Leo Laporte
The Tech Guy
2–5p EDT Sat/Sun
- Home
- Saturday Show
- Sunday Show
- Past Shows
- Audio Archives
- Stations
- Chat
- Watch Live
- Forums
- Listener Map
- User Groups
- Tips
- FAQ
- Glossary
- Contact Leo
Sponsors
Leo Links
 |
For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
|
|
Sunday August 24, 2008
- Show Audio
- Tech News
- Hour 1
- Hour 2
- Hour 3
- Sarah - Marin County, CA - Airport Express problems
- Nick, San Diego, CA - Old computer has trouble with monitor
- From the Chat Room - Snacks
- Ted, Missouri - Problems with his headset for chatting
- Tim, Cincinnati, OH - DRM Trouble with his Zune
- Josh, Quaalla, CA - Bad cellphone reception
- Mike, BigRiggin’ through Wisconsin - Bluetooth headsets don’t work
- Frank, Aurora, CO - Wants to hack his car computer
Show Audio
|
Edited Audio | |
Tech News
Obama’s Campaign to get your Cell Phone Number
Obama gets millions of followers to give their campaign cell phone numbers by saying he’d text his VP choice first (but the MSM stole his thunder and figured it out before hand). Was that the real reason or a McGuffin to just get your cell phone number? What will Obama do with those cell phone numbers? Will they IM to get out the vote? Use it for fund raising? Will they overuse it?
Beware of Nunchuck Greeting cards.
E Greeting cards are very popular. But NunChuck Greetings is a website you should avoid. It’s a hack scam to get your email address. Then, when people think they’re getting a e-card, they’re actually clicking on a link that causes their computer to get invaded by a Hacker.
Olympics is almost over in China
NBC gives China a free pass on human rights.
NBC has said nothing about blocking iTunes in China because the CD“Songs for Tibet” which was released this week. Apple has no comment. Nor have they mentioned the Tiennmen Square massacre.
iPhone Mania in Poland … not
According to ABC, so few Poles are wanting the iPhone that Orange, the carrier in Poland, hired actors to make it look like people want it. Could it be the Poles know that the data plan is TOO expensive?
AT&T launches Connect Tech
It’s in home tech service program. AT&T will be offering tech support for setting up TVs, new computers, email and virus protection. Just about anything that Geek Squad and Make it Work does.
Hour 1
Q Terry, Palo Alto, CA - Teaching her Mom email. MSNTV?
Her mom isn’t very tech saavy. Should she get MSNTV/WebTV for her? Leo says it’s a pretty good choice for those who don’t want a computer. It’s a monthly fee of about $20 a month. Another option is the HP Printing Mailbox and the Presto Service. It’s kinda like a color fax machine. You send email to her through Presto.com, including photos. They’re printed from the HP Printing mailbox. Cost is $10 a month for the service.
Q Zach, Charlotte, NC - Trouble connecting his iPod by USB
Zach’s MacBook Pro front USB ports will work for any other device but the iPod. Works fine in the back. What gives? Leo says there’s something funky about the front ports of the MacBook Pro.
Q Carol, Palo Alto, CA - Capturing video on her iMac
Can she capture from a 3/4″ tape machine? Leo says you’ll need the EyeTV from ElGato to do that. She also wants to know about her Sony Digital Hi8 through firewire (Sony calls it iLink). Leo says that if you can see the camera, you can capture it through iMovie. You’ll need a 4 pin to 6 pin connector. If that doesn’t work, you can still use the same El Gato device to do it using analog.
Q Mike, Fullerton, CA - Replacing a motherboard, hard drive error
He’s getting hard drive errors trying to install Windows XP after replacing a motherboard. Leo suspects the data has been damaged on the hard drive when the motherboard fried. Pick up SpinRite by GRC. Run it to test and repair the drive. It’ll take time checking for sector errors and moving the data to better sectors.
Once that’s done, you can use Norton Disk Doctor or something similar to work on the file system and repair it. As a last resort, you can go to a data recovery service to recover the data off the drive. But it isn’t cheap. Like THOUSANDS.
Q Rich, Hillside, IL - Rave review for Carbonite
He needed to clear data off his hard drive and signed up with Carbonite. Rich is visually impaired and says that the interface is very easy to read and helped him free up space to operate his computer again.
Hour 2
Q Dan, Michigan - Recording an interview for radio
Dan is doing a Radio Program called The Green Hour. Should he use Garage Band? Leo recommends Amadeus Pro. Garage Band will only record for an hour. Leo also recommends CEntrance MicPort Pro to attach to the mic. It’ll convert to USB. Plug that into the SURE SM58 Microphone. Leo also recommends the Marantz PMD660, which records to compact flash. Zoom H2 also does. It’s half the price, but Leo believes it’s also half the quality.
James uses the Griffin iTalk Pro. It has a minijack line in for microphones (works great with the CEntrance), but it records in stereo and you can use it in the field for on the spot interviews even without a mic. Should he use a lapel mic? Leo says no. They work on TV, but in radio, you can really tell the audio problems.
NPR has a great site on field recordings.
Q Ryan, Boston, MA - Thoughts on the Flip
Ryan wants to know about pocket video cameras. Leo says they’re very affordable, but the quality isn’t that great for watching on TV. But for the web, it’s pretty darn good. Ryan also asked if there’s one that shoots on HD, Leo recommends the Sanyo Xacti. Kodak is coming out with the Zi6, which will be like The Flip, only the Zi6 records in 720p HiDef. Should be out by Christmas.
Q Scott, San Diego, CA - SmartPhone recommendation
Should he get the Blackberry Bold? It’s incredible, but the battery life is miserable at 5 hours talktime. The advantage of the Blackberry is that you can get a backup battery and switch it out if your first battery begins to die. How about the iPhone? Well, that goes without saying, but the iPhone 3G also has poor battery life. You can stretch it out turning off the 3G and WiFi. Instead, turn off “ask to join networks,” BlueTooth, etc.
Q Eric, Seattle, WA - Blowing out video cards
Had to replace the video card and now he’s replacing them one after another. All N’Vidia. Leo says you could have an electrical short, but it could also be heat. Get Motherboard Monitor. It’s a free program that monitors your tempertures. Leo thinks you have to consider environment. A faulty surge protector, overheating where you have it, etc. It’s also possible that a power spike may be coming from the monitor. Leo says performing some “power conditioning” is in order.
Q Bill, Tampa, FL - Problems with Internet Explorer 7
Windows is blocking the software he’s using through Internet Explorer for using his I.P. camera. He can use it in Firefox, but not I.E. Leo thinks this is an Active X problem. We hate Active X because of the huge hole it puts in your system. So, Microsoft has clamped down on Active X capability to only “signed software.” And if Bill’s camera software hasn’t signed it, then this is where the issue may lie. So Leo says go back to Firefox and Java for using the camera.
Hour 3
Q Sarah - Marin County, CA - Airport Express problems
Her Airport Express only works intermittently using the Airport Extreme and WDS (extending the range). Leo says it could be that it’s not getting a strong enough signal and keeps dropping out. Experiment. If it’s line of sight, then there’s a problem with the Airport Express. The thing is that WiFi wasn’t designed to go through walls. If there’s a lot of rebar or metal in your home, then you may be just losing the signal. Try repositioning the base station to get a clearer signal.
Q Nick, San Diego, CA - Old computer has trouble with monitor
He has an ancient computer using Win98. Leo says the OS has defaulted to the standard VGA driver, much like in safe mode. Reinstall the driver for the video card. You could also choose a different driver and see if you can find it in Windows driver choices.
Snacks is getting the AntiVirus 2009 Popup. It’s a scam. It doesn’t fix the problem, it creates the problem. So, remember, if you get a popup that says you’re infected, you’re not. Don’t buy into it.
Q Ted, Missouri - Problems with his headset for chatting
He’s having trouble with his headset using MSN messenger. Leo says you have to check the “built in microphone” setting in messenger and then do the same thing in your sound card settings. Make sure the mix isn’t muted, is enabled, and that the software is getting the audio from the system mic.
Q Tim, Cincinnati, OH - DRM Trouble with his Zune
He wants to copy his Zune downloads and play them on his iPod. But the Zune DRM is getting in the way. Sadly, there’s no real software out there that cracks the DRM. So, you’re only other option is to use the “analog hole.” You can plug the output into the input of your sound card. Press play on the Zune, record on your software. And there you have it. You’ll be degrading the music slightly, but frankly you can’t really tell all that much. You can also burn the music to CD, and then simply rip it. You’ve stripped the DRM and you can now put it on your iPod.
Q Josh, Quaalla, CA - Bad cellphone reception
He’s having trouble with getting cell reception in his house. Leo says you’ll need a cellphone amplifier/booster. Like DigitalAntenna.com. But they aren’t cheap. The key is to get an antenna near where it works and then string a wire to it to the booster.
Q Mike, BigRiggin’ through Wisconsin - Bluetooth headsets don’t work
Leo recommends the BlueAnt Supertooth 3.
Mike also wants to put super 8 movies onto DVD. You can use a company like LEGACY VIDEO. They do the work for you and use “telecine” to clean, scan, and digitze every frame. Doing it yourself, you can build a lightbox to project your movie on and then video record it using your camcorder.
Q Frank, Aurora, CO - Wants to hack his car computer
There’s probably ways to do this on the web, but remember if you try this, you may void your warranty. First you’ll need to remove the protection by replacing the chip with a “mod chip.” They can cost anywhere from $125–500 plus interface hardware costs.
