November 2013 Archives (all archives)
November 29
What was this game?
Maybe five years back, when Flash Friday was more of a thing, there was a link to an online game. It was somewhat like unto Connect Four: a grid (7 x 7, maybe) in which numbered circles dropped in from above. As certain numbers lined up, those circles would be removed and the remaining circles above dropped into place, which might form new patterns that led to more disappearing. If any of the vertical columns filled up to overflowing, the game was over. There were also options to modify gameplay; one I recall was to turn the whole thing ninety degrees. I enjoyed it, but seem not have favorited it, which suggests I may have seen it before I joined (summer 2008). Anyone know what I am talking about?
November 28
Recommendations for a cheap printer?
I remember reading a thread here, probably on AskMe but possibly on MeFi, in which a person who was in the business of either selling printers or selling ink cartridges recommended a certain little-known brand of printer. I think the thread was in the past 3-12 months. Help?
November 27
Surprise! Thanks, Secret Quonsar!
A mysterious box arrived in the mail today... [more inside]
Thread win pony request
Pony request! The threadwin extension is very useful. I would like it to play well with AskMe & MetaTalk. [more inside]
This Thursday, A.D.
The time: Thursday at noon US Eastern time, 9 AM US Pacific, for approximately nine hours (maybe more, if special features are planned).
The place: Joel Hodgson's website, www.mst3kturkeyday.com.
The other place: our own chat server, chat.metafilter.com.
The reason: to watch a guy in space and his two wisecracking robots mock terrible movies. [more inside]
The place: Joel Hodgson's website, www.mst3kturkeyday.com.
The other place: our own chat server, chat.metafilter.com.
The reason: to watch a guy in space and his two wisecracking robots mock terrible movies. [more inside]
November 26
When is it OK to post an update to an open thread?
Apologies if this comes off as test-post-ish, but I am wondering if there are any unwritten guidelines around when it is OK to post an update on the blue, particularly if there was a former post about the subject and that post is still open. [more inside]
Cue the Queue
It's Thanksgiving time in the US. That means the MetaTalk Holiday Queue will be on so MetaFilter mods have a little more time with family and friends. [more inside]
November 25
From Thanksgivukkah to New Years MeMall is there!
The MeFi Mall is back again! It's that time of year when people who like that sort of thing can buy/sell stuff to/from other people who like that sort of thing. Last year we again had over seventy participants. Interested in being involved in this year's MeFi Mall? Read on... [more inside]
November 24
Gendered areas on MeFi?
I was reading the John Carmack FPP and suddenly became aware that pretty much everyone who had left comments in that thread was male. So I made a very rough tally, which shows that of the 39 unique users who left comments, only one user explicitly specified "female" in their MeFi profile. On a hunch, I went back to the recent Spelunky thread and made the same tally. I came up with 33 unique users, of whom two specify "female" in their profile. Obviously, everyone is free to specify anything (or nothing), but it still strikes as a little lopsided. [more inside]
Cookies! Baked with love by the internet!
The great Metafilter Holiday-Adjacent Cookie Swap of 2013: signups have begun! [more inside]
November 22
C(s) is for Cookie (swap)?
Is the cookie swap happening this year? [more inside]
November 21
Method commenting?
Assuming an AskMe poster does not explicitly request that advice or information be delivered in a specific way (e.g. "I need some tough love right now", "explain this to me like I'm five"), what prompts you to respond to an AskMe in a particular way? [more inside]
Repeated quoting of long lists considered annoying
I've been enjoying the list of jokes riffing on 'Hung like a museum's prize painting' in the Lulu thread. However, as a screen reader user, I'd like to request that, in the future, users wanting to participate in such a joke don't copy and paste the whole list in their post just to add one more at the end. It makes the thread unreadable to have to try and skip over long, repeated lists to get to new content. Thanks!
Request for a bantam horse
It might be handy if recent activity would say who is attending and maybe attending IRL events. [more inside]
November 20
The Most Choosiest Time of the Year! MeFites Choice Awards 2013
December is the Fantastic Post MeFites Choice Contest run by you, the users. Sign up to offer prizes. Use the fantastic flag to vote for your favorites. We did this last year (see winners). We're doing it again. Weekly prizes! User participation! More! Inside! [more inside]
Winamp Dies, which post shall die as well?
I was making a huge post on the newly announced death of winamp, and unfortunately, wcfields beat me to the punch...
Normally I don't care whether my stuff gets deleted, but I want to argue the case that mine has more research and linkage dumped into it, but I guess we'll see which thread takes off if one hasn't already been deleted by the mods right now.
Either way, I'm QQing...
He drew this.
Welcome to the blue, Dean Trippe!
Comments about impossible jet maneuvers?
Does anyone remember a post that spawned various comments with links to videos of jet airplanes doing various seemingly impossible maneuvers? [more inside]
November 19
In-progress comments erased on new Retina iPad when switching tabs
I have noticed a change in behavior in the new Retina iPad mini running iOS 7 (from the original iPad mini running iOS 6). [more inside]
Because I don't think Deezil Wants Me to Call Him For This....
I swear I remember some comment once that someone linked to a forum that told you how to jigger your computer so, when you were trying to access Youtube, it would skip over the Youtube sites that would take forever to load and bring you to the ones that would download at proper speeds. Did I hallucinate that? If not - where the frak is it?
fork.jpg
Years ago, there was a deleted thread, the content of which, or a comment in which was a jpg of a fork. A funny reference to it came up as the first comment (or on of the first) in a non-deleted thread shortly thereafter and got a lot of favorites. Does anyone have any idea what I am talking about?
November 18
Nine Years
Happy ninth anniversary to the flood of "$5.00 noobs" who streamed onto MetaFilter when the gate was opened.
November 17
Who is the most productive Mefite?
Do you like games? Do you like being productive? Would you like to see if you are more productive than other mefites? You might want to play the productivity game! [more inside]
Like Google but Better: The Chrome-Ask-Mefi link
It may be that I am the last person to have figured this out, and if so, then I apologize, but I just discovered the lovely customized search engine feature of google chrome to automatically delve through askmefi troves for pearls of wisdom.
Basically, in Chrome's preferences pages, in the manage custom search engines area, I plugged in this URL: https://www.google.ca/#q=site:ask.metafilter.com+%s
and set up "ask" as the keyword.
Now, in the address bar, I can just type "ask", then Tab, and then whatever keyword, and I get a lovely list of the relevant askmefi pages (see here).
In so many cases, its better than Google!
Basically, in Chrome's preferences pages, in the manage custom search engines area, I plugged in this URL: https://www.google.ca/#q=site:ask.metafilter.com+%s
and set up "ask" as the keyword.
Now, in the address bar, I can just type "ask", then Tab, and then whatever keyword, and I get a lovely list of the relevant askmefi pages (see here).
In so many cases, its better than Google!
Fifty Tornadoes is too many tornadoes -- midwest MeFites check in!
The reports of these midwest storms sound terrifying. Midwest Mefites, are you OK?
Does MetaFilter age?
I am attributing this thought to a Simpsons-related thread from October. Does/will MetaFilter age? [more inside]
November 16
Should I eat this?
What if the characters of TV's Hannibal used AskMe to solve their trickiest Problems From Everyday Life? It is hilarious and challenging: Match usernames to characters from the show.
[via Projects, by tel3path and The Whelk] [more inside]
[via Projects, by tel3path and The Whelk] [more inside]
Jabiru for Android for Mefi Chat
I have been using Xabber on Metafilter chat. I had a lot of problems with it. Pb kindly did some research and found that Jabiru is more compatible with the chat program used by Metafilter. For mefi chat, Jabiru is superior in every way to Xabber except one: Initial setup is a confusing pain. It took me two days with help from pb to work out the bugs. So I have written a tutorial. [more inside]
November 15
Enhancement Request: Cancel button for comment preview.
I'd like to suggest adding a "Cancel" button during comment preview, next to the "Post Comment" and "Preview" buttons. [more inside]
November 13
It's 2013 Gift Drive Time!
Time for the 5th Annual Mefi Holiday Gift Drive for Children! Come right in and see how you can help out. [more inside]
November 11
Bike threads of yore
I'm ready to buy a bike, so I've been looking through the askme archives for advice, but there are a lot of bike questions back on those dusty shelves! Can you point me to the most useful bike related threads? [more inside]
Thank you all so much - AskMe update
Last week, I asked this question. I really was freaking out and sure I was going to screw it up. The memorial service was Friday, and my remarks were extremely well received. [more inside]
November 9
Secret quonsar 2013: Relatively Earlier This Year!
It's secret quonsar time again! The randomized draw will be on Friday, November 22, and the send by (or on) date is Saturday, December 7. Please sign up by 11:59 PM EST on Wednesday, November 20. The spending guideline: $10-20. [more inside]
November 8
The Most Delightful Greasemonkey Script You're Not Using (Yet)
rangefinder 1.4 has created the most amazing script ever. It draws rainbow & fluffy cloud borders around your comments in recent activity. It's making me so happy, you guys. [more inside]
November 7
Jerks on my spacestation?
A while back, I asked my fellow mefites Do astronauts suffer from hypnic jerks? There didn't seem to be any definite answer, but last night I went to a book signing by astronaut Chris Hadfield (previously), and was able to ask him. He said that they do indeed have them while in space. Mystery solved! Science!
November 6
Apple includes a warrant canary in transparency report
Taking their lead from jessamyn, Apple has included a warrant canary in their transparency report.
"Apple has never received an order under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. We would expect to challenge such an order if served on us."jessamyn created the warrant canary in response to the USA Patriot Act, which permits warrantless searches of library records and prohibits the library from making the existence of these searches known. It does not explicitly prohibit the library from stating that it has not received any secret search warrants. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first use of a warrant canary by a big, high-profile organization. Nice work, jessamyn!
Trying to find a link for a spooky illusion video
There was a video posted to the blue a long time ago which featured a person at a table showing off items. At the end (spoiler) it turns out one of the items is not real; the camera shifts to show that pretty much the entire set has pieces that are fake or misplaced and spooky music starts playing. I feel like the name of the film was a single odd word. Any thoughts?
November 4
Do Not Enter The Dog Park
Thank you - AskMe update
I asked this question a few weeks ago. I was able to see a dermatologist who took a biopsy and pronounced everything completely normal. And, I was able to complete both the Hartford Marathon and the NYC Marathon without worrying about my leg. Thanks to everyone who helped me.
Then I got up on table and I said...
Hey MetaFilter, my wife and I would like to express our sincere and profound gratitude for making our wedding the best wedding. [more inside]
November 3
A Gygaxian Follow-up
5 years ago, Gary Gygax died, and I left a comment here on Metafilter memorializing his life, and how he helped me when I was very young. [more inside]
November 2
86: Attenblurrowed
The newest podcast features me, jessamyn, and cortex talking about all things October and runs about an hour and forty minutes long. Show notes follow. [more inside]
MeFiMusic Request Raffle: The Results!
The Great Metafilter Request Raffle hove out of town, leaving a trail of happy requestors and celebrated musicians, as the deadline drew in yesterday. The musical trail it leaves behind ranges from the delightful unexpected to extreme aural oddity. [more inside]
November 1
secret quonsar 2013 planning time
It's November. It's Metafilter. Presents are fun. Let's plan for this year's secret quonsar swap! The secret quonsar swap is - for the uninitiated - our holiday-adjacent wintery gift exchange. Read About it on the Wiki. Questions/Suggestions beneath the fold. [more inside]