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Sunday, July 24, 2005

Show #164

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 toc | toc 

Today’s news items

Will Motorola finally release an iTunes-capable phone tomorrow?

Rumor site Think Secret says Apple will release new hardware this week.

11a-Noon

John in Riverside - black screen on boot

The big problem these days is distinguishing between legitimate Windows error messages, and false error messages generated by spyware. If the error windows suggests purchasing a product, it’s spyware. Microsoft never suggests any purchases in its error messages. In this case John has an up-to-date antivirus and it detects nothing, so it does sound like spyware. Since he can no longer get online, however, it sounds like the only fix is to reinstall Windows.

Michael in Victorville - XP won’t come up at all

The best way to try to save XP is with the System Restore. If you can get into Safe Mode you can run it from the Start→Programs→Accessories→System Tools menu. Or run it from the command line:

c:\windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

If System Restore doesn’t work use the Windows XP repair feature. Boot to your install disc and press the R key to repair your installation.

A listener points out: he might have just a temporary glitch which might cause windows XP to close and give him a screen like “we’re sorry for the inconvenience but “blah, blah, blah” has caused an error and windows is shutting down”. Then it usually gives three choices to restart windows, one of which is “start windows normally”. Just click that and it usually corrects the problem. If it persists and windows continues to be a problem, then of course you have to examine other alternatives.

Harry in Mission Viejo - opening bookmarks from Excel

He wants to open a bunch of bookmarks all at once by clicking them in Excel and getting Firefox to open them in tabs. Can’t do that, but you can export the URLs as a text file then use Firefox’s Tools→Manage Bookmarks command to import the file into your Firefox bookmarks. Put them all in a folder, right click the folder then select Open in Tabs.

You might want to check out the new Microsoft MSN Toolbar - it adds tabs to IE, and a pretty decent desktop search, too.

Ed in Murrysville, PA - is the iPhantom good?

Ed’s a Windows security buff who runs his own blog - www.allintech.com - about Windows security. He’s seen the iPhantom and wants to know if it works. I’ve got a unit, but I haven’t been able to try it yet. I have talked with the founders and I’m impressed with their technology. It promises to protect its user from hackers, spam, spyware, and viruses. It sounds good - I’ll try it this week and let you know if it lives up to its promises.

Noon-1p

Gary in Los Angeles - buying a LCD monitor

He’s looking at contrast ratio and brightness and it seems to be a tradeoff. That’s right. Contrast is the ratio between the brightest white and the darkest black. A really bright screen often cannot give you a good black, so the contrast ratio suffers. Since he’s a graphics designer, accurate color reproduction is probably more important than either, but I’d opt for the better contrast ratio.

Dan in Chesapeake, VA - listening to the show’s podcast

Make it simple: use iTunes 4.9. However, there are some advanced features iTunes does not support. Most other podcast programs will download in the background - iTunes has to be running to download podcasts. And iTunes doesn’t support BitTorrent, so you’re not likely to see any of the really cool indie podcasts there.

If you want to use a podcast program that downloads in the background and supports BitTorrent I recommend iPodderX or Lemon’s iPodder.

He records the KFI stream of my show now, but plans to use iTunes from now on. (The disadvantage of the podcast version of this show is that it’s a week later, but the advantage is that the audio quality is much better and I edit out the commercials, news, and traffic.)

Gus from Michigan adds:
“Replay Radio” version 6 from Applian Technologies now supports podcasts with BitTorrent support also.
Free demo download available. Their standalone podcast client is completely free.

www.applian.com/replay-radio/

Sarah in Montreal says:
BTW, it is possible, at least on the Mac, to make the podcast (and any audio file) bookmarkable.

First, you need a script called “Make Bookmarkable” (link below). Once downloaded, drag and drop into Library > iTunes > Scripts. Start iTunes (or reboot it if it’s already running).

Then, convert the desired file to AAC (Advanced > Convert selection to AAC) - if it doesn’t appear in the menu, go to Preferences > Import, and select AAC. Once this is done, go into the script menu (it’s the sheet icon in the iTunes menu) and select Make Bookmarkable. And voilą! The file is now bookmarkable. (check with command-i: it will now say that the file is protected AAC). You can then delete the original MP3 if you no longer need it.

http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts07.php?page=3#makebookmarkable

Michelle in West Covina - choosing a DVD VCR

I like the Panasonics. Look for one that supports DVD-R or DVD-RW if you want to share discs, but you need RW capability, too. DVD-RAM is the fastest and allows the most record cycles.

Which hotspot provider should I use?

Use a hotspot finder like www.jiwire.com to see which provider is most used in the places you go.

List other hotspot finders here:

http://WiFiFreeSpot.com (finds free ones)
http://www.wi-fizone.org/zoneFinder.asp

Mike in Long Beach - recovery console requires Admin password

He never set one - but he needs to to use the recovery console. Run as… also requires an Admin password - it’s a sensible security precaution (wow - Microsoft never ceases to amaze).

So before you use the Recovery Console or the Run As… command give your Administrator account a password.

Also, consider installing the recovery console to provide it from the F8 menu and
follow the directions here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312149/
to enable automatic access to the recovery console without a password.

For more information about the Recovery Console visit these sites:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314058
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_rec.htm
http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm

1–2p

Alan in Seal Beach - my computer store said not to install critical updates

They’re cracked - there are occasional problems with Windows critical updates, but the risks of not installing are far worse, for you and the Internet. I recommend you install all critical updates. If you’re worried about compatibility issues wait a week - most problems surface pretty quickly.

Dennis in Fontana - viruses reappear immediately after system restore

His friend has an eMachine. Make sure the system restore is really erasing the hard drive first. And before you get back online turn on the Windows firewall, then immediately run Windows Update and install all critical updates. I wonder if the eMachines hidden partition is hiding viruses?

Andrew points out that the System Restore discs start fresh, but Windows System Restore is perfectly capable of restoring viruses. Yikes - I assumed Dennis was talking about the disc based restore. Using Windows system restore is not a good way to fix viruses.

Andrew in Irvine - does opening a hole in Zone Alarm lower security

Specificially, if he allows an application access to the net in ZoneAlarm, then uninstalls the application, is there now a hole in his firewall? No. ZoneAlarm associates applications with ports, so if a rogue application tries to access that opened port ZA will still ping you.

James in Chicago - can’t get live boot Linux working

He’s got an ISO but isn’t making the boot disc right. You need to use your CD burning software to “Burn disc from image.” The ISO file is a disc image that your software uses to recreate the image on a CD - you can’t just copy it or its contents to a CD.

James - I had the same issue since I wasn’t certain on how to use Nero. It was suggested to me and again (even within these show notes I think) several alternative utility programs. The one I used, free I believe, is CD-Burner XP. Is has a fairly descriptive initial menu noting the choice to burn the ISO image to a bootable CD.

Do take a look and give it a try---hope I haven’t misguided you—pretty sure this will work (got a similar tip via the CNET Forum for Linux).

Link
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/

Thanks for all the help, the link above is great for people not looking to spend any money. Leo keep up all the good work.
James

The exact reason why the cd doesn’t work the way you burned it, is because when you burned it, you did not burn the booting part of the cd since your cd iso extractor did not extract it. To put it back on your cd though, it can cause you lots of headackes to make it work but if you are interested… Make the bootable disk included with the distro and make your cd project a bootable

 cd. Nero is one of the few programs that do this.

Andy

Greg, San Jose CA

Paul in Colorado - using system restore and selling podcasts

He runs the American Podcasting Network. One of his radio stations lost its control room computer when the power went out. Now Windows can’t boot. Try these steps in order:

If you can get into Safe Mode run System Restore from the Start→Programs→Accessories→System Tools menu. Or run it from the command line:

c:\windows\system\restore\rstrui.exe

If System Restore doesn’t work try the System File Checker. Boot to the command prompt and type

@@c:\\windows\system32\sfc.exe

You’ll need the windows boot disc. If that fails use the Windows XP repair feature. Boot to your install disc and press the R key to repair your installation.

The Podcast Expo is coming up in November in Ontario, CA. See you there!

Mark in Santa Ana - removing files from “special” Windows folders

details to follow…

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