Maxtor

Virgin Mobile once offered a "rescue ring" service, for which you could schedule them to call you during a date. So, if the date is going poorly, you can leave politely.

Are there any services that will do this for any cell phone with less notice? Ideally, I would like to have the service stored in my contacts, so I can discretely send it a call or text, and then have it call me back within a few minutes. I don't have a pressing need to end dates so rapidly, but I am occasionally in situations where I could use a polite but indisputable reason to excuse myself and step outside for a minute. Something like a smoke break, but for non-smokers.

I have a lovely Dell XPS 420 with a 600 gigabyte hard drive. The "Recovery" D: drive, however, is only 15 GB. Of this, 4.5 GB are used by Dell's file that restores the computer to factory settings.

When Windows Backup starts, it tries to store the backup file on the D: drive, but it always runs out of memory space

I have 200 GB free (out of 580 GB) on the C: drive. Is it possible to move the backup to this drive, or would that be useless because it would be damaged by anything that would make me need the backup? Or, is there a way to expand the partition without reformatting the hard drive?

has the US ever done an economic analysis to determine or modify the military budget? For example, if the US were to build a new submarine, it would probably know the cost reasonably well. However, does the US government know how that money spent will effect the US economy in terms of job creation, etc?

Also, how does the nation do a cost/benefit analysis of military spending, so that it can balance the need for defense with the need for fiscal restraint?

I was recently in a group at a restaurant that had a "half off" special for the day, which was a fairly good deal. However, when we received the bill, there were two versions. One was for the undiscounted price, the other was for the discounted price. Because we were in a group, gratuity was added automatically. However, the gratuity was 18% of the undiscounted price. So, the gratuity was actually 30% of the amount we paid for food.

There apparently was a tiny note of this on the menu that no one ever notices, but we argued this with management and they refused to change it.

Is this legal, and is it a common practice?

I have been asked to help redesign a website that was made with ASP, and specifically to use ASP.NET for the new website. The website is for a small company that provides asset management services (does finance, accounting, and investing, basically). Because of security concerns, there is only so much that we want the website to do. We prefer that it only advertise the company and get potential customers to call.

How can the new features of an ASP.NET website be better for the company than the current ASP website is?

My house has an exterior wall from which a small area of paint was partially rubbed off. The area is actually on the corner board of the vinyl siding.

In case I am unclear, I am talking about the same type of piece discussed in this DIY article: http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/asktoh/question/0,...

Is there a way to repaint only the area of the rub mark, rather than the entire piece?

One of my friends is having a downspout replaced due to recent damage, but they are out of town for a few weeks. They asked me to find a professional to do the work so that it can be done before they get home. I will be paying for the repair (as it was my falling tree that clipped the downspout and did the damage). The gutter is a simple 10 foot segment of 2x3 inch corrugated white metal; nothing fancy.

Does the homeowner need to be present for the repair? I can get their signed approval, but the only relative who will be in the home does not speak English.