Why, exactly, are pyramid schemes so bad? Should I try to convince a relative to leave one, and if so, how? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Mar 22, 2009 - 28 answers

Do lisp and dialects make sense for general purpose scientific computing? [more inside]
posted by ghost of a past number on Oct 25, 2008 - 18 answers

Is it possible to take out huge sums of money as cash advances and then flee the country? Don't worry, I have zero interest in actually doing this, but I was talking to a friend who claimed that one could apply for a bunch of credit cards at once, max them all out, and then skip out to Thailand or somewhere and live off the $150,000 or however much you got. Is this true? And if so, why aren't more people doing it? [more inside]
posted by allen8219 on Sep 3, 2008 - 21 answers

What tools do you use for commercial development in the Scheme language? [more inside]
posted by ijoshua on Aug 20, 2007 - 6 answers

Company pensions. Good idea? Bad idea? [more inside]
posted by Rabulah on Aug 6, 2007 - 9 answers

Some family members have gotten involved with a cult/pyramid scheme called Psi Seminars. They've been spending money they don't have (up to $4000/seminar, for which they travel to another state and have to stay in hotels) and it's wreaking havoc on their lives. One has lost his home, two are threatening to end their marriages and are alienating their grown children. They are demanding that our relationships with them be within the context of us paying them to attend these seminars as well. [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Mar 21, 2007 - 14 answers

Good independant cycle shop in London please. [more inside]
posted by Kiwi on Feb 7, 2007 - 14 answers

Ever since I've had a PC I've either had to endure the MS Sound scheme or some amatuer wavs that were horrific. What I'm looking for are pleasant sounds that say like, when you have a critical error, you hear a chorus vocal by Enya instead of "DING!" [more inside]
posted by Hands of Manos on Mar 28, 2005 - 6 answers

FishFilter? Why do some refrigerated trucks display the word "FISH" in big red letters? Used to see it a lot in Texas. Have never seen it in California. Big ol' mystery. Is it an acronym? A bad-smell warning? WTF???
posted by mudpuppie on Feb 4, 2005 - 6 answers

Is there such a thing as a Web site where you can type in the name of a particular organization or domain, and find out what e-mail scheme they assign their employees? Let's say you're trying to locate John Smith at the fictitious Omni Product Corporation...then you could look up the company and find out whether they typically give out addresses that are "john.smith@omniproduct.com," "johnsmith@...," "js,"...etc.? I realize this sounds like a spam apocalypse, but it would be so useful.
posted by inksyndicate on Oct 15, 2004 - 6 answers

I'm looking for online resources about the Scheme programming language. I'm a computer science major, and though I've already taken a class in it, that was a couple of years ago, and I've whacked my head on a lot of stuff since then. I'm just looking for a simple, easy-to-understand introduction or refresher course. [more inside]
posted by billybunny on Sep 21, 2004 - 10 answers