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Sunday, 21 January, 2007
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Tech News
Technology is ever changing. For example, Google Docs and Spreadsheets has been taking of, but Think Free has been doing the same thing for years.
Twitter is made by the same guy who made Blogger and Odeo. The main idea is to post what you’re up to. It’s kind of a stalking tool.
11a-Noon
Q Jake from Florida - Plugging a mixer into the computer
He has a mixer and a condenser microphone and would like to connect it to the line in connection of the computer. Use the line out on the mixer and plug it into the line in on the computer.
Q Julie from Los Angeles - Re “building” a Dell
She’s trying to reset her laptop with the recovery discs. However, the CDs are not working. Once you get into BIOS, you can change the order of items the computer boots from. There are two possibilities: the CD drive is damaged or the disc is damaged. Try using a different disc, and if it works, that means the disc is damaged. Dell will send you a replacement set of recovery discs for a nominal fee. If it is the CD drive that is damaged, Dell will also repair that for you.
He has an iPod Mini, an external hard drive, and multiple Windows machines. He would like to take his external hard drive and have his entire iTunes library displayed. All you have to do is tell iTunes on Windows where to find the iTunes library. It sounds like iTunes uses a different format than Windows. One thing you may want to try is using an iTunes replacement like Media Monkey. You could put your home directory on the external drive. Then everything would work. TUAW has a tutorial that goes through the process of keeping an iTunes library on an external hard drive. Though they use the Mac version, the process should be the same on Windows. Make sure all your music is consolidated into the iTunes Music folder.
Noon-1p
Q Ryan from Malibu - How to make an mp4 file
He wants to make a video MPEG-4 file. The best support for it right now is Apple’s Quicktime Pro. On the Mac, there’s a great program called HandBrake that will take DVDs and convert it into MPEG-4. There’s a test Windows build right now. ShrinkTo5 on Windows may also do that.
He wants to sell something over the web that is copyrighted. It is very difficult to put copy protection on your work. You can put thumbnails or copies with a watermark. There are lots of places doing this sort of thing, like iStock Photo. They use a watermark. Try to copy what they do. If someone’s determined enough to steal it, they will.
Q Eric from Pennsylvania - Difference between PPTP Tunnel and Hot Spot VPN
What he’s talking about is making yourself private on the net. There are PPTP tunnels and IPSEC. HotSpotVPN requires you to pay a monthly fee to gain access to a server to tunnel your data. SSL works with everything and can’t be blocked by anybody.
Q Bernie from Colorado - Solution to a previous problem
When he replaced his mouse with a USB mouse, he could select the option to wake up from sleep.
Q Using a 26″ HDTV to use as a computer monitor.
Leo suggests that you get a computer monitor with TV inputs. His favorites are from Dell. The beauty of these monitors is that they have a variety of inputs: including component! They come in 24, 26 and 30 inch sizes. Leo recommends the 27 inch.
Q David from Cypress - Mapquest not working correctly
You need Javascript running correctly. Go into your Internet Options and reset all zones to the default level, it should work. It could also be that Zonealarm is blocking it. Try disabling Zonealarm for a few minutes. The truth is that you don’t need it.
1–2p
Q Martin from Ventura - Lossless video compression
Look at something like h.264 (an MPEG-4 codec). You can compress it at a very high quality. iStockPhoto does something similar to what you want to do.
Q Joyce from West Covina - Book to learn about OSX
Take a look at the Little Mac Book. Also, for a modem, go to the Apple Store.
Q Jeff from San Diego - iBook Airport settings
The iBook keeps losing its Airport settings. You want to set it so that your base station is default. Try a different channel on the base station; just in case there is some interference. Also, try emptying your settings and starting over. Macfixit has some tips.
It’ll work perfectly with the Mac Pro. It’s a better deal than the Apple Cinema Display. As for a TV, you definitely don’t want to use a plasma as a computer monitor.
Q Joyce from Apple Valley - Screen going black in the middle of work
You may be turning the screen off by accident. There are buttons on the keyboard to change the brightness of the screen.
