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Saturday, September 24, 2005

Tech News

A virtual virus swept through World of Warcraft - causing most infected players lower than level 50 to die immediately.

Broadband penetration is stuck at around 50%. Does everybody who wants broadband already have it?

Steve Jobs says the record companies are greedy, and that their proposed price hikes will encourage piracy.

11a-Noon

Joe in Iowa City, IA - looking for postscript color printer for $500

He also needs ethernet and large format printing. I love my Epson 2200 but it’s around $700 you might check out the Epson R1800 - it lists at $549. I also recommend checking the printer roundup reviews at PC Magazine.

Jeremy Says: Canon has a good option here.

Kevin in Vegas says: HP sells a color laser, the CL2660, that is networkable, has PostScript and is available at Sam’s Club for $399.

Jeff in MS says: Though I’d add that a shared printer on OS X accepts postscript. I’ve sent postscript from Linux box to cheap canon printer through iBook.

Richard in Azusa - AV software problems

He switched from Trend Micro’s PC-Cillin to Resolution and now his old e-machine is very slow. I’m not familiar with Resolution but I recommend sticking with AV solutions that are ICSA approved (look for an ICSA badge on the vendor’s web site) and rates 100% with Virus Bulletin.

Daniel in Santa Ana - fax modem stopped working

He has a winmodem and it stopped working when he installed fax software. They may be incompatible. I’d look for an updated driver for the modem - check the manufacturer’s web site. You can also roll back to a working system using XP’s System Restore. If everything works again it’s very likely a conflict between the two programs.

Noon-1p

John in El Monte - tell me about tablet PCs

I have and use a Compaq TC4200 - but I don’t necessarily recommend it. It’s a convertible tablet PC, which I do recommend because you still have a keyboard, but the Compaq doesn’t come with a built-in CD or DVD drive, and I don’t like that. I think the tablet to buy these days is the IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad X41. Remember that tablet PC screens are dimmer than typical laptops due to their touchscreen technology. Try the handwriting recognition, too - it’s not perfect.

If you do get a tablet PC you’ll need a notebook application. If your PC didn’t come with Microsoft’s One Note, try Evernote. The free version is excellent but you have to pay $30 for the handwriting recognition.

Digitaldoc: I’ve been using Tabletpcs sine 1986 in the vertical medical field. Tabletpcs are digital, virtual and mobile. Weight is a critical factor for mobility hence the lack of an internal DVD. Very easy to connect to a shared DVD on a desktop computer. TPC require a learning curve and this is especially applicable to Handwriting. The array microphones allow dictation with 99% accuracy with Dragon Dictate Medical. For more information: www.MedicalTabletpc.com

C.M.Wilkerson, D.C
TabletPCs in Medicine
www.MedicalTabletPC.com
Editor-in Chief

I use a Fujitsu Stylistic tablet PC and love it. It has no drive or keyboard, but I have a docking station in the office to supply those functions. I also use a utility called Synergy to share a networked keyboard and mouse. It works like a software KVM switch for the K and M parts. Not having drives and a keyboard built-in means that the computer, with a 12 inch screen, only weighs about 3 pounds. That makes a huge differences when you carry it everywhere. I took it on vacation this summer and was able to manage the 1200+ pictures from my digital camera. Being so light, I never felt like I was lugging bricks around as I would with a regular 8 pound laptop.

By far, most of my input to the computer is point-and-click, which can be much faster on a touch screen than with a mouse. When I need to enter a little text, Windows Tablet Edition has a good feature that provides for handwriting recognition or an onscreen keyboard. I have loaded the trial of EverNote, but I have not used it much yet.

Many geeks are devotees of David Allen’s excellent Getting Things Done series. And a tablet PC is a perfect tool for GTD.

43Folders has a great geek centric introduction to the cult of Getting Things Done.

John recommends the computer classes from the Adult Education division of the Baldwin Park Unified School District. Call (626) 939–4456.

Lane in Signal Hill - high res screen = tiny text!

He’s configuring a laptop for his granddaughter. It has a 14″ screen with a whopping 1400×1050 native resolution and he is having trouble reading the text on the screen. Open the Display Properties control panel, click the Appearance tab, and press the Advanced button. You can click on items in the example desktop to change those items. Click message text and make that font bigger.

One way to fix this problem is as Leo mentioned, by changing the size of the text. I would also try to change the actual screen resolution itself using the appereance setting found on the control panel. You can change the computer resolution by dragging a button to fit your need.

You could also temporarily set the laptop for a lower resolution then return it to the better looking native resolution before delivery.

Jeff in MS says: Before futzing with individual things in appearance tab.
Increase the DPI setting.
Go to setting tab not appearance tab.
Click advanced. Right there on general tab chose large in drop down menu.
Ok, and restart.

Bud in San Diego - copy VHS to DVD on Mac

You need an analog video capture device like Formac’s Studio DV. To rip DVDs I recommend MactheRipper or Dvdbackup.

An easier alternative is to buy a standalone dvd recorder and just make a dvd from vhs in real time THEN rip it.

Mike in Pennsylvania - RAW import on Mac is sloooow

He says his PC is much faster at editing the NEF files from his Nikon D70.

To answer one of your caller’s question about processing RAW files on a 1.33 PowerBook, I recommend that they use iView Media Pro ( http://www.iview-multimedia.com ). Excellent software not only to look at your RAWs, but also to process them, create webpages, and much much more!

Charles in Brea - Sorting IE Favorites

Right click on the Favorites menu and select Sort by Name. He says he doesn’t have that menu item. Hmmmm.

Carolyn says- Re: Sorting IE Favorites
I left click on the Favorites menu and right click on the first website listed, click Sort by Name and it sorts all below it. Also, you can right click on the menus and IE will alphabetize.

Mark in Carson says- Re: Sorting IE Favorites
My suspicion is that Charles is attempting to “Sort by Name” from within the “Favorites/Organize Favorites…” menu (as opposed to from the Context Menu within the Favorites Drop-Down list). There is not, for whatever reason, the ability to “Sort by Name” when in the “Organize Favorites…” menu (though one MIGHT consider SORTING to be a form of Organization, but, it would appear, NOT in Redmond Washington).

1–2p

Brad in Santa Clarita - Is the Warcraft virus a computer virus

No. Well not exactly. It doesn’t infect your computer - just your World of Warcraft character.

An unidentified someone said I have an Iriver and an Ipod, I can record my cassettes on to the iriver, then download them into itunes. You can drag and drop music onto the Iriver folders, directly from itunes, (mp3). Very easy to use. I use Ipodrip, to transfer back and forth between Ipod and my, Powerbook It was a tip from, Sarah, on “The Screensavers” , it works great.

Matt S Leo, why don’t you ever recommend CD-based MP3 players? While a hard drive based player is more convienent, and solid state players are very durable and offer great battery life, you can’t beat CD-based players for value. Most can be had for $40–75, good brand name players usually sound ok, and you can put 7–8 hours of music on a single CD. More than most solid state players, enough for a long car trip without hearing the same song twice. And, if they get dropped, lost or stolen, you are out less than half the cost of a solid state player, and a mere fraction of a hard drive based player. They are great for kids especially, who are likely to drop them or have them stolen by their peers.

Darren in Sioux Falls says If you’re only interested in having a couple of hours of music on your .mp3 player, I would whole-heartedly recommend the iPod Shuffle. The 512MB model will hold around 120 songs. For me, I have had no need for a screen since I can set up playlists on my computer and transfer them to the shuffle. If you play the playlist in order, you’ll know exactly where your songs are. You can’t beat the size of the thing. It’s tiny!

Jeff in MS says:

Sandisk Sansa. Can find 512MB for $70.
It’s not a color lcd, but does have easy menus.
Audible.com support, fm tuner, SD card expansion slot, and AAA battery (I use NiMh).

Great review here.
Firmware update is out to play albums by track number order instead of alphabetical by title.

I personally have DVD backups of FLAC encoded files ripped from cds.
Transcoded flac on desktop to ogg for listening on laptop.
I honestly don’t listen to Music on my mp3 player. Just podcasts and audiobooks.

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