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Saturday 1 November 2008

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Tech News

Teenager runs away after father takes away his XBox.

Canadian teen Brandon Crisp, was playing too much ISBN:Call of Duty on his XBox 360 and doing too little homework. So his dad took his 360 away. Brandon decided to run away last October and hasn’t been seen since. Microsoft has ponied up a $25,000 reward to add to the current reward of $25K for any information on Brandon’s whereabouts.

If you know where Brandon is … CALL BARRIE POLICE AT (705) 725–7025 WITH INFORMATION

Brandon, come home! Daddy’s sorry!

The Power of the Internet runs political campaigns

From social networking to fundraising, the power of the Internet has become a major organizing source in political campaigning. Obama has raised nearly a half billion dollars through online donations and his Internet organization is using social networking to get out the vote.

Regardless of how things end of Tuesday , you can bet this will be a template for future campaigns to come.

13 Cabin Attendants Fired over Facebook comments

13 Cabin attendants have been fired over negative comments about Virgin Atlantic airlines and customers over “breaking staff policy regarding inappropriate behavior.” The attendants were participating in a discussion on Facebook at the time. Leo says this is a good warning that anything you put on the Internet will last forever. Think of it as a digital tatoo.

Microsoft announces Windows 7 at the PDC

Redmond previewed Windows 7, which is very advanced at this stage. What they have done is created Windows 7 in a fashion that is “componentized.” They can ship it at any time, and then add features as they come online and are done. This eliminates the “house of cards” syndrome. Windows 7 is shippable now as it’s stable and very “svelt.”

But won’t this kill sales for Vista if you know that Windows 7 is only a few months away?

The other announcement by Microsoft is AZURE. This is Microsoft’s cloud computing project.

Guests

Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine

New TVs with LED backlights. A set that’s THX certified. So Scott is busy pushing the edge of the edge of the envelope.

Leo is talking about the new technologies that the networks are using, including Twitter, Social Median, and Facebook. CNN will be featuring “holographic guests!” Just like in Star Wars. 44 cameras will cover guests from every angle, 40 computers processing data.

But the white board will probably be the technology that trumps everything else.

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Hour 1

Q Elena, Ashville, CO - Makin’ the Switch

Elena has decided to switch due to learning about the MAC through Leo’s streaming podcasts. She’ll be using it for web and graphic design. Leo says that the edge for Mac comes in software. Hardware wise, there’s not really a dime’s worth of difference. In fact, it’s largely a religious war.

Elena wants to know about jailbreaking her iPhone. Is it really worth it? She’s nervous she may brick her phone. Leo says that the first generation iPhone jailbreaks really made sense. Jailbreaking has advanced since the original jailbreak that caused many iPhone’s to be bricked. It isn’t illegal to jailbreak. It’s not dangerous (you can now go back), so the risk is no longer there, really.

The key is to never update the iPhone until there’s a new jailbreak. It’s easy to do. But now, with over 4,000 applications available on the iPhone - it’s less an issue. But there’s some applications, like streaming video, that are only available on a jailbroken iPhone. So if you feel the need, go ahead.

Q Darlene, Lakewood, CA - Blurry LCDs during movement

Darlene says she was watching TV and the image got real blurry when the action happened. Leo says that has to do with slow response times in HD. Scott says that generally, the problem is LCD Motion Blur. The LCD cells take time to change their state from color and light/dark. This causes them to appear blurry because of the relatively slow switching speed. You can really see it in sporting events or video games. The fix is to upgrade to a 120 Hz LCD, which has double the switch speed and uses frame interpolation to fill in the blanks. Anything under 8 milleseconds is what you want.

Scott also thinks that due to this Toshiba 37″ being recently bought, that a defect could be here and recommends returning it to the store for a replacement. It should be much more responsive than that.

Q Don, Atlanta G.A. - Open ID in podcasting

With Google doing open I.D., Don wants to know about what standard to use. Leo says that OpenID IS the standard. Anyone can use it. Leo uses Claim I.D. But you can also use Gmail as of this week. It’s a great, more secure technology that will streamline the log in process.

Don has a podcast called Magic Newswire.

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Hour 2

Q Dave, Allentown, PA - Vista PC lost network connectivity

Tried changing the wireless card. The EVDO card. The network connection card. Leo wonders if a new security software installation would cause it. But it could also be a removed spyware infected file which has attached itself to a system file, thereby crippling the network connectivity.

Almost certainly, the network stack is damaged. There are programs that can repair the “winsock” on XP. But on Vista, it’s a different animal. Try going to the COMMAND LINE (type CMD) - type “NETSH winsock reset”. Another one to try is “NETSH int ip reset”. That’s reset the entire stack. This won’t replace your damaged Winsock, but it will remove the catalog, service providers, the whole smash. If that doesn’t fix the issue, then you have to replace the TCP/IP stack.

You can reinstall Vista. That’ll certainly fix the issue. But that will plow up the entire field, as it were. So BACK UP YOUR DATA!

More on how to reset your network stack can be found here.

Q Fred, Beaufort, SC - Capturing audio for podcasting

Fred is into podcasting and needs a recording program for the MAC.

Leo recommends CallRecorder for the MAC. Excellent program. Records both audio and video for both channels, can do split screen. Very sweet.

Leo says, however, that a problem with Skype is that in conference, the voices aren’t in separate channels. But hopefully, they’ll solve that problem soon.

On Windows, the solution is PAMELA.

Fred’s podcast is Classic Radio Replays. And check out his website at Queenland Productions. His fan film, Indiana Jones and the Hunters of the Silver Sword can be seen on YouTube.

Q Steve, Poway, CA - Changing AVS?

Steve wants to go with Norton Internet Securities over Norton AVS. Leo says DON’T! STOP! DON’T DO IT! It’s bloated, causes problems, and just isn’t worth it. Leo recommends Nod32. Lightweight, fast, and provides much better security. A free option would be AVG. Although, it’s gotten rather bloated lately.

But in the end, if you practice Leo’s Six Rules of Safe Computing, you won’t even need an AVS. Router. Windows patches. No opening attachments, no file sharing. Stay off suspect sites. The works.

Q Chris, Los Angeles, CA - Problems with Excel’s voice feature

Chris is trying to turn off the voice feature, which is driving him crazy. It just turned itself on and ignores the shut down command. One possibility is that a button could be misnamed. Hover over the button to be sure it’s the right button. Leo suggests Mr. Excel may have the answer.

Mr. Excel wrote back:

In Excel 2003….
1) Tools - Speech - Show Text to Speech Toolbar.
2) Click the 5th icon

In Excel 2007, the speech tools are not on the ribbon.
1) Office Icon, Excel Options
2) In the left dropdown, choose All Commands
3) In the left list box, try to find Speak Cells - Speak On Enter.
4) Highlight that icon, the click the >> button in the center of the screen
5) Click OK to return to Excel
6) Then, in the Quick Access Toolbar, click that icon

Q Lynn, Ventura, CA - SD card died

Lynn suspects that her 4GB SD card has become corrupted and can’t be read. It’s possible that a card dies after surpassing it’s rewrite life. But it can also just fail. Leo says you can get your photos off using PC Inspector’s Smart Recovery. Get the pictures off and then toss it. SD cards are cheap these days.

This is a good argument for using several cards, rather than one large one. Reason being, insurance. Any memory card can fail or become corrupted. And when you’re on vacation the last thing you want is to lose the opportunity to take pictures. If your card goes bad, swapping another one for it at that moment is of advantage so you can keep taking pics. Then, later when you’re in front of your PC, you can use a file recovery utility to get back your pictures and recover your card.

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Hour 3

Q Matt, Chicago, IL - Daisy chaining iPod through XBox 360.

Matt can daisy chain his wife’s Classic iPod to his xBox 360, but not his Touch. Leo says you can to put it into “disc mode” but not the IPod Touch, because it doesn’t have the disc mode option. Another option is to slave your XBox into your computer network. Then, you can play your iTunes music from your computer through the XBox media center. Nice feature.

Q Andrew, Indiana, PA - Podcast friendly cellphones

Andrew needs a new phone but wants one that’s podcast friendly. Most can play podcast, save the iPhone - at least for now. The iPhone is the best phone media player since it’s just an iPod. There will be an upgrade which will enable you to subscribe to podcasts (vs. 2.2). But it’s not out yet.

The Blackberry can play podcasts. You can download podcasts as MP3s and play them, sure. But sadly, it has no bookmarking features. The hardware has to be able to do that in the firmware. And Leo says that the Storm will be an excellent option if and when it ever comes out.

Q Cody, Anaheim, CA - training for a career in technology

A liberal education is a good thing. But Leo suggests you do your homework, go online and talk students who went to these tech schools. Ask them if they helped with job placement, if the professors were effective, etc.

[Thunderstorm outage killed the feed for a few minutes]

Q Steve, Riverside, CA - Karaoke Machines

Steve is interested in altering pronouns for male/female usage on karaoke songs? Doesn’t exist, but that may be a niche that needs to be filled.

Q James, Palo Alto, CA - HMDI - USB cables?

He wants to watch TV from the Internet. Leo says they don’t exist. There is DVI-HDMI. or DVI-DVI. That’s compatible. He wants to broadcast what he sees on his computer to his big screen. Look for a DVI output on your video card. That’s best. But the TV may not be able to pick up the computer video signal. So, you may need a converter box to convert it to SVideo or Component. Some TVs have an RGB connector, so that’s a possibility as well.

Q Tom, Hemmit, CA - Borrowing a neighbor’s wifi

Has been using an open wiFi signal and is concerned about his security. Leo says that’s a very valid concern as they can read your passwords, email, etc. you need to be sure they’re encrypted.

Leo suggests you talk to your neighbor and have them turn on WPA encryption, with a good, random password. Then, once you enter it, the wifi system is completely closed to anyone sniffing the signal and both of you are protected.

Q Jenny, Pittsburgh, PA - KISS Controller for RockBand.

Where can she get the Gene Simmons Guitar Controller? Leo says it just came out and it may take a few weeks, but it’s available now for preorder at Amazon.com. But it’ll certainly be everywhere by Christmas.

See yas tomorrow!

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