Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with to

Any tools for posting to multiple blogs?

randomthoughts — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:40:23 -0800

Are there any tools for posting to multiple WordPress blogs without having to go to each site's control panel? Currently running several WordPress blogs on various hosts and am looking for an easy blogging tool that would allow me to post to these blogs without having to go to each admin page to do so.

Any suggestions?

Get rid of urge to call ex

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:33:58 -0800

Urge to call ex I still get an urge to call someone I dated a year ago. I know it would make no sense, as he ended things with me. I know I wouldn't "get closure" by calling him, he probably wouldn't answer the phone and even if he did I know there's no point "confronting" him as it's been way too long, I would be making an ass of myself by wanting to talk to him. I know what he's like and trying to talk to him will not heal anything, he is not like a trusted friend, he actually ended our relationship quite callously. So, I have to heal myself. i guess I am basically looking for some perspective on this, like faith that I will get over it. For God's sake I still remember his phone number even though i never wrote it down. : ) Eek! Help! : ) The urge to call generally comes when I'm feeling good, not when I'm feeling angry or sad or anything. I did enjoy the time we spent together, I thought he was sweet and intelligent, and yes, there was brief talk of marriage, though this can't really be taken seriously in a way as we only dated a few months. I think my feelings are natural, to want closure, he just stood me up to end things. So even though I get myself, i am sick of this nonsensical urge to call him. I think it's just curiousity, like, is he still alive and in town, that's all I'd learn from his machine anyway.

HTML Email Best Practices

alan — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:38:57 -0800

I've been coerced by a client/employer to start using HTML email messages for communications with our customers. Please help me do this in the most net-responsible way possible (or tell me to burn in the special hell reserved for people who put markup on the SMTP wire) I'm looking for advice on "How to be Good" as opposed to "how to sneak around the canned meat filters"

These five things come to mind ...

1. SPF records for all our domains/servers we'll be sending from

2. Multipart email, providing both a text and HTML version

3. Host the images on our servers so we're not wasting their bandwidth

4. Unsubscribe link in the body of the message allowing people to opt out

5. Email indicating who sent the message with a physical address

Are these steps still considered standard best practices? Are there other steps I can/should take? Custom email headers that should be set outside of of "From", "To", "Reply-To"? Is there unsub info that should be put in the headers?

Any help or a nudge in the direction of a good resource on this would be appreciated.

Finally, Yes. I know. I use mutt and Mailsmith for my personal email. I'm not a fan of HTML email. That battle was lost a long time ago.

bbq cheap nyc

jourman2 — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:10:45 -0800

Where can I find a cheap bbq in nyc? I'm looking to throw a bbq for a few friends tonight and I'd like to purchase a cheap, but usable charcoal bbq. I do recall buying a bbq or two for maybe 15-20 dollars that you put together and is usually good for a summer or two and is large enough for about 5-10 people. Is anyone familiar with what I'm talking about? I'm in upper Manhattan in the 180's, so heading over to Target is an option, or should I just hunt around the supermarkets here?

Any general advice or specific store advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

Happy 4th.

How do I tell people I'm not going to work in an office?

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 11:47:45 -0800

I am almost done with college. Since I've started, four separate times I've taken a semester off to study abroad, work overseas or do unorthodox things in the name of adventure. I've come to terms with myself and I know that this is I want out of life, and I know that when I graduate I'm not going to get a steady job with benefits or any of those other things that responsible people are supposed to do. How do I explain this to the people I care about in a way that makes them feel good about me? In the years since I graduated high school I've gotten pretty good at politely blowing people off when they ask me when I'm just going to finish university and get a job. "lol i dunno" usually works fine.

That's not really an acceptable answer for people close to me, though. My parents are starting to ask what kind of job I'm going to get, how I'm going pay for health insurance, what my degree is good for, and the respective answers are "I don't know, maybe I won't, probably nothing." I care about my parents and my close friends too much to cry "Nobody understands me!!!" and ignore them, but at the same time I worry that's the case.

I'm convinced I'll make out well no matter what I do, but I'm concerned that everyone I know thinks I'm a bum and is worried about me. How do I answer the question "What are you doing with your life?"?

Where are these pins?

Marky — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:44:44 -0800

What are these pins called, and where can I buy them? They're used to hold the fabric protectors on the arms of a few chairs I have. My mom had a few, but I'd like to get more. I tried those little corkscrew style pins, but the heads always pop off. These are almost there, but the little bent shoulder on the ones I'm looking for are what hold them in.

Moving company overseas, any software to help with online communication like Video & live Screen casting for online meetings.

spinko — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:15:20 -0800

Moving company overseas, any software to help with online communication like Video & live Screen casting for online meetings. I'm moving out of the UK in a few months, got rid of the staff and office to save money. Moving to Spain...

I have a few concerns regarding communication. Anyone know any professional software to ensure great communication for both me and my customers.

Phone numbers:
All going into Skype Pro

Video conferencing:
Video chat in Skype seems very clear for 1 to 1 video meetings. Anything else?

Screen casting live:
Im a designer, would like to show customers in real time if we are talking about tweaking a design. So far VNC, give them access to my screen when im working.

Anyone suggest anything else or better software. Will pay if needed as it needs to be professional.

Oh yeah, im on a Mac.

New York City, please

hangingbyathread — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:51:31 -0800

NewYorkCityFilter: I'm headed to New York City this weekend, staying midtown. It's somewhat spur of the minute but I was wondering if any MeFites have suggestions of current things to do, places to eat and drink, etc. I love trying new places, eats, visual, audible, sensual stimulations. Anything discussed on Mefi recently? Thanks.

Help me manage my people collection.

Naberius — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:38:22 -0800

I seem to have a very particular social skills deficit. Can you suggest software that might serve as a kind of brain prosthetic for me? I like people - I really do. But I'm an introvert. And, for lack of a better word, I just lose people if they don't get in my face on a regular basis. I want to maintain relationships, but I just lose track of people and before I know it months have gone by and the friendship has atrophied. A lot of my interactions with friends are sort of "yeah, sorry I haven't been in touch, how are things going with you? I'll try to be better about that." Over and over again.

Also I'm in a field where the ability to network is quite important and because of this particular issue, I really suck at it. Basically I seem to be able to keep up with only a very small inner circle of friends - smaller than most people's - and everyone else drops off into that outer circle of contacts or acquaintances, whether I want them to or not. Sometimes they are hurt. More often they just realize they're having to put in most of the work to keep the connection running, while I'm not really holding up my end, and they let things drift off.

Its occurred to me to wonder about contact management applications like ACT. I gather salespeople use them to manage social connections with more people than our primate brains could normally deal with. But I don't really know much about them. What do they actually do? Would they be useful for me? Or perhaps there's some other kind of application that could basically keep a database of people I know, track how long it's been since I did something to keep that particular plate spinning and prod me to give so and so a call or an email or something? What would you suggest?

text to speech to mp3

D-ten — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:15:40 -0800

What's the best quality method for doing text to speech to mp3? In OS X 10.5, the Alex voice is able to make good quality speech output, plus a utility like Orator can turn text into an mp3 with the Alex voice.

The good: it's free, it's fast and it works. The bad: the voice is a bit clipped on the ends of words and the phrasing is a bit clunky. Overall, Alex is pretty good in pronunciation and rhythm, better than I thought it would be.

I'm wondering how else I could do this? Does Vista Home Premium have better speech voices? If so, how to make the step to an mp3 file.

Are there any other methods available for doing this? I don't want to spend any money for software on this project, though that could be a possibility in the future, so it would be useful to know if there are any killer commercial techniques for doing this.

Mental health oriented right to die movements?

By The Grace of God — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:23:14 -0800

Are there any mental health oriented right to die movements?

Help me make the switch!

nataliecay — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:20:34 -0800

I finally made the switch! Help me transfer my files from my Toshiba laptop to my shiny new MacBook! I'm not extremely technically savvy, but I am a good with instructions. Can anyone give me advice on how to transfer my files from my Toshiba laptop to my new MacBook? This is my first Mac so I'm still figuring everything out and don't know exactly how to go about doing this. Would a USB drive work?

My files are pretty much just pictures, digital movie clips, music, and a few word documents.

Thanks in advance, I apologize if this has been asked... I looked but it seemed like most of the previous posts were regarding macbook to macbook transfers.

Setting boundaries and graciously saying no

seekingsimplicity — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:01:37 -0800

I am NOT good at setting boundaries with people. For example I have a male neighbor who is as nice as he can be but is VERY talkative and boring to me. He drops by our house unannounced and has hours to spend talking with me. I have to cut him off and I am not good at it. It is probably my co-dependence. I seem to want to be nice to him even though I am bored out of my mind. Also, I am not good at thinking of excuses at the drop of a hat to give people when I do not want to do something.

I am an otherwise confident person but in this area I am a PEOPLE PLEASER!

My biking partner can almost always talk me into a ride even when I do not want to ride! My neighbor can have me stand there listening to him for a good half hour! This winter he asked me if he can have me over for iced tea next summer to discuss my time in France and I said sure. He is just being neighborly (he is married and so am I) and I do not want to go but could not quickly think of why I could not go to his back porch for tea next summer!

I am not able to quickly think of a plausible excuse when I am asked to do something I do not want to do. I cannot lie quickly on my feet!

Anybody know how I can learn to take care of myself and be gracious at the same time?

Spanish Translation

madmamasmith — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:02:24 -0800

How do you say " I got hit (in the head) by....(something)" I have to do an oral presentation in spanish but Im not sure how to say I was....i got hit? Im telling a story of when i got hit in the head with a swing...i have to use imperfect and preterite tense....any ideas

Convert pdf to mp3

Eiwalker — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:28:41 -0800

Is there a conversion site that converts pdf to mp3? If not, is there freeware that does it? I'd like to listen to some of my pdfs with a portable mp3 player. I don't mind that a robot voice will do the talking; though AT&T voices tend to enunciate a little better than Microsoft Sam.

This Needs Answered

lohmannn — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:08:39 -0800

I went to school near Pittsburgh and now live in Ohio. Both at school and here in Columbus, I notice people leaving off "to be" in sentences. This needs fixed, that neads cleaned, those need washed. What's the deal here? This sounds just terrible to my ears but I can't explain exactly what is grammatically incorrect about it. How can I explain, gramatically, what is wrong with this construction? Also, where did this originate?

What should I do after college?

rybreadmed — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:05:07 -0800

What do I do with my life after college? I want to do something I don't hate, and might even like. I want YOUR suggestions and ideas. I'm in my late 20s and am a bit less than a year away from receiving a BS in mechanical engineering from a not-very-prestigious state university in Los Angeles County. I already possess a BA in creative writing and an MBA in finance. I went back to school for the BSME a couple of years ago. My grades are quite good (mostly A's, with a couple of B's every so often--nothing below a B). Next quarter, I'll be attending a very prestigious engineering school (also in the LA area) for a class on an exchange program (I'll get credit at my own institution for work done at the prestigious engineering school). I've also been working at an engineering firm doing actual engineering work.

So I ask you: What do I do next? I enjoy finance and engineering (and creative writing, but that won't put food on the table). I've thought about going to school to study quantitative finance, but more school? Another masters? Do I want to be in school forever? Do I get an engineering job? The idea of JUST doing engineering work kind of bores me.

Do I try to find a consulting job? Consulting sounds exciting, but do they hire engineers fresh out of school? And my undergraduate institution for my BSME isn't prestigious. From what I hear, McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group hire from schools everyone's heard of (such as the prestigious school I'll be attending next quarter).

Also, it has been said that my participation in this exchange program would help my chances of getting into their graduate school. From this particular institution, I wouldn't mind another year or so of school for a Master's, but there's no guarantee of getting in (or even succeeding in their exchange program).

I ask you (yes--YOU!) for your ideas. I want to hear things I haven't thought of. I want to make a pretty good amount of money. A lot of money would be great. I don't want to work 80 or 90 hours per week unless there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Also, I want to see my girlfriend for more than an hour a week. No, I don't want to join the Peace Corps. No, I don't want to move to Qatar to take part in their huge economic boom. No, I don't want to join the military (as suggested by the idiot career adviser at my school's career center).

History resources?

Sgt.Grumbless — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:45:05 -0800

Little sister is working on a project and need to find sources that can help her identify several things for railroad workers, meatpacking plant workers, a Rockefeller employee, and a business employing child labor from 1885-1910. The things she needs are their job responsibilities, wages, number of hours, conditions of the workplace.

Syncing up 2 USB Hdd on a Mac and Font converting software (PC to Mac)

spinko — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 07:48:58 -0800

Syncing up 2 USB Hdd on a Mac and Font converting software (PC to Mac) Today I decided to update the office to Macs, use them at home for games and web with no problem. The office Macs are used for Design, Print and web. We have no problems with the design software its little things like our fonts.

---Q1---
We bought the most of the library at Adobe Fonts, they are PFB and PFM format. Works on Windows, doesnt on a MAC.

We have VMware fusion installed, for windows apps, etc. Im thinking of purchasing Crossfont for windows, and converting. However costs $49 does anything know any free converters for PC fonts to Mac friendly as I will only use the app once to convert the whole library?
---EO Q1---

---Q2---
Backing up, on Windows we used an app that sycronised both USB harddrives (one on Network for everyone, second on my PC). This worked a charm, is there anything similar on a MAC.

Our setup.
We are using Airport Extreme with a USB HDD on it. The office can read / write files, no problem.

Im using 'Time Machine' only seems to back my Mackintosh HD and not the network usb drive.

I dont mind paying for this, but I have thoughts that there is software I need already on my machine without me knowing.

This is my fav so far:
http://propagandaprod.com/dejavu.html
from this list.
http://www.pure-mac.com/backup.html
---EO Q2---

how to plan for a move

haikuku — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 11:08:34 -0800

I own a home in the mountains of WNC. It is large and old (1895) and in fair condition. Fortunately, (and unfortunately), it is in an area that is experiencing a lot of influx by wealthy folks fleeing whatever. It is time to begin thinking about my next life. I plan to move to a quieter location in the same vicinity and build a small home in a four years when my son goes to college. I have about (cringe) $8,000 in credit card debt, a $30,000 mortgage, and probably $100,000 in untapped equity in the house. Should I borrow more money to, 1) pay the credit card debt, 2) fix the house up, 3) buy some land before it all gets subdivided.

Using 401K & Roth IRA to purchase second property

endlessknot — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 12:22:18 -0800

Using 401K & Roth IRA to purchase second property ?? Is this possible ?? Any suggestions. Thanks, ek

Mid-December escapade.

913 — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:51:27 -0800

Where should I go in December? I want an adventure. I finish exams on the 11th of December, so I'm ready to fly out on the 12th. It really doesn't matter to me where I go...the more random the better.

Some requirements:

1) I can only fly out of Victoria International Airport (YYJ), Vancouver International (YVR), or Seattle-Tacoma (SEA).

2) I'd like it to be on the cheap. Yeap. I don't mind if I have to take connecting flights or have layovers. I would actually kind of like it. I'm thinking under $300 round trip...but I'm flexible.

3) It can be anywhere! All continents/countries/provinces/states apply.

So, MeFi, tell me where I should go. Websites/specific fares would be appreciated but so will suggestions.

Thanks

Back to the Future...

PWA_BadBoy — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 23:55:15 -0800

Where can I find the a photo of the Delorean from Back to the Future streaking off leaving a trail of flames behind it (and preferably with Dr. Emmett Brown standing behind looking dumbfounded)? Many thanks in advance. I've tried Google image search and Flickr to no avail.

Help me conquer my fear of driving

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:56:31 -0800

I need to learn to drive, but the idea scares the crap out of me. So for the past 20-odd years I've been avoiding learning to drive. I know the benefits and I know the process of learning. But the idea of getting behind the wheel of a 1-ton piece of metal and sending it careening down the street at high speed scares me. I am usually okay as a passenger, but the idea of being in control isn't something I am comfortable with. So, what are your suggestions for helping me overcome my fears and learning to drive without driving myself mad? I'm in the Boston area if you have specific suggestions for schools, etc.

Types of part time jobs for a psychology student before applying to grad school

bydar — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 14:47:45 -0800

I'm presently completing a B.A. on Psychology (via distance learning) with the intentions of continuing towards a Masters in Clinical Social Work. I have a couple of questions: 1) I'm 42 years old and have done back to school as a career changer. I have a wife and daughter and need to work part time while I'm a full time student. Does anyone have any suggestions for work which might help with graduate schools looking at both my academic and work background? All of my previous work experience involves working with people, but not much similar to work a therapist would be engaged in (worked for last 8 years as a talent agent) 2) Does anyone know which cities offer the greatest potential for work as a clinical social worker as I hope to eventually open a private practice, but will work in hospital or mental health facility while gaining experience?