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Saturday, January 15, 2005

Show #109

Today: Coverage of MacWorld Expo

 toc | toc 

Today’s news items

This week’s big story is, of course, MacWorld Expo. Apple announced four new products on Tuesday. The Mac mini, the iPod Shuffle, a revision to the programs in their iLife suite, and a new word processor called Pages and an update to its presentation program, Keynote, that will be part of the iWork.

But where’s the iProduct?

And here’s a rebuttal.

Apple is suing a 19-year-old Harvard freshman for leaking information about the new products. Nicolas Ciarelli, creater of ThinkSecret.com, got it mostly right. Apple is accusing him of “inducing” Apple insiders to break their non-disclosure agreements with the company.

A sophisticated computer hacker had access to servers at wireless giant T-Mobile for at least a year, which he used to monitor U.S. Secret Service e-mail, obtain customers’ passwords and Social Security numbers, and download candid photos taken by Sidekick users, including Hollywood celebrities. T-Mobile says the hacker only accessed 400 accounts.

11a-Noon

Rick Yaeger, of MacMerc

Rick joins us with coverage of MacWorld Expo.

Jerry in Alta Dena - 180 GB external hard drive - but can only use 140GB

This is a limitation of the IDE interface. Read this Seagate PDF for a detailed explanation of the problem. The fix is to get an external drive enclosure that supports ATA/133 or better. If it were an internal drive using XP or Windows 2000 would also do the trick.

David in Long Beach - New message problem in Outlook

When he types text it jumps around in the Window. He’ll be typing in the content window and all of a sudden it appears in the To: or Subject: fields.

MechMan says: If he’s got a desktop, the PS/2 port may be going out. My mother’s old PC did this occasionally when the mouse port was dying. If the mouse starts to stutter move or stop working for a moment or two, and you have to hit the mose or shake it to make it work, then this is the problem. If you can, go to a USB mouse. Otherwise, it’s a new mobo for you.

Vazken in San Bernardino - it’s the TrackPad

If you’ve got a laptop with a trackpad pointing device your wrist can cause the problems David is experiencing. Check the Mouse control panel for a way to turn off the track pad when you’re typing.

Noon-1p

Leander Kahney, author of The Cult of Mac

Leander writes the Cult of Mac blog for Wired News and joins us to talk about Mac Fanatics.

Rebecca in Norco - looking for web design firm

She wants a good designer but also needs some back-end programming: shopping cart, database, random content. Do you have a recommendation? Add it here!

Next Generation IT Solutions

Website: http://www.ngii.us
Contact: Chanda Reaves
Director of Marketing
E-Mail: chanda@ngii.us

Eric has written some useful thoughts about Ecommerce here.

Evolve Media in Brea, CA is excellent: www.evolvemedia.com

Chris is a great web developer/designer in Corona and might be able to help. Email him at craskul@sbcglobal.net

If I may be so bold to recommend my company. We are a software company and we would hire out complex graphics (the reverse of what Leo said during the show).

wbp systems

Contact: Ben Smith
Programmer
E-Mail: ben@wbpsystems.com
Website: http://www.wbpsystems.com

Rashad in San Jose - Opening the Mac mini

Only Apple can do it. It’s like the iPod - you can pry it apart but you’ll likely damage the case. I’d suggest a visit to an Apple Store to see if you can see how the Apple Genius® opens it.

A listener writes: There is now a video documenting the process. Now there is a PDF File as well.

Matt adds: Here’s a very helpful article at macworld.com

RickMacMerc adds: You can still take your Mac mini in to a registered Apple dealer (not an Apple Store) and they will gladly sell you cheap reliable RAM and install it without a fuss. You get your cheap RAM, you keep your warranty and you help Mac dealers stave off extinction.

Rich in Long Beach - simple word processor?

AOL stores messages in its proprietary file cabinet- it’s on your hard drive as a .PFC file, usually in an AOL folder, but you have to use AOL’s software to access it.

He’s also looking for a simple word processor - Word has too many features. Here are a few good choices for Windows:

• Jarte free
• Yeah Write shareware
• 602 Office Suite

The following are free, but more complicated:

• AbiWord Free
• OpenOffice.org Free

MechMan adds: Note that 602Pro suite is no longer supported by the company. So it will not update. So it may not be up on their site for too much longer, if it hasn’t been pulled yet.

Jeff in Santa Ana adds: Jarte is NOT a replacement for Microsoft Word; it is a replacement for Wordpad—which you already have. e.g., if you use Jarte to open a .doc with bold type, it will not be displayed as bold. There are more shortcomings as well; you might as well use Wordpad.

OpenOffice.org has a reputation for being able to open Old M$ Word documents which new versions of Microsoft’s products won’t open properly. (It’s called “Backwards Compatibility” and Microsoft doesn’t care about it.)

The current stable release of OOo is 1.1.4.

It is a large (64MB) download (specify the version for Windows, if that’s what you use), but just because you have to download all or nothing, you don’t have to install the whole suite. If you only need the word processor (Writer), just do a Custom Install and specify that.

This is NOT a simple word processor; this is VERY powerful and able office software —which is what is required to replace Microsoft Word. OOo is open source software—that’s FREE (both gratis and libre). [[http://www.google.com/search?&q=open-source+gratis-*-libre+Eric+Raymond | toc

After you have opened the document with OOo, you can save it as type .doc. If you still want to torture yourself, you can open it with the M$ product (yuck) or you can continue to use OOo as your sole word processor (mmmm—freedom¹).

Walter in Marina Del Ray - looking for a laptop

Mostly Internet and email. He’s trading stocks so I’d recommend one with a big screen. Sometimes, though, the higher resolution can make it harder to read. Make sure you try before you buy - check the display, keyboard, and pointing device for usability.

I like the Fujitsus, but Sony, Acer, and Dell are also very good.

1–2p

Steve in Escondido - looking for an easy hard drive music player

He doesn’t have a home network, though. The Tivo HMO might make this possible. I’d take a look at hard drive MP3 players like the iPod or Archos GMini.

Animorphic notes that Tom’s Hardware has a review of something that would work.

Mark in Santa Ana - sharing Tivo recordings with Mom

He wants to access videos that Mom has recorded over the Internet. TivoToGo makes this possible in your home network - I’m not sure if you’ll be able to access it from the Internet. TivoToGo does come with a hidden web server that should make it possible.

Starthan mentioned that with the new 7.1 version of the TiVo software, (which should be distributed to all Series 2 (Non-DVD) boxes within the next several weeks) there is a web server installed on the TiVo. This server can let you access your TiVo via the Internet.

1. Go to https://your_tivo_ip/nowplaying/index.html (note the “s”)
2. Log in with tivo (all lower case) as the ID and your media access key as your password

You will get a page where you will see your now playing list with show descriptions, the ability to switch between “folder” and “classic” view, and a download link.

With the right port forwarding, you can access your TiVo over the Internet, but be aware: THIS ACTIVITY CAN CAUSE YOUR TIVO SERVICE TO BE CUT OFF. It is a violation of the TiVo service agreement.

Shelly in Fullerton - adding a TV tuner to a DVD player

She has a DVD player with built-in screen in her car. She wants to be able to watch broadcast TV too. The DVD player has an external input, so all you need it to attach it to a TV tuner that can handle broadcast signals (you’ll probably need an antenna, too). Something like the FlyTV will work. Radio Shack should have a variety of inexpensive choices.

Carol in Santa Clarita - can’t use VPN over Direcway

She telecommutes: does typing at home for a hospital corporation, but doesn’t have high speed Internet. She’s trying the Direcway satellite service, but it won’t work. Satellite Internet is not very good for that because its upstream connection is SO slow, modem speed really. Direcway does offer premium service for VPNs but it costs more.

Alan in Redlands - cleaning up his system

The best way to clean up windows is to re-install. But failing that I do have recommendations for clean up right here. My new favorite Windows anti-virus is NOD32. (Disclaimer: They’ll be a sponsor of the show starting next week.) I’ve been using it for some time now and love it.

Chat Logs and Show Audio

¹ Watching too much Homer (↑)