Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with hidden

1980s book with hidden treasure if you solved the mystery inside?

squid patrol — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:35:24 -0800

I'm struggling to remember the title of a book I read in the 1980s, which had a real-world twist: hidden within the narrative was the location of a spot in the USA where some sort of treasure or reward money was located. The only images I can come up with -- based on fuzzy memories of the book's title and/or cover -- would be: necklace, silver, moon, locket. And for some reason: rabbit.

The prize was somehow thematically linked with the book's content - that is to say, I think the plot involved some hidden treasure.

Any ideas? My memory was jogged by Everything is Terrible's recent post about a low-budget VHS noir with the same hook, but this book was much classier. If it helps, by the time I read the book (mid 80s?), the mystery had been solved and the prize located and dug up. Thanks!

72 hours for Venice's secrets, aiutiamo noi per favore

avocade — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:04:05 -0800

I'm going with my family down to Italy from around Oct 18-30th, including a week at a farm house in Ancona (looking forward to that, for sure!). We'll also be in Venice for around three whole days in the beginning and end of the trip (we fly in/out from Venice). So, considering our short stay, what are some hidden, secret, word-of-askmetafilter stuff that we should seek out, apart from the touristy gondolas and San Marco, etc, etc?

I for one often find that I discover a new city best by just spending hours walking around (flaneur, n'est-ce pas?), and that's what I plan to do. Just give me a first goalpost and I'll do the rest.

No links to any fancy NYT Travel articles, please... :)

Can I auto-expand a bunch of Javascript message toggles

Kirklander — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 15:19:57 -0800

I'm trying to archive, in PDF form, a series of Web pages where the content won't expand unless I click "more" dozens and dozens of times to reveal each hidden item. Is there some time-saving Firefox add on--or other tool--that could do this for me automatically? It's a Javascript thing... In code terms, the full content is all there in the source code (maybe I ought to just give up and save as HTML--what do you think?) but hidden via a Javascript gimmick.

Each of the many items on the page is concealed from view using a Javascript "onClick" attached to the links. When you click the link it runs a .js script called "toggleMessage," which gets the ID# of the item and then opens it. What I am envisioning is some sort of Firefox Web designer plugin where I could tell it the name of the script and it would go run it for me, expanding every panel.

Is this something Firebug, for example, would do?

Here's the script.

function toggleMessage(id)
{
var span = document.getElementById('msg'+id);
if (span.style.display == 'none')
{
// hide the more link
document.getElementById('msglink'+id).style.display='none';
// show the div
span.style.display = 'inline';
// show the less link
document.getElementById('msglesslink'+id).style.display='inline';
// switch the image
document.getElementById('image'+id).src=img_open;
}
else // it's already showing
{
// hide the less link
document.getElementById('msglesslink'+id).style.display='none';
// show the more link
document.getElementById('msglink'+id).style.display='inline';
// hide the span
span.style.display = 'none';
// switch the image
document.getElementById('image'+id).src=img_closed;
}
}

Help me detect hidden cameras/microphones

kampken — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 06:33:12 -0800

Help me to detect hidden cams/microphones in a room. I have reason to believe that my friend's house has been bugged by her ex-husband and im looking for easy ways to find and remove these bugs. It may sound a bit paranoid, but there have already been other examples where he has tried to "track" her. First by putting a tracking program on her cellphone, and then by putting a GPS-tracker in her car. He then proceeded to follow her around and she involved the police at this point. He just got a warning and the devices were confiscated.

Now we have reason to believe he's at at it again. He's showing a eerie knowledge of what hours of the day she is home in, and information about personal matters he can't possibly know. Hence the suspicion that her home may be bugged with cameras or microphones. (i've checked her cellphone which is clean).

I've seen some detector devices on the internet, how effective are they? Example: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/5a42/
And is there any other method to detect them? Im guessing the microphones are sending out low-frequency noise and the cam must be using some other wave-length emissions i can somehow detect. Also if its wireless there's bound to be some RF noise.

Thanks in advance

Hey, the grafitti on the rooftop of 111 S. Anderson, is the most creative in town!

sixcolors — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:10:14 -0800

What are some places "off the beaten path", I can explore in urban environments? For photography, and my own amusement. I know the term "off the beaten path" is usually associated rural or more remote places. That's not really my interest right now, especially that it is 20 degrees outside.

I am interested in finding places in a city that are hard to access and/or places that few people know about. If it helps, I am in southern Illinois, so the two largest cities I am near are St. Louis and Chicago. But, suggestions from any city would be fine, because I can probably find something similar here or I can keep those suggestions in mind when I travel to other parts of the country.

It can be buildings, special rooms/areas in buildings, alleys, tunnels, whatever. Occupied or vacant. A general place (I heard that NYC has several secret bars) or something specific (the St. Louis City Library has an area where the floor is made of glass).

Urban exploration, in the form of exploring tunnels and abandoned warehouses are out. I did those things in college, and now I'm looking for something new.

Commented Out Text Bad?

pixelnark — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:35:23 -0800

/* Is a lot of commented out text bad for a home page? */ When content is no longer being used on the home page, we are told to comment it out instead of removing it. Are there potential downsides to doing this besides there being a lot of extra code that must be downloaded? And besides the fact that is messy, extraneous, and somewhat unprofessional.

The content being commented out are modules that have sales which are no longer valid or current.

Find and delete hidden files on Mac

wavejumper — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:12:33 -0800

Help me find and delete hidden files on my Mac! I've been using the program Graphics Converter to try to make a large .MOV slideshow out of 1500 JPEG images. It keeps crashing because it runs out of disc space (I think that's why anyway), and then I end up with even less hard drive space available...it's leaving hidden temporary files behind. I've narrowed them down to somewhere in my System folder...about 13 gigs worth, but I can't actually see them. How do I locate them and clean them out?

Do burglars read AskMeFi?

DB Cooper — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:09:19 -0800

What is your most ingenious hiding place for valuables? I am looking for suggestions for where to hide items such as cash, jewelry, spare car keys, etc. I know about hollowed-out books and fake cans of shaving cream, but I would like to hear some other creative examples that are not so well-known.

Ooh, what's inside there?

sixcolors — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:43:46 -0800

So what's inside areas that are closed off to the public, in buildings? I know places like hospitals have certain areas that are closed off to the public because they are morgues, have hazardous materials inside, or whatever...but there's other places I have trouble guessing why they restrict access.

Some examples:

On my campus, the library, business, and education buildings have areas where students and sometimes faculty aren't allowed. Same thing with the dorms, but it is even weirder. Some of the stairwells are locked. Isn't that a fire hazard? One of the dorms obviously have a fourth floor, yet no one lives up there, and you can't get there from the stairs or elevator.

Not too long ago, I looked at the floor plan of my favorite casino, and noticed that there was at least five rooms that didn't have a number or name.

As for elevators...I sometimes see keyholes instead of buttons on certain floors. It's usually the very top or very bottom floor(s).

I don't know if this is urban legend or not...I heard that the 13th floor in some buildings aren't open to the public. Superstitious much?If that's true, what's there?

how can I write with windows default system font ?

Baud — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:37:05 -0800

how can I write with "Marlett" windows XP default system font ? Calling all the typography geeks :

Acording to my google-fu, every time you read "File", "Edit", "Submit" in Windows XP default theme, you are using marlett.ttf, a font shipped with windows but hidden in windows Fonts directory.

Can someone confirm it's the font used on the "submit" and "cancel" buttons ?

Now...

1) I can't check the settings box that would allow me to see the hidden files in this windows/fonts directory. How can I make this box checkable ? How can I see the hidden files in this particular directory ?

2) Once I can see this hidden file, can I use it as any other font (Arial, Times New Roman, etc.) ?

Where is the list of hidden folders kept?

jon4009 — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:24:22 -0800

Mac OS X filter: In terminal, if I go to / and ls, I see a bunch of folders that are hidden in Finder, for example /etc, /private, /sbin, and so on. How do I add a folder to that list? In the dark recesses of my memory I remember there being some kind of file somewhere that contains a list of the paths that the Finder should hide, but my Google-fu is failing me and I can only find people telling me how to turn ON the "show hidden files and folders" option, which isn't what I want at all!

If you care, it's because I have a /sw folder that Fink created, that I want to be hidden too. Any pointers greatly appreciated.

Alright, I'm saving tons on rent but now what am I going to do?

hector horace — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:53:57 -0800

I just moved to Verdun, (Montreal), Quebec. Any current or former inhabitants have any hidden gems they can share? I'm thinking of things along the lines of nice pubs, good groceries etc etc. (and, Yes I know there isn't going to be a lot of "gems")

Thanks

The Case of the Missing Paragraph

dubadubowbow — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 14:33:11 -0800

I was trying to click and highlight a couple of lines of text in Firefox and the whole paragraph disappeared. What just happened? According to the source code, the paragraph tag became "visibility: hidden".

I was just clicking and dragging and pressing CTRL, maybe in some weird combination; it happened in Firefox; and on refresh it reappeared.

Sooo... what was it?

bra strap

transona5 — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 09:53:42 -0800

How to keep bra straps from showing without safety pins? I have a few shirts with somewhat wide necklines that sometimes expose my bra straps if I move around. Is there any way to keep the straps attached to the shirt that's less obtrusive than safety pins and less permanent than sewing?

Poetry about Secrets, Hidden Places?

Staggering Jack — Fri, 11 May 2007 19:16:38 -0800

Poetry about secrets, hidden things, hiding places? Lately, I've been making hollow books for gifts. I'd like to paste poems that deal with secrets, hiding places, and the like into the back of the hollowed out section for decoration. Any recommendations for some cool lines? Thanks.

Where's that flavor hiding?

2bucksplus — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:43:54 -0800

What's the original of the phrase "that's where the flavor is hiding"? The first time I remember hearing the verb "to hide" used to describe "flavor" was in the episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force (Oct. 2003):

http://www.tv.com/aqua-teen-hunger-force/revenge-of-the-trees/episode/271074/summary.html

What's the first known usage of this phrase, or more acurately when did "flavor" first "hide"?

Where did my Picasa hidden photo information go?

grouse — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:41:54 -0800

I restored my Picasa data from a backup after a crash. Now none of the previously hidden photos are still hidden. Can I recover this automatically somehow? I had a hard drive crash and had to restore my Picasa 2.2.0 (Build 28.20.0) setup from backup. I used Windows backup, not the Picasa backup, and just restored the following folders:

%UserProfile%\My Documents\My Pictures
%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google
%ProgramFiles%\Picasa2

Certain information (crops, captions, stars) is still attached to my photo library. However, all of my hidden photos have been unhidden. Is there a way to restore my data keeping the hidden photos hidden? I would hate to go through them one-by-one again.

Related: I like to take a lot of pictures, including multiple exposures of the same object. Obviously I don't want these all showing up in my album, so in the past I've picked the best and hidden the rest. So there's many hidden photos involved. A friend of mine uses the star feature instead (whereas I've used it just for my about 10 or so favorite photos ever), only exporting photos that are starred.

Do you have a suggestion as to which of these methods is better? Obviously stars seem to be a bit more resilient to backup and restore.

I previously asked these questions here and here. I didn't get many responses, so I'm hoping against hope that AskMe will come to the rescue.

Stop OSX from creating .DS_Store

odinsdream — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 19:51:37 -0800

How can I set Mac OS X so that it doesn't create .DS_Store, .Trashes, and ._* files on USB drives I work with? I have several USB drives that are all formatted as FAT32, so that I can exchange information with Windows systems.

I'd like to stop OS X from creating these hidden files, since they certainly aren't hidden to Windows. It's even worse when the USB drive is a friend's, and they've never heard of resource forks. What settings can I adjust to stop this?

Is it legal to eavesdrop on someone with a hidden camera placed in their home?

Astragalus — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 10:48:29 -0800

For reasons that don't particularly make sense I believe that someone is spying on me with a camera hidden somewhere in my room. Ignoring for a moment the fact that I'm clearly nuts, what exactly would the law be on this (I live in the US)? I know what a cliche it is, but recent talk of the beloved patriot act has made me realize that I don't even know if it would be illegal for someone to slither a camera into my bedroom and ride the thrill of my oh-so-exciting bedroom existence. What could I do? If they were really sadistic a well placed speaker and night vision would make for some high comedy as my sanity crumbled into pathetic little bits before their eyes.

Hidden Speaker Wires

aspenbaloo — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 08:14:58 -0800

I just got a new TV and a six speaker home theater audio system. The front and satellite speakers are small and sort of designed to be wall mounted. I want mount them (at about chest level) without obvious speaker wires. Because there are six speakers there are at least four sets of speaker wires that have to travel to the sides and back of the room.

I also plan to put my old speakers in another room and have to run wires to another part of the house (40' or so away).

Any good hints on consolidating and hiding speaker wires?