mad editor

On my flat screen, when tuning into FIOS, I get audio, but no video. But I know the screen itself is working, because I get video when going to other services. It's just broadcast TV shows that are limited to audio. The other TVs in the house are working fine. Any ideas?

I work for a virtual company and we all log in to a content management system to manage various aspects of our e-commerce company. We each have a unique account to log in.

There is one page I can't get into, however. Others can, but I cannot. I get a 404 error. Our IT staff says it's my computer and thus my problem to fix. However, I've tried multiple browsers on multiple computers with different Windows versions and keep getting the 404 error. I think this shows it's a problem with my account.

Any thoughts on what this might be, so I can point our IT staff in right direction?

I have some damaged planks on my outdoor deck that need replacing. The lumberyard advised me to use 2 1/2" nails for the new boards. But I can't seem to hammer them in straight--it's very dense wood and I'm kneeling while doing it. Electric nail guns don't seem to accommodate nails that long and I don't want to get a whole compressor set up for a pneumatic gun. Any suggestions? (Or am I just clumsy!)

I work as the chief editor for a company that produces technical newsletters. About 30 employees. I answer directly to the CEO / founder / owner. He's always going on about beating our competitor, a much larger company, and he frequently sends me their newsletters for "ideas." I thank him, but tell him it's not necessary--I've been in this business for decades and know all the topics--I even showed him our ORIGINAL pieces on the same topics. But he always seems frustrated. He's also annoyed that I can't produce more articles more quickly for less money--even though I know from years of experience I'm well within industry norms.

Today, he called me late in the evening and said he wanted to talk to me while I was looking at our competitor's newsletter. I said something noncommittal like "I'll review this closely to make sure we're covering the same issues," and he said, "Just be sure to change the titles."

I'm afraid he was asking me just to copy our competitors' articles with only a few cosmetic changes. It's both illegal and immoral. This would explain his irritation at cost and speed. I'm thinking he just wants me to steal articles, which would save time and money. I'm thinking the hints about "getting ideas" (perfectly legitimate) was a hint to "borrow" (i.e., steal.) And now he's getting more explicit.

Any thoughts? My idea is just to ignore his hints and keep working.

I started work as a manager at a virtual company. There is no HQ. We all work out of our homes. About 25 employees. I report directly to the founder/CEO. He must work all the time--I get emails in the middle of the night, over the weekend. These are not emergency situations.

I try to respond even outside of 9-5, M-F. I realize as a manager I'm expected to put in extra time and I'm fine with that, but when am I "done" if there's no office to leave. Can I assume I can take a midday break if I'm putting in extra time on weekends? I feel odd about asking him what the deal is.

Anyone have similar experiences?

I edit a series of e-newsletters on a variety of professional topics. An article goes through several stages (idea, assignment, editing, posting) and then gets put into one or more of our channels.

I need a very simple database program to keep track of these articles, where they are and where I'm putting them. The database programs I've seen tend to be complicated and we've outgrown using Excel as a database.

Any suggestions for something that won't take months to learn? Years ago I used a fantastic program called AskSam but it appears gone now.

I inherited an IRA from a deceased parent several years ago--about $100,000. We've taken RMD's as required by law and paid tax. We're now going to take a lot more out for various major expense. I know we have to pay tax as ordinary income. But in addition, do we have to pay long term cap gains at 15% on the appreciation of the mutual fund in recent years?

I am a staff writer in the communications dept. of a small nonprofit: about 65 employees. I am very technologically sophisticated for a writer--I can program in HTML, for example. Our audience loves my articles--I get lots of praise, but never from my boss. Increasingly, she's pushing me into taking more responsibility of management of computer servers and enterprise-level software, things I know nothing about and can't just learn about by reading an article.

When I say the IT director should handle it, I'm told he's too busy and that I'm making excuses for not doing my work. Now, I've been told to negotiate, on my own, a major contract for reprogramming our website, with extreme contractual demands from senior management. It is way beyond my knowledge. Even our in-house programmer, who's far more knowledgeable than I am, says it's beyond his skills. Even if we get a contract signed, I don't have the skills to management reprogramming of enterprise software. Everyone is running away from this. I'm thinking I'm just being set up so they have an excuse to fire me.

I know the executive director hired me over my boss's objections because of my experience--everyone else my boss has hired has been young and single. I'm middle aged, married with grown children. Should I just muddle through? Complain to HR? I'm trying desperately to find a new job, but there's not a lot out there. Any suggestions?

I have a nearly perfect license (one minor traffic ticket years ago in N.Y.). Recently I was pulled over for an illegal U-turn in New Jersey. OK--I'll pay the fine and move on. But the officer decided a court appearance is MANDATORY even with a guilty plea. Will I get blindsided? Might there be something going on I don't know about and find myself with even a jail penalty?

There were no extenuating circumstances. No accident, no one hurt, I obeyed the officer and was extremely polite. I had my license, registration and insurance. From what I read, a mandatory court appearance is almost unheard of except where they is something "extra."

My ticket says nothing but "no U turn." If I have to humbly apologize to a judge and pay a fine, OK. But is there something else going on here?

I'm in communications, which is very youth oriented. Jobs are very hard to come by, especially for someone whose 50, even though my technology skills are excellent. After months of unemployment I took a huge pay cut to take a junior communications job. Over the past two years I watched my boss, who is very unsure of herself and younger than me, get jealous because of my superior skills. One client told me quietly he wished I had her job, and probably these attitudes got back to her. She has given me increasingly menial jobs, such as setting up meetings for her. She wanted one of our suppliers to speak with her at a 7:00 a.m. conference call, and when I couldn't persuade them to do this, she blamed me.

She refused me training even though she says she has a budget, and refuses to give me an annual review, so I only get a default cost of living raise. HR says it sympathizes but can do nothing and I don't want to go over my boss's head.

About a year ago we hired a young assistant in the department, with no experience in our field and very little work experience period. I helped train him. Now, my boss said I have to report directly to this assistant! (He has no advanced degrees or any kind of training or certification that I lack.)

Obviously, I can't stay here. What options for someone of my age? How do I start over? As soon as they realize how old I am, employers just cut me off, even though I'm up to date on technology and social media.

Any thoughts?

I run a LinkedIn group for a membership organization. I only let members join. When I post items for the readers, is there any way of tracking how many readers click on a particular post? Can this be done either through LinkedIn or some third-party software?

My father in law died last year. He was long divorced and bought his current house years after his divorce, so his name was the only one on the mortgage. My wife was his only child, sole heir, and executrix. We have kept his house and use it for vacations. We do not rent it out and have no plans to sell it. (We can easily keep up with the mortgage payments and taxes.) My understanding was that the bank has to let us assume the mortgage since we are living in the house.

The bank says they won't change the title unless we refinance, which is expensive and time-consuming. We wouldn't care except the IRS won't let us deduct the interest and property taxes unless it's in my wife's name. I think the bank wrong. Any thoughts?

I have a dell 968w printer. It was connected to my old router wirelessly and worked fine. The router died, and now I have a new router with a new network name. I can't change the network name on the printer. It has the old one listed. I ran the set up disk a dozen times, tried using the router software to search for the printer--nothing. The router sets me up fine with all laptops, so I know that works.

Any ideas? Dell is absolutely useless in helping.

How do I reduce the size of documents that I scan to email to other people. These are almost never high-quality documents needed for printing--just something another person has to keep for his records. As long as it's legible, it's fine. But even when I select 150 dpi (lowest number) on my Dell scanner I can get a 6 mb document for just a one page PDF! I know it's possible to make these smaller but I can't figure out how. (I am not using OCR)

I just signed a lucrative contract to write three columns a week for an online publication. I spelled out what I could do for them--length of each column and typical number of sources. They agreed without comment and we signed a contract.

I just wrote my first piece. To show I was the kind of guy who went above and beyond I sent them a longer column than what we agreed to with more sources. But the editor came back right away asking for a far more elaborate piece with double the sources. The new article would have to be about double the size and require hours more of time. There is no way I could do this kind of work three times a week.

Part of it is that I don't think this editor is really paying attention. When I gave him a list of suggested topics he said he was surprised that one certain timely topic did not make my list. Actually, it had--he didn't read my list carefully and I pointed this out to him as gently as possible. He told me to start on it. Then a day later told me to stop because another editor had assigned it to another writer. Also, twice in the past couple of weeks he missed appointments for us to talk on the phone without explanation or apology.

Any suggestion for gently telling him that he's asking more than we contracted for? I don't want to sound like a nitpicking jerk. I ALWAYS give my clients more than they asked for--I like to show I go the extra mile for the same dollar. But this is too much!

I saw an opening a firm where I knew the owner/CEO. We had worked together very well some years back. I sent her an email saying I was interested and she got back a few minutes later saying she was thrilled to hear from me. She said she wanted to do a formal job interview and had her assistant send me a formal job application to fill out. The director of operations said she was arranging for me to come in and meet everyone. They gave me a test and I got good feedback. It all sounded very positive.

Then the CEO said she was so snowed under with new work that she'd like me to do some freelance even before the job interview. She gave me the assignment and said she had to be on the road for a few days, but to ask another manager at the firm for help in getting started. This manager tersely told me she had no advice to offer and to just do the best I can. So I did it and turned in the work.

And that was it. The CEO thanked me for my work and said she'd put through my invoice. I sent an email saying I was looking forward to an interview. It's been weeks now--and nothing. I'm wondering if the manager who refused to help me was sabotaging me. It's a small, tightly knit place and they may be nervous about someone new coming in.

Do I remind the CEO I'm still interested? Tell her that her manager wouldn't help me with the project (which would explain why she may have been dissatisfied with it)? Or just forget the whole thing?

The thing is that the job fits my skills like a hand in glove and I'd hate to lose it over something stupid!

Something is eating various plants in my garden: peas and parsley. I have a 5-foot wire fence sunk deep with heavy mesh on the ground. (I inspected carefully--nothing is burrowing in or I'd see the holes.) Could this be woodchucks? Can they climb a fence that tall? Could this be squirrels or chipmunks?

What should I do--electrify the fence? Barbed wire?

I've been using a Palm TX and have been happy with it, but I know there won't be any Palm left when I want something new. Everyone tells me to get a PDA/phone combo but usually the screens are smaller than I like. I like my big TX screen and don't mind having separate phone and PDAs. Also, I'm committed to using Verizon. I'm thinking of getting an iPod Touch. Does that have the same functionality as a Palm? Can I import my Palm data? Any other thoughts?

I am a freelancer and did about $1,500 worth of work for a business client. They paid promptly and made no comment about the size of my bill. Two days later my bank says the checked bounced due to insufficient funds.

My fee was very small in comparison with the size of the company, which has about 12 employees. I imagine they must be a dire situation if their account couldn't even pay my small fee. I left polite but firm messages for the two top people there and sent them polite but firm emails as well. I'm waiting to hear back. I also had some trouble with them on the last job--it took a while to pay--but they said it was just clerical problems.

How long should I give them to get back to me? I want to protect my rights but don't want to cause a needless fuss. Fortunately, I am a good saver so this isn't a major problem for me. However, I'm also wondering if it's worth doing business with them again--should I politely refuse future assignments from them?

I bought a new computer. I have about 400 songs on iTunes which I play on a Touch. I want to transfer them to the new computer. I copied the entire iTunes folder--everything--to a thumb drive (about 12 gigabtyes).

How do I get them into iTunes? Every way I try to import I get "can't find original file." I've tried adding folder to library, file to library. Nothing works. I was able to do one file by going through a labor-intensive process with one file and going through the iTunes store. I can't possibly do this with all 400 songs.

I don't want to burn a dozen CDs to do this and re-import. There has to be a simpler way!

Any suggestions?