Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cool

Help me find a new Pixelsurgeon-ish site!

aqueousdan — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:10:42 -0800

Looking for a site that aggregates sites to do with character design, typography, cute craft, flash interfaces, 3d goodness, crazy news and general cool stuff in the vein of the now defunct Pixelsurgeon. Oh how I miss Pixelsurgeon :( There were a few similar sites around at the time (around 2002 ish) that I really cannot remember but pixelsurgeon was by far the best of the lot. It pushed me to design my own stuff and I loved it for that. If such a thing doesnt exist anymore please feel free to post your own sites that fall into these categories... my current whim is cute stuff made from felt but I can feel a Zbrush modelling frenzy coming on or maybe some kind of 3d tank design :D

Toby Chew? Toby Wong? Movies w/ gangsters?

beautifulcheese — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:44:13 -0800

I'm on a gangster movie binge. Reservoir Dogs, Boondock Saints, RocknRolla (basically all of Guy Ritchie's stuff). I need more in this vein to fulfil my craving for cool men doing violence in innovative ways. I'd like recommendations for modern movies preferably without the Italian mafia. Bonus points for United Kingdom focused films.

I am not nearly young or cool enough to make this happen

msali — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:53:13 -0800

I thought this would be simple, but it isn't. I want to purchase a song as the new ringtone of my At&t Blackberry Pearl, and I have hit all sorts of roadblocks. So the song is Nelly Furtado's "Manos al aire", more specifically, I want JUST the chorus to be my ringtone, and damned if I can't make that happen. I am not particularly web or phone savvy, but somehow in the past, I managed to make "Man of constant sorrow" and "Cigarettes and chocolate milk" as my ringtones. Now I want a song that is one of those chart-toppers, and I can't make it happen without purchasing a subscription! I want to pay my US$ 2.49 and make this happen, but it isn't working, even on the AT&T website (which asks me to enter my type of cellphone, and after I do so, the site just shuts down). Help?!?

Importers / Wholesalers advertising on Google?

Squid Voltaire — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:18:07 -0800

Any have experience dealing with online wholesale importers as an end consumer (i.e., not a retailer, just a guy who wants some buckles) ? I'm trying to find a cheap source of metal buckles (my boots are simply too plain--they need augmentation!) and along the way I've stumbled across tons of sites like AliBaba or China Trade Online. These folks have really neat stuff for very low prices in vast quantity. Monster Steel, it turns out, provides wholesale cock rings. My mind is blown.

They have really cool stuff, but it's pretty clear that they are set up to deal exclusively with retailers (China Trade Online has a minimum order of $1,000, the smallest I've been able to find is a minimum order of $100). I'm fascinated by this all, but have no experience in this area. I suppose my question is twofold:

1) Do you know of any place like this who would be happy to sell me $30 or $40 worth of merchandise, or perhaps $20 worth with a $20 service charge? (I'm guessing not--I assume that these places all make very little per item and thus need quantity to survive, but it is worth checking).

2) Any idea how these places feel about folks like me asking for price quotes and then ordering whatever their bare minimum is? If they deal with this sort of thing on a regular basis, cool, but I don't want to bug / create unnecessary work for them when I'm clearly not their target customer.

Installing geo thermal in an old house with boiler?

idyllhands — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:07:09 -0800

Installing geo thermal in an old house with boiler? I am considering buying an old (1910s) house with a boiler and radiators installed. I was thinking it would be great to convert it to run off of geothermal. How difficult/expensive would this be? I live in Kansas, so we need good heating as well as cooling for summer. I was hoping to accomplish both with a geothermal system.

Summer in the Terminal City

philip-random — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:53:28 -0800

Help resolve a dispute among co-workers. Vancouver is a wonderful city, everybody says so. It just doesn't happen to have been built for serious summer heat. Yet now it is hot (and getting hotter) and here we are in a "home office" that will start to absolutely bake in roughly one hour (when the afternoon sun hits the windows). Given that we have no air conditioning and that we are on a deadline this week and so must stay "on the job", how best to keep this place as cool as possible ...? My strategy (based on something I remember my grandma doing way back when in sweaty pre-airconditioned suburban Montreal): shut all windows sun-facing windows now, pull the white reflective blinds and essentially keep the coolish air we have now for as long as possible. We do have a fan by the way.

The counter strategy (based on hystrioncally presented "common sense"): don't do anything until the sun starts to hit, then pull the blinds, but leave the windows open which, to my mind, would just let the hot air in far more quickly, wouldn't it?

Please help us. We know all about dealing with rain but this summer heat stuff just makes our brains melt.

Nerdy white girl wonders about hip-hop fashion and subcultural stereotypes.

bubukaba — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:37:07 -0800

I am curious about different varieties of hip-hop style (basically, the kinds of things I see cool [mostly] black teenagers and young adults wearing). I'm interested in looking at pictures of it (are there street fashion blogs for this kind of thing?) and also in finding out more about the history, origins, and cultural associations of this kind of dress (anything from academic articles to fashion magazines). Even information as simple as where one can buy this kind of clothing, or what you know or have noticed to be "cool" things to wear among the hip-hop set these days would be good to know. I'd also love to see any trendsetting music videos or whathaveyou that you can recommend.

I'm also interested in anything you can tell me about specific nuances of music or other cultural artifacts that have associations with different 'parts' of hip-hop culture. (I guess one thing I'm trying to hash out here is what the different 'parts' of hip-hop culture even are.)

I'm in Chicago, if there's anything specific to location that I should know about.

Things that I've noticed in particular and wouldn't mind knowing more about:

1: Men wearing outfits that match, completely. I saw a guy on the train the other day wearing a really cool hat/shirt/pants combination with a sort of macabre Jack the Ripper motif. (Is wearing clothing that matches signify anything special? Does one buy the whole outfit together, or is Jack the Ripper the logo of some particular line of clothing that I know nothing about?)

2: Women wearing clothing highlighted with intense neon colors.

3: Women wearing masculine clothing (wife beaters, baggy pants, do-rags, close-cropped hair or cornrows). (Are they lesbians? Tomboys? Some female analog to the banjee boy?)

4: Men with a hip-hop look sporting mohawks.

Aside from aesthetics (I really dig how a lot of this clothing looks, though I as a nerdy white girl could never get away with wearing most of it), a lot of my interest rises from my familiarity with the styles of dress associated with predominantly white subcultures and my apparent lack of familiarity with the styles of dress associated with black subcultures. I feel like I'm culturally literate enough to recognize the stereotypes that are being played with (or played to) when I see a kid with a mohawk and a leather jacket, a guy wearing a salmon pink polo shirt, a guy with a goatee and skinny jeans, or a girl wearing Birkenstocks and dreadlocks (to use some simplistic examples) - but I have no idea how to read similar signals from people who are part of 'scenes' that aren't dominated by whiteness. I can't even tell if the kinds of things I've described as "hip-hop style" in this question are part of the same 'scene' or not. In the world of subcultural stereotypes, would the guys with hip-hop mohawks hang out with the guys in matching outfits, or would that be as 'weird' as a skinhead hanging out with a hippy kid? (Note: I know that in the real world people hang out with all sorts of people - I'm just particularly curious about stereotypes at the moment.)

Where to buy unlined linen or other lightweight jacket online?

planetkyoto — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:53:25 -0800

Where can I buy an unlined or lightweight men's linen jacket or similar like this for very hot, humid Kyoto summer? Must be worn with white dress shirt, tie and black pants. Degree of difficulty: 46L/XL and shipping to Japan. It only has to be worn twice a week, only until I get into the building, then I can take it off. I've been wearing three light-colored sportcoats, but they are 48L and I'm tired of looking baggy, and I'm already too big for Japan without extra fabric snapping in the breeze.

I would get two of those GAP ones at that crazy price and dye one dark if they shipped to Japan, or if our GAP carried them. I don't know where to look on ebay/Amazon, everything looks fishy. Could I just wear a breezy linen vest over my white shirt? That would seem dressy enough to me, but where would I get it? Something else? Budget is up to USD$150 or 200.

Pants are always black, shirt is always white, usually red tie. Is normal linen beige color OK or do I need a dark jacket/vest? Talk down to me, because I'm fashion sense-impaired.

What is an Intervox? Can I use it to take over the world?

agropyron — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:30:23 -0800

What is this crazy sci-fi looking device I bought at a salvage store? It has knobs, a compass, and a bizarre spinning top. I purchased The Device at a construction salvage store in Seattle today. The top part rotates, and the base has the compass points on it. The dial reads "275 ... 300 ... 325", and the two knobs at the bottom are marked "L" and "P". It's got vacuum tubes inside!

No one at the salvage place knew what it was either, and they made me promise to call back if I found out.

Photos.

Help me fall in love with the Internet again

cloudsandstars — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:26:45 -0800

I have reached the end of the Internet. Well, my Internet, anyway. Please recommend some sites that will refresh my surfing experience. I feel like I visit the same 5-10 sites over and over. As you can imagine, it's getting really boring (with the exception of The Meta, of course, which is always marvelous).

So, what cool sites would you recommend for me to try? My interests are eclectic, so I'm open to pretty much anything. Tell me which sites you find wonderful and why.

Thanks in advance!

Fun things to do with a server on a slow link?

Mwongozi — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 06:42:03 -0800

What cool/geeky/fun/useful things can you do with a Linux-running server (no GUI, on 24/7) that has a very fast CPU but a very slow internet connection?

Help me keep my cool.

photoslob — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:33:41 -0800

I yelled at someone tonight who deserved to be yelled at but I now really wish I could have kept my cool. How does one keep their cool while getting the point across to someone that they're incompetent? Here's the background: I've been doing preproduction for a job while juggling other jobs for the last week and a half. To say I've been stressed out is an understatement. I've dealt with so many people over the last few days that have been professional and in some cases not extremely easy to deal with but we've all worked together to get the job done. But one guy, just one guy, has been a total tool. He's a vendor that I was renting gear from and when I called him this week to talk he gave me the big blow off - he acted like a total jerk. This is not out of character for him. I decided I didn't need to deal with him since there was another rental house I could deal with.

Tonight he called and was pissed that I didn't call him back to secure the rental. I simply stated I didn't need his gear. He then decided to dress me down and I finally blew a gasket and told him he wasn't the only game in town and that he was a jerk. I was screaming at the guy. Kind of embarrassing now that I think about it.

So, my question is this - how does one suffer fools professionally without losing it? I'm a nice guy but I have a temper - not a short fuse but I will blow up when pushed. Doesn't happen often but when it does I always think later I should have handled the situation differently.

Any advice?

Groovy paranormal blogs

low_horrible_immoral — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 05:07:38 -0800

Recommendations for cool, philosophical blogs about recent paranormal phenomena? I’m thinking of setting up a blog, and I want to look at the competition. Can anyone recommend any regularly-updated blogs that post about recent paranormal stuff in the news (so not old ghost stories etc) and discuss it in a cool thoughtful philosophical way? Besides www.forteantimes.com.

Thanks!

Bread for all seasons.

1f2frfbf — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:28:58 -0800

Good all-season low-temperature breads or tips? I live in an old, un-conditioned house. During the summer I can make sourdough and other breads to my heart's content since my house stays between 68-78° F, and yeasts will happily do their thing without my assistance. However, during the winter my house rarely gets over 60° F and can get as low at 40° F if I'm not home to throw wood in the heater. I've experimented with keeping rising loaves in the oven, but it's tricky to do, especially when I'm at work and the loves can easily overheat and bake, not rise. My mother kept dough on the water heater, but mine is in a very un-appetizing basement. Are there any breads I can get to work at such low temperatures so I can have fresh bread on cold winter nights or does anyone have any helpful temps for keeping yeasts warm and happy?

Coolest burning bulbs?

caveat empress — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 09:56:24 -0800

Help finding the coolest burning bulbs for my bathroom vanity... My upstairs is a pretty dark place, and it is necessary to have lights on anytime I am in the bathroom. Problem is the heat that the bulbs in the vanity gives off is pretty nasty.

What is/are the best option(s) for replacement bulbs (I believe you would call the base size 'Candelabra') that will give off the least amount of heat, yet provide sufficient light for a very small and dark room?

endothermic or exothermic?

phritosan — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:19:35 -0800

Apartment filter: I need my apartment to be cool inside! We moved into a very nice 3rd (top) floor, west facing apartment... in March... came home in June and no exaggeration, it was 94 degrees in my living room. The AC has a 20 degree difference and runs nonstop from 4pm to 11pm and its 84 degrees in the bed room till 11pm. We’ve had the maintenance people out three times. There’s a 20 degree difference between intake and output. The filters are new. Everything on the roof looks fine. But more than 2 feet from the vent and you can’t feel it anymore.

All the ceiling fans are going 24/7. The floor fan is on whenever we're home and not asleep. The sliding glass door is covered by UV/light blocking tinting designed for RVs, venetian blinds, and a blanket. The office window has venetian blinds and a blanket. The bedroom window has venetian blinds and very thick light blocking curtains. The AC is always set on 78. We cannot make any modifications that are visible from the outside.

Do you think it’s worth another $100 to tint the other two windows? The heat has to be coming through the walls, right?

I live in the Phoenix area, opening the windows after dark will not help. Moving is not an option till March and we still like everything else about the apartment.

What else can we do?! I’m not looking for stop-gap solutions like a bucket of ice water in front of a fan. I want my apartment enjoyable. There is no reason I should have a $230 electric bill for a 980 sq ft apartment when my parents have a $380 bill for a 5 bedroom house! Our electric bill in April was $76!

Help us mefi, you're our only hope!

I need inspiration for my new home office

carefulmonkey — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:13:29 -0800

Please give me home office inspiration I'm redecorating my home office and I need inspiration. I found a great one on lifehacker (http://lifehacker.com/photogallery/mccoy/) and I was hoping the hivemind would be able to show other neat offices. This might seem silly but I thought I would try. To help I'm also going to give a rundown of my likes.

Likes:
Apple
David Bowie
Iggy Pop
Batman
Urban Fashion

Cool my Tent

kristymcj — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:09:59 -0800

How do I cool my tent for a Texas summer festival without electricity? Flipside, the Texas satellite of the Burningman festival, is coming up in May. It's a 5-day event.
Obviously a shade canopy and some battery-operated fans will go a long way but what about actually cooling the air in the tent?

It's hard to be cool. Then why is it so hard to get out of it?

twins named Lugubrious and Salubrious — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:14:27 -0800

I want to hear about "anti-cool". So I've been tasked with the assignment of researching new trends at work. And boy, is it depressing. I'm drowning in a sea of cool. I knew people's livelihoods depended on finding out what's cool and what's not, but it rings a little pathetic to me to see the ridiculous new levels to which some people have taken it.

For me personally, I want to hear from people who don't like "cool". Hate the very idea of it. Think it's stupid. Do not want.

I have no idea what "cool" is so yeah, this is a pretty broad question. Run with it.

I'm sure there are writers, lyricists, documentary filmmakers, etc. out there who are much cleverer than I at getting this concept across. I'm looking for people who don't like cool, I'm looking for smart pieces that make fun of the rest of us for even buying into the concept. The cleverer, wittier, and snarkier the better, but it should be firmly placed in the "I don't want to be a part of this anymore" camp. (Doesn't count if the piece in question lambasted cool, and the writer/etc. is now more popular because of/despite it.)

The only thing I've been able to find so far that approaches what I'm looking for is this, actually. I should note that I'm not looking for uncool things as much as I'm looking for things about uncool. I also don't mind the overwrought scholarly deconstruction of cool itself. And any interesting takes on the subject would be great too. TIA.

Looking for Goggles that should do nothing.

Del Far — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:19:16 -0800

Is there a good website or store to buy a freaking sweet pair of goggles? I'm looking for something either old fashioned, like pilot goggles, or just old fashioned looking, or maybe something more steam punk, I've looked but Ive never found any really good websites that sell a nice variety of goggles.

And is it possible to get a pair of goggles fitted with prescription lenses?

Dress me up in your love

Andrhia — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:35:07 -0800

What do the hip creative girls wear to work? I may soon be taking on a project in a creative role in Manhattan. And... help me, I have no idea what to wear into the office every day! I haven't had a Manhattan job in eons, all of my suits are out of style, don't fit me, and are anyway a little too... well... bland for this kind of thing anyhow. This is definitely not a suit-and-tie kind of gig.

If this project is going to happen, I need to build a new wardrobe. Then again, I'm a little poor right now and can't afford an all-out shopping spree to Nordstrom, so I need to invest wisely.

I watch What Not to Wear and I've gleaned from it a vague idea of how to put together an outfit... but I don't really know what basic pieces I need, or where to buy them. I don't know how to get from one or two outfits to dressed well every day. Help, help!

I'm a 33-year-old writer in video games and new media marketing. I want to look put together, but still a little edgy; not like somebody's mom, you know? That said, I do have two little kids, so dry-clean-only and navel-baring are both right out. I'm average height but short-waisted so I love petite sizing; hippy and busty with a well-defined waist. If I were trying to be a model I'd need to lose about twenty pounds but for a normal human being I'm OK. :) Though all of these empire-waisted tops, they make me look pregnant, and I will be glad when they are gone.

So where do I go, and what do I buy there?

Swim pool railing

wallstreet1929 — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:23:52 -0800

Please link me to a picture of a hip and cool swimming pool railing.

Help me secretly educate children!

featherboa — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 05:12:08 -0800

What are some cool Words of the Week for my kids' bookshop? I've been running a tiny childrens' bookshop for about a month, and one of the things I've been trying to institute is a 'word of the week'. I've had some good feedback from the kids and their parents, but I'm running out of 'cool' words.

Basically, I'm looking for (British) English words that sound funny - maybe they have a tongue-twister element - or that have an interesting meaning, but one that is easily understandable to kids. Ideally, they should also be words that are unfamiliar to most adults, and I'd prefer to avoid anything too slangy.

So far, we've had discombobulated (confused), petrichor (the smell of summer rain), copacetic (cool, fine), borborygmus (tummy rumbling, from this thread) and the current word is bagatelle (a small, unimportant thing).

What words do you think would fit the bill?

Good present for a teenaged boy.

vilcxjo_BLANKA — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:33:34 -0800

What would be a cool present for a 15-year old boy who wants for nothing. My 15 year old son has nothing he wants for Christmas. I'm enormously proud of him this year. He's a very hard worker - harder than I ever was. He started high school, and has gotten mostly As with a couple Bs in the most challenging courses offered. He is on the hockey team, he plays Lacrosse in the spring, and he fences all year round.

He's very interested in games, especially World of Warcraft and D&D. I know almost nothing about these, other than my trusted adult friends who grew up on them say they are wholesome.

He's also a talented saxophone player. He needs a new horn, but I'm thinking $5000 is more than I want to spring for for a christmas present. I was thinking some kind of windsynth might be a good toy, but maybe I'm just thinking about what I would like for myself.

Any good ideas? I'm looking or something that will astonish him. (We talked about getting him a girlfriend, but decided that was too hard, and he probably needs to make the choice himself.)

Why WaWa?

Black_Umbrella — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 09:48:45 -0800

Why do people like WaWa so much? How / why has WaWa accomplished such a "cool" image in the last few years? Where are they planning on going from here?

It seems they roll out new products quarterly which people always end up loving. I was lucky enough to acquire a WaWa hoodie and every time i where it out people stop me to say how awesome it is. Frequently people try to buy it off me even though its a couple years old.

Why does a convenience store have so much clout?