I don't know if you've looked at the Palmer House Hilton as a place to stay, but it definitely qualifies as romantic, if it's not too expensive.

As for things to do, the quintessential Chicago Christmas activities include eating at the Walnut Room in what USED to be Marshall Fields, but is now a Macy's. Also, the window displays outside the department store are traditionally fun to walk by.

Might want to go ice skating in the rink which is in... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 6:57 PM on October 5, 2008

Would you consider using Lyx instead of LaTeX? Lyx has all the power and beauty of LaTex (it's sort of a front end for LaTeX) without having to learn the markup.

I would say that 99% of the functionality that I've ever needed (wrote a dissertation and a few papers) is built into LyX, but the great thing is that when you need that extra 1%, you can drop in LaTeX code seamlessly. Personally, I prefer not having to use LaTeX 99% of the time.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 12:42 PM on September 19, 2008

Save yourself $490 by using a cardboard box.

I've had decent luck with the work light method used in the video on the linked page. I bought 2 lights for 18 bucks total at the home improvement store.

It's not a perfect setup, but it can work to get you started. I wish I could link to some of my test shots, but they are archived on an external drive that I have yet to unpack from a recent move.

OTOH, I would... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 8:11 PM on September 10, 2008 marked best answer

I enjoyed the cover of Yeah by Usher making clever use of a loop box.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 7:37 PM on September 10, 2008

I made a paste out of oxy-clean, borax, a bit of tide and a little water. I didn't use too much water, as I wanted the grit of the borax/oxy-clean to help cut the buildup.

Then, I scrubbed by hand. I scrubbed hard. So hard, that I lost some skin. Seriously. So, only do this on your favorite shirts and wear rubber gloves. It's not too bad to do in front of the TV, but it does take some time.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 7:23 PM on September 6, 2008

You're going to get the best prices if your clothes are vintage or retro in some way. Or, if you have some decent dresses, such as would be appropriate for prom or formal situations.

If your clothes don't fit in those categories, you might not get very good offers, although YMMV.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 6:58 PM on September 6, 2008

Definitely go for LyX. All the ease of Word, with all the power of LaTeX. No need to learn the markup.

And the suggestion of using JabRef is good, too.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 4:24 PM on August 29, 2008

Nobody mentioned Johny 5 from "Short Circuit"????
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 6:56 AM on August 29, 2008

Open Office?
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 10:27 PM on August 28, 2008

Read the Ubuntu Forums a lot. Search the forums when you have problems.

Ask a few questions if you're really stumped.

Start helping others when you've started to figure things out.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 9:19 PM on August 28, 2008

Yeah....I think the icons being reset was the best. And the whining about having a meeting to go to so everything had to be done right NOW...
posted to MetaFilter by achmorrison at 2:06 PM on June 24, 2008

The beer that taught me how to like beer was Coors Original. Coors Lite is CRAP. Stay away. Coors Original is still inexpensive, yet tolerable. Then, you can experiment with the more expensive craft beers.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 8:24 AM on June 23, 2008

I think dseaton hit the nail on the head. I, too, teach physics and agree with the above assessment.

I also find that it helps to have a process that you follow for solving the problems. The first thing I suggest you do when tackling a problem is that you write down EVERYTHING you know about the problem. Then you write down everything you WANT to know about the problem. When you've identified those things, you can start tackling the concepts that will help you solve... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 2:08 PM on June 6, 2008

If you are using RH 7, then you really need to upgrade. Mounting and unmounting USB devices was always a little flaky in that release. I'm not sure about your network issues.

Even if you are using Fedora 7, you should upgrade.

Trust me, you'll be WAY happier with more recent distros.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 8:19 PM on June 5, 2008

I've had this happen to me before, and all I could figure out was to keep restarting FF until it worked. Sometimes holding down the shift key while hitting reload made it load properly, so you could try that.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 9:24 PM on May 29, 2008

I know nothing of ebertfest, but I might be inclined to make a meet-up.
posted to MetaTalk by achmorrison at 6:51 AM on April 15, 2008

The Botanical Center in Des Moines is really good.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 10:05 PM on April 14, 2008

Have you tried www.dopplr.com?
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 3:13 PM on March 18, 2008

Use an RSS reader and see as many as you want at one time.
posted to MetaTalk by achmorrison at 9:24 PM on February 20, 2008

It's for people like us that the "Nearby users" list should be expanded. There are only 2 other users listed near me, and you are not one of them. Yet, here I am in Central Illinois. :)

I'm in.
posted to MetaTalk by achmorrison at 6:30 PM on January 21, 2008

whoop, whoop!

(B-ton represent!)
posted to MetaTalk by achmorrison at 6:25 PM on January 23, 2008

What one person in Chicago thinks is tacky is what another 100 people think is their birthright.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 11:15 PM on December 28, 2007

Maybe I was just dreaming up this seminar series. I really think it was Princeton, if it existed at all, though.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 9:57 AM on December 9, 2007

Finally, we're out of the terrible twos...
posted to MetaTalk by achmorrison at 9:23 PM on November 18, 2007

Anything that reduces the tendency to have jokey titles is a good thing for AskMetafilter, I think.
posted to MetaTalk by achmorrison at 1:50 PM on November 12, 2007

I miss both the old SQL searches. For one thing, you didn't get all these spurious results that Google or Yahoo gives. For another, the results were sorted by date. Also, they worked for code as well as text.

And, when you search a URL it would pop up if it had already been posted to the front page. One could tell whether or not their link was a double or not.
posted to MetaTalk by achmorrison at 4:08 PM on October 31, 2007

I will second the beer suggestion. Doesn't matter what type of beer. Makes fluffy cakes. Yum!
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 4:59 PM on October 27, 2007

I wish Greene had been challenged to explain string theory in 2 minutes. He couldn't of course, but the idea of trying might have cause the "Elegant Universe" miniseries to have been chopped in half, down to a tolerable length. Oh...and without all the cheesy graphics...
posted to MetaFilter by achmorrison at 9:47 PM on October 25, 2007

I'll just add my usual observation that I don't understand (or appreciate) users that only post on AskMe. I understand the subsite's usefulness and appeal, but I'm amazed that people would join to only be on that part of the overall site.


That's about as rational as someone saying they don't appreciate users who only participate on the blue.

If you're mostly on the blue, and I'm mostly in the green, then how... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by achmorrison at 9:43 PM on October 25, 2007

Almost every time I see a question about NYC I'm surprised when it is not deleted for being a double.
posted to MetaTalk by achmorrison at 8:32 PM on October 25, 2007

Also note that lighter roasts have more caffeine than darker roasts. If you think you are not getting enough caffeine, you may want to switch to a lighter roast, even though it will taste less like a dark.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 7:34 PM on October 18, 2007

Thanks for the feedback! I've consulted with a colleague in another department, and he suggested I talk to the associate dean of the faculty to see what the protocol for this school is. I would agree that it doesn't seem to add value to the process, in that anything that the recommender might write could be said in the committee's discussions. OTOH, it was suggested to me by a colleague, in my department, that letters from persons who have observed my teaching would be more valuable than... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 7:22 PM on October 18, 2007

Oh man, you've asked a question that you don't want to hear the answer.

There is a measurement of the resistance to air flow in a wind instrument. It is called acoustic impedance. The lower the impedance, the easier to blow.

You can easily rank the instruments from low impedance (easy to blow) to high impedance (hard to blow). The ranking (in general) goes like this:

1. Fipple type instruments (flute, recorder, tin... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 4:56 PM on October 11, 2007

I will vouch for the Nordicware microwave popcorn popper that small_ruminant linked to above. Consumer Reports recommended it, and so we tried it out. You can pop with or without oil and it tastes like it was made on the stove. I've read reviews saying people got burned corn the first time they tried it, but I have never had any burned batches.

YUM.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 1:54 PM on October 8, 2007

WDOAAOK
posted to MetaTalk by achmorrison at 7:45 PM on October 7, 2007

A very popular day trip from Chicago is to Starved Rock State Park. If the gorgeous weather holds out, you might like that.

Something that fits in the "weird architecture, arts and crafts, papercrafts, good baked goods" scheme of things might be Long Grove, IL.

Really, though...there are dozens of quaint suburbs within an hour radius of Chicago that have what you are looking for. Maybe pick one and explore it!... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 7:04 AM on October 7, 2007

(I type slow.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 7:06 AM on October 7, 2007

You know Dell sells units preloaded with Ubuntu, right? You could have gone with one of those, but you wanted the cheaper laptop from the outlet store. Live with it, or keep asking Dell.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 8:01 PM on October 4, 2007

I had the exact same thought as SassHat when I saw the ASIS&T thread posted. And it's happened plenty of times before. I had no idea that SXSW stood for "South by Southwest". (OMG...I'm so uncool.)

I think that many people would find it really lame if I asked if anyone was going to be at an APS/AAPT/OSA/ASA/AAS/NSTA conference. Only the science/physics dorks (like me) on MeFi would have the slightest clue what those acronyms are. It's only polite to... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by achmorrison at 1:46 PM on October 4, 2007

I'm not sure I was as annoyed as you think I was, but following the shibboleth logic of rachelpapers and rocketman, you would be right in thinking that I wouldn't necessarily want to associate with people who feel it is okay to be inconsiderate or impolite to others.
posted to MetaTalk by achmorrison at 2:59 PM on October 4, 2007

I'm all for inside jokes...but I'm not so sure that metafilter has a rich history of "faux-exclusive dickishness".

I think this thread belongs more to the etiquette side of the category. Like I said, post away all of your acronyms, I'll just mentally tag those posts as "not so considerate"...
posted to MetaTalk by achmorrison at 3:42 PM on October 4, 2007

I'm in. I expect to finish dead last.
posted to MetaTalk by achmorrison at 6:28 PM on October 2, 2007

Go curling in Evanston. There may be other places, but the curling club in Evanston is awesome. And you will raise your heart rate, no doubt.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 9:12 PM on September 21, 2007

What is the subscriber wall that has tumbled down, for those of us not in the know?
posted to MetaTalk by achmorrison at 6:33 AM on September 19, 2007

Thanks, cortex...

Guess I should keep up more with the blue.
posted to MetaTalk by achmorrison at 7:02 AM on September 19, 2007

You need to have this exact conversation with two people: your humanities advisor and a science faculty who you would trust as an advisor. I say this as a person trying to make a living as a professor of physics: have long conversations with your advisors and trust their advice. They are best suited to seeing the whole of your situation.

And...heed ikkyu2's advice.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 12:56 PM on September 18, 2007

I'm running Picasa 2.7 on Ubuntu linux with no problem and the geotagging is working perfectly for me. This is the windows version of Picasa that runs with wine. I think I had to uninstall the "linux" version of Picasa (also a windows app running with wine) to get it to work. There are people who have posted about this in the picasa for linux google group.

Luck!
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 7:05 PM on September 13, 2007 marked best answer

I think it's possible that schools do disclose average ACT/SAT scores. In that case, it might be possible for USNWR to extrapolate student rankings.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 6:59 AM on September 12, 2007

Second the enV...even if you already have the blackberry.
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 5:59 PM on September 11, 2007

There's no denying that Gatlinburg is tourist-trap-tacky, BUT...it is right on the border of the National Park. You can stay in a hotel there and do the park every day. We hiked on the AT this Summer...it was AWESOME. In early August there were no problems related to the drought that we were aware of.

Have FUN! :)
posted to Ask Metafilter by achmorrison at 5:53 PM on September 11, 2007