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My work are offering me a choice of laptops; I've narrowed it down to the two lightest, but now there is a tie. Both seem to have good reviews; please can you help me choose which I should ask for?

The choices are Lenovo ThinkPad X201 or HP Probook 5310.

Many thanks.

As my children get older, I'm starting to do craft projects with them. One project I'm considering involves joining strips of fabric elastic ribbon together. I don't want to sew, so I'm considering either

1) ironing on fusible web tape; or

2) fabric glue.

Which is easiest? I need a strong join, so are they both strong, and which is strongest?

Thanks!

We live in an old house with an unfinished basement that gets wet when it rains. We've managed to dry out the walls above, so the damp isn't currently a big problem. But the rooms above the basement are noticeably colder than the rest of the house - especially noticeable at floor level with bare feet!

An architect suggested we should insulate the basement ceiling. We've also been told to put up a moisture barrier e.g. plastic sheet. We have a local builder ready to do the work; we've used him before, and he is reliable and the work is good; but he's not an insulation expert. There is lots of contradictory advice online; please can you help:

1) do we need insulation such as fibreglass wool, or will the barrier be enough to stop the cold draft?

2) if we use both, should the barrier go above or below the insulation? I'm worried about it getting wet / mouldy / rotten

3) any risk of mice etc moving into the insulation?

4) is there a risk of making the basement too cold / damp, and starting off other problems?

5) and overall, will doing this in fact make the rooms warmer?

Thanks for your help!

My wife (spoiled by Himalayas and NZ) says there can't be any decent white water rafting in the UK. I think it won't be as dramatic - but there must be good places. Who's right? And if I'm right, what are the good places?

Researching for a visiting friend (she's 19, German, very good English), who wants to go on a mini break (approx 3 to 5 days) to do water sports in the UK. Ideally this would be part of an organised group, so she get to know people. And would ideally like to do white water rafting.

Any suggestions for good places to go in the UK? Either general places or, even better, specific organisers or locations etc.

We're overhauling our bathroom, and I don't know how many lights to buy.

The room is approx 3m by 3m, and about 2m tall; the walls will be white (with slate tiles where needed); the floor slate effect Amtico tiles.

We'd like to use low voltage halogen recessed ceiling downlights. These seem to mostly come as 50W. I've now idea how many of these we need to light the room properly - please can you help? Thanks!

I'm using Kaspersky Internet Security 7, the 3 licence pack, currently installed on two XP PCs. On both of them, Kaspersky is reporting that it is up to date and working fine. But on both PCs, Windows Security Centre reports that Kaspersky is out of date or turned off.

Any ideas what's going on? And assuming I should believe Kaspersky that it is OK, how can I get Windows to calm down?

I was taken to hospital yesterday with severe chest pain, shortness of breath etc.. They ruled out any problem with my heart, but were very interested in my C-Reactive Protein count of 44. Apparently "normal" is up to 5, and the doctor said they got "excited" above 100.

Can you tell me more about what it means to be at 44? My pain has now mostly subsided, but I am utterly exhausted.

My 4 week old son has a tongue tie, and my wife and I have decided to have it cut. But we don't know the best surgeon(s) to go to, and can't find any information. I think we need a Consultant Neonatal Paediatrician. Can you help me find either the best surgeon(s) for this, or source of info so that we can choose?

We live nearly Aylesbury, but are happy to travel if we need to.

Can I just use it anonymously, or do I have to register it? If I don't register it, will it still be accepted everywhere e.g. online?

Or do web sites etc. not like them, or insist on having a registered billing address?

I'm putting in a new switch for my home network. Right now, 8 ports is plenty; in future, I'll need 16 or maybe even 24. In the range I'm buying, the 8 port switch is about £40, but the 16 port is £105, and the 24 port about £180. Rather than buying big now to protect for the future, it's cheaper to buy small, and add more 8 port switches in future.

To make this work, I'll need to cascade the switches. All the kit is gigabit ethernet, which is way faster than I expect to need for domestic use, so I don't expect any bottlenecks. Is this OK, or is there a catch? Have I missed something? I'm struggling to see why the bigger switches cost more per port.

I'm getting a new disk, and i'm tempted by the WD Green Power disks. Are they suitable for being the main disk for Windows, or will they slow it down?

Also, how do they compare to the Samsung Eco Green disks?

I've re-built my system after many years. It's now all built, except for the CPU heatsink. I've got a Vendetta 2 (v silly name) by OCZ, which is big, but just fits into my case. The trouble is I can barely reach the push pins - and even when I do, I can't get more than two to clip at a time - there seems to be too much tension in the heatsink, so it pops up.

This is the last thing I need to do before re-installing the OS, so it's infuriating... any pointers?

Many thanks.

I know manufacturers argue about this, but I don't know the pros and cons of one powerful rail or several lower power rails for my new PSU. Can you advise me?

In particular, I'm worried about

1) If I go for one powerful rail (e.g. up to 50A) is it potentially dangerous?

2) If I go for several rails, is there a danger that an individual rail will be under-powered?

I'm building a new system, based on an Intel 8500 dual core in an Asus P5Q Deluxe motherboard using DDR2 RAM. I'm having trouble choosing RAM; it seems that 800MHz (PC2-6400) is the price sweet-spot; I've been told not to worry too much about latencies; I'll probably splash out on 4Gb rather than just 2Gb. So

1) what brands do you recommend? I've read good things about OCZ and Corsair

2) do heat spreaders, heatsinks etc matter?

3) do I need error correction or buffering?

Thanks for any help

I'm re-building my computer, and I've decided I want a graphics card based on AMD / ATi Radeon HD 4850 chip. But I don't know which manufacturer / model, whether I need 1Gb RAM of 512Mb is enough.

I want a card that is reliable / stable, fast, can cooling is quiet but effective. I want good value, but it doesn't have to be the lowest price if everything else is right.

What brands / models do you recommend?

Thanks!

I know that, as fund managers, banks trade on behalf of clients whose funds they are managing. And that, as market makers, they buy and sell to create the market.

But how much do the big banks take positions in the equity markets themselves? i.e. with their own shareholders funds.

I'm choosing a motherboard, and one of the key differences (and price impact) seems to be whether they support PCI-E 2.0. How important is it so support v2? Will it add to the life of the motherboard i.e. if I settle for v1, is that the first thing that's likely to make me want to upgrade?

In practice, this will help me choose between chipsets: Intel X38 or P35.

I want a powerful processor that won't soak up too much power - so I want to stick within 65W TDP. Most quad-cores use more than this, so I'm left with top-end dual-core chips, or AMD's e series. I've ruled out Intel's E8600 as not justifying it's huge price premium over the E8500 for the modest speed improvement.

Also, I'd ideally like to use a hybrid crossfire so I can just use embedded graphics when I don't need the processing power of a discrete GPU, and so save more electricity.

I can't find any significant reviews of the AMD e series; and ideally would like to benchmark their computing power vs. the Intel E8500.

Any advice?