Sunday, March 19, 2006
Tech News
Privacy concerns? Check out www.zabasearch.com and be afraid. And if you’re a realtor you might really be worried about www.Zillow.com.
11a-Noon
QTerry in Seal Beach — LCD monitors
I love the Dell UltraSharp 24-inch. It’s probably the best, and most reasonably priced LCD out there right now.
QChad in Anaheim — GeForce 6600 GT
Good card - no longer the top of the pack but sufficient for the current crop of games.
QMark in Diamond Bar — recording Mac audio
He’s got an Intel iMac. I recommended Wire Tap Pro, but it’s not yet Intel compatible. For a little more you can get Audio Hijack Pro - it’s a universal binary and is very powerful. I use it to record Skype calls for my podcasts.
For remote access on the Mac I use VNC. Chicken of the VNC also offers an Intel Macintosh version.
QJustin in Cape Breton, NS — MacBook Pro good for a first Mac
You bet, especially now that we know it will run Windows XP.
But don’t ask me — ask Mike_B, our chat mod, and longtime Windows enthusiast who just bought a MacBook Pro. Mike?
Mike_B says—I am very happy with my MacBook Pro (2GHz CPU/1GB RAM/100GB hard drive). Its by far the fastest computer I ever used. An Automator script that takes 3–4 minutes on a Power PC G4 Mac Mini, takes under a minute on my MacBook Pro. Video editing takes about 1/3 the time as it does on my XP computers and boot time is 25 seconds faster than my 3.34GHz Dell XPS laptop. My only issue with the MacBook Pro is that the wireless card is a little flakey in which it drops for no particular reason. None of my other 4 computers ever exhibited this problem (including my G4 Mac Mini). I give it 4½ out of 5 stars. That being said, being the XP enthusiast that I am, I plan on getting a Vista compatible computer when it is released.
Noon-1p
QDavid in Burbank — broken Powerbook LCD
Apple charges $1000 or more for LCD replacement. Tech Restore charges about half and gives very good service. I replaced an iBook screen with them and was very happy with the price and service.
QJesse in San Diego — dual booting Linux and XP
Use GAG.
QBrett in Ontario — create a web site
If you want to project a professional image, hire a designer. I do all my own design (can you tell?) but now that I have a business online and am trying to sell advertising on it I needed to redesign TWiT. Phase one was hiring a company to do the information architecture and graphical design. I hired Amber MacArthur’s company arktyp to do that and you can see their design here.
Next step is to wire up the design to Drupal the content management software I use (that makes it easier to update the site and provides such backend services as ecommerce, forums, commenting, polls, and so on). I hired a company called Lullabot to do that - they specialize in Drupal sites. Total cost? Probably as much as $20,000, but it’s worth it to get a functional design that projects professionalism and works well for both the content creators and the readers.
Some design books I recommend:
Jacob Neilsen’s Designing Web Usability and Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed
Bulletproof Web Design
The Zen of CSS Design
Design Sites:
Webmonkey
CSS Zen Garden
Balin? says: I remember Jacob Nielson on The Screen Savers, where he named MSN.com as the WORST design on the web: links were not blue & underlined, design was too busy, menus hard to navigate, etc.
A few weeks later, another webdesign expert was on the show, and he named MSN.com as the BEST example on the web of new and innovative design!
It just goes to show: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But the “unwritten rules” Leo mentioned are spot on (it should be legible, employ easy-to-use & unchanging navigation, have a logo at top left that takes you Home, never make the reader click BACK, etc). With a little care and attention, these can fit into almost ANY design.
QJerry in Lancaster — long beep, short beep
He can’t boot his emachine and hears beeps. Those are the POST codes and they’re trying to tell you what is wrong. Your emachine has an Award BIOS and the codes you’re hearing mean there’s a problem with memory. I’d check your memory stick - clean the contacts. You might also check the power supply.
QTim in Laporte, Indiana — what’s the best codec for video?
My preference is MPEG-4 and H.264 - because they’re open standards. On Windows, XViD seems to be a good choice; it’s open source but not an approved standard. I avoid standards that are proprietary, that is owned by any company, like WMV, DiVX, etc.
QWalter in Long Beach — can’t print web pages or HTML email
Sounds like the HTML rendering engine is broken. You should start by running the system file checker (you’ll need your Windows install disc for this). Click Start→Run, enter cmd then type:
sfc /scannow
If that doesn’t help. You might want to try the suggestions in this article from Microsoft on reinstalling IE6.
Or upgrade to IE7 beta 2 - it’s prerelease but I find it very reliable.
1–2p
QMelinda in Norco — creating a group web site
You can use one of the free group sites:
Yahoo
MSN
AOL
Google
or design your own with Macromedia’s Contribute
QMaureen in San Diego — optimizing for Counter Strike
Here’s a complete guide.
Chat Logs and Show Audio
Chat logs available shortly after the show ends
Listener Comments
19 March 2006
Zillow doesn’t support Safari! How rude!
zillow was pretty outdated for my neighbors and I. The zaba thing was also pretty vague.
Zillow things we only have 1.5 bathrooms and no room of any other kind. It also counts our 3-level split-level as a 2-level. =-P
And they’d never quote that price for the house if they walked inside and realized how it’s falling apart inside.
excellent site “zillow” but Leo talked, talked and I did not know what he was saying until I checked this site. go research site:-)
For my area Zillow gave Tax assesed values, which is $100,000 to $250,000 under what homes in my area sell for also it has my house as buikt 5 yrs ealier than it is.
So for me its a bit misleading as to real selling values
11:42 by joe?.
Zillow looked to be accurate in my neighborhood(Diamond Bar, Ca.)
So when is Macbreak going to finally have some shows available? Everytime I check their website there’s nothing there but a goofy picture of that guy!
The free Apple Remote Desktop client includes a VNC server. Then just use any modern VNC client to connect to it.
Checked Both Zillow and Zaba, both are pretty good.
My shack is worth more then 10 times what I paid for it, fascinating and yet depressing for new owners.
What was the 3rd site he mentioned? Something Landmark I think?
12:04 by .
I had a problem with Dell ordering the 2405WFP. There is a 15% restocking fee and you ship it back at your cost if you don’t like it. This was after I was on hold for 30 min. while Dell confirmed this information. Solution?
I odered it through Costco.com . They have the right return policy “You don’t like it bring it back”. And it can be turned in at any of their stores!
It was the same price And while I did have to pay tax I did not have to pay shipping!
I love the display and highly reccommend it to anyone looking at upgrading from an older 19–21″ crt.
Leo. Recently new listener to the show. Very much like it. As I have used PCs since early 80′s my bias is toward Windows machines rather than MAC. Hence (2) questions. (1) Why has it been so tolerated by the MAC community that Apple completely changes its hardware platform, rendering large amounts of software unusable for any users who want to upgrade hardware, when if Microsoft drastically changed windows in that way there would be an outcry?; and (2) If MACs (OSX) are so much superior than Windows, why is there apparently a strong desire to get Windows to work on the new Intel MACs. Both questions are offered in good humor.
Backwards compatibility is Apple’s weak suit.
OTOH, Windoze is a terribly insecure OS.
IF M$ started making changes which improved THAT,
everyone would cheer loudly.
The problem is, M$ is not going to rip out ActiveX
or (ironically) otherwise do anything
that will break their wonderful backwards compatibility
— which means that when they add new features,
it will always be additions to a broken kernal.
I know a few company’s that have used Digital Vision Multimedia (http://www.digitalvisionmultimedia.com) to design there web page. The prices are affordable and they offer many different packages.
Zillow and Zaba
FUN sites but i find Zillow is not that true on the price. I guess it is OK for a ref and Zaba tells me the persons phone # but It seems if I want anymore info I need to pay. Also it helps if you know the persons middle name and the State they live in. I want my pizza for free and eat it too.
3 years the computer needs all the heat sensetive parts dusted and replace the thermal compound.
Vacuming isn’t the end of the world.
Love WireTap — it has come in so handy in so many ways. But one caveat — it will record ALL sounds on your Mac at a given time — not just a selected source. So if you are recording audio from a DVD you are playing, for example, and you get a “Ding” from an arriving email or IM, that “Ding” will also be recorded.
13:27 by JZA.
to # Jesse in San Diego - dual booting Linux and XP
There are many ways to fix the boot manager if you need, you can either insert disc 1 of your distro and type rescue and there might be a utility to restore the bootloader. Lilo is traditionally the common boot manager Grub is the other one but is a bit more complex.
Lilo is easy to get back on track since you ust need to edit 1 file.
If you need to put windows boot manager you can do this by refreshing the MBR.
Boot loaders really just forward to the script since you can just boot /dev/hda1 for your primary hd and /dev/hda2,3,4,5 depending on your partition.
13:36 by .
To the lady that wanted the website for the non-profit sports for kids web page. I’m a begining web designer and would liket the opportunity to write the page for her, if there is anyway to contact her or let her know, she can contact me @ mark102179@hotmail.com
for the soccer mom you can download html kit from chami.com for free it has ftp built in
does drag and drop and free plugins
then do a google search for free web templates — and your done
microsoft visual web developer is also free and has a free starter kit and on is a club site for soccer
For the soccer-mom that signed-up for vizaweb - they offer a site-builder option too…
Plus, most of these companies offer content managers like wordpress, that can do most everything…
For the caller wondering about parental controls, if the router wasn’t secured, anyone in the vicinity of the house could have theoretically connected to the router and killed the parental controls. Yet another case for encryption.
Problems with computer lag time.
The Broadband Booster is a plug and play device that is placed between your internet modem and router that eliminates “internet lag” in your network. It manages and “boosts” your internet applications as they exit your network onto the internet for a more efficient usage of your network’s bandwidth. The result is a “lag-free” experience from all internet applications!
Try the HBB! Broadband Booster from Hawking Technolgies
Sounds like snake oil. Can you point to any independent reviews?
“The Broadband Booster is a plug and play device that is placed between your internet modem and router that eliminates “internet lag” in your network.”
It provides QoS prioritization so that your outgoing VOIP traffic takes precedence over your file uploads. It does nothing to eliminate “intrenet” lag but it can reduce lag caused by your own uploading activities.
“Sounds like snake oil. Can you point to any independent reviews?”
Tom’s Hardware did a review. They said that it was limited in it’s QoS features (only supporting upload QoS) and that it was generally too expensive. It really only helps those that try and use Skype while uploading files. With many routers adding QoS to their feature list, this product may or may not be needed, depending on you router. It seems like a feature that belongs in a router, at least to me.
Melinda for your counter strike source lag issues.
I run a server and play alot.
Here is some links for you and your son to try.
I figure it’s taken me about a year and a half reading time to get my config. for the game perfectly.
Maybe this will save ya some time.
The first thing is check all running tasks in the background.
IE: i am running 11 processes when i log into steam.
Next make sure the Steam settings are correct for internet settings.
sometimes it can be on dial up and no matter what your connection speed the settings hinder game play.
After that go here…
http://forums.caleague.com/showthread.php?t=549
try the config file directions, very easy and makes it playable on a lower end machine.
(be carefull, this config file chnges everything graphically, so as you tweek it through playing trun stuff back on to suit your lag issues.)
Sounds terrible but really easy, trust me.
If by chance you really get lost, try the official Steam forums.
They are a huge help and very easily help you fix your issues.
“Your son will need to learn some in game console commands, but he will learn more,and play even better”
Hope this helps, See ya on the killing feilds…
My handle is “Dtctv.McCLaNe”
P.S. sorry about the typo’s
&
Your router setting are fine for source
so no matter what ya read no port forwarding for the game, it’s not needed.
Also in console
rate 20000
cl_smooth 0
fps_max (your refresh rate #)
-and don’t shoot your teammates-:)
