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Sunday, February 13, 2005

Show #118

It’s the (day before) Valentine’s Day edition!

 toc | toc 

Today’s news items

Watch out Intel and AMD. Forget the G5. IBM, Sony and Toshiba unveiled details Monday of a new microprocessor that contains the equivalent of eight CPU cores around a central coordinating core based on PowerPC. The Cell processor, in development since 2001, starts at over 4 gigahertz, has nearly twice the transistors of the Pentium 4 and can deliver 10 times the performance. Look for it in the new Sony Playstation 3, TVs from Toshiba, and IBM high-end workstation computers coming later this year. Apparently there are several operating systems already running on the Cell in the labs, including Linux. With its PowerPC heritage, it shouldn’t be hard to port OS X to it - now that would be a killer product.

The FCC released a list of web sites that send cell phone spam on Monday. The sites have 30 days to stop or face fines of $11,000 per violation.

There’s a big flaw in nearly all of Symantec’s products on Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and AS400 systems and Brightmail clients. The flaw could allow an attacker to run arbitrary code on these systems. Symantec has patches so run LiveUpdate now.

Tecmo is suing a web site that published hacks to its Xbox game Dead or Alive Xtreme Volleyball. The hack allowed users to strip the game’s characters naked. And this hurts game sales how?

11a-Noon

Ricky in Thousand Oaks - Archos Jukebox won’t play MP3s

It plays WMA and AAC files fine, but can’t even see his MP3s. I suspect it’s because it’s an older player. Make sure you’re using the same format as existing working MP3s. Avoid MP3Pro, VBR recordings, and recordings with oddball sample rates.

John adds: Try using Rockbox to upgrade the firmware to add new features to the Archos Jukebox. It is safe because it only adds a file to the hard drive that the Archos reads on bootup. The player only supports MP3. To download go to http://www.rockbox.org/

Brenda in LA - Xbox DVD player flaky

Her boyfriend has a 1st gen Xbox and it’s having problems reading discs. This is common and is usually caused by dust on the laser. Clean the drive - you can also replace it fairly inexpensively. My current favorite XBox game is Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath

Paul in Santa Monica - staying logged in to a web site

A favorite web site logs him out after some minutes of inactivity. He’s looking for a way to keep pressing the update button so he stays logged in. You can use any automation program to do this. I recommend Quickeys from CE Software. Download the trial version to make sure it works first.

There is an extention for Mozilla Firefox called ReloadEvery that will refresh the page every X seconds or X minutes.

Tom in Ojai - porno spyware has invaded his machine

He has winhost and it’s popping up spyware on his system. Unfortunately, he can barely use the net. My normal freeware downloads won’t work for him, so he should head to the computer store and pick up Webroot’s Spysweeper and Eset’s NOD32 or Trend Micro’s PC-Cillin.

To manually stop Winhost from running you may be able to edit the registry… open the registry editor by clicking Start→Run… and entering regedit then use the “Find” command to find and delete all keys that start winhost.exe these may include:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\
Microsoft Update Machine = winhost.exe

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices\
Microsoft Update Machine = winhost.exe

ClamWin Free Antivirus for Windows

-Andy-

Netaku suggests: Five years? It does sound like it’s about time to reinstall Windows. Make sure you have anything important backed up, and then obtain Service Pack 2 if you are running XP. Reinstall Windows, then install Service Pack 2 right after, then visit Windows Update and get everything nice and patched. Now you’ll want to take measures to make sure this never happens to you again. Step one is to stop using Internet Explorer, switch to Mozilla Firefox or Opera. Now you’ll need to install and maintain a few applications to keep yourself protected from spyware and viruses. AVG is a great, free antivirus suite, but if you want the superior virus protection that only a pay suite can provide, NOD32 really is the way to go. It’s been a favorite among geeks for a long time, does a fabulous job of protecting you and doesn’t use as many system resources as most other anti-virus suites. Microsoft Anti-Spyware, AdAware, Spybot S&D, and HijackThis are all free antispyware utilities that, in combination, provide a great level of protection.

You may also want to take a look at these articles found in the Tips section, Switching from IE to Firefox and Removing Spyware.

Noon-1p

Matt in Santa Barbara - Mac mini enough for recording?

You bet, get more RAM though. Apple charges an additional $75 for 512MB - which is a reasonable fee.

Reality PC in LA Area says:
The Mac Mini is a POOR choice to do any audio recording for a lot of reasons: Not enough standard RAM, The HDD is too small, It’s NOT upgradeable and There’s NO audio input port (see further on that below)! The Mac Mini is a toy (like the Atari and Commodore), NOT a tool.

I’m a musician and DJ on an FM station in the Los Angeles area; and Apple user since 1968 ( ][e ). In reference to Leo’s recommendation of an iBook to a “budding” musiciam … bad idea! I had/have two iBooks, a 2002 14″ 600MHz and a new G4 1.2GHz 12″. First off, the iBook has NO AUDIO input (thanks Apple) and I have tried with GREAT Frustration to record either my radio shows using the Griffin iMic (via the radio staions control board’s extra headphones output at max) and recording my guitar or mic’ed drums via the iMic.

Sound quality is poor and volume is extremely low in either recoring situation with the Griffin iMic. This is NOT an acceptable solution and I finally gave up and sold my 14″ iBook and bought a G4 1GHz TiBook which has a audio input port.

Leo responds:
First, the Griffin iMic has a switch to switch between mic and line level. Make sure you have the switch in the right position, or you’ll get low level recordings. It’s best to feed it from a line level device like a mixer. Using the headphone output is not going to give you good results. I have had excellent results using the iMic particularly considering that it only costs $35, but if you need better then the M-Audio interfaces are superb.

Frankly, an analog mic level mini-jack for audio input is a terrible way to get sound into any computer and no pro would consider it. The lack of a mini-jack on the mini or iBook is not a problem at all. A USB or Firewire interface is far preferable.

The mini hard drive is upgradeable, but it’s a notebook drive, so there are limits on how fast or large it can be. But since the mini supports Firewire, there are no limitations on how big or fast an external drive you can use.

Caleb says-Good response Leo I could not have put it better myself.
I do a lot of recording and I thank the best way to go is a firewire or usb2.0. Take a look at the micplug and the guitarplug from macmice.com. thay say that there will be a fire wire version
out this year.

Reality PC in LA Area replies:
I have tried both “Line” and “Mic” settings on the iMic with similarly poor results with the iBook for recording shows at the radio station. (I’d never consider using anything short of a “real” wrokstation computer like a G4 or G4 Power Mac, or a PowerBook, to record performed music). However, any radio staion DJ will tell you that the Station Engineer will severely limit you to what access you can have to record programming, often something as simple as the auxillary headphone jack (which IS off the mixing board) is all you’ll “get”.

David in Santa Barbara - digital camera for Valentine’s

http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/
Canon Powerhot S1
Olympus C-5500
Fuji

Also take a look at Cnet website gives some nice reviews, here the site address http://reviews.cnet.com/4502-6501_7-0.html?tag=dir.new

Cameron in Corona - editable web site

He wants to create a web site that college students can use to create their own web pages, and have password protected access to. I recommend a wiki (this site is a wiki running on the PMWiki software, which requires PHP). You can do it yourself, there’s lots of free wiki software, or use a commercial service like Joe Kraus’s JotSpot.

RHNet says
Mambo is also a great free option with seperate user acounts and easy to use backend interface.

Alex in Los Angeles - recycling that old laptop

She’s a UCLA Communications Major whose parents have given her a new laptop for graduation - how nice! She wants to get rid of her old Compaq Presario laptop. Don’t just toss it in the garbage - it’s loaded with hazardous waste. The LA Dept of Public Waste has some suggestions. Dell and HP also have recycling programs for all brands. But you may also want to check with local charities, church groups, youth groups, or schools to see if they have a need.

Mike_B adds: computer recycling center in LA:
http://www.spintradeexchange.com/computer-recycle.htm
No charge for ll laptops, P4 / P3 / G4 / G3 windows and Mac desktop and towers, laptop parts and laptop accessories. All hard drives, CD-ROMs, loose PC boards / cards, all cables, all retail packaged / sealed software, all telephone equipment, all test equipment, all networking equipment (hubs, routers, switches, etc.).

SJinLa adds:
EPA approved Computer ReCycling in SoCal LA: http://www.spectrumwest.com/ Buy-Sell-Refurbish

Also any Goodwill store has computer recycling.

This company will take anything computer related - computers, monitors, printes - working or not. I even saw an old mainframe last week when I was there. If the your stuff has some resale value, they will pay you a small salvage value.

   Golden West Surplus 
   346 American Circle, Corona, CA 92880 
   (951) 898–4773  

Mark in Santa Ana - video editing software

Try Windows Movie Maker, but if it doesn’t do the trick I recommend the inexpensive (but powerful) Adobe Premiere Elements.

Renee in Riverside - audio extraction from DVDs

She’s a special ed teacher who has a children’s DVD with great songs and sound effects. She’s like to extract the audio for use in the classroom. This is technically illegal due to the DMCA, but it’s exactly what fair use was intended for. Use DVD Audio Extractor to copy only the audio track from DVDs. Free to try, $28.50 to buy.

1–2p

Constance in Orange - VHS to DVD

She’s trying to transfer VHS tapes of her kids to DVD. Her Dell is using 26GB for 8 minutes of video! Sounds like it’s not compressing the video - which makes it useless. If you don’t care to edit the video, try a VCR to DVD direct recorder like the HP DVD Movie Writer DC4000.

Now’s a good time to buy a standalone. The prices have dropped quite a bit. Try the Panasonic PV-D4744. And once you’ve converted your tapes, you have a DVD VCR - which is a lot better than the old VCRs.

Kevin in Malibu suggests:

Easy One Touch dubbing VHS to DVD with Toshiba D-VR3 Progressive-Scan DVD Recorder/4-Head VCR Combo with Component Video Output. Supports DVD-RAM, DVD-R/RW, CD-R/RW, VCD, MPEG-2, MP3, JPEG, PCM formats; 4-head VCR -about 4 bills. Works great, even my girlfriend can do it.

JohnH adds:

You want to also digitize your 8mm analog to minidv by using a Sony TRV450 which will play analog 8mm out the firewire port then to a minidv camera or pc/mac. Unless you used a VHS camera to make these tapes… most people take their 8mm recordings and put them to VHS , be sure to digitize the master 8mm tapes! Most VHS tapes people make are in 6 hour mode and making a dvd from these is a brutal! 6 hour dvd uses so much compression it not watchable. I would back up the 8mm stuff first and wait for blu ray to handle the vhs stuff… unless the vhs is 2 hour mode then your good to go.

Ron Lewis adds:
David Pogue had a good review of several models in the 1/27/05 New York Times. (Free subscription required or if you want to bypass the registration use Bugmenot credits to site: Allthingstech).

Dan in Toronto asks:
During the show Leo mentioned the video would be about a “gig an hour”. What are you compressing it to when you capture the video? When I transfer my DV tapes they are 13 gigs / hour. I would love to use the smaller files!?!

Craig adds:
Dan, that is the normal file size when you capture DV tapes. Unless you want to edit the files, you can perhaps capture to another smaller file format, such as MPEG 2.

Anyone capturing with an analog capture card, such as an ATI All-In-Wonder, will need to choose a compressed file format for saving the video files in order to avoid the 1 gig per minute that uncompressed video will need. Several DVD authoring programs, such as Ulead DVD Workshop will allow you to capture streat to MPEG 2 format, which is much smaller, and then burn to DVD.

Daniel in Nevada - looking for manuals Tiger Pokeball Toy

Can anyone find them online?

Eric in NJ says:
Hasbro has online manuals for many of its toys, including the Pokeball.

Spokavriel (Daniel) says:
I’m a Dufue’! Hasbro did still have the info but I couldn’t find it because they didn’t list it as Pokémon only as Pokeball. I apologize to Hasbro.
[It turns out it is a motion reactive toy. The buttons are only for menu actions and catching Pokémon]

Jim in La Habra - updates clobbered his Internet access

he can ping systems by name and number, but for some reason his email and browser won’t work. It’s probably something simple, but this is another case of the fastest fix is reinstalling Windows.

Randy in IA:
Sometimes Windows Updates and Viri messes up the Web settings. Jim could try and reset his Web Settings in IE Properties. This fixed the problem with mine doing the same thing.

BlueBoi says:
sometimes spyware and trojans can corrupt your Winsock LSPs. If these become corrupted you can lose network and internet access. Please see http://windowsxp.mvps.org/winsock.htm for more info.

John in New York - what about AlphaShield firewalls?

As far as I can tell from their documentation they don’t do anything any common broadband router doesn’t already do. Buy a $49 Linksys and you’ll get all the protection for half the price.

John also reminds us all when selling, donating, or otherwise disposing of old computers completely erase the hard drive. Formatting it is insufficient. Use a program like Via’s Tru-Delete to overwrite your data several times so it’s impossible to recover it.

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