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Saturday, February 12, 2005

Show #117

 toc | toc 

Today’s news items

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

Carly Fiorina is out at Hewlett-Packard, saying she quit in a dispute with the board over the future direction of the company. The board’s chair was quoted in the NY Times as saying “These things always seem precipitous when they occur. But the board has been deliberating the company’s performance, and the C.E.O.’s performance, for quite some time.” But don’t cry for me Fiorina, Carly’s getting a severance package worth $21.1 million. HP shares closed at 21.53 up nearly 7% on the news. When Fiorina started with HP in 1999 the stock price was over 40.

The Motion Picture Association of America has taken over LokiTorrent. The bittorrent tracker site was attempting to raise money to fight the MPAA, but a court order shut it down yesterday. Even more chilling, the court ordered LokiTorrent to give the MPAA their domain and all the server logs. The site now features the threat, “You can click but you can’t hide. Stealing movies leaves a trail. The only way not to get caught is to stop.” Makes me want to steal a movie right now.

This isnt the end of the bittorrent movement They cant stop all the sites. If the MPAA want to stop this sort of file sharing, then why do they not make these files available online for a reasonable price and globally. Also if we are watching TV why not let the studios post them when they are on air including the ads. Such a move would reduce the illigal sharers considerably.

11a-Noon

Mike in Santa Monica - sharing files over Firewire on XP

XP sees Firewire (IEEE1394) cables as network devices. Plug in the cables, enable Ethernet over Firewire (that should happen automatically), then use network file sharing to copy the files.

Ann in Simi Valley - copying DVDs on a Mac

• I use DVD Backup to make an exact (unprotected) copy of the DVD on my hard drive. It’s free.
• Handbrake is useful for recompressing the movie only into an MPEG-4 file that’s usually under 1GB - perfect for making copies of movies you might want to keep on your drive for a while.
• To shrink a movie down so it fits on a single disc use DVD2OneX - free to try, $50 to buy
• Many recommend Mac the Ripper. It’s free.

Dont forget Roxio’s Popcorn to get the movie to fit onto one disc. Ann adds - I bought Popcorn - it was easy, quick and efficient. Good recommendation. Thank you!

NetJocky adds - Two free programs for Windows users

DVD Decrypter allows you to play back the DVD on any equipment by removing encryption.

DVD Shrink allows you to re-compress or cut-out unwanted data, like menus and extras, to reduce the overall size (re-compressing will sacrifice quality but cutting-out unwanted data will not).

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. This could be the end to backingup DVDs thanks to Sony’s new Arccos copy protection. Please check afterdawn web site for info.

Mary in Palos Verdes - can’t get her USB drive to work on Windows 98SE

USB drives use a driver called the USB Mass Storage Class. XP and OS X have the driver built-in, but older operating systems require installation. That’s why many USB drives come with a disk for Windows 98. You don’t have to use the manufacturer’s driver though. You can use one from Microsoft.

Bob in Brea - I had the exact same experience with this USB Storage device (SANDISK 512K). While the package does not clearly state it, this drive is only USB 2.0 compatable. I loaded drivers, etc. and nothing worked on Windows 98 (Because it was only USB 1.1). Everything worked fine on Windows XP because the machine was USB 2.0.

aussie_ian from South Australia - Bob, if you want to use that drive on your old computer, look at buying a USB 2.0 card from your local computer shop. Cheap and easy to install, theres life in that old pc yet!

Bill in Torrance - beasties have infected my computer

He has a cable modem. The best procedure at this point is to install a broadband router to act as a firewall. Then change all your passwords. Also install anti-spyware and anti-virus.

A listener writes: Does anyone have any idea about surge protectors for DSL? When I tried Earthlink they said not to use the phone line protector built into my UPS / Surger protector. I am now upgrading from DSL Extreme dialup to DSL. and I am concerned about voltagees fro lightning and powerlines adjacent to the phone cables frying my harware.

Another listener replies: Don’t worry about surge protection. Our house has been struck by lightning before and nothing happened to our DSLextreme modem. But if you really want a surge protector for your DSL modem, I’m not sure. Try calling DSLextreme.

Leo says: You were just lucky - you definitely should have surge suppression for your modems (DSL or dialup). They fry very easily. Most good UPS and surge suppressors have RJ-11 jacks suitable for the purpose - despite Earthlink’s warnings they should not interfere with your DSL, but nothing will protect you against a direct lightning strike. Check to see if the suppressor offers insurance for those times. I recommend suppressors from APC and Tripp-Lite.

Noon-1p

Tim in San Diego - Toshiba laptop keyboard is flakey

He can’t get the 8 i k or ‘ keys to work unless CapsLock is on and he’s holding the Shift key. I guess this could be a software problem. (First make sure you don’t have the NumLock turned on). Plug in an external keyboard or change the keyboard definition using the Regional and International options control panel. If it’s still not working you’ll have to clean or replace the keyboard.

His battery life has gone to 8 minutes - it’s LiON but the laptop is five years old. It’s likely time to buy a new one, but you can try to recondition it by completely discharging it and recharging it several times.

Jeff in Michigan adds:
I actually had the same problem on a older DELL Latitude CPxJ laptop. Fortunately, it was my work laptop so I simply had them replace the keyboard for me. A few weeks later, the same thing started to happen. To make a long story short, I had them replace the keyboard 5 times, and I still had the problem. The tech said it was a common problem on some laptops (particularly the older DELL Latitudes). What happens is the thin ribbon cable that plugs the keyboard into the motherboard can get damaged fairly easily. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a fix. I found that I could get a few more weeks of use if I unscrewed the keyboard (from the bottom), removed it, and then put it back in. I ended up used an external keyboard most of the time.

Dave in Michigan adds:
I had this same issue with my older Dell laptop along with many others in the company. What usually fixed our problem was the keyboard screws would be loose or missing. After awhile from hauling the laptop around, the screws tend to loosen and even fall out in some cases. On the back of the laptops some manufactures (Dell) put a letter “K” near a screw, helping the tech know what ones to remove to get the keyboard out. We replaced the missing ones and tightened all the other ones. This seemed to fix the problem.

Jon Adds To get the best life out of Li-Ion batteries here are a few suggestions. If you’re not planning on using the battery for extended periods of time, discharge it to 40% and store it in a cool place (around 50 degrees Fahrenheit). Also never, NEVER, deep discharge Li-Ion batteries. Doing so causes their charge capacity to drop. Finally keep them from high temperatures. High temps cause damage to the cells and reduces their capacity.

Ed in San Juan Capistrano - choosing an LCD monitor

Look at contrast ratio, response time (for gaming only), color accuracy (if you do graphics). I prefer to actually examine the LCD I’m going to buy in person, just in case there are any stuck pixels. I would also put up some black text on a white screen to see how crisp the text looks. (Ed does taxes and stares at spreadsheets all day.)

It’s not quite the deal it was, but $674 for a 20″ Dell widescreen LCD is still great.

Jeff in San Francisco writes: With regard to the caller who just called in about LCD monitors, it’s interesting to note that Macworld magazine’s new March issue had a 23-inch roundup review and Carly Fiorina’s HP came out number 1 with its L2335 LCD monitor. Sugg. Price - $1599.00. It’s also interesting that the editors thrashed the new 23-inch Apple Cinema Display

Jeff in Michigan adds: I believe Samsung announced they would no longer sell LCDs with dead pixels, essentially having a “zero dead pixel” policy. (I can’t remember for sure which company it was - pretty sure it was Samsung.)

Ernesto in San Gabriel - vacation photos are damaged

He and his wife took the pictures (2000 of them!) on their Nikon then copied them to CD-R using the Roadstor. Unfortunately, one roll is unusable. He can see a thumbnail of the images in Canon’s Zoombrowser but no other program will open them. Sounds like a damaged JPEG file. There are some good free CD and CF recovery tools at http://www.pcinspector.de. Anyone have any other recommendations?

Manuel in Palmdale - bonding cable and DSL connections

There’s no good way to do this. If your connections were from the same ISP you could use modembonding, but not from different ISPs. I’d ask if your providers have higher speed service like Verizon’s FIOS.

Doug in Boston - Outlook takes two times to start

He’ll start it, it crashes, then it starts fine. I suspect a damaged plug-in: PGP, anti-spam, anti-virus, etc. Try disabling them to see if they’re causing the problem. You might also want to compact the PST file to rebuild the indexes. In Outlook 2003, select File→Data File Management… then double-click your data file and press the Compact button.

Mike_B says: Start Outlook in safe mode (outlook.exe /safe) and do a detect and repair.

1–2p

Laura in Pasadena - just bought the 17″ PowerBook

She was having some problems with iSync popping up when she watches DVDs.
I recommend getting a three-button mouse for the right-click.

Steve in Moreno Valley - imaging CD games on Mac

He wants to copy his daughter’s computer games to the hard drive because the CDs keep getting damaged. On the PC I’d use Alcohol 120% - it can backup copy protected CDs and create disc images that can live on your hard drive. If the disc isn’t copy protected Apple’s Disk Utility (in Applications/Utilities) will make a disk image you can mount to use the program. If you use Roxio’s Toast program, you can also make .iso images of disks for backup.

Tony in Jakarta, Indonesia adds: I’m testing/creating image using Disk Utility with “The Incredibles” game and it seems to work. Just create an image with DVD/CD master image Format with encryption to none. Mount the image and run the program/game. Don’t have other Mac game to test.

Mark in Hermosa Beach - digitizing video with Firewire

He has an HP laptop with a PC card firewire connector. Video is pixellated when it comes in - I suspect it’s because the PC card interface isn’t fast enough. Even the 32-bit Card Bus connectors can only handle 128-mbits burst - that’s much slower than the 400mbps rate of Firewire.

A (misguided) listener writes: PCMCIA and Fireware are not that compatible due to speed issues. However USB 2.0 is FASTER than Firewire, therefore I would suggest finding a USB 2.0 → Firewire device that will convert a USB 2.0 port (not 1.1) to a Firewire port. You can also find devices from Pinnacle Systems www.pinnaclesys.com) and look at their Studio Moviebox USB device.

Leo replies: despite the nominal higher speed of USB 2.0 over Firewire 400 (480 mpbs/sec vs 400 mpbs) the nature of USB means it’s not actually faster. That’s why it’s not an option for copying from DV camcorders. Stick with Firewire but only if you have a built-in port. I do not recommend the MovieBox USB - get the firewire Moviebox DV instead. Nor do I recommend Pinnacle’s Studio 9 - it’s very buggy. Use Adobe’s Premiere Elements for video editing and DVD burning.

Yoshi from The Screen Savers

He’s no longer with G4techTV (and no longer bitter about it), but he is working on his web site. And look for his book Mod Mania with Yoshi : A Guide to Customizing Your Computer and Other Digital Devices. Yoshi’s current favorite mod is pictured on his site.

Ray in Los Angeles - system is down after removing worm

He had W32.spybot but his system is damaged. Fortunately, he has a backup of his data. This is a good candidate for a complete format and re-install. He says he didn’t get the application install discs from the guy who built his PC. Unfortunately, this happens a lot, and it means he has pirated software. (I bet he suspected that at the time, but liked the savings.) He’s just going to have to bite the bullet and buy legitimate copies of the software.

Jeff in Antelope Valley - needs customer management software

He only needs to manage aroun 100 customers - if it were a much larger database I’d recommend the bigger CRM packages, but in this case Act! is probably the best choice. You could do it yourself with Excel - but it would take some work.

Dean Penderghast, Peachtree Consultant writes: As an ACT and Peachtree consultant, I totally agree with Leo. Jeff can use ACT! to help manage his customers and data that he needs to track that aren’t “accounting” related, then use Peachtree to help track his business accounting needs. The beauty of using both ACT! and Peachtree is that both packages are owned by BEST Software and the interface between these packages are FREE. So data that exists in Peachtree will show in ACT!, and you can enter your data once and it appears in both packages. It’s slick, easy to use and will help Jeff bring his business to the next level (or in his case, next five levels!).

SmokyMtnz in Nashville, TN adds: If you are a MS Office user, go to Sales and Customer Tracking Tools and check out the free Templates available for download. There are some pretty good Templates available there for most everything at Templates.

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