Saturday, April 8, 2006
Tech News
Apple releases Boot Camp, a program that makes it easy to run Windows on Intel Macs. But that’s not all. A company called Parallels has released software that lets you run Windows programs in OS X without rebooting.
There’s an ugly new rootkit exploit that makes it even easier for hackers to commandeer your PC.
Billboard is going to begin ranking ring tones.
Want to become a loan shark? Check out Prosper.com.
11a-Noon
QJustin in Fresno - domain name dispute resolution
He has a domain name that a big company wants. If they have a trademark that’s close to that name they’ll likely win it. Read ICANN’s dispute resolution policy to get some idea if you can win a dispute.
QRuth in Hercules - formatted the wrong hard drive
You can probably recover it with a program like Active Undelete for $39.95.
QKathy in Claremont - iMac USB modem crashes her system
This seems to be a very common problem. I recommend using a USR or Zoom USB modem with its own power supply.
QBrian in Watsonville - new house, new computers
Noon-1p
QGreg in Tujunga - what can I turn of in msconfig
Run the Microsoft System Configuration manager by clicking Start→Run… and entering msconfig.
Click the Startup tab and press Disable All, then selectively turn the stuff back on that you need. I’d leave your anti-virus email scanner running but you probably don’t need anything else.
QDoug in Alaska - non profit donations
He rcommends including the original discs and cabling, plus restoring the hard drive to its original condition before donating.
QSteve in Ontario, Canada - converting 8mm tapes for Mac mini
Try the ISBN:B00006JQPE Formac Studio DV or buy a DV camcorder with analog passthrough.
Q Via odeo: Bob from Northridge - what software do you recommend for making podcasts
I use Adobe Audition 1.5 (it’s better than the new 2.0) but you can save money with Audacity.
QDennis in Torrance - moving my Microsoft Outlook file
Copy the OUTLOOK.PST file to the new computer, open it in Outlook, then select Accounts and tell Outlook to receive new mail into the new file.
Q John in Los Angeles - making your own ringtones
How you do it (and whether you can do it) depends on the phone and your carrier. Many carriers lock down the ring tones because they make a lot of money on them. Since he’s a Verizon customer he can use this guide and a free program called bitpim. It’s a little kludgey but it works - and you only have to do it once!
1–2p
QBill in Pasadena - Airport Extreme and Airport Express configuration issues
He turned WPA on his base station (good man) but the Express no longer works. I’ve had the same problem - the trick is to reset everything so it’s as if you just brought the things home. Reset the Express then unplug it. Get WPA working properly with the base station, then plug in the Express and run the Airport Configuration Program and set up WDS from the beginning.
QJules in Long Beach - DSL is dialing 911
No idea why but read on…
QBill in Phelan - it was an old Verizon switch
Same thing happened to him. It turned out to be a failing switch at Verizon’s central office.
And a listener writes:
Hi Leo,
I used to work for Verizon Victorville, which supports Hesperia. When you
have an unresolvable problem, you can request a Class A of the entire
circuit, which is essentially a retest and reallignment. If that does not
resolve the problem, you can request that all the equipment in the circuit
be replaced or rerouted. If neither of the above work, a letter to the
CPUC, California Public Utilities Commission, with copies to Verizon,
usually does the trick.
Ken,
Apple Valley
Q Dean from Dean Penderghast Sales Automation Services, Inc. via Odeo
It wasn’t the USB hub it was the cheapo cable!
QJohn in Bellflower - Quicktime won’t load
Windows XP. He’s uninstalled and reinstalled and it still crashes every time it runs. Not sure what’s wrong.
QBrian in Los Angeles - Is RDP secure?
There have been multiple exploits and man-in-the-middle attacks. Read this artice and this one
I’d establish a VPN tunnel before using Terminal Services.
QRobert in Northridge - HP won’t fix iPod
The click wheel is broken but because it’s an HP branded iPod Apple stores won’t fix it, nor will HP. I’d try an Apple Authorized Repair center - it’s probably fairly easy and inexpensive to fix.
He’s also just started Geocaching with his kids and loves it!
Chat Logs and Show Audio
Listener Comments
08 April 2006
11:16 by Fab?.
XP Upgade- if you are a student ( or know one you can drag along ) you can buy an XP Upgrade for about $89.99
I can get MS Windows XP Home & Pro OEM for under XP Pro = $200
Home = $100
Why not get Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 OEM for $115? It installs XP Pro w/o all the media center stuff if your computer doesn’t have media center hardware.
WinXP Media Edition supports dual-core. Anyone know the cost?
Hey Leo:
Bootcamp does support FAT32 and this could be a solution to share files to Windows.
Can you run System X on a PC clone? You could save a lot of money on hardware and run a stable operating system, etc. Is there firmware - BIOS on the MAC that is required for system X to run?
Try this Leo:
Windows XP in the UK - From Amazon £285.99 which, at current exchange rates, is $497.63!
$300 would be nice!!!
Best wishes, Sarah
Anyone know the difference between OEM and retail?
“It runs so fast because of the high-end hardware”
What “high-end” hardware do the Intel-based macs have that is not available to the average computer builder?
your advise please. when i went to xp, i used xp home upgrade (had W98) it’s all up to date with S.P.’s but the file system installed was FAT 32. i’ve gone to the Win knowledge base & have the details on how to make the conversion. WHATS THE DOWNSIDE?? help please
clarification, convert from FAT32 to NTFS. sorry!!
11:38 by Phil.
CNN is doing a Boot Camp demo right now.
Actually the new OEM versions (noted by the COA called a PIG because of it’s shape) are now legitimate to sell as a standalone copy. I buy Microsoft Windows from one of the master distributors and I sell XP Home OEM in my store for 119.99, and they are a full version bootable CD.
11:46 by Nik?.
So why dosnt Apple let you use an upgrade version? Is it something in the US version of M$’s EULA?
Leo, File Scavenger recovers deleted files & it works! trial copy is free but it’s limited to recovering files of 50k or smaller. it does howerer show all files found regardless of size so you get a free look as to what it will do. to quote an old cliche, try it you’ll like it.
Rush Limbaugh is to the Republican Party as Leo is to _ _ _ _ _.
And Jobs is a Genius.
Regarding recovering files from a formatted hard drive. Make sure that you have another hard drive to store the recovered files to. You DO NOT want to save them back to the formatted drive as it will cause even more problems!
to Jim2,
AMEN! great point.
Another option could be AirPort Extreme which has a built-in modem.
OSX is $300 too. - What a week! Apple introduces Xp for Macs!
Outside the trains don’t run on time either
I build & upgrade computers for a living, I don’t think some novice user wants Windows XP Media Center on their PC for basic use.
Voice of reality? What reality or universe do you live in? OS X goes for $129 from the Apple Store. Amazon.com, MacMall and Frys for similar price. What brand of Kool-Aid are you drinking?
Mea Culpa! My Mistake on the OSX!
That’s for the TEN client version -
(Note to self - read all responses when quoting Price Grabber…)
Voice of reality has a tinfoil hat with “Apple Conspiracy” written on it. He’s a basement dweller troll.
I just downloaded a livecd of Ubuntu, will I need drivers for my wifi card? It’s a netgear wgt311T.
AFTER INSTALLING NORTON ANTI-VIRUS 2006-THE COMPUTER WILL NO LONGER DO A RESTORE FUNCTION.WHAT CAN BE DONE TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM?
12:32 by anonymous.
I had to go into the store. Did he already talk about on line bill pay. If so what site did Leo recommend? Help.
ugh, I didn’t get all my points in, so I’ll put them in here.
When donating E-Waste to non-profits
Computers:
1) if you have the software, manuals, cables, etc, please include them
2) wipe & reimage the machine if possible
3) list the specs on an attached note
General:
1) include a note describing condition, problems(if there are any), etc
2) donate during hours when an employee can take the item(items donated after hours can get stolen)
3) if an electonic item is dangerous(spliced/frayed electrical wires, other hazards), org may not sell due to liabilty
This is just a general list, call the non-profit to get more guidelines.
Steve from Ontario wanted to know about coverting 8mm analog to digital. I have two Sony cam corders that do that as well as pass-through which coverts analog to digital. They both have USB an Firewire outputs. Works great. Also makes a great webcam. They are the TRV460 and TRV480
yeaunix@cs.com
NORTON ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM
how many more nightmare stories do we have to hear before the message gets out, AVOID NORTON ANTIVIRUS unless you want issues. just read the multi-page on line document on how to un-install it!
12:45 by Fab?.
I use audition, pro tools le, and sound forge and for 70 dollars you can get a basic sonic foundry 7 that will do all most everything audition will do, it is fast, user friendly and works great associated with Vegas.
I have made my own ringtones for my Verizon Moterola E815 make them MP3’s and keep the file size very small. I made a 64kbps file that was 240k and just e-mailed it to my phone with g-mail. Do not use verizons sham media website PixPlace! If you have a cable you can just put on full quality MP3’s because the phone is made as a MP3 player as well.
12:59 by Fab?.
Sound Forge- sony bought it :) Sorry.
If you have a Verizon phone and don’t use a lot of minutes you can get rid of the high monthly charge by dropping the service, then getting the Locus Platinum service through LD Post for only 15 cents a minute with no monthly charge if it’s a CDMA phone! There’s a $19.95 authorization charge that includes 100 minutes for the first month and you get free LD and free incoming texting. Outgoing is $0.10 a message.
Then use BitPim with a USB cable to upload your ringtones, download photos, etc. Cables are cheap on ebay, I got one for the LG phone for 10 cents plus shipping. http://ldpost.com/Prepaid-Mobile-Cellular-Wireless-Phones_LDPOST.htm
Hey Leo,
What do you think about blue fog for fighing spam?
I use Bank of America’s Bill pay which is free. But I mostly use the automated payment option straight from cable company, capital one car loan, gas, electric, etc.
So much less stress now, I couldn’t do without automated pay.
Last time I wrote a check I had to think about how to do it.
Netbank, based in Georgia, is completey an online bank that has bill pay. They receive email notices from your billed accounts to let you know when bills are due, from who, minimum payment and balance. Netbank in turn sends you reminder emails of new bills ready to pay. You can add links to your credit accounts in Netbank and on one page see ALL bills with current balances. Used them 10 years but dropped them for WESCOM CU who also has bill pay but are much better with loan services. I miss the notification service Netbank had but WESCOM does a great job with their billpay.
13:09 by .
Dennis in Torrance:
Another option is to import the old .PST file into your new .PST file. To find your old .PST file, search your hard drive for *.PST because you may have several .PST files (ie OUTLOOK.PST, ARCHIVE.PST, etc..). Once you find your old PST files, write down the path.
Here are the steps to import your old .PST files:
1. Run Outlook
2. Go to File→Import and Export
3. Select “Import from another program or file” and click NEXT
4. Now select “Personal Folder File (.PST) and click NEXT
5. Now click BROWSE and drill down to the path you wrote down above and select the .PST file you want to import.
6. If you are importing into a new outlook file, then select ‘Replace duplicates with items imported’ since no duplicates will exist.
Hope this helps!
Dean Penderghast
she doesnt have a filter on her alarm dialer for her home alarm i bet
Outlook.PST file.
Dennis,
Since you burned your .pst file to a CD and then copied it to your new computer, that file becomes read only. You have to remove read only attribute on that .pst file before you will be able to use it in your new PC
A device could also be pulsing 911. But it’s not her DSL modem.
13:22 by Fab?.
911-this is a LONG shot, if she has a wireless router that is unsecure, maybe someone is using the comp to dial out 911 with a phone dialer program like yahoo phone on that line? Hey, I said it was a long shot and not even sure that would work.
Hey Leo… if I remember right COSTCO has XP Pro SE for 190.00
13:23 by .
The 911 problem is from a setup on the old dial up modem, 91 is a prefix for an office phone to get out and call a long distance call the next 1 is the first number of a phone number ei 1–800–555–1212.
hence the first three numbers are 911 after that dosen’t matter
I also live in Long Beach and this happend to me a few weeks ago. The funny thin is I don’t even have a land line!!
13:24 by Joe?.
She has a cordless phone with a bad battery. I had a panasonic phone that did the same thing until I replaced the battery
I just heard about new 802.11n wireless stuff hitting the market. What do we know about this stuff?
13:47 by anonymous.
With respect to the chap with the Quicktime problem, would this be the one time that a reg cleaner might help?
At least with that QT Alternative, you won’t see that annoying ad qttask.
Regarding Electronic Bill Payment Services
Have been using CitiBanks bill pay for several years.
They seem to have one of the largest list of possible
epayment acceptors. If the company or person you want
to pay is not on their list you can still add them
but the payment will be sent via postal mail.
You can schedule your payments if you wish or
even have recurring payments. To my knowledge
all invoices / bills still still come to your
normal billing address for that vendor account.
However this is the wierd part. Many times
even though I have paid a bill electronicly,
the receiver of the funds seems to be very slow
at acknowledging acceptance of the paid amount.
Often times it is more than 4 days between payment
and acknowledgement and closing acceptance of the
payment and often as long as 7 to 14 days before
the bank receives confirming acceptance and closing.
I doubt this is Citibank’s fault but rather the fault
of the electronic clearing houses or even the recieving
payment vendors. Eveything else I have ever had Citibank
do always shows up immediately.
Unlike with Bank of America’s electronic bill pay which
I find has much fewer participatin companies listed
and also whose online balances and transactions
are never up to date.
Also I find Bank of America accepts electronic charges
even when funds are not in the account so they can then
charge the customer an outrageous overdraft charge.
Rather than just reject the transaction.
I mean if its a debit financial account, why should they
be accepting charges that clearly their are not enough funds
presently on deposit in the debit account. This happens
because B of A customers cannot reliably depend on the balances
shown on their ATM and online screens because those balances
don’t accurately reflect the true activities on your account.
Also regardless of who you use for electronic bill payments.
I find it is very hard to stop auto recurring charges say from
companies which you have given your debit card number to like
say an ISP, a Cellular Carrier, the Phone Company, etc.
when you discontinue the service.
Also if you have a lot of these automatic payments to which you
have subscribed. Example an online shopping service that has
flex payment plans, they are hard to keep track of. Also if
your card number should get changed as has happened not by me
but by Visa or Mastercard because of internal identity theft
problems, then you have another problem to deal with becasue any
automatic payments you have will be rejected likewise causing one’s
account status to be affeceted with those companies.
But overall I do find it saves me time nd has kept me
more ontop of my financial obligations. However,
financial institutions could make it easier by making
it more conveineint for accepting companies to join their
bill payment services. Also many institutions do not support
payments or funds transfers outside of their own institutions
easily or at all. Often if they do, they want to charge
an extra $20 -$30 to transfer the funds to the other institution.
Their marketing claims this electronic stuff is to make the cost
of performing transactions cheaper, but at the same time they charge
you outrageous fees for items that obviously do not cost that much to
perform.
Finally, I suggest folks get a secure USB flash (thumb) drive
and keep their financial or private infomation on that device
rather than their hard drives. You can unplug the USB flash
device and lock it up or if necessary easily take it with you.
Also the secure versions have auto encryption of the data
contained on them just in case you do loose them.
http://www.lexar.com/jumpdrive/jd_secureII.html
yeah quicktime alternative and real alternative are the bestest
letterboxing is like geocaching
Return the HP MP3 Player to Costco. They are great with returns……………
Tnx. Anon;
I did a reg clean and used several different stored restore points. QT listed in manage adds.
Jim; I am on my way to AppleCom after the show.
Regarding the Quicktime corruption, if you located an older version, try THAT install before the stub nonsense (I agree with Leo) an when the older version installs, do an update when prompted.
nice hat honesty, do you work for alcoa?
The hat reads: “Microsoft Conspiracy” this week. Apple has done a very good thing.
Chris in Ft Lauderdale Fla
no u will not need drivers.. linux uses modules or if u build it into your kernel… either way you’ll be fine… Ubuntu is a great place to start with linux but imho Gentoo or FreeBSD are alot better.. if u have questions email me at richierich@gmail.com or come to irc.freenode.net #gentoo …. my handle is richiefrich later
HP iPod can be returned to Costco if you have the reciepts..
You will be able to buy it as soon as Steve Jobs lets them pry it from his cold, dead hands.
Try a google search for osx86. There ARE ways to do it, and highly illegal.
Honesty in Radio is brought to you by Microsoft. More Apple and Leo bashing by Honesty in Radio, Inquiring Minds Wants to Know, Voice of Reality, RobtE and many other aliases. The check is in the Mail, Mr. “Honesty in Radio”
You are the same “person” anyway
Brian:
I’m just now listening to the show via my Radio Shark and heard your call about dual monitors and Flight Sim.
I’m just like you - I have one screen with my work and my other screen runs FS. It’s a HOOT!
Here’s how you do it:
1. Purchase nVidia video cards with a dual-head. They are much better than ATI cards.
2. After getting your video card installed and setup, right click on the nVidia icon on the system tray.
3. Now select nView Display Settings→Horizontal Span and select Display 1+Display 2.
How your desktop will span both displays and the toolbar will span across both displays.
Here’s the fun part!!
Run Flight Simulator. When it comes up, press ALT-ENTER so FS runs within a window. Now just doc the window in one display, create your flight plan, take off and have fun. How do your work on the second monitor.
If you want to run just FS, then press ALT-ENTER again and you’ll see that FS will use BOTH monitor!! This gives FS a whole new look and feel that you won’t forget. Just setup FS to a monitor of 2048×768 and you’ll have a HUGE smile on your face for days!!
Although FS does run in the background just fine, none of the sound works at all. So if ATC tells you to decend or gives you a frequency change, you won’t here it.
Have you ever tried VATSIM.NET yet? If not, give it a shot - it really make FS “As real as it gets!”
Talk to you later (hopefully via VATSIM)
Dean Penderghast, Consultant and Pilot.
Yeah, it must be the same person as everbody loves to kiss $teve$’s tush.
I have the full version of Windows XP Pro with SP-1 and I would prefer not to purchase another full version of XP with SP-2 for this new dual boot option. Leo or anyone, would this work?
You can create your own SP2 install disk. You can search and find the manual way of making a slipstreamed SP2 install disk, or just download Autostreamer.
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=223562
All you do is insert your XP disk, select the SP2 install, and it will create a .iso for you to burn your own bootable SP2 disk.
I’ve got to say, “Honesty” in radio, that you’ve got to macfixit.com, taken their complete list of reported problems, and taken that as PROOF that OS X is a buggy mess. In all the years I’ve had OS X up and running, I’ve experienced two or three of the problems they’ve talked about. Many of these problems have to do with the user’s setup, a peripheral that is misbehaving, or installing a major update without repairing permissions.
I wonder: if MS had such a website, would anybody be able to handle the bandwidth of bugs reported?
Hey about the ringtones that were discussed today… here is a pretty funny one to check out by a little humor site on the web. http://www.illwillpress.com/cell.html gotta have macromedia installed to view the clip but there is a link below the clip to download the ringtone.
I recorded the show using SDP and am just getting to listening to it now. I was wondering as well about the difference between OEM and Retail copies of Windows. After doing some research I found that both OEM and Retail versions can be purchased legally without hardware. This is because of a change to Microsoft’s licence agreement last year. The difference between OEM and Retail copies of Windows is that OEM copies are tied to the machine they are installed on while retail copies can be uninstalled off of one computer and moved onto another.
09 April 2006
“HP iPod can be returned to Costco if you have the reciepts.”
From what I’ve heard, they will even take it without the reciept as long as you still have your costco membership since they have all your purchases under your membership number.
There’s nothing superior about Apple hardware
10 April 2006
Quicktime won’t load/crashes. If it won’t load when a page requests it nd shows a question mark over the Quicktime logo) there might be a conflict with the computer having it as an installed program. Delete the installed program and let it run from the www. I had the same problem, but couldn’t stop the installed program’ startup so: deleted from cpnl’s uninstall solved it.
leo mentioned something about an embeded ms program that you can run that will clean up all of your drivers etc.- automatically-he said tha ms now disowns it- does anyone know what that was
09:45 by RGS?.
OEM Windows XP CDs may be exploiting a licensing loophole, but they are perfectly legal and come with an activation key. I’m sure you can get copies of OEM configured CDs (like Dell), but those would not be legal and you probably didn’t get it from a reliable source (i.e. Russian Warez). The loophole is that you have to buy “non-peripheral” hardware with the OS and the OEM OS usually goes for around $140. Some sites will tell you if a product meets the requirements and may even suggest an item, but stick with more well established sites (zipzoomfly, newegg). It’s in these stores best interests to not violate their OEM agreement. If you want to be sure, find a item (internal CD Audio cable or a mouse for example) and call or email the online seller. They should be able to tell you if it meets the requirements. There is one more choice that may be available to some people. Many large companies have EPP (Employee Purchase Program)agreements set up with Microsoft. I work for a big company and can purchase a full copy of XP for $129 directly from Microsoft’s EPP site. If your employer offers EPP, check with them for access instructions and a program code. A non-peripheral hardware component is one essential to running a PC
Examples of non-peripheral hardware:
Memory
Internal drives
Mice
Keyboards
Power supplies/cords
Examples of components not considered essential are:
Scanners
Printers
Cameras
External modems
Networking device
Differences between the OEM and retail version of Windows XP are the following:
* Retail version comes in a box. OEM does not.
* Retail version contains a printed manual. OEM comes with an instruction booklet.
* Customers who purchase the retail version are eligible for tech support from Microsoft.
* Retail version offers the option to do a “Quick Install” or a “Clean Install.” OEM version offers the “Clean Install” option only.
* The OEM version costs approximately $100-$150 less than the retail version.
04 May 2006
I had the same Quicktime problem with a tech caller at work. Uninstall Quicktime, then search the registry for “quicktime”, make sure there are no references to Quicktime in the registry at all. Then, reinstall. Worked for my caller.
But as others have said, using Quicktime Alternative and Real alternative are the best solution. I don’t install Quicktime or Realplayer, I use the Alternatives and have never had a problem using them instead. Quicktime and Realplayer (especially Realplayer) are bloated pigs and make all kinds of annoying changes with your system, Realplayer has had issues with spyware in the past and Quicktime displays that annoying ad even just when viewing a video.
05 May 2006
11:16 by anonymous.
Good Dya Leo:
We just are now getting your cast 237.
There were viruses that would dial 911 on your modem (when not online). Do a google search for ‘virus calling 911′ for more info.
11 May 2006
I have often used PodProducer (free, and ad-free) to create short bits and bumpers, etc. It works VERY well, despite its beta status.
http://www.podproducer.net/en/
12 May 2006
The question Dennis has about moving Microsoft Outlook PST file to another. One I rember from doing this using a CD-R to copy the PST file and move it to the new computer. Once you copy the PST file you have to right click and select properties and uncheck the read only attribute. By default when you put a file on a CD and automatically sets this flag. The reason you have to remove read only is that Outlook writes to this PST file constantly while outlook is open. Also to add the PST file you have to add a personal Folder and when outlook prompts you for a PST file you guide it to where you copied the PST file. Then tell outlook you want all new mails delivered to this folder. That should add all the functionality you previously had with that PST file prviously.
