there any great online tools for working on writing a novel? I've seen previous posts on desktop software for this purpose, but I haven't found any nifty online tools. I want to be able to keep the text of one of my writing projects online so I can access it & work on it anywhere with an internet connection. I also do not want it to be public.

I know I can use things like Yahoo! Notepad or make private LJ posts, but I am hoping that there is some tool more appropriate for what I want to do.

post-its for the internet?

ferociouskitty — Sun, 23 May 2004 14:02:16 -0800

Internet Sticky Notes: Does the software I want exist? [More Inside] I’m looking for some kind of program to construct user-created pop-ups, essentially. For example, every time I look at a menu for a certain restaurant when I’m making a take-out order, the red-skinned potatoes look really good, so I order them. When I get them, I remember that they’re terrible, and they’re terrible every time. I’d love for something to pop up when I go to that web site to remind me that I hate their red-skinned potatoes. Ideally, it would have a recurring function (pops up every time I visit the site), and also a one-time only function, say for example, when I visited AskMe, a note would pop up reminding me to check for new replies on a question I found interesting. So --- anything like this exist?

Ordering Trans-Atlantic software

misteraitch — Wed, 04 Feb 2004 03:57:47 -0800

Are there any reliable on-line US or Canadian PC software vendors who have no qualms about fulfilling European orders? [more inside] I am thinking of buying Adobe's Creative Suite (Standard) for Windows. This is advertised for sale at Adobe's web-site for $999. Being resident in Europe, however, I am directed to buy from the European web-store, where a near-identical product would, if I could arrange to have it delivered to a UK address, set me back £789 (or £927 including VAT), which, at current rates, is equivalent to $1450 ($1704). If I were to order from within Sweden, the cost would apparently be 13,300 SEK (or 16,625 SEK including MOMS), which is equivalent to $1817 ($2270). Naturally, I would prefer to pay ca. $999 (plus import duty) than ca. $2270… As a follow-up question, if I were to succeed in obtaining the software in this manner, would it invalidate any entitlement to support from Adobe?

How to easily add/modify content to a site once development is finished?

Grod — Sat, 24 Jan 2004 13:57:23 -0800

I'm building an online gallery for an artist friend of mine. It grew from a small holiday present to a major project, and I have reached the edge of my current skill set. I need a way to easily add and modify content after I am no longer developing the site. [more inside] Here's the problem.

I have a template that I just plug images into. I want a script that will let me do something like the following.

add an image, title, and description and have it appear on the first page of the gallery. To do this it needs to regenerate the old content with updated names so that what is now page1 becomes page2, page2 becomes page3, etc. It needs to use my stylesheet and only the html I give it.

I know I could use MT to do this, but my artist friend may want to sell her work online, if not through an online store than by indicating whether a painting is available and providing contact information. At that point the site is commercial. MT is great, and I'd gladly pay the licensing fee if I were planning on using all its features, but it seems like overkill for what I want to do. Any suggestions?

Online app to bring out shadow details in photos?

oissubke — Sat, 27 Dec 2003 22:26:44 -0800

Long ago, I recall seeing a link (maybe on MeFi, but I can't find it) for a website that displayed some pretty impressive technology used to bring out the detail from shadows in photographs. I seem to recall that there was an online version that you could use for testing (upload your photo and it would lighten the shadow areas). Does anyone remember this, and if so, do you know the URL?