The contraction is so small that it requires context to ensure a listener understands it. "Eyem" is a weird sound on its own and because it's been used with context as part of a longer sentence, no one expects to hear that particular sound on its own, so they spend a good few seconds trying to figure out what you said and then MAYBE realizing you "improperly" used a contraction.

Can't stands alone because it's far less ambiguous because of the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 1:00 PM on October 12, 2008

Why on earth would it matter if it was night?
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 1:50 AM on October 12, 2008

My great grandmother kept Mother's oatmeal cookies on her refrigerator. They were always a source of comfort and had a very distinct taste to them. I later discovered the frosted version, and the pink and white circus animals as well. This is a dark day.
posted to MetaFilter by disillusioned at 3:16 PM on October 10, 2008

I just got back from Safeway with $26 worth of Mothers... 2 iced oatmeals, 2 circus animals, 1 regular oatmeal and a lemonade iced pack.

There was a sign saying "as of October 7th, we will no longer be selling Mother's Cookies."

Sigh.
posted to MetaFilter by disillusioned at 3:00 PM on October 11, 2008

Tkolar is a bit tin-foil hat. There are a lot of things broken right now, especially with the credit markets and everything, but intrinsic values of companies are NOT dropping with their stock prices; there might be some correction due and some speculation looking forward, but while Apple may not be "worth" $185 a share, it's also definitely not "worth" $84 a share.

This is by way of saying that Warren Buffet's line of "be greedy when other's are... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 6:01 PM on October 10, 2008

My aunt sent out a similar piece. My uncle (her brother) responded with a rather personal attack back on her, talking down to her as a "bleeding heart" liberal and explaining why she wasn't thinking right.

I wrote back with actual facts and such. My personal opinion is that if you're not using BCC (put the email in damn parens, Christ), you're open to whatever. If the other person is an ass about how they respond, or if they attack you directly, that might be a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 4:24 PM on October 10, 2008

solipsophistocracy: Could just be basic A-B testing, and you got randomly picked on IE and FF. It's showing up in all three for me, both logged in and not.

I'm guessing it's not an even split, though, but who knows.
posted to MetaTalk by disillusioned at 12:14 PM on October 10, 2008

That link by SNWidget mentions it, but definitely don't forget fonts if you're a designer or every use Photoshop.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 8:49 PM on October 9, 2008 marked best answer

I'm eterenally grateful that MeTa provides a place for people to provide for us a window into how the world would be if they could have their way.

It allows me to keep things in balance and in check, while recalling the reason why silly things like freedom of speech are of such a mind-boggling degree of importance.

Much as you're allowed to kvetch about our incessant use of FTW, we're allowed to incessantly use it. It's what keeps the wheels... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by disillusioned at 11:53 AM on October 8, 2008

I've been asked this question by several people who seem to think I might know, with my only qualification being that I'm the only person they know who reads The Economist.

That said, clearly mutant or Wikipedia will be better suited, but I'd like to try a stab at an explanation of the crisis as I understand it.

Caveats: I'm a 23-year-old college dropout with absolutely no financial education under my belt but with an active interest in the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 4:19 AM on October 8, 2008

Yeah, xxxxxxxxxx@tmomail.net is T-Mobile's. Use it for the exact same thing.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 7:09 PM on October 6, 2008

I wouldn't bother with a fresh paint job or anything. Clean, have it waxed and buffed and such, clean the interior really nicely and kill detail it if there are any stains.

If there are any oil leaks, that's a big deal that will keep me from buying. Aside from that, check eBay, craigslist and KBB and see what similar cars are going for, but your mileage needs to be emphasized like crazy.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 3:00 PM on October 6, 2008

Hrm... I would think you'd need to focus on changing the content's color itself, either within Acrobat or in another application.

I actually don't have a professional edition of Acrobat anywhere, but you should definitely be able to select editable regions and change their color.

This should let them print even in the absence of a black cartridge, but some printers throw a fit.

As for simply telling the printer to use... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 1:49 AM on October 4, 2008

If you've got Photoshop, you'll definitely be able to open PDFs in it, and then use Image -> Hue/Saturation to change the color on the entire image, and even print from PS or export as a saved PDF.

Cheers!
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 2:59 AM on October 4, 2008

In fact, because of the ketones, dogs can be trained to let their owners know when their blood sugar drops. It's true! (And kinda crazy, if you ask me.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 1:53 AM on October 3, 2008

Not as geeky, but I ran a contest for Threadless-themed cakes: Threadcakes!

Some of which were wildly impressive, actually. Mmmm, cake.
posted to MetaFilter by disillusioned at 8:12 PM on October 2, 2008

And circle gets the square.

Just one opinion, apparently.

Linked to from Nintendo Wii Fanboy.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 1:38 AM on October 2, 2008

Absolutely no problems with this at all.

XP and Vista both allow you to make a drive B:. (Start --> Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Computer Management --> Storage --> Disk Management --> Right click on a share --> Change drive letters & paths)

They wouldn't let you do this if it would royally screw something up. It's just archaic like you described; C: became the de facto boot drive, so MS figured that... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 6:44 PM on September 29, 2008

Yeah, for what it's worth, there was a GREAT deal of difference between the generic Elocon and the brand name. It's a topical corticosteroid that I use for a skin condition, but the vehicle that the generic was based in was terrible. It was necessary that I pay 4 times for the brand name because of this. The core active ingredient is identical, but man...

I'd be more interested in cases where the "brand" name FAR outweight the "generic" in terms of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 6:12 PM on September 29, 2008

Yeah, you'll definitely be able to get more than 100 channels. I have a TiVo HD that goes up to the 700s, since I get HD over it, but even before that, with a normal S2, it's capable of going up and over 100. I love TiVo, frankly, because I hear other boxes crash, fast forwarding and rewinding is cludgy (they don't do the auto-bounceback that TiVo does), the interface is balls and basically, they flat out miss shows some time.

Plus, TiVo HD at least, can play YouTube... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:23 PM on September 29, 2008

I've never tried the speed-dating scene.

I have tried the online dating thing, however, to varying degrees of success, and with the same net outcome: a variety of women.

I tried the MySpace/CL route a bit, because I learned pretty early on that my personality plays out pretty well over IM. It's dramatically helps reduce the first-time-speaking-to-you jitters, since it's a relatively non-committal medium, and since the conversation doesn't need to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:21 AM on September 29, 2008

For what it's worth, if your office switched over such that they use Google Apps for your Domain, you can remain logged into both GMail and AFYD at the same time. You can also download use Digsby as your chat client; it works with GTalk.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 11:40 PM on September 28, 2008

(Which is to say you can log into multiple accounts on multiple services. Trillian works the same way, though I'm using an alpha and not sure what the latest free build offers.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 11:42 PM on September 28, 2008

Yeah, always remember to delete the camera's onboard memory as well, if your camera has some.

In what few cases that have arisen myself, it's very much a quick matter of "immediately off the camera, into a far separate directory than my primary photos, format card".

And I have a dSLR with no onboard, so no worries there.

But there's nothing you're going to want to do approach wise. Don't bring it up, act normal,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 1:00 AM on September 26, 2008

I'm going to level that I *don't* think he left himself logged in. Forgetting to click logout is a common thing, especially when you never do it on your computer at home.

That said, this is definitely a "softening the blow, saving face" line. He probably actually thinks NONE of those things about you. In fact, he's probably still ridiculously into you and infatuated with you and frustrated that nothing will happen and so when his friend asks about it, he takes... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 10:55 PM on September 25, 2008

If you buy at least a tri-band (850, 900, 1900MHz) phone, it will work anywhere that takes GSM. Verizon is CDMA, which is, to say, incompatible with GSM.

However, T-Mobile and AT&T are GSM, so tri- or quad-band phones from them work ANYwhere. I stepped off the plane in Germany, and the phone just worked. ($1/minute, but still, worked.) Also worked in St. Maarten, Spain, Portugal and Italy. And Taiwan.

Point being, you're probably going to hit... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:21 AM on September 24, 2008

Yeah, it certainly depends on her connection speed, but streaming music is relatively lightweight. (Even streaming video isn't too bad.)

If you start torrenting, you need to make sure that you cap your upstream at, say, 20KB. Reason being, if a connection only offers 50KB of upload speed, the torrent will use every last drop of that. When that happens, even simple requests to load web pages (which need to go out and talk to the server, briefly) need to get in line behind... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 9:32 AM on September 23, 2008

Almost certainly, this is going to be a no-go for you. TBS and Fox won't rebroadcast the games online for much the same reason that MLB.TV blacks you out when you're in a region that can view the game on TV. (Or, as I tragically learned two weeks ago, in a region where the game's TV rights have been PURCHASED, even though they aren't BROADCASTING. Thanks, that was $20 well spent, asses.)

On the plus side, if you want to enter into a self-blackout, you can watch the games... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:30 AM on September 23, 2008

Oh, shit, duh, you can also probably get someone to help you with Orb, which is like... software-based slingbox and/or free-ish.

Because, you know, I'm not a complete idiot.

(But this requires someone with access to the root broadcast helping you out.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:56 AM on September 23, 2008

This will end well...

note: Everyone needs a hug.
posted to MetaTalk by disillusioned at 2:17 AM on September 21, 2008

I haven't really followed Chris Elliot much, but he's pretty hilarious. The David Letterman bit is where it starts to get good.

Eggers looks like he really hates having to speak to crowds when he's introducing him. And I half-expected the meandering, dry wit of, say, the copyright pages of vols. 1-4 of McSweeneys. But that alone would take the full half-hour, so it's probably best he just stuttered through his bit.
posted to MetaFilter by disillusioned at 1:58 AM on September 21, 2008

Right, this was my contention: she's the one paying for the child's upbringing right now, you don't get money just because you have a child, for the hell of it. Further, there wouldn't be reciprocal child support, because that just wouldn't make sense.

This guy clearly is a complete idiot; he's proven that any number of ways, but it's impressive nonetheless. (He told her "well, I completed the form, but I don't think you're going to like the results"; initially... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 4:10 PM on September 16, 2008

That's basically what I thought; something else is that he's become a "full-time student" so that he can effectively list his wages as $0. She is NOT a student, so he's listing her as earning minimum wage, because in his bizarre head, opportunity cost can be billed against the custodial parent.

I guess they technically have joint custody, except that again, the child lives with her, and only visits him every other weekend. Except, not him, since he doesn't live... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 7:06 PM on September 16, 2008

Right, you can't arbitrarily prefer that pages not be indexed because they trigger certain keyword results; moreso in this case, as the resource that "wins" serves to *refute* the keywords in question. If I had heard a similar rumor and wanted to see if anyone was mentioning it, why wouldn't we want Ask MeFi as a top result, where the page serves to refute the rumor?
posted to MetaTalk by disillusioned at 1:08 PM on September 14, 2008

Sex is one of those complicated, terribly intriguing things we can do. There are dozens of variables and everyone has different preferences and you basically work as a team with someone else who approaches it completely differently.

It's easy to get in your head about everything involved. I actually have talked through a lot with most of the girls I've been with beforehand. Usually, we talk online, and I gleam a lot of information from that in order to better understand... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 1:57 PM on September 13, 2008

It's definitely not a flattering photo, but it seems underhanded and shady to me to purposefully deliver something less than your best merely because you have differing politics. If that issue is frustrating enough for you, don't take the gig.

It really feels like it cheapens the professionalism, but I suppose that's her personal call to make. She's ridiculously snarky for someone who lit a shot "poorly". Like she's going to fight the man from the inside here... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by disillusioned at 1:56 AM on September 13, 2008

Um, buyer beware, I've heard you're limited to SIX MINUTES of video recording time on said new Nikon. So, yeah.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 10:05 PM on September 12, 2008

Thanks guys. Yeah, definitely needing some more mixing work, though.

/wishes he had a MBP with GB...
posted to MeFi Music by disillusioned at 2:11 AM on September 10, 2008

Something like this might work for you?
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 1:49 PM on September 8, 2008

Half-Life was just about the first game I ever played that actually scared me. Crawling through a vent with the lights off and surround sound and having a headcrab jump out at me... oh god. There were so many things done perfectly right in this game, from the pacing to the level design to the problem solving components to the environments and storyline. I love Valve even more today for TF2 & Portal, frankly. They continue to impress on all cylinders by putting out games they truly pour their... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by disillusioned at 12:52 AM on September 8, 2008

I've got to think that TSA agents are looking for far too many important things that checking an individual watch TYPE ranks at all. I have a large, black watch that actually has bluetooth in it and a lithium ion battery and no one has even looked at it. Remember, your watch goes through the x-ray machine... where it's very difficult/impossible for them to "type" it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 5:09 AM on September 6, 2008

Services like YouTube have a pretty complicated content delivery network. These typically replicate content to be closer to the users in the nodes that are demanding it.

If you're one of the first in your "area" to be requesting a video, and it's not in cache near your node, up the stream it goes as it finds some place to deliver it to. If it's not in memory and you actually have to do a read from disk, this will take even longer for you.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 8:51 PM on September 5, 2008

Erm...

Besides the obvious recommendation of Viagra (which can help, I've heard, though haven't tried it myself)... does he otherwise deign to service you? There are other ways he can make it fulfilling, I would hope.

Unfortunately, there's nothing you can really do to suddenly make him attractive to you. The girls I've dated who were less physically attractive to me at the onset of the relationship became moreso because of how attracted I grew... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 2:11 PM on September 3, 2008

Use Mint to track all of your expenses. A service like this is very helpful in that you can import ALL of your accounts (safely, through something called Yodlee, which the banks use for account aggregation) and have it automatically sort and assign categories and have it fabricate budgets for you and such.

Seeing your spending on paper and tracking your history is very helpful.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 8:09 PM on September 1, 2008

Sure. You can get spambotted a bunch. And responding to posts by girls is useless; they get hundreds, mostly cock photos, and quickly grow discouraged. It's a bad scene on that side.

I've dated a girl from CL. She was actually incredibly attractive (and clean!) and my first reaction was "what is wrong with her?" Her line, and one I've heard before that actually makes sense, was simply that she was looking through guy postings for comic relief. Most of the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 1:50 AM on August 29, 2008

Frankly, and this will sound terribly insensitive, I'm sure, but I don't see how a company no longer has the right to refuse service, effectively, or to simply not spend money making something "compliant" for a percentage of the population that would not recoup those costs for them.

If I don't want to target the blind market and I don't care that the blind can't do business with me, who are you to force me to do business with anyone? Especially, and most... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by disillusioned at 8:42 PM on August 27, 2008

Asparagirl, I think that it comes down to the "privileged space" argument.

I think that something like ADA is necessary to ensure that disabled people have access to the basic necessities of life and the aforementioned "right to live independent, productive lives."

I don't think that extends to a space that, as BrnP84 mentioned, somewhat... untactfully, even the poor (read: other "unprotected" classes) don't have... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by disillusioned at 1:33 AM on August 28, 2008

@Talez: That's the issue: No one wants to pay attention to the practicalities or costs involved. Saying "a screen reader isn't going to be able to analyze a picture" is bullshit. This is the future we're living in and what better way to ensure EVERY SINGLE WEBSITE is available than by focusing on building a better mousetrap, and solving the problem on the smaller side, instead of on the firehouse end.

Practicalities aside, no one has yet explained the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by disillusioned at 2:34 AM on August 28, 2008

Um, welcome to the world of LCD TVs. LCDs display best at their native resolution; anything lower and it's faking it, since the resolution is a physical limitation based on the number of pixels. Compared to a CRT, which can choose what size and how many pixels to actually draw.

That's why my CRT/rear-projection 54" HD TV renders old, crap 480 content just like it always did, and everything old looks like death on my friend's 42" LCD. It tries to upscale, but... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 4:20 PM on August 27, 2008

Skip Tucson. It's dry, dirty desert with few redeeming qualities (save a gorgeous college campus in U of A). While it actually meets several of your criteria, the artsy side is a bit on the smallish side and it's so brown. (I live in the Phoenix area. And haven't been thrilled with that face for the past 14 years...)
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 11:11 PM on August 26, 2008