Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with starting

Help Get Me Going at my New Gig

sidd.darko — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:17:28 -0800

What are your tips when starting a new job as a software developer? Looking for coding, organizational approaches and social hints as well. Happily, my way out of this situation was to find myself a new job. YAY ME !

I've read this thread but I'm hoping to find answers specific to development. I'm also going back to a language on another platform and I'd like to ramp up quickly. Any tips along these lines would also be appreciated.

Thanks Green !

Trouble starting Starting Strength

ayerarcturus — Sun, 17 May 2009 19:13:39 -0800

Ok, so I've read, highlighted and taken notes on Rippetoe's Starting Strength, after half of Metafilter and my gym going friends recommended it. I've run into some trouble with the program, though, since I can't seem to do deadlifts and I can't follow his dietary advice. Before this, I may have been in a weight room about five times in my life. I've always kept physically active (hiking, running, etc) and eaten a somewhat decent diet, but strength has been an outstandingly huge blind spot for me. I've had good luck with keeping somewhat acceptable form with the squat and the bench press, but when the time came around to do a deadlift I couldn't get the damn bar off the ground. Rippetoe suggests 5-10 lb plastic training weights, but I can't seem to find them in my gym. I've looked around for something to prop up the bar to the standard 8 1/2 inches, but I can't seem to find anything usable that's lighter than the two 45 lb weights that I can't lift. Would I kill my back by using the smaller weights and a lower starting position? It struck me as a bad idea at the time. For that matter, are there any other exercises I could do to strengthen my back until I can do a deadlift?

Second problem I've run into is that I have both a dairy allergy and am lactose intolerant, so I think drinking a gallon of milk would probably be my death. My diet has mostly revolved around meat, beans, peanut butter, fruit, and a bunch of different whole grains. It's getting dull, though. If you have high calorie, high protein meal ideas that don't involve any dairy, could you share them?

Getting started producing electronic music?

wastelands — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:54:55 -0800

How does an absolute beginner get started making electronic music? I've listened to electronic music for 13 years. I'm partial to ambient, noise, and anything abstract and experimental. I have always wanted to try my hand at creating music, but something like Reason 4 appears intimidating (not to mention expensive).

Does anyone have a recommendation for messing around and getting started with electronic music... without spending a bunch of money first? I'd like to see if I have a knack for it before I commit to major hardware and software purchases.

I've got an old school Dell computer at home running Windows XP, so compatibility with that platform would be nice.

Thanks!

Help with Non-Profits

CollectiveMind — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:38:49 -0800

Does anybody know how to get demographic information on who is (or has been) starting non-profits? I'm looking for a study or a table or something that shows who is starting non-profits by gender, age, geography, type (social welfare, educational, etc.), income, education, political preference, etc. I've contacted the IRS thinking they probably have some of this, but thought there might already be something out there. I've checked with Guidestar, the Journal of Philanthropy and a few others but haven't yet found anything. I already have information on who tends to give what on the public side. I need to know who is starting and running them on the organizational side.

AskMechanics, please help me diagnose this car problem.

toomuchpete — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:11:26 -0800

My vehicle has recently started shorting out while it's starting up... help? I have a '98 Chevy S-10 that has been behaving strangely. A few days ago, I went out to start it. When I got in, the dome lights came on, everything looked normal. When I turned the key in the ignition it started to turn over for a very small fraction of a second and then everything just stopped. It seemed that the starter had shorted out the whole electrical system of the car.

I let it sit a few days, come back to it today... same thing happens, but this time it goes about half a second through turning over to start before it went dead.

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that there are self-healing breakers in some cars that can cause something similar to this, where they reset after a certain amount of time.

This is kinda perplexing and I don't want to take it to a mechanic before I have some idea what's wrong with it (if that's possible).

What does this sound like and is it something I can take care of myself?

Help this 1993 Ford Probe start!

gregschoen — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 12:07:45 -0800

Help this 1993 Ford Probe start! My friend has a 1993 Ford Probe sitting in his driveway, we've decided to try and fix it. Here's the problem, it sounds like it really wants to start, but it just won't turn over.

According to someone who looked at it, the Distributor is fine, the distributor cap seemed to have power going through it, but nothing coming out of it, so we replaced it.

The spark plugs were replaced, the spark wires were replaced.

We replaced the battery due to it having sit for a year, and my stupid ass jumping it wrong. This leads to another problem, there seems to be a smell of burning electronics coming from the fuse box. (I'm very familliar with this smell.) It's not the main fuse and we tested the circuit relay and it tests out fine, it clicked when we applied voltage and the continuity seems to be working properly.

The smells seems like it's coming from what's labeled as the Air Conditioner Relay, but that particular part of the car hasn't worked in a long time.

The timing belt is apparently working fine, the gas has been sitting for over a year, so we don't know if that could be the problem, we added Heet to the engine and used some starting fluid to try to get the thing to turn over. My friend swears that it's doing the same thing it did before, so this doesn't seem to be a symptom of the car sitting.

Turn the key and it whurrs and tries to start, but it never actually turns over. Practical suggestions would be very much appreciated. We'd like to fix it but if it sounds like it's a losing battle, let me know. Thanks a bunch all!

Starting a Magazine

divabat — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 01:01:22 -0800

How do I start a magazine? I've got a concept for a magazine that I find promising. I just thought of the concept yesterday, so I haven't really gone too indepth into it, but I do have some ideas of content, distribution, publication, and associated activities and media.

How do I go about making this magazine a reality? I understand that a large part of this is country-specific (licenses and so on), but what do you need to consider if you want to make the magazine international? Where do you find your team? What do you put in your business plan and budget? Where do you get the money?

Where do you start?

I wanna sell booze.

gummo — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 10:38:40 -0800

I'm curious what it would take to make and sell a bottle of booze commercially. A new tequila or vodka for instance. What would it take to have my own bottle for sale in Albertson's (etc...) nationwide. I know Sammy Hagar wanted his own tequila and now has it, and I know some guy started Skyy vodka. Now, Sammy is clearly a $$$$$-onaire, and for all I know, so was the Skyy guy before he started. Does it take a million bucks? Or can I start small for $10,000? What kind of barriers to entry are there? Legality issues? Initial production? Production scalability? Any info would be appreciated.

how to open a store?

apdato — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 22:43:19 -0800

I've been thinking of opening a store in my town but need some advice on getting started My main question is how and where do small retail stores order their merchandise from. If I were to open a store it would be a mix of apparel, books, music, skateboards, and accessories. Is there some sort of distributor or process to order from a certain company?

Also any advice or personal experience is appreciated

Wet Weather Car Trouble

spicynuts — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 13:58:13 -0800

ClickandClackFilter: My car will not start in wet weather. [+] Soon as it dries up, she fires up like a dream. Battery is fine. The terminal connections look ok. Any ideas?

Hard starting diesel engine, any advice?

derbs — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 09:09:52 -0800

Diesel engine cold starting problems... { mi } I have a 1995 Peugeot 306 1.9 turbo diesel. It is a real ballache to get started in the morning now it's got colder.

It takes about 10 x 10 second turnovers before it finally splutters into life, accompanied by a large cloud of white smoke out the back. Once it's started there's no problems with it whatsoever, it runs smoothly and there's no smoke.

Any ideas what could be wrong with the engine, apart from the 110,000 miles plus it's done? Why does all the smoke come out the exhaust pipe? I'd be grateful for some ideas for cheap parts that I can replace to make it fire up better in the mornings. I'm worried for when it gets really cold in a couple of months!

Thanks

Cover Letter

blueshammer — Wed, 14 Jul 2004 19:18:13 -0800

What's a good opening line for a letter applying for a posted job? I'm not looking for cute; I just think that "I am interested in the blah blah position listed in the Daily blah blah." is a bad opening gambit.