Robert K

For some time I was able to get a wireless signal here in my home. Suddenly I'm not able.

But my wife and daughter get the signal on their little tablets.

I can still get online by plugging in the ethernet cable.

There used to be an icon on my taskbar which looked like the bars on a cellphone's 'signal strength' meter. If I right-clicked on that, a window would open showing me the various wireless signals that the computer was receiving. My own service plus that of my neighbors.

Now that icon has been replaced by an icon that looks like a computer monitor plus an ethernet cable.

I have held down the 'Fn' plus the 'F2" buttons on my keyboard any number of times with no result.

I've also poked around in Windows looking for my network adapter in the hope of re-setting it. But I haven't found it and didn't really know what I was doing anyway.

My computer is an Aspire One notebook and my OS is Windows 7, starter edition.

Does anyone have any ideas for me?

Thanks.

How do I get rid of programs that run on startup? Programs that decided to do this on their own, as opposed to those that really are necessary.

My computer runs Windows 7 home edition.

Thanks.

I miss guys like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke pretty badly.

Though I miss their fiction, that's not a big problem. I can find enough fiction to read.

What I miss badly, though, is their non-fiction writings geared toward explaining to the layman the current state of science and technology.

I know there must be people doing the same sort of writing today. But I don't know who they are or where to look for them. (though the notion of looking up "Popular Science" magazine is beginning to dawn of me writing this)

Can anyone recommend specific authors? Thanks.

Merely idle curiosity. What brought it to mind was a bit of musing on the differences between their first album, My Generation, and their second, A Quick One. (which I think might have originally been titled "Happy Jack". Not that that really matters.)

To start with, their first album was recorded (or over-recorded) rather poorly. It's noisy. I think I read once that that album was recorded in a hurry. Not a big surprise, they had yet to prove themselves an act that could sell a lot of discs. The engineers were probably underpaid rookies. If I remember right the producer was a guy named Shel Talmy. I don't know anything else about him except that I don't think he lasted long. That album also contained songs that sounded much more like American R&B than British Invasion. You can imagine Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels doing some of those songs.

Their second album has much cleaner sound. It also sounds a lot more "Mod". Glyn Johns was their producer all through their heyday. Is this when he joined up?

While we're on the subject of producers, what exactly is their role? I've heard that part of their role is to come up with canned sounds that the artist might need. But there must be more to it than that.

I suspect that he's also the head sound engineer. Maybe the only engineer is some cases. I've seen hints before that the producer also has authority over the artist, at least in those cases of artists who have not proven themselves money-makers yet. (Though there must be some give and take there. It's hard to picture George Martin actually being boss over The Beatles. But maybe he could have vetoed a song that he really objected to?)

Perhaps the producer is more the agent of the record label than of the artist? Is he, maybe, the one with the responsibility to provide the lable with a marketable product? Something that is recorded properly and that won't get them in trouble over copyright issues or with legislators, Mothers Against Obscene Songs and stuff like that? Would that be the producers function?

How about this?

Instead of suspending the tax on fuel, let's leave it alone or even raise it a bit. Both the federal tax and the state taxes should be used for things like road repair, as it's been so far.

but let's use a portion of it to give grants to local public transportation systems for more buses, trams, expanding service and, importantly, to keep fares down. (Actually, this is already done. What I'm suggesting is a fairly large expansion)

Seems to me that this would result in greater choice; we could drive our cars, certainly. It's expensive, yes, but that's just the way it is. But we also will have the less expensive alternative available.

If this puts an undue hardship on those who, say, live in rural areas, then perhaps we could work out a partial (emphasize partial) rebate of their fuel taxes. Would this mean a bureaucracy? I suppose so. But if it's an honest bureaucracy, then it'll accomplish something good.

When you think about it, it's not only gov't that is likely to oppress individuals. Really, it's one of the curses of humanity from the start of history and, no doubt, before.

Individuals and groups have a long history of oppressing individuals and groups.

A current example would be that one is likely to be forced to submit a urine sample in order to get a job sweeping a warehouse floor. I say it's an outrage. I can imagine others saying that this is a necessary method of keeping down costs, but I don't buy it. Seems clear that the damage to liberty far outweighs possible costs.

My question is, "is there any party who confronts this squarely and has a plank in their platform addressing this issue?" I've checked out the Libertarian Party site, but they don't address this issue, as far as I can tell. The closest they come to it is the mention that they do not wish for prohibitions on behavior that is honest and not destructive, or similar wording. But I want

Well, if you've come this far, then you are probably familiar with this old chestnut from the Moody Blues.

My question is how this song should be interpreted. Seems as though there are two possibilities; John Lodge might have been saying something along the lines of; "we can change this world for the better. So don't dismiss us."

Or else he might have meant something like "Look, we're just musicians. We don't have THE answer to everything."

Maybe there are other interpretations? Any thoughts? Thanks

The Hubble telescope has been in service for about 15 years now. It comes to mind that it must be aimed at different points in the sky. How is this done? does it have small jets that aim it? Does this mean that it has a fuel supply that will run out and needs to be replenished?

I keep my customer records in a ms access database that was set up in 1997 (windows 95). I later updated to windows 98 and the application worked fine. I've now copied and moved the application to a windows xp computer and I'm having trouble. The trouble seems to be that access looks for my database in "C:\windows\desktop", but in this xp computer the desktop is located in "C:\documents and settings\administrator\desktop". It's simply an incorrect path.

but I can't find how to re-specify the path.

any suggestions? thanks.

retype: the desktop is located in "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop"

twice now I've typed desktop, but when I post it comes out des...

I don't know why that should be, but you get what I'm trying to type, I hope.

I'm gonna go with Jim Lovell and John Young.

Have I missed anyone?

If I were planning to send an object to lunar orbit I would fire the engine at a point and for a length of time that would make it move in a path where the furthest point from Earth would be just on the far side of the Moon.

If you imagined yourself looking down on the Earth-Moon system, this path would look like a long oval. I believe this is called a "Hohman" orbit.

Instead NASA used an orbit that would look like a figure eight from above. Any one know the reason for this difference?

I'll give my guess; The question of how much fuel was available for the payload was so close that having the apogee of the orbit about 2000 miles closer to Earth made enough of a difference to make it worthwhile.

But 2000 miles is only a difference of 1% (a little less, even) of the total difference. Is this enough to explain it. Or was there some other reason?

And if I had my way, I'd never get on an airplane again. But I guess that's another matter.....

Any way, soon I need to take a domestic flight. Atlanta to Bloomington IL

Will my valid driver's license be enough ID to satisfy the airline and airport security?

Was it directly after the Warren Burger court or did someone serve in-between?

I feel like I ought to remember stuff like this, but I was a bit young. It has been a whle, I guess. Thanks.

I wish we could come to terms with this decision.

Should access to health care be a right, which society in general must supply to all?

Or should it be an option, to be paid for individually by those who choose to have it?

When considering the poor, did he say things like "If they'd just get up off their lazy butts....."?

When considering someone who had worked hard, underpaid for years, whose very livlihood could be denied him by some foolish whim of his employer, who has no gaurantee that he won't end up on the street, unable to get medical help, unnecessarily dead at, say, 57 years old would Jesus have said "If they can't make it in the greatest nation on Earth, it's their own darn fault"?

Why can't the neo-cons see that they are simply lying when they claim to follow him?

And isn't there something missing here? Such as liberal outrage? Why are these people still in office?

How about this? Someone reports one of your answers as a violation and then they go through your archived questions and answers looking for other things they can report.

I just got three. One recent, the others pretty old. All of them very questionable violations. From the same person.

This is behavior targetting an individual, not the answers.

Shouldn't this be a violation in itself?

When you consider that the attorney-general is probably the most important and powerfull cabinet officer (domestic matters, anyway), doesn't it seem strange that there is almost a custome of Presidents appointing AGs who are personally close to them? I understand that William Rogers was a close, personal friend of Richard Nixon's. John Mitchell was his campaign manager. And, of course, John Kennedy appointed his own brother. Alberto Gonzales goes back a long way with George Bush.

I've never heard it said that the President must be above politics, though it would be nice. But surely we expect the head of the Justice Dept. to be above this.

Would it be a good idea if the Senate turned down nominees on the grounds that they are too close? I see no reason why they couldn't.

There've been questions lately about the Moon and Mars appearing as twins in the sky lately. I took them to mean a conjunction of the two. Even answered one on that basis.

But it occurs to me that an eclipse of the Moon is coming. When totality occurs, the Moon is often reddish colored. Are these folks claiming that this red Moon is actually Mars, somehow very near?

Is that what this is all about?

Can anyone tell me which Rolling Stones albums had Mick Taylor as rhythm guitarist? I'm coming up with "Sticky Fingers", "Exile On Main St" and "Goat's Head Soup".

Have I missed any? It's time to collect the stuff he is on. It's always seemed to me that they sounded their best when he was with them.

The UN has approved a peacekeeping force for Darfur. It looks like the crucial issue has been "respecting Sudanese sovereignty". This surely means that the blue helmets will once again have no power or authority to stop govenment sanctioned murders. I'm not quite old enough to remember peacekeepers in the Sinai from 1956-1967, but I can remember ones who came later. In some cases, perhaps, things did remain peaceful. But in others, Bosnia comes to mind, they looked the other way while massacres occured right under their noses. Their reason for inaction boiled down to "interfering with this is not in our orders." If that is the case, then what is the point of sending troops in at all? It seems that peacekeepers are paper tigers in a very real sense. Perhaps people didn't realize that in the first few decades, but do they really think they are fooling anyone anymore? What can they expect to accomplish with this?