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Saturday 28 June 2008

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Tech News

Bill Gates retires from Microsoft.

The end of an era and is certainly a crossroads for technology. Check out the fun CES video Bill made to say goodbye.

Gates leaves with an incredible legacy having taken a cottage hobby and transforming the world though computing. Microsoft as gone from 30 employees back in it’s early days to over 91,000 today. Top Ten Hits and Misses of Microsoft. What Microsoft became really good at wasn’t so much innovation, but seeing where the industry was going, commercializing and then dominating it.

What will Redmond be like without Bill Gates? Only time will tell. But in reality, Gates has only partially retired. He’s still the #1 stock holder and Chairman. Gates is just not going to be handling the day to day operations or geeking with software. He wants to spend more time on charity work. And plans to donate 90% of his fortune to charity.

There’s a new hard drive out called the VELOCIRAPTOR.

Laptop sized drives that are for desktops. Spin at 10,000 RPMS. They’re smaller size uses “aerial density” to access data faster than conventional desktop hard drives.

The downside? More data errors. FAR more. Which may be why programs seem to crash more often.

It’s the end of the line for XP … sort of.

Microsoft will not stop selling new shrinkwrapped versions of XP. Although computers for business will be sold with XP on it, since most businesses simply don’t want Vista. And Microsoft will continue to support XP through 2014.

Guests

Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine

Scott is talking about Belle’s question today! Samsung vs. Sony.

XBR4 and 5 are what’s available now, but there’s a new model coming out later this year. Scott is impressed with the XBR4. But he’s REALLY impressed with the Samsung 750 Series. It outperforms the Bravia XBR4. Even though the screen is shinier and more reflective. Samsung states that the reason is it results in deeper blacks, which is the hallmark of good color. So, if you have a lot of ambient light in your room, the 750 Series may be a challenge.

Many are going with double speeds. But all that does is double the number of frames per seconds. The key is interpolation, which is how the TV handles in between the frames. That’s what causes sharpness - especially in motion. And Scott says the Samsung 750 does a great job with it. Better than the XBR (which isn’t bad either, for that matter).

Shopping for a TV is the worst on a showroom floor where the lighting is very difficult. Scott recommend going to specialty stores like Magnolia (in Best Buy). And if they let you, place your own DVD into their player and see how it really looks.

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Hour 1

Q Belle, Los Angeles, CA - Samsung vs. Sony.

Belle’s looking for an HDTV LCD TV. Leo’s happy with his Samsung. But also loves his Sony Bravia. Both have chipsets which are very impressive.

Q Beth, Hollywood, CA - Wants to host her own videos in flash. Recommendations?

GeoVid. Adobe. The risk to hosting your own videos are the bandwidth costs. And Leo knows personally how expensive it gets when you exceed bandwidth limits. The more popular you get, the more bandwidth you use, the more expensive it becomes. And beware of promises of unlimited bandwidth. Eventually, web hosts will choke down bandwidth if too much is used.

Q Lee, Tuscaloosa, AL - Worried about using his iPhone out of the country.

Can you turn off EDGE and use a VoIP client? Leo says it’s exactly the opposite. It’s the data that causes the big bills. Contact AT&T and ask for an overseas data plan. Do this ahead of time. Or, turn off all data access. And you can’t use a VoIP client on the iPhone anyway. But don’t worry, the phone charges themselves won’t be that bad.

Q Tony, Charleston, WV - Looking for a new cellphone similar to the iPhone

Doesn’t want to lay out that $30 a month. Leo says that’s just the data plan but AT&T requires the data plan along with cell service. Leo likes the HTC Diamond Touch.

Leo also recommends getting the iPod Touch. It’s an iPhone without the phone (and the data plan). Then just get a cheap phone.

Q Daniel, Lake Forest, CA - Thoughts on Canon’s HD Flash video cameras?

The new Vixias are great. Get it without the extra memory. Although tat 16GB is a nice feature, you’re going to be buying SD cards anyway, so pay less for the camera by not getting the memory on board.

And Leo says that by next year, tape will probably go the way of the do-do. AVCHD will probably be the standard. The issue is when you edit. Premiere Elements and Pinnacle Movie Studio support AVCHD.

Tip - input at 540p, rather than 1080p. You’ll get easier to work with files with no quality loss.

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Hour 2

Q Jamie, Los Angeles, CA - Can she have too much AntiVirus Software?

She can’t get updates. If you can’t get updates, your AVS is useless. And you should only have one AVS program on your computer otherwise, they may conflict. Jamie took the Norton off and then reinstalled it.

Leo likes eSet (formerly Nod32). Norton? Not so much. But it’s better than nothing. He recommends uninstalling everything and then reinstall the Norton.It should start updating.

Q John, San Angelo, TX - Lookin to buy a new notebook.

Thoughts on a 64 bit machine vs. a 32 bit machine? Will software be compatible? All hardware today is 64 bit capable. It’s the software that you need to be concerned with. Truth is, you rarely need it, but the advantage is that 64 bit OS’s can address far more RAM, which is virtually unlimited compared to 32 bit systems (max 4GBs). Trouble is, drivers have to be “signed” by Microsoft and as such, there’s compatibility issues. Just make sure you update to Vista SP1 to improve it. Also, 64 bit won’t be faster than 32. In fact, it may even be slower. It’s the RAM advantage which is the reason to go 64 bit.

Vista Home Basic supports 8GB, Home Premium 16GB, Ultimate/Business (128GB or more). Sure is a far cry from when Bill Gates said this: “640K ought to be enough for anybody”

But in reality, if you’re not doing anything memory intensive, why bother?

Q Ron, Altadena, CA - Wants to rip all his vinyl records.

What format? Hardware? Software? A great project. Once it’s on your PC, you can burn CDs, make mp3s for your player, etc. There are stand alone devices. Crosley Radio makes the SongWriter CD Recorder turntable that will do it directly, as does ION Audio.

If you already have a turntable, you’ll need a preamp in between and plug it into your sound card. You can use Audacity - it’s open source and free. Press record on Audacity, play on the turn table. You’re ripping the record! But more automated solutions exist. Magix has software called Audio Cleaning Lab, which designed to import records and has automatic cleanup which removes all the pops and clicks.

Q Marie, Line 1, - Spilled wine on her laptop.

Immediately remove the battery and unplug it. As long as there’s still power going to it, it can and will short out the computer. Let it dry thoroughly. Like a few weeks worth. Marie spilled Wine and wine has impurities. There’s some residue that’s preventing the keys from working properly. You can take it to the repair shop and have them put a new one in. Some may be expensive. It’s probably worth salvaging if it’s a really NICE one like a SONY VAIO.

Q Donna, Carson City, CA - Web host recommendation for podcasting.

Wordpress.com for freebies. Its blogging software has a free hosting service. A blog is a great format which also will allow you to put up written content. PodPress has great software for hosting yourself. Then use Feedburner to create your feed (Make sure you use Feed Validator to be sure it’s written correctly!).

Q Jeff, Long Beach, CA - Wants to build a mac home surveillance system, cheap.

Several options here. Threshold is a company which makes software. Also, X10.com has a 4 wireless camera system for $269.00, Axis makes good cameras that have web servers built in so you can surf to each camera. Can he record? Sure. And because the cameras are wireless, you can put them anywhere and watch them from the internet anywhere in the world. EvoCam is a great program that’s MAC specific - but it’s USB based and may be challenging with wireless cameras.

Q John, Demoines, IA - Wants to take his TIVO records onto iPod.

The challenge is getting the programs off the TIVO. Most are locked out or, if with TIVO to GO, it’s copy protected with DRM. Easiest way is to hook the TIVO up to your computer and record in realtime while playing back. The Canopus AVDC 110 will work for this. Then, pick up VisualHub (Mac), which will convert it to any iPod format.

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Hour 3

Q Liz, San Dimas, CA - Scanning medium format slides.

The Epson Perfection V70M Scanner has a medium format slide guide, along with other guides. Check out photo.net for advice on how to do it. But if you’re having scanning problems, you may need to have a professional company like LEGACY DIGITAL to do it.

Q Brian, Beaumont, CA - Zune, Ipod Touch?

Or perhaps the Archos 605 WiFi? Great for surfin’ the net and getting videos. The 605 is for the do it yourself geek. Leo likes it, but isn’t sure he’d recommend it for the casual user. The Zune and the Touch are fairly automatic. Leo recommends the iTouch. It’s a no-brainer for WiFi downloads through iTunes and the fantastic quality of the video screen.

Q Luke, Malibu, CA - Toshiba Laptop screen goin’ “wonky.”

Blurry or pixelated screen after about 5–10 minutes. Rebooting only fixes it for a few minutes. Sounds like software. A corrupted driver, perhaps. Boot to a Linux CD and see what happens. If you have the same problem, then it is a hardware issue. If it doesn’t happen, then you know it’s software and a reinstall of the drivers or even OS will fix it up.

Q Gary, Buffalo, NY - Router firewall and Zone Alarm warnings.

Worried about attacks. He’s getting messages saying he’s getting attacks from port “13396.” This could be a port sniffing attack. This is one of the reasons why Leo doesn’t recommend software firewalls. Once breached, they can get the firewall to open it wide open. Use a hardware firewall and run it in stealth. Even if you have the software firewall up, it may give the hacker a reaction, even if it pushes the attack away. But running in stealth mode means the attack or sniff is ignored. Your box may have been hacked and it’s running a suspect service. Go to GRCs Shields Up to test it out.

Disable the router’s universal plug and play as well and change the default password and default name, turn off WAN administrator.

Q Tom, Huntington, WVA - Best browser?

Leo says that Internet Explorer 7 has really improved the web experience for browser. But it isn’t his favorite. Firefox 3.0 (which just came out). Lowest memory use, very quick and fantastic extensions. Piclens, Foxmarks, Feedleed, are great extensions. But careful with them as they may really slow Firefox down if you overdo it.

Also Tom wants to know about routers and firewalls. A router is a firewall by default. Make sure you’re in stealth mode so it will ignore anything . To be sure you’re in stealth mode, go to GRCs Shields Up to test it out.

Q Lydia, Malibu, CA - Can’t access her VISA virtual account number.

Try grabbing the edge of the window and expanding it. It sounds like it’s gotten shrunk down to nearly nothing. Click on the maximum square to expand it full size. Or, hover over the boarder and your cursor will appear as a double headed arrow to pull and expand.

Sounds like Windows may be protecting you against pictures. Try disabling temporarily, your anti-spyware software to see if it will free up the window. But it could be that Windows security settings have gotten harder. Or, it may be that your system has been compromised. You should probably have an expert like MAKE IT WORK take a look at it.

Q Jim, Azusa, CA - Will there be a USB 3.0?

Yes. It’s just around the corner. There’s also a wireless USB coming. But we’re waiting for the hardware to come out to support it. But at 4.8 GB a second, it’ll be screaming. But we’re at least a year off.

See you tomorrow!

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