My grandfather died a few years ago, and I chose not to go look at the body. I don't regret it much. He's not going to care either way anyways, and no one in my family objected, so there wasn't any social obligation to go up and look. I stayed in my seat, mostly because I was in my early teens and weirded out by the whole thing. Even with that flimsy reason, I have no regrets.

Besides, even if you should have looked, the opportunity has passed. Why waste emotional energy... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 11:08 PM on May 6, 2008

The Kingdom of Loathing?
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 2:50 PM on May 5, 2008

Here's something out of left field: Al Gore, at a recent TED talk, proposed replacing the income tax with a Carbon Tax, which seems brilliant in theory but tricky to implement.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 4:57 PM on May 4, 2008

I was hooked after listening to the Superpowers episode.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 1:56 PM on May 4, 2008

Depends on who you ask. The extroverts out there might not understand how you can be happy without a large collection of friends, but the introverts will understand you perfectly.

So, no. You're not weird. If you're happy, then you're happy.

Besides, everyone is different. Everyone is kinda weird to somebody else. Wouldn't worry about it too much.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 4:56 AM on May 4, 2008 marked best answer

I find that when you're trying to break yourself of a bad habit, it often helps to replace it with something else.

So, here's something to experiment with: The next time you find yourself about to nitpick over something petty, stop for a second, look at her, and instead tell her something you like about her. The way her eyes look, the way she laughs, whatever it is about her that attracts you.

See if it helps.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 10:00 AM on May 1, 2008

Seconding the ScanSnap 510. It's a touch on the expensive side, but it's worth it. You load the paper in the top tray, push one button, and your computer receives a searchable PDF.

It's definitely neater and less cluttered around my desk now, and PDF's are a lot easier to find when you need them than a random scrap of paper.

These posts from Lifehacker may be useful:

Going Paperless at home
Create a Digital... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 9:32 AM on May 1, 2008

I'll leech onto this question because this is a cool idea. Jedi's scanner suggestion doesn't seem to support OS X. Are there any recommended multi-platform scanners?

There is a Mac Version of this scanner, the 510M.

I think the reason that there are different versions of scanners is because the box includes Adobe Acrobat Professional, which isn't cross-platform.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 9:34 AM on May 1, 2008

Here's a guide with tips on what financial documents to keep and what to toss.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 9:39 AM on May 1, 2008

I've been trying to watch my weight a little too, and here's what I like to eat for lunch:

Take two pieces of frozen chicken tenderloins. Add salt, pepper, and either garlic powder or chili powder, or whatever spices you prefer. Microwave for 3:30 on high.

Take as much bagged salad as you want, wash, and put onto a plate. Cut up the chicken pieces into bite sized chunks, and sprinkle them over the salad. Add a little shredded cheddar cheese.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 8:41 AM on April 12, 2008

you need, at most, 1 fork, 1 spoon, and 1 knife. same for plates, bowls, glasses.

Unless you want to have friends/a date over. Better make it two of each.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 8:06 AM on February 28, 2008

Shareware isn't a viable business model, just put it out of your head.
Nonsense, and not even well-argued nonsense. There are lots of companies who use the shareware model, like Bradbury Software and Stardock.

My recommendation: If you have an idea, work on it in the evenings, on your own equipment on your own time. Do not do anything that will give your company claim over your intellectual property. (Basically, Option #3.)

If it... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 7:00 PM on February 9, 2008

There's several two-player modes on Geometry Wars: Galaxies, both Co-op and Versus Modes.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 7:35 AM on January 2, 2008

I'd recommend the DS too. The only caveat is that you can't play original game boy games on the DS. You can play Game Boy Advance games and DS games on the DS, but not the really old-school stuff.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 6:52 AM on November 30, 2007

You want to turn 2500 photographs into JPEG's? Do you already have a scanner?

Google turns up a Slashdot thread from a year ago that you might find useful. Hiring a teenager who has a scanner is probably the fastest and cheapest way in the short run.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 8:54 PM on November 21, 2007

Some people can't look at themselves in the mirror at all, no matter what age.That is because they are vampires.
---
I've been spending a lot of time thinking about this question, since I've just gotten out of college and I'm trying to figure out which way I want to go.

A line from a song snagged in my head, and it seems to hold up pretty well: "Make myself somebody I like." (The line is from No More Excuses by Kill... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 8:55 AM on November 17, 2007

Oh, and don't worry about onalark. In the comment thread of every great post is someone says "<nasal>I'm sorry, but you seem to have overlooked a rule.&lt/nasal>"
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 9:04 AM on November 17, 2007 marked best answer

There is a greasemonkey script to get rid of Fluff stories here, linked to from a long article about those stupid Fluff stories here
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 8:51 PM on September 26, 2007

It's just a standard boilerplate warning. It shows up on everything.

I'll have to find one to get rid of updates from that Movie Trivia application though. It shows up all the time, and I don't want to see it any more.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 9:59 PM on November 15, 2007

The problem is that I'm getting notifications for things my friends have installed, not things that I've installed. I'm not signed up for that movie trivia app, but I'm getting lots and lots of notifications from friends who have.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 8:29 AM on November 16, 2007

Ooh, I figured out how to modify the Greasemonkey script from the previous link to filter out any given application. It's kind of a longish solution, so I've posted at to my blog. Hope it helps some Googler out there.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 9:28 PM on November 16, 2007

Evariste's answer is probably the best solution. If I discover it's work the money, I can keep it, and if I end up just using it for a few days, I can sell it for cheaper than whatever the probable rental fee would be.

Thanks!
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 10:54 AM on November 11, 2007

Holy crap is this ever an awesome scanner.

Darn it. Now I'm probably gonna have to keep it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 8:28 PM on November 14, 2007

"Jovial" makes me think of happy fat people.

In my head, these people also have handlebar mustaches. They look at lot like William Taft, smoking a cigar at a pub and laughing with his friends.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 6:29 AM on November 10, 2007

I'm a big fan of A2 Hosting.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 5:32 PM on October 11, 2007

You may find Crank.net's religion section or its supremacists section to be useful. It's not all hatemongers (at least in the religion section), but they're in there.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 3:01 PM on October 11, 2007

Ooh! I found a hate section too.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 3:02 PM on October 11, 2007

I can't believe that no one has recommended Fujitsu yet. I've had my new laptop for several months, and I absolutely love it. I got a T4210, but there's the new T4220, a 12" tablet/laptop convertible that's fast and has good battery life. You can also buy a battery that sits where the DVD drive is normally, which adds a couple more hours to the battery life.

It comes with none of the crapware you get on some of the other major providers, and I've heard nothing but... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 5:40 PM on October 2, 2007

I'm not sure what everyone's beef with Vista is; I'm running Vista Business, and it's mostly fantastic. It's got a few issues, as you'd expect from a newish operating system that doesn't even have its first service pack out yet, but it's not "Windows ME II."

And for a tablet PC, the handwriting recognition is much improved over Windows XP Tablet PC edition.

Incidentally, I've had bad experiences with both Toshiba laptops I've used.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 5:52 PM on October 2, 2007

Thanks for the in-depth comment about Vista. The first four things on the list seem to come up whenever there's a new upgrade for Windows. XP was much more resource intensive than Windows 98, was buggy, was huge for its day, and, at first, didn't offer users much of a reason to upgrade from Windows 98.

Time will heal most of those, I think: Hardware will improve and become cheaper, bugs will be ironed out, and eventually software that takes advantage of Vista's new... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 6:30 AM on October 3, 2007

Actually, before this started, I didn't have a robots.txt file. I added one after I saw the error messages asking for my robots.txt file.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 12:07 PM on August 27, 2007

Apparently Googlebot has hit my page 11 times in the past month. Compared with 2187 times in April, 2007 in May, and 3 hits in June.

What on earth happened in June?...
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 12:16 PM on August 27, 2007

OK, on June 6, I was installing a test blog for Wordpress theme development that I wanted to be at http://testblog.jdharper.com. I discovered that I had been using an htaccess file to redirect users from
http://www.jdharper.com/
to
http://www.jdharper.com/wordpress/

but that this method was also redirecting testblog.jdharper.com to http://www.jdharper.com/testblog/.

I was using the following htaccess rule.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 12:25 PM on August 27, 2007

Added. We'll see if it helps.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 9:55 PM on August 27, 2007

Well, I'm back in Live.com, and I'm crawling back up the Google rankings. I think it was the redirect on my homepage that was causing the problem. Definitely won't do that again.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 6:35 AM on September 1, 2007

The trick is to start serving really slow for a while. Change things up. Then, when he's used to the slower serves, give him an occasional quick serve.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 9:03 PM on July 5, 2007

You'd probably get a lot out of Steven Pressfield's The War of Art.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 10:32 AM on June 12, 2007

Seconding podiobooks.com. It's all absolutely free (although you are encouraged to donate). Lots of good sci-fi in there.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 2:17 PM on June 5, 2007

Does she actually _want_ to be a social butterfly? This may sound obvious, but make sure that she actually wants to participate in these activities.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 1:57 PM on June 3, 2007

Master of Orion III when out of its way to be realistic simulation of interplanetary government and economics. It was also frighteningly dull.

The goal is to have a fun game, not a realistic one.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 7:31 AM on May 31, 2007

I'm partial to This Too Shall Pass, by Matthew Ebel. You can hear the whole song on the podsafe music network. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and click the play button next to the song.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 10:58 AM on May 21, 2007

The way I figure it, we were designed to run without shoes. Modern footwear did not come about for a long, long time after our species began, and yet people ran just fine.

In any case, just try walking for a while without the arch support. If it hurts, stop and get shoes with arch support.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 6:10 AM on May 19, 2007

If you have access to ASP, then the best thing you can do would be to follow this tutorial on how to connect ASP to an access database. It's pretty simple once you get the hang of it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 11:17 AM on May 14, 2007

Synergy is good, and it's cross-platform. Personally, though, I use Multiplicity, a program from Stardock. It's substantially more reliable for me, and the premium version lets you copy files from one computer to the other using the clipboard, which is really, really nice.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 10:10 AM on May 11, 2007

Don't forget to actually do the things on your lists. I know I'm prone to spending *way* too much time fiddling with my to-do list system, time that should have been spent actually accomplishing things.

Re-entering a todolist from Gmail to Basecamp is not a 'value-added' activity. Try to spend as little time as possible on it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 7:13 PM on May 7, 2007

Do you need something for the Mac or for the PC?
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 10:40 AM on April 26, 2007

This is probably not what you want, but it's really good: Scott Sigler has a free audiobook out called "Infection." It has to do with alien parasites taking over people. However it's not hilarious/cheesy: it's a really good horror story.

(Note that it also contains significant amounts of violence and adult language. This is not something to listen to with your kids.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 3:14 PM on April 25, 2007

Basically, you get a $30 credit on the card after your first order with the card on Amazon. It's not that bad of a system.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 10:51 AM on April 22, 2007

On the software side, I would recommend Ubuntu Linux (http://www.ubuntu.com). It's dead simple to install and comes bundled with
text editorsOpenOffice (for word processing / spreadsheet / presentation software)FireFox (for web browsing)
the GIMP (for image editing)Audacity (for sound editing) (Actually, I'm not certain that Audacity is preinstalled, but I know that it can be installed very easily if it isn't.)An MP3 player (although I'm not sure which one. Historically... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 5:51 AM on April 20, 2007

I received my Box o' Magazines yesterday. Thanks for your help!
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 8:07 PM on December 20, 2006