Sunday, May 7, 2006
Tech News
11a-Noon
QBJ - Quark ate my files
She was using auto-backup in Quark, but it crashed during a save, and then overwrote the autosave files. They seem to have just disappeared. Here are some recommendations for recovering damaged Quark files but they’re only useful if you can find them! Anyone have any suggestions?
Dave in chat says: BJ should be doing incremental saves. Every 15–30 minutes, save your file as ‘filename 07.xxx, then filename 08.xxx. I teach a class and do not accept any excuses.
QRyan in Boston - wi-fi router loses connection several times a day
His DSL provider gave him a Westel modem with built-in wi-fi router, but it drops out all the time. He has 10 other wi-fi access points visible. It could be a bad router, but sometimes all those other WAPs confuse the computer. On a Mac, open the Network System Preference Pane and open the Airport settings. Instead of letting it automatically choose the WAP, manually name the acceptable WAPs. On Windows
QBill in Monterey Park - 15 minutes to boot
His hard drive is making repetitive clicking sounds - a sign that it’s having a hard time reading some sectors. That means it’s absolutely urgent that you back up your data; the drive is in bad shape. You can use Spinrite to try to restore that drive, or format and reinstall. If the damage is not physical that should recover the drive.
Q Nick in Culver City - he’s getting numbers instead of letters
Press the numlock key.
He likes Opera instead of Internet Explorer. I agree: It’s a good choice.
Q Mark in Santa Ana - uninstalling McAfee and metatags
This is such a common problem McAfee has a help note explaining how to do it manually .
Metatags are useful for adding keywords and a description to your web site - some search engines use these, but it won’t help your ranking on Google.
Noon-1p
Q Lois in Van Nuys - low vision needs higher contrast
Open the Display Properties control panel and click the Appearance tab. Under Color Schemes you’ll find four High Contrast schemes designed for people with low vision.
QAmy in Riverside - digital camera under $500
I recommend the Fujifilm Finepix F10 - it’s fast, great in low light, and has superb battery life. But do read the reviews at www.digitalcamerainfo.com
Q Mason in Maryland - looking for non-destructive partitioning program for Linux
He’s eod_punk in the chat room.
He’s using Ubuntu and wants to add an ext3 partition.
He’s using Ubuntu and wants to add an ext3 partition. I use Partition Magic in Windows, but Dustin recommends Parted.
Q Sean in Washington - PC Games with motherboard video
No One Lives Forever won’t run. It’s not a very demanding game. It’s true many modern games won’t run on your motherboard video, but NOLF should. I suspect other compatibility issues. It may simply be that it doesn’t work with Windows XP.
Q Aaron in Whittier - hacking an iMac to put in a new Mac mini
Good luck!
Q Dieter in Mission Vejo - looking for a good voice mail service
He runs a company with no central office (www.LoanTactics.com) but he’d like a central number that can route calls to the phone number where his consultants are. I use a great service called GotVMail that does that and a bunch more for a very reasonable price.
If you’re a real geek you can do it yourself using the excellent open source Linux software called Asterisk.
1–2p
Q Mike in Murrietta - Slingbox for Mac
Not yet, but they promise it real soon now.
Q Richard in Yorba Linda - XP crashes on right click
That’s usually because one of the entries in the contextual menu is buggy. You can remove items from the contextual menus by editing the registry.
Q Jeff in Loma Linda - Hushmail single sign on safe?
Yes. As long as they’re using their PGP encryption even if the web site is compromised the bad guys won’t have access to your data.
QLynn in San Diego - Gremlin in my PC
She keeps getting a Windows Installer popup. I could suggest a bunch of things to try, but frankly, it’s probably best to just reinstall Windows at this point.
UncleBicT4132 in the chat room suggests: You might want to try Microsoft’s Windows Installer Cleanup Utility first.
QBill in Pennsylvania - Error on closing Front Page and Excel
He gets a memory error every time he closes the programs. Since they’re both part of Office I suspect a problem with one of the Office libraries. Reinstall Office or update from www.microsoft.com/office.
QBrian in Brea - can’t delete files in XP
Try MoveOnBoot - it’s very handy for deleting busy or locked files.
Q Bruce in Long Beach - moving iTunes music from desktop to laptop
Find the iTunes music folder by opening the iTunes preferences, clicking the Advanced tab. You’ll see the iTunes Music Folder location under the General tab in the Advanced dialog. You can copy those files as you would any files. Once on your laptop you can use iTunes’s Add to Library command to add them to your music library.
Q Dirk in Gainsville, FL - I can’t connect my XBox360 to the Internet
It’s not clear exactly what the problem is. If you’ve rebooted your cable modem it should work.
Chat Logs and Show Audio
Listener Comments
06 May 2006
I listen to the podcast, and I’ve never heard Leo or any of the callers mention SiteAdvisor, which is a toolbar/extension for IE and Firefox. It warns you if the site you are viewing is unsafe by changing colors from green (safe) to yellow (caution) or red (unsafe). It helps you avoid spyware, viruses, spam, excessive popups and phishing sites. It also places green, red, or yellow icons next to your Google, Yahoo, and MSN search results. Since Leo gets at least 1 spyware call every week this might help his listeners. Here’s the URL: http://www.siteadvisor.com
Hey Leo
I listen to your show on Sat. & Sun. Can you please send me the name of the computer store in Downey, Ca that sells lap tops of all brands via E-mail dpar77@adelphia.net Thank you Leo Keep up the good work.
07 May 2006
Hey Leo,
Great show! I have learned tons by listening to this and all of your podcasts.
Question: What linux distro is best for setting up a file server for a mixed (win xp/mac) network? I have a Dell D300 1Gb RAM, 580Gb HD, P4 2.8 that I’m no longer using and want to set it up as a file server for storage/backup etc.
Leo: Talk about streaming audio Windows verses Linux distros. What needs to be done to fix windows when it no longer streams the file but downloads the whole file before playing. What needs to be installed in Linux to make streaming audio work.
What do I get my 80-year-old mom for Mother’s Day?? Help!
Leo, listenig to you is like experiencing the real “Farfegnugen” Where else can we “get what you’ve got” THANKS FOR GREAT SHOWS!
“LOST” FOUND FREE ON THE NET
Missed the latest episode of “Lost”? Now you can watch it live online, without
shelling out for a download from iTunes.
ABC went live this week with a new service that offers streamed versions of four
television shows—”Lost,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Alias” and “Commander in
Chief”—on the Web, complete with nonskippable commercial breaks.
The program is, for now,, just a two-month trial—one that happens to coincide
with May sweeps). Bloggers were generally pleased with the video quality and
ease of use. Could offering television online finally be the way to beat file
sharing?
I hate to say this, but we have laid out many, many books and brochures in Quark 3, 4 and 6; and the Quark caller’s disaster is why we switched to Adobe InDesign about two years ago. The infamous Quark “GOTCHA” is just too harrowing. I am sorry she has to go through this.
11:46 by anonymous.
What 8 pages of Nothing Steve Cool IT
What is going on with KFI log on?
I don’t see the usual page to go to Leo’s WIKI
This first showed up yesterday may 7
bruceb writes,
Regarding Quark files…
BJ, are you using Quark on a Mac or on a Windows PC?
Either way, try searching your file system (your hard drive, in other words) on the date, or on a range of dates, for when files were last MODIFIED. Hopefully, you know the date the Quark crash occurred. Also, realize that, depending on exactly how the crash occurred, the date that your missing Quark files were last modified might be the date that your Quark file(s) were last saved SUCCESSFULLY, which is not necessarily the same date as the date of the crash.
If you know any additional info. about your missing files, you can use that knowledge to help you narrow down your search. For example, if you know the file extension of your files, you should be able to use that to help narrow your searches.
To do this search on a Mac, go to the Finder, then use Spotlight or else select File > Find File in the Finder. There are options to search on a date modified, or on a range of dates. If you need additional search help with Spotlight or with Find File, try the Mac online help that’s located in Finder > Help > Mac Help.
To do this search on a Windows PC, check your online help files for further assistance.
Hope this helps,
-bruceb
Those spammer will do anything to get their unwanted ad into your inbox.
So, I’m working in my Family Room, listening to Leo with the show streaming from KFI on the family PC in the den. Which happens to be piping the show though the whole house.
And then I hear the Windows “sound” echo through the whole house at about 90db. Scared the heck out of me. Thought my PC crashed.
Leo, at least make it a Mac sound ! I thought I’d let the smoke out of my PC.
NOLF and NOLF2 on XP. Try compatibility mode. Right click on the shortcut and click properties. Then the compatibility tab. Try the various modes. I was never able to get NOLF and NOLF2 to run in XP. As a gamer that is why I keep a P400/W98Se machine around so I can run the older games that won’t run in XP.
NOLF and NOLF2 on XP. Also, NOLF games have a setup utility that you can run outside of the game. You can use that to adjust NOLF settings. THat may help as well. Good Luck!
I got banned from the chatroom because I put three words in all caps.
I think that is a little extreme, I am a polite chatter, and Mike, the trigger happy admin could have been a bit more gentle. :(
what external 2.5″ hard drive should i get. i need one with optional dc power, small, cheap, and about 10–40 gigs
I think Leo should talk to Mike— the chatroom admin, he did not need to ban me for putting three words in all caps. It is not a “capital crime.” :) I was chatting for 30 minutes and am polite and am a loyal Leo listner, and this was not fair.
13:02 by joe?.
anyone catch the name of the loan advice guys business who called right before 1pm?
13:03 by joe?.
never mind… leo posted it….
is their a wiki word? and also i called on the 239th show and you gave me advice on itunes and sharing my music. you said you would post the info on the show notes and also the advice you gave me didn’t work. the ports were already open when you install itunes on a windows. i think that the imac is to blame. even though you don’t think so. any ideas?
am i the only one who does’t see the leo wiki link on kfi page?
13:09 by anonymous.
Last I head he stopped giving out the wiki word. He asks people to just post in the comments.
13:13 by anonymous.
Netgear has an Ethernet to power line that transfers at 85Mb. Not as fast as G, but probably more secure and less interfearance.
The caller with the nVidia problem should run msconfig and turn off nVidia related components.
I formatted my memory card in my camera (Nikon d70) and then put my images on it..The Westinghouse photoframe does not read the images..It says my jpg are the wrong format..any suggestions?
Tonyklein@rocketmail.com
the keys on the right side of my mac keyboard don’t work unless you hold the “alt” or “option” key and then use those number keys on the right. please help
LEO, did you see SNL last night? They did an episode of Sanford & Son that starred Colin Powell as Sanford, Michael Powell as his son the Dummy and Condi Rice as the old woman that Sanford is always fighting with. It was really funny!
I’m looking for someone in the So.Calif area that can make copies of vhs to dvd. I also have some 8mm film and some 16mm film that I would love to have on dvd. Looking for someone I can trust as these are of family and some of them are no longer with us.
Tony, Leo listed a free utility a while back. it’s
http://www.convar.de/default.asp
it’s in German & the Produkte you want to download is PC Inspector. might work. good luck!
Lois in Van Nuys: I think you want to go to control Panel Accessability options, Not rt-click display properties.
For Ken in New York,
Regarding your Mac keyboard’s keypad working only with the Option key held…
Try creating a new OS X account (System Preferences > Accounts). Log out of your normal account, then log into that new account, then see whether or not you can duplicate your problem. This will tell you whether your problem is specific to just your normal account, or whether your problem is common to all accounts.
If the problem is specific to only your normal account, then it’s probably caused by an incorrect setting of a system preference somewhere in your account, or less likely, a corrupt preference file in your account (located in Home folder > Library folder > Preferences folder).
On the other hand, if the problem is common to all accounts, then either it’s a hardware problem (unplug your keyboard, then try another keyboard), or else it’s a system software problem, which means some kind of problem with a file or something that’s common to all accounts (in this case, try doing an “Archive and Install” re-installation of Mac OS X from your OS X DVD or CDs).
Also, check out this Apple support article:
Mac OS X: Numeric Keypad Does Not Respond
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42937>
Failing all of the above, try posting your same question in one of the Apple support forums, listed here:
Apple - Support - Discussions - Forum Home
<http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa>
Before you post, search or browse around these forums, and see if your question has already been asked by someone else. If not, then try to find the forum that seems to be the one that’s most appropriate for your question, then post your question in that forum.
Hope this helps,
bruceb
16:02 by Dan.
To add to Dustin’s advice, I had much greater success using qtparted with a CD Knoppix distribution. Just make sure to choose the option NOT to mount swap partitions if they are on the same drive you intend to be modifying. (I think it’s something like NOSWAP when loading Knoppix).
hey leo I was thinking of buying a new computer with an intel core cduo processor. I was wondering whether each core processor ran at the rated clock speed or whether each core runs at half the clock speed.
to rnauth1418:
As far as I know, each core is capable of running at the full speed.
For example, Intel Core Duo 2.0 GHz - each core is capable of running up to 2.0 GHz.
(Aaron-hacking an iMac to put in a new Mac mini)
I would think if you gut the base things would get a bit top heavy
09 May 2006
Thanks for taking my call, Leo! I always seem to get through on Sundays. Router has been up and running since Sunday’s Show. Thanks again!
10 May 2006
01:15 by anonymous.
My Xp Pc is faster than the Core Duo 2.0 GHz 2.6gig P4
MS Outlook continues to archive mail in my “Inbox” eventhough I’ve disabled archiving on all folders. How can I fixed this problem???
Ken in New York:
Apple has a keyboard fix that was just released. Read this to see if it applies to you: http://tinyurl.com/m6b5e
Tony: I think the photoframes use uncompressed images only, something to search for.
11 May 2006
This is SO FUNNY!! Mr. Big Shot Podcaster Leo Laporte isn’t even in the TOP 20 of Podcast at Apple iTunes!!
In Fact, the Network the Leo HATES the most (and he HATES a LOT of things, especially when they don’t PAY HIM) G4TV has THREE (3) SHOWS in the Top 20 Ranked 7, 16 and 19 - ALL HEAD of Leo Podcaster Supreme!
Guess everyone has finally realized his Podcasts are just a big Ego Trip.
Hey SINK OR SHOULD I SAY TOILET HEAD YOUR THE ONE WITH AN Ego Trip
18:48 by anonymous.
I agree with Sinkin-In-The_Ratings much apple takl leo has been doing you think it would be back top 5 of the podcast. I think the reason he tells his veiwer to go to apple is that he dont want to mest with spyware or adware or virus. Apple for new computer user notice i didnt say pc users……..
18 May 2006
10:19 by anonymous.
I couldn’t find the show notes for #221 but the man was talking about noise from his computer. Mine makes a ‘zzzzzzt zzzzzzt zzzzzt’ sound at the very end of the Defender scan…is that the hd or something else or normal?
19 May 2006
www.OldVersion.com has helped me out with old drivers, applications and etc. It’s a great resource.
22 May 2006
11:00 by Jon?.
> Hacking an iMac to put in a new Mac mini
Talk about putting a square peg in a round hole!
For a few dollars more he could have a 17″ iMac with a larger screen (17″ vs. 15″ in the 800MHz G4 iMac) and faster processor.
23 May 2006
Looking at QtParted screenshots, it seems overly complicated. I prefer GParted http://gparted.sf.net which has a much simpler, cleaner UI and has worked perfectly for me. GParted also has a download of a bootable .iso image allowing you to re-partition while booting off CD.
25 May 2006
On the question about the router / computer / XBox connect /not connect problem: Here in Raleigh the cable modem is “locked” to the mac address of the unit the modem was connected to at installation time. That prevents the customer from easily splitting the connection after the installer leaves, since Road Runner charges for multiple computers. You have to set your router up to spoof the computer’s mac address for it to work.
