I don't know if this works for you, but the approach that comes to my mind is to average the images first, and then create the model from the blended image. So load up 25* photos of bananas or whatever in to your favorite image manipulation program, and tweak away. When you have a good "average" representation, then create the 3D model.

Of course this won't work if the point of the project is to average various 3D models, but if the objective is to have a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 4:06 PM on August 27, 2008

What worked for me was a similar approach to that of Civil_Disobedient, and FauxScot. There's the shared space, and the private space. Shared space, things go back where they belong, cleaning up is everybody's responsibility, etc, etc. When I first got married I made the mistake of making all space shared space, and was having similar problems as you describe. However, when I took over a room on the excuse of having a home office (it's really more of a "my space") the situation... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 11:27 AM on August 20, 2008

I just wanted to point out that most of what Juffo-Wup says is true, but the part about interfering with your music was incorrect. Wrapping the wires in anything to reduce the electromagnetic interference will help, however the music is flowing through the wire, and any emi protection around the wire will not affect it. Although if you put a circuit on the wire to filter out stuff around 200 Hz, then you would have crappy music as well.
Also, as others have pointed out, it's the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 8:05 AM on August 12, 2008 marked best answer

It would help to know why TCPdump and wireshark are not workable solutions (performance?, configuration?, support? pre-built analysis and reports?).
Have you checked out any of Agilent's products? Maybe this one? I think it runs around 15k.
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 3:35 PM on August 11, 2008

When I was a kid (I'm 40), I can remember it being against the rules to use the library photocopier for copying books (according to the sign right above the copy machine). It wasn't really made clear that copying a couple pages for a particular use was ok. This was in the U.S. by the way.

However, there was a cost to making copies, both economically and effort wise. Thus, even with access to free copying, it was still a pain in the ass to copy anything over a couple of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 11:45 AM on August 6, 2008

I would say that "choice" (as framed in the original question) evolved as humans gained more knowledge of and control over their environment.
Whether its understanding weather, social interactions, transportation, communication etc., as people gained more knowledge of how they fit into the overall picture, it became more and more clear that they were an integral part of this ecosystem. With this type of understanding, it becomes clear that there is not a single linear... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 7:15 AM on July 22, 2008

Yes, we're considering flying there if need be, but everyone had their plans around visiting here.
Thanks for the pointers to engage with my congressmen (esp Sen Webb).
Also, I found this information on the Dept of State site that may be useful to others in similar circumstances.
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 3:00 PM on July 9, 2008

My understanding is that the democrats yielded some ground on immunity in exchange for budgetary concessions in another bill (I think a defense bill, but I'm not sure). The compromise was that immunity could only be granted if the telco had written authorization from the administration justifying the legality of the effort.
I'll try to dig up links if I can find them.
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 9:39 AM on June 25, 2008

Oh one other compromise point was that the bill requires wiretapping requests to go through the FISA court, so the admin can no longer bypass FISA.

I found this summary from the AP
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendment bill also would:

_Require FISA court permission to wiretap Americans who are overseas.

_Prohibit targeting a foreigner to secretly eavesdrop on an American's calls or e-mails without... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 10:09 AM on June 25, 2008

Assume you are back in that same situation, and its now time for the flop. But instead of turning over the flop, the dealer instead shuffles the deck, and then prepares the flop.
Do you fold or not?
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 10:52 AM on April 15, 2008

IAAEE (not ME)
I almost failed out my junior year, but I stuck with it. I had to take my assembly language course 3 times before I passed it, my electronics course twice. Part of the problem was that in my junior year I discovered a social life, but there was also a large part of it that was not really understanding the *intent* of the material. Your example of synthesizing two concepts is one that I had trouble with as well. But I loved the concepts, and I did well enough in... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 1:40 PM on March 5, 2008

I would say this metafilter post on a hypothetical coup in 2012 is a must read.
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 2:14 PM on February 27, 2008

Offspring's Gone Away. I don't know if it's the singer or the lyrics or the song, or all of the above, but it just seems to capture the emotions of losing someone close to you.
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 3:02 PM on January 30, 2008

The answer varies tremendously. A few years ago I was one of the first two employees in a start-up (excluding the two founders), my colleague opted for a lower salary and higher equity, I however went leaner on the equity, to keep a more consistent paycheck. I also came in with more than a decade of direct experience in a very narrow and specialized field. Originally the two founders each had 25% (total of 50%). The remaining equity was split between a bucket for employees (30%) (the vast... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 10:18 AM on January 16, 2008

Here's an empirical approach to your problem that doesn't involve chemistry or physics explanations.
I used Epicurious for the recipe for a grilled cheese sandwich, then I looked up the ingredients on the Calorie King site for their nutritional information (such as fat content). Calorie King also has the nutritional information for completed Grilled Cheese sandwiches as well. Here's what I came up with:

Epicurious Recipe
2 slices Cheddar,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 8:15 AM on January 10, 2008

That's 2 slices of cheese, not 2 2 (the nutritional data is correct).
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 8:17 AM on January 10, 2008

estronaut, you are absolutely right ... but my gut feeling is that indienal's SIL would be more swayed by having something physical to show vs. trying to explain to her abstract physic theories or proper scientific method. If her SIL did turn a critical eye towards it, well then that would be a huge benefit, since she'd be more likely to look at her conclusions with a critical eye as well.
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 10:06 AM on January 10, 2008

thanks all ... all responses have been useful so far.
RikiTikiTavi (my fav cartoon when I was a kid btw), that's a great find. I found something similar, but was uncertain on how accurate the translations were. Still, I'll look more into it.

SCDB, DrFed, Abiezer, and clearlydemon - thanks, if I can't find a closer match I'll prob choose on of your suggestions.

Also, I'm mainly interested in the characters making sense in a language,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 5:27 PM on January 3, 2008

My personal favorite leadership quote:
If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

One for Conviction:
You are never given a dream without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however.
Richard Bach

Other... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 11:11 AM on November 7, 2007

Told you I was hardcore
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 1:43 PM on October 18, 2007

Others have good information that I won't repeat and I will keep my comment short. I thought I was ugly when I was younger. I was wrong. This distorted self-perception resulted in untold lost opportunities through self-sabotage. Don't repeat my mistake.
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 7:54 AM on October 18, 2007

It's been a while, but when I was in the Army the advantages of a spouse were huge. I'll run off the ones I can remember from memory.

Housing - unmarried, you get housing with other single dudes. Married, you get to live with your wife.

Dependent Military ID - Access to the PX, Commissary, etc ... it's the military's form of ID.

Moving Allowance - Married allows you to move a household rather than a room.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 1:16 PM on October 17, 2007

Oh, a clarification on housing. You don't have to live with other single dudes, but your housing allowance will be based upon being single, not married. And if your enlisted, you may be forced to go through many hoops to live with your girlfriend rather than with all the other single enlistees.
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 1:18 PM on October 17, 2007

I've been doing Kendo (well Kumdo, but it's essentially the same thing) for almost two years. It took several weeks, but eventually I was able to sit seiza style comfortable before and after class. During the painful breaking in period, I'd use the meditation time to focus on dealing with the pain and tell myself I was building character and endurance in doing so. One thing that motivated me in that direction was a good friend I had who was dealing with chronic pain issues, so I figured I... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 6:52 AM on October 12, 2007

Ht: 5'10" Wt: 150 age:almost 41
I've never been over 155 in my life

1) What's your typical breakfast?
Alternates between skipping, or a sweetened cereal (such as frosted cheerios, or frosted mini-wheats)

2) What's your typical lunch?
Deli fare, Baja Tacos, or fast food

3) What are some typical dinners?
half the time something light and healthy, the other half something... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 9:39 AM on October 10, 2007

Hammerfall "Always Will Be"?
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 11:03 AM on September 7, 2007

I agree with most of the others about giving her space. I also agree about dating other people, I would also strongly advise against holding out hope that things will suddenly blossom how you want. They may, but they just as easily may not. If I was in your shoes, I would tell her in a light hearted banter something like this: "Hey, as you know, I think you're super hot, but also, you've made it clear you're not ready for anything yet. So, as much as it goes against my nature, I'm not... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 10:59 AM on August 28, 2007

I haven't read the books listed above, but I also know people who get by on work weeks in the 15-30 hour range. I could do it myself, but I haven't made the actual leap yet.
The people I know who can do that have established (or at least established the perception) that they are experts in their particular area. They generally perform task oriented functions, not time oriented functions, although they may be paid either by task, or by time (i.e. salary). Everyone *I* know that has... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 9:02 AM on August 3, 2007

I'll also chime in with Kendo. I take Kumdo (basically Kendo in Korean) and enjoy it immensely and it seems to generally meet your criteria. First, it absolutely fits the "no jumping" rule. In fact, leaving the floor at all is discouraged, as it makes you quite vulnerable. Second, a key component of Kendo is sparring. At my dojang, roughly half the time is spent sparring/full contact. Although beginners don't actively spar, they do actively face and hit (full speed) in a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 10:35 AM on July 23, 2007

Here's an approach that might give you some insight, even though it may not answer your specific question.
I'm assuming the friend hangs out online somewhere, or is reachable. Have a (preferably girl-) friend that lives in ghe same general area Email/IM/whatever him and strike up a conversation. She should mention her location (I assume he knows the city you live in). See how the conversation flows and compare notes. Does he mention he knows you? Does he have the same up and... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 7:08 PM on May 22, 2007

A couple other things you can riff on if you find a kernel of likability in them ...

Open Arms
Shining Heart
Pure Heart
Sincere Heart
etc ...
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 9:27 AM on May 7, 2007

Jumping Jesus (so to speak), some of these replies have me scratching my head. DWRoelands stole my thunder, but I'll still add my 2 cents.
I've been married to a Roman Catholic for close to 15 years, and for the last few months she's even been in a leadership role in the church. I, on the other hand, really don't like the RC approach at all, and rarely go myself. We have two kids, 10 and 8. They go to church, they like it. A couple of years ago my oldest said he was considering... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 7:26 PM on April 10, 2007

I'm seconding the advice that your friend leverage this to his advantage. Also, as mentioned above, no one is going to look out for your friend's interests except your friend (and, well ... you too it seems). When this happened to me, I sat down with my manager and said, either I get the transfer, you promote me, or I leave. I ended up getting the transfer.
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 12:03 PM on February 8, 2007

My *guess* is that the relationship has lost that luster for him. He probably still likes you, but you're not as important to him anymore. He probably feels guilty about this and doesn't know exactly what to do.
I could be wrong, but the specifics that jumped out at me were him wanting more space (to publish his book), and the feeling you were getting of being a "trophy". You mentioned that after his sister died that he wanted to live life, but now his focus on... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 2:46 PM on February 7, 2007

A couple ideas ....
Create a chart that shows the number of mistakes per employee. Employee(s) with the least mistake get an afternoon or day off, or maybe a free lunch.

Or, flip it around, and those employees with the most mistakes have to relieve the admin and man the phones over lunch, or stock the refridgerator, or something similar.
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 12:35 PM on January 31, 2007

Perhaps its an offshoot of the Japanese story "The Battle of the Monkey and the Crabs?"
In that story a monkey was grabbing persimmons for a crab.
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 2:25 PM on January 28, 2007

Another option is to find a place where you can listen to snippets of the songs (record store, online, whatever ... ) and settle for a song similar to the bus song.
This should work as long it wasn't specific to that particularly song that's driving you to do this.
I'd approach it like this - "Hey wife, remember that crazy bus trip with the crazy songs, I got you some Chinese pop music as a way of remembering that trip".
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 9:48 AM on November 29, 2006

An Enterprise Application often comes with a support package.
In other words, some one to yell at/take the blame/fix for free any problems that arise. As an added burecrat bonus, this allows dodgy IT groups to collect/generate requirements rather than solutions, and blame vendors when the solutions don't measure up (regardless of the actual requirements produced).
I wonder if that section made it into your text book?
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 9:33 AM on November 29, 2006

Others have said it, but to reiterate: It's not income level, its education level. More educated people tend to be more affluent, though I have to admit, by this logic Paris Hilton should have been on her 8th child by now. On the other hand both KFed and Anna Nicole have created offspring so maybe there is something to it ...
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 6:22 PM on November 16, 2006

Thanks for the enthusiasm! To answer a couple of your questions, we're travelling from the US, and as for the "must-sees", there isn't any "must". I'd love to see the pass of Thermopylae if its not to out of the way, but that's the only specific item. We also don't have a fixed time table, other than May-June (similar timeframe as your trip). The main reason I'm looking for some outside help is to offload the detail planning so that we can enjoy and just kinda be herded... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 11:07 PM on November 11, 2006

Another one for power lines. In this google map I think you can make out one of the towers. Even so, I think geoff.'s link is even more conclusive.
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 9:21 AM on October 30, 2006

My story is similar to others. I gradually over the years damaged my ACL and meniscus. I opted for strength conditioning rather than surgery after one event resulted in a trip to the hospital. That was fine for a couple of years, though like others, my knee would act up on me occasionally. Then in 1997, when I pushed myself off a low wall, I injured my knee again, bad. This time I opted for surgery. It sucks recuperating, but once it healed up I was about 95% or so of pre-injury. I stayed... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 9:14 AM on October 29, 2006

I'm late to the party but here's my 2 cents.
- warning: deeply held religious beliefs follow -
This may be one of the reasons you are here, now, at this time. God may have tried to swing this happenstance so that some good can come out of this tragedy. What would Jesus do? What would the man that said to love all others above yourself do in this situation?
I think that's what I'd mediate on.
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 9:54 PM on October 20, 2006

Not sure about "norm", but when I was filling out time sheets, I'd characterize that time as non-billable (unless the discussions were actually work related). Also, I'd come in early and/or leave late to keep billable hours at 7.5-8 hours of billable time.
Then I got a real job where productivity wasn't measured in time increments.
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 11:36 AM on October 20, 2006

A couple ideas ...
* Provide incentives for Corporations to reward employees comensurate with shareholders. Perhaps the incentive would kick in if Corporations had greater than 10% employee (executives excluded) ownership.

* Provide incentives (tax breaks?) for Business that publish top executive pay, and keep that pay at some reasonable multiple of the lowest and average employee. Say 10x lowest full time employee salary and 5x average (note: I'm not sure... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 6:41 PM on October 17, 2006

These are the minimum tools I'd start off with. I've mainly geared this to fixing things when getting to a store is not practical.
If I'm renting (i.e. I have a landlord or maintenance guy to complain to for major emergencies) these are the tools I'd absolutely want to have:
Plunger, Screwdrivers (phillips and flat), Electric Drill, Electrical Tape, Hammer, assorted screws and nails, superglue, duck tape, box cutter (ideally one suitable for scraping sticky stuff off... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 6:29 AM on October 11, 2006 marked best answer

Not answering the question, just clarifying some misinformation on cell towers from above. Cell towers are usually, but not always directional. There are plenty of omnidirectional antenna choices for cellular (and also directional that look omnidirectional). However the giveaway that the device is not a cell tower is the lack of any sizable ground equipment.
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 8:40 PM on October 3, 2006

Telecom switches (5ESS, Tandems, etc) do crash and do go down, just not very often. In general they do approach uptimes of 99.999% (this is 5 minutes of downtime per year). If you figure there's ~10,000 of these switches worldwide, it would seem plausible that there might be a handful of these systems that have been running continuously without a crash for several years. A typical "crash" on these systems will have downtime of 30 minutes to a couple hours, implying that for every... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 6:37 AM on September 21, 2006

A guy here, but who's had a couple of female friends who've been in a similar predicament. Unfortunately, I don't have any good answers, just wanted to let you know that you're not an isolated case.
In my friends' instances, one was finally able to move on from the incompatible but intense relationship when she became pregnant, the other one knows rationally she and her fixation are incompatible, but still fixates on him.
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 6:07 PM on September 18, 2006

I religiously run a 10 miler where I live every year, however I'm not disciplined enough to stay in shape the rest of the year. So I've had to ramp myself up several times to be able to run 10 miles. This is what I'd do in your shoes (though I try to give myslef a minimum of 8-10 weeks to get ready). The first week I'd do a 4 mile run, start slow and run easy. The goal is to make it not to beat any times. About three days after that run, I'd run 3 miles again, this time pushing myself to do... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by forforf at 11:32 AM on September 16, 2006