Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with internet and software

Pros & Cons of bringing web development in-house?

MeatLightning — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:33:22 -0800

Pros & Cons of bringing web development in-house? Hi all -
I manage a mid-size e-commerce website. We currently work with an agency to build and maintain our site. We are considering hiring a dev (C# / .NET, SQL) and taking over development... or at least much of it (still may go out of house for UX, front-end dev).

Anyone have any advice, experiences, warnings, etc they can share?

Have you gone down this road? How did it go? What should we watch out for?

thanks in advance!

Turn up the radio

CodeMonkey — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:25:24 -0800

What is the best software for recording streaming AM radio stations? There are late night shows on, some that have podcasts but some that don't. I want to 'set it and forget it' and have the results in an mp3 format.

Alternate blogging set ups?

Alexandra Kitty — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 08:53:54 -0800

Are all blogs linear scrolls or is there someone out there who presents entries differently (allow for shuffling of posts or presents it like iTunes presents your selection)? I am trying to find some other way to present my web site -- I knew of someone who was trying to use artificial intelligence with the blog model and got in touch with them, but that fizzled out. I had my fill of that set up -- it's extremely limiting, especially if what you write isn't dated...

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!

Event Planning software for DJ

lifeofthunder — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:51:32 -0800

What is a decent event planning website/software solution for a mobile DJ company? I've tried Event Planner and DJ intelligence, and quite honestly, they both (along with almost every DJ company's website I've ever seen) have the usability of a stick in mud. Aren't there any web 2.0 solutions for this kind of thing? I'd prefer something that integrates well into a website that I control- maybe something that can connect to Google docs?

Thoughts, hive mind?

The software, it does nothing! Or does it?

Iosephus — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:36:03 -0800

cFosSpeed internet accelerator: worth the fuss/money? cFosSpeed claims to smooth/quicken your internet connection, particularly over such temperamental beasts as USB mobile 3G modems, which would be my intended use. Anyone has tried it? Does it work? Is the techincal basis for this thing sound or is it nonsense or worse?

How safe is P2P?

The Ardship of Cambry — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:04:28 -0800

How worried should I be about the recent rash of stories in the mainstream media about P2P software being used to commit identity theft? For instance, this article about medical data being found on P2P clients like Gnutella. Or this one about a family's financial data making its way onto LimeWire.
I have no experience with these particular clients, but I have used Grokster and Morpheus back in the day. Is it really possible for someone else to download your files if you haven't taken a positive action to indicate that you want to make specific files available? Is this just a case of people who are even less l33t than yours truly not understanding how P2P software works and/or having lousy security on their computers? Or is this just another case of the MSM trying to mess with my head?

Learning Ruby on Rails 2.0?

BoldStepDesign — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:02:51 -0800

Foreword: No ruby background aside from basic tutorials. Here's the deal. I've tired the Agile Web Dev (2nd edition) book for rails, very out of date. I need to learn something. I want to learn ruby on Rails. I've gone through the Rails guide on creating a rails blog (http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started_with_rails.html). So, rather then buy it now (3rd edition of book as beta) or just wait, I want to get on the fast track to learn rails 2.2 (soon to be release 2.3) . Basically I'm looking for a online resource super cheap or free that provides quality information relating to rails and ruby. Help and suggestions welcome

Help me block some software and some internet at some times.

If only I had a penguin... — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:59:31 -0800

I would like to find software that will restrict both software use and access to particular internet sites (by whitelist or blacklist) based on the time of day. I would like to be able to set my computer so that during particular hours in the week it will not run particular programs. Further, I would like to keep internet access always available, but during some hours I would like to either restrict it to certain web sites or block certain websites *cough*metafilter*cough*.

I found Chronager in a previous AskMe, but that either blocks the internet all together or blocks particular programs from accessing the internet. It doesn't seem to allow one program (firefox, explorer, etc.) to access the internet but only for particular sites. Ideally said software would be non-trivial to override (more than a ctrl-alt-del).

I'm thinking software designed for parental computer filtering and monitoring is my likely best bet. I'm not looking at router solutions because I would also like to block non-internet-based programs. I am willing to pay for such software.

Yes, I realize I'm looking for a technological solution to a social problem and that no technological solution will be perfect. Please help me find an imperfect solution anyway.

Need a Beefy Site-Map Generator

Willie0248 — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:16:46 -0800

Attention Web Folk: I'm looking for a visual site-map generator, preferably cheap or free, that can handle an absolutely labyrinthine site. Details follow! I run a site that has thousands and thousands of pages, some of which are automatically generated. Because of of absent-mindedness or scripting errors, some of these pages have dead or misdirected links on them, or maybe I just forgot about them.

What I would like is a program that would go through and index all the pages in a visual (or at least nested) format; that is, it would show one page and show all the pages it links to, and then all the pages THEY link to, and so on. Basically something that I can skim through and see that, oh, this page has some bad links on it.

I have found a hundred different site map generators, but those all just list all the urls. I need something a little more informative!

Thanks Hive Mind!

Limiting internet time for teenagers

roshy — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 03:05:49 -0800

My teenage cousin is staying up too late on the internet and my aunt has asked me to help her limit how much time she is spending on it. It is very similar to this question which has come before. But I'm looking for a software solution. Now obviously any kind of program is NO SUBSTITUTE for parental supervision. Just to get that out of the way. I can't reasonably have any effect on my aunt's parenting style. She lives with the kid-- I'm just housesitting with her next week.

While I am there, my aunt has asked me to try limit my 14 year old cousin's internet time. It isn't the internet that is a problem-- it is the fact she is staying up past midnight chatting to her friends on msn and myspace. She's not getting up in the morning in time for school and is constantly late. My aunt is a single parent who tends to do late and early morning shifts so she's struggling to set appropriate time constraints/boundaries.

I'm coldhearted so I recommended unplugging the modem and taking it away but I don't think my aunt wants to set herself up for that battle. I tried to show her how to change permissions on the router using the other computer in her room, but she's unable to really grasp it. I think an automated program limiting internet access would be helpful as it is something that my aunt would not have any direct control over. If my cousin has a tantrum over her limited internet access, my aunt has no option to fold under the pressure. My cousin can't handle computers beyond internet explorer so I'm reasonably sure she would not be able to circumvent this. And if she did, well, at least she finally learnt something useful on the computer.

What I imagine would be best is software on the computer that would block the internet connection after 9:30 or some other arbitrary time on a weekday, and could possibly be controlled over the network using the other computer in the house. Does anything like this exist?

Thank you for any assistance.

Help me understand how the internet is changing software architecture.

lunchbox — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:32:19 -0800

Where can I find information on how the internet is changing the way software is delivered? I understand the basics of web apps, cloud computing, rich internet applications, web services, virtualization, and other current topics in software development, but I would like to understand these issues at a more technical/architectural level. For instance:

- What are the limitations on the user experience that HTML and AJAX can deliver over an internet connection? (e.g. network latency, the speed of JavaScript execution, GUI toolkits, online/offline issues, level of integration with operating system resources)
- How specifically will emerging technologies (e.g. Google Gears, Silverlight, Flex, JavaFX, AIR, new WiFi standards) mitigate these? What are the limitations of these new technologies?
- Why are some software application categories (e.g. image processing, IDEs) not suited to be moved to the web?

Where can I find a book or review article that discusses these and related issues in a way that is accessible to someone who has a computer science/programming background but doesn't have too much expertise in networking, operating systems, or graphics?

Looking for a CMS/web-based software to manage regional event listings.

c:\awesome — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:13:07 -0800

Looking for a CMS/web-based software to manage regional event listings. I'd like to build a site that lists car shows happening around the U.S. Ideally, I'd like to find a Wordpress-esque piece of software that can manage this for me, and offer things like Google Maps integration. Does such a thing exist, or am I going to have to roll this on my own?

How to stop torrents at work?

numlok — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:13:20 -0800

I'm sure this question will not make me the most popular student at the dance, but is there a way to identify (via IP) machines running BitTorrent clients within an internal network (ie. work)? My company has around 50 employees, and the old, "Please don't torrent at work" doesn't seem to be doing much good anymore. It brings our email and web browsing to a near standstill, and dropping by the "usual suspects" is not only tiresome, but doesn't seem to find all the sources of traffic any longer. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Diavlogs for the masses!

ecmendenhall — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:17:45 -0800

What's the best way to record split-screen video dialogues to post on my blog? I have recently grown enamored of the budget punditry of bloggingheads.tv, which features hour long conversations between wonky writers, bloggers, and thinkers that make for a refreshing alternative to TV talking heads. Each "diavlog" is essentially a glorified split-screen video chat session that appears to be recorded over Skype, iChat or similar, and later edited together.

But why should the upper echelons of the Web commentariat get to have all the fun? I'd like to create and circulate similar conversations on my own personal Internet, but I'm not entirely sure how to do so.

Unfortunately, Google only serves to confuse, thanks to the constantly changing terminology for video on blogs (am I looking for video blogging? Vlogging? Vodcasting? Video podcasts? Vlogcasting? Diavlogging? Streaming vlogocastalogs!?). All the results that do turn up don't seem to indicate a simple way to do split-screen interviews.

It seems easy enough to record an iChat session, edit it into a splitscreen video, and post it to a site like YouTube or Vimeo. But there are also loads of services offering simple video recording and hosting, many of which can even broadcast live. It's hard to believe none of them can do a split-screen chat between two users, or that a utility for something like this doesn't exist out there in the depths of the Tubes.

So what's the best way to bring bloggingheads-style punditry to the people? I use mostly macs, and I'm not opposed to doing this with iChat + iMovie or final cut or something, but I hope the hive mind can come up with some other ideas. Thanks!

A few questions related to Trance Music.

wildrain2008 — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 19:03:08 -0800

A few questions related to Trance Music. 1) What are the best clubs in NYC to listen to Trance, Progressive House and or Goa/Trance? Webster Hall used to have a rave room but that's dead..

2) I'm diving into the world of creating dance music myself, I got a few applications like Ableton Live and Floops, now I need a good starter keyboard. What's a good model that won't eat my wallet?

3) What is the biggest and the most up to date source for raves, and similar Trance music related events online today? Most of the stuff I find is from like 2005 and going back.

How can I create a social networking site?

lukeklein — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:39:51 -0800

How can I create a social networking site? I am in Southern California (Inland Empire/Orange County) and interested in building a social networking/message board/blog site along the lines of Sermo or Metafilter that isn't really about customizable media and meeting friends, as much as it is for people within a certain specialty, let's say the veterinary community, to share their ideas about their expertise with peers, receive newsletters relevant to their work, and ask for their peers' opinions or advice. I've come across several names like Elgg and Drupal, but I don't have the technical expertise to even recognize them as potential solutions to my problem!

Are their any open source programs and/or software firms that specialize in developing these types of platforms? Do I even need to go to a large firm, or is an individual software developer sufficient? How did the guy that created Facebook do what he did?

Just to be sufficiently clear, the features I am looking to enable on this site are:

Newsletters from the admin and notable writers of the industry
Anonymous polling of veterinarians' (members') opinions in current and relevant topics
blogs
Message boards
POSSIBLY a feature that allows individual vets to create friends lists of other vets they meet at conventions and locally, to facilitate their networking abilities.

If anyone here can direct me to someone that can work with me, I would be eternally grateful.

Collaborating On Music Live Over The Internet?

sparkletone — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:10:29 -0800

I want to collaborate in real time (or not far off) on some music with someone who lives far away from me. I am working on a project with someone in another country. We've traded files back and forth a bit. However, that's proven to be somewhat limiting for a couple reasons. If we can find a way, it would be better to set things up so that he can hear (and possibly even see) what it is I'm doing in something approaching real time.

I know I can route audio from whatever program I'm using in to Skype, but I think the sound quality when doing that would not be worth it. I also have a copy of Nicecast, and can set up a stream that the other person can listen to while we work. I've streamed DJ sets to small groups of friends before, but I kept the stream there relatively low-quality. So, I'm not sure what kind of sound quality I can get from a Shoutcast stream before lag becomes an issue on either end.

Does anyone have any suggestions for doing this sort of thing?

As far as seeing what I'm doing goes: Does anyone know of a good cross-platform way to show the other person what's on my screen? I'm on a Mac, which I know has built-in VNC stuff, but I've never tried to make that work over the Internet, just on my home wifi. Tips on doing that? Recommendations for PC VNC clients?

Don't you be talkin to him

dnthomps — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 07:27:44 -0800

What is the PC equivalent to Mac's Little Snitch, preferably freeware, and not an all-out firewall? Pretty straight forward...

Is there a blog platform that allows more than one entry to be "on top"?

duncantuna — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 19:43:01 -0800

Is there a blog platform that allows more than one entry to be "on top"? I write for a blog with a couple other people, currently using blogger.com. One of our problems is that we often trip over ourselves by posting serveral entries per day, bumping the most recent to the top, and others down. Often, this is not desirable.

We'd love to find a blog platform (service or software) that would allow a multi-column format. -- Sure, I've seen 2, 3, 4 column layouts, but every time, one column is for the posts, and the remaining columns are for "navagation" or other modules. -- That won't solve our problem.

I realize there may be other CMS platforms that could handle this more .. "newspaper" .. format. Whatever the solution, it would need to be simple to operate, add and manage posts. A blog format is desirable, as it's so simple to operate.

Is there a blog platform out there that allows for 2+ columns of posts?

Tonight I'm gonna blog like it's 1993

Kadin2048 — Wed, 30 May 2007 21:26:02 -0800

What blog/CMS software would you recommend that doesn't rely on MySQL or another database backend? So, I finally broke down and bought a vanity domain for myself, and I want to set up a small site there, just to provide occasional updates to my friends and family, and maybe host some other content that I want to share. It's nothing big, I don't expect much/any traffic, and I'm not looking to make money off of it.

I decided to go with Nearly Free Speech for hosting, because they offer a nice metered plan that only charges me for the bandwidth that I actually use, which is cool. But they (quite reasonably) charge extra for SQL processes. So I'd like to find some sort of simple CMS that doesn't require a database to run. PHP4 and CGI (all major languages incl. Perl, Python, Ruby) are both OK.

The only things that have turned up so far are FlatPress, which is a sort of WordPress clone that uses flat files, and Simple PHP Blog. Are there other packages that I'm missing? Has anyone ever used either one? How bad are they to set up? FlatPress seems a little light on documentation...at least compared to regular WordPress, which has a lot of 'Howto'-style documentation because everyone and their cousin seems to use it.

This question last August was about alternatives to popular blog packages that don't require complex coding, but I'm less concerned with that than I am in just avoiding SQL completely.

I don't care about anything very fancy, like the ability to use plugins or customize the style very much. I just want a way of throwing content up onto the site, without having to maintain, organize, and edit a lot of static HTML files. I don't really even care about comments, although they're a plus.

Maybe what I'm looking for really isn't "blog" software. Really, I just want some sort of management system, that avoids the static-HTML morass that I dread from my early-90s experiments with personal web sites. (I used to manage things by keeping a local mirror of the site, adding my content by hand, and then using an FTP client to sync the server's copy. It worked OK, but I want to be able to update from the road, without being tied to the machine with the local mirror.)

Anyway, I'm open to any suggestions, experiences, or anecdotes that folks would like to give.

Are there any essays or studies naming and analyzing the concept of 'freedom' as developed on the internet?

Lockeownzj00 — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:56:34 -0800

Are there any essays or studies naming and analyzing the concept of 'freedom' as developed on the internet? What I mean to say is, there seems to be a strain of ideology that is prevalent amongst serious Internet users: in this highly utopic fashion, it says that things "should" be free. Software "should" be free, operating systems "should" be free, filesharing "should" be free, music "should" be free*. My question is:

What is the source of this? Why are people so easily motivated to become part of it? How does it differ from political ideologies which are so similar and yet so reviled (communism/anarchism)? How has it inoculated itself and separated itself from the bad stigma of aforementioned ideologies?

I know there have been sociological studies on "da internet" before, but I'm looking for something particularly on this topic. If you've any ideas yourself, feel free to contribute.

*not that i disagree with any of this. i'd number myself with them. which is precisely why i want to know why i think this way.

How can I run my one-man software business from abroad?

csugden — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 13:45:04 -0800

How can I continue to operate my one-man software business while out of the country for 3 months? I've been preparing a piece of software which I'm almost ready to start selling. But I'm planning on going away on a long study trip abroad this summer, from late May to early September. This has been planned for a long time, and it's fixed. So how can I keep an eye on my business and make necessary changes?

I don't want to wait until I get back to launch. But I also don't want to be unable to update my website or do customer service or patch my code. I think I have a few options:
1. Internet cafes. Not fond of this idea because of security concerns, as I would want to be able to check on my sales and so on.
2. Home connection. I'll be staying with a host family (I'm going to France), and I have no idea whether they'll have the net and I don't want to be an annoying guest by hogging their net!
3. Public wifi. I would have to take my own laptop, but all my files are on it so I may have to do this anyway. Plus, I don't know whether there will be any hotspots where I'm going.
4. Get someone else to look after it while I'm away.

What do you think? If it was just email there wouldn't be a problem. I just don't want to find out there's a bug that really needs to be fixed and I can't do it for three months!

Opinions gratefully received. Thanks, Chris.

Wanted: Reliable porn blocking software for Mac OS 10.3.9

zombiebunny — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 10:22:21 -0800

Looking for reliable porn-blocking software for Mac OS 10.3. Help! Lucky me, my boyfriend's just admitted to an internet porn addiction. He's decided that the only way to avoid slipping up, while trying not to look at various porn sites is to put a filter on our Mac. I am having a really difficult time locating one via Google. I tried If2k, but when I've gone in to test, I kid you not, I can access just about every site out there, regardless of whether or not I specifically list the URL in the "bad URL" panel. Please spare me the porn isn't bad, he should be allowed to look at it....He's determined that it's a problem (and has been for the past 2 years...) that he can't tackle alone, so I'm just trying to help. Thanks for ANY advice that might help us out.

who watches the watchees?

luriete — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 12:07:52 -0800

Can anyone recommend easy to install, cross platform monitoring software for Mac OS X - that is, something that would allow a parent, employer or teacher to, from their PC, monitor the screen of a Macintosh? Will remote desktop do this? Is it relatively easy to install?