Thanks for posting this, folks. I just got back from the ER after dislocating my shoulder.... hurts quite a bit!
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 3:11 PM on September 28, 2008

If you have a touch, you might wanna check out Podcaster, a native app for the touch / iphone. I've been beta testing it and it works pretty well... kind of. It's getting there. There's been a bit of controversy around it lately due to the fact that apple rejected it from the app store for some reason, so the developer is going "ad hoc" with it.

The idea, though, is amazing. It can download podcasts via 3g/wifi with a variety of sync options, no itunes required.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 12:08 AM on September 19, 2008

Obviously, you know what Kurt said about this...
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 7:37 AM on September 16, 2008

I would bet dollars to donuts that the individual in question also owns a "FBI: Female Body Inspector" hat.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 8:08 AM on September 14, 2008

I have an older 701 and I love it... but I'd go crazy if it were my main computer. It's like a great, portable net / media device with a long battery life, but if you wanna do anything, like, "serious" with it, it'd probably be a bad choice. It's awesome for watching movies on the plane and traveling with, though...
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 7:40 PM on September 7, 2008

This kind of happened to a friend of mine in Vegas... they made him put his thumb print on the receipt at the time.

So... uhh... watch out for that.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 8:36 AM on August 27, 2008

Yeah... the Black Swan was kinda that book for me. A little pretentious at parts, but overall, a fascinating read.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 3:14 PM on August 20, 2008

You're still pretty far out, so I wouldn't stress too much about it. As you probably know, you're gonna have good weeks and bad weeks. 'Course, you wanna listen to your body on this one...

If I'm feeling a little "off," I generally do some kind of cross training -- biking, rock climbing, swimming, hiking, etc... Really, swimming is my current fave, but anything you're gonna do athletically is going to benefit you, albeit maybe not as directly as running.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 12:14 PM on August 20, 2008 marked best answer

'Course, Moshe Dayan had a pretty wicked eye patch...
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 2:15 PM on August 19, 2008 marked best answer

Yeah... here's how to make free ringtones: ehphone.ca/2008/08/ringtones/.

It's a little convoluted, but it works.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 5:12 AM on August 19, 2008

I think you'd be amazed at how common this is... It's kinda remarkable, the stories you hear when you get divorced. I dunno... at least for me, it opened my eyes a lot. I also went through this awhile go, being single (and eventually divorced) after living with someone for pretty much my entire twenties. Lots of good advice here... and of course, you will get through it. Once you get into the swing of things, it's really fun and satisfying living alone. (I say... writing this in my underwear.)... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 11:48 AM on July 27, 2008

You pretty much can't go wrong... Personally, I think For the Birds is just a remarkable recording. Steve Albini produced it, I believe, so it's just really... honest. Even though it's a studio recording, Albini does everything more or less live. It's just totally stripped down and beautiful. Also... to echo what the other folks are saying, Set List is actually, like, really good. It totally stands on its own, even if you haven't heard the studio versions of the other songs.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 6:10 AM on July 15, 2008

Allez Vous!
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 6:44 AM on July 14, 2008

billtron... the only thing your timeline was missing is OJ.
It's nice to see that other people are still pissed that Metallica was robbed. I wonder if Obama would get behind some kind of presidential decree to right that injustice.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 8:33 AM on July 13, 2008

I hiked up Humphreys in Flagstaff last weekend... kind of a brutal climb, but it was 115 in the valley, 55 up on the summit. There's tons of free / cheap places to camp around there, since it's all BLM land. Dunno exactly what the rules are, but I've camped a bunch of places around there with no problems. Also, they run the ski lift during the summer at Snowbowl... I haven't taken it up -- I was with my dog -- but I bet it's fun.

Arizona Highways is surprisingly cool for... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 7:51 AM on June 30, 2008 marked best answer

The convenience stores, especially the ones which aren't Circle K's, are full of mexican oddities that I wouldn't imagine have escaped out of the southwest. Like, have you ever had packets of flavored salt with your beer? A pickle in a hermetically sealed bag? Raiding the candy selection will yield some interesting results. Tamarind soda / candy is also pretty... special. (You either love it or you hate it.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 6:46 AM on June 25, 2008

If you're hungry, eat. I mean... choose good food and eat a moderate amount, but I wouldn't stress about exact number of calories if you're looking to improve your fitness. That's your body telling you something... and listening to your body, that's the key to being a good runner.

If you wanna figure out the pound loss, just figure out how much you burn vs. how much you take in... but, also, your normal metabolic rate will probably increase, which is why you're hungry.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 9:38 PM on June 22, 2008

It looks like a lockpick to me... it's not the best made tool possible, but yeah -- something like that'll do the job on a normal old house lock in like 10 seconds. Accuracy, for a 20 year old kwickset or whatever, isn't really an issue. You really don't even need a tension wrench most of the time... (I'm also not a thief... just a guy who bought a buncha lockpicks at DefCon a few years ago and successfully broke into my own home...)

Now... how it got there, that's... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 8:16 AM on June 11, 2008

Vinho Verdes are super cheap bottles of wine -- always under $10, usually under $5 -- so experimenting with 'em on a hot summer day, never a bad choice.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 5:29 AM on June 6, 2008

Chances are, the Retronauts podcast will probably cover it, if they haven't already... I wish they were a bit more organized about their discussions, but they're a bunch of really nerdy / knowledgeable / insightful guys who work in the game industry, so they generally do a good job of going through the history of the series and putting it all into some kind of context.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 6:18 AM on June 3, 2008

Weird. That doesn't happen in my neighborhood... I'm in Tempe. What part of the Valley are you in?
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 10:38 AM on June 2, 2008

I had the same thing happen. I had to clear my brower's cache and it was just fine...
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 8:17 AM on May 30, 2008

I'm sure it would use a lot more power and drain the battery more, DMan...
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 8:38 PM on May 28, 2008

zardoz
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 5:10 AM on May 17, 2008

I'm in the valley... let's be honest, it ain't a cool town. There's shit going on, but really, unless you're into playing outside, I dunno what the heck people do around here. (Luckily, they do something, since they don't seem to be clogging up the trails. From my observations thus far, they seem to be eating at chain restaurants and watching television.)

The appeal is, yeah... easy living. A relative slacker like myself can still afford the American dream 'round these... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 6:07 PM on May 6, 2008

For me, it depends on the distance. For anything marathon distance or less, I'll generally just go with the Ultimate Direction water bottle, which has a hand strap, but also a pocket to carry basic stuff like a key and a credit card. I've got a decent pair of shorts with good pockets that I can put some extra gu packets in, if I need to.

For longer runs and time out on the trail, I just rock the camelbak m.u.l.e. It's got more than ample carrying space for everything... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 3:48 PM on May 5, 2008

Yeah... if history is any indicator, we'll have php5 for a good long time. 4.x is still really, really common in shared hosting environments and 5 has been out for what seems like forever.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 9:35 PM on May 4, 2008 marked best answer

Anyway... Although OmieWise seems to consistently kick my ass on the MeFi challenge, I'm another reasonably high mileage runner and I think this is a fine idea if you prepare properly. You're going to have a tough time going from 10k to the type of endurance you'll need, but I'm constantly amazed what people can do when they get super serious about this kinda stuff.

But... make no mistake. Doing this a year from now would take total dedication. To put this in perspective... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 10:18 PM on April 30, 2008

'Sides the other suggestions, you might wanna try mixing up the terrain... if you're running on the street, try hitting the trails, see how that feels.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 9:50 PM on April 30, 2008

I've been seeing your numbers of the mefi challenge as well... it looks like you're prepared. You'll do fine. The most important thing to remember is have fun.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 8:02 PM on April 27, 2008

There's always the Arizona Trail, which goes from Utah clear down to the Mexican border. Not a loop, but there's an endless amount of trail to wander around.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 3:10 PM on April 17, 2008

Yeah... I mean, who knows what the heck was going on with the past girl who disappeared. Coulda been anything... I wouldn't read anything into it.

There's nothing wrong with being direct. Maybe just escalate it a little bit: "Hey! We've got a lot in common, why don't we chat on the phone?" ... or... "You seem cool, let's go grab a drink sometime. What's the best way to set something up?"
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 9:20 AM on April 17, 2008

I'm a guy, but I love running at night. I live in the desert and it gets very hot here; I pretty much have to run at night all summer. The biggest thing I worry about is drivers not seeing me... I pretty much assume they can't and plan accordingly.

It sounds like a lot of people have covered everything I'd say, except to say that a good headlamp will be your best friend if you run somewhere without a lot of light. The new generation of LED's is pretty remarkable.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 7:24 AM on April 11, 2008

Yeah... I also use dreamhost for whatever it's worth, but I bet the home / wamp solution would work just fine.

It works exactly like you'd expect... wamp has command-line php, same as anything else. You'd probably have to write some quick batch files and run 'em from the windows scheduler, but it isn't that hard to deal with.

If you want real cron support under windows, you can also grab cygwin and do all the stuff you'd normally do under unix.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 12:49 PM on April 5, 2008 marked best answer

At first that's what I thought they were talking about STM, those checkpoints. I guess they stopped the van, got out, and ran around in the desert -- probably around the area that TedW noted... That's the American Canal going through there, right?
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 7:41 AM on March 4, 2008

Gotcha... so, maybe they did cross into Mexico, maybe not, but they'd already crossed into the US Border Zone, which is why there's so much crazy surveillance around and whatnot out there.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 5:40 AM on March 5, 2008

Has it held up?
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 8:19 AM on March 2, 2008

Gotta agree with Odinhead -- there are still a ton of folks playing Battlefield II online. If all you're looking for as mindless multiplayer mayhem, it's pretty bad ass. And cheap. (Don't even bother with the expansion packs...)
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 5:34 AM on March 2, 2008

... Guess I know what I'm watching for awhile. War!

More recently, Marky Mark is pretty badass in Sniper.

... Along the same lines, but way more offbeat, Tom Berenger is pretty awesome in The Substitute, a movie about a bunch of mercenaries for hire to get personally involved in cleaning up a gang-riddled high school.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 6:18 AM on February 25, 2008

Yeah... I'm also a former xc-runner who started doing a little swimming to get better upper body / core strength. It works awesome... plus, if you go to college, you generally get to work out with girls in bikinis. (Gotta find your motivation somewhere, eh?)

The boredom... well, yeah. Compared to running, that's an issue... I look at it as kind of a zen thing, though. Just kinda drift off into the same place I go in the shower: happy fun wet land. (Sadly, I no longer... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 5:43 AM on February 18, 2008

I've got a slightly older version of the Samsung 410 -- I've got the 350, but it's basically the same -- and it's exactly what you'd expect. It's not gonna blow your mind, but it seems to work just fine. I will say this... I'm pretty rough on phones and this one seems to be holding up remarkably well.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 12:27 PM on February 17, 2008

Just to echo what everyone else is saying, I think both the Boyce Thompson Arboretum and Desert Botanical Gardens are probably the best places to get to know the desert... BTA is way bigger, but further out of town. Totally worth the drive, though.

I dunno, guys... Camelback is pretty intense. Don't get me wrong -- I love it and it's one of my favorite places to go running / scrambling, but is it "easy to moderate?" (I see all kinds of people on that mountain... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 6:53 AM on February 14, 2008

Yeah... rjt's got the right idea -- get a grip on what you're using in terms of resources. It might not be as much as you think, but it's impossible to make informed decisions without at least an overall look at the data. Are you seeing performance problems? What kinds?

Also... what's going on with those servers? What are the specs? What does each one of 'em do?

$1,700 could be a ripoff or it could be a steal, depending on the quality of the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 9:23 PM on February 11, 2008

At least around here (the Southwestern USA) search and rescue seems to be done by well organized volunteers. Call 'em up, see what they need... I'm sure they'd be happy to hear from ya.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 7:24 AM on February 10, 2008

I just picked up one of those Fry's $200 "great quality pc" specials and threw Ubuntu on it to do more or less what you describe. I added a cheap ass 5.1 sound card to it, plus a ridiculously huge drive for some tiny amount of money. Came to about $300 total, pretty much does everything I could possibly want. I just access the desktop remotely via vnc or just ssh in via the command line... and it's kinda nice having a full-blown linux box at my disposal on the homefront.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 6:00 AM on February 4, 2008

Yay for running marathons! There's absolutely no reason you can't achieve that goal if you stick with your training and prepare yourself properly.

Most of the running shoe stores have little running groups that get together -- in my experience, you'll find just about everyone involved in the running scene to be totally supportive and not at all judgmental about the kind of shape you're in when you first show up to one of their gatherings.

So...... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 8:48 PM on February 3, 2008

Yeah... I'm with OmniWise, for what it's worth... and he pointed me towards the UltraMarathon Mailing list awhile ago, so I owe him a bit of a running debt. Slow down, take your time... and enjoy it.

'Course, it all depends on what you're trying to do, running-wise. If you wanna go for distance, you've just gotta take it easy on yourself, particularly as you get started on any given run. Speed, endurance... that'll all improve after doing slow and steady distance runs... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 4:42 PM on February 2, 2008

Oh yeah, totally... tom123. Dude, you can learn how to program if you want...

For me, the key was just finding bite-sized projects to work on -- once I had a problem to solve, I was able to kind of work backwards and figure out how to do it by breaking it down into its component parts.

For example -- build a blog. You need to do the following:
1) Figure out to connect to databases
2) Design a really simple db structure... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 5:19 PM on January 29, 2008

Yeah... seconding autoit. That thing is rad for scripting on windows, especially for dealing with other programs and dialog boxes.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 5:37 AM on January 28, 2008

Personally, I dig Glendale's little antique stores and whatnot, but yeah... you've gotta be into that kind of thing. The action is out in the East Valley -- come on out to Old Town Scottsdale or Mill Ave in Tempe if you wanna grab a bite to eat or mix it up with the revellers.

There really are a million great places to eat here -- I mostly crib my fine dining choices from the the Southwest board at Chowhound. Totally reliable... nothing mentioned in there has ever... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ph00dz at 5:10 AM on January 28, 2008