Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with modification

What do I want to do to this picture?

patnasty — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 12:40:57 -0800

I have a picture I want to modify in photoshop, and I'm sure there are relevant tutorials out there on the web, but I don't know how to describe what I want to do to it. Basically, I'd like to give it the illusion of depth -- make the back wall seem further away, and give it more of a sense of perspective, so you get more of a feeling of looking into a room, and less like you're looking at a flattened image of a room. Is there a term for that? Googling for photoshop and depth has turned up a lot of stuff about depth of field, but I don't think that's what I'm looking for. I'm not looking to make anything more or less focused, so much as alter the picture's perspective.

Also, I have the black + white original of the pic I linked to, so if it'd be easier to add the 3-D effect I'm looking for first, and then colorize it later, I could do that.

But I don't have a sideways scroll button!

saturnine — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:35:02 -0800

Is there a Greasemonkey script to turn side scrolling websites into up-down scrolling websites? I view a lot of photographer's websites. Or, I would, if it weren't for the current fad for putting all the images on one line and making me scroll sideways. [random example]

I don't have a scroll button that goes sideways! I do however, have Firefox with Greasemonkey installed. I've tried to google to find a solution myself, but I'm a relative newbie to using this extension and I don't know where to start. Does anything exist that could help me view these websites and not kill my wrists/eyes in the process? Is it logistically too difficult because of the variations in HTML/CSS etc? Please hope me!

Extreme (bus) makeover- ideas required

twirlypen — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 04:54:03 -0800

I have a bus. I'm going to take out most of the seats and convert it into a wonderful adventure machine. What are some wild and wonderful ideas for modifying a bus? This bus has 14 seats, but I'm thinking I'll take out 9, leave 5 at the front, and have a good chunk of space (about four metres long, two and a bit wide, two and a bit high) to play with. I'd like to have some regular camper-van things (something to sleep on, cook on, store things in, etc.) but I also want to do something fantastic with it. Something unique.

So far, I've thought of making the entire thing a sandpit (could be a bit heavy though), a swimming pool (not entirely practical), or a mini-golf course (fun, but wouldn't leave much room for other things). I'm also looking into building an aerial circus rig on the roof to hang a tissue or trapeze from.

Anyway, I'm looking for other wild ideas.

Also, I bought it from nuns. I don't know why that's relevant, but I feel like it needs to be said.

!@#$%

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:44:49 -0800

I need to stop swearing, speak more softly, and in general become a more "ladylike" (I hate that word) person. Please please help me. I am training right now to become a direct entry midwife. I have completed a lot of my preliminary training, and I am now ready to be an assistant to a midwife.

One of the most important things I need to be able to do is to respect the homes and decorum of women who I will be assisting. If I am letting f-bombs drop , I may make a woman who is laboring uncomfortable by my presence, and that's completely unacceptable to me.

I have to wrap up a CPR/NRP course and so I have about a month to go before I NEED to be good to go.

I've already made a casual effort to stop but I've had only minor success. When I get stressed or on edge, I end up breaking my resolution. I know birth has its moments that will be stressful, and I need to get a grip on this now!

The area I live in is very conservative/religious, so even "oh my god" is off the table.

One success I've had is I've replaced the f-bomb with "fudge" and "jesus christ" with "cheese and rice", but I'm worried these may offend people too.

Anyway, please help me AskMe, I'm open to anything (that doesn't cost a lot of money) to help me stop swearing!

Help me, internet, you're my only hope

Jon_Evil — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:09:24 -0800

Can I buy a copyrighted product (i.e., a toy), modify it for other uses, and then re-sell it? I have some household items I've made out of Star Wars toys, and I'd like to make more of them and sell them on the internet. I'm afraid George Lucas and an entire legion of his best lawyers await me.

My sense of justice says that since I paid for the toy the first time, I should be able to do what I want with it. Somehow, I get the feeling it's not that simple. What are the laws pertaining to this?

Were you a social-climbing, Mercedes-driving, industry hack in the 1990s?

AngerBoy — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 23:18:42 -0800

When I lived in LA a few years ago, I heard about a short-lived craze among status-seekers in the entertainment industry. Apparently, at the time, there were two models of Mercedes-Benz sedans that looked virtually identical. The only differences were the model number affixed to the back of the car - and the fact that one model was probably ten grand cheaper than the other.

So it seems that a couple of enterprising body shops were doing a brisk business in Mercedes modifications: young social-climbers would buy the cheaper model Benz, then bring it in to the shop, and for a small fee, the shop would swap out the logo on the back of the car for the one from the more expensive model.

Does anyone else remember this wonderfully typical LA story? I've been thinking about it forever but don't have any idea what the two car models in question might have been. Anyone know?

I might have read the story in the LA Weekly; I'm not sure. This would have been some time in the late 1990s.

fluffiest cake possible

cheemee — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:45:25 -0800

How can I modify a sponge cake recipe to make it lighter? Not in terms of fat content... i mean "air content"-wise. How do I make a cake as fluffy as possible? If you've tried birthday cakes from a Chinese bakery, that would give you an idea of the type of sponge cake I'm looking for. Very fluffy, very light, moist, not too sweet, very delicate. (NOT ma-lai-go, but birthday cake type sponge) I've been Google-ing for a recipe for this for YEARS with no results and had given up. Recently I tried again and found this very promising recipe. (My question is only about the sponge cake part) Just made it today with a couple small changes. Used cake flour instead of all-purpose and added 1 tsp baking powder, but it's still not nearly fluffy enough and it's VERY eggy.

Should I be adding more baking powder? And I was thinking to reduce the eggy-ness to use more egg whites and less yolks. That would probably help with the fluffiness too. But I'm afraid reducing the yolks would also take away the moisture from the cake. Maybe add more butter and milk to compensate? Might also try a different type of eggs if that might help? Used free range brown eggs, which I do find more eggy than restricted range (??) white eggs.

I'm planning on layering it with blueberry mousse, hence why I need to reduce the eggy-ness.

I also found it difficult to fold/blend the yolk mixture with the whites mixture. I ended up putting it in the oven even though it still had chunks of egg whites in it, as I had already lost a lot of the volume by this point and didn't want to lose anymore. So if you have tips for this, I'd gladly take them as well.

I've never truly modified baking recipes for structure before so am just totally guessing at this point. Or if anyone has a different recipe altogether, I'm open to trying that as well.

Thanks hive mind.

Mr Cringe-a-lot

monocultured — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:06:19 -0800

I'm getting a bit tired of my own cringing, and wonder how others have dealt with it. The way I understand the cringe is that it's an empathic reaction to the perceived awkwardness of someone else. Whenever I'm in a situation where I get this reaction I tend to leave the room.

I once walked into a poetry reading which was accompanied by a girl playing a small drum and dancing to the beat. My solution in that case was to unfocus my eyes (like those magic images where a dinosaur might appear) and go to my happy place.

Even pedestrian sillyness evoke this reaction. Some episodes of Frasier are almost que stage left for me, and the final concert scene in About a boy had me chainsmoking in the kitchen with headphones on. Not half an hour ago I was listening to This American Life about medieval themeparks, and yanked the plugs at the first "Welcome m'lady, I'm your knave for the evening."

I don't think is just me poopooing others, but regardless of my reasons I'd like to ween myself off of this behaviour. It's annoying to have near panic whenever someone decides that performance art is something that I should be subjected to.

So, do you recognize this behaviour and what are your suggestions for changing it to a point where I can get past my initial reaction of fear and loathing?

Please help me sell my home!

hamster — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:01:23 -0800

My mortgage payments are overdue and I have filed paperwork for a loan modification. I just accepted an offer on the condo, and it is due to close on June 26. What is the best way to get clear with the mortgage company before closing? I am in Minnesota, have owned the property for two years. I have two mortgages on the condo and had trouble paying--so they did a modification, and told me to focus on paying that instead of my much smaller mortgage.

Now that is in trouble, but they are reviewing it. I need everything to be free and clear so it can sell. I currently owe Aurora Loan Services $1,600 and will have that amount by June 26. What should I do?

Will they allow me to pay it all off at once in June? Can I pay half now and half later? I want to know what rules I am up against before I call them to figure this out. Thanks so much for the advice--it will be a relief to get out from under payments on the mortgage.

What caused the scars on the Dalai Lama's arm?

arcadia — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 02:20:11 -0800

What made the scars on the Dalai Lama's arm? Check this out:

http://www.lobsangwangyal.com/images/photos/2006/20061104-dalai_lama_teaching_miyajima-print.jpg

Does anyone know what made the scars on the Dalai Lama's right arm? Years ago I knew a Japanese Buddhist monk who had scars on his arm that had been made during a ritual that involved tying burning incense to his arm. Is there such a ritual in Tibetan Buddhism? Is that what made these scars?

Thanks.

Replacing the glowing apple on the lid of a Mac laptop

allterrainbrain — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 05:14:09 -0800

No-logo hardware mod: With what shape should I replace the glowing apple on the lid of a Mac laptop, and how? Nothing against Apple, I just like not displaying logos where possible. I'll be doing this with a MacBook Pro (then with other laptops, but focusing on MBP for this question).

I don't want to just cover up the apple with something solid; I want the light to shine through a different shape. So we're talking some flat, opaque material -- with a cutout in the new shape through which the light will shine -- attached over the existing apple shape on the exterior of the lid. (Internal mods wouldn't work here because I want to cover up the apple, which is visible on the exterior whether the light is shining or not.)

What material should I attach? Attached how?
The MBP's surface, aside from the apple, is "aluminum alloy" (haven't found specifics on % or materials), basically smooth but with a very slight brushed/textured feel. The apple is smooth hard plastic.

What shape should the cutout be?
I'm thinking simple, beautiful shapes (like a stylized sun or an abstract curve) rather than irony (no Microsoft logo/etc.). Remember I have only a small area of light to work with, basically a 1" diameter circle/apple (plus the mini leaf above the apple, if I want to use that).

And how should this shape be cut out?
I could cut it out myself, or I could find (or custom order?) a precut stencil in metal or plastic. I do have access to a Dremel and a drill press, but for aesthetics, my ideal would be a professionally cut stencil (unless I think of a custom shape I really love -- especially for the MBP which is mine).

Googling hasn't shown me any good techniques; the examples I can find all emphasize the apple rather than replacing it (colorful, inventive [semi-NSFW] or logical as they may be).

DIY Shower Curtain??

Medieval Maven — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 09:23:18 -0800

I'm going to do what seems to me to be a rather weird craft/decorating project, and I'm not 100% sure how to not screw it up. So, we're redoing our bathroom. Yay! But, because I can't make anything simple, I want to use two yards of this Marimekko fabric as an inset on a terry cloth shower curtain. The curtain is exactly two yards in either direction. The cloth will be ordered at two yards long and is 56 inches wide. I'm trying to decide between a couple of approaches, and having not done exactly this before, was wondering what crafty Mefites might do.

Approach 1: Measure and cut out in the middle of the shower curtain a hole to fit in the Marimekko, giving myself two inches or so on any side to sew together. Use the terrycloth left over to make curtains.

Approach 2: Hem the Marimekko and attach it to the shower curtain as is, either by sewing it on, or using some other method I haven't yet thought of. Stitch Witchery seems like a Bad Idea in this context, and I think Velcro might be a little ghetto, but I'm open to whatever here.

In any case, I want to keep the upper part of the curtain, where the grommets are, and I want to try to keep the lower hem, but could be talked out of that one. I have my own sewing machine, which is up to this task, and I figure I will use upholstery thread. Suggest away, crafty ones!

Branding with liquid nitrogen?

logicpunk — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:39:51 -0800

Any good sources of information on freeze branding for humans? I'm not big on body modding, but I'm interested in getting work done to remember a difficult period in my life. I've decided against tattooing or hot iron branding, but I can't find any good info about freeze branding except as applied to livestock. I'm looking for images of freeze brands after they've healed, descriptions of the process, the amount of detail and size of brands, body mod shops that actually do it or, failing that, advice for the do-it-yourself type.

Can I eBay a service that mods game consoles?

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2007 09:32:07 -0800

I'd like to start selling the service of modifying certain game consoles on a certain auction site. I'm not sure if the auction site will allow me to sell this service. I've read their rules for sellers and I seem to be in the clear there. Also, the modification itself is not illegal, and has real uses that are also not illegal.

The modification does also open up the possibility of some illegal activities, much as a VCR does. I won't engage in any illegal activities in the process.

I've seen services for sale on the auction site, like a notable one that repairs iPods.

Any caveats? Has anyone tried this? Does eBay have a history of throwing out console modifiers?

DaVinci or Darwin? How crazy is aesthetic gun modifcation for non-gunsmiths?

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 12:08:52 -0800

Gun modification safety: I'm a geek that likes to customize and modify gadgets. Can I extend this to guns and ammo, without killing myself, by taking great care and following reasonable precautions, or should I STOP RIGHT THERE! ARE YOU CRAZY!? More specific examples inside. I would look deeply into the safety and safe methods of doing something before performing it, but getting an overview here, of the safety/sanity beforehand of many different things, will help me decide whether to not bother, or to start that more serious learning.

I do not have a gunsmith background, and while I've grown up with guns, I've never been "into" them, eg never done my own reloading, never had a range membership, etc.

Like a computer case-modder, I guess I'm interested in style over substance (yeah, I know that's kind of dumb), so I'm not going to be trying to supercharge a gun, or convert a semi pistol to auto, or stuff like that. If anything I'd be reloading shells erring on the side of too little bang, rather than normal or too much.

So, some more specific indications of stuff I'd be likely to do, so you can tell me which are ill-advised or illegal:

(assume, say, a semi-auto pistol, state of WA, USA)

-Anodising, electroplating, engraving, etc various non-mechanical parts (eg the outside of the grip).

-The same, with mechanical parts, but not those critical to safe operation (eg modifying the ammo-clip, but not the firing mechanism). "Safe operation" does not mean reliable operation, it means will-NOT-blow-up-in-my-face operation, with the necessity for successful operability coming in a distance second. I'd prefer to accidentally render a gun useless than render it unsafe.

-Hacking electronic systems (eg those safety systems that render a gun inorperable unless the person is wearing a certain ring), to be triggered by a different authorization system.

Ammo modification (the danger-flag side):

-engraving or etching the brass? Before it's live of course. (From time to time I've seen people fire a shot that cracks open the brass, and I suspect engraving would make this occurance more likely. It didn't seem to be an injury risk, but I don't really know).

-Reloading... with various powders, or with additives in the powder? (eg, perhaps to make something smokier, NOT more powerful), and so loading a lighter-than-usual charge, to leave a higher safety margin to cover my ass for deviating slightly from the script.

-engraving/messsing with the bullet? Or even casting your own bullets? (reminder: for a modern pistol, not a black powder gun)

What kind of pistol/calibre/features would be a good choice for this sort of thing, primarily from a safety standpoint?

[posted anonymously because some workplaces these days get nervous when an office worker takes a sudden shine to guns.]

Spooky mobile?

jeribus — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 19:10:18 -0800

Glow in the dark art car? (more glowing inside) So, we got some cans of glow in the dark paint on clearance and now are trying to figure out ways to put it to use.

One thought was to paint ye olden decaying minivan up with it.

But I got to wondering about the legal aspect of this. Thinking to all of the cars around here that have wierd running blinking lights things on them and snazzy glowing wheel covers. Would it be legal for us to paint something on the van? Or if we found more cans just paint the whole thing?

We live in Minnesota, if different laws apply.

How to add an LCD?

Infernarl — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 15:10:59 -0800

CaseModFilter: I keep seeing pictures of people who have little monochromatic LCD screens in their computer cases. They scroll off different information like the temperature and stuff. I get the sense that you can have them display anything you want. How do you do that? Is there just a kit you can buy someplace? Or are these people, like, CE gods?

Preamp

ludwig_van — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 11:14:01 -0800

Guitar Modification: I have a Taylor 214 acoustic with a Martin Thinline Acoustic pickup, but no preamp. What sort of preamp should I get installed? The guitar didn't come with any electronics to begin with. I got the pickup installed, but didn't have the money to spring for the preamp. The guitar sounds great unplugged, but plugged into a PA it sounds very harsh, metallic, and unnatural. I'm not a gear/electronics expert, but I was led to believe that installing a decent preamp in the guitar will remedy this situation. What kind should I get? I'd like to spend as little as possible, but I really love the unplugged sound of the guitar and want to be able to preserve it when plugging into a PA.

Why does our cat pee on our clothes, and how can I stop her?

jennyb — Wed, 12 May 2004 11:05:01 -0800

CatPeeFilter: Why does our cat pee on our clothes, and how can I stop her? (more inside) We have three cats, one seven years old, one two years old, and one just a year old. We think it’s the youngest with the problem because whenever there are clothes on the floor or in a basket, she paws at them and hides in them and rolls around in them. Plus I’ve never had the joy of picking up a cat pee-soaked t-shirt off the floor until about six months after we got the little twerp. All three cats get along famously; they play and sleep and eat and snuggle together and show no sign of anger towards each other. We have two litter boxes which we unfailingly clean twice a day. All three cats were given clean bills of health at their last check up, which was a little under a year ago, and besides, the only place this peeing happens is on wadded up clothing. And only clothes on the floor or in a laundry basket. And never towels. Her aim just seems way to specific to be health related.

Obviously, we have stopped leaving piles of laundry around, and we have the luxury of a spare bedroom where we can keep laundry in its various phases, but we’re moving in a couple months and may not have a cat-free room where we can hide things.

She’s a weird ass cat in general, so I tend to think there’s nothing to do about it, but ask.mefi seems to do well with cat pee related questions so I figured, what the hell.