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tagging photos in camera

machaus — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:20:43 -0800

Sub DSLR cameras that allow you to change the filename prefix or tag all photos with an alphanumeric string you can set?

I've got teams of people taking photos in many different locations and then handing off their SD cards to someone who will import them. I'd like to automate the import so that human intervention of looking at each photo and putting it in a proper directory won't be required. Ideally, we'd be able to sort photos by a 4 digit code embedded in an iptc/xmp tag or in a filename prefix. Is there a camera under $300 that does this?

Is there a way bring in an incoming call to an existing Skype conversation?

nitsuj — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:17:40 -0800

Is there a way bring in an incoming call to an existing Skype conversation?

Is there a way bring in an incoming call to an existing Skype conversation?

OK, say I'm Skyping with Bob. Then Joe calls me on Skype. Is there a way to answer Joe's skype call by bringing him into my call with Bob, so that we're all talking in a conference?

I can answer Joe's call, which puts Bob on hold... and then in Joe's call window there's a Menu button with "Add to conference" underneath it... but it's grayed out and not clickable.

So what's the deal; is this possible? I'm using a Mac.

Thanks!

Greens appear purplish in digital photos - Canon Powershot SD 1100

feelinggood — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:11:51 -0800

In a recent batch of digital photos, all the greens (grass, leaves, etc.) came out purplish or really purple. 1. What camera setting can I change to prevent this? And 2. what can I do in Photoshop to correct this?

My wife has a Canon Powershot SD1100 IS Digital ELPH camera. When we downloaded the pictures from a recent shoot all (or actually some of) the greens were purple or purplish.
Have we set the color swap on and how can we get it off?
More importantly, how can I correct this in Photoshop CS2?

You can see some of the photos here

Help me install a new CPU/mobo

mullacc — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:01:15 -0800

I broke my PC's motherboard :( Please help me pick a replacement and guide me through the installation process...

Being very clumsy and impatient, I managed to break my motherboard while installing a second hard drive in my desktop PC. Now it doesn't work.

I've never installed a motherboard, but I enjoy fiddling around with this stuff so I'm going to give it a go. While I'm doing it, I figure I might as well upgrade my CPU too. I bought this PC from one of those generic configure-to-order websites, so I'm pretty sure I can just buy some off-the-rack replacements.

Here's what I had:
AMD 64 Athlon X2 4200+
GIGABYTE GA-M55SLI-S4 AM2 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard

Here's what I'm thinking of buying:
Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz
GIGABYTE GA-EP43-UD3L LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard

The Gigabyte website confirms that the E5200 CPU will work with that motherboard, and prices seems good to me. Any comments on my selection?

Here are some of the other components I have that I plan to keep:
2GB of DDR2 800 RAM (4 x 512MB)
COOLER MASTER Praetorian 730 case
420w power supply that says on the box it supports LGA 775 socket
I think an ATI Radeon X300 PCI-E graphics card (or something very similar)
And, of course, other stuff like 2 SATA HDDs, a DVD burner and stuff that probably isn't relevant.

I think all this stuff should work together. Any problems I'm overlooking?

Seems like hardware installation should be pretty straightforward, though perhaps time consuming. Any tips or additional things I may need to acquire? I have the right screwdrivers, but no other PC-specific tools.

Now my next problem: once I get all the hardware in place, what the heck do I do next?

My primary hard drive has Windows 7 RC installed. I still have the installation disk I made, and also the original XP disk that I bought along with the computer. Is it possible to salvage the Win7 installation and the current data on the drive? I have backups of my important files, so it's not a life or death issue. But if I can get away with it, I'd like to keep things as they are.

Thanks!

How to use up loads of onions?

janecr — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:55:17 -0800

How do I use up 4 kilos of onions? I only meant to order four onions in my online shopping but clicked the wrong thing - please help me with ideas for cooking/storing/eating lots of onions before they go mouldy...

Where can I find a fabric with a large cobalt rose print on black background?

Ekidnagrrl17 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:54:10 -0800

I am trying to find a fabric that matches the famous dress in the Auction scene in Hitchcock's North by Northwest I am looking for fabric in a large print roses in cobalt blue on a black background <img src="

Ommegang Rouge Keg in NYC/NJ

Optimus Chyme — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:50:01 -0800

How can I get a keg of Ommegang Rouge in Jersey City or NYC?

We have a car, so transporting it's not an issue - I just have no idea who carries it for retail sale. Thank you!

What's the best low end 30" LCD screen?

pbh — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:49:18 -0800

What's the best current low end 30" LCD screen, and what are the tradeoffs between them?

I'm looking at getting a 30" LCD screen for (Linux) development work (Eclipse, Firefox, terminals as opposed to gaming). As a result, I mostly care about the screen real estate, though I'm going to be looking at it all the time, so brightness and color might matter, and I suppose refresh might be nice (though I can't tell if refresh will substantially matter for my application). I currently use a Samsung SyncMaster 305T in another location, which I'm pretty happy with, but no one seems to sell them any more as far as I can tell.

There seem to be a bunch of "cheap" 30" LCDs in the US$800-1400 range. Dell 3007WFP, Dell 3007WFP-HC, (sort of) Dell 3008WFP, HP LP3065, LG W3000H-Bn, and possibly others. Are any of these just rebadged versions of the others? Are there any substantial tradeoffs between the low end 30" screens I should be aware of?

List of clean and clear Iranian government transgressions against morality?

GenTso — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:00:29 -0800

Iranian government's worst recent and verifiable transgressions?

I realize we mostly all agree a more democratic Iran is better than the pseudo-democratic, mostly theocratic system they have now, and thus we side with the pro-Mousavi protestors. But I am trying to find/put together a list of the Iranian government's worst transgressions in relation to the recent elections and resulting protests. (I have searched Mefi to no avail, and my Google-fu is not helping with clear answers as much as I thought it would - I am guessing partly because of the lack of reporters allowed - I find a lot relying too much on unverifiable sources like Twitter.)

So far, I have come up with (1)Restricting Twitters, (2) Restricting foreign reporters. There is, of course, the constant violence against protesters, but some protesters seem to be willing to get violent themselves, making murky the otherwise clear moral advantage they had. (Hoping more to find more clean and clear, irrefutable violations offensive to anyone's moral sensibilities.)

How did I get made party to a scam?

stupidsexyFlanders — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:31:25 -0800

A random person in a city I don't live in called me and said he was seeing two charges for $155 each on his bank statement, and his bank says I'm the party that the payments were made to. What kind of scam is this, how did I get involved, and what's my responsibility?

These are point-of-sale charges his bank says were made with his debit card. On his statement, where the merchant information is, appears a domain name that happens to be where I have my resume, and then the first few lines from my resume appears, including my contact info.

Is this a result of something I might have done, or did somebody just scrape my website randomly to populate the merchant information? Why would the bad guy go to that trouble, rather than just putting in something like ACME Widgets, 1234 Main Street, Anytown USA? Am I at risk at all here? It's obviously not my money, but this is the second call I've gotten in the past few months like this. How can I end this?

I should note that each of these two callers seemed satisfied when I explained that I had nothing to do with their charges and they should work it out with their bank.

How do I evaluate feedback at a job interview?

Seeba — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:18:29 -0800

How do I evaluate feedback at a job interview?

I've been having slightly more success recently in my search for a job, but after four or five interviews in the last six months where I've been told things like: (to give the most recent example) "Well, you're who I'm recommending as the candidate-to-hire, after my in four days where I'll present you, I'll give you a call, let you know where we go from here."

On that forth day, I received a form letter, dated the day of the interview, telling me "Thank you for coming in, we've decided to go with someone who more closely fits our... etc etc"

I am quite perturbed-- not so much that I didn't get the job (though I, every time, wanted it, showed my enthusiasm, etc), but for the false signals, and a few times for the outright lies. (Making sure I'm not giving the wrong impression here-- I assume people are telling me the truth, and don't really want to change that; I may have just had a run of bad luck.)

How do I evaluate the feedback that I get at a job interview? I can tell sometimes when the interviewer obviously isn't interested (setting the resume down and ending the interview a few moments later is usually a pretty good tell), or if I say something that shows that I'm not who they're looking for, but how do I approach someone who says "Yup, you're who we're looking for, we'll let you know in a day or two"

Is there a polite/politic way to say "I won't be offended if you tell me an honest yes/no/maybe... but I'd really appreciate a bit of blunt feedback."
(I understand, especially for companies that go through a lot of applicants, that time restrictions will prevent a lot of this, but on second or third interviews with the same company, I'd figure the applicant pool shrinks quite a bit, giving them the extra thirty seconds to a minute?)

A followup-- I normally send a two line "Thank you for your time" note to whoever does the interview; would etiquette see this as hostile to send it to someone who said "I will call you with your results" and instead, sent a form letter?

Am I foolish for hoping that the mooching in this relationship will stop?

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:06:35 -0800

I rekindled an old romance about nine months ago; at that point, he and I were both unemployed but collecting unemployment compensation. Since then, I've found a great job and have been moving forward; he's been forced to give up his apartment and can't pay child support to his ex-wife. Meanwhile, he's been hitting me up for money frequently - I love him, but am wondering how to address my concerns with him properly.

I admittedly have a difficult time with confrontations of any kind; despite promising myself many times not to "lend" him any more money or buy him cigarettes or other unnecessary things, he puts me on the spot a lot and I cave in. He's admitted to feeling like a loser for asking me for stuff - the fact that I have kids to support myself makes this even more aggravating, I think. I'm so torn because I do love this man and do feel that a long term relationship is possible - in theory. In reality, I'm starting to resent him.

He lives pretty close to me now, and frequently wants to come over. I work from home and used to enjoy his company, but lately I can't help but have this niggling doubt about his intentions. Sometimes it feels like he's simply here to get free food and to hit me up to "borrow" money from me. He still gets unemployment pay, but it's ridiculously low.

Tension has been rising between the two of us; it makes me feel terrible, because he is a kind person and I don't like being angry with him. The only time we go out and do something, I have to pay the bill. If I want him to accompany me, I have to pay his way. Before, it didn't bother me... but lately, he's even been requesting things he'd like to pick up to eat and stuff, yet I pay.

I know I need to talk to him - maybe even DTMFA - but this large part of me wants this all to work. When he's around, my aggravation and annoyance build steadily, but as soon as he's gone - poof! - it evaporates. I am looking for suggestions about how to deal with all of this in a non-passive aggressive way - which is admittedly my tendency.

As a side note, my annoyance has gotten greater since he basically does nothing productive with his time. I am the type that always has to have some sort of project going on; when I was unemployed, I engaged in a lot of self-improvement efforts, for example. When we first hooked back up, he seemed confident and eager to get a new job and move on but he's making no effort to find employment nowadays.

I hope that I've provided enough detail to make meaningful responses possible; if not, my throwaway is freeloadingboyfriend@gmail.com. I'm posting this anonymously because he knows I enjoy the site.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

Good books about the Italian Renaissance?

nickhb — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:04:43 -0800

Can anyone recommend good books about the interaction of Italian City-States during the Renaissance? My brother is writing a 200 page paper over the next three years, and his topic is Rome, Venice, Florence, and Milan and how their interactions shaped the Italian Renaissance. He doesn't have any good books to go on, and I'm at a loss to help him (I'm not a history person) Any help would be appreciated.

Man oh manischewitz. What do I do with bad leftover wine?

electroboy — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:57:56 -0800

What can I make that uses up a large quantity of crappy wine?

So we've got a couple gallon jugs of Manischewitz left over from Passover. I've given my dad a couple quarts, since he's the only person I know that legitimately likes the stuff. But after that, and making all the charosset one can stomach, what else can you do with it? It's too syrupy sweet to drink casually, and while I cook with wine occasionally, the rule I generally follow is not to cook with something I wouldn't drink. (This is not to say I have good taste in wine, just not a fan of really sweet wine).

So...what can I do with it? Make vinegar? Kill slugs? I think the varieties we have are concord grape and cream red concord.

Help my Frankenstein spin

csmason — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:42:02 -0800

What every day (or not so every day) inexpensive (<$75) item, (or part of said item) would make a good turntable spindle bearing?

I'm attempting a DIY turntable build out of repurposed items. For example, the platter = an automotive disc rotor, driven by = floppy disc motor. Tonearm pivots out of hard drive actuators and bearings...

I'm familiar with the 'Altmann' intake valve and sleeve bearing, but for some irrational reason I'd like to try something different. I've read many stories of hobby millwrights carving out beautiful bearings, and I won't be joining them.

Using something for its not so intended purpose is part of the journey on this project. Maybe another automotive bit? (There must be a lot of bits in there, right?) Maybe a home appliance? Maybe something more... industrial? Might anyone think of an item that would allow that disc rotor to spin effortlessly, and silently?

Zip, indeed.

dinger — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:39:00 -0800

Since we all have nine-digit zip codes now, why is it still neccesary to include the city and state in a postal address?

Zip codes, as far as I know, are unique. If so, why should we still have to include the city and state in a mailing address? Isn't that redundant?

Latency? This. Is. Infiniteloop!

selfnoise — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:28:23 -0800

Help me try and fix my mother's weird internet/Mac Mini issue.

So, my mother has a Mac Mini. This is one of the older PowerPC ones... no wireless. It's connected via a cat5 cable to a ZyXel wireless router, which is then connected to a DSL modem. The problem she has is a delay between requesting a webpage and having it start to load (in any web browser). Since I am a Windows user, I don't know much about Macs, so I am at a loss.

Pertinent factoids:

-When I go to dslreports.com and run a speed test, I get a latency of between 500-900ms, which seems really high.

-When I ping google.com from within OS X's network dialog, however, the latency looks normal.

-My netbook and another Windows PC can connect wirelessly without this issue. I also connected my netbook to the router using the same cat5 cable; no issue.

-I tried setting the DNS servers to opendns instead of the default; no change.

Apparently the system did not originally have this issue. Any ideas?

How do you handle dealing with customers who make you uncomfortable -- when you were hired to be friendly and available/approachable?

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:29:04 -0800

How do you handle dealing with customers who make you uncomfortable -- when you were hired to be friendly and available/approachable . . . and maybe for your looks, too?

I was recently hired as a barista at a well-known chain of coffee shops. Although I grew up an ugly duckling, my looks now are unusual/striking (although I don't see it, I'm told I'm attractive, and I get some modeling work). My type is especially favored by the demographic of the neighborhood where I live and now work. (For comparison, imagine I'm a six-foot redheaded white girl working in a US city's Chinatown.) After I was hired, coworkers told me that the manager based his decision partially on my "rare" looks. It's been a long time since anyone got hired at this location, especially without any experience, and all applications are now being turned down, so obviously there was some reason an exception was made for me -- that could be true.

Baristas are also chosen to be especially friendly and sociable, which I did know. I didn't expect to have difficulty with that, since I'm a pretty friendly and welcoming person, but I also didn't realize what it would be like to work with the general public. Even in high school, I only had white-collar office jobs. I don't mind this job -- the duties are mostly interesting and the coworkers are a lot of fun. In this economy, I'm okay with scrubbing toilets. But I just don't have any experience with dealing with the general public face to face, so I don't know what to do.

There are a lot of men who treat me in a way I'm not comfortable with. No customers have made lewd, explicit comments the way some men do on the street, but I still feel uncomfortable with the way some male customers interact with me. I'm not sure I can complain, though, since this is basically what I was hired for, apparently. Tips have increased 125% since I started working full-time, so the manager and coworkers are all happy (all tips go into a communal pot, then at the end of the week it's divided equally based on hours worked). I'm the one who feels not so happy, awkward and unsure of myself. If I were okay with profiting off my looks at the expense of my comfort, I could be making a lot more money doing sex work, but I consciously decided against that.

There are some customers who just look too much at my body or who treat me differently/uncomfortably. But those encounters are brief (usually just seconds while ordering or while I make their coffee) so I can deal with those if I have to. Anyway, I don't think it would be realistic to try to stamp out things like "good morning, beautiful" or "my drink tastes better when it's made with your smile." I feel like those should be totally fine with me if I had the coping skills I should have learned as a young teenager, but I was very, very unattractive until I was 20. So I feel like that discomfort is my fault and something I should learn to ignore.

However, the biggest issue feels different, and even if I had grown up attractive, even if I knew how to handle myself, I think it would still be problematic. There are a few eccentric older men who have made this coffee shop their hangout spot. I'll choose one, "Gary," as an example. He's older, retired, and spends almost all day here (from late morning until we close at midnight). At least once per shift, he'll come up to me and strike up a long conversation. This is while I'm trying to do other things (sweep, restock, clean) -- but I can't use that as an excuse since my #1 job duty is to be welcoming and accessible. Gary has also started bringing me gifts, which was fine when it was little things like Lindt truffles, but over the course of two weeks, it's progressed to DVDs (of a 3-hour interview he wants me to watch so we can discuss). Apparently Gary has given little things to girls in the past, but coworkers are remarking how much he likes me especially. All his gifts are presented with speeches about qualities he's projecting onto me. He's a little socially awkward and he seems like a dead-on "Nice Guy," so I'm scared about what he might expect, or feel he deserves, in exchange.

I don't feel physically threatened, I think. I'm a little concerned because he always stays until we close at midnight, and it would be easy for him to follow me the 2 or 3 deserted blocks back to my apartment. Mostly, though, I just feel like his behavior is inappropriate and making me uncomfortable, and I don't know how to avoid it.

I'm afraid to approach the manager because I don't want to be perceived as a complainer, not a team worker, or someone who's ignoring their main job duty. (I'm also a little concerned about the manager's impartiality if he did hire me based on my looks.) I can't be politely dismissive or brusque with Gary, or "too busy" to talk to him, for the same reasons -- being friendly is basically my top task. I can't blame company policy to turn down his gifts, since other girls always accept/have accepted them. I'm not sure what else I can do. To work, I wear loose black polo and pants, a loose green apron, my long hair tied back into a severe bun under a baseball cap, glasses rather than contacts, and no makeup at all. In general I want to appear not attractive, and especially not looking for validation or feedback based on my looks.

I'm also changing my behavior. Occasionally I would play around, dancing with the mop or humming along with a song, and I think this playful or fun nature also contributed to my hiring. Now I stop myself from doing that because I want to seem businesslike and I don't want to give Gary anything else to talk about, or a chance to see anything more personal about me. I'm also reluctant to be friendlier with other customers or with coworkers, in case Gary sees that and comments (to me or to my manager) that I'm not being equally genuine and open with him. So I feel that Gary, and the other guys like him, are having a significant effect on my confidence and my behavior, but that still isn't a solution -- in fact the issue is still escalating.

I sincerely appreciate any possible advice, since I have no idea what to do -- I just can't quit. In this economy I'm very lucky to have gotten even a job as a barista (full-time, with benefits!). I realize I'm kind of stuck in a corner here, which is why I'm coming to AskMe, so "just put up with it so you can pay the rent" may be the best suggestion there is, which is fine. Thank you guys so much.

How do I cope with bitterness and vengefulness toward my ex?

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:28:31 -0800

My husband of 17 years had an affair and left me for someone else. Three years later, I’m still feeling bitter and vengeful. Please help me cope.

Three years ago, my husband (now ex-) had an affair and left me for someone else. We had been married for 17 years, were both in our mid-forties, and had no kids by choice.

The woman he left me for was married, has four kids, and was cheating on her husband with my ex. They met in an online game. Within a few months of starting the online affair, he started sending her money behind my back, he suddenly realized he wanted kids, and they decided they were meant to be together. He quit his job, divorced me, emptied our joint bank account, and moved across the country to take a new job and be with her, all within the space of about six months. I’ve had no contact with him ever since. None of his family or friends speak to me anymore, so I have no idea where he is or what happened to him after he left.

It astounded me that the man I’d known, loved, and lived with for 17 years was capable of doing something like this. Seventeen years! No one who knew him (or thought they did, anyway) ever would have predicted it. I’m not even sure he himself knew why he did it. His family and friends were as shocked and blindsided as I was. Some tried to talk him out of it, and one even tried to warn him that his new love interest might have been taking him for a ride, but he wouldn’t hear a word of it.

Losing him was devastating, especially under conditions like this. I loved him with all my heart. Even when there was emotional distance there was still sexual chemistry between us, up to and including the day he left, which confused me even more.

For more than a year, I was completely wrecked. I could barely even function. Sometimes I look at photos of myself from right before the divorce, and compare them to photos taken two years later, and it’s as if I aged ten years in that time.

Throughout the divorce process, he insisted that he still loved me and never set out to hurt me, but just couldn’t be with me anymore because he had to go ‘find himself’ and date other people. He even had the nerve to try to maintain a ‘friendship’ with me after this betrayal. I refused. It hurt to cut him out of my life entirely, but I had to do it, because it hurt even more to try to downgrade things to ‘friendship.’ Every contact I had with him was like the emotional version of re-opening a sucking chest wound.

Although I’ve moved on in some ways, I feel like I’ve been scarred for life by this loss, and healing is a very slow process. On the surface, I’m doing all right. I have good relationships with my two sisters. I have friends and a job, though I make very little money and I’m in debt. Except for a short fling, I haven’t dated since he left, and I’m lonely. I’ve tried online dating, and I attend night classes and various events, but haven’t met anyone I click with. (Dating in your forties is a whole different ball game than dating in your twenties, I’ve found. It’s kind of depressing).

The thing that still torments me the most, though, is that even after all this time, I’m still struggling with feelings of bitterness and vengefulness. I have not forgiven him for what he did, and to be honest I don’t even know if I’m capable of it. I can’t help but think that forgiveness is somewhat overrated.

I’ve tried therapy and all kinds of other things to work through all this, including mindfulness meditation, exercise, getting perspective by reading about people who have it worse than me, reading self-help books (the no-bullshit kind, not the fluffy saccharine kind), and writing him icy and rage-filled letters (none of which were actually sent, because I promised myself that no matter how bad it got, I would always maintain my dignity, and not behave like a crazy ex). All these things have helped to a certain extent, yet I still wonder how I could have been blindsided like this. I once prided myself on being a fairly good judge of character.

I’ve made some progress, at least. I can tell the burden is lighter than it was a year ago. Yet underneath it all, I still feel tattered and torn. I used to be confident, but now my self-image feels damaged. Although I know I’m better off without him, I miss the tenderness and love I once felt toward him. Things still feel unsettled. I know I’ll never see him again, and I won’t ever get an apology. I’m doing my best to move on with my life anyway.

But there is also a part of me, a part I’m not so proud of, that wants to see him reap what he has sown. My friends tell me that people who do things like this eventually get their comeuppance. I don’t know if I actually believe in karma, but I’m clinging to the idea anyway because it comforts me, especially when I’m struggling financially while he (as far as I know) is doing just fine. Is it really true that karma's a bitch? And if it were, would it even make any difference?

I still don’t understand what could have driven him to do something like this. Maybe I never will. But I’m tired of this dragging on and on. I want to find some kind of peace, if not resolution. How do I do this?

Personal experiences welcome. Throwaway email: blindsided.ex at gmail dot com.

Shrinkage as a Positive

judomadonna — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:57:22 -0800

After three washes-and-dryings I want some new 100% cotton t-shirts and boxer shorts to keep shrinking but I get the feeling they're not gonna. Am I right?

I'm between an XL and XXL when it comes to t-shirts and boxer shorts -- XL is a little too snug and XXL is a little too roomy. I buy XXL in both in the hopes of shrinking them. I wash in hot and blast 'em in the dryer and, yes, there's been shrinkage, but not enough for my liking. After doing laundry last night I tried on one of the t-shirts and pairs of boxers and didn't see/feel a difference. Clothes get to a point where they'll stop shrinking no matter what you do, right? Any suggestions?

How can an old lady see downtown Chicago in a few hours?

languagehat — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:42:39 -0800

Downtown Chicago tour between trains?

My 81-year-old aunt is here in Massachusetts for a visit; she'll be returning to Southern California by train (a trip I'd envy her if Amtrak weren't so pathetic). She'll be taking the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago, which arrives at 9:45 AM, and going the rest of the way on the Southwest Chief, which departs at 3:15 PM. She doesn't really want to spend five and a half hours sitting around Union Station, especially since she's never been to Chicago before and will probably never get there again, but she doesn't get around with much agility (she uses a cane). What would be ideal is a comfortable tour bus that she could easily locate at the station and that would give her a tour of the downtown area for two or three hours. I assume there are a number of companies that do such things; does anybody know of any that are particularly reliable/user-friendly and/or give particularly good tours? Thanks!

Caprica good! BG…, nah.

dpcoffin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:27:25 -0800

Does Battlestar ever get as good as Caprica?

Just watched Caprica and loved it, but (no disrespect to fans!) have bounced off BG several times, never making it beyond the 4th episode. Is there some point where the show starts to get the production values and general tone of the prequel, or just somehow feels more like it? (Same crew, right?) Wouldn't mind jumping in mid-stream, if so…

(What we didn't like about BG: The dialog, the FX, the pacing; hated that "soldier-bluster" thing between the various warrior-pilots; seemed like TV…)

I need a free and simple online project tracker

zorro astor — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:55:49 -0800

Does anyone know of a free and simple online project tracker?

We don't need a lot of bells and whistles. The projects themselves will be simple, but there may be a lot of them.

Online recipe storage

perrce — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:24:17 -0800

Help me preserve my family's culinary heritage! Help me find a webapp for storing my Dad's favorite recipes.

My Dad has always been a good cook and over the years he's accumulated hundreds of recipes that he has organized on 3x5 cards. He's recently retired and has expressed interest in converting these recipes to an electronic form.

What I'm looking for is some kind of recipe manager webapp with a nice interface so that he can enter recipes. The idea being that family memebers could access the recipes online. The solution I'm looking for could be a service (pay or free), or could be an app that I install on my own web host. Some sort of export (XML, CSV, plain text) is pretty much mandatory, and some sort of multiple user system would be nice to have.

I know about sites like allrecipes.com, but we don't really want the recipes of others, we want to store and share our own recipes.

Does anyone have any ideas of software that fits the bill? My family and future generations thank you!

Easy-touch keyboard and mouse

skwt — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:19:10 -0800

I'm looking for an extremely easy-touch keyboard, and also a mouse with easy-touch buttons.

I have a joint condition such that typing (and even using a ratchety scrollwheel) can get quite painful quite quickly. I'm looking for products that require a minimum of pressure to use.

For a keyboard I have been looking at this product and its variants for a while: http://www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com/. I've read/watched some reviews and it seems perfect (it's literally no-touch) except for the fact that it's battery-powered and the battery only lasts a couple hours at most, so it's not perfect as a daily-use appliance. I'll probably still get one anyway though, so I'm wondering if anyone knows of any other problems with it or its clones?

Otherwise, I'm looking for suggestions for extremely easy-touch keyboards.

For a mouse, the main issue is getting one whose scrollwheel scrolls really easily. I currently have a Microsoft (63A-00006) Wireless Laser Mouse 5000 for my desktop, and its wheel is great; I'm buying for a laptop now though and I don't want its huge USB plug-in thing. One more requirement for a mouse is left-right symmetry, because I use my left hand most of the time but not always.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks very much.

Pimp My Sync

rmd1023 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:18:06 -0800

How can I synchronize calendar/contact data among an iPhone, 1 Mac, and (1 or 2) Windows boxes?

I got an iPhone a while back. I'm pleased with it, for the most part. However, I'm not happy with the way it handles information syncing. I'm more used to the way my palm did syncronizing of information -- I could have palm desktop (or, on the mac, some kind of isync software) and all the address and calendar information would be shared between all my computers and my PDA. And a change made on one would be propagated through the rest as the PDA synced with them.

I would like to be able to do the same with my iPhone. In particular, I want to be able to have the iPhone sync with my work calendar and with ical at home.

Here's my setup:
at home, I have a windows box and a mac. the mac has ical and address book and such. the windows box has previously stored address/calendar info in palm desktop. I'm fine with migrating to whatever, there, and might be okay without calendar/address info on it if needed.
at work, I've got a windows box that uses outlook to talk to the local exchange server. itunes can't get to that data, so i assume I need something else to talk to both the iphone and the exchange server. I can't link the iphone directly with an exchange account as my employer doesn't support that.

I don't care if notes get synced among all the devices, and I don't care about to-do stuff or tasks in outlook. I do want my local outlook address book on my work PC to be synced with the address book on my mac, and my exchange work calendar to be synced with ical. And both of those to be synced with my iphone.

The missing sync web page talks about syncing to-do items and notes, not address and calendar data.

Will mobileme do this? Although even at Amazon prices, mobileme is above my price point for annual fees. (And I particularly dislike the fact that mobileme nukes all data it got from the cloud if you drop mobileme, which would add a future de-synchronization of doom).

Is there something else that won't demand an annual fee that will do this? I mean, besides keeping an old palm device around as a sync conduit. (this is actually my current workaround hack for the problem.) It looks like there are several ways to keep the iphone and my mac in sync, but not so much for the iphone/windows-exchange side of things.

I don't care about having a mac.com email address, or sharing and storing pictures/files/websites.

How can I bring a 20-piece dinnerware set on a plane?

Nematoda — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:12:53 -0800

How should I take a 20-piece dinnerware set on a plane?

My parents bought me a lovely 20-piece dinnerware set on sale, and will give it to me when I visit them. However, I'm flying up to see them, and I wonder how I should bring the set back on the plane. It will still be packaged in the original box, but I have seen how the checked luggage is literally tossed on the conveyor belts, so I'm worried the dinnerware might become a 100-piece set on the way back. Should I try to bring the box with the dinnerware as carry-on? Or should I check it?

We will break up again. But I want to be happy and there are some things I need to do. Advice?

pyrom — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:56:27 -0800

Relationshipfilter: When we're together, I couldn't be more happy. When the inevitable breakups come, I feel so empty and no amount of time makes me feel as whole as when I'm with him. I know it won't last, but I'd take the pain of him leaving again just to have a couple months of happiness. Advice?

About a year ago (mid-summer '08), I met a guy. We'll call him "Jon". It was my first relationship, and it was magical beyond anything I'd ever experienced before. We were so well matched, he was respectful and loving and I couldn't have asked for more. I fell in love with him.

As winter came, things started to fall apart. There would be days I wouldn't hear from him, he stopped wanting to talk to me and his desire to see me was much less. Around five days before Christmas, Jon came over and I told him that I was angry that he'd dropped contact, and that it made me worried. He got angry, we ended up shouting and he left saying that we were over. We got together for lunch a couple days later, and he told me he "wasn't good enough" for me and that he was holding me back. He refused to comply when I told him I loved him and I didn't care, and things ended at that point. I was depressed for at least a month, food became repulsive and I dropped around ten pounds. Life was difficult, I thought about him endlessly and it was hard to function socially. After several months, the pain handn't really subsided but I'd gotten used to dealing with it.

Jon contacted me in March, I'd not heard from him since the day we'd had lunch. In an email he told me he loved me, he missed me, he said he made a mistake and was scared because I changed his plans for his life. My heart melted at this point, and although I resolved to be careful, I got back in contact with him. We talked over IM for a couple days, and we then decided to meet up. After dating in secret for a few weeks, we told our friends and family that we were back together. Things were again glorious for a few months, he was much better at keeping contact and he constantly expressed how glad he was to have me back and how ashamed he was to have let me go.

Things, again, began to fall apart. Jon, again, started dropping contact and lost interest in seeing me. After a few weeks of this, I confronted him. He said he thought we needed to work on our friendship (our "friendship" was fine, great for the most part), and that we should just see each other as friends for a while. I told him it would be too painful, and he ended the relationship once again.

I didn't hurt anything like it did in winter. It was a shock, but I felt so unattached at that point that despite sadness at night, I could be somewhat happy during the day. There were times where I could forget. But the feeling of emptiness that I felt, my lack of connection toward someone was just as pronounced.
That was a Sunday in May. Minutes after I'd gotten off the phone with him, my mother and I began to talk. We tried to figure out what would cause his behavior, and my mom proposed that he might be bipolar.

My aunt was recently featured in an article that advocated better medical care for prison inmates with psychological disorders. Her son, my cousin, was recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a great deal owing to her efforts to have him treated. My mother and I got on a conference call with my aunt, and the description of my cousin sounded a lot like Jon.

YANADfilter- Here's what sticks out to me from what she said, as these are things that also apply to Jon. She said that her son, "Jake", didn't get bad until around high school. That it began suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, but later correlated to a traumatic event. After talking with Jon's mother, she said that Jon's weird moods began one spring when he was 15, but he wouldn't talk about what happened. Jake would have months where he'd hole himself up in his room, not talk to anybody and would eat very little. At the end of each relationship, Jon would have nights where he'd hardly speak to me and when I did see him, he'd eat very little. His mother would mention that Jon wasn't speaking to her and that immediately after school he'd go straight to bed. Additionally, when I saw him at this point, he was uninterested in me sexually, which led to some frustration on my part. To me, this seems the depressive stage.
She also described Jake's manic stage. Where he'd be on edge, where he'd hardly sleep and would talk very fast. He'd get angry at tiny things that didn't make sense. Jon is known for getting angry for no reason, for exploding without a cause. I've known him to stay up for days, but it usually correlated with a lot of school work.
He seemed uncannily similar, especially down to little quirks, such as getting sick at a regular interval, headaches as a child, and an addictive personality- these things all seem to match up with Jon.

Jon contacted me yesterday, after a couple days of lurking on IM with his status saying things like "I'm a fool for leaving her" and other messages that seemed almost suicidal in nature. He said he wouldn't care what anyone thought, that he hated himself for letting me go. I ended up talking to him. I went to see him. I can't explain why. Things heated up pretty quickly. And now I'm unsure of what to do.

His mother is going though some serious pain trying to help her son and has no idea what to do. There are times when he won't speak to her for days and it's to the point where it's emotionally damaging. I haven't told her of my theory, and at the moment she's blaming his actions on being a young male. I can't come close to determining that he's bipolar but his actions seem very similar to that of Jake's. I feel like it's partially my duty to try and help her figure out what's going wrong. I feel like, getting back with Jon is less about making me happy and more about trying to help him.

I want this summer to be a happy one. During school, studying and distance prevents Jon and I from being together as often. Now we're both home and we have what seems an indefinite amount of time. I feel like, for once, I understand, and that I can do some good for him. I want to make him happy. But, my parents and friends don't approve considering what's happened.

Please help, thanks again, all advice welcome.

location, location, location!

evadery — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:31:41 -0800

Am considering buying a house both on a bus route/busyish street and a few houses down from a school. What should I be aware of before I make this purchase?

Found a very reasonably priced house in downtown toronto - almost TOO reasonable. One of the reasons is that it right next to the pretty tree lined streets, but it is itself on a decently-busy street. Not afraid to cross the road busy, but one lane each way, wait for a couple cars to pass busy. On that road is a bus. While I know this drops the price, I actually think this is convenient and will help in my commute to work, but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts both positive or negative about living on a busy-ish street with a bus route.

As well, another positive (or negative) is that the house is a couple doors down from a school, kindergarden to grade 6. While this would be very convenient when we have kids, is there anything we should worry about due to the proximity, or is there any way to effectively check out if this is brings bad elements out in the neighbourhood?

A third question - any idea how much these factors above would influence price (either percentage-wise, or something like 'greatly', 'hardly at all' would be helpful).

Other than those issues, we like everything about the place. So, should we be nervous about them? Thanks!

How do I create an atari style computer game 8 bit image from a photo?

lamby — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:26:02 -0800

How do I create an atari style computer game 8 bit image from a photo?

like the opening credits of the IT crowd like this

The old style 8 bit blocky type like mario

I want to take a photo and convert it to an 8 bit image that still sort of looks like me. Anyone know of any web page or software that does it?

Can you recommend articles on work or the workplace?

alspeigh — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:12:39 -0800

I am a community college English instructor, and I am working on structuring my Comp I class around the theme of work. Can anyone recommend some thoughtful articles, websites, books (easily excerpted), etc. about work or the workplace? Most of my students have limited reading comprehension skills, so I can’t use anything that is too specialized or advanced. I’m looking for articles on the level of Time or Newsweek. Thanks!

How can I integrate video into my eBooks?

woodblock100 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:44:37 -0800

Where are we going with video integration into eBooks?

I have been selling instructional eBooks for a few years now, and it is a steadily growing part of my 'business'. I'm about to begin exploring production of video instructional material, but rather than produce a stand-alone DVD, I would really like to integrate the two formats - written explanatory material, and video demonstration.

It seems to me that a how-to manual in eBook form, which incorporated embedded video clips at appropriate points in the text (to demonstrate the techniques being described) would be an excellent way to present the material.

At present, I could easily prepare links in my eBooks that 'jump out' to video content stored on the web, but that is only practical if the reader is viewing the eBook in a browser, and there would still be a 'disconnect' in the presentation. I can well imagine that a product like the upcoming Apple iPad (or whatever they're going to call it) will have the capability of displaying eBooks and of course playing video, but how do you think this will be integrated?

I really think that a 'book with inline video' would make a dynamite format for the kind of material I wish to present. Any ideas on 1) how this is going to be done in the 'next generation', or 2) how it can be done now?

Generating small gifs from fonts.

RavinDave — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:01:49 -0800

Any tips for generating legible .gifs from Chinese fonts?

This one is hard to explain.

I'm going to over-explain it. If you don't want the background, you can jump down to the last two paragraph and probably still understand the question.

I'm currently creating a kick-ass SRS database in ANKI to help me own the 1,500 (soon to be 3,000) Tradional-style Hanzi characters mapped out in the Heisig/Richardson book "Remembering Traditional Hanzi".

If you don't already know, Heisig's approach is to break down characters into pseudo-radical components he calls "primitives". The user then makes up stories incorporating these primitives and uses them as mnemonics to recall the base character. It's surprisingly effective and the Japanese version of this approach (to remember Kanji) is wildly popular, spawning dozens of databases and a a strong online community.

The Trad Chinese version provides endless headaches that the Japanese version doesn't suffer from, as there are significant variations between Trad fonts. Moreover, there is also significant difference between many "print" styles and their "handwritten" counterparts. Finding a single font to use in ANKI is simply impossible (and if the characters are not displayed to Heisig's preference, it sort of defeats the purpose of his methodic approach).

THUS ...

I've been reduced to generating .gifs of various characters.

This would have been necessary anyway, since many of the "primitives" do not exist as independent characters. So, I'd fire up PhotoShop, find a character that incorporates the primitive, and crop away everything else. I'm fine with that.

The PROBLEM is that I need to reduce these 100x100 pixel transparent .gifs of Chinese characters (and pseudo-characters) down to a size that will fit into a 12 or 14 point text sentence. I've had reasonable luck, but am loosing a bit too much detail, leaving be with somewhat fuzzy images.

Is there anyway (I'm using PhotoShop) that I can somehow compensate? Which format is best? Which mode? Resolution, etc?

Super Bowl Repeat Frequency

glenngulia — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:00:47 -0800

What's the correct analysis of the frequency of repeat Super Bowl winners?

Help provide me some facts/perspectives to prove my point to my friend (or prove me wrong, I guess...). This is a statistical question, really:

I'm a Steelers fan, my friend isn't. In discussing the upcoming NFL season (a little early, I know), I state that the Steelers have got to be one of the favorites heading into the season. He responds with "well, you pretty much know they're not gonna win because repeating as Super Bowl champs is so rare".

I counter with my opinion that it may not happen all the time, but it's not that rare.

Teams have repeated a Super Bowl champs 7 times: Green Bay in the '60s, Pittsburgh 2x in the '70s, San Fran in the '80s, Dallas & Denver in the '90s, and New England in the '00s.

There have been 43 Super Bowls, but we both agree on using a denominator of 42, since the Super Bowl 43 winner (Pittsburgh!) has not yet had the chance to repeat.

My friend's perspective is that since repeats have only happened those 7 times, thus 7 out of 42 (1 in 6), that repeats are rare.

My perspective is that out of those 42 Super Bowls, 14 wins were part of team's back-to-back win performance, so you have to count both wins, not just the 2nd, to analyze the frequency of this event. Thus, 14 out 42 (1 in 3) Super Bowl wins are part of teams' back-to-back Super Bowl winning events. And therefore, it's not that rare.

Who's looking at this from the correct perspective?

Safe Email for Kids

cmh0150 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:54:04 -0800

I want a safe email for a ten year old.; yes, even one that I can see the outgoing messages as well as monitor the incoming ones. I know you can set up a gmail account with filters to do this and control what comes in. I just am not sure what is best in terms of getting to see what goes out. What does the hive mind suggest for how to handle this?

Where's this quote from?

The Toad — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:26:10 -0800

"The poet writes the history of his own body". Did Thoreau use this sentence, and if he did, where exactly?

I couldn't find the precise source via Google. Lots of people use it, all of them attribute it to Thoreau, but nobody says where it's from.

The earliest reference I found was in "A study of poetry", by Bliss Perry, 1930, full text here. (Again, no precise source given.)

Can you help, Mefites? Any Thoreau experts around?

What kind of bird was this unfortunate creature which was killed by my cat? Green/olive feathers with a white/black spotted breast.

h00py — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:44:17 -0800

My cat killed a bird which I was unable to identify and I'm wondering what it was. It had a greenish/olivish tinge to its feathers but its breast and underside was white with black spots. Its beak was similar to a doves.

This poor bird somehow managed to find its way onto my balcony at night so my initial thought was that it was a nocturnal bird that somehow got lost, but it didn't really look anything like what I've always imagined night birds to look like (my knowledge of such is Extremely Limited) so I'm thinking that perhaps it wasn't a night bird, it was a day bird of some kind which just, very unluckily, fell out of its night time perch and ended up on my balcony where my incredibly quick cat decided to leap upon it and kill before I had a chance to do anything! I'm in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. I've done a quick google search for birds but alas, my google searching skills are pathetic and I wasn't able to narrow my search down far enough to get any meaningful results. If anyone could help, it would be appreciated.

What car is this!?

xmradio03 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:11:57 -0800

What car is this anyone, please?

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/101/saxzadatak.jpg
I wanted to know

What's left to try on a dead SeaGate before paying for data recovery?

Avenger50 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:30:53 -0800

500GB internal SeaGate hard drive disappears from Windows, Linux, and the BIOS. What can I try before I pay to have the data recovered?

Tested it with a few different operating systems and a few different machines, and though it always "spins up" this year-old SeaGate drive, configured with no operating system and a single partition, doesn't show up anywhere to mount or browse, like it's just not there. Besides the well-documented freezer trick, what's left to try before I send it to one of several MeFi-recommended recovery companies for $1000 or more?

Help me, O Exercise Gurus.

canadia — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:26:01 -0800

Burning calories while exercising: how important is how much effort you put into it? Does difficulty enter the equation, or is it all time and distance?

Here's an example of what I mean: I've been riding my single gear bike to and from work for the past month on a route that is rolling hills that go as high as a 7% incline. It takes me about 40 minutes to get 5 miles, and I'm huffing and puffing for most of the trek. A few hours later, after standing on my feet all day, I turn around and bike home, which takes me roughly an hour. As I get more used to the ride and it becomes easier, does the amount of calories I burn drop, since my heart rate is no longer skyrocketing, or does it go up, since I'm going faster?

What counts as "moderate" exercise? Does all my heart-pounding biking count as "leisure," since I'm only going a total of 10 miles? Do calorie calculators take effort into consideration, or is "difficultly" measured by how fast you go in a certain amount of time, regardless of your heart rate?

Looking for a simple rating/ranking web app

lord_yo — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:20:57 -0800

Help me find a simple web app: Users are able to enter items, other users are able to rate those items, and the aggregated rating score is used to display the items as a ranked list. Like digg/pligg, but without the bells and whistles. The app should be open source and installable on any major server.

Insights gained via one's career

Earl the Polliwog — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:27:36 -0800

What have you learned through your career, major, or specialization that you wish the general public knew?

I'm mostly curious about short and sweet things - stuff like "As a dentist, I've learned that you really should floss", or "It's worth it to understand the Fundamental Theorems of Calculus, even if you don't like math".

Flagstaff Hash House Harriers?

TheManChild2000 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:03:26 -0800

I want to hash this weekend in Flagstaff AZ, but it appears online at least as if all the Flag HHH kennels are defunct and I keep getting dead emails for Feenix hashers. Hows a guy supposed to get his on-on on? Are there still any active Flag H3s?

Economics articles on fundamental vs. speculative demand?

shivohum — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:57:54 -0800

Are there good articles/books that explain in detail the economics concept of fundamental demand vs. speculative demand, and how one might distinguish one from the other? What is the basis of this distinction in the economics literature and which famous economists, living or dead, talk about it (and in which of their works)?

City of Light

diode — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:54:51 -0800

SF short story filter: I read this sci-fi short story a long time ago. It's fairly memorable...I'm hoping someone on AskMeFi knows of it.

Here's the synopsis.
The story begins with the protagonist attempting to enter a distant city, an alien one on our planet. The aliens have destroyed civilization and planted their cities on the planet in various places.
In the first passage, the hero is attempting to cross a field guarded by a floating energy being. Another traveler warns him the only way to get across is to move in a haphazard fashion with no particular pattern to his movement. He gets across safely and into the city.
Here's where it gets interesting. The city is composed of what I remember being described as solidified light that is responsive to concentrated will or focus. Our hero takes up residence and meets other humans living there who have pretty much the same status as rats in a human city.
The humans are generally ignored by the aliens who seem to be composed of complex energy patterns and have no point of reference for communication with earth folks.
Over time the hero learns to manipulate the alien city's light substance and performs various tricks like creating a sled through mental control that whisks him through the city at one point.
Finally, he learns the secret of the aliens is that when you can form circles of certain colors of the solid light energy and pass one inside the other, energy is emitted. The suggestion at close is that the hero has found a way for humanity to win back control of the planet.
I'd love to find and read this short story again.

POISON! Back to Zero, My Friend

NolanRyanHatesMatches — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:34:13 -0800

BasketballFilter: History of the games "21" and "Utah"?

I grew up in Indiana, where we played 21 as THE playground basketball game-- basically every person for himself, free throws after making a shot (and, if three consecutive free throws are made, the scorer gets the ball at the top of the key), play until someone scores 21 points. I've played 21, with a variety of different rules (i.e. if you don't hit 21 exactly you go back to 14 on your next made basket; two-handed tips send the shooter back to 0, and a one-handed tip knocks him out of the game; etc.), all over the country.

But when I moved to NYC, everyone seemed to play Utah: every person for himself, three-pointers after making a shot (or free throws, but the ball can't touch the backboard, or else it's a live ball), play to 100, each basket worth 5 points.

I wondered if anyone knew some good books/links about the histories of 21, Utah, or any other every-player-for-himself playground basketball games (excluding HORSE, although I'd welcome any links about that, although I imagine they're easy to find). I'd imagine that there are tons of regional variations on 21, Utah being one of them, but it just now struck me that I totally don't know the game's lineage.

Any help?

What should I know before I start handing out drinks?

nicolas léonard sadi carnot — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:23:50 -0800

I've landed a trial shift at a pretty busy bar this coming Saturday night. I'm pretty comfortable with most kinds of hospitality work, whether front of house or behind the scenes, but I've never done quite this sort of thing before. What should I know before I go in? How should I gird my loins?

How much is not enough?

amethysts — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:56:21 -0800

How often should I go to the gym to have it not be a waste of time? My main goal is just to get acclimated to the idea of fitting this into my day so it's something I can continue to do, without going so easy that it's not showing any results after maybe a month or so.

I just bought a membership to my school's gym. I've never done anything fitness related before other than the bare minumum to graduate, so this is a big step for me! I'm going to try to go during a long break that I have between work and school in the afternoon.

I don't want to lay out a bunch of money for a trainer yet because I just want to show myself that going to the gym is something that's doable. My plan is to spend about 45 mins each session either in the pool or on the elliptical machine and try to get my heartrate up, see what I can do. I do have plenty of pudge to lose but I'm not like OMG I MUST SHRINK MY MASS NOW.

However if I go too easy and only go once a week or something I'm afraid I won't notice any improvement and I'm not gonna feel like it's worth it. I'm gonna give it a month to show some kind of improvement whether in my stamina/endurance/how much i can do, my energy level during the day, or how i look (i know, unlikely without weight lifting but i'm definitely getting a trainer for that so that's down the road)

So how many sessions should I schedule in a week and does my plan seem reasonable to you?

Also, do I really need to buy new sneakers if I set aside a pair that I won't wear outside anymore?

Will I like Bioshock?

peep — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:32:19 -0800

How first person shooter-y is Bioshock? Will I like it?

I heard great things about Bioshock, but I didn't realize it was considered a FPS until I went to buy it (for PS3). I'm not a big fan of shooters. I find them boring and repetitive, but mostly, I can't aim for shit. Killing and gore is a-ok, though.

Games I love: Portal, God of War I and II, all Ratchet & Clanks, all Grand Theft Autos, Heavenly Sword.

OK games: Uncharted (starts out sort of adventure-y, turns into almost total FPS by the end), Metal Gear Solid 3, Splinter Cell (PS2).

Hate: Halo, Resistance: Fall of Man

Do you think I might like Bioshock? Is there other stuff besides shooting? Puzzle type stuff or anything? Please no big spoilers about the game, if possible.

Looking for a hobby ...

raheel — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:30:47 -0800

A physical hobby for a desk-bound man.

I have been thinking about taking up a hobby that complements my sedentary lifestyle working as a software developer. I do exercise but that's more for health. I play some music but that is quite sedentary as well. The hobby should be something that will involve physical skills. Something that comes to mind is carpentry or woodworking but I am afraid it will take up a lot of room.

Any other ideas?

And now, some music on the Light Programme ...

scruss — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:21:34 -0800

Trying to track down a piece of mid-20th century music. It's got a whimsical "Auntie Beeb" feel to it, a meandering woodwind (clarinet) theme and unexpected woodblock or claves usage. Last time I heard it, the piece was being used ironically. Whether the piece was actually used in 1950s BBC broadcasts, I don't know, but I'd love to get its name.

Essential must-play Windows games?

mark7570 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:00:50 -0800

Essential Windows-only PC games?

I'm a lifelong Mac user... just installed Windows XP on a Boot Camp partition on the Mac, and now am able for the first time to consider Windows-only games that have never been ported to the Mac or available in Flash or otherwise online.

So... what are the must-play Windows-only games? C'mon, Windows gamers, tell us what you've been hoarding all to yourselves all these years :)

Also open to games that are a year or two old, if they're classics (i.e. they're still must-play games)... just want to gain some fluency around the essentials I've missed from having been into Mac and Web gaming only.

RFIND

mthomps00 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:22:29 -0800

I'm looking for recommendations for some sort of gadget that'll help prevent my boyfriend from losing stuff. Every system or mindhack we've devised for helping my boyfriend keep track of his stuff has failed. Now I want microchips to help. Here's my vision...

Usually, he only misplaces his keys OR his phone OR his wallet, not all at once. Ideally, he could have a small receiver/monitor that he could keep in his pocket or affix to one of these devices. We'd attach small electronic tags to the other devices. If the monitor were separated from one of the devices by ten or twenty feet, it would alarm.

This product claims to meet the requirements, but I'm skeptical without seeing any reviews or manufacturer info.

This is a common enough problem that there has to be a well-regarded technological answer to it, right? Right?

What the heck is this plant?

christinetheslp — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:21:15 -0800

Help me identify this weird plant growing in our garden.

My husband and I bought a house in Milwaukee recently and we found this weird plant growing in our garden (pic 1, pic 2). At first the stems were curly like a pig's tail, but as the white buds have gotten bigger the stems have become more like hooks.

Does anyone know what this is? It's driving us crazy. Thanks!

What should I do for my beloved car?

mustard seeds — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:51:55 -0800

Recommended maintenance for car after winter storage?

I just took my car out of storage after nine months out of the country. While I was away, my brother stored my 2007 Nissan Sentra in his garage in Seattle, Washington. Just before I left, I changed the oil and checked the tire pressure, but I also neglected to do a bunch of other important things that I didn't know about at the time. For instance, I did not fill up the tank with premium gas (or add fuel stabilizer) and I didn't disconnect the battery (although my brother claims he started the car every few weeks). If there was anything else I was supposed to do, I didn't do it. I'm sorry, car! I just drove it around for the first time today (to Jiffy Lube to change the oil), and it seems to be running fine so far, although the tire pressure light is on (even after the Jiffy Lube guys filled up the tires).

I'm planning on driving the car cross country in a few weeks and I want to get the car in as good of shape as possible. I checked old posts here and googled around, but I haven't seen much that addresses newish cars. Is there anything I can do to reverse the potential damage I caused my car by storing it improperly? Or even a way to find out whether I have caused it any damage? Thank you.

Girl bunny humps girl bunny. Is this a problem?

joannemerriam — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:47:56 -0800

What does it mean when a female rabbit humps another female rabbit?

We have three female rabbits who are around 5 months old. We bought them together and they have always lived together, and groom each other often, and lie on top of each other when they're sleeping and generally seem very affectionate toward each other.

They're presumably going through puberty right now, and we've been having a few behavioural problems with them fighting (this started last week). I haven't seen them fighting but we surmise they were because there was a lot of noise and when we ran into the room, they all looked freaked out, one of them was soaked from the water bottles, and there were tufts of hair on the bottom of the cage. Nobody was hurt. That happened twice in the same day.

We solved the fighting issue by finishing our rabbit-proofing of the room they're in and leaving their cage open, so instead of having an hour or two a day out of the cage, they have all night and part of the day (we shut them up in the cage when we need to clean or when my husband, whose office they're in, needs to concentrate). There hasn't been any fighting since then. They're a bit more destructive than usual, but since we provide boxes and bits of wood for them to destroy that's not a problem. They seem happy and continue to groom each other and generally seem fine.

So today I went in to feed them and one of them was humping another one. The one being humped seemed totally blase and unconcerned about it, and just kept eating hay, exactly the same reaction they have when one of them climbs over another one to get someplace. I picked up the one doing the humping and checked her genitals to make sure she wasn't actually a boy and we hadn't noticed, but she still looks like a girl to me. I checked the other one, same thing. I'm almost certain they're all girls (I'd be 100% certain except that I know people can make mistakes sexing rabbits when they're still babies, and I'm not a vet or anything, so I could be missing something).

We intend to get them all spayed, but since we're both unemployed right now we don't have the money to do it immediately. We were planning to do it in the fall when we will both have jobs.

So what I am wondering is, should I be concerned about this humping business? Is this why they were fighting (and has the fighting stopped because the humpee can hop away now that they're out of the cage)? Is it just a normal part of girl bunnies growing up, and, as long as the other one doesn't object, not a problem? Or does this just never happen and it means we actually have a male rabbit who needs to be neutered?

At last, I will be able to drink in America.

sarahj — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:43:51 -0800

How can I throw an epic 21st birthday party?

I'm turning 21 soon. I just recently moved into a house with a bunch of my friends on our campus and I'd like to throw a party. What can I do to show the people a good time? A great punch recipe? Crazy decorations? A weird theme? My housemates have pretty mainstream taste (in terms of pop music, college frat parties, etc) but I'd also be inviting another group of friends who have more offbeat taste (obscure music, artsy films and stuff) - I'd definitely want my party to be more "offbeat"!

I think I could probably get around 20-30 people I know (friends, neighbors, acquaintances) to show up for sure (most likely not all at the same time) but there would probably be more if people bring friends and friends-of-friends and such. I'm willing to spend about $100-$200 max myself on booze and miscellaneous party items, but I'd rather have it go pretty far rather than, say, renting a huge foam machine or getting a DJ or something. Cheap beer will most likely be bought for college-style drinking games, and some nicer beer or champagne for close friends. I'm just not sure what else to do! Is there anything anyone's had/done at a birthday (or other!) party that made you say "wow, sweet!"? What can I do to make my party awesome (with a touch of strange)?

'Cause everyone's my friend in New York City

NoraReed — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:16:12 -0800

NYC-Filter: The ladyfriend and I will be in New York City from July 11 through the 13th (Friday through Monday). We have no plans, so far, for stuff to do, except going to a show on Saturday night. What should we do? Anything totally awesome happening that weekend?

We're definitely going to be hitting MOMA and the Strand at some point, but we are open to suggestions for other stuff-- touristy and not. Recommendations for delicious food are good. We're not on a tight budget, but we don't have tons of money either, so nothing way pricey-- little neighborhood bistros and stuff are great.

I would, at some point, like to get a really good bagel with lox, since you can't exactly get that at high altitude. I also could definitely go for some good dim sum.

Suggestions for specific neighborhoods to wander around in are great too.

We love weird shit. Weird art galleries, restaurants with comic misspellings but delicious food, etc.

The ladyfriend is 20, so no 21 and over venues, please.

I have $30,000 burning a hole in my pockets.

brenton — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:11:08 -0800

Where is the best place to put my $30,000 as I slowly withdraw from it over the next 2 years to pay for Grad School.

As of today, I saved exactly $30,000. I will quit my job in a month, and I'm starting classes in the Fall. I won't have any other source of income for two years, besides school loans and these savings.

I currently have them in a WAMU Online Savings account, which was paying 4% interest before, but now is paying next to nothing.

Help me find a recording of "Half Moon" by Ali Rahbari

ashputtel — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:51:57 -0800

My dad heard a classical piece on live South African radio in 1984 and wants to enjoy it again. It's called "Half Moon," composed by Ali Rahbari. How can I find a recording of it?

Over the years my father has occasionally asked me to locate a piece of music he heard once and really enjoyed. He figured that I could find anything he requested, but he'd sadly overestimated my googling-skills.

Composer: Ali (Alexander) Rahbari
Title: Half Moon
For african choir and symphonic orchestra

He thinks the performance he heard was performed live by South Africa's National Symphony Orchestra, possibly with a Soweto choir and broadcast live on SABC (radio).

I can't easily find any recordings of the work and I wonder if any music, internet, shopping, or radio archive experts have any ideas on how I can finally satisfy my father's desire to hear this again.

Water Aerobics Instructional Videos?

alist — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:35:44 -0800

I recently moved to Phoenix and am lucky enough to have a swimming pool in my backyard. It's perfect for water aerobics but not so much for swimming, as one end of the pool is much shallower than the other. I'm looking for good instructional water aerobics videos. Any suggestions? I haven't found much on the web so I'm ok with buying something if it's highly recommended.