Awesome, I'll swing by today. Good to know that there are other pastis drinkers around. Maybe we can have a provençal-themed peninsula meetup one of these days.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 10:45 AM on September 27, 2008

Beltramo's had both pastis and arak (and choices of both), and has now become my favorite store within 50 miles. Cheers.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 11:04 PM on September 27, 2008

Oregon, USA. The broth in brothel has a thicker th sound (edging towards a z?) for me (I can feel it vibrating in my throat in brothel, and not for broth).
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 3:16 PM on September 26, 2008

This is probably absolutely no use, but there are image hashing algorithms that are relatively scale and rotation independent. I don't know how well they work in practice, or if they're efficient or applicable here. This paper claims to have a hashing technique resistant to 2 degree rotation, cropping up to 10% ( but surely if you were just focused on this you could find a way to increase this parameter at the expense of others? ), scaling by 10%, JPEG compression, & some filtering. The... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 9:50 PM on September 1, 2008

Ultimate frisbee . As mentioned above, hot box or hit the bottle can be played almost anywhere, and it has a very short learning curve. Literally anyone can be useful on a team after maybe 30 minutes of pass & catch practice, and you don't even have to be that athletic if not everyone else is.

If its a bunch of tough guys (or girls who don't mind getting banged around a lot), broom ball is a massive amount of fun (and the kind of fun you feel absolutely justified... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 9:33 PM on September 1, 2008

I used to get bad blisters from both tennis & erging when I hadn't been doing them for a while. Since I couldn't wear gloves for tennis I started taping my hand with athletic tape (you can do it around the bottom of a finger and it won't affect movement - there's also some weave you can do to cover multiple fingers at once). It worked well for tennis, so I tried it for rowing, and it worked for that too. Gloves would probably be easier, but I hate having my hands covered when I'm sweating.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 9:54 PM on August 31, 2008

I really enjoy feeling sore or stiff the day after lifting or running hard. The trick, as has been pointed out already, is to mix it up. Unless you really go above what your usual is, the big groups aren't going to get sore. You want to go after all the stabilizers, core muscles, things you sometimes forget, etc. I don't know what this translates into for biking. For running it can mean using a different stride than usual, or maybe a slightly different posture, etc. For lifting there are enough... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 9:14 PM on August 31, 2008

Depends what direction you're looking for. Both Walla Walla & Maui onions have a very intense sweet flavor. Can't be of help if you're looking for the spicy end.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 9:01 PM on August 31, 2008

Start running and you can have all the oatmeal you want. In fact, you'll need to, because you can't really run & be on a low-carb diet and still be healthy.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 10:59 AM on August 31, 2008

Blade Runner and Brazil are the top ones for me. 2001 is in there. Clockwork Orange too.

I'll have to check out Primer, I hadn't even heard of it yet. I really liked Alien & Aliens, but they just didn't have an effect on me like Blade Runner & Brazil did. I remember watching Blade Runner for the first time... about half an hour into it I had this entirely consistent picture of the movie in my mind as some cheesy future action movie, and was writing it off as I... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 10:55 AM on August 31, 2008

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about it, you have enough time to get up to a 10k as long as you stay injury free. Depending on what the 10k is, they can be very intimidating. If there are experienced runners, they could well start out with a sub 6 minute mile pace. If you're even remotely competitive in sports, find someone else who runs at roughly your pace and run with them, and agree not to egg each other on. I guarantee you that if you start out at a 6 minute mile pace, you'll be walking by mile 2.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 7:34 PM on August 30, 2008

I know some people used to do presentations in Shockwave, especially if they already knew Director. It would make standalone exes that were more foolproof than PPTs and had some fancy charting animation stuff to boot. But since Shockwave seems pretty quiet right now, I don't know what people switched to.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 5:09 PM on August 29, 2008

Heh. That's quite the goal. If you seriously want to learn about linux as much as you say, you're not going to get there with playing around with Ubuntu. You're going to get there by breaking every part of the system and then fixing it. You could try something like Linux From Scratch, or maybe Slackware, starting with an absolutely minimal system, learning how that works, and then slowly adding in programs to fix things that you're missing. Then you can start to understand the decisions that... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 8:16 PM on August 28, 2008

Oh, and learn regular expressions early on. Many unix utils use them or have options for using them, and they're incredibly powerful.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 10:31 PM on August 28, 2008

If you can wean yourself away from hot tea, I used to bring cold black tea in a Nalgene to high school quite often. Aside from a few teachers thinking it was rum & coke (which never gained as much traction for school drinking as Faderade did, I might add) I never had any problems with it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 10:25 PM on August 28, 2008

If you're looking for more substantive stuff, Real World Color Management and Digital Image Processing are two books I've heard recommended more than once (and DIP is quite impressive from experience).
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 9:21 PM on August 28, 2008

To clarify, color management isn't your slider stuff, but it relates how the slider stuff relates to your actual photograph.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 9:22 PM on August 28, 2008

The problem with declaring a single national language at the exclusion of others is it doesn't practically work. If you can't communicate with people that live in your country, you have a major problem, and as we've seen, throwing them out doesn't work so hot. I think it absolutely makes sense to try to enforce some language assimilation - after all, why should I have to learn a second language not of my choice just to adequately function in my city? But the reality is that unless you force... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 1:43 PM on August 28, 2008

Suck it up. 20% of your final grade is NOT that much at all, and while working in a group can be frustrating, you just have to do it.

Lets look at the project:

1 - 25 points for straight data input on two cemeteries.

Your group will help with this one. Unless they're truly braindead, they can't screw it up.

2 - 10 points for some basic statistical... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 12:50 PM on August 27, 2008

Well, I'll plug Corvallis OR like I always do. Its smallish with a university, 'young' may be a stretch but the university is a large portion of the population. The hiking, mountain biking, and backpacking in the area is incredible (and its easier to get to than Eugene & Portland, imo). The arts scene isn't what it is in Eugene or Portland, but they're close enough to drive to on the weekends. Our cat is an outdoor cat, as is almost every cat I know, and that's within the city. You can... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 7:51 PM on August 26, 2008

As a general plug for Oregon, Corvallis, Portland and Eugene are all insanely bikeable. The mountains and lakes here are beautiful, and you'll learn to realize that a little rain doesn't really have any reason to stop you from enjoying it. Very few weather extremes, no natural disasters (except for the massive earthquake sometime in the next hundred years), no sales tax, lower gas prices than California and you'll never have to pump your gas again. And, if you get tired of the rain, the east... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 7:58 PM on August 26, 2008

Is it an energy thing? Try saying, "I don't have the energy to do ___, but I have the energy to do this very small part which is the first step in a massive project, and I might as well do that instead of watching TV." Eventually those will add up. But people usually underestimate large projects, when in fact they really are massive sloughs. Also, frequent exercise will give you more energy throughout the day, and (even though I hate to recommend it to someone) caffeine can give you... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 2:09 PM on August 26, 2008

I'd say it depends on what your attitude is already. If you're a very calm, slow-talking, mellow person with patients and you're posting about how you kicked ass in the rugby game over the weekend, that'd be a little bit strange, and I'd feel a little uncomfortable in person after having read it. On the other hand, I'm fully expecting to come across my doctor's blog detailing his exploits on the dirtbike course and how he flew 20 feet in the air, through a barbed-wire fence and into a blackberry... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 2:05 PM on August 26, 2008

While I am not a world class sprinter, this seems untrue just by going outside and taking giant bouncy steps.

The best way to think about sprinting is as gliding as closely to the ground as possible without touching it. When your foot is down, its stationary. You don't want that. You want to have the shortest, hardest burst against the ground as you can, and then you want to be back in the air. Sprinters (and other runners) train like hell to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 1:04 PM on August 25, 2008

Oops, didn't see that last one. They start off blocks because they want the most horizontal acceleration possible. The first few steps are very powerful because your quads can direct most of their force backwards. Starting off of blocks well is incredibly difficult, and requires a massive amount of strength to not just fall on your face. The spikes keep them from slipping backwards when they run.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 1:07 PM on August 25, 2008

Note the placement of the spikes.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 1:10 PM on August 25, 2008

Yes, the spikes provide more than enough friction on a track. Its incredibly hard to run bent over, even though you get the most explosive power that way, and I imagine after you get some speed you get more acceleration from the upright posture rather than bent over.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 1:57 PM on August 25, 2008

Just do it in one go. I5 is mellow up until Eugene OR, which will be the bulk of your trip. If you really want to split it up, Ashland in southern OR is a rather safe place to stay (and beautiful), as well as Corvallis in mid OR (which is off the freeway, but only by 20 mins or so). Make sure you take 205 around Portland, because I5 through Portland is very unpleasant. I've done Portland <> the bay a number of times, both spending the night & not, and I've never once had a problem (though I... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 6:04 PM on August 24, 2008 marked best answer

Also, Oregonians have a tendency to pass on the right. Most of our freeways are two lanes with a lot of truck traffic, so the left lane isn't especially fast, and people going fast don't necessarily wait for you to pull back into the right lane. Just something to watch out for. It apparently throws a decent number of out of state drivers.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 6:11 PM on August 24, 2008 marked best answer

This happens to me too. I got it somewhat figured out on my phone, and it was indeed that I had people in my area code without the 1. When they texted me & I replied, it worked fine, but when I tried texting them without the 1 (there wasn't a 1 when it came in, though) it would fail. I've only noticed this problem with AT&T -> Verizon, but I also haven't really dug into it. The problem's happened with a number of people in my area code, no one outside.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 8:41 PM on August 22, 2008

As someone who doesn't live in the city but in the bay, the stereotypes I hear are: Sunset is trendy in the I-banker sense (and definitely beautiful), Mission is trendy in the 'have-money-but-don't-want-to' sense, and I've only ever heard of Richmond in the 'I-can't-afford-the-Sunset' sense. These are the impressions I get from recent college grads who now live or work somewhere in SF, and are likely horrible stereotypes.

But seriously, you have to walk around the areas... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 9:32 PM on August 20, 2008

An engineering grad that I knew last year faced a similar question (she was actually deciding between a masters program & law), & she ended up loving law school. She's planning on doing biotech IP stuff, and says that while the first bit of law school is useless for that, it's interesting stuff, and a good change of pace from engineering courses.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 9:04 AM on August 17, 2008

I took a Calc AB course my senior year in high school, took the Calc BC exam and got a 4 on it, which is good enough for credit almost anywhere. I spent maybe a week beforehand cramming the extra stuff (its basically just Taylor series & a few misc topics). If you understand the Calc AB material, you'll have no trouble.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 8:53 AM on August 17, 2008

FWIW, from Wikipedia (and this is my recollection as well):

AP Calculus BC includes all of the topics covered in AP Calculus AB, as well as convergence tests for series, Taylor and/or Maclaurin series, the use of parametric equations, polar functions, including arc length in polar coordinates, calculating curve length in parametric and function (y = f(x)) equations, L'Hôpital's rule, integration by parts, improper integrals, Euler's method, differential... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 9:01 AM on August 17, 2008

Seconding the Harvard SPL atlas that demiurge pointed out. Also, I don't know how Slicer3 is now, but last year it was very buggy. Slicer2 takes some getting used to but its not bad at all. I found MRIcro rather painful to use.

We used BrainStorm in a first-year neuroanatomy course, and it was alright. I found a book-format atlas was far more useful, since you go through slice by slice. This is especially important for brainstem nuclei, since they come & go at very... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 1:11 PM on August 13, 2008

Hm, actually, BrainStorm appears to be the slices one. There was another Java one that we used too, which I can't find now.. I'll get back to you if I remember it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 1:17 PM on August 13, 2008

Normal, but it's a serious indicator. Back off, run/walk for a while, don't do the 3 full miles. Running often just hurts, but in very specific ways. If you keep doing this, you're going to injure yourself before you even really get started (and it may not even be this - this is just a sign that you're starting too fast).
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 12:12 AM on August 13, 2008 marked best answer

Also, make sure you're stretching before & after, but AFTER you warm up lightly. Stretching cold can tweak muscles & joints out like this too. Also, re the 'just hurts' line, it's fine for muscles to feel tight towards the end of or after your runs, and its normal to have a bit of joint or muscle stuff weirdness in the first few minutes of your run as you warm up, but the majority of your run should feel comfortable. Several books I've read have had claims along the lines of "you... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 12:17 AM on August 13, 2008 marked best answer

Stretching is a waste of time. Cavemen didn't stretch, people who live in indigenous regions don't stretch- and they run faster and longer than you or me- on bare feet.

I really hope I just missed massive sarcasm here. But in case I didn't, there are several things at work here: one, they grew up running, so have the skill and the training to not injure themselves, two, they were running on dirt, not concrete, and three, I'm sure plenty of them did... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 12:27 PM on August 13, 2008

Most banks offer free checking, so you should be able to keep checks around. I personally find checks an extremely handy way of paying people back, since I almost never keep much cash on me. Switching to online billpay is quite nice.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 8:03 PM on August 12, 2008

Yeah, it's really not the new neurons that do a lot for you. It's the new connections between existing neurons that actually make stuff work, along with neural plasticity to smooth out any major problems you encounter (or any major changes you make). I wouldn't worry too much about specific foods. Your brain is one of your body's highest priorities.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 7:58 PM on August 12, 2008

Many countries have Olympic feeds, right? Is it somehow possible to get it from one of these countries instead?

And seriously, I'd buy DVD sets of the last couple Olympics. They cut out so many of the events I want to see (and specific athletes I want to see) that the network coverage is next to worthless.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 7:51 PM on August 12, 2008

I can't find it, but I remember a (clearly math-favoring) quote along the lines of, "One should study enough to understand their surroundings: biology for how life exists, physics for why things change, astronomy for where we are in the universe, literature for who we are on earth, philosophy for why we are here, and finally math, for making it all irrelevant."

If you agree, its not a bad list. The version I heard left out chemistry / psych... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 7:32 PM on August 11, 2008

If you do want to enter all the information by hand, a database (even Access, I think) would do this quite well. There are two ways to do it.. you can have one row per topic with a comma or space separated (if you space separate, you can remove all the spaces from the tags before you put them in/retrieve them with relatively few collisions), or you can have one topic/keyword pair per row. You'd use full-text search on the first one (I think Access has this), and a normal query on the second one.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 1:35 PM on August 11, 2008

(This would also be trivially easy to implement with a perl script & a flat file, and that would make it web-accessable. If you don't find an existing solution, MeFi mail me and we'll whip something up.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 1:38 PM on August 11, 2008

Genome visualization. My hs bio classroom had a huge poster (maybe 15ft) of a microarray of a wheat gene. That was pretty cool too.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 9:22 PM on August 10, 2008

At our local public library non-catalog terminals have to be logged into with the library card # and regular online records pin. With that & logs it'd be trivial. Sucks, but that's the system we have (and have had since the systems were installed in ~ 2001).
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 6:07 PM on August 10, 2008

Nitpick yort, but the force of drag varies directly with velocity (for a given coefficient), so it would take longer to reach terminal velocity than the 3 seconds accelerating at 9.8m/s^2, and thus have to be dropped from higher than 150'. But its probably as good an estimate as any for thinking about the impact

My guess is that depending on how your house was framed & where it happened to hit, it'd either go through the roof and end up in... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 12:09 AM on August 8, 2008

One more for that's just now he is. I hate talking on the phone. Calling people is just stressful, regardless of how I feel about them. Give it some more time, bring it up gently, etc. If things seem good when you're together, I wouldn't worry too much.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 5:59 PM on August 6, 2008

Mantises are seriously amazing, and some species lay so many eggs you'd have no trouble getting massive amounts for cheap.
posted to Ask Metafilter by devilsbrigade at 12:52 PM on August 6, 2008