I think one of the key points you're missing is how critical the internet has been in lowering the barrier to entry for these instant, psuedo-lebrities.

Consider that we had no real medium or mechanism for instantly publishing video to any actual audience. The best you could hope for was a human interest or bizarre news story to get picked up nationally and even then, exposure would be limited at best.

Memes were really birthed and distributed... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 2:04 PM on July 25, 2008

Ooh, Clara Peller is a good one. But not unwitting. She was an actress. While the response to that medium (an advertisement) was disproportionate, it was still a meme spread by wide TV exposure. And in reality, a commercial would be just about the widest exposure you could hope for. Large distribution, repeated showings, et cetera.

Also, remember that no one would've cared about someone practicing Star Wars moves in their garage before. Meme creation and proliferation... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 2:07 PM on July 25, 2008

I give my dog room temperature water because our tap water is warm during the summer. Sometimes I put ice in it. He drinks it just the same. He's thirsty. I think room temperature means he can drink it faster, without getting brain freeze. (Which you'll notice happens because they keep licking, to try to stop it.)

Honestly, I don't think he has a preference, but pet owners love to project preferences like that.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 10:06 PM on July 24, 2008

Oh dude, you're so going to get flagged for using an affiliate link in a post. Even if it's not yours.

It's obvious for fakesies: Something Awful muses about it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 3:02 PM on July 24, 2008

You're going to want the DualHead2Go.

Make sure you get the Digital Edition if you plan on using widescreen monitors. Otherwise, sadness will ensue as it downscales.

I use one every day, and I wrote up a full review on it here which covers some of the things you need to be aware of.

Do NOT do the USB route. That will make you very angry.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:15 AM on July 24, 2008

Networking is the way to go here. You do need to have your own site; eat-your-own-dog-food essentially in that a web designer without a website is a red flag.

But past that, hit up small business networking groups and consider cold calling some. You'd be surprised how receptive companies can be, especially if they're new (read: freshly published in the legal briefings section of the newspaper and clearly in need of a website) or if they know their site sucks.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:57 AM on July 22, 2008 marked best answer

Uncov was a blog about terrible web services.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:16 PM on July 15, 2008

A lot of time, media keys likes that are actually handled by a separate program. Windows has support for handling them on their own, but if your computer came with something that processes them/allows you to configure them yourself, if that process isn't running, they'll (wait for it) fall of deaf ears.

Try a full reboot (actually shut down and restart) and see what happens. Still, the fact that your volume keys are working is a bit strange...
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 11:06 AM on July 15, 2008 marked best answer

Is there some particular reason why you don't want to order them online?
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 6:13 AM on July 13, 2008

For what it's worth, I just flashed my K800 because the Java version on it wasn't working with GMail or Google Maps, two amazingly nice tools to have, especially since I don't pay for a data plan, since TMobile has free GPRS.

You're looking for this: AT&T Answer Center.

It's set for the W810, but follow those instructions and they should work for you. (T-Mobile has a Wireless Configurator that actually OTA-sends the config settings straight... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 5:53 AM on July 13, 2008

What you need isn't a degree. A degree in "multimedia design" doesn't mean anything to me, or any other serious creative house. What you need is experience, a body of work that's pretty damn nice and a passion that you demonstrate by building things just for fun, researching what's new and edgy, and clearly taking the initiative to learn on your own and continue to do so.

We hire people almost entirely based on what we perceive are their ability to learn and... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:35 AM on July 10, 2008

Yeah, definitely not. Hashes are (ideally, generally) one-way. It can't "undo" the hash and then redo it as another SHA; to do so would represent a huge fail in the hash.

Nicwolff's suggestion is a good one. It's not a great idea, but you can just "double-hash" the input for legacy passwords to get the input into the state that your passwords will now be stored as.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 5:24 PM on July 7, 2008

Clearly, we need to compile a gallery of people manipulating their animals to see if they work their computer's trackpads. We'll call it... pawpads.com or something that's available...
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:29 AM on July 7, 2008

Yeah, negative ghostrider.

AVG doesn't know where your files came from. Consider: your *operating system* doesn't even know the source of your files; the program that created a file isn't stored in a file's metadata at all. It *does* know when it was created and modified and who the owner is.

Chances are, it's either P2P software, hacky exploits through an unpatched browser and porn or P2P websites, other shady websites, or a separate piece of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 1:07 AM on July 6, 2008

Oh man, I was about to previously with my post but gnomeloaf beat me to it. Lame.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 10:25 PM on July 1, 2008

R-Studio NTFS has hacked away at drives I thought were completely toast and found data for me, despite its wildly fux0red partition tables. Good luck.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 11:37 PM on June 29, 2008 marked best answer

If you're staying in the Gaslamp Quarter, you don't really need to bounce around much since there's so much to do there.

I'm guessing it'll be packed next weekend, but great fun anyway.

Walk up and down the streets in the Quarter. There are several cool cigar bars and a hookah bar called Fumari, if you're down for that sort of thing.

There are plenty of restaurants and stuff; check the LobsterMitten thread for that stuff.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:45 AM on June 29, 2008

Check out Fossil Creek, above Strawberry.

Strawberry itself is about 1:45/90 miles out of Phoenix. Hit the 87 and head East until you drive through Payson, keep on it through Pine (which is a cute little town with some neat places with ice cream and stuff) and then a bit higher and further up is Strawberry, much smaller, but with a couple places to grab some food, like Mogollon Steakhouse, right before the "town" proper, on the left. Turn left on Fossil Creed... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 3:09 PM on June 27, 2008 marked best answer

Google Docs?
Zoho?
Others?
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 9:39 AM on June 27, 2008

MyBlogLog?
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 1:04 AM on June 26, 2008

Um, some of the Bellagio's suites in the Spa Tower are absolutely huge; two+ bedrooms... But they're probably *too* big for you; they have a giant conference-type room and an enormous living room...
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 9:34 PM on June 23, 2008

Hm... So, you know, not to be the first to say chatfilter, but um, chatfilter.

That said, you know that in some existentialist, abstract way, we're all just cells and synapses. If we truly grasped where consciousness and the theory of "self" came from, I think we'd be a lot closer to achieving... I don't know, a lot more.

To say nothing of nature versus nurture, your question manages to span both the micro and the macro. It's not enough... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 2:23 AM on June 23, 2008

Concur. You're definitely free and clear for painting your own and keeping it yourself. Selling it would be a no-no.

(In what scenario do you imagine someone would be able to enforce a law prohibiting you from reproducing someone else's artwork and displaying it in your own home? Fortunately, we're not quite a 1984 society, yet. ;-)
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 8:33 PM on June 22, 2008

Dammit, now I need to find SimCity 4.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:07 PM on June 22, 2008

Um, Effigy2000—You asked and answered your own question. You can't patent something and keep it a secret. They're mutually exclusive. That's why you often see companies hold off on patenting something, opting instead to stick with the "trade secret" route. Further, how would you know if you were violating someone else's patent if it were kept a secret? It wouldn't be enforceable.

The idea holds that, even though the patent may protect you... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 2:05 AM on June 22, 2008

Um, the Zen Vision:M *does* have a built in mic. Just go to "microphone" on the main page.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 11:59 AM on June 16, 2008

Craigslist. Srsly.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:10 AM on June 15, 2008

With digital cameras nowadays one of the most important considerations is sensor size—the size of the sensor onto which the megapixels are crammed determines how much light gets appropriated to each of those pixels. Merely cranking up the MP isn't automatic awesome quality.

That said, point-and-shoots aren't known for lavish sensor sizes. Shutter speed and ISO ("noise", but really, sensor-sensitivity to light, formerly "film speed") do affect the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:09 AM on June 15, 2008

Some history on the jump.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 9:24 AM on June 11, 2008

For what it's worth, I think it was Mussolini who made the trains run on time... ;-)
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:31 PM on June 6, 2008

I'm the last person who should be answering this, but I'll relay my recent experience.

I was at a piano bar (on a cruise ship, actually) and noticed the girl across the piano kinda staring at me. She was cute, so we made eye contact a few times, while I worked feverishly in my head to determine if she was, in fact, looking at me. This does not happen often. It's not that I'm woefully unattractive, but I am slightly overweight and don't really get out... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:05 PM on June 6, 2008

You'll definitely want to avoid .net/.org. That's bad ju-ju when you're building a small business—you're lucky enough if people can spell your name right. Don't create a confusion vector by potentially driving traffic to a .com.

Domain naming is one of those ridiculous things. I shot around about three dozen names and terms and then got into science/biological terms...

The two it came down to were Diffusion Media and Synapse Studios. Guess who... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 10:40 AM on June 5, 2008 marked best answer

Glad I could help. :-)
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 3:09 PM on June 5, 2008

Yeah, that's definitely Blue-able.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:56 PM on June 5, 2008

Um.

I run a small software development services company.

This isn't that hard, unless I'm missing something crazy:

Workstation & Monitors: $1,400 (Quad-Core 2.8GHz, 4GB RAM, 512 GeForce 8800, 2x20.1" Widescreen Flat Dell LCDs)
Chair: $150
Desks: $250 (Ikea style.)
IDE License: $400
Business Cards: $250
Phone Service: $50/mo. (Cell phones; we pay $30/mo.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 2:28 PM on June 4, 2008

(We also blog about our challenges and basically everything we do and discover on our site, if you didn't see it.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 2:30 PM on June 4, 2008

Yeah, asking something simple like "what color is the sky" really helps with that. It's a two-step process, but it's a pretty darn effective one.

Also: blocking everything from Russia. :-p
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 10:03 AM on June 3, 2008

Also, don't forget that Your Eyes Suck At Blue.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 8:07 PM on June 1, 2008

Um, for what it's worth, you can still keep source code private with PHP. You can't, however, use it for a standalone app. (Just because the language itself is open source doesn't mean the code you write in said language is.)

C# is probably what you're looking for. Other, smarter people will be commenting to some effect, I imagine. Portability is a problem, though.

Java is platform agnostic but can still be relatively slow. It is pretty damn... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 1:17 PM on May 31, 2008

Remember that custom function menus only show up in certain modes; Tv/Av/M/P/etc, not the sports or portrait or what-have-you modes.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 1:45 AM on May 31, 2008

Self-link: My company started up a web development blog you might find interesting.

For food in general, Tastespotting is great. Just pictures.

And for tech startups and stuff, TechCrunch is the standard.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 10:31 AM on May 30, 2008

You may consider reporting the gaff to the credit card companies for each individual compromised card if the numbers are so small. It's in fact necessary to reduce liability to have them cancel the cards based on the information you provide, if it's able to be corroborated, as contacting the victims may be difficult to do reliably or in a manner in which there is no lag to them canceling the cards themselves.

Prepare a statement explaining why this won't happen again.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 9:10 AM on May 30, 2008

Everything2 covered this briefly.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 6:27 PM on May 26, 2008

Situations where programs fail only in extreme cases are typically based around edge cases or corner cases.

While programmers always attempt to test for a significant amount of edge and corner cases, sometimes either a case isn't considered or thought of. Sometimes, the environment necessary to trigger a given corner case may be so obfuscated, an engineer might not stumble upon it throughout their testing at any point and thus not consider it.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 3:39 AM on May 26, 2008

Kayak.com offers a powerful flight comparison engine.

You'll need your passports, naturally, and customs will be a bit annoying and you'll probably have to submit to the US VISIT so be prepared to be photographed and fingerprinted.

You'll need voltage adapters as well. Note that most AC adapter devices are dual-voltage and can be used on 220 or 110, but you'll need to check to make sure that it can take both inputs and further, you'll need an... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 1:09 PM on May 25, 2008

For hotels, I go almost exclusively the Priceline.com route. You can name your own price and almost always get about half off. You can limit things to a specific part of town and you can restrict the star level to ensure that you're not put up in a Motel 6. It's rather great for that. If you don't get the price you'd like, often you'll get a counter-offer, or can rebid in 24 hours. It's the way to go, really.

Kayak DOES list American Airlines prices, btw, but no, not... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 1:34 PM on May 25, 2008

The Rebel XTi really is impressive. And you may see its prices come down because of the newly available XSi.

Photos of mine taken with the XTi and a 28-135mm IS/USM
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 9:49 AM on May 21, 2008

Fibber, thanks for the advice.

Unfortunately, I bought the piece from out of state and it was shipped as just the flat piece of masonite, so the artist isn't able to help at this point... and repainting over nail heads might pose a bit of a problem, but I'll see what I can do.

Looks like I have an arts and craft project ahead of me... Though I'd rather pay someone to get it done right...

It's 4'x3', btw.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 10:07 AM on May 16, 2008

Notes on your cell phone?

Text an AIM client sitting elsewhere?

Any phone with SMS supports AIM over SMS now.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 3:55 AM on April 24, 2008

Also beware that it'll be a bitch to read any sort of screen if you're wearing polarized lenses, like, perhaps, on an MP3 player. And that you'll see some crazy chromatic abnormalities if you look through tinted glass.
posted to Ask Metafilter by disillusioned at 12:36 AM on April 22, 2008