Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with lists

How can I get all residential addresses in a single town?

crapples — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:44:35 -0800

How can I get lists of all residential mailing addresses for a single town in the USA? I have a project that will require a one-time mass mailing to every resident in a single, very small (population < 500), town in the United States. How can I get a listing of every residential address in the town of interest?

Bonus points if it's free! Half-points and a congratulatory thumbs-up if it's cheap.

Thanks.

If you like it then you should have put an egg on it

CharlesV42 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:48:46 -0800

What foods are commonly (or rather, uncommonly, i.e. not necessarily breakfast foods) served with a fried or poached egg? Making a list of foods that sometimes come with eggs on them. Any and all would be appreciated. So far:

- Corned Beef Hash
- Bi bim bap
- Pizza
- Hamburger
- Pasta carbonara
- Croque Madame
- Fried rice (sort of)
- Ramen

Any more delicious ideas?

How do I compare these lists?

sineala — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:30:28 -0800

I have two lists of numbers. I would like assistance creating some kind of program or method to output a list of all numbers that are present in one of these lists but not the other. This is not a homework question. No, really. I promise. So I have two very long lists of numbers. Currently they are sitting on my computer as Excel spreadsheets, but I can export them to whatever format is necessary. Both lists are made up of integers, ascending, though never actually consecutive numbers, if it matters.

List A has approximately 4000 unique entries, and is the list I'm starting from.

List B is a list of about 8000 entries I made up by squishing together a bunch of smaller lists I had made from List A. There are a lot of duplicate entries in List B, which I haven't removed (partially because I'm not really sure how to). So there are many numbers that are present multiple times in List B.

I am absolutely positive that there are numbers in List A that are nowhere in List B, and I want to know what they are. It would be extra awesome if they were printed out in such a way that I or it could easily add some HTML links surrounding them, blahblah.com/printnumberhere.html -- the numbers are actually parts of URLs I want to access.

I was thinking perl would be a great way to solve this task, and I googled and got several solutions involving grep and/or comparing arrays. My perl skills, alas, have atrophied to the point where I can no longer tell how to make these given solutions mesh with the really basic parts of coding that I have forgotten. For example, I wouldn't know how to get this data in in a usable form. Comma-separated, perhaps? And then I somehow stuff it in an array? I don't even remember how to read from a file. My perl skills fail me. And with the amount of data I have, I'd hate to do it wrong and, say, end up with an incomplete list of the unique numbers.

Or if there's an easier solution that totally hasn't occurred to me (some kind of Excel macro? I have Office '04), that would be excellent too. I'm running OS X 10.3.9, which will probably limit my nifty programming language options somewhat. Thanks for any help you can provide!

Then I can cross finding this off my list.

lucyleaf — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:17:31 -0800

Help me find the website/youtube vids of this handwritten to-do list methodology, please! I can't remember it and can't find it in my saved links. The name of the website/methodology doesn't have "lists" in the name, and I think that's what's keeping it just out of my sight.

The general idea behind it is keeping a notebook dedicated just to written to-do's. You scan over all your to-do's and do only what appeals at the moment. You cross off what gets done and keep adding to your list. There isn't really discussion of breaking down tasks, listing projects vs next actions, etc. Very simple stuff. I remember there being a youtube video interview with the guy who came up with this. A white guy in his 50s (maybe?) who had a British accent (I think?).

This sounded *genius* to me at the time. I've forgotten about it and recently thought about it again. I spent the weekend looking for it on my home laptop with no luck.

(Ahem, I just realized that all the effort going into finding the website, rather than just doing the methodology, is a form of procrastination. But still...)

I ran across it in March, and it may have been linked from someone's blog. I've searched through my links and through productivity blogs I frequent and haven't had much luck. Ring a bell for anyone?

back and forth and back again

parallax7d — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:28:27 -0800

I'm going through a spreadsheet or a hand written list which requires me to check off each item as it's completed (common boring, repetitive work). I find that the process of switching back to that original list and checking/crossing out/deleting each item as it's done is the most time consuming part due to the context switch (having to move your eyes to a different interface/screen/paper). Are there any tricks (ruling out additional data entry to consolodate the data into a single interface) to minimize or eliminate this inefficiency?

Organise daily reports

trashcan — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 03:22:26 -0800

Help organising complex, daily changing list Basically the task is to prepare a list of information related to a series of people. Each day new people will come along and be assigned to a leader, each person may stay for one, two, three days or longer but there is quite a high turnover.

Each person has a series of information that needs to be recorded and detailed notes under about six different categories.

At the end of every day, a document is prepared to pass out to all team members with this updated information on, and the leaders also receive a document with just there people on it.

At the moment this is being done in Word, but seems quite a long winded process. Does anyone have any suggestions of a better method of updating and providing this information

What is the best list of Science Fiction books?

samuel1613 — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:57:51 -0800

Show me the Best Online Science Fiction book list... Not a title, but a list! Since I have limited time, I like to read the "best" of whats out there in a genre, I so far have read these recently in Sci Fi:
Slaughterhouse, Snow Crash, 1984, Neuromancer, Ender's, Dune,
2001, Foundation, Stranger, Do Androids, Clockwork, etc. (these may or may not be the best in your opinion)

Now I'd like metafilter to do what it's designed for, create a list of lists! I really want to know where I should go to find the list of the top sci fi books of all time, the last 100 years, the list of the most awarded, whatever. Please don't give me what you think is the top book, there are plenty of threads regarding this, I want a "true" metafilter a "list of lists" the list of top sci fi books lists. Then I can use those to make my selections. Also if you have a reason why this list is the best list to use, that would be appreciated.

I can hez organizeyshun?

GrooveStix — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:36:51 -0800

Help me find a website/software for making lists about interests like music, movies, books, etc. I make lists about things that I am interested in, kinda like to-check-out lists for movies, music, books, etc but at the moment I am quite disorganized about it. For movies I use imdb, for music I bookmark whole bunch of artist pages from allmusic.com, for books I use amazon's wishlist, and for games I keep a simple text file with the list within. As you can see, this is quite annoying to keep track of, and I'd like to use a centralized location that will work with most if not all interests. It could be a software, or it could be a website, I really don't care. I've tried listal.com and that seems like an answer to what I need, but the site is too clunky and a facebook/myspace wannabe, and I really don't need all those features.

Do you know what could I use?

Displaying inline lists with two lines of content

bjork24 — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:51:49 -0800

CSS Emergency: This seems so simple, but yet everything I've tried is failing. How in the world can I make an unordered list containing a thumbnail and caption display inline?! It's as simple as this:

1. I have an unordered list
2. Each list item contains a small thumbnail and a two word caption
3. I'd like it to display the caption below the thumbnail

I need the list items to display inline, but when I tell it to do that, the caption displays to the right of the picture. If I add a br between the two, it screws up the entire list. If I throw in a div around the caption, it does the same thing... as does span and any other inline element. Floats won't work, b/c I need these to center themselves inside a parent element.

Please tell me I'm overlooking something incredibly obvious. Here's an image example if I'm not making myself clear. Thanks!

How can I generate a text list of image filenames and dimensions on OS X?

joshwebb — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:28:12 -0800

How can I generate a text list of image filenames and dimensions on OS X? I have about 150 images and I would like to generate a tidy little text list of these images' filenames and dimensions (in pixels.)

Ultimately this will be uses to populate an XML file for use with an image gallery, if that helps at all.

I'm just trying to avoid having to manually write out each individual width and height.

I'm running Leopard (10.5.6) and have access to Adobe CS4 software, but as far as I can tell this isn't possible with something like Bridge and Googling has failed me.

Any ideas?

How to create an interest-based survey that groups users/discussions based on matches?

dael — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:29:16 -0800

I'm looking for help in finding good examples of interest surveys for social sites that match a user to a group/other users based on interest survey results (very much like StumbleUpon process but its focused on matching sites I might like). I'm looking for best practices, too, to decide on hierarchy structure (what is a considered a top level and second level category). The idea is providing ~30 "top level" interest areas that also allow a user to go deeper, if they choose, to sub categories that are more specific. (Example 1: top level category Entertainment, subcategories celebrities/gossip, gaming, internet, movies, music, books, etc. Example 2: top level category TV shows, subcategories Family Guy, Heroes, the Office, Dancing with the Stars, etc). Once a user selects their interests they will be matched to other users/ discussion groups based on matches with other users. Any examples of sites that do this (other than StumbleUpon, which does a great job) are greatly appreciated.

The Kinky Wizards on 180 gram vinyl?!

Bageena — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 08:00:48 -0800

I'm building a record collection, and I want opinions on the records every audiophile and music lover should own. I'm looking to legitimize, to some degree, my mp3 collection by building an incredible and diverse vinyl collection. I actually started this hobby about two years ago, and I'm quickly approaching owning 200 records, but I'm starting to run out of ideas. I have all kinds of music spanning decades and genres: everything from Nirvana's Nevermind to The Beatles' White Album. I love underground hip hip and own records by Atmosphere, Del the Funky Homosapien, and Aceyaalone. I have a lot of classic rock, including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Eric Clapton. I have and love indie artists like Rilo Kiley, Mates of State, and The Mountain Goats
I need more ideas though, and I want recommendations for albums that I might not have heard of or records that, on a whole, are either cool because they are rare or unique in some way. For instance, I'm trying to find a copy of Beck's rare Mellow Gold record on gold colored vinyl, Tool's Aenima, and The Flaming Lips' Soft Bulletin, all pricey and hard to find... and RAD!
Blues, Jazz, old Country - whatever you like and treasure but on vinyl. Other record collectors - what albums in your library do you cherish? Help me build a Christmas wishlist!

Where can I get a comma or space-separated list of major U.S. cities?

bflora — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:06:37 -0800

Where can I get a comma or space-separated list of major U.S. cities? I'm trying to add a "city" filter to a social-y site I'm building. I need to load a list of cities into the DB to populate the filter dropdown. Google's pointed me to a lot of ugly tables, I just need a space or comma separated list to feed into the beast. I'm thinking the top 100 cities or so would do the trick. No need to be exhaustive. Suggestions?

Is there a Yellow Pages for blogs?

Kibbutz — Wed, 21 May 2008 11:09:20 -0800

What's an easy way to efficiently find and contact many different bloggers at once? I have a web app/site that may be of interest to bloggers/sites, both to write about and to use on their respective sites. I'd like to let them know about it, but I'm not sure how to get the information to them. I'm familiar with Technorati's Top 100, but I'd like to find a scalable way to reach them and the next 900 or so on the list.

Help me fill in the vowels: BTQSTD

querty — Sun, 18 May 2008 00:09:42 -0800

I make a fairly large monthly to-do list, usually a few words per task. But I omit the vowels for each word and put a dash for spaces, example: "RFLL-CLLNG-CRD" would be "REFILL CALLING CARD", here's one I can't solve... BTQSTD is one from a while ago. I can't remember what it is; just can't figure it out. Maybe I missed a dash or maybe the words are ones not found in a dictionary.

Help me be more anal

afu — Thu, 08 May 2008 23:23:09 -0800

I want to be better at making to do lists. Everybody I know who is successful and productive seems to make a lot of to do lists. I hardly ever make to to do lists and when I do I tend not to look at them after words. I would appreciate tips on how to make lists that are useful, and any applications that make list making useful. Please keep in mind that I am the opposite of anal retentive, so motivation in keeping the lists organized and up to date is a major problem for me.

Getting a ToDo List Manager is on my ToDo List

willmize — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:05:50 -0800

There seems to be a million different online and software based To Do List and Project Management applications, and my brain is tired of trying to figure out the difference between them. It's the bells and whistles that get to me. Help me find the one that fits! Here's a description of my perfect application:
1) I have Project A, B, C, D, E through infinity. There should be no limit to the number of projects I can have.
2) I have Tasks assigned to each Project that need to be done in a certain order to complete that project.
3) The ability to look at one Project in detail, see all Tasks and be able to makes notes on each task.
4) When I log in or fire up the app, I want to see a list of all projects, along with *just the current task waiting to be accomplished.* I get overwhelmed easily when I see a list of 20 to 30 tasks for just one project. I just want to see the one task I need to focus on now. For example, I could have Project A - Task 4, Project B - Task 2, Project C - Task 8, etc.
5) When I check off that task (let's say Project A - Task 4), the next one comes up - the next time I log in, instead of showing Project A - Task 4, it would show Task 5.
6) I would LOVE for this to be an online application and therefore independent of operating system. Bonus points for the ability to be able to drag and drop to reorder Tasks and prioritize Projects. Also bonus points for the ability to group Projects according to similarity (writing, home improvement, fitness and diet, vacation planning, car maintenance, etc)
7) If it's software based, it needs to fit on a thumb drive and be cross-platform, as I have a PC at work and a mac at home.

I've looked at Remember The Milk, Vitalist and TaDaList but don't think they fit the bill for the above.

I hope I've been specific enough and hope this question might also help others whose brain works similarly to mine.

Thanks so much for your help.

help my diary become dear to me

lucyleaf — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:54:04 -0800

Personal journal-keeping - something I've wanted to be consistent with, but haven't. So, what works for you journalers to keep you journaling or at least keep coming back to journaling? For me, I just sometimes feel uninspired to write or overwhelmed by things I want to write. This thread has some great ideas for journal entries based around questions or logging what worked for your day. I like the idea of making lists of things - whether it's specific to things I'm grateful for or something else. What other questions/ideas/ponderings have gotten you to put pen to paper?

How do you keep track of these ideas so you can refer to them when you journal?

Do you go back and read over your journals?

I know too that part of this is making a personal commitment and devoting time on a consistent basis. I have a feeling, though, if I find inspiration, a journal will become indispensable once I get into it.

Okay, I'm stumped.

InsanePenguin — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 17:39:12 -0800

Scriptfilter: I want a list of filenames dumped into text file and put somewhere. How!? Okay, so I've gotten religious about backing up my HDD, but I don't waste the space backing up my applications, aside from a few important ones. Instead, I'd prefer just a list of the files inside my Application folder so I can go and download them if I need to.

Soooo, is there any way that I can write a script that will 1) grab the names of all the files in a specific folder, 2) dump all the file names into a text file (or similar,) and 3) save that folder where ever I so choose.

I'm on a Mac, if it matters at all (AppleScript, or whatnot)

What else can be sensed passively?

viewofdelft — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:13:28 -0800

What else can be sensed passively? Help me construct a list of things that can be sensed passively by machines. I came up with a list of the more obvious subjects of passive sensing, including:

smell
touch
taste
sound
location
motion
pressure (e.g. of the air and blood)
temperature
levels of certain gases (e.g. CO2 levels)
humidity
seismic activity
electromagnetic radiation (e.g. just about everything else I could imagine)

Help me fill in the obvious while also providing the more obscure, such as wireless networks (which, admittedly, may be categorized as electromagnetic radiation). What other things can be sensed passively by machines?

Superdeluxe Automatic portmanteaus

The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 01:50:18 -0800

I want to make a couple of lists . It's a pretty simple format, but I have no idea how to go about it. Here's the format I'm going for: I need to make portmanteaus. I want put in two source lists, of words or word parts, and come out with every possible portmanteau they will make. Here's an example, as that will probably help (no, this is not the real source data).
List A:
Super
Mega
Ultra

List B:
awesome
cool
deluxe

Output:
Superawesome
Megaawesome
Ultraawesome
Supercool
Megacool
Ultracool
Superdeluxe
Megadeluxe
Ultradeluxe

I need the output to be a text file, and I'm open to pretty much any solution that's easily automated. I have access to MS Office (on both systems), a PC runnning WinXP, and a Mac running OSX and Automator, but nothing else relevant (I don't think). I have no programming experience (no quick but messy way, sorry, as i'm up to about 100 words/wordparts on each list, and that's way too much to output manually.)

So how do I do it?

How to get google apps to like me again.

filmgeek — Sat, 05 May 2007 21:46:25 -0800

Google Apps: I transfered my URL from one registrar to another. Google apps (hosting) isn't working. Based on my earlier question, I moved my URLs all to one host (godaddy) where I could modify my MX and CNAME records (without having to pay for that right.)

But, one of my domains uses Google Apps (google.com/a) for it's email, and obviously, after the transfer, it's not responding.

What I want it to do is to ask me to verify again, and tell me what the mx records should be set to. I'd go to google's help (for google's apps), but it's mostly a google group where nobody seems to respond. They want me to pay for the Pro version, which I don't need (but I'm tempted to sign up and then quit after this is solved.)

Just as a tack on - is there any way to host an 'announce only' list with google, from my hosted domain (vs. google groups?)

Topical movies?

hampton — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 14:49:24 -0800

I am looking for movies about summer camp, movies about people lost at sea, movies about private school, and movies about World War I. Thanks for any suggestions.

Can lists be copyrighted?

null terminated — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 23:49:26 -0800

Can lists be copyrighted? Could I, for example, reproduce a list of Time's Top 100 movies on my website? I can't find any info online. Thanks.

Best of the best movies lists?

ztdavis — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 23:52:33 -0800

So I'm a fan of movies. A little over a year ago I watched the top 100 of IMDB's top 250. I enjoyed almost all of them. I've since looked through many other lists, but I can't decide if any of them are worth working through (although I have seriously considered the writer's guild's top 100 screenplays). Are there any other lists out there that any of you have enjoyed? Are there any I should particularly avoid?