Skeeve

There's a friend of mine who is pretty-much of a loner and only has a handful of acquaintances, maybe a -real- friend or two (she tells me)... and she happens to be very fond of one of these fellas. They are very close and good friends... but there's nothing going to happen in terms of any romantic development between them.

As she's lost a couple of close friends earlier in life (medical conditions, car accidents), she's kind of 'nervous' about her current friends (and this fella in particular)... So, she often tells them she loves them... maybe once a week or more/less frequently.. as she's nervous about -something happening- to them. Everyone understands what she's about... but we're wondering if it's something that would get on people's nerves or something? She's -flat out- asked them about it; some say it's Ok.. some say it's unnecessary... some just smile (forcedly, it seems) and say -nothing-(!?)...

We often read or hear that people like to be told that they're loved (in any 'depth' - friends.. or more/closer)... but can you *hear* it too much?... and is it something 'weird' to hear from a friend? What if the friend is the same sex? ...different sex? (all these folk are 'straight' as far as any of us knows)... Is it any different if a woman says it... or if a man says it...?

We're just interested in everyone's thoughts, please.

A very close and dear long-time friend will be leaving the country in a couple of months... and she and I are both dreading it.

We currently message each other almost every day... we 'Skype chat' every few days... and we visit 'face-to-face' every week or two; you'd say we're "very close friends" although not "boyfriend/girlfriend".

Currently, I'm arranging some outings so she has some nice memories of her visit (she's been here about 3 years). There is a 50-50 chance she *will* return in a couple of years... but we're both struggling with this upcoming "separation".

Sure, the messages and Skype and such will still be happening... but honestly, I expect she won't be doing that so much with me, once she's with family and old, familiar friends again.

My question is that I would like to have a good, "heart-to-heart", "life, the universe and everything" -style of conversation with her before she goes... but I'm unsure of the *timing*. I'm not talking "boyfriend/girlfriend" necessarily... but some of the things I want to talk to her about *might* affect some of her decisions when she gets home. We've talked this way before and it helped us both quite a bit... but do we have the chat *before* our trips and outings... or do I leave it closer to, say, a couple of days before she leaves? I doubt any of what we talk about will change her decision to leave NOW, though.

Would appreciate some thoughts.... Thanks.

I'd been spending a lot of time with a dear friend during this recent Christmas/New Year period... and a few things came-up that got me curious...

We've known each other for a couple of years or so and we're in constant touch with text messages and such flipping between us at least every day or two. We confide in each other about various things and I'd say we're pretty close (although she doesn't really use those words).

I've recently taken her out for dinner, given her some presents (small, fun ones as well as some expensive flowers) and we try and organize to have some sort of little outing as much as we can (movies, beach visits, etc)... but understand that we're friends - she has no interest in anything more than that... and that's Ok with me, too.

...but she never says "Thank You" for anything I do... nor does she ever consider the constraints under which I live (taking care of an elderly father who lives with me).. but expects that I can just *do* something within a few hours of her deciding that she wants to do something.

Am I expecting too much for her to have the manners/courtesy about "thank you"s... or giving me some notice about things she wants us to do, when I have to arrange for Dad's meals, etc... !?

...or is there something with our individual egos getting in the way here?

Would appreciate any thoughts...

A close relative recently suffered a heart failure (April) and then had a heart attack (July - blood enzymes indicate some heart muscle damage), both episodes owing to excessive fluid (on the lung and otherwise). He's currently taking medications to try and reduce the fluid (furosemide)... but I'm wondering if there is a 'preferred posture' that would help?

That is, is it better to be lying down or sitting up?

Both episodes started when he was lying down, asleep.

Thanks.

I have a PC with Windows XP Service Pack 3 installed on its hard disk.

The PC won't boot reliably, so I was wondering if I could simply take the system disk out of the currently misbehaving PC and install it in another computer and WinXP would still work Ok? I understand that networking would need to be reconfigured because MAC addresses, etc would be different... and there'd be other niggly things that I haven't thought of yet...

Still, do you think this would work? I'm mainly concerned that there was all that guff with 'validation' and ties to hardware in WinXP that might prevent Windows from running off the disk in a different PC... I'm simply trying to avoid the hassles of re-installing/configuring all my software...

Thanks for any forthcoming thoughts.

A friend's Dad is 90-something.. and is very independent in nature. He drives himself around, does a little bit of shopping.. and my friend spends a lot of time making sure his Dad is comfortable and has a good quality of life, as he (the Dad) is an amputee, has various heart and nervous conditions.. but is still sharp as a tack, although the body is slowing down a bit these days, making things more difficult.

Recently, the Dad's car broke down and there was a bit of stress and heartache about it as the car is really necessary... and is a bit more than 'something handy'...

...but having told another friend about the situation, this other friend made the comment that worrying about the car and other 'niceties' is just frills and isn't very important.

My question is simply this: Would you say that other friend's opinion is rather harsh and unfeeling? ..or is it something that' smore pragmatic and realistic.. and the elderly man should worry more about the important things?

I have an application where I want to start a toy fan after a (roughly) "tunable" time delay.

For example, I might press a "RESET" button and the delay will start... and after maybe 6 to 8 hours, I want to switch-on the fan.

Now, for smaller delay times (in the order of seconds or a few minutes), I could use a simple 555 timer monostable circuit... but obviously, I need significant longer delay times than that.

I'm looking for a design or device that I could use that would provide delay times of 6-10 hours. The switching capacity is not huge (turning on a small, 1.5V, say, electric motor), so I don't think I need to consider relays, etc... and I want to be able to power the unit by, say, a 9V "brick" battery or maybe even 2 or 3 Lithium/button batteries.

(...had a thought as I was writing...)

Perhaps I could incorporate a 'decade counter' or something...(!) So, let's say I have a monostable 555 design that delays for 3 minutes... I would need a counter device to maybe count to [ (8 x 60) / 3 ] or 160... and when the relevant output went 'high', maybe that could turn 'on' a transistor or something... until I press the reset button and it would all start again.

Hmm...

...or maybe I can just buy a digital clock/watch module and hook-up an alarm output to the switch!?

Anyway, I would greatly appreciate any thoughts or suggestions... Thanks!

I would like to buy some jewellery (jewelry) on-line from a shop that is based in St Petersburg, Russia.

The intention is that I could make all the arrangements on-line and then ask the shop to deliver the items locally.

This way, I don't have to pay international courier fees and I'm less likely to have troubles with the items being lost in the post.

Does anyone have any suggestions/pointers for on-line places based in St Petersburg that might be able to do something like I describe?

Thanks.

I used to use Frisket back when I was doing airbrushing and, as it uses a low-tack adhesive, I was thinking some of the clear Frisket might be usable as a protection for the glass screen.

I have a cheapo 7-inch Android tablet and would still like to do *something* to protect the screen, as the 'commercial' screen protectors are all celluloid-type products that are not the correct size for my tablet - They are only 'tacked' to the screen with corner stickers anyway - and they always dislodge.

...or if you have any other suggestions?

Thanks.

As above.. VLC has been suggested to me.. but it apparently drains power rapidly. Are there any others that can display its image reversed?

Conventional single coil pickups are often made with 'flat', even-height magnetic poles. Sometimes, however, they can be made with the poles under the 'G' and 'D' strings in particular of a greater height.

Manufacturers often tell us that these 'staggered' poles give a 'vintage correct' tone, quoting something about the 'G' string being a 'wound' steel string in the early days, compared to modern strings where the 'G' string is made of plain steel.

So, what are your experiences? If I'm using strings with a 'plain G' string, should I install 'flat pole' pickups or 'staggered pole' pickups in my guitar? Will one type be more likely to give my guitar the vintage 'quack' and 'bell' sounds? ... or is the difference in the sounds produced really minimal?

I have a portable hard disk (Samsung G2 320GB USB drive) that I initially connected to a Windows XP PC and went through the sequence: Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management... and changed the Drive Letter from J: to S:.

If I connect that portable drive to another Windows XP PC, it also shows the disk as being called "S:".

However, I can connect the portable drive to a 3rd Windows PC and it calls the portable drive "E:".

Is there a way that the drive name can be made consistent across ALL the PCs I connect it to?

This is NOT a joke question; it's a matter of road safety...

I generally drive in built-up, suburban areas where the roads are fully-formed, with bituminous surfacing, kerb & channel and footpaths on both sides. Frequently in these areas, I observe Asian people (both younger and elderly) walking in the middle of the road or on one "side" of the made road. Why do they do that and put themselves at great risk of injury when there are footpaths available on both sides of the road?

Why is it a good thing (or not) when motherboard spec sheets state "Solid capacitors on CPU VRM"? I understand that VRM refers to a (step-down) voltage regulator but what's so good about using "solid capacitors"? Is the alternative surface-mount versions? What are the (dis-)advantages of each? Thanks.

An interesting problem...

The right side of my upper lip is swelling like crazy. It's like I've had an insect bite in my mouth, between the teeth and the inside of my lip and the area is swelling. It was Ok before I went to bed last night but overnight, this swelling has appeared.

I've not eaten anything weird, I dont' have any food allergies, I don't believe I have any problems with insects in bed or around the house.

I'm generally in reasonable health... and this has never happened before.

Any ideas what might be happeing here?

I have a number of USB-connected external hard disks that I would like to make available on my local network.

Therefore, I'm wondering if there's such a thing as a device (like a USB hub) to which I can attach all the USB drives and then connect the device to the network, like a network-attached-storage (NAS) -style of thing?

Thanks.

I know it's absolute sacrilege to ask :) ...but has anyone managed to do it?

What sorts of parameters do you tweak to get that type of mellow sound? ...or what about the rock sound?

I have some MP3 files that a friend gave me and both the filename characters and the characters in the ID tags are non-US English. I think they are some sort of Cyrillic alphabet, like Russian.

Is there a way that I can install a "language" option or use a different font or something so that I can read the characters? Even if the Cyrillic characters are displayed, I can always do something to translate from Russian into English, for example.

Note that the blue "EN" that appears in the taskbar on some WinXP PCs isn't shown on the PC I'm using.. and I don't know how to get it there(!).. or even if it will have anything to do with the solution...

Thanks for any suggestions.

I have an MP4 music file that I've converted to MP3 format via a couple of software tools.

I know that the ultimate measuring device is my ear :) but I was looking to see if there was some freeware/open source software for Win/Linux that will let me "see" how the two files "sound"(!).

I've tried using Audacity's "Plot Spectrum" tool.. and although that gives a rough idea of how the MP3 is constructed, Audacity doesn't seem to deal with MP4(.m4a) files at all.

I'd appreciate any suggestions, please.

There was a pair of men who each played an acoustic guitar, while they wore some sort of 'native dress', with feathers I think... and I think they were from South America. They had a fairly significant hit in the 1980s I think it was with an instrumental piece... and I'm going nuts trying to remember their names ('...dreos'.. something?) and the name of the tune.

The start of the piece is very similar to Louis Armstrong's 'A Kiss To Build A Dream On'.

Any clues?