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Saturday, September 2, 2006

Tech News

Vox is a great blogging service. In the past, I’ve recommended Typepad for a while, and the people who created that are going after Blogger by founding Vox. On Vox, you can make posts public or private.

Have you seen the lonelygirl15 videos? They are supposedly done by a 16-year old girl talking about her life, but there is speculation to whether it is staged or not. Is it just another viral video?

Office Depot is selling a $100 PC with a $100 shipping fee bringing the total to $200.

Okay Go (a completely unheard-of band)’s music video with well-choreographed moves on treadmills was even featured on the MTV Video Music Awards where they did a live performance. This shows the power of Youtube in popular culture!

11a-Noon

Q Karen from Burbank - Transferring VHS tapes to DVD

The combination VHS and DVD recorder machines add simplicity, but there is no ability to edit and add chapters and such. Take a look at the HP DVD Movie Writer however. It’s an in-between solution.

Q Program to record cassettes to burn on CD

What you need is an interface to connect the tape player to your computer. I bought something called the Plusdeck which is an actual cassette player that will go in the computer case. The software will record everything and you can walk away. However, if you can get an interface, you can use almost any program to record. I like the open-source Audacity. You want to record in the lossless wav format and then burn it to a CD.

Q Merna from Twin Peaks - Want to help getting a new computer to import to Switzerland for her daughter

It would be easier to order from a Swiss website. For her, I’d recommend a laptop because you cannot drive a laptop monitor from a desktop. Get a good laptop that is just as fast as a PC. She can get an external hard drive that will contain all the media files she has. There are small desktops around however. Another good reason to get a laptop is that they handle pretty much all power voltages, but you will need to get a plug adapter. Also, if you want the latest and greatest, get a Core 2 Duo-based laptop. It will give her the longest lifespan.

Q Erick from Bakersfield - How to convert one camera ratio to another ratio

I suppose you could stretch it or put bars on the top and bottom to make the video into 16×9. Here is a plugin for Pinnacle Studio that should do it. For exporting, I’d recommend exporting using divx. To work on the video, you want to work from the DV file if you can. H.264 or MPEG4 is the best for compressed video.

Noon-1p

Q Chris from Pennsylvania - Want to create training videos for Windows XP/How to market self-published applicaiton

Adobe Captivate will do it and create compact files because it captures frames and uses Flash’s tweening feature to make it seem like a movie; thus creating a much more compact movie.

Q Daughter cannot get cell reception in a brick apartment

The brick building is probably getting a brick building. There’s no magic that I know of. You could drill a hole and get an external antenna to put on the roof. That is not practical. Frankly, I think she is out of luck. Sometimes a different phone can help. It’s remarkable the receptivity of different phones. She should ask her neighbors to see what phones and service they are using. You may want to call Cingular and tell them that you want them to set up a cell tower near the apartment.

Q Steve from La Fuente - Antispyware software recommendations

None of the antispyware programs we have tested can successfully remove all traces of spyware. Microsoft’s Defender, Spybot S&D, and Ad-Aware are all decent programs, but I’d recommend doing a reinstall of Windows when you get infected. You also need to train the kids to be safe on the Internet: stop clicking links in emails and file sharing sites and start using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer.

Q Vick from Escandido - Losing older calendar data in Outlook 2003

The syncing with a device may be doing it. Syncing causes so many problems. Take a look at your archiving settings. It is archiving the entries, not deleting them.

Q Richard from Nevada - Voice monitoring on a cell phone

He wants to be able to hear himself on a cell phone call. If you can hear yourself as you talk through the earpiece, you tend to talk quieter. Very interesting question. This earpiece should be able to do it.

1–2p

Q Bill from Pasadena - Will HP batteries get overcharged?

All the batteries are made by Sony. The Sony batteries had defects in which it would get overcharged and burst into flames. The newer, better-made batteries have a better implementation of the protection device. HP laptops should be fine; they have not announced anything about their batteries.

Q Jennifer from Bellflower - How to get ahold of someone at MySpace

Her daughter’s MySpace was hacked and she got the police involved. MySpace has hired a security officer. If you cannot log in, there is a salute you must do with a real picture with you holding up a piece of paper with myspace.com and friend ID written on it. It is all explained in the MySpace FAQ. The best thing to do is just close down the account.

Q Greg from Whittier - Getting error in OSX to listen to KFI stream

Flip4Mac is a plugin for Quicktime that will allow you to listen to Windows Media files.

Q Lauren from Van Nuys - Free videochatting client

I’d go to Skype first. However, AOL Instant Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger all do it. If Skype complains to you about a firewall, you need to do something called port forwarding on your router. Skype has a tutorial to how to configure it.

Q Jim from Washington - How to customize Windows icons

There are several programs that do this. My favorite is the Stardock Object Desktop suite. The suite can customize the entire desktop. IconPackager is the specific program you’re looking for. However, if you want to edit icons themselves, you can use Microangelo.

Q Tony from Newport Beach - Differences between the 700w and 700p

The only difference is the operating system. If you liked the 650 user interface, go with the 700p. I use a T-Mobile SDA and they also sell a full-keyboard version called the MDA.

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