For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the TWiT Netcast Network

Saturday , March 12, 2005

Show #125

 toc | toc 

Today’s news items

So long, Dan Rather. His last broadcast as anchor of the CBS Evening News was Wednesday.

Bill Gates is still the world’s richest person according to Forbes. He’s worth $46.5 billion. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, with $7.2 billion apiece, beat out Yahoo founders David Filo and Jerry Yang, with $3.1 billion and $2.6 billion. Jeffrey Katzenberg and Martha Stewart joined the list as newly minted billionaires.

How much is $46.5 billion? Read Brad Templeton’s amazing analysis from 1998. I think it’s still roughly accurate.

Microsoft spent some of that money this week at the Game Developer’s conference in San Francisco. The company gave away 1,000 high-definition television sets Wednesday to those who listened to a pitch for its new game console. Xbox2 will ship in time for the 2005 holidays.

Microsoft will save money by killing MSN for the Macintosh. Oh shucks.

Meanwhile, a judge has ruled in Apple’s favor, forcing three Mac rumor sites to divulge the sources of Apple leaks on Friday. The Judge says that web journalists are not protected in the same way the mainstream press is, but that no one has the right to publish information that could have been provided only by someone breaking the law.

Amazon has received a patent for wrapping presents for girls in pink paper and other “Methods and systems of assisting users in purchasing items.” For example, perfume bought a week before Valentine’s Day can be inferred to mean the item was bought as a Valentine’s gift; it can also be inferred that the same item is for a girl, which Amazon can then use to provide appropriate gift-wrapping colors and patterns that wouldn’t be offered for a man.

11a-Noon

Jerry in Valencia - DLP TVs

I’d read the reviews at Ultimate AV Magazine - they’re very reliable. I like DLPs - I think you get the best bang for the buck. But there are new technologies coming.

Redrayman says: check out the JVC HD-ILA an LCOS rear projection. After reading the PC Mag review I’m not so sure, but LCoS and LCD are competitive rear projection technologies.

Now, here’s the question. If you get a good HDTV with progressive scan pre-processing, should you turn off the progressive scan in your DVD player? Or is it ok to use both? I’ve heard it both ways.

Standard definition programs look worse on non-crt hdtvs because they have to extrapolate the image to the native resolution of the screen. Plasmas, lcds, dlps etc all have a native resolution. The number and size of the pixels is permanently fixed. A crt can dynamically resize the pixels and resolutions it displays. All the others can’t. So the tv has take the pixels that make the image spread them over the native pixels of the screen. Unfortunately not every element of an image translates directly to the native resolution. 480 lines of sd resolution doesn’t divide evenly into either 720 or 1080 hd resolution. This means that you will end up with an image that may have jagged edges or looks less sharp than on an sd tv. The same problem occurs if you run an lcd computer monitor at anything other than its native resolution. The only hdtvs that don’t have this problem are crts. Unfortunately big crts are insanely heavy and large. The new thinner crts coming out later this year from philips and samsung will definitely mitigate some of this and I am waiting for this before buying a new tv.

Noon-1p

Henry in Sun Valley - Screen capture to DV Cam via firewire

He wants to record his screen directly to the DV cam via firewire. It’s certainly doable, since all DV capable video editing programs can print to camcorder via firewire. I don’t know of any screen capture programs that can do this, but I’d check Camtasia. It’s very capable.

Hello Henry
One way to do this is to record your screen using a screen capture program and save it as a video file. Then hook you camera to your computer via Firewire and export the file to the camera using the export feature of your video editor program. Another way to do this is to buy a basic video card with ‘Composite Out’ on it. Then, just plug your camera video composite cord (RCA Cord) into the video card. These video cards are usually about $50 - $100.
Carrot Kid

Marilyn in Alta Loma - cursor losing focus

It’s likely spyware.
Spybot
Adaware
microsoft.com/spyware

Reformed hacker Kevin Mitnick joins us.

Jonathan Littman’s The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick: The Inside Story of the Great Cyberchase is the best book to read about Kevin’s hacker exploits.

Kevin’s new book, Art of Intrusion just came out. His company is Mitnick Security Consulting.

Kevin might switch to Macintosh! He says it’s just safer to use. He also likes the underlying UNIX for security tools like nmap and nessus. Although a number of great security programs like SolarWinds SNMP scanner are Windows only.

Kevin’s booktells the story of the hackers who cracked Vegas’s electronic poker machins. The book about the card counters who used shoe computers to cheat at roulette is called The Eudaemonic Pie.

Lee_O adds:
Having Kevin on your show today was great!

1–2p

Randy in Oceanside - Anti-virus recommendation

Check your anti-virus ratings at Virus Bulletin. The best free AV is AVG Free but my favorite AV is now NOD32. It’s very lightweight, very fast, and it’s been 100% effective since 1998. (Yes, they’re a sponsor, but I endorse it because it really is my fave.)

Alex in Ohio - creating a custom install of Windows

He wants to add anti-spyware and antivirus software plus all updates to create a single CD with everything. Sure. Follow the instructions at Paul Thurott’s SuperSite for Windows. If you want to strip down the install before slipstreaming use nLite. Frankly, the best solution is probably just to use Norton Ghost to make an image of your install.

Lee_O adds: I think that there was a segment on TechTV by Kevin Rose about a ‘Pocket Windows.’ I forgot the details though.

Jeff from MI adds: There’s a great resource for creating an unattended Windows XP install CD at http://unattended.msfn.org/.

Chuck in Apple Valley - Planetarium projectors

Victor Valley College Planetarium needs new projectors - he’s designing a system around a hard disk media server connected to slaved projectors. They currently use 18 computer controlled slide projectors. He’s looking for projector recommendations - requires at least 1000 lumens and the ability to cover around 15×20 feet. Any suggestions?

A listener writes: Christie has a wide variety of high end networked projectors and they’re in Cypress California.

Listener Randy writes: Next month in Las Vegas is the NAB show. (www.NAB.org) Largest video equipment show in the world. I suggest attending that and see what is avaiable. Chuck should consider involving a system integrator to help with the equipment & software to do this project.

Another listener writes: I suggest he go to www.theprojectorpeople.com or InFocus Business Projectors - Guide or www.infocushome.com. When I was with the Computer Connection Club, inc. of San Jacinto, CA, we bought a projector from theprojectorpeople.com: 1200 lumens for about $1400 and had very good success with it. Prices have come down and quality has gone up so they should be able to get a good unit (or more) for under $1500.

Tom from OC writes: There are some networking options for multiple video projectors. Dataton has a software package called “Watchout” that networks PC’s or Macs so that they can drive multiple video displays, projectors, plasmas etc. It can blend all the projectors together and does all the basics of an old multi-slide projector system. Except it can also serve video, including Windows Media High Def. This software is being used to blend large numbers of projectors for planitarium applications such as the Spitz “Electric sky” system. It’s pretty much an Imax experience using a bunch of networked, blended DLP projectors at High Rez.

Microsoft has dipped their toe into the same waters and is offering licensing for a similar technology. I have not seen this in operation yet but it has some pretty big potential.

Barbara in Lakewood - She just got high speed Internet and now her computer is unusable

She had an old anti-virus (probably never updated) and no antispyware software. This is a perfect example of why I tell people to buy a Mac. Wndows increasingly requires the support of a full-time IT department to keep it running. She needs to do a full re-install and carefully follow my instructions to lock down her system down before going back online.

Greg adds: Windows doesn’t take the support of a full-time IT department, it just takes some common sense. I’ve never had a virus on my Windows box.

Some folks just like to spread the F.U.D.

Leo responds: It ain’t FUD my friend. If we didn’t screen them out every single call on the show would be from Windows users who are struggling with out of control virus and spyware infections. What may be common sense to you isn’t universal. Microsoft has done a very bad job of protecting users. Product loyalty is one thing, but if a company consistently lets you down I think it’s reasonable to look elsewhere.

Chat Logs and Show Audio