MetaFilter

It's sort of galling that we have major news/entertainment sites mining our member comments for content, and Google won't recognize us as a high quality site because [um, well, nobody really knows, but um, site design? not enough flair? needz moar fancypantses? Must haz moar #NUMBERZ????? 10 SURPRISING BOOKS THAT WILL MAKE YOU CRY?]. aaaaaargh.

Okay, ignore me, I'm feeling a wittle angwy.
posted to MetaTalk by taz at 4:27 AM on July 5, 2014

YOUR EAGLE IS CALLED SHOWERBEER
posted to MetaTalk by Rock Steady at 6:45 PM on June 26, 2014

ahhhhhhh it's not French.

It is an accent grave: cf. their own site. It is pronounced like é (accent aïgu), however.

It's Niçois, which is a language (not a dialect as Wikipedia would have you very wrongly believe). Niçois is closely related to Occitan, Wikipedia has at least that much right.

This is not just "a soccer team in Nice", the OGC Nice is the French premier league (Ligue 1) team from Nice. Think... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by fraula at 12:10 AM on June 25, 2014

So what's it going to take to remove the genocide guy from the $20 bill?
posted to MetaFilter by Nelson at 8:03 AM on June 18, 2014

I learned about it circa 1999-2000, through the blogging community in San Francisco at the time. I was hanging out at The Well, and publishing stuff, as I still sometimes do, at Caterina.net (before that Diaryland, and before that, Geopages, which is what Geocities was called for a few months. I got to know Matt through that social group. Then he joined the Blogger team, and I got to see him more. I lurked for a while and joined @ 2001.

I had lost the email to this, my... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by caterina at 2:11 PM on June 5, 2014

Interesting discussion thread on WebmasterWorld discussed many forum type sites having had similar traffic drops on exact same date.
posted to MetaTalk by madamjujujive at 10:55 AM on May 24, 2014

Hey, did you guys need me for something?
posted to MetaTalk by throwback interface at 6:09 AM on May 23, 2014

*kermit arms*
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 1:14 PM on May 22, 2014

I program, mostly T-SQL and some C# these days. If I had to describe a common thread in all the projects I've worked on since the first day I wrote a BASIC program some 30 years ago, it wouldn't be about users or particular languages or platforms, it would be one phrase: Unintended Consequences.

A sufficiently complex process will screw something up nearly every time it is changed. There is no evil in this; like so many other things, the evil,... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Mooski at 10:02 AM on May 22, 2014

wildcrdj, you're a mensch and an incredibly generous one at that. I'm sorry this is a hard place to be right now; I hope we see you again soon when things have calmed down a bit in this particular wedge of the ol' Venn diagram.
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 8:09 AM on May 22, 2014

> A search engine that ranks Yahoo Answers above AskMe is a broken search engine.

This may be crazy, but...

What if google's down-ranking of AskMe is not a bug, but [in their eyes] a feature, or at least an intended effect?

We've witnessed search engines evolve from simple indexes of the web to ranked results that distinguish signal from noise. The next challenge is to provide... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Westringia F. at 9:13 PM on May 21, 2014

If you like science fiction-esque stories you might like Connie Willis's Doomsday Book. It's about modern day time travel but a good chunk of it takes place during the 14th century and the plagues.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jessamyn at 4:11 PM on May 18, 2014

I will miss my nearly-daily bullshit-and-lulz sessions with cortex, my internet brother.

I don't get farklempt easy or often but really this is the thing, more than anything, that has my heart in my throat right now. All the logistical questions, all the moderation tweaks and schedule stretching and stuff we'll be doing with a smaller staff is stuff I can deal with objectively like a self-assured grown-up, can know it'll be fine and the site'll keep... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 8:12 AM on May 20, 2014

For your Emmy consideration: that heartbreaking scene with Pedro Pascal and Peter Dinklage, where Oberyn tells Tyrion the story of meeting him for the first time in childhood. Not a false note anywhere.
posted to FanFare by hush at 11:48 PM on May 18, 2014

It is trivial for Google to scan through the contents of your email to figure out how much you make, and then target ads to your income demographic

Google probably has simpler and clearer signals of that sort of thing. It can already infer what gender you are with a pretty high level of accuracy just by looking at your web search and/or ad-clicking activity. Go to https://www.google.ca/settings/ads if you want to see Google's inferences about you for... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by GuyZero at 9:41 AM on May 12, 2014

Pudhoho: In addition to the usual case of beer, it's my opinion that pb also deserves a title and a coat of arms for his exhaustive efforts putting the wheels on FanFare.

Ser Poul of House Bausch. Sigil: A gold raven clutching a quill pen on a field of blue. Words: I fixed it.
posted to MetaTalk by Rock Steady at 6:21 AM on May 12, 2014

Rock Steady: "Ser Poul of House Bausch. Sigil: A gold raven clutching a quill pen on a field of blue. Words: I fixed it."

The sigil of House Bausch, Lords of the Ponylands and Wardens of the Code.

I modified the house words to "It Should Be Fixed," both to represent House Bausch's strong feeling that All Bugs Should Be Fixed (Unless They Are Actually Features), and because of pb's habit of saying "It... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by ocherdraco at 8:43 AM on May 12, 2014

Open 'System Preferences'
Select 'Keyboard'

Select tab 'Keyboard Shortcuts'

Select 'Application Shortcuts' from the left listbox
Click '+' below right listbox

Select 'All Applications' for 'Application' input box
Type 'Paste and Match Style' into the 'Menu Title' input box
In the 'Keyboard Shortcut' input box, pretend that you are about to paste something by typing command-v.... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by mmdei at 8:13 PM on June 6, 2011 marked best answer

Under "Operation Choke Point," the DOJ and its allies are going after legal but subjectively undesirable business ventures by pressuring banks to terminate their bank accounts or refuse their business.

Well, the porn industry deserves it after their shenanigans caused the recent disastrous economic crash. I'm glad the moral paragons at the banks are there to help out the government on this.
posted to MetaFilter by Drinky Die at 1:12 PM on April 30, 2014

Aw, thanks everybody. I stayed up past midnight last night playing/teaching poker at a buddy's date-adjacent birthday party, got up at five to drive Secretariat to a geology field trip rally point, watched The Thing From Another World (which is fucking terrible fwiw), gave up on a Nephalim Rift run in Diablo 3 literally two minutes in after being hopelessly mobbed by three different elite arcane-enchanted packs in the narrow foyer of the rift, took a nap, went to a German... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 4:44 PM on April 26, 2014

I heard someone on Facebook call it "The Purple Wedding" and so knew a little bit what was coming but still, wow.
posted to FanFare by jessamyn at 10:41 AM on April 16, 2014

There seems to be some hot sauce confusion in this discussion.

Tabasco is a cajun hot sauce. It consists of vinegar, very hot peppers, and some salt.
Tapatio is a Mexican hot sauce. It consists of water, moderately hot peppers, and a little salt.
Sriracha is an Asian hot sauce. It consists of moderately hot peppers, sugar, salt, garlic, and a little vinegar.

They're really different flavors. Tapatio is my go-to when I want... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Nelson at 4:00 PM on April 11, 2014

If songwriting is your hobby, something you do for fun, but you don't enjoy writing lyrics, then I'd say don't write lyrics. This decision might lead down one of the following paths:

1) You team up with a lyricist. You focus on making great melodies, and your songwriting partner hangs words onto your hooks.

2) You start creating music that is designed to never have lyrics. I've been writing a lot of instrumental music lately, and I find that it... [more]
posted to MeFi Music by edlundart at 10:52 PM on March 31, 2014

I had a job one summer, years ago, doing tech support for Micron computers in a warehouse call center in SE Portland, and it was a pretty lousy job even when the HVAC was functioning correctly, but one thing it did have was a Joust cabinet up in the break room. Not set at free-to-play, which is sort of absurd because it's not like we had enough slack time to put many quarters into the thing in any case, but at least it was there, as an escape, as something to actually enjoy for fifteen minutes... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 4:38 PM on April 2, 2014

In Ye Olde Time MetaFilter when Matt set up profile pages ...

YE OLDE TIME METAFILTRE

For thofe among us with multiple and various interefts too divers to be herein enumerated.
March 26, 1714 -- Sundial at Eighth Position -- Write under

I fay! Would it be poffible for the roll of members of thif auguft infitution to to be altered in particular refects, so af to allow for the notation of... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by the quidnunc kid at 10:00 AM on March 26, 2014

Oh, 2003 was a different era for Metafilter. mathowie was running the site by himself, at his own expense, and he was burned out: he casually mentioned the possibility of open sourcing the Metafilter server code in 2003, along with options like "close the site, sell it, or throw an essay contest to give it away." Soon after, Google TextAds were introduced on the site, Metafilter made steps toward being self-sustaining, and mathowie felt optimism about the site again.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Pronoiac at 12:04 AM on March 14, 2014

Not gonna lie, guys. I totally read about PicPedant for the first time on the blue. What can I say? You're my people.
posted to MetaTalk by Alex Goldman at 7:34 PM on March 6, 2014

I had to look this up to satisfy my own memory, so here's a full (?) scanned copy of a kids' version of the novelization: Ghostbusters Storybook (that's the page where she's introduced as a cellist).

And in looking for that, found a review of a different version of the novelization, which answers the question about Stantz's outfit in the ghost blowjob scene-
There’s another weird sequence that actually manages to answer a nagging question I’ve always had... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by LobsterMitten at 6:15 PM on March 1, 2014

This is actually quite excellent for Bitcoin. The Bitcoin gods have spoken, and in so speaking that they opened their cavernous maws and swallowed the heretics whole. The collapse of the idiot false god Gox Mountain was not a disaster, but actually a day of reckoning. For it was ever a sin to have ever even considered to exchange glorious divine Bitcoin for filthy pig disgusting fiat currency.

Bitcoin does not exist for your mere "use". Bitcoin does not exist... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sticherbeast at 5:20 AM on February 25, 2014

Obama released a statement about Harold Ramis' death. Check out the very last line.

Michelle and I were saddened to hear of the passing of Harold Ramis, one of America’s greatest satirists, and like so many other comedic geniuses, a proud product of Chicago’s Second City. When we watched his movies – from “Animal House” and “Caddyshack” to “Ghostbusters” and “Groundhog Day” – we didn’t just laugh until it hurt. We questioned authority. We identified with the outsider.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by EmpressCallipygos at 10:39 AM on February 25, 2014

While I agree that its not a huge deal (I think I have done it more than once) it would be nice to undo. I'm guessing for the mods though that they get an email saying "x has flagged y post for z reasons" and thats probably what they pay attention to, and it probably wouldn't be super great for them to get a follow up email 5 minutes later saying "x has now unflagged y post" as they've probably already looked at the post in question.
posted to MetaTalk by Cannon Fodder at 11:41 PM on February 13, 2014

Now you shampoo problems!
posted to MetaTalk by flabdablet at 8:26 AM on February 4, 2014

I will bring him some cookies.

Cookie delivered.
posted to MetaTalk by jessamyn at 5:01 PM on January 24, 2014

He is my neighbor. I will bring him some cookies.
posted to MetaTalk by jessamyn at 11:18 AM on January 23, 2014

Hey guys,
I did wind up talking to Diane Sawyer's team today, and I think that's the last thing I'm going to do media-wise. They surprised me by bringing harperpitt to my apartment to join the interview!

After she deciphered the Lord's Prayer, I told her that if I ever met her, I owed her a beer. So, we went and got one. Check us out during the last few minutes of World News on ABC tonight!

They also asked a billion questions about... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by JannaK at 1:48 PM on January 23, 2014

This suggestion is not scientific, but it is wonderful secular humanist reading.
It is short, sweet, and often very poignant.
This. And This. and This. and others.... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Flood at 10:56 AM on January 21, 2014

I just saw this children's book called Maps at my local bookstore, and was trying to figure out who I could buy it for!

It has these gorgeous hand-drawn maps with little icons full of cultural history. It might be too young for a 9 year old though.

Other cool cartographic books:

Cartographia: Mapping Civilizations

Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities

The... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by barnone at 9:25 AM on January 14, 2014

I've posted this before, but with regard to the omission of happy news, that always reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from G. K. Chesterton:

It is the one great weakness of journalism as a picture of our modern existence, that it must be a picture made up entirely of exceptions. We announce on flaring posters that a man has fallen off a scaffolding. We do not announce on flaring posters that a man has not fallen off a scaffolding. Yet this latter fact is... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Sticherbeast at 6:38 PM on December 18, 2013

Here is the coupon that I used - good through December 31, 2014, and can be used multiple times.

Zero Copay Epi-pen
posted to Ask MetaFilter by spinifex23 at 11:27 PM on December 19, 2013 marked best answer

You can get hacker news rss filtered to only have the top posts. There is a delay so they won't appear at the top if your reader.

http://talkfast.org/2010/07/23/a-cure-for-hacker-news-overload/
posted to Ask MetaFilter by ridogi at 6:28 AM on December 10, 2013 marked best answer

> It looks really well done, though I would have appreciated a friendlier license.

Hi, I'm Jeremy, one of the NPR news apps developers on this project.

It turns out, licensing is really hard.

It's particularly hard for us to separate out the code from the bits that our lawyers think are NPR content. We have a blog post coming on this whole issue and our name for it: "Public source."... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jeremybowers at 10:10 AM on December 4, 2013

"most sci-fi is awful."

IT IS TERRIBLE and all the people who write it should feel terrible. "Back to word school with you!" I'd say! "Come back when you can verbinate and nounify like a grownupian!"
posted to MetaFilter by jscalzi at 4:52 AM on November 29, 2013

another option to work around this is to preview the comment (using the "preview" button, not live preview) before changing tabs. that way your actual comment gets saved in the page rather than just being content in a form textarea.
posted to MetaTalk by russm at 10:20 PM on November 19, 2013

We have never received a letter from Jessamyn indicating that she is working for Google.
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 7:29 AM on November 6, 2013

MFSTK

Joel > Mike
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 10:51 PM on October 26, 2013

pb: We store all comments as individual PDFs and index them with a couple of spreadsheets on Matt's desktop at home.

If you printed the PDFs out, then scanned them as 600dpi JPGs before indexing, you'd have both an automatic paper backup in case you need to retype it in someday, plus also a headstart on MetaFilter: The Coffeetable Book
posted to MetaTalk by Rock Steady at 10:02 AM on October 25, 2013

One of the main things I learned from my two visits to Austin is that if it is possible to fuck up what should be a straightforward Spanish pronunciation of e.g. a street name, Austinians have found a way.
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 3:06 PM on October 4, 2013

Hi, Metafilter. Thanks for posting this. We hope you liked it. When we pitched the idea of a show about the internet to the people who make the decisions, jokes.txt was a story we wanted to tell pretty much from the beginning. And yes, we lurk hard. In fact, I see Metafilter on computers screens all over WNYC.

With respect to #TWURTing and Greg Erskine, my personal favorite is "ON THE FLIGHT, MY ACCOMPLICES & I COMBINE OUR 3-OUNCE SHAMPOOS INTO 1 CONTAINER.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Alex Goldman at 7:14 AM on October 4, 2013

Why use Twitter when you can read about it on Metafilter!
posted to MetaTalk by schmod at 9:26 AM on September 25, 2013