Sunday 1 April 2007
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Tech News
Google has announced their TiSP free in-home wireless broadband service. This changes everything. It is currently in beta; sign up today! APRIL FOOLS!
Another Google April Fools joke is Gmail Paper. Archive all your email with simple unobtrusive ads (in 36pt red Helvetica font); attachments included!
There are new bar codes in Asia which you can wave a cell phone over and get information about a product.
The Pirate Bay has allegedly found a permanent hosting solution in the North Korean embassy in Stockholm. Then again, it seems like Leo has fallen for an April Fools’ joke. The Pirate Bay is known for mocking cease and desist letters.
Steve Jobs is supposedly holding a keynote at a music event in London. Leo predicts that Jobs will announce the Beatles being on iTunes and hopefully a new iPod.
Guests
Q Scott Wilkinson - Speakers
- Try to avoid sound coming from TV
- Not very good
- Speaker positioning of utmost importance
- Front, right, left, center, and rear speakers should be at even fractions of room’s dimension
- Make sure to take note of all sides including height
- Will minimize complications in sound
- Square room will encourage reinforcement/cancellation
- Could hire an acoustician
- Want to keep bass as smooth as possible
- Rooms easily can reinforce/cancel bass
- Also want to keep seats at odd fractions to stay away from places of reinforcement/cancellation
Q Ron Rossberg - Brite Strike/Sandisk Ultra II SD Plus
- Miniature flashlights that are incredibly bright/SanDisk USB SD card
- Polive officers use this
- 80–90 lumens!
- Only 1 LED
- Lasts 100,000 hours
- Rechargeable batteries coming soon
- SanDisk has an SD card with a built-in USB adapter on it
- Sandisk Ultra II SD Plus
- Folds in half to unveil USB port
Q Paul Thurott - Another Vista tip
- Slideshow feature built into Windows shell
- Go to a folder with pictures in it
- Slideshow button available in toolbar
- Slideshow has a toolbar at the bottom to control show
- Several cool themes available
- Aero-only feature
Q Chris Marquardt - Digital photography tips
- Does his podcast in english from Germany
- Don’t always need subject in the middle
- Slice image into 3 horizontal/vertical pieces
- Results in 4 main points where piece separations intersect
- Want main subjects in the 4 main points
- Chris has an example taken with a camera phone
- Called the ROT (Rule of Thirds)
Hour 1
Q Paul from New Mexico - Moving to the Mac
- Wants to move to the Mac and bring data from PC
- Macs can read from Windows partitions but can’t write
- To record a cassette deck on Mac, all you need is a simple recording program
Q Brian from Malibu - High definition camcorder
- Leo recommends the just-released Canon HV20
- Has 24p mode for more cinema-like experience
- Also has HDMI output to get uncompressed video
- Dell is a great choice
- Very robust
- Has accidental coverage warranty
- Only negative is that it’s a little heavy
Hour 2
Q John from San Jose - Home network goes down when listening to Internet radio
- Big downloads and Internet streams are similar
- It’s a router issue
- After a lot of traffic, Linksys/Netgear routers sometimes collapse
- Get latest firmware
- Belkin Draft N router is the best
- Can use less crowded 5ghz frequency
- Can also try a different channel
- Try moving router/machine
Q Julian from Los Angeles - Barcode software for cell phones
- Is visually impaired and the software would be of much help
- Uses screen reading technology with cell phone
- He uses GPS software for his phone to know where he is
Q Dennis from Morristown - Refurbished MacBooks
- Until a few years ago, companies could sell open-box items as new
- Most of these refurbished aren’t even used or very lightly used
- Discount is amazing and has been tested much more
- Pretty much guaranteed to work without a hitch
Q Eric - Dell XPS M2010 DVD playback
- Volume drops sharply in movie itself
- Same problem in all software
- AC3 surround sound is not as loud because much more dynamic sound
- Some players have acceleration option for hardware
- On WinDVD for sure
Hour 3
Q John - Getting podcast statistics
- Wants to get a Feedburner account to get statistics
- If you can manually put a link in iWeb, you can use Podtrac
- Podtrac ads redirect URL to get your stats
Q Sarah from Laguna Nigel - Best laptop/desktop for graphics design in college
- Adobe CS3 coming out very soon
- Most graphics designers use Macintosh
- Software available on both Windows and Mac though
- Should ask around at school
- Leo has a MacBook and a MacBook Pro
- Given programs you’re using, you should go with MacBook Pro
- Up to you for screen size
- Stick with a laptop
- No need for both a desktop and laptop
- Get at least 2gb RAM
Q Ruth from Hercules - Real time/live backup solution
- Only true real-time backup is RAID 1
- No software that does backup synchronous
- Carbonite, our sponsor, is similar, but not absolutely instantaneous
- Can set Microsoft’s Synctoy to run ever 10 minutes to keep losses minimal
- Second Copy costs money, but more full featured than Synctoy
- In fact, Symantec’s GoBack does this exactly
Q Bob - Fry’s “reconditioning”
- Leo has heard that Fry’s is terrible with reconditioning
- He bought a Panasonic laptop
- Battery has run out of charge cycles
- Just purchase a new battery
Q Alan from North Hollywood - Palm device not syncing wirelessly (infrared)
- Computer will never see infrared device
- Will only see as USB
- He has a infrared to USB dongle
- Infrared slower anyways
- Just use USB