Sunday, July 9, 2006
Tech News
It’s been reported that Microsoft is planning an “iPod-killer” with wireless syncing in time for Christmas.
Podzinger will be providing audio searching on the shownotes site soon.
ABC wants to remove the fast-forward button out of DVRs.
11a-Noon
Q Ron from Carlsbad - Recovering pictures from a formatted card
You’ll want the camera to appear on the computer as if it’s a drive. Then try Smart Recovery. That is made specifically for recovering files from a card.
Q Richard from Monrovia - Advantages of the Pentium D (dual core)
Processors are getting smaller, so dual core is stuffing 2 chips on one plastic die. The Pentium 4 is hyperthreaded, which is like virtualizing 2 processors. Your wife’s needs don’t require a dual-core processor. Put the extra money into more memory, bigger drive, and a larger screen.
Q Richie from Ridando Beach - Moving old shows off of the TiVo
The easiest thing to do is hook it up to a video capture card and record onto your computer. Check out WeaKnees for upgraded TiVos.
Q Odeo Question - Booting up takes much longer than usual
If you had Norton Antivirus and downloaded a certain critical Windows Update, the computer becomes very slow. More likely, your computer just slowed down because of applications you installed. Try uninstalling applications you don’t need.
Q Odeo Question - Security in older versions in Windows
If you have an old version of Windows, Microsoft is leaving you in the dust. Hackers can attack these unprotected versions of Windows and then use those computers to spread the attack even further. This is why Microsoft has a responsibility which they are not fulfilling. Essentially, they have blackmailed you into upgrading to XP.
Noon-1p
Q Paul from Timecula - Upgrading Windows Media Center to Professional, but keeping the media center
I would say go ahead. Some forums say that Windows XP Media Center edition is actually Windows XP Pro.
Q Louis from Whittier - 1gb RAM to 2gb RAM
On my MacBook, I have 2gb of RAM so I can run OSX and Windows at the same time. It depends on how many applications you are running. Also, solid state memory usually fails immediately, and if it doesn’t, it works. Dont’ buy the cheapest RAM, but don’t buy the most expensive either.
Q Joan from Sacramento - Huge flood of spam email
You can create a filter to filter out the spam. Create a filter that has the duplicating spam subject lines. A program called Thunderbird learns from your spam and eventually begins to filter everything out.
Q Eric from Bakersfield - Using PCAnywhere within a network/Keyboard definitions
Using it behind a router keeps you safe. Your computer’s keyboard definitions SHOULD be sent to the remote computer.
Q Odeo Question - Easy-to-use digital camera
The Kodak Easyshares are great cameras for novice users. Almost all 1-hour photo places will take your memory card and print the ones you like. There are even printers that have the Kodak Easyshare printers that have the dock built-in! Just dock, select pictures, and print!
1–2p
Q Tib - NOD32 download
It is a 30-day trial, then you have to buy it. You go to their website, enter in your credit card number, and then they give you a serial key. After activating it, uninstall all memory-resident applications from Norton except the scanner.
Q Debbie from Cyprus - Moving data off of an older computer
You’ll need to get the driver for the USB thumb drive.
Q Todd from Seal Beach - Video not working on old tapes
You want to transfer these tapes as fast as you can to digital. You’ll want to bring it into a service bureau to digitize it and attempt to clean the tape. Video Silo is great. They charge $18.95 a tape.
Q Ken from Hollywood - Using HP iPod on a Mac
Just use the iPod updater to reformat it. Click the restore button.
Q Angie - Problems with updating iPod Nano
You need to get iTunes working correctly to update the iPod. Uninstall/reinstall. If you can’t, try out Sharepod.
Q Odeo Question - How to speed up audio
You have to make sure the content is in .m4b format.
Q Robert from Corona - Moving DVD content to the computer
On the mac, I use a program called Handbrake. On the PC, use a program called Shrinkto5. You need a special program to break the copy protection. You can actually make an ISO image file.
Q Brian from Whittier - Looking for a 20–24″ monitor
My absolute favorite 24″ monitor is a Dell 2407WFP widescreen monitor. It’s only $788.
Q Wes from Kentucky - Comment spam on blogs
To prevent the spammers from getting higher rankings on Google, use the Nofollow tag. Several CMS engines have plugins for spam. To put an immediate stop to spam, just ask people to register. Spammers are moving too fast to register. John C. Dvorak has a trick that puts a code on the Apache server itself for Wordpress. It is highly effective. Finally, you can also use captchas.
Chat Logs and Show Audio
Listener Comments
09 July 2006
I am the Real WALDO in Kansas and i AM not a TRoll e mail me at jldimme1(at)yahoo.com
14:28 by .
If the guy who called about Windows Media Center is reading this (or Leo for that matter), Windows Media Center is based on XP Home, not XP Professional. In fact, here’s a blurb from the FAQ Section for Media Center (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/evaluation/faq.mspx):
Can I connect a new PC running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 to a work network or domain?
While you can access network resources on a work network or a domain, you cannot join a Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 PC to the domain. PCs running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 are designed specifically for home use. Windows XP Professional features, specifically Domain Join and Cached Credentials (Credentials Manager for logons) are not included. As a result, you will be prompted for your logon user name and password to access network resources after you reboot or log back on to the PC. In addition, file shares or network resources that are set to require a domain-joined PC for access will not be available. Remote Desktop and Encrypting File System support are still included.
Another great link in Microsoft’s website is a page that shows the difference between Home and Pro. Just go to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/whyupgrade/top10.mspx and read the top 10 differences between Home and Pro and see if it’s something you want to do.
Personally if you don’t have the need to join a domain or if you are not running a laptop, then Home/Media Center is just fine for home use. If you are at work with a domain server or need one of these top 10 items, then upgrade to Pro. However realize that there’s a good chance that the Media Center tools will also disapear since Media Center was design for XP Home and not Pro.
I personally have never upgraded a MC PC to Pro before (I usually erase the Hard Drive and install Pro directly), so I could be completely wrong. If it turns out that you do upgrade to PRO and your Media Center tools are still available, please let us know either on this website or on next week’s show.
Hope this helps.
Dean Penderghast
Sage Software Consultant
Anyway to fix a cd player that keeps saying “no disc”. I have two players and both began to do this recently.
What happened to the comments today?
CD players just do that. They get old. Is there a speaker or something on top of the unit pressing down on it? That’ll do it every time. Need the innards cleaned maybe. My Sony sat in my living room for a couple years unused, then I went to play a CD, same deal. No disk. Of course, I had a speaker and a VCR on top of it.
Anyone can help? Leo is always inaccessible. Is “Avant Browser” safe, well in IP jargon safer than Firefox. It is [“Avant Browser”] faster than most other browsers, and I like it.
Thank you!
interceptia@aol.com
Avant Browser is just a skin for Internet Explorer so the answer is no; it’s just as bad as IE in terms of security.
Avant browser is safe if used safely. Under tools turn off Active X and maybe disable scripts and only turn them back on when you need them for a trusted website. Find and turn off third party cookies (under I.E. settings not Avant) while your at it and keep the very effective popup blocker on.
I personally like having the power and flexibility built in like Avant has but at the same time wouldn’t let a newbie use it.
Non-sophisticated users should stick with Firefox.
18:56 by I?.
i dont trust open source broweser ie7 is worth checking out also
You are responsible for the security of your system, not Microsoft. You are responsible for making sure that you have a good firewall and that your anti-virus software is up-to-date.
When your computer is connected to the Net, you have a moral responsibility to make sure that you are not spreading viruses or other malicious codes to anyone else who happens to be surfing the Web.
We’re all in this together and we all have an obligation to be safe and courteous when we’re linked to world’s largest active community.
21:11 by l?.
i know what im doing on my system you need to zipppppp it
21:12 by l?.
also i use a hdw firewall
Thank you for the advice about the “Avant Browser.” I’ll heed the recommendations,and it sounds like better go back to Firefox or Opera.
Thanks again. Have a great week.
12 July 2006
14:10 by Ronc.
Where’s the audio for show 264 (Sunday)? Saturday’s was avalable later the same day, but we’re still waiting for Sunday’s show 3 days later.
13 July 2006
14 July 2006
Regarding upgrading a Dell to XP Pro…
I couldn’t get Media Center to play nice with my capture card so I scrapped it for XP Pro. I formatted (including removing Dell’s hidden partition) and started my XP install. It hung because it’s needed a SATA driver. CRAP!!! I don’t have one… nor a floppy drive.
I ended up using an XP install automation tool to add the SATA (and many many other) drivers.
Just a heads up. My XP Pro SP2 does not have SATA drivers. Think about it before you do anything. Be prepared because if you don’t have another computer to make a custom install disk, you can be hosed!
08:56 by Wes?.
Wes from Buzzgrinder.com
We are actually using Wordpress 1.5 for our managment. I failed to mention that in my comment.
In response to Ken from Hollywood’s question about iPod formatting, it is important to know that a Windows-formatted iPod can not be converted to a Mac-formatted iPod and vice-versa without completely erasing the contents of the iPod. Good thing you have your library backed up, as you will need it.
16 July 2006
The Video Competition Act of 2006 (a/k/a Senate Bill No. 449, available at http://www.kslegislature.org/legsrv-bills/index.do) was signed into law by Governor Kathleen Sebelius on April 13, 2006, to become effective July 1, 2006. Under this Act cable service providers no longer negotiate franchise agreements with local municipalities, but apply with the state corporation commission for state wide authority.
17 July 2006
Leo, I have an I-River 140. Now I strongly recommend you check out Rockbox. This is a firmware upgrade and an alternative operating system. You can choose which OS on startup. I can now play chess, asteroids etc. ON MY PLAYER which I assumed was just and MP3 box. It’s a fast OS too.
A mac can read the file the contents of a windows formatted ipod in the finder. It cannot update or sync while it is formatted for windows. If you use the ipod updater software, it also cannot update the firmware while it formated for windows. To do any of these things you need to restore the ipod on a mac. This will format (and erase) the ipod with the mac file system. make sure the music is backed up on the computer before you start. Then run restore on the mac ipod updater and this will update everything and you can do everything on the mac.
To Wes:
Since you’re using Wordpress, make the upgrade (carefully, of course) to 2.0 and turn on Akismet. It’s as close to foolproof as you’re going to get.
19 July 2006
Cannot speed up Leo’s podcats on my IPod??? I click on the center button but never get the SLOW, NORMAL or FAST options that appear for Audio Books???
Here’s the Mac Fan Boys that say that “a few” out of context Mac Problem posting ruins it for all. Hardly, macfixit doesn’t list PROBLEMS for Macs or OS X onless it is a PROMINENTLY reported problem from MANY owners!
And Leo turned off the Comments because he CAN’T take the criticism, NOT because of “Spammers”. More Laporte “spin” and it isn’t the first time either.
Wednesday, July 19 2006 @ 07:30 AM PDT
MacBook 13inch Suddenly shutting down
Several readers are reporting an issue where the MacBook (13″) suddenly shuts down in the middle of normal operation. This is an issue we covered in our MacBook special report, and attributed to bad RAM, but it now appears that other causes are at play.
Usual suspects for this type of issue are corrupt PRAM, improperly seated or bad RAM, or a problematic PMU. However, users have yet to find relief from the symptom with these traditional workarounds. Diagnostics performed using the Apple Hardware Test CD have also failed to yield conclusive evidence of component failure.
Some clues point to overheating, though we certainly can’t say that such is the cause in some, let alone a majority of sudden shutdown cases.
It appears that affected units have flawed logic boards, which are being replaced on a case-by-case basis.
20 July 2006
