Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with disc

them's the brakes...

hairgelburrito — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:16:30 -0800

I've just changed the disc brake pads on my bicycle and now the calipers won't 'grab' onto the metal disc enough to brake effectively... ...the calipers still seem to move correctly, but I noticed a fluid leak when I pushed the callipers into the forks and I've lost a lot (but not all) of the pressure in my brake lever.

i'm running a shimano slx disc brake system and would very much like to fix this myself: my local bike shop will take at least a week before they can do the repair and I'm loathe to be without my bike for that long. can anyone offer any advice?

I'm guessing the either the system needs bleeding, or the seals need replacing...?

thanks in advance!

Dog with a bum neck

tryniti — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:13:07 -0800

My dog has a slipped disc in her neck - what should I expect? Last Friday, my 8 year old female Doberman was diagnosed with a slipped disc in her neck. She had been in pain and not herself for the few days prior. The vet gave me an anti-inflammatory and told me to put her on complete rest (confinement) for 7 days. I have been keeping her kenneled except for trips outside 3-4 times a day with no running allowed. This weekend, the medicine really seemed to be helping her - she only cried out in pain once, and was walking and acting like her old self. I was very encouraged.

Fast forward to this morning, and she's backslid to last week - crying out in pain, not wanting to walk, shaking, etc. The vet said that in cases like hers, it is not uncommon for the dog to be most uncomfortable right when they wake or get up. I'm definitely going to keep an eye on her, and if she's painful this afternoon, I will call the vet again.

I guess my question is, has anyone had experience with this sort of injury? Is she going to be painful for the rest of her life, or can it eventually get better? I am ready to make some necessary changes for the long term to deal with this (bought a harness to walk her on instead of a neck collar, etc.), but I am worried that she will never really get better. I really had my hopes up after this weekend that the medicine would do the trick, but now I find myself thinking in worst-case scenarios. What should I expect?

Trashing Trashy Tunes

Blazecock Pileon — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:16:25 -0800

How can I dispose of hundreds of CDs in an environmentally sound manner? To reduce clutter, I would like to dispose of hundreds of audio and non-sensitive data CDs in an environmentally sound manner. That is, I could throw them in the trash, but this is probably a really bad idea and I'd like to hear about alternatives.

If someone wants to pay me for my music CDs, that would be awesome, definitely. However, I don't think I have the time or energy to devote a few weeks to cataloguing all these discs and their conditions. I don't have time or energy to run a stall at a flea market. If there are services that purchase music CDs (mostly electronic music, some rock and pop) outright, I'm interested.

That aside, do recycling services take CDs in bulk and is there such a facility in or reasonably near the Seattle metropolitan area?

Disk Utility error: false alarm, or bad omen?

so_necessary — Sat, 02 May 2009 16:26:36 -0800

In OS X on my iMac, Disk Utility asserts that my main, internal hard drive is "about to fail" and has been asserting this for several months. But my computer is running just fine... should I worry? The S.M.A.R.T status is failed, and the various helpful sounding options, like First Aid or Verify, are all unclickably greyed out. Using Boot Camp and HD Tune under windows, I can see the "bad" attribute is:

ID (01) Raw Read Error Rate
Current: 11
Worst: 1
Threshold: 51
Data: 59669
Status: Failed

A different utility just names the fields slightly differently...

1, Raw Read Error Rate
Raw value: 59699
Status: FAIL
Value: 11
Worst: 1
Threshold: 51

All the ther attributes (things like "seek error rate" and "spin up time" and stuff) are normal.

But my computer is running just fine. I can't work out if this is just some freaky one-time error that happened to the hard drive once which it won't forget about, reflects an existing (if seemingly benign) state of affairs, or is a sign of impending doom. This error has been present for several months now, perhaps even from The Beginning - the iMac is only 6 - 8 months old. The Man From Apple suggested I format my entire drive but that sounds pretty tedious if I don't really need to do anything / insufficient if my hard drive is actually about to die from mechanical failure.

Obviously I'd love for you all to tell me how I can safely ignore this, and even how I might be able to disabuse Disk Utility of the notion that things are messed up. On the other hand, if you think there might be trouble ahead, then do snap me out of my complacency and I'll promise not to shoot the messenger.

Argh, my nucleus pulposus

boo_radley — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:42:10 -0800

How does a ruptured disk benefit from an epidural? I suffered a ruptured disc at the L5-S1 last week, and I've been talking to my doctors and a neurosurgeon about treatment options. I understand how surgery works, but how do non-surgical options repair the damage?

I know that steroids help by reducing swelling, but it seems like a short term treatment of the symptom, rather than addressing the real problem. If the disc is ruptured, though, how will steroids provide long-term benefit? It seems like the pulposus would essentially just be drawn back into the disc, but not addressing the rupture.

How to rip DVDs with newer copy protection?

wastelands — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:13:50 -0800

How do I work around the newer DVD copy protection? Recently I tried to backup a DVD of Hancock to a hard drive via DVD Shrink. It failed with a CRC error at 8% into the disc (almost exactly where the movie starts). Handbrake also choked and showed encoding times that kept doubling indefinitely. The movie played from the actual disc mostly okay in VLC with a only slight hiccup at that beginning of movie mark. I saw at least one other person online who had trouble ripping this particular DVD.

I have heard some newer DVDs have better copy protection on them. I'm not totally sure this was the case with Hancock; maybe it was a bad disc. But in general, is there a good way to work around these schemes?

I'm on Win XP.

How do I track my DVD-Rs?

tommorris — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:18:20 -0800

Is there any good, free UNIX/Linux software you can suggest for keeping a searchable index of removable media? I have a large collection of backed up files on DVD-R (about five or six hundred volumes). I have been using a proprietary and rather crufty application called CDFinder. My Mac laptop has become rather less stable recently (and I haven't got enough money for one of them nice new MacBooks), so I've made the leap to a netbook running Linux. This is the one application I can't find a decent equivalent for.

Ideally, I want an application that will maintain a database of all the metadata about the files on burned CD/DVD volumes. That metadata will obviously include the file names, creation/modification dates, but also ID3 data for audio files and the equivalent metadata for videos, photos, PDFs and all the other stuff I haven't really thought about. Search speed isn't tremendously important - it doesn't bother me if it takes fifteen seconds to do a search.

One of the things I would like would be for the data to be in an open format, and for the search tool to be usable from the command line (so I can use it over SSH).

I have done some Googling, but all I can find are the sort of things record collectors would use to keep track of their albums. Not what I want: I basically want UNIX's metadata-aware 'find' or 'locate' commands for unmounted volumes.

I've been thinking about building something like this myself as a fun little open-source project over the Christmas holidays. If someone has a suggestion of an existing project that would do what I want that is free, open source and preferably not tied to any windowing environments (command line ftw!), I'd be greatly appreciative.

DVD player that isn't hostile to end-users?

odinsdream — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:54:31 -0800

Can you recommend an upconverting DVD player with component output that ignores region coding and allows me to perform any action at any time? Can you recommend an upconverting DVD player that doesn't treat me with active hostility? I'm specifically looking for a player that:

1. Ignores region coding, or can be easily set to ignore region coding without installing new firmware.

2. Never, ever restricts me from fast-forwarding previews/warnings/anti-piracy tirades or skipping to a particular menu.

I can work around these issues by ripping the discs and then re-burning them but this is highly inconvenient.

It would also be nice if the player had all of the usual standard cool things, like digital audio output and some nice pulldown detection, and didn't sound like a jet engine.

Should I eat -- er, solder -- this? On the aging and toughness of ceramic disc capacitors.

Your Time Machine Sucks — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 04:30:01 -0800

Should I eat – er, solder – this? I'm building a preamp and I just discovered that I'm low on 0.1μF 50v ceramic disc capacitors. My question is about whether it's worth trying to salvage more from another (already disassembled) piece of equipment. I noticed that I have lots of green ceramic disc caps with happy little 104s on them (don't know the voltage, but it seems improbable that it's less than 50v) on the carcass of a portable CD player which I've already largely disassembled in order to liberate its DC motors. I don't think I have the means to accurately test the caps. They are old.

So, the question: how hardy are these things? When they have been put on the board, they will have been through two solderings and a desoldering, plus however many years of portable CD-playing service. Worth a try, or go to the damn store and get some new capacitors ffs? Thank you.

How to free a stuck brake piston?

sergeant sandwich — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:28:57 -0800

Car-repair-filter: Any mechanics got a trick for freeing a stuck brake piston? So I decide to replace my brake pads this afternoon. I do 3 sets and everything's fine. When I get to the last wheel though, the pads are worn way down, and one of the two pistons on the caliper is funny looking. (I couldn't tell you how it was funny, it just looked odd, for some reason I can't put my finger on.)

Anyway I pull the old pads, grease the shims, slap the new ones in there, and get to the part where you have to push the pistons back into the caliper. The first one went in fine, but the funny-looking one only went in about halfway, and wouldn't go any further.

I tried using a C-clamp and some cardboard to push it in, and opening up the bleeder valve, but the thing still wouldn't budge. So, it's stuck, somehow, probably cocked sideways in its hole. I put the old pads back on (cause the new ones wouldn't fit in the half-open caliper), bled the lines and it drives fine.

I understand that I'm probably looking at doing a caliper rebuild (blahhh), but I'm wondering if there are any trick-up-the-sleeve kind of things that might allow me to free the piston without taking the damned thing apart. If it matters, this is a 1997 Toyota Supra, ABS, two-piston front discs. Thanks!

How should I tote my stuff, including a laptop, on my bike?

Project F — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:51:52 -0800

How should I tote my stuff, including a laptop, on my bike? (Backpacks and messenger bags need not apply.) I just bought a Cannondale XR 7, and am using it primarily as a commuter bike. As such, I'd like to add some storage, a little bigger than my handlebar bento box. I was thinking a rear rack, a laptop pannier and a regular pannier.

Problem is, neither of my local bike shops actually stocks a rack that's meant to work on a disc brake bike, nor do either of them have any laptop panniers.

Anybody have any specific recommendations on rear racks for disc brake bikes, or laptop panniers? Or warnings against them?

Are my discs slipping?

T.D. Strange — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:39:03 -0800

Sometimes when I stretch my back, it kind of pops and hurts sharply, what's up with that? Im 6'5, 175, and not in the best shape at present. I have a habit of stretching my back with arms over the head, and either turning around to left or right or leaning sideways. Sometimes when I stretch and turn, my spine (kind of mid back area, I think always the same place, but maybe not) kind of pops and I feel it slip a bit, followed by a sharp stabbing pain. Is this some sort of disc slippage? What causes it, bad posture, bad stretching motions? And is this something that would stop if I worked out those back muscles more?

Herniated disc + pregnancy = ?

HotToddy — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:19:15 -0800

Back trouble and pregnancy: Which is worse for a person with a herniated disc, a C-section (which I imagine will compromise the all-important core muscles) or vaginal delivery (which might cause the disk to rupture)? Also, I am prone to sciatica and assume that pregnancy will involve a lot of sciatic nerve pain--can this lead to a permanent worsening of my condition or would it be relieved once I gave birth? I've had surgery (microdiscectomy) for a ruptured disc at L5-S1, and have a slightly herniated disk at L4-L5. I am mostly fine now and am contemplating having a baby, but my biggest concern is the possibility of worsening my back condition. Frankly, the back pain I used to suffer was so bad that if it's a choice between having a child and being pain free, I would choose to forego having children. However, I want to have a child if there is a reasonable likelihood that it will be okay. I know nobody can predict the future, and of course I will consult with my doctors, but I'd like to get the hive mind's take on this first.

1) I have read that a C-section is bad for people with back trouble because you're slicing through the muscles that you need to have a strong core. I know that in my case, the stronger my core, the better my back. What will my abs be like after a C-section? Would it be safer than risking a ruptured disc during labor? Also, from the perspective of plain old vanity, will my stomach ever be flat again after a C-section?

2) Since even a tiny bit of constipation makes my sciatica worse, I predict that pregnancy will make it dramatically worse. I think I can bear it for 9 months, but I worry that having pressure on it for so long will somehow lead to permanent damage. Is that possible?

Any advice on these matters is welcome, although I am looking more for dry-eyed realism than "have the baby, everything will be fine!" I mean, I think I have the best chance of everything being fine if I really know ahead of time what I'm getting into and make an informed decision. Thanks for your help.

How to wipe a dead hard drive?

aladfar — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 10:28:45 -0800

How to wipe a dead hard drive? After backing up my data to a recently purchased external drive, it promptly failed (and produced a horrible, burning electronics odor). As I'm still within the 14 day return policy, I shouldn't have any trouble returning it. However: I want to wipe all of my personal data from the drive first. How to do that with a drive that won't mount? I've a feeling the problem lies not in the drive itself, but in the power supply or something similar. So I suppose I could remove the drive itself and write it with zeroes. But this would, mostly likely, void my warranty. Is there something similar to an old tape degausser that will work with drives?

I'm not going for NSA level formatting here, but I'd like to minimize the possibility that the drive gets restocked with all of my data (a full disc image of my machine) still on it. Ideas?

The Pit of Despair claims to really work on back pain

sociolibrarian — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:17:13 -0800

What are your experiences with non-surgical alternatives to a herniated lower back disc? I'm wondering about various non-surgical alternatives to relieving a herniated lower back disc. I'm personally okay back-wise but I have a friend with some real issues. I ran across this therapy (http://www.spineamericaonline.com/faq.html), which honestly seems a bit quackish (and expensive), but claims to have helped thousands. Has anybody used this and had success? I get the idea behind IDD - basically the rack. The quackish part seems to be high prices for that treatment and touted rates of eighty-five percent success (which all link back to one article from 1997 with a trial of like 30 people and "preliminary" results)

If you've had successful non-surgical treatment for your herniated disc, what was it?

Any research you previously viewed, that you found helpful is great. Here's a thread from 2 & 1/2 years ago on AskMe. (If you commented in that thread, I'd love to hear how you're doing today. Or, for some of you, I'd love to hear how high your StepFather currently is.)

Back to the gym with a bad back

stavrosthewonderchicken — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 20:49:22 -0800

Can anyone offer advice for going back to the gym after a back injury and six months of downtime? I hurt my back at the gym more than six months ago. It turns out I had some long-term damage to three discs in my lower back due to compression, and that contributed to the eventual blowout. There is no rupture, but there is some disc compression.

Unfortunately none of the doctors or therapists I was seeing for a while after I blew my back out speaks any English, and so I have nobody to ask about advice for getting back into shape now that I'm itching to do so. I've gained back a fair bit of weight in the last six months (from my more-or-less optimal weight of about 95kg back up to about 110kg -- I'm not obese, but I am a large lad all 'round), and I want to get back into fighting trim, and strengthen my back and core muscles. I'll be heading back to the gym in a few weeks -- planning for three sessions a week, 90 minutes or so, probably, with some walking/hiking on the weekends.

I had been going to the gym regularly for a couple of years before the injury and had gotten into the best shape of my life, so I'm reasonably familiar with the equipment and gear.

Advice for things to do, and things to avoid, in terms of equipment or exercises, as I get back into it? I'll take all advice with a grain of salt of course, since I know most of you aren't doctors, but will take all advice with thanks.

How do I retrieve the files from a hard drive without HD enclosure?

cheero — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 07:20:11 -0800

My computer recently crapped out and I desperately need to get back the files on my hard drive. I bought a HD enclosure which did not help me out. I tried to change the permission on the files, but it kept telling me that I need to format everything. Is there any other way I could get my files back? (The computer is completely done, but the hard drive is alive.) To simplify, if HD enclosure did not work, what are some other ways I could retrieve the files back from my hard drive? Thanks in advance.

Scanning XBox disc for bad sectors

Aanidaani — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 14:37:26 -0800

Is there any software (preferably for OSX) that I can use to scan a used XBox disc for bad sectors? The format is DVD, so I suppose a normal DVD scanning program could do the job. I just want to be sure that the whole game works before my guarantee expires and I'm unable to return it.

What are good resources for teaching the DISC Inventory?

4ster — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 09:25:47 -0800

What are good resources for teaching the DISC Inventory? I need to teach a two-hour course on the DISC inventory to a group of my colleagues, and I am looking for the best resources to prepare me for this. My goal is for them to use it as a self-examination tool to help them as leaders.

I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the DISC, but I am afraid of not having enough good material to make the most of the time.

Also, participants will have taken the DISC prior to coming to the class.

I am looking for anything that works: videos, Powerpoint, books, role playing, etc.

Thanks for your help.

Disc Golf Basket, purchase or DIY?

dontrockwobble — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 08:08:42 -0800

Are there truly no free plans for a DIY portable disc golf basket on the Internet? How do the fold-up portables hold up over time if you actually fold them up and transport them? I have recently become enthusiastic about disc golf, and I am generally familiar with the various online resources like PDGA, discgolfreview.com, etc. Now I am looking for a practice disc golf basket that I can use in my back yard as well as take on car-camping trips.

I know there are two basic types of portable disc golf baskets:
- those somewhat heavier types that break down into 2 or 3 pieces for bulky transport in a back seat or trunk,
- and those that fold up like golf umbrellas and are carried to the back seat or trunk in a shoulder bag.

A few reviews exist on the Internets, and the folks at Teepad have a decent feature comparison chart, but I am not in a location where I can see and touch any of these models before making a purchase from them or anyone else.

Part of me wants something for home use that’s as close as I can portably get to one of the pro baskets at the typical courses, but another part of me keeps imagining trying to stuff something in the nearly full car when heading to the campsite. Since I will want to fit it in (or on the roof rack of) my Accord wagon along with a weekend’s worth of camping gear and 2 passengers, I may have settled on the DGA Mach Lite.

…

But another part of me is intrigued by the lack of (free) plans for a good DIY portable on the Internet, if that is the case. So I may or may not ever make one of my own, but I have been dwelling on which parts I would use if I were set on making my own durable, sturdy, and this is the approach I will likely eventually take:

BASE & POLE:
Fisher-Price or Little Tikes adjustable indoor/outdoor basketball goal. You can fill the base of these with water or sand, and they should withstand even the most killer of putts. (Remove the backboard and goal.) Extend it to its fullest height, and I think you’ve got a killer pole for a portable disc golf basket.

BASKET STRUCTURE:
Plastic garden border is usually available in black, green, or terra cotta from local home improvement / landscraping outfitters. This stuff is light, but should be durable enough to be used as the frame of the basket (top and bottom parts of the basket). You could cut the garden border to the proper lengths, leaving an extra inch or two for some bolts to be used to fasten the ends together, forming a hoop. Use one hoop for the top and another for the bottom.

CHAINS & BASKET ASSEMBLY:
Drill holes through the hoops and place eye bolts through the holes at regular intervals around the circumference. Get some lightweight chain from a home and garden center, and run lengths of chain from the eye bolts on the top hoop of the basket to the appropriate eye bolts on the bottom hoop. (I am thinking yellow plastic links I have seen on a spool in Home Depot.) You could use a series of caribiners to form an inner chain that would make a kind of collar that is used to pull the main chain system inward (toward the pole) as it travels down from the top to the bottom.

QUESTIONS:

Does anyone have advice about the use and durability of the DGA Mach Lite, or any constructive advice about a portable disc golf basket solution? Will the bases withstand semi-regular, careful transport?
- Has anyone ever used an Innova Traveler? It’s an alternate fold-up basket solution, but I have reservations about the shape and durability.
- Has anyone seen completed plans, ideally for free, that are similar to a portable basket like I am thinking about above?
- How do you think I should best mount the basket assembly I described to a base and stand like the Fisher-Price basketball rig?

disc cleaner

lilboo — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 19:19:59 -0800

Do these disc repair machines really work?

Cosmos Osmos

supyo — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 12:43:16 -0800

There is a vintage game called "Cosmos Osmos" for the old Mac OS and would be loaded with several floppy disc's. I have searched all over the web (including mac garden and googleing) and have been unable to find ANYTHING regarding the game. It was surely at least 15 years ago from when I owned the game and was when Mac's owned the computer world. Help find information or even the game.

Mount error

klangklangston — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 08:48:41 -0800

Failure to mount (error 35)? Help me Mac-xors! I have a 300 mhz G3 running 10.2.8. I have two hard drives, one a 6gig boot drive, the other a 18gig media drive. Two things seem to be off, and I'm not sure what exactly to do. It could just be me being a sub-moron.
The first thing is that programs don't seem to install, but rather stay as .dmg files. The second is that when I try to mount these .dmg files, I get error 95, a "failure to mount." This doesn't happen every time I start the computer, but it seems to be happening more often, and it's a pain in the ass (I can't use my POP mail). I've repaired the permissions file on the boot disk and restarted, which has worked in the past but didn't work this time (also, occassionally just repairing the permissions will do it. I'm also not quite sure why it seems to repair the same permissions every time it repairs them, but oh well).
What should I do next? I can rustle up the install discs for OSX again, but it'd be kinda a pain. If I delete Thunderbird and redownload it (assuming the disc image is corrupted or something) will that wipe the messages that are in the Library?
Thanks in advance.

Old Tyme Songs about Revenge

freshgroundpepper — Sun, 14 Aug 2005 23:21:54 -0800

Having recently fallen in love with the Decemberists' "The Mariner's Revenge Song" I'm inspired to create a mix disc of songs about revenge by modern groups with an old tyme feel. I've come up with a few other songs that are perfect, but need help completing the collection. Ween's "Buenas Tardes Amigo" is a perfect fit. A fantastic song about revenge with a twist at the end.

"Rocky Raccoon" by The Beatles is another song I've loved for years about failed revenge.

Other potential songs that I've thought about are "Gallows Pole" by Led Zeppelin (not quite a revenge song, but it does have somewhat of the feel that I'm looking for) and "The Cask of Amontillado" by Alan Parsons Project, definitely a revenge song, but not quite the right old tyme feel to the music.

Hopefully the scope that I've picked isn't too narrow. I think these types of songs tend towards the longer side (the Decemberists' song is close to 9 minutes) so another 5 or 6 songs and I should be set.

Anyone have songs that they think would fit?

DVD Storage Solutions?

folktrash — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 16:28:51 -0800

What are some good ideas for storing 1K+ dvds? Should be re-sortable, minimal wear on discs, and remain easy to access. Currently I'm using books that hold 96 dsics. They are a good grouping size (Animation, Sci-Fi, Classics) but they are getting unwieldy, plus it's some wear on the discs to get them in and out. I've seen some nice little mini-filing cabinets that have hanging files big enough for a disc, but there as got to be an awesome option I just haven't found... mefite powers activate!