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Sunday 3 June 2007

Show Audio

Guests

Q Chris - Assignments

• Assignments force people to think in different ways
  • Restricts them to shoot in a certain way
• Example may be “reflections”
• A fun project was “Lock yourself in the bathroom”
• Here’s an assignment for Tech Guy listeners: the ABCs
  • Go out and find all 26 english letters
  • Get creative
  • Please string all 26 pictures into one mosaic or something of the like
  • Submissions can be sent to the Tech Guy Flickr group

Q Ron Rosberg - Harmony 1000 Universal Remote/Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker

• Connect to PC using USB and download control profiles from Logitech site
• Ron has 18-year old Sony device and the Harmony can control it
• Guaranteed to work with over 200,000 devices
• Has a color 3.5″ screen
• $330.88 on Amazon
  • Retails for $499.99

• Has a dispenser to put toppings in
  • Will automatically mix in the toppings
• Makes 1.5 quarts in about 20 minutes
  • Ron’s experience was 27 minutes or so
• Can either use Cuisinart mix or your own recipe
• $235 retail
  • $99.95 on Amazon
• Make sure to watch the machine
  • If you leave it in for too long, comes out too hard
  • If too short, comes out like soup
• Makes 10 1/2-cup services
• Smaller than a gallon of milk
• Instruction book is not very well made

Q Dick DeBartolo - iTouchless

• Makes several touchless products
• For example: the automatic paper towel dispenser
• can use any size towels
  • Uses perforation
• Need to pull up so you don’t break the machine
• $59.99 for pre-orders
  • $79.99 for normal price
• Touchless trash can and faucet are actually useful

Hour 1

Q Ryan - WiFi dropping out or too slow

• Anything in between the signal and client will slow down connection
  • Any metal whatsoever will stop it in its tracks
• Windows looks for the strongest signal
  • May be connecting to neighbor’s network
  • Microsoft has released an update for the issue
• Make sure to set a “master browser”
  • Master browser should be most reliable wired computer
• Neighbor may be also using a speed-boost technology
  • These knock out other wireless networks
  • Can be alleviated by upgrading to an 802.11n network

Q Live video on the Internet

• Thinking about using Stickam or Ustream
• Wants to do a powerpoint as well
• Fast motion will not work well
• EVDO is fine
  • Sprint is what Ustream recommends

Hour 2

Q Songs out of order on RAZR

• Ordering by track number
• Will work if you use playlists
  • Hassle

Q Mike from Long Beach - Online repository for photos

• Taking hours to upload pictures
• You’re uploading the highest quality file
• Look in iPhoto and find the file size
  • If megabytes, that’s probably why
• Leo uses Flickr
  • There is a Flickr iPhoto extension

Q Playing co-op game on a PC/Playing HD-DVDs on non HDCP monitor

• Maybe with an Xbox 360 and PC
• There is a movement for Xbox/PC compatibility
• Slysoft’s AnyDVD HD will allow you to play it

Q Michelle - iPod vs. the competition

• Wants to be able to record audio on the mp3 player as well
  • Can do that on the iPod with products such as the Belkin TuneTalk
• For a Mac, an iPod would make sense
• The iRiver is used by many podcasters
• Leo likes the XtremeMac Micro Memo
• Take a look at the iPod Nano

Q Sean from Rancho Cucamonga - Seeing incoming faxes remotely

• Could get LCD screen to run orders past
• Probably should simply attach a light to fax machine

Hour 3

Q Alex from Vancouver - “Adult” popups on computer

• Coming out of nowhere
• No anti-spyware is catching it
• HijackThis will show you all installed software
• Also try Rootkit Revealer
• Once you’re compromised you never know if you’re secure again

Q Martin - OS9 not working well

• Don’t try running the latest programs
• Can run in classic mode in OSX
• Computer simply getting old

Q Rob - Cannot defrag hard drive

• Background applications using the disk
• Should run defragmentation in safe mode

Q Jim from Riverside - Cannot install Service Pack 2

• The farther PC gets from original XP installation, harder to install Service Pack 2
• Best way to do this would be to do clean install of XP and then install SP2 immediately
• May also be time to get a new PC
  • PC is 5 years old

Q No HDMI port on TV

• Upconverting DVD players using HDMI for copy protection
• Find an upconverting player that will use component

Q iTunes sorting songs differently than Windows

• Can uncheck option to move files into iTunes folder
• Not using folder structure
  • Using ID3 tag information
• Smart folder feature may solve some troubles
  • Organizes music automatically using 20 parameters you set