Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with human

Hey, that looks like a face!

Kensational — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:30:41 -0800

Is there a word for the phenomenon of finding faces in abstract shapes or patterns? (more inside) I don't mean religious icons in doors or sandwiches specifically, I mean the phenomenon in general of tending to always notice faces in patterns such as marble floors, etc.

I hate The Office

bobber — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:01:00 -0800

What can I do with an business degree if I don't want to work in a typical business setting? In about seven months, I will have a degree in Human Resource Management. While working on this degree, I have been employed by the IT department of my university and have had to sit a desk while editing policy manuals. When I graduate, I do not want to work at a desk, tied to a computer all day long. What jobs are available to a person with an HR degree who does not want to work in an office setting? I love working with people and I love fixing problems. I love teaching so I'm definitely exploring the training route. Any other ideas?

acknowledging a colleague's loss...

elis — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:11:06 -0800

A work colleague of mine lost her mother to cancer to one year ago tomorrow. I wanted to give her a card just letting her know that I am thinking of her and am aware that it must be a difficult day for her. Is it appropriate for me to do this? She has not been talking about the fact that the anniversary is tomorrow, I just happen to remember the date. If it is a good thing to do, what should I say on the card? Thanks for your help

How have you made your best friends?

cymru_j — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:42:18 -0800

How have you made your best and most lasting friendships? I'm not conducting a study or anything; I just want to understand
friendship better and am curious what other people have experienced.
Where, how, or under what conditions have you made your most genuine friendships?

Do I confront my wife?

boognish — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 10:37:49 -0800

My wife admitted she had a crush on a co-worker, but nothing happened. However, I now know that during her crush, she drunkenly told the guy she liked him and he said he liked her too. She has never admitted this. Things are really good between us now, like when we were first married. Do I let this new piece of information go, or confront her about it? I still have no doubts nothing else happened between them.

"Rules of Thumb" and "Instincts" of the Human Mind

pbh — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:34:43 -0800

What "rules of thumb" or "instincts" of the human mind are commonly applicable? A few months ago, I was reading Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini. Cialdini seems to suggest that we have hard-wired instinctual responses to many types of situations. For example, he cites a religious organisation giving out flowers in the hopes of triggering a reciprocity response, where the receiver feels like they need to give something back. The message seems to be "if {someone gives you an item} then {you feel a social obligation to give something back, even if you don't know them}."

I am curious about two closely related questions:

What instinctual rules, in as close to an "if A then B" form as possible, govern human-human interactions?
What rules, again in as close to "if A then B" form, govern our own minds?

I am curious about pretty much any instinctual interaction that might occur in (my) daily life, from negotiation to introspection.

I have found that popular non-fiction seems to have these themes, but also seems to take a really long time to get to the point and sometimes does not explicitly cite scientific results. (Nonetheless, book recommendations would be OK.) Arguably, books like How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Game, Getting to Yes, and Never Eat Alone all fall into the mould of "if A then B" human-human interactions (though I don't have any particular emphasis on the self-help genre). In terms of our own minds, I suppose I mean things like Dan Gilbert's work, where he says things like "if {you are prevented from selecting among several alternatives} then {you will be happier than if you were given a choice}." Some rules might be easier stated in a direct form rather than "if A then B," for example Gilbert suggests that we vastly overestimate the effect of any particular event on our personal happiness.

I would also be curious about particular psychological experiments along these lines, but I still only want the brief takeaway point (possibly with some background/setup). For example, in the Milgram experiment it was kind of shown that "if {an authority figure tells someone to do something} then {they will do pretty much anything, up to and including killing someone}."

How scary is blood, really?

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:32:18 -0800

How scary is blood, really? I was curious how safe and/or possible it is to draw blood without causing serious harm or death? Is it possible to see blood on the skin without the plausible threat of death? If so, what methods exist for doing so without fatal harm to the individual?

I am asking this mostly out of curiosity of my own body, and of the human body in general.

I need some poker buddies

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:17:41 -0800

Where to meet and make friends with real men? First off, I'm not gay. I'm looking for guys to hang out with and become friends with.

After many years of struggling to become more palatable to my current friends, I feel like I've had to change who I am to fit in. I enjoy dirty jokes, rap, and comedians like Adam Carolla. Most of my friends seem to be more concerned with how they are perceived by society and what folks think about them to really let their hair down and have a good time.

I live in a mid-sized metro area in the Midwest, have finished grad school, and am 30 years old. I'd like to meet folks who are OK with the occasional off-color joke, like sports, like to play poker, enjoy the occasional cigar, and aren't whipped.

Are there any places besides bars where such guys hang out?

What do we know about gregariousness in human behavior?

bru — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:17:45 -0800

What do we know about gregariousness in human behavior? My Google-fu is failing me: I thought that I would find tons of studies about the role (or effect, or influence) of "gregariousness" in human social behavior and I find almost nothing. Sheep, mice, bonobos, yes. Human, no. (I also searched with sociology, psychology, anthropology, neuroscience, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins.) What am I missing?

Arbitration or bust?

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:18:07 -0800

The company I work for has announced the adoption of a "alternative dispute resolution" program. HQ is telling us that by continuing to work there after a certain date, I agree to be covered by this ADR and forfeit my right to take them to court. What are my options, beside quitting? I work for a large, well-known multi-national corporation. Recently, said company announced the adoption of an "alternative dispute resolution" program to address employee complaints and disputes.

By and large, this new program doesn't appear much different than the current process--except that if the dispute in question can't be resolved in the normal process, it goes to binding arbitration via an external mediator.

The training material is specific: "...by choosing to continue to work for the Company aftey July 1, 2009, you are agreeing to be covered by [the new alternative dispute resolution system] after July 1, 2009." It goes on to point out that all covered claims that advance to a certain point must go to arbitration, they cannot be brought to court and will not be heard by a jury, and no class or collective actions are permitted.

"Covered claims" are those claims that a court would have authority under applicable law to resolve, such as employment discrimination & harassment claims, tort claims such as defamation or privacy invasion, wage-hour claims, claims under employment contracts, and trade secret or unfair competition claims.

I've been more-or-less happily employed by this company for nearly two decades. I don't have any beef with my employer, though who knows what may happen between now and retirement? I want to keep my options open, and arbitration seems designed to make sure I don't have options.

Between the current economy and some family health issues, I'm extremely reluctant to leave my job right now. At the same time, being told I have to give up my constitutional right to a jury trial raises my red flags. In addition, from what I know about arbitration in consumer products, it's always heavily stacked against the consumer. So here are my questions:

(1) What, if any, recourse do I have here? Should I go to our HR rep and express my concerns about this new dispute procedure? Can I just tell them, "Sorry, I do not agree to this"? (I suppose I should add that I am a full-time salaried employee; my department is non-union).

(2) Is arbitration in the workplace as bad as it is in the retail sales environment? I've seen articles in the CivilRights.org archives that lead me to believe this is the case, but if anyone else has experience or information that demonstrates otherwise I would appreciate hearing it. I'm trying to remain open-minded here and not let my emotions get in the way of any relevant data. Thanks in advance!

I'm not the man I used to be...

sam and rufus — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:45:15 -0800

How long will it does it take for all the cells in my body to die then regenerate? The question I am really asking is from a specific point, say, NOW, how long will it be before my physical body is composed of a completely new set of cells?

Desire Paths/Lines: the original translation and related concepts/terms

0bvious — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:37:04 -0800

Desire Paths / Lines: a term apparently coined by Gaston Bachelard in The Poetics of Space. What was the original French he used? and are there any other terms for the act and outcome of paths that emerge through routine, reflexion and the feedback of movement. What was Bachelard's original name for desire lines, in French?

Also, I am not just interested in desire lines as object/artefact, but the actual act of creating/adding to desire lines. Is there a different term for this? or a series of related terms? any terms from other areas/disciplines which pop into your head?

Some past ask.mefis that touch on this subject:

http://ask.metafilter.com/62599/Where-the-sidewalk-ends
http://ask.metafilter.com/45203/Too-lazy-to-take-a-hardright

I'd really love to read any notions/ideas you have regarding this concept. Thanks!

I need to be less odd. How?

Anonymous — Thu, 21 May 2009 11:47:35 -0800

I want to stop being seen as odd or eccentric. What can I do? All my life, I've felt like the odd man out. I seem to have trouble connecting with people and picking up on social cues. I'll often say things that are taken as offensive and not understand why.

Recently, I've become aware that most people at my work think of me as being extremely odd. I do have some odd behaviors. For example:
- I have a habit of answering my phone in a different way each time.
- Sometimes I speak in an overly formal way (i.e. I won't say "Yeah", I'll say "Why yes")
- Strange questions will come to mind (i.e. Someone says that a special prosecutor was appointed in a case and I ask "Was he wearing a black cowboy hat?")

I want to be more normal, for lack of a better word. It's tough being the odd man out all the time. Everyone around seems to get along and interact, but when I say something, it's as if the room has stopped.

I am currently in therapy for this, but my question is whether any of you know of any other resources and techniques I could employ to curb my oddness and eccentricity.

If it matters, I'm a man. I've also set up a throwaway e-mail at weirdodude1@gmail.com

I hate groups..

Anonymous — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:01:06 -0800

I feel overwhelmingly anxious over sentimental-ish type situations, like seeing long lost friends, reuniting with family, etc.. to the point I avoid it entirely. How can I just ease off?? In the facebook era of running into all these people I knew it's making me face my biggest fears.

It's probably more emphasized with my family, since I haven't seen them in years and most of that has been voluntary on my part. But there never was bad blood, it was mostly me and being insecure over certain things, I had a really avoidant nature while I was with them (going off to other rooms to eat, not going to anything 'everyone will be there', etc)

So like my family, my old high school friends were like an extended family too. I was one of them, I assume that meant they must like me and thought of me as one of the crew, but I just drifted off one day, and it's been 15+ years, and next thing I know I see them all on facebook and that mixed with the prospect of having to see them again in real life is bringing back these anxiety/avoid type feelings.

I thought I was over this. This past 15 years just doing my thing alone, had few friends, I like it but I hate it. I like that I don't have the anxiety.. yet I hated the loneliness. So that's why I signed up on facebook cause I knew they're all on. But now that they're adding me.. and I'm seeing other people connected to our group who I haven't added nor want to.. the anxiety is mostly "oh s**t.. they now know I exist. Sooner or later they're going to ask me to hang out. I'm going to have to see other people I don't want to. I can't/don't want to fake that I like them and miss them. But maybe one or two of them I really do want to see."

I guess that's where I get my anxiety.. having to control the situation so I only see X and Y, but not A, B, C, D, E and everyone else. But since they're such a close knit group, like a family, it's impossible to know one without having to know the others.

The problem is in doing so, I exert a lot of energy in maintaining this. And sometimes, X and Y don't understand I feel this way, so they see my avoidance of the rest as me not wanting to be a part of them. It's like they want me, but only if I also embrace the rest of the gang. It is like an eternal high school life, but that's how everyone I know is.. even after they're married. Their kids just join into the group dynamic.

I'm such an individual person.. group dynamics make me clam up and not be myself.

How can I keep things limited to just the few people I DO want to know, considering they might not be capable of understanding this or really enjoying it. They're just social ants who are part of a larger thing, and want you to join.. but when you want a more personal individualistic relationship with them, maybe it scares them.. cause they don't know how to function like that, but only as part of a group??

final resting place?

Max Power — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 08:37:11 -0800

Okay, my girlfriend, while walking the dog, found 3 odd boxes... It turns out they are the cremated remains of some folks.

She had seen a local homeless guy placing them next to a neighbors trash.

They've been out all night so she picked 'em up.

one has a cemetery sticker on it, what should we do with these?

Who do we contact?

Lost in translation?

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:35:00 -0800

Please help me find a way to support my boyfriend's integration into my culture... Here’s the background of my dilemma: I have been going out with my current boyfriend for about five months – we have started dating a couple of months after I finished with my previous partner.

My previous boyfriend is a very friendly guy and got on well with all of my friends. We decided to break-up but remained friends and every time I meet someone, they ask about him, etc etc (the guy was very popular amongst my friend base).

Now, I have been going out with someone new, who pretty much ‘ticks every box’. This relationship has a lot of potential, it is likely that we are going to stick together for quite some time. It’s been great. But…

The dilemma – I originally hail from a South American country and many of my friends also come from there. I have been living in London for quite some time now and have managed to adapt to the culture and lifestyle pretty well.

I do realise, however, that many of my friends are kind of stuck in some sort of ‘cultural isolation’ – i.e. hesitate a lot before eating anything that does not resemble food they are not used to/don’t know, still struggle with English, etc.

My relationship is great but at the same time, it is important that my partner fits into my group of friends, at least to some extent. My boyfriend is great and I love him, but being English, sometimes it is noticeable that there is a ‘cultural disconnect’ going on when it comes to him interacting with my friends.

When he comes to visit, he will often stay in my room instead of chatting with my flatmates about trivial things, for example. When it comes to striking conversation, my friends find it hard to relate to him (from their end, he is much more cultured and intelligent and from his end, it looks like he is not that open to talking to relative strangers about more ‘personal’ things such as ideas around life and relationships etc – Latin cultures are very open and people talk about their emotions a lot).

There have been two instances where my friends either said he is ‘boring’ or that it is difficult to talk to him. On the other hand, I (obviously) don’t find it difficult to relate to him at all – he is fun, kind, warm-hearted and intelligent. But he has a different kind of sense of humour to that of my friends (which can be quite ironic and self-deprecating at times and they don’t quite get it).

Worth mentioning that he has signed up for a language course in order to understand my friends and family better (we are planning to visit my country in a couple of months) and is increasingly interested in current affairs at my country and etc. This is all positive, but doesn’t seem to be contributing to the issue mentioned above.

Another point is that, when he was chatting with other friends of mine from NZ or Australia or other Anglo-Saxon cultures, he did not have any issues in relating to them.

I am a bit confused as to what I should do to stimulate some interaction between him and my Latin friends. I do love him, want to be with him regardless of what people think and this is not a major issue yet, but I am a little nervous that his may become a significant issue if in future we decide to move to my country, for example.

The question is, how should I approach the issue again without hurting him? I say ‘again’ because have discussed this before but nothing has really changed – apart from the fact he is buying more drinks to my mates, maybe as an attempt to get conversation going…he mentioned he does want to make an effort to get on with people who are important to me.

Tips from English people who have managed to integrate into a different culture also appreciated, thanks for reading my question!

How do I improve my body language to improve my days?

IdleRepose — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:35:31 -0800

I'm fascinated by studies of body language and their application - yet my own body language sucks - I seem to have - 'hey, cut in front of me when I'm walking or queueing' or 'when I express an opinion, puff up and argue with me' - even though sometimes I actually do have the right info. Does anyone have theories on the type of body language I can use to dispel/improve this? Being short, female and 38 with a 'kind' face doesn't give me a good head start apparently. I look forward to hearing your thoughts. This can get to be tiring and annoying - and I'm actually pretty patient.

I want to know how it feels to care about something passionately.

bettershredder — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:11:03 -0800

Where does passion reside? I am 24 years old, still young I know, have never been known to take risks, and over think almost everything, including this. I keep telling myself that something will come along, I wait, and question whether it really matters or not; am I wasting my time? Should I just relax, and be okay with the fact I get to breeze through life without the intense feelings of stress and obsession that come along with a passion for something?

It's a fact though, I have never been passionate about anything. Nothing. Ever. I'm sure many have experienced the same, but for some reason it really bothers me.

I've always been drawn to the idea of being so intoxicated with an activity, sport, work, art, or music that nothing else matters; no thoughts, nor doubts, or insecurities; just your passion. But the truth is I feel numb. The largest emotion I have is fear that someone will find out how emotionless I really am. Is this seemingly cold interior holding me back?

I don't believe in fate or destiny, I'm not spiritual or religious in anyway. I don't even like to subscribe to any particular philosophy really. If I had to label myself, it would be: fallibilist. I guess the truth is, I'm worried how I will spend the rest of my life if nothing grabs me or vice versa. I want to be happy in a job or profession that carries me to the end, I want to do something I love, but the word barely holds weight for me.

Most things that people would call achievements feel empty to me; I am a college graduate, I play music in a band, have designed webpages, have held successful jobs related to what I studied in school, have good friends, family, etc. While I am grateful for all of these accomplishments, and recognize how privileged I am, everything feels like it has always been some sort of weird expectation. I mean no one has forced me to do anything, but I can't really say that I have wanted anything that badly, and think I would still be fine if none of it happened; Though I suppose that is hard to imagine.

Maybe I feel this way because I have been so spoiled. I have always felt safe, have never experienced "tough times," or have never been really depressed. If I'm in between jobs I can always move back with mommy and daddy who live close in the same city. I almost want something terrible to happen, just to see if I can get through it.

Anyone have similar feelings, experiences, existential crises? What did you do to ease your mind? Or simply, what is your passion?

Apologies for the book, but to conclude, I offer a quote from the movie Adaptation (may have been taken from the Orchid Thief, not sure):
"I suppose I do have one unembarrassed passion. I want to know how it feels to care about something passionately."

Help?

Human Rights Inquiries from Work

Raynyn — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:39:23 -0800

Can an employer discipline you for making calls to Human Rights on work time? If you feel you are being discriminated against at work, do you think it is acceptable to contact the Human Rights Commission during work time? If you feel you are being discriminated against at work, do you think it is acceptable to contact the Human Rights Commission during work time? I live in Canada, and I made a couple of calls to the Human Rights Commission when my employer was changing my duties and threatening to fire me following a medical leave. I also sent my employer an email responding to a request they had made for extensive medical information, which I believed to be beyond what was legal. My employer argues that it was not legal to make these phone calls or send them emails regarding my medical issues and return to work during their time. Are they right?

Should I tell him?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 06:57:16 -0800

I found out about his daily porn habit. It didn't bother me at first, but now it's beggining to hurt. He doesn't know I found out and I didn't tell him I know. When I first found out (unintentionally), I didn't think much of it. And then I realized he does it every day. And hides it from me, and pretends that he is doing something else when I enter the room.
He isn't that much into computers, and I think he found out only recently how accessible porn videos are, and now he is obsessed. And he isn't just a curious teenager, we are both grown-ups.

I understand that watching porn has little to do with the other partner or relationship. I watch porn too, when I'm too stressed, or when I procrastinate, or when I'm horny and he is not around. It doesn't mean much to me, and I do it maybe once a month. He does it every day. He has a secret world he enjoys, and hides it from me, every day. I cheated on my last boyfriend (not him) and I know that's the way cheating feels like.

Although we cuddle a lot, our sex life is virtually non-existant. I thought that he just isnt that into sex, and now I see that he is very into sex, but quick porn is probably easier? I've tried to include more sex - it didn't change his habit.

What hurts me the most, I think, is that I can feel that he wants me to leave the room so he can watch porn. And the second I'm out, he goes online. It hurts me so much to see that.
That's the guy I'm supposed to marry.

I'm not sure if I should tell him how he makes me feel. I'm sure he will be embarassed, and possibly defensive. And I'm sure, since he is a nice and shy guy, that he will be too embarrased to watch porn at home again, or when I'm around (and I don't leave house very often). And I'm afraid that he will resent me for taking something from him that he obviously enjoys. But I'm so sad when I leave the room and I know what is he going to do next... it is so sad that someone you love doesn't want you to be around. Will this pass? should I tell him? Or should I just wait a bit?

Can I Get In Trouble Regarding My Donation of a Human Skull?

Modus Pwnens — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:32:27 -0800

SkullCourierFilter- My fiancee's family had a human skull that her father had somehow procured. I donated it to our school and they said they may have to report it to the police. Do I have anything to worry about? The skull is clearly some sort of archaeological artifact. It is varnished and had some partially erased writing on the top of it detailing where (we believe) it was dug up, and by whom it was dug up. My fiancee's father (the original possessor of the skull) who passed away quite a while ago, left it with some friends who were moving. They passed it back to to my fiancee's family, who were creeped out by the prospect of having a human skull in their home, so I agreed to be its caretaker.

My fiancee called up the anthropology department at my university, and they agreed to accept it as a donation. They said they believed they might have to report it to the police, and I told them that was fine and I left my information in case I needed to be contacted.

My feeling is that since I haven't done anything wrong (and certainly haven't killed anyone and kept their skull!), I don't have anything to fear from the law. Am I wrong in believing that?

How to be a happier/less-worrier person?

red_rika — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 05:59:19 -0800

How to be a happier/less-worrier person? I have been a worrier all my life, stressing about stupid stuff. I think this is partially part of my low self-esteem which i believe comes from my small dick.

Life is sometimes so hard for me when i think about sex. I do not know how am i gonna show my dick to my gf. lol

Anyway, putting that aside, I wanna be a happy-go-lucky guy who does not worry about any single things then he sees. Could my worrying habit is caused by my bad sleepy habit (sleep around 5 am and wakes up at 2pm) and lack of exercise?

Having problems with dating, feeling anxious, meeting new people.. It's mostly meeting their friends and family..

0217174 — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:46:07 -0800

I'm having the same problem as the poster below me "Help me deal with high stakes situations.." (BTW I read all those responses too). Like her it happens with meetings, people with authority, friends and dating. But, I'm a guy, and the only part I really care about is how it effects friends and dating. The rest I can live with.. I guess the reason I point out that I'm a guy is I think I do have that feeling the guy is supposed to be more cool and collected.. If I'm out on a date, and she's totally relaxed and normal, and I'm the one who's mind's going blank.. I don't know. I guess, I'm fine with that.. but I admit I start to think, but what if she's not?? I know there's all kinds of people, girls that are fine with it, some aren't.. But usually you can tell which is which. But I've dated a lot where I couldn't really tell. I met lot of girls who give off this shy loner vibe or something which I admit makes me feel a lot more secure around them, only to find they're life is way different than what I was expecting.

So it's not really *her* that gives me these feelings. It's more her life and her type of friends and family. The problem I always run into is I'll meet someone and at first I totally connect to them, we have this thing between us, and everything's all good.

But one day, something just happens that really points out our fundamental difference. It happens when I start meeting her friends and family. I won't talk and get really quiet around them.. and in some way it makes whatever we had between us disappear. It's like I sense her attraction go downhill when she realizes I'm like this, and I feel like crap cause I feel like there's something "small" about me, like this inability to connect or feel comfortable with certain kind of people. Like I have this fear of "TV show" kind of families. And for some reason lot of girls I dated ended up having these kind of families. I have this phobia of them all being together after I leave and saying to her "nehhh" and everyone laughing and her being like what was I thinking.

But in reality that's never happened to me. It's just an irrational fear I have. So whenever I date, I'll only date if I really know her beforehand, and know how her life outside is.. if I sense anything that she has those kind of friends or family I'll totally back out. I hate being this way.. it's totally controlled my life and dictates my entire social being. Can't tell you how many people I lost because of it.

I'm not sure if my problem is I just need to "get over it" or if there's something more to it. I feel like I'm being a baby and can't grow up and so I can't express this to anyone. I pretend to be so secure and confident because everyone around me is totally fine and normal. I feel ridiculous, like in terms of social life I'm at a high school level trying to play in the NBA. That's how I feel. As I get old it becomes less acceptable to still be going through these issues. I don't expect you guys to give me the magical answer here, just do me a favor, make no mention of the word "therapy" please ;) And also, don't say.. "but that's what you need". If I start thinking of pulling out my glock 9 from the closet, I'll post back here and u guys can drill me.. but until then..

~thanks!! (I know that was long.. sorry)

IT grad schools for those with no IT background?

NeoLeo — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:02:21 -0800

Is there any Master's degrees for students pursuing an IT field with no background in IT? I'm interested in a career in Human Factors/Human-Computer Interaction, but have a degree completely unrelated degree to that field. I've been looking at options to get into that field, including having considered getting a second bachelor's degree (which is mostly what my previous AskMe question was about).

To get into various HCI programs (I'm particularly interested in the Carnegie Mellon program), I'd need at least some extent of programming background and/or some cognitive psychology background. So I can either work and teach myself at the same time, or go to school... and honestly my current degree won't get any good jobs anytime soon so I prefer the school route.

One option I discovered recently was UPenn's Master of Computer and Information Technology (MCIT) program. It's a Masters program designed for people with no IT background trying to get an IT education. Do you know of any other programs that are like it?

I've tried Googling/doing internet research to find similar programs, but haven't been able to come up with anything. It would also take quite a long time to individually look up every school that offered computer science graduate programs. Thanks for any help.

Make my urls purty!

drjimmy11 — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:01:08 -0800

What's the best way for me to create human-readable urls for a Wordpress site? So I've taken a job converting a very static site to one that will use Wordpress as a CMS. A couple of key points up front:

1) We are 100% committed to using Wordpress. Thanks for respecting this.
2) I will NOT be making use of any wordpress theme or allowing users to go to any Wordpress pages at all. We are using it as a CMS on the backend, and on the frontend I will write custom php pages and queries to display what i want to display.

The site as it stands now has 1000s of articles in totally flat html pages. We want to get away from that for obvious reasons. My inclination is to create one page to use over and over again, so where the old url would've been like:

www.thesite.net/article_name.html

the new url would look like:

www.thesite.net/article.php?id=124

two issues with this:
1) the site is quite popular, so a lot of people have probably bookmarked old articles and I dont want those links to die when we remove all the flat html pages.

2) I would prefer people to see human-readable urls rather than ugly querystrings.

My first instinct would be to create a big redirect file (301), sending every old article url to the new format. This addresses point one but not point two, since after the redirect the user would still see the ugly url, right? (if not, please enlighten me!)

My other thought is to use the "ugly" article.php as an include inside a wrapper, so create "article_name.php" which contains nothing but a variable for the article id and a copy of the include which takes in that variable. problems with this are a) we still clutter up our server with 1000s of files, and b) I have non-tech people messing with code and ftp, which i'd rather not.

So, what is the solution? How does mefi get those awesome clean urls like "http://ask.metafilter.com/107722/Batch-Adding-Text-File-Name-to-JPEG-Images"?

I'm guessing "107722" and "Batch-Adding-Text-File-Name-to-JPEG-Images" are some sort of aliases and not literal folders on the server. Is this something automated that is beyond the power of Wordpress? I hope not.

thanks!