I'm trying to get a top-rated business, but nearly all of the customers who show up already have 5 stars, so the business isn't progressing.   How can I get new customers without any stars?

Perhaps this one should be stickied and the other one about Twojeffs removed.

Sorry to be clueless, but even if you use the Maxis tool to remove SecureRom, won't it just install itself the next time you play using the CD?  I haven't been to the EA site, but are they recommending you use a no-CD crack?

Oh, would you?  Please, please, please?   I'd love to have them.

Perhaps the dormies in the standard Uni neighborhoods are pre-made.  The dormies I see in the custom Unis I have made look like they use the alternate face templates I have loaded.

There's one here in Peasantry, at
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,9923.0.html

There's a cat?  What cat?  Where?

I'll take a stab at this, although I may be wrong.  I believe it is part of kitty pidgin, and means "more."  Check out LOLcats, aka cat macros - here's an example.
http://icanhascheezburger.com/category/moar/

Speaking of animations, I don't remember seeing the check-my-underarrms one lately.  Did that go away during one of the EPs or do I just not have the right kind of sims?

I haven't tried your beach lot yet, but just in case it doesn't work for me, could you put up some pictures in this or the original thread?  I don't have much imagination for creating but I can copy just fine.

Most definitely.  I hate building but your scenario sounds like fun, and I'd like to subject one of my new grads to it.  Be sure to say how much money it costs.  Thanks!

Do you never have a problem with guests at a party hanging around chatting in the bathroom and a sim who needs to use it has to shoo them out?  The best part of BUY is that sims immediately vacate the bathroom when they're done.

Is it still a VBT to save a lot while a sim is talking on a cellphone?

What happens when you replace the hotel doors with regular doors?  Can your sims sleep in those rooms even if you don't reserve them?  Although hotel lots are so laggy that I can't bear sleeping in the hotel, I just use maxmotives so they can get back to having fun at a normal speed.  This is the only place I have ever used maxmotives, normally I consider it too cheaty.

I have the guide right here, and it is the seasonal quadrants that are matched.  I.e. if you are in quadrant 3 at home, and it's fall, then your vacation site will also be in quadrant 3.  That would be summer for Twikkii Island (summer, summer, summer, summer), fall for Takemizu Village (spring, spring, fall, fall) and winter for Three Lakes (fall, fall, winter, winter).

Do a book and the TV count as duplicate cooking skilling items?

The couple of times I've released butterflies, my sim went to the back of the lot.  I don't remember how long the butterflies stayed there.

I can't even click on the butterflies/fireflies.  I keep moving the cursor all around near them and on the ground but the little hand never pops up.  So I can never direct my sims to catch them, they just have to do it spontaneously.

This other thread http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,9199.0.html says that changing names in SimPE is dangerous, but I do it often - first name, last name, family name (the one that shows with the lot).  Have I been messing up my 'hoods?

Sometimes it seems like it just depends on what the InterTubes are doing at the time.  Just try later and see if it comes up then.  It's happened to me, and trying again usually works.

Aha, I see.  If you turn everyone on a lot into a townie, does the lot retain its furnishings?

How is making the other playable sims into townies different from just not playing them and letting them stay in their houses?

What are those green and orange things on the floor next to the keg? I never really looked at them before.

What about the ones with names like cx_Character_cx_yada_yada_etc?  Only 1 KB big.  Leftovers from lots with characters included that Clean Installer removed?

This is so cool!  I never would have thought of using Clean Installer this way.  I found 2 duplicates which I removed.