Heh, you'll be fine. The components themselves have everything you need included, except maybe thermal grease for the processor fan. Get an extra packet/syringe of that if you're not sure. And you'll need a phillips head screwdriver. I went in to my first build cold and it's fairly easy. The instructions for the motherboard will feature diagrams of the various usb 'headers' and other little pin slots like the power button and HD light. Those are tricky, depending on how helpfully the wires... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 8:47 AM on July 6, 2008

1st question: No, but it's likely not worth more than $30-$40. The idea is to offer cheap phones up front and recoup the cost in charging more per minute as is typical with pay-as-you-go phone plans. A typical person might spend $100 on their go-phone per year even using at a minimum, as minutes expire in a certain amount of time ($15 lasts a month, $25 lasts three months, etc.).

2nd question: The phone and additional-minutes phonecards can be purchased with cash,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 4:01 PM on July 5, 2008

In Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run), a futile and tragic robbery getaway is punctuated with a cheesy American song. (The rest of the movie is techno music and german-language).
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 2:02 PM on July 5, 2008

Is that oscilating fan on the floor pointing up? I have a similarly unbearably hot room and I find that the air on the floor is much colder than at face or bed-level (I have a soft mat under my desk and wear socks all the time since my feet are so cold from air at the bottom of the room). You could just have poor air flow and the cool air doesn't have a chance to mix.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 5:48 PM on July 3, 2008

Bosch? (wiki)
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 7:16 PM on June 30, 2008

No wait...Bruegel.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 7:44 PM on June 30, 2008

Big Fish Eat Little Fish

Further information, analysis, and a clearer print.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 7:53 PM on June 30, 2008 marked best answer

hay!
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 7:53 PM on June 30, 2008

No info about her specifically, but I once had a blog tracking downtempo/lounge artists and I found that large downtimes and non-existent second albums were common. It's not covered by the traditional music press and tends towards smaller labels which come and go, so news is often very scarce (part of why I gave up).

Anji Bee is one of the few people who keep up with the mishmash of genres Lamya belongs to, might be worth it to write her an email.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 4:00 PM on June 29, 2008

The Stranger by Albert Camus
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 11:03 AM on June 27, 2008

The Natural World.

(Space, center of the earth, under the sea, Medical catastrophe. Discovery. Exploration.)

Social dystopia is a good one not entirely covered by technology or anything else above as well.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 9:06 PM on June 26, 2008

Something like this model would work. Newegg lets you filter fans by socket size and then by price. The expensive ones tend to be quieter, but reviews help too and each listing has a decibel amount (volume) that will give you an idea of relative quietness.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 1:30 PM on June 26, 2008

Never get into a long explanation if you need to save face. Even if you're entirely faultless and circumstances conspired to make you look bad, the effort to explain a complex situation to someone who is disappointed in you will just make you seem like you're ducking responsibility for a mess. Or, if a supervisor gets drawn into a story, you will end up sparring over minutiae. Not fun. Otherwise known as the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 7:27 AM on June 26, 2008

Damn Dirty Ape has a freakishly good list there.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 7:36 AM on June 26, 2008

Are you thinking of a CAPTCHA or a favicon? Can you provide an example?

Any image can be copied and faked. The only guard against phishing is the URL and site certificate.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 7:42 AM on June 25, 2008

Ah, I see. Then what qwip said. Furthermore, product photography tends to have very standardized soft lighting, so that may be what seems odd.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 8:00 AM on June 25, 2008

Did you use the "Print with Preview..." dialog (and not just the Image > Image Size dialog)? That gives you exact control of print dimensions and position.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 9:26 AM on June 24, 2008

Hurray, closure!
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 12:27 PM on June 24, 2008

Yar, doctor for sure. I got some horrible sunburn as a child and got a shot of something and a few perscriptions which made living bearable.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 6:12 AM on June 24, 2008

Heh! I emailed a Orange Lodge in Glasgow and they said "We purchase them from a supplier in London."

I've also emailed a Kingdom of Style writer, but have yet to hear back.

Thanks all. I'll plan to visit Fabhatrix unless anything else turns up.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 6:03 AM on June 24, 2008

I know first-hand that photography is allowed in:

National Gallery of Art (sculpture wing is great)
All of the Smithsonian galleries (they have a flickr page, even)
Phillips Gallery
Nat. Arboretum
Nat. Botanic Gardens
Building Museum hall (exhibits are off limits I think)

Without written permission I wouldn't try to set up a tripod anywhere but the outside attractions.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 11:57 AM on June 23, 2008

Ooh, and don't miss the LoC's Jefferson Building fountain (capitol side). Best in the city.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 12:00 PM on June 23, 2008

2nding seeking treatment for social anxiety.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 6:58 AM on June 23, 2008

Tiki drinks are good mixed drinks for a first-timer. As for beer, take the opposite approach: keep drinking one Guinness per sitting until you like it (or can at least stand the taste). Then you'll like any beer you see.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 5:05 PM on June 22, 2008

Scribus pales to InDesign, GIMP is a little better, but not in the same league with Photoshop in my opinion. While some PDF utilities might let you get pretty far, I don't think there's anything approaching Acrobat Pro for integration and control of PDFs.

I think I could live with KompoZer over Dreamweaver, though.

But no suite of FOSS programs would come close to CS3, imo.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 6:41 PM on June 20, 2008

I was wondering the other day myself, since I'm plodding through the hefty bulk of pre-2005 episodes at a snail's pace. The Time War that keeps getting mentioned is unique to the 2005 series and is probably a future plot that the show will explore at some point. Here's the wiki with all the assembled pieces thus far.

The Doctor/Master origins seem to be stattered through the classic series (look up the wikis for LOTS more), but in a nutshell they've just picked... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 2:00 PM on June 18, 2008 marked best answer

(Also, if you're in the market for toys...I can vouch for the awesomeness of the new Sonic Screwdriver.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 7:21 PM on June 18, 2008

The larger porn firms have also had a role in condom advocacy. And, though not explicit in pornography itself, STD testing might be a typical topic of discussion in a behind-the-scenes article or interview about porn stars. They are role models for responsible promiscuity.

Also, I imagine, homosexual pornography played/plays a role in giving isolated gay individuals validation to their desires and lifestyle. In other words, pornography can subvert public taboo (for good and bad).
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 7:11 PM on June 18, 2008

Parking is done in a gigantic grass/gravel/dirt field so don't worry about that. I can't offer an alternate route, but I've done 95 (north of the beltway) during rush hour a few times and it's fairly speedy (45mph) unless there's some catastrophe. North to the beltway shouldn't be terrible since everyone's headed out of the city. I suspect the beltway itself will be the hardest part. Have fun!
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 7:51 AM on June 18, 2008

So if my friend has Itunes, and he copies all his music onto my computer, thats legit and legal?

iTunes songs (the files themselves) are unplayable unless iTunes is "authorized" (semi-permanant log-in). The user could log themselves out of iTunes ("deauthorize") and the music would be so much garbage data.

So no, the ownership is tied to the account that buys the songs. Were you left with a logged-in... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 6:57 AM on June 17, 2008 marked best answer

Yes. I tip 5-10% if they're wicked fast in making it and I think the food is a great value. They'll remember my name and treat me like a rockstar.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 7:30 PM on June 12, 2008

I used to make small patches with this stuff called "transfer glue" that you can get fairly cheap at craft stores. The process is like this:

1. Print out design as a mirror image (as if you wanted to read it rightways through a mirror). Make sure it has lots of bold lines and contrast.
2. Put it through a copier
3. Smear a layer of paste over the toner
4. Place the fabric over the paste -- not stretched, but so it... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 7:16 PM on June 12, 2008

This bleach/stencil process also looks really cool.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 7:17 PM on June 12, 2008

InDesign CS1, 2, or 3? In CS2 and up (I haven't used v1), you can create a Book (File > New > Book). That will bring up an empty list which you can then populate with the chapters, front matter, back matter, and cover in the form of plain old .indd files which you can edit separately. The Book pane's context menu will let you create continuous pagination over all the files and export everything as a single PDF.

Before laying out your chapters, make sure you have... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 1:50 PM on June 11, 2008 marked best answer

Baloon PExt Bol says What the Font

Is there some sockpuppetry going on here?
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 10:25 AM on June 11, 2008

Here's the front page to the What the Font font identifier.

Yes.

Boo-urns!
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 10:33 AM on June 11, 2008

Cabled scarfs tend to be really wide and require more yarn than you have (300-400yds).

I think this simple dropped stitch pattern is ridiculously great looking. Asymmetrical, casual, hip.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 6:52 AM on June 11, 2008 marked best answer

:D Join Ravelry! Best pattern browsing/search/thing anywhere.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 8:10 AM on June 11, 2008

I remember hearing that his jeans are tailored. Maybe he just doesn't need one and doesn't care about the expectations of the non-tailored world. Sort through this if you like.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 9:03 PM on June 10, 2008

A straight ubuntu install is a little more user-friendly, but I tried out the xfce desktop when I was still new to them both and found the differences mainly cosmetic. Xubuntu includes more lightweight programs instead of firefox/openoffice, which you have the ram for. Try out the Gnome desktop (vanilla Ubuntu) first to see if it's responsive enough for you. The chip in my HTPC isn't much faster than yours (1.3 GHz vs 900MHz, with half your ram) and it isn't sluggish or annoying. Install... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 9:10 AM on June 10, 2008

I recently made a dvd on an ubuntu system following (skimming) this guide. Here's how it went down:

1. Used kmediafactory (front end to dvdauthor - it's in the ubuntu repositories) to convert the video into mpeg2 and write the xml menu/file settings for dvdauthor. (takes a long time to convert video)
2. Run dvdauthor with the xml file from step 1 to create the DVD file system (.vob files and stuff). Command line program, so google the documentation to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 12:38 PM on June 6, 2008

Just about everything by Goldfrapp is sleazy.

Lies! Only the middle albums (Black Cherry + Supernature) are even the least bit sleazy. Way more electro than sleaze. More burlesque than anything. Definitely not lo-fi in any case. "Strict Machine" will likely be the best take-away song for your purposes. A few Frapp remixes on "We Are Glitter" are heavily electroclashy, too. Nothing too fitful, though.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 8:47 PM on June 3, 2008

Give it a name in Latin. Lawyers love Latin!

Sub Judice (v3.1): The Present Case

Markets itself!
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 7:05 PM on June 1, 2008

No Country for Old Men

It's pretty close, but there were several substantial changes in my opinion: Chigurh's ambitions, the character of the hitchhiker, and Carla Jean's perception of her husband at the end of the movie.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 6:53 PM on June 1, 2008

2nding 2nd Story.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 8:10 AM on May 29, 2008

Can't edit. But you can preserve line breaks if you put them in the "extended explaination" text box instead of loading your entire question in the first box. The first box is supposed to be a teaser so the front AskMe page isn't cluttered with lots of question text.

As to your question, MusicBrainz doesn't turn up anything from an audio fingerprint (and google is useless, as you already know). Closest thing I've heard is Émilie Simon,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 9:40 PM on May 28, 2008

Perhaps something by Beth Gibbons?

Certainly not. This singer seems to be a non-native english speaker.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 10:35 PM on May 28, 2008

:(

Thanks all.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 7:07 AM on May 21, 2008

New tranny after all. ~$1,200. M.C. Lo-Carb! for the win loss.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 12:25 PM on May 27, 2008

How about the French claim to Antarctica?

Territory, yeah, but that wedge is pretty cool. One research station scecedes from France and you've got your answer. Maybe you can email them and ask as a favor. And look at what it does to Australia's claim!
posted to Ask Metafilter by cowbellemoo at 9:27 PM on May 23, 2008