Diane B.

There are various chaat places near me (Bay Area, California) and I'd love to eat in some of them, but most items are probably too hot for me (food with just lots of different spices is fine!, but spicy-hot is a problem if it's more than a small amount).

I've tried asking in some of the shops but either didn't get answers or didn't get helpful ones. They seem to be mostly for Indians and not all that welcoming to others...yet. Many of our Asian stores went through the same change over time.

So I'm looking for some specific chaat items to start with, that most places would have. After that, I can start exploring more. (I'm assuming most items are vegetarian, but if that's wrong let me know about that too--not essential but would prefer veg.)

What is the "best" way to refer to people from the UK (as a collective noun, like "Americans" or "Germans")? And how do those from the UK refer to themselves when they want to use a collective noun? I know CPG Grey said in his video about "Britain/etc" that one could refer to all who live in the UK as "British" but that some would find that offensive, so might not like "Britons" either, and I don't hear that a lot. . . So is "UK'ers" acceptable, or is there another (short) term or even slang used?

I no longer get any info about my Best Answers from askers (whether they're rated 1 star or 5 stars) so I have no idea *what it was* about my answer that told them what they wanted to know, or didn't so I can make them better next time.

Not every asker choosing a Best Answer used to leave a reason or comment, I know, but the ones who did made the experience at YahooAnswers much more satisfying by clarifying their reaction, or just by giving a tiny bit of personalization.

After working hard at my answers, that's not reinforcing at all and a let-down.

Now it feell like answerers are just responding to robots-somewhere-out-there, and never getting any kind of feedback at all (except 1-5 stars, or not be chosen BA--which isn't much).

I'm finding this is making my participation at YA less appealing and interesting more each day, although I'm a frequent answerer (with high percentage of Best Answers).

Does anyone else feel this way?

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In the new version of YA (purple), my Best Answers are getting truncated to only a few lines.

This often happens after a link that I've used near the beginning, which purple-YA has turned into a playable video link.

Actually, I can see the rest of the text of my answer briefly, but disappears within a few seconds to the truncated version.

I've checked the same answer in green-YA and there the answer doesn't get shortened.

Here's one example showing the same answer in both the purple and the green versions:

http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ag...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=201311...

Anyone know how to avoid this, or bring back the rest of my answer? (I sometimes link to my previous answers so want them to be complete)

And is this happening to others as well?

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I had so many problems myself with the new version (even though I'm a Top Contributor in some, and familiar with everything) that I finally resorted to using the Canadian version which still uses the old format. I'm pretty sure the new format will be coming to all boards at some point, but for now I'm just hoping they get some of the more egregious problems fixed/altered before I have to go back to the new format.

At that point, I may have to finally abandon YA after all this time though because some of those things make it extremely difficult to give decent answers and really don't want to waste my time and effort.

(YA is only 1% or so of Yahoo's business though I've heard, so the chances they'll do anything is probably small and way down the totem pole...they may even want to get rid of it without having to be the bad guy themselves.)

Btw, I personally don't care if the site format is purple instead of green.

The green wasn't all that great and the new purple isn't either (it's not very "artistic" in appearance with the various huge solid dark purple areas, and the user interface is even more confusing and unthoughtful).

It's the *functionality* that's a problem for me. Here are just a few examples of unacceptable new problems that affect me in particular (that I ran across right away):

BIGGEST PROBLEMS FOR ME--so far:

1....no arrow in bottom right of answer window to "pull out and down" to expand typing field from only 5-6 measly lines of text to more lines ...when composing an answer of more than 5-6 lines, much harder to be concise and accurate if can see only 5-6 at one time without scrolling up-down, up-down, trying to remember (reminds me of the dinosaur-days electric word processor units where only a few lines were every visible at a time)

2....after editing, all text turns into a solid blob made up of only one huge gray paragraph (all line breaks and paragraph breaks disappear) ...can then hit browser's Refresh icon to make the formatting come back, but what a hassle do do every time, and most people don't even know they can "fix" it

DON'T LIKE, BUT COULD FIGURE OUT HOW TO LIVE WITH (but with bad taste in mouth for Yahoo brand):

3...the text in answers is not black, and not even dark (...why would anyone think a site primarily about reading text would be better off being *harder* to read?)

4...also glaring and hard on eyes is the *bright* blue text for questions on a category page, instead of a more grayed-down blue ...my eyes have a hard time not jumping around and being confused, annoyed

5...things that were easy to navigate to before (and which I use often) are now more difficult to get to--must click several times instead of just once, e.g., to get to my previous questions/answers, starred answers, etc. ...my icon now goes only to "My Profile," which I don't even use/want

6...YA tabs on my bookmark bar are huge dark purple blobs overwhelming all the other icons--may remove them from my bookmark bar and just get to my YA categories another way

7...dislike that little sperm-looking exclamation point wiggling/darting around the Yahoo icon every time a new page is accessed...that's like the *blinking* ads I used to have, and those I eventually blocked with a Post-It on that part of screen

7b.....can scroll down to only 3-4 days' worth of previous Open questions (e.g., in Sculpture, Hobbies/Games) ...then are directed to "other categories" and perhaps only one week's worth of previous Open questions (using all categories)?

"FIXED"? --OTHERWISE A HUGE PROBLEM for me

8... links from Google and Bing for regular searches and image searches won't become clickable links; the end parts of the url become separate in ways that aren't even easy to cut and paste... haven't tried Yahoo searches yet; if they work that would be just a little too evil to swallow

(. . . JUST CHECKED again and appears all the search links will now work, even if they look wonky and like they won't work)

The new ability to add images (and some links show up as images now?) and to add to old questions with Reference feature seem good, but haven't figured out how to use them.

P.S. There are definitely fewer questions (and answers) in the 3 categories that I visit as other people have mentioned, starting just after the new version which has now rolled out in the U.S.

I can understand why because the categories I read are some that really require answers, not just social interaction and quickie often not-very-smart answers. And many things in the new version are harder to do, or impossible. I think a lot of people have passed a critical limit of tolerance for frustration and are doing other things or just visiting other sites. Time will tell I guess.

I'm new to outlook.com but have hit a possible deal breaker --can't find a way to format text with the usual shortcuts (bold, italics, etc) *from the keyboard*, so have to move the cursor up to the formatting toolbar every time.

There's no way I'd want to have the formatting toolbar as my only option, but it's impossible to find an answer to this anywhere (and searches for outlook.com often just direct to Windows or desktop Outlook, etc, where the normal keyboard shortcuts do seem to be recognized).

Thanks in advance (!) to anyone who can tell me what to change or do, or that outlook.com just doesn't offer keyboard formatting so I'll know for sure.

(I have tried changing the keyboard shortcuts "to Gmail shortcuts" where I have always been able to use those shortcuts, but made no difference at outlook.com.)

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On my Mac OS X, iCal seems to be entering some of the events I'm now adding as colored *text*, though I think all my previous event entries have been *highlighted* the (correct) color with white text?

I haven't used the calendar much, and not for awhile...is it possible that some upgrade or other has changed the text appearance, or allowed both options?

Or is there something else I don't know that would control whether events or "calendars" are colored by text-only or framed-highlighted with the color?

Thanks!

I haven't used Google Docs much, but I have created a table in a doc, and entered info into the rows and columns.

Now I don't seem to be able to move an entire row to another spot in the table though.

All info I can find online seems to refer to moving rows in "spreadsheets," but I hadn't wanted to use spreadsheets since I'm not familiar with them or Excel, etc.

Is it possible that one can move a row only in a spreadsheet though?

Secondly, I can't tell whether I have the older version or the "newer" version of Google Docs.

I also don't know if that would make a difference in not being able to move a row in a document.

Thanks in advance for enlightenment about any of these things!

Diane B.

I haven't used Google Docs much, but I have created a table in a doc, and entered info into the rows and columns.

Now I don't seem to be able to move an entire row to another spot in the table though.

All info I can find online seems to refer to moving rows in "spreadsheets," but I hadn't wanted to use spreadsheets since I'm not familiar with them or Excel, etc.

Is it possible that one can move a row only in a spreadsheet though?

Secondly, I can't tell whether I have the older version or the "newer" version of Google Docs.

I also don't know if that would make a difference in not being able to move a row in a document.

Thanks in advance for enlightenment about any of these things!

Diane B.

When quick-soaking small white beans (boil 2 minutes then let sit one hour), I notice that a lot of the skins of the beans come off.

I know that skins can block the vent of a pressure cooker when cooking beans. So how much fiber or nutrition am I missing by rinsing off all the beans (and therefore their hulls) after soaking before putting them into the pressure cooker to cook?

Or should I instead keep the hulls out on the side, then put them back into the beans to cook a few mintues after pressure-cooking the beans?

(I know to keep pressure cooker less than half full and to add some oil when cooking beans to keep foaming and skins down.)

I hate that the latest version of Chrome seems to have removed the icon for "Go" at the end of the browser bar...at least I can't find one.

That means that every time I want to copy a url into the browser bar and go to the site, I have to remove my hand from the mouse, find and press the Enter key on the keyboard, then move hand back to mouse. Huge waste of time and bad design.

I use a Mac OS , and tried to change one of the "Keyboard Shortcuts" (>System Preferences >Keyboards) to another command for the Enter key --like Cmd + W, or Cmd + Shift + D-- but neither change worked; just did what they would have done previously (closed a tab, etc).

Is there something I'm missing? Or is there perhaps another way to get around having to physically press the Enter key to go to a url. Or am I changing the Keyboard Shortcut incorrectly?

Or any other suggestions, short of reinstalling an older version of Chrome?

Thanks for any help!

Diane B.

Whenever I open Word (for Mac), a new blank document automaticallly pops up. I don't want that since I'll usually need to navigate to an existing document instead.

I checked System Preferences for Word, but didn't see any possibilities for disallowing the automatic blank document on opening.

Anyone have other suggestions? Thanks!

Diane B.

Just discovered how quick and easy it is to make excellent chicken stock in a pressure cooker(!) so now want to buy boney cartilaginous parts to freeze and use on the spur of the moment in the future.

Does anyone know if Safeway sells just poultry parts like that (backs, necks, etc), and if they're reasonably cheap?

I often want add a link at my site to a photo or several related photos (in a "lesson" for example) at Flikr that I've run across on a forum.

But the link I get after clicking on Properties (after right-clicking the image) just brings up a "farm4.static.flickr.com" link at Flikr, and that kind of link goes only to a *single* small image, on a blank page.

Instead, I want to use a link that goes to the page at Flikr that shows that image where it would normally be, which usually includes other things on the page, and 3 small photos in an upper-right box showing the photo just before this photo and the photo after it (so it's possible to all 3 --or more-- photos from just one link). A link to the "right" page will also allow a visitor to get to other "sets" or to the person's other "albums."

Can anyone explain to me how to do that at Flikr starting from a "farm4.static.flickr.com" link grabbed from Properties, or tell me that it's impossible to do from that kind of link farm/static link?

Or even tell me if "permalinks" can only be copied from Flikr blog entries, not somehow from viewing a single photo, etc.?

TIA!

Diane B.

I've had trouble in the past *finding* any button/etc that would allow me to choose a Best Answer and thought I'd looked everywhere for it.

I finally looked up the Help on giving a Best Answer again (it's below) so want to try this again to make absolutely sure I'm looking in the right place, and can find it (in 4 hrs).

Does anyone have any other tips for me on exactly where to find it, or what might prevent it from showing up for me?

TIA,

Diane B.

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What do I have to do once my question has been answered?

August 21, 2007

Once your question has been posted for at least 4 hours, you can:

* Choose the best answer (must have at least one answer):

CLICK CHOOSE AS BEST ANSWER NEXT TO YOUR CHOSEN ANSWER. Your question is considered "resolved" when a best answer is selected.

* Let the Answers' community choose the best answer (must have at least two answers): Click Edit in the action bar below your question and from the edit menu, select Ask for a Vote.

If you're not satisfied with any of the answers, you can also extend your question's expiration date and wait for more answers. To do this, click Edit in the action bar below your question and from the edit menu select Extend Expiration.

If you don't choose a Best Answer, put it to a vote, or take steps to extend the question, it automatically goes to a vote after 4 days.

I really like to eat imitation crab but the brand I used to buy (Louis Kemp) is now gone or at least I can no longer find it in metropolitan Northern California.

Other brands I've tried since have a strong unpleasant taste (often waaaay too "sweet" too), and sometimes they're also too "dry" or have an odd cooked texture.

So does anyone have any specific brands to recommend that are currently available?

Or know which stores carry Louis Kemp?

I had originally thought it was the sorbitol that gives that horrible "sweet" taste to some of them--and I'm someone who's able to taste the off-flavors of sorbitol-- but most all the packages I see nowadays do contain sorbitol, so now not sure if that's the problem.

I had also though it might be that some brands use a bit of *real* crab and others don't, but even ones that say "crab" haven't been good. Misschef mentioned in that previous question that some brands have various *types* of crab flavoring added too...maybe that's a variable, and depends on the type used?

I need to know what to look for on the packaging if I can't go by specific brand.

Thanks for any helpful info!

Diane B.

I see that I can add tags to websites when using Firefox, and I see some info on how to use them once created. But I don't see how to create them in the first place.

And can tags be added only to Bookmarked sites?

Thanks.