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Saturday 6 October 2007

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Scott Wilkinson - HD-DVD / Bluray

• Paramount and Dreamworks Animation have both said their going with HD-DVD
• Both formats have their positives and negatives
• Both formats have high interactivity systems
• Only Sony can replicate Bluray Disks
• HD-DVD players have online interactivity built in whereas Bluray doesn’t
• Paramount thinks that HD-DVD have the advantage, and leaving early adopters behind is not a great thing, so Bluray isn’t an option

Users are sticking with DVD until a certain format wins, it’s not worth picking one. Scott’s advice is to look at the studio’s that you like most, and go with whatever player they have gone with.

Leo Laporte blames Sony. Sony does however make great products.

Tech News

The RIAA this week won a jury verdict against a filesharer. There have been 26,000 lawsuits since 2000. They don’t really pay attention so much to people downloading songs, but more so those who are sharing songs. Most P2P clients these days automatically share it. She now owns the recording industry $220,000.

They only get your IP address although, so they go to your ISP and get the ISP to send you a letter. Then the RIAA begin a suit against you, by getting your ISP to cough up a name.

Declan McCullagh’s article on CNet explains the 4 reasons the RIAA won the jury verdict.

Hundreds of million people use P2P clients, and many of those may now look at what their doing. It’s been said in the past it’s a little bit of a grey area, but now it’s clear.

It was surprising that the Bush administration applauded the work of the RIAA and are happy that the “copyright laws work”.

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Hour 1

Q Bill - Letter about taxed Internet access

Right now in the state of California you are liable for Sales tax. But the moratorium that says there is no tax on Internet access is due to run out soon. Verizon has said they don’t want to tax you 15% on your Internet access.

There is an agreement on both sides of the argument that consumers and providers both don’t want an Internet tax, the only people who do is the Government. The real fear is that you will get a tax on your Internet access.

Internet access in this country would be much more expensive than it is in other countries. This is not a debate on sales tax. In many countries, they not only do not tax, but they also try to lower and subsidize the price.

Q Mark in California - Wants a new cell phone, where can I find good reviews?

The best site for information on cell phones is Wireless Info, because they provide unbiased advice.

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Hour 2

Q Harry from Lancaster, CA - Computers are opposite side of the house to wireless router

You should get a WDS Repeater. You basically put this in the middle of both the computer and the wireless router. This then relays it along to the computers. Linksys makes these wireless extenders.

For sending files via email, what you could do is upload them to a website and give them the URL.

Q Steve in California - How can I transfer VHS to DVD?

Quality wise you really need to take a look at the different codecs the software is using. Uncompressed video is so big, your computer wouldn’t be able to handle it. So you chose which codec you use when you run the software.

Make sure you are using the same codecs on each computer. You could try to change the file type and make sure you chose the highest quality for importing and outporting.

Q Ria from Santa Clauretie - I want to get an iPhone and move to AT&T

You do have to have a computer and you do have to have iTunes. You plug it in, and iTunes will say “You have a new iPhone, would you like to activate it?” and then you click yes and set it up. It will ask you if you want to move your old number to AT&T and then you just sit through it, it does take a while to activate.

Remember to cancel your Sprint account.

The activation is not difficult, and you shouldn’t have any trouble at all with it. The only problem Leo has with the phone is the fact that some of the things you want to be there, isn’t.

You may have to transfer your saved numbers manually, but the iPhone does sync beautifully with Outlook on Windows.

Q Christopher in California - How can I dual boot Linux?

You should try a different distrobution as a pose to Ubuntu. Try Googling Linux and the manufacturer of the laptop. Also try Linux-Laptop.net and looking for the maker of your laptop on there.

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Hour 3

Q Greg in Glendale CA - Can I push my ISP email to my Blackberry?

Yes you can. The best way is to have a Blackberry server, but seeing as your not a business, then that’s likely not going to be the best option for you. You should take a look at This Article at Blackberry Cool which explains how to setup and use POP3 on your Blackberry.

If you use SyncToy from Microsoft then it’s constantly making a copy of whatever you tell it to.

Q Rose in Huntington Beach, CA - Nod32 or Norton?

Nod32 is much faster than Norton, and it also has better definitions. You can also get a good free antivirus from AVG.

The first line of defense should not be the antivirus. It should be you. The antivirus is just a check incase you make a mistake. Whatever antivirus you use, it can take generally around 48 hours for your antivirus to have the ability to check for that virus.

Q Dorris in Riverside, CA - Dropped phone in water

Immediately take the battery out and now just let it try. Put it somewhere safe, out of the sun, and let it dry for a day or two. Resist the temptation to try and turn it on before the two days are up. You can try shaking it to make sure there’s no big drops of water in there, and then just let it dry.

After a couple of days, put the battery back in and try turning it on.

Second Question: Can I replace my lost TV remote?

Yes, you can get what’s known as a Universal Remote that are pretty cheap. You can pop into radioshack and pick one up, and you can then get these Universal Remotes to control more than one device. They are usually better than the remotes that come with your TV originally.

Third Question: What is a good phone from Verizon?

The LG’s are very good and easy to use. Try testing a few at a cell phone store before you buy and see how you get along with it.

Q George in Longbeach CA - What computer should I get to write?

A laptop is so convenient, and the fact that you can take a laptop with you anywhere, it means if the inspiration to write gets to you, then you have your laptop all over again.

You have learned to backup and also get a secure off site backup. Try the keyboard and the screen on the laptop and make sure you like it.

The Lenovo laptops have great keyboards that are very solid, but there’s many different laptops. If it were Leo, he would get a Macbook, so you don’t have to worry about security.

Q Michael in California - How do you transfer from Windows Media to iTunes?

It should do it very easily unless their protected. If you copied that music from CD, then it may be protected. Just drag all the files from the folder into iTunes and then get iTunes to convert it.

It will take a while, but it will convert them all to AAC or MP3. Just go to the advanced preferences and change the conversion file type to MP3 at a high bit-rate.

Q Jim in California - My audio software doesn’t work with Vista

The best option for you is to go back to Windows XP. If you have an XP disk then just format the drive, and reinstall XP or go back to the retailer and tell them you want it with XP on.

If you ever want to go back to Vista, then you can just reinstall Vista on the laptop. Vista is a good OS, but it does still have a few bugs which are being solved over time.

Q Dawn in Los Angeles - New Laptop?

Seeing as your happy with Sony then definately get another Sony. They make great systems, and seeing as your happy with their support and systems, it sounds like a good choice.

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