I just did this. I too, was confused the abundance of options. Decided on Vista Media Center, and am more than pleased. I will describe my setup, point out its pros and cons, and you can see if you might like something like this.

HARDWARE:

Anything cheap will do. I bought a mobo with integrated sound/video/lan/etc, and it works. I threw the cheapest core 2 duo CPU I could find into it, and it decodes anything and everything just fine. You will... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 11:54 AM on October 2, 2008

Also, check out the mediacenter tag. Lots of good info there.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 12:12 PM on October 2, 2008

Ditto geoff.'s recommendation of having a LOT of spare time to do this. You will encounter the most absurd problems and spend a ton of time troubleshooting and researching to hunt down the solutions. If time is limited, maybe that Dell box is for you.

The quality of videos/DVDs you playback from a media center (assuming all else equal) will meet or exceed any upscaling DVD player, FYI.

As a clarification on one of geoff.'s points about Vista not... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 1:25 PM on October 2, 2008

You can certainly combine a PVR and media center, just not easily with digital protected cable. Do not overlook OTA HD. It really is impresive, and free. All the main channels (NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS, etc) if you're near a city.

If you're dead-set on digital cable, look into HDHomeRun, which lets you do it, but you have to buy the box.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 4:34 PM on October 2, 2008

OK, it sounds like you know a lot more about this city than I (only moved here a year ago), so whatever you suggest sounds good to me! My roommate is going to come too, so we have 4 already. Sweet.
posted to MetaTalk by lohmannn at 9:17 AM on September 15, 2008

OK, Surly Girl it is. I added the date to the meetup sidebar.
posted to MetaTalk by lohmannn at 5:38 AM on September 17, 2008

Woo! I also sent a message to codger who apparently used to, or used to try, organizing meetups here in columbus. Hopefully he'll join us.
posted to MetaTalk by lohmannn at 7:36 PM on September 18, 2008

Alright, I'll leave it up to you veterans.
posted to MetaTalk by lohmannn at 5:31 PM on September 19, 2008

OK, so, tentative start time of 7:38 at the Round Bar?

There is a small, but non-zero, chance that I will not be able to make it due to traveling for work. Right now I rate my chances of attending at 90%.
posted to MetaTalk by lohmannn at 9:54 PM on September 28, 2008

Hope your rental search went well! I just purchased a forclosed-on house for renting out and am in the process of fixing it up. It's a cool time to be in real estate around Columbus right now.

On another note, if you're interested in getting to know other mefites around the area, I'm hosting a meetup coming up in October! Hope to see you there!
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 7:30 PM on September 18, 2008

Thet Hauppauge ~1600 or ~1800 models will do exactly what you want: Allow you to watch OTA digital broadcasts, just like the converter boxes. All you need is an antenna. Don't be fooled by "HD" or "digital" antennae, they are all the same; so don't pay a premium for one. I have the 1600 model on my Vista Media Center box and it works perfectly. The quality of OTA HD is actually superior to the offerings from cable/satellite, as the signal is not compressed any further (you... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 9:16 AM on September 10, 2008 marked best answer

Suck it, gray.

I play on the server. That's all you need to know.
posted to MetaTalk by lohmannn at 2:06 PM on April 17, 2008

No discussion of old video games, especially NES, is complete without a link to

http://cinemassacre.com/Movies/Nes_Nerd.html
posted to MetaFilter by lohmannn at 9:59 AM on April 11, 2008

JZig, you are correct that 15 miles is no worse for your car than 40 miles. Of course it isn't, worse, it's better. This is a common misconception -- shorter trips are worse for your car in terms of MILES driven, not number of trips.

So for example, if you had to drive 100 miles and did it in one trip, this would be better for your car (less wear and tear) than if you stopped every twenty miles.

BUT, if you drive your car ten times over the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 8:29 AM on April 7, 2008

cgomez has it nailed. I also have a very similar setup: an always-on box running Media Center on top of vista (used windows xp media center edition before that). It's connected via VGA to my panasonic plasma tv, and via coaxial digital audio to my onkyo reciever, which handles the digital (dolby, dds) decoding. I also have a Hauppauge tv tuner card.

Works awesome for all the functions you list above. Occasional (1/week) problems with media center crashing that I still... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 6:12 AM on April 3, 2008

I can't find that song by PMG, and it's not the same as the one by Fat Joe. Hmm. Guess I'll have to wait for the OST, unless someone with better skillz than me can help.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 9:02 PM on March 28, 2008

I say "an mp3". For sure. I have never heard "a mp3".
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 6:36 AM on March 25, 2008

team fortress 2! join us!
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 9:29 AM on February 29, 2008

yes! buy team fortress 2, and join our team, which is called DTMFA!
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 6:08 AM on February 27, 2008

paramore
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 8:43 AM on February 26, 2008

avs forums, for sure. i had a similar experience to robbie01's.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 6:23 AM on February 26, 2008

Growing up on a horse farm, my sisters and I were forbidden to scream, "unless you broke all your arms and legs all at the same time". The reason being that it would spook the horses (my mom is a riding instructor), which could cause them to jump and knock off whatever pour soul happened to be on their back, causing real injury and possibly a lawsuit. So now it REALLY bothers me when I hear a scream because I heard it so seldom growing up, and only if somethin was really, really wrong.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 6:10 AM on February 25, 2008

someone needs to create one of these for pony requests on metatalk:

http://craphound.com/spamsolutions.txt
posted to MetaTalk by lohmannn at 8:58 AM on February 22, 2008

OK, yes, humans are animals. We get it. Why does everyone insist on pointing that out, given the most unlikely of opportunities. Not helpful, not answering the question.

I sometimes wonder this as well, like how does a dog know where my eyes are? Why does he assume that the two round spots on my face are my eyes, and not like, my ears or something?
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 7:47 AM on February 22, 2008

hex has it. save that as a .bat file, and you're good to go. I use that exact command to backup my documents every day.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 7:42 AM on February 22, 2008

GREAT question. This bugs me.

I keep my wallet as slim as possible, and when I'm walking around it's in my back right pocket.

I'm left-handed, so keys go in front left jacket pocket, and cell phone in front right jacket pocket.

As soon as I sit down, all three come out of my pockets and onto the table in front of me, stacked neatly to the side. I like to have my eye on them at all times.

If I... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 7:36 AM on February 22, 2008

Ahh, great! Thank you everyone for your answers. jeanmari, I figured there was something on wikipedia about it but I couldn't find anything.

So, is it wrong? What can I tell people who say this to prove I AM RIGHT YOU ARE WRONG. Not that I would ever do that. Of course not. Never.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 10:29 AM on February 21, 2008

The top of the wikipedia article should read:

This article or section needs wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 12:07 PM on February 21, 2008

what's the deal with everyone starting sentences with "yeah, no..."?
posted to MetaTalk by lohmannn at 6:35 AM on February 21, 2008

We had a lake growing up that would freeze over in the winter. My dad would always take a chisel and hammer down and break through the ice to determine how thick it was. First at the edge, then in the middle. I think you want at least 2-3" thickness.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 8:44 AM on February 20, 2008 marked best answer

Small point, but I think you are referring to "id3 tags", not "m3u tags". An m3u is a playlist, and id3 tag is a small header at the beginning of an MP3 that identifies it with things like artist, album, genre, etc.

I use winamp's "autotag" feature. It is, in a word, amazing. It will identify your song even if it is untitled, with no other information other then the structure of the file itself. Totally mind-blowing. I used it to tag over 15... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 6:47 AM on February 19, 2008

googling "darknet" will give you a lot. there are quite a few excellent essays out there on this topic, i would look around on Wired.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 11:24 AM on February 15, 2008

Flagged.
posted to MetaTalk by lohmannn at 11:50 AM on February 14, 2008

Paradoxically, I think reading a lot helps the most with this.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 10:30 AM on February 13, 2008

Nah, it was just "PI MAN, PIIIIIII hahahaha", while pointing and laughing and some poor chump who tripped and fell over, or said something really dumb. Maybe it was just made up, hrm.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 8:03 AM on February 13, 2008

Arrested Development!
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 8:18 AM on February 12, 2008 marked best answer

I suspect the power supply. Just run down to best buy or whatever and get a nice one (Antec is a great brand), and see if the problem goes away. If it does, problem solved. If it doesn't, return the new power supply and continue troubleshooting.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 1:44 PM on February 11, 2008

what would happen if you created an askme about that same askme, and put the (not-yet-existant) link back to the question, in the question?

does that make sense?
posted to MetaTalk by lohmannn at 12:26 PM on February 8, 2008

OH hai. You sound exactly like me, in my previous relationship. I was dating a girl 2 years younger (me 22 her 20), and she had big self-esteem problems, although not physical. Her father was an alcoholic and left the family. This made her crave attention (especially male), and constantly worry/paranoid that her friends/family/me were going to leave her or didn't like her anymore.

I thought I could handle it. I come from a very stable, supportive family so I thought I... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 11:38 AM on February 7, 2008

Dude, just spend less time dicking around on the internet.

Nah, I have this problem to. What helps me is to keep a todo list on my desktop, a simple text file, and I make myself look at it before I start doing anything. If there's something urgent or easy to do, I do it before I allow myself to start using the computer.

A kitchen timer works too, just set it for 30 mins or whatever and make yourself get up after it dings and do something productive.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 12:18 PM on February 6, 2008

I work for a company similar to the one you are describing. I also went through several rounds of interviews. It's really not as bad as you expect, at least for me it wasn't. They ask you questions about what you did in college, any notable projects you worked on. They will inquire about anything that stands out on your resume. You will be asked to describe any previous work experiences, especially it if is in the industry.

They also like to ask you what you like to work... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 10:47 AM on February 5, 2008

dude...cash. cash is the de facto payment method for private auto sales. i would refuse to accept anything else. i have bought and sold several cars privately and it's pretty much all i used. either that, or you BOTH go to the bank.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 7:07 AM on February 5, 2008

i'm in columbus, but might be convinced
posted to MetaTalk by lohmannn at 8:08 AM on February 4, 2008

If you are worried about the "last played" metadata, I think that is seperate from the file properties and would be unaffected by moving the files. Try it and see, though.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 1:37 PM on February 2, 2008 marked best answer

Maybe the file is corrupted
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 1:28 PM on January 30, 2008

the doom (1 and 2) soundtrack is similar i think, and also awesome
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 4:25 PM on January 29, 2008

uhh, if people can't fly, they will drive. across the country. and that produces more emissions then 1 flight.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 7:10 AM on January 28, 2008

knave -- you just proved my point. ALMOST as much. which means the longer the flight, the greater the fuel savings over driving. now i agree that flying from say...pittsburgh to columbus is a waste of fuel and causes more CO2 then driving (3 hour drive). but flying represents a co2 savings vs driving for long distances. and this does not include the increased traffic, and therefore emmissions, that would result if everyone who currently flys, starting driving.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 9:51 AM on January 28, 2008

i was also going to suggest cruft
posted to Ask Metafilter by lohmannn at 7:19 AM on January 24, 2008

ahh yes, here it is.

Your post advocates a

(x) technical ( ) legislative ( ) market-based ( ) vigilante

approach to fighting spam. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won't work. (One or more of the following may apply to your particular idea, and it may have other flaws which used to vary from state to state before a bad federal law was passed.)

(x) Spammers can easily use it to harvest email... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by lohmannn at 1:44 PM on January 23, 2008