We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
This will cover generally cleaning your keyboard, thoroughly cleaning your keyboard, and repair.
A lot of keyboards over the years have been tossed in the trash "because the (fill in blank) key stopped working!" That's not to be confused with the Any Key not working, which we'll cover later.
If a key starts getting a little erratic or stops working altogether, chances are it's just a piece of grit that got in between the two layers of plastic sheets that reside inside the unit. The ESC key going out is the most common, just because it sits up in the corner by itself near the edge of the plastic sheets where a piece of grit could sneak in.
Amazingly, of all the pieces of computer gear, this is the one item you actually can fix yourself, and without a lot of effort. Just take a large garden hose and-, no, wait, I'm getting ahead of the story.
Boys in all ethnic groups and social classes are far less likely than their sisters to feel connected to school, to earn good grades, or to have high academic aspirations. A recent working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research documents a remarkable trend among high-achieving students: In the 1980s, nearly the same number of top male and female high school students said they planned to pursue a postgraduate degree (13 percent of boys and 15 percent of girls). By the 2000s, 27 percent of girls expressed that ambition, compared with 16 percent of boys. During the same period, the gap between girls and boys earning mostly A’s nearly doubled—from three to five percentage points.
This gap in education engagement has dire economic consequences for boys.
As I have said before, all boys have some ADD. The best male students have some OCD to compensate.
It tests your math and related skills, literary and writing skills, historical, art and music knowledge and sophistication. Unlike the SAT, it doesn't look for your potential - it looks at what you have under the hood.
Of course, a good interview would reveal all of that in under an hour with a handful of pointed questions. For a job, though, it's not about what you know about Beowulf, but it's about what value you can add and what sort of personality you show.
A Liberal Arts education - however obtained - is for life-enrichment and enlightened citizenship, not commerce. It was designed mainly for the wealthy and prosperous who didn't have to worry too much about those things and could learn on the family or family-related job.
The
Collegiate Learning Assessment--Let's Support It - See more at:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2013/09/the_collegiate_learning_assess.html#sthash.uhy0a9kE.dpuf
It's a breakfast drink, the Italian version of cafe au lait.
In Italy, they make it with beautiful swirls. After noon, you drink this in the photo for your needed jolt (but you can get "Cafe Americano" if you ask - all they do is to put a double espresso in a cup, and add water. 2.5 Euros for that, but it's Monopoly money. However, they always serve that Americano with a little thing of hot milk, which is good). Some hotels make ordinary American-style coffee, and it is excellent.
The real destination of our trip was the Dolomites. We just threw in Lake Garda and Verona for fun.
Hiking (plus rock-climbing and mountain-climbing) in the Dolomites is the local summer sport. People don't walk - they hike and cover a lot of ground. Most people use hiking poles or hiking staffs, for good reason. You are always going up or going down. There is some mountain biking too. In winter, it's all skiing.
The Italian province is the Trentino/Alta Aldige/Sudtirol , on the Austrian border. Of the ten or so Dolomite valleys where people can stay, Mrs. BD picked the Val Gardena.
We drove from Lake Garda up on the scenic route and watched the agriculture change from olives, palms, and lemons to vast apple orchards and vinegards, and finally to Alpine hay fields. ...caught the autostrade in Trent (Trentino) and drove up it to Bolzano (where the Ice Man resides) to exit before the Brenner Pass to drive up windy roads to our classic Alpine Hotel in the tiny hamlet of Bulla on a hillside up above Ortesei.
Here's one of the high Alpine meadows above Ortesei - the highest Alpine meadow that exists. Alpe di Siusi.
As I have said, there is no one Italy - it is many places. Observations, suggestions, and lotsa scenic pics below the fold.
Took the BD daughter with her special friend to birthday brunch near her new place in Hell's Kitchen. We brought her cookies from Verona, and she brought us condiments from Tokyo from which she had just returned.
It's not hell anymore. Hopping neighborhood. We went to 44X10 (corner of 10th Ave. and W. 44th). Did Alicia Keys really grow up there?
The wait staff wore t-shirts saying "Heaven in Hell." Rule of thumb: Always make reservations.
I can remember when this area was Irish and black gangland, creepy. When you see this many gay fellows, you know it is gentrifying. I had scrambled eggs, grits, and sausages. The others had better stuff: Eggs Benedict with Crab Cakes, etc.
Three years ago, I was playing tennis during the final weekend of summer. The previous two weeks, I'd had some calf pain, nothing significant, I just kept stretching to keep it loose. Suddenly, while chasing a shot down the line, I collapsed with a sharp pain in my calf. At first, it felt like a hot stone had hit my calf. This feeling matched the description my brother had given me of tearing his Achilles, so naturally I was concerned. However, I was able to stand and walk, although stiff and in pain.
This past Friday, while on a golf outing with a client, I was walking down from the first tee when I was hit by the same 'stone' in my other leg. Luckily, this time I knew what the issue was and completed the round, though I used my clubs for support at times.
I suffered, both times, from a tear or strain of the Plantaris tendon. The Plantaris is a vestigial muscle in the calf, often harvested for repair work because it has a tendon which runs from the heel almost up to the knee, attaching a very small muscle. It's length and relatively low capacity makes it attractive for harvest when the need arises. The tricky part is that about 7-10% of all people don't even have this tendon.
Even though the injury is the result of an indirect mechanism, subjectively the patient may describe direct trauma to the calf region – often the athlete feels as though they were struck on the calf by an object such as a ball or piece of equipment.
Tennis players often suffer strains and tears of the Plantaris. My guess is this is due to less attention being paid to the calves by most workouts. At the gym I rarely see people stretching or even working out their calves. But the calves require more attention than they typically get. I'm resting it now and avoiding my usual leg workout at the gym.
The problem with the audio coming out of computers is that there simply isn't very much power, mainly because they're only designed for those little computer speakers. If you want to play a song or movie on the computer and have it sound decent, you need to use a couple of normal room speakers.
The hitch there is that normal speakers need a lot more power to get moving than a computer can provide. So the answer is to use something like this:
It's important to note when shopping for amplifiers that there are two different power ratings; RMS, the real amount of power, and 'peak power', the peak it can hit for a millisecond, which is basically worthless. If you search around Amazon for "speaker amplifier", you'll see a number of ads for a cheaper brand called 'Pyle', which cheats by advertising the peak power. Their "100-watt" unit is actually 10 watts of RMS power — which isn't much more than the computer has. So you have to be careful differentiating between the two. The AudioSource unit, above, is 100 watts RMS, or 50 watts a channel.
The speakers, themselves, also make a difference. Some older 4'-high monsters might not be near as 'efficient' as a smaller, newer 'bookshelf' model, and are going to require more power to get them to a loud level without distortion.
Along the same lines, how loud you plan on playing them enters the picture. For just your average speaker played at an average room level, 100 watts should be fine, but if you're planning on cranking them up, you'd better think in terms of 200 watts or higher. That'll also require much bigger bucks.
In all honesty, I can't officially recommend any brand over another, simply because I haven't bought one of these in decades, but the above info should get you going if you want to search around, and don't forget the user reviews at the bottom of the page.
And speaking of user reviews, there's an important point to be made if you're buying the above unit. Apparently, the 'Line 1' input has some kind of goofy feature that automatically mutes the volume if it doesn't sense any input, so use 'Line 2', which operates normally. The user reviews loved the unit but hated that feature, with a number of them bitching and moaning because they hadn't bothered to read the manual and thus didn't know that 'Line 2' doesn't use the feature.
The one other piece of equipment you'll need is this rascal:
The stereo 'mini-pin' plug on the left goes into the 'Audio Out' jack on the back of the tower and the two 'RCA cup jacks' plug into the back of the amp. Hook the speakers up to the amp and you should be good to go.
Update: Reader 'rhhardin' suggested a Radio Shack Ground Loop Isolator, so keep that in mind if you get any humming out of the speakers. It sometimes occurs when two power supplies are involved, in this case the computer and the amp.
As for there being four speaker jacks, while you could probably play four smallish bookshelf speakers at a normal volume without distortion, I wouldn't plan on anything bigger. If you don't mind snipping off the jacks of your existing computer speakers, you could wire them into the 'Speaker A' slot and put the room speakers on 'B', then switch back and forth as needs be.
Dear Readers: It takes me a bit of time and effort to size and post travelogue pics. Please given them a glance. No need to comment, but I would not post them if I did not think they might be interesting...
We have spent time on the Italian lakes (both Maggiore and Como) in the past but Lake Garda was sort-of on our route up into the Italian Alps and the Dolomites, so we stopped by to stay for a couple of days at a superb B&B about halfway up the western side of the lake in Gardone Riviera at (Thanks again, Karen Brown and Trip Advisor) - Dimora Balsone.
Our gracious host Rafael, a semi-retired lawyer, rebuilt a dilapidated 500 year-old farmhouse and is gradually rebuilding the farm - mostly olive groves with some fig trees and Peach trees. You can tell he loves the place and is investing a lot into it.
View from our tiny rooftop balcony:
More pics of food, the Lake, and side trips to Sola and Sirmione below the fold -
Right now is the perfect time to plug or aerate your lawn and/or fields, in the northern US.
Heavily used or walked-on lawns need it once a year. Do it now, then spread some fall lawn fertilizer on it, and over-seed where needed. You can rent the aeration or plugging machines for cheap, for a day or two, from any tool rental place, or Home Depot. Plugging is better than aeration, but either one is better than nothing.
When Spring comes, you'll see a big difference. Remember that lawns are not natural. They are grass gardens - or sheep meadows. If you want them green all the time, try astroturf or write a big check for lawn irrigation. My lawns are too large to afford that.
Gears are ubiquitous in the man-made world, found in items ranging from wristwatches to car engines, but it seems that nature invented them first.
A species of plant-hopping insect, Issus coleoptratus, is the first living creature known to possess functional gears, a new study finds. The two interlocking gears on the insect's hind legs help synchronize the legs when the animal jumps.
Burrows and a colleague captured the gears' motion using high-speed video. As the young bug prepares to leap, it meshes the gear teeth of one leg with those of the other, like cocking a gun. Then, the insect releases its legs in one smooth, explosive motion.
Learn somethin' new every day.
Bite me, Darwinists!
Of course, not everyone might agree. My own post on the 'How we got here' question is here.
View from our balcony in the hamlet of Bulla, outside Ortesei (down there in the valley) in the Val Gardena. Before I get to talking about the Alps, though, I need to complete my Lake Garda post (maybe tomorrow). Add to this pic the tinkling of sheep bells and the bongs of the tiny local Roman Catholic Church with its burial ground in front.
Up here, German is the dominant language. Road signs are in German, Italian, and Ladin. Food a mix of German and Italian. Best veal I've ever eaten in my life, but spaetzl is something I can live without.
Serious German hikers and mountain bikers all over the mountains. A few died climbing while we were there, but risk is what adds the zest to rock climbing. We called these vigorous Germans the Hitler Youth, and the Aryan gals the Rhine Maidens. It's only a few hours south of Munich, through the Brenner Pass. Europe is small.
Up in these mountains, one can barely imagine the rigorous WW 1 winter Alpine fighting that occurred here. Mark Helprin's masterpiece (I think) included a lot of that. Read it, if you haven't. The outcome, of course, was that this part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire ended up as part of Italy.
The constant fuss about prescribed pain meds is puzzling to me. To Cut Abuse, F.D.A. Is Altering Painkiller Label Rules. I believe that pain relief is one of the best things doctors have to offer the suffering, so I believe in generous opioid use when needed.
Here's what I have learned, over time:
- Abusers of precribed narcotics are a trivial social problem - Habit-forming opioids can make a lot of people functional - The biggest social problems with narcotics are their illegality - Addiction is a psycho-social-spiritual challenge for the individual
I am medically self-insured, to an extent. I am responsible for a $20,000 two-year deductible on all medical expenses, and after that my quite inexpensive major medical (aka "catastrophic") insurance kicks in.
Much to my surprise, it turns out that many both large and small businesses use this same model, as do many large unions. In most of those cases, however, the business or union covers the costs of the deductible, and brand-name insurance companies administer the policies for a fee.
Today a record 61% of covered workers are in a self-insured plan,
according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's 2013 survey, up from 49% in
2000.
Democrats clearly want, as a step towards single-payer, one-size-fits-all medical insurance controlled by them. As usual, they want control "for our own good", of course.
My approach would be to deregulate medical insurance, and to let a million flowers bloom.
The first of these is a location story, the second is the ol' online-vs-retail story. Both make the same point while coming at it from different angles.
About five years ago I needed a tire for my Firebird. The guy who owned it before me apparently wasn't a very good parallel parker and the right-front was all chewed up.
Being on a Firebird, it was a pretty hefty piece of meat, so I knew it was going to be a little pricey.
I first called a Cuban buddy of mine up in Miami and asked him if he had any buds in the biz, which he did. I gave him the size, he did some inquiring, and his buddy's best price was $135. Given that the local Goodyear place wanted $168, that sounded like a winner.
But then I figured I should probably call the local tire shops and ask them if they had any 'specials' going on. You never can tell. I called two of them.
"Hi, got any specials going on?"
"Nope."
"Okay, thanks, bye."
Then I noticed some tiny place called something like "Bill's Tires". This time I didn't ask about any specials, just explained what I needed. Ol' Bill fumbled around in the catalog for a minute.
$89.
The shop was a block away.
Bought the tire, it looked just the others, worked perfectly.
When it all began, I would have bet you that $89 that (1) the most expensive quote I'd get would be here in our exclusive little tropical island paradise hideaway, and (2) my buddy's buddy, who owned a tire shop up in Cubantown, would have the cheapest.
$89 instead of $135. One block away.
It pays to shop around.
And, given what we've seen in past online-vs-retail stories, this next one is a little bizarre.
There are some things in life which are observable, and conform to rules which we may be capable of determining. There are other things which are observable, don't necessarily conform to rules, but often are postulated to be rules.
Empirical evidence often suggests certain actions may yield desired results, because a rule exists supporting this action. We were told the stimulus would yield, at a minimum, $1.25 for every dollar spent. This multiplier has been seen before, is measurable (to a degree) and conforms to Keynes' prediction of a multiplier. Many people claimed the return on stimulus would be much higher - upwards of $1.75! But Keynes' 'rule' of a multiplier, just because it was observed, isn't necessarily a rule.
The truth is, we spent far more than we gained in GDP over the last 5 years. There is a reason for this. While a multiplier may exist, and probably does, the factor may vary. More importantly, it is likely to take place if stimulus is focused on productive activity, not consumption. We have spent the last 4 years pushing consumption, telling people to buy homes, cars, food or anything at all. Keep the access to money cheap and available, provide support ot everyone. But here are the results. It's true this data is for the G-7, but a quick review of data in the US shows just as bad a return on dollars spent.
In the 20 years prior to Bush's final year and Obama, the average deficit was roughly $253 billion. In the last 5 years it was $1,215 billion. Over 5 years, we spent $6 trillion more than we collected in taxes to generate....$800 billion in GDP growth. That's a return of 13 cents on every dollar of deficit. In the previous 20 years, GDP grew by $5.57 trillion compared to $5.069 trillion in deficit for a return of $1.10 on each dollar of deficit. At some point, the Keynesians have to admit defeat.
Some economists predicted a slow economic recovery. Even Krugman did. But sometimes you can be wrong, even when you are absolutely right. It's all in the context. Krugman is great at twisting context to suit his needs.
(It's worth noting the link to the Money article may go some way toward explaining why it's so easy to get food stamps these days. But then again, there are many different ways to look at poverty, which means how we address it needs to improve.)
What would Italian cooking be like without their foods from the Americas?
Eg: tomatoes, potatoes, squash, baccala, corn (for polenta), bell pepper, chocolate, etc.
If you drive east from Milan on A-4, all you see are cornfields. It almost looks like Massachusetts, except for the Alps in the distance and the stone barns and farm houses.
Set up for breakfast at our B&B overlooking Lake Garda last week.
What's for breakfast? (At 9 am, when most Americans have been working for a couple of hours)
See below, and note the cheese on the far left end of the table. It's 12-month Parmesan, still soft enough to eat with a knife and fork. Never had 12-month Parmesan before. Great stuff, maybe my favorite cheese right now. (Parmesan for grating is aged 18-36 months.)
For months, I was trying to explain to my wife a vocal affectation younger members of the office staff employ. I've noticed it for about 2 or 3 years, and its use is growing, not diminishing. I can't mimic it myself, and trying to explain it to her only left her more confused than before. I asked my boys if they were aware of it, but since I couldn't explain it well, they just shook their heads.
Then, on CBS' Sunday Morning program, a short piece was delivered on "Vocal Fry". That's it, I pointed out to my wife. I don't have the CBS piece, but here is a very clear example of the speech pattern.
When I first heard it, I thought "that's someone trying to be a Valley Girl," but the tone is lower rather than higher, as it is in Valleyspeak. I assumed, like Valleyspeak, it would be a fad and go away. Its use has grown substantially, however. Today, apparently, it is used as a means of sounding either authoritative or sexy. I think it sounds lazy. I don't think I'm judging harshly, oftentimes when this voice is used, the person provides a blank stare along with it. Clearly it began as a derisive or insulting voice, though now it's just commonplace.
Once, an anxious parent wrote into Liberman’s blog to complain that a Ph.D. daughter populates her speech with uptalks, as do her doctor/lawyer peers. Could Liberman point to any research proving the “negative effects” of this feminine affectation? “You're certainly entitled to your crotchets and irks, just as your adult daughter is entitled to her prosodic preferences,” Liberman responded. “But in order for the two of you to get along, something's going to have to give. And realistically, it's you.”
It's not just women doing it, either. Many of the young men in my office are beginning to use it, one young fellow outside my office speaks exclusively in vocal fry. Is it an affectation? Perhaps it started out that way, but it's becoming a standard.
I don't agree with Liberman's response. Sure, I'm getting old and young people are doing things I don't like or agree with. Most of it I can live with. But as a parent, I don't have to accept anything, even from an adult son/daughter. My father will still comment on behaviors of mine he dislikes, and I accept his point of view, even if I don't always agree with it. More often than not, though, I realize he's got a point. Even as adults, we can still learn, and we should learn, from our parents.
Have you heard it, and if so, what was your point of view?
♪ Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light... ♫
While I don't think any of these would fall under the heading of 'earthshakingly critical', there might be the odd occasion, like the above, where it would be fun to throw one or two into a comment or email.
For standard special fonts (is that an oxymoron?), like é con acento or the tilde in señor, they're all right there on the top panel of the Character Map program, found in Start Menu, Programs, Accessories, System Tools. First select 'Arial' at the top, double-click on the character you want, hit the 'Copy' button to copy it to memory, then hit Ctrl-V to paste it into the editor.
And you have zee perfect résumé!
Pic: Sorry, the artist screwed up. He thought I said special founts.
There are, however, a handful of oddball fonts that only reside in some offbeat font set or in only one common set in an odd place on the panel. The hitch is that we only have the default Windows fonts to work with, which basically means Arial, Verdana, Tahoma and Times New Roman. If you use a special font from a different font set and the reader doesn't have that particular font on their system, it won't be displayed.
As the earth continues its petty refusal to cooperate with the warmists, we've been having loads of fun watching them get more and more desperate. We've recently had terrorism, violence, war, $80 trillion in damage and the North Pole turning into a picturesque lake officially linked with AGW, and then I noted in my post last Sunday how they're also elevating the scare tactics.
Today's clever ruse is brought to you by the good folks at RealClearPolitics, and a nice — if not downright informative — piece it is. It's always good when some science guy does his best to dispel misinformation.
It's a pretty straightforward process. He gives one page for each of the ten main scientific controversies of our day. Yes, Virginia, evolution is real. Yes, animal testing is necessary. Yes, embryonic stem cell research is important. No, vaccines don't cause autism. Yes, 'alternative' medicine is (generally) bunk.
That last one, however, only gets ½ point because of a personal story. My mom fell off a horse when she was 9 and suffered a small neck pain for something like 55 years. She tried everything, from neurologists to acupressure, as well as a couple of chiropractors. One day a friend mentioned some old semi-retired guy who had performed some chiropractic miracle on a friend of hers. My mom went to see him. After the second visit, she was cured forever.
And no, Virginia, the Hadron Collider won't cause a black hole to gobble up the earth. And, I'm sorry to say, cold fusion is pure bunk. Nuclear power, however, is quite safe. Finally, yes, GMOs, or genetically-modified organisms (food in this case), are perfectly healthy.
Oops, wait, I forgot one. It was slipped into the #9 slot and I accidentally clicked past it.
Climate Change Is Largely Manmade
As it clearly states:
But in truth, among scientists who study the Earth's climate, there is no controversy whatsoever. The rise in global temperatures over the past few decades is undoubtedly caused by human activities.
Uh, hold on a sec, will ya? Something about that is ringing a bell.
(thinking)
Oh, right, that "past few decades" part. The past few decades is how long it's been since it has warmed up. I remember now.
But an excellent try, nonetheless, RealClearPolitics, and a big gold star for the 8½ items you did get right. As I said, it's always admirable when someone steps up to the plate and tackles the tough ones.
Even if it is only a fake-out to couch the real message.
The worst class I took in education school was on “math teaching methods.” It was taught by my advisor at the time. (I say “at the time” because shortly afterward they changed advisors on me, and she no longer taught courses, but worked with Ph.D. candidates. From what little biographical information I have seen about her, she has not ever taught any classes, math or otherwise, in K-12.)
The math teaching methods class was remarkable for its embrace of every educational fad I detest...
Kim Komando was one of the first online gurus. While she's a little too theoretical and not enough 'in the trenches' for my tastes, she's still much smarter than the average online "computer expert", like all those bozos who declared Windows Vista to be "bloated". For those of us who actually are down here in the trenches, we know that by simply turning off a few pesky background programs magically transformed the "bloated" Vista into a smooth, quick, quite stable operating system.
Kim recently came out with an article titled 5 Bad Tech Habits -- And How To Break Them, so I thought I'd skim through the piece and toss in a few tidbits. She's right on all of them, but some need a bit of elaboration or clarification. I suggest you read the article first.
From the top:
1. Forgetting to clean
So, clean your tech gear as often as you'd clean any other germ or bacteria magnet. Keep some tech-friendly antiseptic wipes near your computer and phone charger.
She's 100% correct about using some kind of handy-wipe for anything with buttons on it, like a phone or keyboard. You get the the littlest bit of something like 409 under the buttons or keys and it'll turn into a thick sludge over time. I spray 409 onto a paper towel for the chore, but you have to be careful not to use too much.
As for maintaining a clean keyboard, I adhere to a rule I've been using almost from the beginning. If I get up and actually do anything, like step outside and touch something or lift up a box or whatever, I give my hands a quick rinse before returning to the computer. I'm not trying to be antiseptic; just knock off whatever's on the surface.
My attention was drawn to this article recently, though it is several years old. An intriguing method of balancing desires and scarce resources. I am reminded of my youth and music, playing a record I enjoyed over and over again until, at some point, I just didn't want to listen to that great song or album anymore.
I doubt I would have employed Ayn Rand's rationale if asked to choose my toys when I was young. Delayed gratification isn't something most of us understand until later in life. Today, however, I take a very different view about how I employ things I enjoy. I realize my enjoyment can wear thin quickly, so I tend to not 'overplay the record'.
Fifty years ago, psychologists played a cunning trick on a bunch of American four-year-olds. They were given a marshmallow and told that if they waited for 20 minutes before eating it, they could have another one. Most cracked within seconds, but about one in three held out and – with suitably smug expressions, no doubt – got two sickly confections when the experimenter came back into the room. Their careers have been tracked to the present day, and the goody two-shoes among them (I am sure I would have scoffed the sweet at once) seemed to be healthier, to do better at school, and to have more controlled and perhaps happier lives than those who gave in.
Austrian Economics is deeply concerned with 'time-preference' and its impact on the market, because choosing between immediate and delayed pleasures are part of what drive the market. This explains, to some degree, the general opposition to Keynesian stimuli.
This will cover generally cleaning your keyboard, thoroughly cleaning your keyboard, and repair.
The first of these is a location story, the second is the ol' online-vs-retail story. Both make the same point while coming at it from different angles.
What would Italian cooking be like without their foods from the Americas?
Let's all sing along!
Kim Komando was one of the first online gurus. While she's a little too theoretical and not enough 'in the trenches' for my tastes, she's still much smarter than the average online "computer expert", like all those bozos who declared Windows Vista to be "bloated". For those of us who actually are down here in the trenches, we know that by simply turning off a few pesky background programs magically transformed the "bloated" Vista into a smooth, quick, quite stable operating system.