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Sunday 29 June 2008

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Tech News

Cable and phone companies want to limit bandwidth.

End of the line for selling XP, except for business.

Leo thinks it’s unlikely that business will leave XP to Vista, so chances are you’ll still be able to get PCs with XP. And since Microsoft will be supporting XP until 2014, that will probably secure XP for the foreseeable future

Web 2.0 Tip: Play with JOTT.COM while it lasts. Voicemail to text feature. You leave a message and Jott will transcribe it and email it to you. How do these sites make money?!

Guests

Chris Marquart, Tips from the Top Floor

Accurate prints from digital photos. Use color management software and calibration of the monitor (check out last week’s episode). Printing. The monitor will show color differently (RGB), whereas the printer uses CMYK. So while the colors are the same, they use different technologies to produce the color. You can get close, but not exact.

Secondly, different paper will affect inks differently. In fact, professionals call paper “the fifth color.” So, you need a medium profile for each paper so the printer can compensate for the color shade of the paper. Printers do this when you pick the exact paper in the print setup. And using original inks and paper by the manufacturer will assure accurate profiling and thereby, more accurate and optimal colors. There can be third parties that also provide proper profiles, but you have to look for them.

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Hour 1

Q Dennis, Hoover, AL - Can MAC read and write to NTFS drives?

Dennis is making the switch to MAC from PC and has, count em, ELEVEN hard drives he uses for his photography business. Wants to know if the MAC will be able to read/write from NTFS as well as FAT32 drives. FAT32 no problem. NTFS? Well, MAC will read them, but writing to them is problematic. Leo recommends a utility called MACFUSE to read and write to NTFS drives. But MAC’s file format of HFS PLUS is the best way to go.

Q Holly, San Mateo, CA - Needs a new TV, Plasma or LCD?

Is the Pioneer Kuro a good choice? Has it been disconnected? The Curow is by far the best out there if you have money to burn. Pioneer doesn’t make the plasma screens, though. Samsung’s A650? Very good choice. 120 hz refresh rate which really ups the crispness.

Holly wants a 46″. LCDs are better in a brighter room. But for darker rooms and richer, darker colors, you want a plasma. So, in the end, it all depends where you’re putting it. Also, plasma is more home theater experience while LCD is more TV. LCD is more expensive, too.

Check out the piece with Scott Wilkinson on yesterday’s show and Show 461 for more thoughts.

Leo also recommends to every once in a while, to RESCAN your channels to find the extra digital channels that are now in the cable or satellite lineup.

Q Ron, Lake Balboa, CA - Lojack technology for pets?

His daughter’s dog was lost by a trainer and he wants to be able to track his pets in real time. Are the GPS dog collars worthwhile? Leo’s used ROAMEO.

Comes with a hand held tracking device to find the pet. Battery operated. The collar is a tad big right now for dogs, but it works. Limited range (1 mile radius). Not cheap though.

Q Lynn, San Diego, CA - Wireless Internet. Secure?

EVDO is very secure because it’s scrambled automatically because it’s digital, as opposed to WiFi, which must be locked down. Would she need a router? Still a good thing to have for Firewall considerations and to protect you from the outside world.

But with a hardware router - Cradlepoint makes one - that’s the point mobility wise? Leo advises against getting a router if you’re using a wireless EVDO card. Just turn on the Windows software firewall for an extra measure of protection and practice safe surfing.

It’s not perfect though. There have been a few EVDO exploits that have taken advantage of holes in EVDO. But they’ve been solved.

Q Lynn, Nevada, MO - Wants to block banner ads in Safari.

Safari Adblock is one Leo recommends. Also, check out pimpmysafari.com for tips and tricks, plus plugins like PithHelmet which are very effective.

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Hour 2

Q Patt, Leehigh, PA - Wants a home media server. Suggestions?

Thinking about a Linux server. Thoughts? Leo says it’s a great way to go. There are plenty solutions and support. On the other hand, Microsoft’s home server makes it very easy. If you like do it yourself, then Linux is a great project. Security wise, Windows’ home server does have some flaws. There was a flaw for copying files too. But they’ve gotten over that hump.

Leo suggests for both speed and reliability, set up a RAID5 system. It’s redundant, like 4 drives, and you can swap in another drive should it fail. Very secure, fast, takes up less redundancy space than say, RAID1, and is a very good way to setup a home network.

If you’re a do-it-yourself kinda guy, the HP Media Server on Linux works and is a popular choice. SAMBA is a good choice.

From the TwitLive Chat Room - TWONKEYVISION Media Server is a good Linux based, along with FreeNas.

Leo says Twonkyvision looks worth a try. Supports PS3, iTunes, just about every media option you’ll need on a server.

Q Rick, Lake Elsinore, CA - Needs to update/replace his PC …

… but is confused about QuadCores, etc. He uses Photoshop and Illustrator in his business. Dual Core is fine for him and Leo says where you want to spend your money is in RAM. If you go Windows 64 bit, you can go nearly unlimited in Vista 64 Bit. But in 32 bit, you have a max of about 3.4. MAC gives you better memory access natively.

Leo likes AMD, but they’re loosing ground to Intel so Leo recommends Intel now. You can get a quad-core, but chances are you won’t see a benefit unless you’re doing hard core rendering.

Q Bill, Moorpark, CA - A question about Online media sites.

EWorld Media. Boomerang service. You give away the player and if people purchase online, you get a piece of the sale. Reminds Leo of Joost with an Amway twist. What makes Leo nervous is the multilevel marketing approach EWorld takes. It doesn’t really sit quite right.

Q Susan, Santa Rosa, CA - Comparing Internet Speeds.

Nobody is faster than Comcast in No. California. But Verizon’s FIOS is faster if you have it in your area. AT&T is working on ADSL2, which will be faster as well. But how do you compare offers? It’s hard to verify the marketing. You can check your own at Speedtest.net. And speed isn’t the only thing - there’s reliability of service. Cable does have shared service locally whereas the phone company has its shared pipeline further down the stream. If you can save a ton of cash, it may be worth changing services. But in the end, you really can’t tell.

A place to check it various services is Broadband Reports or DSL Reports to see what others are using.

Another thing is that some services will throttle your downloading if you do it too much. They won’t tell you the limits or if you’re close to surpassing that limit, but if you overdo it, they’ll cut you off.

Q Laurel, San Jose, CA - Her cell phone is possessed.

Phone rang, she got CG music and a bunch of numbers. Then the phone froze. She’s concerned with fraud or having her phone cloned.

It could’ve been a telemarketer calling you and by chance, the phone just crashed. You remove the battery and wait a few minutes and then put it back in and reboot.

Q Jose, Los Angeles, CA - Encrypted his files and can’t fix it!

Encrypted and backed up his files before replacing his hard drive. Now he can’t unencrypt his files.

If you’re using Windows drive encryption, you’re out of luck. They use encryption certificates to encrypt and if you don’t back it up and then you format your drive, you are out of luck. Period. Microsoft is partially to blame here for not making it absolutely clear that you must back up that certificate.

Another important thing to do with pictures and your iPod is to check the “keep full size pictures” option.

Q Mark, Thousand Oaks, CA - Any AVS for an old computer?

Helping a friend putting together her old system. VERY old 200 mhz PC. What can she do with it? He’s stripped down Windows, installed open office, and she can even use Firefox. Any AVS for an old computer? Nod32 won’t even help. Try F-Protect from Frisk. Teach her safe surfing, scan the computer online once a week and she should be okay commando, for now.

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Hour 3

Q Richard, San Rafael, CA - Very concerned with Vista.

Vista 32 bit is very mature now. Ultimate is just plain overpriced. Home Premium is a good value. What about Windows on a MAC? Unless it’s very demanding hardware wise, running it in emulation on a mac or via bootcamp to run your software, you can do it easy.

PCs however, are cheaper. Macs are built better and since MAC is Intel, you can turn your MAC into a windows machine. Cost is the only downside.

Richard also has an HP7780 inkjet. It has a #10 envelope address error. The printer simply can’t grip it because of the width of the envelope.

Q Colin, Pomona, CA - Wireless cellphone modems.

Cellular modems. Verizon. Blackberry Pearl in “teathered mode.” Can’t find any performance information. As long as they’re both using EVDO, they’ll be very similar.

Epson printers have greatly improved in monochromatic printing. So, very soon, even artsy Ansel Adams type printing may be on par with actual photo prints.

Q William, San Diego, CA - Blue-ray and Playstation 3.

Will he lose any features using the Playstation 3 to play Blue-ray DVDs? Not at all. In fact, oddly enough, the Blue-ray Playstation 3 is the cheapest and the best player on the market. And you get the game machine to boot! It is a tad louder with its fans, etc. But not oppressively so.

And you don’t really need to buy anything other than the 40GB PS3. The others are more expensive and you’ll seldom use that extra drive space.

Also, is BitTorrent a good way to download large files? You bet. In fact, the more popular your torrent is, the faster the download. The torrent is a meta file which let’s the world know there’s a large media file out there. The Torrent program takes that metafile and goes out and looks for either entire or partial copies and takes bits and pieces of each file and then assembles them into the file you want.

Q Tom, Holiday, FLA - Needs Computer training to get a computer job.

In the middle of a career change. Is computer illiterate. How can he learn enough to get a job in the computer world? Leo says it isn’t age so much as it’s an affinity of computers. You won’t want to become a computer programmer when you’re competing with kids who were born in the digital age and literally breathe computing.

Passion can make up for it, but you may not be up to that challenge. Find what you enjoy about computing and focus on that. Could be teaching computers. Could be technical support. Best thing is to follow the Nike model and JUST DO IT. Spend time with the computer figuring out how to do stuff. Become an expert. And the opportunities will follow.

Q James, Downey, CA - Concerned with Wireless Keyboard Security.

Wireless Keyboards are terribly vulnerable to sniffing and are easy to crack. Logitech a very good encryption keyboard.

Windows 64 bit OS … when will it be widespread? Well, as computers need more RAM, there becomes a more compelling case to go 64bit. Unless you really don’t need 4GB of RAM, and most don’t need it.

Both OSX and Vista 64 are mature and stable. So now’s the time to take the 64 bit leap.

And don’t worry about drivers. Most have caught up writing drivers as Microsoft requires it.

Q Aaron, Irvine, CA - Firefox 3.0 deleted his bookmarks!

Check to see if you have profiles. It could be that when you installed Firefox, it changed you to a default profile. It may still be there to try. Absent that, you may be out of luck.

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