the chinese made engines are made from the dies that honda sells to other companies. they have a proven track record, and even have their own class among small engine racing applications. i dont belive their is any reason for anyone to call them "junk" as you WILL NOT find any reviews on premium engines or generators that have not had problems or failures. GENERAC, which is a company that ONLY makes generators, now use clone engines. you will not walk into any home store, and find a snow thrower, pressure washer, or lawn mower with a honda or briggs and straton without ann insane price tag attached to it. might i also remind you, that with a labor cost of $95/hr these small engine mechanics charge you these days, is it worth it to fix a 10yr old honda when you can replace it with a new engine for the same money? lastly - there would not be a demand for these, which there obviously is, if the american companies were not trying to suck every last dollar out of the public. a company oversea's can reproduce and SHIP all there engines here for less than half what a honda cost - which i might also remind you - is made in china.. lastly ill bring up one more important point - the people that knock these are the people that dont own them. when you want a good review - ask the people that actally own one - not the people that want to belive their stuff is better just cause they spent more money. if you have the money to spend, and its for something you need your life to depend on - then yes its probably a better idea to go with a honda. the actual motors are very similar, but honda does use better carbs, better qualtity tanks and will have metal lever and switches in place of the clone's plastic. - but prepared to spend. nobody is saying the clones are "better", but they are far from junk. if you have an old mower or snow thrower that you kept good care of, but the b&s or honda finally gave out, can you justify spending all that money to replace it? for the price of replacement honda these days you can buy a new 2 stage troy bilt thrower with a clone.

So after much thought - we decided to talk to our daughter and let her know that we wanted to get her a laptop - but that we also have concerns about her use of technology - and that we would only do this with a contract. I'm going to be working on the contract for a while - and would welcome any ideas. So far, I know it will include that I have administrative control of the laptop - which will be used to update programs, run antivirus and antispyware - and generally ensure me that I have access (unlike her ipod which she changed her password on so I don't have access). It also includes that all technology (ipods, laptop, etc) will be in the parent's bedroom - from when it's time to get ready for bed - until after school the next day (or the next morning if there's no school). (not having it in the kitchen over night bc. she'll sneak down and get it if she's awake in the middle of the night. She won't sneak into our bedroom to get it.) This will prevent her from using it in the middle of the night (esp. tempting when her friend lives in Vietnam is is available to chat at those times) - and thinking she can have the laptop open in the bathroom while she's getting ready for bed. For now, I am not setting time limits - but will include that those could get added in the future if we think she's using it too much. The reason to not add it now is that she is using it a bit too much. BUT - that's bc. she loves her new Sims game - which is actually motivating her to do her homework as soon as she comes home. For the first time ever, I do not have to monitor her homework and keep asking her to do it (I still pay attention to what she's doing, but it's nice that the impetus to do it and stay organized is now coming from her). She's also coming out of a serious depression - and having some pretty terrific, responsible behavior - so any limits on amount of her free time spent on the computer - when she's meeting all her responsibilities - isn't as pressing for right now. She's also healing form a broken ankle - so in fairness to her, there's not as much active stuff she can do with her free time. ------------------------------- I have some questions about how to set up her computer so I have administrative control. I have that set up on my computer now - and she can use it as a guest. But if my computer is off - and restarts, she needs the password to get on. She doesn't have the password to my computer (which is how I want it). But I do want her to be able to log into her own computer without me giving her the administrator's password. Is there a way to do this? Set it up so she can start the computer and log in as a guest? Thanks. Lynn.

Ok...I just copied what it said I needed from the instructions. The installation from my old Dell was all on one disk. I'd be afraid I'd mess up the installation if it ended up on multiple CDs. Maybe I should say that there would be more chance for error on my part. The instructions also said that the USB key should have a minimum capacity of 8 GB. Well, when I go to Control Panel, I see there are 45 programs now with total space of 1.12 GB. So what gives with them saying I need a minimum of 8GB? I'm guessing that it would all go on one of the disks at the link below. About them...it says, "This recordable DVD features AccuCORE technology which is 100x more scratch resistant than standard discs. Fights static, repels stains and fingerprints" Here is a link that might be useful: 25 DVD+RW Re-Recordable DVD 4.7GB

Hi Tiger,Ryan and Gary Happy 4th guys. Hope you're out there partying!! The Infinity system is running just great. Its so quiet inside the house that I can barely tell its on. I am so so happy with it. Its a real sweet baby. The temperature in Sacramento has been very nice these past two weeks, just in the 80's. Its kind of weird because last month we hit the 100's. I am confident though that this baby can handle it when we go back up to the 90's and 100's. As for the ducts Ryan, the flexi is attached to metal, but I don't know if its the insulated kind. But it is very quiet. I don't hear noise from the vents. I did take a peak into my attic from the ladder and the flexi is nicely layed out, no spagetti up there. Also all direct from the airhandler and no Ys. Well i've been partying all week Gary. I love this baby. But the real big party will be in the winter when its real cold outside and my living room will actually feel warm. For me that will be the biggest test because I can't handle the cold and like it very warm in the house. My old heat pump always blew in cool air when its below 45 degrees outside. If any of you will be in the Sacramento area in the future, let me know and we'll have an Infinity party or we can party Infinityly!! You guys take care and thanks again for all your help. I'll be travelling quite a bit on the job from mid July until late September, so if you post something and I don't get back to you please know that I'm on the road. Demi