Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with soho

Dreammachine boutique, New York, early 90s?

Mutant — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:52:32 -0800

Did you use a dreammachine in New York, SOHO, early 90's? I'm trying to reconnect with some old friends, and have been racking my brain trying to come up with the name of a SOHO based boutique that allowed folks to use their dreammachines.

Their devices were mounted in IMAX like glasses with sound available from headphones. The boutique offered roughly a dozen reclining seats and beds for couples, with a variety of drinks available in a separate lounge area.

It was located on the east side of Broadway, just south of Houston but before Prince. In fact it was in either the first or second building south of Houston, not at street level but I can't recall what floor. The boutique sold time by the clock, or you could pay in advance for discounted blocks.

If you've used a dreammachine in the past, what are your feelings regarding the claims of persistent changes in brain function? Those claims caused a bit of a ruckus when the boutique was first opened, but I don't think anyone succeeded in closing it on those terms (business, of course, was something else).

The state achieved via these dreammachines was much, much more intense than results acquired by sitting in darkened a room with a cylinder spinning in the corner, so I'd especially be interested in hearing from anyone else who might have visited this boutique. I was a regular for perhaps one year.

Mysterious truck in Soho London.

vacapinta — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 05:06:02 -0800

What is this device? And what was this truck doing in Central London (Soho) today? I'm not sure what the device is. Looks like its gathering something? The dish on top is marked 'holkirk' which on quick Google seems to be for satellite uplinks?

There was nobody that I saw around or outside the truck. The truck is completely white and unmarked. There may have been someone inside. Anybody know what this truck was doing?

Can You ID An Unusual 80's Movie?

jfrancis — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 12:52:28 -0800

In an obscure late 80's art house film, a woman, instead of cleaning the sidewalk after her dog, spray paints the dog's turd gold. We recognized the shot's location as a corner in Soho. Since we were Manhattanites, we would occasionally find ourselves at the location, and we would enjoy seeing the gold splotch on the sidewalk with the poo-shaped silhouette in its center -- real world evidence of an event in a movie. Can anyone identify this movie? I can't recall it anymore.

I need a new suit in NYC.

o2b — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:39:04 -0800

I need a new suit. I live in NYC, and a friend had recommended that I go to Linus in SoHo, which has been known for its high quality and relatively low prices. Unfortunately the shop seems to have closed and I can't find out anything more. So, I guess I have two questions: 1. Has it moved somewhere else and I'm just not finding it? 2. What's a good alternative? I'd like a decent suit, fashionable and well constructed, and I'd like to pay less than $1000.

Tell me about current NAS manufacturers and technology?

loquacious — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:53:34 -0800

Tell me about Network Attached Storage ( NAS )? In particular what current manufactuers should I avoid for a typical 1 terabyte (or greater) RAID array? I'm also interested in general information and pitfalls for NAS devices and implementations. Deployment is for a mixed platform small office - about 8 seats. Platforms are XP, Vista and OS X.

I'm assuming SAMBA protocol for shares. Usage is low to medium - the office needs a data/file server for storing and reliably sharing typical office documents.

They emphatically do not need an actual server. There's no forseeable upgrade path to an in-office Exchange server or domain controller or the like - this is handled by a remote office through VPN. I could build them a PC-based solution using something like FreeNAS but that would be overkill, and I don't want to introduce a possibly flaky desktop/server into their office.

What NAS models or manufacturers are considered the most reliable? Best support? Best value?

Much thanks in advance!

How to Run A Business Providing Freelance Home Tech Support?

kandinski — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:36:01 -0800

How to Run A Business Providing Freelance Home Tech Support? I am a freelance writer working from home (my schedule is my own) starting to get cabin fever. Having recently arrived in Melbourne, Australia, I mostly work for my old contacts in Spain. The downside to this is some social isolation and odd working hours.

So I am considering opening a sideline in home tech support that will give me an excuse to get out of the house and meet people professionally, as well as a way to diversify/increase my income and work during the daytime. And to do something that I enjoy.

Yes, I enjoy home tech support. True, so far I have only done it for friends and family members, but I have done everything and anything your home user and SOHO worker needs: data recovery, network installation, whitebox PC hardware troubleshooting, spyware delousing... I am a happy Debian/Ubuntu user, but I still remember enough of Windows (my last data recovery being only two months ago, and still using Windows for gaming), and I would not mind to have an excuse to buy at least a Mac Mini and learn about Mac OSX.

But... I don't know anything about doing Home/SOHO Tech Support as a business. I am guessing the tech side is like for family, only charging money. But how much, and what for, and to whom, and how to manage it?

Please add more questions you think I am missing if you have a good answer to them:

Rates: How much should I charge? Should I charge per incident? Per visit? A flat hourly rate? A retainer so I have a fixed income?

Services: Should I post a detailed list of services, or just say "I do tech"? Most importantly, how could I as a single guy working from home differentiate myself from the competition?

Customer acquisition: At first I would like to test the waters by doing word-of-mouth and posting bills at local shops and cafes. I don't own a car, so I would only work for clients within reach of cycle or public transportation, say, within 45 minutes of where I live (this is a wide swathe of my city, but it has a funny shape).

Business management: someone asked about this already (looking for freelance computer tech support software), but they used Windows and I am now a happy Linuxer. If you run a comparable business on Linux, how do you run your business?

SOHO network with DHCP and static routing?

Ickster — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:09:38 -0800

In a home network, I'm using static routing on a router connected to my ISP connection, and added an additional router using DHCP. From the DHCP side, I'm able to connect to the internet, but am unable to reach any of the static addresses, nor can any of the static IPs reach through to the DHCP side. (How) can this be made to work? This is similar, but not identical to an earlier question. My difference is that I only have one public IP. Here's a quick outline:

cable modem (DHCP) --> Linksys (static routing; 192.168.100.1) --> Belkin (DHCP, 192.168.101.1)

I'm running a couple of internet-accessible services (web, svn, ftp) on a PC, hence the static routing. A file server is also located on the static side. PCs connected to the DHCP router are able to connect to the internet through the gateway at 192.168.1.1, but aren't able to see any other addresses on that subnet, so I can't reach my subversion server, file shares, make VNC connections, etc.

I should probably be able to figure this out myself, but networking gives me a headache and I haven't been able to put the right search terms together. Thanks for any help.

help me pick a OSX personal database?

penciltopper — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:26:50 -0800

Mac Mess Filter: help me choose personal database software. OK, so I've got a Mac and I can't find anything on it because I'm a slob that just saves everything in one "bucket".
How's that working out for me? Not so great.
By "personal database" I don't mean something like Access or OO.org's Base, keeping track of a vast record collection; I mean something that will take scans, PDFs, old emails, web clips, screenshots, etc. as drag-and-drop and do most of the searching/indexing for you.
Right now I just have all that kind of thing scattered all over my desktop - every so often when the desktop gets too crowded, I just sweep it all into a folder and hope I don't need/can find it in there at some later date.

I got a chance to use another Mac that had SOHO Notes (used to be StickyBrain?) installed, and it seems really cool.
I looked around, and it has several competitors.

Then I got concerned with "Ok, now I put everything into the Personal Database software and delete the originals (why keep two copies?), continue to use it for years, and the software craps out/company folds/alien space bats attack and now I can't get my stuff out of it again. So maybe I should just keep everything as files in the bucket, but organize with some sub-buckets, etc. (Does Leopard help? I'm still running Tiger.)

So if you know about this, and/or have used any of the following, please tell me what you can about:
SOHO Notes
Yojimbo
Bento
??? (another personal DB)
getting off my duff and making an organized file structure, labeling everything consistently, and letting Spotlight take it from there

What about London should I map?

viewofdelft — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:23:05 -0800

What about London should I map? I'm in an Advanced GIS class for which I need to produce a final cartographic project. The project must begin in ArcGIS but from there I'm free to use anything else (Illustrator, Flash, Google Earth, etc). In the spirit of John Snow, I'd like to make my upcoming trip to London a force for academic good.

I have a GPS unit, a DSLR camera, a student's budget, and a winning personality. What should I map? I'm open to all suggestions as long as they meet the following criteria:

1) The map should present complex and interesting information. I'm not too worried about this one because questions soliciting suggestions on this site often generate very interesting answers.

2) The project/map should be focused. I'll be in London for only a week and I'd like to make the data collection effort into a sort of overarching theme for my visit. That means I should probably confine my map to one neighborhood or area (I'm staying in Soho, but don't let that restrict you).

3) The data can come from any (accessible) source. I'd like to have a little fun gathering the data, but if your suggestions for a map can just as easily be constructed with data from other sources, I'd be happy to hear them. I live in the United States, so any return trips are out of the question this semester.

Thanks in advance. If I choose to go with one of the suggestions, I'll keep you updated.

Where can I learn to salsa dance in NYC?

Juggermatt — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 19:09:46 -0800

Can anyone recommend a good, but affordable place in Manhattan (preferably near Soho) where I can learn how to salsa dance, without requiring me to bring my own partner?

Places for a good meal in/near Soho, London

Ira.metafilter — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 03:41:44 -0800

Recommendations for a good place to have a meal in or not too far from Soho in London? I'm hoping to take some friends somewhere for a meal before a stand-up comedy gig at the Soho Theatre, maybe try out a restaurant we've never been to and a type of food we've never had before. (So anything that's not Italian, Chinese or Indian.) We wouldn't really want to spend too much money - ideally less than £25 per person? Any recommendations?

How to make Win 98 hop on to the internet over a small home network?

TrueVox — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 07:30:16 -0800

Question regarding getting Windows 98 to play nice with a Linksys Router and another Win XP computer on a home network. Ok, I've got the router connected correctly (At least the Win XP box has no problem interfacing with my wireless laptop, and of course the world wide web), and I don't even need to worry about file sharing or printer sharing. I just need to get the Win 98 box on the highspeed interweb using an ethernet cable plugged into the router. Any suggestions? Any clarification questions are welcome, and just to head it off at the pass, yes Linux would work out of the box, and no it's not an acceptable solution. Much to my chagrin.

Thanks a lot!

Saturday Brunch, NYC, Soho, Not too dear?

eatdonuts — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 10:00:58 -0800

Saturday Brunch, NYC, Soho, Not too dear? Two years ago, I used to live on MacDougal & Houston ... just around the corner from the Angelika. Now I'm shacked up with the boyfriend in Long Island. Coming in this Saturday for a long leisurely brunch with a friend in that neighborhood and gasp! My favorite restaurant "Le Gamin" died! Before I suffer another anxiety attack, any suggestions? Need a reasonably priced, place to hang out, get brunch, maybe a latte or bloody mary ...? I can't really leave it up to the friend because she's a bit hopeless with this kind of stuff. I want to be around the Angelika because we're likely to go to a movie afterwards...

graffiti in soho

provolot — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 11:39:19 -0800

Graffiti in SoHo, NYC? Exactly where? I'm looking for some good looking, full stretches of graffiti in Soho, NYC -- I'm shooting a fashion photo that needs a good backdrop.
Where are some good locations with graffiti (specific addresses)/street art/etc?

Also, where in SoHo is this?

Thanks!

Perceptions of freelance consultant vs. small business

cmacleod — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 20:24:54 -0800

What are the perceptions of freelance consultant vs. small business in contracting work? I have made a decision to work from home for the next 12 months or so.

When looking for new clients is there a general perception that hiring a small business (even if that business only has 1 - 2 employees) would be better than a single person? Is it easier for companies to pay out to a company vs. a consultant? Will I generally have more luck (all other things being equal) gaining new work if I was Me Inc. vs. just me?

I would like to avoid registering a company as where I live it requires a significant capital expenditure. For me personally, other than ego, I see no point in forming a company - I would form teams around freelancers anyway and would never have more than myself and an assistant as employees.

nyc walking tour

iconomy — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 13:27:48 -0800

Can you help me plan a little NYC walking tour? What's the most interesting, scenic, and fun way to walk from Greenwich Village to Chinatown, and what are some places we shouldn't miss? I'm going to be in NYC for the day with friends tomorrow. They've never been there. They want to see GV, SoHo, Little Italy, and Chinatown. I know they're all more or less "in a row", but what streets specifically should we walk along? Where are the best shops and galleries and interesting things to look at in SoHo, and where's the best place to have lunch in Little Italy? A cafe that served great coffee and cannoli would be nice, too. I want to end up at Grand and Bowery in Chinatown to buy durian to take home with me, so assume we're starting somewhere around NYU and want to end up in Chinatown.

Cheap, fast Chinese food in NYC

cyrusdogstar — Mon, 22 Nov 2004 08:43:57 -0800

NYCFilter: This should be a simple question, where can I get fairly decent, cheap, fast Chinese food in Soho or Chinatown? Details and Midtown analogies inside. I work in Soho, specifically the Puck Building (corner of Houston and Lafayette Streets, a block from Broadway). In the immediate neighborhood all I've really found is a Subway and a passable pizzeria; but, I occasionaly tire of those and I do like Chinese/Japanese food (don't we all?).

My girlfriend works on and off in Midtown, and she's got a plethora of cheap & good Chinese/Japanese food to choose from when she's there--Yoshinoya's, a place that recently closed called Yip's, another place whose name I forget on 38th Street. They all offer your typical compact rice + meat (+ sometimes veggies) meal for approximately $3-6.

However, I haven't yet found any similar places around here, and I'm afraid to wander 10 minutes down to Canal and start trying random Chinese restaurants in Chinatown. Mostly because A) I wouldn't know where to start and B) I'm unsure what the general range of quality is down there.

So I'm hoping someone can suggest places they've been to or heard of that would offer some fairly cheap, fairly decent General Tso's or whatnot, that would be in this general area of Manhattan. Thanks!