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Sunday 11 November 2007

Show Audio

Ron Rosberg - Gadgets of the Week

DataVault by Ascendo for your Blackberry.

You can download a free 20 day trial version at Ascendo-INC.com or just google “ascendo datavault”.
Price to Buy: $29.95

Installing Satellite Dishes Made Easy Both DirecTV and Dish
AcuTrac III Ka/Ku Band Satellite Signal Meter
Price $220.99

Dirt Devil Detailer
Price: on Internet as low as $14.95

Dr. Rick Web Alber - MAPLight.org

MAPLight.org brings together campaign contributions and how legislators vote, providing an unprecedented window into the connections between money and politics. We currently cover the California Legislature and U.S. Congress.

• It’s very easy to use
• Allows you to see who gave money to who
• Both at State and Federal Level
• Covers everyone - Democrats, Republicans …etc
• Clarifies how big an effect the money has
• You can also search by legislator
• Shows you a timeline of the payments and votes

Tech News

Leo just came back from Blog World Expo. He spoke about creating multimedia for the web, such as podcasts. If you want to have a website, even if there’s a medium you feel really comfortable such as writing, you should do it. Leo likes audio, but he still writes on his Blog. He does Video, even though he has a “face for radio”.

We’re publishing on the Internet. We’re using this new medium to produce content, and it’s cheap. Leo won the Weblog Award for This Week in Tech (TWiT). Leo does a lot of public speaking, but this one threw him. The old medium such as book publishing or radio is expensive. You need to setup the printers, or antenna. The new medium of the Internet is so cheap. The cost of entry is so low, everyone can have a voice… not just Leo, or Rupert Murdoch, but anyone can. It’s now a conversation.

The Hollywood writers strike was a big topic of choice for lots of bloggers, and podcasters. There’s going to to a lot of repeats on TV very soon, so podcasters are looking at this as an opportunity to get their show out in the mass market. As great as shows like Ask A Ninja and TikiBar TV are, they’re not CSI or Prison Break and so it’s doubtful people will start watching these as a replacement for TV.

Hour 1

Q Chris in Virginia - Wiped out wife’s cell phone contacts

Unfortunately because it’s on the sim card, there’s no way you can get it back.

If you know how to get these contacts back, please contact Leo.

Q Djavood in Chicago - Error installing Photoshop CS3

It sounds like an error with the software. Leo is stumped. The installation file may be damaged, so try re-downloading it. Also look at this article from Microsoft’s Knowledge Base - “Error 1327. Invalid Drive”.

Q Bob in Riverside California - Two Questions…

1. Wants to read the Mac documentation DVD’s on Windows XP

If their in the Mac help format, you may not be able to read them. You can get some of them from Apple.com’s Server site and their in PDF Format which will be fine on Windows.

2. Windows Scripting Language?

The new Microsoft Powershell is great. It’s going to be backed by Microsoft for a long time. It’s Microsoft attempt to try and put a “UNIX style” shell on Windows. It allows you to use Visual Basic and other languages.

Q Jim in California - Old style ring tone?

Many phones do support it. Motorola’s, Nokia’s, Samsung and the Apple iPhone all have it. It may be called Old Fashioned on your Nokia handset.

Hour 2

Q Dan in Virginia - What is the Intel ViiV?

It’s just a marketing term. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. ViiV is like Centrino… Centrino wasn’t a chip, it just meant you had all Intel inside. ViiV is just an ad for Intel dressed as an Application.

Q Holly in San Fransisco - Cheap scanner to can photo’s

If you want to scan slides and negatives, that’s a little different. If you do that to a negative or a print has to come from above and shine through to the scanner head which means you need something that will shine light from above.

Leo recommends the Epson Perfection line. It ranges from $99 to $3000. Leo commends the Epson Perfection 4490. The quality is excellent. It can scan files that would take a TB hard drive just to store them. Leo recommends scanning at 300dpi.

DMax, Digital Ice is all just names for technologies and stuff that’s in their software. It has the transparency adapter which allows you to scan slides and negatives. PC Magazine gives excellent reviews, and if they give something the Editors Choice it’s an excellent scanner.

You want to make sure you clean these physically and get them as clean as possible.

Q Scott in Petaluma, CA - Blu-Ray or HD-DVD

There’s nothing really you would notice a difference in BluRay to HD-DVD. Really it’s what you want to see. If you want to see Casino Royale then you need BluRay, for The Matrix or Harry Potter you need HD-DVD. Eventually what may happen is both will get so cheap, you’ll get two or you’ll buy one that’s dual format.

HD-DVD is cheaper at the moment, so you may want to start with that. If you buy the PS3, then you get a BluRay Player and an excellent Gaming machine.

As per 1080p vs 1080i (720p), then you won’t really notice much of a difference on a TV show, however you do want to look at the resolution. You’ll want to look for one that has a native resolution of 1080 lines.

Q Mike in Mississippi - Good Bluetooth headset

You’ll want A2DP for Bluetooth headphones. In order for that to work, both the unit you want to listen to and your phone have to support it. There are a number of very good A2DP Sets.

Leo has the Sonorix C3 Headphones.

Hour 3

Q Julian in Los Angeles - Nokia N95 support for 8gb SD Card?

If it supports 4gb then it’s likely it will support 8gb. Usually the cut off is 2gb so it means it should support 8gb. The biggest knock on the N95 is it’s battery life. Just turn off the WI-fi and GPS when you’re not using it. All About Symbian has great information.

Q Steve in California - Lost contacts on Palm Pilot

The key on this is to use the backup feature of the Palm. If you look on the Palm Desktop software, you should find a Backup.

If you have an answer to this, please Contact Leo.

Q GJ in Salt Lake City - Keeping Blogs Synced

A great way to get more traffic is to go to other peoples blogs and comment on them. One thing Leo does to sync all his stuff is have links to all the other stuff he does like his Jaiku posts, his Tweets, his Flickr, and Facebook. Everything he does now ends up on his blog.

Q George in San Jose - Good Smartphone handset?

Nokia does make Symbian based Smartphones that have keboards, but it wouldn’t work with Verizon.

The Tilt is a great smartphone and also the Samsung i760 on Verizon is being raved about by everyone. It has a full keyboard that slides out and it runs Windows Mobile 6.

Leo uses the Blackberry on T-Mobile, but many people are happy with the Samsung. Leo thinks Palm is probably on the way out. Companies like HTC are doing phones that are much better than Palm has ever come out with.