I want something I can plug some speakers into and play.

You need turntable > amplifier (possibly with phono pre-amp) > speakers. The all-in-one turntable and amp jobs are invariably shabby.

Seconding the Project Debut III - it always gets glowing reviews comparing it to much more expensive turntables.

But, really, your best bet is to go to your local hifi shop, tell them your budget and have a listen to a few turntable/amp/speaker combinations.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 11:51 AM on July 4, 2008

Thanks drfu - that's what I've been doing to date (no pun intended) but it's pretty fiddly and I was hoping for something a bit more automagical... though having asked this question on other sites and mailing lists, and even mailed developers of calendar/PIM apps about it over the years, I'm pretty much resigned to using your method for evermore!
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 7:42 AM on July 3, 2008

Unless I'm missing something important, why not just plug the thumb drive into one PC and mount it on the other PCs too?

I do this at home with an SD card that lives in my Eee PC, and is made available on my other computers using sshfs or ExpanDrive (SFPTDrive is the Windows equivalent) - the result is that the SD card is available on all machines as if it was directly plugged in.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 10:01 AM on June 30, 2008

Heston Blumenthal's famous thrice-cooked chips.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 8:49 AM on June 23, 2008

is it play-and-record?

Yep, just hit record on Audacity, or similar, then play on your dictaphone.

As an aside, I think it's bizarre that models like the ICD-B26 even exist - seems plain silly to make a device that records digitally but makes it impossible for users to get the recordings onto their computers without messing about with cables and real-time re-recording.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 8:25 AM on June 23, 2008

Just adding more color to this one... as well as being known as the 'Glasgow Kiss' as Your Time Machine Sucks linked to, it is also called the 'Liverpool Nod'

And in Liverpool, it's called the "Kirkby Kiss", Kirkby being an overspill estate/New Town to the North of the city. (I wonder if all these place-specific terms are invented proudly by hard residents, or applied by outsiders to places with violent reputations?)
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 1:05 PM on June 20, 2008

I used to use Blosxom for this sort of thing - it's a bit fiddly to set up, but once you have, it's super-simple to use, meets your 'future-proof' requirement perfectly, since all your journal entries are stored as plain text files, and is certainly lightweight.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 12:09 PM on June 10, 2008

Yep, once you add a few repositories and get pinning set up (which takes ten minutes tops) you should be fine when it comes to installing up to date apps with no hassles - in fact, I find the 'apt-get install someapplication' much easier than the download .dmg/mount/drag app to Applications folder/unmount image/delete .dmg way I was used to on OS X.

As for Firefox 3, it's a bit more hassle, but still shouldn't take very long. Instructions here.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 11:49 AM on June 10, 2008

Oh, one other thing - are you using 'Advanced Desktop Mode' in Xandros? I found everything a lot easier when I switched to that from 'Easy Mode'.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 11:51 AM on June 10, 2008

I'm amazed no one has mentioned the 'manbag', as in a male handbag. In the UK, the term dates to the 1990s, I think, which probably coincides with men starting to carry shitloads of gadgets around with them (mobiles, PDAs, &c.), and therefore needing a bag when previously pockets were plenty. They're now sufficiently de rigeur for The Guardian run a feature asking various celebrities 'What's in your manbag?'. Though only the fashion crowd sport handbag-style manbags.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 4:27 AM on June 1, 2008

It looks a bit like an Epson RD-1, too. But it's very hard to tell from those screenshots.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 8:12 AM on May 20, 2008

...considering that Cosina makes both the Bessa R and the Epson RD-1 cameras and that the body design for both are the same.

That would explain it! Though I thought the Bessa R had a grippy bit (technical term!) on the front, unlike the Epson? If so, from the way your man is holding the camera in the screenshot, it's more likely a Bessa than an Epson.

I'm seriously considering an R2A or R3A now that I can shoot on... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 11:59 AM on May 21, 2008

I use 'Tell me about...' (or, more usually, 'Could you tell me about...'/'Would you mind telling me about...') questions all the time when interviewing people - they're very effective for the reasons as others have said. The thought that anyone would think I was being rude has never occurred to me, and I'm a pretty scrupulously polite type. That said, I do tend to ask a couple of softer questions that prompt short, usually useless, answers before the 'tell me' stuff, if I get the impression the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 1:23 PM on May 11, 2008

Happens every time I step onto public transport, but I only bother to say anything on long train journeys. Especially in the 'quiet coach' where you know the passengers and train staff will definitely back you up.

On a recent trip to London, some kid was blasting music from portable speakers, despite having a set of headphones plonked on the table in front of him - since he didn't look very hard, I had a go, and ended up properly shouting at him until he stopped. At... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 12:28 PM on May 11, 2008

You don't say what you're doing now. If you're still at university, start writing for the university newspaper/magazine immediately - obvious, I know, but the number of people who've asked me this question over the years without doing that as a first step is bewildering. Papers and magazines will pay more attention to clippings from the student press than stuff sent on spec or posts on your weblog (or at least they used to - weblogs hadn't been invented when I started out).... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 11:58 AM on May 11, 2008

vacapinta writes '1. Bars. Leave an extra dollar on the bar after you've paid for the drink.'

I feel moved to clarify that it's a dollar per drink - so if you're getting a round of six drinks, you owe the barman six dollars. (I didn't grasp this when I first went to the US, and only found out when I complained to US-based friends that it was taking me ages to get served at the bar, even though I was tipping a dollar every time.)... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 7:10 AM on April 29, 2008

Thanks for the tips everyone.

Dr.Pill: "Eastman Leathers (scroll down) stock some Buzz Rickson's sweat shirts. The one linked in your question doesn't seem to be a stocked by them but they do special orders."

Yeah, I've emailed them three times in the past year - no reply as yet, but worth another try, I suppose!... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 6:31 PM on March 11, 2008

Thanks again Dr. Pill - funnily enough I'm working just around the corner from American Classics next week, so will pop in and have a look.

Answering my own question, for future AskMe sweatshirt searchers: Blue in Green, a shop in New York, has limited stocks the Buzz Rickson sweatshirt I linked above, and similar ones by other Japanese repro brands, all without logos or graphics. (Great customer service, too.)

Also, Super Denim, a UK shop, is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 4:50 AM on March 16, 2008

Yeah, a copy of The List is your best bet.

If you like art, off the top of my head, these are the best shows on at the moment. In Glasgow: Craig Mulholland's two part show at Glasgow School of Art and Sorcha Dallas, Torsten Lauschmann at the Gallery of Modern Art, Maximilian Zentz Zlomovitz at Mary Mary. In Edinburgh: Tony Swain & Chris Evans at Inverleith House (a gallery in the lovely Botanic Gardens), and the group show at Doggerfisher.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 7:02 PM on March 11, 2008

Fungus The Bogeyman.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 11:13 AM on March 11, 2008

Seconding The Corner. Not great telly, but works very well as a companion piece to The Wire.

Also, you might want to check out Oz - if I remember rightly, it has quite a bit in common with The Wire, thematically if not stylistically.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 11:54 AM on March 10, 2008

Also, sorry to piggyback on the question, but can any Homicide: Life on the Street fans suggest a particularly good series of the show, or should I just start at the beginning and press on?
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 11:57 AM on March 10, 2008

Thanks for the tips, willie11 and Brandon Blatcher.

Another thing just struck me: a very, very, very dedicated fan of The Wire might feel duty bound to watch, er, the last few decades of American telly plus a few British and Canadian shows. Why? The appearance of Detective John Munch in the last series places The Wire inside a fictional universe contained inside the mind of Tommy Westphall, the autistic boy from St. Elsewhere.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 12:29 PM on March 10, 2008

KenManiac - that's the same as Command + J, with the same result.

This has been doing my head in for ages, and as far as I can tell, there's no solution other than manually resizing the window every time. For whatever reason, that 'Show All' window doesn't work like all the others. (Also, try clicking the green button at top left: nothing happens, even after re-sizing).
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 4:49 AM on March 7, 2008

So are you saying your 'show all' window does remember changes to its size between launches from Spotlight, KenManiac?

I just checked on three different Macs running Leopard, all pretty much clean installs (one of them completely clean, as in OS 10.5.2 installed yesterday, no third party apps installed at all) and they all behave as ericbop describes above, which makes me think it's the default behaviour.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 9:58 AM on March 7, 2008

Oops, forgot to say that I'm there researching a piece on Archibald Knox, so will be visiting Chronkbourn Village, Tromode, Braddan and Maughold, the Manx Museum and Douglas School of Art, as well as looking at lots of Manx Crosses...
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 10:50 AM on February 8, 2008

Wow, thanks Chunder! I'm obviously visiting at completely the wrong time of year, but that's a great guide you've put together.

Shame that the cllff railways are in such a state of disrepair, too (for some reason I thought they were non-operationa but intact).
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 6:12 AM on February 9, 2008

I was on that tour, Chunder - hardcore Knox action.

Also, I would've suggested a mini MetaFilter meetup so I could buy you a pint in return for your great answers in this thread, but the lovely folk from the Archibald Knox Society had almost every minute of my stay planned (to a slightly bizarre degree - at one point I found myself on Manx Radio answering callers' questions about the education system on the island, bus pass reform and the scandalous closure of a section... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 4:08 PM on February 25, 2008

Having tried most of the apps mentioned (as well as Eagle Filer, which is worth checking out) I've turned back to text files for all my notes, using the built in tools that come with OS X to organise them, as well as PDFs and info from the web/email (which I either print to PDF or copy and paste into a text file).

Spotlight comments are a big part of this approach - tagging files allows for really useful Smart Folders and precise Spotlight searches (you can tag files... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 3:01 PM on February 20, 2008

Flat Stanley (which seems to have spawned some sort of international teaching project), The Little Prince, Tintin, Fungus The Bogeyman and When The Wind Blows by the great Raymond Briggs.

Then for when baby hits ten or so, there's the disturbing post-nuclear holocaust stuff from the 80s like Children of the Dust and Z for Zachariah, which made an enormous impression on me, but which are, retrospectively, bloody strange things for children to be reading.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 12:59 PM on February 18, 2008

Steven C. Den Beste: "What you need is an iPod, or some equivalent device. Forget about running a cable from your stereo to headphones; that's not as good a solution"

Respectfully, this is terrible advice - for the same price as an iPod, you could get decent headphones and a dedicated headphone amp, and won't be listening to compressed files through shitty earbuds, which are worse for your hearing. (The headphone amp might sound like overkill,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 6:19 PM on February 12, 2008

People are really suggesting buying an animal that costs - what? - hundreds of pounds a year in food and vet bills to maintain? Bonkers.

If you do have mice or rats, and it sounds like you might well do to me, I have a cheaper answer: ferret piss!

If you get some used bedding from ferret cages (ask at a pet shop), and wrap it up (in lots of plastic bags - it reeks), the critters can't stand the smell and stay away. This definitely works for rats,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 11:20 AM on February 10, 2008

If it's mainly to block background noise, try more noise, especially the pink kind - there are lots of soft- and hardware generators available (eg. Noise for the Mac).

More musical, but completely non-distracting after a while is the Buddha Machine by FM3, which plays a set of short drone loops and is based on 'chanting machines' used in Buddhist temples - I have one running in the background when writing and reading a lot, especially when a deadline is looming. It's... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 9:16 AM on January 14, 2008

Not exactly what you're after, but when I saw the term 'industrial blues' Petit Vodo immediately sprang to mind, though I guess he's more 'rough, loud, dirty and distorted blues'. (Well worth seeing live - he's a one man band who plays guitar, mouth organ, drums, synths and samplers simultaneously, without it seeming like a novelty).
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 8:51 AM on January 14, 2008

Actually, after refreshing my memory by listening to the snippets streamed from this page, Petit Vodo probably is exactly what you're after...
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 8:54 AM on January 14, 2008

No idea what it was, but it woke me up too, and I recorded most of it.

It does indeed sound like the SAME header bonobo links to, but with more tones in-between the modem-sounding stuff.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 3:31 AM on November 18, 2007

(Direct link to the MP3 file, in case anyone has trouble with the Flash player linked above.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 3:33 AM on November 18, 2007

I use a Brain Cell by Tom Bihn - very light indeed, and very sturdy, though you can only really fit your power supply, mobile phone and a small notebook in the side pocket, so I'm not sure it'd be ideal if you need to carry folders.

That said, it's also designed to fit inside other bags as a protective sleeve (in either horizintal or vertical versions) so getting one would free you from laptop-specific bags.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 4:58 PM on September 5, 2007

You can play Just A Minute (speak for one minute on a given subject without repetition, hesitation, or deviation) with 4-6 people, assigning a new chairperson/adjudicator for each round. Much more difficult than it sounds, and, as on the radio, it tends to devolve into arguments about whether one of the rules has been broken or not.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 4:01 PM on September 5, 2007

Thanks creasy boy - Quereinsteiger is the word in question! I guess I misremembered the details of what was a slightly tipsy conversation, or misunderstood at the time.

Is it a commonly used term in German? I can't imagine it being used all that often, but you hit on it so quickly...

Thanks also, Iridic - Inselbegabung is certainly more euphonious than Savant Syndrome.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 8:57 AM on September 1, 2007

You should defo check out Fennesz, too - his use of guitar is pretty inventive, to the extent that watching him live you often can't really understand how the guitar is responsible for the sounds you hear.

His collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Peter Rehberg & Jim O'Rourke (as Fenn O'Berg) would certainly give you some great ideas about how to use guitar in an electronic music context, as would his live album. (That said, if you're into Ratatat and Apollo 440,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 4:39 AM on August 6, 2007

I know it's a bit daft and fetishistic, but I use a Newton for just this purpose.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 1:56 PM on July 2, 2007

It may be a little harder to sync than more modern devices

I find syncing using NewtSync 'just works' (though I'm still trying to get the apparently superior NCX to work). It certainly works perfectly as a 'reliable electronic handheld notebook' for me (and, of course, the opportunities the Newton provides for 'assorted nerdery' are vast).
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 1:31 AM on July 4, 2007

The mind is suddenly so preoccupied that it ceases to register the physical self?

That's happened to me at moments when I've very suddenly become completely absorbed by what I'm doing or seeing - dropping a notebook and pen while looking at a painting, spilling my drink while listening to music - but I suppose that's almost the opposite of shock, really.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 1:25 PM on July 2, 2007

It depends on the items in question, surely? A few raspberries could be anything up to ten, a few monkeys could be between three and six.

Whatever, you're right, Ms. 71 is wrong.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 8:20 PM on June 30, 2007

Go for it. I developed a huge crush on a 40-something woman in skinny jeans just the other day!

I know that lady denim obsessives tend to rate A.P.C.'s skinny jeans highly, especially the 'New Cure' type, which are stretchy.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 8:03 PM on June 30, 2007

I was at school with a boy called Owen Owen Owen, who went by Owen Owen (though it was obviously hard to tell if this meant we were calling him by his first and last names, or his first and middle names). His father and grandfather were both named Owen Owen too, as were earlier Owens, as in Owen Owen. Of course, according to the old Welsh patronymic system, Owen Owen Owen ought really to have been called Owen ab Owen, as should the anteceding Owen Owens.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 6:52 AM on June 9, 2007

If you're going to encourage folk to do something like this, at least have them follow the example of legendary book-tamperers Joe Orton and Keith Halliwell - no one ends up with the wrong book or has trouble finding it, but you get to make some sort of point. Of course, Orton and Halliwell were jailed for six months, but they were a lot stricter about this sort of thing in the 1960s.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 1:35 PM on June 4, 2007

You should ask her about it, but calm down first lest you freak her out with 'I was snooping through your stuff and then I read on the internet that this drug is dangerous!'. Next time she mentions the high blood pressure problem, perhaps you could just ask, 'Oh, is that a side-effect of the Effexor you're taking?' and if she wonders how you know it's a potential side-effect, and you're worried that she might be put off by you taking too close an interest in something she feels is a private... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 4:01 AM on May 25, 2007

Not exactly a solution, but when I'm uploading to Flickr or similar, I've already named and tagged all my photos - you don't need to see them if they have descriptive titles (which also makes it possible to search for them later).
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 7:22 PM on May 21, 2007