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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Sunday October 12, 2008
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Tech News
Leo celebrates his 500th Tech Guy Show!
New Smartphones
The Android G1 is the new smartphone. Coming out 10 days from now. Not as slick as the iPhone, but it will compete nicely. There’s also the new Blackberry Storm and the Bold. Real keyboards. Wide screens. But the problem is, who knows when it’ll arrive?
Fake YouTube pages are the latest hacker scam
It will say you need a new plugin to play the video. But it’s a new hacker scam. It will actually send you to a legit youtube page once you install the plugin, but it will infect your computer without your knowledge.
Economy woes start hitting the Tech World.
Layoffs at eBay. iSpot going down. In fact, trouble sites will probably not survive. It could spell doom for Twitter, Skype, MySpace, and others. Leo doesn’t think the main companies will falter, but they won’t be growing either.
Verizon raising text messages again.
Not content with $1500 per MB for messages, Verizon is now raising prices for “terminated messages.” These are messages sent to users about notifications. They say it’s to discourage SPAM through text messaging. But really.
Hour 1
Q George, Houston, TX - XP SP3 update stalled
George wants to know if he really needs SP3. He has experienced it stalling in Windows update. Leo says for security issues alone you need it. Even though Microsoft tests it pretty good, they can’t test every conceivable hardware configuration. So, if it hangs in updating, then there’s probably a driver issue that Microsoft needs to update as well. Keep running the update until it “sticks.” That will mean that one driver has been updated as well.
But if you haven’t, as long as you’ve been downloading all the hot fixes on the second Tuesday, then you’re safe because SP3 is partly all those fixes rolled into one.
Q Karen, Rodeo, CA - eMac won’t play videos full screen
Her videos from Country Music Television won’t play in full screen. Leo says that some videos won’t play in full screen, and it’s not all that great. Look in the lower right hand corner of the screen and you’ll see a small box w/ the corners enhanced. Press it and it’ll pop open. If you can’t, chances are that you don’t have the latest flash player installed. You will need version 9 or later. Google “flash” and click on the Adobe link that pops up. Select version to download - be careful to download the right MAC version since you’ll have the choice of either Intel or PowerPC. Then close everything and run the installer.
Q Larry, Sunnyvale, CA - Optimizing searches
Larry wants to improve his search results on Google. B Some think that hiring SOT experts is worth it, but Leo says that search optimization techniques are largely “snake oil.” The more people link to you, the higher your page rank is. The best way is to go to sites that are related, encouraging bloggers to write about your business, have your page title with keywords included. And Google only looks at the first 1500 HTML characters. Make these as much about content as possible. And the longer your site is registered, the better. Another good idea is to install “Google Analytics.” It’s free and helps you to tweak your site to maximize traffic.
The article on how Google works is here.
Q John, Los Angeles, CA - Power Supplies vs. Line Conditioners
Line Conditioning cleans up the power to smooth out power spikes and make the electrical flow more consistent. Whereas uninterruptable power supplies are just a big battery with a surge protector attached. If you live where a lot of brownouts happen, you need a good UPS. If you have expensive electronics and live in a lightning area, then you need UPSs with line conditioning capability. Triplight and APC make good ones. The Continuous models are what you want. And not just for a PC. It’s a good idea to have one for your HDTV as well.
Another good idea is a “whole house” surge protector. It only costs a few hundred dollars but will protect all of your electronics in the home.
Hour 2
Q Jerry, Fort Meade, FL - Speeding up web browsing in dial-up.
Jerry can afford broadband right now. How can he speed up his browsing. Leo says to set your browser to turn off and not download images. It’ll make the experience faster by a considerable amount. But there’s also low cost DSL. Like DSL Extreme!
Q Julia, Yorba Linda, CA - Rolland Sampler and analog video
She needs to convert video from her S550 Sampler in order to watch it on her LCD TV. Chad P in our chatroom suggests SVideo out to the SVideo in for your S760 LCD TV. Here’s a link to how.
Scott Wilkinson comes to the rescue - he says you shouldn’t use it as you may fry the monitor. However, the alternative is composite, monochrome output which will protect your TV.
Q Michael, San Diego, CA - Running 32 Bit Apps in 64Bit Vista.
Michael’s copy of ACT won’t run in 64 bit. Some programs won’t run in 64 bit Vista even though Vista has a 32 bit subsystem. Leo thinks they just “don’t want to go to eleven” and go the extra mile for their customers without making them buy the software all over again.
Leo also recommend Michael go back to where he bought the computer and request they downgrade him to Vista 32 bit as most computers are now installed with Vista64.
Q Mike B, New Jersey - TV on Radio after the Digital Switchover
Chat Mod that has been with Leo since Show 1
Mike wants to know if there will be any fix for Radios that broadcast TV audio after February 2009? Otherwise, they’ll go dead. There’s a need for it since people use them in disasters. The FCCs response is to suggest people buy new digital radios. Leo hopes something comes out before hurricane season 2009. But so far, there’s nothing.
Q Ted, San Bernadino, Ca - Virtual Offices
Ted needs a professional PBX that isn’t too costly. Leo recommends GOT VMAIL. It’s a virtual PBX that’s professional, flexible, has follow-me service. For VOIP - you want Asterix solutions to do PBX via broadband. AT&T call vantage is one such option. Using a “SIP” phone, you can make calls from anywhere in the world and it’s routed through your local office online.
Hour 3
Q Flichelle, San Diego - Makin’ “The Switch.”
She’s going to go MAC and needs to keep using some PC programs. What are her options? Access is one. Leo says she can’t use access strictly on the MAC. Leo uses Filemaker Pro. Works on both platforms. Networkable. Can design forms and templates.
She’s also having trouble with dozens of explorer windows opening up. Leo thinks she may have a virus, which is causing it. Also, Outlook is losing her data. Luckily, she’s backing up her data.
Q Bill, Fullerton, CA - Hard drive/Windows issues
Bill as an ABIT motherboard with SATA connectors. Capable of up to 3GB of Data per second. But he can’t load Windows through it. You’re supposed to jumper the drive to the higher speed, but it won’t work. The SATA 150s have a throughput of 1.5 GB. Check the bios to see if it’s set for the higher speed. If that doesn’t work, then Leo suggests to jumper it to however it works and it’ll still be faster than he needs. It won’t be what they claim, but you won’t need that kinda throughput anyway.
From the CHATROOM - Here’s a link which may help. The truth is that Seagate drives just don’t handle it very well. If you can get the SATA drivers on thumbdrive, you can make it work. Here’s how.
Q Reggie, Los Angeles, CA - Dell Laptop Recommendation
Reggie has $600 from Dell to play with and wants a laptop. Since he doesn’t need it for anything but online banking, email, etc., Leo things a NetBook by Dell - The Inspiron 910 is a good choice. You want one with a 10″ screen at least. Good battery life. Solid state hard drive. And it’s under $400. There’s also the Latitude, which is right at $600.
Leo also suggests that Reggie use HotSpot VPN for security while surfing on the road.
Q Victor, Whittier, CA - External hard drive backup options
Victor needs more hard drive space and backup program for his MAC. Leo recommends a Western Digital 500GB mybook. Use chronosync. Time machine. Backups. Another good backup program is SuperDuper. LaCie makes great hard drives as well. You need a firewire connection for max throughput.
Q Caleb, South Carolina - Final Cut vs. Final Cut Express
What are the differences? Leo thinks that Final Cut has a lot of professional options that the average editor doesn’t need. FCE is great for home movies. Leo uses it. It’s more than adequate.
Time Machine - does he need it? Leo says yes, and with an external drive. But Leo wishes it didn’t back up as much, because it backs up EVERYTHING and all the time. But it’s good for people who don’t want to think about it and don’t have time to learn how to custom backup data.
Show 500 is a wrap!
