In the old, very old days, it was indeed considered a compliment when for instance Mozart would use a theme by Bach a make a new work out of it. But it would also mention that the original theme was by Bach. The means of communication were few in these days and very few things would circulate. But these times are long gone, things started to move around much more than before and much faster. Ideas peoples had were being stolen from them, while they could have made money out of some of their ideas, other peoples started to make a lot of money out of stolen ideas and works. The pressure was on the governments to better protect these peoples and so were born the copyright laws. These laws are present in almost every country of the world and they make it ILLEGAL to use someone else's ideas and works of all kind such as movies, pictures, music or any other work of the mind without the permission of the owner. So, it is not only frustrating but ILLEGAL to use someone else's picture without his permission, wether the permission comes with a compensation or not. The problem worsened with the Internet since most peoples think that if it is on the Net, anyone can use it without permission and without compensation, but that is not always the case, most works available on the Net are not free and they can't be used without permission. I did say "most" on purpose, because there is a catch on the Net and most peoples very easily fall into it including "yours truly". The catch is the following one: to register on sites such as Photobucket, Picassa, Flickr, MySpace, and the worst of all Facebook, you MUST agree to the terms of use. The problem is WE DON'T READ THE TERMS OF USE and the small prints, we just click OK, we accept THEIR conditions. The terms of use mostly state that if you put a work of the mind on this site such as a picture, a movie clip, a song, a sound clip, etc., you agree that ANYONE can use it WITHOUT your permission, they can do whatever they want to with it (even sell it) and they DON'T OWE YOU a penny, not even excuses if you ask for it. In some cases, these item even become the property of the owner of the site, so you loose all your rights over what was yours. Another problem with this, is that someone can claim rights over something that belong or belonged to you and make money out of it. If you realize that something like that is happening, it is YOUR responsability to PROVE within the reasonable doubt that it belongs to you and not to someone else, a very very hard task if there was ever one to accomplish!!! So, stealing a pix from someone and using it without is permission is ILLEGAL anywhere in the world, except in the case of several web sites where it is perfectly LEGAL when you sign in as member of these sites. I learned a few lessons myself from this so very sad and and so rightly frustrating experience our good friend Hatta has been through: - ALWAYS read the terms of use before you sign in as member of something on the web - I had several pix on Picassa, not very meaningful ones, but MY pictures nevertheless. I removed them all since I don't want them to pop up everywhere on the Net without due credit given, with or without $ compen$ation $. So don't be surprised if you land on an old thread and don't see the pix anymore, I removed them on purpose. - From now on, if anyone wants to see my pix, and I do have several hundreds of them and more coming up, they are all on my site, they are better protected there since they all wear a "picture condom" as I call them. Not a flawless guaranty, but better than nothing at all. So, no more pix on GW from me, they are all on my site.

I have been looking at laminates that look like wood and have decided to go that route. The look I want is an old pub - so I need flooring that looks like old wood. I just started looking and saw some products at Lowe's that looked nice - commecrial grade flooring that runs about $4 per sq ft for the planks - then add extra for underlayment etc. It has a surface that feels like hand sewn wood and from a distance of about 1 foot away, you cannot tell it is fake. I looked at the vinyl that looks like wood - but it looks like vinyl to me. It is cheaper (in the 2-3 range per sq ft) but for the extra dollar or so, I would rather have the laminate. I like the Dricore product BUT do not like the cost. Also - it is not true that "whatever flooring you choose can be laid right over the dricore". If you read the instructions for vinyl on Dricore, they tell you to put down a layer of 1/4 inch smooth surface underlayment on top of the dricore. When you add up the cost of the Dricore plus the cost of the underlayment - it is more than the cost of the flooring. This was the subject of another post on this forum and the person who posted it was shocked to learn (after he put the Dricore down) that he then had to put this 1/4 inch underlayment on top before he could lay down the vinyl. I went out to Lowe's and looked at the prices - it was 5 dollars per Dricore 2' x 2' piece and 14 dollars per 4x8 sheet of the underlayment the manufacturer recommends. That comes to 34 dollars for a 4x8 section - or 4.25 per sq ft. If you do carpet or laminate over Dricore - then you can install right on top. But not vinyl.

We don't have many critters around our place, but in the couple of months the pool has been running I've dumped probably a thousand june bugs out of the skimmers (no joke!) and nearly as many may flies. Luckily both are seasonal, so that has tapered off a lot in the last week. Quote: "What other kind of visitors -- frogs, bugs?" Yes, definitely. I pulled a small frog out of a skimmer, a baby rat and as mentioned above LOTS of bugs including a few spiders. I will say the skimmers are doing a fantastic job, there's rarely anything floating on the water. Quote: "Rats can spread lot of diseases. Do I need to treat the water with something, if a dead rat is there?" No, if your chemical balance is in check then all is fine. If you get it out alive, or intact within a day or so of it dying, you don't have anything to worry about. It's no different than a small puppy or kitten going for a swim in your pool. If a small critter dies and is stuck in the pool for an extended period at the worst you might have to shock the pool. But more likely you'd just need to bump up the chlorine. If you are not testing for free chlorine (FC) and combined chlorine (CC), then you need to get a better test kit. Whenever something happens to the pool that is abnormal (dead critter, heavy bather load, something gets washed in, algae blooms, etc.) then you want to check the CC level. Presence of CC indicates the pool is fighting something and a shock may be required to bring the CC back down.

Nita would be awesome for you to come hey we can sure do one when ever you can make it, no reason we can't do it more than once as far as I am concerned. Well guess what is happening right this very moment big big rain drops hitting the skylight above my head and it is going to be another downpour the sky has just opened up. big thunderboomers too. At least yesterday we had a little bit of a break and my yard water did go down some, but Cypress creek behind us came up even higher yesterday many of the areas we tried to drive to were flooded, much too close for comfort! These 2 fronts are hung right over us and the area that is between the fronts is what is causing this mess, there is some kind of circular rotation happening causing it. And until something strong comes through and breaks that darn cycle we are trapped under it. That happens often when the moisture off the Gulf hits a front from the West and bam we get the resultant collision. And to make matters worse we did not get to the grocery store yesterday! Good thing my pantry has lots of beans and soup mix in it.