Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with shared

How to Manage Two Kindles, One Account, and Multiple Wishlists

Songdog — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 12:14:22 -0800

I own a Kindle associated with my Amazon account. For his birthday this year my son received a Kindle Fire, which we decided to also associate with my account so that he can share access to the books I already own. All was well until he realized he could add things to a wish list. I took his first round of wishes and added them to a new "Son's Wishlist," and when he's shopping for books my son can choose which wishlist he wants to add them to. But physical items can apparently only be added to the default wishlist (mine) and I haven't found a way on the Fire for him to move them. As a result I regularly find myself sorting dozens of collectible cards and other items from my list to his. Have any of you found a better way of dealing with this?

Let's share some photos. How do we do it?

any portmanteau in a storm — Thu, 30 May 2013 10:31:19 -0800

What is the best service for a group of people to share photos of the same event? I upload my wife's photos to my flickr account and we find it really neat to see different perspectives of the same events. I went to a friend's wedding over the weekend and of course everyone was taking pictures with their cameras and phones, some of which started showing up on Facebook over the week, but all quite piecemeal. What would be the best way to create a "shared" account or gallery so that all attendees could easily upload photos?

Some features that would be good:

Ability to control the privacy of some/all of the photos (ie viewable to everyone, all members of the group, people in the photo, the person taking the photo, etc)

Facial recognition so that you could tag people and then it would auto suggest them in the other photos (flickr seems to only be able to tag others with flickr accounts). I think facebook does this.

Easy to set up for the users. Something like being able to take a photo of a 3d bar code and automatically log in with your smartphone or being able to log in with an existing account such as google, facebook or twitter.

Ability to get copies of the photos in high/original resolution/format. If someone uploads RAW files from their camera others would be able to download those. This could be controlled by permissions to limit access if people want to keep control of their RAW files.

Can hook up to your apple photostream or google+ instant uploads so that pictures can be uploaded as they are taken.

While I figure that any photo sharing site would be able to get the job done more or less, in your experience which one does it the best?

What should a shared man cave have?

teg4rvn — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:42:14 -0800

Inspired by this article I wonder how feasible it might be to start organizing a shared man cave for me and my suburban buddies. Most of us have no room to commandeer a room in our respective homes for such purposes. We get together 1-2 times per month to play poker and maybe 1-2 per month to watch a sporting event. Sometimes both at the same time. Since none of us are country club types (with country club money), this shared man cave idea might have some legs. Assuming a studio apt could be rented in a local apartment complex, what would you put in it? TV, cable, internet, bi-weekly cleaning, poker table all come to mind. What else? Also any logistical or legal considerations would be appreciated. Disclaimer: No need to banish the wives; they could use it for their get togethers, too. Just using the term "man cave" because it is familiar to most.

Movin' On In

Urban Winter — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 08:47:18 -0800

Moving in with two roommates - one friend, and one other guy the two of us just met. What haven't I thought of, and what should I be prepared to deal with? Long list of stuff inside. The new guy (I'll call him James) is 20, I'm 22, and my friend (I'll call him Tim) is 24. James works full time and will be going to school next semester (and reducing his hours a little to do so). I work and go to school. Tim works and is on his way out of grad school.

We met James the other night for coffee, and got along pretty well. Tim is very quiet, so it was mostly me and James talking, and both of us checking in with Tim to make sure he was on board with what we were saying. (It should be noted that, while Tim is quiet, he will give an honest opinion if prompted, and I've tried to get in the habit of prompting frequently for this purpose.)

We agreed that the electric bill should be in my or James' name, since we both have good credit. We'll be splitting everything three ways evenly (which I'll have in writing, of course). We'll keep the place cool through the winter to cut down on utility bills, watch ourselves and each other to remember to unplug things when we're done using them, etc. We're going to set up a group grocery "fund," and anything that only one of us wants they can buy themselves (like soda, for example, which neither James nor I drink). Cleaning will be up to the individual in their own room, and the common areas are to be kept free of junk (mostly; study materials lying around is to be expected, but generally the rule is "pick up your shit"). Cleaning we're going to figure out more specifically later, but James and I already agreed that I would do dishes if he'd clean the bathroom.

Privacy: If the door's closed, don't go in. If you need something, knock, and if there's no answer, too bad. Bathroom privacy: whomever is in there, leave them alone until they're done. We'll compare schedules for morning getting-ready time when we see what we've got to work with (I can brush my teeth at the kitchen sink while someone else showers, for example). We agreed to keep each other abreast of busy times and to be quiet when others are sleeping, to respect study times, etc. None of us plan on playing loud music in general, but if we want to, or want to turn up the volume on a movie or video game we'll check first.

What do I need to know about having alcohol in an apartment where one person isn't yet legal? None of us are partiers. We agreed that if we're thinking of bringing a friend or friends over, we'll ask first (or if we know we don't want anyone over on a given night, tell the other two beforehand). We haven't discussed overnight stays yet, but I plan on bringing it up and keeping a "couple nights a week or she helps pay rent" policy if that's agreeable with the others. None of us smoke, but the policy for friends who do is that they can take it outside. I was very clear that I don't want to smell any smoke, so closing windows, making friends walk away a little, etc has already been discussed. I am a hard-ass about this, and have told James this (Tim already knows).

I have a cat. I will handle the litter box, but will ask the others if they are okay with taking care of it if I am away for a night. Same for if she pukes anywhere. I will also vaccuum a little extra to compensate for the hair. I have made it very clear that she is an indoor cat, and will be mentioning that she likes to bolt, and thus the door/windows should never be left open (without a screen, of course).

We'll all be making sure to lock doors, windows, etc. I was thinking of either requesting that the landlord change the locks immediately when we move in, or doing it ourselves and handing a spare key to the landlord. Too much? I've heard horror stories of landlords who just use the same 3-4 locks all the time, or who give out keys to the wrong apartment. What's the right level of caution here?

I am bringing most (possibly all) of the furniture. Tim is bringing some cookware. I may be bringing dishes (James doesn't own much that could be considered apartment furnishing). We agreed that if we need anything else we'll go three ways on it, and when we move out/split up the person who gets it will buy the others out. If anyone spills/breaks/damages anything, we agreed that they'll pay for it to be repaired. What if something is broken irreprably? I don't honestly see it being a potential problem, but let's say worst case scenario here. Or what if a friend breaks something? The odd glass or plate doesn't count; everybody drops things.

I feel pretty prepared overall, but I'd still like to make sure everything is squared away. What should I have in a written agreement, and what can be verbal? What am I not thinking of?

Oh, and what would be the best way to pay rent? I'm thinking either each of us contributing cash to a "rent envelope" or two people giving cash to the third, who then writes a check to the landlord. Good idea? Bad idea? Alternatives?

Looking for a private shared address book

Tell Me No Lies — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 11:43:42 -0800

Looking for a shared private address book phone app. I'm looking for a phone app that I can use to share an address book with friends while keeping fairly tight control of it -- as in, I distinctly do *not* want the information available from a web browser. (the last few years of privacy surprise parties have left me jaded)

Googling "private address book" has led me down a set of increasingly unsavory paths. Is there a term for what I'm looking for?

How can two people watch the same video together at the same time.

ShawnStruck — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 21:22:18 -0800

Friend and I want to watch movies or video together at the same time. We are separated by several states, but connected by the Internet. How can we make this work? We don't have the same game consoles. Friend has windows vista, I have windows 7. We're looking for a free or as low cost way as possible. I have netflix streaming. I have a wifi connection over a shared cable Internet account, so I'm not sure how well hosting or streaming a "show desktop" via Skype would work out. SeeToo doesn't seem to work. I have a livestream and ustream account but they just detect the laptop's built in camera. Can the hivemind offer us some help? Bonus points for solutions that allow me to share video files I already have on my computer somehow.

Why did the lawyer cross the road?

Clotilde — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 15:24:17 -0800

My boyfriend is in his articling year at a criminal defense firm. All of a sudden, he's so rarely around! Have you been in this situation? What strategies can make this sudden shift in our lives easier on us both? My boyfriend (who I live with) has been articling at a criminal defense firm for three months now. I work at home (I'm an artist) and I'm not used to having him gone so much of the time -- late into the evening, parts of the weekends. I don't have any friends who are in this line of work -- not even close. All my friends are artists. I am finding it bewildering and kind of lonely to all of a sudden have lost him to his work, but I understand that articling students get the brunt of the work.

Can anyone who is in this position or has had a relationship with someone doing this kind of work suggest strategies for coping with the sudden absence of the other person, and does this kind of thing usually last for a person's entire career, or is the year of articling particularly bad, or the first few years, but then it evens out?

How can I make it easier for him, as well? (I'm sure it's stressful for him to always be working, all of a sudden, even though he enjoys the work and the people there). I would like him to enjoy this year as much as possible, and to be able to do things to make his life at work easier, which is hard, not knowing exactly what someone in his position needs. (I know: ask him... but he is new to this as well and may not know what things would help.)

Any words of encouragement or advise would be welcome, and just personal experiences... It's been stressful around here! I wish to make it less so...

shared web calendar with event tracking?

lia — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:31:31 -0800

asking for a friend who manages a restaurant: any recommendations for a free (or cheap) shared web calendar that lets users add and edit their shifts, that tracks when things are added or edited and by whom (by user themselves, or by a manager)? happy to host on our own server if needed.

Average energy/water use of adults vs children?

PardonMyFrench — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 05:06:04 -0800

I live in a house shared amongst 10 tenants, including 2 children, aged 12 and 8. We're trying to figure out a fair way to divide electricity/gas/water bills. Specifically, how much less utilities should the children be charged for, and until which age? I've searched facts and figures on this topic, but have come up very empty handed, with only stats available being on a per capita basis...
My gut feeling/daily observation tells me that the kids actually look like they're using a lot more energy than most of the adults, since they require a lot of laundry being done/leave the lights on all the time/are actually at home a lot more often than most of the adults with jobs.
The parents of the kids are now paying half price for the children, and would like to keep it that way... indefinitely?
Their oldest turned 12 this year, which looked to me like a good cut-off mark.
I'd like to back up my arguments at the next house meeting with good sources or figures, or at least what the "industry standard" is for these type of issues?
For instance, in most restaurants here, the kids menu is available for children under 12...
I'm in Amsterdam, NL, if this is relevant. Thanks!

Why wouldn't we want a legal agreement for a shared fence w/neighbor?

tristeza — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:06:09 -0800

Please help me figure out if I'm being unreasonable to want more than a "handshake agreement" between my condo association and our neighbor to have that neighbor a) build a fence that b) straddles our two properties and c) wants us to pay 1/2 of the construction costs for, and that d) we'd "co-own and maintain." Condo drama inside. I'll try to keep it short:

- my condo has a long driveway that used to have a fence next to it to separate our property and our neighbor's (ON's).

- fence fell apart and basically crumbled a couple of years ago. We need a fence there because there's a drop off and if someone dumped off our driveway into ON's yard they'd likely get hurt.

- old fence was, apparently, built straddling the two properties somewhere (I think one end was in ours, one end in ON's). There was no documentation of its building, no easement, nothing.

- ON and my HOA talk, decide that ON will build another fence (he's a contractor) in the same place. He asks that we pay "half - it'll cost $2000."

- HOA comes to owners with this, some of us say "where's the legal agreement about the payment and about the fact that it's going to be on both properties?"

- HOA says there doesn't need to be one, let's just shake on it, we need the fence and he's cutting us a great deal, we'll just co-own and co-maintain it and everything will be peachy.

- let me reiterate - NO LEGAL/FORMAL AGREEMENT ON PAPER

- some owners insist on one, we draw one up, seems reasonable to us non-lawyers, present it to ON

- ON won't sign it. Doesn't feel like it's "necessary". He says - Let's just shake on it, it's a simple fence, no big deal. A formal agreement seems like just too much.

I am completely, 100% baffled why we wouldn't want/need a formal agreement in place. HOA says it's just "not a big deal!" They must be high, because I see: co-ownership of structure on two properties, liability insurance issues, shared maintenance issues, cost of building issues ("oh, did I say $2k? I meant $4k"), etc etc etc etc..... this seems so reckless I can't even begin, and the HOA board is literally saying "wow, guys, this is just a simple fence, why go all formal?"

So, who's crazy - me or the HOA?

Shared & Editable contacts using Outlook 2007 WITHOUT Exchange?

TrueVox — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:04:58 -0800

We are currently on Exchange & Outlook 2000. We have somewhere in the realm of 2000 contacts stored in a shared "Rolodex", that can be accessed by anyone via Outlook. We're currently looking to move to Outlook 2007 (from the Office Professional suite) WITHOUT Exchange and are furiously trying to figure a similar solution. Please read on for more details… It should be noted that we'll be using Google Apps Sync for our primary mail & calendars, which on our three test stations is working fine. However, I can't make shared contacts work, and even Google tells you that you can't manage contacts through their shared contacts solution, so that's a non-starter.

We just want simple, shared, editable by all contacts to be accessed via Outlook 2007 without resorting to Exchange. Please feel free to ask if I've left anything out or if you need more clarification.

Thanks!

Help me find a shared wedding reading!

farfaraway — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 08:07:42 -0800

Help me find readings that two people can read together on my wedding day! I'm really struggling to find a wedding reading or poem that lends itself to being read by two people. Does anyone have any ideas? Ideally I'd like something not too soppy, and if possible slighly light-hearted or that could be said in a comic way, but having trawled through so many threads on here and countless poem books, I'm stuck!

Call all Database Gurus!

edjusted — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:16:13 -0800

We have a process at work that requires multiple approval steps that we're trying to track. There are a potential 8000+ SKUs to track and each SKU needs to have each step accounted for (e.g. concept approval, art approval, pre-production sample approval, production sample approval). We have been tracking this with a spreadsheet but it's very cumbersome, and we've moved it to a MS Access db. The biggest problem with this is that it's not easily shareable everyone who needs a status check has to ask the person in charge of the DB instead of being able to look it up themselves. FWIW we're not a big company and probably no more than about 10 people ever need to look up this kind of info)

Can anyone give us suggestions on a better way to do this? Our criteria: 1. able to generate lists of items based on criteria (e.g. everything with item # prefix "X" that's not approved, anything that's been submitted for concept approval over 2 weeks ago, etc)

2. have some way for simple lookups/searches that can be performed by non-techie people (e.g. when was XYZ submitted for artwork approval? has the pre-production sample for ABC been approved, and if so, when?)

3. (this is important) the db should be relatively simple to create and maintain. We've looked at and think Filemaker might be a good solution.

4. here's a bonus: it would be ideal if an email was generated to certain people whenever that record was updated. e.g. if Joe was responsible for item XYZ, have an email sent to him any time XYZ's record is updated...likewise for Sally and item ABC)

We've considered Filemaker, CentralDesktop.com, and have even looked at doing some sort of Google spreadsheet. PHP/mysql is not out of the question if there was an easy way to create layouts and search result pages. As you can probably guess, we're not real strong with administrating DB's. Are we on the right track or is there something else we should be looking at?

(btw, why can't I ever get line feeds to work properly in Ask Mefi? is it just me?)

Help me get my DNS settings in order.

joshrholloway — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:20:48 -0800

Please help me figure out DNS settings so I can get my new domain, hosting account, Tumblr blog, and Google Apps to all play nicely. (Please bear with me, this is somewhat of a complicated situation and I am by no means an expert when it comes to DNS or websites. Some of my terms may be a little off. If you need to ask questions, I'll clarify as best I can.)

I recently purchased a shared hosting account and a domain name. I have transferred the DNS from my registrar to my hosting account by putting in the nameservers for my hosting account into my registrar. I don't have a dedicated IP, and I don't have direct access to DNS and other intricate settings with my hosting provider, so I have to email them to make any changes for me. I do have access to a small number of things through cPanel. For the purposes of this question, let's assume that the IP provided by the hosting company is 66.55.44.33 and that the domain is mycoolsite.com. Here is what I want to accomplish:

1. I want http://mycoolsite.com to point directly to a Tumblr blog I set up, and I want all the URLs and everything to work properly, with no masking.

2. I want http://static.mycoolsite.com to point to a folder within my hosting. So let's say that in order to get to that folder directly, I have to type http://66.55.44.33/~mycoolsite/static. I want anything in the folder "static" to be at the root of http://static.mycoolsite.com. Therefore, http://66.55.44.33/~mycoolsite/static/main.css is equivalent to http://static.mycoolsite.com/main.css.

3. I want Google Apps set up on the domain, with http://mail.mycoolsite.com, etc. pointing to each Google app.

So far I have number 1 and number 3 working correctly by pointing the main A record of the domain to the IP provided by Tumblr, and creating the proper CNAMEs for Google Apps. I can't figure out what I need to do in order to get the second part working. My assumption was that I would need to create a second A record for the site called "static" and point it to the IP the hosting company provided me, 66.55.44.33 in this example. However, when I do that and go to http://static.mycoolsite.com, all I get is a blank page. But, when I go to http://static.mycoolsite.com/~mycoolsite/static, I get what I want to get.

So what are my options here? Is this even possible under my current configuration? Should I transfer DNS back to my registrar and try to work it all out from there instead? Do I need to mess with subdomains at all? I basically just need to know what to ask my hosting provider or what to tell them to change. HELP!

MS Access - Limit to # of shared users

cg1 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:04:10 -0800

Is there a limit to the # of users who can share a Microsoft Access database across a network? I've been working in Filemaker for so long that it's been a while since I designed in Access. I'm now working for a public school that has no money, but all its machines have Access. The school *really* needs a database, so I'm considering building one using expertise from my previous life in the business world.

Several questions:

- Assuming all 100 teachers in our school has Access on the PC in their classroom, could all 100 access the same Access database simultaneously without problems? I know that Filemaker has a user limit of 250, but that requires Filemaker Server (a separate / more expensive software) be installed on at least the server itself. Does Access have similar limitations?

- Does Access support a web-based module, that teachers not in the building / not on the school network could access? If so, is it worth a damn?

- Is Access easier to design in now than it was years ago (when I switched to Filemaker and was thrilled how much simpler it was)?

Thanks in advance for any help,
Wade

How can a writing workshop share their work online?

patnasty — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:32:24 -0800

What would be the best web-based file hosting service to use as a shared "Documents" folder for the various members of my writing workshop? I'm looking for a cheap (or even free!) way to set up a communal web storage folder so that the members of my writing workshop and I can make the latest drafts of our work available to one another in between workshop meetings.

Here are the tricky bits:

Many of my workshop-mates are fairly technophobic. If the login/uploading process is at all difficult-looking, they won't use it. Also, it would be probably be best that it not require the downloading of any sort of desktop client, unless the installation and configuration thereof would be simple enough for an 80 year old grandmother who was raised in a remote region of the Brazilian rainforest, by monkeys.

Finally, we'll be using several different document types. Some will be using regular docs, some will be using the screenwriting program Final Draft's proprietary format, and some will be using the format used by the open source screnwriting program, Celtx. It would probably be asking too much for the hosting service to automatically convert these various formats into PDF or something, so I'm pretty much resigned to having to go on and do some converting on my own... but it would be nice if, once I convert the document to PDF or HTML, for people to be able to just click on a document to read it.

Oh, and it'd be best if I could set up sub-folders for the various members of the group, so our stuff isn't all mixed up together.

So... any suggestions?

iTunes library sharing

anonaccount — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:50:42 -0800

I'm having a party at the weekend and planned on playing some music in the garden using iTunes - I need some help setting this up! My main music library is in my room on a beastly desktop. I planned to hook up my old iBook G4 to some speakers in the garden to play from the shared music library on my desktop machine.

This works - however it plays all music, not just the "checked" songs. I also can't use the iTunes DJ on a shared library (which would be ideal, as I want people at the party to cue up music rather than interrupting the flow).

1) Can I share only "checked" songs? (I know i can do single playlists - but I have a huge library and I really don't want to have to go through selecting just the checked songs to make the new playlist)
2) Can I hack iTunes DJ into working with a shared playlist?

I have an iPod too - if that helps!

I thought I was the only one who thought I was the only one...

phrontist — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:50:14 -0800

Is there a term for that feeling when you realize someone else notices (or notices in a particular way) something you had never thought of anyone else paying attention to, or viewing similarly? This American Life (the radio show) is a good example of that feeling... kind of "Oh man, I can't believe other people feel that way or notice that" (David Sedaris aims for this, and whether you find him funny seems to depend on whether you react this way to him). This thread, and askmefi in general, is also good example. The humor of many of the Cohen brother's films, in particular The Big Lebowski, seems largely derived from this. Walter, in that film, is not just amusing as an imagined person, but because the coen brothers seem to be saying "isn't it funny how some people are like this". Another example would be when you learn a new word for something you'd never considered other people considering - I felt this way about "phosphenes". Ya know what I mean?

cross platform shared address book

cowmix — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:29:21 -0800

What is the best / easiest shared cross platform shared address book solution out there? I'm a part of a small organization (50 people) spread across the country. Our company uses Linux (Thunderbird), Mac (Mail.app) and Windows (Outlook). What is the best solution to setup that will allow all of use to share a common contact list? I'm assuming LDAP will be used for address lookups but what is the best way to allow people to add entries. If not a LDAP based solution, what else can we use?

How do we pay for this mistake?

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 16:02:57 -0800

AskMe the Ethicist: how do we divide this plumbing bill among 3 roommates (or am I a jerk for not wanting to split it evenly) We are three roommates.

One of us (the one who is a relatively recent arrival to the US) flushed a bowl of stew--containing pork bones--down the toilet, creating a massive plug and a $200+ plumbing bill our angry landlord won't cover, for obvious reasons.

If we divide it equally by 3 (the flusher apologized via email for a "bad decision" but hasn't mentioned or offered to take financial responsibility), I'm $80 in the hole I didn't budget for, for someone else's mistake. This is a lot of money for me.

However, the flusher hasn't been around to talk to since this happened, and the other roommate is hesitant to ask her to help defray the cost....we are all nice people trying to be nice, but if she hasn't offered to pay more than a third, is it bitchy to ask? Should I let it go in the interests of peaceful domestic relations? I honestly don't know. I don't want to create hard feelings or be "the bad guy", but again, it's a real chunk of change-- I don't normally spend that much ever, unless it's a bill, due to the frugal way I've had to live the last few years.

On the other hand, a comfortable, friendly living environment is important to me as well.

I'd write Randy Cohen but I suspect the turnaround here will be faster.

Advice / Guidlines on handling floater laptops?

bartleby — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:45:51 -0800

Any tips on "floater" (e.g. check out generic laptop #6 for the day) laptop policies and procedures? Several people who need to do occasional fieldwork/travel were given "desktop replacement" laptops, with the idea that it would be easier to pop the laptop off a docking station and go.

But reports are that they're just not performing as well, or as administrated as easily, as a PC tower for day-to-day operation. TCO turns out to be too high, especially since they're only needed for fieldwork 4 or 5 weeks a year total - meaning people are stuck using an unneccesarily weak machine for the other 45 weeks a year.
Consensus is that they'd rather go back to towers than get better desktop replacment laptops.

So the idea is to get these folks new towers, but to keep these laptops as generic floaters to be checked out when needed. They're older Thinkpads, and with some polishing, would be fine for fieldwork purposes.

If you've done this, or something like it, any tips would be appreciated.
Storing them so they're updated and ready to grab and go? (because of the software used, it's necessary to run updates almost weekly - any way to make it less of a chore?)
Security? (TrueCrypt the hard drives?, preventing out-of-sight-out-of-mind problems?)
Logins? (6 laptops, shared by 12 users, and we don't use roaming profiles. Just a generic login for each one?)

Table to projector data gathering system?

SirStan — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:26:21 -0800

Large group conference, need to display transcribed thoughts on a wall for everyone to see. Are there any solutions (inside or outside the box) that would essentially allow me to make a scrolling list of "ideas" collected from people walking around groups in a meeting room of 100 people?

Ideally it would be a laptop/projector reading from a central database of some sort, and people would enter things into the database and the application would display the updated items.

We would really like ~3 laptops roaming out... but a brief search turns me up without much except perhaps instant messaging, or VNC and MIcrosoft word.

No internet access will be available.

Shared Outlook Categories firmwide = possible?

bartleby — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:03:18 -0800

Is there a way to share Outlook Categories / Master Category list across all users on an Exchange server? Company has several thousand Contacts in a shared Public folder (separate from each user's own default/personal Contacts) = "Company Contacts" on its Exchange server (using Outlook 2003 at their desks, Exchange/Server 2003 at the server).

There are several dozen Categories applied to these Contacts (which branch handles them, what type of services they provide, who manages the account, etc.).

As it is now, that list of Categories has to be re-built for each new user/workstation MANUALLY, as the Categories in Outlook seem to bind to the individual Outlook account.

To deal with this, we have simply centralized the addition & categorizaion of new Contacts to a few individuals in the firm, and maintained their Categories lists accordingly. Easy enough.

But there's a move on to spread that responsibility out to everyone - so everyone will need that list of categories so that they can properly categorize Contacts they add to that shared list.

Is there a way to share/deploy a Master Categories list firmwide, at one go? I really don't want to have to manually enter those Categories for each and every user profile.

Seems like there must be a way - everyone is using the same Exchange server, same version of Outlook 2003, etc - but I'm coming up empty.

Global Negociated asynchronous calenders?

|n$eCur3 — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:43:55 -0800

Looking for a web based calendar service that allows me to set n blocks of time on my schedule for phone interviews. Interviewees each get to pick exactly one block from the remaining slots available, until all blocks are filled. I am willing to pay a fee for this service, but free is preferable. I'd like as little set up as possible.

Important: I'd like the calendar to work across multiple time zones and countries (candidates will be all over the world). So, each interviewee will see a view of the remaining time blocks adjusted to their personal time zone.

This service would make my life significantly better. Does this exist?

Image hosting for sharing.

[insert clever name here] — Mon, 21 May 2007 09:22:42 -0800

Looking for an image hosting solution that allows anyone to upload photos with some sort of approval process. All the image hosting solutions out there I've found so far are based around either one person make an account and uploading your own photos, or other users within that site/community being able to add to your album. I need something that allows anyone to upload without making an account, and then the account owner can approve them. Same goes for comments for the photos, if available.

Ideally it would also be something geared towards integrating with another site, though not entirely necessary.

I've found these features in a lot of photo gallery software, but not so much in hosting solutions. Help would be much appreciated.