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Sunday 16 November 2008
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Tech News
Will Obama have to get rid of his Blackberry?
By Law, the President will have to surrender his Blackberry upon taking the Oval Office. According to the Presidential Records Act, all Presidential correspondence, whether public or private, is subject to public review. So chances are, the Big O may have to go through Blackberry withdrawl.
An Update on WPA Networking Encryption cracking …
Leo’s fix was right on, but the threat is not as bad as Leo thought. Change the router name and default password. Turn off Universal Plug and Play. Turn off “administration via WAN.” Lastly, turn on WPA Networking.
The news is that there’s a minor attack on TKIP Encryption which allows for sending data. Turn on AES Encryption and WPA2 and you’ll shut the hole. And if you want a really HARD password, head over to GRC.
Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona sues Google/Yahoo
The soccer star doesn’t want search results based on his name. So he sued both Google and Yahoo. Absurd, illogical, and probably impossible to police. Another public figure, Maria Subiglia, also sued. But how do you sue search results? Do you block searching for newspapers?
Hour 1
Q Peter, Dana Point, CA - Hacking the Apple TV
Peter installed “Boxee” that Leo recommended on his AppleTV, but it rather disappointing by it’s performance. Leo says that is to be expected as the ATV is just not as powerful as the MacMini. The chip is running at 1.6 GHz, but it isn’t super fast. It’s almost like an iPod for the TV and even Apple admits it practically is like a hobby project.
You can replace it with a MacMini, but you have to get additional hardware for it. Like the ElGato ITV.
Q Tom, Warren, OH - Getting podcasts with the iPhone
Tom called in to talk about accidents that happen while people are texting messages to one another. Even while they’re walking!
Tom also wants to know about download specific podcasting via the iPhone. Leo says that vs. 2.2 of the iPhone software will make this happen. At the bottom of the screen in the player will be a “get more” button. Leo also suspects it’ll be WiFi only as otherwise will blow out the download limit of the iPhone data plan.
Q Susan, San Antonio, TX - Watching TV on your computer
Susan has an offer to download software for $30 and watch over a thousand channels on her computer. Worth it? Leo says NO, unless you like to watch news from Bulgaria. You’ll get mostly international television stations that have been “aggregated” into a software program and it’s streaming internet video you can get for free anyway.
Check out JOOST.
Q Tammy, Los Angeles, CA - Getting a new PC
Worried about buying a new PC and using Vista. How will it handle the network and her older programs? Leo says that Vista is now mature and actually better than XP. There may be some compatibility issues - but they’re largely proprietary software issues. You want to be sure you have the updated Vista drivers for your hardware (printers, etc.). Leo also says that networking with VISTA has gotten better to the point where it outperforms XP.
Tammy’s also considering the MAC but concerned with interfacing with her network. Leo says it’s not an issue, Macs can go cross platform on a network. And you can run Windows on a Mac as well, so that will save from having to repurchase mac versions of all your software.
Hour 2
Q Kirk, Swannee, GA - Shopping for a new smart phone
Kirk has come across the HTC Fuse, wants to know about it. Leo says that HTC makes great phones. The G1, the best Windows Mobile phones. Leo says the Fuse is very similar to the Google Phone G1 and may have been adapted for use on the AT&T network. Leo isn’t sure if it has haptic touch screen capability though.
For those who are using it, they say it’s a great phone. The one negative, is that it uses Windows Mobile. Not Leo’s favorite OS. It’s clunky. But you’ll get used to it.
Since you’re an AT&T customer, you might want to look at the Blackberry Bold.
Q Andrew, Salinas, CA - Listening to streams on his phone
Andrew has the HTC TILT (8525). He believes it’s the iPhone killer. Great bluetooth system. Andrew wants to listen to radio streaming into the phone. Leo sayss that most stream Windows Media, and what you need is a player that can play back that form. There’s player on the iPhone called I HEART RADIO, and there’s also an ICECAST player.
You can’t really listen to the stream with the phone browswer because it’ll need a Windows Media plugin and the phone browser can’t handle it. Leo says that radio stations really need to get with the program on this.
This is the future. And not only for radio. Video to. Check out Qik, which allows users of smart phones to stream live via their phones!
Q Lucille, Bellmont, CA - Needs a new monitor for photography
Lucille needs a new monitor because she says her pictures show up very dark when she displays them on the computer. She says the colors are off. The problem is that the monitor and printer aren’t calibrated. And monitors get darker as they get older. But even if you get a new monitor, there’s no guarantee that the colors will be accurate as you go from the camera to the computer to the DVD. The trickiest and most important is going from monitor (transparent light) to printer (reflected light). You can buy professional calibration device, called a Colorimeter. Spyder makes one that’s very affordable.
What you want is a monitor that has a high percentage of the colors in a color space, known as the “color gammut.” Eizo makes the most accurate monitors, but they aren’t cheap. About 2–3x more. Apple makes good monitors as well. Leo recommends getting a good high end dell, and then pick up the Spyder 2 colorimeter and you’ll get it pretty close.
Q David, Los Angeles, CA - Vista crashed
Jay has to do a recovery for the second time after Vista crash. He installed Internet Explorer 8, didn’t like it. Removed it, and that’s when everything went to hell. This time, after reinstalling the OS, Windows update gives him the BSOD. Leo suspects that it’s trying to update and install I.E. 8 and it’s missing several key files. Update may have modified itself to recover I.E. 8 and that’s where Jay running into trouble. Try restoring and repairing I.E. 7. The problem is that these programs, like I.E., are Windows components and as such, are more system files than application files.
Start, Run, CMD. Then type “SFC/SCANNOW”. You’ll need your Windows Disks and this will search for corrupted files and gives you a chance to replace them. Can he do it with a recovery disk? Leo says you can, but you have to do it without wiping out your data. And, of course, you’ll have to reinstall all your applications. Go into safe mode, back up your data and start over.
Hour 3
Q Jack, Long Beach, CA - Is instant messaging safe?
Leo says it’s largely safe, however, if someone knows your account, they can send you a virus file through IM. So make sure only those you can IM you, and NEVER read an attachment.
Is it secure? The IMs aren’t encrypted by default, so you want to look for IM that allows for third party encryption. Jabber is a good one that is used by Google Talk by Google has SSL encryption. The other issue is that you’re people have to be on the same IM system for encryption to work. iChat for the Mac supports it. Pigeon for Linux supports it. Adium (mac) is one that Leo uses and it can talk to any IM system.
Cool thing is Google Talk just started supporting video chat.
Q Gary, a TruckStop in TX - Stuck in dial-up hell
How can Gary get DSL? He’s stuck in dial-up because he lives in a rural area. This is the reason why Leo thinks we need a Tennessee Valley Authority program for broadband. Leo says if you can’t get DSL in your area and there’s no cable TV, you’re really limited to Satellite. Not ideal. You have to buy expensive hardware, it’s not very high speed up-link, but downstream is pretty good. Some in our chat room play Second Life on Sat. Higher monthly fee. Download limits. Leo suggests high speed cell internet access like EVDO as well. Check out MNDS, and WiMax. They’re line of sight and work great in rural areas.
Check out broadbandreports.com for your option. You can also consider going to your neighbors and pooling your money together to buy a T1 line and create a little internet co-op. It’s not cheap, but the speed is worth it if you can divide the costs with neighbors.
Q Matt, St. Louis, MO - External hard drive crashed hard
He’s hearing rattling and clattering. Leo says your bearings are going out. The hard drive has physically died. There’s no way to recover it. You can go to a data recovery service like Drive Savers, which take your hard drive into a clean room, remove the platters and put them into a matching, healthy mechanism. But it’s about $2,000 or more!
Just a reminder, gotta back up. All drives will fail eventually.
Matt is also considering a laptop. He’s an artist and wants to be able to create on the go. Leo says definitely get a Mac. But then again, Adobe’s latest version of Photoshop (CS4) is 64 bit Windows. Leo likes the Mac Book Pro. Color accuracy and evenness of the lighting is spectacular.
Q Mike, Studio City, CA - HTML Email and attachments
Data can’t do anything to you. However, Spyware. Viruses. can be embedded in attachments you have to worry about are “executable files.” Web pages may have suspect java instructions that are, in essence, executables. Even a JPEG can hide an executable which takes advantage of a flaw in JPEG viewers. Even PDFs have a similar flaw. Truth is, there’s always the potential that a file may have a virus instruction built into them. The key is to keep your OS patched, your software patched, backup your data, and have an up to date AVS that scans your data.
Q Justin, MASS - Gaming systems & Video Cards
Pentium D Processor and video cards for gaming. Leo says a gaming system with a slower processor can cause the video card to wait. You don’t want to get a more powerful video card than your processor.
See you next week and don’t forget to back up!
