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Sunday 5 August 2007

Show Audio

Tech News

ThinkGeek has a build-it-yourself videogame console. Leo wishes it were around when he was younger.

IRS bureaucrats were duped into exposing passwords in a recent security test.

California secretary of state Debra Bowen has decertified electronic voting machines. She will recertify them if they adhere to strict standards. The movie Hacking Democracy is the movie to watch about electronic voting systems.

In a recent study, certain laser printers release enough air pollution to equal that of second-hand smoke.

Gizmodo recently published a false Apple rumor as an article on their site, but then retracted it.

Contributors

Morgan Webb - WebbAlert video blog

• Using a Canon HV20
• Using Castfire service for ads and hosting
• Simply doing the show every night and editing in Final Cut Pro

Ron Rosberg - Iolo’s Search and Recover/Sanyo E1 Waterproof Video Camera/ActiveWords

Iolo’s Search and Recover

• Great product to recover deleted data
• Ron’s friend used it to recover pictures from a flash chard
• Very useful and it really works
• $29.95 for up to 3 computers

Sanyo E1 Waterproof Video Camera

• Waterproof
• $450 on Amazon
• Up to 5 feet underwater
  • Has seals on it
• Not HD, but a great party camcorder

ActiveWords

• $49.95 for unlimited licenses
• Can make words into specific actions on Windows
• For example, just type “g” and it’ll go to Gooole
• Ron types in “sig” in emails and it replaces it with his email signature

Hour 3: Chris Marquardt - Tips from the Top Floor

• Instant light
• Can induce red eye
  • Reflecting light
• Don’t go that far
• Try to avoid flash as much as possible

Hour 1

Q Tony from San Antonio, TX - Accidentally copied over user folder in Vista

• Copying it over actually deletes the original files
• Deleting and emptying recycle bin simply opens up that space
  • Won’t get deleted till something is written on that same space
  • Would have had chance to recover
• No magic formula to recover
• You’ve probably erased some, but not all
  • New folder not as large
• Make a complete copy if you can of the hard drive
• Then get an unerase program
  • Leo has used Active Unerase

Q Jerry from Novato, CA - Wants to do phone interviews on a live stream

• Leo’s sounding better than his calls because he has a mixer
  • Using a real microphone
• Feed mixer output into recording machine
• Then have to figure out how to get your voice alone back into Skype
  • Using something called mix-minus
• Leo uses Ustream and Stickam to broadcast audio
  • Don’t have to show video of yourself

Hour 2

Q Bill from Thousand Oaks, CA - Screen-door effect on LCD TVs

• You’re seeing individual pixels on the screen
• Can take a look at televisions using LCOS technology
  • No screen door effect
  • Sony sells them under SXRD brand
  • JVC sells them under HD-ILA brand
• LCD stands for “Liquid Crystal Display”
  • Crystals act like shutters for light

Q Bruce from Laguna Beach, CA - Getting data off of AppleTV

• Don’t know of any way to get it off
• Can take the hard drive out and use a USB drive adapter
• That drive is a standard OSX drive
• No software available to get it off easily
• Highly complex hack to get it off using software called Patchstick

Q Mark from Salinas, CA - Can’t put laptop into hibernate

• Using Windows Vista Basic
• Not taking advantage of the ACPI
• Nothing you can do because the non-ACPI version was installed

Hour 3

Q Barbara - Comcast digital cable/Configuring router for security

• Cable companies making people move to digital cable
  • Need to get digital box per TV
• FCC forcing cable companies to support something called CableCard
  • Simply put the card into a computer or TV that supports it
  • Any device that supports CableCard like TiVo
• Log into your router by going to 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1
• If it’s a wireless router, turn on WPA encryption
  • That’s all that matters
• Hiding your broadcast ID or MAC address filtering
  • None of that works
• Turn off Universal Plug and Play
• Change the default name
• Turn off WAN administration

Q Rick from Tuckerton, NJ - Error says to use admin account, but is admin

• Sounds like something an antivirus may have done that
  • Wants to change startup programs
• Simply figure out what security software is blocking you

Q Device to record to DVD and flash memory

• 2 different purposes
• Panasonic makes very good recorders
  • Not sure you will find any with flash recorders as well
• Recording onto flash would wear out the flash quickly
  • Sandisk does have a device called the V-Mate

Q Jason - Sharing Wifi with sister 400 yards down the hill

• Need to get a very directional antenna
• Take a look at Radio Labs