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Sunday, October 9, 2005
Tech News
It’s the law. Teens under 18 can no longer buy violent or sexy videogames in California.
Congratulations to Stanford University’s Racing Team, the first ever to finish the DARPA Grand Challenge robotic auto race.
11a-Noon
Ron in Long Beach - recording computer audio
Roger McGuinn of the Byrds showed me the Samson C01U a great microphone for podcasters and others who want to record to the computer - it has a USB interface!
For field recording I use a Marantz PMD-660 digital recorder. It records MP3 or WAV to compact flash. The Marantz uses regular microphones - it has XLR connectors and phantom power. I use an inexpensive Shure SM57 for field recordings.
Scott Adds
Sorry Leo but you are wrong. You can duel boot the iPod with ipod OS and Podzilla see iPodlinux. it is very easy to do and it works for me.
jccalhoun adds
I use a Sony Minidisc recorder which I find very good. It doesn’t have XLR mic inputs, but the new “Hi-MD” models can upload to computers and be converted to mp3 or wav. Minidisc.org is a good resource for the various models and the pros and cons of the format.
Gary in Ventura County - Verizon EVDO
Something cheaper
Priscilla in Dana Point - OS X catalog error
She’s getting a file system error on her hard drive. You can use fsck to try to fix it, but make a backup of your data first.
- Restart
- Press command s during boot to start in Single User mode
- At the command prompt type
/sbin/fsck –fy
Machevious, adds:, geez Priscilla, how can you be having problems” Leo says that Macs and Mac OS X is “Perfect” ???? Clearly, you must really be using a PC running that evil Microsoft Windoze.
Noon-1p
Joe in Newberry Park - Building a Tivo for Linix
He’s setting up MythTV. I recommend KnoppMyth. Kevin Rose and Dan Huard explain how to do it on Systm.
The Leoville A good book for Windows users switching to Linux is Marcel Gagne’s Moving to Linux: Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye!
Gary in Whittier - Pinnacle Studio 9 keeps crashing
Studio 7 was so good, but Studio 9 is terrible. I recommend using Adobe’s Premiere Elements - it’s inexpensive and works really well for capturing, editing, and burning video.
Michael in Irvine - Hardware drive order
He has a RAID array and SATA drive chain. When he installs an SATA drive it always becomes Drive 0, no matter what he tells BIOS. He has a DFI LAN Party motherboard.
Robert in Hollywood - first Mac what should I buy?
Wait til after the big Apple announcement on Wednesday just in case they announce an Intel Mac mini. At $500 I think a mini is the best choice to get introduced to a Mac.
Patty in Carlsbad - the Vundo trojan
She’s infected with Vundo. It’s spyware. Click the link above for a removal tool and manual removal instructions.
You might want to try the online anti-virus and spyware scanners to make sure you don’t have anything else. (Most spyware infections open you to additional beasties). Read my article on Removing Spyware.
Anti-virus:
BigBoy-
free anti Virus scan http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ or http://www.freebyte.com/antivirus/
Anti-spyware:
- SpywareInfo online
- XP and W2K only
Tareq in NYC writes: Microsoft Spyware on Win2K Installed it on Win2K and running it
Agreed, MS Antispyware runs fine on W2k, running in my corp environment (~80 PC’s)
oops. That’s right. Sorry!
Dave adds: TrendMicro has this info on this “malware” -
1–2p
Sue in Calabasas - son’s laptop is riddled with spyware
It’s a problem all parents of teenagers are suffering. If you must use Windows I recommend forcing them to use a Limited User account, so they can’t install software and bugs can’t infect them. Many routers including the linksys wrt54g series include access controls. You can go into the router config page and set mac address specific restrictions. You can specify when they can access the network, or turn them off completely. You need to make sure you change the router admin password too. I had the same issue with my 11 year old daughter changing the system clock to get around time restrictions I set up in zone alarm. I only found out when I happened to catch her changing the time when I logged into her machine with vnc to run some updates. I subsequently changed her account from admin to power user so she couldn’t modify the clock.
Gary in New York - posting photos to my web site
I recommend . You can use it as an online photo album, but you can also use it to upload to your own site.
Nancy in Lake Balboa - jiggy mouse
The light on her USB optical mouse is flickering out. It’s worse when it’s hot. Sounds like the USB controller chip is flakey. Usually that requires a motherboard replacement, but you might want to try a powered USB hub first to see if it’s just a power issue.
I had a similar problem and found it to be broken wires where the mouse cable enters the mouse. It was due to fatigue (lots of flexing). The only solution was replacement. Your solution, Leo, of trying another mouse, or the current mouse on another machine should isolate the problem if broken wiring is the culprit.
Old Windows Guy adds:
If it turns out to be the USB controller, instead of replacing the motherboard, why not just buy a USB PCI card for under $20. I know this works on x86 (Intel compatible) systems, and doesn’t the Mac also use a PCI bus? You would have to disable the onboard USB root hub, and enable the one on the card. Sure a lot cheaper than a new mobo.
Bill_in_Germany weighs is…
Nancy, I 2nd Old Windows Guy’s recommendation of adding a USB PCI card. While you’re at it, you might as well go USB 2.0. Here’s a link to a 4-port USB card, that is Mac compatible - and only $12.54, from my favorite Mac mailorder company:
http://www.macconnection.com/ProductDetail?Sku=462741
I’ve added a USB 2.0 card to my G4 tower and it works like a champ.
“Jiggy-mouse” Nancy reports:
I borrowed a friend’s mouse and powered USB hub. It turns out I had a faulty mouse which was confusing my computer. I opted for a cordless mouse, and life is beautiful!
Kevin in Vegas says:
Nancy wasn’t sure how many USB and/or Firewire ports she had. This is common. For people in a similar boat, check www.everymac.com. They have diagrams of every Mac.
Jim in San Diego - Virus infection can’t be disinfected, only quarantined
That just means that your AV can’t safely or effectively disinfect the file - it can only delete it. Choose quarantine.
Listener_RV adds: Leo may have mis-interpreted. The virus detected is (likely) currently in use in memory, which is why it can’t be deleted. Which probably also means that it is set to start up when the computer boots. To clean, may require special tools, such as an up to date bootable antivirus CD. First, try using the Microsoft Windows Update “Malicious Software Removal Tool”.
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