Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with slow

Yet Another Tipping Question

PinkMoose — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 22:36:16 -0800

I usually over tip--22-25 percent. But I was confused about something that happened tonight. I went to a new bar, kind of a renovated dive, with a friend. We both ordered cocktails, I ordered a charchturie (sp) platter and he ordered a pizza. My food came right away, and both of our drinks came quickly. The bar was empty for our first drinks, but was filling up quickly. We ordered a second drink. The bar was filled with people that the bar tender seemed to know. The second drink came. No sign of pizza, it was more than an hour at this point. We remind the bartender, who is also the server twice. He finally says, five minutes, and five minutes later, the pizza comes. This would have been 90 minutes. No offer to comp the food, no apologies, but the food was really good, the drinks were strong, and I would like to go back...I tipped 4 on a 32 bill, after tax. They also split the bill in a weird manner. My friends kind of shy, so I took his lead, and didn't complain. How much should I have tipped? Should I have complained? Should I go back to complain? What's the protocol here?

Why is my wireless router so slow, and how can I make it faster?

Greg Nog — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 10:06:56 -0800

My Wi-Fi is slow, and it seems to be the fault of the router. How can I make it faster? Barring that, is there a better router I could buy? Details inside. My wireless router is a Netgear WNR2000 model, and it is slow. When my computer's plugged in to the router by a physical ethernet cable, I have the following results from SpeedTest.com:

12ms ping
14.59 Mbps download
.99 Mbps upload

But over the air, the results are:

20 ms ping
2.62 Mbps download
.97 Mbps upload

I feel like it didn't used to be this slow, but maybe I'm wrong? Is it possible for a router to get slower over time? I've had it for about three years now.

I have checked the channel it's on, and it seems to be the only router in the vicinity on its channel, so I don't think that's creating interference. The router is also about a foot away from the wall, so I don't think that's interfering with it (plus, the speed is the same when my computer's right next to the router).

Is there anything I can do to speed it up? Is this just the maximum speed for this type of router? (my guess is no, given the puported specs from Netgear) Would I be better off buying a different router?

Possibly-relevant details: WEP encryption is being used on the wi-fi, and my computer's a MacBook using an AirPort to receive the signal.

VPN XP woes

merocet — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 15:39:51 -0800

I've installed Private Internet Access VPN software on a Win 7 machine and an XP machine on my home network. The VPN connected Windows 7 machine reports good speeds at www.speedtest.net and streams content like a champ. The XP machine when connected to the VPN shows terrible speeds and buffers and stutters like something not so useful. More details after the fold... The Win 7 machine is connecting to my home network via wifi. The XP machine is hard cabled to the same wifi router.

The speedtest results for both machines when the VPN is switched off are the same. Nice and fast.

Why is my XP machine so slow when going via the VPN?

Seeking Slow Cooker Model Recommendation

Tube — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 07:20:46 -0800

I'm looking to find a slow cooker (Crock-Pot) currently in production that has the following characteristics: 1. The pot is light weight. 2. The pot has insulated handles. 3. The pot does not have flimsy PTFE non-stick coating. Most currently manufactured slow cookers that I've seen in person and searched for on the internet seem to have stoneware pots. To me these have limitations, in that they are heavy and don't have insulated handles. I have a vintage West Bend slow cooker that has a metal pot with an enamel lining and two plastic handles. It's light weight, and allows me to hold it in one hand while scooping out cooked food with the other.

I know that my venerable vintage West Bend will some day go to the home appliance hereafter, so I'm trying to plan ahead for that dark day. I realize that I could probably obtain a similar model through eBay, second hand store, or yard sale, but ideally I'd like to start with a new machine. For some reason, the design characteristics I'm looking for seem long gone.

With a hard g.

Iteki — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 04:23:25 -0800

Problem with animated gifs or pages with a large number of images. Using win7 and having tried in chrome, firefox and ie, the problem remains. I like to browse imgur so you can understand the frustration, but this also happens on tumblr, buzzfeed or other popular, image-heavy sites. A page of 20 images will load perhaps half. It's pretty inconsistant though, sometimes there's no problem. If I reload the page enough times the gif will sometimes load fully and play, but not always.
I have buttloads of bandwidth, and I've never heard my mrs complain about similar problems despite similar browsing habits. I've emptied my cache. What now?

MacOSX: Create a new user, move safest bits over from my old user?

sdis — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 08:47:03 -0800

MacbookProFilter: I migrated my old user onto my new macbook, and carried with it a bunch of problems (slow startup, rapid battery life loss, etc.). Is there a clever, systematic way to migrate chunks of my user account to a new user? I don't exactly need to find the culprit(s) that are causing all the issues; I just want a machine that works well, but I'd rather not just delete all my preferences and passwords and start over from scratch completely if it's not necessary. Is there some app or guide that shows precisely which parts of a user account are 99% safe to migrate?

Slow Medicine and Japanese Movie Title

kryptos — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 17:09:01 -0800

What is the title of the Japanese movie that Dr Dennis McCullough, M.D., writes about in his article on Slow Medicine. he wrote in the first para: "I often think about a Japanese film I saw years ago. It tells the story of three generations living in extreme poverty on a remote northerly island that afforded its residents neither doctors nor anything beyond the simplest folk remedies. Life was hard. Food was scarce. When an aging grandmother recognized it was her time to die, she broke her teeth with a stone so there could be no arguing about her eating the family's food. Reluctantly, inexorably, the old woman weakened. Finally, her loving and dutiful son was forced to undertake the community's arduous tradition of carrying his mother on his back to the top of a steep and holymountain, where she would be laid out with other frail elders to die a peaceful death by falling asleep in the freezing snow.
The mountain climb was long and difficult. The son's balance, strength, and grip occasionally failed. Engaged in their shared ritual, parent and child seldom spoke except to acknowledge their mutual trust and the difficulty of their task. "

for those interested, the whole article is here:

GRAND ROUNDS
Slow medicine
By Dennis McCullough, M.D.

Thank you, and have a nice weekend/Sunday

I don't fit in to the speedy culture.

Autumn — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:46:58 -0800

What are careers that value perfectionism and meticulousness over speed? I need everything to be perfect. If I'm doing dishes, I'll recheck and rewash several times to make sure I haven't missed any specs. When I try to hurry through them, I inevitably see specs of food, and I've noticed the same when others do too.

Problem: This trait makes me unsuited to speed-based work like retail and restaurants because I spend too much time making sure everything's perfect. I know the work looks great, but I often get complaints about completing things too slowly. I've tried to turn this off and haven't been able to, it's something ingrained in my personality.

What careers should I be pursuing? It seems likely that I should do something creative, because I've taken classes in art, photography and graphic design and have been praised for my work. The problem is I really can't stand work that doesn't involve a lot of human interaction, and most people I know in these fields are freelancers.

Help? What are some other avenues should I be considering?

Note: So you have an idea of the emphasis my culture places on speed, I'm in the USA.

Help me pick out my new slow cooker

queens86 — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 17:31:49 -0800

What size slow-cooker should I get? What size slow cooker should I get for just my boyfriend and I? He doesn't like leftovers much, but I don't mind having a little leftover (preferably just for a meal or two, not several). I was leaning heavily toward this 1.5 quart that has very good reviews, but I am starting to worry it may be too small. Would we be better off with a 3 quart?

I'd like to be able to adapt recipes to the size, cook beans, oatmeal, pulled pork, a couple chicken breasts/thighs. If you recommend a 3 quart, what brand and model? Thanks!

Down-Tempo Acoustica

Jode — Sat, 26 May 2012 13:02:12 -0800

Seeking recommendations for the s-l-o-w-e-s-t tunes you can think of from the “roots” repertoire of South, Central and North America. Folkloric music, jazz, blues, gospel, country, salsa, son, beguine, etc. While I lean towards instrumental music, there is no instrument like the voice of a great singer. There are some simmering slow grooves in rhumba. Bill Evans and Mingus both recorded tunes at very slow tempos.
What are the slowest tunes you know: moody, menacing, maudlin, mysterious, mournful?

Why does my Macbook freeze all the time?

quadrilaterals — Sun, 13 May 2012 18:52:12 -0800

Why is my Macbook so slow and constantly freezing? My Macbook is constantly freezing and taking forever to do simple things. It just froze as I pressed backspace twice to correct a typo (using Firefox on an internet connection with no issues). It just froze again as I highlighted a word to replace it. Those freezes were about two seconds; earlier this evening, when I attempted to scroll down through my iTunes, it froze for about two minutes.

I get the rainbow pinwheel when it freezes and everything just stops. It isn't limited to one application; Safari and Firefox and iTunes and Notepad and Preview and literally anything are all a mess. It really hates when I plug in my iPhone.

If it doesn't freeze, it's incredibly slow. Loading Slate, for example, takes five minutes. (My iPhone and work laptop are able to load at normal speeds, and testing the connection reveals no problems.) Opening iPhoto takes forever.

This computer was purchased less than two years ago (August 2010). I use it for not much - to surf the internet, save documents and pictures (but not many), play the occasional game of Peggle. I don't have much installed on here. I don't take it many places, but when I do, it's in a padded laptop bag.

Here is the hardware overview:
Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

HD is about 2.5 GB capacity with 1.92 GB open free.

It just froze again while I tried to scroll up to review this question. I'm about a bad mood away from throwing it against the wall.

HELP PLEASE OH MAN IT FROZE WHEN I PRESSED CAPSLOCK.

Crock pot as Sous Vide?

boby — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 12:48:16 -0800

Would a crock pot with a dimmer switch work as sous vide machine? Crock pot temperature settings don't allow for the low settings (135-145) degrees F that work well for sous vide cooking. Would plugging the crock pot into a dimmer switch work after trial and error using just water?

I need slow goth songs for a slow jam at a goth-themed wedding.

Sully — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:03:15 -0800

I am looking for Goth slow songs. Now, I know that what's considered Goth can be widely debated, but I am comfortable with having some latitude with regard to what's considered Goth. Basically, I am interested in a slow jam that could be used at a Goth-themed wedding. I would be grateful for any suggestions people have.

I hate monopolies.

bricoleur — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:36:55 -0800

Why does the Netflix Watch Instantly homepage hate me? It can take anywhere from 5 minutes to ∞ minutes to load all the images. I can't say it's completely useless without the images—if I'm desperate, I can mouse over every black rectangle to see what it contains—but I'm sure the irritation is shortening my life. While it's loading, I typically see a message that Firefox is waiting on data from one of (what appear to be) Netflix's servers. I tried flushing my DNS cache, and that actually seemed to help momentarily, but then it stopped helping. (Yeah, I don't think it really helped.) Is this just Comcast throttling Netflix so I'll use Comcast's video service? Is there anything I can do to speed things up? I started the dreaded customer service phone call last night and that actually seemed to precipitate an avalanche of image loading—did they see my customer service ID and say hey, dump that guy's images so he'll hang up?

The car that idled way too slow

exphysicist345 — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 13:37:09 -0800

The car had run out of gas. When it got gas and finally started, it ran very strangely. How come? The '95 Ford Thunderbird ran out of gas, completely, and was parked on the shoulder when a gallon of gas arrived and was poured into the tank. The starter was cranked, cranked, cranked to pump the gas to the engine. Finally it started, kinda, but sounded very strange. At idle, the sound from the tailpipe was a quiet pum... pum...pum pum....pum... like individual cylinders firing.

Any ideas what was going on? Does running out of gas do something to a a fuel-injected engine? (I don't know what happened thereafter, as I left in my own car.)

TCP WTF

Kadin2048 — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:42:36 -0800

How do I fix this fast-then-slow download issue on a Linux machine? It doesn't happen on a Windows machine. TCP tuning nerdery probably required. My office has a 12 megabit symmetric connection, shared between a dozen users or so via a SonicWall edge router and a 100MbE switch.

When running "yum update" on a Fedora machine, I noticed that downloads were beginning very quickly, but then tapering off to only a few kB/s after a meg or two. E.g., a 50MB download will start at upwards of 600kB/s, but after a few moments will start stalling and eventually end up crawling along at 3-4 kB/s.

Some other users reported similar behavior on Win7 boxes, and fixed it by disabling Windows TCP Autotuning. I'm not sure of exactly what behavior this disables, though, or what its Linux equivalent would be. I have already reduced the MTU down to 1400 (from 1500) just to see if that was the issue, but it didn't have any effect.

Running a speed test on a nearby Windows machine shows 12Mb/s available both up and down, so it's not a matter of there not being enough upstream for the ACKs.

Google turns up a lot of people reporting similar problems, but the typical response is to blame it on ISP throttling, which it definitely is not in my case. (Both because I know the connection isn't throttled or shaped, and because I can download the same file on a Windows box and get a much higher sustained transfer.) It definitely seems to be some sort of maladjusted TCP setting. I'm comfortable with Linux but have never had reason to do much TCP tuning before.

Technical details: The test machine is running Fedora 16 (linux 3.1.0-7.fc16.i686 SMP). I can get the same result regardless of what server I'm pulling data from; I've seen it from a variety of Fedora mirrors but also via SCP from a machine at home. It's been a while since I've babysat one of the Linux boxes while it was doing an update, so I'm not sure for how long the issue has been going on. Nothing on the LAN side has changed recently; the edge router and switch are both a few years old and otherwise work fine.

Why is the wireless part of my wireless router so slow?

tkerugger — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:58:51 -0800

Do I need to buy a new router? (boring details of really slow wireless performance below the fold) I have a Netgear wireless N router (~1 year old), and 40mbps dsl service. Problem is, lately I can't get close to those speeds over wireless, regardless of device. Using my desktop, which is on a wired connection, everything works well.

I've relocated my router to make sure it's positioning is optimal, I've updated the firmware, I've done a factory reset on it and started over from scratch, and I've analyzed neighboring networks and selected my wireless channel based on what my neighbors don't use.

What now? Buy a new router? Currently, using my iPad, my upload speeds are faster than my download speeds...frustrating!

Recommendations for a new router? No advanced home network here, just a couple of smart phones, an iPad and a couple of laptops that all beg for faster Internet!

Thanks for the advice!
Neil

beachball in january no good

Namlit — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:46:12 -0800

New Year's edition of "my macbook pro is suddenly slow"... [Yes I'm seeing that there are a million posts tagged "macbook" - but maybe the specific story needs a specific answer.]

When I was a-travel in November, at home with friends and trying to hook up to their wireless network with a wrongly transferred password (and trying a gazillion other popping-up networks as well in the process), my 15-inch Macbook pro (some extra memory installed...) got sluggish, as in:

- takes much longer to open any application.
- often, after launching an application, menu functions don't work properly until I've used a few of them, then everything gets more or less normal.
- system tools and things open especially slowly (it seems).
- all these things are accompanied by lots of random beechballing.
- Right-click usually doesn't work at first tries, but hackles and hangs; after waiting a bit, everything usually does work.
- Doing system-related stuff in the background and other work in the foreground tends to freeze applications, and sometimes even the entire machine.
- The Dashboard usually needs two tries to display properly.

After returning home, I put the computer on my desk and hooked it up to the power line for a few days, working away with Word, Scrivener and a few other applications, and after a few days it apparently self-healed to its usual performance.

Come next trip now in December, the problems come back. Back at home, this time, they stay.

To be sure, work is (or seems now) entirely possible, that is, after I've clicked around a bit and used some functions. But, for example, re-awaking from sleep and any new application-launch usually leave me waiting, clicking around in frustration, closing and re-trying stuff and so on. As an ex-windows person, I certainly can live with this; good. But perhaps this behavior could be improved; better.

What I did:

Changing to a brand-new battery. The old one wasn't great from the start, I was actually needing external power all the time...
Checking the activity monitor: while I type this, it shows 86-95% idle so that's likely not it.
Repairing permissions (may have helped a tiny bit).
Emptying caches in safari and firefox, re-starting.
Thinking long and hard whether there have been funny software updates or other things, I don't think there have.

The computer is not getting full: I've 98something gigs of storage left.
The drive also doesn't sound funny or anything, and I'm not getting a lot of fan-activity or anything.

So, on the off-chance that you've had the patience to wade through all this, and have an idea/had and solved a similar problem/can point to a good resource, I'd be grateful for suggestions.

What bugs me most is that I'm not a very hectic user and usually careful not to rush stuff, and I haven't changed my work pattern at all, so I keep wondering, what could have changed and how to change it back.
(Backups on external drive via time machine available...)
Thanks in advance.

Help me speed up my SSD in my MBP!

smitt — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:13:01 -0800

I installed an SSD into my early-2011 13" MacBook Pro. It's working great, but the benchmark tests don't come close to advertised speeds... I recently purchased an OCZ Agility 3 90GB SSD drive. I then bought OWC's Data Doubler, and once that arrived, got to work.

I have taken out the optical drive. In its place, I installed the Data Doubler with the stock 500GB 5200rpm drive that the computer shipped with.

I installed the SSD where the HDD was, in order to maximize speed (and negate the reported won't-wake-from-sleep issue when drive installed in the optical bay).

Cloned the original hard drive, minus the USERS folder and rebooted. I then turned on TRIM support in Lion according to instructions located online.

Success! Fantastico! Works very well, and it's extremely fast.

However, in benchmarking I'm only seeing 70MB/s read and 140MB/s write (I may have that reversed, but those are roughly the numbers). I believe I should be seeing much closer to 500MB/s??

Is there a step I missed, or is this normal? Should I have enabled something somewhere that I haven't to get the most out of my MBP with SSD?

i want to wander around and loot properly please.

By The Grace of God — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:46:23 -0800

Please help with my woefully performing installation of Skyrim. Several problems and my Noob-ular cluelessness inside. Specs: dell inspiron BTS, 3gb ram, intel pentium CPU, 2.13 Ghz.

windows 7 64 bit. Happy to change that if needed.

Problem: The mouse is really, really jerky. Do I simply need a USB mouse or something? I have everything on the lowest frame rate and complexity and I still feel like I am stumbling around drunkenly or have Parkinsons or something.

I tried using game booster 3, I tried this youtube video that had me edit a file called TSV to accept an address of over 2 gigs... this just caused the game not to start until I put that back.

I run my game through Steam.

I just want smooth play. Do I remap my mousepad in some way or use a plug in mouse or add RAM or what? I don't care about the beautiful textures so much.

Why does the pharmacist take so god damn long?

Nelsormensch — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:19:52 -0800

Why does the pharmacist take so god damn long? (Honest question, I'm not being snarky, or at least that snarky)

I genuinely want to know why dispensing prescriptions at every single pharmacy I've ever been takes so bloody long. Even for a very simple, pre-portioned prescription, it seems to take an indorinate amount of time relative to what is actually dispensed.

E.g. every time my wife goes to get a birth control refill, it takes forever. All they need to do is take three smaller boxes from a bigger box. That's it! But even if it's like 8 PM on a Tuesday night and the store is quiet a tomb, it still takes 15-20 minutes. The other day she tried to pick up an Rx and they said it would be between 45 minutes and an hour. Sure, there were a few people around, but it's not like there was a dozens-deep wall of people waiting around the pharmacy counter.

Are there controlled substance checks that need to be performed? Ensure there are no dangerous interactions? Some other kind of pharmaceutical sorcery?

I'm in Canada if it matters, but this is definitely something I've seen when I lived in the US too.

This is why no one ever lets me pick the movie

theodolite — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 14:09:54 -0800

I love boring movies. Recommend me your favorites. A lot of my favorite movies are extremely slow-moving, usually with minimal dialogue and action. Some of them are deep and philosophical, some are just beautiful and slow.

Movies like:
- Nature docs, especially low-narration ones like Kestrel's Eye and Microcosmos (Sir David is great but he's not quite what I'm getting at here)
- Koyaanisqatsi and the like (I wore out a VHS tape of Chronos as a kid)
- Woman in the Dunes
- Chris Marker's films (which have plenty of narration, but seem to me more similar in style to the above than they are to a traditional documentary)

I'm not looking for movies that are merely long or uneventful (not Gone with the Wind or My Dinner with Andre, in other words). I'm also not looking for movies with lots of abstract imagery -- I'd rather watch a street scene or a blacksmith at work for ten minutes than artfully composed shots of shadows or whatever.

Five bonus points for anything on Netflix Instant Watch.

Slow cooking : science me please!

travertina — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:31:29 -0800

Can I reuse cooking sauce from last time when slow cooking? It sounds terrible, but I can't think of a good reason not to try this. Am I not thinking this through?

My new favorite thing to cook in my slow cooker is sweet italian sausage. Add onion chunks, bell pepper strips, cover with a big jar of tomato sauce, and enjoy the tasty magic after 6 hours on low.

I don't find that I eat much of the cooking sauce though, so I have about a quart leftover each time. Can I freeze this, and thaw and reuse the next time?

You're still not done??

mokeydraws — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:43:55 -0800

In some way, I'm too slow. It takes me a really long time to do things, especially if they're not interesting. This doesn't apply to all things though. I can move fast, and walk fast, and talk fast. I can remember being called slow as a kid - and this was just when it came to doing boring kid stuff like getting dressed, or doing chores. It's also something that me and my boyfriend argue about. He doesn't understand why it takes me so long to do things. I never really paid it any mind but recently realized that it's true! It takes me forever to do the dishes or laundry or cook. No one at any of my jobs has complained but now I'm really concerned about being slow at work.

Time just seems to go by. I am a master daydreamer and procrastinator and try to use music to help with focusing on specific tasks. I've heard parents say that their kids are so slow and been behind people who I think are moving or doing something too slow (for me) and I don't feel like that's the way I am. Like the discussion about people who take 2 minute showers. There is no way that I could ever do that.

I would like to get things done quicker. I would like to be able to accurately know how long things should take and get them done in that time frame. I don't want to spend an hour doing the dishes. Are you a slow person or a fast person? How do you deal with others expectations as it relates to this?

How to fix flaky/slow connection on Windows 7 PC

mrbob14 — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 21:39:44 -0800

The wireless internet connection on my PC has been incredibly slow and drops out frequently, even with two totally different adapters. What's going on? I have a custom-built PC with Windows 7 that I've been using for the past 3 years with no problems. Recently, I've been having issues with my wireless internet connection. It will show 4 or 5 bars, and under "status," it will say that I have a 24mbps connection, but in trying to actually browse the web, my speed is unbearably slow (we're talking much less than 56k speeds here). Also, I get frequent disconnects where the network gets lost and has to be found again.

I should say that I started having these problems with a PCI-based adapter that I originally put in the PC when I bought it. I figured that the problems were due to the adapter failing, so I bought a USB-based wireless adapter but am having the same issues. Connection speeds on all of my other computers and devices connected to my WiFi network are fine.

What could possibly be going wrong and causing this slowwwwness?