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Sunday 18 February 2007

Our new IRC chat channel is #techguy. We have a new phone number, too. You can now call the show toll-free at:

1–888–8 ASK LEO

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Show Audio

Tech News

A company known as D-Wave demoed the world’s first quantum computer. A quantum computer, according to Wikipedia, is, “any device for computation that makes direct use of distinctively quantum mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data. In a classical (or conventional) computer, the amount of data is measured by bits; in a quantum computer, the data is measured by qubits. The basic principle of quantum computation is that the quantum properties of particles can be used to represent and structure data, and that quantum mechanisms can be devised and built to perform operations with these data.”

Eric Clark describes the effect of electronics to the toy industry.

Hour 1

Q Sascha from the UK - Video streaming online using Shoutcast

It depends on the quality of the video you want to send out. Often you’ll see a 300kbps stream, and then the 100mbps pipe will seem to get smaller and smaller. If you’re only going to have about 30 people at a time or so watching simultaneously, it may be fine. Apple and Microsoft both have excellent streaming servers. Wirecast is effectively a software control room that will allow you to do the broadcasting, teleprompter, titles, green-screen, and multiple camera switching. It will stream out in both Quicktime or Windows Media.

Q Bill - Single user programs

After reinstalling Windows XP with an OEM version, WGA keeps popping up. It turns out he simply swapped the serial numbers. Simply do the Windows XP upgrade, and you won’t lose all your data. This article may be of some assistance.

Q Jonathan from Los Angeles - Moving purchased music from PC to Mac

You will probably have to take advantage of something known as the loophole. This means that you will burn the protected music to CD and then import it using iTunes to mp3 or AAC. What you can also do is play the music on the PC using Musicmatch and then record it to a file.

Hour 2

Q Howard - Skypeout/Headset

His daughter uses the Lingo VoiP service, and whenever he tries to call her using Skypeout, the call fails because apparently her line is not accepting calls from missing caller IDs. Since Skypeout has a strange caller ID that’s not identifiable, and since your daughter is probably blocking unknown caller IDs, your calls are being blocked.

Read up on these tips to improve your Skype experience.

Q Ron from New York - Good PCI video card to run Vista Aero

The Inquirer details running Vista’s Aero Glass on AGP and PCIe-less computers. There’s an ATI x1300 that Diamond Multimedia makes capable of running Vista Aero.

Q Carson from Marin - New computer

He wants to be a musician with the computer as well as be a gamer. The Macbook Pro seem to be the perfect choice for you. You can use Garageband on the computer and then use Boot Camp to install Windows XP or Windows Vista to play games

Q Bob from Lafayette - Software firewalls

• Wants to know why software firewall is not needed
• If you have a router, it is a sufficient firewall.
• Software firewall = belt/suspenders
• Some trojans target software firewalls
• Software firewalls monitor outgoing traffic
• Eventually get alert fatigue and click everything.
• Dubious value
  • issues with reliability/performance

Hour 3

Q Victor from Los Angeles - Windows Presentation Foundation

• Works for company developing for WPF
• Thinks flash will have its place
• “WPF Everywhere” allows for Mac viewing
• Leo wants to see it become open standard

Q Debbie from Calabasas - Taking off Norton from HP desktop

• HP says support will be taken away
• Don’t hesitate to remove Norton
  • Panda is better
    • Turn off extra background protections (prevents bloat)

Q Jessie from Auburn - Connecting Xbox 360/PC to network wirelessly

• Get WiFi card for PC
• Use Internet Connection Sharing over ethernet
  • connect ethernet cable from PC to Xbox

Q Dave from Indiana - Daylight savings time change

• His area supports DST now
• Microsoft pushed out patch for DST
• Like mini-Y2K
  • older systems may have trouble
    • can use Time Zone Editor to fix problems
• Windows 2000, XP, Vista should be fine

Q Tim - Entering personal info at Internet Cafe

• Public computer anywhere is at risk
  • Keystroke logger may be installed
    • absolutely will see data
• Public WiFi networks unprotected
• Secure sites protected/scrambled
• Never enter personal info public computer

Q Gene from Palos Verdes - Alternative networking/transmission methoid

• Talking about RF
  • RF is older technology
• WiFi is digital/newer
• Devices use network to transmit video
• Faster 802.11n available

Q Chris from Ottawa - Multiple screens on Mac Mini

• Wants to have video editing on one screen, one screen for video preview
• iMovie doesn’t split up the video
• Mac Mini has only one connector
  • Not possible
  • Possible with higher-end Mac