I'm considering buying a computer on eBay that has a completely empty hard drive. The eBay seller is selling a bunch of these computers and the description says that they are "off-lease." Are off-lease computers okay to buy? Will the computer work if I just install Microsoft Windows on it? How many times am I allowed to install a single copy of Microsoft Windows that I' I own?

It's a puzzle: is a Microsoft Windows Vista laptop with a crystal-clear 12.1-inch screen, 320GB hard drive, 4GB of RAM and a carrying weight - without the external Blu-Ray drive - of about four pounds a netbook? An ultralight notebook? A laptop? HP calls it an "Entertainment Notebook" and refers to it in press materials as "one of the thinnest, lightest notebooks in the market".

Whatever we call it, I was delighted to get my hands on one of these shiny, well-built DV2 computers that offered a very different PC experience than the usual low-budget, poorly assembled PC gear. Focused on multimedia capabilities and highly portable, the DV2 is a fast device with a terrific screen -- plenty crisp and bright enough to let you enjoy movies, even Blu-Ray disks via the external drive -- and a comfortable, solid feeling keyboard.

At $669 (with a $30 rebate that HP's currently offering as I write this review) the DV2 is not the least expensive notebook on the market and it's not even close to the cheapest notebook that HP offers, for that matter. But it's not price, it's value that counts, and that's where we get into another dilemma: would you be happy paying $700 for a multimedia laptop computer that only had a 12" screen?

I think the answer is "yes", because from my own testing, the attractive DV2 fits in quite well between cheaper, small-screen netbooks and more expensive, bigger-screen, heavier notebooks...

I've been doing some research on long-term stock pricing trends and need to find data on publicly traded companies. Any clues on where I can find this sort of information back for the last decade or so?

This is a big question, but I'm hoping for a small answer: what's your #1 favorite recommended technique for having a successful online advertisement?