Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with tag

What game was it I used to play with the Romanian kids?

low affect — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:28:24 -0800

What game was it I used to play with the Romanian kids? I don't remember it very well. We drew a court in chalk on the street. It was kind of like a symmetrical maze. We played with 4 players, two on a team. I think depending on where you were standing in the court, your teammate to could move somewhere else? Or there were certain safe zones or something. The goal, I think, was to emerge from the other side of the maze without getting tagged.

what is "backend of a site seal" called on scriptlance?

Izzmeister — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:15:20 -0800

how do the online BBB seals and safety seal work on the back end? I am trying to make a seal for members of an organization I am part of.

the Better business bureau has a seal which members put on their website with a code that links back to them.. which says when clicked upon "this is a member in good standing".

same things for site safety seals...

how do I create such a seal? i can go on elance or scriptlance, but I have no idea what I am trying to describe...

how hard is this to create, and how would i describe it best so I don't get taken for a ride?

I have the graphic.... I need the "CGI backend" or however it should be described.

Thank you MeFi!

Tag THIS.

Sully — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:04:48 -0800

There's this grafitti tagger here in town who scrawls his name everywhere in big black magic marker. On the sides of mailboxes, on walls, on doors. Thing is, it's a nice design and he's got a catchy name. I was thinking the other day that if I started a clothing line, I would like to use his tag as my trademark logo. Chances are, he hasn't trademarked his tag. If I decided to trademark it myself, then deployed it as the name of my clothing line, as well as use his scrawl on the backs of the hoodies I sold - legally, would he have any recourse?

Recommendations for wireless locator kit? (i.e. 'RFID-beepers I can stick on things)

jcruelty — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:34:54 -0800

Can you recommend a good wireless locator kit that will let me tag various remotes, keys, etc. so I can find them by activating the locator and listening for a beep? Key features I'm looking for would be: good range, ability to deal w/ wireless interference, small tags (one of the remotes I want to stick a tag onto is 3 inches by 1 inch), reasonable price range.

I saw along these lines with minimal response. Amazon lists a few kits like this: EZ-FIND-25-Item-Wireless-Electronic-Locator but I would really like to hear if anyone's used it and if so how's the quality.

No linear tag based navigation examples?

mjm1374 — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 08:05:46 -0800

I need some examples of sites that use cloud tags for (main) navigation and/or have a sort of tear off or pinned navigation system to remember frequently used pages customized to the user. I have been posed with a design challenge to create a large site (200+ pages) with no true fixed navigation. Basically they want something like a search box to start your journey and use predictive type to get pages that match the "Tags" you are search and as you locate pages you can Pin them to you own personal nav tool so you do not need to remember your search terms afterward. The end result is a nonlinear navigation of the site with bookmarks to quickly get you back to the pages you deemed important.

How do I best encode the intended audience of a photo inside a JPG file?How do I best encode the intended audience of a photo inside a JPG file?

hoverboards don't work on water — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:05:27 -0800

How do I best encode the intended audience of a photograph inside a JPG file? I have a collection of photos (about 30,000) which I would like to share. While I am happy for anyone to see most of them, there are some I only want to share with friends, some I only want to share with family, and some I want to remain private entirely - like Flickr's options.

As far as I can tell, there is no metadata standard for encoding intended audience, i.e. nothing like the IPTC or EXIF standards for encoding a caption, or the ISO speed.

My current plan is to use Digikam to simply tag photos "friends", "family", or "private", with none-of-the-above meaning everybody.

Is this the best way to do it?

How can I batch import JPEG album art into MP3s?

ilumos — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:59:17 -0800

How can I batch import album art into MP3s from JPEGs on my hard disk? Hi,

I've got a fairly extensive music collection (10,000~ tracks), and I would like to batch import album art, which I already have on my computer into the MP3's ID3 tag.

I know how to do it one by one in a few different programs, but it would be very laborious to add each and every album's art manually.

The art has the filename;

Artist - Album Title [Front].jpg

and resides in the same folder as the album.

Any help, or a point in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!

ilumos

Generating a Tag Cloud From Really Large Text Files

dbarefoot — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:13:59 -0800

I want to generate tag clouds for really large text files (the largest is 85 MB). No online service that I've found will support a file this big. Any suggestions? I grabbed the a copy of each of the websites of the four national, major Canadian political parties. I want to generate tag clouds for each party, showing the terms they use most often on their sites.

I had a sysadmin friend of mine (I'm so not a programmer) use some regular expression magic to merge each site into a single file. Thus, I have four very large text files. I considered things like Wordle or Many Eyes, but they have a much smaller maximum file size than I need. What should I do?

One alternative: get my friend or somebody to produce a list of words for each site and the number of times they appear. Then I create a small file with the right number of each of, say, the top 100 words, and use Wordle on that. Any better suggestions? Or, you know, help?

Help an iTunes hater out...

Area Control — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:46:40 -0800

Help an iTunes hater. I have 400 similarly tagged items I want to delete as I listen to them. Why won't iTunes let me have a column that is just "filename"? Every other media player can do that. And don't even get me started on the "keep my music organized" check box. The only way I could get my 400 items into iTunes with unique names was to turn that off, import the 400 items, and use a 3rd party id3 tagger to read the filename into the tag. I thought the Mac experience was supposed to be easy. I must be missing something really stupid. Is there an easier way?

Awesome online dogtag recommendation?

Ufez Jones — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:01:01 -0800

Recommendation for a tried and true online dog ID tag merchant? So I've recently moved and need to update Coya's ID tag. There's precious little chance that she'll get out, but the peace of mind is worth the money to me.

However, she wears a total of 4 tags on her collar: ID tag, rabies vaccination, city license, and the rubbery microchip tag. Ideally, what I'd like is a thin stainless steel tag that has relatively deep engraving. I ordered a tag for her with our previous address on it and after a little bit of wear and tear, it became obvious that the engraving was a bit too shallow and had kind of worn away, making it difficult to read what was on there.

I prefer to have 5 lines available for customization (her name, my name, my phone number, street address, city-state-zip), although 4 is acceptable.

Does anyone have a remarkably badass recommendation?

Inserting exposure metadata into scanned photographs

ztdavis — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:13:12 -0800

Is it possible to (and how would you) add shutter speed, f-stop, ISO, lens, and camera metadata to scanned files saved in a .psd format? I have photoshop, lightroom, and bridge. I know how to add tags and change the usual metadata stuff. I just can't figure out how to change these particular fields when they aren't written into the file to begin with as they are with DSLR files.

Name for the scene at the end of a movie--post credits

ColdChef — Tue, 06 May 2008 05:04:13 -0800

Is there a name for the small scene that comes at the end of a film--after the credits? Two summer movies I've seen so far have a scene after the credits. When did this start? The first one I can remember is Ferris Bueller admonishing the audience to go home, because the film is over. Is there a website that keeps track of this?

May I please pay you for new license plates?

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:04:04 -0800

The state DMV won'’t let me renew my registration on my current car because I owe property taxes on the old car. Is that legal? Can the state refuse to help me comply with one law if I am potentially violating another one? In 2007, I made a good-faith attempt to renew my registration after I noticed it had expired, and was told by the woman behind the DMV counter to drive off in my unregistered car because the DMV could not renew my registration until I sorted out property tax issues with the city where I live (this is in Virginia). My license plates were no longer even in the DMV’'s computer records because of how long I had waited to attempt to renew them. The woman behind the counter offered the example that if the police pulled me over and ran my plates, the plates would not turn up. Then she sent me on my way, refusing to take the money I wanted to pay for my renewed registration. The DMV seemed to be saying that my city's tax collectors' demands outweigh a state agency's driving regulations, which is surprising.

Fast forward to the present, where my car registration has now been expired for about two years. I understand some of you are lawyers but none of you are my lawyers. Is paying the property taxes I owe on the car I no longer own my only recourse, or is there some way I can bring my current car into compliance while I deal with the old car'’s property tax issues instead of after? I have been driving on expired tags for some time, yet with a valid driver’'s license, paid-up insurance policy and up-to-date state inspection on my car. The DMV has never sent notice that my license is suspended, and the state-approved inspection service operated by my car dealership has never had a problem with updating the inspection decal on my windshield. Why can't I put a new sticker on my license plates before I drive down to pay my tax bill?

Help me make sticky emails in Thunderbird!

cowbellemoo — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:47:44 -0800

Thunderbird: How can I make messages 'sticky'? I've just switched from Outlook, where I sorted my mail by flag status and then by date (a nested sort). When I would apply "flag for follow-up" to some random email, it would jump to the top of my list like a BBS 'sticky'. I can get a sort by tag/date view (unthreaded) in Thunderbird which looks like what I want, but when I apply a tag to an untagged email, it just sits there instead of joining its tagged buddies at the top. The sort isn't 'live' or refreshable. How do I get my old sticky behavior back?

Here's what my ideal inbox looks like (* = tag / star / whatever works):

* newest
* newish
* old
newest
newish
old
pre-historic

Applying the * to a non-starred email makes it jump to the top (* newest).

Thanks for making my world complete again.

I need help with a tagline for my new ecommerce store

adriana — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:49:36 -0800

Can you help me find a great tagline for my new ecommerce store? I am opening a new ecommerce store that will sell backyard related items: patio furniture and lighting, storage sheds, hot tubs, gardening tools, etc.

The name of the business is Better Backyards, and I need help in coming up with a great tag line. Any help very much appreciated.

RFID login on a Mac?

ooklala — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 13:58:19 -0800

How can I use RFID to login to my Mac running Leopard I have a PhidgetRFID device. I want to be able to control my computer with it (i.e. login, open a program when a tag is detected, etc.) I have no programming skills at all (I know some html and css). I am using Leopard.

Searching Tags

popcassady — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 12:49:32 -0800

How can I search a directory for mp3 tags? (Win 2000/XP) I have a directory that contains a large amount of tagged mp3 files. The directory sits on a network drive.

Is there a way to search the files for tags (something akin to hitting ctrl-f in the directory window)? iTunes is not an option as it requires the files to be moved into different directories.

I tried WMP but it won't search the composer tag.

The solution has to be compatiable with 2000 and XP, and it should be IT department friendly too (they're never to keen about installing new software).

I would have thought there was a program out there, but I'm yet to find it.

Tagging individual musicians

Silky Slim — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 08:20:24 -0800

Can I use iTunes to tag the specific musicians playing on a track? For instance, I'd like to be able to type "Herbie Hancock" in the iTunes search field and find all the tracks on which he played the keyboard, even if the Artist and Composer were other people. Is this possible?
Adding the musicians' names into the Comments field doesn't help. The names still don't show up in a search.
I tried an app called MP3 Rage, and its ID3 editor has a field called "People". Is this what I'm looking for?
Unfortunately, iTunes apparently ignores this field.

Gmail functionality, within explorer?

TomMelee — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:00:54 -0800

Spoiled by GMail, *really* looking for a way to use tags/labels for everyday files. I've seen this great lifehacker post, but that's really not what I'm looking for. In particular, I make and use a lot of pdf's that could potentially fall into lots of categories (donations, recycling income, follow up, etc.). I've got a fairly anal system of storing these files, and I try to be disgustingly accurate with file names..."Volunteer Weekday Work Policy 2007 WiP", but still, I find it lacking.

I'm looking for suggestions for software that would let me tag *any* file (I use a lot of standard .txt), especially pdf's, jpg's, doc's, etc, and then allow me to easily re-find common files. The vista trick comes really close, but the filetype limitation is a killer.

Looked at Paperport, saw Fuji's new notebook software, but of course I'd prefer free/open source where possible.

Feed me, hivemind!

Oh, almost forgot. Main laptop is Vista, but I'd really like this for my home comp too, which is XP. Tags, labels, statuses...help!

Autokleptovestiomania

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 04 May 2007 09:12:55 -0800

Please help me steal my own trousers... It's springtime, so I went to a department store the other day and bought a few pairs of gorgeous, flat-front trousers.

They look great and all, but unfortunately the clerk appeared to have left one of the store's loss-prevention devices (Sensormatic?) clipped into the pants leg. Usually these are removed at the register.

I have no idea how I made it out of the store without firing off security alarms, but be it as it may, physically getting back to this store is a pain and I have no idea how to puzzle off the device.

I'd like to know if there is a simple mechanical trick that will allow me to remove this tag by myself, without destroying this stylish pair of trousers and without having to return to the store. No speculation, please.

Need help sorting files in iTunes in ways the program doesn't offer

Jenna Roadman — Tue, 01 May 2007 10:31:52 -0800

Is there a way to more efficiently clean up files in iTunes than the program has to offer? There are many ways in which I want to sort files and simply cannot figure it out. I would like to not have to do the following manually... I want to insulate the following files:

1) duplicate song files. (When I've accidentally import twice, iTunes doesn't stop me)

2) Files which are NOT in a play list.

(This is because there are many which I deleted out of a playlist, but did not from the general music folder. It simply removes them from the playlist and not my hard drive. This means I have many files floating around which are never listened to and have no way of knowing).

Finding mp3 metadata in OS X's Finder?

p3t3 — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 02:18:06 -0800

Is there a way to get my Mac Finder (10.3.9) to see mp3 data such as bitrate and tag metadata? That is one thing I like about Windows XP, you can hover over an mp3 file in Windows explorer, and you get bitrate and tag data. But in OS X, even if you go to view file info, still not all the info I wanted. I just downloaded Audiofinder for working with audio files, and while it is pretty cool and plenty useful, I was sort of hoping it would also address this pet peeve of mine- but still no bitrate/tag data.

I don't use iTunes that frequently and I'd like to be able to access mp3 info without opening it - ideally simply within the Finder. Is there any sort of hack or utility that ads this functionality?

object for iframe

juiceCake — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 08:31:30 -0800

Using Object instead of iframe for Google Calendar embeds? A client wants to play with the idea of embedding a particular Google Calendar. Google does this via iframe like so:

Since I prefer to use XHTML 1.0 Strict, iframe, being deprecated, doesn't validate. So I use the object tag like so:

Works fine in Firefox. Effectively crashes IE 6.

My Google Fu is at yellow belt and though I can find that people are having similar problems, I haven't found the exact one, nor if there is a solution that doesn't include ie conditional hacks. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Finding a physical folksonomy for flimsy files

ajp — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 05:38:02 -0800

Is there a way of tagging paper? Is there a way of applying "folksonomy" (yuck, awful word) to physical paper? In other words, is there some robust method of labeling papers within a sheaf of printed material (such as a book or set of college notes) in a way analogous to "tagging"?

Specifically, I have a large set of printed and hand-written notes from college classes. They are all categorised appropriately, e.g. "human anatomy", "human physiology", "human pathology" and so on. However this has the same drawback as "folders" with email systems: one file can only exist in one folder, unless the whole file is duplicated. I'd like to be able to tag files and individual pages. Specific tags might include "hip" and "muscle", thus allowing me to rapidly locate anything to do with the muscles of the hip.

I'd like to find a tried-and-trusted method, although if anyone's got an idea about how to implement a system, feel free to post here (maybe we'll take it to chat if it gets convoluted). But I would prefer pointers to well-defined systems.

One question: am I actually looking for an indexing system? I would prefer a quick, robust, visually-oriented system that requires little maintenance.

I'm using docs.google.com to create and edit documents, and to tag them. So far so good. But I'd like something that I can apply to a physical bundle of papers.

I've searched MF and the web, but it's a tricky one to track down. "Physical tagging" and "physical folksonomy" yields lots of RFID and geotagging stuff, not what I'm after. Standard apology applies to anyone shrewd enough to find previous threads.

How can I tag video files of my home movies?

Pastabagel — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 11:13:48 -0800

Help with tagging home movie video files, not DVDs. I have a number of home movies in avi files (captured with DV camera) and mpg files of friends families, trips, etc. I am looking for a way to tag these file with information about the video (people, places, descriptions etc), in much the same way that photo management software let's you tag photos.

I have searched for something to do this extensively, but have not found anything. Everything seems to be related to cataloging movies (i.e. Hollywood movies).

Ideally, it should be
1. free for Windows XP
2. save the tags and descriptions in the video file itself
3. have a decent user interface (like photoshop album or something similar)
4. small and fast memory footprint,

but given my inability to find anything, I'll take any workable solution.

If no such program is available, is there any software for writing to and searching the "keyword" or "description" meta data fields that Windows XP provides for all files that isn't necessarily specific to video?

I can save these tags in these fields now, of course, but I haven't found a way to search a group of files on these fields.