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Sunday, July 31, 2005

Show #166

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My new book is out on Monday!

 toc | toc 

Today’s news items

Starting this week Microsoft is limiting non-security Windows Update patches to legitimate copies of Windows. The Windows Genuine Advantage program (as the piracy check is called) was hacked within 24 hours.

The Pew Internet & American Life project has released more stats. These show that 9 out of 10 teens in the US are online, and that they prefer instant messaging to email. 19% have blogs.

Australia has banned Grand Theft Auto. And now a brouhaha is shaping up over Sims2.

An Aussie listener notes: A note about Australian classifications, here in Australia there is actually no “right to free speach” in our law thats broad like in the US constitution, that gives the OFLC the abillity to ban games, movies, magazens and DVD’s that the Government dosnt want the public to see. Gamers here are therefore used to bans on games and know ways around the bans so it dosnt worry us.

11a-Noon

Leonard in Los Angeles - converting slides to prints

Start by scanning them in. Then I recommend Epson and Canon photo printers. I use a Canon Pixma and get great prints.

Jim in Murietta - Mozilla lost its settings and email

Sounds like you’re either logged in as a different Windows user or using a different profile.

MechMan adds: For some reason, Mozilla has done this to me as well. If you’re making a major version jump (From say 1.6 to 1.7.10 for example) and you don’t uninstall the old Mozilla the new version will screw up the profile. Always make sure to uninstall the previous version of Mozilla when you get an updated version.

Jim2 adds: It also may be a result of the prefs.js file becoming corrupted and not knowing where the data for the email is being stored. He could try creating a new profile and then copying the Mail directory from his old profile over to the new profile.

Arvin in Huntington Beach - signing PDFs

He’s a realtor and has various documents in PFDF form. He has a graphic tablet and wants his customers to be able to sign the docs on his laptop. I think you can as long as annotations are enabled on the PDF.

Elliot in Long Beach - computer stuck at shutting down

There are two problems that can happen at shutdown. Most XP computers will turn off after an orderly shutdown, unless XP decides that you don’t have an ACPI-compliant motherboard. This can happen on install, or if something goes wrong.

If your computer hangs at shutdown it’s likely that some process isn’t quitting properly. This is a common problem with Norton AntiVirus. Shut it down first and see if your computer shuts down normally thereafter. If not, check other programs that are resident.

You might want to check the Windows Xp shutdown troubleshooter.

• when my laptop hangs every so often on shutdown, i open taskmanager (control alt delete, or right click at bottom) and under the Apps tab i usually find a program that is ‘not responding’. i simply End Task, and that usually solves the problem. I thought i had learned this from Leo a while ago — just goes to prove he’s forgotten more than i’ll ever know! — wiki edit by listenerbc. did i do it correctly? *****

Logan in Lambertville, MI - video files are overexposed

(He’s Hostile in our chat room.) I wonder if the video overlay settings are off. Check the Display settings control panel. Click the Settings tab, press the Advanced… button and look for a video card specific tab. I know the Nvidia drivers allow you to adjust brightness and contrast for overlay video. That’s probably where you should check first.

Noon-1p

Richard from Riverside - making compatible DVDs

He copies video to DVD-Rs but not all machines can play them. This is not uncommon, but most modern DVD players should be able to play both DVD-R and DVD+R. Read the DVD FAQ for more information about compatibility.

Ken in Hagerstown, Maryland writes: Regarding the recording of DVD’s; I had a bunch of problems with compatibility when I was burning DVD’s and found a solution that worked great for me. I use Pinnacle 9 with the IO Magic 8x DVD burner and found that if I reduced the quality of the recording to 6000 Kbit/sec I had much more success with burning. I was using the max values thinking it would make a better disk but it turned out to make it harder to read. Good Luck!

Steve in Phoenix writes: Really old DVD players from the late ‘90′s couldn’t read DVD-R discs while ones made after about 2000 can all read DVD-R’s that are made correctly but can’t read DVD+R’s unless the Book Type is set to DVD-Rom to make it think it’s a movie.

Most computer DVD-Rom drives can’t read DVD+R discs either, such as the Toshiba SD-M1612. However, lots of new players and almost all DVD burners can read either DVD-R or DVD+R. If he makes a DVD-R and authors it correctly it should read in any player available today.

Making a DVD+R that will play in all players is a bit harder since not all burners can set the Book Type to DVD-Rom. He should get a utility program like DVDInfoPro to use for analyzing his discs to see if the Book Type is correct and kind of recorded disc is correct, such as DVD Movie. It can also check burners and players and show their capabilities. More info on burning, video conversions and software tutorials is available at www.videohelp.com.

Mick in Senecaville, OH - sound card doesn’t remember input source

He has to change the input from mic to line in every time he reboots. Is there anyway to make it remember?

Denise in Valencia - she can’t burn a music CD

She’s using songs she bought in iTunes but she can’t make an audio CD with them. Because these songs are copy-protected you must use iTunes to make audio discs, and you must be authorized to play and burn those songs on that copy of iTunes. You can elminate these restrictions by stripping out the copy protection using Jhymn. This program is not for piracy - it doesn’t strip out your email address - but it does make it possible to burn the songs you’ve purchased using the program of your choice.

Laurent in Montreal: Leo, I think her burning settings were just automaticly set to MP3 CD instead of Audio CD since she’s trying to burn 15 songs; which might be longer than the capacity of a normal CD. She just got the normal warning that informs you that the CD you’re about to burn won’t be readable on regular CD players…

Chris in Oceanside adds: Leo, her last question on DSL and the high-pitch buzz: it probably is a cross line inside the house. SBC or the telco will only fix to the demarc line at the house; the homeowner is responsible for all inside wiring UNLESS they pay the monthly wiring insurance/fee. I suggest a line checker, found at electonic shack stores …. and fix the crossed line. I had that problem when I got the ADSL from PB. I fixed one line and issue solved. One crossed line will effect all voice phones in the house, so it could be a tedious hunt ‘n check. GO LEO!

Kat in Pasadena - laptop screen cracked

You can replace it - but it’s expensive. Check Dell’s price. If it’s over $600 I’d look for a third party repair. I used TechRestore to fix my daughter’s iBook screen for $400, but they don’t do Dells, alas.

JR in West Hollywood - son changed in Windows 2000 password

Here’s a great discussion of possible solutions. I recommend the Emergency Boot CD.

From Ihatepcs:
I also have used the UBCD4Win CD. You do have to build it (they include some instructions on the site). Has some Great Freeware utilities for recovering windows xp. Has gotten me out of more than one jam when fixing computers. http://www.ubcd4win.com/

1–2p

Dave in Santa Ana - CD-RW can’t be read in other machines

He’s using the drag and drop method to copy files to the CD-RW. To do that you need some special software like Roxio’s DirectCD or Nero’s inCD - it probably came with your burner software. These discs are created using the UDF file system. They can’t be read as-is without a driver. So either you need to install the UDF driver on other computers, or finalize the disc before moving it.

The best way to burn a cd-rw is to take only the needed files and use a program, I prefere to use Roxio but any program will work and burn it onto the cd. when you are done simpally finalize the cd. some computers can not read multisesson discs so files may not appear. finallizing is the easiest way to go

Matthew in Charlotte, NC - Putting Linux on his Dell Inspiron

Check Linux-on-Laptops for recommendations. Linux usually works fine on laptops but sometimes proprietary devices like video, audio, and wireless cards won’t work.

Diana in Burbank - can she use Compaq restore discs on her HP

Probably not but I don’t think it will do any harm to try. The Compaq restore discs check for a hidden partition before restoring - and they’ll only work on a Compaq. It might be, however, that since HP and Compaq have merged the HP is close enough that the discs will work.

Alex in Irvine - AMD ok for a laptop?

It’s fully compatible with Windows. In fact, they’re better chips than Pentiums. I do prefer the Pentium M in laptops because it’s lower powered.

Ken in Newport Beach - VoIP phones

Inexpensive SIP compatible phone recommendations?

Ken in Oceanside - gaming the CA State Parks reservation system

He uses the California state parks web site to make campground reservations. He’d like to make sure he’s getting every advantage in booking. This is like the folks who are trying to get Rolling Stones tickets from Ticketmaster. Of course, Ticketmaster probably has many more security measures in place than the state. I’m only guessing at how the state does it, but most likely they keep track of you using session cookies.

These are browser specific, so opening another browser window won’t increase your chances of getting in, but using a different browser will. That is if the state isn’t keeping track of your IP address - which they probably aren’t.

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