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Sunday, January 23, 2005

Show #112

 toc | toc 

Today’s news items

Good night, Johnny.

Wi-Fi now rules the roost, according to a new research report concluding that wireless technology has gained a slight edge over Ethernet cables in home networks. The survey, by research firms Parks Associates, found that 52 percent of U.S. households with a home network were using wireless technology, compared with 50 percent for Ethernet and about 5 percent for power line networking via electrical wires.

Internet Explorer is continuing to lose share to the open-source Firefox Web browser. In the past month, use of Microsoft Corp.’s dominant browser fell another 1.5 percentage points to 90.3 percent. Meanwhile, the Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox browser rose 0.9 percentage points to reach 5 percent, Web analytics provider WebSideStory Inc. confirmed Thursday.

Mitch Adds:
You will soon be able to use your laptop when you visit many of the California State parks thanks to SBC, who is installing Wi-Fi access points in more than 85 state parks. The service won’t be free however, but the revenue will be shared with the state of California. San Elijo State Beach will be the first location SBC will install the Wi-Fi access.

The owner of Think Secret who was looking for legal help last week now has representation. Terry Gross of Gross & Belsky LLP will be representing Think Secret in the lawsuit filed against them by Apple earlier this month.

Apparently the iPod shuffle is having some problems connecting to older Apple computers. The G3 iMac and the eMac don’t have enough space around the USB ports for the shuffle to fit, so Apple is suggesting that users should buy the dock to solve the problem.

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11a-Noon

Gail in Upland - moving data from Performa 6115 to iMac

The Performa doesn’t have a firewire connector - too bad, if it did you could use target disk mode. I recommend buying a Firewire external drive enclosure, removing the hard drive from the Performa and installing it in the enclosure. Then you can use it an external drive with the iMac - it’s a backup drive, too.

Armando adds:
Another option would be to transfer files via network connection. You would need to obtain an AAUI-15 to RJ45 transceiver for the Performa. There are a few on eBay (try searching “mac transceiver” or “AAUI”). You can then connect the Performa to your network or obtain a “cross-over” cable for a mac-to-mac connection. Setting up file sharing may take another call to Leo.

Westminster Dave:
The 6115 should have an ethernet port you can put your files in web sharing and download them from your new machine. If you have a router or can borrow one this is a fast and cheap solution. I had the same problem and I did this and it worked great.

Digital camera recommendations:
Canon EOS Digital Rebel
Olympus C5050

Camcorder recommendation:
Pansonic PVDV53

But I’d read the reviews at www.camcorderinfo.com and www.digitalcamerainfo.com

Gayleen in Moreno Beach - best paper for her Xerox 8200 Phaser printer

She’s tried photo paper for inkjets, but it smears. That’s not surprising. The Phaser is more like a laser printer, but it uses solid ink techology. I’d recommend sticking with Xerox brand supplies since this is kind of an oddball technology.

Chris in Long Beach - Laptop for England

You needn’t worry about using a laptop overseas. Virtually all new laptops have auto-sensing power supplies and are able to run on AC from 110–250 volts. If your laptop’s power adapter is rated for international use it will contain the following label:

 INPUT: 100 ~ 240 Volts 1.5 Amps 50 - 60 Hz

If your laptop is not rated for international use and the country you are visiting doesn’t use 110 volts you will need to buy a step-down voltage transformer.

I would recommend replacing the plug when you get to England, or you can use an adapter to adjust the US plug to fit the British mains.

Will in Norwalk - paper for Gayleen

He recommends HP Photo Brite Double Density Laser Paper.

PalmOS security in Wi-Fi, use handheld browser PocketLink, palmgear.com

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Noon-1p

Ann in South Bay - using DVD Audio Extractor

she wants to separate out just the left and right stereo channels, and eleiminate the surround information and center channel dialog.
Audacity, Adobe Audition

Analog pass-through video camera

Vocal remover software
AnalogX

AudioHijacker

Alison in Mission Viejo - Auto navigation systems

She’s looking at the Apline and Pioneer in-dash GPS systems. She wants one that folds away when the car is off. I don’t have any experience with either.
epinions.com
http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/learningcenter/car/navigation.html

edmunds.com

Joe in Burbank -

Mysteries of AOL

Chad in Van Nuys - microfilm scanner

Randy in Scotts Valley -

Apline units are excellent.
Recording real media, and streaming Total Recorder
VCR streaming
ASFRecorder, SDP
http://www.wmrecorder.com/rm_recorder.php

Here’s a survey of lots of programs http://all-streaming-media.com/
Read this PC World review

Aaron on the Imperial Highway -

Your Mac Life
Scott E-Vest
iPhoto
Garage Band
Sony Ericsson T610

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1–2p

Mary in Banning - Looking at new notebooks

There are some things that are subjective when you buy a notebook: only you can tell if you like its keyboard, pointing device and display, However, if you’re buying a Windows notebook make sure to get at least 512MB of RAM, a CD burner/DVD player, and built-in wireless networking. You might want to wait for notebooks with Intel’s next generation Centrino technology: Sonoma. It’s much improved offering next generation PC technologies like a 533mhz bus, DDR2 RAM, PCI Express, and improved video and audio. Plus it supports stack execution disabling, a very important security feature.

Jessica in Fallbrook - Protecting her PC and Locking the system clock

Her system has a new account: ASP.NET, and Network Neighborhood shows several other systems she knows nothing about. She’s on a cable modem. The extra account is normal - it’s created by the .NET installer and nothing to worry about. I suspect the other computers are her neighbor’s systems and she’s seeing them over the cable. That can happen on a poorly configured cable modem system. I’d run to the store and buy a broadband router like the Linksys Etherfast. That will make her invisible to those other guys.

She’s also looking for software to prevent employees from changing the system time in Windows. Try Clockwatcher.

JohnDGeek adds: You might want to think about a standard configuration that coincides with your ideal standards. Once that is established you can create an image and distribute new computers that way. An other suggestion is mobile automation software. This will allow current and new users to operate at a set standard. Lastly run Microsoft Management Console (MMC from the run command for Win2k and XP)on each system. It will allow the admin the ability to modify many of the user and local settings including the ability to change the time.

Jenny in Torrance - Puzzler of the Week

I’d really like some help with this one. Jenny has a 200 GB hard drive with 120 GB of MP3s. The filenames, folders, and tags match but when she plays the songs she hears the wrong audio. What’s wrong?

Post your solutions right here:

JohnDGeek adds: If the application that plays the audio file stores a temp file with her playlist or all the files available, it could be munged. Purging the temp files should help then. I use and don’t have any problems myself.

I definitely think its the FAT that got corrupted. The simplest solution to try first is a simple scandisk on the drive, this may fix it. Also you should see if there is any method to the madness, if there are any patterns as far as the difference between what you play and what you hear, for example if you select file 1 and it plays file 11, then you try file 15 and it plays file 26 theres 10 files in between them. Also, you should try copying a few of the files to your desktop and see if the same thing happens. -AceMilo

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