Sorry, should've mentioned location... I live in Columbus, Ohio.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 6:43 PM on September 4, 2008

Thanks so much for all the tips and input. I haven't cleaned the fridge, no, so I'll take a look at that. It doesn't sound like it's constantly running, but I'll keep an eye on it. I'll look into the Kill-a-Watt too. The 0-60 explanation was helpful for understanding how the AC works. Either way, I hope the autumn rushes in quickly because the evening humidity is what drives me to turn the AC on more than anything--I'm fine with a fan and open windows during the day. I haven't received my paper... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 7:25 PM on September 4, 2008

I definitely would like to take classes at some point (Portuguese for Speakers of Spanish will be available when I ship off to grad school in the fall, and I intend to take advantage of it). I appreciate the detailed and thoughtful responses. :) I know that at some point in language learning instruction like that is necessary, but what I was looking for was basically Spanish-language equivalents of the "Teach Yourself [x language]" books or equivalent websites (I don't even know how... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 12:46 AM on July 9, 2008

Well, I can't help you with the proper written Hebrew characters as I don't know a lick of Hebrew, but googling for "kameya hebrew" found a bunch of references to amulets and Jewish artifacts. From the results, it sounds like "kameya" (the plural is "kameyot," I believe, which seems to be the more commonly used word) is either a term for an amulet or for the inscription on an amulet, and since amulets are supposed to be protective wards, it sounds like this fellow... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 11:56 AM on June 19, 2008

If you are reasonably comfortable with technology, one thing that you could do, if you decide you want the new model and you find that the company stonewalls you about returning it, is unlock it with ZiPhone or a similar program and sell it on eBay. You may very well make a profit that way--they're still selling for a lot (I've seen new unlocked iPhones ones selling for above retail), and yours is practically brand new. You'd have to be wary of scammers, etc., but it is an alternative.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 2:58 PM on June 3, 2008

Wow, I had no idea anyone said it differently. I understand it and say it as a command too ("reed"), though for what it's worth, it's something I write far more often than I say it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 5:54 PM on May 29, 2008

Seconding Monster. I have the first few volumes of the manga (and watched the entire anime adaptation). I think the entire series has been translated and published here by this point. I've also heard very good things about 20th Century Boys, so that's one to keep an eye out for when it comes stateside. Naoki Urasawa's fantastic.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 9:13 AM on May 19, 2008

Have you considered doing a thesis in your field? Admittedly, (a) it's very hard work, (b) it might be hard to do while on the move, and (c) finding a professor you work well with who can also provide you with the proper direction is difficult as well, but I think real experience with biology in the form of an original piece of research will be far more impressive to admissions committees than any hobby you could cultivate. It's also the very definition of a grand project.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 3:24 PM on April 29, 2008

Public school in Massachusetts, graduated in 1999. I don't think any sort of economics class was offered, nevermind a personal finance class.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 6:00 AM on April 28, 2008

The Atlantic article recommends the Edith Grossman translation, which I have been reading in parallel with the original Spanish, and I have to say it's excellent. Highly readable, faithful but accessible, and most things that need explaining or defy easy translation are footnoted appropriately. It shouldn't be hard to find, either, as it's relatively new (2002, I think).
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 6:00 PM on April 14, 2008 marked best answer

So you are looking at $90k for the first YEAR or $90k for the entire program? It's hard to say. $90k for a single year, I'd say think really hard about the enormous amount of stress you would be under. You would need to take out massive loans, in a market that isn't very credit-friendly right now, and/or work your ass off at a job in addition to your coursework and your research. If $90k is what the entire program would cost, there is a possibility you could go for a year and get funding for the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 3:13 PM on April 8, 2008

For what it's worth, I got a battery replaced under AppleCare for a sudden rapid degradation after about a year of use. I called them, told them what was going on, and they had a new battery out to me next day, no questions asked. It was amazing. I think there may be a replacement threshold for how many charge cycles it's been through (you can see this in coconut or in System Profiler), like, if it's been through x number of cycles they won't replace it, but they didn't even ask when I called.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 2:04 PM on April 5, 2008

Given that you don't sound depressed or socially anxious or really all that dissatisfied with the way things are, unlike most people who ask these kinds of questions (if anything, you mostly sound curious, to me), I'd say you're probably fine the way you are. Maybe that's just who you are. Sometimes it's hard to be that when you're a minority and you're surrounded by people who are different and assume that because you're not doing the things they consider normal, something's wrong with you.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 4:45 PM on March 29, 2008

I had a membership for a year and I did absolutely nothing with it except use the backup app (and now I have SuperDuper and Amazon S3 space, so I don't even need that.) .Mac regularly comes up in Apple circles as one of the biggest squanders of potential that Apple currently engages in, because it could just be so much better than it currently is.

If I had more than one Mac, I might consider re-upping for the Back to My Mac (which, as I understand it, doesn't currently... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 2:24 PM on March 17, 2008

SuperDuper works with S3? Please?

Nope, sorry, I meant them as two separate things. I use SuperDuper for full drive backups to an external drive and the S3 space for cheap offsite storage of critical things.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 10:13 PM on March 17, 2008

Adding to the chorus, Senuti did this perfectly for me when I made the switch a couple years ago. It grabbed all the music off of my FAT32 iPod and placed it on the Mac with no problems. I then used iTunes to reformat the iPod for Mac and resynced everything. No need to mess with trying to get the Mac and the PC to talk to each other over a network.

And my pure conjecture would be that Apple still maintains two different formats for the classic iPods because of disk mode... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 6:05 PM on March 15, 2008

Who is your IMAP provider? I use IMAP with Gmail and don't have any problems with truncated messages in Mail. Every once in a long while it has issues with attachments, but that's about it...
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 11:45 AM on February 22, 2008

Are you using IMAP? I've found that Gmail tends to "forget" that messages have been read sometimes since switching to IMAP and accessing them with a third-party client, especially when I access them from my phone. It's a little annoying.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 11:54 AM on February 14, 2008

In that fragment, "exams" is the subject of the verb "meet". Since "exams" is plural, it's "meet" instead of "meets", even though "exam" and "exams" are both third-person. In contrast, "in order to ensure our exam meets the needs of users" would be fine (though I personally think it sounds a little awkward.)

For example:

The dog barks.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 1:24 PM on February 10, 2008

I can confirm that this still happens with IMAP enabled. That's how my Gmail account is set up, and I get doubles in Spotlight.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 2:10 PM on January 27, 2008

A lot of people, if you ask them this question, will tell you that you should "play the field," expand your experiences, have sex with a lot of people, etc. Bear in mind that just because someone tells you something, it may not be right for you. It may not even be right for them. (And just as easily, it may be on both counts.) You have to make the decision that feels honest for you, which is easier said than done. Sometimes you do find that person early and you're all set for the rest... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 8:05 PM on January 15, 2008

(Note that I'm from Massachusetts, and haven't spent a lot of time in the other NE states, so this is from a Mass. perspective.)

I think that New England, and Massachusetts/Boston in particular, have a reputation for being somewhat insular. There's a lot of pride in this area, and I think a tendency to be pretty adversarial towards the rest of the country (especially when it comes to sports...) None of these things is abnormal in and of itself, it's more the degree it's... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 7:28 PM on January 1, 2008

I don't live in Framingham, but I live in Melrose by the northern terminus of the Orange Line (Oak Grove), and it's pretty much impossible to get a spot there on a weekday after 7am, and I think the other terminus stations are similar, because not only the people in the host city use the parking lot but also all the nearby cities and towns. I highly doubt you'll be able to get a spot at 10am.

Also, even if you were able to get a spot with regularity, I would factor the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 12:31 PM on November 13, 2007

My taxes/fees make my bill $66.21 with that plan.

EDGE: I think it depends on where you live. I live in Metro Boston and it's quite good. Of course, I've never had a 3G phone (went straight from a dinky little free-after-rebate Motorola to the iPhone), so it was pretty much a step up in every respect, but it really doesn't bother me. I find it more than acceptable.

Default numbers: mpls2 is correct... however, if you make someone a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 7:06 PM on November 9, 2007 marked best answer

There are some reports on the MacRumors forums that the latest iPod Classic/Nano firmware update fixed the video out issue and that you can now use older cables with it. I can't test it, but if you have an older cable that fits the jack but doesn't seem to be working, try doing the firmware update and trying it again. Worth a shot.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 1:46 PM on October 7, 2007

Nevermind, I read the thread further and it looks like that was wrong. Sorry about that. :(
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 1:47 PM on October 7, 2007

If I recall correctly, Windows needs to be installed on the boot drive or it gets upset (even if it's on a non-boot partition, I think it needs to be on the boot drive to function properly. Don't quote me on that, though.)

If you want to get rid of that menu, I suggest that you read this article with MS support. I had a similar problem once (failed XP install, though that time was an upgrade on the same drive) and editing boot.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 9:28 AM on September 18, 2007

Sea Prince and the Fire Child.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 4:31 PM on September 15, 2007 marked best answer

Apple Software Licenses.

IANAL, but as I understand it, you can resell it even if you have installed it and used it, so long as you sell the complete package to the person, and uninstall/delete any copies of the software that you may have. There's been no activation nonsense with any of the Apple software I've used (including OS installs, even) where the software is bound to your machine a la Microsoft.

From the iLife '08... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 8:23 PM on September 7, 2007

Lots of wonderful information here, wow, I have quite a bit to go through. I'll start with the newest first.

grumblebee, I too have spent an enormous amount of time dissecting human nature. I systemize people to a certain extent and use a lot of computing--particularly programming--metaphors to understand them (which is funny, because I'm more of a literary/verbal geek than anything, and can't code to save my life.) I've reverse-engineered a great many social protocols... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 7:39 AM on June 27, 2006

Actually, just hearing that it eventually gets better has helped me a lot. I'm doing my best to muddle my way through a dark place right now and any glimmer of hope is helpful to me.

I'm also a lot better socially than I used to be--I've improved in much the same way as you have. I can do smalltalk with friends and acquaintances fairly well, but when a stranger speaks to me and attempts to make smalltalk there's a 50% chance that I'll short-circuit and get flustered.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 9:15 AM on June 27, 2006

I'm sorry for your loss, and given what you say, introducing another cat is probably a bad idea (though you never know, it may work this time if you tried it. Cats have a way of surprising you every time you think you've got them figured out.)

If I were in your situation I'd just make sure that Kali got extra love and attention, in the same way I'd care for a friend or family member who was mourning. It's awful, and it hurts, but I don't know that there's much else you... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 8:51 PM on June 26, 2006 marked best answer

Speaking as someone who considers the telephone a mortal enemy and thus can totally identify with your reluctance, I think you should call, just to be on the safe side. If I were you I'd probably force myself to. You may have to navigate your way through an awkward conversation, but at least once it's over it's over.

Was there anything in the card that could even be vaguely construed as "please call"? "Keep in touch" or something like that?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 9:37 PM on June 23, 2006

I can only speak from my own experience here, so, bear that in mind when considering this.

I was similar in some respects to the boy you describe when I was younger, and being preached at just made me want to close myself off. I think the key is to make sure he feels comfortable with you and eventually feels understood.

I had a lot of people try to "intervene" to various extents with me and I really came to resent it, because they... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 12:28 PM on June 19, 2006 marked best answer

I can verify, having picked up a MacBook and the S&T version of Office this past weekend, that the number of licenses you get for it is indeed 3. Pretty nice deal, all in all.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 1:07 PM on June 3, 2006

"A few" in this case is 4~5.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 8:25 AM on March 19, 2006

Thank you all for your answers. :) If this continues for another week or two I'll be going to the doctor for sure. I will keep the thyroid things in mind. As it stands, though, I expect my appetite to steadily return (as it has been doing) as I deal with the situation. I'm not terribly alarmed... more annoyed than anything, because I'll wake up and then be unable to get back to sleep because I'm freezing.

The weirdest thing about it has been the suppression of hunger. I... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 3:16 PM on March 19, 2006

I've had this problem for most of my life. (Still do, to an extent, but it's under control.) I'd do half-serious Google searches trying to figure out how to be able to forgive myself because I honestly just did not know how to do it. I have a deep sense of responsibility, twinned with a deep sense of guilt, and a set of impossibly high standards for myself. Every time I screwed up it was like another wound added to the collection; I felt all the other mistakes again as if they were new on top of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 8:28 PM on November 19, 2005

I swore by these things for a while. They're marketed as homeopathic but, well, they actually work. :p

I also found these helpful, but I don't think you're supposed to take kava kava for too long lest it cause liver damage. Someone who's more knowledgable can correct me there if necessary.

I found valerian root pills helpful as well, but they were kind of hit-or-miss; the Calms Forte really did the trick for me. Antihistamines like... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 6:27 PM on November 19, 2005 marked best answer

What you are thinking of (the removable plastic plug) is an intra vas device, similar to the female IUD. Clinical trials are ongoing, but it's not available yet.

I have read about RISUG, too, which is what I think id is referring to. I think it's being done in India, but I don't know if you can just go there and ask to have it done, or if it's in the trial stages, or what.

I can't offer much else but "I feel your pain." I'm frequently... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 1:05 PM on November 15, 2005

This isn't exactly an answer, but in case you get stuck in this situation again... the PayPal plan actually wouldn't have worked, I don't think, because PayPal has a delay on withdrawing a balance into your regular checking or savings account. I think it takes 3-5 business days, usually.

Of course, your friend could give you the money and be reimbursed automatically in 3-5 biz days when the transfer kicks in, but does that count as borrowing?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 2:18 PM on October 21, 2005

Some of this may sound judgmental and/or harsh--in which case I apologize in advance. I don't mean to be snarky or condescending or anything, but this is an important subject to me.

I am HFA/AS, 24 years old. From middle school onward I had few friends and no afterschool activity. Most of the interaction I had at school was in the form of torture from people who liked to make fun of my obsessive interests. I liked school work well enough, but I hated... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 11:37 AM on October 21, 2005 marked best answer

I find that if I just stand there and wait for it to go away it's gone within a minute since it's purely physical and there's no mental sexual stimulus to keep it there.

urbandictionary says re: reverse kangaroo, "an Australian term relating to a person using a toilet backwards, and leaving a resultant skidmark on the wrong side of the bowl."

I imagine T-levels just means testosterone levels, which vary throughout the day--they spike in... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 6:22 AM on October 19, 2005

No; she's been vegetarian for a year and a half now and didn't eat red meat even when she wasn't. She doesn't take any multivitamin either--mostly B vitamin supplements and a few other things that I'm too lazy to ask about or get up and walk three feet over to go check for myself. Nothing else that contains iron, at any rate.

I think she gets most of her iron from whole grain foods (whole wheat bread, pasta, bagels) and vegetables. She's not terribly worried about this... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 11:58 AM on September 22, 2005

I just had a physical this morning and my female GP did mine. She did announce what she was looking for as she went through the exam ("checking this side for hernia, checking this side for cancer") but there was no nurse present or anything.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 7:55 AM on August 1, 2005

I personally don't know, but I believe the owner's profile is here. You could always IM him and ask, if you have an AIM account.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 7:46 PM on June 28, 2005

Have you upgraded the browser recently?

If disabling extensions doesn't do it, you could try creating a new browser profile and seeing if it happens there. There could be a problem with your profile. (The command line switch for invoking the Profile Manager in Firefox, which allows you to create/delete/rename profiles, is "-profilemanager")

How often is this occurring?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 2:25 PM on June 14, 2005

It sounds vaguely like the interference that can happen when you have a cell phone next to a piece of electronic equipment. It happens for me when a phone is near either of the computers in here, as well as the TV, the car stereo, etc. If you have a cell phone with you most of the time, that'd explain why the sound is "following" you.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 4:15 PM on June 9, 2005

I was acquainted for years, albeit not very closely, with my girlfriend before we got together. It was about a year of being close before we fell in love, but it was very much a mutual (and gradual) thing. (In other words, we were both quite sure when it happened.) So, I don't know how much it applies to your situation, but, there it is anyway. :)
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 7:09 PM on June 6, 2005

(Note that I have no idea what "inappropriately weird" would even mean. Perhaps that was a poor choice of phrase. It sounds to me, though, like there's nothing at all "wrong" with you except your worrying so much about whether or not something's wrong with you.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kosh at 4:10 PM on June 6, 2005