Recently Stumped Ask MetaFilter Questions

Name of movie where woman kisses cannibal

the_latin_mouse — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:02:20 -0800

WhatWasThatMovieFilter: Crash survivors wind up on a desert island. They fight. One of them fences off part of the island, then turns cannibal. Eventually it's revealed that behind his fence, this guy has been chowing down on the other survivors. Movie ends with a woman kissing him, then looking over his shoulder and seeing human remains.

I saw this on TV about fifteen years ago. What the hell is the movie called?

How do I set up a dvd player through Media Center?

The Great Big Mulp — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:13:47 -0800

Is there some way to tell the Windows Media Center software just to use a specific TV tuner card input (rca, s-video, etc) avoiding its incessant search for a cable box or its requirements that I use the remote? I know I did it, once ... So, I'm working on a machine for a client and part of the procedure involved trying to find a way to hook up a dvd player to one of the tv-tuner cards so that it will play through the Windows Media Center software (it's an XP Media Center box, service pack 2). After much frustration and poking through the Media Center menu system, I was, eventually, able to tell the program to use a specific video input, then having to fudge through a series of menus in which I had to give a make and model number of cable box that was supposedly connected to the machine. This worked fine.

So, I called the client, had him come by the shop, and was in the process of showing him what I had done to set up a dvd player for use with the Media Center software, but the menus had changed. It would no longer let me manually enter information about a cable box, but insisted upon auto-detecting one (also insisting that I use the remote).

Now, the only thing I can think of that would have changed would be some Windows updates. However, I haven't any idea which update to roll back. Has anyone out there had any experience with this sort of thing? Is there some easy way to find the correct update, or should I just give it a repair installation and start from scratch?

Song ID: 2 am emergency call

whatzit — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:20:45 -0800

Another Song ID: I want to be your 2 am emergency phone call Something poppy and sung by a girl, heard last year in Japan (but I'm confident it wasn't a sung-in-English-by-Japanese-group). Had a lot of the same snappy/catchiness as "Potential Break-up Song." The lyrics I remember aren't getting me anywhere, maybe because the words are so common, or I got the hour wrong. Please help me to find it or put it out of my memory for good!

Suck the Chrome off the bumper

JohnnyGunn — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:39:37 -0800

How do I move the "other bookmarks" folder link from the right side to the left side of my bookmarks toolbar when using the Google Chrome browser?

Name-that-song Filter

phunniemee — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:42:10 -0800

What is this song? Every time I've ever heard it I've been all, "gah! what's that song!?" It only just today occurred to me to ask.

(hulu clip, I think they're still US only.)

How to make a theme from all of these numbers?

Kimothy — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:41:27 -0800

My nephews have some numerically coincidental birthdays coming up, anyone have any clever ideas that we can use for the occasion? My sister has given me the task of coming up with a clever way of emphasizing the numbers involved with her sons' birthdays.

-One will be 5 on 11-3-08
-The other will be 3 on 11-5-08
-To further the number madness, their party is going to be held on 11-08-08.

My sister wants me to come up with a theme or invitation design - or both. The only specific instruction was that she wanted it make a point of the once in a life-time coincidence of all of the numbers involved.

Bonus info - the boys are very much into Thomas the Tank Engine and Disney's Cars, which they refer to only as "Lightening McQueen."

Mathematical hive mind, Help me be more clever than I am!

Scratch is good, but not on my CD

splice — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 11:36:58 -0800

Help me find a mixtape I lost! I've either misplaced or damaged beyond repair a CD of one my favorite mixtapes/freestyles. Since it's been a while that I've given it a listen, I can't recall the title, and I can only remember a few of the details, so I sincerely hope Mefi can help me out on this...

What I remember: this was very likely a Hot '97 mixtape or production in some capacity. Kay Slay was MCing. It was a number of freestyles by some people hanging out with him there. I remember particularly Mos Def doing "What's beef" on there. As far as other artists, I can remember Pharaoh Monch on there, and Mad Skillz (no idea if he had dropped the "Mad" at the time). I remember Skillz's freestyle having the lines "You don't know a nigger that can spit it with skillz", and then at some point he spit "In fact, I'm gonna tell you all how long I been this way", "I was sick before hip-hop had thugs", a bunch of lines about him being sick before a whole bunch of other artists, and ending with "The only way you'd be sicker than me is if you're already dead".

Now, this was obtained via trading with various people. It might be a mixtape, it might be an underground tape, it might even have been just taped off the radio show for all I know. Does it ring a bell for anyone? Is there anywhere I can track this down? I'm certainly willing to pay for the CD if I can figure out which one it is. Of course, I've done the google and cddb dance a number of times and haven't found what I needed... Help!

Get these ducks out of our bedroom before I shoot you.

jamaro — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:49:35 -0800

Recommendations for self-storage companies in the South Bay? Added difficulty: must be accessible 24/7 or nearly so. My SO is a man of many hobbies, the flotsam of which has packed our attic, our closets, our carport, and now threatens to consume every flat surface of our home as well as consume my sanity. I would like to propose he move much of his current hobby-related items (duck hunting, so we're taking a hundred plastic ducks/geese, a small skiff, carts, portable blinds) into an off-site storage unit. To make the proposal more palatable, I need to have a ready solution as well.

The difficulty is the storage unit would have to have near-24 hour access: he generally leaves for his hunting trips post-midnight (in order to be across the state and in the blinds at sun-up) and he's not at all the kind of person who could plan ahead to get into a unit that is open only during regular business hours.

You'd think those places with the electronic keypad entry would be accessible 24 hours. The last 16 of them that I've called are not.

Looking for anything located in Santa Clara County.

Citizens of Glendale: Do not worry. He is dead.

Science! — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:33:01 -0800

What are the definitive lyrics to the chorus in the song "A Train Robbery" on Levon Helm's Dirt Farmer album? I've listened to this song a lot, and done some researching to figure it out, but I can't make out what a few words are and the internet gives conflicting answers even on fairly authoritative sites.
Here's the chorus:

1: But we won't touch that old woman
2: [Incomprehensible] and they claimed
3: They ain't offered no reward
4: For Frank and Jesse James
5: Frank and Jesse James

I hear the last word of line 1 as either 'pullman' or 'woman', the internet gives both, and either will work though I don't know how concerned the James Gang would be with the fate of a pullman porter.

I hear line 2 as "he's/she's Southern and afraid. That may work because showing deference to a Southern woman would be in line for them (or at least their mythos)

I feel like the Flash at a disco.

Shepherd — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:05:07 -0800

Why is MP3 playback sssuuudddeennllyy gggrriiinnddiinngg doowwnnnn? Until about six months ago, give or take, I could listen to MP3s on my computer pretty much regardless of whatever else I was doing. I did a pretty routine wipe everything/reinstall everything (XP Pro, upgrading from SP2 to 3 after the reinstall) back in May.

Recently, the MP3 player has started to grrriiinnnddd when I do pretty much anything on the computer. I've gone from WinAmp to QCD to Billy to try to minimize the program's CPU "footprint," but it persists. The songs start to stretch out, like HAL at the end of 2001 but with more digital artifacting. The MP3 players never crash, but stutter and grind to a halt, then slowly get up to speed, then start staggering again.

This happens when I open a program, or a document, or save something, or copy a file from one folder to another, or check my e-mail, or load a Web site like MetaFilter, etc. etc. Pretty much everything other than typing or moving the mouse -- and sometimes it just starts to spontaneously stutter as well.

I have an up-to-date Avast!, Ad-Aware and ZoneAlarm (free versions of all) showing no viruses, malware, etc. on my computer.

I've used the Ctrl-Alt-Del resource manager to see what's hogging resources, but the open programs like Firefox, Celtx, Thunderbird, etc. all clock in about 25K for CPU resources, and this "grinding" often happens when I'm running at about 50% of CPU in use.

Nothing on my computer has changed in terms of hardware since before and after this big reinstall and the consequent MP3 grind. No major software changes, either. It's really danged irritating. Is it SP3? General resource creep making all the programs that used to not kill my system resources suck up all my system resources? The difference between six months ago and now is extraordinary: I used to be able to just listen to music while doing whatever, and now everything makes playback stutter and stall.

I've reached the limits of my knowledge. Insight, folks?

It's NOT an REM song about the end of the world, I know that much.

liketitanic — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 07:22:32 -0800

I'm looking for a poem whose first lines are "When the sun dies there will be eight minutes of light/Not enough time to hoard lemons or bulbs . . . " and it goes on from there. Next line is something like "or let the camera record the slow explosion of a rose." Can't find it anywhere! Ungoogleable. It's driving me nuts! (I heard it a decade ago.)

You won't steal my heart by stealing my focus

subbes — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:03:02 -0800

IE7 keeps stealing focus, even after I use TweakUI. I have to use IE for a work application. The app spawns a new popup window for each task I work on. Because I multitask and the network can be slow, I have multiple task windows open at once, usually at least one loading in the background while I work on the other.

Every time IE finishes loading a task window, that window pops to the front and steals focus.

I have used TweakUI to "prevent applications from stealing focus" but IE seems not to listen. Help me stop this annoying behavior and keep sane!

(Windows XP professional, SP2, IE 7.0.5730.11)

Meg Tilly makes it hard to google for...

goo — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:50:36 -0800

Kids' book filter: Two sisters, possibly twins, one a brunette named Natalie but known as Tilly, English, involves going to stay in the country and horses, most likely published in the early-mid 80s (when I read it), possibly a trilogy or a series. Any help with the title or author would much appreciated!

Things are beautiful if you love them

donnagirl — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:06:55 -0800

Please help me ID some art. So, I'm reading about new music, and suddenly I'm captivated by a work of art. Not cover art, though, but seemingly random art hanging behind the musician in an uncaptioned photo. I'm desperately hopeful that it's famous and I'm ignorant, so I can find a print of it and hang it on my wall.

I've googled the artist's name and found the image several times, but never captioned with anything useful. If for some reason it might be helpful the musician is Keith Kenniff, aka Helios, and he's from Massachusetts.

What is this song with the sample from "39 Steps"?

churl — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:48:20 -0800

I would love to know what song this is. [Direct Link to 4.7 MB mp3] [Caution at work, song gets louder] Google tells me that the words of the lyrics/voiceover narration are from the opening of 39 Steps, but I don't know which version (if any). It doesn't sound exactly like the Hitchcock version, but that's the only version I could find to watch online and compare it against.

It came to me on an unlabeled mix CD from a friend. However, by the time I listened to and asked him to identify this song, he had forgotten it. Pressed, he thought that the song might be called "Oregon Grinder" -- he definitely specified "Oregon" and not "Organ" -- and the band called "Fear of Little Men".

However, the only "Oregon Grinder" I could find was by Hank Jones (obviously wrong), and I listened through both albums by Fear of Little Men and it did not appear on either of them.

He gave me the CD about two years ago, so the song must be pre-2006. That is everything I know.

What books were originally included in the Tall Tarzan Gift Shelf set?

mediareport — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:50:54 -0800

Does anyone own the Tall Tarzan Gift Shelf? It's a collection of a couple dozen 60s-era Burroughs Ballantine paperbacks in two cardboard cases, each ~ 5" x 15", with two tiers. There's a pic of the spine at the bottom of this page (which incorrectly lists the set as one case of 20 books). I'm trying to figure out how many and which titles were originally included in the full set of two cases. The one copy I've found for sale online claims a set is complete at 41 books (which we have), but there's clearly space for at least one and maybe two more books in the second case, so I'm a bit skeptical. I'm trying to find out for certain from someone else who owns a set. Thanks!

Lip balm with pramoxine?

IndigoRain — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 01:29:58 -0800

Speaking of lip balm... Blistex has discontinued my favorite, their Pro Relief. It's gone from their website. The active ingredients are dimethicone 2% skin protectant, and pramoxine hydrochloride 1% external analgesic (great for chapped lips). I can't find any other chapsticks with pramoxine in it... it seems to be mostly in cold sore cream. Do you know of any other chapsticks or lip balms with pramoxine in them? Neosporin has a twice-as-expensive "Lip Treatment" that isn't in convenient stick form.

I emailed Blistex to ask if they were coming out with a similar product and they never replied. In the meantime, I picked up a 24-pack of Pro Relief on Amazon, but it won't last forever.

I Want My, I Want My, I Want My Cmd-1 ...

WCityMike — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 14:02:31 -0800

How can I configure Firefox so that I can use Cmd-1 through Cmd-9 for bookmarks on my personal toolbar, identical to the behavior Safari uses? I am very desperately looking for a Firefox extension that will allow me to use Command-1 through Command-9 for the first nine bookmarks of my Personal Toolbar Folder, much as Safari allows me to do. Please, someone tell me the ability to do this is out there.

Yes, I am able to assign normal vanilla bookmarks through the keyconfig extension to the Command keys (if somewhat awkwardly), but I apparently cannot assign JavaScript bookmarklets using the same method, and that is greatly problematic for me.

I have a JavaScript bookmarklet I love that interacts with Cocoalicious to allow me to post to del.icio.us websites I enjoy and want to post to my "linklog" -- but I am also very very keyboard-centric, and hate having to mouse over to the bookmarklet in Firefox. (I know that there is a delicious extension that has a posting interface for Firefox, which is actually really pretty decent -- but the extension's keyboard support for posting appears to be broken on Mac OS X.)

Alternatively – in the event that no one can give me an answer to this, in case said extension just doesn’t exist – I seem to remember there being a way by which people could set up a sort of “developer pledge” or “developer bounty” thing on some website somewhere, where you could say, “I would be willing to pay $10 for a resolution to this problem,” and Joe Schmoe would chip in another $10, and Jane Schmoe another $20, and by the time you know it, Alfred J. Developer has a $200 incentive to develop said Firefox extension, in which case it might then get developed pretty darn quicker. Can anyone tell me what I'm thinking of?

Er, to press my luck, also alternatively, anyone know a way by which I could see if the whole language keyconfig uses to determine what to do upon keypresses is JavaScript in and of itself? Perhaps that’s why it won’t respond to JavaScript bookmarklets within the “Open Location” language.

(To pre-empt the “just go back to Safari” responses: I used to be a Safari die-hard, but only when it was coupled with the added functionality Saft gave it. I found the need to revert my system back to 10.3 when I noticed that 10.4 was bogging down my older system just too darn much; the only thing I really have missed from 10.4 has been the greater interconnectedness between the CLI and the GUI, and the ability to iSync my address book with my Motorola v330. Saft has marched onwards towards Panther, and I figure that Firefox will be extensible and upgradeable on 10.3 for far longer than Safari will, so I am trying to get myself to stay with Firefox.)

Amazon cover art bookmarklet?

WCityMike — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 14:48:20 -0800

Bookmarklet to display Amazon cover art? My Google-fu has failed. But is anyone aware of a bookmarklet that, starting from an Amazon product page, would take you to the URL for the unadulterated cover art (as oposed to a, say, "Copy Link Location", which would include the Search Inside and other stuff appended to the graphic). (I'm trying to populate a gratu.itio.us wish list, but can also think of a few hundred other times such a bookmarklet would prove handy.)

Editorial note: Keep in mind that you can't post a Javascript bookmarklet as a link in the comments (I know this from prior experience) ...

This site looks to be of some help in terms of URL construction but isn't taking me all the way there. (BTW, I have absolutely no programming knowledge, so unfortunately am asking if such a bookmarklet already exists.)

Walk me through getting a del.icio.us clone running locally on my Mac?

WCityMike — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 11:46:51 -0800

I would like to build and host a del.icio.us clone on my Mac (Intel iMac running Tiger). It need not be accessible outside of my machine, although if you can advise me how to do that while still keeping my machine secure, that would be a very nice plus. I am able to build simple command-line apps in Unix and puzzle some stuff out, but I am very much not a l33t hax00r. Can anyone walk me through the process very simple step by very simple step? I have tried various options since unsuccessfully asking this question of Ask MeFi, and have still grown certain that the extremely simple interface of del.icio.us is what I'm looking to work with for to-dos. When they're done, zap them. The tagging can let me sort through my ideas on any one of a hundred different levels by throwing tons of tags at a to-do (work shoppinglist imac web priority1 quickie). The hyperlinking is useful because so many of my to-dos have a hyperlink attached to them. And the bookmarklets will be very swift, given that they'll be interoperating with a local del.icio.us and no web server. It's very much what I'm desiring to do.

The problem is that I do have a minor bit of technical knowledge, but not the full amount. I can go to the command line and do "./configure, make, make install." But if it throws off errors, the best I can do is Google the error to see what other people did to solve it. I can install stuff that it needs to have to depend on. I know what tar and gz are. I understand that MySQL has to do with databases. But a lot of this stuff is gonna be like "Guh?!" to me.

I know that del.icio.us now has a "keep this private" bookmark. But this would interfere with my use of del.icio.us as a linklog system for my website. I also know that there are to-do sites that include tagging and Smart Lists. However, they don't seem as swift to me, and their interfaces seem to include a lot more steps than I'd like, even with the bookmarklets they use.

I know of at least one open-source del.icio.us clone. However, trying to install it without customized help led to a bellyflop and the aforementioned "guh?!?!?!?!".

Can anyone help me out here? Keep in mind that Lifehacker and 43 Folders and other sites read Ask MeFi, so you could end up being a superstar to a lot more people than just me. ;-)