Lok M

My mother has had unsealed hardwood floors in her house for far too long. She once used some kind of industrial floor cleaner on the unsealed wood. Now whenever it rains the floor becomes slimy and damp wherever the cleaner was used. When the rain passes, the floor is once again dry. It's a real mess. Can anyone suggest a method of fixing this (or even suggest any forums/websites where I am likely to find someone with an answer)?

If I wait 48 hours after going to the gym and my muscles are still sore, can I work those muscles again or should I wait until they're not so sore? Should I even avoid cardio that affects the legs if they're still sore? I'm just talking regular muscle soreness after weights, but no injury.

I would like to find a food that is easy to prepare for my lunches at work. I'd like to be able to prepare 5 lunches at once, so it has to last the whole week in the fridge. It should be able to be eaten cold, so I can leave the office to eat it. I'd like to avoid process meats such as ham and sliced meats. And ideally it should be a good balanced meal of vegetables, protein, and carbs. Any suggestions? Anyone providing a recipe gets bonus credit :-)

After my wisdom tooth was extracted about 6 weeks ago, it was fine for a couple of days (though quite swollen), and then on the 2nd night it really started to swell and became very sore. I just lay in bed and slept the next day, taking OTC painkillers, etc. I called the dentist and he said it was quite normal. For at least a week after I could only just open my jaw wide enough to fit my thumb between my front teeth.

Since then I noticed a lump growing on the inside of the lower wisdom tooth socket. I went back to the dentist today, and he said that the bone around the socket had broken during the extraction (first I'd heard of it). He said it was quite normal, and was healing nicely, but it appears the broken piece of bone is slowly making it's way out through my gum, and is just starting to protrude. He assured me this is normal, and that the bone may continue to break through the skin, and that I should just cleanse it with salty water. However, he sounded a bit worried (like he'd made a mistake).

Is this normal? I need to have my wisdom teeth out on the other side soon as well, but I'm beginning to wonder if i should be seeing a different dentist... I was a little concerned when he never told me not to drink through a straw, and also said if bleeding continued after the first hour to use a clean handkerchief to continue applying pressure to the wound (as opposed to supplying me with a second surgical pad).

Bit worried. Do I go to a different dentist?

I'm thinking about traveling to the US, and I was looking for suggestions on which city to visit. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and love the variety, cosmopolitan lifestyle and arts and music scene, so was wondering which city would be best to visit?

I recently hung half a roll of unbleached toilet paper in my lovebirds cage. They've loved it, and have torn it to pieces. However, a friend just pointed out that it may be a choking hazard. Does anyone know whether this is true?

I want to use it for shortcuts in audio production. It has to work at the same time as the QWERTY keyboard. A normal keyboard isn't ideal because of the key lay-out.

Recently I've read and enjoyed Dune (Frank Herbert), Marching Powder (Rusty Young), Chopper: From the Inside (Mark Brandon Read), 1984 (George Orwell), Down Under (Bill Bryson), and One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest (Ken Kesey).

So, what's next? I'm almost finished my current book.

I was wondering if anyone has ever come across a storage device that will allow me to install a number of hard disks, each a different size, some using PATA, some SATA, and it will make them all available either individually or as a single drive over USB or NAS.

The reason I ask is that I'm fed up with my PC consuming so much power, so I'm looking to buy a Mac Mini as my file/torrent/media server to replace my oldish tower. However, I currently have a range of different sized disks in the tower, and I need to find a solution for keeping most of them attached. I've thought of using external USB drive enclosures, but from experience they are powered up all the time, so the drives never spin down to save power.

Any ideas?

I need a pair of earbud earphones for my iPod. I had a pair of Sony EX51's that lasted me about 3 years (albeit with the cable rubber starting to break up after about 4 months).

I would like something that will sound good and will last as long as possible. I would like to spend around US$50, but am willing to pay up to US$100 for something that will last longer and sound great.

I listen to a range of music from metal to psytrance, jazz to hip-hop, so they need to be fairly natural sounding, not too harsh, with solid but not over-exagerated bass.

Has anyone managed to get the Sixaxis working in Yellow Dog Linux over bluetooth? If so, can you please provide step-by-step instructions or a link?

If not, do you know when support will be added to a release?

I'm looking to purchase some earbud headphones to use with my iPod. I don't really want to spend more than US$50 unless it's really worth my while. The Sony MDR-EX71* earphones are one set that I'm considering (I was quite happy with the EX51's that have recently died).

I want something fairly natural sounding, that has good bass response.

Any suggestions?