Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with resolved

should i buy mass effect?

leemajors — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:01:36 -0800

steam has mass effect for $20. is it worth buying and playing now?

Oh my aching right foot that, along with its counterpart, is about to run a marathon...

holdenjordahl — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 17:03:09 -0800

i can't see a specialist for three weeks but i've got a marathon coming up and i need to know before that. these are the facts and i'm trying to figure out the cause...
1. i wear orthodics. the right one is the neutral one. it cracked. i noticed a few weeks before that that, below the third and forth toes, a dull sensation. i originally thought it was caused by the crack in the orthodic.
2. i went back to my prior set of orthodics. they were essentially the same orthodics as the pair i had been using.
3. now i'm noticing that EXACTLY after 75 minutes i get this sudden pain, as if i'm stepping on a marble (not a beebee, not a golf ball, a marble). it hurts like crazy. the pain doesn't radiate throughout the foot or up the leg.
4. and then, after EXACTLY 15 minutes, the pain suddenly vanishes.
5. i haven't done any sudden ramping up of mileage, i run mostly on sand, grass, or dirt. there's nothing that i've stepped on that could have wedged in my shoe, the interior of the shoe is smooth, et cetera.
6. i've looked on all the obvious running sites and can find nothing about what this could be. any suggestions, please???

PS3 + Streaming Netflix = FAIL (in a lovely shade of red)

porn in the woods — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 13:55:40 -0800

Anyone else encountering difficulties using Netflix streaming on their PS3? I re-joined Netflix after a long hiatus so I could take advantage of PS3 streaming, but it's been a very bumpy ride and hasn't worked in over a week. While the streaming was a bit flaky over the past 2 months (I'd have to authorize my console multiple times a week, but that's not a big deal), at least it worked. All week long when I launch the Netflix software, it just sits and churns with a circular progress indicator beneath the Netflix logo and never gets to my Instant queue. I let it run for about an hour this morning with no change.

I've tried the following, with no success:
• removing everything from my queue
• rebooting my DSL box/wireless router/PS3
• deactivating my PS3 from my Netflix account page
• putting the IP of my PS3 in my router's DMZ

Chicago is no help to me here

luriete — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 12:29:10 -0800

I'm typesetting a book with some music notation in it. There are several references to 3/4 and 4/4 time, which I had set in nifty opentype fractions; however, the editor and I are unsure of whether or not this refers to "four-four" or "four-fourths" time - and this is one of the few things that Chicago doesn't address. So, designers and readers: what do you think? 4/4, using lining numerals, or a 4/4 fraction?

Where to get Plan B on Christmas Day in DC?

Tomorrowful — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 08:34:23 -0800

A friend of mine had a broken condom last night, and needs to get hold of Plan B. She's in Washington, DC. Planned Parenthood's closed, as are all the pharmacies she's tried. Those are the relevant facts - please assume she knows what she's doing re: testing, etc. Moralizing can be left at the door, she just needs to know where to get the EC.

Calculating road trip debts: Beyond the Excel Spreadsheet

jytsai — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 07:44:05 -0800

7 friends and I are going on a road trip. At restaurants we usually have one person pay by credit card, and have everyone paying for what they ordered to the individual. Oh, and not everyone is gonna be at every event, so having one individual pay for everything on the trip is impossible. And it should redistribute debts so at most each person only needs to make 1 payment to another person. What is the best free method for calculating who pays whom? There are many websites, but the 5 or 6 I've tried so far all have at least one or more of the following problems:
1) Assumes that at restaurants everyone goes dutch and splits bills equally. (Not usually how my group does things; people will complain.)
2) Assumes that you are the person who pays for everything.
3) Limits free access to situations that have less than 8 individuals.
4) Does not optimize payments. (In theory, it should be possible to reassign debts from one individual to another so that each person only needs to make one payment to one person.)

Here is an simplified example:
4 people, 3 events...
*Person 1 paid for gas ($36), split among the three. Person 4 did not participate.
*Person 2 paid for a meal, where person 1's order was $6, person 2's was $8, and person 3's was $10. Person 4 did not participate.
*Person 4 borrowed $10 from Person 3.

I want to be able to plug how much each person owes at each event, who paid, and have it tell me something like:
Person 2 owes Person 1 $6.
Person 3 owes Person 1 $12.
Person 3 owes Person 2 $10, but since person 4 owes him $10, person 3 pays nothing and transfers the debt so...
Person 4 pays person 2 $10.

What color are these Dr. Martens?

Venadium — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 06:52:20 -0800

Does anyone recognize the exact color of these Doc Martens? The ones in that photo look like a nice stiff leather, and I really like the color. I ordered a pair from Zappos that I thought were the same ones, at least very close (I ordered 'Dark Brown California'), but the leather is really soft (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) and the color isn't exactly the same.

Am I going to have to get a pair of the more expensive vintage DMs to get what I'm looking for? Or does Zappos just not have the color I want?

sydney parks

neworder7 — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 03:20:41 -0800

Are there any quiet, leafy parks not so far away from Sydney CBD area? I'd like to be able to go there via bus/train in 30mins at most to go for a walk and chill out.

It's like a tech question and a bad sitcom plot in one!

Navelgazer — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:51:47 -0800

How do I either recover my Mac OS X password or else get around needing it? Several years ago, my then-girlfriend's father bought a family pack of OS_X Leopard, and gave one of them to me. A year later, she and I were broken up. About six months after that, my computer crashed, and the genius bar had to replace the hard drive and reinstall everything. This means that the update password was lost from memory, and I never knew it and can't easily find out what it might have been (ex's dad installed Leopard himself).

So now I've gone a year without updating and it's starting to drive me crazy. Not only can I not update OS_X, but I can't install any number of things I'd like to either.

Does anyone know how I can either recover what this password might have been, or work around it so that I don't need a password to update?

Much Thanks, and Happy Christmas/Hannuka/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Festivus/Holidays to you.

Charting a musical family tree.

92_elements — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:34:53 -0800

For a friends birthday I want to make a wall chart showing which (non-classical) musicians and bands influenced other ones. E.g. Beatles -> Oasis, Neil Young -> Nirvana. My question consists of 3 parts, 1) Where's the best place to find out who to 'link', 2) Is there any 'start' of modern 'pop' music 3) What do you think I should include? - Genres, main instruments?
I've had a look around and I quite like the wikipedia GUT of Human History, the ww2 wallchart linked below:

Part of me also likes the more fun version from the game civilisation, though I don't know if that's too childish for my friend.

Thanks everyone.

Headset For WoW

Yasuo — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:10:19 -0800

Recommend me a headset for a friend who plays World of Warcraft. I dug up some old MeFi threads dated a few years back asking the same question, but I'd like recommendations to newer products please. I have no knowledge of how Ventrilo works on World of Warcraft, nonetheless what to look out for in terms of compatibility. My budget is $50, and preferably something I can buy at a local Best Buy, Target, or Wal-mart for some last minute Christmas shopping!

La plume de ma meilleur grand-père

fydfyd — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:09:31 -0800

I need a French translation for "World's Best Grandpa" but do not know French. My best candidate is "Le meilleur grand-père sur le monde" which I suspect is too formal, ungrammatical, or hopelessly wrong. I'm also stumbling over the sur/dans distinction and suspect there is likely an idiom which is just better in every way. This is intended to be embroidered on a pillow so brevity and informality are prized in that order.

What graveyard bowl to buy my mother

omnigut — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:47:24 -0800

I need a bowl for the remains of eaten food. My late grandfather used the term "Camposanto," meaning "graveyard" (Italian?), for the bowl into which you'd throw the shells or bones of animals you've just eaten (mussels, ribs etc). I want to get his daughter, my mom, a bowl that would live up to the name; something with crosses, or graves, or "in loving memory," or even better something with skeletons (especially of fish) on it, something ghostly (ghastly) or something equally pithy on it. Big enough for about 30+ mussel shells on it, and preferably something not too earnest. Perhaps something like this or this (but preferably bigger). Absolutely perfect would be something made out of ceramics, something that didn't look hugely cheap. I'd like her to want to bring it out at dinner parties...

Where can I buy pashmina scarves in Montreal?

niccolo — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:42:51 -0800

Where can I find pashmina scarves in Montreal? Not the super-expensive ones, but the many-coloured, mass produced ones. I saw loads in Chinatown in Vancouver, and I am wondering where I can find similar ones here?

Give the gift that keeps on smearing

DarlingBri — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:53:24 -0800

[HomemadeCandyFilter] We made Chocolate-Almond Buttercrunch Toffee according to this recipe. The toffee part is great; the chocolate part appears to be a train wreck. Basically, it's break and spread nuts, spread toffee over top, break and spread chocolate, add another layer of nuts. Everything went flawlessly, including the making of toffee with our thrilling new candy thermometer. But the chocolate is not re-hardening at all. This is not good.

I used continental plain chocolate (74% cocoa) and it never occurred to me this might happen or that I needed particular chocolate. Is this stuff ever going to get hard or will I have to scrape it off and do this over again with some other chocolate?

Where did I go wrong and how do I fix this? We plan to give this stuff as packaged gifts so I do need to fix it. Thanks!

Recommend a graphics card for my new TV

muckster — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:59:50 -0800

Do I need a new video card to hook my PC up to my new HDTV? I have a Dell PC with a ATI Radeon HD 2400 graphics card. It has two connections, one DVI and one S-Video.

I used to convert the DVI to RGB and connect that to my Dell monitor at the max resolution of 1680 x 1050. The S-Video was connected to my tube TV, which worked just fine.

The new TV is a Toshiba 40" 1080p, so of course I'd like to feed it something better than S-Video. I tried connecting the RGB, which gives me a max resolution of 1360x768 -- but it leaves me with S-Video for the monitor, which is pretty freakin' ugly.

Here's the question: is there a way I can use a splitter or similar to feed the DVI (or RGB) into both the monitor and the TV at a resolution both will be happy with? Or do I have to get a new HDMI-ready graphics card? If I do, can you recommend one that might last me little while without breaking the bank? Under $100 would be great. I play the occasional game of TF2 but media is going to be the main use. Blu-Ray might be nice one day. I don't need to expand to a second monitor and would be just as happy cloning the same image on both screens. Thanks much.

Blind Spot in my Excel Formula Abilities

itsonreserve — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:32:55 -0800

Excel Idiot Filter: Is there some simpler way to calculate the averages of the same cell along multiple worksheets? For example, say I'd like to take the total box on every previous worksheet and average it on a final worksheet. It's the same box on every single one, but I can't seem to get it to work. I've tried letting Excel write the formula for me, but after all that clicking it says the formula doesn't work. Can the worksheets be ranged? For example Say I have =AVERAGE('Sep 09 Wk 2'!H20,'Sep 09 Wk 3'!H20,'Sep 09 Wk 4'!H20). Can I write =AVERAGE('Sep 09 Wk 2':'Sep 09 Wk 4'!H20)? Also is there a limit on the number of things you can have in the formula, which could be causing Excel to not understand it, even when I try writing it using clicks?

want some cookies with your butter??

Juicy Avenger — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:24:59 -0800

Ruined cookies, ruined Christmas! Baking fail. So I've royally screwed up the directions on only the simplest of box cookies in the world. This Duncan Hines "family recipe chocolate chip cookies" calls for 1 egg and 1 TABLESPOON of butter, BUT deceptively shows a picture of a WHOLE STICK in the ingredients list. I'm a visual learner. And apparently a slow one. So I took it at face value and melted a whole stick in there, mindlessly, until I was like "huhhh these look a little greasy......D'OH!" So, now I've added a cup of flour to try to absorb the excess butter and am baking a test batch. Is there anything else I can do to try to salvage the rest? Master bakers, help?

I just know this is possible...

nokry56 — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:58:19 -0800

How do I take an image file and mount it as a CD drive on my Mac (Snow Leopard) without using Toast. Bonus points for doing it from the command line. I have a dmg file of Age of Empires III and am really tired of carrying around the CD in my backpack. Plus it just frustrates me, because I know this has got to be possible without using Toast.

For those of you who are confused, I don't want it to mount like a Mac normally mounts a .dmg - I want it to mount as if it is a CD. Toast does this, but if I could do it from the command line then I could set up a script that first mounts the dmg as a CD then runs the app!

It can be done on Windows, surely it can be done on a Mac. I just can't find any good virtual drive software for the Mac and Google is utterly failing me.

This toothsome tart won't tighten up.

liketitanic — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:21:24 -0800

Help me troubleshoot this savory tart recipe. So it has become an xmas tradition in the titanic-filter household to have this goat cheese, polenta, and mushroom tart for breakfast before the tossing of wrapping paper commences.

But I can never get the tart to set quite right and I'm not sure why. The directions say that for one prepared cup of polenta (implying that that's how much you need), you should prepare one dry cup of polenta . . . except you end up with about 3 cups. People have noted this in the recipe comments and say that the tart doesn't quite set with either one OR three cups polenta. I usually use 3, and there's so much melty stuff in the mix that I can't imagine one cup would be enough to bind it. But I can't get it to firm up and it tends to be more like a pudding. Which is still delicious, but still.

The best I can think to do is let it cool completely, chill to firm, then reheat, but then I have to make it the night before while I have eggnog brain. Ideas?

(It's delicious, you will love it.

Please find this song for us.

multivalent — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:32:56 -0800

Findthatsongfilter: Lyrics containing "die together"...we think! My girlfriend is looking for a song that was released around a year ago and got some radio play. Have googled the lyrics so the phrasing may not be exact. Song was indie ish lyrical and ballady. Male singer. Sorry this is all so vague; this question is as much wanting to know the song as to demonstrate the power of the hive mind to the unconverted.

Thanks for your help.

Is there decent music gear for kids?

ejoey — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:04:51 -0800

I've got a ~1 year old baby that seems to really like music, especially hip hop and electronic type beats, and I'm wondering if there exists any cool and relatively "babyproof" music gear? It seems like most baby music toys default to awful lite-reggae and kids standards which quickly drive me insane. I'm hoping for something like functions like a simplified version of this with palatable built in sound effects or even maybe the ability to load your own sounds. My own searching has turned up nothing so far beyond iPhone apps. Is this a pipe dream?

Ideas for quiet Caribbean beach vacation?

mark7570 — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:37:09 -0800

Where is a good quiet Caribbean beach resort, with good food and service but a minimum of loud people/activities/partying? Here's what I want from the resort or hotel: walk right out directly onto the beach. Sit down in a beach chair under an umbrella. Order a beer or pina colada (or bring one from the beach bar). Then do nothing all day, enjoying peace and quiet, looking at the water. Then walk back to the resort's restaurant for a good dinner. Bedtime. Next day, same agenda.

I don't want a casino. I don't want nightlife. I don't want organized hula hoop contests on the beach. I don't want rock-climbing or kayaking adventures. I just want a beach, an umbrella, and a beer. And then a nice dinner.

Extra points if this location is a direct flight from New York City.

One place that fits the bill, by the way, is resorts on Grace Bay, within Turks & Caicos. (Providenciales is a direct flight from NYC.) But most of those places are expensive and I'd love to find something that's more affordable.

Any ideas and/or recommendations from past experience?

P.S. I have seen this question about a short Caribbean vacation... which is helpful except that I'm not looking for a lot of outside activities.

What Kung Fu movie am I thinking of?

Lutoslawski — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:49:13 -0800

Please ID this Kung Fu movie with missiles and menstruation. A couple years ago at an artsy film place in Denver I saw a kung fu movie where the hero uses these missiles to fight bad guys. He is also trying to acquire the menstrual blood of a virgin for some reason. There is a chief bad guy who is very bad.

Unfortunately, that's all I got. Please hope me MeFi; I'd really like to find this film!

Trying to track down a sole.

517 — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:39:02 -0800

I am looking for the brand and style of the boot or shoe that made these prints. It appears to be a man's size 9, 10, or 11, although I am not sure if it was a man's shoe. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.