Sometimes, adding bandwidth can actually hurt rather than help. Most people have no idea what they can do about bufferbloat.
posted to MetaFilter by DU at 8:09 AM on February 3, 2012 (25 comments)

While Moore's Law continues to drive consumer and manufacturer expectations of technological advancement, frequency scaling has given way to parallel scaling and our most visible indicator of ever increasing transistor density is ever multiplying cores. Welcome to the Parallel Jungle where heterogeneous cores and ultimately the cloud offer far faster growth rates in parallelism than even described by Moore's Law.
posted to MetaFilter by I've wasted my life at 2:15 PM on January 31, 2012 (31 comments)

Can you help me find a more interesting, fulfilling job in the tech industry?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jsturgill at 9:04 AM on January 27, 2012 (11 comments)

With surprising candor, Chris Dodd tells Obama that the Hollywood purse strings are about to get tight. Angry over the Obama administration's siding against SOPA and PIPA, Dodd says openly that the money the Democratic party regularly counts on Hollywood for might not be there this election cycle. One view is that Hollywood considers that it bought something very specific with it's money, and it's angry it's not getting it. Should Obama be worried about this? Perhaps not. The guys from Freakanomics say that our assumption that money is the most important factor in deciding elections is a fallacy.
posted to MetaFilter by asavage at 1:42 PM on January 22, 2012 (239 comments)

What is it like to have an understanding of very advanced mathematics? A naive Quora question gets a remarkably long, thorough answer from an anonymous respondent. The answer cites, among many other things, Tim Gowers's influential essay "The Two Cultures of Mathematics," about the tension between problem-solving and theory-building. Related: Terry Tao asks "Does one have to be a genius to do maths?" (Spoiler: he says no.)
posted to MetaFilter by escabeche at 1:07 PM on December 24, 2011 (56 comments)

Photographs and more photographs of the ancient city of Palmyra, seat of the Palmyrene Empire and home to Queen Zenobia.
posted to MetaFilter by Rumple at 10:17 AM on December 15, 2011 (13 comments)

We got through the basics—how I’d arrived in Libya, why I was there—in civil tones. Then the Inspector asked, “If you were a professor at Harvard, why did you quit your job to come risk your life in Libya?” I explained as best I could that I had not been a professor but a graduate student, and part of my training was teaching undergraduates. The academic job market was tough and demoralizing, and the rigidity of the academic lifestyle had never appealed to me that much anyway. I had suspected for a few years that I’d be temperamentally better suited to working as a reporter. “Why you work journalist? You don’t study journalism, you study history!”

—What I Lost in Libya by Clare Morgana Gillis, a journalist who was captured by Gadhafi forces.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 7:41 PM on December 6, 2011 (12 comments)

StarCraft changed my life.
posted to MetaFilter by Avenger50 at 12:25 AM on November 19, 2011 (87 comments)

"Tarantino is on record as saying that this movie is his “bunch-of- guys-on-a-mission film”—which would mean that it’s a version of the Dirty Dozen or The Guns of Navaron'e. Like almost everything else that Tarantino says in interviews, I think that sentence is a lie." -- The film within the film that is Inglorious Basterds.
posted to MetaFilter by Potomac Avenue at 6:12 AM on November 16, 2011 (181 comments)

Malpertuis (Belgium, 1971, aka ‘The Legend of Doom House’) is a movie that has been described as ‘bizarre, lurid and baffling;’ ‘a mysterious curiosity;’ and ‘exquisitely bonkers.’ An international cast led by Mathieu Carrière and Susan Hampshire (playing five rôles) also included Orson Welles. Its director, Harry Kümel, is otherwise best known for his stylish lesbian vampire flick Les Lèvres Rouges (aka ‘Daughters of Darkness’). The movie was adapted from an unusual gothic novel, first published in wartime Brussels—the work of Jean Ray (aka Raymond Jean-Marie de Kremer): a convicted embezzler & prolific hack, who was, nevertheless, one of the foremost exponents of the fantastique in French-language fiction. Please note that some of the links above are NSFW (some nudity) & several contain SPOILERS.
posted to MetaFilter by misteraitch at 1:37 AM on November 14, 2011 (7 comments)

What is the right apple/mac storage solution for me?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by YukonQuirm at 7:39 PM on November 10, 2011 (8 comments)

I've noticed that YouTube has a large Indian Cinema collection, but what to watch first ?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Webbster at 2:09 PM on November 10, 2011 (7 comments)

Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed Doors. "Lower Manhattan’s 60 Hudson Street is one of the world’s most concentrated hubs of Internet connectivity. This short documentary peeks inside, offering a glimpse of the massive material infrastructure that makes the Internet possible."
posted to MetaFilter by twirlip at 1:41 PM on November 10, 2011 (17 comments)

60 Second Adventures in Thought is an animated series exploring famous thought experiments. More on: Hilbert's Paradox of the Grand Hotel, Schrödinger's cat, the Grandfather Paradox, the Chinese Room Argument, the Twin Paradox, and Achilles and the Tortoise.
posted to MetaFilter by bluefly at 3:19 AM on October 22, 2011 (70 comments)

"Think of 'co-ops' and you might conjure up images of bulk food stores and tie-dye wearing hippies. But in the 1970s, co-op wars raged in the Twin Cities, dividing communities and fracturing the young movement. In this documentary, producer Maria Almli interviews those who were there. Learn how the co-op wars began--when a secretive group in support of Marxist principles began retooling operations for the newly emerging hippie grocery stores--and how members found themselves in the midst of a car bombing and violent takeovers." A look at the heated, sometimes violent conflict over the direction of the co-op foods movement from Minneapolis/St. Paul's KFAI Radio.
posted to MetaFilter by punishinglemur at 4:48 AM on October 17, 2011 (65 comments)

When New York State sentenced convicted murderer William Kemmler to death, he was slated to become the first man to be executed in an electric chair. Killing criminals with electricity “is a good idea,” Edison said at the time. “It will be so quick that the criminal can’t suffer much.” He even introduced a new word to the American public, which was becoming more and more concerned by the dangers of electricity. The convicted criminals would be “Westinghoused.”
posted to MetaFilter by monju_bosatsu at 6:18 AM on October 12, 2011 (49 comments)

Interest in joining a Metafilter Study Group(s) for the now Stanford Online Courses? (Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Databases)
posted to MetaTalk by stratastar at 11:48 PM on October 10, 2011 (58 comments)

DJ Zhao brings contemporary and classic dance music together from all five continents, with focus on Africa. While his DJ sets reach from culture centers to remote areas of the globe, and from now back through the ages, DJ Zhao’s remix and mashup work directly connects “East” and “West”, acoustic and electronic, traditional and hyper-modern. Equal parts ethno-musicologist and booty shaker, Zhao is an ambassador of boom not only talking about, but demonstrating through raw sound experience, the underlying unity of all earth cultures and peoples.
posted to MetaFilter by Trurl at 8:24 AM on October 10, 2011 (6 comments)

Where can I find audio by actors with awesome voices reading various stuff?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by pleasebekind at 9:19 PM on October 8, 2011 (17 comments)

Please recommend educational video podcasts that really make good use of the video component, with demonstrations, artwork, or animations.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by kristi at 9:33 PM on October 6, 2011 (5 comments)

boyinaband rocks Reason and shows us How to Make Hip Hop Hits.
posted to MetaFilter by swift at 6:28 AM on October 7, 2011 (16 comments)

My professor asked the class which of us are racist.
posted to MetaTalk by andoatnp at 2:50 PM on October 3, 2011 (136 comments)

The FBI presents: Laser Pointer Leads to Arrest. Laser events logged by the FAA in 2010 nearly doubled from 2009, with 2,836 reports.
posted to MetaFilter by oneirodynia at 10:42 AM on September 29, 2011 (162 comments)

The Judo Chops series at MMA website Bloody Elbow will help you discover the "art" in mixed martial arts. Each entry uses photos, GIFs and expert explanation to break down just what goes on in a high level mixed martial arts fight.
posted to MetaFilter by Bookhouse at 7:01 PM on September 4, 2011 (47 comments)

What's the best venue to submit a politically tinged left-leaning science-fiction short story?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Slap*Happy at 8:35 PM on August 24, 2011 (14 comments)

Mac Customisation: Where can i find a black or chocolate brown theme that actually WORKS with osx lion? Deviantart and the top google results show nothing...
posted to Ask MetaFilter by freddymetz at 3:12 PM on August 10, 2011 (2 comments)

Want to know what's going on in African electronic / dance music? The BAZZERK blog will help bring you up to speed. Chock full of fun, fresh stuff.
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 9:05 AM on August 3, 2011 (6 comments)

Does a black hole that decelerates from relativistic speeds lose enough mass to cease to be a black hole?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by MighstAllCruckingFighty at 12:50 AM on July 17, 2011 (17 comments)

"We come up with two new mysteries for every one that we solve," he [Schmidt] says. Still, he has already drawn some conclusions. "Twenty years ago everyone believed civilization was driven by ecological forces," Schmidt says. "I think what we are learning is that civilization is a product of the human mind." - Charles C. Mann writes about Göbekli Tepe for National Geographic.
posted to MetaFilter by Slap*Happy at 5:18 AM on June 21, 2011 (43 comments)

Listen to a conversation between legendary American crime novelist Raymond Chandler and James Bond inventor Ian Fleming recorded by the BBC in 1958. The talk ranges from Mafia hits to the nature of villainy to the difference between English and American thriller.
posted to MetaFilter by Bookhouse at 12:38 PM on June 12, 2011 (25 comments)

Can anyone recommend Psychedelic/ Mind Expanding contemporary Sci Fi books?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Liquidwolf at 7:04 PM on April 18, 2011 (28 comments)

History is full of unsolved mysteries and crimes. I'm seeking novels with mysteries (murder, chiefly) where the crime is not solved but the ending is nonetheless totally satisfying.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by IndigoJones at 6:34 AM on April 12, 2011 (20 comments)

Seven students, three endings, one eavesdropping teacher. don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story is a full length digital novel by the writer of Digital: A Love Story. Luscious high-school drama with a delicious sprinkle of social network navel-gazing.
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla at 9:52 AM on April 4, 2011 (16 comments)

New wave/synthpop love songs? Example: Real Life - Send Me An Angel
posted to Ask MetaFilter by _DB_ at 9:42 PM on March 28, 2011 (37 comments)

Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Music Dance Culture is the first peer-reviewed scholarly journal for promulgating interdisciplinary research concerning all aspects of electronic dance music culture.
posted to MetaFilter by Unicorn on the cob at 10:11 PM on March 23, 2011 (16 comments)

The top 50 dance records of the past 20 years. -- as selected by BBC radio DJs and 'industry leaders' and mixed by Jaguar Skills.
posted to MetaFilter by empath at 7:57 AM on March 23, 2011 (98 comments)

This was mentioned in the comments section of a metatalk thread about Listening Room, but our very own Narwhal Bacon has released the source for a (far superior, imo) clone of it called Collaborative Jukebox. There is a room open right now for mefites at MixParty.org
posted to MetaTalk by empath at 9:51 PM on March 19, 2011 (38 comments)

I am looking for sources, textual, audio/visual or otherwise, preferably in English, that describe South Asian movie-going culture in the pre-partition era (or pre-1960 if pre-1947 is too impossible to uncover).
posted to Ask MetaFilter by mds35 at 10:10 PM on March 13, 2011 (3 comments)

Where to find good online history discussion?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Carius at 7:44 PM on March 13, 2011 (11 comments)

I want to turn off my work programming brain and turn on a game design programming brain as a hobby. What books should I read to start down this path?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by ShootTheMoon at 1:44 PM on March 7, 2011 (1 comment)

"In 2010, Deadly Premonition was a surprise hit among players searching for a deep narrative single player game, and went on to win over a dozen end of the year awards from a variety of media outlets (including Gamasutra). At GDC 2011, Deadly Premonition director Hidetaka “Swery” Suehiro, revealed his seven tactics for creating a memorable story that will inspire a strong fan reaction." Link contains spoilers, excerpt inside the thread.
posted to MetaFilter by codacorolla at 8:25 AM on March 4, 2011 (30 comments)

An essay in two parts on the pilcrow (¶) kicks off a new blog called Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation.
posted to MetaFilter by Horace Rumpole at 9:03 AM on March 6, 2011 (17 comments)

Are there any really, truly great turn-based strategy games for the iPad?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jbickers at 5:19 PM on March 2, 2011 (14 comments)

Virginia Tech geography Professor John Boyer has already enjoyed local notoriety for his comic book styled super hero alter-ego The Plaid Avenger. His 2006 text book raised controversy for including cocktail recipes along with a bombastic writing style and caricatures of world leaders illustrated by Klaus Shmidheiser, an alumi. This week their collaborative effort received the ultimate compliment— Libyan protestors have used Klaus' image of Gadhafi in signs and effigies. Here's a video interview.
posted to MetaFilter by fontophilic at 12:36 PM on February 25, 2011 (9 comments)

Microsoft’s Former CTO Takes On Modernist Cuisine.
posted to MetaFilter by AceRock at 10:38 AM on February 25, 2011 (61 comments)

"I have been collecting for more than thirty years, and my collecting wanders around the theme of visual entertainment, and almost all of the collection dates from before 1900. Over time you will find magic lanterns, peepshows, shadows, transparencies, thaumatropes, phenakistascopes and a variety of other optical toys. You may find things that seem odd in this collection, however, always remember that collecting is a very personal thing and these items may stretch the boundaries of visual entertainment but nevertheless have found a place in my collection." Via @CarinBerger.
posted to MetaFilter by brundlefly at 2:10 PM on February 18, 2011 (2 comments)

ISO works of fiction about disco/techno/dance music!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by taramosalata at 1:39 PM on February 15, 2011 (8 comments)

The magic of the Muppets, perfectly encapsulated in one video (sylt)
posted to MetaFilter by sleepcrime at 5:18 AM on January 27, 2011 (76 comments)

Dataists give their hopes and dreams for data, data tools and data science in 2011. Already, Google has provided Google Refine (previously) to help clean your datasets. While great visualizations can be created with online tools or by combining R (great posts previously), with ggplot2, GGobi, and even Google Motion Charts With R (already built into Google Spreadsheets). Need data? Needlebase, helps non-programmers scrape, harvest, merge, and data from the web. Or if you’re introspective, Your Flowing Data and Daytum provide tools to measure and chart details of your own life.
posted to MetaFilter by stratastar at 1:23 PM on January 11, 2011 (19 comments)

My six-year old daughter demands to be told of the world's real mysteries! I've exhausted those I know from the top of my head, like the Mary Celeste, the Antikythera mechanism and those vent channels in the pyramids. I'd like your help, because I'd like to stay fact-based, and Google feeds me an endless supply of conspiracies, UFOs and paranormal phenomena. Solved mysteries are also good, as we can speculate and then "cheat" and look at the answer.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Harald74 at 2:17 AM on January 10, 2011 (72 comments)