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I am new to Ubuntu and to basically every OS other than Windows so please bear with my ignorance.

I have just installed Ubuntu 10.10. I'm trying to install all of the drivers for my graphics card, wireless usb, etc, and I can't figure out how to install the drivers for these devices like I would for Windows. I have all of the CDs that came with them, but when I put the CDs into the drive I can't get anything to install.

I can't get on to the Internet on that computer to maybe install them from online because my wireless USB won't work without the driver. How, if it's even possible, can I get these drivers to install so I can make the most of what my computer can do?

I know that many scientists today say that the universe is expanding. However, I was thinking the other day in class about red/blueshift. I thought for a while and thought to look at it from a perspective of a contracting universe. My thoughts were that, what if the mysterious acceleration of the expansion of the universe is actually collapsing upon itself and the observed acceleration is due to the galaxies, etc. accelerating towards the center of the universe. This could explain some of the redshifts and blueshifts of galaxies in this way, any masses on the other side of the center of the universe would be blueshifting, any masses farther away from the plane perpendicular to the line drawn from the center to the Earth would redshift, any mass within a range to be a the surface of a sphere which the center to the Earth is the radius would blueshift and the remaining masses would redshift.

The collapse of the universe explains the acceleration that many of scientists have said is due to a theoretical "dark energy" without having to invent another form of yet unknown and undiscovered form of matter/energy as the collapse would cause masses closer to the center to accelerate much faster, given that the distance is so great that the difference in observable gravitational force would create a measurable difference in acceleration..

I know that there are surveys of redshift, but as a high school student I have no idea how to read them, so if there are any full surveys, do they refute or confirm what I said? I am only thinking for myself and am wondering what other people's thoughts are what I said. I'm not looking for just a "No, the universe is expanding." kind of response, but more of general thoughts or evidence that would irrefutably prove my thoughts wrong.

I know that according to Einstein's Theory of Relativity (I don't remember if it was special or general) that and object moving close to the speed of light the object experiences Time Dilation, which I have come to understand means that if the object were a spaceship then a person on board would age slower than a person on Earth.

What I don't know is why this is believed to be so. When I imagine this using the same method that Einstein used when he first theorized this, which is imaging he was on a bus travelling away from a clock tower, I see that when moving constantly at the speed of light away from the clock tower, the light travelling from the tower would be moving parallel to you and therefore you would not see any change in the clock, giving the illusion that time has stopped.

However, if one were to imagine instead of moving away from the tower that they were moving towards the tower, the light rays would meet you twice as fast, giving the illusion that time around you is moving faster than it is around the clock.

What I want to know is, if this is the case, why is it believed that time slows around an object moving near the speed of light. Is it because of the warp that would be caused by an infinite mass creating extreme gravity or am I missing something as I am only thinking with the mind of a high school senior?

I was inspired in listening to Carl Sagan and thought about how to reach distant stars. An obvious problem is, of course, communications as we know them only travel as fast as the speed of light. I tried to find a way around this and thought of only one way. Does anyone know if this is possible or what it is called if it already has a name:

Here it is: Einstein's theory of relativity states that a particle cannot move faster than the speed of light, but the fabric of space-time can and does. Communication as we know it travels in waves. I thought that maybe there could be a way to cause a wave to travel through the space-time and therefore travel faster than light as a way of communication. I am unsure whether or not this could work or if it has already been thought of, but if it will work, we could solve the problem of faster than light communication and need only worry about travel velocity to move interstellar distances.

I've always been curious if it is the computer itself or the Operating system that makes Macs have fewer viruses than PC.

All I can remember is a boy is dreaming of a kingdom, the princess falls in love with him, he is always wearing pajamas, and there was a short fat criminal friend who was always smoking a cigar.