Sunday 29 April 2007

Tech News
Leo recently bought a Nokia N95 that is the best phone out right now until the iPhone. Or maybe even after the iPhone. Check out Leo’s Flickr page for samples of its pictures from the 5 megapixel camera.
Scotty, from Star Trek, has been launched
Someone uploaded a picture taken with an iPhone to Flickr, and it was recently discovered. It’s a pretty good picture for a camera phone.
Vudu is aiming to compete with MovieLink, NetFlix, and the AppleTV. It will allow you to purchase videos from your couch and begin watching immediately once the download begins.
Guests
Q Veronica Belmont - Console vs. PC Gaming
- More options of PC gamers than consoles
- MMORPG games are perfect on a PC
- A lot more variety on PCs
- Sometimes harder to get games working on a PC
- Ever changing hardware requirements
Q Ron Rossberg - Sangean HD Radio
- Table top HD radio
- AM radio gets FM quality
- FM radio gets CD quality
- HD radio is all digital
- Sangean HDT-1 component radio also available
Q Dick DeBartolo - LED SnakeLight
- Uses 14 LEDs
- Converts to a 3 LED hand-held flashlight
- Uses 2 C batteries
Q Rebekah Baker - Internet Public Library
- Can read newspaper text from around the world
- Even a link to a newspaper in Antarctica!
- Compilation of links
Hour 1
Q Harry from Lancaster - Routers/Hubs/Switches
- Routers send the connection wired/wirelessly to clients on the network
- Outgoing traffic goes out via router to modem
- Incoming traffic gets routed to your internal IP
- There is one public IP with internal IPs
- Hubs are simply ports to share the connection
- Switches mainly used in businesses to divide the connection
- Firewall on the computer itself is probably blocking file sharing
Q Joe from Ocean City - Wireless repeater
- Has router upstairs, but weak signal downstairs
- Linksys has wireless repeaters using WDS
- Any Linksys “RangeBooster” devices will work
Q Jay from Rancho Cucamonga - Large monitor with smaller resolution
- Mother having trouble with sight
- Needs a cheap video card to support 1680×1050
- Then can set Windows to make fonts very large
- Any video card with 128mb will be fine
Hour 2
Q Willian from Fullerton - Upgrading to Windows Vista
- Wants to run some video streaming and audio recording
- Lots of specialty software will not work with Vista yet
- Partly Vista protection
Q Trudy - Cordless phones and banking via the phone
- It is easy to intercept cordless phone signals
- Using a land line
- Make sure it has its own dedicated port
Q Importing VHS video into PC
- PC has analog in, but no software to record
- Roxio can record
- Your VCR is putting Macrovision anti-piracy on the video
Q Power Converter
- Looking for 50hz
- Take a look at this
Q Ben from Rochester - HDTV for dorm room
- Look at a small LCD
- Xbox 360 will allow you to buy/rent HD movies and TV shows
- Olevia TVs are very aggresively priced
Hour 3
Q Julie from La Jabra - Accessing the Internet out in the field
- Computer freezing as soon as Internet access crashes
- Try reinstalling the dial-up networking
- Almost certainly Verizon software
- Call Verizon for support before going to a store
Q Marta from Silver Lake - DVDs from America in Poland
- Region encoded for America
- Take the DVDs and rip it
- Only take the movie itself
- Handbrake is cross-platform
Q Craig from Costa Mesa - New camcorder
- Stay with tapes
- DVD camcorders are lower quality and harder to import into PC
Q Cassandra - PC Cooling
- Newer Intel processors are much cooler
- Make sure case has good circulation
- Koolance specializes in keeping cases cool
Q Remapping keys
- Wants keys mapped in Photoshop, but not Windows
- AutoHotkey is very powerful that will allow you to dabble in it
Q Getting a laptop for 13-year old
- Windows are a better gaming platform
- Laptops not very good gaming machines
- Check out the MacBook
- Make sure to get 1gb RAM