Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with scripts

What tool/program/script can I use to manipulate files based on a list of filenames?

tinamonster — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:39:03 -0800

I have a text file containing a list of image filenames and I'd like to be able to point at a folder and have it select, move or label based on the list of filenames. Is there software, script or tool that makes automating this possible? I read this question which is similar but couldn't get the solutions to work since my list is an exact filename rather than a keyword and I didn't know enough about the commands being used to adjust them.

I can also easily manipulate the list to be an exact list of paths if necessary.

As a stop-gap I am using Extensis Portfolio and tagging a custom field to move and manipulate. This limits me to one set of files rather than any file in a select folder and it also takes a very long time to catalog large numbers of files.

If there is a potential solution that has limitation please call them out. I may, from time to time, want this to work on 60k files but most days it will be only a few thousand. Your help is much appreciated.

What's the copyright status of TV show scripts?

ixohoxi — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:23:56 -0800

What's the copyright status of TV show scripts? Not the original scripts themselves, but versions transcribed from the show as it was broadcast? A Google search for "tv scripts" uncovers a lot of sites which publish transcriptions of TV shows. Most of them are obviously amateur, and aren't paying licensing fees or anything like that.

That suggests that it's either (1) legal, or (2) tolerated, but I'd like to know a little more before I proceed with a project. At least semi-informed opinions are preferable (no, you are not my lawyer).

Thanks!

"Based on a story by my pal Shecky"

TheSecretDecoderRing — Thu, 28 May 2009 00:02:38 -0800

How often are the stories of a comic, novel, play, TV series, movie, or song conceived by the writer's friend, relative, acquaintance, neighbor, mailman, dog, etc? Writers get all the credit for their works (except in movies, where the director often ends up with a lot; and TV is often collaborative), but just how often is a given story entirely their own idea?

I remember some old anecdote about how Charles Schulz refused to accept story ideas from fans. And for legal reasons it's probably a smart choice for professional writers. But like a lot of people, IANAPW, but still harbor ambitions of coming up with the concept for the Great American Movie. (A lot of people in America, anyway.)

Not that I plan on hounding my friendly neighborhood screenwriter, but out of sheer curiosity, do you know of any instances where the premise behind a well-known show, movie, book, etc was conceived of in detail by someone other than the credited writer/creator... just an ordinary "civilian"?

A close example would be "Lost," which was roughly conceived by a then-exec at ABC, before being fleshed out by JJ Abrams and company. Now, if the general story arc of the entire series had originally been pitched to JJ by, say, his optician... that'd be even better.

Know any screenwriters trying to write the next Wall Street?

matthewstopheles — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:27:30 -0800

Screenwriters working on scripts related to current economy I'm doing a radio story on screenwriters writing scripts about Wall Street in light of the current recession. It doesn't even have to be Wall Street -- it can be any business related to the fall out and decline of the stock market. Business-y type stories are certainly preferable but anything along those lines is what I'm trying to find. Anyone working on anything themselves or have any friends or associates who might be? Anyone know of any projects underway that deal with those issues? Any MeFites want to just start working on something and I'll profile you?

Responses that want to go into detail can just use my MeFi email to get a hold of me.

Is there a script or program that will automatically download the names of jazz album sidemen?

tweebiscuit — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:54:14 -0800

I have a few hundred jazz albums on MP3 in my iTunes library. I'd to add the names of the sidemen on the albums to the MP3's comment tags, but I'd rather not enter the info manually, for obvious reasons. Is there any form of script or program that exists that will do this for me -- perhaps pulling from Amazon, or some other source? (Prefix this with, "Hey, Lazyweb," if desired.) So, for example, I'd like the comment (or some other) tag for "Kind of Blue - So What" to read Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb

Can I write to a div using Perl, or otherwise solve my form submission problem?

unsigned — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:11:10 -0800

Can I write to a div using Perl, or otherwise solve my form submission problem? I have a Perl/CGI form mailer script that I didn't write and shouldn't edit too much, but can somewhat.

It's currently set up so that I can define the thank you page and error page within the Perl file. I don't want it to redirect to those pages however. I want to display the messages on the page the form is on instead, without reloading if possible. I played around with redirecting to the same page but appending a parameter in the URL. Then using JS to show a div if that var was set. But I'm realizing I need to display some of the items submitted from the form and I don't know how to keep those values since the page is being refreshed.

I don't know Perl so I don't know if there is a better way to do this, but can I do something like write to a div with Perl? Other ideas?

Looking for good freelancer script

Cochise — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 23:12:49 -0800

What's a good reverse auction/freelance site script? I'm looking to purchase (yes, I'm willing to pay for it), a script like Kubelance, Ilancer, Tukanas, or any other of the other freelancer script, but that actually works. I'm leaning towards getting Kubelance, but I haven't found enough reviews of it to convince me yet. Can anyone suggest another script that would be good? It's need to be very customizable.

Best Free File Sharing Script?

boombot — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:52:06 -0800

Four years ago, Aaorn asked after "free software that will let me set up a document dropbox on my web server. Basically I want to upload files and then have them be available -- through a nice-looking interface -- to users of my choosing." TooManyGadgets recently posted a question that brought DropBox to my attention, and after littleme was kind enough to share a DropBox beta invite, I wanted to revisit the original question. Obviously, there are lots of free scripts that offer the ability to do server-based file-sharing, but which is the best (security + ease of use, with free preferred but not necessary)? I remove the estimable DropBox from consideration because of the reliance on an desktop app and the fact that some of the data I need to share is proprietary - I'd like something I can install and exclusively administer. But a web interface of that quality would be a lovely thing.

Is there a GIMP batch operation that will add copyright/watermark imaging to my photos?

ozreiuosn — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:12:27 -0800

Is there a GIMP batch operation that I can use in GIMP that will apply watermark/copyright images? I've found batch operators that resize, rotate, change color and other various things to a batch of photos, but I can't find one that will add copyright/watermark imaging.

I've found the script that will add a copyright image to an individual picture for GIMP, but how do I turn that to a batch process?

Best script/plugin for social networking?

jbickers — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:22:32 -0800

Out-of-the-box script for building a small social networking site? I'm wanting to build a niche-y little social networking site, and am looking for the perfect platform upon which to do it - quickly and easily. I'm a fairly accomplished Wordpress hacker, so I know I could string together a new WP install with a bunch of plugins. But is there something better that does all the requisite stuff (forums, profiles, blogs, private messaging, classifieds, etc.) with one clean install? Or one big WP plugin that does it all?

I'm aware of Pligg, but I'm not sure if that's the ticket. And I hate Drupal. Thanks in advance!

My website's scripts eat up too much bandwidth. How do I resolve this?

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 09:21:43 -0800

My site's cron tasks eat up a lot of bandwidth. Can I change the paths from http to local? Or can I move the tasks to my home server? One of my websites (the election one) runs a truckload of PHP to parse, mesh, filter, and cache an equally large number of external RSS feeds which are then stored and included in a reasonably lean (~10k) index.html. This creates a strange situation where the bandwidth consumed by the PHP (locally, but via http) far exceeds the actual bandwidth consumed by visitors. My web hosting provider has warned me about the excessive activity, but given the limited number of visitors, upgrading to a hosting deal with a higher bandwidth limit isn't really worthwhile for me.

How do I resolve this?

Current situation: a bunch of FeedForAll PHP scripts are executed using a Ruby-as-CGI script (which wackybrit kindly helped me with) called via cron at regular intervals, varying by nature of content: none-time critical content would be updated hourly, whereas latest news etc. is updated every 10 minutes (was 2 minutes, but I took it down a notch for now to avoid further problems with my host). My monthly bandwidth limit is 8 GB; actual visitor usage is a modest fraction of that, but the scripting alone was responsible for 37 GB (!) in March.

Several options:

1) The bandwidth is measured by the host using HTTP responses. If I run the scripts using local UNIX paths, e.g. /usr/gnfti/www/ etc., the scripts generate no HTTP headers and thus don't count towards the quota. Of course they will still incur server load, but I have discussed this with the hosting company and it seems they're okay with it if I limit the use somewhat as a compromise. But then, not all of these scripts seem to be okay with local paths, most notably the keyword filter (rssFilter.php), which is responsible for 25% of the bandwidth on its own.

Any ideas how to make it work this way anyway?

2) I have a home server running WAMP on XP. Could I run the PHP on this box instead and have the output automatically upload to the remote server via FTP? Most of the bandwidth is to do with moving stuff around locally anyway; the actual output is in the order of kilobytes. I imagine this would involve running some sort of cron + FTP client/scheduler on the home box, but my knowledge in this area is limited.

Could this be done, and if so, how?

3) Lastly, if you have any suggestions on how to pull this off aside from the examples above, that too would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or insight you might have to offer, guys.

PHP Uploads Result in Corrupt Files

charlesroper — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:35:15 -0800

PHP gurus unite! Tell me why my PHP uploads always result in corrupt files and what I can do to fix it! I've installed PHPWEBFTP on my website. I followed all of the installation instructions and can connect to my FTP server through the script. I can even upload and download files. The only problem is that any file that is either uploaded or downloaded via this script becomes corrupt. What gives?

This script is hosted on a dedicated server owned by The Planet .

You can try it yourself at https://store.gkmachine.com/secureftp2/

user: meta@gkmachine.com
pw: meta

For kicks, I uploaded the exact same script to another webserver (owned by Dotster) and it worked flawlessly. Uploads/downloads were not corrupted if I accessed the script on this webserver.

This leads me to believe that it's a setting in either php.conf or httpd.conf on The Planet server - endless searches have left me puzzled and frustrated.

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

What happened to clean URLs, Google? Jeez.

arielmeadow — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:51:58 -0800

Is there a script I can use to work around the google-fied URLs that now show up in searches? Here's the scenario:

1. I'm writing a blog post about Mefi. I can't remember the URL. I go to google, search for metafilter, and there it is!

2. I right click on the link in the google search results and select "copy link location." Until recently, this would give me http://metafilter.com.

Now it gives me this:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.metafilter.com%2F etc etc (I truncated to spare you all the ugliness.

I can't paste that mess!

Are there any scripts (greasemonkey, maybe?) to get around this irritating issue?

Help me design my torrent management system.

christonabike — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 19:04:28 -0800

I'm looking for tips, tricks, hacks, scripts, and ideas for managing torrents using Linux. Here's what I would like to be able to do:

Automated unpacking. If a torrent contained a zip, rar, etc it should be unpacked automatically.

Automated move on completion. Move music, television, and movies to their appropriate folders. This can probably be done by looking at file type and size.

Continued sharing after a file is moved. Is this even possible? I use some torrent sites that require share ratios, plus I want to be a good file sharer and give back. What if the files are further organized by Amarok?

Remote downloading. I want to be able to go to download a torrent from anywhere. I've already got Apache and PHP setup.

Other cool things. I want to do as little hands on torrent management as possible. Are there scripts that automatically download things with high scores on MetaCritic, Pitchfork, etc? Can I setup a script to automatically download new episodes of a show when they get hosted? I want to know about them!

I think most of this can be done using shell scripts and CRON jobs, but I figured there may already be existing tools.

I need dynamic pages without PHP or a database. What are my options?

genial — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:56:46 -0800

Without access to PHP, MySQL, or any other fancy server-side stuff I still need to have dynamic pages. What are my options? Environment: Corporate setting where PHP, MySQL, and anything that doesn't cost thousands of dollars must be banned for "security issues".

My goal is twofold

1. I have a colleague that would like to setup a job queue to track their print jobs (they are a print shop). Currently they have an excel file that has all the nitty gritty details of who ordered what and whether it has printed or not and they share this file though a file server. He wanted to find a way to make the collaboration a bit more dynamic where they would automatically see things as they were updated by any of the 4 people who would be adding jobs.

My thought was to create a webpage tied to a web server that they can all map to as a network drive. The page would be set to auto-refresh every 10 seconds or so. Give each of the 4 people NVU and show them how to edit the table and they're good to go. The problem is the Excel file currently has a conditional format that says if they put an "X" into a certain cell, the row turns red. I need to make that happen on the webpage using javascript and css and I'm lost on how to dynamically say "If the contents of this table data cell has an X, change the span tag to Y" in order to call on that in the stylesheet.

2. Obviously everyone is probably thinking how much easier it would be to find something open source that would fit the bill, if only we were allowed to use perl, php, and all the other fine things in this world. This particularly hits home because in my department we would like to begin collaborating on a large documentation knowledge base. A wiki or something like Bugzilla would be great but all these content management systems require server-side action. Is there any possibility we could squeak by with some fancy javascript saving to txt-based files within the webspace? Does any CMS like that even exist?

Need a PHP script for managing links on a web site

14580 — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:16:57 -0800

I need a good PHP script or some other solution for managing a large number of external links on a web page. I'm creating a "How to" web site that will probably have at least one "Link Page" that may have quite a few links to other web sites.

The links will be organized in various categories and each link will probably have a short description or review. Having a way to rate the usefulness or popularity of a link would be nice, but it's not really a necessity.

I once had quite a bit of experience with running a web site during the earlier days of the net. I have some knowledge and ability to work with PHP, MySQL, HTML and some other languages. But it has been awhile since I've used those skills, I'm not really a coder, and I don't want to get bogged down for days or weeks setting up and customizing a script.

The site will probably be built using Joomla/Mambo, Drupal or Wordpress. I haven't decided yet.

I really want something that creates pages that are clean, simple, professional looking, fast loading, and mostly importantly -- easy to read and navigate.

I have some money to spend on a script, but it is not much. I would prefer a free or open source solution.

I need some way to detect bad or changed links.

I do not need to allow visitors to submit their own links. Also, the links probably won't change very frequently.

So far I haven't really found anything that meets my needs or gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. I would really appreciate your help.

Why can't I make Firefox look the way I want it to look?

peacecorn — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 11:11:30 -0800

In Firefox 1.5.0.12, I want my Bookmarks Toolbar in a very specific place in my window, displayed in a very specific way. Is there a way to move the toolbar to the lower right corner, have the favicons stack up in columns, and have it share/truncate the space of my tab column? I used an extension called "Tab Mix Plus" to move my tabs to a column that runs vertically in a 150px wide area down the width of my screen. Lots of grey area below the tabs, was hoping I could stack 30 or 40 favicons in (say) rows of three across in the grey area below the tabs.

I'm not interested in alternate solutions (e.g., put them in folders, have them share space on the menu bar / make better use of ctrl+b). If I can't do this, I'll stick with what I'm doing now, but I'd upgrade Firefox to 2.0 if I had to in order to implement the solution.

Is this redesign possible? I spent hours on Sunday searching for a solution. Am I out of luck?

Help finding a script to generate personalised imitation news stories.

nickehsmith — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:29:24 -0800

Hi there collective mind, I need help for a project finding a script (preferably php) to generate personalised imitation news stories. Something like this or this. Anything which superimposes letters onto a nice background would be great. Failing that anything that will change certain parts of an article into names/user entered text would be fantastic. Electronic-free-beers on me to anyone that helps. Sorry for being such a programming-cretin.

Can't install any Greasemonkey scripts

lemonfridge — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 08:52:12 -0800

Why wont Greasemonkey let me install anything? For the first time ever I actually want to use a greasemonkey script (to prettify my gmail).

I've installed greasemonkey but when I click the Install button when attempting to load the gmail script it doesn't do anything. neither does using the Manage Scripts window.

I'm running the latest version of Portable Firefox on my work PC, but I've also tried installing it at home with no success.

I should note that the Profile directory for the Portable Firefox is copied over from my Profile at home. So if there is a problem with my Profile it may be what's stopping it working on both.

How can I learn to recognise more languages?

PuGZ — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:07:06 -0800

How can I learn to recognise more languages? I'm a literate English-speaker who knows more than a smattering of French and I can usually guess the language of texts written in most Western European/SE Asian/Programming scripts, but I'd like to improve. I recently received an email in Turkish and I had no idea what language it was, which made it difficult to find a machine translation. How can I train myself to recognise more languages and hence find resources for translation?

How do I edit the "Gmail Multiple Signatures" Greasemonkey script to insert my signature before all quoted messages (or at the current cursor location)?

chefscotticus — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 15:13:20 -0800

How do I edit the "Gmail Multiple Signatures" Greasemonkey script to insert my signature before all quoted messages (or at the current cursor location)? I want to combine the features of the Greasemonkey scripts "Gmail Multiple Signatures" (http://userscripts.org/scripts/source/1592) and "Gmail Signature Float" (http://userscripts.org/scripts/source/3067).

I have multiple accounts that I send message from in Gmail and would like to be able to choose between multiple signatures that would be inserted before all quoted messages. A (seemingly) simpler alternative would be modifying Gmail Multple Signatures script to just insert the signature at the current cursor location.

The more explicit/specific explanation, the better -- my Javascript skills are pretty minimal.

re-installing a modified greasemonkey script

craniac — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 09:37:53 -0800

I installed a greasemonkey script and it works perfectly, but I want to tweak it slightly. It's a profanity filter, but it occurred to me that I could use it as an awesome prank, i.e. install it on someone's machine and have it change the name of [insert politician] to "evil emperor" or whatever. Also, I'd like to tweak its sensitivity, as it blocks out potentially non-naughty words, like "balls" and "rutebaga" when really all I want to do is remove the f-bomb and one or two others I have grown weary of.

So it's pretty obvious when I load it into textwrangler what to change, but after I've made the changes and saved it, and then uploaded it to my server, when I point my browser at it, greasemonkey won't install it.

Is this a problem with permissions? Is there something I'm leaving out?

Is this arrangement common in screenwriting?

swiffa — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 20:46:30 -0800

Can a barebones film concept be shopped to screenwriters? How common is it for one individual to have all the rough ideas and outlines for films and collaborate with a writer who "fleshes" these ideas out? Is this an arrangement even found in the industry and do newbies with concepts (like a first time director) ever end up working with established screenwriters who do this or do these "teams" form before "breaking in"?

PPC Script Recommendations?

Zinger — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 12:36:30 -0800

Techfilter: I've been asked by a local organization to set up a Pay Per Click directory as an extension to their website. Advice/recommendations? There seem to be dozens of scripts out there; I've not seen any that have any outstanding reviews - what I've found so far seem to have mixed reviews. What's the best commercial package? Are there any open source communities building decent PPC engines? Naturally I've been given a fairly limited budget (this is a volunteer organization and the PPC is meant to be a fundraiser of sorts), but I'm willing to look at all options. The ability to take PPC feeds from other engines to fill up the directory until such time as we get more local advertising is important however.

Why Can't I Use My Modified GMail Address?

Dreama — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 16:25:02 -0800

Why are so many contact and registration forms kicking back my spamguard-modified GMail address (myaddressas+nameofcompany@gmail) as "invalid?" It seems pretty clear that the issue is the plus sign. But plus signs are not illegal characters (nonstandard, yes, illegal, no) in address construction, otherwise, the e-mails which are sent to such addresses would be lost in the aether somewhere. Is this just a matter of companies relying on scripts that disallow the + character wholesale, or are they wise to this GMail trick (which could work elsewhere, no?) and actively trying to stop people from using it? (I have caught a company that clearly sold my information using this method, so I'm keen on continuing to use it whenever possible.)