Saturday, March 18, 2006
Tech News
Hard to believe but just a couple of months after Apple announced the first Intel-based Macintosh computers, and less than a month after they shipped, someone has figured out an easy, legal way to get Windows to boot on an Intel Mac. Congratulations to narf and blanka who figured it out (and won $13,854 for doing it). Watch our video of it working at MacBreak.
11a-Noon
QMark in Kentucky - software firewall issues
He installed the Kerio Personal Firewall and now he can’t get online. This is why I don’t recommend software firewalls. Kerio is very good, and free, but all software firewalls can cause issues and their value is debatable.
Leo - if you are not recommending software firewalls (as you stated in the show, use a hardware firewall or router instead), what would you recommend for a laptop that is being used on the road where a hardware firewall is not available? It would seem that a software firewall would be the most appropriate and necessary.
Leo responds: Indeed, and I wouldn’t stop there. I strongly recommend a VPN when you’re on the road. I use Hotspot VPN — it’s $8.88 a month and offers much more protection than a firewall.
QRichard in Fullerton - emailing Congress
Send a postcard instead. That way they’ll know you’re a constituent by checking the postmark.
Jeff in Santa Ana says: Faxes work too.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Freedom Frontier let you do it for free (on specific issues).
QVance in Diamond Bar - alt-u u shutdown
He shuts down Windows by pressing ALt-U to open the start menu and then hitting u for shutdown. Ctrl-Esc u would work, too. Or create the one-click shutdown shortcut:
- Navigate to your desktop.
- On the desktop, right-click and go to New, then to Shortcut (in other words, create a new shortcut).
- You should now see a pop-up window instructing you to enter a command line path.
- Enter one of these as the path:
- Use this path if your operating system is Windows 95, 98, or Me:
C:windowsrundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows
- Use this path if your operating system is XP:
SHUTDOWN -s -t 01
RESET shortcut on desktop
Shutdown.exe -r -t 01
(If the C: drive is not your local hard drive, then replace “C” with the correct letter of the hard drive.)
5. Click the “Next” button.
6. Name the shortcut and click the Finish button
Or use Steve Gibson’s Wizmo - it does that and lots more.
Noon-1p
QRose Marie in San Diego - cassette level is low
She’s a mime who has to dub her sound effects from cassette to CD - all of a sudden the levels are very low. Any thoughts as to why?
Listeners write:
- Check the Recording Source inputs.
- Make sure that it is recording from the correct source that the tape player is connected to. I posted about this on Leoville Townsquare recently.
- Tape deck for PC
QMichael in Illinois - reassigning Powerbook function keys
He wants to use F8–9−10 for Expose without pressing the function key, but he wants the screen brightness keys to work directly. I don’t think there’s any way to do that. Get used to pressing the Fn key.
QBrian in San Juan Capistrano - sound card not working
Windows 98 with motherboard sound. Check the motherboard manufacturer for sound card drivers - they probably didn’t come with 98.
QRick in Valley Village - D drive missing
Two possibilites:
Hardware death or format/partition table issues. If it’s the former, prepare to spend thousands to recover that data. Companies like Drive Savers use clean rooms to remove the platters with the data and put them into a working drive mechanism. On the other hand, if it’s a software issue you can use Spinrite to fix it in most cases.
QArlene in San Diego - CRT clicks and the view shrinks
The transformer has died - you can repair it but it would be cheaper to replace it with a new flat crisp LCD display. She also wanted an anti-virus recommendation. I still love NOD32.
1–2p
QMark in Irvine - remote desktop with OS 9
He’s using a PC, his friend is using OS 9 - how does he use remote access? VNC! There are clients and servers for virtually all operating systems. The OS 9 client is free from Redstone Software. For Windows I recommend TightVNC.
QKirk in Los Angeles -
QDarryl in Victorville - needs a Soundmax Driver
Check www.windrivers.com
QCheryl in Canyon Lake - flushing the arp cache
Read the article at SixDifferentWays - it covers the ARP cache in depth.
QMichael in Ohio - can’t open XP control panels
Sounds like a permissions issue. It’s possible for a system administrator to disable the control panels — it’s a common technique for protecting business PCs from fiddling employees.
QKaren in Corona - CD burns audio but not data CDs
Sounds like a software issue. The only difference between audio and data CDs is the format of the data; the discs are physically the same. Try Nero — there’s a free trial — and see if it does the trick.
Chat Logs and Show Audio
Listener Comments
18 March 2006
So are the calls finished- i mean like can people can still call?
Im listening online, im trying to call from Doha, Qatar
The show is broadcast live 11AM - 2PM Pacific Time.
The timestamps in the Comments section are Pacific time.
To the woman trying to record her cassette tapes - have you tried a different patch cord between the tape player and your computer?
Leo, “Mic” level is a a lower impedance and Line is higher impedance. That is why when “Line” level is pluged in to a “Mic” it is “hotter”. This because of an impedance mismatch. Her sound card is moslt like the problem!
You got the relative impedances backwards.
It’s likely the *impedance* doesn’t make a difference anyway.
You’re correct about the *hotness*—but that’s about GAIN.
Leo, check your data!
http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/line_to_mic.html
Yes. An attenuator will make it work.
Your “facts” are still wrong.
What makes you think it was Leo who responded?
12:18 by anonymous.
If your desktop has focus (which you can get by clicking on it), then pressing alt-F4 will take you right to the the shutdown dialog without ever opening the start menu.
Does anyone have a list of backup radio stream Urls to KFI 640 Live Radio Stream?
I’m designing a page with a list of back up links to listen to KFI 640 for whenever someone having problems connecting to KFI 640 main live radio stream.
The lady trying to record her tapes should record them into a program like Audacity. Its free. Then you can edit it and amplify the sound. It works fairly well for recording tapes and records too.
I found using a small pre-amp between the pc and the tape
Well, who ever responded knows nothing about audio
Of course you’re right.
My decades working in the electronics industry are for naught.
The mime who was having low volume transferring sound effects from cassette to CD:
She stated ONE cassette player WORKED! Yet her original player no longer did. This sounds like a patch cord issue to me. It intermits = a partial break in patch cord. Try another cord. They are cheap.
Also, using various headsets I have found that the Chinese manufacturers vary the length of the plugs. Also have had problems with the jacks on sound cards,too. Sometimes one can pull a cord plug out of the jack 1–2 mm. and the damn thing works!
Try pushing the plug in forcefull, pulling it out slightly and even “wallow the plug around” to see if the volume level changes.
Has worked for me before.
Regarding Google and the government - Leo, if you’re not breaking the law, why should you care if the government knows what your google searches are? Huh?
Ah. The old guilty-until-proven-innocent position.
12:45 by T?.
Termites… read a history book, it might do you some good.
If the request to Google is for aggregate search strings used, not tied to a particular IP, how is that any different than the New York Times publishing a top bestsellers list? That’s a list of most popular info read by Americans…
On my MS keyboard I shutdown using Start key, u, u. That avoids the need to use two keys simultaneously, which I find awkward.
You can also shut down by using the windows key and then U,U
Brain in Capistrano - may also be able to find drivers on old hard drive. Device Manager => sound => update driver => browse D:windowssystem[32]- or there-abouts
When I use Firefox and try to listen to the KFI stream it only opens to hear the ads. If I use IE it works fine. Anyone know why?
I recently had a problem listening to the live stream here and elsewhere after installing a plugin from iTunes to hear a link in Firefox. After uninstalling iTunes and Quicktime that came with it everything started working in Firefox again.
You guys haven’t got a clue. I suppose that you think NSA ‘keyword’ scans of communications from Afghanistan to the US are an invasion of privacy too.
Look at it this way - have you ever gotten a ticket by a cop using radar or laser?
What’s the difference between the government (cop) using a device to read your speed and the government using a device to scan your email from Afghanistan? I don’t understand your point!!!I wish I could understand.
Start your study of the civil rights of individuals in the year 1215.
Pay particular attention to the reasons for the American Revolution.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Magna-Carta+Fourth-Amendment+deserves-neither
Termites: The difference is - Driving on a PUBLIC road is a privilege granted by government to a person after passing a test of your driving ability and knowledge of laws and is subject to those laws. The same laws that guarantee privacy.
Sonic Record Now, will burn data audio and make copies, this sound like a driver issues, i use it everyday on my compaq, i’ve actually had major issues with Nero
Which laws that guarantee privacy? Fourth amendment? Read this-
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment04/05.html#1
It’s an interesting question that Congress and the Executive Branch will sort out. We’re at another milestone- similar to that referred to the Olmstead Case and the invention of the microphone.
You don’t know who I am, Leo doesn’t -he has an IP address - but, that IP address can change in an instant. I can spoof IPs MAC addresses and even the number that appears on YOUR cellphone when I call you.
We’re in new territory that is not adequately covered by existing law.
WRT 4th Amendment: Yup—and take a look at the 9th some day.
WRT your link: Taft was a Luddite (typical Republican).
WRT “existing law”: Pay no attention to that
230 years of precident behind the curtain.
“He who would trade liberty for some temporary security,
deserves neither liberty nor security.” —Benjamin Franklin
Leo has many years of experience in public broadcasting and has (apparently) adopted a policy of minimal discussion of political issues on the “air.” Very wise.
I didn’t hear Leo’s monolog so am not sure of the genesis of the low level political discussion that is evident between several posters above, but I would hope that this comment column doesn’t morph into a political discussion. No matter how cogent and even important the comments are, my view is that this is not the right place for them.
There are many important political-technical issues that I would like to see a separate but equal comments area devoted to them. Any possibility?
19 March 2006
Leo avoids polarized political positions while discussing technical questions that have public impact. I lived through WWII where privacy went out the window with pearl harbor. since the end of WWII Public policy has been struggling with setting a proper balance between privacy & national security. It is one of the great debates of our times & spills over whereever citizens discuss policy.
I was reading the forums online to see the progress of the Windows XP Installs onto the intel based Macs. It’s still going pretty rough - for the driver issues. Systems locking up pretty frequently. I guess it takes installing Windows XP on a Mac to make the things crash on a regular basis….
20 March 2006
http://www.theyrule.net/ ←--- This link is for the American Citizans Who want to Know What Links Government Has to BIG BUSINESS
for vance in diamond bar:
i had the same issue with ctrl-u-u no longer working. i fixed the problem by removing kerio firewall - don’t know why it was interfering with shutdown.
15:10 by Chad.
for Michael in Illinois,
If you’re using Tiger, open and the Keyboard & Mouse System Preference and make sure “Use the F1-F12 keys to control software features” is unchecked. I seem to remember Panther having a similar option, if needed.
F1 and F2 should control brightness and F8-F10 can control Expose. No fn needed. I’ve only ever used fn for Page Up and Page Down. BTW, I’m on an iBook G4 but it should work the same.
19:20 by RGS?.
Rick in Valley Village - I had a similar thing happen with a 300gb external maxtor USB HD. Drive just suddenly showed up as not formatted. Tried my brother’s copy of spinrite, but gave up after a day of it running and stating it had not found or recovered any data. I even removed the hard drive from the chassis and hooked it up internally via IDE cable (voided the warranty, but it only had 6 months left) and no luck with sprinrite. I downloaded several trials of recovery software and began getting nervous because many of them charged based on the amount recovered or seemed a bit on the shady side. I finally tried Recover My Files (free trial that shows you if it can see the files…you pay only if you want to recover the files). I was able to recover absolutely everything 100%. The only thing I didn’t recover was a Norton Ghost image of my main drive and that was only because I didn’t have room and it wasn’t critical. After getting my files back, I reformatted the Maxtor and I’m using it again (only for backups of existing drives…not trusting it again for live data). Recover my files (recovermyfiles.com) cost me $70, but it did work and I didn’t have to pay per gig of recovery. I restored over 200gigs of data. If the drive is physically damaged (I doubt it because Windows says it’s unformatted), it’s unlikely that any program would help (except the thousands of dollars clean room scenario that Leo described). Good luck.
11 April 2006
22:57 by Mike.
alt-u u shutdown - I use the Windows Key U, U to shutdown my computer. I have found that if there is another program on the Start Menu that starts with U this can cause a problem like this. Maybe this can cause the same problem with your method. Just right click the affending entry and choose remove from list to correct the problem.
10 May 2006
10:35 by anonymous.
for those above…
The CONSTITUTION gives ALL rights not EXPLICITLY given to the Government to the people.
12 May 2006
Routers are not really firewalls, the nature of private IP space makes them firewalls. On some routers, you can configure them to use public IP space on both the WAN and the LAN. Once that is done, unless an access list (ACL) is in place, they are open. As you know, no ACL and it passes everything. With ACL it only passes/denies what is specified.
Now, that being said, most home routers won’t allow you to define public IP, which even if they do, you have to get the public IP’s from your ISP, and it is generally assumed you know what you are doing if you go that far.
