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Sunday 19 August 2007

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Contributors

Chris Marquardt - Tips from the Top Floor

Our photo assignment picks: http://www.flickr.com/groups/techguy/pool/tags/contrast

• Previous assignment was highly successful
• Leo’s submission was very well done
  • Very shallow depth of field
  • Broke rule of thirds, but it ended up working
  • Directs the eye to the single subject
• The new assignment is “careful”

Framing

• Keeping background out of focus is usually a good idea
• Can take advantage of framing to make someone appear further or closer

Ron Rosberg - Gadgets

Rokulabs Internet Radio R1000

• Desktop radio
• About 10 inches wide
• Gets AM/FM radio
• As well as Internet radio
• Can preset Internet radio stations as well
• Supposed to use remote control to program it the first time
• Uses WiFi
• Hard to reset WiFi settings though
• Supports a wide variety of streaming audio solutions
• Amazon lists it for $399.99
• $299 on the Roku website

BlueAnt Z9 Bluetooth Lightweight Headset

• Extremely lightweight
• Can move it from ear to ear
• Noise isolating
• Can easily wear it all day

SightSpeed

• Skype competitor
• Can do video conferencing
• Pro version is $4.95 monthly
• Fastest video Ron has seen
• Great way to keep in contact with kids going to college

Tech News

You cannot purchase an iPhone in Vermont because AT&T doesn’t cover the entire state!

According to Comcast users in a post by Torrentfreak, Comcast is throttling bandwidth for Bittorrent; eventually making seeding completely impossible. This brings back memories of the net neutrality debate.

The CD is now 25 years old.

Not everyone is happy with the move to digital music. Producers are howling over MP3 compression.

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Hour 1

Q Company asserting ownership of a domain

• If they are registrant, they technically own the domain
• Can go to the ICANN and file a domain-name dispute
• Want to find out who their registrar is
  • Contact them

Q Kelly from Los Angeles, CA - Smartphone with good phone feature

• Windows Mobile isn’t that great of a platform
  • Keeps crashing!
• Blackberries are great email devices, but not great phones either
  • However, the Blackberry Curve is supposed to be a nice improvement
• The iPhone is a great phone
  • Doesn’t do great with corporate email
  • No real keyboard either
  • Go to the Apple Store and try out the keyboard
• In terms of Bluetooth headsets, try out the Plantronics Voyager 510

Q Robert from New York, NY - Live audio streaming

• Wants to stay away from Ustream/Stickam
• For a mere 2 dozen people, there are quite a few ways
  • Windows media, Winamp, Quicktime
• Talkshoe is a great way to stream audio
  • Can even take calls
• Can do a Skypecast that can support up to 99 people

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Hour 2

Q Russ - LoJack software for laptops

• $50 a year, puts software on the laptop to trace it
• Not sure of the statistics of stolen vs. recovered
• Good idea to get lock for laptop as well

Q Jose from Victorville, CA - PS3 not getting an IP address from router

• Sharing Internet through PC
  • Using wireless card as router
• Several places where that can fail
• Make sure security software on the computer is turned off for that purpose
• Rule out each problem one by one

Q Paul from Upland, CA - Time Warner cable connection dropping out

• If you’ve gone through different routers and modems
  • Either they’re all lemons or it’s not their issues

Q Erin from Costa Mesa, CA - Wants to merge partition with unallocated space

• Leo highly recommends Symantec’s Partition Magic
  • Costs $60 though
• If you don’t want to spend the money, try out the open source Linux-based Gparted
• Either way, back up before you do anything just in case

Q Video jukebox

• Wants a jukebox of sorts of ripped DVDs
• Can try out Songbird

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Hour 3

Q Romeo from Stockton, CA - OEM Windows?

• Wants to know what OEM version of Windows is
• Sometimes activation becomes an issue with OEM versions
• OEM meant for system builders
  • Generally much cheaper
• Just make sure to get the copy from a reputable company
  • Like Newegg

Q Rugged laptop for a trucker

• All you’re worrying about is the hard drive
  • Protecting from vibration
• Panasonic Toughbooks are great
  • Pay a premium for that
• Most laptops have accelerometers to sense huge movement to raise the drive head
• Dell has the Latitude D430 which has the option to use a solid state drive
  • Very expensive as well

Q Ryan from Boston, MA - Static noise from laptop headphone port

• Physical connection issue
• Make sure to clean off the connector
• Leo likes the USB audio interfaces
  • Like the iMic

Q Mick - Putting nephew’s wedding pictures on DVD

• Try out Ulead DVD Pictureshow

Q New video drivers slowed down video card performance

• Most reviews use Futuremark’s? 3dmark
• Some driver upgrades aren’t always improvements
• Try rolling back the driver

Q Ryan from Riverside, CA - Trying to put videos on Windows Mobile Treo

• May be because Treo’s processor not powerful enough
• Try transcoding the videos
  • Videora is a great tool

        *WinFF is a good tool as well

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