> Wordpress, as of the last major release (2.5, I think) included a new photo management system.

Wordpress's gallery shortcode is limited and the media management is a good idea left unfinished. The hooks are available for plugins to extend the shortcode syntax, but if your goal is to efficiently interleave images and text it leaves a lot to be desired.

Wordpress has other things going against it if you plan to use it as a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 4:25 PM on June 24, 2008

> Whatever song is in this animation.

Three episodes are available directly from the creators' site, or on YouTube in lower-quality versions.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 9:23 PM on June 22, 2008

Jimmy Scott is a jazz singer with total mastery over the standards. The combination of his boy's voice and eccentric phrasing puts some people off, but he brings life to songs you would have dismissed as overplayed.

K. McCarty is mostly known for singing in Glass Eye and doing a (very good) album of Daniel Johnston covers. She's a natural alto with a vibrato that seems to crop up at random.

Diamanda Galas would probably qualify as "screaming... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 4:11 PM on June 22, 2008

There are no matches in the electronic references (New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus, technical documentation in eighteen languages) that come with Mac OS X.

The search involved a couple different non-case-sensitive Perl-ish regular expressions, along the lines of [aeiou]{0,4}B[aeiou]{0,4}T[aeiou]{0,4}Q[aeiou]{0,4}S[aeiou]{0,4}T[aeiou]{0,4}D[aeiou]{0,4}. It doesn't include spaces because word breaks would have been indicated with a dash,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 6:42 AM on May 18, 2008

Whoops. Posted early. To complete the example, [aeiou]{0,4}B[aeiou]{0,4}T[aeiou]{0,4}Q[aeiou]{0,4}S[aeiou]{0,4} would match "Boutiques".
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 6:44 AM on May 18, 2008

> It's probably not a single word.

OP wrote that words are separated with hyphens, and BTQSTD has no hyphens, so that's what I was going with.

Broadening the scope to [aeiou]{0,4}B[aeiou ]{0,4}T[aeiou ]{0,4}Q[aeiou ]{0,4}S[aeiou ]{0,4}T[aeiou ]{0,4}D[aeiou]{0,4} provides no hits either, and it should even match on fragments such as rarebit queue studied. So if this is legit there are probably brand names... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 11:13 AM on May 18, 2008

Or, well, combinations of words my set of text isn't using. Okay, that was lame of me.

But the point was that the OP indicated strongly that this was a single word.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 11:15 AM on May 18, 2008

You're too young to write yourself off for your age. There was no commercial World Wide Web until I was around 30, and I designed websites for years before becoming a full-time developer in my late 30s.

> Why do I dislike new things? To a large part, to be honest, because the people who do use these things and try to promote them really grate on my nerves.

That's advocacy, and it's the only promotion anything without a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 5:29 AM on May 14, 2008

I'm a web developer and I have a small online social circle of other web developers in other parts of the world. Whenever one of us is stuck on a problem we'll page another one through online chat and pose it to them. It helps a friend out of a jam and keeps us sharp at the myriad skills we're responsible for.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 6:37 AM on March 28, 2008

Your post can't be rewritten in any acceptable way, because it's about yourself and a problem you have, and that's against the guidelines. Reposting anything like it again with working links would make you a self-linker, and that will get your account banned.

If you have a website or blog you want people in MeFi to know about, put a post in Projects.

Unfortunately, this post is going to be deleted too, because once again you've broken the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 3:23 AM on November 15, 2007

The above 'contact' link is wrong. Contact the moderators directly.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 3:26 AM on November 15, 2007

Both.

You have to push ideas outward - it's true that people don't know what they want until they see it. At the same time, you have to be open to feedback and know how to filter it. Reacting only to change requests can result in a site with a lot of very nice discrete elements which do not work together.

The response to any unannounced changes is usually negative, because you disrupted user habits. So you have to learn how to read customer... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 10:25 AM on October 5, 2007

Nthing 'Don't Make Me Think'. Not only is it an excellent layman's introduction to the topics of usability and web design, it will also provide sufficient instruction on how to effectively conduct usability tests and integrate them into web design and development process at a professional level. A remarkable feat.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 11:46 AM on September 11, 2007

Sicilian arancini.

And add "Shall We Dance" to the movie queue.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 4:27 PM on August 16, 2007

An iMac is cheaper than a spec-comparable MacBook Pro. The MBP's premium comes from the laptop's portability and a few additional features, such as ExpressCard slot and lighted keyboard.

The 17" MBP display is 1680 x 1050, same as the 20" iMac. The 24" iMac has a larger display than is available in laptop form. The 15" MBP's display is smaller than any iMac's. All new iMacs and laptops can drive second displays without difficulties -- I tried this... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 7:38 AM on August 14, 2007

Follow the directions to the letter -- they're not as hard as they sound -- and you shouldn't have a problem.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 12:11 PM on August 5, 2007

About the only things I can get optical mice to consistently fail on are polished one-color surfaces, like white melamine desktops. One of the best mousing surfaces is my leg when I'm wearing blue jeans. A cheap rubber-cushioned mousepad with a fabric surface is an adequate approximation and the ergonomics are better.

Some surfaces set the Apple optical mouse and Mighty Mouse off, including one particular company giveaway mousepad that gets handed around my office. It's... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 5:45 PM on August 1, 2007

Avoid used bikes unless you know bikes and bike maintenance reasonably well. As tempting it is to buy cheap when you want to try out a new thing, it's too easy for you to get burned when you don't have the experience to know what's acceptable behavior and what isn't, what are good components or bad.

(This is similarly true when you buy a used car, used computer, or used house: If you don't know how to inspect it and estimate potential and pending costs for it, you hire... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 4:02 AM on July 19, 2007

...and if you're determined to buy used, check your local community college or adult education center for bike maintenance classes. Working hands-on is the best way to learn, but doing it under the guidance of an expert is probably the cheapest way to learn.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 4:06 AM on July 19, 2007

Usually, if the new cartridge is stored in a properly evacuated and sealed bag, it's got a shelf life of a really long time. Once that bag's open, it's subject to ambient moisture and pollutants, and the clock begins ticking. Like Pinback says, it'll eventually cake up and print badly.

The toner in a printer in an arid environment (continuous air conditioning, for example) will, all else being equal, last longer than what's in the printer in an unventilated basement.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 4:12 AM on July 18, 2007

If they're more than a year old, they're useless. If you can't use them on what you've got, they're useless. Junk 'em.

Old software hasn't got nearly the collectibility of old music. Even original full-fledged software in original packaging fails to sell for more than original price -- disks full of demos are worth even less.

If it breaks your heart to bin them, sell the whole lot in a package on craigslist to somebody more compulsive, put the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 9:32 AM on July 17, 2007

Do some Googling and contact local studios whose work you like. Tell them exactly what you said here, be honest about your price range, and ask them if they can do it or can recommend somebody who can. Some studios will decline to help, but others will do the work or will refer you to somebody who can.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 3:38 PM on July 7, 2007

Try fatter tires and a cassette with a broader gearing range. And don't replace the handlebars - replace the stem.

Make sure the tires fit the stays: Measure the gap between the stays where the current tire sits, and get the widest tire that provides several mm clearance on each side. Remember that fatter tires are also taller than skinny race tires.

Also make sure the chain and rear derailleur can handle a wider gear range.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 4:17 AM on June 24, 2007

Wikipedia: "Forty-nine states of the United States (all except New Jersey) have one or more state songs, selected by the state legislature as a symbol of the state." List of U.S. state songs
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 3:59 AM on June 24, 2007

"All associated files", in Safari's case, may include WebKit. Safari, iTunes, the Dashboard, and Help use WebKit. So do many third-party apps. Deleting it will damage many things. You can't empty your trash because you are running applications that depend on files in the trash.

Replacing a known-good version of Safari with a known-flawed Safari 3 is a bad idea.

I second edd: pull out your system CD and use Archive & Install. Then... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 2:41 AM on June 14, 2007

Second everything mentioned in the bikeforums thread. Jockey caps are a good origin point -- they have to be streamlined, not to improve efficiency but because they'll fly away otherwise.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 3:29 PM on June 9, 2007

Jellicle is patently wrong. A bicycle is a complex machine, and benefits from good parts and good assembly. A cheap, crappy bike will only reinforce your assumptions that all bikes are either cheap crap or expensive crap. (Some authoritative words from Sheldon Brown, the sage of bicycling, on Department store bicycles.)

In the frame, there is quality of material (there are different grades of steel, of aluminum, and of carbon fiber), quality of assembly, and how... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 7:59 AM on June 3, 2007

One more thought I left out of my earlier rant. Since you're concerned on whatever you buy becoming a target of theives, keep it in mind.

I spend time on several message boards for folks who ride and/or collect classic steel bikes. On these boards I've seen stories of people whose fine and highly tuned multithousand dollar bikes have been stolen and later found ditched in favor of a crappy department-store bike because it was brightly colored and had suspension.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 2:55 PM on June 3, 2007

Do not learning scripting as you go on a publicly accessible website. Unless you already know safe scripting practices (and you don't -- you're haven't learned the basics yet), your site will be a prime target for exploitation.

Use the public server to learn how to build a static website (Or just build the static wbsite on your own computer). Meanwhile, set up a development environment on a local computer (the one you're working on, a second computer in the bedroom, or a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 5:01 AM on May 29, 2007

I'm not familiar with the pieces you cite, so if you can provide URLs to sound samples that would help a lot.

My first thoughts along these lines are classic 70s rock like Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale", most of Rick Wakeman's albums, and so on. Even though you say you're not looking for ballads.

There are also comparatively obscure albums such as The Verlaines' Bird Dog, which uses keys, tempos and... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 7:31 AM on May 27, 2007

ilike: Finally got around to the YouTube clips.

That style of music is Yé-yé. Wikipedia's Yé-yé entry is a good starting point for more music in that style. The best, maybe only, modern practitioner is April March. The YouTube link leads to a couple of fan videos for songs off "Chrominance Decoder" (and a couple videos with songs from her garage rock CDs, so browse a bit).

You might also like some of the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 12:12 PM on May 27, 2007

Bennotto plastic handlebar tape (scroll down to see it). Nonadhesive so it won't pick the paint on the frame. It will eventually fray (slowly if the bike's taken care of, but very rapidly if the bike's frequently locked to rusty steel things).

My preferred choice these days is nonadhesive vinyl tape, the kind put on handlebars of department-store ten-speeds a few decades ago, but that stuff's hard to find, and even harder to find in anything... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 6:03 AM on May 26, 2007

The freeware R-Name does this and many other file renaming tasks. You can preview the name changes before you commit. It's a vital tool in my toolbox.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 3:36 PM on May 24, 2007

This is why you should buy a computer when you need it rather than play a guessing game with Apple's product announcements.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 3:33 PM on May 21, 2007

Go with CS3. The reason for its current low market penetration is that it's only been on the market for two months.

There's no point in buying software that's not fully compatible with the current version.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 4:44 AM on May 21, 2007

Most U.S. cities have shops with techs who do out-of-warranty repairs on Macs. (The honest techs are deliberately not certified by Apple, because doing so obligates them to observe Apple's repair procedures.)

Apple controls the channels for components, so the only way to get parts is through the greymarket. This is why they're expensive even through resellers. Somebody selling a board for 1/3 the price is either scamming or pulling it from an already-dead computer, and... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 4:37 AM on May 21, 2007 marked best answer

For your purpose, spraypaint has no structural property. To demonstrate, paint a sheet of newspaper and see if it stands up straight after the paint's dry.

Googling for flower preserve works. There are at least half a dozen methods, plus a table of recommended baking times if you want to use a microwave oven. But the most popular technique appears to be silica gel in a jar.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 3:45 AM on May 18, 2007

I have nothing for or against the idea of going into Second Life, but doing so simply on the expectation that doing so engenders cheap or free PR is delusional. A marketing plan with budget, timetable, benchmarks and goal have to be drafted.

As for the age of the population, anecdotally the only people I know who regularly spend time in Second Life are in their early 30s or older. The real kids are playing goal-oriented MMORPGs like World of Warcraft.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 3:01 PM on May 15, 2007

I like fixed gear and I'm building my second fixie. They're low-tech, have fewer parts, and can be considerably cheaper for a high-quality ride than a geared bike.

However, they don't ride anything like you're used to. If you don't like riding it, you won't, and you wasted your money. So get a geared bike you're used to, and when you have some cash saved (or a friend with a fixie your size), try it.

Used bikes can be good bargains but only if you... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 6:39 AM on May 12, 2007

Sorry for not mentioning initially: The ipod's Volume Limit setting is already at 1/4 available volume, and I'm still listening at one or two ticks above muted. Lowering the limit further will not buy me much variance in audible volume (particularly since the incremental divisions do not seem to remap evenly at the low end), and make spoken-word recordings inaudible without re-setting the Volume Limit.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 10:32 AM on May 9, 2007

Another vote for sea breeze, even if it's only influenced by the river. And anything other than wind measure near you is unlikely to be useful, since Montreal is going to have microclimates galore due to the hills and water.

I live in Michigan over fifty miles from the nearest large body of water, and wind directions here change in the morning and evening pretty frequently. They have to change some time. (And we have less-dramatic microclimates here too; the flat land... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 2:07 PM on May 8, 2007

An introduction to Bayesian Statistics using a disproof of ESP as an example. You can take or leave his position on various issues, but it's a useful way to grasp the subject as a generalist, as long as you have a handle on high school level algebra.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 1:59 PM on May 8, 2007

Performance, a classic.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 7:21 PM on May 5, 2007

> ...that's when he drops the line about "the Jews" somewhere seemingly out of context.

Unlikely to come out of the mouth of somebody named 'Sandberg'.

The rest of Pollomacho's description is pretty spot-on. I worked (for a year as a low-rung wage-earner) at (the library of) MIT and got to meet (the research assistants checking out books for) famous... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 12:57 PM on May 4, 2007

If you're willing to step up to 170mm cranks, you open up a whole world of options, and you get a little extra leverage for climbing, too. Longer cranks are mostly a liability when spinning at high RPM (part of why fixie riders like short cranks); otherwise, even if you have short legs you're unlikely to notice the difference in most conditions.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 2:47 AM on May 4, 2007

Pandaf Golf isn't the best of the bunch, but it's designed like a platformer, so it plays differently than other golf games and is fun in its own way.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 1:49 PM on April 30, 2007

An MFA fast-tracks you into the higher ranks of the graphic design profession in the corporate world: Senior Designer, Art Director, Creative Director, etc. The time you're spending now in school will pay back. Remember that you're getting a professional degree: Internships and networking with colleagues-to-be outside of school will be essential to get a job commensurate with your degree.

It's common for designers to work in the field for a decade or more before... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 5:57 AM on April 30, 2007

Ditaig IPA. When people ask you what it means, you can say it's an old gaelic word for when Dad's in Town and I Graduated.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 1:52 PM on April 28, 2007

You can make URLs less awkward by taking spaces out of filenames. Welcome%20to%20my%20site.html derives from a file named Welcome to my site. If the file was named WelcomeToMySite, it would be published as WelcomeToMySite.html

The problems with file instances and HTML are stickier, because it's dependent on whether iWeb will revert any source-level edits when you publish content changes (or whether it'll just plain break in the face of perceived-invalid markup). The... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 1:38 PM on April 28, 2007

For intellectual and orchestrated music that still rocks out, listen to The Verlaines. For modern prog rock (which I find a lot more interesting than the 70s variety) check Tortoise. Or look backwards and listen to Miles Davis' benchmark Bitches Brew.

And I'm tossing this in because you might like the mix of sonic thunder and lyrical thoughtfulness: Eleventh Dream Day.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ardgedee at 4:49 AM on April 26, 2007