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Saturday, December 9, 2006
Keep those phones ringing! I’ll continue taking calls for a couple of hours after the show ends at 2p today. We’re pre-taping for episodes later this month. So keep calling 1–800–520–1534 through 4 this afternoon!
Tech News
James Kim’s family was found last week, but James had left the car to find help.
Sadly, however, James was found dead trying to save his family.
The story of James Kim brought over a million page views on MSNBC.
11a-Noon
Q Robert from North Hollywood - Cannot send/receive email from computer
He can surf the Internet, but cannot send or receive email or do the OSX software update. Also, he gets popups for the OSX Keychain (password database) to enter a password, but he’s canceling it. The minute you change the password for your login on the computer, Keychain will no longer will be automatic. So what probably has happened is that your password has changed. When the Keychain message pops up, you’re going to have to enter in your old login password. Once your Keychain starts working, everything else should start working.
Q Jeff from Florida - Putting recorded TV shows on a DVD
It terrifies the movie companies that you may be able to move perfect digital copies to DVD. This is why some sort of firewire output or digital output has been disabled. Unfortunately, the only way to get the video out is by using the analog video out.
He’s looking at a Visio or Philips television. The cheaper televisions don’t look as good when you play back standard definition content. Plasma looks a little better in a darker environment, but LCD looks better in daylight.
Printer calibration is very tricky. Also, look at your software as well. Try a non-Microsoft program: Photoshop. For RAM for your Apple computer, look at Trans International.
Q John from Wisconsin - Cannot open PDF files, use Terminal, or launch a couple programs
He has a Mac Mini. He’s got it set up to launch from an external Firewire drive. First, try using another log in. If it doesn’t work in another account, try archiving and reinstalling. Also, it may be a problem with your Firewire drive.
Noon-1p
Q Rod from Simi Valley - Hard disk camcorders
He wants to know why I didn’t mention them last week. There are a couple problems with hard drive camera: heavier, sub-par battery life and spinning parts. In time I think solid state cameras are going to become more popular. However, when you want to transfer the video to the computer, it will transfer very quickly.
Q Ryan - Getting data off a “crashed” hard drive
There are two ways for a hard drive to die: a soft death or a hard death. Soft deaths can be fixed in software. If there’s a physical problem, a hard death, like the head crashing into the platter, the head breaking, or a miniature fire that goes on inside. Companies like Drive Savers will recover physically damaged hard drives, but will charge thousands of dollars.
Q Shane - Recording podcasts using Skype
I use a very fancy setup with a separate microphone and a mixer, and then feed Skype to the mixer, and then feed the output from the mixer to a different machine to record. On the Mac, there’s a program called Audio Hijack Pro and on Windows, there is a program called Hot Recorder that will record Skype calls.
Q Scott - Looking for a backup solution
Flash drives are a lot smaller than external hard drives. I like the concept of burning CDs. Every week you can back up your crucial files on a CD-R or DVD-R. For external hard drives, look for a USB2.0 or Firewire drive. I would take a multi-tiered approach. An external hard drive and a CD burner used together would be a great idea.
Q Alex from Long Beach - Converting from MD to CD
He has numerous recordings of concerts on minidisc, but would like to convert to CD. I guess you could play it back on your computer and then record the computer’s audio. Other than that, there’s nothing much you can do. In the future, you can try getting an iPod and a high quality microphone (like the Micro Memo. If you want a more professional setup, look at a Marantz or Edirol recorder that has XLR inputs. Broadcast Supply West sells these.
He just bought a PS3 that has an HDMI output, but on the television, there’s only a DVI input. They’re the same, but HDMI also carries audio. Look for an HDMI to DVI adapter.
Q Dave from Redando Beach - TV to hook up a PC and Xbox 360
There are TVs with DV inputs and RGB inputs. However, computer monitors are excellent HD monitors as well. The Dell 2407WFP 24″ widescreen monitor has DVI, VGA, S-Video, Composite, and Component inputs.
1–2p
Q Joe from Fullerton - VOiP & DSL services
He’s looking at services that allow you to use high speed Internet services to make phone calls and wants to know if he needs to get a more expensive DSL service to use it. You want to make sure your upload speed is higher than 128k. However, the VOiP services die if the power dies. Also, VOiP uses a regional 911 service compared a local 911 service.
Q Robert from Huntington Beach - Computer auto-downloading updates
He has changed the Windows update control panel options so it notifies him before it installs an update. However, the computer is still installing updates. It’s a big issue because most people are not installing these updates, so Microsoft may be forcing updates. I’m not sure if Microsoft has changed policies.
Q Kate from Quartz Hill - Windows on Parallels
Parallels works very well with both XP and Windows Vista. As far as the partition, I would recommend at least 10gb. Make sure you’re using Parallels instead of Bootcamp.
Q Mark from Victorville - Portable Internet access
Verizon’s EVDO network apparently is the best 3g network around. However, Sprint has a very nice 3g network. Look at Sprint’s PPC 6700 PDA Windows Mobile phone.
Q Jeff from San Diego - Word documents opening slowly
One think I would look for would be the fonts. If the prefetch is messed up, then applications may run slower. Look in the C:\Windows\Prefetch and empty it up. Here’s an article regarding speeding up your computer using the prefetch.
Q Sean from Vista - Giving kids computers
I wouldn’t plan on giving kids a computer of their own till 4th or 5th grade. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any programs that will limit kids’ computer usage. Kiddesk is an extremely limited desktop for children.
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