In Google's Webmasters/Site owners Help - Images, the example file name they provide is "my-new-black-kitten.jpg".

Matt Cutts recommends hyphens rather than underscores.

Also, I researched this for a client once, and I KNOW I saw a page on Google's support site where they explicitly said hyphens (dashes) are better than underscores in file names. Of course, I can't find it at the moment.

It doesn't seem to make... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 11:38 AM on August 22, 2009 marked best answer

Since you've discovered that you enjoy the development work, I'd incline toward that path. Everybody wants enjoyment in their work. Why not go with the path that you're enjoying?
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 10:06 AM on August 18, 2009

paulsc, I'm not getting the same math results you are:

"The conductor was paid a considerably higher salary at a daily wage of $3.85. ..."

$3.85 * 365 = $1,405.25

I don't know whether conductors worked every single day, but even if they did, that's still well shy of $2,550 a year.

wsp: I'm reading a biography of Jack London right now. Before he was able to make a living writing, he was... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 3:43 PM on August 11, 2009

... and, paulsc, I just re-read your addendum, which didn't fully register in my mind before, so I apologize for not including that.

I do wonder whether that doubling or tripling was the norm or the exception.

Again, I say: fascinating.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 3:48 PM on August 11, 2009

Kind of seconding a lot of other comments (especially seconding freebird), but:

I finished high school a year early, went to the four-year college that my parents and I had selected based on its apparently excellent language program, discovered that the college was NOT excellent and not a good fit for me and dropped out after three months, came back home, got a full-time job, did two years of community college, then went to a more focused language school that didn't even... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 2:03 PM on August 7, 2009

Watermelon: 46 calories in 1 cup
Canteloupe: 53 calories in 1 cup
Honeydew: 61 calories in 1 cup

Seriously, you can eat a lot of watermelon for not a lot of calories.

Congrats on losing 45 pounds! That's awesome.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 10:12 AM on August 7, 2009

Some of the real estate blogs I read offer compelling evidence that prices will continue to drop. (I'm in San Francisco, one of the "special" real estate markets that "never goes down", which has seen significant price drops at all price levels in all neighborhoods.) There are still a lot of weird adjustable rate mortgages out there that will reset in the next couple of years (and even though interest rates are at historic lows now, some of those mortgages had insane teaser... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 10:18 AM on August 4, 2009

Also: good health is not necessarily directly related to health care costs.

An insurance company person once told me that the two highest categories of expenditures for health insurance companies are prescription drugs and pregnancy-related costs.

As I understand it (IANaM), Mormon teachings encourage having lots of children.

Employees who have lots of children may drive up health care costs considerably.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 1:13 PM on July 29, 2009

Sounding out others around you sounds like a good plan to me, but I would also encourage you to ask - but frame the question in terms of what you can (and do) offer your employer.

Something along the lines of, "Hi, Boss. Wow, I can't believe what a great job this has turned out to be. I'm loving the work, the rest of the team is great, I feel so lucky to have landed in such a great place right out of college. ... You know, I just thought I'd mention, I know some of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 9:41 AM on July 29, 2009

If you're interested in a second-hand perspective:

I have no kids and I attended public schools, but I got interested in home schooling because as an adult, I'm interested in homeschooling MYSELF, picking up some of the history and science I missed in public school.

I used to read the Usenet misc.education.home-school.misc newsgroup, and there was a guy on there who homeschooled his three kids using a very challenging curriculum - lots of math,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 10:57 PM on July 26, 2009

a very large living space/bedroom. The apartment is in the basement of a house, and has a large walk out patio area as well.

Get a nerf ball and play catch (out on the patio if you have lamps and stuff you'd knock over indoors, but if indoors is safe, I'm thinking bouncing the nerf ball off the walls and stuff would be all kinds of fun).

Check out some library books on dancing (or some videos, if you prefer) and teach each other new dance moves.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 12:31 PM on July 25, 2009

Make it a goal to eat a serving of fruit with EVERY meal.

Get in the habit of buying more fruit than you think you can eat every time you go to the store.

When you get home from the store, see if any of your fruit is (a) something you'd like pre-cut (like melon) and (b) ripe enough to cut up. If you want cut melon and it's ripe enough, cut it up and stick it in the fridge.

Put a sign on your fridge that says "Fruit!... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 1:39 PM on July 22, 2009

You might find some pointers to the kinds of thing you're looking for by skimming a Psychology 101 textbook or two.

My favorite example is the Asch conformity studies, which showed that if you're in a group and everybody else makes a statement ("line A is shorter than line B"), most people will go along with the group, even when the statement is clearly objectively wrong.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 6:47 PM on July 21, 2009

John McPhee's writing dazzles me - individual sentences shimmer, and the structures of his works are as elegantly constructed as a beautiful building. I am completely uninterested in sports, but his sports writing (especially A Sense of Where You Are and Levels of the Game) is so magnificent that I'm enraptured every time. (Levels of the Game in particular is symphonic: the way it builds, the way it resonates, the way it comes together.)

I recently finished a collection... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 9:06 PM on July 13, 2009

I always really enjoy just cranberry juice and orange juice.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 8:58 PM on July 13, 2009

As a web developer, I have to spend time specifically coding around the failure of Microsoft browsers to adhere to standards. So do other web developers. (Google IE workarounds to see for yourself.)

Every minute we spend accommodating their refusal to display web pages the way everyone else does is a minute we can't spend adding functionality or content to the site.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 11:53 PM on July 12, 2009

You guys are the best. Excellent answers all around!

Some nice local stuff, and a couple of East Bay places for the rare occasions when I get across the bridge.

Thanks so much!
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 11:12 PM on June 29, 2009

Just wanted to say my personal favorite text editor for the Mac is TextWrangler, which has the SFTP features mentioned above, but is free.

Also, check whether your local library offers the Safari tech library. At my local library, I can access all those tech books (including the Head First series mentioned above), completely free, just by typing in my library card number.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 2:02 PM on May 30, 2009

Seconding (and thirding and fourthing) The Rest is Noise (and check out the book, as well).

I'm also a huge fan of the San Francisco Chronicle's Joshua Kosman. Not a blog, but that link should point you to all his reviews for the past 30 days. I am not especially knowledgeable about classical music, but I find Kosman's writing smart, opinionated, and often funny. He's honest about performances he thinks fall short, but he's also effusive about music... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 10:02 AM on May 29, 2009

In some cases, I have 2nd Degree LinkedIn connections with either people in HR or people with whom I would be working. Should I try to "Get Introduced Through A Connection"?

Yes. I know people who have benefitted from this - colleagues who have had terrific resumes, applied a lot, gotten no calls or interviews, and then contacted 2nd or 3rd degree connections via LinkedIn - and then GOT an interview. Definitely worth a try.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 11:36 AM on May 23, 2009

Wow, this is FASCINATING - great question, and great answers!

Cygnet's answer made me wonder if there was anything over at MIT's Open Courseware, and I found Intro to Biological Engineering, which includes 4 course videos and about a dozen faculty videos. Yay!
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 10:28 AM on May 16, 2009

As for the violence in film thing, you might want to consider therapy for that.

Oh, pshaw. I really really dislike violence in films, too.

LizzyBe, it sounds to me like non-TV and non-movie activities might be more fun for you two, but if you DO want to watch stuff together, there's a ton of stuff you could enjoy without violence. Lots of comedies, including smart sitcoms; also, lots of non-violent dramas, like My... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 10:11 AM on May 14, 2009 marked best answer

Try Jalmus. It's free!

There's also Practica Musica, but that might be out of your price range.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 9:43 AM on May 14, 2009 marked best answer

I must slightly disagree with amyms - to my ear, "Little Willie" and "Love Is Like Oxygen" are much more summery than "Fox on the Run" (all by Sweet, of course). (Or is it The Sweet?)

Also, "What is Hip?" by Tower of Power; add in "So Very Hard to Go" and "You're Still a Young Man" if you're up for the slower songs.

And finally, as MeFi's resident (and perhaps only) Styx fan, I must... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 9:09 AM on May 13, 2009

Nthing the suggestion to immerse yourself as much as you can. One of my best language teachers talked about his method for learning language: just having language tapes on in the background while he was going about his day, making breakfast, brushing his teeth. If you focus on it, great, but even if you don't, having the sounds going on around you can make a real difference.

I'd check out the easy French news podcast from RFI. If it's too easy for you, there are other... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 12:43 PM on May 10, 2009

You've got lots of great answers, but just one more example: Robert Redford didn't go to film school. (He started with a baseball scholarship, then studied painting. He did study set design a bit, but I don't see any actual film school attendance mentioned in that bio.)

It seems like self-education could involve a lot of the excellent suggestions above: make a lot of your own short movies. Work on other people's projects whenever you can. And read a lot - there are a ton... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 10:00 AM on May 6, 2009

Safari Books Online has some Joomla books - they offer a free trial which would let you check out the books and see which ones might be worth owning. (Note: some libraries subscribe to the Safari service, so check any libraries you belong to as well.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 9:48 AM on May 5, 2009

Self-link: here's the cease and desist I got from Scientology's lawyer over my truthaboutscientology.com website, along with my answer to them and a bunch of links to the bits of the law I believe support my use of that trademarked name in my website.

I am totally not a lawyer, but the law seems pretty clear that you have the right to discuss trademarks when reporting on the organizations that own them. While trademark law has come to be seen much more as something to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 11:05 PM on May 3, 2009

Oh yeah, one more thing: trademark law requires trademark holders to protect their trademarks, which means that lawyers and trademark holders may feel that they MUST send cease-and-desists to anyone else who uses the trademark in order not to lose their right to it. (There's a little bit about this, though not much, at Wikipedia's Trademark article.) So one way to think of the C&D, if it comes, is this: "Right, they think they HAVE to send this to me, so now I respond by pointing out... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 11:13 PM on May 3, 2009

You might check out Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin. I just read it and, while it wasn't quite my thing, it explores two pretty great marriages.

I've also been massively enjoying Rosamund Pilcher - I just read Winter Solstice and quite enjoyed it. The main character is a splendid older woman.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 1:53 PM on May 1, 2009

"Pullin' Back the Reins" - k. d. lang (and maybe "Constant Craving", but "Reins" feels more torchy to me)
"If I Were the Man You Wanted" - Lyle Lovett
"Overlap" - Ani DiFranco
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 11:26 AM on May 1, 2009

"I Know There's A Word" - Aimee Mann
"Chapter and Verse" - Utopia
"Digging for Some Words" - Juluka
"The Word Girl" - Scritti Politti
"Every Word" - Tish Hinojosa
"Word on a Wing" - David Bowie
"Someone Took the Words Away" - Elvis Costello
"If I Only Had The Words" - Billy Joel

Also, "The Book... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 11:14 AM on May 1, 2009

I wonder if you'd include Kevin Gilbert?

He had SOME success during his lifetime - his Toy Matinee album got some airplay, especially in the Southwest, and his work with Sheryl Crow won a Grammy ... but it seems most people have never heard of him.

I haven't checked out the sound files at the official Kevin Gilbert site, but I would hope there are some live snippets there.

Brilliant, shimmering stuff -... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 10:32 PM on April 28, 2009

Check out Straight from the Fridge, Dad: A Dictionary of Hipster Slang. It is, as they say, solid, Jackson. (The phrases are almost certainly outdated, but they're still awesome.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 10:04 PM on April 28, 2009

For public domain or CC photos, I usually have a look at Wikipedia and WikiCommons:

Public domain photo of Rush Limbaugh

I'm not seeing anything in WikiCommons, but maybe I'm just missing it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 5:37 PM on March 5, 2009

Seconding trinity8-director's comment about updating your skills:

* see if there are any local non-profits who could use a volunteer to do a little coding
* get involved in an open source project, so you can brush up or pick up your programming skills without having to start an entire project from scratch

Also, maybe try getting yourself into a more confident mindset. You're worrying about how people will perceive your decision to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 12:14 PM on February 28, 2009 marked best answer

If you get a really good feeling about the guy from talking with him, consider asking whether he'd be interested in a partnership of some kind. He already knows a fair amount about running a business (the brewpub), which is knowledge you'd like to have. It's possible he's a cynical local tycoon who wants to milk local redevelopment dollars and isn't all that interested in building something that benefits the community; but it's also possible he's a community-building businessman who just doesn't... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 2:33 PM on February 26, 2009 marked best answer

What are the homeowner's dues on each unit?

What is the likelihood of a special assessment in either one during the time you own it?
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 9:22 AM on February 26, 2009

I was skeptical about Urinetown but loved it so much I saw it twice. I'll recommend "What Is Urinetown?" (opening number from Act II) and "Run, Freedom, Run."
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 10:15 PM on February 22, 2009

Not to get too meta, but I think AskMe is a good example of technology helping people become more self-aware.

The great thing about a teacher is that a good teacher can offer new perspectives on your situation. AskMe elicits specific perspectives from hundreds of teachers and organizes them in a way that makes it easy to contrast (conflicting advice in the same thread!) and look for corroboration (nthing).

By reading a wide variety of AskMes,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 11:37 AM on February 21, 2009

Fructose - I posted an AskMe a few weeks ago about credit card vs. check for charities. I didn't get many answers, but there's some evidence that charities would MUCH rather get a check.

Speaking as a donor, 4.75% feels like a lot to me. I'd much rather get those few dollars into the hands of my chosen recipients.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 11:14 AM on February 21, 2009

Also, when you talk to a lawyer (and/or as you're researching this yourself before talking to a lawyer), learn more about the extent to which, in your state, a company is bound by assurances made by an employee.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 10:28 AM on February 21, 2009

Go. And bring a journal.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 7:03 PM on February 15, 2009

Related question for the economics-knowledgeable on here:

Is MeFi wealth?

We, as a society, have Wikipedia and Google and IMDB and AskMeFi available to us. From my perspective, it is wealth, since it provides something I value and saves me time (I don't have to spend two hours going to the library to find out who wrote the sound track for The Ghost and Mrs. Muir; it's at my fingertips).

But there's nothing physical... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 1:28 PM on February 14, 2009

The single most important factor, which I think some folks above may have missed, is your time frame.

Do you want access to ALL of this money in a year? If so, I don't think you have many choices other than a CD.

If part of that is money you won't need for 10 or 20 years, then fine - an index fund could be an excellent choice, or good real estate if you feel like putting in the time and money to be a landlord, or even gold (not my thing, but... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 1:14 PM on February 14, 2009

Meant to add:

I'm sorry for your loss.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 1:14 PM on February 14, 2009

Responding to this part:

"help you feel comfortable with who you are (on the inside as well as the outside)"

For me, feeling comfortable in my own skin has come to mean psychologically staying in my own head, rather than jumping into someone else's. I've sometimes spent a lot of energy imagining what other people are thinking and then trying to assuage anxiety over that ("I should have called her back sooner! ... That came out... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 1:07 PM on February 14, 2009

Seconding ambient2's suggestion to do something complicated.

I read a book once about how we learn the physical geography of new places (making maps in our heads) and what happens to people when they get lost and start to panic. The author described two folk remedies for getting lost in the woods: one was reciting the Lord's Prayer backwards (ooh! Satanic!) and the other was taking off your clothes and putting them on inside out.

The reason these... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 12:23 PM on February 14, 2009

You wrote:

"Mrs. WebHund would not be pleased if pipe dream interfered with real job that is paying the mortgage off. "

How would Mrs. WebHund feel if the pipe dream didn't interfere with the real job, but DID interfere with quality time with her?

When I ran a little independent record company, it took up huge, vast amounts of my time. Friends would come by to meet me for a dinner date and we'd end up hanging... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 11:52 AM on February 14, 2009

Not sure if this is of interest, but definitely retro: the cover art to The Aberree (full disclosure: self-link) has some bunnies and other animals and other fun stuff, and it's public domain. That link is to Volume 7 - scroll down to issue 4 for the full-color bunny. Not all the covers are in color, but more than half are. Go to the home page for links to each volume, showing all the covers.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kristi at 11:21 AM on February 14, 2009