Kevin

Hi, I recently had a hard drive failure on my laptop and the only other hard disk I had access to was a puny 20GB (18.6 to be exact) HDD. So, naturally, Windows 7 takes up a good majority of this drive, only leaving about 4GB for storage. I will upgrade to a larger hard disk, but in the meantime, my question to the Yahoo Community is:

Are there any components of the Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit operating system which are not needed and can be deleted to save space? I would like to free up as much space on this hard disk as I can in order to work more comfortably in the meantime before I can afford to upgrade to a larger one.

Thanks,

Kevin

Hi, I have a transfer of some old VHS video that I would like to touch up and author onto a new DVD. I use Sony Vegas editing software. I have all the effects and adjustments made on my timeline and the colors and video quality are such that I am happy with how they turn out. However, at random places in the video, "glitchy blocks" appear. I will give a link to a video file so you can see what I mean.

http://www.mediafire.com/?icg12brncubsl03

Within the first couple seconds of the footage, you can see in the bottom right hand corner what I am talking about.

When I watch the original unedited DVD, these blocks are not present. Why are they appearing on my footage and how can I remove them? When I import the footage to Vegas, the blocks are visible in the preview and obviously as you have seen in the file I uploaded, they are visible in the finished product after rendering.

What is the solution to this?

I have to do a writing assignment for my High School Senior English Honors class. We have been reading Bram Stoker's 1897 Dracula novel in class and this assignment is based off of what we have been reading:

Instructions Part 1: Select a novel that focuses on vampires or vampirism (not ghosts, dragons, mummies, the walking dead, werewolves, zombies, etc). Read this book over the Christmas break.

Instructions Part 2: Select a television series or movie that is derived from Bram Stoker's Dracula novel and has as its major storyline the theme of vampires/vampirism. However, students must exclude from selecting, specifically, any television series/show that is based directly on or solely on the Bram Stoker novel Dracula. Outside of this, any filmed storyline that deals with the subject of vampires and vampirism is open for you to select.

Instructions Part 3: Students will be required to submit summaries of both the independent novel and the selected video material so that the teacher will have a frame of reference when assessing the analytical essay. Combined, the summaries should be no more than 250 words and set in MLA format. (I.E., 125 words for the selected book and 125 words for selected video material.)

Instructions Part 4: Students will type a 250 word, MLA formatted, analytical essay in which they will explain how the independent reading assignment and television show/movie are in opposition to or correspond with Bram Stoker's original intent in the Dracula text. Students should explain how the independent reading and the video either distort or maintain Stoker's original meaning in modern entertainment (anywhere between the 1930s and today). Lastly, students must explain or persuade how in modern fictional stories (books or novels, and films) that deal with vampire and vampirism subjects misrepresent Stoker's text through modifications of the original storyline in such a way that these changes in the original have either redefined or reinforced society's cultural, social, and psychological views on the nature of evil or immorality.

My question is, what material is out there today? It is to my understanding that the themes surrounding vampires have been HEAVILY distorted since Bram Stoker's time -- having been reduced to romance stories.

I would like to select material that is not an overly long book (under or approximately 200 pages if possible), is more in line with the original intent behind Bram Stoker's novel and avoids the "paranormal romance" theme. I would also like to avoid a television series and stick to a single film. I would prefer not to read or watch something made recently. I highly enjoy material created in decades past.

What novels and movies out there would be a good fit for my tastes, as they are described above? I am not very educated in the world of "vampirism" and what literature and film material is offered within it.

I am struggling to comprehend how Conservativism could possibly be described as "the belief that the government should stay out of peoples' lives".

How could this be true if Conservatives (generally) are in favor of keeping traditional marriage? Not only that, but they are also generally pro-life. They believe that the government should step in to the lives of individuals and stop people from being able to make those decisions for themselves.

I don't understand the logic.

Here's the deal: I live in Orange City, Central Florida, USA. My parents currently pay $161 a month to Bright House for Cable Services, Internet Phone and Cable Internet.

They also pay $171 a month to T-Mobile. We have 5 phones on our plan, one of which is an iPhone 3G which uses a 200MB per month Edge data plan. The rest are standard cell phones with no data plan. All the phones have unlimited texting and I believe we have 700 minutes shared between the 5 of us?

Is there a way that we can ditch the Internet Phone and Cable Internet with Bright House (only retaining Cable TV) and open up a phone plan in which we get a fast data plan to have as our home's internet connection (connecting to the internet via Mobile Hotspots), SAVING MONEY in the process?

Basically, my dad wants to ditch the cell phones altogether so none of us have phones. He doesn't want to spend the money anymore.

But here are my concerns:

1. Land lines are becoming obsolete, and I personally see no point to paying for a land line when we have cell phones. Am I missing something?

2. Is there any point to paying for all those channels that Bright House offers when we only watch a small fraction of them?

3. Is it really a wise decision to get rid of one's cell phone plan in this day and age, but KEEP the land line?

4. If we have a lot of devices in our home in which we use Wi-Fi (e.g., game systems, computers, etc) will all of those devices be able to run on Mobile Hotspots at once? My brother plays a lot of video games and people in our home are almost always using a computer. If people are awake, it is rare that one is not being used. What are the levels of speed that are offered? Obviously we would be getting an unlimited data plan in this scenario.

Basically, to wrap this up, is there any way I can convince my dad to go along with this? The whole family is pretty ticked about this whole thing -- he's been cutting costs on a lot of things that we ENJOY and utilize FREQUENTLY, but not on things that would actually be a wise decision to cut costs on (e.g., constant wasteful unnecessary spending on garbage none of us want). He says he would be open to the hotspot plan, but the big question is... Can he save money? If he can't save money, then the rest of us are all screwed as far as having phones goes. The whole theme behind this past year in our home has been "cutting back". Everything's about saving a buck. Quality be damned, unfortunately. I want to provide to him a cheaper alternative to what he has now, because the only thing that would make an idea attractive to him would be saving money. It's not like he disapproves of us HAVING phones, but he simply does not want to spend the money on it anymore. We would really like to continue having cell phone service but since my dad makes the money so he makes the decisions. Our contract is up at the end of this month, and he has confirmed that he will NOT be renewing the contract. He HAS been looking at other plans from other providers (we are dissatisfied with T-Mobile's signal strength and always have been) but he's finding that they are even more expensive. It's funny, because his whole reasoning behind picking T-Mobile for our provider was because they were the CHEAPEST around. (Seems like you get what you pay for, hmm?)

I am hoping that the idea of turning our devices into hotspots for the whole house to utilize would be a feasible idea, but I am not sure if it actually is. He needs to save money. I really need some help. Anyone who would be willing to provide interactive help please email kevinmahoney1995@hotmail.com. Thank you.

PS: Should we be looking in the realm of prepaid phones and not contracts? He's been looking at both and is still dissatisfied with pricing. It's just not low enough.

And about TV antennas -- although my father has thought about switching TV providers as well by just getting an HD antenna which is a completely different topic, but if you have any suggestions on what to do regarding an antenna please post it here because frankly I do not watch TV at all and if he wants to switch to something cheaper on TV so we could still have phones i would be VERY receptive to this because I could not care less about television AT ALL.

I have a question concerning Facebook:

Let's say in this scenario we have a network of four Facebook users.

User A is Frank.

User B is David.

User C is Mary.

User D is John.

Users A and B are both Facebook friends. User A is not friends with User C or D, just User B. User B, in addition to being friends with User A, is also friends with User C, but not with User D. User D is only friends with User C.

If User A, Frank, posts something, and User B, David, likes and/or comments on it, how does it User D, John, see it? Because I have been in a scenario where I am User B, and User C, Mary, has asked me not to associate with User A because User D has complained to User C that they do not like what they have seen User A post; they find User A's posts to be offensive. Due to the fact that the only mutual friend between User A and User C is User B (myself), I take the blame. In fact, this has happened to me on more than one occasion.

I apologize if this hypothetical scenario has become too confusing to follow, but I am sure someone out there can comprehend it. Please help me. I would like to continue my Facebook relationships with both User A and User C without either party being offended.

Hi, I have a Canon Vixia HF M41 camcorder. I like it a lot, but I have noticed that utilizing focus is incredibly difficult and almost always ineffective. What can I do to fix this? Am I doing something wrong? Please help me out.

My email is kevinmahoney1995@hotmail.com, I would appreciate it if I could get some direct help that I could be walked through and ask questions along the way. However if it is just something simple that I am overlooking, please, let me know on here. Thank you.

I'm a teenager trying to start a video production service. The idea is that I have friends who are practicing musicians and they want me to do promo videos for them.

However, the big question is... "How much?"

I'm not good with numbers. There's a lot that would go into this whole project for each video. What's a good method of pricing to go by? I have to script, get around to places to film, record the actual footage, and then edit it.

What would be a consistent method that I could use for pricing in any type of video, whether it be a single short music video or a full length concert. Should I charge by the duration of the finished product? Like, each minute of the film is X amount of dollars?

And once the method of pricing is decided, how much should I charge? I want it to be a profitable business for me but I don't want it to be so outrageous that people will think it is too expensive.

If you have any additional comments to leave for me, email me at kevinmahoney1995@hotmail.com.

Hi, I have an HP G71-343US laptop. It was purchased in 2009 on Black Friday and was not used until Christmas Day. After a little under a year, the battery stopped holding charges (it would only last for a couple minutes on battery power and then the system would completely shut off).

HP gave me a new battery free of cost as my computer was still under warranty. That battery worked fine until around September of 2011 when it started lasting only a couple of minutes again.

Since the system was no longer under warranty, I was unable to get a replacement battery and since I could not afford to buy a new battery outright, I just dealt with the issue and stayed running on AC Power all the time.

I did that up until a couple days ago when my battery went from only working for a couple minutes to not working at all. If I am using my computer, and I unplug my AC cord from the computer (or it comes unplugged by accident, which happens FREQUENTLY) the entire system shuts off.

Is there any way I can "revive" the battery? I have heard that some computer batteries can be "revived" and can work again, but I don't know if mine falls under that category. Is it possible to revive it? And if it is, how do I go about doing it?

I am trying to find my grandmother on the 1940 Census. Her name was Marilyn King; she was born in Massachusetts. She was the daughter of John Albert and Sarah Mary (DiLorenzo) King. They were born in Massachusetts. John was the son of David William and Celina Henriette (LeBlanc) King. There are a number of addresses I have heard about my family living at in 1940 -- they are the following:

53 High Street, Woburn, Mass

9 Conn Street, Woburn, Mass

6 Conn Street, Woburn, Mass

115 Main Street, Woburn, Mass

John Street, Woburn, Mass (I forget the number)

Anyway, I can't find them anywhere. What does it mean if I simply cannot find the family on the census? Was it optional?

I have a Canon Vixia HFM41 High Definition Camcorder. I got a 16GB MicroSD card and SD card reader with it. While the card worked with the camera initially, I can no longer use it as attempting to copy a selection of video(s) to the card with the camera results in this screen. If I try the card in any other device, it works perfectly.

http://oi50.tinypic.com/6e3oeh.jpg

Other SD cards work with the camera.

What can I do? I formatted the card and that didn't work.

Hi, I'm trying to fix a problem with my girlfriend's computer and I need some help.

Her dad has this AVG Internet Security 2012 program on there, and she apparently isn't allowed to uninstall it. Well, the problem with the program is that every few seconds, she has these alerts from the program show up on her screen. It is incredibly irritating.

I took a couple screnshots so you can see the different types of alerts that she gets.

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/4113/screenshot...

http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/2898/screenshot...

How can I disable these alerts (or solve the problems that they present?)

I did a scan using the same software of the whole hard drive and it said there were no threats.

Please help? Thanks. :)