Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with program

Can you help me find a public radio story?

roger ackroyd — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 11:08:15 -0800

A few weeks ago, public radio aired a report about a relocation program for families from unsafe neighborhoods. The reporter focused on difficulties participants had adjusting to their new neighborhoods, like unspoken conventions about street parking. I want to share the story with a friend, but I can't find the program now. Does this ring any bells for anyone?

Best use of time before starting a Doctoral program?

Ufez Jones — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:41:54 -0800

So I got accepted to my doctoral program (vet med - yay!). Before it begins in August, how can I best use my time between now and then? Looking mainly for non-obvious stuff (work, save money, sleep, etc). Any other general tips for surviving the program would be gladly accepted.

How Can I Remotely Restart a Program on a Windows 7 Computer?

Bugbread — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 12:10:51 -0800

Any ideas on how I could have one PC listen for a specially formatted packet/etc., and when it detects that packet/etc. shut down a program? I have a Windows 7 computer which I am using to serve media files to a media player connected to my television. I've tried many media server programs, and the one that works best for me is Twonky. However, about once a day (at different times of the day), Twonky stops responding. When that happens, I have to go to the other room and shut down the "Twonkyserver.exe" program. When I shut it down, it automatically restarts, and Twonky works fine.

However, 1) it's a bit of a pain in the butt to go to the other (non-heated) room to do this, and 2) when it happens and I'm not at home, my wife and kids can't watch anything.

I've tried using Windows 7 remote access to access the computer and manually restart the program, but it takes waaaaay too long to do almost every day.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to configure the main box to, say, listen to a specific port or something, and then from the living room PC, double-click on something (a batch file, etc.) which would send a command/specially formed packet/access a specially designated port/etc. to the main PC. The main PC, detecting this special traffic/packet/etc. would in turn run a batch file, etc. which just shuts down twonkyserver.exe (which would then automatically restart). So I (or my wife, or eventually my kids) would know "when the TV stops working, double-click this icon on the living room desktop, and wait 10 seconds". Any ideas?

Best tools for setting up online store for CSA-type produce business?

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:04:55 -0800

You have an online store where customers pay in, say, monthly subscriptions. The customers are able to manage their account online. You also sell a few other items as one-offs via a webstore. None of this requires shipping as your customers pick up in person. What sorts of programs are you using? How do you deal with credit cards? What should this all cost? Any opinions about programs such as Member Assembler, CSAware, Farmigo or DeliveryBizPro? The CSA is pre-existing and would like to shift to an online system for managing accounts and allowing the members to manage their own accounts--payments happen face to face primarily via cash or check at this point. So our fees are low, but also the barrier to joining is high. The ease of online signup would hopefully increase membership.

We'd also like to set up a webstore for single purchase items.

There are a few web-based programs out there that are happy to take 2% of our sales in exchange for putting this all online. No start up cost, but it seems like it would get costly over time. We are currently building a new website, so now is the time to integrate all of this.

Ancient boiler/modern thermostat: help me end the freeze/roast cycle

mskyle — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 09:01:50 -0800

I need some thermostat programming tips. I moved over the summer and now I have a thermostat after many, many years of living with landlord-controlled heating systems and other curious and quirky forms of heating. Problem: the boiler takes FOREVER to heat up the radiators and then overshoots the target temperature dramatically. Details within. My initial plan was to set the heat quite low while we're asleep (55F), then have the heat come on 1/2 hour before I wake up to heat to 68F, then set it back to 55F while we're at work, then go back on again a half-hour before we get home from work. But the first morning, 1) the heat took about 1/2 hour before the radiators even felt warm to the touch and 2) the temperature was 71F with the radiators still boiling hot when I left the house, two hours after the "morning" program started! So I reset the thermostat to 62 in the morning, but then it doesn't go on at all, because the apartment has been staying pretty warm at night.

Ideally I would like the radiators to come on for a little while before I wake up (so I have nice warm bath towels, etc.), and a little while right around when I get home from work. The "when I get home from work" thing is not a big problem, because I'm awake and able to adjust the thermostat as necessary. It's the morning thing that's the problem, because I'm really only awake for an hour to an hour and a half before I leave for work, and it takes so long for the boiler to get started that it's hard to do anything manually.

Some points that may be relevant:

The apartment (first floor of a one-up-one-down two-family house) seems to be very well insulated; once the house is heated up it stays hot (admittedly, it hasn't been all that cold yet - location is Western Massachusetts).

The boiler is very old, and I believe the radiators are steam radiators (they sound steamy).

The thermostat is located in the warmest room in the house.

Basically what I would like is a way to adjust the thermostat so that it understands there's a big lag between when it tells the boiler to shut off and when the heat stops coming out of the radiators.

Replacing the boiler is not an option - landlords seem intent on keeping it until it is no longer reparable. Replacing the thermostat might be possible (Nest seems like overkill for me but maybe something mid-range?).

I have heard that with these older systems it is better to just keep the house at a constant temperature but a lot of this argument seems to be aimed at maintaining the health and longevity of the boiler, which I do not care about at all (I will not be responsible for replacing it, and it is already about 4,000 years old).

Who gave us powered eggs in 1974?

Marky — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 10:47:00 -0800

I'd like to find out more information on a 1970's US food program. Back in the 70's (1974?) my mom was on a food program. It provided actual food, not food stamps. Stuff like powered milk and eggs, corn syrup, meat in a can, peanut butter, and other things.

I'm curious about this program, I guess I'm not searching properly.

Help with teaching a baby to self-soothe (Sleep Sense program?)

branparsons — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:14:09 -0800

Help with teaching a baby to self-soothe (Sleep Sense program?) Our son is almost 11 months old and is not a great self-soother. Now he gets up about once a night, but I know he's just waking out of habit and for a comfort-feeding. I'm going to try and stop the night bottle (just give him water). I'd also like to help him go down on his own at bed/naptime, to help him put himself back to sleep.

I used to rock/bounce him to sleep in the past, but now he pushes away from me and wants to be put down. He can sorta fall asleep on his own. The problem is it's on our bed (his room is TINY and is basically a little office space off our room... not much room to do a routine in there. And this also carried over from when his crib was beside our bed). I give him a bottle there, clean his teeth, read him a story and then he gets sleepy and rubs his eyes. I'm kind of tired myself and just put him down on the bed where he mashes his face into our soft down blanket, and drifts off. Sometimes he pushes himself up and crawls (especially if overtired) so I have to keep grabbing him, lay him back down, and he eventually just rolls over, mashes his face in, does a snow angel kind of thing, and goes to sleep. I then transfer him to his crib.

If I put him in his crib while he's drowsy, his eyes spring open and he must stand! He rolls over and crawls to the end/sides of the crib, pulls himself up and starts laughing, smiling, talking, jumping! etc. He'll look around, wave his stuffed doll around, spit out his soother (I'll still use this for a bit - I know it's a crutch) and start gnawing on the crib side, leaving me panicked about the paint in his mouth :(

I've been reading the Sleep Sense program by Dana Oberman, on a friend's recommendation, just to try something. I stay in his room with him, chair beside crib. It says, if the baby stands, to lie them back down repeatedly, and if they cry/get upset, let them stand for a bit, then pat the bed and encourage them to lie down. They should submit after they realize they're pretty tired. I am on day 3 of trying to get him to sleep in his crib and don't see this being the case... He just wants to stay upright. No improvement either. It can take well over an hour of putting him back down after he stands, encouraging him to lie down, not paying attention to him and pretending to sleep in my chair, leaving the room for a little bit, etc. He just wants to stay awake and gets more overtired in the process. I tried starting the routine once I saw the first cue of sleepiness, so I knew he wouldn't be overtired, but he ends up overtired anyway! He's rubbing his eyes like crazy, but keeps standing, laughing and getting more hyper. I'm doing this during naps too, and his naps are getting all pushed back because I'm spending an hour trying to get him to nap where it would normally not take that long.

Apologies for the lengthy post. Feeling frustrated and just wondering if anyone had any advice, or even have heard of/used this program before? Should I just be more patient and keep persisting? Many thanks in advance from a sleepy mom...

iPad shutdown app

unliteral — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 06:10:33 -0800

I watch movies when I go to bed at night. When I wake up in the morning my iPad is exhausted. I would like to have a reminder happen (that if I don't respond to) shuts down my iPad and preserves its battery. Is there a commercial or free app that does this or can I create one easily in this suggestion?

What's a good self-study program?

princeoftheair — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:25:35 -0800

What's a program that will help me stop memorizing the answers to practice exam questions and actually test me on the material? I've been using Anki for quite a while to help me with my studies (both language and other stuff). From the books I have been using, I've gotten pretty good at creating decks to study from the practice exam questions. However lately I've noticed that I think of the answer before I've even read the options (for example, the letter "C" just pops into my head, even though I have no idea what "C" is). Is there a program, similar to Memrise, for example, that I can feed questions and answers into and have it randomize the order of the answers so I am not just memorizing the correct choice? If I can do this with a large number of questions at once, that would be preferable.

Suggestions for web-based client management software at reasonable price?

LillyBird — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 17:48:37 -0800

I'm in need of client and accounts management software that is suited to newspaper (or at least publications) operations. It needs to be free or very inexpensive, web-based, and user friendly. I own a small local newspaper with a 100+ active advertisers and an overall client list that exceeds 300. On a very basic level, I'm looking for client management software.

In the past when I worked for other newspapers (or other publications) that have advertisers, client management software extended to keeping track of advertisers' schedules (ie, when their ad is running) and account statuses (including invoicing/receiving, who's paid, who hasn't, when contracts end, etc...). I would want something like that.

For examples, I've looked at First Class (which I used years ago at a newspaper I worked at) and Magazine Manager. There are numerous others, but all of them are WAY outside my budget, as they're mostly suited for large publications with large staffs. I have a staff of 4 total who will use the software, so I need something more reasonably priced (a one-time fee to own the program or at most a nominal monthly fee) or even free. I also looked into Highrise and a few similar and found they aren't exactly suited because they seem to be only for client/contact management.

The program also needs to be very user friendly and something we can all access from anywhere, including on cell phones.

I am somewhat computer savvy but would probably not be able to seriously modify and tailor a program that isn't designed for what I am looking for to suit my needs. So it would have to be something that doesn't require a lot of tweaking on my part.

Does anyone have any suggestions to point me in the right direction?

Thank you in advance!

Dork needs database

Clotilde — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 19:46:30 -0800

I'm looking to make a simple, personal, research database in OSX. Ideas? I'm looking for a way to create a simple and easily-expandable research database, indexed by cross-referenced subjects. It'll be almost all PDFs and Word documents, ideally tagged with a number of subjects and topics, so that I'll have a simple and ever-growing index of subjects, like the index of a book, with articles and stuff tagged and cross-referenced to these subjects; that is, you select a subject or topic and are presented with a list of all the documents tagged with that subject. Ideally it'll be simple to grow this to encompass loads and loads of material over time. Sorry if this is a stupid and/or obvious question. (I use OSX.)

Video killed the... yeah.

mekily — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 21:30:40 -0800

I've just discovered the BBC 4 radio series Cabin Pressure, which I'm enjoying a lot, and now I'm looking for some other good, contemporary, fictional radio shows. Do those exist nowadays? How do I find the good ones? I've been spending the past few weeks listening to the excellent radio sitcom Cabin Pressure, and I'm finding that I really enjoy not just the show itself, but the experience of listening, as opposed to watching a TV show. I'd like more of that.

Unfortunately, I don't really know how to find it. My Internet searches haven't been particularly successful, and though I have turned up a few potential shows, I feel like I'm not really looking in the right places.

So, does anyone have any recommendations for good, modern serial radio programs? (To be clear, I'm looking for fictional programs with a plot, not news/commentary or standup, but I'm open to any genre.) Where would I go to find programs like this?

How to get paid to work in disaster relief with a BA in English (or programs teaching abroad)

Nighthawk3729 — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 11:47:30 -0800

I would like to find would in disaster relief so I may travel and begin to pay off my student loans for my new BA in English. I'm also interested in teaching English abroad and have been trying to find programs in both of these fields, so if anyone has information on anything where one can travel, doesn't matter how terrible the pay just as long as there is one, again, I'm in debt. I want to work in disaster relief for a spell. I'm currently applying to join the Americorp program and have been recommended to check out the red cross and FEMA. Unfortunately, those organizations are searching for indivuduals with experience in the medical field, and I just received my BA in English with a concentration with Rhetoric and global studies.

I have looked into the peacecore, fullbright scholarship as well as several programs that teach abroad such as the JET program, the TALK program, the CIFE program, however the odds are very much against anyone's favor of getting a position. If anyone has any information on similar programs, I would highly appreciate any information.

I'd like to travel around a bit and would love the oppurtunity to help people for a while as well while paying off some student loans, however the posibilities are less then wide and plenty.

If anyone has any information, I would HIGHLY appreciate it.

Recommendations for software to track article submissions

mateuslee — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 02:16:17 -0800

What's a good (Mac OS) application to track journal submissions and manuscript reviews? I am an editorial assistant for a double-blind peer-review journal. We get a dozen or so submissions each month and for each article I must find two scientists to provide a review... not as easy as it sounds because often times these academics forget to do the review, or else the article must be resubmitted, and in the end there is often some complications.

For now I track the process in Excel, but it's kind of a mess because it's easy to let the review of an article fall through the cracks.

Is there a program which I can use to facilitate this?
* List reviewers (and provide date of last reviews)
* Date of submission
* Reminders of when reviews should be finished, etc.

Looking for some feeding program best practices/policies for our inner city feeding program. We have no documented rules and needless to say it is resulting in chaos.

hrhcc — Sun, 20 May 2012 13:41:53 -0800

Looking for some feeding program best practices/policies for our inner city feeding program. We have no documented rules and needless to say it is resulting in chaos. Our church runs a weekly feeding program in the inner city where my husband and I have been coordinators for about 10 years. We feed around 250 people every Saturday; serving hot meals and also providing a take home table where our guests can bring a specified amount of groceries home with them. As the program and needs have grown, it is apparent that the lack of any posted “rules” is causing a lot of confusion and unnecessary conflict. OK, I’ll put it plainly – it is resulting in chaos!

Rules are discussed and agreed upon during monthly coordinator meetings, but since they are buried in the minutes, they are either not carried out or not enforced consistently. One example: volunteers (if they really need to) can go to the take home table and select groceries to take home but must wait until at least halfway through the program (to eliminate volunteers coming solely to get first dibs on the best selection). Another example: volunteers under 16 must have a responsible adult with them to volunteer.

My husband and I have offered to come up with a straw man of potential rules to post for the leadership team to develop. The purpose is so everyone can not only see them and know them, but also so leaders that need to enforce them and aren't comfortable doing so, can remove themselves from the equation by pointing to the posted rules.

What "rules" do other similar programs have in place (not only for volunteers but for guests/participants as well) and potentially posted for all to see?

TLDR: Our feeding program at church does not have documented/posted "rules" so situations can be consistently addressed by program leaders. Wondering what other similar type programs have as rules for both guest/participants as well as volunteers? Looking for some best practices to take back to our leadership team to hopefully minimize the chaos. Thank you.

Take out your trash

dontjumplarry — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:38:06 -0800

What are this year's (or last year's) campest, trashiest reality shows from the US? Not mainstream juggernauts like American Idol and Amazing Race. Looking for the kooky, kitsch or fringe classics, like Extreme Couponing: All Stars, Freaky Eaters or the sorely missed Girls Next Door.

tv program predicted rise of electronic books in 1980s

cmp4Meta — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:55:38 -0800

Trying to remember the name of a TV series program that I watched in the late 1980s that in one episode on digital information predicted the rise of the electronic book. There was a male host who led the show, which was an examination of new technologies. In the particular episode I am looking for, he recounted an idea that books in the future would be distributed from something like an ATM machine where you would insert a card onto which the book would be downloaded. If it helps, I remember he stood at some kind of podium during the broadcasts that had like an acrylic/lucite egg-shaped glowing top--random detail, but these are often what jog people's memory.

Lose-lose becomes win-win.

abirdinthehand — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:53:22 -0800

What makes a great internship program? So in addition to my usual duties, I have become the internship coordinator. It's kind of an extra headache, but I'm genuinely excited about it and want to make a great program.

Currently, the internship is rotational so that the intern spends about a month with each staff member in the department. Aside from this, the program is structureless, there is no real curriculum. So I am trying to make it a more cohesive, integrated program.

It seems too often that the supervisors just don't know what to do with their interns. They become extra work, rather than assets and consequently the intern is not challenged or engaged. It's like they're just bouncing around from person to person.

What is the best way to facilitate staff supervision of the intern to maximize the rewards for both involved?

Simple data extraction program from TXT to CSV?

ZenMasterThis — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:27:51 -0800

I have several hundred machine-generated, human-readable TXT files; one text file per serialized device tested. Each file has test values in predictable places, although in a very irregularly-shaped "table" if you could even call it that. I want a simple Windows program where I say: "Okay, program, here's the row and columns where field #1 starts and ends, ... here's the row and columns where field #n starts and ends ... Give me a CSV file with those values I need and nothing more." Is there such a program, freeware or otherwise? Seems like there should be, but my Google-foo fails me. Excel and Calc, as near as I can tell, aren't what I need. Prefer something with a GUI. Prefer not to have to "program," apart from having to enter start/end locations for the values I want. Thanks hive-mind!

Tracking our wellness

paulinsanjuan — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:24:50 -0800

Program, app or software to keep track of our company's health and wellness, incentive and benefits program? Needs to be user friendly for beginners and experts alike with a clean and attractive interface. It'd be nice to show a graph with your personal benchmarks. I like Nike+

In my 3rd year of an engineering degree, hate it, failing and loaded with debt. What should I do?

CreativeUsername — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:34:30 -0800

I'm in my 3rd year of my mechanical engineering program and I hate it. I've dropped 30% in grades since my second year and now I'm tip-toeing failing/passing every class. I've gotten stomach ulcers and anxiety attacks as a result of the stress and I've started to just give up. I want to switch but I'm already sacked with 40k of loans. What should I do? I went into it because my parents thought I should have a practical degree (my fault for listening to them). First two years I noticed a steady drop in my grades as a result of not caring/courses increasing in difficulty. Now I feel like I've hit rock bottom with both physical and emotional signs of stress. I don't have any money (hence the loans) and I want to switch out of any engineering, meaning not only would my credits not transfer over into a science/arts degree but I would have to start all over again (with even more debt). I feel trapped and I'm scared that I'm going to fail out if I don't drop out.

Get me hooked on a TV show in one episode

DevilsAdvocate — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:55:56 -0800

Recommend the one episode that will get me hooked on a good TV show. Various shows are repeatedly recommended in "recommend a TV series" AskMes. But of the frequently-recommended shows, there's far too many for me to get involved in.

So, suppose you could show someone one episode of a show to try to get them hooked on it. What episode would you recommend they watch? The show can be recent or old, completed or currently running.

A caveat: do not recommend the first episode of a program just because it's a continuity-heavy show and "you have to watch them in order!!!" Really, I don't. I got hooked on Lost after seeing "Live Together, Die Alone," the second season finale. I got hooked on the 2004 Battlestar Galactica after seeing "Pegasus," the season 2 mid-season finale. I ended up going back and watching the earlier episodes for both shows. So don't worry that I'll be spoiled (I enjoyed season 1 of BSG when I went back and watched it, even knowing that ________ was a Cylon) or that I won't pick up on every last nuance if I haven't seen all the prior episodes (I might not, but I don't have to to decide if I like it or not). If the pilot episode is a legitimately strong episode which is the best choice to attract a new viewer to the show, that's fine, but I find that's rarely the case since shows are often still trying to find their footing at that point.

(Also, I'm not going to give a list of ~20 shows I've seen most or all episodes of, even though I could, as recommendations for those shows may be useful to other readers even if not to me personally.)

No BS

abirdinthehand — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:42:47 -0800

How do I find a masters degree program in the environmental/biological sciences that doesn't require a BS and will match my interests? I have a BA with my major in cultural anthropology, but have found my passion in working with plants.

I've been working professionally in horticulture for the last 7 years. I currently work at a botanic garden and love it, however without a related degree I can't really move up in the organization. I'm currently taking classes in the evening, core stuff: bio, botany, chemistry, statistics. . . trying to get on track for the next phase.

I want to expand my options professionally and find a position where I am more engaged intellectually.

All the masters programs I find that are interdisciplinary, ie don't require science undergrad, seem to be geared towards government or business(policy and management). The others require a BS and are geared towards academia. Neither of these paths seem right for me. Is this a reflection of the prospects out there- or is there a third option?

Basically, I'm still figuring out the specifics of my end goal, but I want to be ready to take the next step when the time comes.

What's the best way to go about this search?

Specific programs you've heard about?

Thanks!

I want my own skull... on the computer.

darkgroove — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:54:54 -0800

I want my own skull... on the computer. There are two questions I'm asking here... how and how much?

I want to get a detailed (as detailed as possible) scan of my skull that I could then spin around in a 3D program (what programs?). Don't ask what my motivation is.

I assume this involves going to the doctor, and I know there would be a cost involved. If I made an appointment to just to get a scan, without any checkups of any kind with the pure goal of walking out with the 3D files of my skull, what would I pay for this? I would appreciate a range of prices (assume I may get it done in a tiny town or a big city, all things considered).

Ask any questions that may help me get to my solution.

What's the easiest way to program an application?

dkleinst — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 17:23:10 -0800

What is the easiest way to make a simple Windows application? Visual Basic? I want to make an application that has a few drop down lists, a few input boxes, and from that generates a simple automated response. I remember Visual Basic being pretty easy when I tried it 10 years ago, but I wanted to see what MeFites think.