Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with stumped

Riddle me crazy

Jody Tresidder — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:22:14 -0800

This is starting to get seriously depressing - I'm no nearer to solving this riddle than I was 3 freaking hours ago. (Neither is my husband - and he's the smart one.) It's NOT part of a contest - just a maddening tease from a lawyer friend in the UK. I've included the bit she wrote in the same sentence as the riddle, because it seems to be relevant (yes, she's really in a book club, yes, Melanie is another friend of ours and yes, the first friend mentioned one of these books recently in another, totally separate email.)

(sidebar: I was humming Holst, as it were, for a while. But I can't make that sort of answer work at all!)

This is exactly what she wrote:

"Meanwhile, (based on our recent reading - first we did Wolf Hall and then we did A man for all seasons), Melanie sent me this riddle: what links 6 periods of time, starting with 23 years and 11 months with sharp decreases in time spans thereafter. I couldn't understand the question for ages and then suddenly I got it!"

Sites that sell wine shipped by wineries

aburd — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:16:06 -0800

Is there another site that sells wine that is shipped by wineries aside from wine.woot.com? I live in Tennessee which allows wineries to ship to TN residents, but online wine shops can't ship to us. Wine.Woot sells for wineries so it works. But I would like other options. It's too difficult to find individual wineries that have paid the Tennessee tax in order to ship to us so a reseller would be great. Are there other services that do sell wine for wineries?

The longest shot ever.

pjern — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:31:58 -0800

OK, something that been bugging me for a long time: Can someone identify a foreign film/tv show from the 80's given some memories of production details? The reason I'm thinking this is a longshot is that my entire memory of the details is from the production end, as that part of it was shot at the railroad museum where I worked for a while. I'm thinking that there might be clips somewhere that I would appear in. Here's the details of the scenes that I remember:

Our "hero", wearing ridiculous clown shoes, runs along the top of a moving train jumping from car to car. If I appear, I would be running the locomotive. The consist of cars for the train was patently ridiculous: A boxcar, gondola car, streamlined passenger car, wooden caboose, and a locomotive with the number "167" on the side.

A scene or two of gangsters with Tommy guns shooting up a wooden boxcar with a modern Norfolk and Western logo on it (The locomotive on the rght in the linked picture has it). The 'boxcar' was a fake structure built on top of a real flat car, gaffed with squibs and rigged to slowly "collapse" after absorbing enough gunfire to sink a battleship.

At least one scene of 'mobsters' lined up firing guns at the faux boxcar, and one of them discovering a trap door that the hero must have escaped through in the wreckage.

This was done for an Italian production company, there was a lot of joking about "spaghetti railroading" etc, while we were working on the project: I had the impression that it might have been a series of some kind, or a childrens (!) show over there. Time frame, early 1980's.

I'm pretty damn certain that this never showed up on the air in the US, still, with the worldwide audience here at Ask, there's just the chance that this will fire a neuron somewhere in the hive mind.

I was in a number of productions while I was at the museum, to include a few print ads and one Burt Reynolds movie, but I remember this one for the sheer amount of fun we had while doing it. I never even learned the name of the movie/show, and have been kicking myself for a long time because of that.

simplesimplesimple

benzenedream — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:47:34 -0800

What is the initial verbal meme that triggers the Pontypool outbreak in the movie Pontypool?

Common characteristics of scientific fraud or misconduct

Mapes — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:19:21 -0800

Article or book that discusses common characteristics of scientific fraud or misconduct? Several years ago I read an article, essay, or book chapter that listed common factors in many uncovered cases of scientific misconduct. One was that subjects typically acted alone; conspiracy was extremely unusual. Another was that researchers generally believed that the faked data represented the truth and would be confirmed if more time or resources were available.

Does anybody know what I was reading?

Trying to print Word documents with a specific preset from the Finder. Impossible?

bigmusic — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:22:04 -0800

OS X (10.5) Printing difficulties: Trying to print Word documents with a specific preset from the Finder. Impossible? I hate clicking documents open to print and then having to close them. I have to print up about 20 word documents in a folder multiple times every week - those documents should be printed with a 4x4 layout - single sided. (n-up 4 in CUPs speak) - I'm switching from Windows and in windows I had two printers installed (actually the same printer) with different layout options, so all I had to do was make sure the default printer was the one with right layout options. However, on OS X presets seem to be ignored if you print from the finder [Finder |File |Print], it goes with the "Standard" preset no matter how I try it, from the automator, the terminal, applescript. If I open it directly in Word, the correct preset always shows up as the default preset.

Things I've tried:
I've located the PPD file and didn't see an option to set up the N-Up 4x4 as an option anywhere.

I've option clicked the print button with the correct preset.

I've tried switching the printer preset in the terminal.

I've tried using the automator, with the supplied word 2008 actions.

I've looked at the cups documentation, and see that there is an option for using the 4x4, I'm just not sure how I would go about setting that option for a specific printer instance, or how I would print to to that specific printer instance - any clues?

Little deaths 4kb at a time

arniec — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:27:59 -0800

Is my data gone? Convoluted data storage question involving two Macs, a Drobo, and some file permission errors... Question on possible recovery options, and questions on how to stop it from happening again. I have recently switched to a mostly Mac household, with one Windows XP machine and one Windows laptop still around.

For data storage I picked up a Drobo and put in 3 1TB disks on it. I have it hooked to a Mac Mini on the network so it can be used for data storage. I have been moving files off my primary machine (a Macbook Pro) to the Drobo when space was needed on my hard drive.

I have gone back to get some of that data and I cannot get to it. I get the error message:

Item "itemName" is used by Mac OS X and cannot be opened.

I have tried opening these files from my Macbook Pro, from the Mac Mini where the Drobo is directly connected, I've tried moving the files to a new location, opening the files, etc. and I keep getting that same message.

I have checked and even reset all the file permissions to ensure my account does have rights but still the file won't open.

Now it appears many of the files are only 4k or 8k making me think that something went wrong. I'm guessing these files are names only taking up the minimum possible space on the disk and that my data is gone...is that right?

But I don't know if something went wrong when moving the data to the Drobo, when just being stored on the Drobo, or something else. Has anyone encountered anything like this at all?

Vista can't find my soundcard?

NekulturnY — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:24:43 -0800

Why can't I record sound on my Vista box? I was trying to record some streaming media from the internet (video + audio) with Camtasia. I also tried with CamStudio (freeware) . Recording the video worked like a charm, but none of them managed to find any sound. So I tried to record some sound with my Windows Recorder, and even that wouldn't find any sound, so I'm guessing I didn't configure the sound options right. Fwiw: I can hear the sound just fine in my headphone.

Problem: there's two distinct "sound" centers in my control panel. One called "Sound" and one called "Realtek HD Audio Manager".

I already read some stuff on the internet about enabling the Realtek "Stereo Mix", so I did just that. The result is the same: no sound.

So for some reason, Camtasia and Camstudio can't find my sound card, it seems. Can anyone help?

I'm looking for a good accountant for freelancers (and families) in the Philadelphia area

Deathalicious — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:06:58 -0800

I'm looking for a good accountant in the Philadelphia area. Ideally one that can help with both tax issues for a freelancer in the tech industry, as well as more general family accounting (I just got married and we just opened our joint account). Any recommendations? I reside within Philly city limits and I work from home, so I'd prefer someone familiar with Philadelphia tax issues (I have no idea what I owe the city) and with the particular needs of and deductions for freelancers in the tech industry.

I like building long term relationships, so I'd like to find someone who can help with all the other stuff that's going to come up in the next few years: children and raising a family, buying a house, saving for our potential kids' education, and retirement.

Also, if I want to figure out things like budgeting and getting on sound financial footing, is that something I would talk about with my accountant or is that someone else?

Case-Insensitive LS on Mac OS X?

WCityMike — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:03:27 -0800

Unix mavens: is there a way for ls on a Mac OS X install to alphabetize its listing case-insensitively, while still preserving any other ls flags you may be using? If not, does another ls variant offered by anybody offer case-insensitivity, and if so, how can I supplant one with the other, without risk of any harm to anything else on my system? (If it matters, my shell of choice is tcsh.)

The Red Badge of Courage Nobody Knows?

mediareport — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:24:08 -0800

Is there any kind of critical consensus about the claim made by Henry Binder and Hershel Parker in the 1980s that previous editions of Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage were prepared with cuts demanded mostly by the original publisher and that the edition most people have read is thus much less darkly ironic than it should be, and that Binder's new presentation is a more accurate representation of Crane's original intent?

Wooden Spatial Relations Puzzle From Alias TV Show

CMcKinnon — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:48:56 -0800

I'm looking for a wooden spatial relations puzzle that was featured in the Alias TV Show. My wife is a huge Alias fan, and as we were re-watching some episodes the other night, we saw Season 2, Episode 5 ("The Indicator"), which featured Sydney quickly solving a wooden puzzle, which we find out later was used to measure spatial relations aptitude in children, to see who would be a good spy.

I would love to get a puzzle like this for my wife, but I have been unable to locate one. You can see one at this link on YouTube (sorry for the Spanish; it was the only working video I could find online).

I've Googled for many variations of "wooden" "puzzle" "alias", etc., with no luck. Does anyone know what this is called, or better yet, where I can buy one? Thanks.

Surf lessons in LA

insectosaurus — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:41:36 -0800

LA filter: I want to learn to surf this summer. Where can I find reasonably priced, good quality lessons? Should I opt for group or semiprivate lessons? I've never been surfing, and I'm planning to take a couple lessons this summer and see if I like it. Please share your recommended (or should-be-avoided) surf schools. I live near Santa Monica, but I don't mind driving to a different LA-area beach for a better instructor/lesson.

Price is important to me; a quick google search showed everything from $80 - $160 for a single lesson. I'm willing to pay a little more for a better lesson, but cheaper is definitely better.

Should I opt for a group lesson (cheaper) or an individual/semiprivate lesson (more individual attention)? I have a friend who might join me in a semiprivate, but she's not sure yet. I learned to snowboard last year by taking one group lesson then practicing on my own for a couple days, but I'm pretty bad at it still. I think I'll learn at a fairly average pace - I don't tend to be particularly slow or quick when learning new physical skills. I am reasonably strong and comfortable swimming in the ocean. So, private or group lessons?

I can get a better deal by signing up for more than one lesson at once. Should I? If so, how many? I can probably afford a maximum of three lessons this summer, depending on cost.

Any further information you think would be helpful to a novice surfer would be much appreciated. Thanks!

You can show it but not say it?

arniec — Thu, 21 May 2009 07:13:19 -0800

NSFW question about adult films... I have noticed a very weird think in some adult films (porn). And of course I've not seen this in ALL adult films, but I've seen it in enough to find a pattern.

Several of the films I've seen, especially the more high budget Vivid stuff from the 80's, the curse words are muted out, the audio goes to silence if someone says a bad word like shit, fuck, etc.

It's very confusing...in a XXX movie why would they worry about language? I at first thought it was just a flub in the audio track, but have noticed that it always happens around curse words, and if you ONLY listened to the dialogue of these movies, it's very PG rated.

Any ideas why this would be?

WTF do these internet download numbers mean?

arniec — Thu, 14 May 2009 06:56:04 -0800

Help me try and figure out how many times my podcast is being downloaded. I have requests, unique hosts, bytes downloaded, etc. but while I understand what each mean individually, I'm not sure which to "trust". Preface: I'm using Dreamhost and these stats are coming from their panel stat application, which is running Analog 6.0

For a specific example, let me focus on one of my recent podcasts (a single MP3 show, not a series of shows). This show is showing 11613 requests in my stats. This is a LOT higher than most of the shows in that domain (the more "regular" shows are about 200 requests give or take), and I expected this surge as the most recent show is about the new Star Trek movie and given that movie's popularity it makes sense this show would have more traffic.

But I had been assuming a request was able to be equated to a listener...give or take, I knew it wasn't exactly 1:1 given Google bots, etc. but I thought it was a close approximation. For example, when most shows have 200 requests and this one has almost 12,000 I figured I could take that as a 5000% boost in popularity...

But then I looked at distinct hosts served and I'm only seeing a number of 3,216. Given how drastically different 3,216 is from 12,000 I thought something was up and dug deeper.

In the stats it then shows me the total data transfer for that domain for the month (144.27 GB) and it shows that the Star Trek episode has drawn 27.9% of my bandwidth for the month, so about 40GB. Dividing that 40GB by my file size (45mb) I figure I've only gotten about 917 downloads... again a HUGELY different number than 12,000.

However for one of the shows with 200 "requests", the math shows about 100 downloads... So I don't get why most of the shows would be off by 100%, but the show that should be most popular DOES have the most popular requests, but that number is off by 1300%.

Any ideas?

Can you identify this short story about a kitten found during breakfast?

maudlin — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:26:47 -0800

This question about eggs reminded me of a short story I read years and years ago. It features a kitten and breakfast. The story was in an old collection for high school students I found in a secondhand shop, probably published in the 1960s at the latest. A fussy, stodgy middle-aged American man is sitting down to breakfast, which should usually consist of a perfectly soft-cooked three minute egg, but it's interrupted by his wife's discovery of a forlorn kitten under a bush in the backyard. Man's comfortable life is turned upside down when his wife adopts the kitten and is completely distracted (burnt toast and hard-cooked eggs!) but he eventually warms up to the kitten. The kitten is not eaten.

I can't remember anything else about the story, but it would be nice to find it. Any ideas?

Stop my Outlook white space from growing.

soelo — Wed, 06 May 2009 11:26:27 -0800

I use Outlook 2003 in Windows XP, and the white space at the top of my reading pane slowly grows over the course of a few days. How can I stop it from growing? The Help --> About in Outlook says it's SP3, I assume that means service pack 3.
The problem happens on different .pst files, and all folders, Inbox, Deleted Items, etc. It's been happening for over a year now, and the only way I have found to fix it is to turn off the reading pane then close and restart Outlook.

I googled for help and only found others with the same problem and no helpful solutions. Thanks!

Online checklist for a set of tasks a group must complete?

CaptApollo — Fri, 01 May 2009 07:24:59 -0800

Online checklist/progress tracking software? I need to walk several hundred students through the process of enrolling at my university. This includes both online and 'real world' tasks. I'd like to add a page to my website where students can see the list of tasks they need to accomplish, download forms as PDFs or complete them online, plus check off real-world tasks. They would need to be able to come back and pickup where they left off.

Ideally, this would us Facebook Connect, or Google Friend Connect (OpenID). I could probably bolt that onto some existing 'checklist framework' however.

Pump Up The PSA

arniec — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:12:44 -0800

Do you remember a late 80's anti-drug PSA that was a short film entirely set to the M/A/R/R/S song "Pump Up The Volume"? Was this a national ad? Can it be found anywhere online? More details inside... In the late 80s (87-90) I lived in Cape Coral, Fl and would come home after school to watch TV on local channels there. I remember several times shows being pre-empted for a long (I'd say 10 minutes-ish) PSA which was dialogue-free but showed a guy in his late teens/early 20s with a junior high mustache going to a party, using drugs, and in the end he dies.

The ending was very memorable with the EMT trying to revive the guy, using shock paddles, and the shocks were timed to beats of the song. And when over the song just stopped and was replaced by the constant tone of a heart monitor reporting no heartbeat.

I have remembered this ad for 20 years but since leaving Florida have never seen it since. I don't know if it was a local ad or what, nor why it aired as often as it did (perhaps a sports game ran long and the local station needed filler until the top of the hour to resume normal programming?). But does anyone else know about this video? Can it be found online anywhere?

Or En Aye Ay? What does this song mean?

crazyray — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:40:01 -0800

You may very well recognize this song. It is from this movie. What does it mean? Does the first stanza and/or chorus spell something? Please help! One website lists the lyrics as this:

Oh Ry In Eye Ay - Oh Ry In Eye Ay
Oh Ry In Ah Key Ooh Lay
Ka Lay Ooh Lau Ee - Oh Ry In Eye Ay
Sal You Te Lee Ay Vee Show

Midnight sunshine silent thunder
Sky as black as day
Only a dream away

Chorus

Waking while you're still deep sleeping
Finding you're not here
Watching a dream appear

Tumbling through a thousand centuries
You don't know where you'll land
It's so dark in mythology
Treasures of history to be found
Near the legends of time
All the handiworks remain there
Only a dream away

Chorus

Greedy feeling wheeling dealing
Losing what you won
See the dream come undone

Stumble you may with the elementary
Lucky you got so far
All you owe is apologies
Measure the mystery and astound
Without taking up time
So the handiworks remain there
Only a dream away

Chorus

In out, hot cold, up down, young old
What a lot to do
Sharing a dream with you

Chorus

Hey You, Get Your Damn Hands Off Her.

Brettus — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 08:05:31 -0800

Looking for a copy of the Enchantment Under the Sea poster that was in Back to the Future. It's where they kiss for the first time... Back to the Future is my favorite movie of all time, without question. I recently moved into a new home and I want to do some tasty decorating in my office. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of movie posters, too obvious. But I would like to have something from Back to the Future up on the walls. I thought the Enchantment Under the Sea Poster might look pretty cool. However, I cannot find one for purchase anywhere.

I have searched a few places on the web - and if all else fails, I am not opposed to making it myself - but a replica of some sorts would be the bees knees. Anyone have one or know where to find one to buy?

Thanks in advance for your help - even if this doesn't exist, suggestions as to other things I could put up would be welcome (even consider things from II or III).

How can I automatically split GPS tracklogs?

komilnefopa — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:04:28 -0800

I have almost a year's worth of GPS track logs. I'd like to be able to automatically split them by trip type (walking, biking, car) and filter out some of the noise that gets generated when leaving the GPS on while stationary. Over the past several months I've been using my GPS to track where I go. The raw track logs I get are generally pretty accurate, but often while I'm out I'll switch back and forth between walking, biking, and the car/bus/train. My GPS unit (Garmin 60CSx) doesn't generally split tracks when I change modes of transportation. Also, sometimes I forget to turn the GPS off when I'm inside or standing still; because the GPS isn't 100% accurate, this creates a noisy track that looks like random wandering around the same point.

Given a list of tracks in GPX or some other standard format that's supported by gpsbabel, I'd like to be able to take each track and break it at each point where my average speed changes by a certain configurable threshold. I'd also like to be able to detect when I've stopped somewhere and remove all points that were generated while I was stopped.

I've hacked together something in Python that works on a rudimentary level (the geolocator library has been especially helpful), but it's not perfect. I also haven't implemented anything that gets rid of the random wandering. I could probably figure out how to do this, but it occurred to me that this is probably a solved problem and that I could save time by not re-inventing the wheel.

Does anyone know of any software with intelligent track splitting and noise removal? Previous questions have mentioned GPS TrackMaker, but it doesn't seem to meet these requirements. Failing that, algorithms or pseudocode would be helpful as well.

CartographyFilter: Help me find a strange map

ecmendenhall — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:07:16 -0800

Some months ago, I came across a map created by (I think) a sociologist, depicting one student's daily travel routines in (I think) Paris. It shows clearly that the subject's life clusters closely around home, work, and university. It is not from Strange Maps, and Google is not helping. Has anyone else seen this?

Art School not-so-Confidential

desuetude — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:47:26 -0800

What are the best summer residential art programs in Philly for high school students? I'm looking into programs for my favorite 14-year-old (I'm a sort of aunt to her) for next summer. She loves manga, and does a fair amount of illustration and watercolor in that style, but is interested in diverse styles of drawing, painting, sculpture, craft.

Does anyone have any experience specifically with the high-school summer programs at Moore College of Art, University of the Arts, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, or Tyler School of Art?

(Philly-centric because part of the appeal to both her and her parents is that I'd be nearby.)

CU: A flange.

turgid dahlia — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:23:04 -0800

How To Write Technical Training Films? The government department I work for is in the midst of an enormous communications restructure and, hoping to move into corporate communications, I volunteered my services to one of the managers in my business group.

One of the myriad tasks on his plate is the start-to-finish development of a number of technical training films. The nature of our work here sees people out in the field installing specialised monitoring equipment.

From the prescis:

“These films will be for internal departmental use as training aids. The primary target will be for new staff who will not have someone at their side to assist them. It is hoped that most of the tasks in the field process will be covered. They may last a few minutes only dealing with specific technical issues or of greater length if going through data entry type procedures.

“These training films are not to be seen as replacements/substitutes for the National Standard training requirements – they will at all times be complimentary.”

So, pretty straightforward (if dry) stuff, I imagine. What I have been asked to do - with the assistance of experts in the actual processes I will be documenting – is develop the “textual storyboards”, or teleplays, if you will, for these processes.

I have a fair idea of how to set about doing this but I’d like to make an extra good impression with this work, so I’d love to hear about any easily accessible resources (preferably online) on this subject, and I would similarly love to hear advice and tips from any MeFites who have done similar work.