Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with speed

Sleeping on meth?

drleary — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:51:09 -0800

Thinking about old times just now... I used to do a *LOT* of meth (I've been clean for about 5-6 years now, and I knew this guy who could snort a line and an hour later, go take a nap.) How is this possible?

Your honor, the speed limit was too low!

relucent — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:27:59 -0800

Are there any legal grounds for challenging a speed limit as being unreasonable? I drive through a very small town on the way to work. The 2-lane highway is 55 mph before and after the town, but once you get inside the town, the road splits into 4 lanes and the speed limit drops to 45, 35 and then 20 within the span of about two city blocks. There is a stop light at the one intersection, but it is almost always green, so it doesn't do much to curb the inertia. No school zones.

I don't know if this is the same for everyone, but I normally have an intrinsic sense of the speed limit, such that I will almost always drive close to the speed limit even if I didn't see the sign. The road through this town is definitely a "35" road, and in fact I can't even drive under 30 unless I hold down the brakes the whole way through the town. 20 is nearly impossible for a 6-cylinder car. I typically catch myself going 40-42 mph because it feels natural.

This got me wondering: I could conceivably get my license suspended if I was clocked going 42 in a 20. There's always the route of challenging the cop's radar calibration, but I am wondering if there are any legal grounds for challenging the speed limit itself as being unreasonable. I realize this would require a more well-thought-out argument than "the speed limit was too low", but is there any way this could stand in court?

This is hypothetical, YANAL, YANML, etc. I'm just curious.

What does a long pinky fingernail mean?

desjardins — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:16:24 -0800

When I was in college, I had a wild friend with a long pinky fingernail (and only her pinky, and only on one hand). I asked her about it once, and she gave me a "knowing look" and laughed it off. But I don't know what it was for, and fearing I'd look stupid, I never asked her again. Possibly relevant: she told me (in another conversation) that before we met, she was addicted to speed. I don't know if she really recovered from that, but she was definitely an alcoholic when I knew her. Once I was at her house and someone was passing around a bag? jar? (can't remember) of something. Most people partook of whatever-it-was. (Bonus question: what would that have been?)

She was bisexual and was dating a woman when I noticed the fingernail. The only reason I mention this is in case it's a fetish or lesbian thing (though I've been around plenty of both and have never seen it).

This is in Montana, late 90s.

This is what I switched to AVOID!

InsanePenguin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:42:13 -0800

Is Verizon lying to me? After fighting tooth and nail with Verizon, I FINALLY had FiOS installed today. Great. Awesome. Loving it. I got the 25/15 Mbps package, but speedtest.net seems to be struggling to get to 3 Mbps. Verizon's own speedtest utility tells me that I'm getting the right speed-ish.

What gives? Is Verizon lying to me about my speed, or is speedtest inaccurate for some reason?

FWIW, browsing has felt noticably snappier than with my 15Mbps Comcast connection, but I haven't had any large downloads or torrents to really test it out on.

It's just weirding me out.

"Soft in some places, lumpy in others. It's ghoulish. You are a ghoul."

The Whelk — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:24:51 -0800

My Disgusting Body And You: For reasons I can't divulge, I will be appearing nude in public come November. What can I do in a month so I look my naked best? I don't have a gym and really can't afford one, and my time is going to be pretty tight for the first two weeks in October... 1- I'm a 25 year old 220 pound dude shaped like Judah Friedlander.

2- I kinda went to hell this summer for work and other reasons. I'm pale, my upper body strength is shot completely and my clothes are starting to rebel. My motivation to move around has been nil, hence doing the nude thing to force myself to do something.

3- I already eat pretty well, not a whole lot of processed food and lots of veggies. More than willing to cut out the big things like beer and bread and fried foods. My problem is that I'm never hungry. Ever. I eat maybe one meal a day. Everyone says you have to eat little meals to up your metabolism but I just can't force myself to eat that much.

4- As I said before, no gym, but a big empty floor and 2 ten pound weights. Also, cause of the money situation, I can't do classes or anything that costs money.

5- Anything else I should be doing Right Now to ensure I look Super Great Naked in a month? Start scrubbing off the foot calluses or full body moisturizing or what?

Slow & Steady

ocherdraco — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:07:16 -0800

Why is my website loading slowly, and how can I fix it? My blog (linked from my profile page) seems to load incredibly slowly (sometimes taking up to a minute), even though it's not a content heavy site.

Things that may be relevant:

the blog is Wordpress v. 2.0.4

the admin page for the blog loads up just fine, with no delay

it used to be hosted at the .com version of the url, but after a brief scare in which I lost access to that url (though it was later regained) it was switched to .org, and I'm not certain that I changed absolutely everything that ought to have been

the page displays my Twitter feed, which is the main content that resides on the main page and comes from outside the site itself

Why is it loading slowly, and what can I do to fix it?

Help save me time in Garageband

arniec — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:01:25 -0800

Is it possible to have GarageBand ('09) play faster when editing without impacting the output? I use Garageband to create enhanced versions of my podcasts, which is a feature my listeners have told me they love, but boy is it time consuming!

When editing my podcasts in Audacity I usually listen at about 1.6x saving me a lot of time.

In Garageband all I have to do is listen to the shows for certain things to be said and then insert an image or chapter point. I was wondering if there was a feature in Garageband that would let me listen to the track on "fast forward" like 1.5x etc. but only for the "preview", when I export the track I don't want to sound like hyper chipmunks. And speeding up the track then slowing it back down won't work because I'd then lose all the time markers for chapters I'd worked so hard to make.

Can this be done? Browsing through the documentation, etc. has not netted me any gains, but it's perhaps the least useful documentation I've ever seen.

Thanks Mefites!

Wireless Network Lag

bobertdude — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:18:37 -0800

What are some ways I can improve latency over a wireless network? When i do the ping test on google i get an average of 90ms, which is not good enough for online games. Are there any ways you can improve latency over a network? I have a Wireless G adapter with 3 computers connected to it. Switching from wireless is not an option for me. Please ask me as many questions as you have to about my network and I'll be happy to answer.

PS - I switched over to OpenDNS. Is that bad news for my network latency?

What is the deal with the new Illinois Tollway speed 'cameras'?

jdlugo — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:28:56 -0800

What is the deal with the new Illinois Tollway speed 'cameras'? I read that the state of Illinois was going to be installing speed cameras in work zones. These cameras will automatically mail you a $375 ticket if you are caught speeding. As a Chicago-area commuter, I have seen tons of these 'cameras' on 88 and 355. However, they only look like velocity sensors. There does not appear to be any camera component (no flash, no visible lens).

What is going on with these things? I have seen them outside of work zones and am wondering if they are ticketing speeders in those areas as well.

Thanks!

Clean computer start menu for more speed

psc1860 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:15:11 -0800

I want to clean up my start menu on Dell Inspiron E1705 with Windows XP Pro. Computer beginning to run slowly. I use computer almost exclusively for internet, word-processing and Quicken. I have trouble identifying which entries on start menu to delete.

Why do MRIs still take so long?

swngnmonk — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:34:07 -0800

Why do MRI's take so long? Just went in for an MRI of my knee (fingers crossed), and I noticed that MRI machines have gotten significantly smaller (this one was the size of a refrigerator). But the scanning process still took more than 30 minutes. So while I was sitting there, mind wandering, I started thinking - what is it about MRI's that take so long to complete?

Difficulty Level: I'm a computer guy through-and-through, I know the basics of how an MRI works, but I know nothing about the actual mechanics/engineering.

In the 20+ years since MRI's first became available, computers have increased in performance more than tenfold. Perhaps not as drastically, we have also seen huge improvements in robotics, image sensors, precision manufacturing, etc.

I'm assuming MRI scanners are significantly cheaper than they used to be - especially because you can now buy small units for individual body parts, rather than full-body scanners (in my case, the ONI OrthOne).

So what's the deal? Has performance (time) been held more or less constant while manufacturers focus on performance (size/image quality/price)? Or is there some kind of inherent barrier to speeding up MRI's?

Really curious as to any insights as to where MRI/scanning technology is headed.

Foosball, meet LED Sensor

mikeyk — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:22:40 -0800

How to rig up a foosball table to measure velocity of goals? Our company is foosball-obsessed, and I thought a fun side project would be to rig something up inside the goals to measure how fast the ball is moving when it enters the goal. I do mostly software, so hardware/electronics is a fun yet alien world to me. My (uninformed) thought is shining a light on one end of the goal and a light sensor on the other side, and that way measuring how long the light is obscured for. My google-fu is failing me, so any tips on getting started, or resources on where to look next would be appreciated!

Specifying software speed specifically

crapmatic — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:34:00 -0800

When designing a programming project, what is the usual method for imposing speed requirements, such as "function X must accomplish so-and-so in 2 seconds or less"? The problem here of course is that all computers run programs at a different speeds.

What exercises will improve my ultimate game?

Cogito — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:11:06 -0800

Exercise filter: I need some suggestions for leg/core strength and flexibility exercises given constrained time, equipment and space My friend and I are training with the goal of improving our ultimate (frisbee) play. Mainly we want to be able to run faster and jump higher, but increased flexibility would be helpful too. Here's what we have to work with:

- A moderate sized (~25'x20') room with hardwood floors and a 9' ceiling
- Two yoga mats
- One treadmill and one eliptical machine
- One Ab-roller
- One 10lb medicine ball
- Two variable weight dumbells (5–40lbs)
- One chin-up bar
- Two curl bars with various plates
- One medium sized (just big enough to sit on) theraball
- Two jump ropes
- Two elastic bands with handles on the ends

We're alternating coming up with ~20 minute workout routines which we do 3x/week. Any suggestions of individual exercises, principles for putting together a routine or complete routines would be very helpful.

Which term: Bandwidth, Throughput, Download Speed, Else?

Quarter Pincher — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:30:42 -0800

Throughput, download speed, bandwidth, or something else -- which of these am I trying to say? I can download a huge file, topping speeds of around 140 KB/s. Is 140 KB/s my maximum download speed? And isn't that speed the same for all information I can receive, or just file transfers? I was trying to tell a friend that my DSL recently got bumped up in speed -- when I noticed that my previously-familiar download speed of 80 KB/s (kilobytes per second) is now suddenly in the 120-140 KB/s range, without a change in service plans. He tried to tell me that "download speed" isn't the right term, but couldn't offer an alternative or bother to explain the differences.

I'm from the 2400 baud modem era, and typically estimated my max bandwidth (my word) by the maximum apparent speed at which I could download a large file (a RAR for instance) the quickest, and assumed that's the maximum by which information of any kind could reach me. When I moved up to a 56,600 baud on dialup, I could pull down from 3.5KB/s to 4.5KB/s tops on a big file. Now with the DSL, I was getting 80KB/s, but now I'm getting 140 KB/s max download speeds. Is that my bandwidth, or download speed, or throughput, or what?

We play Halo 3 on XBL regularly, and he asserted that the communicating speed from x360 to XBL server is calculated differently than being governed by whatever limiter governs my 140 KB/s, but that doesn't make much sense to me. Hivemind, clear us both up!

I can't do it captain, I don't have the POWER

sourbrew — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:35:54 -0800

So a friend of mine asked me a question about the new Star Trek movie. (probable spoilers inside) Basically he wants to know if raising the shield during warp has been done previously or if it violates the principles of warp as established in previous Star Trek universes. I've done some google searches but have been unable to find a definitive answer, although there are apparently other people wondering this as well.

London to Berlin by train - what is the fastest/cheapest route?

maryrosecook — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:42:32 -0800

London to Berlin by train. The best option I've found is Eurostar to Paris then sleeper to Berlin for £250. This seems expensive. Are there faster/cheaper options?

DVD Shrink rips slower on my new Vista laptop! HALP!

wastelands — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:23:25 -0800

Speeding up DVD Shrink ripping on my laptop? I bought a new MSI laptop, which is otherwise powerful (Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz, 4 GB RAM, etc.). But ripping DVDs in DVD Shrink is about 3x as slow as on my old Dell!

How could it change so dramatically? Is this Vista related? I went from XP to Vista.

I tried turning on the "overleaving" or whatever feature in DVD Shrink; didn't help.

Help me pimp my laptop?

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:17:30 -0800

Dell has started to suck. I've owned several, both notebook and desktop, over the past 10 or so years. Now, after buying two power cords for my lemony Inspiron 1720 in less than 2 years, I'm going local. So what are some suggestions for beefing my machine up? Asking anon because I'd prefer to not parade my ignorance here.

The PC is less than two years old, but in addition to buying a (third) power cord, what are good ways to turbo my computer? I'm not a gamer, but I teach and travel pretty widely, and I'm thinking of upgrading from 2 gigs to 4, and 250 RAM to maybe 700? I have Vista, so I have less speed and ease of use than I did with the Windows 95. I want lots of ample storage, and blink-of-an-eye speed. I'll be in Asia, so the Internet connection I'll tap into will be blazing. I am, obviously, clueless. Do I need an external hard drive? Am I barking up the wrong tree here?
And finally, in the Baltimore area, about what can I expect to shell out monetarily for this? Is $350 to optimistic? Or overkill?

Dell Inspiron 1720 w/ Vista. I'm sure I'm leaving some vital info out, so ask away (fatbackncollards@gmail.com), and be amused at my inability to articulate a coherent reply.

Motion Sickness

zylocomotion — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:22:16 -0800

How many directions am I moving in while I'm just sitting here? Any idea of how fast? I'm not really looking for precision, or discussions about relativity, but rather generalities.

I'm guessing that continental drift and the effects of precession would be negligibly slow.

But, best as I can figure out:
Due to rotation, I'm moving eastwards at roughly 1,600 km/h, around the center of the earth.

Then the earth itself is moving about 108,000 km/hr counterclockwise around the sun.

Then the solar system is moving close to 792,000 km/hr around the galactic center.

And the galaxy itself is moving towards the Great Attractor at about 2,160,000 km/hr.

What have I missed? Where the hell is the Great Attractor moving? Isn't the galaxy also moving towards another galaxy in the local cluster, while we both head towards the Great Attractor?

I'm sick at home with the flu and I can't get these questions out of my head. Maybe I shouldn't drink so much TheraFlu. If you can make a FPP out of any of this, then...uh...godspeed. (How fast is that supposed to be? In what direct--oh nevermind)

iTunes, let me watch this TV show please!

fantine — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:02:08 -0800

How can I make iTunes play a large video file? I am trying to watch an HD video on iTunes. The file is 1.62 GB (aka huge) and my iBook G4 does not like it.

Basically, the audio runs ok but the screen glitches and freezes and does not "keep up" with the audio. The whole thing runs slowly.

I would download a poor-quality video just to watch but it was only available on iTunes in HD (bah). I have shut down all other programs running to make it run faster, to no avail. My RAM is limited but I can't help that.

What are good short-term solutions? Some way to degrade the file quality to shrink it? Some hidden process on my mac that I can shut down to speed things up?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Make my mac a speed demon!

wongcorgi — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:47:40 -0800

Performance tuning OS X, how/where to start? I just picked up an Macbook Air and have read a lot of stories about beach balling, and poor performance in general. I did get the faster CPU and SSD model but I'd like to squeeze as much as I can out of it.

Are there any guides to help tweak OS X for maximum performance? Such as anything like Service Control manager for Windows, and the associated guides (ie. Black Viper's).

I've done a lot of tweaking on the windows side and wouldn't mind killing non essential stuff like printing, bonjour, ipod , etc..

Is this the command to list running services (i found this for 10.3)...?

"/sbin/service --list",

Anyone know of a comparative DOS speed tester software?

lifeless — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:36:46 -0800

I'm looking for a DOS-based CPU speed tester that I remember seeing years ago. It told you how your machine compared to various pre-measured setups. I don't remember how it presented the speed (MIPS, maybe?), but there was a large table of CPU types (386SX/25MHz, 486DX/50MHZ etc.) that it compared the measured result against. Anyone know of such a program? Specifically, I'm looking to use the software inside DOSBox to get a ballpark figure of how many "emulation cycles" are needed on my host machine to correspond to various historical CPUs type. I would then write these settings down to create several DOSBox configs, one for each type of machine.

The software wasn't a CPU ID solution (it might have made a guess, I don't remember), but an app to specifically see comparisons to other hardware. CPU and other hardware identification would be rather nonsensical inside DOSBox.

The benchmark/speed test results are bound to be rough and inexact given timing discrepancies and other emulation quirks, and need to be fine-tuned inside the actual games, but a tool like this would still be nice to have.

I remember that the software (or one of many, I have probably tested more than one) had a real-time "ticker" and a sliding scale. I vaguely remember testing one of these inside DOSBox many years ago, and recall seeing the sliding scale move as I adjusted the cycles setting. Naturally, I've lost and forgotten the software since.

Doesn't matter if the software is free or not. I've googled up some things but not the one I remember seeing. Any help will be appreciated.

Way to Increase Mouse Pointer Speed?

drleary — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:31:48 -0800

Under Windows XP, is there a way to make the speed of the mouse pointer increase when you plugin a mouse, but decrease when you're just using the touchpad? Thanks!

Help me rid my computer of clutter for faster performance.

mintchip — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:20:22 -0800

Help me rid my computer of clutter for faster performance. My computer says it only has ~7MB free, 35 used. Lately the performance has been less than dazzling...it's quite slow, actually.

Over the past two years I've added a number of programs, but not THAT many. As far as I know I've got MS Office, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, several photo managing programs, printer software, a PDF maker, camera software and some miscellany. (It's annoying that every add-on and peripheral requires installation of another memory hog, but anyway I digress). In any case, I'm unsure of what has used up so much space. I had a lot of images on it but I've moved these to an external drive.

For troubleshooting, I've run two different spyware removal programs (Spybot is one of them) plus CC Cleaner. I've also tried to degfrag, but I haven't noticed any improvements.

How can I figure out what is cluttering up my computer, and then how can I remove it? What steps should I take to get the performance back up? I've tried to remove programs that I don't think I use, but there are several that I don't recognize and I'm afraid to screw something up.

FYI, its a Windows laptop running Vista.