"Full" means a lot of things – a bus can be full, or a bottle, or a hard drive. "Mätt" means exactly one thing: I have eaten until I'm not hungry. It's the opposite of "hungry". "Full" is the opposite of "empty".

But if you say "full" in the context of describing human beings rather than buses, bottles etc. ("I'm full" or "Johnny's full"), it means only one thing:... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 10:39 AM on October 13, 2004

I've seen Mark Steel's Vive La Revolution recommended around the place, and after a trip to Paris I'm thinking of having a look at it myself. He's a comedian, so it's 'comic history', but if you like that sort of thing it could be worth checking out. He's done some of it as half-hour shows on Radio 4 and they were pretty good—so much so that the Open University commissioned him to present some TV shows.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 7:31 AM on September 2, 2004

It's current UK slang, Miguel. Probably back-formed from 'That's pure genius!' -> 'That's genius!' -> 'Send us your genius idea.'
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 1:21 AM on September 2, 2004

...So unless your character is from the south of England and under thirty or so, it'll probably sound false.

Something like 'brilliant' might work better.
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 1:24 AM on September 2, 2004

joeclark, they can, sure, but this adjectival use of genius is a distinctive part of UK slang at the moment, which would be why Miguel saw it on the BBC site. It's not just an ad hoc usage.

Having now followed that link, I'll add that Dave Gorman is in fact a genius (of the comic genus).
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 5:39 AM on September 2, 2004

Elizabeth Castro's Creating a Web Page With HTML comes recommended by Jeffrey Zeldman. I read one of her other HTML books and found it good.
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 2:17 AM on August 31, 2004

I'm gonna get you in my tent tent tent tent tent
Where we can both experiment ment ment ment ment
Yeah yeah, it's so convenient ent ent ent ent
Let's take a taxi to my tent
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 5:27 AM on August 12, 2004

Since no one has mentioned it, Lilya 4-Ever.
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 7:29 AM on August 10, 2004

I had the same problem, sailoreagle... the supermarkets only sell that microwaveable crap embedded in solid orange grease. I can't remember now where I finally found some, but I think it was a Margiotta's. There's one in the New Town on the 27 bus route (follow Hanover St away from Princes St), and others here and there around town.
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 3:11 AM on August 3, 2004

The Experience network (Oz/Kiwi/Feejee) do adventure tours for independent travellers in Australasia, which is still cheap compared to the US. They tend to draw a young crowd.
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 8:29 AM on July 22, 2004

Yeah, I've been there. Arrived in 1968,* stayed for two and a half weeks, no, years, no, decades. Been back a few, okay, several, okay, dozens of times. What do you want to know?

*Also, coincidentally, the first time I visited Earth.
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 3:03 AM on July 13, 2004

By the way, if you want cold, go between June and August. Outside the winter months it's not particularly cold. In summer it's as hot as most of Australia's south-east; goes over 30°C often, and sometimes hits the high 30s. dg is from Queensland, so he probably reckons anything under 30 is cold! :)
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 10:07 AM on July 14, 2004

I second the AlphaSmart. The 3000 model actually goes for US$199, and probably does everything you want in basic text entry. Autosaves every keystroke. Runs off 3 AAs for ages and ages. Works just like a regular keyboard when hooked up to PC or Mac - and it's a proper full-sized keyboard, not some fiddly PDA accessory. Weighs about two pounds. Stores "approximately 100 pages of single-spaced text" (about 200K). Fits in any bag that holds US Letter or A4 pages.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 6:50 AM on July 2, 2004

Another good read on this subject is Peter Robinson's Snapshots from Hell: The Making of an MBA.
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 3:23 AM on June 30, 2004

Call it something else on your own machine (say, htaccess.txt) and rename it on the server after you've uploaded it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 9:01 AM on June 22, 2004

Aussie in the UK here...

Opening a bank account can be a headache. Take along your letter of appointment with details of salary; that helps. The variety of cell mobile phone deals can also be bewildering, but they're less hassle to set up and cancel than in North America. Petrol costs about twice what you're used to. Food, too. Probably everything, actually... bring money. Pay tends to be monthly, and if you miss a key date in your new employer's pay system you could end... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 7:42 AM on June 21, 2004 marked best answer

No credit cards issued without 3 years residency.

Not in my experience. I got one in two months (Royal Bank of Scotland).

Voting: not sure that what Rory says is true - I thought only EU residents could vote? Do you get to vote, as an ex-pat, Rory?

I get to vote as a citizen of the Commonwealth, as srboisvert will be able to too.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 9:19 AM on June 21, 2004

fooljay, those are URL escape characters. %25 is the escape character for %.
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 3:17 AM on April 14, 2004

Bicentennial Man?
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 3:43 AM on April 6, 2004

You need StumbleUpon.
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 5:03 AM on March 29, 2004

Link it through FreeCache?

Not an ideal solution, as the caching doesn't seem to stick to subsequent links in the same site, just to the first one; but it would work well for links where the main focus is on a single page.
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 4:30 AM on March 29, 2004

Same thing happened to me as to crazy finger when I visited Spain 18 months ago. But like ROU_Xenophobe, I'm extremely cautious about immigration officials, and sent the leftover half to the nearest Spanish embassy with a letter of explanation. It seems to have worked (or to have been completely irrelevant), because I was able to visit Spain again last month with no problems.
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 3:31 AM on March 28, 2004

I'll second Jonathan Carroll. Realistic present-world settings and characters that turn subtly strange about halfway through. All of his books are good; my personal favourites are Voice of Our Shadow and Outside the Dog Museum. It's hard work to keep up with his latest, though, because he gets shunted from publisher to publisher and they often don't know how the hell to market him.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 2:46 AM on March 24, 2004

In the guidebooks camp, the Bradt guide to Eccentric London has lots of fascinating tidbits to surprise even the long-time resident or visitor.
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 9:05 AM on March 9, 2004

Ditto on the comments about airports. As for whether to change in the US or UK, I find the best approach is to think of which country would want the money you're changing more; in this case, the UK. Between major currencies, I'd generally change in the home country of the currency I was carrying; if I was taking US$, euros or pounds into a small country, I'd change in the small country; if I was carrying a small country's currency, I'd change in that country before leaving.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 3:37 AM on February 25, 2004

Ties in closely with this article linked recently by specialk420.
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 3:06 AM on February 25, 2004

I was thinking of doing this a few years back - collaborative story-telling with reader/writers rating individual parts of a story to fork it off in new directions. Then found out that most of what I was thinking of doing was implemented in Interactive Fiction. Never could get the demo working on my server, though, so I can't offer an opinion about how good it is. (Hmm, switched servers a while back, guess I should try again.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 2:14 AM on February 20, 2004

Another vote for Atonement, the single best novel I've read this decade. I'm also enjoying Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything right now, so I'll second that one too. Other recent favourites were Montaigne's Essays, Mil Millington's Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About, and Giles Milton's Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History.
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 2:03 AM on January 16, 2004

Glad someone has finally mentioned Le Guin. The Dispossed is even better than The Left Hand of Darkness, and The Lathe of Heaven is good too. Ideas, sure, but terrific characters and worlds too. I'll also second Jonathan Carroll, long a favourite of mine - his novels start out straight and then dissolve into dreamland. A Scanner Darkly is my favourite PKD for sheer mind-meltingness.

How... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by rory at 1:27 PM on December 16, 2003