SkyRaider

I'm already locked with a plan with my iPhone6, but I also have 2 family members that need iPhones. One iPhone5 just got wet so we're using an iPhone4. The other one is an iPhone 6 I bought refurbished 6 months ago and it's starting to act up (still paying for it). Two new phones would be great, especially if one is (almost) free or heavily discounted. I would be paying $20 more every month for my AT&T bill. Or should I just slum it until there's no resort? Your ideas are welcome. Thanks.

The text came from his iPod while my parents were out of town (I was out for a few hours) and he was being babysat by the teenage neighbor, who also had her 2 younger siblings with her. I know the babysitter's younger brother can be a pain, and I think he grabbed my brother's cell phone and typed "I hate you" followed by a weird conversation, saying "just joking LOL" and more. I showed the conversation to my little brother and he said he didn't text that. Somehow I believe him, I know that's not his type of humor; he doesn't even care about texting. So I'm 50% in doubt. My girlfriend can handle that, she knows it's a joke. Should I tell the parents of the neighbors? I don't have concrete proof and I don't want to seem unjustified or accusational without proof. I know the babysitter is very responsible, but her brother can be a stinker. so. What would you do?

As a teacher, my monthly payments are spread throughout the year. That means that my summer paycheck is bigger than usual, which eases my cash flow temporarily. I am considering the benefits of paying down credit card debt since I have the cash. This would lower my monthly payments to the credit card company, plus lower the existing interest. The catch is that I will need the money eventually for living expenses, which will result in me using the credit card, which is part of the plan. So basically it's a temporary reprieve on the credit card interest. Can you explain with numbers what would be the benefit of this? Imagine that my credit card debt is $2K and I could pay it all today. What do you think?

We've got a buyer with a contract for our home for a short sale. We sent the paperwork to the bank to see if they approve. We stopped paying for mortgage and HELOC because it's a financial burden. But we also found a great deal on a rental home in the area we want to live, with a 2 year lease. The renter Realtor told us that we barely got approved since our credit has been hit and if we want it, we need to sign asap (we want it). If we stay in our home, our credit can get worse and I feel it will limit our ability to get a decent rental such as the one we found. Our short sale realtor says we shouldn't leave the house just yet but for no real reason. I figure one way or another we want to proceed with a short sale. What do you think: is it advisable to move out and live in the place I want to live in? Thanks.

I want to draw if someone who draws celebrities from published pictures can sell the drawings. Does it make a difference how similar it looks to the pic? e.g. A super realistic rendering vs. a stylized caricature.

It's a catholic funeral service for a family member of a business partner. There's a mass first and then there's a visitation. But I have prior engagements and I can only go to one... is it OK to go to the Mass only and not the visitation, or viceversa? I would prefer to go to the Mass only and give my condolences. Let me know if you're familiar with specific etiquette on these situations... Thanks.

The crisis has gotten us. I've got less work and less pay. I'm a month behind on mortgage, I keep borrowing against second mortgage (line of credit) but not maxed out yet; approaching dangerous level. I hate to borrow from my future retirement but I think it may be the lesser of two evils at this moment. What do you think.?

I've had both but I can't tell which one is better. Tell me if you have experienced both companies or just know about it.

Current loan: fixed at 6.25% 30 years. Credit rating: fair. I want to lower my monthly payments. I know the longer span will result in more interest paid, but I need cash flow... I don't want to need to borrow money.

Supposedly the previous webmaster provided them with page hit statistics. I cannot contact him, and no one else knows. Site runs on Apache running Perl. I looked for a file named "counter" in the cgi-bin folder but found nothing. Any ideas?

I went to an a job interview for a job, and the man insinuated that I pretty much had the job, since I have some recommendations from other people who work there (his managers). He didn't make an offer, though. He said we should meet with his boss to increase the chances of a higher salary for me than we he had budgeted.

During the next 3 week, I contacted him two times via e-mail. He answered after the second e-mail, apologized for not answering earlier. He told me to tell him which day of this week worked for me to meet with his boss. I answered, but he has not replied. It's almost the end of the week. Should I contact him via phone to increase chances of meeting tomorrow? Or should I just "wait it out"? I don't want to look desperate (I'm not), but also don't want to show lack of initiative.

I constantly think about moving out of state, but we own a home. If I get a job in another city, what are the logistics for moving out of the house and not getting into a financial nightmare? I currently have mortgage and 2nd mortgage. Had for 3 years. Have a job. No real savings. Usually cash is tight.

Have you had this experience? How did you accomplish a move and how were you able to finance it?

I write manuals for everything that I do at work, but keep them to myself. This is so I don't forget how to do certain specific things. I keep them in wiki form and keep adding to it.

I'm thinking about publishing this in the larger context of a departmental knowledge base, and let people keep adding to it. In essence I would be giving specific knowledge to other people in the department about work that I do, however, it seems to me that IT people like to keep information to themselves in order to have competitive advantage. I'm not sure if that works, but it seems to be the norm.

Our management wishes we all had sort of the same skills (possibly to minimize risk if one employee is absent), but in reality, each one of the IT employees knows something that the other one doesn't.

Have you been in this situation? What do you recommend?

I've never followed the latest about American sports (Pro and College football, basketball, baseball), although I live in the U.S. I don't even know the basics. Is there any way I can learn quickly what I need to know so I don't stop a sports conversation with my silence? I just wanna fake it. Is there a sports website aimed at my demographic? Are there any magic words I can say if people are talking about sports?

Or better yet, is there any source of information that talks about sports as if I just landed from Mars, so it bridges my ignorance gap? Thanks.

I need ideas for planning 3 day trip somewhere near Central Florida. Would travel 5 hours or so... Spend about $500.

Not Miami or St. Augustine or Tampa. Been there already....

If you know, please recommend.

I'm trying to do that. One is Windows 2000, USB 2, the other Windows 98 with USB 1. Should they show up as external drives or something? Let me know if I'm missing an ingredient here...

I don't keep any cars in there. A faint smell of burnt rubber is noticeable as soon as you enter garage. It seems to happen when the AC unit has been on. 2 yr old house. I haven't had maintenance on AC for a long time... I already called them for an appointment. What do you know about AC's smelling like burnt rubber?

I was reading an entry in Wikipedia about the children's character Thomas the Tank Engine, and they mentioned the word "subanthropomorphised", but the link takes you to "Anthrophomorphism" and there's no backreference. Are there any differences in the meaning of the word?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_the_Tank_Engin...

I need to know if a remote box is running Linux or Windows or whatever platform it is. How can I do this? I'm running Windows NT. The box is mapped as a drive on my computer.