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Saturday 25 August 2007

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Contributors

Scott Wilkinson

Acoustically transparent screens

• Projector screens may interfere with acoustics in room
• Commercial cinemas actually put some speakers behind the screen
  • They use acoustically transparent screens
    • Have thousands of tiny holes to allow sound to get through
• Microperf screens for consumers have 5500 holes per square foot
  • People say they may be dimmer screens because holes are 8% of screen
  • Interaction between pixels and small holes may distort picture
• A French company weaves the screens together to be acoustically transparent
• These high end screens will cost you at least $1000
• Scott is going to start looking at “cheaper” projectors in the $3000-$6000 range

Steve Gibson

Malicious software

• Malicious software may be installed via some website you go to
• Legally installs by sneakily putting fine text into a website in order to install enhancements like toolbars or software on the PC
• Much of this software can be retrieved from file sharing software
• Software can make your computer into a bot or zombie PC
  • To attack websites
  • To send spam email
• Some antispyware software may catch it
• Goal of software is to be as stealthy as possible though

Tech News

The iPhone has officially been unlocked. There is currently one software method available that Engadget has tried and tested. The second method from iPhoneunlocking.com has been delayeed because AT&T’s lawyers have contacted them. Furthermore, Engadget has done a legal analysis as to whether unlocking your iPhone is illegal or not.

Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage servers are down. This means that you will not be able to validate patches and more.

Google has launched Google Sky which allows you to view the heavens.

Apple sent a cease-and-desist letter to a site called 9to5mac.com to take down a picture of an allegedly upcoming iPod Nano.

Hour 1

Q June from Sonoma, CA - Looking for a laptop to run Photoshop on

• MacBook screen may be too small for you
• Want a minimum of 2gb RAM
• Debate between MacBook and Pro version is screen size

Q Jim from Cleveland - Friend cannot access Internet

• You need to use PPPoE to login to the DSL service
• Get a cheap router to handle the PPPoE
  • That will do the login for you

Q Paul from Burbank - Mouse freezing up on screen/Transferring files to Vista

• Only is the mouse
• Sounds like a memory leak
  • Happens when software has a memory leak
• Go to Logitech to download new software
• Could try uninstalling the software as well
• Vista has a decent transfer manager
• If you just want your data, just move your document/settings folder

Hour 2

Q Dave from San Jose - Relatively new hard drive failed in NAS

• A Google study showed that hard drives have a high failure rate
• It looks like your hard drive has a software problem
• Simply use Spinrite to recover the data and fix it
• If it is a file system error, you will need a file-system level tool
• Key is not to modify the drive in any way
• Boot into Linux and use Linux to see the drive
  • Windows cannot see the ext2 file system

Q Kent from Studio City, CA - GHz

• AMD doesn’t list the GHz on their processors
  • First to focus on processor efficiency
• For what you’re doing, look at AMD’s quad-core system
  • Make sure your software supports multi-threading
• AMD chips are currently very behind
• Intel’s Core 2 processors are the best on the market
• Apple’s Mac Pros are very nice machines
  • Crazy to run a Mac if you’re going to run Windows full time on it

Q Glen from Murieta, CA - Web host support disappeared

• Wanted to move site domain, but hosting company will not respond
• Contact registrar
  • Look it up by doing a WHOIS on the domain
• Other registrars can also handle it for you

Q Michael from Germany - Computer monitor not syncing with PC

• Not able to view screen properly
• Need to refresh monitor till it syncs up with refresh rate on PC

Hour 3

Q Maria from Escandido - People stealing her pictures

• Wants to stop people from downloading pictures
• Can use Javascript to disable right clicking
  • But then people can disable javascript
• Can downsize your pictures online
• Begin to consider stolen photography as promotional
  • Watermark

Q Kevin from Malibu - iSight camera not recognized

• Try another Firewire cable
• If you’ve tried that, the circuit board is probably fried
• The Logitech Quickcam 9000 works on Macs that don’t have built in webcams
• Can also look for an iSight on eBay
• Macam allows you to use any USB webcam to work on a Mac

Q Elizabeth from San Diego - Cannot do anything on Mac

• Only seeing mouse and desktop wallpaper
• Seems like the drive itself is having some trouble
• Reinstall OSX, but set it to keep your data
• Then back up data and do a complete format and reinstall

Q Shree from Los Angeles - Editing video

• Final Cut is a lot to learn
• The old iMovie is decent for most people
• Any DV camcorder is enough to start with

Q Silvio - Backing up Windows partition with Super Duper

• Not sure that’s possible
• Super Duper supports the OSX file system