Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with Software

Choosing a video editor

elgilito — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:23:12 -0800

We have 10 hours of Mini-DV tapes (interviews made during my wife's PhD research) and we're looking for a video editing software to edit them into a 1-2 hour DVD. We'll have to add subtitles and to clean noisy audio and video. What would be the best video software to do that? More detailed specs follow. - User-friendly: we're newbies at video editing
- Under €200
- Windows Vista
- The target audience consists in the few fellow researchers interested in the topic. No need for sophisticated video effects.
- Subtitles: the interviews will all be subtitled so the subtitling feature should be easy to set up. The subtitles will have to mix two character sets (French and Vietnamese).
- Audio and video correction: filming conditions were poor (handheld camcorder, indoors, low light, background noise). Not expecting magic there, but some minimal cleaning ability would be nice.
Software I've considered so far: Adobe Premiere Elements 7, Pinnacle Studio 12 Ultimate, Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 Pro Pack, Cyberlink PowerDirector 7. However, the reviews I've seen rarely talk about the subtitle aspect (except for PowerDirector) and before test driving a bunch a crippled trial versions I'd like to hear suggestions from more experienced people.

Good iPhone workout log application?

jagalt — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:40:09 -0800

Good iPhone workout log application? I am trying to find an iPhone application that would let me keep track of my workouts, preferably as I am doing them, and there's just too many in the store to make sense of. I'd like to be able to:

- Create custom workouts (weightlifting and cardio)
- Keep track of my weight
- Sync and backup to my computer / online service

I am fine with purchasing an app, so it doesn't have to be one of the free ones. If anyone has had any personal experiences with any of the apps and can recommend anything, it would be much appreciated!

Recommendations for iTunes replacement software with excellent built-in podcast handling capabilities.

sk381 — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:53:18 -0800

Looking for suggestions for a piece of software that I can use to manage my largish mp3 collection, edit tags for these files, use to transfer them to and fro from an iPod nano and which handles podcasts very well. One of those jukebox like programs, that is. Free and open-source would be ideal but are not absolute requirements with the only restriction being that it be not a resource hog.

I tried the most current version of WinAmp and it seems it's become extremely bloated. It took ages to load and even then was very sluggish when it came to using it. The only other similar piece of software I've come across is MediaMonkey, which I'm trying out at the moment and while its much faster than WinAmp, it's not doing a great job with podcasts

What other software should I be looking at?

And as an aside, does WinAmp have an option/plugin to handle OPML files? I couldn't find one.

Thanks.

RSS reader optimized for Craigslist and Kijiji

Chuckles — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:29:33 -0800

Wanted, an RSS reader optimized for Craigslist and Kijiji. Willing to program myself, if necessary. I'm looking to optimize my use of RSS feeds when perusing online classified adds. I've been using Thunderbird, and I've set a few message filters to save me some time, but it isn't enough. Some of the features I need:

Sophisticated kill scripts, to avoid spam, duplicate listings, and items I'm simply not interested in
Permanent storage of the listing and pictures for market research purposes. This would include monitoring changes, and recording the date of listing removal.

I'm sure there are a million features I haven't thought of, but those two are really key, and they are not at all typical for RSS readers, as far as I can tell.

I'm a junior programmer, but I'm happy to take this on as a project. Hopefully, as a plugin for existing software, or a modification of an existing open source RSS reader. Happier still if somebody has already made it, of course!

And as an adjunct question, I'm very interested in recommendations for ebay software. Again, looking for permanent caching and tracking of auctions. I've heard of some ebay market analysis services, but paying a subscription isn't really an option, unless it is very cheap.

How can I use my teaching skills to help people?

TochterAusElysium — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:44:05 -0800

In what ways can I use my recently-found software teaching skills to help people? This past year, I've started teaching evening classes in some of the Adobe suite applications (InDesign, Photoshop) at a local design school. It's been an incredibly different, challenging and enriching experience for me, and I was surprised and happy to find that I get very good feedback as a teacher. Now I'm wondering whether I can expand my role as a software teacher, but maybe in a way that might help underprivileged young adults or the unemployed. I'm kind of vague on what kinds of organizations, if any, might need this kind of help; my thought is that in this economy, people who are looking for a different career might want to learn design or page layout. Is that realistic? Should I instead look for one-on-one tutoring opportunities?

How do I compensate for sweat equity in a software startup?

Turtles all the way down — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:49:24 -0800

How do I set up a fair system of compensation for people contributing sweat equity to a software startup? I've got a software project that I've been doing alone for a while, learning as I go, and I've realized that with the wealth of talent where I live, I'm stupid to be trying to do everything myself--development, design, marketing. I've pitched my idea to an acquaintance who's a professional programmer, and he leapt at it, saying that he was so bored with what he was doing at work, he would love to have an interesting and potentially lucrative project to do on his spare time. If he's interested, I'm pretty sure I can attract team members with other skills. I have no money to pay anyone now, so all I can offer is equity in the company. How do I do this fairly and appropriately? What hazards does this approach present?

Manage my inventory!

spicynuts — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:57:14 -0800

Inventory management software for start up, on-line clothing retailer. Recommendations please. I need to do some research in order to choose an off the shelf solution for retail inventory management. The need is for an on-line clothing retailer. This is not mom and pop - this has solid money behind it and a serious management team that expects to take this global. Initial needs are small but the intent is to scale large within 6 months to a year.

I need a package that can integrate with Drupal from the e-commerce side and has a good, easy and customizable interface for the warehouse side. Open source is acceptable but we can also pay. I am starting from zero here as we had initially contracted a vendor to develop a homegrown solution for us but they have proven unfit for the task. We do not have a POS.

Any ideas?

A Font of All Knowledge

fusinski — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:49:54 -0800

FontFilter: What is the best font management application for Windows? I would like opinions on the best software package regardless of price, as well as on the best in terms of price-to-value. My wife is a designer and her extensive collection of fonts is getting rather out of control. We've found that they are slowing down her PC, and through some research I have found that a font management utility is what I'm looking for to help alleviate the problem. Of course, if there are better solutions I'm all ears. Thanks!

(I see this question was asked over a year ago here... with the rate that software changes, I thought it was prudent to ask again.)

What sort of software is used to make cool infographic movies?

paul_smatatoes — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 12:28:03 -0800

Does anyone know which software packages are made to make neat infographic-y movies like these? I'd love to make something along those lines as a cool compliment to The Money Meltdown.

Record yahoo messenger?

nyxxxx — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:12:50 -0800

How can I record audio from yahoo messenger? More inside. I would like to record audio from yahoo messenger. YOu would think it could do it on it's on, but I can't seem to find anyway of doing that.

We're trying to start a call in talk show using yahoo. I tried the built in audio recorder but it would only record 1 side of the conversation. It only records the audio on the computer it's on.

Audacity doesn't seem to be able to do it either.

Am I missing something? Is there some setting in these programs so that I can record all the audio that goes through the chat room? Is it possible to do it on irc or some other program? It has to be a common program that can run under windows.

Picture a Venn diagram with 3 circles: LaTeX, Emacs, Mac. I'd like to live in the intersection.

gleuschk — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 11:08:47 -0800

Mac users who write LaTeX documents in Emacs (with or without AucTeX), please tell me about your workflow. My wife and I both recently switched (back) to Macs from Windows machines. We're mathematicians, and we both live -- or used to live -- pretty much completely inside an Emacs buffer, writing LaTeX. We've had a terrible time approximating our Windows setups on the new Macs. What Emacs version do you people use? (I've tried Aquamacs and Carbon Emacs.) What PDF previewer? (Skim, Preview, something else?) Most importantly: how is everything tied together, in your .emacs or elsewhere?

Finally, please help me understand what the point of AucTeX is. Both the emacs versions I've tried come with it pre-installed. So far, all I can see is that it adds unnecesary keystrokes when I want to typeset something, and destroys all my useful muscle-memory. Do you use it? Does it make your life better/easier?

Recommend me some Goal Setting software?

jacobean — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 07:08:56 -0800

Recommend me some Goal Setting software? For my own personal use I would like someone to recommend me some goal setting software.

I run several projects at once here and a program to keep them on track would be nice.

So what I am looking for is a kind of To-Do List/Goal Completion package where you can "mark off" the progress of a task(s) electronically.

help me manage my contacts

luriete — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:49:02 -0800

I accidentally synced my mac's contacts with gmail, and added 4000 unwanted contacts. I manually stripped them out, turned off gmail syncing, and now I get an "unknown error" from itunes when syncing with my iphone, and a "syncing contacts will add 4000 (or so) contacts" message ... even though those people weren't showing up in my contacts app. Post-sync, those people are back in my contacts app, after I spent an hour cleaning it up and deleting them ... and they're on my iphone too, even though I got the error message.

How do I just nuke all contacts from my iphone and start fresh?

Using Transcription Software in the Classroom

fantasticninety — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:07:24 -0800

Has anyone used a live transcribing software as an educational tool in the classroom? I've looked a little bit into this program, Dragon Software in English OR Dragon Software in French and am wondering if anyone has used it in the classroom live with students.

I teach French, and thought that if the program was good enough, and most importantly allowed you to speak normally and not goofily in order for it to recognise the words, then it could be really helpful for students to see the words as they appeared on the screen.

Obviously, I would need it to be a wireless mic and have the option of switching it off at a moment's notice. If anyone has any experience with this product or something very similar that they use in the classroom I'd be very interested to hear about your experience. Thanks!

Should I stay in software engineering?

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:46:14 -0800

I'm an unhappy overworked software engineer. Am I in the wrong field? I've been a software engineer for about 6 years now, all in the same job. My problem is that the hours suck. I know that some crunch time is expected when projects are due, but I'm regularly working 10-11 hour days, and working on the weekends is pretty common. My question is, is this normal? Are other people in the field working hours like this? I have a chance to leave the field and do something different, but because I've only worked one job, I'm not certain if the long hours I've been working are part of the profession, or if I could realistically expect to find another software engineering job where the hours are more reasonable. I want a job, but I want a life too. Can I have both if I stay a coder? What sort of experiences have my fellow mefites had in the field?

Help my friend tickle the plastickies.

prefpara — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:17:28 -0800

(Posting for a friend): I just bought a keyboard, and I would like to learn a little piano-playing. Is there any free or cheap software that can hand-hold me through it? Are there any websites that offer beginning piano lessons?

Podcast pointers and primers, please.

NikitaNikita — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:08:35 -0800

Podcast pointers and primers, please. Can you recommend a good "primer" for starting a podcast? This podcast in particular that I have in mind will consist mostly of interviews, and just a little bit of buffer music.

And/or: can you give me your tips for the beginner's guide to podcasting? For example, what gear should I have? What software for editing and voice equalization?

More background details: The interviews will take place over the phone (I already have a quicktap for this), as well as in person/at conferences. So, in the latter cases, recorder-portability is an issue. I have access to both PCs and Macs, so software can be for either. In terms of budget, I'd like to spend enough to have this sound professional and pleasantly listenable (no hissing, no wild sound variations between speakers) but I'd like to be frugal when possible, since I work for a non-profit.

Thanks!

3d table software

alligatorman — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:13:03 -0800

I'm looking for free software that allows me to put data in an 3-dimensional table/grid, and then lets me view it. I need something that helps me visualize data in 3 dimensions. I'm essentially looking for something like excel but in 3D, though not as sophisticated.

For example, cell [0,0,0] may contain some numbers, [0,1,2] may contain something else, and I want to view all of this in some kind of rotatable cube.

Is there anything like that out there, or am I out of luck?

If it helps, I run XP.

Best method for producing electronic sports arena drawings?

shew — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:56:57 -0800

SportsGeekFilter: I'm interested in making high resolution stadium seating charts for my local sports venues. I want to include more than just the basic section number info (like row, seat #, possibly bathroom data). Right now, my tool kit seems limited to lines, boxes and curves (ala MS Paint). I'm struggling with the shape and scale. Am I stuck doing this from scratch or is there a software program out there that can help me? I'd like for the chart to look similar to the charts we've all seen of our professional sports arenas: areal view, basic lines and curves, some symbols, color for flare. But I want the images to be much larger to afford more detailed information. I'm fairly technical and can hold my own in photoshop and illustrator... but I'd rather not hand crank every line and angle.

How do I learn the Visual Studio way of thinking about software development?

majick — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:45:19 -0800

Visual Studio for the confused: I've inherited a C#/ASPX Net 1.1 application from what appears to have been some fairly low-skill software developers. The language, systems environment, and cleaning up the software itself aren't problems, but what the hell am I supposed to do with all this IDE stuff? I need learning resources. My previous software development experience has been with fundamental tools: Makefiles, gcc, Ant, javac, and scripted build processes. I've used IDEs before, but entirely for the purposes of coding and analysis, not build processes and SCM. The situation I find myself in now requires I come up to speed on the Visual Studio 2003 build system, and I'm finding it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever due to my lack of grounding in graphical build tools. It's further complicated by the way the tool seems to be conceptually tied to a web server for the purpose of development.

There seems to be a tremendous amount of magic hidden in things like "solution files" and "project files" and zillions of little "properties" windows that own metadata about dependencies and the source tree, and it's all very confusing for someone coming from a more traditional and modular software tools environment. Reverse engineering this stuff is sapping a tremendous amount of my time and productivity, especially since it seems like the previous folks on the project made assumptions about the build environment that are no longer true.

So what should I be reading that will give me a background on this Microsoft-flavored build environment so that I can get to the work at hand? I want to get this code into Subversion and make it buildable by anyone who can check it out, but that is looking more and more like I'm going to have to rejigger what happens when the Build button is pushed to remove hardcoded UNC pathnames of servers that don't exist, an almost arbitrary scattering of build prerequisites, and dependencies on having a web server at hand just to produce object code and a MSI installer.

Right now I'm coming up against something that seems like an alien artifact from a world where the definition of what a codebase is and how you build it happens to completely differ from my own. It seems completely ass-backwards every time I look at it and adds a layer of complexity that I'm unaccustomed to in my tools. Overcoming that barrier is going to be key to my short term success. What should I be reading to learn best practices about Microsoft-flavored development tools and fundamentals of the Visual Studio way of thinking about a software "solution" in order to put this codebase on track to be properly maintained? Where I come from, a couple of hours with a text editor, a fresh build script, and svn ci would have given me build automation, SCM, and code drop portability. Instead I'm in a maze of twisty little properties pages, all alike, and eliminating my ignorance is an important first step.

Please note that I'm not asking about tool choice. I can make tool decisions on my own. I'm looking for ways to educate myself on how what I have works as is, so I can make intelligent decisions about how to restructure and retool the project for maintainability and save a lot of pain for the next person who has to tend to this application. I work with that next person, and want to be nice to them by giving them a software project, toolchain and development process that Just Works.

Mac server backup software

jmd82 — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 07:36:12 -0800

Getting some Mac servers and looking for suggestions on backup software. I'm completely new to the Mac scene, but we're converting from a Windows to Mac environment which will eventually host 700 or so clients and am getting some Mac OSX servers we'll be using as file & print server, iCal, wiki, etc, initially, but host more applications as this project grows.

The problem is that from what I've gathered, Retrospect is one of the few cheaper enterprise Mac solutions (as in under $2000 per edu license), but apparently hasn't been updated in quite some time and is mainly used for just data backup, not SQL/db/user profiles/system state/etc applications like Backup Exec or True Image.

So, any suggestions for backup software on Mac servers?

(I've also read previous mac backup questions, and they were all more along the line of personal backup data or SOHOs, whereas I'm looking more for disaster recovery capability to restore everything in one click, which again, sounds like Retrospect isn't ideal for).

Gaming for the new oldbie

vizsla — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:39:28 -0800

I'm 40ish. I know nothing about modern gaming. I used to love adventure games back in the 80s like Zak McKraken, KGB and Thermonuclear Wargames. I have some time on my hands and want to take the plunge into the modern world of gaming. Where do I start? I had a look at those role-playing multi-user games like Second Life and I just don't see the point. Maybe I'm missing something. I like games that involve some (if not, a lot of) thinking. I guess I used to enjoy SOME games that involved a lot of manual dexterity - I did play Wolfenstein 3D when it first came out. I am not a huge science fiction fan. I like games that teach you something maybe. But again, I shouldn't put too many restrictions down - I might surprise myself. So I guess I'm looking for ideas for games and platforms to play them on. Again, I know nothing - never owned any gaming equipment before so please don't assume I actually do know what I'm looking for!

What Mac software is good for organizing collections of bootleg recordings?

nowonmai — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 08:07:41 -0800

What Mac software is good for organizing large collections of live concert recordings? Something that is cheap or free, and makes it easy to store info.txt files, cover art and additional notes, then search, summarize and export lists. I know there is Windows software that is designed for this kind of thing, but can't find anything for OS X.

Exactly what did I do on September 3 between 3 and 3:15 pm?

Mcable — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 16:19:05 -0800

I'm looking for software for the Mac that logs open documents (and how long they are open). Does such a thing exist? So it doesn't sound too espionage-y, here's what I need it for... I'm a graphic designer for a small firm and we don't log job times with timesheets. We enter time spent on a job bag that travels with the job through the shop. This doesn't work for me, for a lot of reasons, and it's easier at the end of the month to submit a big list of hours I spent on individual projects. However, at the end of the month there is always a day or two I didn't get down in my logs and I have to recreate missing days from searches.

So...any ideas?

Artist/album in itunes, not on ipod

ObscureReferenceMan — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 13:57:17 -0800

iTunesFilter: Songs/artists in iTunes not in iPod. Huh? So I'm feeling in the mood for a little Kingston Trio, but when I search for them on the ipod, I can't find them - not under "Kinsgton" or "The Kingston". The "Greatest Hits" album is also not listed under Albums.

I was pretty sure I had synced up the ipod to itunes, so I plug it into the computer, and re-sync. Go back into ipod, still not there. What's up? I have 7905 songs (as per itunes AND ipod). That's 26GB out of 160GB. I'm stumped! (This might be happening with other artists/albums, but the Kingston Trio was the first I noticed, and I haven't dug much deeper.)

Damn it! I just went through all songs (on the ipod), and I was able to find MTA, Greenback Dollar, etc. And they're listed correctly (Artist = Kingston Trio). Why can't I find them by Artist or Album?!?! Grrrrr!!!!

Other details; running itunes 8.0.0.35 on Windows XP (SP3), Dell XPS 2.8GHz, with 2GB RAM.

Thanks!