Gizmodo has an article with a few tips.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 6:27 PM on July 14, 2008 marked best answer

You might try this sort of product.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 6:58 PM on June 30, 2008

One option for remote access can be found here.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 5:59 PM on June 22, 2008

I ended up getting an iphone and am currently using it with a prepaid AT&T SIM and plan. I may switch to tmobile if I can get them to give me a local area code & number.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 4:53 PM on June 11, 2008

Just wanted to point out that at many public libraries you have to log in with your library card number or some other personally identifiable marker.

But many university libraries and labs have open computers that don't require a login. You might try one of those.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 5:10 AM on June 10, 2008

I like No Agenda , it would fit in the nothing-in-particular category.

My favorite gaming podcast is the CAGcast.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 7:25 PM on May 31, 2008

I agree with atomly and would add Fayetteville, AR.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 9:46 AM on May 29, 2008

I can't speak to retaining balance, but you can most likely port out of prepaid and into postpaid. Carriers must allow you to port out whether pre or postpaid, but it's up to the new carrier to decide if they will port you in. For example Alltel (stupidly) does not port in to their prepaid service.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 4:46 PM on May 25, 2008

I believe booting up in Safe Mode will disable multiple monitors.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 4:40 PM on May 23, 2008 marked best answer

Nerd and geek are interchangeable. Dork is a close synonym but is a bit more general--it doesn't connote intelligence, but does connote social ineptness as do nerd and geek.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 3:58 PM on May 15, 2008

Yeah you're certainly not the only person with this problem. I don't let doctors or nurses do throat swabs--I immediately start gagging and it's extraordinarily unpleasant for me.

But unlike grumblebee I don't have trouble with tooth brushing or pills.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 7:46 AM on May 14, 2008

In addition to the standard flowers I'm getting my mom a full-on HTPC and all the necessary ancillary equipment. What would've cost her $1,000 for hardware and labor I was able to do for a net of $28 (and a lot of time).
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 9:16 PM on May 6, 2008

My local OfficeMax has a green, recycled version in a similar shape, made of a twisted, braided cardboard-like material. But they were very expensive--like $15 or $20 instead of $2.99.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 11:55 AM on May 6, 2008

SlyBevel: "On second thought, email won't be the best way to handle this. Anyone know where I can drop a 32MB file so that y'all can pull it?

I have AVG Free 7.5.516 updated Jan 2008."

Yousendit
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 3:49 PM on May 3, 2008

I lived in Germany for awhile and always liked when someone complimented my German, especially if they knew me and heard real improvement. I think it would work the same for non-native English speakers.

If you don't know someone well, their status with the language etc, then it might be best to not comment.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 8:31 AM on April 24, 2008

Alfa Aesar chemicals catalog/handbook.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 7:29 AM on April 17, 2008

I saw something similar to these in Germany. They were very old, maybe pre-WWII. I did not ever leave them on when I was away or have them on when I was home and asleep. I did sometimes use them when I was home and awake, but not often as that apartment also had steam heat.

I'd also be wary of having them on with kids around.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 6:41 PM on April 16, 2008

If I were a woman and I ran alone at night I'd carry some kind of mace or pepper spray.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 7:43 PM on April 10, 2008

The experience is significantly better with an HDTV. I've played with friends who still have SD sets and it's difficult to go back. 360 games played in SD certainly don't look bad, but they don't have the pop and sheen of HD.

Also you'll be better at multiplayer games if you have a big, detailed HD set opposed to a small SD set.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 9:10 AM on April 10, 2008

One of the more expensive space pens.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 5:28 PM on April 9, 2008

Can't believe I forgot this, a Swissmemory USB key multitool. I got a 512MB version a few years ago and it's come in handy many, many times. It's a nice conversation starter too--when I use it in a store or something people will start talking to me out of the blue about it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 5:44 PM on April 9, 2008

lampoil: "Sorry to piggyback, but what about price?

What I mean is: if I preorder I pay $60. If I wait and buy it in the few weeks after release, is there any possibility of finding a discount (either online or in stores)? Or is it pretty much going to be $60 for a while?

(I know the answer is "we don't know yet" but just from previous experience of big games. I've never bought a game close to its release date, so I've... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 5:21 PM on April 9, 2008

For your grandmother's computer I would make sure that all maintenance and background programs are set to update automatically and to do so silently--things like Windows updates, antivirus definitions, antispyware definitions, defragging, etc.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 6:28 PM on April 8, 2008

I had this problem with a program I ran over a mapped drive. Try going to Control Panel / Internet Options/ Security/Local Intranet/Sites, uncheck the first box, then check the next three.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 9:24 PM on April 2, 2008

Another way to fix this is, if you have a drive formatted with FAT32, move the file there then back. That will strip out the embedded zone information.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 11:04 AM on April 3, 2008

You mention x-restarting so you are running linux, correct? Which distro? Which window manager?

Does a non-beta release of Firefox have the same problem?
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 9:10 AM on April 2, 2008

xla76: "' Save this as space.vbs..."

That is one of the best things ever.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 6:49 PM on March 30, 2008

I can't speak to watches but I have sold expensive electronic items on ebay without a loss. Since I've sold expensive items in categories that are attractive to fraudsters I've run into a couple of scam attempts. Thankfully unsuccessful attempts.


There are some things I would recommend doing:

--for anything of substantial value use registered mail
--record and take pictures of serial numbers before shipping an... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 8:24 AM on March 26, 2008 marked best answer

Obviously German will be useful in German, Austria, and Switzerland. There are many people in those countries who don't speak English at all or not very well--working class and older people especially. If you just visit as a tourist or do professional work it wouldn't be as useful, maybe, but if you ever live in Mitteleuropa you'll need to learn the language.

I learned the language as an adult and found it fairly easy to do so. And I do think learning a language is a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 10:45 AM on March 25, 2008

For close seedings I've found that going with the school with more basketball tradition can be a good bet.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 9:35 PM on March 19, 2008

garethspor: "and correct me if I'm wrong, but there's no way to get the full 720p resolution out of a normal DVD, yes?"

You can encode HD video onto a DVD but you'd have to use a computer or other compatible device to play it back. A regular DVD player wouldn't be able to handle it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 9:32 PM on March 19, 2008

You can get similar though not identical features with Vista. Remote access with a simple URL like Home server isn't built in but you could use a service like dyndns or gotomypc. Vista has a built-in auto backup tool though it's not as full-featured as what comes with Home Server. There are dozens of other more robust backup programs. Home Premium and Ultimate work with media extenders.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 7:57 AM on March 13, 2008

To add to Pogo's comment remote desktop only works with Business and Ultimate. There is a simple tweak/hack that enables it on Home Premium.

Also Radmin is another option if you need something that doesn't blank the local screen and works with Vista. I've tried VNC with Vista and it's just doesn't seem ready yet.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 4:02 PM on March 13, 2008

It's a question of line quality and distance from the CO/DSLAM. I pay for their 3.0Mbps service, which is advertised up to 3.0. The actual speed I get is 2.5Mbps.

You can call them up and ask a tech to manually requalify your line. Likely the speed will be the same but you might get lucky. You could also make sure that all of your home wiring is in good condition and up to spec.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 7:53 AM on March 11, 2008 marked best answer

mmascolino: "Thanks ape...I've since done some more reading and came across a suggestion that I might be able to do this easily from inside the demarcation box on the outside of the house. Do you know if this is true or not?"

This is really easy if you have an accessible RJ11 jack at the punchdown box. It's the same as all the other jacks in your house with the critical difference that it bypasses all of your internal wiring. If you get a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 3:55 PM on March 13, 2008

DISH Network's HD DVR has gotten some very good reviews.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 8:34 AM on March 8, 2008

Were these photos you took yourself? If so you should try to recover them from the memory card you used. I've had more success with undelete programs when trying to recover from flash cards rather than hard drives.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 8:30 AM on March 8, 2008

Saab and Volvo are quirky yet still reliable. There are many other quirky cars but they tend to not do well with dependable A-to-B transport. Also the newer sub-compacts seem odd-yet-good to me--specifically the Yaris, Versa, Mini, & Fit.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 8:23 AM on March 8, 2008

Like many people I tend to sell single-player games quicker than multiplayer games. I never trade-in newish games--I've found that I typically get 40% more by selling on ebay. With older games it can makes sense to trade-in, especially if there's a promo going on.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 8:17 AM on March 8, 2008

Something is definitely going on with commercials on my local CBS and Fox stations, but only if I watch them over cable. Over-the-air is normal.

This is with Cox cable.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 10:24 AM on March 4, 2008

I think stupider is fine. What's in or not dictionaries is mostly irrelevant--if people use the word and other people understand that word...it's a word.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 7:54 AM on March 4, 2008

I'd recommend the CHFI (Certified Hacking Forensic Investigator) and CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker) certifications. They get my notice when they're on resumes.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 7:50 AM on March 4, 2008

If your 360 has HDMI you could also use an HDMI splitter. A simple 1-to-2 model costs about $20 and there's no video quality degradation.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 8:23 PM on March 3, 2008 marked best answer

I second the transcription suggestion though not necessarily braille. I once did transcription of therapists' voice notes of patient sessions. Back then they mailed me the tapes and I mailed back completed transcripts on floppy disk. Nowadays I would think it's all electronic. I did the transcription from home. About the only time I spoke to anyone with that company was the occasional pay or benefit questions.

I had no special qualifications other than being able to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 9:27 PM on February 28, 2008

I imagine the supermarket did the testing for legal/safety reasons. Think about how high up some products can be in some supermarkets, especially in the stockroom. Which require forklifts and scissor lifts to get to.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 9:15 PM on February 28, 2008

They have a prescription drug discount card that offers serious savings--in some cases it's substantially below my insurance co-pay. The % off varies wildly--5% off for one drug, 90% off of another, etc.

Back when I didn't have insurance it's was a stupendous money-saver, and there were instances when the money I saved off a single scrip was more than the cost of a year's AAA membership.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 12:56 PM on February 28, 2008

http://videosift.com --Kinda like Digg but for videos. Great if you like one-link youtube posts. Videos from those sorts of posts usually show up here first.

http://www.yesbutnobutyes.com -- Similar to neatorama
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 7:23 PM on February 21, 2008

The Simpsons. Seasons 1 through 9 only.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 8:21 AM on February 12, 2008

I've heard it and used it, albeit infrequently. Don't think it's dated.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 9:12 PM on February 11, 2008

It was stupid of the seller not to require the package be insured. Insurance protects the seller much more than the buyer. You can likely get your money back if you file a complaint with PayPal, and if that doesn't work file a chargeback with your credit card company.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aerotive at 1:13 PM on February 6, 2008