Leo Laporte
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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Saturday 18 October 2008
- Show Audio
- Tech News
- Hour 1
- Hour 2
- Hour 3
- Vince, Burbank, CA - DRM issues
- Heather, Manhattan Beach, CA - Trouble logging into Yahoo
- From Twitter - Zune charging issues
- John, Redondo Beach, CA - Can’t open documents password protected
- Charles, Raleigh, NC - Wii accessory recommendations.
- Ron, Toronto, CAN - Audio Recording options
- Patrick, Montrose, MI - RAM problems
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Tech News
McCain campaign petitions YouTube over DMCA take downs
You Tube pulled McCain fair-use videos off their site after complaints by Fox News, CNN and others. McCain complains in a letter to YouTube, citing YouTube acted too quickly and violated fair-use. YouTube cites the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which, ironically, McCain voted for.
Little Big Planet gets pulled back, now delayed
After having to recall every single copy of the video game “Little Big Planet,” after it was discovered that several quotes from the Koran were put to contemporary music - which, could apparently offend Muslims. New date for shipping is Oct 27th.
Girl goes missing, Dad uses Twitter for an Amber Alert
Asking his Twitter friends to “retweat” it around the world, a father used Twitter to get the word out that his teenage daughter had gone missing. Police don’t suspect foul play and believe it may be custody related.
HP announces touch screen Notebook.
Touch Screen Notebooks should be out by the end of the year. Are touch screens now the future? HP will also doing a 10″ netbook as well.
Gaming Sales decline
In the month of September, gaming sales went into a decline. Is it because sales are down, or because Halo 3 spiked sales and they just evened out? Number 1 & 2 game systems - Nintendo Wii, and DS. XBox 360 third. PS3 hovering into 4th place in spite of the fact that the PS3 is the most popular Blu-Ray player. Was the HDDVD/Blu-Ray format war a kiss of death for both formats? HiDef movies online are now more popular than buying movies in HiDef format. Steve Jobs says that Blu-Ray is a “bag of hurt” do to licensing issues. Blu-Ray may look great, but it looks like consumers are just going to wait for the next big thing.
PROGRAM NOTE - Scott Wilkinson will not be on today. He’ll be on the Tech Guy Show tomorrow for a 3 Hour Home Theater-paloosa!
Hour 1
Q Lisa, Redondo Beach, CA - iPhone crashed
Lisa just got her iPhone and it crashed. Frozen. Leo recommends resetting the phone by pressing and holding both buttons until it reboots. Then, update to the 2.1 firmware through iTunes. You can also do a complete restore with it attached to iTunes. Just like the reset, only it’ll ask if you want to restore your iPhone. Say yes and it’ll be back to it’s factory condition. And it’s a good idea to turn the iPhone off every day. This will allow it to boot up fresh when you turn it back on and helps keep your iPhone nice and healthy.
Q Jeff, Clearwater, FL - Cut and paste from Excel to the web
Jeff can’t cut and paste from Excel to the web (he uses excel to store his passwords).
Leo says the reason it doesn’t work is that when you copy the number in excel, it’s not just a number but the meta information as well. So the clipboard format isn’t recognized by your browser. You can format the cells as plain text, but that’s a hassle. It’s also insecure if someone gets that spreadsheet. Leo recommends ROBOFORM. It’s free, and a pay version. It’ll run in the background, remember your passwords automatically, autofill, and even offer suggestions.
Q Penny, Los Angeles, CA - worried getting SPAM from herself
She’s not getting spam from herself, it’s easy to get “spoofed” by spammers. And she’s using a MAC, so there’s no fear of infection. Just hit delete.
To be safe, only display your email as text. Displaying it as HTML can wreak all kinds of havoc as hackers can break through holes in your browsers and can hide behind the HTML to get you to go to forged sites.
Q Andre, Rockland, CA - Leo’s failing computer
Andre was concerned that Leo’s failed MAC may be an issue. Leo says this is the first out of dozens of MACs that has arrived DOA. Leo took it back to the Apple Store and they just gave him a new one. Sweet.
Andre wants to know what are the critical utilities you need for the MAC? Leo likes Quicksilver. No need for burning software. It’s built in. Parallels or VMWare? Both are good, but Leo uses the new version of VMWare. Disk Utility? You got it. But Leo also likes Super Duper which makes a back up image of your hard drive.
Hour 2
Q Jim, Montgomery, AL - Running scripts & MAC maintenance
Jim wants to know about doing MAC maintenace with a program called Onyx. Leo says that any modern operating system is pretty much automatic in file maintenance now, so you don’t have to optimize or defrag anymore, really. Fixing disk permissions should be done now, as needed, than having it scheduled. Clean up programs will just run now. They’re pretty maintenance free.
Q Jane, Cerritos, CA - Touchscreen computers
Jane has trouble using a keyboard and wants to know if a touch screen computer is better for her. Leo says that the down side of a touch screen is fingerprints on the screen. So you have to clean them a lot. But it’s a natural way to work. You’ll still need to use the keyboard for some functions. You’ll pay more for a touch screen and it’s not as perfected. Leo says she’d be more effective with a laptop or a tablet laptop and a stylus. And you can get a laptop that converts to a tablet. Using Microsoft’s One Note is great for taking notes in this fashion. You’ll pay more because tablet technology is still relatively new, but it’s a good option.
Q Bob, Parker, CO - Video formatting hassles
Wants to convert his videos for his Blackberry Curve phone, but he can’t find the proper format. AT&T requires “3gpp” as a format. Quicktime Pro will do it. Figure out what format your phone wants, and get the converter. It may be H.263 or H.264 (which is rapidly becoming the web video standard).
Also, Bob can’t change folder names in Vista. Leo thinks it’s probably a permissions issue. Who owns the folder can rename the folder. But it could also be a bug as Bob says he’s having trouble in “administrator.” You can try moving the folder to another location, like “My Documents.”
Q Linda, Chatsworth, CA - Laptop LCD issues
Linda had a power outage and now can’t read her LCD screen. Leo says to reboot. Then adjust the brightness. You can also connect your laptop to an external monitor. This is a good diagnostic technique to see if your screen is on the fritz.
Q Rich, Palo Alto, CA - AVS not scanning email.
AVG 8.0 isn’t scanning his email. AVG is great for a freebie, but it’s slow and not very accurate. Leo says you can choose another AVS like Eset’s Nod32. Other free options are Avast, AntiVir. But Leo suspects that the virus Rich may have is still there and attached to a system file. Likely, the only way you can get rid of it is to format your hard drive and reinstall your OS.
No antivirus will protect you 100%, especially against yourself. The problem is that anti-viruses are only good after you’re infected. The truly best way to protect yourself is to alter your behavior. Check out Leo’s Tips to Safe Computing.
Hour 3
Q Vince, Burbank, CA - DRM issues
Vince plays a certain DVD a lot. But he’s now experiencing a much smaller resolution image. Leo says he’s dealing with copy protection which is causing the image resolution. This is due to HDPC copy protection.
Another possibility, is that the disc may be at issue here, like a damaged bit on the physical disc. Check back tomorrow as Leo quizzes Scott Wilkinson over the issue.
Q Heather, Manhattan Beach, CA - Trouble logging into Yahoo
She’s having login issues with Yahoo. Leo recommends going to downforeveryoneorjustme.com. You can check and see. If it’s just you, it could be that your ISP having trouble. She uses Verizon. Leo says that Verizon has been very sluggish of late and the domain name service is at the heart of the issue. Leo recommends OpenDNS.com. It’s faster and more secure. Easy to switch to (they have step by step directions).
Heather also wants to know the difference between Hibernate and Standby.
Q From Twitter - Zune charging issues
Zune can’t be seen on the PC to charge. What to do? Leo says to plug it in anyway and let it charge. Once it’s charged up, the PC will probably be able to see it.
Q John, Redondo Beach, CA - Can’t open documents password protected
John can’t remember the password for several documents he’s password protected. Leo says the good news is that Word documents used before Word 2007 can’t be cracked. Google - Accent Word Recovery.
Q Charles, Raleigh, NC - Wii accessory recommendations.
Charles has a Wii now and wants to know what games and accessories to get. Leo says you gotta get the WiiFit. WiiSports comes with it. They’re great. But what’s the next great thing? From the Chat room - Mario Cart. Super Mario Galaxy. Animal Crossing. Super Smash Brothers. Don’t forget Star Wars The Force Unleashed. PLay it with the Thrustmaster Glow Saber Duo Pack and you’re really feelin’ the dark side.
Q Ron, Toronto, CAN - Audio Recording options
What’s the best audio recording software for Vista 64 bit. Leo says you gotta get Audition by Adobe. If you’re used to Cool Edit, Audition is great for editing.
Q Patrick, Montrose, MI - RAM problems
Bought some RAM from Crucial, but it won’t accept it. Crucial says you need a BIOS update (although Leo suspects this is a “stock” recommendation in the tech support notebook). It could be. There are odd rules from motherboard to motherboard. But Patrick’s laptop is a Sony Vaio VGC-RB53. So it should be right. But he’s getting issues. Leo says that the Crucial online tester may be inaccurate and going with the manufacturer’s recommendation is preferred. It may also be that the RAM wants to interleave, but the RAM isn’t exactly the same and so it can’t. This is probably a SONY proprietary issue. Stick with SONYs recommended RAM and you should be okay.
