Displaying post 1 to 50 of 95
Cheap, quality eats on the Vegas strip?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 4:26 AM on April 21, 2008
(23 comments)
I'm the co-creator of a new party game and my co-creators and I are stationed out of Madison. We've been invited to demo the game by an enthusiastic game store owner a few towns away, and so we've been wondering whether it makes sense to arrange a tour of the area metropolises (Minneapolis, Milwaukee, maybe Chicago). We're ramping up to the Christmas shopping season, and the game is going to start appearing at Barnes & Nobles soon, so on the one hand it seems like if we arrange something in advance with a store and simply show up there on the scheduled weekend, there's going to be a crowd, and we can try to attract shoppers' attention. But we can also perceive such a tour where we've planned it terribly, there's no store traffic and we've squandered our time and money. So: How to plan such a trip?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 8:53 AM on October 9, 2007
(8 comments)
DIY fantasy toys -- I've been playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Wii, and my 2-year-old loves to watch and play along, to the point of sticking a foam sword down the back of shirt and running around with a Nerf slingshot and fishing pole. He turns 3 in September and in addition to his "nutritional" presents, I thought I would also get/make him some fantasy-enabling stuff. What are some existing toys that do a good job of mimicking Zelda-esque accoutrements, and/or what should be avoided, and/or what's easiest to make myself? An even bigger issue is finding "safe" stuff for him to swing his sword at ... some kind of indoor/outdoor monsters that are at least a foot tall or so. I can see making something out of pillows, or lampshades, or even buying a cheap toy if it's properly durable. Any ideas?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 8:14 AM on August 24, 2007
(22 comments)
Can you make your own Colorforms? I need to assess some different ways of affixing small things onto large things and then easily removing them.
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 5:34 AM on July 12, 2007
(10 comments)
Can anyone help me find a bigger, cleaner version of
this map? I'd like a higher-resolution image (or vector image) of the 210 US media markets. The other common image out there for this is
this one, which includes county lines and makes the map a little busy. Free is best, of course.
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 7:58 AM on June 20, 2007
(4 comments)
I'm interested in homebrew for the Nintendo DS. I've seen the threads
here and
here but am interested in the June 2007 hotness. What should I get?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 1:45 PM on June 5, 2007
(10 comments)
Super-specific obsolete iPod question: I recently got a refurbed 1G iPod Nano, which I was using in conjunction with an AirPlay^2 transmitter that has stopped working (and was never great in the first place). It looks like my cheapest alternatives are the discontinued Griffin Nanotrip (which doesn't even show up on their support pages) and their iTrip Auto. Does anyone have experience with these?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 9:02 AM on April 18, 2007
(5 comments)
So, spoiler warning, an ongoing, popular TV show has been revealed to have a forthcoming plot point where an act of stupefying terrorism is being engineered in order to unite mankind against the Other. This is a plot point from a seminal comic book, which borrowed it from a seminal TV show, both of which I will name after the cut. Is there an older origin of this story, and who else has been appropriating it recently?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 9:12 AM on March 12, 2007
(40 comments)
Cineplexity
The problem with most movie trivia games is that they require you to have seen the exact same movies as whoever wrote the cards -- you vs. the quizmaster can be fun, but it's not much of a game. Cineplexity is the new movie party game from the same company that brought you Apples to Apples. Each Cineplexity card lists an attribute common to many movies; turn over two cards, and the first person to name a movie that is described by both of the cards scores. So if the cards are "Romance" and "Title Consists of One Word," it could be Casablanca or Titanic, Charade or Amelie. It's a game where you bring your knowledge of movies to the table, where kids can compete with grandparents even if they've never seen the same films. The first 5000 games sold include an extra 200 cards, so check it out online ($25 shipped via the above link) or at your favorite local game store.
posted to Projects by blueshammer
at 8:36 PM on March 4, 2007
Anniversary experience for a couple staying in Cabo San Lucas -- specifically someone to take them out on the Sea of Cortez?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 1:58 PM on December 29, 2006
(1 comment)
Wikipedia posits the mid- to late-1800s as the time when we first started seeing time travel in literature. Are there older examples? Is there an analog from antiquity -- some similar concept articulated in an ancient culture or mythology? A folk tale?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 9:08 AM on November 20, 2006
(13 comments)
Restocking fees: I bought a Mac Mini right before the new ones were announced, etc. etc., open-box restocking fee. I think their mechanism for assessing the fee is dishonest ...
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 10:08 AM on September 14, 2006
(9 comments)
Two cheapo electronics questions: Is there any
bargain-basement DVD player on Amazon that's better than any other (in terms of quality/longevity more than features), and which of the following used monitors should I get for my Mac Mini?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 9:36 AM on September 1, 2006
(12 comments)
I have a 3-year-old and 1-year-old that just spent a week warming up to all of my cousins (of whom I'm the oldest, and the youngest is, I think, six). I got a 50" x 32" Rand McNally road map that I want to serve as both wall art and a hands-on toy, and I don't know how to do both.
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 8:59 AM on August 4, 2006
(7 comments)
Indianapolitans: Headed to GenCon (held at the Indiana Convention Center) and am trying to determine which lodgings are most or least sketchy?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 12:18 PM on July 26, 2006
(10 comments)
I left my HP/Compaq laptop in my work bag an un-air conditioned part of the house during the 90-degree weekend. I can't imagine that it was under sustained temperatures any higher than 85 deg., give or take the high humidity. This morning, the screen is ultra-dim. Is this likely to be an effect of the heat?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 7:28 AM on July 17, 2006
(5 comments)
I asked
before, but with the date approaching, I'll ask again: Anyone going to
Origins, esp. for business reasons?
posted to MetaTalk by blueshammer
at 6:05 AM on June 22, 2006
(1 comment)
When I make a PDF from any application in OS X (10.3.x), they come out pixelated. Much like the steering well in the pirate's pants, it's driving me nuts.
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 7:05 AM on June 20, 2006
(11 comments)
I'm looking for a very high-rez photo of a cloudy sky, something along
these lines. I need to enlarge it to about 2'x1', and I understand that any raw digital image is likely to have to be manipulated to become that large, but if I can find a source with few or no compression artifacts, I can live with the rest. But I'm certain clip art sites, pay or free, aren't going to quite have it (and I'm big on free). Are there atmospheric sites, government or academic, that might have some really large sky photos?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 8:02 AM on June 2, 2006
(13 comments)
I need a gross of penguins.
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 8:49 AM on May 1, 2006
(14 comments)
I need miniature cans or bottles. I need approx. 200 in each of four colors, with a diameter of about half an inch.
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 1:46 PM on April 19, 2006
(4 comments)
I'm working on a boardgame in which gods punish mortals, and am looking for examples from throughout mythology that demonstrate divinely disproportionate responses to human action. Can someone point me to particularly useful references, or offer up good examples? The game will probably be Greek mythology-themed, but I'm curious about examples of the phenomenon from any culture.
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 11:15 AM on April 11, 2006
(30 comments)
I'm not sure whether to post this here, or Projects, or AskMe, but I'll start here as it's sort of a MeFi meetup question: Is anyone going to the summer Midwestern game conventions, Origins (in Columbus) and/or GenCon (in Indianapolis)? Furthermore, is anyone going there on business? I'll be attending and am curious if there are any MeFites in the board gaming industry, or, failing that, if there are any enthusiasts to seek out for playtesting sessions.
posted to MetaTalk by blueshammer
at 6:12 PM on March 23, 2006
(8 comments)
Two seemingly unrelated design/illustration questions:
1. What are some of the fonts that have associated with soft drink companies have used over the years? I realize those logos are hand-drawn, but some, like that for New Coke, seem to have clear typeface antecedents.
2. Where can I find vector-based maps of various states? Specifically, North Dakota.
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 3:41 PM on February 25, 2006
(4 comments)
North-of-Minneapolitans: I want to get a gift certificate for my bro/sis-in-law for a restaurant where they can get away from the kids and have a good, longish meal. I want the place to be somewhere conducive to conversation rather than shouting over crowds/jukeboxes, but they're not diners who will be wowed by a great wine list. They live in
North Branch (which shows up on that map as "Branch") and I'd like to find places within a half-hour. Suggestions?.
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 1:10 PM on January 5, 2006
(7 comments)
I've got two s-video signals and one s-video jack on my TV. What's the cheapest way to mitigate this, assuming I don't have easy access to the back of my TV for constant switching?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 1:23 PM on February 21, 2005
(12 comments)
Got a GameCube and would like some players' feedback regarding building a library. [+]
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 12:14 PM on January 12, 2005
(45 comments)
I just skimmed the past two months of MeTalk looking for this thread and didn't find it, so excuse me if it's a DP, but: When I went to post an AskMe question today, I got this:
You've asked a question in the past week. There is a limit of one question per week, which you've used up. Make them count, because you'll only get one a week. [+]
posted to MetaTalk by blueshammer
at 5:27 PM on December 18, 2004
(52 comments)
Was there any generation of iPod that was compatible with a tray-loading iMac? If not, what mp3 player/software would you recommend for such a user?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 9:39 AM on December 14, 2004
(6 comments)
Waugh! (Pronounced the Snoopy way or the Evelyn way.) My iTunes will no longer burn AAC files onto CD. I've followed Fearless Leader's lead and de-DMRed all my Apple Music Store purchases with hymn, but I can't burn protected songs that have been hymned, protected songs that haven't been hymned or unprotected songs that used to be hymned. (I guess I didn't try an AAC rip since I mostly rip to mp3, so there's a missing data point.) When I go to burn a playlist, it deselects all the AAC tracks, although it will burn mp3s made from unprotected AAC files. Does anyone know what's up? Is there another Mac app for making audio CDs from AAC files? I'm not much of an audiofile, but don't want to go through the quality loss of converting 128 kbps AAC to 128 kbps mp3 for all these songs.
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 6:26 AM on December 8, 2004
(3 comments)
This is going to be extreme narrowcasting, but: People have reported that the Toshiba RDXS32 DVR/DVD recorder has a serious flaw when making DVDs -- namely, the black level is too low and everything looks washed out, making the discs only playable on that particular machine. The unit is
on sale from Amazon, which I take to be an inventory reduction, meaning that these are those flawed machines ... but other reviews say the problem didn't affect them, suggesting maybe the problem was fixed along the way. Anyone know for sure? Or, does anyone want to suggest another standalone DVR w/ HDD that competes with this one in features and price ($370)?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 1:42 PM on December 6, 2004
What's the cheapest iChat-compatible camera available for OS X?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 6:42 PM on December 5, 2004
(7 comments)
Whatever happened to Mapquest? It used to be that you could choose to see alternate routes -- not just the fastest, but the shortest, or one that minimized highway travel. That's feature's gone, and I can't find hide or hair of it -- which is a shame because it was a great way to find out how to get around known traffic congestion. Why did they scrap it? (I know that micro-level Mapquest stuff can be famously inaccurate, but for me it was a risk worth taking.) Where else can I get it?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 1:58 PM on November 22, 2004
(14 comments)
So: Delicious Library works pretty well, but out of my ~150 movies, it failed to grab disc information for a dozen of them. [+]
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 5:05 PM on November 12, 2004
(7 comments)
Can a non-Apple and non-Mozilla partisan tell me if, and the degree to which, Firefox is better than Safari?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 2:09 PM on November 11, 2004
(22 comments)
I'm giving away an old tray-loading iMac (256MB, either 266 or 333Mhz, I really can't recall right now) to a friend and have loaded it up with productivity-related stuff. Now I'm looking for games I can download. Freeware and shareware, preferably, as opposed to warez (although if you care to recommend a NES/SNES/etc. emulator ...). In particular, is there a decent FPS I can download for this machine?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 6:22 AM on November 5, 2004
(6 comments)
Custom t-shirts: I don't have a silk screen, nor the inclination to acquire and learn how to use one. What are my other options? I can only think of thermal transfer, but I remember that being an unreliable, short-lived approach. Is there a better way to do thermal transfers, or a better way altogether?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 6:42 PM on October 30, 2004
(5 comments)
Has anyone here besides
kk (although of course he can respond too) taken the data-projector approach to home entertainment? I'd be interested in hearing your opinions, especially relative to where you fall on the videophile axis.
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 10:46 AM on October 15, 2004
(16 comments)
When I went with iMovie's "web compression" option -- 240x180, 12 frames a second, unspecified level of compression and "medium-quality" stereo sound -- for a recent 5.5 minute DV clip I shot, I got a 6MB .mov that I felt had serious compression issues. My first swipe at using the "expert" compression settings, conversely, gave me a 230MB file for the same resolution; a second pass was "only" 54MB but the nature of the "better" compression scheme made it look worse. And in my experience, making it an .mpg only makes it bigger. And yet I've seen TV episodes that look reasonably good full-screen and are only 350MB .avi files. I feel like I should be able to get 1 MB/minute of 240x180 video at
great quality -- I've downloaded streaming video that would back up that assumption. Can someone point me toward wisdom?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 4:27 AM on October 15, 2004
(9 comments)
So I have a 40GB iPod that's two months old, and one suspicious behavior had mutated into calamity: [simorede]
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 6:17 AM on October 11, 2004
(15 comments)
Book binding: I want to make some one-off children's books for my daughter and her friends, and I'm trying to determine the most cost-effective way to make something extra-durable. These kids are all about 2 years old; my own daughter has been known to rip pages out of favorite books as a sign of enthusiasm. My current thought is laminating two-sided color pages and spiral binding it, but to me that's only about a 6 out of 10 on cheapness and durability. Other thoughts?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 6:22 AM on October 8, 2004
(7 comments)
So Crazy It Just Might Work Dept.: I first heard about
this solution to a magnet-defaced TV here on the green, and I'm wondering if anyone here has any firsthand experience with it. Any tips or tricks? Also, what kind of magnets should I be looking for, and where can I find them? The best CompUSA, Menards or the local hobby shop could offer were some tiny horseshoes that could live a couple of pounds. What kind of store would stock something like
these? (I'm in Madison, WI.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 9:32 AM on October 6, 2004
(14 comments)
I want to get my domain away from Network Solutions, with whom my contract expires on Friday, and have it managed by someone better. But I have no idea where to start. Can someone please point me down the path?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 8:10 PM on September 18, 2004
(10 comments)
Why don't the software companies use the internet to see if two people are on the internet and using the same software license on two separate machines (as defined by IP address, or serial number, or whatever)? This seems like such a basic anti-piracy strategy, and even if it's easily flauted by the technorati, that still means that 95% of users, and maybe 80% of pirates, will be foiled by it. But no one seems to do this. Why? (I've often wondered the same thing about speeding tickets; there have to be more cost-effective ways of catching speeders than paying highway patrolmen to sit there -- is lax enforcement synonymous with tacit endorsement, while still allowing the enforcers to profit by penalizing the occasional transgressor?)
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 3:18 PM on September 15, 2004
(17 comments)
Babynamefilter: Can anyone fill me in on the history of Page/Paige as a girl's name? [mi]
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 7:09 AM on September 13, 2004
(10 comments)
Babynamefilter: Can anyone fill me in on the history of Page/Paige as a girl's name? [mi]
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 7:09 AM on September 13, 2004
Fonts in Mac OS 10.3 question: I want to make vector-based images of some of Zapfino's beautiful characters, but Adobe Illustrator 10 doesn't talk with Zapfino very well -- it only gives you the basic character set, with none of the ligatures or alternate characters. It used to be that you could at least use the Character Palette to insert alternate characters into compatible (i.e. Apple-written) programs like Stickies or Textedit, but even that functionality seems gone now because Character Palette is restricted to non-alphabetic characters. The new Font Book's "repertoire" mode shows me the letters, but I can't select them for copying/pasting, and even if I could, I'm sure it would put them in Illustrator. What can I do to make EPS files of some of these letters?
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 10:26 AM on September 12, 2004
(9 comments)
Things to do in Rockford, IL? Specifically, places to eat and/or chill for two or three hours.
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 6:53 AM on September 10, 2004
(1 comment)
I know, I know -- not
another web photogallery AskMe question, but: I've actually settled on the gallery itself. I'm using JAlbum. Having made the choice, though, I'm left with two questions:
1. JAlbum makes nice galleries, but doesn't create a top-level index page. (I could hand-code it, but my wife will be doing most of the updating and I don't want her to have to go mucking around in HTML.) The easiest solution, I'd think, would be just to reformat the directory listing into something attractive -- all I really need to communicate to the user is descriptive folder names and upload dates, but I'd prefer to make something more handsome than the standard Apache page. Can anyone recommend a particular PHP file system manager or other solution?
2. JAlbum's auto upload is ridiculously slow -- better just to FTP it. When JAblum makes a gallery, though, it includes a lot of stuff I'm not using -- icon sets, borders, etc. It's not a ton of space, but I'm going to uploading a lot of these galleries, and it'll add up. Is there a programmatic way I can stop JAlbum from including all this, instead of weeding it out before each upload? (I'm using the BluPlusPlus skin.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 8:54 AM on September 5, 2004
(1 comment)
So I have an iBook G4, and the power cord has two components -- the cord itself, one end of which connects to the computer and the other end of which connects to the transformer, and a detachable piece that contains the two prongs that actually interface with my power outlet. The power cord has been failing to maintain a connection with the wall so I ordered a new one, under warrantly. They only sent the transformer piece, meaning I had to reattach my old pronged piece and, lo and behold: Still not working. [more inside]
posted to Ask Metafilter by blueshammer
at 12:53 PM on August 19, 2004
(8 comments)
