Technically, four votes, assuming shelleycat and AAA don't agree to vote yes to override. That only leaves one swing voter to convince.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 10:19 PM on July 14, 2008

Pre-sliced bread goes stale more quickly than an unsliced loaf.

But I'm more likely to opt for the sandwich instead of a microwave hot-pocket or something if the bread is presliced.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 11:38 PM on April 28, 2008

What do you get if you put a cat on a scanner?
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 2:57 PM on April 21, 2008

I don't get the pasta thing either. Are you saying to create the page with pasta, then link that in the comment here of posting code inline? Or that there is a way to cut and paste something into the comment here?
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 9:30 PM on April 19, 2008

Speaking of the actual user/number of user numbers issued ratio:
Was there a great renumbering at some point? According to the old profile page URL, I was user 942 in a previous life, which seems unlikely.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 10:00 PM on April 13, 2008

Last night I actually died in a dream for the second time ever. Usually I wake up just before.

The first time, I was waiting on a pier for some friends to come off of a submarine that was tied up there. We were going to go to dinner, and for some reason it was taking them a long time. I went onto the boat, and as soon as I got inside, it looked wrong. Half the lights were out, most of the rest were blinking - standard horror movie scene. The deck was all slanted... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 4:59 PM on March 31, 2008

Can Opera work transparently with del.icio.us like Firefox can/does? If not, deal breaker.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 4:04 PM on March 29, 2008

I've never been to a meetup, and I'd sure like to. Conveniently enough, I don't have to work from the 24th to the 6th, so 29th would be awesome.

Any good places in Ballard/Wallingford/Fremont? I used to live in lower Queen Anne, but I didn't get out of the neighborhood much. I always meant to get up that way and never did.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 11:16 PM on March 17, 2008

Or unless you want to get married at Sunset Bowl.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 1:50 AM on March 24, 2008

Rephrase the question in your mind in the most charitable way possible. If it ends up something you could answer, answer. If not, don't.

I read this one as, "I'm no longer sexually attracted to my wife. I really love her, and don't want to leave her, cheat, or offend her. I'd rather address the cause of the problem. What can I do? I already know Y, so don't bother telling me that.

Answers that say, in effect, "Y!"... or even... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 1:25 PM on March 16, 2008

Big complicated-sounding situation, full of extraneous detail. I've decided to X. Tell me I'm right, or I'm going to argue with you.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 1:03 PM on March 16, 2008

So to recap for the original poster: Hit preview before you even start typing. Then type your comment - there will be no live preview box. Hit preview again or not, but please do.

Wolfdog with the win. I hadn't thought of that solution. By now, though, I'm used to live preview anyway.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 1:48 PM on March 11, 2008

"Another flag!"
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 4:53 PM on February 14, 2008

In questions where region matters, I have not seen it both not specified and not asked for not not not. That is, if it matters, someone says so.

If I'm asking about washing dishes, and it turns out in the UK you don't wash off the soap, that's interesting to me, whether that's true where I am or not. Maybe it's a better way.

So, now I'm really curious. Why would you not wash off the soap?
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 8:42 PM on September 12, 2007

Could we also have more flag catgor...ow! I got shocked by my keyboard just now.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 5:54 PM on September 11, 2007

I would think being busted at a meetup would be nothing to worry about. After all, you're busting them, too.

I do find that I'm reluctant to turn family and very close friends on to Mefi, and when I do, I intentionally fail to mention that I have a user name.

Why that is, I'm not sure.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 1:06 AM on September 10, 2007

The mix CD ones are fine with me. I don't usually comment, but I do check out all the suggestions to see if I like it myself. Sometimes they're gold mines of obscure (to me) stuff.

It helps if I mentally reframe the mix CD question as "I like X but don't know much about it, can someone point me to other X's or maybe a list/history/story on X?"

Then again, the standard answer would be "seed Pandora with it and see what happens"
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 10:39 AM on September 2, 2007

Fantastic idea. A couple of quick thoughts off the top of my head:
Anything math or science related is going to have challenges with communication - without some sort of video or whiteboard facility, it's going to get ugly. (i.e, posting the quadratic equation in a metafilter thread is impractical). I suppose someone could .pdf all the lessons and host them or put them in Basecamp, but discussion could get difficult in real time.

I'd really like to learn... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 11:49 AM on August 25, 2007

To unfavorite a comment, simply favorite every other comment on the site. That leaves your unfavorite -1 overall.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 11:13 PM on August 23, 2007

Maybe a flag status after the comment/post in question, so you could know someone else already flagged it. [then we could be slashdot]

Or a flag update-able from the front page, and then the status line could just sum all the flags, good and bad. [then we could be reddit]

I kind of like being MeFi, instead.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 11:58 AM on August 19, 2007

You see, car-washing is an activity that happens outside, in full view of your neighbours, passers-by, and general busybodies, all of whom you just know [etc]

That's the best way to meet new people. Do something the wrong way in public view. Instant conversation starter. Side effect: you learn how to do it right. Bonus side effect: you can tell a lot about a person by the way they tell you you're a moron.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 10:10 PM on June 26, 2007

I work on a ballistic missile submarine. They have two crews; the Blue crew has the boat right now on patrol. I'm on the Gold crew. Not having a boat to operate (and fix broken stuff on) cuts down the work load quite a bit.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 8:42 PM on February 23, 2007

I work on a ballistic missile submarine.
for real? tell us more. what's the internet connection like?

Extremely slow and infrequent. We can only come up on the satellite link when we come to periscope depth. We have to come up to pick up the broadcast every so often, but PD is kind of tense, what with being the most dangerous place for a sub to be with regard to collisions and counterdetection. We try to minimize the time.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 12:51 PM on February 25, 2007

amberglow, yes. Whether or not that's a bad thing or not, eh. Depends on my mood. Ever want to just get away from it all? Life's a bit simpler. It's very communist. I do my job, and pretty much that's all I have to worry about. When it's lunch time, there's food to eat, magically. No bills to pay, house to clean, car to wash, lawn to mow... Even laundry is easy, because I get one day a week when I can use the laundry if I want. So I do. Not much planning required.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 10:13 PM on February 25, 2007

Well, they screen us as thouroughly as they can beforehand. The whole training pipeline is designed to filter out people who are emotionally not up to it as well, in subtle ways. Still, everyone's got a story of someone they knew "cracking" on the boat. For the families, there are all kinds of counseling services available for free just for the asking.
Some info on the screening: (pdf slideshow)
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 8:42 PM on February 26, 2007

I don't mind the limit. The one time I thought I had a question, something similar had been asked already on AskMe and turned up in the courtesy search. Plus, I ask friends most of my questions. I'm impressed that people can come up with more than one baffling-to-friends, Google-proof, never-before-considered question in two weeks. Guess I'm just too average.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 7:53 PM on February 14, 2007

Wouldn't the solution then be, fix the book or laptop onto the bouncing around vehicle? Like, rest your hands on the dash on the passenger side, or something? Then your book/laptop wouldn't be steady relative to your head.

I've never gotten motion sick reading in a vehicle, and never really thought about it. Turns out, though, now that I read this today and think about it, that I habitually hold the book resting in my lap when I read. So, that checks with that theory.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 11:43 PM on January 17, 2007

Do it on your end. Click on your name after your comment, save the page locally, then write a perl script or something to count the comments, then count the ones with a checkmark.

It's such a good idea, that you should be able to sell your script to other users and PROFIT!!!.

Good excuse to learn perl, in any case.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 4:25 PM on January 10, 2007

1) click on your name after the post
2) click on the number of answers to see their answers
3) save that page
4) create this file as awkfile:

BEGIN {comments=0; best=0}
/comment\ posted/ {comments++}
/bestcheck.gif/ {best++}
END {printf("%d comments, %d best, %3.2f percent success rate.\n", comments, best, best/comments*100);}

5) awk -f... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 5:42 PM on January 10, 2007

Note that it only counts the ones before the jump to the next page. So really, it's how you're doing lately.

For doohickie, I get:
50 comments, 0 best, 0.00 percent success rate.

So there you go.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 5:50 PM on January 10, 2007

I like to answer more than I do ask (if I know something, that is.)
I like to read without doing either, more than answering or asking.
AskMe is awesome. I mean, I like the blue just fine, and all, but the green is the coolest. I learn something every day, usually about something I didn't know I didn't know.

I'd be disappointed if it were discontinued.
posted to MetaTalk by ctmf at 12:46 AM on January 6, 2007