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Saturday 30 June 2007

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Tech News

Today is iPhone day! Leo waited for 6 hours in line. However, there was no need to wait in line. Check out the iPhone availability checker at the Apple store. Steve Wozniak was in line at the San Jose Valley Fair Apple Store.

The iPhone data plans are very reasonable.

Guests

Q Scott Wilkinson - 1080i vs. 1080p

• 1080i would be scanning all odd # lines, then all even # lines
  • Was done to save bandwidth at first
• 1080p would be scanning all lines at the same time
• CRT displays scan the image
• Newer digital displays flash the entire image
• Digital displays take interlaced signal and process it to be progressive
• Displays with smaller resolutions
  • Take interlaced 1080i signal
  • Convert to 1080p
  • Downscale to lower resolution
• With upscaling DVD players, upscales to 720p or better
  • Then TV scales it to its own native resolution
• Should not be able to notice difference with 1080p display unless it is 70 inches

Q Dick DeBartolo - Old Will Knott Scales

• Site sells scales and only scales
• Comes with AC adapter
  • Can also run on 4 C batteries
• 55 pound capacity
  • 0.1 ounce accuracy for up to 2 pounds
  • 0.5 ounce accuracy over 2 pounds
• Can use “tare”
  • Allows you to set weight to zero with packaging on top
    • In order to weigh goods’ weight only
• Dick got it for $28
  • Sale on the site
• Can move LED read out further away from scale if box is large

Q Chris Marquardt - Holding the camera

• Do not want your pictures blurry
• Keep camera close to yourself
• Squeeze your elbows into your rib cage
• Chris uses a small bean bag to keep a camera stable

Hour 1

Q Gary from Santa Monica - iPhone review

• Definite evolution, but not perfect
• Touch screen is marvelous
• For every thing that is wrong, 100 things are right
• 2nd generation will be a huge improvement

Q Christine from La Jolla, CA - WebTV not working

• WebTV essentially been orphaned
• Next step up is a computer
• Can try out the all-in-one iMac
  • On the Mac, can zoom into any part of the screen
  • Can make interface simpler using Simple Finder
• Definitely try out broadband

Hour 2

Q iPhone impressions

• Stepped in the store at 6pm without waiting in line
• Still waiting for activation to happen
  • Verizon taking their sweet time porting the number to at&t
• While waiting for activation, slider is fun to play with

Q Marcia from Glendale, CA - Digitizing audio tapes

• Just need to get a cable with headphone jacks on either end
  • Plug one end into tape player
  • Plug other end into line in port on iMac
• Can also use USB audio interface such as the iMic
• Can use Garageband to record
  • Or free Audacity
• Then use iTunes to burn to CD

Q Mark - Moving from PC to Mac

• Been using PCs for 30 years
• Wants to know about fully Mac-compatible printers
  • Leo uses an Epson multi-function
  • Shooby has an HP C6180 multi-function printer
    • Has completel mac support
• For GPS
  • Use GPS program in Windows via Parallels

Hour 3

Q NAS

• Use gigabit networking
• Use RAID 5
• Leo uses an Infrant system
• Look for one with a web interface
  • Make sure it automatically appears as a shared drive automatically

Q Eliza - Macbook crashing by accessing hard drive in Finder

• Use Onyx to rebuild icons
• Cocktail will also rebuild it
• Can simply reinstall finder from install discs as well

Q Joe from Punta Gorda, FL - Building web site for family

• Looking for tutorials
• Web Monkey is a web developer’s resource
• W3 Schools is another good one
• Take a look at content management systems
  • Wordpress will allow you to immediately post new content
  • Will also allow you to play with CSS
• TypePad and Movable Type are also great content management systems