Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with software and application

A start menu for Windows 7 where I type "i" for Internet and "f" for Firefox to open that browser?

oxit — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:12:54 -0800

A start menu for Windows 7 where I type i for Internet and f for Firefox to open that browser? Prior to Windows 7 I was using the classic Windows start menu to access most of my software by pressing only three keys on the keyboard:

1. the Windows key, then
2. a key for the folder, e.g. (I)nternet, or (O)ffice, then
3. a key for the application, e.g. (F)irefox or (I)nternet Explorer.

Typing a part of the name in Windows 7's start menu is a lot slower, more cumbersome and error-prone.

Is there a solution to have this in Windows 7? There are many start menu replacements out there, but none I've seen does this. Can you help?

What do I need to look at when buying a new laptop?

reenum — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:28:05 -0800

I'm in the market for a new laptop. Should I get a PC or Mac? What specs are important for me to look at when making a decision? My Toshiba Satellite A65 seems to be on its last legs, so I think I'm getting a new laptop.

In researching, I've become confused as to which specs really matter when looking at a computer.

Here's what I would use it for:
- E-mail, IM, and Web
- Watching DVDs
- BitTorrent
- Word processing and spreadsheets
- Tracking my finances
- Some music creation (mostly breakbeats)

I've seen some places say that I need as much RAM as possible, others stress the importance of a large hard drive, yet others say I need the fastest processor.

Also, any recommendations as to brands that are more reliable than others?

Please help!

software for unknown extension

infostud — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:25:56 -0800

What software will open a .wls file? Searching reports that something called "602 PC SUITE" will do so, but that piece of software doesn't seem to exist, and the company that allegedly makes it doesn't have anything named that or similar.

Stock data for use in black box trading application?

Hypocrites — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 13:12:55 -0800

Stock data for use in black box trading application? I just need raw data, the current tick and the technical analysis for each tick and I need the data to be real-time. I would prefer an API with it, but if not that's fine. All I need is data, no other analysis or "features" of any kind. (e.g. no Bloomberg Terminal, Fidessa, CQG, any variation therof) This data needs to be easily manipulated in my own application that I'll be developing in C#. Thanks in advance!

Super Simple offline (time-less) diary/calender?

hasna — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:58:17 -0800

I'm looking for a super simple offline daily diary/agenda application. Something like iCal. I spend most of my time overseas, and just want to be able to look back, year(s) from now, and see what I did. Have suggestions? I already journal on an infrequent (weekly?) basis. But it's usually more of philosophical rambling /slash/ emotional purging, than a chronological memoir of my day. I also use iCal to schedule out my regular appointments (tutoring, exercise, sleep, children to school, etc).

What I want, though, is a very simple Mac application where I can, in calender format, make very simple entries about what I did that day, without having to put times on them, or even have times there at all.

Example: Met my new friend Steph today, spent most of the day in Sultanahmet. Had beer for breakfast (!!), got lost on the way to Taksim, met a random American friend and had MORE beer, then came home late. Awesome day!.

The kind of thing where I'll be able to look back on 6 months, or 1-2 years from now, and remember exactly what I was doing; put myself back in that moment. Hindsight is always 20/20. I deeply regret not having done this in the past (for China, Peru, Mexico, Mali, Guinea..).

Yes, I realize that what I'm describing is the typical paper diary, but really I'm just looking for an offline (maybe?), Mac-compatible calender/agenda application that will allow me to do such a thing. I already keep multiple blogs, but they rarely contain my day-to-day happenings. Again, I'll emphasize: super simple, no flashy features. Just click on a calender date to enter/read what I did that day. That's all. Maybe bold/italic, but even that is optional. seriously, that simple.

Any tips? Thanks in advance, mefites! :)

Membership App (Hosted?) for Non-Profit / Club?

c0nsumer — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:03:28 -0800

I'm looking for a web-based app (free or otherwise) or a hosted app which will handle membership for a non-profit / club. It needs to provide different membership levels, handle payments (via PayPal or Google Checkout), and provide some method for allowing members to renew or upgrade their memberships, change their info as needed, etc. It does not need to be free, even though that would be nice. Currently we are looking into Wild Apricot, but I'm running into some odd weirdness with importing users, the way income is booked into it (importing our current member list records each member as paying again), and a few other things.

I found this question from a while ago, but it's a bit out of date and doesn't really answer the question.

So, does anyone know of some better way to handle this?

What's a good greeting card making application/website?

Tu13es — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:54:47 -0800

What's a good greeting card making application/website? My parents are still using a copy of Greetings Workshop that came with our 400MHz Dell back in the day. Are there any decent, recent, greeting card applications or websites worth using? Or should they just stick with GW?

Free is good, but they'd be willing to pay for something. It does need to be easy to use (no Photoshop!).

Revision/version control software for stuff that isn't source code...

Chunder — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:40:18 -0800

Is there such a thing as version/revision control software for printed documents? Software developers have version control for their source code, but what about people who write sales brochures? I work in a large multinational corporation, the marketing department of which generates a large volume of outward-facing literature - brochures, applications, etc. These are written in-house, artworked by an agency into pdf, and then reviewed/amended/signed-off prior to being printed and distributed; changes to any given item are frequent and reasonably regular (usually 6 monthly), and may need to be amended and reviewed by a number of people (usually 4-6).

Unfortunately, the relevant department has no concept of the re-use of identical elements across documents (e.g. common paragraphs, tables, etc.) - every document is completely independent of the others, no matter how much copy text is duplicated; they manage version control completely manually; they are inconsistent in handling updates to one document, and frequently do not apply them across other similar documents; and lastly, they operate in a non-collaborative manner regarding review and sign-off - so any changes suggested by one person aren't seen by the others until all of the changes have been re-applied to the document, incurring extra artworking costs and time delays.

I'm absolutely certain that there is some software out there somewhere that - in effect - does source-code version control for printed literature, and will help to resolve all of the issues that we have... but I have no idea what I'm looking for! Every search I do just returns source code versioning.

Does anyone out there work for a publishing house, or a document production agency, or something, who use software such as this to control all of these aspects of printed literature lifecycle? Something that gives collaborative review of documents; something that links "paragraphs" between documents (so one change updates multiple documents, or at least identifies them for you); something that helps to control which version of a document was available at any particular time, irrespective of the subsequent changes...
I'm coming at this from a business analysis background (it's not my job any more, it's just a habit I can't shake!), and it really frustrates me that a core part of such a large business is totally dependent upon inefficient and inaccurate manual processes... but is my only solution to roll up my sleeves and learn to code something suitable?

Doing the books

adamrice — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:56:29 -0800

Please suggest a job-tracking/invoicing application for freelance services. Either Mac-based or Web-based. I have a bunch of persnickety requirements. I've looked at a lot (a looot) of Mac-based apps, but perhaps I've overlooked the magic bullet.

My requirements:
- Must support multiple currencies. Some clients I bill in US$, some in ¥, and I want to leave the door open for € and whatever. This seems to be the most common dealbreaker.
- Must support various billing units. None of my work is billed by time. Some by the word, some by the character, etc. Time-oriented features are useless and time-oriented billing is frustrating.
- Should support a fair amount of customization in invoice formatting.
- Lets me keep track of payment status, earnings over time, that sort of thing.
- Can export data into some kind of interchange format.

During 2008, I've been making do with a Numbers spreadsheet that seems to have gotten too big for the application to digest. Before that, my system was even worse. iBiz would be just about perfect, but it can only handle one currency last time I checked.

Small mac app idea wanted

jasminerain — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:30:33 -0800

Are there any small Mac applications that you wish existed but doesn't? I need to make a Cocoa application for a class in a few weeks, and I get to choose the application. I'd really like it to be unique and useful. It has to be small enough to be doable in 3 weeks, but it's okay if it's a large project as long as something fairly impressive can be accomplished towards the goal in 3 weeks (in other words, something with a small core functionality and possibly many features on top). I wouldn't mind continuing to work on it after the class is over.

Also, if you have an idea but it's kind of a large project, go ahead and post it anyway.

I'm not looking for anything that'll make money, but it would be nice if the project is useful to more than a handful of people.

Thanks for any suggestions!

What is the best way to realtime-render 3D images on a server?

Vorteks — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 12:22:34 -0800

Does anyone have experience using DirectX in a server-side application? Is it practical? If not, what alternatives are there? My company needs to build a web application that renders dynamic 3D images and sends them to a web browser as static JPEGs. One of my coworkers and I think the best way to do this is to use DirectX to generate the images on the server (assuming a high-end video card in the machine), then save the output as JPEG and send it out. Another developer is convinced that using the GPU for a server-side application is unwise, and advocates using an entirely software-based rendering engine. To me, it seems foolish to ignore the GPU and try to software-render everything, but I'm having a hard time proving my point. One of the criticisms that's been leveled against using DirectX on the server is that "nobody else is doing it". So, I need to know:

Have you used DirectX to render 3D images on a server?

Do you recommend it?

Why or why not?

Have you used a technology other than DirectX to render 3D images on a server, especially software-based rendering?

Do you recommend that?

Why or why not?

Can you think of any company who is using DirectX on a server

... or any company rendering (non-raytraced) 3D images server-side?

In a nutshell: is it advisable to use the GPU to render images in a multi-user server environment?

Thank you, great hive mind!

Flickr for Clothes, y'all! Good idea?

Firas — Sat, 12 May 2007 23:36:14 -0800

Wardrobe software. Has nobody done this? Wouldn't a social webapp for clothing be fiercely awesome? I'm not the target user really (I assume a hypothetical userbase would skew heavily towards the other gender) but even to the extent that I see it being personally useful, it does seem awesome.

Think something like: being able to list everything, add pictures, define combinations, take pictures of yourself in those combinations, get people to suggest combinations for you, etc. Basically a heavy emphasis on organization and communication instead of just spreadsheet-style itemization.

I know that 'social shopping' is an exploding niche and that people have done this with eg. perfumes (basenotes), but I'm concerned that this may be a solution looking for a problem.

Whatcha think?

Help me keep track of the time I spend writing

agent99 — Wed, 02 May 2007 12:13:53 -0800

Is there a Mac application that can help me keep track of hours, dates, and time I spend writing? I'm facing a giant writing project in the next six months or so and I want to keep track of how many hours I'm working and when. So, at the end of it all, I want to be able to look at a bunch of data and see that I worked for 35 hours on chapter 1, mostly between 11 pm and 2 am, or that the entire project took me 700 hours of writing.

Ideally it would be some kind of small widget where you just press "start" and "stop" every time you work.

I've checked out a few web apps, like toggl (too simple), harvest (not free), and tick (not enough detail)--are there others that do what I want them to, or am I missing features on the ones above that already do what I want them to?

Desired qualities:

1. Free (ideally)
2. Mac compatible
3. Has a widget interface of some kind (not essential)
4. Keeps track of the amount of time AND the time of day and dates
5. Data is downloadable into csv format
6. Web app is OK but must be able to record time while I'm not connected to the internet (and then upload later).

Does such a thing exist?

CSS and Standards-Based Enterprise Software Solutions

syzygy — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:53:14 -0800

Is CSS and standards-based design ready for use in web-based enterprise software solutions? I'm a consultant leading a team of developers on a project that's building an enterprise software solution (think sector-oriented ERP) which has a front end that is 99% web-based.

Most of my developers have reasonable thick client experience, or reasonable web experience using tables for layout. None of them have much CSS experience. I'm pretty comfortable with CSS and standards-based design/layout, but I don't have time to program on this project, and that's not my job description (I take the specifications from the customers and bring them down to the software engineers). I've also never used non-table layouts for more software-oriented solutions (as opposed to websites whose main focus is dissemination of information).

Is CSS and standards-based design ready for use in web-based enterprise software solutions? If so, what are some good resources that deal with this topic?

Technical details: working in ASP.NET 2.0 and developing solely for IE 6+ (for right now - they'd like to make the application cross-browser compatible, down the road).

Name that Tune?

tmcw — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 07:56:02 -0800

Name that tune: I need a game for iTunes / some other MP that will quiz me on track names & artists from a specific subset of my library. (on Windows) (also, advice on music memorization is welcome) That's pretty much it - this is actually for a test that I have in a while, where I'll need to quickly recognize works of music (mostly Baroque, Classical, etc), so any tips & tricks for that would be welcome too. I'm pretty good at memorizing track names of my current library, but this stuff is a little more subtle.

Good free/cheap XML-and-XSL application?

AmbroseChapel — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 16:22:03 -0800

Good free/cheap XML-and-XSL application? Two things have happened which affect my workplace.

One, a lot more people will need to work with XML and specifically with XSL transformations.

Two, Altova stopped distributing a free "Home" version of their XMLSpy app.

XMLSpy has its annoyances, but no-one could say it lacks features, even in the "Home" edition. Now, even the cheapest paid edition of the software is quite expensive for casual/incidental users -- it costs as much as Office.

Can anyone recommend an XML-wrangling app that's either free or cheap, and, hopefully, would let users select a particular XSLT processor to do the transformations?

Platform: Windows XP/2000.

Microsoft Word doc saved as email

acoutu — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 14:40:46 -0800

MSWordFilter: how do I convert back after accidentally clicking "send to" and turning my doc into an email? While working on a Microsoft Word document, I accidentally converted the doc to an email. I think I clicked "send to" and then saved. Yes, I saved. Stupid me. Now I have my beautifully formatted document (complete with headers) set up as an email. Despite Googling and using Help, I can't figure out how to get rid of the email formatting and just have a regular document. I tried "save as", but that didn't work. I tried cutting and pasting, but this doesn't keep all the formatting. Can anyone suggest a way to keep the document as is, except for the email part? Thanks.

Advice in designing a web application for a self-taught developer.

fishfucker — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 23:20:59 -0800

I'm going to write a web application that, if it is successful, will need to be "enterprise-level" -- that is, robust, secure, and extensible. Given the limitations of my current skills, what can I do to minimize design errors? Lots more inside. Here's the deal: I'm writing a web application with a partner that is essentially a tracking and accounting program. My CS skills are primarily self-taught (I've only had the very basics of a CS education in college before I dropped out of the program), and I realize that this will mean that the design of the application will be less than perfect. The project is no-budget, so hiring experienced programmers and designers is not an option at the moment, however, in the future, I'd like to be able to bring professionals in to extend the code.

Simply, I want to build a functional proof-of-concept that will have as much reusable code as possible.

With that in mind, here are the specific questions I have in mind:

1. Is writing such a project in PHP a foolish undertaking? PHP is currently the language I know best. I don't anticipate us needing much more power than what the language is capable of -- since it's mostly storing form data in a DB and recovering it -- but I'm concerned because I've seen other potentially successful web apps fall victim to their own popularity. I'm mainly thinking of Friendster in this case, and how seemed to fall over under the weight of its own codebase (and it's lengthy rewrite), and I want to avoid this. Is it worth the potential code mistakes I'll make writing this in something that other people consider a more "proper" language but with which I am not familar-- like Python, for example? I'm planning to use MySQL as a backend because that's what I'm most familar with (and I don't think we will need more power).

2. Should I consider using existing libraries? For example, in a lot of the work I've done already, I've avoided using stuff in the PEAR repository because it doesn't meet the specific requirements I have. Is this a bad way of doing things? Should I instead base modules on existing libraries and extending them where they do not meet my needs? In short, is hand-rolling everything a mistake?

3. Can you recommend some good books that will help me avoid stupid design mistakes? I've already read a lot of the Joel on Software stuff (which seems more about software PM), and I don't really think I need to read about process (or do I?). Here's what I'm planning to do: get up a barebones proto as fast as possible and have some of the audience who's going to be working with this software evaluate it and give us advice for future iterations. The spec is going to be developed by the person I'm working with who is familar with the industry, so my knowledge of the "what" that the app needs to do is taken care of, but I'll be highly involved in the "how" -- that is, developing a good and very simple (essential for our product) UI.

4. What do I look to for security best practice? I want to take all precautions possible to make sure that the private data remains private. Backup, etc, I'll consider an IT problem, but I want to make sure that do things that are difficult to change later (like user authentication) right there first time. What's the best way to make sure passwords are encrypted in the DB and that cookies are difficult to spoof? How do I make sure my authentication routines are secure AND not sluggish?

5.Besides good documentation and modular structure, what's the best way to make sure that other people can work on code that I've (possibly badly) developed? I don't know if it'll be possible or smart to throw the codebase away after the prototype is completed -- if you think otherwise, please let me know. Is it ever a good idea to just write something as a prototype (that is destined to be thrown away)?

6. Everything is going to live on one server -- should I plan for an eventual distribution of server duties? Is this something a developer even needs to worry about? I've really never had to deal with this before, so I can't elaborate on this question.

Thanks, I'm sure I'll think of tons of questions later as answers come in. Unfortuntely, I can't really entertain any ideas of just having someone else do it because that would pretty much eliminate my participation in this project (which I don't want to do). It's not realistic either that I'll be able to somehow get enough education to meet the skillset of someone with a B.S. either, so although I appreciate responses advising that I gain some more academic experience before undertaking this project, they aren't useful for my current situation.

Anecdotal experience involving your own web application development (and business ventures!) is welcome.

MLM Management Software

silusGROK — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 17:25:04 -0800

My agency brought on a start-up MLM, and we need to provide software to manage the MLM salesforce, their downlines, commissions, etc. (Yeah, yeah... I know... ). In the past, for our normal clients, we've used SugarCRM to manage customers and the like. I'm wondering: can anyone recommend a good MLM management app — must have an internet interface.

PHP file manager?

crickets — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 09:13:34 -0800

I'm looking for a PHP file manager to act as an extranet... I need an application I can install that will act as a simple, easy-to-use extranet. This is for a small business -- the files in question will mostly be word docs, spreadsheets, PDFs, etc. It would allow uploads and downloads, store comments about files, etc. User management is a plus. Free is not required.

Any thoughts?

Ideas for Differentiating a Social Networking Application

Firas — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 12:19:04 -0800

So, the Achilles' heel of Social Networking is the 'What Now' Issue. Once you've listed all your friends publicly, which doesn't solve any problems you had in the first place, you're pretty much left hanging. Ideas about getting around this problem in building a social networking app? I'm in the 'scribbling in journal' stage, so any type of input is welcome: links to articles or essays, pointers to blogs that keep an eye on these things, and any suggestions, theories or other musings on your part about what sort of social networking app you'd actually use.

Current observations:

I think Facebook does very well on the 'defining the social network' issue, down to the nitty gritties of how you know whom. On the other hand, there's really no reason to keep logging into Facebook unless your friends are using the messaging features.

MySpace user behaviour seems to suggest that perpetual next steps are: * Find more hot people to add to your friends list, * Use the internal messaging feature as a replacement for email, * Use the 'Comments' thing to keep in touch with short notes (eg. 'Nice profile pic!')

Current differentiating ideas: Open Source (eg. drop it into your club or association's site and voila, membership and event management), Not an Island (recognizes that it's not the only social software site you're going to join, so uses others' APIs and feeds, perhaps federates your identity to an extent), Solve Real Problems ([your idea here]—anything I come up with in this section veers towards PIM features and I have no intention of using my spare time trying to compete with Outlook, Google etc. in that field.)

Any such thing as a free DVD/CD writing software?

sublivious — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 14:56:38 -0800

Any such thing as a free DVD/CD writing software for Windows? What I'd really like is an application that works a lot like Nero in its CD/DVD burning functions but free. It should be easy to use, have the ability to burn DVD movies, data DVDs, data CDs, Audio CDs, and Dual Layer support would be a plus. Also it should support newish drives with support for the latest drives always getting attention.

I believe DVD Decrypter could do this, but it's been acquired by Macrovision Europe and distribution has been ended. So far I've found ImgBurn (which apparently is by the folks that brought us DVD Decrypter), DeepBurner (the free version doesn't do DVD video), and CDBurnerXP Pro (may not do DVD video nor support the drive in question). None of them meet my requirements.

How to develop a social software application?

germanguy — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 03:43:44 -0800

How to develop a social software application? I want to develop a social software application (e.g. craigslist or delicious). I am currently looking into " Ruby on Rails" but at the best I would like to start within an existing ecosystem.
NING would be perfect - but unfortunately they seem to be quiet dead. Any experience or recommendations?

Menumeters for Windows?

gsb — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 10:29:25 -0800

I have to start using Windows XP for a while, but I'm a Mac user. I'm trying to find equivalent software for the Windows machine. Specifically, I'm looking for a tool like MenuMeters, that can give a real time sampling of Network Throughput, CPU usage and RAM consumption. It would be great if the application could run in the background and consume very few CPU cycles, itself. And extra bonus points if the application is free.

What software packages do phone sex operators use?

afroblanca — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 10:16:31 -0800

What software packages do phone sex operators use? I've heard that phone sex operators use software that allows them to "clock in" at will and recieve calls at any phone they like. Presumably, this software also does some sort of accounting to keep track of time spent for each operator.

Maybe people who took part in this discussion can help.

(note : this is for a non-phone sex-related project)