2k1Toaster

I have a property where the governing HOA has a public utility easement (P.U.E.) of 5 feet around the entire property line. Wednesday, my sewer line broke and no longer was draining. I paid for the rooting of the line which was unsuccessful to find this out. That is all on me. The sewer drain repair people found the break and dug a 12ft deep hole to fix the section of pipe. The main problem was a crack in the PVC piping and a clog between my line and the city line, just within the HOA's public utility easement. Today it is all fixed and the ground is filled in and everything, it was an emergency repair. I paid the many thousands of dollars to fix it out of my pocket since I know home owners insurance will not pay for things outside the home/foundation, and I just figured if it wasn't the city line, it is my problem and that was the end of the story.

Thismorning I got an email from my nosy neighbour who is part of the HOA committee telling me he sees the "work" going on in my yard, and I need to fill out forms for architectural approval, and very aggressive. All of which is untrue since it is a repair and going back to exactly the way it was once fixed. I then look through the HOA and see that repair section is an easement...

So my question is, is the HOA responsible in full or partially for the cost of repair since it happened on their easement. Also I would think it reasonable to do the work and bill them because it is an emergency situation that would make the house uninhabitable before and during the work to repair the sewer line. I wouldn't even care about it, but this guy has been pissing me off for a few years now and thinks he owns the world. If he wants to enforce the HOA upon everyone else but break it himself (no structures but has a playground for his children?!) I think it is time to give him a reality check and I feel this may be a legitimate battle.

Any insight would be appreciated.

I have been with my girlfriend for almost 2 years now. Everything is really good and we (at least I) really enjoy spending time together, love eachothers' families and our personalities match 99%. She is a blast to be around. However that 1% is where the problems are.

She is just over 3 years younger than me (just turned 25 vs 21 almost 22). She likes to party like she is in highschool. Drinks in excess to the point she vomits and/or passes out. She also likes to smoke weed. She is on medication for a mental illness, but drinking and smoking (and grapefruit) changes the brain chemistry in a way that the medication cannot keep a balance and I can see the difference immediately.

So this is our one hangup, and it has gotten to the point where I am near the end of my rope. This past weekend we hung out Friday night and Saturday morning she went to work and I still have not seen her in 2 days (we live together). She went out drinking with friends Saturday night after work then never made it home and went to work in the afternoon Sunday. She then took a friend home after work Sunday/yesterday and never made it home again.

Last week we went to a party for a mutual friend, and she knows how I feel about her drinking and smoking. She consumed so much alcohol and smoked weed to where she pretty much passed out. I drove home and shortly after we got home she threw up. Didn't even get an apology or anything the next day, like it never happened.

I love her, it has been almost 2 years, and this is the only problem. I feel selfish but at the same time I feel she is being very selfish. I ask nothing else from her. I pay for everything including the house/utilities/internet. We also just went on a 2 week vacation that I paid for completely as well. We do everything she wants to do, and I am OK with that for the most part. I just feel like I am not asking too much to ask her to tone back her drinking to the point where she doesn't pass out in return for everything I do for her.

It is frustrating, sad, and maddening at the same time. So I welcome your random internet opinions!

If there is a house that went into foreclosure, and went to auction for some amount, what are the chances an offer slightly above or equal to auction amount would be accepted?

Background:

This house was foreclosed upon in end of 2009. It went to auction earlier this year, and nobody bid on it. So now I want to buy it. If I offer the bank something close (higher than) the opening bid that nobody went for, what sort of chance do I have of actually getting the house?

Just wondering if there are actually any first time home buyer or home buyer in general grants available (in the United States). Seems most of the information I can find online (posts as well as government websites) expired a few years ago and some as far back as 2001.

Are there any out there to help with down payment, or just with buying a house in general? What about tax rebates? I know the big one already ended this past April, but are there plans for any new ones?

I need a big laptop bag. Something like the Bag of Holding from Thinkgeek, except they are out of stock with no word on when it will be available.

I need a laptop bag that can hold:

-- One extremely large Alienware 17"+ non-widescreen (very wide and tall) laptop (and thick)

-- One small Toshiba 12.x" tablet

-- One widescreen 15.x" Dell laptop

-- The power cords for all 3 computers which takes an average laptop bag's laptop compartment by themselves

-- Misc cords and office accessories in various other pouches such as a graphing calculator, pens/pencils, a few flash drives, an inverter, cell phone charger, that sort of thing

-- One or two small but rigid compartments for documents/magazines

Overall size of this I do not care. Quality is important. Price is not important as long as it is under a few hundred, lets say $500USD. So does anyone have suggestions?

I have a machine with Windows98 that has a driver installed to communicate with an old device through a printer driver. This device's manufacturer went out of business a long time ago, and I have none of the original installation materials.

I want to be able to find which file (probably in the WINDOWS directory somewhere) is the printer/device driver that is used when I "print" to it so I can copy the file and put it on another machine to be used in a virtual environment.

Does anyone know how to locate the file being used to communicate with a device in Windows98? I know how in NT and I can find no similarities.

Or a similar resistor +/- 10ohms with the appropriate power rating change? This is going on a small PCB and my current power resistors are 15mm x 5mm which takes up huge real estate. Any surface mount wonder resistors that are tall but small footprint SMD? Max height is about 10mm to 12mm though.

I am looking for a little MOSFET to drive a stepper motor at 12v with around 240mA. I am currently using the IRF510 which works great but is overkill and the new PCB has a very very small footprint, so I am looking to downsize my components.

So I found this MOSFET: http://www.vishay.com/docs/64828/sib408dk.pdf

Looks like it would do the trick, but it is only 1.6mm x 1.6mm and I have a hard time believing this will handle loads of 240mA @12v-14v. From looking at the datasheet, it seems ok but I wanted the opinion of other engineers before I commit my PCB to it.

Thanks!

For those that do not trust links, it is a Vishay SiB408DK in a PowerPak SC-75 package.

Do they make IC's that have an I2C or SPI interface that just return a X bit value that is unique to every IC? That way each device can have a unique identifier?

I am wanting to know what type of IC or sensor should be used to detect pressure through a device like a touch pad. I am wanting a capactive solution, but most of the cap-sense ICs I see are simple ON/OFF. I am looking for something with 8bit or more resolution between how hard it is being pressed. Even like a laptop touchpad without position sensing and the size of a postage stamp.

I am sick of most of the tv on, but I love the sketches Monty Python did, and the whole Mr. Bean series. Are there any good shows out there with true British humour left?

There are a couple companies I want to work for, that are hiring. I have sent in my resume to their online service, but I am wondering if it is a good idea to phone their HR department and ask for an interview or something a bit more aggressive than normal?

BTW, this is for an entry level engineering position...

I am custom designing our new modern bathroom's vanity. Our old 80's style vanity was 21" deep (from the front to the wall). I have seen some between 18" and 24" deep. What are the advantages of going deeper or shallower?

I am thinking since it is a smaller bathroom, a shallower vanity might make it look more spacious. If it matters, it will be a floating vanity as well with minimal solidity (more "airy" and see-through than normal I guess you could say).

Opinions? GO!

Painting a small dark floored room. It has a niche, and I am wondering if it should be painted a lighter or darker colour for accent? I am thinking lighter.

So walls would be shade A, niche would be a lighter of the same colour, and the ceiling would be very light in the same family.

We bought some cheap crap from Home Depot and while it looks ok when it went on (1 coat), it doesnt seem to be doing anything now and doesnt look any different. So now we will be buying some real enhancer and sealer and going from there. So what is a good brand name? I have read that unless it is over $40 USD, it is probably not worth buying. And for natural stone it should be a penetrating sealer right?

I already put 2 coats on my slate before grouting and it did darken the stone quite a bit which is what I wanted. Now I grouted and need to apply a sealer for that. I still want to darken the stone, but I do not want to darken the grout.

So will stone/tile enhancer/sealer darken the stone and leave the grout alone, or will it darken both? Should I get some regular grout sealer, and seal all the grout a few times, then go back over with the stone enhancer to finish up the tiles?

What is the best course of action?

Thanks.

What are your thoughts on straight men wearing designer labels (shirts/pants/jeans/shoes) such as LV, Prada, Gucci, etc?

Going to be selling a car I owe fully to a private buyer. I will be somewhat financing the deal for them with them paying me monthly payments directly. Because of this, I want to put a lien on the vehicle or whatever is neccessary to be able to repossess so I have recource in the event of nonpayment. How is this done?

I want to do this legally and protect myself.

Does anyone make a capacitive pad compatible with some capacitive sensor IC that can be used as a general purpose button that can be peeled-n-stuck onto the reverse of a surface? If not are there any flexible pads?

I guess it would just be some copper strips embedded in something sticky and flexible. Is it possible to use one of those peel-n-stick RFID antennas as the capactive pad for sensitivity between 1-2mm of material?