Leo Laporte
The Tech Guy
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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Sunday 18 November 2007
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Guests
Chris Marquardt - Tips From The Top Floor
Chris is coming back to the US for more workshops in August, 2008. Get on the waiting list: DiscoverTheTopFloor.com
Taking pictures of the moon: it’s smaller than you think and brighter than you think. Enter manual mode, set your camera to ISO 100, F11, and 1/100th. Take a test shot. If the moon is overexposed stop down or increase the shutter speed. If you are using 200–300mm lens and 6 or more megapixels you can crop to make a print. Chris’s image was taken with a 600mm lens.
Ron Rosberg - Gadgets of the week
Sirius Stiletto 2 Portable - Retail $349.95 / Internet $329.95
Dyson Root 6 DC16 Cordless Handheld Vacuum - Retail $149.95
“Recommended Only if your cleanup jobs take less than 5 minutes!!!!”
Kingston DT DataTraveler 4 GB Mini USB Storage - Retail: $61
You can find ads for some great Black Friday sales at the following sites:
and the Black Friday buying guide at Dime to Save
Kingston DT DataTraveler 4 GB Mini USB Storage - Retail: $61
You can find ads for some great Black Friday sales at the following sites:
Tech News
The coverage of tech in mainstream media makes Leo cringe. Maybe it’s the fact they don’t get it, or maybe it’s just that they dumb it down for their readers. Leo makes the opposite assumption, he makes the assumption that you’re all geeks and clever.
Robert Scoble made a post yesterday saying that Apple users are so bought into the Apple culture, that if there’s a problem, we blame ourselves. It isn’t your fault if something is confusing or doesn’t work. It’s not your fault. It’s just badly designed. If you close a window instead of expanding it, it’s not your fault, it’s bad design. Leo wants companies not to design for engineers, but to design for real people.
With dictation software, if it makes a mistake one time in 4 and you have to correct it, it’s not good enough. You have to wonder if the people who design this stuff actually try it.
Windows is aimed at the business audience, so you can’t be too cool with businesses. Leo will admit he is a technology fan boy.
No one stays a beginner. Everyone eventually becomes an expert. Leo tries to do a show that appeals to beginners and yet has content for advanced users.
Hour 1
Q Al in California - Camera won’t support Vista
Send Leo an email and Leo will try and get ADS Tech to sort something out for you. There may be technical reasons why they can’t support Vista. What they’ll say is “that product is done”.
If they’ve changed their mind, they owe you a refund or an exchange.
Q Michael in Lancaster, PA - Should I use iWeb for my Site?
You don’t need a web designer because you have a creative streak to you as a photographer. You shouldn’t use iWeb because you’ll be stuck with iWeb forever. Eventually you will outgrow it.
Leo recommends that you use Wordpress.com or Vox, which will allow you to host your photos and people can comment on it.
Wordpress was created by a photographer who wanted an easy way to post his photo’s on the net. Wordpress really sounds like the right choice for you. If you want to hire a designer to make the initial design for you, so it’s really YOUR custom site. Then it’s simply a case of two clicks and your photo is up.
Q Jerry in California - Which CPU should I get?
Clock speed is really not that important these days. On a graph of Price vs Performance, there is a bump where it really evens out. You might want to go for the second most recent chip.
Photoshop will take advantage of multiple cores, they will multi-thread. In that sense, you would benefit more from a 4 core. You’ll see the benefit more when your using filters, not when your just generally using Photoshop. Just because the chips are the next generation, doesn’t mean they will be better.
SSE4 may be great, or it may be worse. We won’t really know until we get them on the market. You should also take a look at this article.
Hour 2
Q Randy in California - Mac shuts down with torrent client
That’s very strange. You may want to try Transmission Client. We know some ISP’s block seeds after a number of time (like Comcast). Even when ISP’s say there’s no bandwidth limit, they all limit it somehow.
Q Patrick in New York - My Mac got Hacked Into
You definitely got hacked. That folder you saw on the desktop was an IRC client, so someone can send commands to your system.
The first thing to check is make sure no one had physical access to your system. You should really erase everything from your system. The fact you ran your system as a file server is most likely the way they got into your system. You really need to harden your system if your going to do stuff like that.
Q Mike in Nevada - Getting a HDTV
If your getting a BluRay player, you’ll want to get a 1080p TV. Your in the market for a rear projector based, 72″. You may also want to look at the JVC HDLIA sets. When in the store, take a look at a few.
Hour 3 - Scott Wilkinson answers your questions
Q Ted in Los Angeles - Is the Sony A3000 any good?
Scott just finished reviewing the A3000 and he really loves it. The price is very reasonable for it’s size of 60″ and up. These are 1080p sets.
Laser sets won’t be out for a while, but it is a very promising technology. It will also be very expensive, as any new technology is to begin with. Some LED illuminated sets are also promising at the moment.
Q Rebbecca in Venice - Image and Video out of Sync
It sounds like the cable has a problem. The best thing to do is try checking a lip sync feature on the DirectTV Box. Try also tuning the channel in and out, that may get it back in sync.
Q Carol in California - Channel goes to Black and White
It’s probably a problem the channel is having. Pioneer audio receivers are excellent in General, so Scott does recommend you get it.
Q John in San Diego - Samsung HD Player Release?
It’s supposed to be available before the end of the year, possibly a few days before Christmas.
Q Karen in California - Plasma or LCD TV?
If your a movie buff without lights on and others in the room, then Plasma would be the best choice. The new Pioneer Plasma 42″ Koru line is great. It produces better black than any other TV. However it is pretty expensive.
If your looking for something cheaper, then a Panasonic might be a good choice. The price differential has shrunk now. A Sharp Aquos LCD would be pretty good.
Plasma is mature now.
