Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with application

Should I disclose my depression on university application?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:45:34 -0800

I was diagnosed with depression and was in therapy for about an year. Do I disclose this on my university application? I am applying to an undergrad program at University of Waterloo and as part of the application, I am required to submit an additional form( (pdf here)

Question 5 on that application asks for any medical, personal or financial circumstances that may have affected my marks.

I was diagnosed with depression in September 2008 and was put in therapy. The therapy ended in August 2009. This did have an impact on two of my courses, Math and Computer Science. My marks for those two courses were 77% and 76%, respectively. All my other marks in highschool have been in high 80s or low 90s.

If it matters, I am in my final year of highschool right now and my mid-term average was 91%.

So my question boils down to this: Should I link those two marks with my depression or should I just let it all slide? Why or why not? Would disclosing my medical condition put me at any disadvantage when being considered for admission?

A start menu for Windows 7 where I type "i" for Internet and "f" for Firefox to open that browser?

oxit — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:12:54 -0800

A start menu for Windows 7 where I type i for Internet and f for Firefox to open that browser? Prior to Windows 7 I was using the classic Windows start menu to access most of my software by pressing only three keys on the keyboard:

1. the Windows key, then
2. a key for the folder, e.g. (I)nternet, or (O)ffice, then
3. a key for the application, e.g. (F)irefox or (I)nternet Explorer.

Typing a part of the name in Windows 7's start menu is a lot slower, more cumbersome and error-prone.

Is there a solution to have this in Windows 7? There are many start menu replacements out there, but none I've seen does this. Can you help?

Not waving.

availablelight — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:36:49 -0800

Google Wave. Is there anyone here who is using this regularly who can explain to me why I should too? Got an invite a month or two ago. Unlike other google apps which quickly felt indispensable (gmail, Picasa, maps, scholar, calendar, books, etc.) I'm a bit...flummoxed...as to how this is going to make my life cooler, practically speaking. (I'm sure it doesn't help that, due to how limited invites have been, I don't have more than a handful of folks to "wave" with anyway.)

If you've been using this application on a daily or weekly basis, what are you doing with it? What should I be doing with it?

How much is reasonable (if anything) to pay to a lender for a mortgage application fee?

mockjovial — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:32:18 -0800

How much is reasonable (if anything) to pay to a lender for a mortgage application fee? The fiancé' and I have finally found the perfect house…a condo actually. The contract was accepted by the seller yesterday, and we are super excited! I went into the process benefitting from many of the great posts on the green that came before me. One of the things I did was get preapproved for financing of a 30 year fixed rate mortgage. Now that the contract has been accepted, the mortgage company wants to meet to complete the actual application. I was surprised when the representative told me that there is a $350 application fee. In your opinion / experience, is this outrageous? Should I find a different company? I’m not sure if it matters that I have excellent credit and can qualify for the most favorable interest rate offered. I am in Chicagoland. I am of course hoping to close by 11/30 for the tax credit, so time is of the essence to secure financing. Thanks in advance!

NSF GRFP Proposal

Aanidaani — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:02:58 -0800

Where can I find examples of science/engineering research proposals for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program? I'm currently applying for the NSF GRFP and I'd like some examples of how a research proposal should look for the application. I've written a number of grant proposals for my thesis project already, so I'd like to take those and modify them to fit this application.

Who gets to be the lucky person to write me a letter of recommendation?

carpyful — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:02:10 -0800

I'm applying to graduate school and need 3 letters of recommendations. However, I am having trouble deciding the right people to ask. HALP. I'm applying to MPA/MPP programs for the Fall of 2010. My work and academic careers have not been ideal and now I'm not sure what to do. Here's my situation:

I got my BA in May 2007 with pretty good grades (I got nearly all A's in my political science courses, which I majored in). Even though I did well, I was the type to do my work and leave class -- I never spent time talking to professors at all. It's now been 2.5 years since graduation and I feel uncomfortable asking any of my old professors for letters of recommendations. Also, I no longer live near my school so I'd have to do this all through phone or email. If I go this route, I'll be contacting my polisci seminar professor. I got an A in the class and an A on my thesis paper.

As an undergrad, I spent a summer interning at my local Congressman's office and my local state Senator's office (both in the same summer, part time with each). This was in the summer of 2006 which means that it has been a while. The only saving grace is that I used one of my internship supervisors as a reference to get my current AmeriCorps gig last year so I've had some communication there.

After graduating, I didn't really know what I wanted to do so I spent a little over a year working in unrelated fields. I did some private tutoring and freelance design to keep busy. Even though I did good work and have maintained some connections with my clients, I feel that the work is so unrelated and short-lived (most of my freelance work was 3-6 month gigs and my tutoring jobs lasted about 9 months) that they might not be great to use for applications.

The only place I am confident in getting letters of recommendations from is the place that I am working at now: I am an AmeriCorps VISTA at a nonprofit doing work I enjoy. I know a few higher-ups in my workplace that would probably write me letters. I am tempted to get more than one person from my organization to write me a recommendation but I would imagine that isn't the best idea ever.

Finally, I am in a cohort with other VISTAs (we are all in different workplaces and meet twice a month for trainings) and the supervisor of that program would write me a letter, as well. I worry that getting a letter from my work supervisor and my VISTA supervisor would be confusing and detrimental.

So to summarize my questions:
Which 3 people do I ask for letters of recommendations?
Is it worth asking professors from undergrad who I never really spoke to (but got A's in the class)?
Is it worth asking people I interned for in 2006?
Is it worth asking clients that I did work for in unrelated fields?
Is getting a letter from more than one person in a workplace weird?
If I get a letter from my work supervisor and a letter from my VISTA supervisor, will that be seen as negative (since most people won't know the difference)?

As you can see, I am in need of guidance.

just trying to get to school

Eumachia L F — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:16:51 -0800

I'm applying for a student visa to the UK. Do I have to mail my passport with my application? This is all a lot more confusing than it should be. The form I was given when I submitted my biometric details says I need to include my "travel document" along with my application. Is this my passport? I can't find the answer to this on the visa4uk website.

iPhone App Creation Companies

nam3d — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:30:15 -0800

I have a Flash game that I'd like to port over to the iPhone but I don't have the time nor the patience to do it myself. Are their any companies out there that will develop the application for you, for a price?

Can I make a job out of applying for things?

ramenopres — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:36:56 -0800

What kind of job is good for someone who really likes applying to jobs? I'm trying to get a handle on my career and vocation, and a common theme in applying for jobs, scholarships, etc. is the fact that I really, really enjoy the process of pulling myself apart, evaluating my separate elements, and putting them together again to fit a list of characteristics or requirements. Showing how my story matches someone else's story is really exciting. I would enjoy doing this for other people, too.

Can I make a job out of applying for things? What sort of position across different fields would fit best, or is there a particular field where this skill would serve and be served?

How can I find out which company I'm interviewing with?

sabira — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:08:13 -0800

How can I find out which company I'm interviewing with next week? Earlier today, I received a voicemail message from a guy who said that he was calling from Company X and was very interested in the application I submitted. It was difficult for me to hear the exact name of the company, and in retrospect, I should have asked him to clarify this for me when I called him back to schedule the interview for next week.

Fortunately, he mentioned the name of the position, but it's not one that I remember submitting an application for. I usually keep a detailed spreadsheet with all of the information about my job applications, but this might have been for one of the jobs that I quickly applied to without properly logging it. What makes the situation even more complicated is that I can't find any record of an application for this position in my Sent Email folder. I've tried searching for the hiring manager on Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc., but the only results I get are for some guy who works in a completely different industry than mine. Also, the interview is going to be held at a community center that's different from where the company usually operates, so that doesn't really help me narrow down the location.

The way I see it, I have two options. I could either go to the interview next week without having any idea of what I'm getting myself into, or I could call the hiring manager again and admit that I'm not sure which company he's with. I would feel a lot more at ease going into it if I did the latter, but I'm not sure if doing so will make me seem like a bad candidate for this position.

What should I do?

Web App to manage client uploads???

spock — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:20:46 -0800

I'm looking for a web application (preferrably Open Source) that will help me accomplish the following: I have a service business that works on digital files for clients. I'd like to broaden my reach through web, so want to give clients/public the ability to upload files to me and for me to keep track of who those files are from, and to be able to invoice them and track when they have paid, etc. so I can return the finished file to them. I'd like it to work with Paypal. It is possible that this cannot all be done by a single application, but I'd prefer an all-in-one solution. But feel free to suggest partial solutions.

I'm an experienced server and web application admin with multiple platforms. I'd prefer a PHP/MySQL solution, but will certainly consider others. My Google-Fu is not strong today, apparently, as I'm having trouble locating this, but I'm sure that somebody has already invented this "wheel".

TIA for any words of wisdom you may have to share.

How to build Library Facebook applications?

bruceh — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:09:04 -0800

I'm looking for a guide on developing Facebook Applications, ideally with a Library context in mind. I've read about several examples (e.g. WorldCat and several university based examples). My initial idea is to build a catalogue or article search tool. Other ideas on library Facebook applications are also welcome. I came across a great article on this in the Code4Lib journal but I'm looking for more instructions.

How do I apply for jobs I can’t take for the next ten months?

ilana — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:01:53 -0800

For immigration purposes, I need to apply for jobs ten months before I move. How to do this productively? First AskMe, please be gentle!

Backstory: I am a dual Canadian/US citizen, born and raised in Toronto, doing an MFA in the States. I also did my undergrad in the US, and met my wonderful boyfriend of five years (US citizen only) there. I will graduate in May 2010 and at that point would like to move back to Canada permanently, particularly before my school health plan runs out and my Ontario health plan gets cancelled. I would also like to take my boyfriend with me, also permanently. The problem here is not proving our common-law relationship, that’s easy. The problem is that, though I pay resident taxes in Canada, Canada does not see me as a resident for immigration purposes, and thus I need to prove I intend to cut ties with the US and move to Canada. Immigration lawyer, when consulted, told me that the best way to “prove” this is to apply for jobs in Toronto. We need to submit the application by the end of August to give ourselves as much processing time as possible so that we have a chance of being able to move cross-border when we get kicked out of grad housing at the end of May 2010. Thus, I need to apply for jobs NOW. Problem is, I can’t start work until June 2010.

How do I apply for jobs that are available now while I am currently unable to take them without looking like a lunatic? I don’t want to apply for jobs in bad faith, and conceivably I’d like the many cover letters I’m going to write to have some chance of being useful. I recognize there may be no chance of this, and particularly in these trying economic times I certainly don’t expect any company to bend over backwards for me, but it’s the ideal. At very least, I don’t want to make a horrible impression on companies I would enjoy working for - just ten months from now, not immediately!

I know where to go to look for jobs that are currently being offered, and how to apply for specific positions. (Though if someone knows a great Toronto-area job site, feel free to toss it into the mix! Ivy League degrees in English and Dramaturgy, interested in writing, theatre, communications, archival, PR jobs – anything geared towards that?) I just don’t know how to do the job application version of a cold call, particularly a cold call for a service that’s not available for almost a year! How do I go about this? How do I phrase this quirk in a cover letter? Is this insanely abnormal? Do I apply for currently-advertised positions and just tweak the cover letter somehow, or send a general letter to a company? There is a chance I could finish my thesis early and start working in January while my boyfriend stays in our New York apartment; we were hoping to avoid a long separation, but should I mention this? Please advise, and thank you very much.

Need script to backup Flickr metadata to local JPGs

snarfois — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:20:07 -0800

Lazyweb request: I put a lot of effort into my photos on Flickr: selecting them, titling, captioning, adding tags and sometimes geotagging. I need a script that will use Flickr's APIs to retrieve this information from Flickr, and write it into the IPTC headers of my local JPGs. My reasons for wanting this are twofold:

1) Backing up this valuable information (if I could no longer use Flickr)
2) Making all this information available in Picasa (which uses some of the IPTC fields)

I'm not a programmer. Here's an English description of the script's operation:

For every photo on Flickr, find matching local file [1].

For each local match, write into IPTC header:

Flickr Title --> IPTC Caption
Flickr Description --> IPTC Caption (after Title and linebreak) [2]
Flickr URL --> IPTC Source [3]
Flickr Tags --> IPTC Keywords [4]

Also add the following special Keywords (should be self-explanatory):

Flickr (all matched photos)
Flickr_Faved
Flickr_HasDescription
Flickr_HasComments
Flickr_HasNotes
Flickr_Geotagged [5]
Flickr_InSet
Flickr_InSet_{setname}
Flickr_InCollection
Flickr_InCollection_{collectionname}
Flickr_InGroup
Flickr_InGroup_{groupname}
Flickr_Privacy_{privacysetting}

The script needs to replace all existing IPTC data with the Flickr data. Needless to say, the JPGs should not be recompressed. Ignore videos (don't know where one would store metadata in AVIs).

[1] This may be tricky. One way to find match them could be by "taken on" value (in flickr.photos.getinfo) For an idea of scale, I have 5,700 photos on Flickr, and 33,000 locally.
[2] I wish there was another field I could use, but this looks like the only one that'll do. HTML will look rather ugly. I might be persuaded not to include this, especially since Picasa doesn't display captions very nicely.
[3] Use the Flickr canonical short url.
[4] Including machine tags. Ensure they are correctly delimited (I think they're separated by commas in the IPTC header, and phrases don't need to be quoted)
[5] Picasa also has geotagging, and I've not checked where it stores this data. Would be nice to save Flickr's geodata in the same format Picasa uses. Optional though.

I know my chances of getting what I ask are slim, but I'm hoping that some people out there want the same thing, including someone who can actually build it. Or maybe something like this already exists, and all my googling couldn't find it.

Riddle me this...

miss lynnster — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:58:28 -0800

Creating custom quizzes, polls and surveys for a blog... your experiences? I want to start putting more fun, interactive, and educational features on HiddenLA.com. I just tried putting a poll on there using the WP-polls plugin but I'm not sure I'm digging it so far. Is there a better application or plug-in that you use?

I would also like to do some really interesting quizzes, but so far I haven't found an application that is really great with customizing details. I started a few but was disappointed with the how results looked and never finished them.

I'd love to hear any suggestions you have. Thanks! :)

Do I need insurance for my web business?

tomargue — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 22:47:04 -0800

Do I need to insure my web business? I am setting up a to-do list + calendar web application that holds users' data. Do I need to insure against data loss, or down time? Or can I put all that in a EULA (e.g., [web application] will not be responsible for any data loss, down time, data corruption etc)? I plan to speak to a lawyer in about two months time about all the legal requirements prior to my web application "going live", but I want to get a bit of a feel of the risks associated before speaking to a lawyer and forking over $1000s or more.

If I do need insurance for my web app, what's the best way of finding insurance? (I've never looked at finding insurance before...my housemates have always taken care of home and contents insurance, and I've never owned a car). If insurance does exist for data loss etc, what's the ball-park figure on how much such a scheme would cost? Would I need to go with an multinational insurer, since the site will be available world-wide? Or would a small local insurer do (I live in Melbourne, Australia)? Or can I simply have an End User License Agreement and make my users agree not to sue me if I accidently lose their data. I know, even to this day, that Hotmail deletes user accounts if left idle for a few months....

How to license a small desktop application?

543DoublePlay — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:17:56 -0800

We have a small windows desktop business application designed for us by a local independent developer that we would like to market and sell to existing and new clients, but we neither we (nor our developer) has any experience of how to easily protect it using some kind of licensing method. The developer has used .Net to develop the application and ideally we would like to have it work for a trial period and then disable it so the user has to purchase a full license in order to continue using it. If we can prevent copying of it within an organization or between individuals once it has been licensed, that would obviously be ideal. One commercial hosted licensing option we have looked at is great but very expensive, especially as we are probably only looking at selling this for $50 per user without having any real idea of how many we would sell. Our free lance developer has never done anything to do with licensing and doesn't have any experience of coding something that manipulates the registry settings when a license is applied to it.

Is there a simple easy-to-integrate solution out there that someone has used (or just knows about) to license and protect a small .Net application?

How do I go about finding out how many servers (as a function of number of users) I will need to host my web application?

tomargue — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:33:39 -0800

I'm putting together a business model for my web application. As part of my expenditure, I need to estimate how many servers I need as a function of number of users. What's a good first step to finding this out? Depending on whether my application can support 100 concurrent users or 10,000 concurrent users, this will vastly change my estimates of server costs. I guess, in general, the number of concurrent users per virtual server will change dramatically depending on the type of web application[1], so I was wondering what the steps are to estimate number of servers required (presuming I can make a good guess of how many users will be online at any one time).

The first step I tried was load-testing my application to see how many users a single server can handle. My application is a GWT application (running on a GlassFish server) and I have actually been having a bit of trouble doing a load test due, in part, to the way GWT handles AJAX. That is, I tried jmeter, but ran into problems in the way jmeter encodes Content-Types. I was thinking if there was an easier way.

I was thinking about estimating the session size for each user then dividing Virtual Machine memory by that amount. But then, I'd also need an estimate on the CPU usage, too.

Maybe the numbers of users per virtual server doesn't change too much from web application to web application...and a "rule of thumb" exists: e.g., 1,000 concurrent users per server, or something like that. My gut instinct says such a rule doesn't exist...

[1] For those who are interested in the details, my web application is an online file manager and general life-organizer that uses hierarchical labels. At its most basic level it allows you to make to-do lists quickly: this would mean that the data exchanged between the client and server is minimal: text. But I've made it so you can also upload files, e.g., music files, and play them online: streaming data would be resource-intensive and probably hard to make a theoretical guess. That's why I'm thinking that load testing under a variety of conditions is the only true way to estimate number of concurrent users. In which case, any suggestions on how to load test GWT applications would be highly appreciated.

Am I on the right track? If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear.

Job Center PHP or Wordpress Configuration

bleucube — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:12:18 -0800

Looking for simple job application center online application (php is a plus and easy intergration with wordpress or plugin even better) so a client can simply post jobs and have online users fill out an application. Any suggestions? Most of the wordpress plugins I found were for Job Boards which won't work.

Using wordpress I might be able to achieve this with:

* Create a custom page template that list all items from job category.
* Use cforms II plugin to create one generic online application.
* Have HR write job description as posts to job category with "apply link" to application form in the body.

Would this work? Are there simpler methods?

Help me make sense of excel and VB

icarus — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:14:42 -0800

I want to take a small worksheet I created in excel and turn it into a standalone application. How? I've made a pretty simple excel sheet budget that calculates values for certain criteria and shows totals for 10 years for various budgeting cases.

I want to make this into an application using VB so that a someone can execute it, type in values into fields, rather than cells, and so that a chart output is displayed given the totals when a user submits all the values.

Anyone want to help me figure out where to start? I'm thinking I should use visual basic since that is the only thing I am (a little) familiar with.

Help mefi geniuses!

Uh...hello. Joel the Manager from 4 years ago please.

Team of Scientists — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:06:07 -0800

I had a summer job a few years ago that I wish to list on new job applications. The problem is that I don't exactly remember any of my supervisors' names. What do I do? I only worked there for three months. I can recall two managers' first names. However, I'm fairly certain that neither of them works there anymore, so calling to get a full name is out of the question.

Is there a standard for dealing with this on a job application/resume? Do I simply leave the supervisor field blank? List one of the first names I remember?

Since it was only a summer job, it seems silly to even worry about it, and I am tempted to simply omit this particular job from applications completely. However, I am currently filling out an application for a volunteer service that would like to know my entire work history. I feel it may seem neglectful to either leave the job out altogether or to leave the supervisor field blank.

CPU History Recording

AltReality — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:49:36 -0800

I'm trying to find an app that will monitor and record CPU usage *by Process* ...I'm finding all kinds of monitoring apps and even some that will record history, but only of the total percentage used, not broken down by process.

Any suggestions?

What do I need to look at when buying a new laptop?

reenum — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:28:05 -0800

I'm in the market for a new laptop. Should I get a PC or Mac? What specs are important for me to look at when making a decision? My Toshiba Satellite A65 seems to be on its last legs, so I think I'm getting a new laptop.

In researching, I've become confused as to which specs really matter when looking at a computer.

Here's what I would use it for:
- E-mail, IM, and Web
- Watching DVDs
- BitTorrent
- Word processing and spreadsheets
- Tracking my finances
- Some music creation (mostly breakbeats)

I've seen some places say that I need as much RAM as possible, others stress the importance of a large hard drive, yet others say I need the fastest processor.

Also, any recommendations as to brands that are more reliable than others?

Please help!

Small web team needs a better way to track requests than MS Outlook.

Null Pointer and the Exceptions — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:39:57 -0800

Small web team needs a better way to track requests than MS Outlook. We're not a big web team, just three guys including the designer. We manage a site, not a complex web application. 90% of our work is creating or updating content: we don't do builds (we push to the live server individual changes after they are tested), don't do rollbacks (can get backups as needed for past year), and don't track bugs (we deal with content, not features, typos are the most likely issue). Requests can be for changing content, creating html emails, rebranding sections of the site and the occasional functional enhancement (mostly associated with pulling content from a db).

Our current workflow:

1. all requests come through a shared inbox
2. as we work on items in the inbox, we flag them in Outlook, each person has their own color.
3. when an item is done, we send a reply, then move the item to an archive folder.

It's simple and efficient, but I'm looking for something the team can use that would replace this, as colored flags don't work in Entourage and Outlook is the only Windows app we still use besides IE for testing.

Ideally it would be web based, have the ability to assign ownership, to set deadlines, allow for attachments and keep a thread if there are replies. I'm on the fence if it should require a login or not (e.g. just create tickets based on emails to the old inbox).

If it can handle projects that's great, but it's not necessary as I'm the only one who does projects here and OmniFocus works great for that.

How long to wait after denied credit application?

jgunsch — Sun, 31 May 2009 11:09:05 -0800

How long should I wait before making another credit card application? I was denied for a specific card I'd like (Amazon.com card through Chase) in February for "too many credit applications." Can I apply again for it now? My history: I'm 18. I have a bit over three years of good history that show up in my credit report--I was a secondary account holder on my parents' credit card for a few years in high school and they've never missed a payment. I turned 18 in September, got my own credit card that very week and have used it and paid it off regularly (paying off full balances anywhere from $400 to $900 each month). I've used random "free credit score" services and found out two bureaus have my scores around 670 and 710.