I agree with all the comments saying to just exert your privacy, and declare your reason without need for answering assholish questions for details.

But if you don't want to do this, or can't, then I'd do the following: lay the groundwork at the appropriate time for a home-related need. Like, on Tuesday of next week, say, "This morning, I noticed a wet spot on my drywall, weird..." or something like that. You can even make a fake call to a willing accomplice... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 8:18 AM on October 9, 2008

Oh, that's a good idea. +1 from me.
posted to MetaTalk by delfuego at 5:08 PM on October 1, 2008

So alas, it wasn't really designed in-house, at least not wholly -- the strategy and the interaction design of the redesigned CNN.com was done by Adaptive Path about a year and a half or two years ago. There were two case studies published about the redesign (1, 2); that second link also containing slides and audio of the case study session. IIRC, in that presentation is the little nugget that MeFi's own jjg led the redesign team...... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 1:49 PM on September 19, 2008 marked best answer

I think folks here are being quite a bit too hard on Stack Overflow; I've spent a bit of time on it over the past few days, and I see the nucleus of something that will likely work really well. Yes, the karma thing is a bit odd and might be a bit overengineered; yes, the difference between a comment and an answer is both unclear and unnecessary; yes, there's no metacommentary channel right now. But you can be sure that SO will evolve, organically, around the needs of its community; I've no... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delfuego at 1:42 PM on September 18, 2008

Oh, and a few places where I think there's natural room for growth:

If SO is going to live by the karma system, Jeff and Joel need to figure out a way to make it hard for people to ignore it. For example, there are a ton of great answers that the question-askers never mark as accepted -- these are clear instances where someone asks a question, gets what they want (a good answer), and moves on without participating in the feedback process. It'll happen a lot, you can be... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delfuego at 1:47 PM on September 18, 2008

Hildegard, I'm obviously not your doctor, so take this with that in mind.

First, that hemoglobin level, as a few others have said, is very concerning; I'm pretty stunned that your doctor didn't deal with that with more than just giving you oral iron. Your hemoglobin is way lower than what would be expected in anemia from hypothyroidism, which typically has a hemoglobin in the 8 range; similarly, the anemia of hypothyroidism is a very gradual process, and given that you... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 8:44 AM on September 17, 2008 marked best answer

Thanks for this quick answer; I've been on FB for a while now, and literally had no clue you could do this. Wow.

And Duke , I can't believe that users actually are willing to use services like Switchabit that ask you for your usernames and passwords to other sites. Since I'm legitimately curious, what makes you feel comfortable typing your Twitter username and password (or any other service, really) into the Switchabit site? Seriously, you're just giving your login... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 12:02 PM on September 5, 2008

In nearly every state, the swerve-into-a-lane-and-brake situation serves as an exception to the assumed fault of a rear-end-collision driver, but of course as others have said, that part of the story needs to either be documented in a police report or uncontested by the other driver in order to even make it into the decision.

And just to echo what AlisonM and Cool Papa Bell said, you might not want to mention the whole 1 1/2 car-length thing unless directly asked,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 6:46 PM on August 28, 2008

"Always read the rules before asking a question on Ask MetaFilter."

"Open-ended chatty questions that don't offer a problem to be solved are detrimental to the long term usefulness of the site."
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 1:18 PM on August 27, 2008

First and foremost, as the father of a now-five-month-old, congrats and good luck with the birth and first few months! It's the ride of a lifetime.

I trained in a very-much academic hospital, and there weren't a ton of doulas present at births, but when one was present there was no consistency in terms of whether they were good, bad, helpful, interfering, or anything else. As is the case with any instance of enlisting someone's help with decisions... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 5:49 PM on August 25, 2008

keith0718: A doula is experienced at comforting a woman during childbirth in a way which no man can.

Huh? Care to elaborate on that? Does this mean that there can't be male doulas? This is just a weird statement.
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 8:45 AM on August 26, 2008

Saucysault, no doubt that some folks might (probably do) generally feel more comfortable with female gyn-related caregivers; I just would challenge the notion that doulas comfort "in a way which no man can." (Also note that the perspective you voice would also mean that doulas must be women who've given birth, and if you wanted to nitpick, must have given birth in the exact way as the women she's caring for; otherwise, she wouldn't be able to reassure the woman that "she knows... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 1:41 PM on August 26, 2008

Why would you not just call your credit union and ask? Seems weird to come to Ask Metafilter to ask this one.
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 1:20 PM on August 18, 2008

Just to make sure it's said, I can't imagine a secure network setup these days in which this would even be possible; users' passwords should really never be stored in any readable way on the network, nor should they be stored in a way that should be able to be decrypted or otherwise interpreted back to their actual passwords. I can't think of a modern operating system that does so; instead, they all store the passwords as one-way hashes, meaning that the password was turned into a string of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 7:12 PM on August 6, 2008

mdonley: 2) store your bag with the longer dimension facing the aisle so it is easier to remove upon landing

Please don't do this. If your bag fits into the overhead with its longest dimension oriented front/back -- e.g., a roll-aboard with its wheels back and handle forward -- then please, please put it in this way, since that leaves more room for others to also be able to stow their own luggage. Not doing so when you can just makes you an... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 7:02 PM on August 5, 2008

I don't think it is -- "the longer dimension facing the aisle" means putting it, lengthwise, parallel to the aisle -- but if it is, so be it. In any event, everyone, don't be the dick who takes up more room than you have to just because it makes some part of your deplaning process easier for you.
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 8:44 AM on August 6, 2008

Jebus, quonsar, way to talk outa your ass. Take it from me and everyone else in this thread who actually has, you know, medical training that the purpose for which opiates are administered has a great deal to do with whether they cause an addiction or dependence.
posted to MetaFilter by delfuego at 7:14 PM on August 5, 2008

Yeah, from the looks of it, you seem to be covered just fine; ignore the renewal notice, and hang onto the copies of all the sale paperwork in case you get notices of tickets or whatever.

And oh my god, all you people who keep recommending that he turn in his plates -- reading the comments before you post would likely give you the clue that it's already been well-established that you don't have to do that in Wisconsin, nor can you.
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 7:06 PM on August 5, 2008

Ed Foster was Consumerist before Consumerist was even a gleam in Nick Denton's eye; I was reading Ed Foster way back in college and he was working hard to keep folks in the tech industry honest. I might even go out on a limb and say that he inspired me to have similarly high expectations of the vendors and companies with whom I deal day-to-day; he will indeed be missed.
posted to MetaFilter by delfuego at 7:35 PM on July 28, 2008

jedicus, as has been covered here before, titanium rings are only marginally more difficult to cut off than other rings -- most, if not all, ERs can handle it just fine with the manual rotary cutters that they all have in their equipment lockers.

This can't-be-cut-off thing really has reached Huge Urban Legend status.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 8:34 AM on July 21, 2008

Wow, that's cool -- but every 60 seconds is quite a load on the MeFi server, no? It's generally not considered kosher to be hitting an RSS feed more than once every 60 minutes; every 15 or 30, I could maybe understand, but every single minute is quite a huge load.
posted to MetaTalk by delfuego at 7:15 PM on July 15, 2008

sdodd, Conditional Get is only part of the equation -- because even with it enabled, if there's been ANY change to an RSS feed, you still get the ENTIRE RSS feed. Even if only one additional item has been added.

So yep, it definitely is a great thing for a seldom-updated site that doesn't want its users to download the entire feed 24 times a day when there's only one update that day. But it's not much of a thing at all for a site like MetaFilter that updates many, many... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by delfuego at 10:01 AM on July 16, 2008

Just to highlight this to everyone who's not a DC local, as exogenous pointed out above, Nick -- the owner of Murky -- had one of his two locations shut down by the DC government a few months ago because he had neglected to pay his DC taxes for 21 of the prior 24 months. So to frame him as any kind of hero here is a bit silly; in the end, he's a dick who, in trying to create a totally pretentious coffee hangout, also decided to fuck one of the communities he served to the tune of nearly half a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delfuego at 7:52 PM on July 14, 2008

OK, follow me here. Murky Coffee's roasted beans come from Counter Culture Coffee.

Counter Culture Coffee has a page describing the "perfect iced coffee", at the bottom of which is a promo link to Imbibe Magazine's "2008 Ultimate Summer Drinks Guide".

At the bottom of the sidebar on the fourth page of that guide (marked page 42 in the PDF) is the following paragraph:

"Some cafes don't... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delfuego at 6:51 AM on July 15, 2008

I also love, for pure irony's sake, that the current top post on one of the blogs Nick co-authors is all about how putting red wine over ice isn't heresy.
posted to MetaFilter by delfuego at 7:02 AM on July 15, 2008

I suspect you are using an IMAP-configured email account, and that you have "show deleted messages" turned on in Mail.app (View menu, "Show Deleted Messages").

If that's true, then before turning that off, though, go to the Mailbox menu and choose "Erase Deleted Messages" -- and the message will go away. That's a good verification that this was the issue.

Again, if that's true, the best way to get Mail.app to adhere... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 12:51 PM on July 13, 2008

I know a few others have said it, but I'll definitely echo the sentiment -- we lurve our Bugaboo Cameleon. We live in very NYC-like environs -- Capitol Hill in DC -- and the sturdiness of the Cameleon can't really be stressed enough; that thing humps up and down curbs, over wildly-uneven brick sidewalks, and through parks like no other stroller I've used. We brought it to NYC with us when we visited three weeks ago, and loved it there as much as we love it here. We quickly gave up our... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 7:21 PM on July 11, 2008

Saying this as the dad of a three-and-a-half month old who is either fed right from the boob or fed pumped milk, I'd go with none-of-the-above (for your offered options); what my wife is currently doing, which is working really well for her, is to breastfeed when she's at home, pump milk at work, and then be really flexible for times when she might be able to get back to the baby to feed her but might also not be able to (i.e., your "might be two hours, might be more" periods in your... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 8:10 PM on July 10, 2008

First and foremost, CONGRATS! New babies are awesome, awesomely scrumptious, and just the bestest. Truly, congrats.

So my wife and I have a three-and-a-half month old at home, and the best thing folks have said here is that the key is to be flexible, since your new baby won't be all that flexible for the first few weeks to months (and maybe even longer!). Each of you has roles that you'll fall into more easily, and each of you will have roles that you'll gladly hand... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 7:52 PM on July 10, 2008

Seconding, thirding, whatever the Japanese flush-cut saw. This is one thing that they're for -- they have flexible blades that will allow you to "offset" them however much you want.
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 12:09 PM on June 29, 2008

What you're looking for are called "tremor picture hangers"; I've had bad luck finding them in actual stores, and have bought them from Ace Hardware's outlet when I've needed 'em. (While Washington, DC isn't known for its earthquakes, I just hung a canvas painting over my baby's crib, and figured this was good insurance.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 7:27 PM on June 11, 2008

Lou Adler? I've always thought it was Donald Sutherland, and from the images, I'm not shocked that I made that mistake -- in the hat and with the beard, they look frickin' identical.
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 1:19 PM on June 11, 2008

unSane, that makes no sense; if airguitar2 is using Gmail, that blacklist has no effect whatsoever on his/her attempts to send mail unless Gmail itself is on the blacklist. In other words, that blacklist is for IP addresses of machines that are delivering a piece of mail to its final destination, not mail clients accessing webmail services. (And in other other words, when Mac.com uses that blacklist, it's for accepting mail from machines that are delivering it to users... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 7:21 AM on May 13, 2008

Given my experience using the Yahoo UI Library, I'd bet that the Yahoo Rich Text Editor might fit the bill; the YUI stuff is generally identical across browsers (in my experience, again), and even though the RTE is listed as "beta" in their toolkit, I'd give it a shot and see if it works as you want it to.
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 11:11 AM on April 15, 2008

Those comments in the LJ thread about how the $670 price is via an Amazon affiliate are mine, and I'm stickin' with them; this really does appear to be the author misunderstanding the search results and ascribing some sort of malice to Amazon when none exists.

To make sure to explain here: the author initially searched for his item on Amazon using a browser that wasn't logged into Amazon, and the search returns had his item for $670. It appears that this return was... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delfuego at 10:59 AM on April 15, 2008

Jesus, this has become tired so incredibly fast. For those who haven't seen it, here is the high-res version of the photo; it's clearly his hand and a fishing rod.
posted to MetaFilter by delfuego at 10:09 AM on April 11, 2008

Lassie, I'm an ex-trainee of the NYPH pediatrics program, so color this with that grain of salt. That being said, the NICU at the Columbia campus of New York-Presbyterian Hospital -- that's the hospital at 168th St., not the Cornell campus at E 68th Street -- is pretty much unparalleled in NYC. I'm not sure what issues your friends' baby faces, though... they need to be very frank in talking to the pediatrician/neonatologist at St. Luke's/Roosevelt Hospital to find out if a higher-level NICU... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 10:43 AM on April 8, 2008 marked best answer

And just for reference, the NICU at Columbia has a dedicated website, it'd seem.
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 10:51 AM on April 8, 2008

mosk et al, lately I've been filling up before I get down to 1/4, and it hasn't really affected anything; I've been thinking that maybe the stirring-stuff-up theory is correct, so I'll definitely ask my service folks about that. I don't overfill, though, ever -- some time ago, I learned about what moitz mentioned, so I always just let the pump automatically stop filling, and then leave it at that.

I'm not so sure about leaving the gas cap off; on my car, that triggers... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 12:12 PM on March 11, 2008

FYI, you know meningococcemia isn't a "blood disorder", right? It's a bacterial infection; calling it a blood disorder is sorta like calling the flu a lung disease.
posted to MetaFilter by delfuego at 5:15 PM on March 8, 2008

I assume you're set in your decision to bank the cord blood, sublivious, yes?
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 12:08 PM on March 5, 2008

Yeah, it's FastEthernet -- and if you don't know what you're doing with Cisco routers, you might want to be careful plugging random cables into and out of one. But by all means, learn what you're doing -- Cisco routers (well, ANY access routers, but Ciscos specifically) are awesome and a great way to learn networking!
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 5:40 PM on March 4, 2008

Starsixnine00, certified mail != delivery confirmation, so I'm a little confused. Did you send the returns both as certified mail and with delivery confirmation ("return receipt" in USPS parlance)? If so, you say that you got the delivery confirmation back for the state ones but not the federal ones, but again, the two services aren't necessarily tied together -- certified proves that you mailed a certain article at a given date and time and allows you to use USPS's website to see... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 4:10 PM on February 27, 2008

Interesting, Taken Outtacontext, and that suggests a potential solution. yhbc, I assume that you have the same ActionTech router as TO -- have you tried to plug your computer directly into the router via an ethernet cable, and tested to see if you can get to MeFi? If so, then probably the best solution for you is to do exactly as TO did -- get another inexpensive wifi router that doesn't suck as much ass as the ActionTech one does, plug it into your ActionTech via ethernet, shut off the wifi... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 11:26 AM on February 27, 2008

Yeah, they're clearly putting their own copyright symbol, and claiming copyright, on his photos directly. See this link, which is the American Greetings high-res download of this photo, which is without a doubt this photo of Jon's. I see that they give a cursory attribution at the bottom left, but then claim copyright at the bottom right... makes no sense.

I don't have any legal answers, but this just isn't right -- I'd start by finding a number to their corporate... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 11:18 AM on February 27, 2008

View source shows the DTD to me just fine on any website that's well-behaved enough to HAVE a DTD. DOM interpreters, like Firebug and the slew of others, don't have it -- because as malevolent and misterbrandt say, it's not part of the DOM.
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 1:59 PM on February 22, 2008

Yeah, what do you mean by cutoff or truncated? Does the forwarded email literally get cut off right in the middle of a word? When you hit the forward button, do you have any text highlighted (and thus trigger the only-forward-the-selected-text feature of which cmiller speaks)?
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 1:57 PM on February 22, 2008

stbalbach, I'm confused -- did you accidentally forget to paste in a link to a page (any page at all!) backing up the point of your post, that this train is going to be built? Because as most have pointed out, the whole point of this here website is to do that sort of thing. If you forgot -- i.e., if your comment that "blogish sites" were verifying your info is to be read that links to those sites were supposed to be part of your post -- then pass them along to the site admins, and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delfuego at 10:15 AM on February 13, 2008

I'm confused, though. They handed you a Democratic ballot, you filled it out and dropped it in the box. After that point, how would they have known that that specific ballot in the Democratic primary came from you, a Green party-registered voter? There's nothing on the ballot, I'd assume, that links it to an individual person; that would defeat the whole point of anonymous voting.

I'm not a Californian, so I'm just guessing here, but my guess is that the only way they... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 3:35 PM on February 6, 2008

As others have said above, there are certainly ways to do it -- but I have to tell you that you definitely need to be prepared for a lot more administration effort than you might think. Having worked in, designed, and set up more multi-platform networks than I care to remember, setting up universal authentication is never easy, it's never few-steps-and-you're-done, and it's never even lots-of-steps-and-then-occasional-maintenance. It's always been a process of getting all the rickety pieces of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 7:11 AM on January 11, 2008