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Saturday, May 28, 2005
Live from New Orleans thanks to Sports Radio 1280 WODT The Sports Monster!
Show #147
toc | toc
Today’s news items
A woman is suing Yahoo for $3 million over nude pictures her ex-boyfriend posted on his Yahoo site. She claims she asked Yahoo to remove them months ago and they ignored her.
New Intel CEO Paul Ottellini admits he spends an hour every weekend removing spyware from his kid’s computer. Asked whether he thought that meant users should buy Apple instead of Windows he said, “If you want to fix it tomorrow, maybe you should buy something else.”
And maybe you’ll get to. The Wall St. Journal reports that Steve Jobs is talking with Intel about building Macs with its chips. Fortune even says Apple has been approached by three major PC manufacturers about building Macs.
Intel is not sitting still, either. They’ve announced the Pentium D - their first desktop processor with “dual core” that is, two processors on one chip. The company expects to sell one million by the end of the year.
11a-Noon
Jim in Bellflower - wireless router with DSL
He’s moving from dial-up to DSL. He has desktop and laptop computers. Should he get wireless? You bet. I recommend using a router as a firewall on all highspeed connections. It’s particularly useful on DSL because you can eliminate the DSL dialer on your computer and let the router make the connection. I do recommend using WPA encryption on your wireless router to protect your wireless connection.
Chad in Anaheim - do I need a swap file?
He has 1GB of RAM. You still need a swap file. Windows always works better with a swap file. Let Windows manage it and it won’t occupy more space than necessary. And, yes, a swap file does work better on a different drive.
John in Santa Barbara - Netscape 8 is messed up
I recommend Firefox and Thunderbird.
A listener writes: Enjoyed listening to you. Learned about Firefox and tried for the FREE download. “FREE” wasn’t available at the “download” page. Had to check one of the boxes. What to do?
Lewis in LA - upgraded his girlfiend’s Mac and now mouse won’t work
He upgraded to Panther but the swift new Microsoft mouse he bought won’t work. All Microsoft mice work fine with OS X but the install may have screwed up a bit. I recommend rebooting with the installer disc in the drive (hold down the C key while you reboot to boot from the CD). If the mouse still doesn’t work there’s something wrong with it. If it does, repeat the install, but click the Options button and select Archive and Install. This will create a new System Folder while archiving your old system files to a Previous System folder. I would suggest keeping your settings. This article explains the various install options.
Jeff from San Francisco adds: There are known issues with third-party keyboards (notably MacAlly) and Mice with OS X after installs. I had to get out my old Apple 1-button USB mouse to get functional long enough to get upgraded drivers from MacAlly and Microsoft. So check Microsoft for driver updates.
Aunti Mac from Mission Viejo disagrees -
I strongly disagree with the above statement. After testing a several dozen different models of aftermarket keyboards and mice over the resent couple years for our school districts to purchase as replacements to use for our Macs, Macally has the absolutle BEST record of compatibility. Other than the “iKey” Macally made years ago for the original iMac, I have never run across an incompatibilty issue which could be blamed on Macally, or Logitech for that matter. We’ve had 50 or 60 Macally keyboards and mice working perfectly well with a variety of classroom Macs, then suddenly after an OS X update, all hell breaks loose!
Conversely, it’s Mac OS X itself (especially OS X updates) that are often the buggy culpret and has a long history of creating problems for peripherals that others make, as well as Apple’s own devices! If you don’t beleive me, all you have to do is monitor on www.macfixit.com the daily complaints of hardware and applications issues after Apple releases a new OS X version of update.
By the way, Apple doesn’t even make they’re own perpherals (or computers for that matter) any longer. The lowest bidder in Taiwan, China or Korea will get the contract and on occation Logitec (who Macally also uses) gets the mfg. contract.
Noon-1p
Roman in Germany - Looking for a PDA
He’s calling from Offenberg using iPhone based on Asterisk. He uses SJPhone. Looking for a PDA with VGA screen, 1 megapixel camera, CF, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. He can only find two with these specs: Fujitsu and Acer. Any thoughts on these?
Check out the ASUS
I love my ASUS MYPAL A730W Pocket PC. 1.3 mega pixel camera, VGA 640×480, portrait or landscape screen orientation, SD slot, Compact Flash slot, WiFi, Blue Tooth, 64MB Flash ROM, 128MB SDRAM. Go to the Asus website at http://usa.asus.com/products/pda/a730/overview.htm for full specs. Bob W., Fallbrook, CA
Jeff in LA - normal users safer?
You bet. I wish we could convince all Windows users not to run as Administrator. It’s far better to run as a more limited user. If you can’t install software neither can a virus or spyware. Unfortunately, it’s really inconvenient to run as a limited users so most people run Windows as Administrator. This is very dangerous. Here’s a great article on user accounts.
Joan in Thousand Oaks - Wi-Fi router, two pcs, only one online
To diagnose networks connections you have to work your way up through the layers. Start with the physical layer. Open a command line by clicking Start→Run and entering cmd then hitting OK. Use the ping command to test your connection to the router, usually:
ping 192.168.1.1 or ping 192.168.0.1
If you can get through, you have a connection; it’s a problem with your Internet settings. If not, there’s a problem with the physical connection. Check your Wi-Fi card (swap them with the other machine).
Bill in Irvine adds: First, check the configuration on the router. It may be configured for one WiFi user at a time. That’s not the default, but most of them don’t explain the settings when the initial configuration is being done and you may have it set for one wired and one wireless.
Then, check the security settings on the router. You may have set the router to grant access to one PC and not to the other. Can both PCs access the internet, but only one at a time?
Leo responds: Bill has an excellent point. You must tell the router to assign internal Internet addresses. If it’s configured as a bridge, only one computer will be able to get online.
Bruce in Escondido adds: - had the same problem untill I figured out that all remote client PCs use the same password in WEP.
Jan in Sherman Oaks adds: I had the same problem
- Analog to digital converter - either an external box like Pinnacle Systems Movie Box Studio DV or ATI’s All-In-Wonder card.
- DVD recorder
Cliff in Duarte - Internet is slow
His wife’s ibook is really slow on the net at home. It’s much faster at work, though, so it’s not likely the iBook. I’d try your connection with another computer to see how fast it is. You might also want to remove the router to see if it’s slowing things down.
Ricky adds: It sounds possible that, if this connection used to be fast, and you haven’t changed anything, someone else could be using your connection. I’d look through your router settings, and turn on any encryption that it supports. The possibility of someone leeching your connection isn’t really that far-fetched these days…
Gene in Desert Host Springs - Fry’s Electronics return policy
He says he returned a bad power supply and he watched the salesman mark it “Reduced” and put it backon the shelf. If that’s true it’s something to be aware of. I don’t have any corroborating evidence though. What’s been your experience at Fry’s?
Larry in San Diego - I’ve had the very same experience at the Fry’s in San Marcos and San Diego. It appears that this is their policy, and the only thing that I can think of is that they believe that a certain number of shoppers will not return the defective item. This is a very disturbing company policy! On the other side of the coin, I recently returned a laptop computer to Costco. I noticed that they marked the box as ‘non saleable’. When I told them that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the computer and I had not even booted-up the unit, they replied that they returned all “opened-box” items to the manufacturer. Costco’s return policy is the best in the business, bar none.
Chris in Ridgecrest - As a former employee of Fry’s in San Diego I can say stay away. I have seen a printer fall from a 3 story storage rack and get put right back up. And yes there are plenty of defective returns on the shelves, never buy anything previously opened.
Tom in Buena Park - Fry’s has put items back on the shelf that are missing pieces or broken. If you buy anything with the white reduced sticker, plan on making another trip to the store.
1–2p
Lynette in Fall Brook - homepage hijacked
She’s running Windows Me and her homepage has been hijacked. If you were using a more recent version of Windows you could use the free Microsoft AntiSpyware but they decided not to support Me. Its browser restore feature resets IE. This is why I recommend Firefox instead of IE - it can’t be hijacked.
At this point your best bet is to use HijackThis to try to figure out what spyware programs are running for manual removal. The problem is that most browser hijackers aren’t easily removed with automated anti-spyware programs.
MechMan adds: Since she’s using Windows ME, I suggest SpywareBlaster from www.javacoolsoftware.com, since it actively blocks programs from exploiting holes in IE. Also, Spybot, Search and Destroy has a IE home Page locking program, or it did. I don’t use that, because I have WinXP and Mozilla. But it should work. If I am wrong on that, someone please let me know.
Mark in Murietta - speech therapist and accent reduction
He wants to offer courses online and live interactive courses, too. I recommend checking out what other speech therapists are doing (if anything) then search for courseware choices.
MIT’s courseware site is an amazing example of what’s possible.
Deen Foxx writes: Regarding Courseware… The best freeware (open-source PHP) Courseware is found at http://www.moodle.org. I am setting up a commercial site using Moodle’s freeware system. I would love to give a free site to anyone interested for testing purposes. If the courses provided will be FREE, I may be able to provide a free site forever. Check out http://www.vgeo.com
Robert Luaders in Grants Pass Oregon writes: http://www.webct.com and http://www.blackboard.com are the equivalents to MS Word and Wordperfect. Many textbook publishers create content for import into either format but these “courseware” solutions are expensive and best suited for institutional adoption.
Justin in Lake Forest - CD duplicator
He can choose from Sony LiteOn Teac Plextor drives - which is best? All four are fine. Plextor is the best but pricey. Liteon offers very good value.
He has an old Mac Powerbook (the G3 based Pismo) and wants to run OS X on it. It’ll run but not fast. Do upgrade the memory to 512MB.
Aunti Mac from Mission Viejo writes -
I have a G3 “PDQ” PowerBook and a G3 “Pismo” (FireWire) PowerBook and run OS X on both; but with some reservatons. First off I have a G4 500 upgrade by PowerLogix in the PDQ PowerBook (some folks mistakenly call this last “fat” G3 PowerBook model the Wallstreet), but even still I only run OS X 10.1.5 on it because 10.2 was slower in tests, and also there are no ORINOCO 802.11b PC Card Drivers available for above 10.1.5. I also have two 256MB SODIMM RAM modules and a fast 5400RPM 60GB Toshiba HDD in it. A Macally USB and a Macally FireWire CardBus Card gives me those updated I/O ports. Anyone can do this upgrades themselves.
On my G3 500 Pismo I’ve run OS X 10.2.6 fine, but 10.3.x was WAY too slow. The Pismo has a 100MHz Bus as opposed to the 66MHz on the earlier G3 PowerBooks. I beleive that’s why 10.2.6 runs fine on the Pismo. Bit of Apple Trivia … the 1st G3 500 white iBooks were nothing more than G3 Pismo’s minus the CardBus slot and audio in; but with a newer (but still slow) graphics chipset.
NO VERSIONS of OS X supports “advanced graphics” like 3D, for the video chipsets found in any version of G3 PowerBooks. That’s part of the reason Apple was sued and lost back in 2000.
Here’s a great article to start you off on “Upgrade a PowerBook G3, Part 1 and 2″; it’s a couple years old, but still pertainent.
Ann in Palos Verdes - Vonage
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