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I received an unsolicited cold call from someone with a strong Asian accent offering to help remove malicious and "junk" files from my computer. I know there are plenty of scams out there, and I have hung up on this sort of call before. This time I tried to string him along a little. He was able to give me an identifying code that I then found deep inside the software of my computer, so he clearly had access to some information about me. He then asked me to go to the website of his company, Caldera Technologies. I refused to do this, since I expected that he would then ask me to allow him to connect to my computer by remote-access technology. When I checked it out later (calderatech.com) it looked like a legitimate company, based in Asia, that provides software support services. I keep my computer pretty up-to-date, with regular antimalware scans and defrags. But this person seemed pretty sure that I was asking for trouble if I didn't accept his help. I am now wondering whether this was indeed a scam, an attempt at identity theft, or maybe just a legitimate software support company using a pretty clumsy "scare" salesmanship for its services. I'm also kind of worried that this third party has access to my technical specs, though he works for neither Microsoft nor Sony (my computer's manufacturer). Any advice?

My 2001 Honda Accord has about 140,000 miles on it, and except for some dents and scrapes (and a needed front-end alignment), it is in pretty good overall condition. My daughter was driving it in California for a few years and has now returned it to me. I notice that the automatic transmission lurches at what I estimate to be the transition between 2nd and 3rd gear ... or maybe it never kicks into second gear at all. When I am starting out from a full stop, the car begins moving forward smoothly, but as it accelerates, there is very little response to the accelerator after a while. Then, suddenly, there is a "clunk" and it jerks forward a little, then proceeds at a higher speed. The transmission fluid level seems to be fine. I am hoping that I don't have to replace it with a whole new transmission to deal with this problem. Is there a less expensive way to do it, and if so, how much should I expect to pay? I live in a medium-size city in the U.S. south.

Thanks ...

I played a couple of games of Literati early this morning (around 7 a.m. Central Time), but have not been able to get back into the games at all since then. I keep getting "Error Logging Into Server" message. Is this related to the big East Coast storm and server outages? Does anybody have any idea what is going on?

I have had a good time in the past exploring ancient Rome in 3D with the help of the Rome 3D module in Google Earth. The last time I did it was a couple of years ago, though. I have now reinstalled the latest version and it seems to work even better (more smoothly) than before. Except that I don't know how to remove the yellow "tags" or place markers that hover in the air over all the important features (Colosseum, Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, etc.). These can be useful when you want added information, but when you are just exploring visually they can get in the way. I have unchecked all the options I can think of. Does anyone know what else I need to do in order to hide these little yellow cartoony pictures? Thanks.

I was in the middle of a game of Scrabble Free on my Android tablet when the game froze and went into "Update" mode. It kept saying "Updating" but never got past that stage. Eventually I force-stopped the app, started it up again, and the same thing happened. I also tried turning off the tablet completely, and finally I uninstalled the app and reinstalled it. After reinstalling I can't even log into my Scrabble account; after I type in my e-mail it just says "Loading, one moment please" and stays there perpetually.

I play Scrabble on my ASUS EeePad tablet, and my wife plays on her iPad 2. We have played numerous games before, and never had any problems until now. I'd be happy for any suggestions!

Thanks

I installed the Splashtop Streamer on my home computer (a Sony VAIO laptop) and connected to it successfully from my new Android tablet (an Asus Transformer). The experience wasn't perfect, and it cut in and out occasionally, but it was usable. But so far I've found that I can only do this when both my laptop and my tablet are on the same local network (i.e. my wireless router at home). I set the laptop power settings to turn off the screen after 10 minutes, but to keep running. I was hoping that it would stay open to a Splashtop connection so I could access my files while I was away at work. But each time I have tried it Splashtop seems unable to connect again from that distance. Is this just the way it is, or am I doing something wrong? Thanks.

Does anybody know? I checked the amctv website and saw something about next week's episode, but nothing beyond that...

I've been participating in Y! Answers for a while now, but only lately has it become regular enough that I've cared about helping regulate the site. Pretty plainly there are some types of posts that should always be reported as abuse (ads for Indian call-girl services probably top the list) but there are some others that seem suspicious. Nearly every day it seems "someone" is asking a question (or pretending to ask a question) about how to get car insurance. The questions tend to stick out because they contain what must be deliberate typing errors, such as a lack of spacing. A recent example:

"What are autoinsurancerates based on and why do some companies cost more than others?"

This can't be real, can it? I am just uncertain as to whether I should report it as advertising spam, or what. Does anyone know what's behind this? If it's ad-spam, how does it work to direct people to the company responsible? And, while I'm at it, are there any other examples of shady behavior like this that I should watch out for?

I am asking this question on behalf of someone who has an idea for a way to combine existing mobile computing technology with certain software to reach a broad (and growing) market. We think that executives at a company like Apple, Google, HP or Dell might jump on this idea, once it's explained to them; but we have had a hard time finding who would be the right person to hear a "pitch." Company websites sometimes have "Contact Us" links, but they usually don't seem to list the names of people in charge of things like this. Does anybody have an idea where we should direct our efforts?

In an earlier version of this question I included an outline of the idea I'm talking about, but I was advised to delete that question by someone who said it was a good enough idea that someone might try to steal it. I hope I've given you enough to go on! Thanks....

For a personal research project, I'd like to find the lyrics of Marlene Dietrich's song "Es gibt im Leben manchmal Momente," from around 1929. So far, web searches have turned up nothing (I've found the lyrics of some other, better-known songs, but not this one). I will go to my local university library and ask the reference desk there for help if necessary, but I thought I'd ask here first, just in case anyone knows. An added bonus would be guidance on the best way to get an English translation! Thanks.

For a personal research project, I'd like to find the lyrics of Marlene Dietrich's song "Es gibt im Leben manchmal Momente," from around 1929. So far, web searches have turned up nothing (I've found the lyrics of some other, better-known songs, but not this one). I will go to my local university library and ask the reference desk there for help if necessary, but I thought I'd ask here first, just in case anyone knows. An added bonus would be guidance on the best way to get an English translation! Thanks.

My wife and I are planning to drive our car from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Seattle, Washington later this month (we have decided to give our car to our daughter who has had a baby and needs a larger vehicle). Our planned route goes: Baton Rouge-Dallas-Wichita-Denver-Cheyenne-Salt Lake-Boise-Seattle. The wildfires in the southwest have us a little worried. Actually it's not the fires but the spreading smoke, which seems to be coming close to some of the regions we plan to drive through. I've tried looking at state highway information websites to see if they post this kind of information, but they seem to be oriented mainly to inform the public of construction-related road closures. Does anyone know of a good source of information on this sort of thing so that we don't end up halfway across Kansas and then find that our route is blocked?

I'd call the AAA, but we let our membership lapse some years ago. Any other suggestions would be welcome!

Thanks...

We heard about bokashi, a Japanese system of processing food scraps into compost. Supposedly you mix this bokashi material (which contains a number of substances including special microorganisms) with your scraps in a sealed container, which promotes fermentation. Then when the container is full and some fermentation has happened, you bury the material for a period of time. Supposedly the bokashi accelerates the composting process, so you get good usable compost quickly.

The problem: We were too cheap to buy the whole system, figuring we'd just use our own bucket with a lid. We just ordered the bokashi material itself. When it came it didn't have detailed directions, and in the meantime our food scraps have been building up. We have about 3-4 gallons of them in our bucket now, and we don't know how much bokashi to add to these, or how long to let them ferment until we bury the mixture. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

I have a cool new Android phone (HTC Inspire). It's great, and I love reading/watching/playing all kinds of things. The YouTube app is handy, but it seems as if I can't access a Playlist I made earlier when I was browsing on my computer. As an experiment, I Subscribed to someone's YouTube account. My phone is able to see this subscription, so I know it is logging into the right YouTube account. But when I scroll over to the Playlists tab, it tells me No Playlist Found. I know the playlist is there because I can see it when I log onto my account from my computer. Any ideas what's going wrong?

I have a brand-new Android phone from AT&T (it's an HTC Inspire), and I love it except for the fact that I haven't found a cheap/convenient way to access content on my Netflix streaming account from it. They just recently announced that future Androids built on the "Snapdragon" platform will have this capability built-in, but I guess that doesn't apply to my phone. I have also heard about "PlayOn" and "Plex," both of which have Android apps now available. But both of them require you to be running their software on your PC, which you then can link to your phone (if it is on the same WiFi network, I guess). I am actually tempted to try out one of these, but I'm unsure which one will be most effective and least expensive for me. If you have any advice on this, or if you know a better way to do what I am trying to do, I'd love to hear from you!

Someone gave me a bread recipe book (I'm a novice baker) and, while the recipes look delicious and easy, they all call for a type of yeast I don't have easily on hand: "compressed fresh yeast." I do have Active Dry Yeast (I use it for making pizza dough), and the author says it is possible to substitute ... but he's not very clear on exactly how to do it. He says, "all recipes use compressed fresh yeast, so if you are using instant or dry yeast, reduce the quantities a little." Most of his recipes call for either "1 package" or "1 oz./30g" of yeast... others call for "2 cakes" or sometimes "1/2oz. = 15g package." My Fleischmann's yeast comes in quarter-ounce packets and I also have a 4-oz. jar of it. How should I work the equivalencies? And, do I need to mix the active dry yeast with water and sugar before adding it to the bread dough? Thanks.

My wife got a Kindle ($139, 3G/Wi-fi) for Christmas and now she is after me to find lots of content for her, preferably free content. We have often downloaded audio books from our local library through the "Overdrive" console, and were hoping that their e-books would also be in a format that could be read by Kindle, or in a convertible format. It turns out, however, that the proprietary Adobe digital format (EPUB) has taken over this medium, and it's getting harder and harder to find anything in a different format. Some of the books are in "mobipocket" format, and some are .pdf files; but both of these have problems for the Kindle. I have been searching for about a week, and haven't found any way to convert EPUB to Kindle format. Failing that, I am hoping that Amazon will cave in and provide an update to Kindle to allow its users to do this. Does anyone out there know what the status of this issue is? Thanks.

We have a new "Capresso" brand espresso/cappuccino maker that we got for Christmas. It has worked very well, and is still working well except that the pressurized chamber seems not to be sealing perfectly any more. After the water heats up to full pressure, and especially during the process of steaming the milk, bubbles are forming around the top seal (where I screwed the top back on after adding water). I suspect this is because the rubber gasket that fits up inside the boiler cap has gotten out of alignment (it's actually not rubber but a translucent rubbery plastic material). At some point in the last few days the gasket came out, and I wasn't sure how to reinstall it. There are two knobs or bumps on the gasket, that look as if they are meant to line up with 2 holes in the metal part of the boiler cap itself. Right now I have the gasket installed in the cap so that those knobs are "upside down" -- i.e. they face downwards when the cap is installed on the machine. Should I take the gasket back out and reposition it so they engage with the holes? Will this fix my steam-leakage problem? Right now I am still able to make good lattes and cappuccinos, but I am afraid if I don't address this seal problem I may begin to lose a lot of pressure.

Back in the days of vinyl, I used to have an album with a title very similar to "Duke Ellington's Greatest Hits." On that album was only one version of each of the many different tunes Ellington performed in his great career. For "Take the A Train" the compiler chose a version that featured a vocal by a female singer with a great voice who broke into (what the liner notes described as) a "sexy scat" halfway through. I have long since lost the album, and lost track of that particular version of the song until I heard it on the radio today. I called, but the radio station was unable to tell me who the exact personnel on that track were. Can anyone out there help? Thanks.

I have a year-old Dell laptop running Windows Vista, and I have access through my employer to a legal copy of Windows 7 which I would like to try out on it. The computer came with a "Recovery" version of the Vista OS preloaded in a different partition (it shows up as "Recovery (D:)" in My Computer). I just want to make sure that, when I insert the Windows 7 DVD and it starts the formatting process, any changes will only affect the OS drive, Drive C:, while leaving whatever is on D: in place. That way I can go back to an out-of-the-box Vista system if Windows 7 doesn't work out. Are there any pitfalls I should look out for?