Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with overview

Engaging history book that documents the african american experience

allthewhile — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:39:29 -0800

Looking for a good book that gives an overview of the African American experience in the United States. It should be readable, engaging, but also informative. This would be a book that would be for the teachers at my school to read, so the less encyclopedic, and the more narrative, the better. Its hard to get buy in when something is dry and factual. However, I do want them to get a good working knowledge of the major movements and characters in African American history.

Quick and Dirty guide to the Literary Canon

Phire — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:29:19 -0800

I'm looking for a concise and readable overview/guide of what could be considered "classic literature" for a mature ESL student. Ideally, after reading this guide, said student would be able to pick up on allusions to the more common mythologies/deities (Greek, Roman, Norse, etc.), as well as passing references to commonly studied works held in high academic regard. Think Dickens, Tolstoy, Orwell, and the like. A quick overview of the 'big' names in the Bible would be helpful, too.

Essentially I'm hoping for a quick and dirty guide to all/many of the pieces of literature that someone would've studied in the Elementary to High School English curriculum. The guide doesn't need to be very detailed - a plot synopsis and two lines about each of the main characters would do.

Not that this guide would be a substitute to actually reading the works, but it would at least provide a starting point for furthering a literary education for someone who works full-time and is feeling the effects of not being 'in' on all the jokes.

Pentax or another digital SLR?

Rothko — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 23:00:56 -0800

I'm looking for a new digital SLR that I can use with my existing lenses, which works well in general and low-light situations... I do photography of electronic music shows with a 35mm SLR camera (Pentax ZX-10), and there is often little or no light to work with.

I'd like to move to a digital SLR that works well under low light (i.e. pictures have low noise, and the camera can take pictures in this condition without requiring a flash). I'll explain why below. If necessary, I'd like to buy the SLR with a 28-80 range lens that works well under low light (decently "fast" lens?).

I'm a bit of an amateur so bear with me as I describe my problem and what I have been trying to do to solve it with my current gear.

I've tried using a large flash (Pentax AF210T) but what ends up happening is that the subject gets all the light, and the background gets nothing. Not good.

I've also tried using more expensive and faster film, but the grain is noticeably large that often the pictures are very "noisy" when they are used for publication, if they can be used at all. I also tried B+W film to get more contrast and detail, and less offending noise, but its not much of an improvement.

I've also tried going without the flash and living with the long shutter times that are required, but I can't carry around a tripod to these shows, and so I end up with great, interesting compositions (i.e. good reproduction of lighting details) with blurred foreground subjects (i.e. the musician). I also have the problem that my camera simply refuses to take pictures in low light. I don't know enough about how much time I need to leave the shutter open in low light to do things manually.

Many of the photographers I see at these shows use digital cameras and do not need a flash or tripod (or light meter).

Developing film is getting more expensive, and sending images in digital form for publication adds to the cost and hassle. Since I work for free, I need to move to digital before the film dev costs send me to the poorhouse.

I'd like the camera (and optional lens) to not need a flash to take decent pictures, as permission to use flash is occasionally forbidden at the events I visit.

I've been reading reviews about the Pentax "*ist D" and "*ist DS" cameras. They look small, lightweight, and will work with my small lens collection.

I'd like to know if either of these cameras will work well for my needs, as I have three Pentax lenses I bought for use with my ZX-10, a slow, cheap telephoto lens, a macro lens, and a really expensive fisheye lens that I'd prefer not to have to replace. I have a 28-80 lens that came bundled with the ZX-10, as well. I suspect it's not a fast lens.

Failing that, are there other brands of digital SLR cameras in the $1000-$1500 range that are better suited to this, and will be compatible with my Pentax lenses? Or should I sell the old camera and lenses and start over?

Personal usage experiences of these cameras are greatly appreciated, as well as general photography advice for this application.

(I'm skeptical of online reviews, which are either geared to professionals who know the vocabulary that I don't, or the review simply trumps up the quality of the product.)

explain to me all of the steps involved in e-commerce?

hijinx — Thu, 11 Dec 2003 11:09:23 -0800

Can someone explain to me all of the steps involved in e-commerce? [more inside] Here is the deal. I know that e-commerce involves a number of layers of security, site certificates, and the like - but I'm not sure how they go together, exactly.

I'm knowledgable in backend stuff, but haven't had to tackle this - until now. Assume I already have the product(s) I want to sell, but nothing else. No software, no site certificates, nothing.

Thanks in advance.