Jimbob: "... I can't remember the last time I was driving and didn't know where I was. Sometimes, sure, I might not know the route to somewhere else, which is why my road atlas is such a useful $25 piece of technology, but not knowing where I am? I honestly can't say it's ever been a problem."
Yeah, but that's because you live in Darwin, where you can see all sides of the city from any given point ;-)

I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 2:22 PM on June 10, 2008

Well, it's lucky I didn't get time to try and get in touch with you when I was in Darwin a couple of weeks ago, then, isn't it?
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 3:44 PM on June 10, 2008

I don't care what any of you say - I just got an SMS from my (phone company) account manager saying I can get a free iPhone. Just have to wait to see what sort of plan I need to sign up to for this to happen ...
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 1:58 PM on July 3, 2008

I don't care what any of you say - I just got an SMS from my (phone company) account manager saying I can get a free iPhone. Just have to wait to see what sort of plan I need to sign up to for this to happen ...
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 2:04 PM on July 3, 2008

Wow, way to ruin my tiny happy moment, guys ;-(
Can't a person live in wilful ignorance for just a moment without someone bursting their bubble?
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 2:34 PM on July 4, 2008

redsparkler: ""People don't do things like that anymore.""

Yeah, that was what struck me when I came across this - just one of the things wrong with the world today is that people are too scared of getting hurt (or sued) to try anything not deemed safe by the appropriate authorities.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 1:55 PM on April 23, 2008

Awesome story! There's no doubt in my mind that the world would be better off if there were more people like Gene and Karl in the world. Something to help us tell the difference between crazy-dangerous and dangerous-but-mostly harmless. It seems that, these days, anyone who acts outside the bounds of a society defined by boring beige people living in boring beige homes driving boring beige cars and living boring beige lives is treated as a dangerous lunatic. The world is sometimes worse off... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 1:39 PM on May 1, 2008

Well, I'm not embarrassed about the stupid things I did when I was young(er). In fact, I haven't really stopped doing them - I just don't have the great blocks of time with nothing particular to do that seemed to be the trigger for doing something with a better-than-even chance of injuring myself.

I don't feel indestructible any more, though, I admit. Some of the things I used to do I wouldn't do now because I am worried about being injured and not being able to work... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 2:26 PM on May 1, 2008

Yeah, if those messages have any semblance to the way real people feel then, man are we in trouble.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 5:03 AM on April 15, 2008

LastOfHisKind: "What I find interesting, aside from the obvious, is how the builder, Harland and Wolff, is so quick to dismiss any responsibility after almost a century. They surely can't be held liable after so much time, can they? Would anybody even have standing for a lawsuit?"

Boatbuilders are a proud race and their customers have long memories.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 4:38 AM on April 15, 2008

This is way cool. I may use it once or twice in my lifetime, but it will save me enough time and grief even then that I will be eternally grateful.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 12:13 AM on March 17, 2008

Yeah, that's like someone with a chauffeur scoffing at those who drive cars.

Why would be require people to demonstrate any skill to use the Interwebs when we let any idiot have kids?
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 3:23 AM on October 4, 2007

I don't see what the fuss is about - I bought a new laptop for the mrs and, faced with a choice of either XP included or Vista included, didn't see the point in paying for an old OS, given that I could always wipe it and install XP for no cost later if I needed to.

It works fine. It looks pretty. It just works. But then, this is a machine with 2GB RAM, so I would expect it to work pretty well. *shrug* I guess I'm just not geeky enough for this fight.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 4:38 AM on September 25, 2007

"felt" a heck of a lot faster than Vista.
That's interesting, because I felt the same thing, but did some tests by timing copying large files etc and found that it is pretty much exactly the same speed, sometimes a little faster. I think that some of the eye candy is slower than the machine actually operates or something, so it feels slow for some reason.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 3:06 PM on September 25, 2007

Wow, they must have surrendered to someone without even having war declared. That may be a new record.

I think we should make Australian "journalists" carry special ID cards.
They do.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 3:41 AM on September 25, 2007

Careful Peter, it's slippery there.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 1:54 AM on July 6, 2007

Meh. Mary had a little lamb.
Mary had a little lamb
with it she went to sleep
the sheep turned out to be a ram
Mary had a little lamb.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 5:29 PM on July 7, 2007

I have a hard time seeing what on earth is wrong with people getting together and making music rather than spending their weekends watching television and going to the mall.
Oh, yeah. The saddest possible future for anyone who once enjoyed rock and/or roll music. I can't play a note on any instrument, but my kids are always telling me to turn the volume down* - you don't have to play yourself to enjoy music.

*except when I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 6:39 PM on June 17, 2007

Is it just me or is that bicycle built out of pixels, because it looks like a render rather than an actual object....
Yeah and the photos of the prototype look a lot like a metal frame with some timber screwed around it.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 11:18 PM on June 13, 2007

You can’t even see the search results in the picture (800×600 resolution)I'm somewhat on the fence as to how evil this is (if it really is evil, it is at worst "small e" evil), but OpenDNS is being a bit slimy themselves by demonstrating the results in a resolution that not even Dell customers would use these days (yeah, yeah, Grandad's old P2 still uses 800 x 600, but be realistic here, we are talking mostly about modern machines). A screen shot at higher resolution would not... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 5:35 AM on May 23, 2007

The cost? They're going to develop one helluva psychological profile of you, and send you their most effective advertising. They're gonna close the loop.
Which is no cost at all, really. If you have to see advertising (and there is no way on earth to avoid it completely), surely it's better that it is advertising that just may actually be of interest to you? I couldn't care less if advertising is targeted or completely random - it's all just noise and that which... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 3:29 AM on May 24, 2007

1. Place ring in coffin.
2. Place coffin in appropriate spot (mantle, etc).
3. Harbor resentments.
4. Grow bitter and unhappy.
5. Die inside.
Never officially married so no actual ring, but have already managed 3 through 5 quite comprehensively.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 7:14 PM on May 16, 2007

Isn't that blue device an early adding machine? Even old accountants have birthdays, I guess.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 8:08 PM on April 23, 2007

The project claims that it is intended to:Create awareness of the closeness of humans to their primate cousinsProvide a platform for research on animal behaviour and enrichmentRaise awareness for the conservation needs of primates in the wildRaise funds to build Australia's largest chimpanzee exhibit at Monarto Zoological Park in South Australia.
A similar project was discussed here some time ago. Also, sometimes, predictions on MetaFilter do come true.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 7:07 PM on January 2, 2007

More likely, jokeefe, is that the vast majority of people in Australia are white (or white-ish at least). Also, the people chosen all applied to be part of the project. I guess either all the people who applied were white, or the selection process included a PC-filter, preventing any possible racist slurs by picking a black person for the role of "hairless monkey", given the historical connotations that may bring up.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 2:13 PM on January 3, 2007

... She starts crying and says "I don't know what to think. This is so embarrassing." She runs to another room. The friends look even more uncomfortable. One says, "I think I have to go," and another says "me too." Within minutes, everyone has left, except Mr. Beggar, who sits watching the rest of the Super Bowl alone.
Later, having had time to think about it, she realises how much work and effort he put into making this proposal... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 6:37 PM on October 23, 2006

Awesome links! Ah, the days when America built good-looking cars. What happened to them?
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 9:05 PM on October 11, 2006

If only we had that rebooting option in the real world. You know, think of the possibilities if we could restore the world to its previous state at any number of pre-defined "known stable" versions. Except that we would probably end up in the same shitty state we are in now.

adamgreenfield is saying some excellent things here. I wish I could express stuff like that.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 8:06 PM on October 11, 2006

So how about plagiarism by the traditional media of sites like metafilter?
I see this all the time - mainly in the Sunday papers. At least once in every paper, I see something that I read during the week on the Web, lifted verbatim without attribution. To a lesser extent, this happens in the so-called "current affairs" TV shows, who often take the latest story doing the rounds of the Web and present it as breaking news.

Welcome to the new media.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 7:15 PM on October 9, 2006

The only thing it would be any good for would be extremely short distances (~2 km or less). The extra energy consumed by the total concentration required to avoid every crack, pothole and dog turd to avoid a harsh reminder of the inevitable winner of the face-meets-bitumen argument would make this far from a leisurely ride to work. Really, if you have a distance to travel that is within the reasonable range of this thing, it would be easier, cheaper and much, much safer to just walk. That's... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 8:27 PM on October 1, 2006

... a 6" wheel will be stumped by anything more than a 2" obstacle, I think, and probably less.
If the wheels are solid (as these are), they will be stopped by an object as small as 1/4". You know, like a small pebble.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 4:53 PM on October 2, 2006

Good point, Ynoxas. The point is still valid that anything with such small wheels is not suitable for most roads, but not to the extent I first thought.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 5:38 PM on October 2, 2006

Perhaps the A-Bike is not suitable (therefore, neither useful nor cool) for those without enough brain cells to manage balancing on a bike in the first place? For an unknown portion (obviously greater than 0%) of the rest of the world's population, it may just fill the bill.

This is not just to avoid mano getting the last word - that's just an added bonus)
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 4:10 PM on October 9, 2006

Holy shit. Hard to figure out whether people in that situation are lucky or unlucky.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 5:49 AM on October 3, 2006

... watch out for moose" signs every 300 feet
That's nothing - how about this body count.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 9:07 PM on October 2, 2006

[this is good]
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 10:29 PM on October 1, 2006

These seem to be aimed at the "pretending to be environmentally conscious but sucking deep while it lasts" crowd. They are expensive, poorly designed, thermally inefficient, crowded and did I mention expensive?

That staircase/bookcase is the most stupid thing I have seen foir a while - unless you have child-sized feet, you will be constantly kicking the crap out of your books.


what do you find wrong with the site?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 8:49 PM on October 1, 2006

The things you see when you don't have a gun.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 8:11 PM on October 1, 2006

Yeah, some people are just born unlucky, there's no doubt about it.

I remember seeing that episode of Sienfeld and thinking "holy shit, that could be me talking".
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 8:12 PM on September 27, 2006

This is fun - you can answer with complete honesty and nil accountability.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 8:28 PM on September 26, 2006

Here's my old post about how researchers at Columbia University attempted to replicate Milgram's original study using email forwarding and a list of global "targets," not just residents of the United States. I tried several times to reach people in other countries, but the forwards pooped out after one or two tries.
I tried it too - all the people who I contacted initially deleted the messages because they thought they were spam.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 7:54 PM on September 12, 2006

The only way this could be worse would be if it was about American basketball.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 7:26 PM on September 11, 2006

Holy shit. That is awesome.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 8:43 PM on September 4, 2006

Yeah, I had the same thought (as well as the "whole site is badly broken in Firefox" issue), but the coolness of the flight simulator led me to forgive him.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 7:20 PM on September 5, 2006

That is so cool.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 10:48 PM on September 4, 2006

Wealthy Men is the one and only online personals dating site dedicated to those men seeking a higher quality online dating experience.

Because, of course, the more money you have, the better quality you are.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 8:03 PM on August 27, 2006

Yikes, I just took down the paper on the windows.
Well, now that the attention of the Webiverse is focussed on you, you can't slack off. Get writing, man!
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 1:33 PM on August 14, 2006

“If you are using them as a bomb detonator, you don’t really need a battery in there, do you? ...”
OK, maybe I'm missing something (not like it would be the first time), but how can you use a phone without a battery (AKA a non-functioning one) as a detonator?

This whole thing just makes my head spin. Really, what the fuck are you Americans on?
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 4:25 AM on August 14, 2006

Except that I hate things resizing my browser, this looks pretty cool.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 12:04 AM on August 9, 2006

Ah, I opened it in a tab, so I guess must take some of the blame.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 2:49 PM on August 9, 2006