Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with left

Up, up, down, down...

LSK — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:58:02 -0800

Having an issue with a dance mat on PC - down button works, but left + down and right + down don't. I'm using Red Octane's Ignition 3.0 dance mat (for Dance Dance Revolution games) on Windows Vista using the USB plug. While all individual buttons operate properly, if I press left and down at the same time, or right and down at the same time, only left or right (respectively) is read by the computer. Is this an issue with the hardware itself or is it something that can be addressed within the OS?

It should be noted that this isn't the more common opposite-axes issue; left + right works properly, as does up + down.

I need to Shift into a higher plane of typing!

brenton — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:10:43 -0800

I am looking for a typing program that will force me to use the right shift key for left hand letters, and the left shift key for right hand letters. When touch-typing, I have the bad habit of only using the left shift key. With intense focus, I can use the right shift key for letters on the left, but after trying many times to force myself to do this, I always find I am reverting back to my old ways (it's faster in the short term, slower in the long run).

I really want to correct this flaw before I go to grad school and start writing Truly Long Papers. But every typing program I can find fails to distinguish between the shift keys. Does anyone know of a program that is shift-specific?

I am not even sure if keyboards send a different key-code for the different shift keys. If this is the case, then I am determined to hack a keyboard and then hack an open-source typing program to do this... any suggested starting points?

Clowns to the right of me, Jokers to the left...

prufrock — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:31:05 -0800

I cannot tell right from left. Is this normal? So, ever since I can remember I have had trouble with the concept of Right and Left. I'm good at spatial recognition and general directions, but when it comes to Right-ness of Left-ness of things, I have had, upon occasion, to look at my hands and orient my thinking based on where Left of a certain place should lie.

For instance, a few moments ago I was putting on my earphones and it took me 2 seconds to realize where the earphone marked 'R' should go.

This is a minor quirk and doesn't impede my life in any way(except being an annoying RoboRally player). I was just curious if there is a name for this condition and whether other people experience it as well.

I'm right handed, if that matters. And I'm pretty sure I'm not dyslexic.

Funnily enough, googling for this, I found an article that talks about a discussion at MeFi. But I couldn't find it.

Should a righty become a lefty again?

gwpcasey — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:12:19 -0800

Should a left-handed person forced, as a child, to be a right-handed person teach himself to be left-handed as an adult? A relation of mine was forced, innocently but ignorantly, to use his right-hand over his naturally predominant left hand. I only found this out recently and the guy has some difficulties in various areas of his life and it made me wonder if this might have something to do with it.

In any event, is there any benefit in this guy (now in his mid-30's) learning to write etc with his left hand? Scientific, anecdotal and completely baseless opinions are all welcome.

Thanks.

Help me build a library of lefty kids books

RajahKing — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:55:08 -0800

Do you know any good left wing propoganda for toddlers? Please help me identify some lefty / liberal children's books appropriate for a 3 year old (and up as I have noticed she tends to get older every day).

I have a 3 year old daughter, we read a lot of books together. Her mom and I are committed to progressive political action and would like to introduce some cool, fun, lefty books to the collection. We have a handful, but I'd like to expand. I am thinking about books that discuss race, class, struggle, civil rights, gender issues, environmentalism, etc. We are well to the left of the American mainstream, but we'll take liberalish stuff too.

One request - please no political critique, I promise I'll still read her stories from a variety of perspectives. We let her watch Wonder Pets and Dora, so don't worry.

No, the other left!

Listener — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:20:11 -0800

Need to overcome problems with opposites like right/left, before/after, above/below. My friend is hoping to overcome his maddening behaviour of making mistakes with opposites, not just left and right. It seems to be a problem with the words, whether written or spoken. He just flips them often. We've practised with body left/right hand, direction, and things in the environment, but I wonder if there are some good tips or even learning resources that would help with this. He actually probably missed out on a job because of confusing something/nothing in a written instruction, so he now realizes he has to get a grip on this thing. He even sometimes makes up an opposite where none exists, by adding or removing a negative prefix. He's not mentally or linguistically weak; in fact he's very good in more than one language and with complex abstract subjects in computing. Just lousy with basic opposites. Your suggestions appreciated.

Who's right (of-way)?

mrnutty — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:27:33 -0800

Who has the right of way in this situation? There's a north-south street crossing an east-west street. The north-south street has stop signs. The east-west traffic does not stop. A car (car #1) approaches from the south intending to turn LEFT (westbound), but has to wait for the east-west traffic to clear. While waiting, another car (car #2) pulls up from the north at the southbound stop sign, intending to go straight. So who goes first, 1 or 2? Some people think that, because car #1 arrived at the intersection first, car #1 has right-of-way over car #2.

Other (crazy) people say that the car going straight (car #2) always has right-of-way, even if they arrived after car #1. But in that case, an endless line of southbound cars would mean car #1 would never have right-of-way.

(I'm specifically interested in Oregon, but reading the Driver's Manual didn't yield (ha!) an answer)

Help me manage my people collection.

Naberius — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:38:22 -0800

I seem to have a very particular social skills deficit. Can you suggest software that might serve as a kind of brain prosthetic for me? I like people - I really do. But I'm an introvert. And, for lack of a better word, I just lose people if they don't get in my face on a regular basis. I want to maintain relationships, but I just lose track of people and before I know it months have gone by and the friendship has atrophied. A lot of my interactions with friends are sort of "yeah, sorry I haven't been in touch, how are things going with you? I'll try to be better about that." Over and over again.

Also I'm in a field where the ability to network is quite important and because of this particular issue, I really suck at it. Basically I seem to be able to keep up with only a very small inner circle of friends - smaller than most people's - and everyone else drops off into that outer circle of contacts or acquaintances, whether I want them to or not. Sometimes they are hurt. More often they just realize they're having to put in most of the work to keep the connection running, while I'm not really holding up my end, and they let things drift off.

Its occurred to me to wonder about contact management applications like ACT. I gather salespeople use them to manage social connections with more people than our primate brains could normally deal with. But I don't really know much about them. What do they actually do? Would they be useful for me? Or perhaps there's some other kind of application that could basically keep a database of people I know, track how long it's been since I did something to keep that particular plate spinning and prod me to give so and so a call or an email or something? What would you suggest?

Will my head explode if I wear my earphones the wrong way round?

grumblebee — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 13:01:43 -0800

stupid question: why are there left and right stereo speakers? Okay, I understand (and appreciate) that there are two sets of sounds and that they're separated in space. But I don't get the specificity of left and right. On my headphones, one speaker is labeled L and the other is labeled R.

Several times a day, I start to put them on without first checking that I'm matching the speakers to the correct ears. Then I realize what I'm doing and check the labels. Part of me feels like it's a good thing I'm doing this; another part of me feels like a lemming, mindlessly following directions to march off a cliff.

Would it make any difference if I listened to L with my right ear and R with my left ear? When I've boldly (and guiltily) done this, I haven't noticed any difference. Is this because L and R are bullshit labels? Or is it because I'm not a sophisticated enough listener to appreciate L and R? Would a real audiophile exclaim, "What's going on? Why is the string section on the right?!?"

Right of way?

mphuie — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:08:14 -0800

Traffic question- Who has the right of way? Situation - left turn onto larger streets (that have a middle turn lane).

Who has the right of way?

1. Cars that use the middle turn lane as a stepping stone to stop and wait to merge into regular traffic.

2. Cars that take the turn into the correct lane.

I almost got into an accident yesterday because I was taking a turn into the left driving lane and someone that was stopped in the turn lane decided to merge into traffic at the same time. If there was a collision, who would be at fault? (The street had a 35 mph speed limit)

Book on the US New Left in the '60s?

patricio — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 11:02:22 -0800

Can anyone recommend a good history of the New Left in the US in the 1960s? If possible I'd prefer a broader overview than a narrow focus (e.g. not a book that only deals with the SDS or Port Huron statement).

"No trucks over 6 wheels in left lane."

LordSludge — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 09:57:19 -0800

Ambiguous signage-filter: "No trucks over 6 wheels in left lane." On the interstate around here (upstate SC), there are signs that state, "No trucks over 6 wheels in left lane." Obviously, this includes 18 wheelers, but does it include, say, a dually pickup (6 wheels) towing a trailer (2-6 wheels)? What about a car pulling a 4 wheeled trailer?

I guess what I'm asking is: What is considered a "truck" in this context? Is it strictly limited to semis? Does it include pickups and busses? Or does it include any vehicle? Or is it one of those intentionally vague laws that is left up to the discretion of the police officer?

Pain on the left side when breathing in

lundman — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 22:38:12 -0800

Breathing-in feels like your lung is snagging on a rib.. .. when I was younger, I used to get this situation, where if you filled your lung to about 80% capacity (or more) there would be pain, on the left side, like it was like the lung was stabbed on the ribs or similar. Generally on the left side, around the area of the first to third rib (counting from the bottom). Would not last very long (minutes, for me), and was more an irritation that anything else. If you breathe shallow there is no pain.

This has since then stopped happening for me, sometime around my late 20s, but my brother still gets it, and sometimes seems quite bad (enough to take painkillers). I have my gallbladder pulled out around then, but I assume that isn't related.

I know my brother had an Ultrasound scan, but it came up empty. Anyone else have any ideas of what kind of checks he could do?

What Progressive People should I interview in DC?

By The Grace of God — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 15:47:37 -0800

I'm headed to Washington, D.C. shortly for a few weeks, to conduct interviews for my book of interviews with innovators on the Left. Got any suggestions for folks I should attempt to interview while I am there? I'm interviewing Congressman Dennis Kucinich and cartoonist Matt Wuerker among others. Other subjects for the book include cartoonist Harvey Pekar, SF author China Mieville, Amy Goodman, etc. Techno-progressives like the BoingBoing crowd are also eminently bookworthy.

Can women tell left from right?

Masi — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 15:28:51 -0800

Do women find it more difficult to immediately distinguish left from right than men? Some of my female friends find it difficult to grasp in a fast manner which is the right side and which is the left one, and thus they usually cheat by clenching one fist or using some mental shortcut.

Has any of the feminine users around here ever had this problem, and if so, did you find out what the cause was? Was there a fix ?

I suspect this awkwardness is due to the difference rooted in our incipient stage, when men used to hunt and thus had better orientation, but still I cannot explain how something as obvious as knowing left from right can elude some of my (otherwise very intelligent) female friends.

Thanks for your help