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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Saturday 23 February 2008
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Guests
Scott Wilkinson - The death of HD-DVD
- Toshiba announced they would stop making HD-DVD Players. It’s officially over.
- No other manufacturer makes HD-DVD Players
- All the features of Blu-ray are optional, so it’s not certain that a disk might play in a Blu-ray player
- You could go to a store and accidentally pick up a Blu-ray disk that won’t play on your Blu-ray Player
- Some newer titles may have extensive BDJ menues, which means it could run slower on older Blu-ray players, or it may not work at all
- The new war is Blu-ray vs DVD
Dick Debartolo - Gadget of the Week
Maxtor One Touch drive:
While the Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus can be used simply as an external storage device connected to a PC via USB, the true benefit comes from its software and OneTouch system to create a well-configured backup device.
Maxtor’s backup software auto-installs from the device itself, and can be configured for most any need. The software can automatically back up files and folders, or let you choose which drives, folders or files you want to back up, and when.
They range from 300gb, 500gb, 750gb and 1tb.
Tech News
The Tech Guy Theme Remix Contest is now in progress… head to InDabaMusic.com’s Tech Guy page setup by Ashley Witt and get started.
Jonathan Coulton is a geek musician. He used to be a programmer, but he writes songs that geeks love. He serves a niche, but he gives his music away for free on his site, which does wonders for his popularity. He also sells other music. He controls it all.
Your relationship with your audience is much more direct when you put it online, instead of releasing CD’s in stores.
AOL will officially pull the plug on the Netscape Web browser next week, which raises the question: Netscape is still alive? The rise and fall of Netscape is a reminder of just how quickly technology changes – and a warning to approach battles against Microsoft cautiously.
Netscape was founded in 1994, and quickly won customers by providing software that made it easy for people to navigate the Internet. Netscape went public a year later and saw its stock price nearly triple on its first day of trading.
At one point, the company had an $8 billion market cap and 90% of the Web browser market. But soon it all went south. Microsoft introduced its Internet Explorer browser and began eating into Netscape’s market share.
Microsoft later paid AOL, which bought Netscape in 2000, $750 million to settle antitrust charges. AOL will be sending a message to current Netscape users telling them to download Firefox and Flock.
Leo keeps getting this error from Google:
Hour 1
Q Dave in Indiana - Podcast Equipment
Use a dynamic Microphone, not a condenser. They don’t require power, and their less sensitive which means it doesn’t pick up much background noise.
Leo uses a mixer with firewire so he can get split tracks for each mic. If it’s only one Mic, then you can just have it running into your computer directly.
Providing one of you sounds really good (usually the host), the listeners don’t mind so much.
You can find great podcasting equipment at BSWUSA.com
Q Juan in California - XP or Vista?
If your getting a brand new machine, then getting it with Vista will be just fine, but if you have older software or old hardware, they may struggle on Vista.
Leo’s not that big a fan of Vista, it really looks more like a way to make more money than anything else. It does have some new features, it does have better security, but not so much you’ll want to upgrade from XP.
You’ll want at least 2 GB of RAM, but if you’re buying a new computer, it’ll be built for Vista, and so Vista should run fine on it. Businesses are very weary about going to brand new versions of Windows.
Hour 2
Q Stephanie in Michigan - HD Local Channels
You just need to look for an OTF Antenna, and they can cost about $50. Terk makes good ones. If your in a good area, then you especially don’t need an expensive antenna.
AntennaWeb.org will tell you the kind of antenna you need. Those of you using Antennas or Rabbit Ears to get your TV, you’ll need to get a digital conversion box.
If you have friends or family who aren’t very tech savvy, get the word out and explain it to them.
Q Steve in California - Remote Controlling my House
You’ll need a digital interface between these analog devices. It may be a little difficult to do over dial up, and could be quite expensive.
Q John in Los Angeles - File and Print Server
Windows Home Server can be purchased and installed on an old beige box you have lying around. Windows Home Server is pretty good.
Leo likes Linux. You’ll want to use Gigabit Ethernet for file sharing. You’ll also want a Gigabit Switch.
Windows Server 2008 should be just fine. If your concern is the Mac, there’s no need to worry about that, it’ll be just fine.
The easiest way is to get a .Mac account from Apple. That gives you 10gb of online storage, and you can access those from others Mac’s or Windows. You can get .Mac to automatically sync everything for you.
Email is a different storage. Right now, your using POP3. That downloads everything to your computer and is out of sync. IMAP however is the same on all machines. If you read an email on one computer and then go to another computer, it’ll show as read on that one too.
Hour 3
Q Eric in Florida - New Motherboard
Leo no longer recommends building your own computer, and this is the reason why. You get the joy of knowing you’ve done it, but these days it’s not cheaper than buying a pre-built one like it used to be.
Leo has likes ASUS for years. It’s kind of old school to build your own.
You can still get a tube TV that look much more modern. There’s no need to get her a big fancy HDTV. You could certainly get an LCD.
A CRT Tube Set will be half as expensive and they are very bright. The reason nobody wants them is the fact that their deep.
Broadband Reports tells you what high speed Internet you can get in your area, including DSL, Cable and WiMax
Q Avis in California - Projector
Any projector has to do basically the same thing. It takes the image from your computer and then displays that image. It’s basically the same as those old projectors the teachers would use with clear film.
DLP is a Digital Technology that is very bright and gives you excellent results. Whenever you go to the movie theatre, they are almost always using DLP. DLP will give you excellent color.
A couple of great brands are Proxima, and Epson. A thousand bucks is not unreasonable for a laptop and projector.
Q Bill in California - Getting a Digital Camera
Nikon or Canon DSLR? Both Canon and Nikon offer excellent lenses. The D300 has excellent low light sensitivity.
When you decide on one, you really can’t go wrong. The differences are minor. Leo heavily invested in Canon. The technology gets updated, but the glass doesn’t change.
For a low cost, entry SLR, Canon is an excellent choice.
Q Dave in California - Final Cut Pro error
Leo recommends that all Mac users have a dummy account, so that in the case something doesn’t work, you can find out if it’s just the single user, or the whole system.
There’s a Final Cut temporary file thats causing the problems for you. Leo can’t tell you exactly what’s wrong.
