tgypoi

The usual argument is that due to the extremely low chance of winning (1 in 175,223,510) that there's really no point in playing powerball, but on the radio this morning, I heard that the jackpot is $500 million. That gives each ticket an expected value of $2.85, and they only cost $2! I realise that there's a chance of two people both winning, but I'm not really sure how to calculate that, any ideas?

So I've been running synthetic oil in my car now for some time. A small leak from the oil pan seal has developed, but the way the car is designed makes it very expensive to fix. The guy at the shop recommended that I just keep the oil topped up as it's dripping less than a quart in the 5,000 miles in between oil changes.

Will conventional oil mix with the synthetic, or will it form layers and not do its job properly?

I was looking at a car being sold by a mechanic, (Chevy Avalanche if you're interested), and when I said that I thought it would use a lot of fuel, he assured me that he had disabled the ABS and the traction control, so now it gets 22 mpg. Other than thinking that it probably isn't safe and probably won't pass inspection, I also thought that neither of those systems would have any effect on the mileage.

Am I wrong, or was the dude talking out of his ***?

So I was passing through Duabi, and saw they had some cars on a raffle. Apparently they would ship it to the US for me if I won, but the car is "GCC spec". Not knowing what GCC spec is I'm not sure if it would pass inspection in Texas. Does anyone know what the difference is and/or what I'd have to do to make it legal?

When I was about the age that I started to notice cool cars, the Nissan 300ZX was one of the coolest cars I'd see regularly, so to me they're still one of the coolest cars out there. Every now and then I see them for sale for less than my current car is worth and it makes me think about buying one. I know that Nissan's are generally very reliable cars, but the stopped making the 300ZX 15 years ago, so they're all quite old now. I'm at the stage in my life where I want a car that just works, I like playing around sometimes, but I want something reliable enough to work when I want it to. Are they that reliable that I'd still have a chance of finding a good one, or should I find a new model to lust after?

My girlfriend has an '01 PT Cruiser. A couple of days ago it rained and her headlights wouldn't turn off, draining her battery. The next day it was dry and it didn't happen. Yesterday it rained again and her headlights stayed on.

I've searched a few forums, and everyone says it's probably the switch, but the fact that it only happens when it rains makes me think that water is getting in somewhere it should and making a contact that shouldn't be made. I've looked around under the hood, but there's nothing that's obviously out of place. Can anyone give me some guidance as to where the wiring goes for the headlights, and where I should look for the faulty connections?

My girlfriend's been having some problems with her '01 PT Cruiser. She tells me that it's overheating when she drives it around town, but she doesn't have any problems on the highways. I've taken it for a few drives and nothing I do makes it overheat. This all started happening after some really heavy rain, when she got water in the car.

It makes me think that it's some kind of electrical problem, that every so often goes out, and stops the fan working.

Has anyone else had this happen to them? What did you do to fix it?

So I've been dating a Christian for a while, and other than that she's a nice person. I usually take the opinion that whatever a person believes is between them and whatever deity they choose to follow, but I've started thinking that if I get serious and long-term with this girl eventually we'll have children, and she'll want to tell my children that there's a man with a beard who lives in the sky. Any suggestions on how I could 'show her the light'?

I used to play a game, that described itself as like a skiing game, but with the skier replaced with high-powered car. I've been trying to find it again recently, but my Google-fu has been letting me down. Has anyone else played that game? What was it called and where did you find it?

Almost a year ago now, a new girl started at my office, so I was friendly to her and invited her out to a few of the things other people in the office were doing. She came out and met people, but she turned out to be so obnoxious that nobody likes her. My problem is that I'm too nice, everyone else just stopped inviting her places, but now they don't invite me either because they think that I'm friends with her and I'll be offended if I see that she isn't invited.

Also we go to a quiz every week, which is in the same place at the same time every week, and she's there every week! I could probably stand her if it was just at work, but I see her way too much and she's driving me batty!

How can I get rid of her without creating too much friction at work?

It seems to me like BMX racing would be one of the places where disc brakes would be the best...

If there are BMX bikes with disc brakes, where are they hiding?

What's the song sampled at the beginning of the Hilltop Hood's song 'The light you burned'?

It sounds pretty cool and I'd like to listen to it as it was originally.

I'd like to customise my car and start turning some heads, but there's no point if the first cop I pass is going to pull me over and tell me to put it back how it was. Is there anywhere that says what I'm allowed to modify within the law, and where would I find it?

I went to the Johnson Space Centre museum in Houston, and they had an interactive game where you had to plan a mission to Mars. It seemed really interesting, but I didn't have time to play around with it much. Can I download the game from somewhere, or do I have to go back sometime just to play the game all day.

Everything I know about computer networks, I've learned from Wikipedia over the last couple of weeks, since my boss asked me to become the network administrator for my (small) office.

I have a wireless network set up and working properly. The server (actually just a box running Windows XP) is named SERVER, and when connected to the wireless anyone who tries to go to \\SERVER\(whatever file they want) generally experiences success.

I have also set up a VPN. This seems to work, in principle, however, trying to get \\SERVER\(some file) doesn't work, but \\192.168.x.x\(some file) will work.

I thought the whole point of the 'computer name' was that you could refer to the same link no matter what network you are on. I've tried just setting up two links for everyone, but that seems to tax them slightly too much. (I get a lot of people coming to me and saying 'I tried to get a file from home last night, I clicked on this link and ... oh it's working now...')

The TCP/IP setting are exactly the same on both the wireless network and the VPN, what might e going wrong, and how do I fix it?

My company has told four of the recent engineering graduates that we have some spare time to do something on our own, and that it would be preferable if we could do something that our boss can take to the other offices and say 'Look what my grads have done.'

One of our ideas was to enter an engineering competition, but none of us can find any that are suitable. There are loads of comps for people who are still at uni, but not much for graduates.

We are four grads who specialize in process/safety. Can anyone point me at a good competition or know where I should look?

I've had a look at some of the backup utilities that are available on the internet, and they are all too complex for my needs. I don't care about any compression, passwords, system restore or anything like that. Just want an easy way to make copies of all my data files. Ideally, I'd like a program that checks to see if the file has changed since the last backup, and if it has to copy that file to a portable hard drive.

Can anyone point me to a program like that, or do I have to write it myself?

Having fixed a few minor errors on my bosses laptop, I've become the office IT manager. This would be a good thing if I actually knew about computers...

The network at the office gives all the computers an internal address, but they all show up as the same address from the outside. (I checked a few at whatismyipaddress.com)

I've been tasked with setting it up so that we can log on to the main computer from anywhere via the internet. It seems like it should be possible, but I have no idea how to go about it.

Are there any good programs around that can thread a connection through the network?

I have a spreadsheet with dates going across. I want to put a graph above the dates to show the situation so far. When I line up the graph with the cells on either end, the cells in the middle don't line up with the point they're supposed to. When I move the graph so the cells in the middle line up, the cells on the ends are out of whack.

Is there any way to get Excel to display a graph with the points lined up with their respective cells?

In the near future, I may be traveling to the Middle East and South East Asia, in attempts to make a lot of money. This will necessitate getting a credit card.

Everywhere I've seen in Australia that take credit cards take both, but is it the same story overseas, or is one accepted where the other is not?

I'll probably also carry some local currency for where they won't accept any cards.