Saturday, May 6, 2006
Is it ok to use a shopkeeper’s time to research a purchase you’ll make elsewhere? We’ll discuss the old Hebrew “Shopkeeper’s Law.”
And when a retailer like Best Buy treats its customers as a demographic instead of individuals, I see no reason not to use them for research!
Tech News
Check out the new Apple TV Ads. They finally play the virus card, but is that such a good idea?
11a-Noon
QKathy in Corona - my floppies are going bad
They do. I’d recommend using a USB Key instead. Even the smallest USB key holds 100 times more than a floppy.
QCarl in British Columbia, Canada - record companies should take a smaller share
We’ll see if lower prices woo people away from iTunes - www.Napster.com is now free for the first five plays of any song.
QDave in Lancaster - windows media center is crashing
He’s worried he has a rootkit - I suggest the free Rootkit Revealer from www.sysinternals.com - but it’s more likely just a corrupt system file. Reinstalling Media Center is probably the best solution.
QJennifer in Aliso Viejo - California requires that you pay use tax for online sales
Indeed they do. If you buy online and don’t pay state sales tax, you’re expected to declare and pay it on your state income taxes.
Noon-1p
QMartini in Hacienda Heights - Best Buy issues
Try calling a Best Buy, he says, no one answers.
QLeandra in Apple Valley - replacing the earphone jack on a 2nd generation iPod
It’s a bit of a project and I don’t normally recommend it, but if you must you can learn how to open an iPod with the videos at Other World Computing. For a good soldering guide visit this site.
Thanks to Jeff in Santa Ana for these NASA videos on how to solder.
QRob in Tarzana - search companion files are missing
Microsoft has a fix here - or you can run the System File Checker by opening a command line window (Start→Run and enter cmd) and then typing sfc /scannow but you’ll need your Windows disc.
I prefer Yahoo’s desktop search anyway - it’s a good workaround.
QLeslie in Maryland - recovering Juno email
Juno crashed and all her email is lost with it. Look for the largest file in your backup - that’s probably the mail - and open it with a hex editor like this one. You’ll probably see the contents of the emails in the text window. It’s hand recovery, but it’s probably the only way to get the contents of those messages back.
QAlbert in Louisiana - TV next to computer
He has a 13 inch TV next to his computer screen. When the TV is on he’s seeing a gray line down the computer screen. It’s either magnetic interference or electrical noise. If moving the tv farther away from the monitor doesn’t fix the problem, try putting some line filtering on it by plugging it into a surge supressor.
1–2p
QRobert in Santa Margarita - self-built system won’t boot
It can boot into Safe Mode but he gets a gray screen in normal mode. He’s tried different operating systems, video cards, and monitors. I’d look at the BIOS setup and try modifying the video settings.
QDavid - swapping laptop drives
He got a duplicate replacement laptop, but can’t swap disks. Sounds like they’re not exact duplicates. I’d just copy files over.
QLori in Apple Valley - wireless g broadband router
Linksys slower than Netgear? No - they’re fine. Either one is faster than your Internet connection anyway.
QBarbara in Lake Forest - what computer should I buy
I tried to talk her into a Mac, but since she really wants Windows I recommended Dell.
Q Steve in Covina - Compaq Presario fan speeds up every few minutes
Sounds like a variable speed fan. They’re designed to speed up when the temperature rises, but if it’s doing it all the time, it may be a bad temperature sensor.
Chat Logs and Show Audio
Listener Comments
04 May 2006
05 May 2006
Researchers Chart Leap in Mac Vulnerabilities
http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20060505/tc_zd/177496
Matt Hines - eWEEKFri May 5, 9:09 AM ET
The volume of security vulnerabilities discovered in Apple’s Macintosh platform has increased significantly over the last several years, according to a new report released by McAfee’s Avert Labs.
The security software maker contends that the number of flaws found in the Mac operating system has increased by 228 percent since 2003. While the researchers said the number of serious vulnerabilities isolated in the latest version of Apple’s operating system software, Mac OS X, is dwarfed by the quantity of problems unearthed in Microsoft’s rival Windows during the same period, McAfee maintains that as Apple’s products have become more popular, a larger number of glitches are being identified.
Bwah ha ha ha ha ha …..
14:48 by .
In response to your request for Bill Pay sites.
I have been with CheckFree https://mycheckfree.com for 4plus years. I have never had a problem. As the name implies, it is free. They notifiy by email or can be set for autopay. They presently have 368 ebill companies. 100% guaranteed.Check it out.
xmark@verizon.net
16:46 by anonymous.
Waldo the links that u posting are dead. Dont post a
dead link thanks
REMBERE THERE IS NO WAY THAT ANY OS IS SAFE.
When mac become more in the wild and they will be the next target for virus and spyware and so on. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA LOL LOL LOL
06 May 2006
Shows 235 to 240 are out now and they ARE Valid ,, 241 to 244 will be out soon ,, And the links are for Those who have a hard time finding Links to the shows
07:58 by anonymous.
Really thats great durrrrrrr
Just just click on Audio Archives.. It at the top on every page they dont need help on looking them up…
10:55 by anonymous.
I think waldo can post anything waldo wants
10:59 by anonymous.
By the way DURRRR You must have clicked on the links to find out some were dead (why did you use the links) IT WAS EASYER
11:01 by anonymous.
YOUR WELCOME
what is the url for the streaming
This is Steve, the non-affluent tech enthusiast!
LOL
11:20 by anonymous.
Macs are next just wait for it..
hey my imac has stopped letting me use the number keys on the right side of the keyboard. the only way i am able to use these keys are to hit the “option” key in order to use them. it is very annoying. anyone know what i did wrong?
I Leo & all the gang!! Does any one have a recommendation for a pair of powered speakers-monitors with or with out a sub woofer?
I have a jbls now not to happy with them
JBL Creature II subwoofer and satellite, is the brand
Apple tries to position themselves as being anti-establishment. They are, however, the ones who understand and use marketing to its fullest. Sometimes I thing those who “think differntly” are really the lemmings.
11:42 by anonymous.
wow, the 14 year olds are on the board early today
Uh, Leo …… THIS GUY DOESN’T WORK FOR A “Virus Company”. Dispute this! …. or will you need to wait to get you reply from Apple PR?
Unpatched Mac flaws may put users at risk
By Joris Evers, ZDNet
URL: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6063931.html
Apple Computer is investigating several unpatched and potentially serious security flaws in Mac OS X that have been publicly disclosed, the company said Friday.
Tom Ferris, a security researcher in Mission Viejo, Calif., published late on Thursday information on seven flaws in Apple’s operating system that potentially put Mac users at risk of a cyberattack. The most serious of the flaws could let attackers surreptitiously run malicious code on users’ PCs, Ferris said in an interview via instant messaging.
“We’re in the process of investigating and addressing them,” Bud Tribble, Apple’s vice president of software technology, told CNET News.com. “I think it is important to note that although these are potential vulnerabilities, there are no known exploits to them and they are not affecting customers today.”
Five of the flaws identified by Ferris relate to how Mac OS handles various image file formats—including BMP, TIFF and GIF, according to his security advisories. Another flaw involves the way OS X decompresses Zip archives. Additionally, Ferris claims to have found several bugs in Apple’s Safari browser.
“The image flaws are the scariest ones, giving an attacker multiple methods of compromising a host,” Ferris said. “They can be exploited to execute arbitrary code very easily and were not hard to find.”
Apple silently fixed one of the flaws related to the handling of TIFF image files in update 10.4.6, Ferris said. The other bugs remain unpatched, he said, adding that he reported the issues to Apple earlier this year.
Apple believes the public disclosure of security flaws doesn’t help anyone, a position shared by most software makers. “We don’t feel that our customers are better served by public disclosure of potential issues,” Tribble said. “We think that in the general case, people who need to know about issues are the ones that can actually fix the bugs.”
Ferris in the past has released information on flaws in several Apple products, including iTunes and QuickTime, as well as the Firefox Web browser, before an official patch was made available.
Security monitoring companies Secunia and the French Security Incident Response Team, or FrSIRT, deem the latest Mac OS X issues “highly critical” and “critical,” respectively.
“Multiple vulnerabilities have been identified in Apple Mac OS X, which could be exploited by attackers to execute arbitrary commands or cause a denial of service,” Secunia said in an advisory. To protect against attacks, the company recommends not surfing to untrusted Web sites and not opening suspect Zip archives or images.
Apple expects to address the issues in an upcoming security update but could not say when that fix might be released. “Our target is to do it promptly,” Tribble said. “How quickly that can be done depends on a lot of variables, in terms of how much information we get and how complex the things are to address.”
And Leo tells us every week how Safe and Secure and Perfect Mac OS X is …. unfortunately, these reports of FLAWS are news every week too!
“No one wants to see the blue screen of death on their TV set”
Leo - the reason that many of us believe that you are ‘controlled’ by Apple is that you never, EVER miss a chance to say something disparaging about Windows or Microsoft.
Sorry to beat a dead (and lame) horse.
I don’t want to see a kernel panic on my TV. That is the reason I don’t want a computer of any kind connected to mine.
email users have a new spam fighting tool from Blue Security. It’s time to really hit spammers where it really hurts.
Find out more about this free service at http://bluesecurity.com
Get it fast before these spammers attack their website again to prevent visitors from downloading Blue Frog.
Mac or PC “Cant just get along”
Re: New Spamming Tool Posting. This was not any kind of spam itself. I am only passing this smart spam blocking free service idea to the rest of Leo Laporte listeners.
Leo you might want to add this tool to the email client area. I have tried but need one of those wiki words from you.
OF COURSE Leo Uses Node 32 on ALL Of His Computers!
He Gets it for FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
And paid to pimp it to you too! Wonder if McAfee paid for the KFI commercials?? Yeah, you guessed it.
12:07 by CTL?.
What’s the number to call in? Can’t find it anywhere online, and I think you only said it once while I was driving.
well i think nod32 is pretty cheap considering the other antivirus programs with are like 50 bucks for the first year and 35 bucks a year
Leo,
You obviously have no Jews on your staff. If you want to discuss some Jesish law, talk about it on Sunday. The Jews who would know the answer are not allowed to listen to the radio on Saturday, the Sabbath.
Bestbuy classifies its customers. Let’s see isn’t that called marketing? Doesn’t all businesses size up customers?
12:14 by anonymous.
when u put xp on a mac intel you need antivirus and install updated
18005201534 is the phone number
12:16 by anonymous.
555–555–5555
Disposable “meant to throw away” iPods huh!??
Well my my my, isn’t Apple ENVIRONMENTALLY Consciencious!! So much for a company run by a Silicone Valley Limousine Liberal …. with a $80 Million Private Jet, compliments of the company.
in xp when you are using your mouse to select files and go down the page it stops.but if you start at to bottom it goes to the top to select files.??
Can you commrnt on Tablet PC Laptops. I was thinking of buying the Toshiba M400 and was wondering what you thought about those…compared to Fujitsu Lifebook or IBM X41. Also with regards to Toshiba, what does opting for the Duo Core chip buy as far as OS and apps processing.
12:34 by anonymous.
So much anger..
over a RADIO show!
Macs ain’t so hot
PC’s suck
Sun is crap
WHO THE HELL CARES except some smarmy jerks who have NO life, as they spend all their time bashing other platforms. Must be frustrated, impotent men who can’t get it up, and have to blame it on someone..
MACS MUDT BE THE CAUSE OF ED!!!
Anonymous …. you are an idiot. You prove it everytime you write (barely - grammar and spelling) anything.
What ya got? 4th grade education?
12:40 by anonymous.
MacAintSoHotAfterAll-
You are a nuisance. Your long posts annoy rather than enlighten. Do not listen to Leo anymore. Go away!
-Anon
12:44 by anonymous.
leo show #1
12:49 by anonymous.
Would some one else call in I’m very bored with this Juno lady
-Juno’s email uses text files for their mailboxes. No hex editor is needed.
-Here is a mailing list for Juno users. They know most everything about the service:
http://www.freelists.org/list/juno_accmail
-Juno’s webmail limit is 1gb, so you do not need to purchase their POP service is mailbox size is an issue.
-Freepops allows you to download webmail to an email client, but can be buggy.
http://www.freepops.org/en/
12:54 by anonymous.
And Leo talks to this lady for about 20 minutes …. I bet the whole time he is thinking “ come on phone ring dam it”
Leslie in MD, re Juno lost email file:
I’ve been using Juno for >10 yrs and had to recover 3 times. The file is in C:Program FilesJunoUSER0000mailbox.bdb for the first user, with subsequent users incrementing the number by 1. Use the date/time stamp of the file to verify it’s the current database file. After re-installing Juno, delete the default (& empty “USER0000” file and copy the “old” one in its place in the Juno directory. Use Juno’s backup frequently.
This goes with the “advantage” of having your email file(s) stored on your own hard drive, which allows accessing email on dial-up without a Web connection. Juno now charges $10/yr for this privilage but is still free if you access their Web site. Juno should be ashamed for not having better tech support for this.
Leslie in Maryland can get a free domain name by joining Windows Live. They also have email forwarding but expect everyone to use Hotmail and nobody should have to use Hotmail because it’s so terrible. If Hotmail is upgraded to Windows Live Mail it’s somewhat better but there are big annoying ads that take up a lot of the space on the page.
Leo:
In Windows 98 the boot log is in the root foler, However in Windows XP it is in the Windows folder. The user might also try Booting in VGA Mode in XP
13:21 by Adam.
It all so may be something wrong with the bios setup if the user has a grey screen. Make sure that the settings are correct to your specific motherboard..
13:22 by anonymous.
Right now I’m making funny faces at the radeo … I am just so cleaver, am I?
Leo is so behind the times “Westurn Digital has a huge one, 500mb…” Hek, Maxtor and Seegate have got 1 terrybyte units now
-Anon
test test test test test test
13:30 by xp99 ?.
its spelled British Columbia, not British Colombia :)
http://bestbuysux.org/
Where current and former customers of Best Buy rany.
There are some employees of Best Buy too.
Thinking about getting a Power Book Pro or should I wait for G6?
13:36 by anonymous.
If you have high priced DSL Extreme they won’t let you change to the cheaper rate unless you cancel you’re service
13:37 by .
I sure hope that Leo has someone monitoring these listener comments and that he has a rule or policy to ban users who abuse the privilege by posting clearly inappropriate remarks..
I am truly sick and tired of seeing offensive comments posted by people who really have no right to be here.. are their IP addresses being logged and can they be denied access? I say kick them out permanently.
I thought Leo was hosting a show on computers and technology, and graciously offering this comment feature as a service to his listeners — isn’t it a shame how just a few bad apples (cretins or social misfits might be better descriptions) can spoil things for the rest of us?
WRONG Leo!
The Maxtor OneTouch III (3) is BOTH RAID 0 (Striping - Acts as one continuous HD = 1TB) OR RAID 1 (Mirroring - acts as two 500MB HD’s)
Maxtor is FAR better than WD! I have had at least 6 people tell me of Western Digital External HD’s DIE in less than 14 months! 2 Said they were only 90 days old and they LOST all their data, videos and music!
But you probably get free drives from WD, huh Leo?
Anyone heard of the Blue Frog?
Got a few emails saying spammers are attacking blue security email users.
OH BROTHER…… here comes the APPLE PIMPING!!
Leo Has To Earn His Weekly Apple CHECK!!
Hey Lady!! Read this First!
This Weeks What’s Wrong With Macs (and OS X)
Friday, May 05 2006 @ 04:10 PM PDT
Applications unexpectedly quitting when waking from sleep
We’ve recently received a number of reports indicating a problem where some open applications unexpectedly quit in a repeatable fashion when the system is awoken from sleep.
MacFixIt reader David Powsner writes:
“After 1 year of owning my 1.67 GHz PPC Powerbook, 1 GB RAM, 100 GB hard drive, now running Mac OS X v. 10.4.6, I now find that Safari and Opera crash every time I bring the machine out of sleep mode. This never used to happen. Now it happens all the time. It seemed to start happening about the time I installed Mac OS X 10.4.6, but (as you know) that’s hard to prove.
Friday, May 05 2006 @ 08:10 AM PDT
Aperture 1.1.1 released; problems installing
Apple has released Aperture 1.1.1, a maintenance update to the RAW workflow photography tool.
Apple says the new release addresses several issues related to performance, stability, color correction, and display compatibility.
For more information on this release, as well as a download link (the release is also available through Software Update), see VersionTracker’s Aperture product page.
Problems installing Some readers are reporting issues applying this update.
MacFixIt reader Jerry Gifford writes:
“Aperture 1.1.1 will not update on my G5 dual 1.8 desktop either from Software Update or after downloading the update .dmg and running it. Software Update says I need no update! When I tried to use the .dmg file I downloaded, the message I got was that I needed to update to 1.1 first. (I have done that long ago!) When I tried to rerun the Aperture 1.1 update I got a message which basically said I need to install Aperture.”
Thursday, May 04 2006 @ 08:00 AM PDT
Graphic distortion (tiny white dots) in Dock icons, other icons, menubars (#2)
We continue to cover an issue where graphic distortion appears in various icons, particularly in the Dock or on the Desktop. Other users report manifestation of the issue in the menubar. Again, here’s an image of the problem:
Authored by: barrom on Thursday, May 04 2006 Strangely, my girlfriend’s Titanium PowerBook (1 GHz, G4, Mac OS 10.3.7) just started having the same problem, except much worse and all over the screen, particularly where there were transparencies, like in drop-shadows and such.
Authored by: James D. on Friday, May 05 2006
I had the same problem, covering most of the Cinema Display on my G5 Dual 2
GHz using OS 10.4.6. I also have a Studio Display thru a ADC/DVI adapter. The
Studio Display would sometimes turn solid lime green.
Dude: I switched to the MAC, and I will *never* go back to Windows. You are brainwashed. Also, what program/computer does *not* have bugs? The Mac has far less, and is much more logical to use.
Leo just tells it like it is, which is why I like him. He is honest, hard working, and a straight shooter. Don’t believe the M$ hype!
Get all the features they have been touting in Vista, is OS X today (not next year) I think M$ is waiting for leopard, so they can copy more ideas from Apple.
I am a very happy switcher, and so glad I don’t have to run so many anti-spyware, anti-virus programs now. My system can be used for getting the job done now, and not hours of maintenance.
Hopefully, others will see “the light” :-)
Bruce in Ma ….. naw, you’re just to stupid to know the difference and you probably had a tuff time just pushing the start button on a PC. That’s what attracts Mac users, they’re too stupid to use a real computer, Macs are built for children and adults with a childs brain power.
Hey Mr. Mac expert …. riddle me this. What Platform and OS had “Multi Processing” FIRST not multi processors, stupid (that if you even know what multi processing is)???
And, speaking of Multi, what platform had multiple processor capabilities????
WINDOWS PC’S STUPID!!
OS X can BARELY multi process, and when it chokes up get to enjoy watching that Spinning Beach Ball spin and spin and spin and spin and spin ……
Go play with your Apple Etch-o-sketch flawed gadget.
I got an HP docking station on ebay for my HP laptop with a broken AC connector. I can’t get the ds to fire up. Any suggestions?
simmer:
The jack in the back of the ds is broken? Or is the wallwart broken?
Watch out for Best Buy. Particularly their computer warranty. I have a lap top I just bought and one of the USB ports fell apart and a plastic insulator fell out unnoticed. I discovered the problem when I tried inserting a device. Now they are telling me that I will have to pay to repair because they are claiming physical abuse. Another hit for big brother.
Boy, those Microsoft diehards don’t like to hear anything positive about Apple. Nowhere does Leo or any one else say there are NO virus on the Mac or NO problems. They say there are significantly less. over 10,000 virus on Windows and few hundred on the Mac? Let do some basic math. 230% increase of few hundrend is still less than a 1,000. Compare to over 10,000, of course the Mac has less. Like the insurance industry, you can have statistics say what ever you want them to. Bottom line, less virus and less vunerbility on the Mac compare to Windows. And accusing Leo of stating the facts saying he needs to earn his paycheck from Apple? Then I can say your unsupported bashing of Leo means you need to support your paycheck from Microsoft (both nonsence).
07 May 2006
Proof that “Oh Yeah”, “Truth In Radio”, “macaintsohotafterall”, “Honesty In Radio”, SBC DSL Customer (the same person anyway) doesn’t have a clue about ANYTHING.
Copying and Pasting without even reading the article.
Doesn’t even understand the difference between “Multi-Tasking” and “Multi-Processing”
durrrrr!
Your ISP already gave you up.
For the lady on the show who could not get Best Buy on the phone, There is a website called gethuman or something similar which is dedicated to getting a real person on the phone that may be of some help
To the chap having Quicktime problems in XP, a nice Quicktime/Real alternative on a Windows PC is “Media Player Classic” found in the “K-Lite Mega Codec Pack” here:
http://www.codecguide.com/download_mega.htm
make sure to check the “install BS Player” radio button.
10 May 2006
13 May 2006
11:19 by anonymous.
The phone companies releasing number that called other numbers isn’t your data, it is the phone companies data. If they also gave names then that is different. But if a number is interesting then they need court approval.
Basically the phone record list provides two pieces of information. One when a terrorist calls a number, you can see who they talk to. Second you can see what calls are out of the ordinary, i.e. if a pay phone usually calls a set of numbers and then out of the blue someone calls say an out of state number or calls in from out of state then that may be an interesting call. If this normally happens then maybe we want someone to watch the phone to see who uses it.
Basically you can’t connect the dots if you don’t collect the dots.
Right click icon & select properties to see path
19 May 2006
Found when a site sends a qicktime video and a large “?” shows up over its logo without playing, I have to completely uninstalled quicktime from my programs. (Starting it from my programs is no cure for the “?”.) Then the site video runs OK. Somehow an installed quicktime causes the “?” problem.
20 May 2006
Play free music of World on 2500 Radio-Web & TV only FREE !!! Search in Google: RADIO-WEB RD_SOFT
or go to: radio-web.vai.li
or digilander.libero.it/radio_web/
22 May 2006
re Shopkeeper’s law:
I do feel that I am stealing resources from a store if I have alrady made up my mind to buy somewhere else. I do not feel obligated to buy just because a sale person spends time with me, but I do feel that I have to give them a chance. I will even pay a small premium to buy from a local merchant who has the prodcut in stock and will support me in the future.
If you don’t support the brick-and-mortar stores, then they will close and we will all loose those resources.
25 May 2006
10:25 by Rob?.
Kathy in Corona could just open a gmail account and email her files to herself - no “thing” needed.
If she’s going to get something she should get an mp3 player so she can use it to store her files and listen to Leo wherever
26 May 2006
Re:Shopkeepers Law
I don’t begrudge Best Buy their demographic analysis nor their store ‘tailoring’ to those demographics. I do much the same thing in deciding what store to buy from. I will go from store to store until I end up the one That fills my needs for whatever I am buying.
Yea, maybe the labels Best Buy places on their categories of buyer are a bit galling. It is less galling if you think of those labels as simply what their are: that small portion (less than 1% of who you are) of your personality or that pertains to your Best Buy shopping habits.
I hate Best Buy in my area. They don’t stock sufficient stock for what I want. Clearly they don’t want me as a customer. If they don’t have the lowest price on what I want, I dont’t buy there.
In my area I don’t go to Best Buy for reliable product knowledge. But I don’t ever expect to find one store (online or not) that fits all my buying needs.
