"Does this sound like a Public Enemy tune to anyone else?"

No.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 2:49 PM on November 2, 2009

Alastair Levy is an artist.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 4:10 AM on October 21, 2009

"Worth1000, if you like that kind of thing."

Interesting comparison. They're worlds apart to me.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 4:52 AM on October 21, 2009

.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 4:05 AM on October 21, 2009

Should point out there are some by other artists in there too.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 12:11 PM on September 16, 2009

There is no so.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 8:40 AM on August 5, 2009

"some of the best reading on Wikipedia"...

The links I've followed are to articles that are obscure in subject matter. This is not the same as "good reading" and certainly not "best reading", especially when the article linked to is only a paragraph long.

It's easy to link to obscure articles. Finding the well-compiled ones that make genuinely good reading would be rather more time consuming. They are out there, but... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 6:02 AM on July 28, 2009

Everyone's a web designer.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 4:01 AM on July 17, 2009

It's easy to pick out the worst examples and say "corr, isn't London grim?". But most of them are nice vibrant shops that most Londoners I know are very happy to have nearby.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 5:13 AM on June 2, 2009

"Let's face facts. The timeline was perectly closed off at the end of Terminator 2, until the movie studios decided they couldn't leave well enough alone and created the abomination that is Terminator 3. That's the long and the short of it."

Here, let me fix that for you:

"Let's face facts. The timeline was perectly closed off at the end of Terminator, until the movie studios decided they couldn't leave well... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 12:26 AM on May 26, 2009

Can I just say that a significant change to the revenue model of a very significant web service is definitely post-worthy? Can anyone saying that isn't please go back and skim read a couple of weeks' worth of posts from Metafilter year one?

There's an excellent post here screaming to get out, about the changing nature of the music business, the realities of ad-supported services, and about how to handle a passionate community (very very very lightly). Try to see past... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 5:50 AM on April 27, 2009

"Um: it's an island, but it's not that small an island."

England isn't an island. Yes, as islands go, mainland Britain is actually fairly big. As countries go, England isn't at all, really. I'm not sure what sort of Tornado this one is, but Wikipedia says a Tornado GR.4 can do 1,511 mph. It doesn't say for how long it could maintain that speed. WikiAnswers puts the north-south length of England at 385 miles. My maths is rusty, but by my... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 2:47 PM on February 16, 2009

"your tornado needs to get up to speed first and it couldn't fly faster than mach 1 anyway or the sonic boom would make anyone with a window rather unhappy. I'd suspect an hour is more like it. you're also neglecting the channel and orkey islands, both of which belong to the UK, and the vast north sea territory."

Psshh. Where is it in the rules you have to start from a standstill? Speed up over France. I'm not neglecting the channel islands,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 4:00 PM on February 16, 2009

"btw: ba.com lists a commercial flight from london to edinburgh as taking 1h 25m."

Including take off, ascent, descent, landing, and an air speed one third that of a tornado. So yeah. Fifteen minutes sounds pretty good to me. I seem to recall some batshit insanely low figure for getting the fighter jet to the location in the final scene of 28 Days Later.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 4:03 PM on February 16, 2009

"There's a reason the speed limit is 250 knots below 10,000 feet, at least in the U.S."

Even for military exercises, which is what these were? I doubt it. Rural Yorkshire is the closest thing the UK has to an Area 51.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 1:05 AM on February 17, 2009

This comes at a useful time for me. Thanks.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 6:59 AM on February 16, 2009

If it helps matters, non-Brits may like to know that the Sun are well known for printing complete and utter bollocks from time to time. My first thought, looking at this post, was that I need much more to go on.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 2:58 PM on February 4, 2009

"Yes, it seems plausible"

Not really, no. If it turned out to be true that this was happening on a significant scale, I'd be truly fucking gobsmacked. Both sides are waging a PR war, and this would be a fairly disastrous blow for the cells involved, and the broader network, if it were true. The upper echelons of terror cells are not, in fact, batshit insane lunatics. Of course they use coercion to convince people to blow themselves up. Rape might convince one... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 1:26 AM on February 5, 2009

effugas said it. The consesus I've read suggests the Osymyso mix was better. Here it is, incidentally.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 7:27 AM on February 4, 2009

I wasn't going to . because I don't know them very well. Guess who just came up in my Last.fm recommended radio. A track called Introductory Nomenclature.

.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 12:53 PM on January 30, 2009

Level 3 strugglers, you know you can rotate the pieces, right? Use A and D.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 8:20 AM on January 29, 2009

Damn you, DU. I have work to do.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 8:30 AM on January 29, 2009

Stop giving clues, DU!

Level 29 solution, if you want it!
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 9:14 AM on January 29, 2009

"Stuck". My problem was that too much of the second-hand of the game was breeze-through-able. Even some levels that I couldn't immediately see a solution to I still solved on the first attempt just by ploughing ahead. There shouldn't be any puzzle in the second half that can be solved just by putting everything in a big balancey pile. Alas, plenty were. Being a puzzle fan, I yearn for that stuck feeling. A couple of levels gave it to me, but only briefly. Plenty of fun, though. Cheers,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 9:18 AM on January 29, 2009

second-hand? Second half*.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 9:18 AM on January 29, 2009

"Although, a thought. This is one of those games that I will probably never play again. The first run-through is fun, and then after that there's no real initiative to come back and repeat the task"

Welcome to puzzling!
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 9:18 AM on January 29, 2009

Wasn't particularly happy with my level 33 solution. Didn't feel like it should have been allowed.

If you're *really really* stuck, here's a way out of level 33.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 9:30 AM on January 29, 2009

Hmm. Yeah, I uploaded the grabs to Picasa which I've never used, so I'm probably doing something wrong.

Answers to the harmony levels, if you need them.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 11:38 AM on January 29, 2009

"Yeah, the Harmony aesthetic is pretty nice. Also, after about 4 levels of Inferno I realized they are actually the same puzzles, only with bloodstains. So I guess it's only 40 unique levels."

They look different to me :)
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 11:51 AM on January 29, 2009

It's worth trying to see through the gory aesthetic of the inferno levels. They are harder.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 12:00 PM on January 29, 2009

Yeah, I take back the balancey piles bit, I think. I think the inferno levels were probably designed first, as the puzzles, and then made easier for the harmony mode - generally with the removal of pieces. I haven't played right through yet, but my hunch is some of those ridiculousy easy ones are going to make sense when they're hardened-up for inferno.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 12:10 PM on January 29, 2009

Inferno solutions level 7 onwards. I hit a Tumblr image upload limit so will have to put up 1 to 6 later.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 4:10 PM on January 29, 2009

"I like Blade Runner and all but could you spice up the post a bit maybe? The sauce, she is weak."

Generally not how I do things. And I don't have Blade Runner links falling out of my arse today. Sorry.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 11:13 AM on January 29, 2009

Very well done, shoesfullofdust. Very well done.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 3:17 PM on January 29, 2009

Liking the album. Hadn't seen this video. Cheers.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 3:14 AM on January 29, 2009

And take your suckable toffees with you!
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 5:01 AM on January 29, 2009

And in fairness, cjorgensen, I know what you're getting it. This isn't my favourite tune on the album by any stretch. I prefer Heartbreaker, of which there is also a nifty remix.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 5:30 AM on January 29, 2009

This cello, it vibrates?
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 2:06 AM on January 28, 2009

Speaking of which, it looks like Muxtape is back too.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 9:46 AM on January 27, 2009

"The robots.txt file on the newly-updated White House website contains two lines:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /includes/

Under the Bush administration, the list of disallowed assets grew to 2,319."

Via Matt Langer's tumblr.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 11:25 AM on January 20, 2009

I got sphincter first go. Welcome to my life.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 3:13 AM on January 16, 2009

subbes, if I understand Blackle correctly, it still relies on Google for the actual search. Since the calculations in the article are to do with Google's server setup, not the screens of its users, I don't think using Blackle would make any difference at all.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 4:02 PM on January 11, 2009

From the Google response:


"Recently, though, others have used much higher estimates, claiming that a typical search uses "half the energy as boiling a kettle of water" and produces 7 grams of CO2. We thought it would be helpful to explain why this number is *many* times too high. Google is fast — a typical search returns results in less than 0.2 seconds. Queries vary in degree of difficulty, but for the average query, the servers it... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 1:22 AM on January 12, 2009

"Anyone else try this out?

Yeah, I've just given it a go on a photo of some boats and cottages in Cadgwith, Cornwall.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 5:33 AM on January 9, 2009

I haven't got the band quite right, as you can see (the bottom of the tree by the cottage in focus) but I definitely think it has potential.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 5:35 AM on January 9, 2009

It clearly needs photo with pretty horizontal parallel areas to work well. The Elvis photo is sort of the opposite of that.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 5:46 AM on January 9, 2009

I dunno. I hope the people slating it are at least trying it out. People not knowing what photos to use isn't a fault of the app, which I admit is very limited. In addition to my earlier observation that tt clearly needs photo with pretty horizontal parallel areas to work well, you really need to be looking up or down at and angle. The ice-skating example is okay, except the the heads of the people a bit nearer the desired depth of field are in focus, while their legs aren't, which isn't really... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 6:24 AM on January 9, 2009

WPW: an interesting comment but not all that relevant. I'm not sure if you're talking about bad writers, bad journalists, bad Lovecraft fans or bad photographers; they're are very different things. This is a web app that applies blur to photos as a bit of fun.

If professional journalism is in danger of being overrun with bad amateurs, it's because a large proportion of professional journalism is bad and amateurish, so people rightly believe they measure up. Good writers... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 2:48 AM on January 10, 2009

Yeah, that's genius.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 7:05 AM on January 9, 2009

I prefer this quote from the first review, though it wouldn't have worked so well for your post:

"I was a little disappointed when I first bought this item, because the functionality is limited. My 5 year old son pointed out that the passenger's shoes cannot be removed. Then, we placed a deadly fingernail file underneath the passenger's scarf, and neither the detector doorway nor the security wand picked it up."
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 6:55 PM on January 8, 2009