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Sunday, December 26, 2004

Show #104

Did you get a new PC this Christmas? Make sure to read my articles on Spyware Prevention, Installing Windows Safely, and Must Have Security Software.

Get a new Mac this Christmas? Relax and enjoy.

 toc | toc 

Today’s news items

In the year 2029 asteroid 2004MNH will pass very closely to the earth. In fact, astronomers estimate that it has a 1 in 45 chance of actually hitting us, with a force equal to a 1600 megaton explosion (that’s about 100,000 Hiroshimas, if you’re keeping score).

Time Magazine learned 10 things from blogs. Just 10?

Google to the rescue. The Internet search site was being used by the new Santy.A worm to look up phpBB-based bulletin boards to attack. Google engineers have blocked the requests, halting the worm in its tracks. Santy may have infected as many as 30,000 BBSs before it was stopped.

Here’s some consolation if you couldn’t find a Nintendo DS to put under the tree. USA Today is saying that the new Sony PSP is a category killer that has the potential to be a worldwide hit. With a 4.3 inch LCD, 32MB or RAM, Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, and awesome graphics for around $190 the PSP should outgun the DS. USA Today’s reviewer didn’t like the proprietary UMD disc format, though. The PSP is available in Japan now, North America this spring.

Will they or won’t they. Wednesday the Yomimuri Shimbun published a story that said that Sony would be abandoning the plasma TV market in the spring to focus on LCD and projection sets. Now Sony denies the story entirely. Hmmm.

What a year for viruses. Infections hit a record of 37,102,323 this year according to Trend Micro. August was the worst month with 3,809 new viruses discovered. Netsky.P was the most distributed virus, and six of the year’s ten worst were spread via email.

Mike B’s trivia question of the day

In 1984, a milestone new computer system is released, with Microsoft taking a leading role in developing software for it. What is the computer system called? ¹.
a) Commodore 64
b) Apple Macintosh
c) Amiga 500
d) Atari 800

Noon-1p

Ken in San Bernardino - image backup vs filebackup

Image backups are for the times when you need an instant restore. But I recommend backing up data to CD-R weekly, just by copying. My favorite imaging software: Symantec Ghost.

Bob from San Diego adds: Try Acronis True Image. You run it from Windows. It is a breeze to set up and run. I make a full image and then have True Image make an incremental image for backup every night.

You can also open an image from Windows and copy backup files as needed. Does everything Leo discussed. I save the images to an external hard drive and CDs or DVDs.

Use the free Firefox to reduce spyware infections.

Dennis in Altadena - copying VHS-C or Hi8 to DVD

Use a DV camcorder with analog in or passthrough to copy the analog video to your computer. Or you can use Pinnacle System’s MovieBox DV - get the Firewire version, not USB. Then use a DVD burner from LiteOn (they’re very inexpensive and work great).

Michael in Granada Hills - OS not found

He didn’t change hardware but reformated the hard drive. Now it won’t boot saying it can’t find the OS. It could be that your CMOS battery is dead, but I’d try entering the System BIOS setup first and resetting the Extended System Configuration Data - ESCD.

Alex in Baldwin Park - iPod accessory recommendations

Apple has a great catlog of accessories from a variety of manufacturers.

• Altec-Lansing’s inMotion speakers. Amazon has the version one inMotion for $100, but I do like the new im3s better
• Griffin’s iTrip
• Griffin’s iTalk
• Marware Cases
• Etymotic headphones are pricey but sound fantastic. There’s a lower cost version, too.
• is a great way to download audio books to your iPod - my favorites: Life of Pi.

1–2p

Professed teen-geek Matthew Bischoff joins us for an update on Podcasting and Gigadial.

Gigadial helps you find podcasts by publishing people’s recommendations. Or create an inbox and have others send you suggestions.

Mashups may not be strictly legal, but they’re on the cutting edge of collaborative musical creation.

Recommended podcasts:

Evil Genius Chronicles
Jimmy Jet
Openpodcast.org
Engadget’s podcast

Pat in Michigan - computer randomly reboots

Three areas to look at:

1. Software
2. Hardware
3. Power

He’s running Windows XP so it’s less likely to be a software problem, but it still could be if Windows or a driver has a bad bug it could be writing to a critical area of memory that could literally be rebooting the machine. It also could be a hardware problem - which is tougher to diagnose. An overheating processor, flaky power supply, failing motherboard, or any of a hundred other things could be causing it. The only way to figure that out is to, one by one, swap out parts until you find the culprit. It could also be a power problem - putting a UPS battery backup on the system should fix that problem.

Charles in Ontario - his new insignia portable DVD player doesn’t display movies properly

Widescreen movies look distorted or don’t fill the screen. That’s not normal - check the manual to make sure you’ve got the settings right.

Stan G. in Burbank adds: Charles’ problem may be the poor documentation which accompanied his Insignia DVD Player

Charles might be caught between trying to determine whether or not to ‘raise the bridge’ or ‘lower the water.’ Many of these inexpensive players come with little to poor documentation. Conversely, I have seen major manufacturers put a concerted effort into good documentation.

However, with that being said, a vast majority of DVD players - portable and set-top - use the ‘same functions’. Learn the basics and you can operate any DVD player. Don’t confuse this as the ‘same DVD spec’ mentioned next; techno-geeks will know what I’m talking about. This is due to the multifaceted DVD Specification which was agreed upon in the Fall of 1996 by manufacturers, motion picture studios, working groups, etc.

What does this mean to Charles?

First, he has to read the back of the DVD package - like Leo suggested. Determined in which Aspect Ratio the product was produced (e.g. 1.85:1, 2.35:1, 1.33:1, etc.). Look for the presence or absence of the word “anamorphic.” Every DVD disc has different formatting options in which it was mastered.

I’m making a guess but, from Charles’ call, I think he had a ‘2.35:1′ Aspect Ratio program. He mentioned he could see ‘black bars’ at the top of the picture. With an Anamorphic 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio feature, you would not see these ‘black bars’ at the top of the screen - regardless of whether or not Charles has the player’s settings properly set. With a 2.35 Aspect Ratio show, you ‘will’ see those black bars. Some manufacturers have added features which allow TV screens to ‘zoom in/out’ to eliminate these ‘black bars.’

Second, using the remote control or controls on the Insignia, Charles needs to find the Setup Menu. This is the on-board Menu of the player. Be sure NOT to have the DVD disc in the player or, you might get confused. Select an option which matches the Aspect Ratio in which the DVD disc was mastered. Let’s say my guess was correct - Charles’ DVD disc was an anamorphic 2.35 Aspect Ratio program - he needs to select the anamorphic setting. Every manufacturer calls this setting different things (e.g. 16×9; Anamorphic; Wide Screen, etc.).

Third, place the DVD disc in the player and play a portion of the feature. Unless you are a graphics expert don’t use the disc menus as a guide to proper screen display. The picture should look properly formatted for the screen. Some people only have the ole 4×3 Aspect Ratio TVs unlike the newer 16×9/Widescreen monitors today. This was a key feature built into the DVD Specification developed in the late ‘90s. It allowed the player to playback the discs on either TV screen (read as Aspect Ratio). Late ‘90s? You would think I meant 1890!

Now, for the techno-geeks, there are highly technical issues which wouldn’t apply to the above recommendations. Though, if Charles knew them, he’d already know how to setup his player.

So, does Charles need to ‘raise the bridge’ or ‘lower the water’ to properly playback his discs? Using the above guide, he should be able to properly setup his player.

Try using your favorite search engine and input ‘dvd magazine’ for a sea of resources.

2–3p

David in Reseda - lost filtergate password and python23.dll

I would contact the company - they’ll undoubtedly have a back door for you. Otherwise, visit www.peacefire.org - they may have a password crack for it.

He’s also getting an error message on boot: missing python23.dll. Python is a programming language, which has been uninstalled, but some program that needs it is looking for it. The problem is, this could be a trojan horse program. For example, W.32.remabl is written in Python and requires python32.dll. It’s possible that during virus or spyware disinfection part but not all of the malware was removed.

Kerry in Barstow - sharing Direcway

She has the old Direcway satellite box with a USB connector - how can she share it. The newer Direcway boxes have ethernet out and can work with a router, but you need to use Windows Internet Connection Sharing. This article explains how. DSL Reports has an excellent Satellite FAQ.

Amy in Claremont - XP system hesitates all the time

She’s been careful to check for spyware and viruses (often a cause of this problem) and it even happens on a clean install. She’s used www.Blackviper.com to disable unnecessary services that could also be slowing things down. I suggested disabling the Wireless Zero Configuration service - that’s a known problem with wireless networks and XP, but not likely the culprit. She could also have a flaky hard drive; Spinrite is the best diagnostic tool for that.

Possible solution from Simon (Montréal,Québec): Amy mentioned she was using Shareaza. I was experience the same agonizing slow downs and found that Shareaza was the culprit. I uninstalled it and never experienced the same problem again. I now use Azarus for my torrent downloads and it does not suffer from the crawling slowdown syndrome.

Rich in Missouri - listening to iTunes Store music in other players

His MP3 player can’t play iTunes Music.

This is a nasty side effect of the copy protection the music labels are forcing music stores to use. There are two common formats: Protected-AAC and Windows Media.

iTunes and iPods - and only those - use Apple’s licensed fairplay DRM software to protect their AAC files, which use a compression comparable to but probably better than MP3 files.

Most other stores have adopted the protected Windows Media file format, which for now can only be played on a Windows PC, but has the advantage of being supported by most portable music (MP3) players.

This means that you have to choose your music store, then choose your player.

Alternatively, if you’re using the iTunes store you can, at potential risk of violating the DMCA and Apple’s iTunes EULA, remove the music you’ve paid for from it’s DRM software.

HYMN does that, but you’ll also need to use FairKeys to find your Apple Store key that iTunes uses to decrypt the files. You’ll want to follow along in the Forums for the latest instructions, as iTunes changes its DRM from time to time. (Keep a backup of your protected files).

Once you get the music files out of the digital rights software, you can use iTunes to convert them to the more compatible MP3 format if your player can’t handle the AAC files.

I use the iOpener program. It’s very simple and it removes the protection from the entire iTunes library with one click.
-Serpent

Chat Logs and Show Audio

¹ Answer is b) Apple Macintosh (↑)