Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with timeline

Livening up video presentation graphics?

merocet — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:04:15 -0800

What is the best way of creating a moving graphic timeline in a video presentation? Helping a client who is making a video presentation. At the moment I'm going to make a graphic image in Photoshop or In Design that is wider than the video frame and then pan across that from left to right in my video editor, but there's got to be a better way to do it right? I'd like to liven up the graphic by highlighting the points on it as they go past the center of the screen and things like that. So software recommendations? Work flow recommendations? What do they use on the fancy documentaries for this kind of thing?

How to make a vertical timeline?

jfricke — Sun, 24 May 2009 11:45:41 -0800

How to make a vertical timeline? I would like to make a timeline that I can publish on my website for visualizing important events in my life (like when I went to school, graduated from university, etc). There seem to be several online and offline apps for this purpose. However, none of them allows me to create a vertical instead of horizontal timeline.

Thus, I am looking for an application (web/mac) which allows me to make a vertical timeline and to publish it on my website.

I need a simple time line program for OSX.

MadamM — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:56:50 -0800

I'm looking for a program, or way to use a program I already have, that will make simple time lines. I'm studying for a history midterm that features lots of dates, and I want a way to display all of them in relation to each other. I don't need a lot of features, but I do need free. I'm using Mac OSX. I downloaded this program, which doesn't seem to deal well with dates that are just years. I also have Excel 2008, if there's a way to make it create simple time lines easily. I do not not not want to do this by hand- my handwriting sucks and it wouldn't be worth the time it would take to make it. I just want a simple line down the page, with the dates displayed with a simple title. Surely, someone has developed a bare bones freeware solution to this problem over the years, right?

Looking for a Historical Timeline App for a Website.

GJSchaller — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:20:09 -0800

I'm looking for an open-source or inexpensive application that will allow me to write and publish a historical timeline for a fictional world online. I am NOT looking for Project Management! Would be ideal if it worked with Joomla, but is not 100% necessary. I am the webmaster for a Live RPG that is in the process of fleshing out the world setting on the website, to make the game world easy to read up on. Right now, the website is running Joomla, and we're slowly beginning to fill in articles.

The director of the game has asked me to find a piece of software that will let him map out the historical timeline of the fictional world the game is set in, so we can publish it to the website. If it's not a Joomla-based app, I can always embed it in a wrapper instead.

Given that this is not exactly a Big-Budget operation, an Open Source or inexpensive solution would be appreciated.

Should I buy it now? ... how about now? ... now?

simplethings — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:12:33 -0800

Is there a general liquidation timeline I can use to determine when to purchase an item? I'm specifically looking at Circuit City. I was in there last week and saw that a DSLR (the Canon Xsi) I've been eyeing was at this location and was on sale for 10% off. I went again on Thursday and it was down to 20% off. I just came back from checking today and it was still 20% off and in stock. When would be the best time to purchase it? By "best" I mean lowest price but still in stock. Do liquidation sales go on for months? Or will they just keep decreasing prices so that they can sell everything in a few weeks?
I've considered visiting the store every day in hopes I can catch the next big price drop, but, the closest store is not that close.
Do you think people would buy all of the cameras if it became 21% off?

I guess there are a lot of factors that go into this but, any help would be appreciated.

When to apply for a job?

firei — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 15:25:16 -0800

I'm graduating from college in May and will be entering the real world. I need a job, but how early should I start applying? Help!

I'm all set to graduate this coming May. I need a job once I graduate, and I've begun looking on Monster.com, in my local newspaper, Craigslist, and through my school.

I've found a couple of jobs I'm interested in, but they seem to be looking for applicants who can start within the next month or so - this is not me.

My question to the hive mind is this: when should I start sending my resumes out? Is it too soon to start applying? (And, if I do send out my resume, should I mention in my cover letter that I want to start in May?)

I'm conflicted, because I have friends who already have positions lined up, but others are telling me that it's silly to apply five months early.

(If it helps:

*I'm graduating from Fordham University, with a Bachelor's of Science in Business Administration, with a concentration of Entrepreneurism.
*I've got a fairly solid resume and a 3.7 GPA.
*I'm looking to work in the Westchester/Putnam County, NY area, or nearby.
*I'm primarily looking for marketing work, but I'm flexible/desperate.)

Building the timeline

dw — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:17:25 -0800

I need a way for users to edit a timeline online. It doesn't have to be elaborate; it just has to allow a user to add an event to a history timeline. I'm too swamped to build my own solution. We're running IIS with classic ASP. Ideas for getting this pulled off? The idea is that there's some timeline:

1968 - MLK assassinated
1972 - Watergate

A user can then add in another event:

1968 - MLK assassinated
1969 - Apollo 11
1972 - Watergate

The timeline in question is for the 40-year history of my institution.

The main option I'm looking at is an online document editor, like Writeboard or Google Docs. The problem is that these users who know the timeline we're trying to construct aren't necessarily savvy enough to use either one.

Another option would be to throw up a wiki, but the wiki of choice here is OpenWiki, which from an editing standpoint drives me nuts.

The last option is to throw some sort of editor on top of the Simile XML. This one worries me since I'd be looking at doing direct file editing on the server.

So... is there an online timeline editor I've missed? Anyone else pulled off something similar? Any other ideas?

ISO site that does TV recommendation based on interests

seeminglee — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:15:53 -0800

Is there a cable tv listing site that suggest shows based on interests (tagging perhaps?) My friend just convinced me to get cable so I can watch Project Runway, which is a great show. But with all these channels, I am having a tough time finding out what's on and what's not?

I have tried TVguide.com but I don't find it very useful.

There are a few criteria that I'm looking for:
+ ability to enter interests as filters
+ ability to highlight popular shows (I am a designer and thus needs to know what people are watching these days)
+ ability to see a timeline that extends for the entire week.

I would like to see a way to construct a tv calendar around my regular schedule.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
See-ming

In search of a timeline of literary periods.

damnthesehumanhands — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 12:39:25 -0800

I'm entering a Literature graduate program and I'd like to fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge of the British/American canon. I've been looking for a timeline of literary periods to assist me in identifying where my major gaps are. It would (ideally) have major authors and for bonus points, their major works. I've been googling for about 45 minutes now and I can't find anything substantive. I would pay a pretty decent premium to have it poster-sized to hang above my desk. Something ready-made would be great - but if I can find a .pdf, I've got friends at Kinko's...

help me find a timeline

onoj — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 04:10:14 -0800

I'm looking for a website I saw whilst in university about 3 years ago. It was a timeline of storage media The website had a white background with frame in the bottom with chunky sillhouettes for the storage media. When you clicked on the media it would load up in the top frame with information about that media format. Thorough search of Google/del.icio.us with terms like media timeline, storage timeline, magnetic storage timeline return useful websites, but unfortunately not the one i'm looking for. help!

How Can I Make Cool Maps?

kirkaracha — Mon, 21 May 2007 15:22:24 -0800

How can I make cool Flash timeline/maps like the one featured in this MetaFilter post?

Reinventing My Cortex

foxy_hedgehog — Wed, 02 May 2007 13:12:08 -0800

DesignFilter. Help me poke and prod my nondesigner's mind to consider new ways to present that hackneyed standby of the elementary school social studies textbook, the timeline. Too much information inside. Through through a combination of happenstance and sheer luck, I've been asked to be a part of a book project headed up by a Very Big Deal Novelist. It will feature contributions from a panoply of Very Big Deal dTitans of Culture and will be forged and burnished into something visually extraordinary by a Very Big Deal Designer. As a historian by training, my little corner of the project will be to compose a set of timelines related to various elements of the book. The timelines will run throughout its pages, making a journey through the text alongside the reader.

The project hangs upon a very tight link between form and content. So while the project is in the early stages, and the VBDDesigner is waiting for more material to work with before coming up with formal comps, I suggested that given this close relationship between text and visual presentation it might make sense to collaborate from the get-go, since design considerations will inform how I select and summarize events for the timelines.

We're conference calling sometime later this week. I am nervous. To put it mildly. Actually, to massively understate the case.

I don't have any illusions about my talents and limitations in this department, particularly given that I'm working with someone who is breathtakingly talented and accomplished. In other words, I know that the VBDD will have a) the ultimate say and b) far better ideas than I will. And I also know very little about how this whole process works, as far as steps and sequence and parameters etc. go. But I want to get a booster shot to think about different ways to present the information in the timelines and, more broadly, to have a sense of what world the VBDD inhabits and what sorts of places his mind can go.

While my bailiwick here is relatively small, it will assert a presence throughout the book and, in its own way, provide visual and intellectual structure for it. Another part of the background check that's looming rather large right now is that I am A Far Cry From Anything Resembling a Big Deal, and I also happen to be at a professional impasse which has me rooting around for what I might look like in Version 2.0. And so despite its modest scope, I'd very much like to try to take this opportunity to kick ass and present my ideas and myself as something and someone worth taking seriously (vis a vis this project and perhaps in the Department of Future Gainful Employment).

I'm all aflutter at the change to challenge myself to work with a new kind of conceptual framework, and to radically rethink how I'd normally go about piecing information together using a different set of considerations for how to tell a story and how to think about representing time. But as anyone who has languished in grad school knows, disciplinary training often has the unfortunate effect of refining one's analytical skills by placing constraints upon them. It strengthens certain muscles while atrophying others, and this can impair one's ability to think broadly and creatively- or, as a management self-help book for sale in an airport bookstore might put it, "outside of the box."

So while I like being an initiate into the cult of Clio, but I need some help making myself think in an alternate language. Historians know how to do certain things very well- such as find, filter, and make sense out of large bodies of complex information. I think this is part of what designers do, but by tackling different kinds of problems through different means. So I'd like to get started by doing some thinking about how considerations of design might inform and shape my collection and presentation of the information I'm going to track down.

I have already lit candles in front of my hastily assembled Edward Tufte shrine, but suspect that the design junkies in this crowd have some favorite bookmarks on their browser that might help me out. I'm thinking of the timeline equivalents of this but with data points as events rather than dead French soldiers or the gingerbread supply on the Salyut 6. I'm thinking of and hoping for images along the lines of Cabinet's history of timelines . Book titles- for models history-wise and design-wise- very much welcome, since I'm going to be spending a considerable amount of time in a nicely appointed university library with a decent design collection.

As always, my deepest thanks in advance for the collective wisdom.

The Internet has too many pages...

matty — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 08:56:18 -0800

This is a total waste of my two weeks, but I have to ask! In just the past couple of days, I saw a great website that showed the comparative size of objects - from as small as an atom (or smaller) to the size of the universe. Now I can't find it - and I need it!!

It was mostly black, with a flashy, java-esque interface, with a scrolling size-bar across the bottom from tiny to universe big. Was it from National Geographic? (I can't find it) Was it on Metafilter? (I can't find it).

I've googled, I've checked my internet history and cached pages and files. What was it? Where is it??

I'm looking for the website because it was a great example of the type of technology I'm hoping to use for a web-tool idea...

Help!!

Non-crash course in art photography?

cowbellemoo — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 20:15:20 -0800

What are the best online (or offline) 'textbooks' for learning about the history of fine arts photography? I have experience with critical and artistic movements in literature and film within the last century, so I'm not completely lost on vocabulary or approaches to critical theory. I've tried wiki, google, and mefi, but I have yet to see any comprehensive encycliopedia or timeline of fine arts photography. I'm interested in coverage of major artists and movements with copious examples (ya know...actual photographs with accompanying passages), with enough discussion of current trends and figures to not be lost while attempting to think critically about works being produced now.

Longer and more microscopic the better. Broader treatments of documentary photography, journalism, and 'industries' are welcome. I do not, however, want histories that dwell too much on technical innovations.

I realize that pulling together copyrighted works as such would lend itself better to a textbook, but I'd also love to have a few sites to chew on while at work. Maybe some colleges or museums have underutilized sites that fit what I'm looking for?

Was it out there?

lloyder — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 03:31:12 -0800

Warning Potential Spoilers inside (I Hope) Caught an episode of X-Files last night, and suddenly remembered that for the 1st 5 seasons I watched religiously, but then kind of stopped watching. Now I want to know what happened, how the story unfolded, Did it have an ending? etc. etc. I've googled around, but all i can seem to find are episode by episode guides. Can anyone point me to a overview of the story. The Timelines I've found are massivly detailed and would take me the best part of today to read through.

Timeline of world history

scubbadubba — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 10:07:01 -0800

I'm looking for a world history timeline that I could put on a wall... I've seen the ask thread with wall charts that had the cosmic calendar. I need more detail, showing the history of the world, with descriptions of different areas of the world at the same time. This would be for a child, it needs to be large, with some illustrations.

A book would do, because I could get two and cut them up to make a timeline (I could see this going around a room or several rooms), but I don't like to hurt books. I'm thinking there has got to be one already made.

The ones I have found so far are biblical timelines of the world, begining with adam and eve. This is not what I'm looking for.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

no-cost software for making timelines?

Paris Hilton — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 12:28:22 -0800

Open source project tracking or other timeline software? Smilar to microsoft project? I need to plot out a series of events, some of which are dependant on each other and other general 'phases' in a fictional work. I've done a tiny bit with microsoft project and that might work.

If you know anything open-source/free let me know.

Signifigant Events in the History of Magic

captainscared — Thu, 04 May 2006 12:32:25 -0800

Geeky question to be sure: But in the history of magic, from Houdini to the present, what have been the most significant moments? For example, David Copperfield making the statue of Liberty disappear should certainly be on the list. What else belongs?

Where can I find timeline software?

Amizu — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 13:17:55 -0800

Can anyone recommend good timeline creating software (preferably free)? I need to find some software that will allow me to quickly type in events that happened on particular dates to generate a timeline. (Scenario - I am interviewing a person who has already submitted a story and I need to put it all in time perspective and then compare the written testimony with later oral testimony. I need to do this several times a day with high accuracy - timeline software would help me keep everything straight.)

Timeline of Life

slightlybewildered — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 20:49:09 -0800

Where's that site which had a timeline of a guy's life? It had his whole life, with key events marked. I'm remembering it as having little pixel-art depictions of key players in his life.

Wall Chart with history of universe and Earth

nancoix — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 08:42:55 -0800

EducationalWallChart Filter. I'm looking for printable web page(s) (or, alternatively, a retail product) that show a timeline of astronomical-anthopological events like: when Big Bang occurred; when our galaxy and solar system formed; when life began; when major life forms began and ended (e.g. dinosaurs); when primates appeared; when various proto-humans appeared; when homo sapiens appeared. Must be in TimeLine form. Not something vague and basic -- needs to have lots of detail.

What are key events in the history of international mass media?

k8t — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 04:34:38 -0800

What are important dates and events in the development of international mass media? I have this list so far, but any MeFites that have an interest in this area, please contribute! I have a specific interest in the development of media in the developing world.