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Saturday, Februrary 5, 2005

Show #115

Today’s news items

Here are the stories I’ll talk about in the show today. For more tech news visit my blog.

Tomorrow’s Big Game has spurred the sales of 1.4 million TVs according to the TV Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, many of them high-end flat screens.

Look for some interesting tech ads tomorrow, including one for Olympus’s weird new M:robe MP3 player/digital camera. And Napster to Go. That’s the new all-you-can-eat service based on Microsoft’s PlaysForSure encryption. For $15/month, subscribers can listen to any song in Napster’s one million song collection, even on compatible portable players. But you must keep paying if you want to keep listening. The iPod is not compatible.

It didn’t take long - someone has figured out how to overclock the Mac mini. Want a laugh? Read this Windows user’s review of the Mac mini. (It’s a joke, guys!)

The RIAA has hit a new low. They’re suing a dead woman. According to her daughter, the 83-year-old West Virginia woman hated computers. According to the RIAA, she traded 700 pop, rap, and rock songs online under the screen name smittenedkitten. The RIAA says they’ll drop the case.

According to handwriting analysts, Bill Gates is unstable and “a nervous person lacking natural leadership abilities.” Gates displayed one of his doodles at a session of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Maybe he was nervous because he was sitting next to Angelina Jolie.

Mitch adds:

On Tuesday, Microsoft will release 13 patches for Windows, including nine critical updates.

The worm that travels from computer to computer using MSN Messenger is now considered a medium-risk threat according to Trend Micro. The worm tries to spread by sending a file which looks like an image file to all of your buddies on your contact list.

Leo made a mention of Starwars Asciimation if you are interested in what it is click and see.

Mike_B’s trivia question of the day

Who was Lady “Ada” Lovelace? ¹

a) One of the first women in computer history
b) Wrote a description of Charle Babbage’s Analytical Engine
c) Namesake of a computer language
d) All of the above

11a-Noon

Beverly in Brea - saving video tapes to DVD

She wants to buy a VHS to DVD recorder. Now’s a good time. The prices have dropped quite a bit. The Panasonics (which I recommend) are as low as $120 - although I wouldn’t necessarily buy the least expensive model - try the PV-D4744. And once you’ve converted your tapes, you have a DVD VCR - which is a lot better than the old VCRs. (The $120 model is a DVD Player ONLY, not a recorder)

Ron Lewis adds:

David Pogue had a good review of several models in the 1/27/05 New York Times. (Free subscription required).

Bob in San Diego - future of PDAs

Sony, Toshiba, and Sharp are pulling out of the PDA market in the US - saying people prefer smart phones. I also hear that they’re fed up with Americans who won’t read manuals and return the devices thinking they’re “broken.” The question is: will we buy all-in-one devices: cell phones with cameras, PDAs, and MP3 players. I think they’re too complex for most people.

Tony in Jakarta adds:

In the Asia region we use a lot of smartphones. I myself use a Nokia 9500 Symbian based PDA/Smartphone. I even used it to listen to this podcast by downloading it via wifi to the phone. [wow, cool Tony! -Leo]

Robert in Manchester, NH
PDA’s make great ebook readers. I prefer to have my cell phone separately. Another thing with cell phones. People have to pay a monthly charge. A PDA is a better planner. PDAs could be made into a better ebook reader. All one needs is an SD card and you could keep your library with you.

Dick in Placentia, Ca
Since some communities are providing free wireless access, adding a program like Skype to your PDA could give you basic, free phone service along with your schedule and e-books. Other benefits include more readable displays, easier data entry, and better audio/visual capabilities.

Sean in Oceanside - hacking DISH

Check the DISH mod group on Yahoo.

Also, check the DISH rip group on Yahoo for information on how to extract the recordings from the PVR to your computer.

Noon-1p

Alan in Arizona - mmtask.dll issue with AVG and Win98 SE

This is apparently a known problem with the free AVG antivirus. Uninstall AVG 7 for now. Either get an updated version when they fix it, or pay for another AV program. I’ve been very happy with NOD32 from Eset. It’s invisible, lightweight, and 100% effective.

Jeff in Rochester Hills, MI adds:

 If you really don’t want to pay for AntiVirus, you can also try ClamWin. 

DVDMike adds:
One thing that Leo sometimes mentions (about AVG) is the “scanned by AVG” message on outgoing and incoming email messages. You can get rid of those messages by going to the Control Center, selecting Email (upper right), then Properties (lower right), then (on the Plugins tab) Configure. Under “Email Scanning”, UNcheck both “Certify mail” boxes (leave the “Check Incoming mail” and “Check Outgoing mail” boxes checked to allow scanning of incoming/outgoing email, but without the AVG ad at the bottom of each message).

Reb in Los Angeles - Tivo standalone or from DirecTV

There are pros and cons with the DirecTivo

Pros

• The monthly subscription is cheaper ($4.95/month)
• One box is both your satellite decoder and Tivo
• As a result the Tivo is recording the digital sat signal directly for better quality
• 2 tuners - You can record two channels at one time, or record one and view the other.

Negatives:

• DirecTV licenses the Tivo software so it’s not really Tivo
• No Tivo2Go, for instance and other Tivo updates are not available
• Apparently, future DirecTV PVRs won’t be Tivo

However, if you don’t want to use Tivo2Go I’d recommend the DirecTivo.

He also wanted to know about the Mac OS X firewall. Will it protect him with his Windows emulator? Yes, but you’ll still need to install the usual Windows security software. I’d also recommend a broadband router to protect your system.

As far as the new iMovie it has a great one button movie feature that automatically copies video from your camera.

Mel in San Bernadino - crashed hard drive

Her PC caught on fire last year - she still has it and she wants to get her notes off the hard drive. DriveSavers quoted her a lot of money to fix it. That’s because they use very sophisticated clean room techniques to save your data. If there wasn’t any physical damage to the drive you don’t need DriveSavers. First open the old case and check for obvious physical damage to the drive. If there is none, you can install it into a working PC. You may be able to read the drive as is (in fact, I bet you will). If not then you’ll need to open your data recovery tool kit. Some programs I recommend:

• Ghost or True Image - make an image of the drive before you mess with it.
• Spinrite - a great drive recovery tool

Glich adds: A great data recovery tool is GetDataBack. There’s a free trial that lets you do some limited retrieval of documents. If you need to recover more its not too expensive and it can be run from a BartPE disk.

MechMan adds: She could also purchase an external hard drive case to insert the drive into. Plug it in via USB or Firewire, no need to crack the case at all. External HD shells should only be about $20.

SparkieInParadise: I believe she mentioned that she saw sparks from the socket, meaning the wall socket. If this is true either the contacts are loose and the socket (receptacle) needs to be replaced or the wiring is loose on the terminals. Either way it is a fire hazard!

Rick in Nashua. NH:
If the drive is completely dead, there are a couple of other drive recovery companies to think about … Excalibur Data Recovery or Total Recall, most have an initial fee of something like $200 to take a look at the drive, but as Leo said if it is recoverable, they will bring it to a clean room … hopefully it can be recovered, but if the hard drive read heads actually DID truly CRASH into the drive platten themselves, they may not be recoverable.

Walter in Burbank - DVD copy protection

Lately DVDXcopy hasn’t been working. I’ve found this problem myself - I believe that movie companies are using additional copy protection on the discs, things like deliberate sector damage that game companies have been using for years. You might try the copy protection defeating features of Alcohol 120%

Incidentally, the movie companies sued DVDXCopy out of existence, but free programs that do the same thing are still available. Most folks seem to use DVD Decrypter to copy the disc and DVD Shrink to fit it onto a single DVD-R.

Tony in Jakarta adds:

Another use of Alcohol 120% is to copy my kids game to the HD, so they are not going to scratch the original CD.

DVDMike had this to add:

 I was listening to your show on KFI yesterday, and thought I might
 clarify a few things about those DVD copy programs.  First, about
 DVDShrink—I think that it will only do the actual burning if you have
 Nero installed (but it does do the decryption and shrink a double-layer
 disc enough to put the contents of a dual-layer DVD on a single-layer
 DVD±R/RW disc, as well as write the files on your hard drive so that
 you can burn a DVD using other burning software, if you need to).  You
 might also be interested to know that the guy who wrote DVDShrink is now
 working for the Nero folks, writing their Recode2 module (and doing a
 good job, too!).  DVDShrink is, therefore, likely not to be updated any
 more, and there are discs that it won’t copy (some of the new ones).

 Now, having said that, I’ve come to really like AnyDVD, from
 www.slysoft.com.  It is kept updated (latest version came out only a
 couple of days ago), and they do take care of most of the latest
 protection schemes (for instance, “Resident Evil: Apocalypse” had some
 sort of “bad sector” protection, and they did an update that added that
 type of protection to those that AnyDVD can bypass).  The latest
 versions also have a nice information screen which shows up when you
 insert a DVD (disabled by default, but can be easily enabled) that shows
 you all of the information about the disc, like what region(s) it’s for,
 how many layers it has (and whether they are opposite or parallel),
 whether it has an odd structure (another oddball protection scheme), and
 whether it has that “bad sector” protection.  It removes them, of course
 (it also can remove the “autorun” so-called “feature”, like that for
 installing the InterActual player)!  It can also be used in conjunction
 with other programs (like both DVDShrink and Nero’s Recode2, or other
 copying software that usually will not copy commercial discs, as well as
 working with both DVDShrink and DVD Decrpyter).  It works as a “driver”,
 decoding the DVD files on the fly, making it look like the DVD isn’t
 protected (to other programs).  I use this (usually with Nero Recode2)
 to make backups of my own discs, and it works very well!  It is a
 commercial program, though, and costs $39 (although there’s a 21-day
 trial period, without any of the features being disabled).  I recommend
 this program highly.  Oh, and as I noted before (when I added to your
 show notes a few weeks ago) it also allows you to skip over those awful
 “forced” commercials/promos/trailers at the start of many discs, go
 directly to the movie, bypassing menus and “forced” content, as well as
 to remove protected user operations (PUOs). 

Bryan in Chicago adds:

I travel a lot and like to have a couple DVD’s archived to my hard drive, as Leo mentioned in the broadcast, keeping them as a file on the hard drive is easier than physical disks and uses much less battery while playing. I use a combination of DVD Decrypter to get the VOB files extracted and unencrypted and a program called AutoGK to convert to .avi format and compress in DivX or XviD.

There’s a great article at Engadget that takes you through the process. They include an extra step of converting the DivX or XviD file to a format compatible with the pending Sony PSP.

1–2p

Brian in La Habra - Mac vs PC

Whoo boy! Listen to the podcast for my thoughts.

Warren in West LA - wireless internet signal 150 yards through masonry walls

I think Wi-Fi can do this, but call Net Nimble and ask for their suggestions.

He also use Kai’s Power Show to make presentations with his home videos and pictures, but it’s no longer being updated. Anyone know of anything comparable? I love Picasa and Adobe Photoshop Album, but neither of them have those capabilities.

A listener adds: How about Proshow Gold

You can also try this: http://www.picturetotv.com/

John in Claremont - copying DVDs

He recommends DVD Shrink - it’s free and works great.

A listener writes: For those DVD’s that won’t rip using DVDShrink, use DVDDecrypter to rip, VOBBlanker to repair, and DVDShrink to shrink and burn the backup DVD.

A listener asks: Is there a Mac solution?

Leo replies: DVDShrink is Windows only. The Mac analog is DVD2One.
John Horvatic adds: MacTheRipper and Roxio’s Popcorn works great on the Mac!

Rich from Merrimack N.H. Asks Why are the mp3′s downloadable before next week and also last week, the 29th, is there and no 30th. Also, when you listen to the mp3 from Jan 29, it is the Jan 30 broadcast. Why is that? Also the 30th is not ready to download. Pls don’t misunderstand, I’m not irritated. I really appreciate what you’re doing Leo. Besides, I like geting these mp3s early anyway… just don’t uderstand the system. P.s. Thanks for the edit

Did anyone try to backup the “Lords Of Dogtown” DVD? I think there is a new Sony encryption on this one. The DVD structure is very complicated. It will play on settop players but will not decrypt with any DVDDecrypter software. This could be the end to backingup DVDs thanks to Sony’s new Arccos copy protection. Please check afterdawn web site for info.
afterdawn.com.

Chat Logs and Show Audio

¹ d) All of the above. Wrote a description of Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine. She is the daughter of poet Lord Byron and considered to be one of the first female figures in computer history. The programming language Ada is named after her. (↑)