Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with open

Something to get off my chest

Sully — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:07:23 -0800

If I strap a suitcase to my chest so that it's open, almost like one of those trays that an old-style 'cigarette girl' has, and walk on the street downtown, selling little odds and ends, is it legal? I wouldn't be selling cigarettes, maybe little handmade zines, candy, quirky items that you might find on Etsy. I ask this because in my head, this is kind of a grey area, legally.

I have googled garage sales, and in some places they want you to tell the city that you're going to have one, but in other places they don't care, or the law goes unenforced. But then the other day I passed these tables on the sidewalk downtown and the people there were looking for donations and signatures to shut down puppy mills and cruelty to animals. I asked them how it was they were just on the street outside this major dept. store and they told me that they had to apply to the city for a permit. Which leads me to think that I would need a vendor's permit too.

But then I think about the people who sell stuff on Craigslist, then meet in some parking lot to do the trade. Technically they are selling something too.

I guess what I am asking is, is it okay to sell stuff off your chest on the sidewalk if you are just walking along with the wares displayed on your chest-tray? Has anyone heard of such a thing before?

Excellent Online Classes

mike_bling — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:37:06 -0800

Which online course should I take next? What are the best free courses you've taken online? I'm really enjoying the English 291 course at Yale Open Courses posted to the blue a few weeks ago and I'm looking for suggestions for what to watch after I finish these. The subject matter is not as important to me as a good professor presenting brain-stretching material in an engaging way. Math, science, philosophy, engineering, history - I'm open to anything, but I want something that's going to help me to use some of the cobwebby parts of my brain. Audio-only is fine, too. I've browsed through UC Berkley's online offerings, Open Yale and MIT OpenCoursware, but there is a lot out there. Help me to narrow my options.
If it makes a difference, I'm a web developer, but I'm not necessarily looking for anything related to my field (although don't count it out either!)
(I didn't see this question posted previously, apologies if it has been)

[relationshipfilter] Suggestions on working within an open relationship (not including, get out of it)?

Anonymous — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:59:01 -0800

Offer me suggestions on my open relationship. I believe in it - but still feel a little weird about it. My partner and I have been together for four years now. We are one another's primary partner in terms of emotional relations - but we have essentially a don't ask/don't tell policy with regards to what we each do with other people. We both feel that monogamy works poorly as a universally imposed standard and feel that sexual monogamy is not important to either of us. We certainly don't believe that enforced monogamy "saves" a relationship that isn't going to work on all other counts - so we see no point for ourselves in enforcing it.

Our only rules are - if you have sex, have it safely; and if an outside relationship starts to impact what we have, you have to be forthright about it so we can work through it. We've discussed these issues on several occasions, and I firmly believe both she and I are on the same page about it.

My problem is, although I do honestly believe these things, there is some part of me (maybe linked to too much Disney viewing as a kid?) that feels that I'm doing something wrong if I start to think about acting on this policy - I haven't done so myself, yet, and I don't know whether she has. I think it is probably cultural absorption - but it makes me feel a bit badly. And then of course I feel bad that I'm not living up to what I believe in - at least, abstractly, I'm not down on myself because I'm not chasing hot ladies.

I'm also worried that, despite what I believe about monogamy, if these feelings continue to bother me, it might damage our relationship. I'm not worried about jealousy - thinking about things from her POV doesn't bother me at all.

I'd prefer no responses along the lines of "this is a sin" and "this can never work" - I respect that other people's opinions about whether this is OK to do will differ. But what I'm looking for is specific advice about how to deal with feelings I didn't expect - not lectures on my sinfulness or misguided-ness. (If you want to offer a detailed exposition of where I've mistaken something, that would be OK.)

If you have a relationship like this, do you get these feelings too? How do you work with them? Do you feel that your open partnership works for you? Or have you found that feelings of jealousy or guilt - wherever they come from - have gotten in the way, despite your best intentions?

Why can't I connect to my neighbor's open wireless network?

Sia Stewart — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:25:24 -0800

My downstairs neighbor has given me permission to connect to her open wireless network. The network looks unsecured, doesn't ask for a password, just tells me "unable to connect," except once when it seemed to connect but told me I had a weak or limited connection. The signal is strong. My laptop connects just fine to other networks, so I'm guessing there is some setting at her end that's stopping the connection. Any idea what it might be? She has no idea, but will probably make whatever change I ask her to. FWIW, I'm using XP on an HP machine. No idea what her set up might be.

Good WinXP sound recorder for bad eyes?

de void — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:25:59 -0800

What's a good Windows XP open source/freeware sound recorder that is easy for someone with vision deficits to use? Suggestions for a microphone also welcome. Details and... Stepdad's father will be doing a piano performance in a week. Stepdad will be flying with his Win XP notebook to attend and would like to record it, direct to MP3 if possible (but I can help him with .wav to mp3 conversion if necessary).

He has some significant vision deficits (nearly blind in one eye, huge amount of correction in the other) and uses the sight disability features in windows (large fonts, mouse pointer trails, screen magnifyer), so a complicated/cluttered interface would be a drag for him.

Money is an issue as well, so open source/freeware would be ideal.

Suggestions for a cheap-ish microphone with decent recording ability that travels well are also welcome.

Mmm, bagels...

firei — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:00:27 -0800

Thinking of opening up a bagel store in a town nearby where there are no bagel stores. Looking for tips, suggestions, advice, and name ideas! (First off, if you've read my previous questions, you know I'm a bit conflicted because in the past year I have graduated college, gotten two part time office jobs, and was thinking about becoming an english teacher. Sorry.)

Anyway. My father and I are pondering going into the bagel business. Yay! Before we decided whether or not this is a good idea, I am going to be getting some early morning work at a bagel shop, in order to figure out if I like it, what it really entails, and if it is feasibly for us to do. I'm also working on a business plan.

I've read a few accounts of the bagel business (like the self-proclaimed bagel guru's), and have a general idea of how it works.

If we do it, we will be using the kettling method, and we will be making them from scratch, not a starter.

And we'd be doing it on Route 6, in Carmel, NY, and the location is a good one - lots of parking, close to I-84, no other shops around, etc.

So, have you worked in, run, or owned a bagel shop?

What does your favorite bagel shop have or do that is different and awesome?

Do you have a fabulous bagel recipe?

Any other random bagel thoughts or recommendations?

And, bet of all, what clever/fun/interesting/descriptive names can you suggest? (or boring and standard, that works too!)

How can I download only Open Office Writer instead of the whole suite?

ptsampras14 — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:52:16 -0800

Can I download only OpenOffice Writer? I don't want the whole suite of OpenOffice..can i download only one program or pick and choose...like Writer and Calc (word and excel)

How do I create an online poll which users can permanently add to?

kmccormi — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:41:10 -0800

How can I create an online HTML form poll, preferably for free, wherein the list of multiple choices can grow when users decide to add to the list of choices? Many poll creators allow for the creation of multiple choice polls that give the viewer the option of selecting "other" with a text field for comments. However, usually this entry does not then become visible to viewers who visit thereafter.

I want my list of choices to be able to grow. If a user sees an existing choice that he likes, he can add his vote to that one, but if he doesn't see an existing choice I would like him to be able to add that choice permanently to the list. Any user who visits afterward will see his choice in the list and be able to vote for it.

I also would love for this poll to be clean, ad-free, and preferably embeddable into a blog or personal site. Does anything like this exist? Thanks.

Kerb-what?

liquado — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:14:25 -0800

Please hope an OS X/Open Directory/Kerberos n00b -- I can't reset the directory administrator's password in OS X Server 10.4. I'm helping a local school with some connectivity issues between their 10.4.11 server, and their swanky new 24" iMacs with 10.5.6; all kinds of permissions issues that are, according to Apple, related to an unconfigured DNS/Open Directory situation.

I know basic OSX Server configuration, but I am very unfamiliar with OD. I'm following these instructions from Apple successfully so far, but I'm hitting a brick wall were either:

a) someone has set the username/password for the diradmin user prior to my attempt to do so, or

b) the password has never been set, but the server is not allowing me to set said password.

Assuming the former, I found these instructions on resetting the diradmin password, but...I'm stuck at, "Open Workgroup Manager using your administrator username and password and navigate to the Open Directory Master node." I see no node. There's no node, dammit!

If it's the latter, any ideas why it will not allow me to set the password from the server admin OD panel? It asks for it to be set up each time, but doesn't appear to set it.

Any advice SUPERLY appreciated.

Large scale use of Linux on the desktop in organizations?

thewalrus — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:49:38 -0800

I'm looking for a list or reference to press releases/news articles about large corporations or government departments that have switched to Linux as a desktop platform. For example this week it was reported that the French police have 5,000 PCs running Ubuntu. I'd like to compile some kind of list of large organizations that have successfully replaced Win2000/XP on the desktop. Can anyone describe a real world example they have seen first hand?

I've read about significant uptake in Germany and in Brazil, and educational-specific Portuguese language specific versions of Linux. In the English and German speaking worlds I know that Novell and SuSE are making businesses out of this, so I'll check their PR archives as well...

French reference:
http://www.linuxreaders.com/2009/04/27/french-police-switch-from-windows-to-linux/

working with a corrupted XML file

sparrows — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:01:23 -0800

Seeking any way to view the contents of a (possibly corrupted) XML file. It's the database file from a Mac app that manages plain-text notes. Please help me force a look at the human-readable text that's somehow inside this file. I hope I am just missing something basic.

The file is about 6MB and it has the extension .nbdb. The app that created it is called Mark/Space Notebook. I'm running Mac OS 10.4.11.

The result when I open the file with Text Edit is an XML document where most of the contents is just a stream of text like UAcgBlABoAGIA... (Details in the first answer below, if you need.)

More info, if helpful:
Mark/Space Notebook is the text-notes-management app that came with Missing Sync for BlackBerry, which I bought in 2007. Both the syncing and this notes app worked fine for a year. Then I stopped using the BlackBerry and I switched to a better notes-management app from another company. So I started manually transferring my notes from M/S NB to this new app, but I wasn't close to finished when, one day, M/S NB suddenly wouldn't start up. Instead, any attempt to open it resulted in the dialog, "Your database was created with a pre-release version of Notebook and cannot be opened."

After a long and frustrating experience with two tech support people -- including installing and reinstalling other versions of the app -- their conclusion was that there is no issue at all with app version; my database file is just corrupted. (Yes, the app can produce new, openable databases just fine, so I think the support guys are right and it is the file itself.)

Their only solution now is that I email them the file so they can open it and send me back the text it contains. I can't do that; this is confidential info I would never share with a stranger (even one who'd inspired trust already with consistently clueful communication, which these guys have not).

All my backups of the file produce the same error because I apparently don't have any from before whenever it was corrupted (yes, I have definitely learned a lesson about retaining old baks). The Blackberry itself is long since wiped and sold, so I can't just look at the copies of the notes that were on the BB.

Finding an open-source programmer?

liquado — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:52:54 -0800

I'm involved in a group of small/nonprofit organizations that would like to financially support the starting of an open-source software application. While I am technically-minded, I'm not a programmer -- and I don't really know what to look for in one (hopefully to be found on MeFi jobs!). Help greatly appreciated. I'm the co-chair of a nonprofit community fishing tournament. We've been using a software package to run our tournament that, bluntly, was never very good to start, and is showing its age.

Its function is basically to facilitate the entering of weights as anglers weigh in at the scale, calculation of current standings as the tournament runs, display on a fancy screen for spectators to see, display sponsor ads, angler photos, etc., etc.

We have a group of local tournament organizers (mostly nonprofit) that would like help developing something that would be useful to all of us, but that is cross platform and open source, so that other (fishing or otherwise, possibly) tournaments can benefit from it, as well. We're not interested in developing it as any kind of revenue stream; we just want a useful product for our own tournaments.

We likely can raise a reasonable amount of money to start the project, and are forming a committee to try and develop a spec sheet for it, but I don't know how to proceed from there. Other than the obvious usual HR baseline, what do I need to know/ask/require/expect in finding someone to start an open source project for us?

Alternately, is there a protocol wrt to looking for programmers who just want to start a new open source project (i.e., are not looking for financial recompense)? As I said, we will likely have some financial ability to make this happen, but someone wanting to do it on their own time would be okay, too.

Thanks for any advice!

Open Source Kindle?

samchase — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:44:47 -0800

Is there such thing as an open source Kindle that uses texts from things like Project Gutenberg and the like? Perhaps after you bought the device the books would be free because they would all be out of copyright.

How to capture Polycom video stream

purenitrous — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 09:41:02 -0800

I have a Polycom VSX 7000 that we use for video conferencing. I'd like to capture video conference streams and publish to a web server (or youtube) for playback at a later time. (does not need to be in real time) What open source tools can I use to do this? Or can someone point me to a "how to" for this....

Taking a "break".

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 07:22:05 -0800

[relationship filter] How to manage a "break"/"open relationship"? I met my girlfriend during senior year in college (fall of '07) while she was a sophomore. For both of us, it was our first serious relationship--I was a virgin before we met, and she had only been with a few guys before (but never in any sort of established relationship). After I graduated, she spent the summer in my home city (summer '08, in a separate apartment)--it was great, we spent nearly every evening together after working our separate jobs, and spent the weekends showing her around my hometown.

At the end of the summer, we decided we would try out a long-distance arrangement, as I was entering law school in a town about 1000 miles away from my alma mater where she would still be a junior. We managed to see each other about every 5 weeks after august of this past year. It was obviously frustrating at times since we remained exclusive, but we both felt committed enough to want to keep our relationship going. For me, this arrangement was great, as I had little time away from the books and didn't need the distraction of being single and on the prowl.

We spent last week together in her hometown, and decided at the end to take "a break". She's going abroad to europe, while I'll be in my second semester of law school. At this point, neither of us is prepared to get married, but we've also sort of hit a brick wall as far as commitment. Everything about our relationship works great--we've never had a fight in our 13 months together, we have great chemistry, same values, enjoy each other's families--we very easily could be a happily married couple one day. The only problem is our geographic separation for the next few years (unless i transfer law schools for next fall) and the fact that she's still in college, while I'm buckling down in law school.

I want her to have a full experience abroad without feeling tied down. She knows that I've had some minor issues with the (small) discrepancy in our previous sexual partners--my 0 to her 2 or 3. We mutually agreed on taking this break--we both came into the conversation with simmilar ideas--but both are uncomfortable with its implications despite the fact that we both feel its what's best for now. Given our relative inexperience in relationships, our age and our respective places in life, neither of us feels ready for marriage. We both agree that we need this space as an opportunity to figure out what it is we want moving forward.

Are we making the right decision here in giving each other some space given our circumstances? We both are very much still in love with each other, but feel unable to move forward. We both intend on keeping in close communication while she's abroad, but will operate under a "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding whatever we're doing outside of our relationship. We can see each other at the end of may at the earliest if we intend to keep things going, but will not likely be able to spend the summer together (I'll likely be working again in my home city, she's understandably reluctant to return for a second summer in my city wanting to be back in her own). After that, I can try transferring in the fall to my undergrad alma mater's law school, but this is in no way a for sure option.

can we make this work?

economic logistics of open source?

figTree — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:48:15 -0800

I'm looking into the Open source philosophy to programming seems to be quite an intricate and somewhat confusing setup. I am wondering why so many people put their energy into developing libraries for some open source project with seemingly no direct return. I understand how if you structure yourself as a company you can develop using Open source and make money by providing services, support etc.

But if i want to contribute to a library, would that ever somehow make me money, just as a coder?

GooglePhoneFilter: I got Blackberry in my iPhone!

mrmcsurly — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:29:48 -0800

CanadaCellphoneFilter: How can I use a Google G1 Android phone on Canada's Telus network? I am lusting after a Google G1 Android phone. I want to replace my Blackberry and end my frustration that the iPhone doesn't have a good keyboard, and the BB doesn't browse the web properly.

I am on a corporate plan which requires me to use Telus. I don't understand enough about the specs of the G1 to be able to tell if the phone is compatible with their network.

Get rid of Picasa floating tab.

signal — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:11:59 -0800

Using picasa 3 to make a movie (as per this). The rendering will take over 1 hour. How to get rid of the useless "Making Movie" tab. It floats on top of any other application, and if I try to close it it asks if I want to abort the movie making process. The right hand side is where most 3d and graphics applications' panels are, so it's very, very annoying to have to constantly shift around the pointless Picasa floating tab.
How to turn this off or, if this is essentially impossible, move it to the left side? Using Vista, if that makes a difference.

Help me get caffeine back into my life...

whoaali — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:55:42 -0800

I can't unscrew my stove top Italian espresso maker! So it's the kind the unscrews in the middle. I've had this happen before, but I've never not been able to unscrew it for this long before. Part of the problem is that both the top and bottom are round with no edges to really grip onto. So far I've tried putting it in warm water, freezing it, and WD-40. Nothing has worked. Any ideas?

What's the best open source search engine?

seeminglee — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 10:37:38 -0800

My company is looking to build a search engine to index our web site and I'm wondering if anyone has used any open package to do the task. Names, URLs, experience would be highly appreciated,

What CMS does BNET.COM use? What CMS is similar?

omidius — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:15:42 -0800

What content management system (CMS) does the site BNET.com use? Or, what is the currently available CMS that most closely matches the capabilities of this CMS? Bonus points to open source....

Why do they still do open outcry?

bartleby — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:39:40 -0800

Why do they still do open outcry? It would seem that there is a more efficient way to accomplish complex trade transactions than shouting and hand signals.

Wiki or CMS that will work for this?

andrewzipp — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:44:48 -0800

I need a Wiki or CMS that has a WYSIWYG editor for a site with about a 100 static pages, sorted into categories. I'm trying to revamp an extranet website for an elementary school, where they store all the information about their programs, tution, phone lists, fundraising, etc., and parents and staff can login and look at all that and print it out.

Right now I've got this site setup with Edit-Point, a really lightweight CMS, which uses TinyMCE for the WYSIWYG editor and just saves to .txt files. It's great for editing existing pages...as long as the navigation part of the site never changes.

That's the problem. They want to be able to add new pages, and change the names of existing pages, and have that be tied to the navigation. But I've got the navigation set up in a Javascript drop-down menu, which I have to go in and manually edit whenever they want to change anything. It's a pain in the ass.

I've used Wordpress before, and like it for some stuff, but I don't like how adding new 'pages' works. Maybe there's a plugin for sites that only want to have a lot of 'pages' sorted into categories, but I feel like that kind of goes against what WordPress is.

Something like PmWiki is closer to what I'm looking for, where there is just a long list of pages on the side - but you have to use their special markup, which I really don't like, and won't fly for this.

There's no budget for this, so open source would be great.

give me a way not to lose my return open tix which are going to expire!

Izzmeister — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:56:43 -0800

I have open return tix with EL AL which expire in two months. now the doc says i may not be able to fly... If i purchased an elal ticket a year ago, and now the doctor says i might not be able to fly before they expire in two months from now, is there any way to entend the ticket?

or perhaps buy insurance in case i am not able to fly? (I am still unsure....)

any workaround appreciated! its three tix worth $2500 total if i lose them...

it's off to work we what?

phoeniciansailor — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:26:19 -0800

for anyone who has trouble hearing, seeing a movie at the theater means missing out on a lot of dialogue and piecing together the story as best they can. thankfully, many movies are now distributed with (optional) captions, and some theaters will have 1 or 2 special screenings where they show the dialogue on-screen. however for some reason, disney/pixar refuses to participate. who at disney do i need to talk to about this, to try and set things right? for people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, having on-screen captions includes them in the movie-going experience like you wouldn't believe. the only other option for them is to wait for the movie to come out on dvd -- with captions. but for the summer blockbusters, that's just not the same.

i'm so happy that the alamo drafthouse here in austin shows movies with on-screen captions, but they can't get disney/pixar to send them the captioning info. i'd like to talk to someone at the studio or the distributor who can explain why. maybe all they need is a little nudge to change their mind.

but i can't seem to find any good information on who to get in touch with. can someone with a better understanding of the disney machine help with me names / email addresses / phone numbers?

any other advice or ideas are also welcomed.