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I have two nieces: One is 9 years old and the other is 12. They each had birthdays, and I'd like to get them surprise gifts that they will definitely like.

What are girls of these two age groups spending their money on? What would THEY like to get?

I think the 12 year old is into musical groups, but I am not sure which, and I don't want to let the cat our of the bag by asking her or her mom.

For people who no longer want to use craigslist, what are the 5 best alternatives if you have a house for rent

A mouse seems to have died in an inaccessible area of our crawlspace --- can't see/find it, but we can definitely smell it!!!

Uggh! It's making significant areas of our house to smell. So I have two questions:

How long before something like a mouse carcass finishes enough of the decomposition process so that it will no longer smell? A day? a month?

Can anyone suggest odor-neutralizing tactics? I don't like Febreeze . . . too much perfume, but I'll use it if there is no choice. However, years ago, I read of a formula for a home-made mixture that contained hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and a tiny bit of liquid soap . . . but I dont know the proportions, and the last time I tried it, the grittiness of the baking soda clogged my sprayer.

Thanks!

I have a recent-make HP laptop (Pavilion dv6-2190us laptop), I was unable to get it to boot from an external drive (an eSATA drive that had been cloned from my internal drive for use as a backup).

I had an online chat with HP technical support, and they told me that HP has recently begun disabling the ability of their laptops (and possibly their desktops? Not yet sure about that) to boot from an external drive. Here is a link to the transcript of the chat:

http://www.garystutler.com/HP_External_Boot_Issue....

I have posted elsewhere about this, and have been told that this is not true, despite what HP told me! So I have decided to ask the question here and see what people think.

Is HP telling the truth? Are they really blocking users from external drive booting?

What do they gain by adopting such a policy?

Does it apply to all HP computers of recent manufacture? Or only laptops?

MOST IMPORTANTLY: Is there any way around this block? Is it still possible to find a way to get booted from an external drive?

Thanks!

Hi everyone!

I am trying to see if it's feasible to organize a group trip to Rarotonga a year from now, but it would have to be an "all-inclusive" resort due to the preferences of the group.

By "all-inclusive" I mean that all meals would be included in the price, not just breakfast.

Can anyone provide a list of all such facilities in Rarotonga?

Cheers!

When a battery no longer can accept a charge, and must be disposed of, we are supposed to deliver or mail it to a facility that handles these batteries. My question is: What happens to the batteries there? Do the components become like nuclear waste: Unusable forever? Or can they be somehow processed for re-use in new batteries? If so, what is the process?

We need to buy a hybrid SUV or van that meets certain criteria. We have a couple of less than ideal choices available on the market NOW, but we don't know whether a model that would suit our needs better is in the pipeline to come out in a year or two. I am hoping that someone who has their finger on the pulse of automotive trends, can read this post and respond. We have two important criteria:

1.) When seats are down or removed, I need to be able to fit a painting that is a bit more than six feet long and 4 feet wide securely inside. It doesn't have to lie flat (i.e. it can fit diagonally if necessary).

2.) We are hoping to find a model that gets at least 22 mpg city and 29 mpg highway, but somewhere close would be OK.

The government's website (http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/hybrid_sbs.shtml) in the 2010 year shows that the Ford Escape has the highest MPG rating, but that model just doesn't have the room we need for the width, even on diagonal. Aside from the Escape, the next choice is the Toyota Highlander, which also seems too small. The next options are the GM SUV lines: Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon. Those models are large enough, but have only a 22 and 21 MPG (City and Hwy) rating.

Based on what is available now, it looks like we are forced to buy one of these two GM models. We don't want to have buyers remorse if a better model for our needs comes out during the next year or two. Do any of you know if something is in the pipeline that has the space of the Tahoe or Yukon, but better mileage thank those models currently have?

Hi all.

I know the keyboard shortcut for minimizing all windows that are currently open in an application: Control+Shift+Right-Click opn the application's icon in the task bar, and select "Minimize all Windows".

This nifty trick works great in every application I've tried it on, but I can't seem to figure out how to make it work in Excel 2003. The option is just greyed out!

Am I doing it wrong? Is there some other trick? Are there any other people out there who have had this issue? Does Microsoft know about this? Do they care? LOL. (Excel is, after all, their baby, even though my version is a bit old).

. . . I broke out in hives, swollen eyes, became very weak, severe nausea and confusion and headache . . . really felt horrible, and nearly threw up and almost passed out. They canceled the MRI, and filled me up with Benadryl, but I really want to try it again. Isn't there something I can do --- maybe some kind of pre-treatment --- so that I can re-take the MRI and have the gadolinium administered without feeling so terrible? What is it, how far in advance do I take it . . . please tell me as much as you can, as I already read the info on how rare these reactions are, but no one says anything about preventative counter-treatment

. . . can, and do, look into prospective employees' Facebook, Twitter and other online activity and use the contents to make their decisions and discriminate, all on the basis of what one makes public in social networking and the bloggosphere.

I'd still like to exercize my right to express myself, but I wonder: Is there no way at all to make my blog completely anonymous?

I'm guessing it is impossible to do this, but in such a case, what steps do you need to take to maximize as much as possible my annonymity, and reduce the odds my expression of my opinion can be tracked to me? Just how anonymous CAN one be in the bloggosphere?

Hi all. I realize that whenever the subject of Gondwanan flora comes up, one is most likely to discuss taxa from Australasia, South America, Madagascar, and Africa. Ironically (given that the very name "Gondwana" derives from an Indian place-name), there doesn't seem to be very much on the internet about the modern (e.g. non-fossil) Gondwanan floristic heritage of India.

I am trying to read up on vining/climbing plants from India that are Gondwanan (rather than Laurasian) in ancestry. Accordingly, I am disinterested in fabaceous things, and in all the varieties of Laurasian origin introduced by people.

I am also trying to learn about all other aspects of Gondwanan flora . . not just vines . . . from India. I'm guessing their only gymnosperms (aside from Cycas, and such) might be Podocarpaceae, as I know the Araucariaceae are not represented in India.

Thanks!

Ever since an update a couple of weeks ago, DEP on my HP Pavillion has been intermittently (and, surprisingly, not consistently) interfering with applications . . . INCLUDING Windows downloads from the MS site. Almost all the problems occur with IE8. Sometimes, if I try a few times, DEP will let the webpage finish building. Also, if I open the page in Firefox, there usually wont be a problem

This is ALL new. I have NOT made any changes to the DEP settings in the System Properties controls, and the DEP settings are already in limited mode (i.e. only for essential Windows programs and settings).

Is this a problem that MS is aware of and are they working on a fix? Or am I just a fluke, and am I going to have to turn DEP off altogether (something I'd really rather not do)?

Ever since an update a couple of weeks ago, DEP on my HP Pavillion has been intermittently (and, surprisingly, not consistently) interfering with applications . . . INCLUDING Windows downloads from the MS site. Almost all the problems occur with IE8. Sometimes, if I try a few times, DEP will let the webpage finish building. Also, if I open the page in Firefox, there usually wont be a problem

This is ALL new. I have NOT made any changes to the DEP settings in the System Properties controls, and the DEP settings are already in limited mode (i.e. only for essential Windows programs and settings).

Is this a problem that MS is aware of and are they working on a fix? Or am I just a fluke, and am I going to have to turn DEP off altogether (something I'd really rather not do)?

My old PC motherboard is failing. I bought an HP Pavillion dulacore quad running vista 64. I had been told that these machines can run windows xp, so I popped the case open and installed the hard drive from my old machine into the HP, and told the BIOS to boot from it, thinking "It'll run slow until I can updload all the drivers, but it should boot." No go, refused to boot.

So I went to plan B: I booted from the Vista 64 drive, and tried to drag my important folder from the old drive to the new drive. I get an error message telling me I need administrator rights to transfer the files to the new Hard Drive!!!!!!!!!

I called HP and they refuse to support me with migration of my data to the new machine!! I am amazed! I am on my own. I am told that I should reinstall the old HD back into the old CPU (which is still limping along), transfer all the files into an external drive (will take a few hours), and THEN take the external HD and transfer the files a SECOND time into the new Vista machine.

Is this for real!!???? WTF! Isn't there some way I can satisfy the administrator permissions (I have the password, but I never get the chance to enter it when transfering files), so I only have to transfer files once?

Thanks!

If I wanted to get a website, I have to get a WHOIS record. And if I broke the law, the government would shut my website down in a second.

How exactly does it work, that terrorist networks can have websites that can't be shut down by the government? What is the procedure by which they accomplish this?

OK. I downloaded Acronis migrate easy, and ran the app to clone my old 40 gig drive onto a newly installed 250 gig drive ... I am trying to migrate from the old drive to the new one without having to reinstall WindowsXP.

To my surprise, Acronis could not see the source drive. I looked into the problem further, and discovered that my source drive is a Dynamic/GPT drive.

Now what do I do!!?? The Acronis app reports that I cannot use a Dynamic drive as a source drive. Googling the problem brings up info that says that that I can only convert a Dynamic back to basic drive by wiping the contents then reformating! The instructions say "back up the source drive first!" Well . . . DUH! I **was** trying to back the data up by using the cloning app, but it wont let me!

Is there no way I could avoid having to reinstall windows all over again?

I don't remember formating the source drive as a dynamic drive.

Help!

. . . would be the best replacement company for home owners and car insurance?? My significant other has AAA (CSAA) for their car, but they've been kinda squirrely recently, and I'm not exactly sure I'd like to change to them.

I have a flight that lands at midnight, and the only airport shuttle (Continental Airport Express) stops all pickups at midnight (per their phone representative). I do know that there is excellent public rail (CTA) transport into downtown. However, I am *VERY* reluctant about arriving in the wee hours of the morning, catching hauling our luggage into a CTA train, then getting out to change trains once, then hauling the luggage to the street and walking several blocks dragging luggage around. If it was the middle of the day, I'd feel OK about it, but not at that hour of the night. Also, I'd rather avoid getting into an expensive cab ride unless there was absolutely no choice.

What company can you people recommend that would still pick us up at, say, 12:30 am, and deliver us to the miracle mile?

thanks!

The song made famous by Etta James (and recently covered by Beyonce in the film "Cadillac Records", was actually recorded twice before: Almost 20 years earlier in 1941 by Glenn Miller, I think, and again in the late '50's by Nat King Cole.

I'd love to hear legal recordings of both those versions, and maybe download to buy. Can anyone suppyl a link? I don't need the James and Beyonce versions I got em already, thanks)

If you look at this video, you'll know what I'm talking about . . .

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2008/10/1...

Any good explanations?