Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with classic

A start menu for Windows 7 where I type "i" for Internet and "f" for Firefox to open that browser?

oxit — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:12:54 -0800

A start menu for Windows 7 where I type i for Internet and f for Firefox to open that browser? Prior to Windows 7 I was using the classic Windows start menu to access most of my software by pressing only three keys on the keyboard:

1. the Windows key, then
2. a key for the folder, e.g. (I)nternet, or (O)ffice, then
3. a key for the application, e.g. (F)irefox or (I)nternet Explorer.

Typing a part of the name in Windows 7's start menu is a lot slower, more cumbersome and error-prone.

Is there a solution to have this in Windows 7? There are many start menu replacements out there, but none I've seen does this. Can you help?

My iPod Classic won't synch properly

Stonewall Jackson — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:53:20 -0800

iPod syncing weirdness. After I updated to iTunes 9 the other day, my iPod (Classic, 120 GB) stopped syncing properly (my laptop is running OS 10.4.11, the iPod software is also up to date). Every time I plug it into the computer it goes through the entire (half-hour) process of syncing, but when it finishes the iPod says there is no music there. I've done this twice, and now there is 75-odd GB's worth of music somewhere on there, but none of it is accessible (i.e. the iPod claims it's empty but when I plug it into iTunes the bar at the bottom of screen indicates there is 75 BG taken up). I suspect I've somehow borked the library, but have no idea how to rectify the problem.

backpack be gone ...

ouchitburns — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:16:28 -0800

Help me find the get rid of my backpack! I am a student, but one of those older professional students, and I keeps catching glimpses of myself in windows with my huge backpack and I grimace.

I should no longer have a backpack.

So, I need a bag that I can bring to school and work placements. It needs to be:

1) Functional - (it should be able to carry at least one textbook and binder, and have room for the equivalent of a thin jacket.

2) Strong - my textbooks are heavy and it needs to be able to handle that.

3) Sleek - I want this to grow old with me so it needs to be of classic style.

4) Waterproof - would be nice. Not completely necessary.

I am in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I am willing to spend up to $250.

I like the look of these, but they should be used as a starting point rather than a rule.

http://jkontherun.blogs.com/photos/the_man_bag/man_bag_front.jpg
http://www.bagsnob.com/images/DiorManBag.jpg

Thanks!

Identify this 90s puzzle/action game

gentle — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 07:23:14 -0800

Identify this game. I played it in the late 90s on the PC or the Amiga. It was an isometric puzzle/action/adventure game set in the future in a tall skyscraper where all the robots (cleaning bots, security bots etc.) had suddenly gone crazy. The opening sequence showed you, the hero, entering the building (via a helicopter?). I remember the game as being quite colorful as well as graphically elegant and spare.

The game was rendered isometrically, with each floor of the building being a level. Rooms were typically offices with cubicles and computers. On each floor, you had to navigate through the various rooms and avoid or destroy the robots and (I think) reach some kind of computer. The robots typically moved in a predictable pattern, and so usually the puzzle was about avoiding/disabling them in a certain order.

As the game progressed, you traveled higher and higher in the building until you finally reached the penthouse. I seem to remember there being some guy you had to rescue there, but it could be that he was the mastermind behind the whole robot uprising.

Pointless but beautiful classic mac game...?

progosk — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:28:51 -0800

Help me remember the name of the classic, meditative OSX game, where you float from level to level of black space through a swirl of coloured shapes to soothing gamelan-ish sounds, trying to catch stars in order to reach the next level? Was it something like "virtuality"? How can I have forgotten? (Oh, and: Does it exist for the iphone?)
Thx muchly.

Jeremiah was a bullfrog.

sourwookie — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:42:58 -0800

Help me think of famous keyboard intros to play during soundcheck. Difficulty rating: No synth sounds. I like trotting out some famous piano/Rhodes/Hammond intro during sound check at a particular gig every week. However, I'm using a Nord Electro 2 and it only makes Hammond, piano, Clavinet, Rhodes, and Wurlitzer sounds. I'm looking for short, famous, iconic keyboard intros to play while we check levels. Ones I've used in the past are:

Whiter Shade of Pale-Procol Harum
Evil Woman-Elo
Joy to the World-Three Dog Night
Logical Song-Supertramp

You get the idea. Since this keyboard only does the sounds listed above, synthy things like Take on Me by Ah-Ha are out.

Auteurs and stuff

heather-b — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:00:10 -0800

Cinephile seeks THE book on early film, including dissections of films by Godard, Truffaut, Bergman, Fellini and the like. Lots o' pretty pictures are great, too. Can you help?

Treasure Island -- Which One?

rahnefan — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 06:41:42 -0800

Which edition of Treasure Island was this? This was the 70s but I don't know when it was published. It was almost certainly abridged for children, and gorgeously illustrated.

Strangely, some of the illustrations were fairly bloody as I recall. IIRC, all were full color. Maybe the most telling one had an awkward perspective or something so that it accidentally looked like one of those nautical pulleys (or whatever it is?) appeared at the end of a character's arm or leg? I think I remember a character being pinned to a mast with a knife? And having a bloody bandage on his head later on, during a gunfight? There was one of the black spot (in Billy Bones' hand?). I've seen Wyeth illustrations online, and it wasn't that one.

Upgrading a neglected Mac computer.

wiretap — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:02:11 -0800

Upgrading Mac OS X 10.2 to at least 10.3 on a dual boot machine. I bought a dual boot mac (os 9.2 and os x 10.2) in the earlier part of this decade, and never bothered to do any upgrades as the years went on.

Now I'm finding reasons to restart my previous graphic design career but 10.2 is so out of date that I'm having trouble using some websites (netflix streaming requires at least 10.3) or playing games (WoW requires at least 10.3), or even upgrading to the latest version of Firefox (!!?).

I have little experience with upgrading computers, so I have a couple questions about upgrading:

1. How do I upgrade JUST the 10.2 "section" (sorry, I don't know the technical term) of my mac? I'm imagining that I'll plop a 10.3 disc in and it'll install over both OS's.

2. Will 10.3 still work with 9.2 (classic mode)? I'd like to keep 9.2 due to some ancient software that works only in 9.2.

Also, could I upgrade to an OS higher than 10.3 or would I need at least 10.3 to move to 10.4 to move to 10.5 etc?

Why did Glasgow need it?

Joe Beese — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:52:05 -0800

ScotFilter. Or LedZepFilter. Why did Glasgow need it? The first disc of the Led Zeppelin DVD is a record of their January 9, 1970 performance at the Royal Albert Hall. [A must-hear, btw.]

During the oldies-medley section of "How Many More Times", Plant - while encouraging a clap-a-long - says to the audience in a knowing tone: "You're going to do it [sex, it seems] in Birmingham and Cardiff. You're going to do it in Glasgow... and Glasgow needs it."

Why did Glasgow need it - whatever "it" was? Were Glaswegian coal workers suffering in a strike at the time? Did the city have a reputation for being tight-assed?

What are some examples of "classic" webiste design?

SouthCNorthNY — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:56:15 -0800

What are some examples of "classic" webiste design? I'm looking for examples of layouts that haven't changed much over the years (because they were good, not because they were lazy.) I'm looking for things like google.com, not timecube.com

Title of classic Mac game about getting drunk?

deepbeep — Fri, 29 May 2009 20:20:57 -0800

Title of classic Mac game about getting drunk? It was European (maybe Danish or Swedish), and ran on System 6/7. You sneak out of your room and walk around town, drinking beer bottles you find on the ground. The more drunk you get, the more you stumble. You also throw up if you get too drunk. Every so often your mom leaves the kitchen to check up on you, and you have to run home and jump in your window. This gets harder when you're stumbling all the time. There's also a woman on a boat, and if you're drunk enough, you grope her breasts. Has anyone heard of this classic game?

Paint Your Spaceship

ostranenie — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:11:58 -0800

Another "what was this C64 game"? You're a crash-landed alien, and you need to paint your broken windshield with your antennae for your broken spaceship...and somehow there are monkeys involved. I had this game when I was a kid, which I thought was called "Business Tycoon" or something similar, but I just can't remember the title. You're an alien who's crash-landed on a planet and you need to repair your shield. You make money by selling bananas to monkeys, and you use the money to buy raw materials..or something. Then you paint the shield on your spaceship with your antennae. It's either 1- or 2-player, and I remember the auctioneer's name was "Hiyam Mighty." Thanks in advance!

Or En Aye Ay? What does this song mean?

crazyray — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:40:01 -0800

You may very well recognize this song. It is from this movie. What does it mean? Does the first stanza and/or chorus spell something? Please help! One website lists the lyrics as this:

Oh Ry In Eye Ay - Oh Ry In Eye Ay
Oh Ry In Ah Key Ooh Lay
Ka Lay Ooh Lau Ee - Oh Ry In Eye Ay
Sal You Te Lee Ay Vee Show

Midnight sunshine silent thunder
Sky as black as day
Only a dream away

Chorus

Waking while you're still deep sleeping
Finding you're not here
Watching a dream appear

Tumbling through a thousand centuries
You don't know where you'll land
It's so dark in mythology
Treasures of history to be found
Near the legends of time
All the handiworks remain there
Only a dream away

Chorus

Greedy feeling wheeling dealing
Losing what you won
See the dream come undone

Stumble you may with the elementary
Lucky you got so far
All you owe is apologies
Measure the mystery and astound
Without taking up time
So the handiworks remain there
Only a dream away

Chorus

In out, hot cold, up down, young old
What a lot to do
Sharing a dream with you

Chorus

With practically no clues to guide you, please help me figure out the name of this semi-obscure classic rock song!

Fred Mars — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:01:05 -0800

A non-chorus line mentions leaving a message for the wind, I think. And then the next line is something about the wind maybe passing on that message to some other aspect of nature? How's that for specific? This is not "A Message to the Wind" by Gordon Lightfoot, by the way. I would guess it hails from the mid-seventies. In terms of "feeling," my vague-ass memory places it somewhere between Boston and Kansas, but that's obviously slippery footing.

iPod click fizz

vernondalhart — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 04:05:08 -0800

My ipod has started making an audible noise whenever it accesses its hard drive, but it still seems to play fine. Is this a bad sign? The cable I use to plug in my ipod to my computer isn't very good. It often has a hard time connecting, which seems to depend on its precise position. However, once it's in, if I don't touch the ipod or cable, all is usually well.

The other day though, while playing some music off of the ipod on my laptop, it suddenly disconnected mid-song. Since then, whenever the ipod seems to be accessing its hard drive (i.e. when loading the images for album covers, track names, or beginning to play) it makes an audible hard drive noise which it has never made prior to this point.

It seems to play fine though, and it hasn't done anything else odd. I haven't been using it as much though, since I don't really know if this is the beginning of the end or not.

It's an ipod classic, 80gig model. Bought it off of a friend (with the somewhat defunct cable, unfortunately), so I doubt it has any form of applecare going for it. It is also worth noting that there isn't an apple store in town, though I can get to one in an hour or two by train.

Will it be toast? Is it fine?

Please help me find a clear plastic case for a 2G classic iPhone.

UnclePlayground — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:40:16 -0800

Could you locate a new, clear plastic case for the classic 2G iPhone that does not have belt-clip or kick-stand for purchase? Looking high and low for this item. I bought the 3G iPhone a while back, and gave my 8GB 2G "classic" iPhone to my wife. I never bought a case for it and she's dropped it several times already. She only wants clear plastic without anything attached to it (kick-stand, belt-clip, etc.). Must be clear, and not "smoky". Also prefer one piece, rather than two pieces that clip together, if possible. I've searched and come up empty. Wondering if anyone out there knows of a source that is trying to sell them and would like to send one our way. Absolutely prefer new. You may also respond to email at uncleplayground@yahoo.com

Aaeenaa humei dekh ke hairaan saa kyon hain?

Baron von Noodlehausen Jr. — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:26:33 -0800

Can any Hindi speakers out there translate this song? It is a song by Suresh Wadkar entitled Seene Mein Jalan. Here are the lyrics, but I am not certain if they are correct. The song is from the 1978 Bollywood film Gaman.

seene mein jalan aankhon mein tufaan saa kyon hain ?
is shahar mein har shaks pareshaan saa kyon hain ?

dil hain to, dhadakane kaa bahaanaa koee dhoondhe
patthar kee tarah beheesa-o-bejaan saa kyon hain ?

tanahaee kee ye kaunasee, manzil hain rafeekon
taa-hadd-ye-najar yek bayaabaan saa kyon hain ?

kyaa koee nayee baat najar aatee hain hum me
aaeenaa humei dekh ke hairaan saa kyon hain ?

Name-That-Retro-Game: top-down, moving travellator floors, color coded keys

dcbarker — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:01:26 -0800

Name-That-Retro-Game: top-down view, moving travellator floors, possibly color coded keys. Possibly on C64, Amiga A500/600/1200 or Atari ST/E. I've been trying to remember the name of this old game for a while and it has been nagging at my very soul. I played it years ago (many many years ago). I remember it from my gaming days as a kid - the only platforms I imagine it being on are the Amiga A500/600/1200, Atari ST/E or Commodore C64.

I wish I could narrow it down further. It was definitely top-down perspective, color (not greyscale), had these moving floor strips like little travellators (I want to say they were yellow but that's just a guess). I think the goals were puzzle driven (get the red key to open the red gate that then lets you do X, Y and Z to clear this level). I've spent the entire night trawling screenshots of classic games via Google and have had no luck.

Bonus if you can link to screenshots (then I'll know for certain that's the game!).

Please, help me preserve my sanity!

Come on lets go space truckin!!!

citron — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:21:08 -0800

I don't typically listen to classic rock, but I'm SURE they're out there.. what are some big, stupid, loud rock songs about space? I don't mean spacey sounding, I mean.. Deep Purple "Space Truckin," Monster Magnet "Space Lord." More, please. In fact, even if those two songs & any others you name are about something else and just cover it up with lyrics about space, that's cool too, anything you can think of. I'm really looking for the stomp-y, overwrought, RAWK type of stuff.. no "Space Oddity" for this list. Space aliens are most definitely OK.

(If only Soundgarden "Spoonman" were "Spaceman" and Zeppelin "Immigrant Song" were "Astronaut Song"..)

Classic Mac game?

damn dirty ape — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:01:33 -0800

Classic Mac game? I'm trying to remember a classic mac game from the mid 80s. It would have run on a Mac 512k. It was some kind of adventure game kind of like King's Quest, but horror/mystery genre, where you would wander around looking for clues, opening things, talking to people, etc. It had black and white graphics and involved either werewolves or vampires. Or perhaps both. I'm pretty sure it had vampires.

Anyone know what game this was?

What is the best resource for pre-sequenced classic rock tracks for use in Garage Band?

crazyray — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:04:44 -0800

Is there a website or forum where users compile and trade Garage band files of sequenced classic rock? I have a musician friend who is looking for pre-recorded tracks of just the drum and bass for each song, so he can add vocals and lead.

Recommended ancient classic literature for beginners

rocks009 — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 23:38:08 -0800

Where do I start with ancient classic literature, especially accessible versions of mythological or vaguely historical tales? Preferably from Anglo-Saxon or Norse traditions, but I'm open to anything really good. The only pre-19th Century classics I had to read in school were by Shakespeare. I enjoyed them and moved on. But now I see that I missed a whole world of classic literature. I have always been fascinated by the the Arthurian legends and started to read Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur once, but struggled with it - I am about to try John Steinbeck's take on the Arthurian legends, which seems a bit more accessible. I really enjoyed Marco Polo recently (The Penguin Classics version), and have just discovered Beowulf. Of the plethora of works out there, which are the best and most enjoyable reads?

Extra credit for pointing me to translations/interpretations that are enjoyable for a non-scholar, while still reflecting the original essence.

Not so deluxe. More like deFAIL.

littlerobothead — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 15:25:06 -0800

Guitar amp issues, with a long way between me and a tech. Help me know what to say when I call! I've owned a Blues Deluxe reissue since 1996. Loved this amp to death when I first got it, and still do. I never gigged with it, just used it for practice and noodling. I put it in storage when I moved to an apartment in DC years ago, and now it's out of storage and I want to play it again.

Trouble is, when I turn it on, I get no sound. Often, the channel selector light will come on and a faint pop is heard. If I let the amp sit on standby for a half hour or so, I can play. Other times I let it warm up, and the minute I load the amp with a signal, it clips out on me.

I've fiddled with the tubes a bit, trying some replacements a friend gave me. I've also changed to fuse to no avail. This is my first tube amp, and only the second amp I ever bought, so I'm sort of a tube noob. There's no bias adjustment on this amp, so an old friend via email told me swamping tubes should be like changing a lightbulb.

Is my amp dead, or am I overlooking something?

The Sorrows of Young Werther, 1787 version

Wolfen — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:32:00 -0800

Is there a reasonable English translation of Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther" in the 1787 version? Thomas Carlyle and the nowadays authoritative translation by Burton Pike both used the 1774 version, but Goethe went thoroughly over it for his Complete Works. Online and printed editions fail in most cases to tell the version used. Can you recommend a book or even an online source?