Does anyone have any experience with self-absorption/egocentricity? I've been noticing the fact that whenever I'm talking with others, I tend to bring the conversation around to myself. I keep telling myself not to talk about myself, but people ask questions and when they do I tend to fall for it every time. How do you make conversations with others and build friendships without talking about yourself? [more inside]
posted by Garden on Nov 14, 2009 - 23 answers

Looking for a universally compatible word processing program that can I download for free off the internet. [more inside]
posted by crazylegs on Oct 21, 2009 - 18 answers

Recommend some music like Bon Iver's Woods, Imogen Heap's Hide and Seek, Beardyman, and some of Jamie Lidell - which feature nothing (or very little) but the human voice modified by electronics. Augmented acapellas, if you will.
posted by phrontist on Sep 17, 2009 - 15 answers

Canning season is here - we need advice on how to keep our pickled veggies crunchy! [more inside]
posted by pghjezebel on Aug 24, 2009 - 6 answers

Please help me crash-course language and text analysis. [more inside]
posted by signal on Aug 15, 2009 - 12 answers

[WordProcessingFilter] I need this document formatted a specific way. Bare with me as I try to explain. I don't want the the text beside the date to wrap under the numbers. If it must wrap, I want it to wrap under the first word of the line before it. [more inside]
posted by royalsong on Aug 14, 2009 - 6 answers

Natural Language Processing (NLP) Filter. I'm looking for a method (or category of methods) to judge the relevancy of a small unit of text, 100-200 chars, against similar units of text. [more inside]
posted by kuatto on Aug 8, 2009 - 6 answers

I'd like to programmatically recreate the Photoshop stamp filter - does anyone know how to dissect what the stamp filter is doing? [more inside]
posted by BugsPotter on Jul 10, 2009 - 4 answers

Is there such a thing as a graphic equalizer for images? Can I obtain it? [more inside]
posted by jfrancis on May 10, 2009 - 26 answers

Is there anyway to get Wordperfect 12 registration alert box to stop popping up everytime I login to my Windows vista accounts? [more inside]
posted by Twinedog on May 8, 2009 - 3 answers

Any good tips on digital workflows in Lightroom for large groups of images? Really, any input on the photo editorial process (whether it be film or other software) would be much appreciated. [more inside]
posted by Admiral Haddock on May 4, 2009 - 8 answers

My boss is a very nice man with some very strange shortcomings that I cannot explain. Help me out with some wild conjecture. [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Apr 23, 2009 - 16 answers

Is there a good real-time compressor/limiter for FM broadcast that I can use on a Mac? Preferably one that works as an AudioUnit (AU) plug-in? [more inside]
posted by CommonSense on Apr 21, 2009 - 5 answers

Does anyone still process 110 format film? [more inside]
posted by tealsocks on Mar 31, 2009 - 13 answers

Freelancer needs to process large credit card transactions. [more inside]
posted by ottereroticist on Feb 19, 2009 - 9 answers

Is there a free program like Textsoap for Windows Vista? [more inside]
posted by Infernarl on Oct 18, 2008 - 1 answer

Where in the UK can I send my 24 + 36 exposure camera films to have them transferred to CD/otherwise digitalised? [more inside]
posted by Solomon on Oct 1, 2008 - 5 answers

Help me learn everything I need to know about visual processing (and improving it). [more inside]
posted by mintchip on Sep 6, 2008 - 7 answers

Faster techniques for grabbing lines of a file and doing text manipulation and arithmetic via shell (or other) scripting? [more inside]
posted by Blazecock Pileon on May 9, 2008 - 20 answers

Need help on a huge .Vob conversion to the best bandwidth saving format project. [more inside]
posted by bleucube on Mar 17, 2008 - 2 answers

What are my options for including an auto-merged image file in the context of a website? [more inside]
posted by mwhybark on Feb 21, 2008 - 1 answer

Help me find the best real-time video generative software for someone with little programming experience (PC, no Mac.) [more inside]
posted by itchi23 on Feb 19, 2008 - 3 answers

How can a new company track leads submitted via its website through the sales and post-sales process, simply, automatically, and online? [more inside]
posted by prophetsearcher on Jan 30, 2008 - 12 answers

Help me automate the splitting of an image into tiles. [more inside]
posted by RobotHero on Jan 30, 2008 - 8 answers

How can I generate a "visual average" from a group of digital images?

A few years ago, I saw a BoingBoing post in which a guy had taken the pixel means of Playboy centerfolds for several decades. I'd like to use the same technique and am wondering if there's any off-the-shelf (preferably free) stuff that can do that.
posted by k7lim on Jan 22, 2008 - 5 answers

What's the best way to photograph a kid's judo tournament and have pictures ready for the parents right after awards are presented? [more inside]
posted by chengjih on Dec 31, 2007 - 9 answers

What are the computing capabilities of a generic cell phone? [more inside]
posted by ElfWord on Nov 27, 2007 - 15 answers

Where to process nude photos? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Nov 7, 2007 - 29 answers

How does autotune work? [more inside]
posted by phrontist on Oct 22, 2007 - 7 answers

Opening ClarisWorks Documents on a PC? [more inside]
posted by suasponte on Sep 21, 2007 - 6 answers

Railsfilter: I need to write an addition to an already-existing Rails app to allow it to accept large files (and some trivial metadata) uploaded from a Processing (Java) client I've written. The Rails app already supports this behavior via a web interface. I can see a few of the trees, how do I fit them into the forest and get a pair of working apps? [more inside]
posted by Alterscape on Sep 19, 2007 - 4 answers

Bezier Curves: Is there a way I can access the information about a path in Photoshop or illustrator (x,y positions of anchors and control points). [more inside]
posted by miniape on Jul 4, 2007 - 5 answers

How do I rotate batches of images based on a certain criteria? [more inside]
posted by jmprice on May 29, 2007 - 1 answer

Help me find the best credit card processing solution for a very specific, slightly unusual non-profit need. [more inside]
posted by jbickers on Apr 13, 2007 - 5 answers

I maintain a program that does something complex based on a simple set of explicit commands. For example, if it were a painting robot (the truth is far more boring), you give it an XML file with elements like (angles swapped for brackets) [rectangle x="40" y="40" w="10" h="10" color="red"/] and it goes and paints it. I have some users that would like to write loops, functions, and keep variables -- but I don't want to write a state machine or interpreter. Is there some sort of language/specification that compiles a simple XML-type language into "flat" XML? [more inside]
posted by neustile on Mar 7, 2007 - 6 answers

Where do I get 2.5 year old black and white film developed? [more inside]
posted by hampton on Jan 22, 2007 - 11 answers

Whats the easiest and most cost effective way to process credit cards online for a web service? [more inside]
posted by Geoffh on Jan 13, 2007 - 10 answers

I'm handling a lot of the financial aspects for a small organization that would like to process credit card transactions. It's a non-profit with a small, part-year-only revenue stream. What's our best bet for avoiding insane fees? [more inside]
posted by CrayDrygu on Dec 21, 2006 - 9 answers

Looking for statistical data of United States economy / consumption / production in Excel (or other) format to convert to XML [more inside]
posted by dvjtj on Oct 30, 2006 - 6 answers

I have to use WordPerfect at work, and an awful thing started happening today out of nowhere-- whenver I type a comma, WordPerfect types a comma period-- so it looks like this ",." instead of just ","....how do I fix this permanently??? I have no idea what caused it to start happening. It's driving me insane.
posted by Harvey Birdman on Jul 12, 2006 - 11 answers

computer vision: i need an algorithm to extract statistics about the diameters (in pixels) of some roughly-circular objects from an image file. [more inside]
posted by sergeant sandwich on May 20, 2006 - 15 answers

I love this photograph (I don't remember where I found it, unfortunately). How would I go about taking similar photos with a 35mm and/or digital camera? What kind of lense/lighting/setup would have been used for something like this? Is there a name for this kind of effect? Is there a good way to duplicate this effect in digital post-processing?
posted by devilsbrigade on Apr 29, 2006 - 22 answers

I want to take a bunch of numerical data (say, survey results) found in Word documents in roughly tabular form (though not in tables per se) and run simple statistical analyses on them. What's the best way to do this? [more inside]
posted by shivohum on Apr 17, 2006 - 10 answers

What is the approximate bandwidth of the human brain ? [more inside]
posted by grex on Mar 6, 2006 - 50 answers

Where should I get my film processed in Los Angeles? [more inside]
posted by jann on Jan 14, 2006 - 4 answers

I'm about to get my first Holga camera and am wondering where I can get 120 film developed in NYC. I live near the Queens border and am mostly home-bound because I care for my grandmother. I'd like to find an affordable 120 film developer that can also put the prints on a cd (a la drugstore processing). Preferably located along the E train line in Manhattan, but any location in Manhattan will do. Any suggestions?
posted by missed on Jan 12, 2006 - 8 answers

What is a good and inexpensive option for getting high-resolution digital images from color print film? [more inside]
posted by exogenous on Nov 16, 2005 - 5 answers

Is there a particularly good mail-in photo processing company that you can recommend? Or how about a good place in Philly? [more inside]
posted by The Michael The on Oct 30, 2005 - 11 answers

I want to start shooting 35mm black and white film after a 20 year absence. I used to get my film processed via the US Mail, but can't remember the vendor. [more inside]
posted by willmize on Oct 5, 2005 - 14 answers

I'm a freelance web developer, and I've recently set up a PayPal business-level account to take payment from clients who prefer that method. But I'm growing more and more upset with the fact that it inevitably takes about a week from the day I get the notice of pending payment for the money to actually show up in my PayPal account, and another 4-5 days to get it out and into my bank account. What's the holdup? [more inside]
posted by ubernostrum on Sep 14, 2005 - 8 answers