I took a ethnomusicology course as an undergrad, all about Caribbean music. It dealt with the intertwined relationship of culture, politics, race, and music across the various islands. It was fantastic, largely because it was the professor's specific field of study.

As for applicability, I'd say about the same as any other liberal arts degree (I have a history degree and work in software).
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 5:28 AM on July 24, 2008

This topic has been discussed to death here.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 11:54 AM on July 23, 2008

I've wondered this as well- corporate sales are definitely skewing overall numbers. Though, I think there's definitely confirmation bias at work in your personal guesstimates. Places like WalMart and Costco sell a lot of PC's equipped with Windows (and, to a lesser extent, Linux).
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 11:24 AM on July 22, 2008

I think you're misunderstanding how the system works. Your employer pays into the Unemployment Insurance Program via a tax that comes out of payroll. The money's spent whether you use it or not, so the business doesn't care. I'm 99.99% sure they don't even know, since you file with the government, not them.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 8:41 PM on July 21, 2008

John Leguizamo has several films that are right up your alley- Spic-O-Rama, Freak, Sexaholics.

I Like Killing Flies is a great documentary about the owner of a local NYC eatery, who is a character unlike any other. He's technically not the narrator, but he does most of the talking.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 7:34 PM on July 21, 2008

Ask them to break down the pricing for you so you can see exactly what is bringing up the cost so much. Chances are it's something like museum-quality glass, which is usually overkill.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 8:20 AM on July 20, 2008

A precedent (of sorts).
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 7:42 PM on July 17, 2008

vytae: I'm pretty sure there's a law that won't allow online retailers to charge for the goods until they ship.

IANAL, but I am fairly sure you can capture funds before shipping as long as you provide the customer an easy route toward refunding the money on demand. I know some boardgame companies work on this principle for their pre-orders.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 10:29 AM on July 18, 2008

Wait, three of you want to start an application company, you're barely out of college, and none of you are developers? That's two, possibly three too many people on that end.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 2:05 PM on July 16, 2008

I've sold computers on CraigsList in NYC without much hassle. Your problem is, IMO, the price. Brand new iMacs start at $1200, and the bottom of the line model is probably as good or better than your 2-yr-old model. I can actually get a refurbished iMac direct from Apple for $950.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 9:34 AM on July 16, 2008

Are you watching any video? Video is an enormous battery drain.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 7:20 PM on July 14, 2008

You don't want to waste your evenings and weekends working retail, only to discover on April 15 that you now have to pay a hell of lot more in taxes.

Moving to a higher tax bracket doesn't mean all of your income is magically taxed at the new rate. Only income above and beyond the lower limit is taxed at the new rate.

Don't ever let that stop you from getting more income.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 6:18 PM on July 13, 2008

Taking a second job because of the discount it affords is a bad idea, IMO; the exception is working somewhere you can get basic necessities (read: groceries) from. That iPod/shirt/book may come with a 10/20/30% discount, but you're still spending the rest when, the point is to be earning more to make ends meet.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 8:51 AM on July 14, 2008

Is your camera plugged directly into your Mac, as opposed to a hub? Have you tried each of the different USB ports? As crazy as it sounds, the usb ports on Macbooks are wonky like that.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 5:30 PM on July 12, 2008

Licorice root is fairly common here in NYC among the African community. It's basically a short stick you chew on for a long time. Good natural toothbrush to boot. Hafta like licorice, though.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 12:40 PM on July 11, 2008

God, Dreamhost. I used them for a couple years, the first couple of which were awesome. Then they oversold their capacity, and it all went downhill ~2 years ago. All of their shared hosting plans at this point, IMO, are shite, even at the price points where it's no longer "bargain basement" hosting. I switched a couple years ago to Pair, which is more expensive but way more reliable. They recently introduced PairLite, which may be up your alley, but I can't vouch for its level of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 8:19 AM on July 11, 2008

BTW, if you follow your tags, you can pretty much see the answer to your question hasn't changed at all in years.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 8:21 AM on July 11, 2008

Punctual is right on, IMO. No one's going to dispute that J (as you describe) his all sorts of toxic. What's disturbing is that your friend M. is enabling him, aware at a basic level of what kind of relationship she has, and yet is unable to leave. All of the "advice" that's some variant of DTMFA won't help. What your friend needs is some professional help.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 8:31 PM on July 9, 2008

Therapy is definitely on the "to do" list, when it becomes possible.

Oh, no, no no. Therapy now. Professional therapists make financial accommodations for patients all the time. Believe me, your friend will not be turned away because she can't pay yet. "To-Do List" = "never". DO NOT LET THAT BE AN OBSTACLE.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 7:27 AM on July 10, 2008

BABIP is increasingly trendy among stat-heads, and especially fantasy players- it's a good way to identify lucky (sell high) and unlucky (buy low) guys.

As for fly balls/sacs, two things to look out for:

- Announcers typically only refer to a "sac fly" as one that advances a runner from 3rd to home. It's not counted as an at-bat, but does grant an RBI- the idea is that unlike other times, a batter will often... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 8:45 AM on July 8, 2008

Are you fixing it yourself? Pretty much any place that services appliances will order a part for you if you give them the model #.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 8:34 AM on July 7, 2008

Definitely do a session on searching. Also...

Setting up a Facebook profile and how to set the privacy.
How to set up anti-virus and firewall.
Partitioning your HD and installing Linux.

Might want to reconsider GarageBand- Macs are still the minority of market-share overall, likely even more so among inner-city kids.

I'd also skip programming- LOGO won't impress a 13-year-old.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 4:58 PM on July 6, 2008

I think everything past macros in Photoshop (which I think is a great idea to demonstrate the gist of how software works) is going to be over their heads.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 5:22 PM on July 6, 2008

Uh, folks, there weren't lawyers and bankers in the year 1000 (in Europe, which is where I'm assuming this question is restricted to). Generally speaking, the ones who had money handed down the law, and the ones who had money inherited it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 7:27 AM on July 5, 2008

I wouldn't go so far as to sell the dog behind their back, but if you gave them the contact info of a specific person who wanted to buy the dog for a specific price (and possibly a time to meet and do the deal), you can probably get them to sell the dog themselves.

And then get some new friends. They don't seem to respect anything other than themselves.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 3:48 PM on July 4, 2008

Here is a list of document shredding services in California.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 11:14 AM on July 4, 2008 marked best answer

Guns, Germs, and Steel covers some of this.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 9:18 AM on July 4, 2008

That sounds utterly crazy to me. Do you have a citation of anyone actually making this claim?
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 8:00 PM on July 3, 2008

MacFusion
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 12:23 PM on July 3, 2008

I should note that it requires MacFUSE, and also supports SSH.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 12:24 PM on July 3, 2008

MacFUSE has a (experimental, ymmv) read/write driver for NTFS.

Seriously, check out MacFusion. It'll do exactly what you want. Free.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 5:01 PM on July 3, 2008

I'm not sure if there is a word covering what you're looking for, but this:

In many cases, as when foods advertise some mostly irrelevant health property "McDonalds is now Trans-Fats FREE!" I think of that as damning with faint praise.

is quite different. The stuff the OP is talking about are things that are technically true, or true in specific circumstances, but effectively false in common practice (I came across... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 11:26 AM on July 3, 2008

Method Man has a (reasonably) extensive list of film & tv credits to his name.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 5:45 AM on July 3, 2008

Stick with users choosing their own username. The problem with an auto-generatic system like the one proposed above is that lots of people have the same first name. What do you do with Jonathan A vs. Jonathan B? The technical answer is usually, "add another letter", so you wind up with "Jon" and "Jona", but then it becomes difficult for the community to know who's who.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 5:40 AM on July 3, 2008

Is Brooklyn off-limits? Thrifty Beverage Center in Cobble Hill is pretty convenient and has an excellent selection of beer by the keg/case/six/bottle, all at good prices. There's also a place close by, on Pacific St. between Court and Smith, whose name I can't remember.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 11:27 AM on July 2, 2008

Room and Board
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 6:58 AM on July 2, 2008

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what the "markblasco faction" (as it were) is advocating, but it's a really really bad idea, IMO, to put a file on your iPod (or any portable player) and then delete it from your computer. You absolutely want a backup for when the iPod dies/breaks/gets lost.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 8:34 AM on July 1, 2008

box: And can't you re-download already-purchased iTunes music?

No. Can't speak to any of the other services, though.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 8:41 AM on July 1, 2008

No, but then it's completely at the mercy of a consumer device with a low life expectancy. I've got over a thousand bucks in purchased music on my iPhone.- not having a copy of that stuff somewhere more secure than my pocket is totally crazy to me.

Of course, I guess it depends on where the music is coming from- if she's burning her existing CD collection, then yeah, toss it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 12:31 PM on July 1, 2008

This long-time iTMS customer recently switched to Amazon and hasn't looked back. Their price and selection are fantastic.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 8:07 PM on June 30, 2008

CORPORATE AMERIKKKA IS RUN BY GREEDY A$$HATS!! AMIRITE?!?!?
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 9:32 AM on June 30, 2008

"Secret" bars in NY are poorly kept. Think you're too cool to mention any here? Please. Even Newsday's giving the rundown.

Go to Angel's Share, near St. Mark's (mentioned in that article). It's upstairs, in the back of a Japanese restaurant. The cocktails are meticulously prepared and there's no standing, so be prepared to wait if you're not there early.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 4:10 PM on June 29, 2008

I suspect the deliberate obfuscation is because the mention of it is likely to engender a negative reaction. If you're genuinely concerned about what kind of response it arouses in strangers, I think you should listen to that. It's totally understandable to want to honor traditional family names, even when they're foreign names that sound awkward in English (I met a perfectly nice woman in college named Dorkus), or are just old names that sound twee now (like Beauregard or Henrietta).... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 9:31 AM on June 29, 2008

Check your local health food store. Not exactly the flavor you're looking for, but Eden sells several kinds of Asian seasonings and dry condiments that you can top rice with. Things like Furikake, Tekka, and Gomasio are good choices.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 6:57 PM on June 27, 2008

Go with the single-serving coffee cone, like yarrow suggests. If you're really only going to use it as rarely as you say, then a standard coffee maker is just going to take up space, and turn into this big thing you have to dig out of the back of some cabinet. The single-serving ones work on exactly the same principle, and are easily replaceable when (and I do mean when, not if) you lose or break one.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 2:23 PM on June 24, 2008

Here.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 12:37 PM on June 24, 2008

Yoga pants.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 1:01 PM on June 23, 2008

Zip Code searching is a widely-solved problem these days. I recently did an implementation in C# based on this code, and I know Drupal offers similar functionality, so there's definite PHP code out there as well. If you can't find pre-rolled code in your language, it shouldn't be hard to translate if you know a little math.

Zip Code DB's are widely available as well. Here's one.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 10:03 AM on June 23, 2008 marked best answer

gensubuser: In this case, I think of these as funny things to say that hide the withering shame I hope they feel for taking my breakfast away.

It's interesting to me that you bring up "shame" several times in your question. That says to me that your sarcasm is born of some hostility you're feeling, and is a means of hiding that rather than someone else's perceived/desired shame.

Your anger, like... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 8:44 AM on June 23, 2008

I just had oysters- 5 varieties, from Long Island, WA, BC, and I can't remember where else- on Sunday, and they were quite delicious.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mkultra at 6:35 AM on June 20, 2008