Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with action

Short but action-packed films?

np312 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:51:24 -0800

Please help me find short films (animated or live action) that I can watch online. Difficulty: only looking for action/adventure-themed shorts. I'm trying to find short films online (10 minutes and under) that involve fight scenes, heists, explosions, car chases, etc-- all the tropes of action/adventure movies. If it happens to be set in a sci-fi world = extra awesome. I know this is rare since short films usually have low budgets.

I'm NOT interested in excerpts from feature length films.

I've already watched the Aeon Flux shorts from Liquid Television, and the BMW short films. What else can you recommend that I'd be able to watch online? Thanks in advance!

Help me chat!

yoyoceramic — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:55:48 -0800

Asking for a friend: Java/action script 3 question - Remote Shared Object Question with Red5 Flash Server and Flash AS3 Hello,

I am trying to create a simple chat client using the red5 media server, but I seem to be having a slight hiccup. I am creating a shared object on the server side, and it seems to be creating it successfully. However, when I make changes to the object via the client (type a message), the SYNC event fires, but the content within the shared object remains empty. I suspect I am doing something wrong on the java end, any advice?

Console Results:

Success!

Server Message: clear

Server Message: [object Object]

Local message: asdf

Server Message: change

Server Message: [object Object]

Local message: fdsa

Server Message: change

Server Message: [object Object]

Local message: fewa

Server Message: change

Server Message: [object Object]

Server Side:

public class Application extends ApplicationAdapter {

private IScope appScope;

// private static final Log log = LogFactory.getLog( Application.class );

/** {@inheritDoc} */

@Override

public boolean connect(IConnection conn, IScope scope, Object[] params) {

appScope = scope;

createSharedObject(appScope, "generalChat", false); // Creates general chat shared object

return true;

}

/** {@inheritDoc} */

@Override

public void disconnect(IConnection conn, IScope scope) {

super.disconnect(conn, scope);

}

public void updateChat(Object[] params)

{

ISharedObject so = getSharedObject(appScope, "generalChat"); // Declares and stores general chat data in general chat shared object

so.setAttribute("point", params[0]);

}

Client Side:

public class SOConnect extends MovieClip

{

// Variables

var nc:NetConnection = null;

var so:SharedObject;

public function SOConnect():void

{

}

public function connect():void

{

// Create a NetConnection and connect to red5

nc = new NetConnection();

nc.addEventListener(NetStatusEvent.NET_STATUS, netStatusHandler);

nc.connect("rtmp://localhost/chatTest");

// Create a StoredObject for general chat

so = SharedObject.getRemote("generalChat", nc.uri, false);

so.connect(nc);

so.addEventListener(SyncEvent.SYNC, receiveChat)

}

public function sendChat(msg:String)

{

trace ("Local message: " + msg);

nc.call("updateChat", null, msg)

}

public function receiveChat(e:SyncEvent):void

{

for (var i in e.changeList)

{

trace ("Server Message: " + e.changeList[i].code)

trace ("Server Message: " + e.changeList[i])

}

}

// Given result, determine successful connection

private function netStatusHandler(e:NetStatusEvent):void

{

if (e.info.code == "NetConnection.Connect.Success")

{

trace("Success!");

}

else

{

trace("Failure!\n");

trace(e.info.code);

}

}

}

Slogans, Quotes or Mottos Lauding Action Over Overthought/Overplanning?

WCityMike — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:25:51 -0800

I'm looking for mottos, slogans, or quotes that are short enough to be easily remembered, that are meant to spur someone to take action towards their goals, and/or that warn against overthinking and overplanning and staying in your head – in other words, that laud the merits of action over thought. I've already thought of "just do it" (which is the precise sentiment I'm looking for), but it is so overplayed that it doesn't have much meaning any longer. Any sentiment of any length is appreciated, but ideally it would be something that easily sticks in your mind.

Batch processing multiple-page PDFs

Optimus Chyme — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:51:01 -0800

I need to batch process a 54-page PDF through Bridge (or Photoshop) and it doesn't seem to be saving properly. Okay, this is fairly complex but I'll try to explain it briefly. I have a 54-page letter-sized InDesign file; in each page of the ID file is a linked 2"h x 8.5"w image from a 54-page PDF. Page 1 of the ID file corresponds to page 1 of the PDF and so on.

Each page of the linked PDF is a grayscale raster image. Here's the actual question: I need to batch process the PDF such that it runs an action on each page and my output is a different 54-page PDF.

Alternate solution: same as before, except it outputs as 54 different sequentially-numbered files which I can package into a single PDF document via Acrobat.

What I tried was to select the PDF in Bridge, select Tools | Photoshop | Batch, then make sure it was the right action, with destination Save and Close, and run it. Instead of saving and closing, it goes through all 54 files, keeps them open, then throws up the error message "There were no source files that could be opened by Photoshop."

Then I tried it again with a new Action that had Save As TIFF and Close, and tried again. "There were no source files that could be opened by Photoshop." And now I have to close 54 separate, unchanged files again. Dammit.

All I need to do is change the levels on 54 pages and somehow, through any fashion, get 54 TIFFs or PDFs or JPGs or, like BMPs, I don't care. Ideas?

Help me replicate my beloved Photoshop 5.5 action!

amtho — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 12:04:23 -0800

In Photoshop 5.5 I was able to create an action to resize a layer/selection to a maximum width (say, 200 px). I could quickly select objects of varying initial sizes, run the action, and voila, everything fit neatly in a column. I've had Photoshop CS4 for over a week and can't figure out how to replicate this; my resizing seems to always be happening as a percent of the original size. When I previously created the action (in, yes, good old 5.5 -- which I must add runs extremely fast on my current computer), I just kind of recorded it and it magically worked. I remember being impressed. I did similar actions several times -- it was very handy.

So far, CS4 is great (although the grouping of layers is my favorite feature, and I'm sure that's been around a while), but I really need this functionality.

Pointers to specific action-oriented resources would be helpful. Googling "Photoshop actions" and "Photoshop help" led me to some web sites with lots of stuff there, but I didn't see how to efficiently find the answer to my specific question. I'm ... reluctant to involve Adobe support unless I absolutely must; it seems like a good way to spend a lot of time waiting for an answer, and anyway it would be nice to know how to figure this kind of stuff out.

I have the O'Reilly "Missing Manual" book, but could only find directions on record/playback for actions, and nothing special about resizing.

Bollywood action movie recommendations and Amitabh Bachchan

joelf — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:37:36 -0800

In Slumdog Millionaire, we were shown a bunch of Amitabh Bachchan clips from some of his older moveis. What were they? - I'd like to hear your other Bollywood action movie recommendations too! There was one clip he was threatening someone with his own prosthetic leg. WTF? That looks AWESOME!

I'm also looking for recommendations of any action movies from India that are just plain awesome. Guy movies. Action and explosions, martial arts and cheese.

Why does my toilet backup with soap and water and what can we do?

DorothySmith — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 06:59:23 -0800

My toilet is constantly backing up with soap and water to the point where it overflows and floods my condo! What is the problem? What are my legal options? My partner and I bought a condo in June and soon noticed that the toilet backs up with soap and water. It first makes a loud gurgling noise and creates large bubbles. After the gurgling ends, the toilet bowl (and kitchen sink occasionally) will fill up with soap. In October the bowl overflowed all over the bathroom floor. We told the super who did nothing and told us there was nothing that could be done. Then in November I came home one evening to a bathroom, hallway and several feet into each bedroom of foam and water up to my knees. It destroyed our floors (laminate), doors, trim and bathroom vanity.

Since October we've had the toilet back up 7 times and only once I threatened with a lawyer did the building manager send a plumber to my place. They put a camera down the toilet and flushed the drain finding nothing. The building manager has said it's not a plumbing problem and that there's nothing to do. He's dead set it's a bubble bath problem... rather than a serious plumbing problem.

The condo building (10 floors and I'm on the first floor) is almost 40 years old, but was renovated in the last few years allowing every unit a front loading washing machine and dishwasher. I think it is likely a hydraulics problem (the pipes are too small for the increased water traffic) or a ventilation problem. Since the pipes aren't mine and are the building's I'm not allowed to hire a plumber.

I also found out that the man who lives across the hall (and almost everyone else on the first floor) has this same problem... their backups haven't ruined their floor though. The man across the hall reported it over a year ago, before we bought. The other condo owners who it happens to aren't willing to support me because it hasn't inconvenienced them yet (or destroyed their home). The man across the hall has recently moved into a nursing home, but his grandson said that they would search for a record of when the plumber came for them last year. Their kitchen sink backups haven't been fixed either and it's the same as mine (soap and water).

I want to know what my problem is... and any advice to solve it. Neither the building manager or condo board will help me even though we've been living on concrete flooring afraid to put in a new floor since it's happened as recently as Christmas Eve morning.

Is it possible to force them to buyback our unit since we can easily prove it was a problem before we moved in? (ie. full disclosure)

Is it possible to legally force them to fix the problem? My mother's heard of a similar problem in another apartment building and they had to rip out the floors and walls and replace the plumbing b/c it was a hydraulics problem.

Should I be suing for my condo fees back since we've been living with flooding since October?

With the market slump, and 18 other units for sale in the building... selling it isn't really an option unless we take a huge financial loss (not to mention we'd have to disclose there's a plumbing problem and explain why there's no flooring!).

I've called all the city and province (I'm in Ontario, Canada) and none of the health agencies will help me b/c I own rather than rent.

Affirmative v. Negative Action

LSK — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:21:05 -0800

Preparing a speech on college affirmative action policies for a debate tournament, could use some help... My debate group was one of eight selected to be in a special tournament. I would like some prior arguments to use to base mine off of. I've read a decent amount of literature on this already (the two relevant supreme court cases, for example), but found no formally presented speeches or formal essays arguing a side. I believe that these would be helpful because they'd give me a sense of what the biggest arguments are. Does anyone know where to find these or have links to any?

(FYI: They're the Motorola-sponsored Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Debates. They're tomorrow. They're available for public viewing. I have arguments prepared, but I see no harm in making them better.)

David vs. capitalist greed and corruption

brandnew — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:10:55 -0800

I would like to sue Citibank. What would be the most effective way to go about doing this? I'm interested in suing Citibank, and given the David vs. Goliath nature of this affair, I want to make sure I do it right.

Three separate CSRs at Citibank had verbally promised me an offer on three separate occasions. They also included a date by which the offer would expire. Based on this information I had made a number of business deals. Then, I went to execute on the Citibank offer, and Citibank changed their offer, which basically made me lose a lot of money.

I also suspect that Citibank is doing something crooked, here. And, given the current political climate and the bailing out of Citibank by us, the American tax payers, I would also like to take action with my congressperson as well.

Anyway, without getting into the details, how would I best go about this? Should I try to contact an attorney in New York? At this point, cost is irrelevant - I want to recoop my losses and opportunty costs and other damages. But, I also want to sue based on the principal.

I know there are a lot of attorneys on metafilter. I know you are not my attorney, but I want to make sure I go about this the most effective way. How would I best go about this? And how would I best take action with my representatives?

Did Payback run away?

fire&wings — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:40:27 -0800

I'm looking for the best one man revenge against the world films ever. They may have taken his daughter or killed his brother. He's probably bitter, retired or an alcoholic. He can't trust anyone. He might come out of retirement for one more job. The enemy may be an Arab, a Serbian or good ole faceless government corruption. Hero must be able to pull bullets out of self with tweezers, grit teeth, sweat, and appear flawed but irresistable to women much younger than themselves.

So...movies in the mould of Payback, Shooter or Taken, with a dollop of A-Team and Macgyver thrown in for good measure. I expect films like this to be fairly throwaway and far fetched to a certain extent, but I'd prefer recommendations with some sort of script and production values rather than pure Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren VHS stuff. Independent/arthouse with similar themes also appreciated. Who's going to answer the call?

help me record my snowboarding trip!

oliverst — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:19:31 -0800

I would like to get some video footage from an upcoming snowboarding trip and download it to my computer at a later date. What equipment would be suitable for this? My budget is £100 (~ $200 US) I would like to get some video footage from an upcoming snowboarding / skiing trip and download it to my computer at a later date. What equipment would be suitable for this? My budget is £100 (~ $200 US)

Does anybody have any first hand experience of doing this? Please share what you found and what gave you the best results!

I have been debating whether a single hand held model (with SD card storage) taped to my helmet (or board) would be fine or if a bullet style camera with a separate recording unit is needed. My research so far suggests that a single hand held model offers much better value..

Equipment wise, anything second hand / ebay is good, who knows if it will survive this trip anyway!

Action movies that lack an action hero?

giggleknickers — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 17:25:38 -0800

Can you recommend any action movies with unexpected heroes who use unexpected skills to get by? I have a weakness for this kind of story. One of my favourite examples is the movie Outrageous Fortune, where two struggling actors get mixed up in action movie stuff. They have absolutely no skills with guns or fighting or anything like that, nor are they Indiana Jones types who are adventurous and always know what to do. Yet, they get out of all the pickles and ultimately defeat The Big Bad Guy with the clever use of their acting and dancing skills.

I eat this stuff up. Action movies with action heroes are boring. Action movies with heroes who are not suited for action but use what they've got are awesome. Can anyone recommend any like that?

Action for sending URLs

zenpop — Sat, 12 May 2007 15:47:00 -0800

I send a lot of URLs via email. Inevitably the url's are so long I have to first go to a site like tinyurl.com and truncate the url and then copy that new url and then paste that into my email. Are there other options? Does an action exist for OS X users that would automatically highlight the url and then take it to tinyurl.com and then get the compressed url and copy it and then paste it into a designated email app's "new email" template?

GET+POST in same form?

Blazecock Pileon — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 09:02:17 -0800

Is it possible to set the action attribute of an HTML form, such that the method is POST, but the action includes GET variables? For example, I'd like the following code:

<form name="edit_name" action=".?debug" method="post">

<input type="submit" value="Edit">

</form>

to return GET value containing debug and a POST value containing Edit.

Is this reasonable or possible?

What was that darn movie???

JigSawMan — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 10:48:58 -0800

Can you name a movie that played during a free preview weekend (about a year ago)? The movie was shown in the U.S. during a free preview weekend on one of the premium channels of Dish Network. I do not remember which channel it was, I'm leaning toward either Starz or Showtime. I only saw a part of the movie, and want to see the rest.

Movie details I remember:

Film Location: Europe

Plot: some type of disease has gotten loose and the investigators are trying to track down human victims before they die and/or infect other people. The disease may have been a man-made virus. The disease is (of course) highly contagious and kills in a matter of hours. I think the disease was spread by touch, the race was to contain before it mutated into an airborne form.

Cast: The primary characters are two investigators, a female and male who (I'm guessing) had not worked together before this case. I think the male lead may have been played by an actor more recognizable a decade or two ago.

Best recollection: I remember one scene in particular where the investigators are right behind one of the victims who does not realize he is infected (but visibly is). The victim just knows he is being chased and loses the investigators at a restaurant or cocktail party. When the investigators realize the victim is gone, they quarantine the entire building.

I don't remember that the movie was all that great, I'd say it had low to moderate production values. But I'd like to see the rest of it. Can you help me identify the film?

Mental Action

Eiwalker — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 15:42:49 -0800

Can we believe at will in the same way that we can raise our arms at will? I can raise my right arm pretty much whenever I want to, simply by trying to make it go up. I can do it without trying to do anything else as a means to that end. For instance, I do not try to act upon my brain in a certain way, nor do I know which muscles I'd have to flex. I just want it to go up, and, somehow, I execute the action.

Are there any cases where a person can acquire a belief in the same way?

By "belief" I shall mean a high probability of being true that one ascribes to a proposition. E.g., I take there to be a 97% chance that it will rain in Argentina in the next three days.

Some things that might help in thinking about the question:

1. Could I go from 97% to 96% at will? In this case I'd be modifying what I take to be the likelihood by only one percentage point. If the modification is small, should this make the task easier?

2. Be careful to distinguish between really taking there to be a so-and-so likelihood versus merely supposing so for the sake of argument. We can merely suppose anything; really believing is a different matter.

3. If believing at will is possible, should we expect that smart people are more likely to be able to do it than dumb people? If so, this suggests that believing at will is a kind of talent. Or would dumb people be more likely to be able to pull it off? If so, this suggests that believing at will, though it may be an ability, is not a talent, and is more likely a result of intellectual vice: stupidity or irrationality of some kind.

Class action risks

rolypolyman — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 09:58:46 -0800

Might a business blacklist customers for participating in a class-action settlement? I suppose that "legally" they can't, but I know many megacorps don't play by the rules or they wouldn't be in trouble in the first place. Lately I seem to get a settlement announcement almost monthly regarding one company or another. I wouldn't have any bones with participating if it was GM or a toy company, because they don't keep track of customers and will just sell you more of their product. But what if it's a business you have a close relationship with?

For example, the latest settlement came against my merchant bank. I'd get $80, but I rely on them to process a lot of my income. Merchant banks currently operate in a free-wheeling fashion like Visa and Mastercard did in the 1960s and 1970s -- they have considerable license to shaft customers with things like MATCH (formerly TMF). To me, this is more risk than I can swallow. But what happens if I participate against my credit card issuer, my regular bank, my insurance company, and so forth? I can't help wondering if I'd be put in their "high risk" tiers, kind of like what TXU was trying to do with credit scores.

Have you ever taken part in a class action lawsuit?

NoMich — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 19:36:40 -0800

Have you ever taken part in a class action lawsuit? I ask because I got something in the mail this past week letting me know that I have x amount of time to get in on this class action lawsuit against Thrivent. I would actually love to stick it to them since they stuck it to me a couple of years ago. However, I don't how this type of stuff works. I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to do and frankly I am kind of worried that this may work against me financially (not sure why it would though) and end up being a big time sink.

Photoshop Batch Conversion

luriete — Fri, 28 Jan 2005 15:11:40 -0800

I need to make a Photoshop CS action/droplet that I can use to batch convert many dozens of mid-res b&w images. I've tried this a few times but my droplets end up doing 1 file fine and then nothing. [mi] The files are JPG, TIF and EPS and I need to do the following: Go to file > print with preview > output and specify both a screen and transfer range, and then save as EPS with that information included. Any ideas? This seems complitrated.

I'd like to have some custom action figures made, and then mass-produced on a smallish scale....

mudpuppie — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 10:17:55 -0800

I'd like to have some custom action figures made, and then mass-produced on a smallish scale.... Google turned up links for companies that will make a likeness of me for $500. What I'm looking for is something like this, sort of.

Anyone have experience commissioning these, procuring an artist, etc? Have an idea of the cost? Know where I can get it done?

Thanks much.

Help me with Folder Action scripts in Mac OS X.

emelenjr — Wed, 31 Mar 2004 05:23:11 -0800

A question about using Folder Action scripts in Mac OS X and tinkering with them to get them to do what you want. [more] I created a folder called Make PNG and attached the "Duplicate as PNG" Folder Action script to it. It wasn't doing anything with PDFs (screen captures) I dropped on it, so I edited the script to accept PDF files too.

Here's the problem:

PDF screen capture is 44K. PNG generated automatically by the script is 100K. If I instead use Preview to export the PDF to PNG (best depth, non-interlaced) the size is 56K. There's no visible difference between the different PNG files, but I want the script to give me the smaller file size since I'm converting things to PNG in order to optimize them for the web. How can I edit the script to do that?

Is it possible to batch process layers in Photoshop?

niceness — Mon, 26 Jan 2004 06:20:08 -0800

Is it possible to batch process layers in Photoshop? I need each layer as a separate JPG.

Safe Filesharing

johnnydark — Wed, 17 Dec 2003 06:07:42 -0800

I have a, umm, friend who lives in Canada and has, in the past, shared 36+ gigs of music using a well-known P2P application. Given that he wants to continue sharing his files, he wonders what technical steps he can take to minimize potential legal action from the Canadian Recording Industry Association (or anyone else).