Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with fast

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?

Which SSD drive to buy for fastest seek time?

bottlebrushtree — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:25:13 -0800

Which internal SSD drive to buy for fastest seek time? I use a piece of scientific software which has massive disk based binary database files (>100GB). The application does random seeks into these files looking for a match. It will do millions of seeks, but few long runs of "reads"

I'm looking to buy a SSD drive to speed up this application.

My requirements:
fast seek time
larger than 128GB
commercially available (e.g. I can get it consistently online)
under $1500US, but under $1000 is best
Will be used under Windows

How do you play card game: Bomb City

metadave — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:06:49 -0800

A couple sitting next to me on a plane were playing a fast two person card game that looked fun. I asked what it was called and they told me it was "Bomb City". Possibly I heard the name wrong. I figured I could easily look it up online and get the rules. No such luck. Does anyone know the rules for "Bomb City"? It was a two person game ( possibly more - I dont' know ), played with a deck of standard playing cards including jokers. I think each person started with three piles of two cards in front of them with the top one frace up. Each game seemed to take 5 or 10 minutes. Thanks in advance. - Dave

Drive Thru Turkey

ericthegardener — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:56:44 -0800

Is there a national fast food chain in the United States that sells a turkey-burger?

Lean and Mean

freddymetz — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:26:20 -0800

Help a skinny guy shape up! more after the jump! some facts:

i do some sports, used to jog almost every day (although in the past few weeks ive slacked off)

I eat a lot, but i dont eat healthily (i.e. no fruit and veg)
A typical week would see me eating meat pretty much every day with pasta or potatoes. Fast food (mcdonalds/burger king) is also consumed at least once a week . I drink a lot of unhealthy sugary drinks and fruit juices. Greasy meatloaf or full english for breakfast (ocasionally) .

I need a goal and results. Im pretty lazy, and slack off if i dont see results, but can get very motivated if it's a foolproof plan and i see results after a while.

Right now i want to put on some weight, yes also fat, because i look pretty skinny. I dont know if that's advisable, or if i should just look at starting with a tabula rasa and gaining muscle mass (which would probably be more difficult).

I have mild scoliosis, which affects my posture a bit and makes me slouch. I try to work actively against slouching by pushing my upper chest forward and my stomach in. is that the correct thing to do? I think gaining weight, especially muscle, would help my posture too, right?

I have a fast metabolism, i think, so what should i do guys?

NYC folks: What happened to the BAMN! automat?

querty — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:26:23 -0800

NYC folks: What happened to the BAMN! automat? I'm curious why it didn't work out for them... Wikipedia says it's been closed since March, but I just saw them featured on a TV show the other night (it could've been a re-run though); have they re-opened or re-located?

If they're totally done, then I wonder what happened to them/what went wrong. Maybe the lack of customer service? I think many fast food restaurants can be turned into vending machines, but at the same time, people want customer service; a face, a smile, a real person in front of the machine.

LA - Eyeglasses lenses in an hour (or a day)?

seeka — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:50:08 -0800

Where in Los Angeles can I get eyeglasses lenses (a fairly difficult perscription, at that) in an hour, or a day? Bought great frames at Old Focal's in Pasadena, but need lenses! ASAP! Thanks Meta!

How can I get rid of my craving for fast food?

elder18 — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:59:24 -0800

How can I get rid of my craving for fast food? In particular, I have a weakness for Nachos Bell Grande, even though I know they are terrible for me. Sometimes I want one so bad I can almost taste it.

Building a uber powerful gaming pc, need your help

spinko — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:03:44 -0800

Building a uber powerful gaming pc, what parts to buy as I don't want to be a sucker. Need your help. Intel Core i7 I currently own a Mac (macbook pro 4gb) for business, even through it is fast in bootcamp. I want better for MMO's and FPS games. This is strictly a gaming machine, and needs to be future proof. I haven't built a computer in 2 years, so I have gone abit rusty.

My budget is £2000 (~$3500) just for the box. I already have a 30inch Cinema display, so I want to play games at the natural resolution (2560 x 1600) with a good 60+ fps.

Here is my list of what I want.

CPU:
Core i7 940 (2.93ghz quad + hyperthreading) ~£470
I want to overclock this cpu as much as I can. I have seen this processor get to 3.4ghz with no problems. I will need a good Motherboard or fan to do this.

The extreme version, is it worth it?

Should I wait for a faster processor coming out in a few months?

HDD:
Raptor 300gb (10k rpm)
or
SAS Hdd's (15k rpm) I dont know too much about this, is it worth it?

Is their any benefit of having a solid state hard drive for bootup OS?

Im not too bothered about size, I don't need 1tb as I only need it for games (300gb max)

PSU:
750, 1000 or 1500 watt? do I need more power for overclocking? or is it just money down the drain.

Video card/s:
The new cards confuse me

SLI cards x2: Does this actually improve gaming performance, or shall I keep with a single 1gb graphics card? Nvidia or ATI?

Others:
Need a good Motherboard, memory (to match the mb) and video card.

Motherboard needs to be good for overclocking.

Also, I may go with Vista 64bit dual boot with XP 32bit. I have heard about something better than software dual boot. Cannot remember what it was.

Memory is limited to 3gb on XP 32bit, however can handle more that 3gb on Vista 64bit. Is it worth going for 64bit Vista for gaming or stick to 32bit non dx10 XP? (I went over to Mac due to Vista, last year for business).

Memory will have to match the top FSB if possible. Unless you cannot see any difference.

Anything extra that will improve performance?

Instead of building my own, could you recommend a pre-built spec. I live in Spain but go to the UK frequently. I know Falcon NW will ship to Spain for $400, but the benefit is the warranty, negatives are the power supply. However building it myself each equipment piece has warranty.

Thanks if you can help.

It must be the chemical that makes you crave it fortnightly...

QUHZK — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:20:00 -0800

Fast-Food-Filter: How can I find the closest KFC restaurant that serves my childhood favorites? After a sudden breakthrough in my internet searching (thank you surprisingly informative Wikipedia article) I now remember the names of my two favorite foods from when I was younger; Kentucky Nuggets and Chicken Littles, both from KFC.

I don't know if this is common knowledge, but apparently there can be a wide variation of what's on the menu at individual KFC's so much so that some mythical KFC restaurants may still serve my beloved Kentucky Nuggets or Chicken Littles.

So far the internet has revealed that the entire nation of Australia still has Kentucky Nuggets, as well as at least two US restaurants: one in Essex, MD and possibly one in Prestonburg, KY. Apparently there may be at least one KFC in CA that still serves the Chicken Little too.

My question is this -

What is the easiest way for me to get the Kentucky Nuggets (and/or the Chicken Littles) from my childhood back? Can anyone confirm or deny my internet findings? I'm ready to do some driving if necessary (OH, KY, and IN are all on the table).

My sliced apples are rusting!

TheyCallItPeace — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:00:49 -0800

How do Subway/McDonald's keep apple slices from oxidizing? I noticed that a few fast food places have, at one point or another, sold apple slices in little plastic bags. However, when I slice an apple up and don't eat it immediately, the fruit's flesh oxidizes quite quickly (a matter of minutes).

How can one avoid this oxidization? Are these fast food joints spraying the fruits with nasty chemicals?

Is eating a dollar burger from burger king and a cup of water healthier then not eating?

Nighthawk3729 — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:03:15 -0800

Is eating a dollar burger from burger king and a cup of water healthier then not eating? I've heard the best way to eat is by having 6 small meals a day. Sometimes I eat an apple, a yogurt, some carrots, maybe snack on a bag of chips. When I was coming home yesterday, I thought about getting a whopper junior and a cup of water. I usually have one if I'm going to be going out for a bit, just to tide me over, but this time I would be home in an hour and maybe eating again within another.

But I wonder, is it healthier to eat a dollar burger [it is protein with a dash of vegetables and bread] and maintain the 6 meal a day ideal, or is it that unhealthy. I don't usually eat fast food, but for a quick fix, is it healthier?

Laptop Brick Quick!

swngnmonk — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:46:18 -0800

Random shot-in-the-dark-question: A laptop brick for a 4-year old Thinkpad on short notice outside of Boston? I just checked into my hotel, realized I forgot my power brick, I have an hour of battery life - help! Thinkpad t41, a fast solution appreciated. Thank you!

Cheap, fast postcard printing in LA.

Thin Lizzy — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 08:59:51 -0800

I need to print 100, 2-sided, black and white postcards, preferably in L.A. The problem with these postcards is that I need them fast and cheap. For various reasons I don't want to print them at home. Vista Print can do them for about $30, but 3 day shipping is another $30. The places that are local to L.A. that I've googled cost about $60 without shipping, thus saving me no money at all. I realize that places like Vista Print drive down their prices by making you click through a million add-ons, but certainly I can do this quickly, cheaply, and locally. They don't have to be beautiful- the just have to get mailed.

What should I eat in the morning?

reenum — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:50:06 -0800

RamadanFilter: I'm fasting and I need to know what to eat so I'm not ravenous and faint by the sunset. I've been fasting for the last week and have been able to keep it up pretty well.

The one problem I'm having is with what I should eat in the morning. I've been trying to eat what I would normally eat during the day, but I find it's not enough. I drink plenty of water, but my blood sugar seems to dip really low by the end of the day.

I've been eating roast beef sandwiches, waffles, grapes, and turkey bacon. Sometimes I switch out the waffles for oatmeal.

So, I need suggestions as to foods that will keep my blood sugar up, or at least not make me feel as hungry.

I'm going to be fasting for Ramadan for the first time. Where do I start?

parkbench — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 07:12:08 -0800

I'm going to be fasting for Ramadan for the first time. Where do I start? I am not a Muslim, but I do not want to get into that in this question. Please humor me and do not tell me how much or how little I am missing the point of Ramadan, I would just like ceremonial instruction.

I have already been reading the Qur'an and different histories of Islam for a little while now--so I've got the 'edification' part down. I'm just wondering ritualistically what I'm supposed to do.

I know I will have to wake up before dawn to eat a light meal (what does this entail exactly?), and then fast until sunset/dusk (depending on Sunni/Shia...I think I'm going to stick with the former because it's more mainstream). Then I think there's some kind of small meal after each day's fast including dates and water.

Outside of that I have no idea. Is this the main thrust of it, besides any special days in the month? Are there any special days in the month that I should be aware of?

Because I will not be praying in any way I guess I'm cutting out a large portion of what I might occupy my time with. Of course I will try to be a Good Person (tm). But still--I am looking for little things I might have missed. I like the little detail of dates and water after a day's fast--are there other little ineffable experiences of Ramadan that I can approximate, however sloppily, on my own? That is to say, is there some thing that kids always do, or a place where people tend to congregate, or a particular item that tends to go on sale during Ramadan that I should keep my eye out for?

Essentially: I will be at school in Massachusetts and I will stick to it as vigorously as I can, though if I have a cigarette in the morning I do not think I will feel that I have transgressed. I am primarily doing this to put my feet in someone else's shoes.

(bonus question: fictional and non-fictional first-person accounts of Ramadan would be welcome)

Help me get an internet connection!

Cat Pie Hurts — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:19:21 -0800

Desperate for a quick solution for internet connectivity. I head up IT at my company. The company is moving to a new building tomorrow morning. The telecom company that we signed up with has royally screwed us, so we will have no internet (DS3) for 3 more weeks (we ordered this back in April). We have already delayed our move twice due to this issue and we can't delay anymore. The wireless provider we are currently with could move our dish in a few hours, but the new location has no line of sight to their tower. This also rules out any Pringles can wireless (too many TALL trees) so, screwed there too. This area has exceptionally poor cell service (all providers), so using EVDO or 3G to bridge the gap won't work. That leaves me with the only live communication ports available in the building: 2 POTS lines. Does anyone know of a dialup ISP that will provision a static IP? Or, some way to get DSL turned up FAST? If I can't get a static, I'll just setup dynamic dns.

We're moving all of our servers tomorrow. Mail is hosted in house. I would leave the mail server in the old facility until we have the new data line in, but the Exchange server needs the PDC for authentication, and I need to bring the PDC with me I'm a *nix guy thrown into the WIndows Server world, so I'm terrified of destroying the AD structure). So, I need SOME type of net connection so that we can, at the very least, get email flowing.

Sorry for the frantic nature of this, but this move is killing me.

Need for Speed

Vindaloo — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:05:33 -0800

What is the most powerful car you can buy for around $25k? A friend of mine loves fast cars and is looking to purchase a new car to replace his SUV. What he is looking for is a combination of good looks with great acceleration (top speed isn't a big priority, see speed limits). I was suggesting the Mazda Speed3, but he thinks there must be a better or more interesting choice available.

Here are the basic criteria:
- Total must be under $30k.
- Car must have a back seat.
- Car must be able to accomodate a fairly tall driver (6' 2")
- Car must be reliable.
- Preferably new, but interesting older models could be considered.

Basically he is looking for what could be described as a good car, but with fantastic performance. The price tag is what makes this challenging. What do you, MeFites, say?

Book 'em Danno

Iteki — Sat, 17 May 2008 05:18:01 -0800

Suggest an offline booking system, no wait... Suggest a one-click WAMP solution, no wait... Flash and flat files mebbe? Scroll right down to skip the rambling details and answer the short version of this question.

Situation:
I have 25 computers each handed out for up to an hour twice per am and twice per pm.
I have 500 users competing for these resources on a first come first served basis.
I am required to know who was using what computer when for legal purposes.

Present solution::
At present the doors open and people come and queue for a "ticket", we hand them the ticket for their computer and then choose their name from a dropdown in this excel file(screendump).
This was fine when there was 50 of them, but the list is getting a little nuts now, and we sometimes get a ticket back in less than an hour and so pass it out again, so there is a lot of farting around in the file basically. The only actual problem with this system (apart from it being insane!) is that it takes too much time.

Suggested solution?
We are looking at various long-term solutions, but in the meantime I need a better short-term one than the one we patched together above. I like the aspect of the physical tickets as people don't forget they have booked, and also it gives me a physical notification that they are done at their machine when they hand it back (I am not, nor want to be, deskbound). Giving each person a user-id and password is probably what the long-term solution will be, and installing some sort of internet-café/library software, but that's outside my perogative. I also like the aspect of having the userlist as I learn each persons name, and I also would like to use that to tie to some other aspects of the users account, for example "needs help" or whatever.

What I ideally want is to have a user-database with a few fields, and then drop it into a similar setup as we have, but where I can just start typing their name to get the list (as opposed to having to click in excel), and where I can see a clear visual representation of the entire fleet of puters and their status. I rekon I can do this myself easily as a web-based solution, but I absolutly cannot have this online, the userbase is confidential, and yet myself and my colleauge both need to be able to access it from our own computers at work. We have a common folder on the server where the excel file presently sits. Is that something I can do with xampp or easyphp or wamp5 or what? WITSuite looks like the smallest all-in-one solution, but is it safe to run like this and can it be run in the way I am describing?

I am also open to the thought of doing it in Flash as a standalone, and am also happy for suggestions of actual software to deal with this in a simple way, I don't want the bells and whistles that I have seen on some cafe/library/resourse management progs.

EXTREMELY SHORT VERSION
What is the smallest, best, lightest, oneclickiest version of a local WAMP solution that I can keep offline and run from a shared folder on our server for a simple ajax based site. Xampp, easyphp, WITSuite?

Should I reinstall XP?

Kiwi — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:38:37 -0800

Should I reinstall XP to speed up my laptop? After a couple of years of use, my laptop is starting to run a little slow. I've heard that uninstalling and reinstalling Windows XP and all other programs can speed things up dramatically. Is it worth the hassle of doing this? How long before it starts to slow down again?

A little quicker, self, if you please.

StrikeTheViol — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:26:18 -0800

Help me be faster...at everything. All my life, I've tended to be a little more deliberate than other people I know, working slowly, eating slowly, exercising slowly....I'd like to be faster. It's not really a question of energy or physical limitation...I can have an espresso quad shot and still be slower than some others. The only time I've really been lightning quick was when I felt in danger, but I'm not really sure I want to visualize that all day. Any suggestions, Mefi?

(P.S. Please no illegal drug suggestions.)

Fast user switching a pain with a Mac Mini

dance — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 05:03:10 -0800

Fast user switching on a Mac with a custom keyboard layout Hi,
I have a family set up with a new Mac Mini. Re-use of existing monitor, keyboard, mouse - everything works as advertised save colour calibration of the monitor.

The problem is, in order for the keys (e.g. the forward slash, tilde and @ symbols) to be correctly mapped to the keyboard button labels, I found it necessary to download and implement a custom keyboard layout. This works great - but as soon as fast user switching enters the fray, things go to pot. The appearance of the login window changes the current input language to the system default (Apple's version of a UK keyboard) and it doesn't then reset to the user's preference on login.

I have logged this as a bug with Apple but I have no idea how long they'll take in fixing the bug and I'd really like my users to be able to fast user switch. It's much more convenient for them.

Does anyone have any idea how I can get around this? Possibly with DoubleCommand? Is that a global or per-user solution, and is it still giving kernel panics under Leopard?

Thanks a lot!

I Can Haas Fast Ripened Avocado?

dancinglamb — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:36:16 -0800

Fastest way to ripen an avocado? I'm making Cobb Salad for lunch tomorrow for my inlaws. The only avocados I could find at the store were rock hard. I've got roughly 20hrs to get them to an edible consistency.

Googling around, I saw some theories on nuking them in the microwave for 30secs, brown paper bags, tops of refrigerators, apples, bananas, burying in flour (?!).

Help me Mefites. What's tried and true?

Oh, and if it makes a difference - I have them sitting on a windowsill, in a ziplock with some apples and very well ripened bananas. I figured it's better than nothing...

I'm fasting, help me from...slowing.

913 — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:35:02 -0800

I'm finishing off a 19 day fast and have only 3 days left. This week is a bit intense for me (2 exams and a lot of running around) give me some tips and tricks to power through. It's the Baha'i Fast and it's from sunrise to sunset. No eating or drinking during that time.

So far, it has gone really well, however, I find by around 1PM, I start to get a little tired and I will usually take a nap for an hour. The next few days are going to be a little intense for me and I won't be able to take a nap during the day.

I don't get up before sunrise to eat/drink (although I REALLY should), does anyone have any advice on how I can power through these next few days? You know, special things to eat or drink prior? Exercises to keep me going through the day, whatever you can think of.

Oh, I'm willing to get up early but the thing is, I go to bed really late and I don't know if shifting my entire schedule for 3 more days is going to help.

OSX: What should I put on my really fast RAID0 drive?

Caviar — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:44:47 -0800

OSX: What should I put on my really fast RAID0 drive? I have a RAID0 array in Leopard. What non-critical things (i.e.: if the drive dies, I don't care about restoring it) can I move there besides the photoshop scratch disk?