Saturday, October 7, 2006
Tech News
Last night, the final release candidate of Windows Vista, Release Candidate 2, was released for download. This is the last release candidate before it is ready to manufacture, unless there is a huge hole discovered. October 25th is the day Microsoft is expecting to make Windows Vista final.
Amber’s last Call for Help, and Cali’s first show aren’t on Google video yet, but I’ll let you know when they’re up. Meanwhile, Sean on our team has posted some behind the scenes video of Cali on set in his blog.
11a-Noon
Q Bob from Hollywood - Looking for a cheaper alternative to the Panasonic Toughbook
Most laptops have an accelerometer that will sense when the laptop is dropped and will halt the hard drive so nothing is affected. The most fragile part is the hard drive. Look at ruggednotebooks.com. I’ll recommend Lenovo however.
Q Colleen from Maryland - Looking at a Garmin GPS
There are two GPS companies I like: Garmin and Magellan. The Nuvi you are looking at even has an XM receiver that will overlay traffic data on the streets.
Q Trying to get free space on the C: drive
What you have to do is open My Computer. In the view menu, select “details.” This will show you the sizes of the drives and partitions on the computer. Some computer companies partition the drives for various reasons. You can back everything up, reinstall Windows and delete the partitions and combine them all during the installation. Another choice would be to buy Partition Magic which will repartition the drive without any data loss.
Noon-1p
Q Buying a Mac vs. PC (laptop) for mother
I’d get a Mac for her because there is a lack of viruses and exploits. It seems that she just wants to do basic tasks, so there’s no question about it. The real question is whether you want to get her a MacBook or MacBook Pro. However, if she just wants a computer with a small footprint, look at the 20″ iMac. Yes, you can get her a cheap laptop, but it’s not that great of an experience. Before you get her the Mac, take her to the Apple Store, and tell her to play around with it.
Q Ron from Laguna Nagel - Working around a banning on forums
Often forums ban users who post to other sites. It is the moderator’s responsibility for letting you on the board. In most cases, you can send a note to the moderator apologizing. Most bannings are not permanent. Ultimately, you got to realize that the owner of the site is the dictator.
Q Elliot from New York - An optimized way of creating screen/podcasts
Right now there is no streamlined process. There is a program called Podcast Maker that can assist with the process. iSquint will do easy iPod video converstion. Doug Kaye from GigaVox Media has created an assembly line process for podcasts which is in beta right now. This medium is only a few years old, and we are just starting. People don’t know what exactly needs to be done. I don’t think there is any current shortcut for video production. Check out Elliot’s other site.
Q Jim from Temecula - How to reduce graininess in video
There are expensive programs that attempt to clean it up. Frankly, if they’re grainy they’re grainy. You’re seeing the grain now because your computer monitor is a much higher resolution. Another problem may be that your capture device is connecting USB. Firewire does not need compression because its bus speed is much higher. I would take a look at a different box.
Q Victor from Lake Forest - Received counterfeit iPod Nano from eBay
He purchased a knockoff iPod Nano from eBay. It even had an iPod Nano back with a serial number inside a real iPod Nano box. Make sure you make a really negative posting on their feedback. Anything you do will be vindictive, but you will not get anything out of it. You might want to go to Apple and tell them all your details and they may give you a real one in return.
1–2p
Q Jason from Upland - Worth it to get NOD32 and drop Windows Defender?/Moving data from one computer to another
There’s a difference between the two programs. NOD32 is an antivirus, and Windows Defender is an antispyware software. You can keep both on the machine.
I think its better to reinstall so you start off fresh. Everytime I move the exact data, I haven’t had great results. However, if you want to do that, try out
Alohabob’s PC Relocator.
Q Paul from Virginia - Looking for a way to burn DVR content to DVD/Burning Vista RC2 ISO on OSX
There are DVRs out there that have built-in DVD burners. You would get a standard DirecTV receiver and then pick up a DVR with a DVD burner, like this Humax DVR.
Here’s a
tutorial to burn ISOs using Disk Utility.
Q Jeff from Santa Barbara - LCD vs. Plasma HDTV
Plasma vs. LCD is a hard choice. Plasma has a little better color reproduction, but there are concerns to the life span of plasma screens as well as burn-in. I bought a Sharp Aquos. Sony has some really nice looking SXRD LCD rear-projection XBR televisions. I would say, if you want the best picture, go plasma.
Chat Logs and Show Audio
07 October 2006
11:10 by anonymous.
me first
11:10 by anonymous.
Why doesn’t the LeoCam work?
where is the link to the chat room?
11:22 by anonymous.
Leo, please consider putting a limit on the comment box of 150 char or so, that way people don’t dump an article in a comment box.
11:23 by anonymous.
Thanks for the RC2 link, I bet they are going to get hammered.
Which Mac are you running Vista RC 1 on?
I have been using Vista RC1 runs great.I even installed FEAR works fine.
11:28 by anonymous.
Seeing as how Vista esentially “blasts” the iso to your hard drive, is it possible to install Vista without burning it to a DVD?
Leo PLEASE consider typical Left Wing type Censorship … mr anonymous is too much of a coward to admit he’s against free speech.
Ps mr anonymous, this is a PUBLIC show on the Public Airwaves, with an OPEN Comments BBS (heavy on the BS) on the PUBLIC Internet. If Leo can have HIS Anti Microsoft / Apple Pimping view aired Publically … so can I and ANYONE else!
Perhaps yours and other Anti converse views is something you learned in the public schools these days or Cuba. To DECENT is to be free.
I recently came across a Sony Vaio which was partitioned backwards, too. I repartitioned it for my customer.
to jerry P., Leo has a new Macpro desktop with quad intel CPUs. using parallels VM.
Can you see aero glass in parallels?
12:01 by anonymous.
Leo said last week with what machine he is using he could.
It is my understanding that all Vista features are working for him. They don’t with some of the AMD systems I have tried it on, so I was interested in which Mac. I am coming to the conclusion that using a Mac to run Vista makes an awful lot of sense for a main machine; you have both worlds.
this GPart works with mac intel? I want to rezise my
windows part to install vista
Re: Trying to get free space on the C: drive
Two things you could consider doing before deleting the partitions and reinstalling windows to gain more space on C drive. First, move the default directory and drive of ‘My Documents’ to the d: drive. Right click ‘My Documents’, select properties, under Target, select move.
Second, change default install directory from c: to d:.
Go to Run.
Type: regedit
Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion. On the right side, find the string called ProgramFilesDir and modify it to the desired path.
There goes Live LA IT again! Stretching facts for his Anti-Mac/Applehating/Windows-pimping. Choose only portion of the facts that fit me. At list he entertaining (sometimes). Oh, by the way anonymous, I like your idea of the 150 limit. Can get to the point on topics instead of going all over the place. Also, it is on public airways but not a public show. No tax dollars are being used to air the show and this webpage is a priviate venture. I suggest you read and STUDY the law before making inaccurate statements. :)
12:27 by anonymous.
Also, just because you have a right to speak, doesn’t you have the right to make people listen to you. His right to speak ends and my right to not hear him. Also, to decent isn’t being free. But you are free to decent. Being free is being able to decent, but being free isn’t annoying people. If you really want to be free, stand up a competing show to express your view point, that is freedom.
12:58 by JAF?.
where is the RC2 link?
13:00 by anonymous.
at top of page, under Tech News
13:04 by JAF?.
i screwed up with the help of HP tech support. just bought a DV5000 CTO laptop. came with Windows XP Pro (and disc) and a bunch of crap loaded. I wanted to partition and reload the hard drive clean. the tech guy I talked to said no problem that I could find all the drivers on their web. so after reinstalling XP clean I come to find out that I cannot get the video driver for the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 from them nor anywhere else! and cannot get the ethernet drivers either althouth I got the Intel Pro/Wireless to work…so I only have wireless with terrible video. what a mess…and I’m not getting anywhere with HP other than India.
13:11 by anonymous.
JUNE 2007 it expires
13:15 by anonymous.
Using dedicated PC to run Vista; starting with first build. Installing latest build now (RC2) and hopefully will notice improvements! All previous builds I was unable to install printers; monitor drivers; print servers, and the like. Also, turned off UAC and this did not improve the installation environment. Good luck to all of you, and I hope this is better than previous beta(s). Not impressed thus far.
Where do I download Vista?
13:42 by anonymous.
funny :)
leo, if i just heard correctly (i was distracted), i think you just told a caller that LCD TVs max out at 40+ inches. but not so! sharp has 65″ LCDs! -→ http://tinyurl.com/ou3tg
14:06 by anonymous.
To the caller wanting to record TV to a DVD disk.
If you get a DVD PVR make sure it has a hard drive to record programs, As constantly recording to the DVD drive will greatly reduce it’s life.
P.S. to jerry pournelle: the results I have been seeing on test websites indicate all Mac intels from iMacs through laptops all run vista completely. Leo bought the top banana Quad desktop for long term usage, not because it alone can run vista aero…
With all of Micro$haft is pushing their New DRM and Anti Piracy associated with Vista. After Micro$haft drops supporting Critical security updates for SP3 Win XP . I time switch all of my pc systems on Linux.
I would like to see a store, something like CompUSA, take a 20″ iMac and load Windows XP via Bootcamp, plug in a Microsoft Mouse and park it in the middle of all their Windows PC’s … don’t make a big show about it, just do it and see what response they get …
16:21 by dt?.
i need help.i want to print my mp3 list i tried copy paste to notepad and copy paste to clipboard.but no luck.so what the trick???
Have been trying Vista since Beta2 with little luck. Installed it on 1st machine and could not sound, mouse or network. finally got sound and network to work. Tried RC1 on second machine and after files are expanded get a black screen with active mouse and nothing further. Just downloaded RC2 and having the same problem. Have tried copying files to hard drive and installing from there, same result. Anyone solved this problem? This is not going to be another Windows ME is it?
Leo, Victor from Lake Forest should contact the ebay customer service. They’re constantly updating their documentation on how to spot a counterfeit before purchase. Many sellers like that list many of the same counterfeit product, using the same picture and description. Much of the time, they don’t even create the listing themselves and aren’t smart enough to change it. The ebay counterfeit documentation can be hard to find but it’s in there somewhere. Ebay won’t give him anything back, but it could keep people from falling into a similar trap.
More BS from Leo Laporte and Apple …… Interchangable, all too likely it seems.
Leo today AS USUAL, tells a caller lady “oh you should go Mac because there’s no Virus, Security, Spyware … blah blah blah BS …” What a load of MANURE. Apple and Leo Laporte in a Deniability Merry-go-round of Spin. This isn’t a radio show, this is an Infomercial of Laporte’s chosen “sponsors” ….. whether they pay KFI for it or Laporte covertly, right Mr. Jobs?
From Newswireless.net:
Black Hat hack of Apple Wireless network? It never happened. But… it is fixed.
by Kieren McCarthy | posted on 02 October 2006
It seems the story of Apple’s invulnerability to malware has been somewhat exaggerated. But don’t mention this in public. You’ll get attacked (writes Kieren McCarthy) if you breathe a word of the Apple wireless hack.
Here we go again. Security experts warn that there is a hole in one of Apple’s products; Apple says there isn’t a problem; and a month later it releases a fix for it. I write a story pointing this out and am faced with mindless abuse from the Apple faithful.
Exactly the same thing has happened several times in the past and it’s not just me, it’s anyone that points out the startlingly obvious: that OS X, Safari, MacBooks, whatever, do not exist within some holy forcefield of invulnerability - they are just electronic products.
The aggressive response is something that everyone who covers Apple security issues is faced with, causing many IT journalists to refer to the ranting and irrational Apple hordes as “Mac maniacs”.
Here, read it for yourself:
http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/2932
And as the article says, this isn’t the First Time!
08 October 2006
02:05 by Ronc.
Re: Alohabob. The link Leo provided for their website is useless as there are no further options there for aquiring it. The so-called news article says that a similar feature will be availabe for Vista users, but if you don’t already have it you’re outta luck.
Oh, God, Bill Gates’ secret lover is back.
Kieren’s article is excellent. So what?
Kieren was among those denigrated by Apple fanboys in the wake of the Maynor and Ellch demonstration. And so? Did Leo denigrate Kieren - or Maynor and Ellch? No. Of course not.
Leo would probably agree that Apple has a poor (and rather slippery) corporate attitude to security. That’s not the issue here. He was advising on buying a laptop for an old lady NOT commenting on Apple’s corporate attitudes.
She is very unlikely to meet malware in the wild if she uses an Apple machine. That is the point. Anyone with a brain larger than a pea could grasp that. It doesn’t really matter if this is partly down to an inherited Unix security model that Apple hasn’t managed to screw up yet - and mostly down to an extremely low market penetration, so they are an unattractive target.
Apple are Apple, and deserve all Kieren’s scorn. But Leo’s a nice man. He’s looking out for the old girl - something that anonymous trolls apparently don’t think worth consideration.
Honesty in Radio. The truth hurts doesn’t it. Zero viruses and no spyware on OSX. Sorry but the facts are the facts and Windows is not secure. 300,000 plus viruses on Windows and 0 on the Mac.
You can call Leo all the names you want and type your FUD until your fingers fall off but that won’t change the facts that Windows is not secure period.
In reference to advising a Mac laptop for Mom. Mom has reportedly been using a PC for the last year. I suggest that Mom buy a PC laptop so she does not have to relearn the menus. Also Mom’s support (daughter) does not have a Mac at home but uses a PC.
Does decent = dissent?
decent : adjective, conforming to accepted standards of moral behavior.
dissent : verb, express opposition through action or words.
and no one mentioned “descent”?
de·scent (plural de·scents) : noun
1. going down: an act of going from the top to the bottom or from a higher position to a lower position.
well?….which is it?….genius?
it looks like Microsoft bought up Apptimum & Alohabob products.
The press release on alohabob.com reads in part :
“Microsoft does not plan to continue selling the existing Apptimum products. These are no longer for sale from Apptimum.”
How to End the Mac vs. PC debate ..
(sorry if this is a bit long … my next ones will be shorter :)
There is no place in the world for Mac OS, Linux, or any other of the minor players. As a former Amiga user, I know.
A computer is not about what it IS, it’s about what it DOES.
There was a time back in the early ‘90s that the Commodore Amiga was the only reasonably-priced computer that could do non-linear video editing, real-time video switching and overlay, and 3D design and animation. Those days have long gone, and the Amiga has been replaced by Windows-capable computers that do all of the above.
There are lots of t.v. manufacturers, but when you turn it on, other than minor differences, you don’t have to adjust the way you operate it depending on brand. You pick up the remote, press the on button and change the channel to what you want to watch. You don’t have to say “Oh, this one’s a Mac tv, it doesn’t work that way…”
There are lots of telephone manufacturers, but again, other than minor differences, you don’t have to totally adjust your telephone usage depending on brand, you just pick it up and “dial” it …
Leo has often said that Apple is a hardware company. Well, that’s true, but not the whole story. HP, Acer, Toshiba, etc. are hardware companies … they only make the hardware that the software runs on.
Apple is a hardware company that makes computers that, until recently, they also had to make software that would run on them….. And that’s the key!
Now that Apple has taken the step of providing a way to run Microsoft’s Windows on their hardware, they are only one step away from being an actual hardware company, like the others.
Leo says that he thinks the biggest problem that PC users have lies in the hardware … the fact that Windows runs on computers that are not built by Microsoft (as Macs are built only by Apple). As Microsoft long ago allowed other hardware manufacturers to develop components for Windows computers (“PC’s”), they have no control over the conflicts that that engenders.
I called Leo a couple weeks ago about running Windows on the new Macs, but I guess I wasn’t clear in presenting my question. I wanted to know if the new Intel based Macs can run Windows WITHOUT first loading something like BootCamp … can they just load Windows directly, like most of the other computers on the market?
If so, then Apple is after all, just another hardware company. If not, then they are a “proprietary” hardware company …. you still have to load some Apple thing before you can load Windows.
Mac OS is pretty, but pretty isn’t productivity. Again, computers are not about what they look like, but about what they DO!
Macs have the reputation as being well-built … that’s good. Apple needs to take the next step and provide hardware that loads Windows directly, not after loading some proprietary conversion software first. Then let Apple compete on the world market as just another hardware company.
If their hardware is that good, maybe then they’ll be able to break out of their 4 - 5% market share. The Mac OS is what has held them back all these years … if they were “just another hardware company”, they would have had a much greater market share since 1984.
When a person sits down at a computer, they don’t look to see if it’s a Dell or HP or eMachine … unless it’s a Mac … If it is, you better already know how to work the Mac OS, or you’re lost …. Leo says there’s about a two week (or more) adjustment period for people changing from Windows to Mac (that’s not direct quote), but why should there be?
Someone sitting down at a Mac who’s never used one before should see no difference in what they’re used to … and in today’s world, that is Windows.
However, it should only be Windows because 90% of the world’s computers already use it, not because it’s better than anything else, just because it’s the most universal.
If you turn on a lamp in Europe, do you first look to see if it’s 120v or 240v, A.C. or D.C. ? Of course not, you just turn on a lamp (anywhere in the world) so that you’ll have light. You don’t look first to see who it’s made by, and then adjust you usage to match.
Apple needs to take that last, final step to become a major player in the computer market.
Just my two euros worth …
Leo needs to teach his chat mod manners. This is what happens when you have kids manage your periferal accounts. Hard for them to get past the emotional and remember that everything they do reflects on Leo professionally.
Hugh In Costa Mesa,
that is why I wont talk in Leo’s chat.
I refuse to be ruled & sassed by vapid & mostly ignorant children who think they are geniuses because Leo made them a chat mod.
And, seeing as I don’t have childeren and therefore choose not to be ruled by them in life or anywhere else, I do not put myself in situations where they have much sway.
There is just no substitute for experience in life and 14 years is not enough time to develope the discretion or civility of a mature adult.
there, I said it.
Ben, The fellow managing the chat appears to be (physically) in his middle twenties (going on 15?).
Too bad about the chat as there are a few that find it and do need to be helped. As I have connected with two of those recently they also have commented on the lack of professionalism in the chat. Something that Leo really needs to look into.
