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A tale of mystery, intrigue and suspense

caveat — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:37:03 -0800

'New Yorker' short story posted in the last year, or the last few years, about a man who lives with the ghost of his parents. Link? I recall something about a dead body that the protagonist and a co-worker tries to hide, in an office closet of all places, but it starts to smell so they bury it at an archeological site. It is, of course, discovered.

His parents are nightly subjected to being murdered by a group of drugged up foreigners. He is also eventually murdered, but it all has a happy ending. If you can provide me with a link to this, I'd be incredibly happy.

I am almost 100% sure this was on 'The New Yorker' website, but I've searched their archives to no avail. The phrase "You never know who you're living with" comes to mind, but I don't know if that is a line in the story or my own creation.

Freeware DVD Player

thewestinggame — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:45:39 -0800

Please help me find dvd player software. I'm looking for a non-Windows Media Player version of a dvd player for my computer. I'm running Windows XP and it would be great if the player was free. I googled what I'm looking for but the number of options was overwhelming so personal recommendations are most appreciated. Thanks!

How to remove image artifacts from a foggy background?

topynate — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:43:06 -0800

I use this image (source image here) as my desktop background - it's one of Ubuntu's default wallpapers. Can I do something about the artifacts? The artifacts in question are only visible when I view the image from an angle on my LCD, and appear in the brightest part of the background. The effect looks like a noisy posterization. I opened the image up in GIMP and looked at the histogram, and I think that this part of the background has been overexposed, but I don't understand why this would make it look like it does. So, why is this, and can I fix the image in GIMP so that it doesn't show these artifacts?

Illustrator CS4 Problem

nostrich — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 09:45:57 -0800

Efficient cross-hatching (and distortion thereof) in Illustrator CS4? I'm fairly new to Illustrator, so forgive me if this is a simple problem.

I need a cross-hatch-type grid, which I've successfully created with the line tool and judicious use of cmd+c. (I'm on a Mac, by the way, if it makes a difference.) Is there a better way?

This screenshot shows where I'm at. I need to copy that grid into the right diagram (it's a before and after) and alter the shape of it in the same way I've altered the pink part. What's going to be the best way to do that?

Upside down mortgage?

scratch — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 06:07:35 -0800

How do I know if I have an "upside down" mortgage? Everyone says the answer is "When you owe more than your house is worth." How do I know what my house is worth? It's been on the market for four months at a certain price (suggested by the realtor) and has attracted no buyer interest. I understand "what it is worth" to be synonymous to "what someone will pay for it." We are itching to dump the house and move to a happier place (lit. and fig.), and all these news reports about strategic defaults and "walking away" are making me crazy.

For that matter, how is it strategic to default/walk away if that will fcuk up our credit for 7-10 years? It can be hard even to rent an apartment if you have bad credit, right?

Details: in PA but not Pittsburgh or Philly. FHA mortgage. House in my and my husband's name. We're 42. At the moment we have excellent credit and decent savings but a load of grad school debt (currently in unemployment deferment) in addition to the mortgage.

I know, we ought to talk to a lawyer, but I'm hoping for some helpful free advice from the hive (as ever). Thanks.

Can you dig this up for me?

Chairboy — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 02:32:15 -0800

Assemblage (in an archaeological sense) - what's the oldest use of this term in this context? Asking this on the green as I'm way out of my own field here, but it does touch (tangentially) on something I'm working on at present. Super smiley bonus points for referenced sources...

Converting .SND Files

RavinDave — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 01:17:42 -0800

Need a cheap way to convert .SND to .MP3 files. I'd never even heard of .SND files until today -- and I only have a handful of'em that need to be converted (ie: so I wanna avoid commercial solutions as much as possible -- if possible). Most all of my media players and sound software choke on'em. Audacity threw a fit. Nero never heard of'em either. Windows will play'em, but won't convert anything (as far as I can tell).

How do I get bloatware off a new laptop with no physical media?

InvestorMD — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 23:28:53 -0800

I'm about to buy a Sony Vaio for my sister. However, I hate bloatware and want to start her off with a fresh clean install. How do I do it? I know the Vaio laptop comes with no physical Win 7 DVD or other recovery discs. Is it possible to torrent or acquire a retail version of Win 7 and use the Vaio's license key to do a clean reinstall of Win 7. Does anyone have any experience doing this or know how I can accomplish this?

Looking for cool t-shirt designs.

bkudria — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:38:28 -0800

Help me find a site that sold cool t-shirts. I have no idea how to find this site, but I remember it had some cool designs. One design I remember had a skull image made of silhouettes of crows...there may have been a coffin at the bottom too. Another design involved a standard shirt pocket, and had maybe a baby bird, or some other creature, peeking out. (I'm pretty sure the latter was at the same site...)

If it's any help, the site was white, had maybe about 50 designs, and had a slim black navigation bar on top. Yeah, not too helpful, I know.

Can anyone point me to the site, given this meager information? I've looked over all the "help me find cool shirt designs" threads here with no luck.

Title of short story

Pendragon — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:02:15 -0800

Does anybody know the title of a short science fiction story about the male population going mad and killing all the females ? I read this story 5-6 years ago, but the story was older, I think from the 70's.

Help me with this Korean War era, U.S. Navy acronym.

onemorething — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 11:36:32 -0800

Does anyone know what this acronym stands for, from a U.S. Navy training center in San Diego in 1952? I think it's BFGC or BTGC. When I was cleaning my sister's house, I found a portrait of my dad with his fellow trainees in 1952. Unfortunately, the portrait hasn't been taken care of and has been bent, torn, and scotch taped. I've scanned it in and my uncle is going to see what he can do to repair it in Photoshop, but there are some handwritten white letters at the bottom of the portrait -- they were apparently written on the negative. It's all pretty clear except for four letters after the commander's name, plus there's a large, scotch taped tear through the letters. I've googled for about an hour and can't find anything for either possibility. It says:
13 MAY, 1952
CO. COMD'R G.D. BASISTA BTGC
U.S. NAV. TRA. CEN., SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

Please help me remember a website containing digitized old illustrations and woodcuts.

odinsdream — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:29:13 -0800

Please help me find an online collection of old woodcuts and other decorative elements available as vector drawings. I've lost my bookmark to it. Example images inside. This website was a wonderful collection of old artwork that had been digitized and was mostly available free, or for minimal cost. The collection was organized into categories and included stylized capital letters, art deco, nature imagery, religious and ceremonial, etc.

I used the resources for our wedding invitations and programs, so I have a folder of a few of the files that I know came from this site. I've tried to research the filenames without success.

Here are the few that I have, in case someone recognizes one of them. I've converted them to PNG format for display in a browser, but they were all originally EPS:
alfredj.png
bradle1yorn.png
ornamentalm.png
orndaisy.png
platinm.png
stationers.png
vintage.png

Thanks!

should i buy mass effect?

leemajors — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:01:36 -0800

steam has mass effect for $20. is it worth buying and playing now?

Oh my aching right foot that, along with its counterpart, is about to run a marathon...

holdenjordahl — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 17:03:09 -0800

i can't see a specialist for three weeks but i've got a marathon coming up and i need to know before that. these are the facts and i'm trying to figure out the cause...
1. i wear orthodics. the right one is the neutral one. it cracked. i noticed a few weeks before that that, below the third and forth toes, a dull sensation. i originally thought it was caused by the crack in the orthodic.
2. i went back to my prior set of orthodics. they were essentially the same orthodics as the pair i had been using.
3. now i'm noticing that EXACTLY after 75 minutes i get this sudden pain, as if i'm stepping on a marble (not a beebee, not a golf ball, a marble). it hurts like crazy. the pain doesn't radiate throughout the foot or up the leg.
4. and then, after EXACTLY 15 minutes, the pain suddenly vanishes.
5. i haven't done any sudden ramping up of mileage, i run mostly on sand, grass, or dirt. there's nothing that i've stepped on that could have wedged in my shoe, the interior of the shoe is smooth, et cetera.
6. i've looked on all the obvious running sites and can find nothing about what this could be. any suggestions, please???

PS3 + Streaming Netflix = FAIL (in a lovely shade of red)

porn in the woods — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 13:55:40 -0800

Anyone else encountering difficulties using Netflix streaming on their PS3? I re-joined Netflix after a long hiatus so I could take advantage of PS3 streaming, but it's been a very bumpy ride and hasn't worked in over a week. While the streaming was a bit flaky over the past 2 months (I'd have to authorize my console multiple times a week, but that's not a big deal), at least it worked. All week long when I launch the Netflix software, it just sits and churns with a circular progress indicator beneath the Netflix logo and never gets to my Instant queue. I let it run for about an hour this morning with no change.

I've tried the following, with no success:
• removing everything from my queue
• rebooting my DSL box/wireless router/PS3
• deactivating my PS3 from my Netflix account page
• putting the IP of my PS3 in my router's DMZ

Chicago is no help to me here

luriete — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 12:29:10 -0800

I'm typesetting a book with some music notation in it. There are several references to 3/4 and 4/4 time, which I had set in nifty opentype fractions; however, the editor and I are unsure of whether or not this refers to "four-four" or "four-fourths" time - and this is one of the few things that Chicago doesn't address. So, designers and readers: what do you think? 4/4, using lining numerals, or a 4/4 fraction?

Christmas Betrayal! Or not?

Splunge — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 18:29:55 -0800

I have a problem with a broken Christmas promise. My girlfriend and I agreed that since money was tight, we would not buy gifts for each other. We would purchase gifts for family. Children, parents, siblings. But we would only buy for others. Not for us. Then my girlfriend bought me an iPod Touch. While I certainly love the gift I feel that I should now buy her something, even though she insists that I do not. I'm thinking that since the agreement was broken (granted with love) I have the right to purchase her a gift. (With love) But OTOH, would that be loving, or tit for tat? Am I overthinking this? Is it a given that I get her a gift? Or should I just accept my gift and leave it alone, and in my mind maybe be missing some signal of some sort? While money is tight, it isn't so bad that I couldn't get her something. It doesn't have to be the same amount, but I'd feel like crap if I didn't get her a gift now. Help!

Where to get Plan B on Christmas Day in DC?

Tomorrowful — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 08:34:23 -0800

A friend of mine had a broken condom last night, and needs to get hold of Plan B. She's in Washington, DC. Planned Parenthood's closed, as are all the pharmacies she's tried. Those are the relevant facts - please assume she knows what she's doing re: testing, etc. Moralizing can be left at the door, she just needs to know where to get the EC.

Calculating road trip debts: Beyond the Excel Spreadsheet

jytsai — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 07:44:05 -0800

7 friends and I are going on a road trip. At restaurants we usually have one person pay by credit card, and have everyone paying for what they ordered to the individual. Oh, and not everyone is gonna be at every event, so having one individual pay for everything on the trip is impossible. And it should redistribute debts so at most each person only needs to make 1 payment to another person. What is the best free method for calculating who pays whom? There are many websites, but the 5 or 6 I've tried so far all have at least one or more of the following problems:
1) Assumes that at restaurants everyone goes dutch and splits bills equally. (Not usually how my group does things; people will complain.)
2) Assumes that you are the person who pays for everything.
3) Limits free access to situations that have less than 8 individuals.
4) Does not optimize payments. (In theory, it should be possible to reassign debts from one individual to another so that each person only needs to make one payment to one person.)

Here is an simplified example:
4 people, 3 events...
*Person 1 paid for gas ($36), split among the three. Person 4 did not participate.
*Person 2 paid for a meal, where person 1's order was $6, person 2's was $8, and person 3's was $10. Person 4 did not participate.
*Person 4 borrowed $10 from Person 3.

I want to be able to plug how much each person owes at each event, who paid, and have it tell me something like:
Person 2 owes Person 1 $6.
Person 3 owes Person 1 $12.
Person 3 owes Person 2 $10, but since person 4 owes him $10, person 3 pays nothing and transfers the debt so...
Person 4 pays person 2 $10.

What color are these Dr. Martens?

Venadium — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 06:52:20 -0800

Does anyone recognize the exact color of these Doc Martens? The ones in that photo look like a nice stiff leather, and I really like the color. I ordered a pair from Zappos that I thought were the same ones, at least very close (I ordered 'Dark Brown California'), but the leather is really soft (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) and the color isn't exactly the same.

Am I going to have to get a pair of the more expensive vintage DMs to get what I'm looking for? Or does Zappos just not have the color I want?

sydney parks

neworder7 — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 03:20:41 -0800

Are there any quiet, leafy parks not so far away from Sydney CBD area? I'd like to be able to go there via bus/train in 30mins at most to go for a walk and chill out.

It's like a tech question and a bad sitcom plot in one!

Navelgazer — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:51:47 -0800

How do I either recover my Mac OS X password or else get around needing it? Several years ago, my then-girlfriend's father bought a family pack of OS_X Leopard, and gave one of them to me. A year later, she and I were broken up. About six months after that, my computer crashed, and the genius bar had to replace the hard drive and reinstall everything. This means that the update password was lost from memory, and I never knew it and can't easily find out what it might have been (ex's dad installed Leopard himself).

So now I've gone a year without updating and it's starting to drive me crazy. Not only can I not update OS_X, but I can't install any number of things I'd like to either.

Does anyone know how I can either recover what this password might have been, or work around it so that I don't need a password to update?

Much Thanks, and Happy Christmas/Hannuka/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Festivus/Holidays to you.

Charting a musical family tree.

92_elements — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:34:53 -0800

For a friends birthday I want to make a wall chart showing which (non-classical) musicians and bands influenced other ones. E.g. Beatles -> Oasis, Neil Young -> Nirvana. My question consists of 3 parts, 1) Where's the best place to find out who to 'link', 2) Is there any 'start' of modern 'pop' music 3) What do you think I should include? - Genres, main instruments?
I've had a look around and I quite like the wikipedia GUT of Human History, the ww2 wallchart linked below:

Part of me also likes the more fun version from the game civilisation, though I don't know if that's too childish for my friend.

Thanks everyone.

Headset For WoW

Yasuo — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:10:19 -0800

Recommend me a headset for a friend who plays World of Warcraft. I dug up some old MeFi threads dated a few years back asking the same question, but I'd like recommendations to newer products please. I have no knowledge of how Ventrilo works on World of Warcraft, nonetheless what to look out for in terms of compatibility. My budget is $50, and preferably something I can buy at a local Best Buy, Target, or Wal-mart for some last minute Christmas shopping!

La plume de ma meilleur grand-père

fydfyd — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:09:31 -0800

I need a French translation for "World's Best Grandpa" but do not know French. My best candidate is "Le meilleur grand-père sur le monde" which I suspect is too formal, ungrammatical, or hopelessly wrong. I'm also stumbling over the sur/dans distinction and suspect there is likely an idiom which is just better in every way. This is intended to be embroidered on a pillow so brevity and informality are prized in that order.