Jay Moore

I recently found out I have a herniated disc that is causing numbness in my leg. I am currently uninsured and as a result of this; I have had to take a leave of absence from work. I am probably looking at surgery; or at the very least, expensive therapy with an orthopedist. I currently live in Virginia; are there any options available for assistance?

I know it's been compared to the Walgreen's logo, even though the two are different enough I can't confuse them. However, what was that logo used for before? In an interview with Steven Soderbergh filmed in DC in 1990 (as appeared on the sex, lies, and videotape Criterion Deluxe 3-disc LaserDisc), he's wearing a hat, with the Nationals W on it.

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/2122/wtfhat.jpg

So...why was this thing on a hat 22 years before they started using it?

I have an Asus G72GX laptop that has a Nvidia GTX260M with 1GB of DDR3 VRAM and I'm encountering some problems. I attempted to play Burnout Paradise the other day and while the game started up fine, after about a minute the graphics slowed to a crawl and began to render at about 5fps. Wondering if it was an issue of the game, I tried a game that had never given me problems in the past and it seems it too now is doing the same thing.

The games start out running just fine, it's just they randomly lock up and come back running at a fraction of the FPS they should. I can close out the game, start it back up, it's fine, but does the same thing.

I have noticed it's getting a tad warm according to HWMonitor, but it's not any hotter than it has been in the past. I've checked all my power-saving features and they're turned off for game mode. I've tried removing and reinstalling both Asus drivers and official nvidia drivers with the same result.

I've had GPU's overheat and they generally do more than just drop the framerate down. Is it time for me to maybe reinstall Windows?

I recently bought a wireless router since it was on sale and I wanted the speed increase to 802.11n. I do not use it for routing of any sort since I have FiOS and have to use the Verizon router to pull the internet off MoCA. I've disabled NAT and DHCP from the router and have my wired network plugged up to the network switch. In doing this, the router pretty much acts exactly like a wireless access point. However, every time I connect windows 7 tells me this is a new router and insists on helping me set it up. I went through the process on that once hoping it'd go away, however, it appears every time. Is there any way I can stop it from asking me to set this thing up? You'd be surprised that a degree in networking and googling have turned up very little. The router does not have encryption enabled as I live far enough away from people that no one can even see my router unless you're physically on my property, I also do not wish to enable it because it causes various connectivity issues with devices and slows network connections...and even over N pushing the full speed of FiOS is a challenge enough.

I normally dont remember any dreams i have which is why these two, which seem connected, are really troubling me. I dont know every detail but I'll tell you what i know. In the first dream i'm being "hunted" by guys with machine guns in Halo-like outfits. I remember making my way to a house and hiding. Outside is some kind of big festivel with all sorts of people around with these guys making thier way through the crowd toward the house. I remember being able to see them through some hidden windows annd start to panic. My sister shows up right as these guys are on top of the house. I try to ask her for help but im unable to get words to come out..physically unable to talk. It was at this point my girlfriend woke me up because i was making very panic terror-filled sounds. The very next night i've gotten a car with the help of my girlfriend and am walking down a city street to this car. A guy standing on the corner starts following me...another comes out of a shadows...and another join them and they pull out guns. This point im running backwards facing them as they start shooting. I can see the projectile leave the gun and bounce off me, its a plastic airsoft pellet. I remember not having a gun...but making one with my thumb and finger and when i mimic shooting...they act like theyre hit with the same stuff theyre shooting at me. It was at this point my loving girlfriend woke me up because i was making similar sounds at the night before. Both dreams required a couple minutes to come to my senses after waking up.

Have fun with this one.

I know the track packs also contain a stripped down version of the game, but is this compatible with my GH guitars? I know they work with Rock Band 2 even though many sources say they won't, but does anyone have any insight to the interaction with the country pack?

I'm thinking of getting FIOS, but I've got a major issue...I absolutely REFUSE to allow installers in my house for more than is necessary. I have many personal reasons for this, ranging from not wanting installers looking at my junk to the fact that the last time I had to have a satellite installer in the house, they didn't know what they were doing, connected everything wrong and in fact damaged some of my equipment (not to mention an improper dish-mounting caused roof damage). Generally, for the sat installers, we come to an agreement that I can go get the boxes hooked up to the TV's and the coax drops while they do the dish alignment...this satisfies me not wanting people screwing with my AV setups not to mention one of my TV's is basically in a big pile of mess and I'm the only person who knows how to navigate and balance to hook it up. The nasty work is already done for them...all my coax lines are single runs from each room with a TV to a central location and there's already coax running outside. If the installer would let me hook up at least the one difficult to get to TV (plus I got a bunch of stuff lying about I don't want people seeing) I could live with that...although I could get all the boxes pre-wired and ready to go while they spend all their time connecting the actual fiber.

The other concern I've seen from watching a FIOS install is the internet portion. If you think I sound anal about my AV/Home Theater setup...I don't even let members of my family use my computer...and I'm sure as hell not going to let a bunch of stuff get installed that...to my knowledge, I don't need. How much of a hinder is that going to put on the process? Will the installer, realizing that I'm a former sat TV/comm installer and more than capable of doing his job let me make his job easier or do they have a strict hands-off install policy...because unless the installer can meet my requirements, I won't even bother getting Fios.

Any one out there have any similar expierence? Any installers have any additional information that might help?

I am one of the unlucky few that suffers from very painful gallstone attacks quite frequently, and with lacking insurance and not having a very large income, I am unable to afford the removal surgery.

I've read lots of various things that state ways one can naturally get rid of gall stones, but I'm wondering if any of you have tried them, what worked for you? I'd love to find something I can do every few months to flush them out of my system till I am able to obtain insurance and have it the required length of time to qualify for surgery.

It normally works that when you modify your master volume from either the taskbar icon or from Volume Control, windows would generally play whatever dinging sound was set as default. After disabling the system sounds, Windows now wants to beep the PC speaker. Being as this is a laptop, the beeping comes through the speakers/headphones and is of an annoying volume. There's no control from the sound card for PC speaker volume, nor does the bios hold any resolutions. I can use the volume buttons without the beeping, but this is often annoying.

Any idea how I can stop windows from trying to play a system sound (beep) when adjusting volume?

I've got a Beckman-Industrial 20Mhz scope that I obtained from work that has something wrong with the Channel 2 amplifier. There is an always constant noise with or without a probe connected.

I attempted to repair the scope myself, but I do not understand enough about them to be successful. I've also attempted to find a repair shop myself, however it appears the terms "oscilloscope repair" even combined with "service" return a bunch of bogus sites offering service manuals or tips for repair.

While I'd like to find some place close to the DC Metro area I could physically take this thing to, I would be willing to ship it out if a service-center offered cheap enough rates.

If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

I recently replaced a 20-year old water heater in my home because I felt it was probably best to do it before it actually failed. After getting the thing outside and new one installed, I noticed aside from a heat-element change, nothing else had ever been done to it. I decided to pull the anode rod just to see how scary the situation had been. I had read various places online that single-rod heaters generally have a 7 year rod..and various pictures showed where a rod that old was eaten down to wire core. I was shocked to find it only had the bottom 3 inches of wire core exposed.

The rest of the anode was obviously eaten at, and I'm not sure how big it originally was, but there was still a good quarter-inch of metal left on the thing. If these things only last on average 7 years, how'd mine survive 20?

I keep a trash can at the end of my porch...mostly for empty cans and such. However, we had a cookout and people disposed of their plates in the trash. Now I've got this raccoon, that may have made visits before, digging through the thing while I'm sitting up here.

The porch does have a railing that's about 4ft high and the trash can only comes up to about the bottom of the platform of the porch. I've made noise, he keeps coming back...often the noise will stop and I'll look over to see him (as faintly as the tiki torch glows) up where I can see his movement between the slats but nothing else. He poked his head through the slats...I made a nasty sounding loud noise at it...to which he just kind of looked at me, pulled his head back, and went on.

I'm guessing from this behavior he's really not worried about me in the least and is probably mostly looking up to see if I'm still there or paying attention to him....but he doesn't seem frightened by me in the least.

I mostly ask because it's a nice night and I don't really feel like heading inside if this thing is going to likely make a mess and leave me alone.

I've been playing Rockband 2 for months and today I decided to slap in World Tour and give my drumming a try on it. I started playing About A Girl (Unplugged) and I the drums are WAYYY out of sync with the actual song...I'm wanting to hit things on beat and they're off beat. I noticed a similar problem with Guitar Hero Aerosmith where the guitar tracks were way off what they should be. (I studied music theory and can keep a beat extremely well).

Has anyone else noticed this? I've already Gone and adjusted the calibration and after calibration, both are 0ms (I'm using a CRT tv and old-school analog stereo so, no processing delays)...but, still, the drum track is still at least half a beat behind the actual song?

I have a subwoofer amp that had a 1N5408 "General Purpose 3A" diode short out, it was connected between the Remote power and Gnd. When it shorted, it burned the power trace but none of the other components. The only diode I had with that power rating was a SB560 5A Shottsky. I know shottsky's work bascially like any other diode except they have less forward voltage drop, switch faster, but have some slight reverse current flow.

Since it's in a car, it's only running 12volts and I've read the backwards current is only an issue when using high voltages. I replaced the diode, fixed the trace and the amp works beautitfully...so I know in theory, it works...my main question is should I worry about any long-term effects? Will the Schottky work in place of the general purpose for the long-term?

Someone killed this snake before asking me to identify it. It's a small slender snake just less than 1ft long. It has a bright orange belly, a grey body with what looks like black stripes and a brown head that's got three diamonds around it's neck. I've not been able to find anything about a snake like this in resources on local wildlife (Northern Virginia). If you need pictures, I will have them uploaded later.

I've seen these flowers ever since I was little growing wildly in what seems like scattered places in the yard; but I've got what seems like a whole bunch. We've always called them Forget-Me-Nots, but my research tells me the actual flowers have 5 pedals where as these have 4. http://pickmy.org/whatarethese.jpg <-can you identify them?

I've been on antibiotics (amoxicillin - 500mg 4x/day) for about 5 days for a tooth infection (couple actually), it's a seven day treatment which I will complete on Thursday night.

I've noticed though since I've been on it I've had very loose stools. It's not explosive diarrhea or very watery...but they're very very loose. I know amoxicillin can cause something such as this...but I've had it for a couple days. Should I continue finishing up my treatment or call the doctor? I have not expierenced any upset stomach or any other symptoms except the loose stool.

I won't be able to watch it live tomorrow, but I am able to record hours and hours of stuff to my DVR. The question is, what channels do I use? I can record two at a time and have DirecTV, so there's no shortage of news coverage; but I also live in the DC region and have what could be very unique local coverage. I'm planning on tossing all of this on to some DVD's.

I'm pretty knowledgeable about technical specs and things, so I find it strange I'm even asking this. But I'm mostly wondering about the reliability and usability of the units. I know Garmin is said to be the best, but the Garmin unit we have at work has a habit of crashing and requiring a lengthy reset process. Right now I'm looking at some Garmin units (because they can't all be bad), the TomTom units and this Mio unit. I'm not taking into consideration extra features like mp3 playback or bluetooth at this point, so please don't worry about listing these features as a pro or con between them. I'm only interested in reliability, quality of navigation, quality of maps and ease of use (because someone not so technologically knowledgeable will be using it on a day to day basis)

Yesterday my 1991 Towncar started overheating so I parked it and after it cooled I checked the coolant, which was bone dry. So I put a gallon of water in the resivor but I noticed it was leaking out from wherewhere under the car and coming down from around the bellhousing. I haven't gotten the car up in the air to see if it's not just dripping from somewhere else..but it's coming from that general area. The car doesn't have to run for this leak to occur, simply putting coolant in the resivor is enough. Running the engine does not make the coolant leak faster nor have we found traces in the engine oil or transmission. I've looked in the service manual but can only see where the heater core goes into the back of the engine, but that seems to me like it'd only leak when the system is running and under pressure.

Does anyone have an idea of where I should look?