Ask MetaFilter posts by rmm

Hope me Obi-wan, Ground Control to Major Tom, Insert other appropriate song lyrics here etc. etc.

rmm — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 10:52:01 -0800

ADD treatment in the SF Bay Area – help! Also discussion... Hi MeFis,

Without going into all the back drama, let me just give you the highlights and the good news. So I read one fantastic book over the holidays (here) and am convinced I need to get tested for ADD. It seems to explain a great deal of what I’ve gone through, and I’m not a hypochondriac at all, and reading the book cover to cover has made me want to explore treatment. I’m in the SF Bay Area, so if anyone has any local resources (doctors, support groups, anything, really) I’d appreciate them. Also any web sites etc. I’m getting a list together but of course I’m feeling overwhelmed. I’m a little bit hopeful though – perhaps treatment will help.

If anyone has any advice on dealing with ADD, what’s helped you (not necessarily what meds worked, although I’m open to that), tips etc. I’d love those. (yes, I’m reading the previous posts here about it). I’m trying to figure out if telling my boss at work would help; I’ll need some days off to go through the testing and want to help make treatment go well and get treated as soon as possible. I’m hesitant to tell any employer, although if this is something beyond my control it's not something to feel shame about, no?

Are there ‘idiot’s guides to living with ADD’ you found helpful? Anything about ‘ok, get tested, find a doctor, get on meds’ etc. step by step guides are handbooks? Again I'm primarily looking for SF Bay local resources, but at this point I'd love to get any info.

My email’s in my profile if you have questions or support.

Thanks!

Info Junkie Seeks a Better Tool, One Site to Rule Them All, Etc. Etc.

rmm — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:33:23 -0800

Help me curb the info overload and start using web aggregators... Hello Incredibly Useful Hive Mind,

Since like many of you I’m on the web so often all day (for work and also for amusement). I’ve become hooked on RSS and aggregators - I use Bloglines and Spokeo religiously, and while both of those handle individual RSS feeds I’m looking for other web aggregators you like. I’m referring more to sites like http://www.foxytunes.com/ FoxyTune’s “FoxyPlanet” features, which pulls in from a bunch of sources online for music. (Note – I’m not affiliated with any of said companies other than being a happy user). I know I can probably build one of these using NetVibes, but don’t always have the time to do so, and if someone else has already built one and shares it, I’d love to use it.

So I’m asking for aggregator junkies to post your favs. It doesn’t have to be any specific topic – more like ‘is there an equivalent site like FoxyPlanet for tech sites, health sites, travel sites (other than Kayak), etc. etc. I haven’t played around much with Yahoo Pipes, so if I should, let me know if there are good aggregators there. Have people built great things out there? Let me know. Also any thoughts about portals versus aggregators would be welcome – pros and cons of each, although if that’s too chatfilter, just links to aggregation sites would be fine.

Thanks!

Online marketing - tools for keeping track of the tools?

rmm — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:04:37 -0800

Online marketing - tools for keeping track of the tools? So a lot of web savvy folks are on MetaFilter - I'm hoping some of you kind souls might be able to help. This is a little similar to some of the previous questions, but hopefully not too redundant.

I'm familiar with both the previous marketing questions on AskMe, as well as being familiar with a lot of the web 2.0 related sites and tools. What I'm looking for is help and best practices on actually executing a marketing plan for publicizing a site and the idea behind that site. I'm working with some folks (in my spare time) who have an existing site on a semi-obscure topic and they even have a recent book on the topic they've written to boot. I'd like to help them out, but am trying to figure out how, and how best to measure the efforts.

I'm seeing it as a combination of:

a) reaching out to interested people who don't know about the book and accompanying site (via a Flickr group? affinity groups related to the topic in message boards etc.?)

b) measuring how they're doing reaching out (this, I'm not as sure of - survey existing users of the site? measure click throughs with banner ads, etc.? what else?)

The problem is I don't want to come off at all like we're spammy folks. If new users buy the book, fine - but if not, life goes on. The people behind the site are doing this out of a pure love for the topic and a desire to create a community around it rather than a 'OMG, let's get rich and famous on the Internets' scheme. They're interested in building a community, and I've heard the 2.0 technologies are good for that ;)

Also how do you measure the metrics of these things - what methods work and which don't? Are there blogs devoted to discussing which methods work ('send to a friend' type links) versus which don't (click through ads?), and the metrics for these different methods?

What sites do you use to propogate your memes, hobbies, ideas? How do you do it in a fun, friendly, upbeat way, rather than 'buy the book' type of thing? What templates or tools do you use to keep track of where you've publicized things to? If people know of forums for interactive marketing that discuss these topics and are useful to you, please post them here as well.

Thanks muchly! (and yes, there'll be a linke to MeFi projects when the time is right, but first, marketing plan)

CSS Filter: making tight CSS files, style guides and learning best practices – help needed.

rmm — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 17:32:17 -0800

CSS Filter: making tight CSS files, style guides and learning best practices – help needed. My fellow CSS enthusiasts,

Here’s me with another ‘what’s the best way to do this’ or ‘is there a template for this’ type questions – it’s my curse in life to ask these! Basically I’d like to hear what folks do for best practices in CSS design (both layout and formatting). I'm not a full time coder - just someone very interested in the topic, and I’m trying to get my stuff looking more professional and to work even better, and think maybe marking up the, err, markup might help. So I have a multi part question:

- style guides: any good examples you’ve found. I’ve seen some examples here (a visual one, from Stuff and Nonsense and one over at Dave Shea’s site). Any other good examples you’ve used or created? I’d like, of course, to find a template to speed up annotating these. If you have style guides in general (HTML or anything else – doesn’t have to be CSS) please send them here as well. If you have other things you do besides an actual style guide, tips etc. share those as well, if you can.

- standards: other than creating accessible, compliant designs that satisfy the Validator (the evil W3 corrections site), what do you do to make your code more professional? I split up the layout from the formatting, but would like to know things that help make me a better designer – i.e. do you put things in a certain order in the stylesheet, etc. I know you combine selectors wherever possible – I’m looking for those kind of best practices or standards if you’ve got them. Any recommendations for favourite books, sites and blogs etc. for advanced designing in CSS are always appreciated. There are a slew of them, and I’m looking for good quality stuff – kind of like ‘practical CSS Zen Garden’ type resources. It’s one thing to actually view source – it’s another find someone talking about the source, which I find also helpful.

(I’d ask this over at a CSS forum like CSS Creator but I likes my MeFis, know some of you are designers and know that this is probably a better place for meta discussions of design, best practices, etc. – although if you know of a better forum, let me know that too).

thank you!

SF Bay and Transit Filter: anyone have any transit system schedules for their iPods?

rmm — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 09:21:15 -0800

SF Bay and Transit Filter: anyone have any transit system schedules for their iPods? Hi Mefis,

Ok, so I’ve got the BART system images uploaded to my iPod (the video one)… has anyone attempted something similar with the Caltrain schedule or any of the various transit authority schedules in the Bay Area? I seem to recall a transit application for Palm on SourceForge, but haven't found any luck finding it again, or finding anything for iPod. I try slicing up the images of the Caltrain schedule, but haven't found a way to make them viewable for use - I get the schedule up there as an image, but it's incomprehensible.

iPod owners - what do you do? any help is appreciated - thanks!

Mac Search Software Filter: Is there an equivalent to Copernic? Help me find it!

rmm — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 12:06:05 -0800

Mac Search Software Filter: Is there an equivalent to Copernic? Help me find it! Hello folks,

Aside from Visio, the only software I really miss that isn't available for Mac is Copernic Agent. I just checked their site and they've stopped making anything for Mac. I'm specifically looking for a Mac equivalent to Copernic Agent's multiple subject specific search engines (what you see on the left under 'quick search' and 'category' in the screenshot here). Spotlight and Sherlock are ok for basic 'find files on my computer' searches, but I'm looking for something more Web research intensive.

So what do Mac folks do for advanced search? I use plenty of search engine plugins in Firefox, and even roll my own search using Rollyo, but would love a stand alone search engine application. There's got to be something out there besides the old ways of searching Google/del.icio.us/dogpile/Jack of All Widgets/piles of individual sites I can 'run' searches on etc. etc.. Anyone have experience with DEVONagent? Watson? any of these apps?

(and if anyone has good links to Mac software discussion and review sites, post 'em here - I'd love those as well. iusethis.com is good, but would love more.)

thank you, hive mind...

SoftwareFilter: help me find a good way to view Firefox pages offline for MacOSX.

rmm — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 12:58:50 -0800

SoftwareFilter: help me find a good way to view Firefox pages offline for MacOSX. Hi folks,

A long time ago, I used a great Mac app called Netscape History (which sadly I can't find - it was back in the day when people used Navigator). It was a handy application - it would download pages for offline viewing using a page's cache. Is there an equivalent of something now for MacOSX and Firefox that people use? This question previously kind of addressed the same problem, but again I'm looking for an automated thing for MacOS.

I'm trying out the DownThemAll extension, and it's handy, but not exactly what I'm looking for - I'd like an app that would automatically save the HTMLs and images from, let's say, x number of days. I've also got the Work Offline extension, and use that to browse through my history, but I'd really like an actual separate application that does this automatically, if possible. Sometimes the Work Offline extension works for some sites, sometimes not for others.

Any ideas? This is probably a pretty easy problem to solve - I'm obviously overlooking something here, so I appreciate the help.

Thanks!

WebDesign Filter: Is there a site that has a collection of basic page layouts that I can browse and choose from, a la the Noodle Incident's CSS box workaround page?

rmm — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 20:41:53 -0800

WebDesign Filter: Is there a site that has a collection of basic page layouts that I can browse and choose from, a la the Noodle Incident's CSS box workaround page? hello fellow web heads,

I've fascinated by patterns in GUI design, and regularily use the excellent book The Design of Sites for inspiration. I'm wondering if there's a basic equivalent of it online. For instance, if you're creating a CSS based layout from scratch, Owen Briggs 's "Little Boxes" page gives you a good basic 'gallery' of sample layouts - are there any other sites like his out there for general web design? Something that would have thumbnails of various page types ('sitemap', 'FAQ', 'gallery' - general page types). It's not so much the code as just having some sort of gallery which you can have as a reference.

Hope this is a clear enough question - thanks for any help!

Does such a thing as a visual wiki exist, and if so, where?

rmm — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 21:37:25 -0800

Does such a thing as a visual wiki exist, and if so, where? I'm looking for a piece of software or the equivalent of a Google Maps mashup without the Google Maps - just looking for the ability to 'pin' a pin on a background image more than the ability to geographically locate that pin in a state. It would be kind of a virtual dartboard/pin the tail on the donkey type thing.

How hard would it be to program, and what language would it be programmed in? It would be more than just an imagemap - ideally people would be able to add a pin wherever they wanted on the image. All I've found is this site (http://lostgarden.com/2006/05/viki-visual-wiki-design.html) which is a great idea but not being implemented yet. Would it be possible to have the functionality of a Google Map without the geography - extract that mapness without the geography with a simple image in the background?

Something lightweight would be best - it doesn't have to be Flash, and I wouldn't need to zoom in/out, that type of thing, but I'm open to ideas. Ideally one could add images instead of pins, but I'll start simple for now :)

Any ideas? Is something like this being developed anywhere? Are there any info visualization applications I could appropriate for this?

What is this phrase "Pass the Sugar"?

rmm — Tue, 30 May 2006 08:22:26 -0800

QuoteFilter: what's the origin of the phrase "pass the sugar"? Aussies, anyone, help me out here! The 2005 World Series of Poker champ Joe Hachem uttered the phrase, "pass the sugar" after a particularily good winning hand, and I can't find anything online about the origin of the phrase - other than something mentioning a Betty Boop film called "Pass the Sugar". Googlefu just seems to result in people either complaining about the phrase ("that is teh gay poker phrase!!!") or folks like me trying to find out more about it. Is it an Aussie phrase? Something he just made up? If this helps, Hachem is a Lebanese immigrant to Australia - although it sounds more like a British-ism than anything. At this point, I don't care where the answer comes from - it's just one of those, "gotta find the origins" things. Please help put me out of my misery...