Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with nerd

Starfire Against Drugs!

eurasian — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 11:46:52 -0800

The New Teen Titans, back in the 80's, had an anti-drug comic which was absolutely horrifying/scarring/probably did what it intended to do WRT drugs and NOT DOING THEM. At least for me. Anyhoo, I seem to recall the cover being Starfire crying, on her knees, holding the body of a dead child, tears streaming down her face. There's a spotlight on her.

Was it ever a cover, or am I thinking of a page inside the comic? Googling only turns up the pretty tame cover with some guy who shoots bows and arrows. But apparently The New Teen Titans did a few anti-drug comics. Does anyone know the page I"m thinking of, and could they confirm if it was, in fact, not a title page but just a page inside one of the comics.

Why yes I am competing for most pocket-linty/nerdy question of all time.
, why do you ask?

Where to find tech-friendly fashion

lord_yo — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 13:31:33 -0800

Where can I find tech-friendly fashion that looks good? E.g. sweaters or hoodies that help you with headphone cables, storage for gadgets etc. Shouldn't be too exclusive or pricey. If you found something via search, let me know what terms you were looking for.

What would be some good rules for a robot golf tournament? And how many years before a golf-playing robot could beat a pro?

mnop — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 06:24:22 -0800

What would be some good rules for a Robot Golf tournament? And how many years can we expect to wait before a golf-playing robot could beat a pro? The more I think about it, the more the world could use a robot golf competition.
So, given the state of current technology, how well could a robot play golf?

1) From what I've seen online, there are a few bots designed to drive and putt golf balls... but has anyone ever attempted to have a bot play a full hole?

2) If a golf tournament were to be held for robots, what sort of rules would need to be established? What level of autonomy could be expected of them in the first competition?

3) The DARPA Grand Challenge was awesome, and there we saw bots go from failure to mastery in just a few years- could we expect the same thing for golf-playing robots?

4) Finally, how many years (decades?) do you think it will be before a robot could beat a pro on a full course?

Thanks for indulging me on this question... because seriously... golf playing robots would be totally awesome.
To me all of this doesn't seem to be a question of if it will happen (because certainly it will, how could it not?), but rather when.

Nerd action scenes?

zardoz — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:51:43 -0800

Best nerd action scenes? There's a great scene in "Apollo 13" in which Tom Hanks asks some sort of question involving math, and the NASA guys in Houston get busy with their slide rules and confirm the math, one by one. It's a great scene. It's nerds doing their thing, and because of the race against time, I would call it a true, genuine, irony-free action scene. With slide rules.

What are some other scenes in which the geeks save the day? There a billion movies with some geek typing frantically on a keyboard and saving the universe; that is the kind of thing I'm looking for, but it's so ubiquitous let's just take that trope completely off the table.

Hey look a Champion Tee with a Creeper face on it...

snapped — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:54:46 -0800

Is there any gear out there for Nerds/Geeks/Gamers/Etc who run/cycle/enjoy fitness? Ok, so now I'm totally into running and fitness and the myriad gear and apparel and such that goes along with it. I am seeking to marry that to my love of all things nerdy/geeky/etc, but am having a lot of trouble tracking down stores that offer such items.

I am NOT interested in Zazzle/CustomInk/etc type places that will plop a picture of a Stormtrooper or Cylon or something onto a dri-fit tee for $30. I noticed recently that Lucasfilm is offering some Star Wars Baseball/Basketball jerseys, which are not likely to be very practical for actual fitness activities.

I've found that searching for any combination of "running" + "nerd" or "geek" just returns results for people that are nerdy about running itself, which is still cool with me but not the specific thing I am looking for.

Allons-y, Alonso!

Lobster Garden — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:45:23 -0800

Why yes, this is a question about Doctor Who. I'm obsessed with Doctor Who and I'm tired of waiting for season 7 (argh!). Having watched every single episode that is on Netflix, I have now become intrigued by the Doctor Who radio dramas. However, there are a crap ton of episodes and I'm not really sure where to start or how they fit in to the show. Also, there seem to be different production companies--there's one called "SegalChord Production" that has Doctor Who podcasts on iTunes, and Big Finish Productions. Which ones are worth listening to and where do I begin? Please hope me!

What should I buy my brother for his birthday?

Lovecraft In Brooklyn — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 23:33:53 -0800

What should I buy my brother for his birthday? I have a brother who's impossible to buy gifts for, and it's his birthday soon. I know the following things about him: He's a computer programmer and website designer. He loves Apple products, The Simpsons, Futurama, and XKCD. His heroes are people like Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, and Dawkins style atheists/rationalists. He's a non-smoker and non-drinker. He's asked us not to get him a gift, but he's still my brother and I'd like suggestions for something more thoughtful than an iTunes gift card. My budget is pretty low, and he handles all his own tech shopping. Suggestions for quirky, fun or interesting gifts would be appreciated.

An Unromantic Vacation

tmcw — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 08:21:30 -0800

I need to go on vacation at some point - I've gotten into the habit of working near-full years without much vacation. I've got time and funds, but neither a significant other nor many vacation-time-having friends. So, I'm in DC, but can go wherever. Limited language ability, but enough courage to go places. I've got a trip to Denver planned that I'll extend to see a friend for a bit, though a med-school friend, so that can't be super-long.

Basically, what do people do in this situation? There must be a bunch of other mid-20s single people with vacation time, right? Is there an answer? Traveling alone? Visiting infinite friends? I could... go to Austin after Denver, and then various other places?

Basically, what is an unromantic vacation?

Finding Web Nerds in Northern California and Oregon?

polexa — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:00:46 -0800

I'd like to explore the local web/tech nerd and geek scene in small cities and towns between San Francisco and Portland. How and where do I find the right folks? We're embarking on a roadtrip of sorts, driving north on I-5 from San Francisco to Portland. Along the way, we're stopping in a bunch of small cities and towns, trying to get a sense for what kinds of geek communities spring up in smaller cities and towns.

California
Roseville
Woodland
Chico
Redding

Oregon
Medford
Eugene
Corvallis
Salem
Portland

In a big city, I'd usually hunt around for coffee shops, coworking spaces, internet cafes, specialty bookstores, and various nerd-adjacent events.

Outside of Portland, Meetup.com doesn't seem to have a ton of activity. Suggestions on other sites to look? Insider tips? Your favorite wifi cafe in Chico?

Body image and fan culture

pxe2000 — Wed, 11 May 2011 16:24:11 -0800

I'm looking for books on body image and fan culture, specifically body image among female science-fiction fans who are likely to attend cons and/or actively participate in real-world fan culture. What are some good books or web resources for learning more about this?

What should I say for my geeky marriage proposal?

BadCat! — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:37:26 -0800

What should I say for my geeky marriage proposal? My boyfriend and I have been together for several years. He's made it clear that he would like to be married to me, but he'll wait until I give the word (I just got out of a bad marriage before dating him). I finally decided that I'm over my commitment phobia and want to pop the question (or rather, give an answer to the question that he asked years ago). So the big part (the decision!) is done, not comes the other part: how to do it!

I'm not being lazy and hoping the internet will do all the work for me, I'm just looking for some ideas and inspiration. So, I'll tell you a little about us, and if you can think of anything to make this moment even better, I'll be incredibly appreciative!!! If I come up with some good stuff, I'll post the final product. A thousand thanks!

Ok, the setting will be at a geeky social event (huge dancing nerd-fest of fun). We're both geeks, so it seems like a natural place for me to get up in front of everyone and embarrass the hell out of myself. So anyway, here's some random inspirations:

Games:
board & card games
video games
RPG games (Dungeons & Dragons and that type)
I rolled a natural 20 and got you
ready to go from solo-player games to a two-player cooperative

Movie/TV:
Firefly/Serenity
Star Trek
Star Wars
Nightmare Before Christmas
Princess Bride
mawwiage is what bwings us together
Will you stand next to me on the bridge of the Enterprise Class D when Captain Picard says 'Engage!'?
You are Han to my Princess Leia (but more like Leia from "A New Hope" where she's a gun-toting rebal leader, and not Leia from "Return of the Jedi" because I'm not going to wear the gold bikini).
You are the Apollo to my Starbuck (but I won't suddenly disappear).

Other:
Computers/technology
Halloween
NASA/space exploration
medieval/renaissance
music
internet humor/memes

I also posed this question to the Reddit community, and the first comment was "tits or gtfo". Seriously.

New York, you're perfect Don't please don't change a thing

functionequalsform — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 08:30:06 -0800

I <3 NYC. History that is. I would like more books. I love all things New York history. I would (always) like to read more—fiction, non, based-on-reality, whatever.

I'm most interested in the time up to about the 1900s, so bonus points if the book's subject is colonial/industrial revolution/civil war/revolutionary war.

Seriously, anything from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn to Delirious New York, and a little Edward Rutherford tossed in for good measure. Read them all, loved them all. I don't think you could find too nerdy or granular a subject for me.

Thank you, my friends!

Where to participate in studies online?

keep it under cover — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 15:23:37 -0800

Back in the day, I really enjoyed popping over to my university's psych department and participating in the studies. I've found a couple of websites where surveys for psych studies are posted online. I'm wondering if there are other such websites, posting surveys for studies in any academic field. I'll do any kind of survey as long as it's legitimately tied to an academic purpose (no marketing crap, please). If there are other fields of study besides psychology that utilize surveys to gather data, and their surveys are posted online, show me the way!

In case anyone is wondering, I genuinely enjoy completing these surveys. It's a weird little hobby of mine. I'm not out to troll anyone's grad thesis projects.

Pie is greater than not pie.

TheCoug — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 10:48:04 -0800

I'm trying to express my love for a certain dessert in a math/logic formula. I have this: π > ∼π , which I take to mean "Pi is greater than not Pi", and this: π > ∞-π, which I take to mean "Pi is greater than Everything but Pi". Do these make any sense or hold up in any legit way?

Mefi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope

supercres — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 18:08:23 -0800

Help a recovering Star Wars addict with his relapse. That is, update me on what's worth reading the Expanded Universe. I seriously considered posting this as Anon, given how nerdy -- even among Internet people -- it makes me seem.

As an introverted nerd pre-teen and early teenager, I was way into Star Wars novels. I'm not sure if time has made them seem better than they were, but dang if I didn't love everything I could get my hands on. Evidence: I even had the technical manuals for the SW universe's vehicles, weapons, and droids.

I recently chanced upon a spoiler-filled Wikipedia page for a major character (spoilers, duh), and thought, Hey, I'd like to find out the story behind those events. They sound even darker and more interesting than I remember. But I have 10+ years of novel releases between my last foray and present day, and I have very little time to read, so I'd like to pare it down to just the quality stuff, if there's any to be had.

This is where I need your help.

Here's what I've read, in fictional-chronological order, taken from this list:

Shadows of the Empire
Truce at Bakura
The X-wing Series (Yes, all 9. They're still on my shelf at my parents' house.)
Courtship of Princess Leia
Thrawn Trilogy
I, Jedi
Jedi Academy Trilogy
Callista Trilogy
Crystal Star
Hand of Thrawn

Probably some others too, but these are the titles that jump out at me.

I never read any of the comics/graphic novels. Not really a fan of the format. I think I might have picked up one of the young adult novels at some point by mistake... and never finished it.

So, fellow SW nerds-- what else should I read to catch up on the story, published either since I stopped paying attention, or something I missed? Are there specific authors to watch out for?

And yes, "Nothing from the expanded universe is worth reading." is a valid answer, as long as you're speaking from experience. In that case, feel free to tell me the least-bad installments.

This little blue dot is you and that little red dot is me.

snapped — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 12:15:15 -0800

Are there any good Android apps for connected couples? Mrs.snapped finally got an android phone (Moto Droid 2) and I've had a lovely HTC Incredible for a few months. Other than TiKL, which is a pretty cool touch-to-talk app, do you have any other recommendations for a pretty savvy couple?

We're mostly interested in being able to do simple things, like locate each other in the mall, send each other quick messages/pictures, and maybe something that syncs between our phones (like a grocery list we could both edit).

A google for "Android apps for couples" doesn't really return what I'm looking for, and I'm finding the Market and AppBrain apps are not easy to search. Thanks for your help, hive mind.

What is the best gift for an old school DnD geek?

EvilPRGuy — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 19:33:02 -0800

What is the perfect gift for a hardcore, old school Dungeons and Dragons nerd, and where can it be purchased? I'd like to purchase a really special gift for someone who is a huge 1980's Dungeons and Dragons fan. I've thought about books, modules, and checked out things for sale on Ebay and other online stores, but I'm hoping to find something unique or really obscure that a true geek would appreciate. Something more akin to an RPG collectible/piece of art/original? Any suggestion from those with a deep knowledge of things like the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, I would enjoy your input. Thank you.

OMG I can't believe they shoved this on me now.

Vindaloo — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 10:26:14 -0800

Bachelor party in Edmonton, help! My friend has just learned that she is to organize the bachelor party for her best friend this saturday (oct. 23) in Edmonton, AB. Her friend is 22 yrs old and a huge geek. Looking to help her find some suggestions that are not centered around strip clubs. Oh, and any inclusion of Star Wars themed stuff would be a bonus.

What can the hive mind provide? The clock is ticking.

Nerds Ruminating Upon Nerds

Mizu — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 05:35:54 -0800

Please recommend some TV shows and other forms of storytelling that are in a very specific and possibly just now emerging genre? These are the things that fit into the genre:

The Guild, Big Bang Theory, IT Crowd, and to a certain extent, Scott Pilgrim, although that's up for a certain amount of debate. (The movie definitely fit this genre more than the comic for me.)

These are shows made by and for nerds (geeks dorks whatever!) about nerds. Semi-realistic ones in some ways and almost always humorously self-deprecating but with heart. People who don't fulfill their superhero fantasies but do fulfill their making a space invader of Dr Pepper cans fantasies. People pretty much like me in their obsessions and knowledge, but funnier and probably secretly more attractive.

These are also shows that really, I'd expect to be made using twenty bucks and a roll of duct tape and surreptitiously passed around via fifth generation VHS or CDR and occasionally screened at cons, but are instead made by actual talented people with actual budgets and usually for actual tv (or screen).

I suppose that Spaced also slightly fits the genre, in that it's about a group of socially maladjusted misfits who end up watching movies and having invisible gun battles, but it doesn't quite scratch the itch like IT Crowd does. Same with shows like the Office or 30 Rock. Sure, there are nerdy characters, but it's not quite as... self-identifying for me.

But basically, I love watching/reading/absorbing these things. I'd been avoiding the Guild for a long time out of seeing too much of myself in it the first go-around, but the other day I watched all of it in a big chunk and it was fantastic, and now I can't find any more!

Since the age of the nerd is upon us, I'm sure more of these sorts of shows and movies will pop up as time goes on. But are there any that I've missed? I'd also take suggestions for other forms of fiction, but they need to be well-made, and not just deserving of cult status. Some fantasy/sci fi/anime is okay, but chances are I've already watched or read it, in that case! Supposedly I'm missing out on one of the SyFy series, but I can never remember which one.

Bonus points if there's a snappy name for this genre that I just don't know about yet.

I now pronounce you Nerd and Nerd.

TheWhiteSkull — Thu, 27 May 2010 09:41:16 -0800

Help me come up with a nerdy inscription for my cousin's wedding present. My cousin and his fiancee are huge nerds (examples: they're using WALL-E and EVE as cake toppers; they've convinced their officiant to include "by the power of Grayskull" in the ceremony, in English and Mandarin). I want to come up with an inscription for their present that celebrates their love in a charming way, and is also incredibly nerdy. So, I'm appealing to you, hivemind- help me nerd up this wedding present!

(Bonus points for physics references, or obscure languages such as Quenya or Bajoran.)

Radioactive Tennis, anyone?

benzenedream — Tue, 25 May 2010 12:25:58 -0800

I'm heading to Chicago this weekend. What science/geeky/historical places should I check out? There are lots of other recent Chicago threads which cover food, bars, theatre, and museums, e.g.

http://ask.metafilter.com/154607/Culture-in-Chicago-Show-me-it
http://ask.metafilter.com/154495/Cheap-Fun-Chicago
http://ask.metafilter.com/153247/How-are-Saturdays-in-the-park
http://ask.metafilter.com/152418/Trip-to-Chicago-Super-happy-fun-time

My curiosity was piqued by looking to see if Fermi's atomic pile had some sort of memorial, and it does. The other thing I found via Wiki is Millikan's house (of oil drop fame). Can you recommend any other interesting sites or cool stuff on the U of Chicago campus? I'd be interested in seeing anything to do with the economics department as well. If you can think of anything else interesting and geeky I'm game.

50 Movies Every Geek Should See

Otis — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 07:30:00 -0800

I enjoyed the list 50 Books Every Geek Should Read. If you were to compile a similar list, but for video content, what would be on that list?

A calendar of silly observances

bicyclefish — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:28:43 -0800

Having once again missed Talk Like a Pirate Day AND Pi Day, help me assemble a full calendar of nerdy observances. The Internet is full of daily celebrations that I can never quite keep on top of. So please help me assemble a full list. I'm thinking of observances like CAPS LOCK DAY and Talk Like a Pirate Day. Even the ill-defined "holiday" of the Pastafarians counts.

There is a list of unofficial observances on Wikipedia, but even that doesn't seem comprehensive.

So please, help me get ahead of the game. What's on your calendar for the year to come?

Text editor koan.

[@I][:+:][@I] — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:41:22 -0800

Looking for the full text to one of those Unix/nerd koans. This one is about text editors. All I've able to find from a half hour of googling is the "punchline" - on someones .sig on a bunch of mailing lists. The ending: So the master hit the novice upside the head with the back of his hand. "Why did you do that!?" "I do not want to have to learn another editor." And the student was enlightened.

In the sig file it is attributed to one Larry Colen.

Large, approximate string matching algorithm

chairface — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:41:16 -0800

I have two large (10k-100k) sets of strings. I want to match the items in the sets up in pairs based on similarity. Levenshtein looks promising but costly. I have a set of strings. Say:

kitten55
buicks
aspirin

And another (possibly of different length):

bucks
smitten45
aspire
ice cream

I want to pair them up based on similarity:

kitten55 - smitten45
buicks - bucks
aspire - aspirin
ice cream -

The Levenshtein distance algorithm seems like a good approach but is O(NM) on string lengths in run time, and would need to run across every possible pairing (well, not exactly but still essentailly O(N^2)). This seems awful, given the 10K-100K size of my input sets.

Is there a better way? Can I compile a string into a DFA of some sort suitable for approximate match scoring that I can reuse, rather than trying to evaluate each possible pairing? I'm open to other solutions as well.