But this doesn't make sense to me. The stock price is not correlated directly to the amount of cash they have in the bank - it takes into account a mixture of current assets and future expected profits. Theoretically, handing out the dividend should have no effect on the company's ability to do business, grow, or whatever, since it's a small amount of the money they have in the bank and I can't imagine that the interest income they're earning from it impacts on the bottom line in any way. Since... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 2:57 PM on November 10, 2004

That page says "Tell them to flag your file with a fraud alert including a statement that creditors should get your permission before opening any new accounts in your name.".

Is there any possible reason not to do this anyway? Why on earth would you want people to be able to open new accounts without your permission?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 11:04 AM on November 8, 2004

Yeah, passwords on your account are useless - they're not part of the protocol they understand. I have set passwords on my accounts, and successfully convinced the person on the other side of the line that I was who I said I was even though I didn't remember the password. If you provide enough other information, they'll believe you - after all, the trust basis for the account itself is pretty thin.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 1:14 PM on November 8, 2004

A perfect braise.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 6:09 AM on November 6, 2004

No one's mentioned my three favorite books, so here goes. Obviously, there's much more to say about each of these, but a brief synopsis of my thoughts:

Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead is a wonderful case study in the lesson that there's beauty in being an artist and the ultimate compliment you can pay to a material is to make it what it should be.


The Hitchhiker's Guide to tha Galaxy taught me that the universe is far stranger than we... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 6:04 AM on November 6, 2004

My groomsmen took me out for a day of paintball (I'd never been before), followed by steak at Luger's.

It was a blast!
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 8:30 AM on November 2, 2004

Bloglines, all the way.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 8:25 AM on October 29, 2004

I have a solid latex mattress (which, incidentally, is BY FAR the most comfortable I've ever slept on), and there's a slightly denser also latex "boxspring" underneath it, which sits directly on the floor. The only reason I can see for it is variable support.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 8:22 AM on October 29, 2004

Lose weight. You don't want to be bald and fat.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 7:53 AM on October 28, 2004

For the scraps, make tuna burgers. There's a good recipe in the Union Square Cafe cookbook, which I'm sure you'll want to adapt since you're cooking for a restaurant.

Also, not really answering the question, but on the topic of tuna - if you like your tuna very fresh and only barely seared on the outside (I call this "flame-kissed"), use a kitchen torch instead of searing it in a pan.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 7:51 AM on October 28, 2004

It's a lot of steps, but it's worth it (I think this was originally adapted from a Tom Colicchio recipe):

Remove the cores, blanch the sprouts in a lot of water for a few minutes. Shock in an ice bath. Separate the leaves and blanch again for a minute or two. Shock again. Braise the leaves in chicken stock until tender.

Mmmmm....

Alternately, as the last step, you can saute the leaves and toss in the pan with lardons. Sprouts really go well with bacon.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 2:48 PM on October 27, 2004

I usually fry it at high heat in a little bit of oil until it just starts to brown, add some mirin or other liquid, turn down the heat, and cover to steam until done.

Also, peel your broccoli stalks.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 2:42 PM on October 27, 2004

RRrr.... Pericles, you beat me to it!
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 6:23 AM on October 25, 2004

I like the whirlpool technique.

Some additional tips:

- Refrigerated eggs can be dumked in lukewarm water to quickly bring them up to room temp. This works for all kinds of other things too.

- The ideal temperature for poaching is just short of a boil. Before each egg, bring the water to a vigorous boil, then lower the heat to low before putting the egg in the water.

- If your eggs are not fresh... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 10:37 PM on October 24, 2004

I like AWStats. Written in perl, it's not too terribly hard to customize if you need extra functionality. Also, the results are available as XML if you want to feed them to something else.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 11:59 AM on October 15, 2004

Declan had a comprehensive post about this a while ago on Politech:

http://www.politechbot.com/2004/09/29/jim-davidson-on/
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 8:32 AM on October 15, 2004

I thought the question was implied as with every askmefi question about buying things, but I'll be explicit about it:
Where to even start looking? What's good? What's not? What features should I watch out for? What's worked for you? Any horror stories?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 4:33 PM on October 7, 2004

Okay, reconsidering wireless - if you remove that from the equation, do the answers change?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 12:11 PM on October 9, 2004

Please define "safety".

Do you mean physical safety, like they'll meet someone who will stalk or hurt them? (Or, I suppose, carpal tunnel syndrome is a subcategory of this.)

Do you mean identity/privacy safety, where they might give out too much information about themselves or their family?

Do you mean mental safety, where they might learn about things they're not supposed to, including but not limited to drugs,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 9:51 PM on October 8, 2004

Sorry, that should have been:

"drugs, porn, sex, goatse, bombs, guns, news, and warren... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 10:08 PM on October 8, 2004

Yes, minix is a great tool for learning operating systems, but bear in mind that "learning about how operating systems work and why" is a reasonably high-level CS project, and should be preceded with training in programming languages and algorithms, at an absolute minimum. You'll need to know C to do anything interesting with minix.

The standard "first project" for minix is to add support for symlinks.

Fun, yes, but not for beginners.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 11:45 AM on October 7, 2004

Sounds like you want something like this:my del.icio.us page.

It shouldn't be too much trouble to whip up something that lets your users tag pages on your site using the API.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 4:23 PM on October 6, 2004

I usually use Lindeman's Cabernet or Chardonnay for cooking.

Nobody here has pointed out the real reason you're not supposed to use "cooking wine" - it's not because it's bad (although it could be), it's because it's salted. If you're doing any sort of serious cooking, you're going to want to control the salting yourself, and you'll likely end up with too much if you use something pre-salted.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 11:45 AM on September 30, 2004

Well, there's "impress with flavors" and "impress with mad skillz".

For the former, my favorite is usually braised lamb shanks:

Sprinkle kosher salt over shanks. Pan sear shanks in olive oil until good and brown. Not "just browned", slightly crispy. Do them in batches if you've got a small pan - that's fine. Lay a bunch of assorted fresh herbs in the bottom of a large pan (any will do, but be sure to include rosemary... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 8:08 AM on September 29, 2004

Oh, and on frozen desserts - I've recently become a big fan of granita. It's VERY easy to make (basically mix the ingredients, freeze, and stir with a fork every 30 minutes), and is by its form less sugary than sorbet. Coffee granita is a delightful addition to iced espresso.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 10:57 AM on September 29, 2004

Kensington also has a laptop lock model with a combination lock instead of a tubular lock. I can't say that this is necessarily more secure, unless your threat model is a bic pen, in which case it definitely is.

Combosaver.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 4:17 PM on September 27, 2004

If you cook a lot with ground beef, you should definitely consider getting a grinder and making your own. It tastes better, it is less prone to infection (a lot of the infections spread because parts from many different animals go into industrial ground meat products), you can be sure of what you're getting, and you can balance the fat proportions to your liking. You can also grind different kinds of meat together (and spices), and if you're so inclined, you can make your own sausage without too... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 12:03 PM on September 20, 2004

I installed SP2 with no hitches.

I've seen some performance improvements, particularly on disk access.

And they FINALLY got around to changing the wireless network task tray icon to distinguish it from the wired one.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 8:48 AM on September 19, 2004

I second the shampoo notion, but also use conditioner. I find that it makes my beard MUCH softer.

I do this every year:


Grow your beard for New Year's
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 7:27 AM on September 19, 2004

I would go for an apple clafouti.

Unfortunately, my known good recipe is at home, but there are TONS of recipes out there for this - a search should turn up more than enough to get you started.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 1:19 PM on September 15, 2004

I didn't have this problem with 12 years of Tevas, but I've recently (past few months) switched to Keens (the toe protection is great addition), and they are indeed starting to reek. Haven't figured out a solution yet.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 8:00 AM on September 13, 2004

Sorry to say it, but you're all wrong.

The finest knives I've ever used (and some of the best value as well)...

Mac.

There's no comparison.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 1:30 PM on September 9, 2004

Oh, and it seems you can buy them at Amazon now. Good for them!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/store-name%3Dkitchen%26index%3Duniversal%26search-type%3Dss%26field-manubrand%3DMac%252520Knives

posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 2:00 PM on September 9, 2004

Also, I'd second the advice to avoid the set. All you really need is an 8" chef's knife, and maybe a paring knife. Particularly avoid "utility" knives. They'll just sit around doing nothing.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 2:43 PM on September 9, 2004

There are a ton of them at newegg.com. Just search for "enclosure". They all list the size of drive they take (standard PC drive is 3.5").
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 5:28 PM on August 12, 2004

Oh, and then you'll probably want to narrow the search to "firewire".
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 5:30 PM on August 12, 2004

Yeah, Ico was really engaging for me.

I think, to date, the most immersive game I've played has been Torment.

I got pretty attached to Case in the old Neuromancer game too.

Interplay puts out the best games (we'll just forget about that recent Star Trek mirror universe crappy thing).
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 5:23 PM on August 12, 2004

Oh, yeah, I completely forgot about LucasArts - I've loved the whole Monkey Island series, and I got really into The Dig.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 5:24 PM on August 12, 2004

Well, it is true. Petroleum is currently the only economically feasible raw material for making most kinds of plastics. (Although I've just started seeing commercial plastics made from corn byproducts pop up in a few places.)

Generally speaking, it's >hard< to recycle plastics into other plastics at a chemical/molecular level.br>
See "Cradle to Cradle":

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0865475873
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 1:42 PM on July 29, 2004

Depending on the brand, it may not meet your sodium criteria, but I'd say beef jerky would be a good bet.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 1:55 PM on July 26, 2004

There's a trick from a few of Scott Kelby's books that looks like it may be in use here.

According to him, you can horizontally scale pictures of people to up to 95% of their original width without anyone noticing the difference. He claims he's done this in a large number of cases, no one's ever complained, and people have, in every case, liked the way they looked better.

I've never tried it myself.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 2:04 PM on July 24, 2004

I would prefer something I can put on my own server. It's likely that I'll want to hack the source in some way, and I'm already set up for hosting.

Free would be good, but if the right thing costs money, that's an option too.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 2:58 PM on July 15, 2004

It's not limited to wifi. I have a linksys ethernet-only router hooked up to my cable modem, and it blinks ALL THE TIME. The wifi router connected behind it (netgear 802.11g) does not. I suppose I should test this by unplugging everything and seeing if it still does it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 7:05 AM on July 15, 2004

I do find caffeine to be helpful, but that's sort of a baseline. I second the fresh air and water suggestion. If you can, take a cool shower.

More than fruit, I find it helpful to eat some protein. Sugar will give you a rush, but it'll be gone in an hour.

If you feel REALLY tired, sleep a bit, but for less than 15 minutes.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 9:17 PM on July 8, 2004

If you lose a phone, make sure the battery is fully charged before you do. I lost a phone in a cab recently. Before I shut it off, I called it ten times from another number. The cabbie picked it up the next morning, saw a bunch of calls from that number, and called me. I got the phone back that evening.

This would not have been possible if the battery had run out.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Caviar at 5:50 AM on July 2, 2004