Ask MetaFilter posts by RavinDave

Opinions on TUI?

RavinDave — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:54:44 -0800

Anyone familiar with Touro University International (TUI)? My nephew, who thinks way too highly of my opinion, has asked me about Touro University International (TUI) and about the value of online schools in general. He's been in the military for many years, is about 5 classes shy of a BSBA and wants to know if it's a waste of time.

Main website.

I'm not sure what to tell him. Sure sounds like a great opportunity. It's gratifying to see that he has this motivation. He's a hard worker and I surely want to encourage his interest in this arena. Any hidden pitfalls I'm not seeing?

The Perfect Meatloaf

RavinDave — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:33:51 -0800

Fill in the blank: "The secret of great meatloaf is ___________." I have a reason for asking. The general recipe for everyday, mundane, every-gramma-made-it, I-know-a-great-truckstop, Norman Rockwell Americana meatloaf is pretty straightforward. Yeah, we all have our little tweaks and variations -- but the basic recipe seems rather simple.

But I ALWAYS mess it up. Generally, what comes out of the oven is more suited to build housing. Am I using too many eggs? Not enough? Too much kneading? Too many crumbs? More veggies? Maybe a lower grade hamburger? Maybe a higher grade? Add glaze from start? Wait 'til it's almost done? How do I know when it's done?

I have all the ingredients assembled and I plan to start cooking tomorrow morning. Any last minute advice would be muchly appreciated.

Points for tradition. I'm sure Habanero Loaf with Banana glaze is wonderful -- but that's not what I'm after.

Iron Chef RavinDave

RavinDave — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:10:17 -0800

Need tips on cooking Chicken in a Crockpot. Okay ... over the past few weeks, I've been having startlingly good (for me) success making ribs in a slowcooker. I used an ultra-simple batchelor-centric recipe: Cut slab of ribs into 8-9 pieces, submerge in BBQ sauce diluted a bit with water. Simmer on LOW for 8 hours. I tossed in a few onion slices, adding a touch of brown sugar & cider vinegar along with various spices ... works perfect.

I want to try something similar with chicken.

QUESTION: I'm thinking 8 hours -- even on LOW -- would be way too much cooking time for chicken. Am I right?

Any other pointers (or QUICK-n-EZ crockpot recipes) welcomed!

UUSee TV

RavinDave — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:52:04 -0800

Anyone ever use the Chinese streaming software UUSee? If you go to there download page, you'll see links obtain the latest version of "UUSee". The software and installer are all in Chinese.

What is UUSee? Well, I'm not totally sure myself -- which is why I'm asking if others have any experience with it. One web page explains: "UUSee users download an application for their desktop, allowing the machine to become a node in their peer-to-peer network. A press release in January claimed an installed base at around 30 million. They offer over 60 live channels, including China’s largest network, CCTV. " It actually seems to offer much more than that. Lotsa sports, news and old movies.

It's a slick program that works very well. One thing causes concern however -- when I run the program my Symantec firewall constantly alerts me to intrusion attempts. I don't know if these are genuine hacking attempts, government monitoring -- or maybe something entirely innocent; some by-product of their coding that doesn't follow the usual protocol. I dunno. Another reason why I'm asking if anyone else has played around with it.

So easy it's impossible to use.

RavinDave — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 01:34:00 -0800

Should be simple to insert a "text field" in a form template in Word 2007. Why isn't it? All I want to do is to create the most generic text field -- just a blank to input names. Not post-processing. No database interaction. No exotica of any sort. The result will simply be printed.

Unfortunately, I'm stuck with Office 2007, which messed up the interface down so much that I'm scrambling to find the simplest stuff.

Can anyone pull me through this agony?

Parole Belle!

RavinDave — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:42:05 -0800

"Ognuno Soffre" (Everybody Hurts) lyrics? Okay ... After seeing him win "Britain's Got Talent", I'm a weepy sucker for Paul Potts. I downloaded his iTunes offering, three selections from his debut album "One Chance". One the three is an Italian version of REM's "Everybody Hurts" called "Ognuno Soffre".

Anyone know where the Italian lyrics can be got? Most lyric sites I've checked either didn't have it or had a blank page awaiting user input.

Family Photo Sharing

RavinDave — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 17:05:33 -0800

GenealogyFilter: I need a scanning strategy and general advice for family photos. My plan is to grab me one of those big ol' WD MyBook USB drives, grab my computer & flatbed scanner, make the rounds of several relatives and grab as many family photos as I can.

Seems straightforward, eh? Scan photos, slap'em on a CD and pass'em around to the family. Lots of nice highly detailed antique stuff. Some beautiful sepia tints -- not to mention regular documents. But every time I sit down to do this, I freeze. I just can't settle on an optimum size and pixel resolution. And I'm also I'm torn between doing neutral scans or pre-tweaking them.

I need some words o' wisdom.

Setting up a mini-radio station.

RavinDave — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 07:46:12 -0800

How do I, as an individual, obtain permission to play commercial CDs in a makeshift jukebox? Let's say I wanted to build a computer jukebox for residents of a managed care facilities (ie: a commercial venue). I might have some 30 to 40 CDs of music people of their era prefer. I own the CDs ... what exactly do I have to do to get permission to legally play these CDs? I'm assuming I'd be paying royalties, though I'm not quite sure how it would work (or if it would be cost effective). Who do I approach? Would I need to keep logs?

Anything else you can add that I haven't thought of would be muchly appreciated.

Those thrilling days of yesteryear ...

RavinDave — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 01:42:42 -0800

What software am I looking for in order to organize and play a bazillion mp3 files as if my computer were a mini radio station? Yeah, I suppose I could do it with Winamp and a variety of playlists. I'm hoping to discover something a wee bit more robust.

Here's the background:

My mother is in a managed care facility. She (along with most of the others there) has alzheimer's. She simply lacks the motor skills, concentration and mental ability to perform basics tasks. This means that she can't really participate in many of the activities she formerly enjoyed. So, she sits and gets depressed. REAL depressed. All of us have been wracking our brains to come up with something that can bring her a bit of pleasure. I think I hit on something.

She lives in two time-frames at once -- her mind reconciles them into a hybrid world. I thought I might play to that.

I've collected thousands of Old-Time Radio (OTR) mp3 files from the 40's and 50's (public domain stuff, btw!). Now I want to set up a computer in the facility's common area such that a nurse needs only to flick a switch and click a button to get hours of Jack Benny, Gunsmoke, Fibber McGee, Dinah Shore and the Shadow. Toss in some Tommy Dorsey and Glen Miller maybe -- you get the idea.

A TAXing Question

RavinDave — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 00:42:19 -0800

H&R Block sells kinda pricey tax preparation software and for an extra $15 bucks, or so, you can file online using that software. Or, you can go to the IRS website and grab a link that allows you to prepare AND FILE your taxes for FREE -- using H&R Block's website. This makes no sense to me. Why on earth would they do that??? Granted, the free federal online tax preparation and e-file is limited to those with adjusted gross income of $52,000 or less ... but still, that's a hefty number of people.