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 September 21, 2008
Show Audio
|
Edited Audio | |
Tech News
EFF sues Bush Administration on behalf of ATT Customers
Congress granted immunity to AT&T, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation claims the NSA is performing “dragnet surveillance” by spying on everyone, not just suspected terrorists.
Course, this is nothing new. The program Echelon has been scanning internet and phone traffic since the Clinton Administration. Leo’s inclined to give our government the benefit of the doubt in protecting us, but is it too much power to grant? Who will be watching the watchers?
There are a few easy and free things you can do to protect your privacy. Use encryption like PGPs Privacy Guard. But the person you send email to has to have the keys to read it. Digitally signing your email can help this.
Are the Gates/Seinfeld commercials dead?
Microsoft is spending $300 million on crazy new adds, including $10 million to Jerry Seinfeld to do commercials “about nothing.” Is Seinfeld still hip? Or is Redmond just plain out of touch and this shows it?
The rumors say the Seinfeld ad campaign has been dumped due to negative reaction. But the ad agency says no, it was always the plan to move to phase II after the second Seinfeld commercial. Now, the I’m a PC campaign is in full swing. Whatever you think about the campaign, people are talking about them.
Wilmington, NC went completely Digital TV
This week, all the TV stations went Digital and closed off their analog signal as a test for February. The stations got 789 complaints about losing their TV. Not too bad considering. That means market saturation of HDTV is pretty good. For more info on DTV, go to DTV2009.GOV.
Guests
Chris Marquart - Tips from the Top Floor
Chris is back with a new assignment. The last assignment was FLAT and there were a ton of submissions to the Tech Guy Flickr Group.
Today we looked at three photos submitted for Chris’s “flat” assignment. Visit the Tech Guy group on Flickr to see all the submissions.
Some notable examples:
No End in Sight - UnKnownViper
Grass by Xenophod
Huge Scone - by gazrad
Our next assignment: take a picture illustrating the concept “huge!”
Hour 1
Q Don, Marietta, CA - transferring ISP email
Don needs to transfer his email and address books from AOL to to Yahoo mail. Trueswitch is the program which Don has been using, but he’s having trouble and wants to try another. EPreserver is another option.
You can do it by hand, like forwarding each mail to the new account, but that will take alot of work. In fact, you can get the mail off AOL using their POP servers. But getting it in Yahoo mail is another story. Probably better to back it up to your desktop. Faster, easier. More secure.
IMAP is a good way to move your mail over. Set it up to both Yahoo Mail and AOL’s web portal. Then, use Thunderbird by Mozilla to see the mail and then copy them to yahoo’s mail folders.
Q Jim, Valencia, CA - Vista trouble on a MAC.
Jim is using BootCamp and Leopard to run Vista on his MacBook. He’s having trouble with it in Vista. Apple hasn’t made many fan drivers for vista work in it’s environment, unfortunately. And since it’s Apple’s hardware you just need to wait until Apple decides it’s important enough to address.
There’s some third party programs, like COOL BOOK which will engage Speedset and power the fans independently. But it’s for MAC OS only.
From the Chatroom: Input Mapper from OLaffson.info can also manage the fan settings.
Q Judy, Marietta, CA - Network problems in Vista
Judy’s computer drops from the Network after a few minutes. Leo says it has to be on the Network end and since Judy is using her own computer, security protocols may be in play here. It may be that the network engineers don’t like Vista and as such, won’t support it.
Q Dan, Van Nuys, CA - Computer security
Should he get Norton Security Suite? Leo says no. Security suites don’t make you safer. Anti Virus software like Eset’s Nod 32 or AVG by Grisoft are good front line defenses along with keeping your computer’s OS updated, but your best protection is modifying your behavior by practicing Leo’s Rules of Safe Computing.
Q Sherry, North Carolina - Lost password to Windows
She can’t remember her password to Vista. You may have a hidden administrator password. Boot into Safe Mode (F8). When it asks you to log in, Choose administrator with NO password. If you get in, then you can go to the user accounts control panel and change the password of your other account.
You can also use an Emergency Boot CD (which costs $30) or the Ultimate Boot CD (free) to boot into Linux and reset your password.
Hour 2
Q Ann, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA - Moving from film to digital
She blew the dust off an old SLR and wants to move to digital. She’s interested in the Olympus E420. Leo says Olympus makes pretty good DSLRs that have been designed from the ground up. He likes the small size of them. And Olympus makes great glass which give sharp shots. It would be a great camera for shooting shots of kids, etc. But you want to be find out what the “multiplier” is for that digital chip and then multiply that by 35mm to determine what the best lens is for it.
Other options would be the Nikon D40 or the Canon Digital Rebel XSi. But remember, you’re not just buying a camera, but a system with lenses, flashes, etc.
Q Dave, Canada - PDA recommendation
Wants to move from his Clie and he’s not sure where to go next. Blackberry? iPhone? He doesn’t know if he needs a phone, but the PDA is rather dead these days. Should he go Palm? Windows mobile?
Leo says it’s time to make the move from Palm. Although there’s some great apps at Handango. Leo does like the Blackberry Bold (coming next month) and the new Storm that’s very “iPhoney.” Also the iPod Touch is an option thanks to the Apps Store. But the keyboard on the Blackberry is much better.
Q Eve, Berkeley, CA - Digital conversion of TV, Windows on Apple
Will analog TV bands on radios stop as well? Sadly, yes. That window will close and you’ll need to get a new portable digital unit. There is a battery powered digital converter by Weingard. Cost is $61.
Eve also wants to use Windows on her MAC but is concerned with security and viruses. Will it infect her Mac? On the Windows side, yes. But not the MAC side. Using Parallels or VMWare, you can run within the MAC environment and just toss it if it gets infected.
Q Tim, Sacramento, CA - Monitoring computer use
Tim wants to monitor his kids’ internet use. Leo says that Vista has great parental controls which can do the job better than any third party software. But Leo does recommend Cyber Patrol. It’ll monitor use, filter sites, and limit use. But the best protection is keeping your computer in a public area.
You can also use OpenDNS to block suspect sites. Great for filtering that actually works. You just route your traffic through their DNS servers, which is much more secure, and you can list what sites you don’t want visited.
Q JM, Hisperia, CA - Spyware/Popup trouble
Jim uses Internet Explorer and wants to stop the popup ads. He also sees programs that have been installed on his computer. His Desktop is all wacky. Leo says chances are, JM is infected with a virus. Probably Anti Virus 2009 or worse. JM could have a keylogger on his system, a root kit to hide files, or even have his computer “zombied” to send out SPAM.
You’ll need to get your data off and format your hard drive and reinstall Windows from a known good source (original Windows disks). NOT. FROM. A. BACKUP!
Then get your updated AVS and scan your data before you put it back on your computer.
Hour 3
Q Dave, Los Angeles, CA - Ubuntu on his laptop
He’s got his boot manager on his external hard drive. Leo says you just need to install it onto your laptop hard drive. Leo recommends GAG. Setup the menu and tell it to install from the master boot record. This will modify the master boot record to include the laptop’s hard drive and installs the manager onto it.
Q Maggie, Santa Clarita, CA - Her computer is S-L-O-W …
She has a chance to get a new computer and is considering a MAC PRO. Leo is impressed with that computer. It’s a killer machine. She’d probably be happier with an iMAC, since it’s a high end machine. But since she’s getting it for free and if Maggie can get it with her points, she should definitely pull the trigger on that bad boy. Then, you can sell it and get the iMac anyway. And make a few bucks along the way!
Q Michael, SoCal - Lovin’ his FIOS connection
Blazing speed. BUT. The TV lag he gets in his DVR is driving him nuts. Leo says it’s because his DVR is just plain underpowered and can’t keep up. Michael also complains that his box has to be reset pretty often. Leo says that new services like FIOS will have it’s growing pains. You just need to be patient as the technology matures.
Q Nick, Simi Valley, CA - “Escaping iTunes.”
Nick wants to move on from iTunes. Leo says there’s no reason to stick with iTunes unless you’re using an iPod. Nick is lookin’ to get a Zune, but he has a ton of stuff from iTunes. Leo says he’ll have to strip the copy protection (which is technically illegal to do thanks to the DMCA). But do it anyway since you bought it. DVDJon cracked the iTunes DRM, but sadly, his program keeps getting broken by Apple. Jhymn is the program though.
But the easiest and best way to handle this is to use the analog hole. Burn the songs to an audio CD. Then rip it and the DRM is gone. Then, go get your music from AMAZON. It’s DRM free.
Q Brandon, Los Angeles, CA - Jailbreaking the iTouch
Can it still be done? You bet. If you go to IPodTouchHacks.com, you’ll see the latest information on jailbreaking your Touch and you’ll be able to add a whole range of applications available to you that Apple won’t approve, and you’ll also be able to still buy apps at the Apps Store. So you get the best of both worlds.
BUT MAKE SURE YOU CAN JAILBREAK YOUR TOUCH BEFORE TRYING! You don’t want to brick it.
