Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with websites

Patent Application Squatting

CollectiveMind — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:50:42 -0800

I have an idea that may be patentable. I want to search patent listing websites to see if something like it already exists. But I have heard that some people somehow monitor queries and figure out what a patent is. Then they submit provisional applications to preempt the searcher. I've also heard this happens with website domain names. Does anybody know if its true for patent websites, including the insecure USPTO search page?

Come back StumbleUpon, I never meant to hurt you

borkingchikapa — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:49:00 -0800

Okay internet ninjas, can you help me figure out what the crap happened to all this static website's traffic? At the beginning of February '09, visits dropped to about a quarter of what they once were and stayed there, literally overnight.. The culprit looks to be StumbleUpon - referrals went from quadruple digits to doubles even though there was absolutely no change in the site or its (non-existent) marketing. Though I've read up on SU, I still don't really get why this happened. Can you explain and/or offer advice on fixing it? I took over managing the site recently and I'm trying to reclaim its former glory. From what I understand, neither the site nor its marketing has changed at all since, like, 2001, so why the sudden drop in SU referrals?

I redesigned it about a month ago and the traffic quadrupled pretty much instantly, yet the SU referrals remain basically the same as they were after the drop. How do I get them back? Everything I've read emphasizes the social aspect, stumbling others' stuff, etc., and though I'm willing to do that I know nobody did before. It seems like I must be missing something fundamental, especially given that referrals disappeared overnight.

Thanks!

Can I disable Firefox cache per-domain?

odinsdream — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:26:29 -0800

How can I set Firefox to not cache any pages from a certain domain? I have to use a crap ticketing system written in .NET which doesn't work properly in Firefox.

If I clear cache between page views everything works fine. Once the site is loaded, the URL at the top never changes no matter where you navigate or what actions you perform, so I'm guessing Firefox doesn't know the page needs to be reloaded.

Is there an extension to Firefox that will let me set one particular domain so that it does not create cache items at all?

Sites similar to Makeuseof.com

nineRED — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:44:08 -0800

Other helpful websites similar to MakeUseOf.com? I am a big fan of Makeuseof.com, as nearly every post on the site is of interest to me. Can you recommend other helpful sites similar in nature, featuring posts on useful/free software, reviews, tech news, how to, cool websites/apps/hacks, etc?

Where to get guitar tab files for iphone app?

metajc — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:12:10 -0800

Where can I find .gp4, .gp5, or .ptb tab files (preferably free) ... because they work with this awesome guitar iphone app thing I just impulse-bought! Although, if there is an amazing outlet, I'd pay a membership. Don't want to buy them piecemeal though. So, there's this iphone app that downloads ".gp4, .gp5, or .ptb tab files" (which I'd never heard of before today) and then runs them through this awesome little visual and audio synth player so you can watch (and hear!) the fingering fly by.

The app comes with a few default songs/tab files but also hints that you can find these files somewhere online and provides an interface for downloading them from Google. Unfortunately, my Google-fu fails at finding any new files and the support chap at the app's maker said he was ethically bound against pointing me in any one direction or something -- though he did learn me the names of the filetypes, above. If you've ever looked for lyrics and guitar tabs online, you know it's one of the spammiest hell holes next to the second-hand beanie baby market / pr0n portals.

I'm really just looking for some Kinks, Bowie for now ... if they happen to have Duane Denison's secrets out there, Skip James, bring it! I'd love to see this thing crank through some Robert Johnson or John Fahey or something.

Sites for finding lost person?

Tullyogallaghan — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:41:28 -0800

My family has lost touch with my oldest brother. He is retired and reclusive by nature but we would still like to know where he is living. The last thing we know is that he sold his home in California some time in 2009 and then seems to have disappeared. He may have moved out of the country as I can imagine he wasn't very happy with the Obama election and he had mentioned in the past his desire to move away from the U.S. either to Ireland or Buenos Aires. Can anyone suggest a few good "finder" sites, hopefully free or nominally priced?

Good flu websites for bad flu times?

bicyclefish — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:38:08 -0800

What online resources would you recommend – and NOT recommend – for the H1N1-worried? I'm compiling a list of H1N1 web resources, for public consumption, especially targeted at the Toronto area. I'm especially interested in any tools that might offer hyperlocal epidemilogical information, but I'm also looking for the best general resources online.

On top of which, I'm curious - has anyone run across sites that have proven exceptionally untrustworthy, or have failed the Snopes test, that people should be warned away from?

No-ad internet

scewinleg — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:20:00 -0800

Is there such a thing as a no-ad internet domain? I love the days of personalized websites with no ads but I'm having a hard time digging them up these days. Any suggestions???

Examples of global sibling-site tabs?

roscopcoletrane — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:29:59 -0800

I'm looking for examples of families of websites that have tabs along the top of each page that give universal access to sibling sites. Examples I've seen: Gap, Sears, and Threadless. Anyone seen any others?

I can't Google hard enough.

peanut_mcgillicuty — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:14:53 -0800

What are some other sites with a subscription model for ongoing content or tools and also have a book associated with them, like Dave Ramsey's My Total Money Makeover? I'm particularly interested in sites that either provide free content with the purchase of a book (where the book comes with a unique code giving the purchaser access to content that must otherwise be paid for) or which provide a free book or other materials when the user purchases a subscription to the site.

Sites I've already found: Dave Ramsey's My Total Money Makeover, Suze Orman's Young, Fabulous and Broke and Save Yourself Plan, Gallup's StrengthsFinder. Given the nature of what I'm looking for, I'm sure it'll be self-help, but it doesn't need to be personal finance related. Bonus points for health/medical/diet related.

Can anyone recommend a South African registrar that provides DNS management for .co.za domains?

Hartster — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:28:39 -0800

Can anyone recommend a South African registrar that provides DNS management for .co.za domains? We're* taking over a South African domain and we need it to be transferred over to us. It looks like you can't transfer .co.za domains to 'international' dns providers like DynDNS or GoDaddy (i.e. those two have explicitly said it's impossible so I'm assuming this is true for others).

All we want to do is transfer the domain to us, take control of the DNS and point it to our existing server (so we don't need hosting etc).

Reliable is essential, easy to use is good, and free/cheap is a bonus.

*Where "we" are a non-SA company

I want to read stuff other people think is important.

downing street memo — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:48:25 -0800

I'm very interested in websites/blogs that aggregate a whole bunch of sources and present the most interesting, influential and informative writing on the Web. Help me find some more? I know about Memeorandum and Techmeme. I also read The Browser and Arts & Letters Daily.

I know these kinds of sites come in a few flavors, so: I'm generally interested in ones that are commentary-free, that are run by educated human editors (like The Browser or A&L Daily), or that operate by an influence algorithm like Memeorandum. I'm not particularly interested in directly crowdsourced sources like Digg or Reddit.

What are your favorite content aggregators?

What is the best method of putting academic papers on the internet?

huskerdont — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 06:29:51 -0800

What is the best method of putting academic papers on the internet? I am a graduate student who is thinking of placing academic work (thesis, unpublished papers, etc.) on the internet. Is there a standard method or protocol for placing them online? Should I really convert all of them into PDF format?

Any recommendations from those who have been there before would be appreciated.

First Pandora, now what?

NotMyselfRightNow — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:21:16 -0800

What technology (websites, webservices, or handheld devices) would you recommend to a non-techy person? My boss asked me this the other day and I totally drew a blank. He's a mid-30s guy, married with three young kids. Very demanding day job, and a fairly senior position as a military reservist. He's great with technology, but he's not a gadget guy and isn't typically on the cutting edge of new technology. Not a television watcher. Carries a BlackBerry for work, and won't be getting an iPhone. Was recently turned on to Pandora and Jott and loves both of them (which is how this conversation started).

Recommendations that he would probably look into would be either passive (like Pandora, running in the background) or active but would improve performance or productivity or something like that. I think he's more likely to engage with online services or sites than with a handheld device, but that's just my guess.

What would you suggest someone in that position look at?

Reading for a Reinvention

cuando — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:49:30 -0800

I've decided to make some big changes in how I live. Things like exercising more, eating better, dressing nicer and so on. Things are going pretty great now, but I am looking for some useful reading (magazines, books, websites, blogs) to help me stay motivated and generate ideas. Further info... I'm a guy so I'd prefer suggestions (especially anything relating to style, fashion, & health) that are unisex or male-geared. Some examples of what I currently read are:

NYTimes Well blog
Gimmie20.com
ExRX & StartingStrength
Uncrate
A.Continuous Lean
Lifehacker
Triathletes Training Bible
Runner's World

I was also thinking of getting a magazine subscription to like Men's Health. Any thoughts are appreciated

Where can I find the best writing on the internet?

jpg15 — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:29:38 -0800

Is there a web site which recommends the best writing on the net on a periodic basis? There are plenty of great blogs and websites out there to read, and no shortage of recommendations. This post, for example, recommends lots of different sites. But I find my own interest in wading through all of it on a feed reader gradually waning. I am wondering if anyone knows of any human-run site which recommends excellent writing.

I am interested in high quality, thoughtful, even controversial writing on any subject. The closest thing to this that I am aware of is Arts & Letters Daily, but a significant number of their posts are book reviews or appeal strictly to very well-read humanities students. I am interested in suggestions which draw from the features and opinions of all of the major US (or English-speaking world!) newspapers, magazines, blogs, and sites.

Embedded Map Alternatives ?

southof40 — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:38:28 -0800

Good looking maps for embedding in web pages with a distinctive look/feel that matches the page it's within (so probably not GoogleMaps/YahooMaps/Bing) ? I'm looking for maps for a website but don't want to the 'normal' Google look and feel. In fact ideally I would be able to tailor aspects of the maps to allow them to fit into the colour scheme of the site.

The purpose of the maps is almost as much as an illustration as it is for information (or at least 50/50).

As far as I can see there's no way to tweak Google Maps to do that ("Let's have the land green and sea yellow and not show roads at all").

Ideally maps would be available for North America and Western Europe but USA alone would be a good start.

I'd welcome any ideas even if they don't match my ideal.

"Oooh, look, an exotic native woman!" "Buzz off."

divabat — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 10:55:09 -0800

What are some good travel guide websites that aren't so Western-centric and don't treat other countries like exotic sights to gawk at? I just rediscovered Matador after randomly signing up for it years ago, and while it looks really promising, it does have a really strong colonial "we are American tourists off to see the exotic isles and be really awesome Americans saving the world" vibe around it. It's something I've noticed with travel companies in Australia too - I was at STA Travel's promo for gap years and to me it felt like the rest of the world was there for their entertainment, or that they were humble foreigners trying to civilize the savages with their volunteer jobs, or something.

Being Malaysian, and being used to being made exotic, that sort of vibe never really sat right with me. I've been travelling since I was a baby, I _love_ to travel, and I love volunteering wherever I can (I was on a world tour that was part performance part community work - best time ever). But I don't click with the party-hard, white-kid-saving-the-world-by-teaching-English, befriend-other-backpackers type lifestyle that groups like Matador and STA Travel tend to espouse.

Are there any other good websites and resources for travel that have a different view on things? I'm after more how-to sort of stuff, like the best organisations doing X or the most interesting things about Y in Z country, or how to pack for a trip (as opposed to personal stories of travel). I'm 23, so something geared for youth is great, but again I'm not much of a club-hopper type. Anything that can take account of currencies that don't really translate well overseas (Europe for Really Cheap!) would be great.

Thanks!

Take my time and mind

djgh — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:05:26 -0800

Which websites can I get lost in? Which websites can I participate in? I've previously asked about bite-size, daily media-type sites. Now I'd like some big, interesting sites, with lots of interesting things to explore - be it articles, conversations, exercises, games. Ideally, these sites would be places that I could participate in and to - Wikipedia being a great example of something that fulfils both of my criteria.

I realise that I've not provided any examples of what I like - the reason being that I'd love to be introduced to something new. So throw anything out there!

(And yes, I do read MeFi, which happily satisfies both of those criteria)

Clinical Psychology reading

curious zoe — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:44:47 -0800

My friend is applying for clinical psychology postgraduate study at the end of this year and she would like to make sure she is well read on relevant books (nb. not text books) and blogs etc before the interview. Can anyone reccomend any books, websites or blogs that would be good for my friend to review prior to her interview?

Websites for Elementary Kids?

debbie_ann — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:09:30 -0800

What are some school appropriate websites I can use in the classroom? I find myself teaching computers K-8 this year. What are some good sites for the kids? I've found a few typing games that are educational enough to use in the classroom and they love it when I send them to one punch sites like isitchristmas? and doineedanumbrella. We also use internet tutorials pretty heavily, but I know this is just the tip of the iceberg. I'd like to have a whole list of appropriate sites (like games and funny things) for free days, as well as some really easy sites to teach the five-year-olds how to point and click.

I'm such a clutz.

Zé Pequeno — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:45:22 -0800

I spent a month labouring away on a website only to somehow delete it before emptying the trashcan. Yes, I know. Pathetic. It's been a week, however, and I'm seriously thinking of going to the expense of having it professionally retrieved. I know deleted photos can usually be retrieved - which is good because I really need them - but what are my chances of being able to get back properly formatted .html pages? Or formatted in such a way that I can at least try and restore them to their former glory.

Unblock a website in China?

Macboy — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:14:15 -0800

How do I get my company website unblocked in China? We are a water quality manufacturer and have no idea why we are being blocked? I've tried google, search engines and friends in Taiwan. I can't get an answer on the why and how to blocked sites in China. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

new MLIS student looking for some good reading!

ginagina — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:30:10 -0800

What are good blogs and resources for MLIS students? I just found out I was accepted to Drexel University for my MLIS with a nice fellowship. My background is mostly in law and psychology (looking to be a law librarian possibly), so I want to update my RSS reader with some new relevant blogs and resources.

Who should I be paying attention to? What websites should I live by? Anything else you can recommend to better prepare me?

Thanks I look forward to your responses!

List off every free website that uses your webcam.

cmchap — Sun, 10 May 2009 22:24:33 -0800

List off every free website that uses your webcam. 1) i have a webcam on my laptop
2) it never gets used
3) i like the internet
4) i'm a poor college student

solution: webcam websites with no fee.

link me to them.
a description of each website's usefulness would be wonderful!