Saturday 3 June 2006
Tech News
Is it time to give up on email? One security expert says yes.
Thought the Vonage IPO was a good deal? think again!
11a-Noon
QRick in Diamond Bar - Swapped iMac RAM with MacBook
And now the 1GB stick won’t work. I’d put it back in the iMac and reset the parameter RAM with Command Option PR on boot - let it bong three times then release the keys.
They both use the same kind of memory: PC2−5300 DDR2 RAM on SO-DIMMs, so I don’t think that’s the problem. It’s possible you zapped the RAM with a stray electrical signal or static.
QRyan in Boston - Toshiba Gigabeat and Windows Media Center don’t work together
When he copies video from his Media Center laptop to the Gigabeat the video doesn’t play. I think you probably are missing a codec. Look for updates for both the laptop and the portable player.
QDave in Northridge - podcasting microphone recommendations
If you already have good mics and you want to record to your computer you need a mic-PC interface with XLR in and USB or Firewire out. I use a Mackie Onyx 1620 mixer with a Firewire i/o card, but that’s a fairly expensive way to go (around $1400). Maudio makes a less expensive interface called the Fasttrack, but there’s no mixer so you’ll have to mix after recording.
If you’re really serious about podcasting, check out the third Podcast Academy in Santa Clara, June 15–16.
Noon-1p
QDavid in Corona - Is it time to buy the Toshiba HD-DVD player?
He has a front projection HDTV with a 96inch screen. Should be buy an upsampling DVD player or the new Toshiba HD-DVD. With such a big screen you’ll probably notice the difference, but the Toshiba is a first gen product and sure to be problematic. Not to mention the fact that it will only play half of the new hi-def DVDs. To play them all you’d have to buy a BluRay player, too. I say buy the upsampling player (I like the Samsung) and defer buying an HD-DVD player for six months.
Q Ahmad in Glendale - Alienware can’t see 4GB
Windows XP can, so it’s probably a hardware issue. Many motherboards top out at 2GB, and that’s probably sensible since you won’t see much benefit from more RAM.
QDavid in Orange County - dead Compaq laptop
It’s three years old. Should he pay $100 to figure out what’s wrong or buy a new one. There’s no right answer here. It might be something simple that’s wrong. Or it might be a repair that costs more than a brand new PC.
QPari in Palos Verdes - old iMac, new firewire capture device
They don’t work together. It’s probably a firewire chipset incompatibility. Another device might work better. Read about your old Mac at www.lowendmac.com or www.xlr8yourmac.com.
1–2p
QRobert in Bel Aire - ZoneAlarm and router - do I need both
In my opinion, no. The router is a great firewall and a software firewall doesn’t add significantly to your security while adding greatly to the complexity of your system. I do prefer the free Kerio Personal Firewall over Zone Alarm.
QKate in Costa Mesa - copied Office from one PC to another
It’s running very slowly. I’m surprised it’s running at all. You can’t really copy programs like you can data. You need to reinstall from the master discs.
QGunnar in Edmond, OK - has Apple added more copy protection
He’s been trying to use the “analog hole” to remove copy protection from songs purchased at the iTunes music store. But he can’t rip the CDs. Is Apple up to something? Hmm. I hope not.
UPDATE: I just burned an audio CD of a protected song, then ripped the CD. No copy protection. Worked fine.
http://www.downhillbattle.org/itunes/
QDan in San Clemente - laptop recommendations
He doesn’t want to spend much. I think Dell, Averatech, Fujitsu are all good low-priced choices. Stay away from Toshiba. They’ve gone downhill.
Chat Logs and Show Audio
Listener Comments
03 June 2006
It says 11–2..is that Pacific time?
Leo says: yep!
09:50 by anonymous.
yeppers
Leo, thanks for all your hard work, we really do appreciate it! Just one thing, please fix the Radio Leo iTunes RSS feed.
Leo says: fixed
Leo, you might have to start bashing other mp3 players soon. People are starting to consider alternatives like the Creative Vision:M, Sandisk Sansa e200 series, and now the Toshiba Gigabeat S. If we don’t start trashing them now, Apple will make less money and Steve will be soooo upset. Just ignoring might me okay in the near future, but I think it is better to be proactive and start protecting Apple’s turf now!!! Don’t forget Mac Brothers, the Pride Festival is NEXT WEEK!!!
11:11 by .
I was offered to purchase Vonage stock since I’m a Vonage subscriber. However I’m not very happy with the service at this point and I think the stock is only worth $5-$8 a share, not $17.
11:16 by .
Hey Leo!
Maybe you can EXPLAIN all these COMPLAINTS about your “wonderful” MacIntel Sore, errr Core Duo MacBook and MacBook Pro FLAWS!?
Leo says: —snip— you can express your opinion or post a link, but it’s a copyright violation to paste www.Macfixit.com text into this page. Please just post a link in future —snip—
Thanks,
Mr. Truth About Macs
Pirate bay is up and Running YAHOOOOO
My Tab Says( The Police Bay )
11:21 by anonymous.
What’s with the long BORING posts about MAC’S.
Who Cares?
Checkout a photo from demontrations held in stockholm and gothenburg to protest the shutdown. (Warning text not on english)
http://www.gp.se/gp/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=113&a=279236
And being a swede i’m not sure if i’m offendeded or not by the swedish chef crack. Some swedes are listening leo :)
11:27 by anonymous.
Does Leo read these comments while the show is on? That Brain Age thing was interesting.
It is obvious to everyone that Leo’s graciousness and complete hospitality allow these notes to stay posted. Rubes are everywhere. I just wish I didn’t have to scroll through them to get to the good stuff.
The Mac Bashers - Windows Bashers and Name Thiefs are in the same Classification as the Porn Bots in Yahoo Chat (((TROLS))) Dont Feed Them They Thrive on the attention — Ignore Them
11:33 by .
Hey Leo do us a favor And limit the size of a post to just a few lines so we won;t have to hear from that IDIOT Mr.Truth About Macs and all of the other names he uses
What a waste of space on ypour site
Leo could Ban his IP Block to
11:39 by .
What’s the matterm got something to HIDE about Macs???
Hey leo,
I am a loyal mac user and I have been hearing from you and many security experts that I should not be running as administrator on my Mac account. I understand that admin gives me unadulterated access to syustem files but if I can run as a limited user without many system problems then what is the difference between the two. If you could explain this it would greatly help us mac users change our computing behaviors to eliminate these new security threats.
Leo it’s Mark in Diamond Bar…not Rick in Diamond Bar
Thanks for your help….love the show
-KuNgFuAzN
I want to buy a camcorder that is light-weight, small and very EASY to use and view. I don’t want to have to use the computer for viewing, editing, etc. Is the DVD format the way to go? Any recommendations, please???
I own four PC’S and I don’t care if Leo suggest to some people to use Mac’s. Leo has alot of good information on PC’s and other electronic devices. That is why I listen to Leo’s show
re:Mr. Truth about Macs. He should be able to express his views as long as it is in a courteous manner
Just keep it short abd sweet
Just had an interesting encounter with “Customer Service” at Smells Fargo. Couldn’t get my online statement for my Visa and I called the number listed to get help. The rep asked me what browser I was using and I said “Firefox”. I was told they don’t support it and she wouldn’t connect me to tech support or help me. I have always used their on line banking without a problem. The display came up ok ,but the last statement was just not on the list, so naturaly I couldn’t view it. By the way, I called “WAMU” and they do support Firefox. Maybe time to change banks?
By the way. because I listen to Leo’s shows, all four Of my PC’s are running fine and virus free.The knowledge I get from Leo has helped me to accomplish this and I am able to help other’s keep thier systems running virus and spyware free. Thanks Leo, you’re the best.
Actually, I’ve been online banking with WF for a long time. They may say they don’t “support” Firefox, but it works just fine. I don’t know why you couldn’t get the last statement. Try again later.
As for the long quote from MacFixit, I check out that site every day, just to see what’s up. I’ve had the occasion to use one of their fixes maybe three or so times in all the years I’ve read it. It’s like any forum that is about problem-solving: most people do not have these problems. IF you run into something that’s odd, the first place to go is MacFixit. One thing was the recent update to Quicktime 7.1 was incompatible with a beta codec from VLC. Suddenly, I would see a black square and (no picture) on websites with a Quicktime display. At Macfixit, I heard what might be the problem. I removed the (beta) VLC codec, and everything was back to normal. “Troubles” like that are inevitable, unless I never installed beta software.
Really, if you want to argue that Windows is better, go ahead; but keep a civil tongue in your head. Leo gets no money from Apple, he isn’t some kind of demonic agent from Apple or anything of the sort. Don’t be rude. Make a case.
Somebody was talking about microphones a little earlier. Any notes on that conversation?
my video ipod screen cracked. I want to get it replaced but who can do it? apple guy said ipodresq. someone else said tech restore. any pros and cons about both repair services. btw, the ipod still plays the music.
12:44 by Jim?.
Has Leo discussed on-air his experiences with his new MacBook computer?
Re: JimH: I an using online banking with WF also. The problem they refused to acknowledge was that an error was in their system (ie the statement posting)I could see the list, the statement for May was not there. My issue was their attitude and unwillingness to help or listen to be able to solve my problem. Also for an institution which professes data security to refuse to support more secure browsers is ludicrous. This is my reason to change banks to one that supports alternate browsers and I want others to have the information to make their decisions.
to nmoore6676, been using WaMu since 2003. Been using FF for same amount of time. Never had a prob except when they update site or do “processing”. I can view statements up to 2 years old. Older than 2 years requires a request & 1 day wait….all free.
…and they are good on the phones, always a person there.
To the woman who had the problem with the ADS analog to digital converter. I bought a Pyro AV link to transfer 8mm video into my PC using XP Professional, with an ADS Firewire card. The DV converter would drop the video within a couple of minutes, digitizing material was a nightmare. I finally got ADS to check the unit, when I got it back it wasn’t much better, after much complaining, at trade shows like DV expo, the agreed to replace the unit with a newer model with a later firmware system, this unit works better. During this process I bought a Sony mini-dv camera and found it was better to just use the camera as a dv pass through port when digitizing analog video.
I have Nod32 running in the background and it has little noticeable effect. I had AVG Free on the same computer before and it does slow it as did Norton before that. I thought the antivirus should run to protect, is that not true?
Ha….my new “Pirate Bay” bookmark does say “Police Bay”!!!
To the lady who with the Word / Excell issue. It sounds like she might have enough on her drive to qualify for the update version. If it tries to run but freezes the files it looks for to qualify for the update are likely there. Worth the try if she can’t find the disks. Also she may have gotten them bundled which was done in the Win95 days as Microsoft was trying to woo people away from Wordperfect and Lotus.
I thought I heard Leo say that the Win XP firewall was OK.
NO. NO. NO. NO.
Windoze’s built-in firewall DOES NOT filter outbound packets.
If you have a router, it uses resources without offering any additional security.
Leo, I have started a new podcast you may want to look at, still waiting for my new server so I havent logged it with all the podcast sites like Podnova, iTunes, Odeo etc
but have a look at http://www.xtrememedia.ie/talk.htm
Thanks
JD
Also for the lady with the Word/Excel issue. She can get the “Student & Teacher edition of Office 2003 at the “F-y’s” stores $140 or less. (not upgrade, but not upgradable next year also).
A little case of logical deduction for Jeff in Santa Anna—if you need to filter your outbound packets, at that point what makes you think a nefarious bit of code hasn’t already told your “filter” to pay no attention to that code behind the curtain? Its like having a bear loose inside the vacation cabin—its going to get into everything the owner can and how much damage is done depends on how hungry or what mood its in. Obviously its best to keep the bear out in the first place. Windows firewall is fine, especially helpful in protecting against viral spread withing a local network that may not always be closed (i.e., notebook insertion). Third-party firewalls are often the enemy of smooth running LANs and a large, smoothly running mixed network controlled by, and sitting behind a good router is a wonderful experience indeed (if you’ve ever experienced the dark-side of large mixed networks that is…and that’s without even trying to layer in a software firewall). Feel free to keep tabs on that Konfabulator packet going out for the next weather update though if that’s your thing—just consider the logic.
That comment above must be from -snip- a.k.a.
Mr. Truth about Macs . Do us a favor and go to someone elses show and bother their audience. In other words STFU
04 June 2006
Be careful at Best Buy- just went to buy a laptop, pulled out credit card, and the geek at the counter
says “here fill out this form with your address on it so we know this computer matches your home address”. I balked and almost said keep it. He spoke with his mgr and allowed the purchase without the unnecessary info—PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY GUYS!
Also, I agree Toshiba laptops are going downhill.
I bought the $399 Memorial day special at Office Depot. The wireless card didn’t work even after updating drivers, came with less RAM than advertised, and didn’t like any of 5 Linux distros I tried. PHOOEY!!
11:15 by sha?.
planning to get cable internet, what’s a good cable modem to get?
05 June 2006
19:15 by Greg.
I work in the geek squad at best buy and we do this to provide service to the customer and to know when your warranty has run out so we know some info about you when you ask for help.
06 June 2006
