Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Stop

Stop-motion animation help, please!

shrimpsmalls — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:10:53 -0800

What is the most user-friendly, online, (and hopefully free) tool for making simple stop-motion animation shorts. I am in the process of creating several stop motion animation shorts with my 3rd grade students. We have about 4 animations of 35-50 frames each (so about 4-5 seconds each) that i shot with my digital camera. Is there a simple way that I can feed the images into something and have them play back as a video file? Is there a program I can use that maybe has a free trial? Please help!

How is highway traffic entirely stopped?

cdenman — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:26:11 -0800

How do the police/traffic authorities stop a moving highway/motorway? Often you see highways/motorways that have had cones placed across some or all of them. My question is how do the authorities accomplish this - they can't simply place cones down because of the fast moving traffic behind, nor can they really wait for a quiet bit since without warning signs it would create a hazard. How is a fast moving motorway 'stopped'?

How do I stop obsessing over my finances?

Raze2k — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:47:03 -0800

The closer I get to finishing this debt off, the more it seems to bother me. Help? About four or five years ago I took on a rather sizeable debt that I've nearly paid off a couple of times, only to repeatedly find myself back in a similar situation (though thankfully on a smaller scale). Each time that I've consolidated my debts, I've continued using one or more credit cards and have inevitably fallen into the same traps; one card starts to creep up, so I switch to another thinking it'll be easier to pay off the first if it's got a lower balance, and from there I spiral into disaster. The previous attempt to settle this was dashed as I entered into a relationship that initially brought with it far too many visits to local restaurants and eateries.

Fast forward to today. I've reeled in spending significantly; we cook at home a lot more often, more rarely eat at restaurants (at most once a week, down from four or five), and I brown-bag lunch at work (whereas I'd once upon a time spent anywhere from $15 to 20 at local delis). I drive less frequently, although overall I don't think our quality of life has changed much. I don't often shoot down activities on the basis of their cost; we've adjusted accordingly (she's in a similar financial predicament, though more a result of school loans) and enjoy eachother's company enough that nights at home are well spent and thoroughly enjoyable.

Of my four credit cards, I've paid off two entirely, a third is nearly paid off (under $100) and the fourth carries a large balance (around $5500), most of which is the result of earlier consolidation with 0% APR until October. I'm gainfully employed so paying this off along with my other bills does not seem like an insurmountable task. I've been working on paying off my credit cards one at a time, mostly for morale, but I've noticed that I've been focused far too much on these finances. I keep a running spreadsheet of all of my upcoming payments and bills and have charted this out until mid-August, around which time I think I'll be able to pay off the last credit card and finally return to paying each month in full (or possibly switching entirely over to cash or debit).

In the meantime, this remaining debt vexes me and I check my spreadsheet dozens of times a day, searching for any way which would allow me to pay off the debt sooner. I've resorted to selling various things on craigslist, including my home PC and home audio system (a pretty big deal for a software engineer by trade). Anything to help pay this down sooner. I haven't slept very soundly in months and I can't help but think that's related. Any suggestions on how I might go about stopping this obsession with my finances? I'd love to get the satisfaction of closing the other cards, as if that'd be some kind of silly moral victory, but I've read about the issues with that. So here I am with far too much credit, too much debt, and a calendar telling me I'll still be staring at debt for the next couple of months. The closer I get to finishing this off, the more it seems to bother me. Help?

Limit, stop, stop-limit on the TSX with Questrade

omair — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:47:23 -0800

I am having trouble contacting Questrade to ask them this question, and am hoping someone familiar with TSX trading rules can answer this for me: I bought shares at 45 dollars. If the price of my stock is 60 dollars right now (and going up), and I want to put a stop (or stop-limit) at 57 dollars because I am afraid there is some bad news coming and the stock will plummet suddenly, when the actual price reaches 57, it should trigger my order and sell, right?

However, apparently, on the TSX, stop orders are not allowed, but stop-limits are, but the limit price has to be set equal to the stop price.

1) What is the practical difference, then, between a Stop and a Stop-Limit order if TSX forces the limit price to be set equal to the stop price?

2) If issuing a Stop-Limit on the TSX, will the order be sent to the market when the stock price reaches the value I set for stop/limit, or will it send the order to the market right away because it is not purely a stop order, but actually a stop-limit?

3) What happens if, at the end of the day, the price is still at 60 dollars, but during after hours trading it hits 57, and continues to go down, say to 50 dollars. And then, the next morning, it opens at 50. Does my order get triggered at 50 and that's the price I end up selling at?

Thank you!

Stop the magazines now!

bad grammar — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:47:49 -0800

How do I kill these zombie magazine subscriptions? I know that the problem has been discussed here on AskMe and here in a private context.

As the librarian of a small school facing budget constraints, I'm obliged to take the problem more seriously. We get our magazines from a large and well-known jobber (which does not stop the individual magazines or third-party subscription companies from sending endless renewal notices).

At the last billing I asked the customer rep to discontinue two titles. This was several months ago. The titles are still coming. I have written the rep several times asking why are we still getting these magazines, and she promises that they should stop soon. Then the next issue shows up in the mail.

Do I have to worry about being billed for these unwanted titles at the next invoice? Can my institution refuse to pay, seeing that I made clear at the last invoice that I wanted the titles stopped?

Should I make a complaint direct to the jobber? At what point do I go formal?

The DIMMs of DOOM

shinybeast — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:33:42 -0800

Windows XP PC crashes and burns when four identical sticks of RAM are installed but Memtest86 shows no errors. I'm beefing up a PC that has an Intel motherboard (D865GBF) with four dual channel DIMM slots. I have four identical 512MB DIMMs that are certified for this board.

Here's the problem. THE PC works just fine with two sticks of memory in DIMM 0 in both channels A and B, but adding two more sticks to DIMM 1 causes the PC to fail in various ways. The PC may or may not load Windows XP. Various applications will crash randomly. XP will always eventually blue screen with different STOP codes. The STOP codes aren't pointing me to a solution.

The BIOS recognizes all four sticks when present. The Antec 380-watt power supply is new. I can fully stress the CPU and video card simultaneously with only DIMM 0 loaded, however the PC eventually crashes and burns while idling when all four slots are loaded.

All of the sticks work successfully in DIMM 0 channels. Adding any two sticks to DIMM 1 channels causes the grief. I've eyeballed the DIMM 1 slots and they don't appear to be damaged, but I'm guessing that one of them is toast.

Here's the mysterious part. I've loaded up all four slots and run Memtest86 for hours without error.

I'm stumped. I feel like I'm missing something obvious here. Any ideas?

Invenstment - Option Orders

bright77blue — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:49:00 -0800

I have traded stock Options for a while but would like to have the following order type: Example - Option Price = 3.90 Put in a order to sell if price goes below 3.50 or sell if price goes above 4.50 I have looked at stop, stop limit, limit, trailing and the works, but is there a technical name for what I want, and do brokers offer it? Thanks! BB

Low-Riders and My Sanity - Am Losing My MIND!

watercarrier — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:40:22 -0800

Would you go crazy if you were living in the boonies and every couple of minutes some dude comes careening around your corner on an ATV or motorcycle revving up slowly and maliciously? Just wondering if it's only me that's reacting like hot coals are being poured down my brain neurons. What would you do? What are my options? I live in the wild-wild-wild east and there's no *law* that anyone will be upholding soon. They're kids with wheels and noise and they've found that it's better than drugs. I've got music - loud to drown it out - got ear plugs - what else am I missing here? Is there anything I can do to deter these freaks?

crunch-filter: how do I stop my stomach from being sore?

krautland — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:36:07 -0800

crunch-filter: how do I stop my abdominal muscles from aching? it seems I went a bit too far with my crunches this week and now I'm unable to sleep with an aching tummy. I realize there's probably not a lot I can do about that right now I'd like to keep this from happening again, mainly because a sore stomach feels horrible. it's as if you were sick and wished you could throw up but just can't.

so is there a way to stretch your abdominal muscles? especially the upper ones seem to be the issue for me.

Fight the system!

GrooveStix — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:53:11 -0800

Help me fight a traffic ticket. :( I got stopped by the cops today and received one 'speeding' and one 'disregarding a stop sign' ticket. Both of them are BS and I intend on fighting them in court. So I have two questions.

1. Is it possible for me to find out what evidence is going to be used against me? I am asking this because I don't know if they have any evidence of me speeding, because I wasn't. They didn't even bring that up when they were talking to me. Mainly they talked to me about the stop sign, so I was very surprised to see that they added that as a civil infraction too. The ticket says: Violation of basic speed. Too fast. [too furious?!] :)

2. I say they because there were two cops - one car, and they both came out when I was pulled over. The other one stood at the passenger window. I wanted to know if both of them need to show up in court for the hearing, or just one of them.

By the way, this happened in Michigan, if that helps.
Thanks!

I don't want to do business with you

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:16:56 -0800

How to graciously end a soon to be partnership. I ran into a friend about 2 weeks ago and he had an idea for an online business. He told me about it and wanted some advice. I went through some basics with him, and he asked if I would be able to work on it, I told him that I would but it would definitely cost him. I really wasn't too interested at this point, so I told him I would get back to him with some more info and I changed the topic of discussion.

Fast forward a few days later, I sent him an email with some in depth information (as a favor) and I subsequently met up with him later and he was like, "how about we work as a team. 50/50 down the line" I did something stupid and told him it sounded like a good idea...I definitely should have told him that I would get back to him.

Here's the problem, I don't particularly want to work with him. The idea isn't bad but something in my gut says, STOP! DON'T DO IT. Some of the reasons why I don't want to work with him:

1) I will be doing most of the work. We've played it off and thought happy thoughts about sharing the workload evenly but I KNOW that I will be doing most of it.

2) A lot of it is in my hands. The execution, the implementation, the experience. And I semi-feel that he wants me to be his partner to mooch this stuff out of me.

3) We're friends and have been for years. We're not really close.

4) He kind of annoys me now. Like always. I don't know how to explain it.

ANYWAY, please help me graciously get out of this arrangement. Nothing legally has been done and so far it has stayed verbal.

What manner of animal is making this horrible noise?

geodave — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 20:53:11 -0800

Dear GOD what is making that racket in the tree outside my house? I'm in a suburb of Toronto, and this thing has been making this exact noise over and over, all night long, for the past week or so.

Listen to it here

It's a bad recording, made it with my laptop, but hopefully someone can identify it. I think it might be a squirrel but I've NEVER heard one this persistent and loud.

It's not me, it's you??

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 22:25:24 -0800

Friendshipfilter: How do I end it? I have this non-romantic friend that I considered to be pretty close. We have been friends for years. The last couple of years have been tough for our friendship. We're no longer living in the same area and communicate via email and phone.

The last year and a half, I find myself frequently apologizing (profusely) or explaining myself to her. Why? Usually because she misunderstood something I said/did. It seems like she's making mountains out of molehills but maybe I'm doing something that is easily misunderstood?? Here is an example: We were having a conversation on the phone (I only have a cell phone) and had a bad connection. The call got dropped and while I called her back immediately, she refused to answer that call and any other calls from me for weeks. During this time, she composed a long email to me tell me how awful I am for hanging up on her and cc'ed it to a couple of mutual friends.

I understand that maybe there is something going on for her to react so strongly and frequently, but I'm getting nothing by probing her for answers. I've just been trying to be here for her for the last year and a half. But she's consistently become more volatile and somewhat emotionally unstable. And I don't know what to do. I know this seems so selfish, but I don't think I want to be friends anymore. I don't feel strong enough emotionally to be her friend.

How do I tell her? I'm afraid of her. I'd ideally like to do this in person. Is that a bad idea? Seems better than an email.

Am I wrong? I'm a bad friend, aren't I? I just want us all to be happier. Seems like not talking makes it so. Thanks for your help.

XP unusably slow after STOP errors and running checkdisk - what's going on?

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 12:29:42 -0800

So it's come to this - I see no other option than to ask a "help me fix my PC" question. After some troubleshooting the STOP errors seem to have been resolved, XP now boots successfully but is excruciating slow to the point of being unusable. Details and specs below the fold. Specifications:
-Intel Celeron 2.4GHz
-1 x 512 MB RAM
-XP Pro SP2
-PCI Firewire card
-onboard: USB 2.0, VIA Gigabit Ethernet adapter

IDE config:

1M: HD Maxtor 80 GB U-ATA
1S: empty
2M: DVD Burner
2S: DVD-ROM

First, the BIOS would occasionally fail to find the boot device (HD). Setting the primary master to "Not Installed" and rebooting, and then back to "Auto" remedied this for the time being.

Then a few days ago the machine started throwing a bunch of BSODs during normal operation. I recorded some of them for your viewing pleasure:

0x000000F4, 0x00000003, 0x829FF020, 0x829FF194 0xc000000E, 0xC000000E, 0x00000000, 0x05357000 0x0000007A (0XC03E1128, 0XC0000185, 0XF844A074, 0X08195860) ACPI.SYS 0x0000008E (0XC0000005, 0X8054AE34, 0XF6505BF4, 0X00000000)

Eventually XP wouldn't boot at all: system32/config was 'corrupted', or something along those lines. I assume this happened as a result of one of the STOP errors.

For some reason CHKDSK wouldn't run on this machine, so I took out the drive and ran CHKDSK on it with the drive attached to another machine. It did find a bunch of errors and corrected them all.

I put it back in its own box, and ran CHKDSK again from the Recovery Console (ran fine this time, and found no errors) and also a FIXBOOT for good measure.

Which brings us to the current situation. The system32/config error is gone, and Windows does boot, *but*:

-The XP splash screen fades in very slowly and seems halted here and there.
-Upon logon, the desktop background loads but no icons or taskbar appear.
-I can load explorer and systray via taskmgr, and sometimes they eventually load on their own without intervention, but this takes a *long* time. Somewhere in the ten minutes order of magnitude.

So technically speaking, Windows now runs, but it's so excruciatingly slow it's basically unusable.

Additional details:
-I have run a Spybot Search & Destroy scan: it found some threats and removed them. No new findings upon further boots and/or Spybot runs.
-I would scan for viruses, but I can't install AVG Free: I just removed the old 7.1 version (had to anyway as it was no longer supported), and the 7.5 installer happily skips from "pick a directory" to "Installation Complete!" but never seems to have touched a file at all! Doesn't even create the specified directory in Program Files.
-Network now also doesn't work. The Network Connections window says "Connected" but the machine receives no IP address nor lease from router. Router and rest of network are running fine.
-I tried System Restore with a variety of restore points from the past two weeks or so, but after going through the process (which also takes very long) it reboots and tells me that restoring to the previous point failed.

In short, I'm confused and could really use your insight. What's causing this and how can I fix it? Thanks in advance for any light you can shed upon this. If you have any questions or need any further details, I'd be happy to answer and provide them.

STOP, in the name of a heated discussion!

nervestaple — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 21:26:35 -0800

Can you really push the "stop elevator" button without getting in trouble? I've been wondering about this romantic-comedy cliche: can you really stop an elevator without summoning the fire department? It seems like movie characters can simply jam the "stop elevator" button, have a discussion (or a "discussion"), then continue on their merry way. Sometimes a ringing bell sounds while the elevator is stopped, but there don't seem to be any repercussions after the fact.

What REALLY happens, besides forcing other annoyed patrons to use the stairs? Is only the local control system alerted, or does it notify emergency services? Or nothing at all?

Ticket Predicament

lain — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 14:17:18 -0800

MyFirstTicketFilter: What should I do? So I recieved my first ticket, and I'm not sure how to do this! Here's what happened:

I was picking up a friend from a train station in a city I have never been before. While leaving, I was confused with the streets because there was a lot of construction going on. I accidentally turned onto a very, very short one way street. I tried to get out of there really fast, and I turned at a four-way stop sign without stopping. Sure enough, a policeman saw what I did and pulled me over.

He gave me a ticket for failing to stop at a stop sign, but there was no stop sign for me to see because I was going the wrong way. I'm not sure what to say when I have my "court" thing. Should I tell them I was going on a way way street or just take the failure to stop at a stop sign ticket? My friend told me to plead not guilty, and it will give me a chance to get off without a fine, but I'm not sure if this is right, even though not having a fine sounds good =/ . Is telling them that it was an honest mistake, due to the construction going to do anything? And is going down a one way street, however short it is, worse than not stopping at a stop sign? What should I do, and what will happen?

How can I stop an automatic adobe download?

orlin — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 06:02:21 -0800

How can I stop an automatic adobe download? Every time I boot up my computer I get a prompt to download Adobe version 7.0. I already have it on my machine and I use windows XP. I’ve tried to initiate the download, to get rid of the prompt, and I get a message that you already have this version on your machine and the download stops. I’ve tried to uninstall version 7.0 and reinstall it and that doesn’t work either. Does anyone have a suggestion? Thanks in advance for your help.

MacBook Pro Hissing

luckypozzo — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 13:47:40 -0800

I just got a new MacBook Pro 15.4 (1.83 GHz). Everything's great, except for a hissing from the right-hand internal speaker anytime a sound plays through it. When just idle, in Word for example, there is no noise. But anytime a sound-using program is booted, iTunes or GarageBand for example, there is a continual hissing and popping noise, similar to fuzz on a television screen, that is very loud. Anytime a system sounds plays, such as the Trash sound, hissing accompanies it. The only way to make the noise stop is to plug in headphones, or external computer speakers. This hissing only occurs through the internal speakers. Does anyone know how to stop this annoying sound?

Help me make a night light from a stop light

kc0dxh — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 06:28:58 -0800

How to turn stop light into night light? A friend of mine asked how he could turn an old stop light into a night light that changes colors every couple of hours. The stop light is decades old and is simply three bulbs, no printed circuits here.

He would like one light to come on at a preset time then switch to a different bulb a couple of hours later, then the third and finally switching off.

The first thing I thought of was three lamp timers, but he's looking for something smaller and a bit more unified. So, Metafriends, how would you make this work? Solutions involving soldering are acceptable.

why do buses have so many stops? are they necessary?

dy — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 15:12:33 -0800

I recently, out of curiosity, tried the public transportation systems in Los Angeles and Orange County, CA. I know that you can’t seriously depend on buses to get around – most buses run every 20-30 minutes, not to mention the waiting time for connection. Ok, I can accept that. But what puzzles me is that there are so many “unnecessary” stops, a lot of which are installed BOTH before AND after the traffic lights at the same intersection. Twice as many stops double the travelling time. It just seems to me such a waste of resources and lack of efficiency. Are people not willing even to walk across the streets to catch the buses or is this some kind of community service issue? Any input will be appreciated.

Where are the NYC bus stops listed?

Caviar — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 11:48:39 -0800

NYC bus stops. Where are they? I've looked at the MTA maps and schedules, but they don't seem to list the actual stops anywhere. The schedules have a few stops listed with timelines, and the maps just show the routes without showing which corners the buses stop at, typically just the places you can transfer to another bus or subway. Am I missing something? Is there any way to figure out if the bus stops where I need to go?

It needn't be down to the level of "which corner", or even precise blocks - I'd settle for a 2-block radius.

Is this information obtainable somewhere (online preferably)? All five boroughs, not just Manhattan.

Stop smoking with lasers or acupuncture?

nj_subgenius — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 05:27:51 -0800

Any of you stopped smoking (or not) after acupuncture or laser therapy? After many years of smoking 30 or so cigs a day I went to a hypnotist, which helped me quit for a two weeks - which was the longest I'd gone before. The hypnotherapy helped a lot with resolve to stay quit but not for long. FWIW, I can't take bupropion, so Zyban is out of the question. Have done patches and gum. I hate to think a health scare is going to get me to quit cold turkey and by then it could be be too late. Help!

Are parking lot stop signs enforceable in California?

Ogre Lawless — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 11:48:19 -0800

Are parking lot stop signs enforceable in California? I'm generally one for obeying rules of the road, but some of the stop signs in the parking lot of my local grocery megamart are nonsensically placed. I generally use a "if its safe, ignore it" policy towards these signs but am I breaking the law?

It seems if these are placed on private land by private individuals they shouldn't be legally binding. Not that the answer will change my driving habits much, but you know...

How do I stop using chapstick?

kjell — Mon, 02 May 2005 10:37:05 -0800

I use it way too much, and find that whenever I start using less then normal, my lips quickly dry out and then crack and peel up. So I lick them, which just dries them out. I've tried to just stop using the stuff (cold turkey), but my lips just turned to sandpaper, and I couldn't stop licking them and rubbing them together, and they even got to the point where they would bleed a little. Is there anything I can do besides buying a little tube of smack? How do I stop needing to us the stuff so much?

Slowing Down

realityblurred — Mon, 17 May 2004 11:58:23 -0800

How can I stop talking so fast? [details inside] Background: Some people, such as my grandmother, have mentioned in the past that I talk very fast. Since the complainants were generally older people, I tended to dismiss it as a generational thing. However, I recently listened to a recording of myself doing a radio interview, and I was talking so fast I could barely understand myself. I also seem to run words together slightly; as a friend pointed out, there isn't much of a change in inflection between my words, which doesn't help as I'm steamrolling through sentences.

When I purposefully try to slow down, it's very awkward and I tend to lose my train of thought, as I think too far ahead of what I'm saying. How can I slow down my speech without sounding. like. I'm. stopping. after. every. word? Or how can I make it easier for other people to understand my rapid speech?