Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with notification

What are some cool things I should be doing with Growl?

chunking express — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:37:52 -0800

What are some cool things I should be doing with Growl? I just bought Prowl for my phone, so I've been thinking about how I use Growl again. I'm trying to think of cool things to do with Growl, beyond being notified when I get new mail. Anyone have any cool ass tips or tricks? (Previously)

Wanted: email notifier for outlook which only shows the sender, not the subject or message text.

BrokenEnglish — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 05:50:25 -0800

I am looking for an email notifier which only shows one thing: who the email was from. All the programs I've found which offer something like this also show the subject line, and often an excerpt of the message itself. My users (most of them teachers) object to this because often the subject is sensitive and will popup on a projector in front of a roomful of teenage boys. Hilarity ensues. I've tried to persuade them to not use subject lines like "Tommy's AIDS test" or "Meet me for lunch darling" but apparently this is unacceptable. I've looked at the configuration and filter options for Outlook 2003 but the subject line is always there, regardless. My Google-fu is not strong enough to find the answer myself, so I would appreciate any help you can offer.

admins: intelligent rate-limiting of error notifications?

zippy — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:55:28 -0800

I have a web service that generates errors. Currently, each time there's an error, it gets sent to an admin mailing list. Is there an open-source tool that will summarize repeated duplicate errors, rather than generating a separate notification for each? For example, say there are 100 'service foo threw exception bar' errors in a 15 minute window.

What I'd like to see is one initial 'service foo threw exception bar' notification, followed by a single second notification 'service foo threw exception bar repeated 99 times.'

This seems like it must be a solved problem, where there's a single 'sink' for all of the notifications from various services that can summarize duplicates and in doing so prevent alert fatigue (and enormous pager/SMS bills).

So I turn to the collective wisdom of ask.mefi - does this exist?

Change gchat tone?

[NOT HERMITOSIS-IST] — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:36:04 -0800

Is it possible to change the message notification tone in gchat? My partner and I have our computers in the same room, and when he gets incoming messages, the sound makes me think I'VE gotten one. It's distracting.

Is it possible to change the tone on my gchat so I have something distinctive to listen for? I've looked in settings but don't see anything.

How do I get email notification of changes/additions/deletions to a Google Calendar?

arathorn — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:32:42 -0800

How do I get email notification of changes/additions/deletions to a Google Calendar? I realize Google provides some notification support, namely, related to invitations, reminders, and a daily agenda. What I am looking for, though, is a way to set up email notifications for whenever events are added, changed, or removed in a calendar.

I don't think Google provides a way of doing this via the website, but I'm wondering if anyone has looked into doing this via a calendar feed or with the API.

I've checked the Google Group for Google Calendar and didn't find anything.

How much notice before winning a MacArthur grant?

JpMaxMan — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 09:56:26 -0800

When applying for a MacArthur grant, how much information do you receive along the way about your chances before they announce the winners? I am helping a friend with a MacArthur grant application. He is trying to secure the resources he is going to need if he gets the grant. The expectation is the project would kick of pretty immediately after winning the award. I am wondering if anyone else has ever been through this process and if they can, in general, share some insight; particularly as to how much notice you get if you're a semi-finalist, finalist, etc. to know if you should really start getting your team staged and ready to go.

Thanks!

Turn off repeated Google Notifier notifications?

Mo Nickels — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 12:11:52 -0800

How do I stop Google Notifier on OS X from notifying me repeatedly about an event? I just want the stupid things to come up once for each event, not every minute for ten minutes. I've clicked high and low to no avail. And I don't need that stupid red flag in the icon, nor the stupid green exclamation mark. Just give me one notification, let me click it away, and be done with it. Also, once the alerts have started, you can't go into the event and turn off notifications, which means you can't stop the stupid notifications that way, either. The only way I know to stop the notifications is to quit Google Notifier.

Outlook Taskbar Icon Go Bye Bye?

antifuse — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:09:45 -0800

Where has my Outlook New Mail notification on the taskbar gone? Ok - I'm using Outlook 2003 SP2 on my XP machine here at work. It *used* to be the case that whenever a new mail message arrived, a little envelope icon would show up in my taskbar. This was great, because if I left my desk for 20 minutes and a new mail arrived, I wouldn't have to switch to Outlook to see if I had any new mail. However, at some point in the last 6 months or so, this icon just stopped appearing! I still get the "New Mail Desktop Notification" that pops up a little message summary, but that fades and disappears after a couple seconds (and sometimes just doesn't show up at all). I've scoured the settings, and can't seem to find what causes the little icon to show up in the taskbar! Anybody have any ideas?

Blogger New Post E-mail Notification?

Roach — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 17:53:17 -0800

Automatic E-mail notification of new post in Blogger? It's tough to search for answers when one of the key terms is "Blogger".

I loosely administer a group (family) blog with roughly 50 members on Blogger. Sometimes we get 3 or 4 posts a day, and participation skyrockets. If 5 or 6 days go by without a post, the NEXT post receives very little interest.

Everyone has been encouraged to make visiting the blog a part or their daily Internet routine, but many of the (family)members are over 50.

I can't find any way to activiate email notification for each member when a new article is posted. There seems to be nothing in the limited Bloger FAQ either.

Does anyone know of a simple way to implment this? I mean, new members are ADDED based on their email address!

Looking for a simple web site monitoring tool

RedMosquito — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 14:48:39 -0800

I'm Looking for a simple windows-based web server monitoring tool (preferably free) that can sit and run (as a service would be nice) and ping a remote website at a pre-determined interval and just fire off an e-mail notification if it does not get a response. I checked out IPCheck but it does way more than I need. Any suggestions?

Help me be lazier but learn something in the process!

AllesKlar — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 09:09:06 -0800

Laundry status / notification system; Please help me find a creative, high/low tech way to retrofit the community washer and dryer with remote progress info I live in a building with 6 other residents (two flat + bsmt) and we all share access to a washer and dryer. This project is somewhat convenience / laziness / learning something driven. I was thinking about getting a couple LED's and mounting them on a conduit pole (or something similar) with an off / on possibly "running" status indicator. I don't really want to hack into the machines themselves, but it seems like I could put something between the outlet that would cause a green led to come on when the washer is in use, etc. This way the neighbors upstairs and myself don't have to trudge down the basement to check the status of our clothes. This would be especially helpful in the winter months. I realize I could set a timer, etc but that wouldn't advance my knowledge nor have the desired "coolness" effect. Any other creative solutions are heartily welcome, thanks!

DivorceFilter

Anonymous — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:17:03 -0800

My spouse and I are ending our marriage, and I would appreciate advice on how and when I should tell people.

We pretty much decided to do this a couple months ago, but I hadn't talked about it with anyone out of hope that we would reconcile. Recent events have made it clear that this isn't going to happen. Now I want to know how long I should wait before I explain what's happening to my child, family, friends, and acquaintances.

Tips on how I should raise the issue are also appreciated. Obviously telling my parents will require a different approach than telling, e.g., my boss. My spouse and I are both fairly introverted, and few of my friends are acquainted, so I can't count on this information spreading itself through any circle of friends. Without forcing anyone to chose sides or evoking pity, I am simply looking to minimize the inevitable awkwardness facing me.

I will definitely seek the help of a therapist, especially for guidance on how best to guide my first-grader (whose emotional well-being is most important to me) through this very difficult thing. However, I'm also interested in the input of anyone who has either been through this situation or know someone who has.

How do I stop XP from thinking this old program is newly installed?

caution live frogs — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 13:05:51 -0800

Stupid annoying WinXP question. I installed an older program I use for data analysis in my lab. Every time I click the start menu it shows up as a newly installed program, despite the fact that I've used it quite a bit. I want it to go away and show up as an old program, not highlighted like a new one. The only help I can find using my formidable Google-Fu is "Turn off new program notification". Well, I don't want to do that; I like to know if something new has been added to my machine. Anyone know how XP marks programs as newly installed, or highlighted, and how to turn this off on an individual entry basis rather than across the board?

Gmail and Windows. I want to be notified when new mail comes in.

vraxoin — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 08:16:01 -0800

gmail: i've been using it for a few weeks now and have made it my primary e-mail repository. The only thing it lacks for me, though, is the ability to be notified (on the Windows desktop) when new mail comes in. Anyone aware of software to handle this task?

Moving a Blog

amberglow — Sat, 28 Feb 2004 09:27:40 -0800

So I've finally switched isps, and have moved my blog to the new address...Is there any easy way to let everyone who has me on their bookmark list know? I don't know who or how many have me linked, for the most part. (Google shows my message about moving as the first link for "amberglow" so maybe i should just let everyone find me? The old blog url is dead already.) I'd been using sitemeter and can email each referrer individually but that's a pain, and won't catch everyone. Any suggestions?

TV Notification Service

frenetic — Tue, 03 Feb 2004 18:23:39 -0800

I'm looking for a TV notification service. Something that will email / (dare I dream?) IM me when shows I want to watch are on. Additional challenge: I need it to support Canadian satellite (ExpressVu) TV. Also suggestions on good online TV guides would be great as well. Right now I use Zap2it and it's okay but not very customizable.