stewiethegreat:

Perhaps you can find someone here on MeFi that would be willing to act as a broker for a % of the sales?

I know a couple people here who do that kind of stuff, MeFiMail me if you want.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 9:51 PM on October 2, 2008

If you look at the top-level Library/Logs folder, there may be a "panic.log" which may tell you what component of the system is causing the hang.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 3:05 PM on October 1, 2008

Shure are the ones I work with most often, and they are truly bulletproof. Go for the ULX series if you can't afford the UHF-R.

Avoid the Sabine like the plague - not only do they have potential interference like one said above, but if the transmitter antenna is covered by flesh, they will drop out. 2.4GHz is close enough to microwave that it is significantly dampened by, say, a body.

One also links to the Countryman 6 series microphone which is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 1:03 PM on September 29, 2008

With your Mac connected to the Wifi, go into the Airport Card section of System Profiler. (Available from the button in "About this Mac" under the Apple Menu...)

If the Airport Wireless Channel says any number above 12, the hotel is using a Wifi hotspot on an "international" channel. US channels are only 1-12, and 13 and 14 are sometimes available in European countries and Japan.

If this is the case, your Mac has an... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 3:36 PM on September 21, 2008

Oh, sorry - the solution we came up with was to ask the hotel if we could reconfigure their wireless access point. They allowed us to and we changed it to a US friendly channel.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 3:37 PM on September 21, 2008

My cousin runs an AC company. They're called Ierna Air

Family owned, very reliable and fair.

I've had them install two units, on in my home and one in my business.

They're located in Lutz, on the Hwy 41 side.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 5:58 PM on September 18, 2008

Riffing off of what Cool Papa Bell says about spices above, I've found that spices bought in the ethnic aisle of my closest store (a Publix) has spices which are at least half as much as the ones in the spice aisle.

The ones in the spice aisle are usually Spice Islands or other name brands, and the ones in the ethnic aisle are Badia brand.

But, when you compare a couple of ounces of a spice at $2 in a bag, vs. less unit price for $6 in a glass... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 5:32 PM on September 15, 2008

Honey, a bit of neutral vegetable oil (choose something healthy if you like), and some molasses have served me well.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 12:32 PM on September 15, 2008

I know you asked for teacher-friendly ideas, but I'm not a teacher. My wife was PTA president for two years though, so here are some things we saw work.

T-Shirts can be a good fund raiser, because you can usually count on one per family member. If you work a deal with a local t-shirt shop, you can easily pull 100% profit.

But, as idb says, the best way to fundraise is to get donations. I hate Hate HATE buying the tchotchkes and candy and putting... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 9:25 AM on September 14, 2008

Sorry, wavering, that's just not possible.

Electromagnetic energy moves at nearly the speed of light. (On preview, I see Aquaman has already mentioned it, but I have links and equipment suggestions!)

The speed of light is over 860,000 times the speed of sound.

That means that a 1cm difference in head position is 1500 times greater than that of 6 meters of wire. (As an aside, the speed of sound does cause audible latency... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 3:57 PM on September 13, 2008

Er, StickyCarpet,

Even at the 40%-70% of the speed of light that tracert's linked wikipedia article states, at the slowest, you'd be looking at less than 1ms of delay for each 100 meters of cable. And, I stand by my statement that propagation through speaker wire is "nearly" the speed of light, because the speed of sound in air amounts to a rounding error when comparing it to the 40-70% of the speed of light we're talking about.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 7:27 PM on September 13, 2008

At my wedding, we used two gooseneck microphones. They were cardoids.

I think they were Shure MX412s.

These were screwed to a mic stand which was somewhat camouflaged with tulle. If there is a lectern, you could use larger mics.

We should have had a wireless mic on our officiant, but our crowd was smaller than yours, so we did OK.

I think we had a wireless handheld for any speeches that ended up... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 2:26 PM on September 11, 2008

Here's another source of quite a few.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 12:35 PM on September 8, 2008

Set up server-status:


<Location /admin/server-status>
SetHandler server-status
Order deny,allow
</Location>

ExtendedStatus On

This should give you a decent amount of info about which virtual domain is getting what requests and for how much data.

Be sure to put an .htaccess password on the admin directory so people can't look at your privates :)
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 12:21 PM on September 8, 2008

Anything like this?
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 6:15 PM on September 4, 2008

If the convention you were at was for a vendor that rhymes with THISCO, I can tell you exactly what they used, because one of my business partners was responsible for setting up the projection portion of it.

The wall of video was 820 feet long.

14 Christie Roadie projectors were used, blended. (That's where each projector overlaps a bit, and there's either a digital or physical fade on either side.)

All of the content was... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 8:21 PM on August 29, 2008 marked best answer

The Zoom H2 that echo target linked to is fantastic, as is it's big brother, the H4.

The H2 will do surround recording too.

If you want to do binaural recordings without setting up gear and attracting too much attention, you could get a set of croakie mounted microphones like these.

They will plug right into the H2 or H4, or really any recorder that supplies bias voltage.

echo target's idea about... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 8:39 AM on August 22, 2008

SEE ROCK CITY

Visit South of the Border!

And, to help you find other quirky attractions on your route, see Roadside America.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 8:27 AM on August 22, 2008

Go to ziphone.org and click the download link.

Pick from Windows or Mac version.

Run ZiPhone. Pick the options that you want, such as Activation, Jailbreak, anysim.

...

Profit!
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 8:56 PM on August 20, 2008 marked best answer

I don't think it does, but you can certainly downgrade to the 1.1.4 firmware to use ZiPhone.

I haven't used one of the couple of tools out there that jailbreak the 1.2.x firmware, but I have a friend who has used PwnageTool 2.0 to jailbreak, unlock and activate a rev1 iPhone to work with T-Mobile.

As it stands, I think that only the rev1 iPhones can have their baseband unlocked for use with other carriers. 3g iPhones can be jailbroken, but not... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 10:04 PM on August 20, 2008

If the WEP passphrase he's using is less than 13 characters, try padding the passphrase with spaces at the end.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 8:58 PM on August 20, 2008

You could set up a firewall machine using something like m0n0wall or pfSense, or one of the many Linux based ones out there, between your internet connection and the LAN.

Whatever shaping solution you choose, the easiest way to shape torrents is to guarantee chunks of bandwidth to the ports you need, like web, the various mail ports, voip, etc. and throttle everything else. Open up the floodgates for traffic that's vetted, but throttle everything else to manage-able levels.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 7:44 PM on August 11, 2008

You could use a cheap KVM without the V.

This comes up in a search. I don't know anything about this particular product.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 9:34 AM on August 10, 2008

Talk to your super. They will likely be able to shut down the elevator temporarily and get in via an access door, or from the first floor with the car on a different floor.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 9:31 AM on August 10, 2008

Very similar, but not it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 11:26 AM on August 9, 2008

It was Ambrel.net.

Thanks, acidic!
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 2:05 PM on August 9, 2008

You're halfway there with the name of your file.

The screen is acting as a Diffraction Grating, and and example of this phenomenon can be had here.

I think to better photograph it, you'll need to manually focus on the target, not the screen.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 10:42 AM on August 2, 2008

I've been threatening to use Relay on one of our servers. It looks nice, and Web2.0, and claims to have upload status.

On one site, I'm using Comet Web File Manager at the moment. It's not terribly fancy, but it works pretty well.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 8:51 PM on August 1, 2008 marked best answer

Offer free recycling drop off for old electronics, batteries, etc.

Offer a discount for computer and electronics trade-ins, especially if you can make the money back by selling the items used, or to scrap dealers.

Get your upstream providers to lower their packaging footprint (or remove it altogether - why do we need a quart of oil's worth of cut-inducing, blood-spilling blister-pack for a single cable? Twist-ties and a small cardboard flag are... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 9:55 AM on July 30, 2008

A Pelican is going to be very, very expensive to check on an airline with the iMac inside it; it's going to be overweight.

I love me some Pelican cases, but you want a Benson Box.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 5:55 PM on July 29, 2008

I had a TomTom for my first GPS. I liked it a lot.

Now I have a Garmin. I like it a lot too.

The differences at the same pricing tiers are small, but notably, the order in which address information is input is different between these two brands.

The Garmin seems to know what side of the street Points of Interest are on, but has some problems routing through certain intersections.

The TomTom's map... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 1:40 PM on July 24, 2008

If you transfer the whole iTunes library to where the Mac expects it, and rename the library file to the proper name (I think you have to remove an extension) and launch Mac iTunes, it should convert the library file in situ, preserving your ratings and playlists. The catch is that since the music files are in a different absolut path, you'll have to find the first one that you play on the filesystem before the library works completely.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 12:43 PM on July 17, 2008

You'll want to get a XLR splitter for any shows that have a monitors mix position. (Random google, not a recommendation)

This will allow you to send the same sources to both the FOH and monitors desks.

When shows get even bigger, and have mix-for-TV or Video trucks, you might even see three or four-way splitters on the stage XLR.

But, that's way above what you really care about :)

Yes, a snake is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 6:05 PM on July 9, 2008

The Apple-centric solution:

Get a Mac Mini (with a wireless card), a couple of external Firewire 1TB drives. Use iTunes to rip the CDs, into Apple Lossless (if you are a stickler for quality) or AAC at 256Kb/sec (if you'd like a good space/sound quality tradeoff). The mini can be at your main entertainment center. It's got DVI out, so it works well with most HD sets.

If you don't mind configuring from the Mini which stereos get the single stream... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 9:28 PM on July 7, 2008 marked best answer

I suggested the Mac Mini for the main entertainment center machine because of the video aspect of it. MPEG4, in general, requires a hair more than 1GHz on any proc to decode 720p HD. The Mini is a quiet box, excellent for use at an entertainment center. Also, if you're going to be encoding on this box, you'll want it to be a reasonably fast, complete computer. Plus, the Front Row interface is cool.

And, of course, the primary reason why I crafted an Apple-centric... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 11:10 AM on July 8, 2008

Seconding Qcodo, though it's been kinda stagnant and has branched into Zcodo.

What's great about Zcodo is all of the widgets they provide, and how easy they are to extend.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 2:29 PM on June 27, 2008

This looks promising.

I'm not using it currently, but I might be now :)
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 9:15 AM on June 26, 2008

Sign up for the free "Online" developer program.

You can download the various dev kits and SDKs from there.

They also have a great set of videos you can subscribe to on iTunes for both Mac and iPhone development.

Also, you can see many of the assets they have here.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 10:32 AM on June 22, 2008

There's an ">open firmware trick to get pre 1GHz Macs to install all the way up to Leopard.

However, as Tomorrowful says, even if you do get iMovie HD installed, it's probably going to be like wading through soup.

I have edited HDV on a 1Ghz G4, and it wasn't horrible, but I wouldn't want to do it for very long.

What make and model camcorder is it?

If it's a Sony, I know they have a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 4:21 PM on June 21, 2008

Gah. What did I do to that link?

open firmware trick
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 4:22 PM on June 21, 2008

The way that three way sockets work is they have one neutral (the socket threads) and two hots. The two hots are only different in that the four positions of the switch are: Off-Off, Off-On, On-Off, and On-On. If you look at the business end of a 3-way bulb, you'll see that the two hots are a ring contact and a center contact. A normal 3-way bulb has two elements in it, one that's a low number of watts and one that's a high number.

A regular bulb (CFL, halogen or regular... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 5:52 PM on June 8, 2008 marked best answer

You could break down and get a portable room AC instead of a window AC.

These can be placed several feet from the exhaust location (usually a window) and are usually 120VAC.

When I did a Lowes search for air conditioners, the 10kBTU Frigidaire unit was around $450, or roughly the same price as a portable room AC, also at Lowes.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 6:20 PM on June 5, 2008

You don't say if they are sitting on soil or concrete, but if they are on concrete, why not mount them to the slab with bolts?
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 7:47 PM on June 1, 2008

It's worth noting that the replacement drives (Pioneer 115s) are about $34 right now, and are super-easy to install.

Here's a good place to buy them. (Satisfied customer, no other connection)

The Mac Pro will hold two optical drives, and it requires only a Phillips-head screwdriver to install. The extra screws for mounting a second drive are screwed into the side of the aluminum cage. The cage slides out when the side is off and the lock is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 11:35 AM on June 1, 2008

There are two different pirate ship day cruises nearby (if only because of your title):

http://www.thepirateshipatjohnspass.com/
http://www.captmemo.com/
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 10:50 AM on May 29, 2008

Here's a post telling where the license is kept.

As far as I know, you won't lose any user data by removing this file and going through the keying process again. Just drag the file to your desktop and re-launch one of the apps and it will ask you to re-serialize.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 5:42 PM on May 27, 2008 marked best answer

As wongcorgi suggests, it is most probably dust in the microswitch which tells the port that there is an optical jack plugged in.

A good blast of canned air, jack and re-jack with headphones, (or better yet, an optical cable) and another blast of air should do it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 12:25 PM on May 17, 2008 marked best answer

Probably a failing reed switch. There's a reed switch that gets activated by a magnet when the lid is closed.

Here's a thread that tells where the switch is located and how to activate it with a small magnet:
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 2:21 PM on May 15, 2008

That specific light claims to have a solid state dimmer, so polarity probably does matter.

We had a light similar to this, and I built a similar 4-pin XLR cable for it, and got the polarity wrong initially. It worked in one orientation, but not in the other. Hooking it up (briefly) backwards didn't seem to affect the light. YMMV!

To be sure, wait until Monday and call Lowel's support line and ask them which pin is supposed to be what. I'm sure... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 6:02 PM on May 3, 2008

Sorry to double post, I just wanted to mention that the similar light we had was NOT a Lowel, although it was halogen and did have a solid-state dimmer.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tomierna at 6:02 PM on May 3, 2008