Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with resolved

Download/string together Youtube videos?

Deflagro — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:57:42 -0800

What would be the quickest and easiest way to download about 30 or so 3-5 minute videos from Youtube, and string them together into one long video? I already have a program to download youtube videos, but if anyone has one that is free and can download multiple ones at the same time, that wouldd be great. I need a program that I can put them all into and the export as one large continuous movie file (preferably mpg4, but not required). I need all these programs to be free, any ideas?

Wondering Why My Cat Greets Me This Particular Way ...

WCityMike — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:25:53 -0800

Consistently, every single time I come home, my cat will come over to a particular corner of my desk -- I need not be sitting at it or indeed be anywhere near it -- and meow while faux-scratching it. He occasionally will stretch his back after the scratch, but not always. It's extremely cute, and he's such an affectionate cat that I'm even kind of touched by it. But I suppose I find myself curious as to what the gesture breaks down to. I'm assuming it's a greeting, since he repeats it without fail every time I come home after being out for more than a few minutes, but I suppose I'm curious as to what the action signifies. I doubt it's totally random, but I can't quite figure out what "animal world" thing he would be doing by that particular pattern.

How to complain like a polite human.

1f2frfbf — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:03:59 -0800

How do I complain to a corporation without coming off as a prude? Full explanation: I bought my brother-in-law a gift certificate to Timbuk2 for Christmas so he could get a new computer bag, when it arrived it contained a tag like this one. I personally would not have had an issue with this, but he is using the bag in a professional environment and was embarrassed enough by the language to cut the tag out of the bag. I'm embarrassed about the situation myself, since I initially gave him the gift and had no idea they would include a tag like this. I would like to express my displeasure to Timbuk2, but how can I do this and actually get results without being treated as a random nutcase?

Can you fix the Internet I broke?

Airhen — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:29:28 -0800

My computer is showing that I'm connected to the Internet, but it's not actually connecting. My usual trouble shooting tricks aren't working, so does anyone have any ideas? I'm sorry if this has been answered before. I don't seem to have specific enough terms to search here or on Google.

The Interwebs were working fine, and then I restarted because I was prompted to for an update. I have a PC (an HP laptop) running XP. The laptop is about four years old. It shows that I'm connected (wirelessly) to my signal, but I can't get to any Web sites, use instant messenger, etc.

I've tried: repairing my connection (that seemed to happen as usual, but with no results), restarting, restarting and repairing again, turning off the wireless router and turning it back on, connecting to another signal, turning off my computer's wireless card (do we still call it that in 2008?) and turning it on again, restarting and repairing again, just for good measure.

One of those usually works, but not this time.

Any other ideas?

It's like a weevil in my brain!

Navelgazer — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:58:34 -0800

Does anybody know what the song used in this video from this post on the blue is? It sounds like something that would be the last track on a Coldplay album, but apparently isn't. Is it Radiohead maybe? Has Radiohead gone beaut-emo? I'm not nearly up to date on my 00's indie artists (I'd never heard of Feist until the Sesame Street vid from last week.) Who is this!? I need this song right now!

Volume controlling Judas, why have you forsaken me?

phunniemee — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:50:06 -0800

Why would the mute button on my computer suddenly stop working? Sometime during the course of yesterday, the mute button on my computer stopped working. I have a ~6 month old Lenovo/ThinkPad T61 running Vista, and I have had zero problems with it until now. The up/down volume buttons still work fine, and I can mute and unmute using the volume control in the system tray, but the ever-so-useful external mute button has just...stopped.

The computer hasn't sustained any physical trauma lately, and the only unusual thing I did yesterday was to completely uninstall and reinstall iTunes. Windows last installed updates two or three days ago, so I don't think any of those are involved at all as the problem just started last night.

Does anyone know why this would happen and how I could go about fixing it? I poked around on google, and someone on some forum a while ago said it could be a driver problem, but said no more than that.

Has anyone heard of a stand-up comic named David Jerusalem? The tricky part is that I might be misremembering the name.

Kattullus — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:57:35 -0800

Back in the late 90s, I think in the winter of 1997-8, I saw a stand-up comedian on Conan O'Brien that blew me away but I've never been able to track him down since. I think his name was David Jerusalem. He made jokes about the Olympics and having been a heroin addict. He didn't perform in front of a mic but was interviewed by Conan. I've been trying to find information about this guy for years without success, does my description ring any bells for you? It could have been later than 1998, possibly even as late as 2000. Here's what little I remember of his jokes (note: this isn't verbatim):

He didn't think much of olympic athletes, running around with poles and jumping over other poles. He compared them unfavorably to junkies who jogged down to the corner for their fix. He also said he missed one thing about being a junkie which was that back then all of his hobbies fit into a little box (at which point the comic did a "box-opening" mime).

Anyone know this comic?

It's not a bedbug! ...or is it?

chan.caro — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:46:15 -0800

IdentifyThisBugFilter: A friend of mine who lives in Astoria (infamous for being in bedbug central) got a little freaked out after finding this bug in her bed. After lots of Googling, I determined that it's not a bedbug, but we'd appreciate any help in identifying this non-bedbug bug. Her anxiety was furthered by the fact that after practically drowning it in Raid, it was still moving. Please help me allay her fears so she can get a good night's sleep!

Just can't get enough (talk time) on my iPhone 3G

Mutant — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:55:57 -0800

Got myself an iPhone 3G. To say I'm less than impressed by its battery life is an understatement. So after getting up at 5:30AM last Friday, getting in line at the Regents Street Apple Store in London at 6:15AM, I managed to get myself a 16GB iPhone 3G. All good, but my concern is regarding the battery life.

Specifically, iPhone 3G owners, what battery life are you experiencing, under what conditions? And what are you doing to maximise battery life?

My number hasn't even ported yet - which means I'm not using it as a telephone at present - and I'm routinely running to zero by the end of a twelve hour or so day, as measured by the telephone itself (Settings->Usage). And most of that time it's just sitting there idle, checking for mail once an hour. I've tried keeping 3G turned off (EDGE only), and don't have Bluetooth, WiFi or Location Services enabled.

But no joy. A very, very short life. And no doubt destined to get even shorter once I start to use it as a phone.

Are any owners here getting much more than twelve hours or so? And how about if you use it as a phone? Does anyone know if those external battery packs that were floating about for the first gen iPhone will be made for this machine? I've googled about, and it seems some other people are also complaining about this, but some noted that full discharge / charge cycles markedly extends the battery life. To what I don't know. I've done two so far, and will keep trying - some folks noted that after three to eight the capacity markedly increased.

I'm seriously unimpressed with this phone - in terms of battery life. Other than that, it rocks, blows my BlackBerry - and any other phone I've ever used - away.

I'm very active in the markets, and really appreciate having a full fledged, always connected browser in the palm of my hand. But that battery?

Thanks for your help!

Like an iPhone, only scarier

adamrice — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:27:26 -0800

Name that science-fiction story (yes, another one): I recall reading an SF short story in which everyone carries around a little gadget that always tells them what to do, which everyone willingly obeys, and without which everyone is helpless. I think the gadgets were called "little brother." The story probably dates back to the 50s or 60s (I read it in the 80s—this has nothing to do with Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother," which I have not read).

Garage circuit breaker problems.

starman — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:16:19 -0800

Garage circuit breaker keeps tripping... We had some work done in the backyard (new patio). The workers dug around the cable of wires going to the garage, careful not to damage it. As far as I know, they didn't.

Ever since that first dig, the breaker to the garage consistently trips. Sometimes it's two minutes, sometimes it's six hours.

I looked at the box going out of the house, it looked fine to my untrained eye (wire caps in place, etc.).

It's a 15 amp breaker.

My main question: Would slicing that cable cause a breaker to randomly trip?

Any other theories? Lightning maybe? If the wire is fine, should the breaker just be replaced? If it was the wire would stringing a new one around the new patio be the easiest solution? I'm still talking with the landscapers to fix this, too.

Make iPhone SMS wake me up!

ckolderup — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:16:47 -0800

How can I make sure that the iPhone wakes me up when I get a text message? Is there a way to change the SMS ringtone to something louder/longer, make it repeat a few more times, or even just make it play the SMS notification sound through a pair of speakers plugged in via the headphone jack? It seems like it always plays SMS, mail, and alarm sounds through the built-in speaker. I'm looking for ways that do not involve jailbreaking my phone; I've already read about "SMSNotify" and even after the 2.0 jailbreak comes out I'd like to avoid using it if at all possible. I receive SMS messages from work that I need to be aware of and respond to as quickly as possible. I proudly bought an iPhone 3G yesterday, but today I got paged at 6am and didn't discover it until I woke up at 9. Luckily it wasn't anything critical but now I'm very concerned about my purchase.

Right now the only options I can find for SMS are to choose from a small set of pre-selected tones with no ability to add my own louder/longer alert. In addition, it seems that alerts like the alarm clock and the SMS ringtone always play through the phone's internal speaker even when a pair of headphones is plugged in, which seems like something I should be able to change. Am I really stuck with this? Are there any other tricks I could pull to ensure that I wake up when the iPhone's SMS sound goes off? Am I just going to have to go ahead and jailbreak it when the 2.0 release becomes available in order to be able to use something like SMSNotify?

Cheap printing in L.A.

Thin Lizzy — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:19:10 -0800

How do I print out 400 pages in L.A. on the cheap? I'm new to Los Angeles and need a cheap way to print about 400 pages from a Word document. Due to a toner/printer debacle my printer won't work for another 8-10 business days and I'd rather get this thing printed and sent out sooner rather than later. Kinkos charges something like 95 cents per page for printing, making it prohibitively expensive. Is there a place where printing charges are more on par with photocopying charges?

show me the video!

Koko — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:45:49 -0800

Nine times out of ten when I follow a link to a YouTube video, I get the message, "We're sorry, this video is no longer available." What am I doing wrong? I know the video must be available, because people are discussing it and no one mentions it's been taken down. This happens to me whether it's an embedded video or I follow the link to YouTube's page. I'm using Windows Vista and IE, and the problem seemed to start after I installed Vista last month (never had the problem with IE & Windows XP), so I'm thinking it's a problem with my settings maybe? But then why do some videos play and others not? Anyone else get this problem? Help me to fix!

How to Integrate "Repeating Tasks" Into a Text File To-Do System?

WCityMike — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 10:46:41 -0800

I recently switched over to a plain text file as my to-do list; I can structure it the way I want, it is an absolute cinch to access in any one of a hundred zillion different ways, it's crossplatform, and so on. However, I am running into one methodology I can't figure out how to translate into the "plain text" world, and that is repeating tasks. I am wondering how people who also keep their to-do lists in text files handle repeating tasks. I'd like to specifically exclude the solutions of loading repeating tasks into a calendaring program or employing a third-party application to create them (i.e. Taskpaper & AppleScript, or Remind). I'm really looking more for how you handle it in simply in the world of plain text.

Also, to open it up a little, I'm curious as to what little mechanisms or mindhacks or systems you may employ within your text-file to-do list, so please feel free to share that, too (although I am primarily interested in the repeating tasks question).

Thanks!

iPhone 3G migration & best practices

Mutant — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:29:32 -0800

Migrating from iPod Touch to iPhone? So, if everything goes well this Friday I'll be getting a new, 16GB 3G iPhone from O2 here in London. I already have and use a 16GB Touch iPod that has the January software update installed.

There are two parts to this question: first, migration from the iPod Touch. I'm using it for contacts, photos, videos, calender and eight email accounts (four IMAP). Music I synch manually, and realise that I'll have to do this on the new device, but If I just plug the new device will iTunes on my Mac automatically recognise that I'd like to have the remaining data transferred to the iPhone? Or do I have to manually setup some things e.g., the email accounts or wireless access points?

Second, best practices for using the iPhone? I've currently got about 2.75GB free - is this enough? How much memory do you keep free on your current iPhones? I realise that very few people have actually gotten their hands on a 3G iPhone at present, but what are you folks doing now?

NYC Esat Village sidewalk paint

pithy comment — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:40:20 -0800

On a random walk through the East Village in NYC last night, we came across a line of paint on the sidewalk. It went from Tompkins park down Ave B. to 4th St, over to 1st Ave, up to 10th or 11th street and then we lost it. This was not a line painted with a bush or a machine. It was random and wiggly - kind of like someone punched a hole in a paint can and let it drip as they walked around the neighborhood. The line is peach colored. Then we found that it continues at Astor Place and Stuyvesant Street. What does this line mean?? Why was it painted? Where does it go?

berry berry delicious

acorncup — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:35:05 -0800

Friends brought us three pounds of fresh blueberries. What's your personal favorite recipe for pie or cobbler? The kitchen is pretty well equipped but the chef is a rookie.

There are rats in the kitchen, what am I gonna do?

mygothlaundry — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:53:12 -0800

Several questions about rat infestations, including this one: If I use poison on the giant rats who are suddenly infesting my house, what are the chances of a poisoned rat deciding to die where my dogs can get it and then, if they do get it, will they die too? I have a sudden and horrible rat infestation in my house. I've read all the other AskMe rat threads and, based on their advice, I purchased and used a RatZapper. So far I have killed three giant, huge, enormous rats in my kitchen - we're talking like 8" to 10" long here and that's not counting the tails. I got two with a black plastic snap trap and one with the Zapper. I don't know where they're coming from although I suspect from somewhere under the refrigerator. It's been two or three days since the last rat died and I haven't seen any evidence of more rats in the kitchen since.

Question 1: Is it possible the rats are gone?
Question 2: How can I tell?
Question 3: How can I figure out where they're coming from?
Question 4: Any other trap recommendations?

I called my landlord, who said he was going out of town and, "yeah, whatever, I'll leave a package of rat poison in your mailbox, you had better put it in the basement crawl space, that's the thing to do." I have two dogs, a Springer Spaniel and a collie mix, both about 50 pounds and I've been afraid to use poison for fear that they would get into it. (They are big friendly floppy worthless wusses who are apparently afraid of the rats and they have been absolutely no help whatsoever in the continuing rodent crisis, by the way.) The dogs can't get into the basement BUT the locked door to the basement is located in the fenced part of my yard where they have free all day access.

Question 4: If I put rat poison in the basement, where will the rats go to die? Out in the yard?
Question 5: What if my dogs find and play with (I doubt they would eat it) a poisoned rat?

Any and all further information on getting rid of rats is very welcome. I don't know where they came from and I don't know why they suddenly appeared - I've lived in this house for over a year and never had a problem before.

Amazon search strategy

roofus — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:10:44 -0800

Is it possible to run a search at Amazon that excludes "Used and new" items? I have an Amazon voucher to spend, so I'd like to see listings that include only items dispatched directly from Amazon itself ("Buy new"), not from third party vendors. When this was asked three years ago, the answer seemed to be "no", but I wondered if there were any new web apps that might allow such requests via the API or somesuch.

Can you identify this cover of Toxic I heard?

chudmonkey — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:24:51 -0800

Can you help me find this vaguely-described song featuring/based on a cover of Britney Spear's Toxic? I was listening to an online radio station called Flavor Mix on Monday, June 23 when I heard the tail-end of a song. What I heard was a verse of some fairly generic rapping by (at least) one male performer, followed by a soulful, smoky rendition of the chorus of Toxic by a female voice.

Britney's Toxic has been covered extensively, but I've only been able to come across versions by Yael Naim, Local H and Blowsight, and none of them are the song I heard.

Flavormix.de is a little hard for me to navigate because of the language barrier and some confusing cross-domain links, so I had no luck using that site to find track-listings or anything.

I'd love to hear that track again - thanks in advance for any help!

A rubber-stamping solution that's suitable for silver CD-Rs?

porn in the woods — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:17:08 -0800

Started up a DIY record label with a friend a while back. I'm looking for a rubber stamp that will be suitable for using on a silver-topped CD-R. Our first release was on inkjet-printable discs, which looked great but took ages to produce. Looking at this thread points me towards some vendor choices for the stamp. Anyone tried this method of disc identification?

Help me securely share folders across different networks

special-k — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:04:46 -0800

Help me share a folder across the internet without compromising my firewall I have a desktop at work with multiple hard drives and a large amount of data. Lately I have been working at several remote research sites and find the need to grab files from the desktop. So I shared some folders and restricted access to my username. The desktop has a static IP so the share works like so

\\ip.add.re.ss\share_name

so far so good. Zone alarm [on the desktop], however, denies access when I am on a different network. I've talked to the IT admins at a few of my research sites and entered those IP ranges into my trusted zone but it would be impossible for me to cover every single site (and the occasional coffee shop in the middle of nowhere). What can I do to get around this?

Sharing works perfectly when zone alarm is turned off. I could, for example, enter 1.1.1.1 to 255.255.255.255 as a trusted range but that would defeat the purpose of having the firewall. I'm stumped.

Both computers run XP

How can I get data off a bad hard drive?

deafmute — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:28:11 -0800

I am having a very unusual problem with my hard drive and CANNOT recover any data from it after trying numerous methods. Please help me with your technical expertise. A few weeks ago the hard drive for my Dell Inspiron 1520 became unable to boot into Vista after freezing suddenly. When trying to boot, I get a BSOD with the error message "Stop: c000142{DLL Initialization Failed} Initialization of the dynamic link library winsrv failed. The process is terminating abnormally." When attempting to launch startup repair, boot into safe mode, or boot off of several different Vista DVDs I am greeted with a cursor (that I can control) on a black screen that never goes anywhere.

I ran Dell's built-in diagnostic program, and after being given several hard drive related errors, Dell (very quickly) sent me a new hard drive. Now I need to send them the old one, and I would like to recover my data from it before wiping it and sending it back.

I first put it in an enclosure and connected it to Vista, but Vista does nothing more than prompt me to format the drive.

I then ran Spinrite, which, after 27 hours(!) of operation returned no bad sectors or errors of any kind. What's unusual, however, is that my old drive does not exactly match my new drive in terms of partitions. The data partition is flagged as being too large for the size of the drive, and I am advised to change my BIOS's "understanding" of the drive (which I can't do). It is also missing a partition labeled as "hidden CTOS memory dump". I have no idea what this means.

I then booted off of a Knoppix cd and attempted to mount the drive there. I was able to mount the two partitions containing Dell's hidden diagnostic and recovery data, but Knoppix was unable to recognize the existence of a third partition containing my data.

Google searches have proved inconclusive (particularly in the case of my BSOD error message). Please help me get my data!

Proper Lasagna consists of RED & WHITE sauce, not PINK.

Mutant — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:10:51 -0800

We love lasagna. But my white sauce mixes with my red sauce and it all ends up looking pink. I'm using a rather basic lasagna recipe but consistently have been frustrated by sauces mixing together. It seems to be happening during cooking to some extent, but cutting portions and serving doesn't help much.

While the mixing doesn't effect the taste, my lasagna is rather unsightly compared to professionally prepared portions.

What can I do to keep the sauces as distinct as possible? It seems that professionally prepared (i.e., restaurant) lasagna has distinct layers of white and red sauce, separated by the pasta itself. Mine tends to mingle, almost to the point where I'm ending up with, at times, a pinkish sauce.

I'm not sure if it is caused by my sauce recipe or technique, but it has happened both with meat and veggie lasagna. The filler for either is as follows :

Meat: 1 lb. browned ground beef
Veggies: 1 lb of coarsly chopped broccoli, carrots, bell peppers, celery, green lettuce, all raw

Here is my red sauce :

Chopped onion, one large
Garlic, four cloves
Salt
Pepper
Tomato paste, two cans

This is generally prepared once a week in a large batch that I use for multiple dishes, lasagna included. Sometimes I'll make and use the sauce immediately, other times I've frozen and reheated it, but this hasn't changed my results.

If I'm making meat lasagna I'll mix it (after browning separately) with the red sauce otherwise, I spoon out red sauce, then cover with the veggie mix.

And my white sauce, which remains the same for meat or veggie lasagna :

Munster cheese
Four tablespoons butter
Four tablespoons of flour
Two cups of milk

I melt the butter, then add in salt & pepper. Blend in the flour then cook over over a low flame for two minutes, finally adding milk. Bring mixture to boil and let boil for two minutes.

Technique:

Parmesan cheese on the bottom, then some red sauce (if veggie then layer chopped vegetables on top of red sauce).

A layer of lasagna pasta sheets, more parmesan, then white sauce.

This is repeated three times in total, with red sauce and more parmesan topping off the lasagna.

Bake and serve.

I still don't have good control, and end up with the sauces mixing. Does anyone have any tips on how to insure that the layers don't intermingle too much? The professionally prepared portions that we get at a restaurant are much more visually appealing (and I seem to recall my great grandmothers as having sharp, distinct layers as well).

Thanks for your help!