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Sunday, April 3, 2005
Show #132
Still on vacation in France - but the show must go on with all new calls (recorded earlier),
toc | toc
Today’s news items
only add exclamation points for the headlines
11a-Noon (this hour is 20050403–2.mp3 below)
Hugh in Los Angeles – difference between LCDs
What are the differences between a television LCD and a computer LCD? Can he use a television LCD display for his computer?
The main difference is that the LCD for television use must have a tuner. The LCD display for the computer has a digital interface. You can use the TV display if it has a native resolution similar to a computer display (1280 x 1024 is a good resolution choice). You’ll also want a VGA or DVI connection; the latter is the best option. Hugh is interested in the Qosmio notebooks from Toshiba and Leo likes what he’s seen so far.
Jerry in Fontana – Google Desktop utility
Jerry wants to know why the Google Desktop utility won’t work with his antivirus program
Any Desktop utility can cause problems with antivirus programs and Google does cause a problem with Nod32 (Jerry’s choice). Yahoo’s Desktop search will function with Nod32 and is actually a more useful tool than Google’s application.
Paul in Los Angeles – wireless networking
Paul needs to extend his wireless in a signal throughout his residence
You can reposition the antenna or purchase a passive antenna. Another option is to use a wireless repeater suing Wireless Distribution System (WDS). Check out the article from O’Reilly here.
Aunti Mac in Mission Viejo% writes - It’s Broadcom…
Leo gave you some wrong info Paul, about the chipsets in the 54G Linksys, Buffalo and Airport Extreme or Airport Express. Leo, you should know this, .. the “54G” (802.11g) chipset in the current Airport Extreme and Express is the “non-boosted” data-rate BROADCOM 54G, as it is in the older WRT54G Linksys and older Buffalo WBR2-G54 wireless routers. At times, Belkin, Airlink and a couple minor brand players also used this chipset that only Apple and Buffalo still use. The Lucent-ORiNOCO 802.11b chipset (actually Prism), was in the “Graphite” and “Snow” Airport ABS of a few years ago. Leo, you still got that old orange “toilet seat” iBook you tested Airport with first time on The Screen Savers back in ‘99?
By the way, if you’ve got an old PowerMac G3 or G4, which Apple has ABANDONED when it comes to providing a 54G wireless solution, here’s a neat article I helped with (tech wise) on how to put 802.11G 54G INTO your trusty P-Mac Mini Tower for pennies and without any help from Apple! Put 54G Wireless in your G3 or G4 Power PC -The “Cross-Platform Super Tech” at your service!-
Mike in San Diego – time to renew antivirus
Should Mike renew his Norton antivirus protection? Should he download the update online, or purchase a CD
The CD will need to be updated, so there really isn’t a difference between the two. Norton isn’t a favorite because they charge for updates and the program is too invasive. Nod32 is free for thirty-days so you can try it and see if it suits your needs. Visit VirusBulletin.com to check reviews on viruses and the prevention of the same. If you are looking for free antivirus protection, AVG antivirus is a good choice.
Ken Adds: If you decide to renew your Norton on-line, I would just caution you to save the original confirmation e-mail. A friend of mine is having problems because he didn’t keep the e-mail to confirm his on-line purchase. He needed to reinstall his operating system, and Symantic claimed they didn’t have record of the purchase. They said he would have to repurchase a new $29 renewal. In compensation they will give him 2 years instead of 1 year license.
Peter in Covina – are antivirus companies creating these threats?
Peter wants to know if some viruses are created by the companies selling products to remove them
Probably not, most of the people in the business really hate viruses and want to help people. However, they do have a tendency to over-hype most viruses.
Noon-1p (this hour is first half of 20050403–3.mp3 below)
Jeff in San Francisco – wireless connections
Jeff uses a Netgear wireless router; can he get more range by adding another wireless router?
Yes, if the wireless routers that you choose support WDS and are compatible with each other, you might need to purchase two new routers. D-Link has a repeater: DWL-800 AP+/RE that will work with any router.
Podcast: scifi.com/battlestar
BenListening found the D-Link wireless repeater here : DWL-G800AP
Pierce in Westwood – DVD recorders
Pierce wants to transfer VHS tapes to DVD and she wants it to connect directly to her VCR
The Liteon DVD Recorder has received good reviews, other options are Panasonic and Sony.
someone added: Check out the LiteOnLVW−5005 Dual DVD Recorder with TV tuner and timer record funcs. It records and plays DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW and has FireWire port to dub from CamCorder. Graphical User screen and title editor. IT LIKES ALL DISCs! Also dub up to 6 hours of external video onto DVD/DVD±R/DVD±RW. You can record, then selectively erase unwanted segments from DVD±RW. Supports new DVD+VR editable video format. Price= ~$225.00 User groups have many hacks to LINUX CORE running this unit
Like the LVW-5005 plus new features is newly released LiteOn LVW-5040with 160 GB hard disk for 198 hours of TV/Video recording time. Dub DVDs to HD for editing, burn edited video onto DVDs - WOW-WOW-WOW! Also dub up to 6 hours of external video onto DVD/DVD±R/DVD±RW
BenListening likes these links for the Lite-On items mentioned above :
Lite-On DVD Recorder
Lite-On LVW-5005
Lite-On LVW-5040
austin322 adds:
I own the LiteOn LVW-5005 and LOVE IT. It’s awesome for dubbing VHS over to DVD. I use the DVD+Rs and haven’t had any trouble out of it. The firmware upgrades are not required. I haven’t upgraded my unit, however I don’t think it’s that difficult to upgrade it.
Mike in Tijuana – faster transfers
Mike wants to transfer videos faster
If you record to a hard drive, you can transfer files faster and you can connect a drive directly to the camera if the hard drive has a built-in battery.
PYRO DV Drive
Roger in Whittier - Linux for old PC
Roger just purchased an old IBM 425 laptop with only a modem connection and a floppy drive and he wants use Linux as his operating system
You’ll have to do a network install with this system using a null-printer cable connected to a desktop with Internet connection, and then install from the desktop to the laptop. Anyone tried this before?
FRM in Whittier:
I also believe you were asking how to use this 425 laptop to access a network/internet. I have a XIRCOM parallel port ethernet that I used to use with an old 425 gateway laptop using windows 3.11. I’d have to find it, but I’d like to sell or trade it.
Aunti Mac in Mission Viejo writes - I’ve Got A Linux 4 U
I run MEPIS Linux on my four year old HP OmniBook XE3-GF (P-III 1.05GHz) and I love it! It is far more responsive than Win XP was for this slow P-III with little cache. I don’t recall what the ThinkPad 425 was, probably a P-II, but I’ll bet that MEPIS will more likely run than you have any hopes of running Windows XP on the TPad 425. MEPIS Linux is a full easy to install Linux distro that includes all the apps you need and your grandma could install and run it! It’ll even run off a mountable CD.
Howard in Santa Ana – spyware issue
He used HijackThis to remove spyware and now his startup and shutdown times are slow and he can’t defrag normally
You still have some spyware remaining on your PC; since you’re using Windows 98, Microsoft’s new AntiSpyware program won’t work for you. You might want to purchase Spywasher from WebRoot. You might turn off Norton one time to see if your system starts more quickly. If all else fails, you might need to re-install your operating system.
Dumpster Diver Dan adds - I know that Webroot is a sponsor, but I’ve used “AdAware” and “SpyBot Search and Destroy” to remove some very difficult Malware and Spyware from our office computers. then I slap the hands of the employees who were dumb enough to download gambling games.
WinXPNo#1 added
You can post your HJT log in one of these websites at Merijn.org
Netaku writes: There are also some automated HijackThis log checkers around. Try HijackThis.de. It’s still not as good as going through the log manually, but it is a usable solution if you don’t have the time or expertise to do so.
1–2p (this audio is missing from list below)
Bill in Encino – problems with Windows ME (found in last 15 min. of 20050403–3.mp3 below)
Bill was prompted by Windows ME to update and after applying the patches he now has a blue screen, can he pull out that hard drive and extract the data using another PC? He’s also been backing up to an external hard drive, can he recover his Outlook Express email messages?
You can, you’ll have to locate the folder that the messages are stored in and then you can extract these folders by putting them in the same folder in a functioning PC with ME. You can open those .dbx files with Outlook Express on another system. You could also put the non-working hard drive into an external hard drive case and use someone else’s PC to access you data.
BenListening says : I found my Outlook Express files in Windows XP Home in : C:\Documents and Settings\BenListening\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{B81840D4-1844-4D89-A307-############}\Microsoft\Outlook Express.
Charles from Ohio – can’t remove program
He can’t uninstall a gaming program; it has it’s own install option that failed and Uninstall 2004 won’t remove the annoyance either
This is about as close to spyware as you can get. Often times, your browser is hijacked when you visit these sites. You might need to reinstall the program and then uninstall it; if that fails try Anti-spyware programs in combination.
Dumpster Diver Dan adds - I’ve used V-Com’s SystemSuite 4 and 5 to uninstall seemingly uninstallable apps with great results. It does a very complete search of your drive to find ALL the links and Reg entries.
Jason from San Diego – Plasma TV and Direct TV
Should he buy an HD box? He has Direct TV
You are missing some programming, but there aren’t that many HD shows right now. If there are programs currently broadcast that you like, you should buy it now; waiting for new technology is a never ending task.
John in Barstow – old PC no memory
His PC is telling him he is out of memory, but he still has lots of space on his hard drive – he is using Windows 98
You might be out of system resource space, a problem with Windows 98. This is a flaw in the system and there isn’t a fix. You could just restart every time you need to do a critical operation. It is a good reason to upgrade.
Thomas listening in Rosemead here, and I would like to add some information on a program called MaxMem from AnalogX (www.analogx.com). It purports to monitor and free the memory being eaten up in Windows and for my money (it’s free, by the way) it does a fairly good job. I dropped it into my startup folder so that it runs automatically, and then when I see it’s getting low on memory, I give it a click and it clears right up. It’s not as perfect as a full restart, but much faster. The only problem is when the memory gets extremely low, it may freeze up or at least slow the system way down while it’s clearing the memory, especially if another program is running. Another freebie from that site is CacheBooster. Back when I had very little memory (64 mb I think… it’s been a while) this would help me to play computer games, although in normal use the difference wasn’t noticable. However, since my memory’s been upgraded, running CacheBooster makes a significant difference, and I hardly ever see MaxMem telling me my memory is low.
Jason listening in Washington, DC: Here is the link to a nice piece of software that I used to use on all of my Win98 boxes. It works great. It sits in the task tray and I believe that it frees up memory every so often on its own. Also, you can right click on it and select “release memory” or something to that extent.
http://www.3bsoftware.com/products/freemem.html
Rick from Studio City – old electronic toys
Rick has been recording audio from a radio to a VCR, but only one of his VCR can record and play back the tapes; why is that happening?
This might be due to the method the machine uses to record audio. Anyone have any ideas?
A better way might be to use an mp3 device to record this audio and you can even set some to record at specific times.
Jeff in Santa Ana adds -
On those VCRs that won’t play the audio (with no video recorded), I hit the Menu button to throw some text up on the screen.
I think it has something to do with VCR’s AGC (Automatic Gain Control) and the way it poops out when there is no video sync signal.
Another thing to do is to tune to an active channel when recording (not L1 or L2); the auxiliary audio input (RCA plug Line-In) usually overrides the audio subcarrier from the TV channel.
Splootch in Toronto adds -
I used to record radio this way too. As Jeff points out, this is a sync issue when recording audio with no video that can throw the auto-tracking off. A simple solution is to grab any spare video output from an unused source (or use a splitter) and plug it into the video input of whichever input set you’re using for the radio.
Chat Logs and Show Audio
20050403–1.mp3 below is April 2nd show 1st hour (20050402–1.mp3)
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