Sunday, December 11, 2005
I’m in Providence RI this weekend visiting family and broadcasting from the studios of Talk Radio 920 WHJJ. Thanks guys!
Tech News
A new study suggests consumers whose credit cards are lost or stolen or whose personal information is accidentally compromised face little risk of becoming victims of identity theft. Phew.
Survey says… More than 80 per cent of US home computers lack at least one of the three basic security measures needed to guard against online threats according to AOL.
We talk good English now. “Podcast” is the word of the year and will be added to the New Oxford American Dictionary.
Don’t look for the lyrics. Now the music industry is training its sights on web sites that list song lyrics. If there was ever any question that the RIAA is clueless, there’s none now.
Analysis of the Sober worm, the virus threat of the year for 2005, indicates another round of infections will be triggered on January 5.
Yahoo is buying my favorite tagging site: del.icio.us. We use it to collaborate on news items for my TWiT podcast. Yahoo has done a good job of preserving the unique flavor of Flickr, so we can hope they’ll leave del.icio.us to continue on its quirky way.
11a-Noon
Q Steve in Canyon Country - deleted my cookies and now Ebay won’t work
He deleted his cookies in Firefox, but now, while other sites work fine, Ebay is complaining that its cookies are being blocked. There’s a setting in Firefox that blocks cookies from sites once you delete them; make sure that box is not checked. If that doesn’t work, try deleting the Ebay cookie individually. You might also want to try creating a different Firefox Profile.
Q Robert in Pomona - Philips MP3 requires 2K SP4
Even though it says it works with Service Pack 3. Sounds like they lied on their packaging, but there’s not much you can do about it, I’m afraid.
Q Dominic on the 91 Freeway - Outlook Express doesn’t see email
It’s likely that the mail index files are corrupted. Follow these instructions to rebuild the index.
Q Bruce in Orange - Firefox bookmarks disappeared
This seemes like a common bug with older versions of Firefox. Look for a file called bookmarks.html. You should probably upgrade to version 1.5 anyway. It’s much faster.
Q Wayne In Stanton - I’ve got spyware
Read my article on for software and suggestions on eliminating spyware. And next time, buy a Mac.
Q Steve in Los Feliz - Looking for PocketPC outliner
He uses HiNotes on his Palm - an outlining program it sounds like - he’s looking for a similar program for the PocketPC. Any recommendations?
Noon-1p
Q Eric in Woonsocket, R.I. - audio stutters
It happens on a number of different players. The stutter is a symptom of a slow sound card or slow processor. He has an Athlon 2900+ so I’m thinking it’s that ancient SoundBlaster that’s the problem. Test my hypothesis by playing back a WAV file - it’s uncompressed so the CPU isn’t involved in playback. If it still stutters get a new sound card.
Q Brandon in Laverne, CA - copying files from different user directory
He’s trying to copy files from a hard drive, but XP won’t let him because they belong to someone else. Right click the drive, select Properties, then click the Security tab. Make sure you have Full Access - if you’re logged in as Administrator, you should be able to change the settings.
‘Darin From Newport Beach writes: To retrieve that data, the user will need to “Take Ownership” under security settings using WinXP Pro. This will give him the ability to download the data. Boot under safe mode and take ownership.
- Jeremiah from Oklahoma writes*** Under WinXp home you must be logged in as the master administrator account that only appears when you log in under safe mode. Otherwise the security tab will not have the needed settings.
You can also do this in XP Home. This will happen any time you put an XP drive from another computer into an XP computer. All My Documents from all users will need the ownership changed.
Right-click on a folder you want to access (My Documents), Properties, Security, Advanced, there will be a place to change the owner and all subcontainers… may take a few minutes. You do NOT have to be in Safe Mode to do this. - Bill Jackson
Q Michael in Santa Barbara - building a media center
He’s looking for a Tivo-like media center program that can get IPTV and podcasts as well as cable. I think your best bet is Myth for Linux, and I know Tivo now does this, but I’m not sure what other solutions are out there.
Another choice would be on Windows XP using GB-PVR and several plugins that can be installed with it. I have mine configured to monitor several directories. I use a podcatcher client to download the audio and video podcasts that I like and use a Media MVP attached to my home entertainment center and my network to play all of those files over my home entertainment center. It has worked very well so far for files in WMV, MPEG 2 format and MP3 format
Q Ron in Fountain Valley - getting Epson Film Factory to launch
He has lots of camera software, but he only wants Film Factory to launch when he plugs in his digital camera. Uninstall the other programs you don’t need, then check the options in Film Factory. The Film Factory FAQ is here.
Q Henry in Riverside - copying files from PC to Mac
He’s a PI who wants to move time sheet files from the PC to Mac. Check the total file size then buy a USB key. You can just copy the files from the PC to it, then plug it into the Mac and copy them off. No problem.
I think it they were older PC’s. Make sure the USB key will work with (and has drivers for) Win 98 & ME. If the PC’s have ethernet (or if they don’t, temporarily install a card) connect on a network with the Mac, enable file sharing on the PC folders and transfer. - Bill Jackson
1–2p
Q Sam in Hemet - printing labels in Word Perfect
He’s having trouble getting the mail merge to work. Check your help files or Corel help online
Q Jack in Oceanside - can’t download Thunderbird
She got Firefox ok, but she’s getting a password prompt when she tries to get Thunderbird. The connection wasn’t great so I’m not sure if it was a router issue or she was on a scam site. No password is necessary to download Thunderbird. Surf to http://mozilla.org/thunderbird and click download. That’s it!
Q Lucas in Los Angeles - got my web site, now what next
He signed up with Bravenet and it looks like they’ve got excellent built-in tools for the kind of things he wants to do: photo albums and chat.
Q Sean Woodland Hills - can’t delete file in Windows
Try the free MoveOnBoot.
Q James on the 405 - recording Skype conferences for podcasts
Yes, I have to write an article on how we do it on TWiT. We use Skype, a mixer (a Mackie 1660) , and an external recorder (the Marantz PDM 660). Not cheap, but effective.
Chat Logs and Show Audio
Listener Comments
10 December 2005
Hi Everyone. I just found a great little Holiday song for people into Tech. It’s called “We’re Having a Dot Com Christmas” and it’s available for free at Amazon.com. I just wanted to share it with everyone who listens to the Radio Show. Here’s the link.
Long link fixed by ‘Jeff in Santa Ana.
11 December 2005
Tip: Try using SnipURL next time for long URL addresses. snipurl.com
‘Jeff in Santa Ana adds
BAD tip. Such masked links (TinyURL, etc.) make it look like you have something to hide.
To make a long link short in the Comments section:
left bracket, left bracket, URL, space, pipe*, space, text describing the link, right bracket, right bracket.
When you hover over the link, it will display the URL.
- A pipe is the vertical bar (uppercase backslash).
11:44 by anonymous.
I want to know if I purchase I Phantom do I still need to have an anti-virus on my computer. Does anyone know?
firefox bookmark file:
C:Documents and Settings”User Name”Application DataMozillaFirefoxProfilesfmd9okka.defaultbookmarks.html
or something close
Dear Anonymous
If you go to Iphantom website it says that you dont need a anti-virus software on your computer, but I would keep a free version.
I am using Spy Sweeper and Window Washer by Webroot. What do you think of these programs.
Also, What do you think of leaving your computer in “Hibernate” status or do you favor shutting the computer down?
Try NTFS Reader and copy pictures to fat32 drive I use external USB Hard Drive
12:31 by JZA.
I think newbies can get a Linspire machine in case they don’t want to shell out some top dollars for a Mac.
I wonder if this is a solution Leo should encourage users. Linspire seems to be a great solution for users that don’t know how to install.
Knoppix bootable CD-ROM might be able to see things on that laptop drive. If not encrypted. Knoppix sees all…knows all ;-)
If the administrator isn’t set as owner in ntfs he can’t see files in subdirectories. Reset ownership on folder fixes that.
Hard Drive Data Problem.
To retrieve that data, the user will need to “Take Ownership” under security settings using WinXP Pro. This will give him the ability to download the data. Boot under safe mode and take ownership.
Brandon: Here’s the Instructions that Darin is referring to
You have to go to The Folder, right mouse click on properties, click on Security Tab, Click on Advanced, Change the Owner to Administrator, Click on Apply Click on Security Tab again, and add current user to the users, Give full permissions, click on Advanced Button and Select “Replace Permission entries” then click on Apply… and you’re done
The locked out user account! Go to security and sharing and reset permissions on that folder. I usually go in to the advanced tab and take ownership of the users folder.
To take Ownership in XP HOME U must be in SAFE mode.
12:40 by Mark.
For the locked out user… Log in as Administrator, then go to control panel, then user accounts, then reset the password for the user that has the locked out account, then log in as that user and you should be able to find the files and the account will be using the new password.
Yeah, I had that same problem with a Laptop Drive in the past.
Do I get a KFI shirt for giving the correct answer?
12:49 by JZA.
What is the MythBox budget. There were some media players based on linux? I know the capture cards are a bit pricey.
Another solution is Olive box: http://www.4olive.com/p_bin/
12:52 by JD?.
When i bought my Video capture card it had software included - cyberlink power producer 2Gold - and PVR Plus Which captures any TV show off of cable
Regarding “Film Factory to launch when he plugs in his digital camera”…
Right-Click 1-time on the Recycle Bin
Left-Click 1-time on Explore
Navigate to the sub-directory where your data file is located (photos, documents, etc.)
On one of the data files, right-click 1-time and you will see an Open With option; left-click 1-time on this.
If the program you want to open the data file is not listed, left-click 1-time on Choose Program which will bring up another screen and from there, you can select the program and put a check mark in the box that says Always use the selected program to open this kind of file.
Note: you might want to do the browse feature anyway if you don’t get the option to Always use the selected program…
That’s it!
Brandon, try connecting that Hard drive to a Mac, and see if it will mount up. If it wasnt in encrypted it will mount.
For setting a program to open as the default for a file type, such as jpg, etc.
Open Windows Explorer, choose Tools/Folder Options, and then click on “File Types”
locate the extension such as jpg and click on it. “Details for…” will tell you which program is set to open it. Click the change button and choose the program you want to open the file.
No need to uninstall or re-install programs doing it this way.
To view password protected files use a password remover. Here is one I have tried and works good You can download it at http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/cd050303.zip
and create a bootable iso cd. you will be able to delete any XP user passwords on any drive
Also remember that to take ownership is only half of the process. Once you have ownership you must then give yourself Full-Access. Even the Administrator cannot read a file if access is not granted.
13:00 by JD?.
Sorry for not saying the card name it is a V-STREAM X pert DVD MAKER Which i bought through Tiger Direct Which i have a very good Purchasing Relationship They are a good Company.
Is anyone familiar with the Q program by U.S. Biometrics? You use your fingerprint instead of passwords? Just wondering about security on this… big brother!
13:06 by JZA.
They could have used LTSP and use Linux that way you could have get a consultant and get the set up and have even 486 or a diskless workstation: http://www.disklessworkstations.com
what was the name of the virous or worm that will trigger Jan 5 what was the remedy thanks
That is exactly why this page exists.
Look at the top of the page.
The remedy for virus problems is an up-to-date anti-virus.
13:08 by JZA.
Oops… sorry, this post was about the guy that needed to put smaller pcs on his office where they can get their files to the FTP server.
Take Ownership….Only if the Drive is formatted with NTFS. Otherwise you wont have any problem with FAT32 since there is no security.
You will not have the security tab avail if the drive is formatted with FAT32.
Eric in Woonsocket, R.I. - audio stutters
Leo did not ask if the Chaintek M.B. came with intergrated audio. if so, take out the SB card,install the MB drivers, plug into on-board audio and if it’s the processor non the SB card, problem solved.
13:14 by anonymous.
The mailmerge problem may be that he needs to insert fields. I had that problem this week
Firefox makes backups in a folder named “bookmarks backup”. You need to delete the bookmarks.html file in the directory “C:/document and settings/joe blow/applicationdata/mozilla/firefox/profiles/tm3aswpo.default/” and then copy the most recent backup file from the backup directory and rename it bookmarks.html.
To find the backup files go to “C:/document and settings/joe blow/application data/mozilla/firefox/profiles/tm3aswpo.default/bookmark backups/”. Replace “joe blow” with the username you logon with.
Close and restart Firefox and the bookmarks should be back.
13:16 by .
Old SoundBlaster Cards don’t like to share IRQs with other devices even when Windows PNP is managing IRQ sharing. One symptom of IRQ troubles is stutttter in audio.
For the guy building the Media PC…Azureus has an RSS plug-in that will automatically download torrents from RSS feeds. Kevin mentioned this a few weeks ago but I can’t remember if it was TWIT or Diggnation
This may sound stupid but does the label printer have the amount of labels set right, or is his data fields more then one?
13:23 by JZA.
OpenOffice.org has a powerful Label wizard and is free. Plus is easy to connect to database and even you have a community to send you a video how to do it.
13:26 by JZA.
About the guy of the Thunderbird/Firefox.
Thunderbird and Firefox is free software which means that is totally legal and encourage to sell GPL software such as Firefox and Thunderbird. That said usually the price is of making a CD and shipping it to you.
It would have been nice to see the URL.
I don’t know if this is acceptable, but I had a question and couldn’t get through on the phone.
Is there a software program, for either Windows or Linux, that would allow me to get a real-time view of what my internet connection is doing? I run a Linksys BEFSR81 connected via cable through a Motorola Surfboard modem. On occasion, the avtivity ramps up even when no one is using the internet. I have checked for Viruses, Spyware, Malware, etc. What would be ideal is a PHP based program that I could host on my home website. Any suggestions?
Your ability to understand “ShowNotes Wiki” is severly lacking.
You will get better results from an online
tech forum
BTW, Google is your friend.
The WordPerfect user mentioned that when he tries to get WP help, he gets RightNow Technologies and Leo suggested he’s going to the wrong site.
RightNow is a company that many many firms use for technical support. It’s a web-based service provider (like salesforce.com), also known by its domain name custhelp.com.
I presume that WordPerfect uses them too.
To delete a file in Windows XP that would not delete for whatever reason, boot from the Windows XP installation CD and go into the Recovery Console. Browse to the folder that has the file and delete it.
( Warning: This involves interacting with the black screen of death :P )
I can listen to the show when in internet explorer but not when in Firefox.
any suggestions?
13:53 by JZA.
Podcast software, why not port it to Linux? A program in asm would be great to work for Linux, at least to give out the source code so other developers can port it.
Some podcasts sessions are on systm on revision3
13:55 by JZA.
Gizmo supports two way recording actually, gizmo is pretty cool, you just need to be careful configuring your firewall.
Gizmo uses a VoIP standard and I think is a great thing since is patent free and compatible with more software out there.
I can record any format of audio on my computer using the record tab in jet audio it works great for recording skype it has tabs for Rip, Burn, Convert, and Broadcast for live streaming Free internet broadcasting get it free here http://www.jetaudio.com/
12 December 2005
I have a fourteen year old son how’s is showing interest in PC. What magazines would you guys recommend for him to read to get his feet wet.
12:32 by Mike.
Frank,
The browser you want to stream the KFI audio through requires Javascript to be enabled. You might have it disabled in FF. Go to Tools > Options then the Web Features item. Here you will need a check box next to Javascript. Also, if you have a pop up blocker in FF, you might need to disable that.
Hope this helps.
Mike
13 December 2005
The information I add to show notes on sunday … it was remove ?
Need to lockdown the Wiki if someone going to remove information from the show notes.
That’s the nature of a wiki—things get changed.
Sometimes they get deleted—accidentally or otherwise.
Don’t assume everything here is set in concrete.
FireFox Missing Bookmarks
I used MozBackup to backup my profiles allso backups Thunderbird…
http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/
26 December 2005
28 December 2005
Hey, Leo, just heard this show today via podcast.
I was at Blizzard at the time the Warforge suit was filed. You didn’t give a lot of details on the air, but it sounded like you might have gotten it turned around a little bit, presumably by some of the pro-Warforge partisans.
It doesn’t cost anything to play a Blizzard game over Battle.net (which is just a peer-to-peer matching tool, basically), unlike World of Warcraft. The objection, as I understand it (I was in the PR office downstairs at Blizzard HQ), wasn’t that Blizzard objected to people playing off of Battle.net per se — Blizzard games allow direct peer-to-peer links or LAN play, for instance — but that there was no ability to verify the CD-keys on the games played over Warforge. Thus, someone could get to play online with a pirate copy. Since Battle.net play is a big incentive to buy the game, Blizzard (and their parents, Vivendi Universal Games) naturally doesn’t want people to have a way around that.
The Warforge folks, or at least someone claiming to represent them (it’s been several years, so my memory of it is a bit hazy) offered to connect to the Blizzard CD-key checker, but Blizzard didn’t feel that fighting piracy by opening up its CD-key checker to them was the way to go.
There was a lot of spin, on all sides, surrounding this case, so the facts have gotten a bit obscured, but those are the facts, as I remember them, from Ground Zero.
Love the show.
29 December 2005
08:10 by Mark.
Lucas,
Feel free to get in touch if you’re not having any luck configuring the Bravenet stuff.
Your question reminded me about some software I wrote a while ago now to allow small groups to communicate with each other using their own message board. In addition to permitting emails to/from the board and providing a live chat area, the software also allows photos to be posted and shared in message threads and in a site gallery. There’s also a shared calendar for storing details of important upcoming events. It’s all moderated and password protected so only people you specifically invite can get access to any part of it.
I never got around to making the product publicly available, but we’ll sort you out with a copy if you’re still looking.
For Steve in Los Feliz - Looking for PocketPC outliner
I found alot of them when I searched www.Handango.com for “outline”. The prices ranged from free to over $30. Good Luck and let us know which one you finally choose.
30 December 2005
For Sam in Hemet - printing labels in Word Perfect
There should be a mail merge toolbar. On the toolbar you would choose “merge to printer”. If you choose print you will just get the place holders or blank
03 January 2006
13:34 by me?.
nice one jim, I’ve had the disappearing bookmarks problem several times, but I’m pleased to see they’re still there in the backups.
05 January 2006
Stuttering Audio. I had a similar problem with an A-bit board. I was using a RAID IDE hard drive card and two RAID 1 drives. The RAID drives were causing the prolem. I removed the RAID and went back to a single drive and it worked fine.
11 January 2006
14 January 2006
19 January 2006
This Viagra stuff is silly
21 January 2006
For Eric in Woonsocket, I had the same stuttering audio problem and it turned out to be a conflict between my CD ROM drive and my hard drive on the ATA bus. The CD has a standard IDE interface and the hard drive has a serial ATA interface but both were set to be Master on the bus via the jumpers. When I changed the CD drive setting to Slave, the stuttering went away.
01 February 2006
07 February 2006
09 February 2006
10 February 2006
Hi Leo (and everyone)
Love the show, and podcasts. Keep it up :D
Java Chat idea is probably the best idea that Lucas in Los Angeles should use on his site.
11 February 2006
11 February 2006
For Anthony with the lost Pictures on the hard drive, I had the same problem and I was able to recover it with a Program called Media Recovery. If spinrite doesn’t work try this.
NJ Tom
