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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Sunday 23 November 2008
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Tech News
Black Friday …
Leo says that this coming Friday is Black Friday. The biggest shopping day of the year and the day you can get screaming deals on technology. But Leo suspects that because the economy is so bad, that if you can wait until after the first of the year to make a major purchase, the deals will be even better!
Checking out iPodmeister
iPodmeister is a new service which takes the users CDs and converts them to MP3. Then, they keep the CDs as payment. One reporter used the service and got some feedback that this may be piracy. So, he contacted the RIAA, which said they had no position or opinion of it. Could it be that this is “fair use” and entirely legal? Or is it piracy?
Click Jacking is the new security threat
[[Q: Terry, Murrieta, CA - Backup trouble with Time Capsule
Terry wants to use Time Capsule to move his iTunes library to an external hard drive. The TC seems to have disappeared from his network. “Click jacking” is a new sneaky little hack that makes an invisible layer on a webpage which will do things on your computer without your knowledge. Hackers figured out that on pages where you can log in with a single click, they can create a utility that will log into your account and run a script which will do nefarious things. This could mean someone is reading your mail, someone is accessing your bank records. It’s very sneaky. There’s a fix requiring authentication.
Firefox users can also install the “no scripts” add-on. But what you need to do is log out of every secure account every time you are done. Don’t just close the window. LOG. OUT!
PC Magazine calls it quits …
Sort of. PC Magazine is going out of print and will become an online only publication. Most of their employees will stay on. Is this the beginning of the end for print media?
Someone in the chat room says that all but the celebrity tabloids will probably die off, but people will always need their gossip rags.
Guests
Chris Marquardt - Tips from the Top Floor
The topic of the day … FIREWORKS! Photographic fireworks, specifically. A good shot will show the traces captured by a long exposure. You’d need a tripod, a remote release (infrared or cable). But how do you focus? Choose a fireaway streetlight and manually focus. Estimating roughly the same distance is best, but fireworks will be in the infinite range, so you should be able to get far enough. But be careful as today’s auto focus lens can actually go beyond infinity. So focus in auto focus and then switch to manual and leave it there. Use wide angale will not only give you more area to cover, but give you a greater depth of field. How long to set the camera? Set it to “Bulb” mode. For those without, setting it to a 30 second exposure will work as well.
But the problem is, you don’t want everything a firework does. You really want to “blooming flower” in the sky. Have a dark hat with you and hold the dark hat in front of the camera. Just before the firework explodes, remove the hat. Then put it back up until the next explosion. Keep the bulb shutter open until you’re done capturing it.
These tips will also work for capturing lightning.
And don’t forget the photo assignment - HUGE. You decide what that means. Then, put it up on Flickr and add it to the Tech Guy Group.
Hour 1
Q Tara, Johnson City, TN - Get another DSL line for another computer?
Tara wants to know if she needs another DSL line for another computer or can she share the line? Leo says all you need is a wireless router and a wifi receiver (if your laptop is new, you won’t need the receiver) for each computer which will network all the PCs and let them share the DSL line. The Linksys WRT54G router is a good one to start with. Then, you can tell the router to make the connection and remove the dialer software. And the best thing is, you’ll be more secure against viruses and hackers.
Q Kurt, Cincinnati, OH - Trouble with his HP
Kurt’s laptop is having driver issues. He gets a driver error message. Leo says that error messages are worse than useless. The computer is probably guessing at what is wrong when it gives you a BSOD message. Leo says he should use the Windows install disk, reboot the machine, and select “R” for repair. You can also use the system restore disks. But Leo also suspects the culprit may be worse … it may be the hard drive is going on you. So once you get Windows repaired. Get the data off it, then, do the recovery to wipe the drive and get it back to the way you bought it. If the problem persists, the hard drive should probably be replaced. You can also run “Spin Rite” on it to try and fix it.
Another culprit could be spyware. Sometimes, spyware will disguise itself as driver failure.
Q Jack, Fresno, CA - SD Memory card types
Jack wants to know the difference between SDHC cards and SD’s Ultra brand? Leo says it’s speed. Secure Digital’s Ultra line have very fast write speeds and are designed for cameras using “burst modes.” Ass they cost 2–3 times more, you won’t need to pay for the ultra brand for regular day to day use. You don’t want to lose pictures or footage because the card corrupts. So stick with the brand names. Another thing to consider is if your camera and your card reader support high capacity (SDHC) cards (4GB or above).
And if you ever have trouble with a card, they’re so cheap these days (like 4GB for $10!) that if they start to go bad, you just toss em and get a new one.
Hour 2
Q Terry, Murrieta, CA - Backup trouble with Time Capsule
Terry has gone all Mac and wants to use Time Capsule to move his iTunes library to an external hard drive. The TC seems to have disappeared from his network. He was hoping also to get it configured on his Vista machine. Leo says that as long as you aren’t connecting it to the PC and are using SAMBA, you’ll be okay. Enable Sharing on the Airport machine. Make sure the Windows WorkGroup name is the same everywhere, including in the Airport utility. Then it should appear as a network attached storage unit. You also may run into issues with your security software. Try temporarily disabling it. Make sure your firewall is allowing network sharing.
Q Tom, Astabuella, OH - Router recommendation
Tom wants to know what router is best for following Leo’s advice to Tara (above). He’s concerned about interference. Leo says that because Tom is in a rural area, but wants to go about 500 feet from his base, that an “N” router from Linksys or Belkin is best. If you can’t get it to go out to 500 feet, you can get a repeater from the same company and use it to boost the signal from midway. If the router doesn’t work at 2.4 Ghz. Boost it to 5 Ghz. If that doesn’t work, you can get a stronger antenna. Worst case, you buy another line.
Q Jay, Providence, NC - MSN Explorer slowing down
Jay has been using MSN explorer, instead of MSN.COM. But now it’s slowed his PCs down to a crawl. Leo says that Microsoft has abandoned MSNE. It isn’t secure. Leo suggests Jay move over to Microsoft’s LIVE Email solution.
Jay is getting a “virtual memory too slow” message. Leo says that the slow down can also be do to running out of hard drive space. Empty out the temporary files. Also, increase your RAM (Jay has 256MB). It may be time to either get a new rig, boost the RAM to 1GB (use the Crucial Ram Picker to figure out what you need), and clean out all those temp files and unused programs that are taking up room on the hard drive.
You can also just back up your data and then use your restore disks to wipe the computer and start over.
Q Marilyn, New Carlisle, OH - Get AppleCare?
Marilyn is getting a MACBOOK. Should she buy AppleCare? AppleCare is an extended warranty that goes beyond the 1 year parts/labor. Leo thinks that AppleCare is just insurance. Chances are, if the computer is going to die, it’ll do it within the first year. And it’s usually the hard drive, which is very easy to replace. So save your money.
How long should she wait to get the best deal? Leo says you should at least wait until Friday. Apple will have some discounts just like everyone else.
Hour 3
Q Brenden, St. Louis, MO - Capturing HD content
Brenden wants to capture HD content using his two year old computer. He is concerned his video card won’t handle it. Leo says that HD signals use a LOT of bandwidth. Leo recommends Pinnacle and Hauppauge for USB devices that tune to the HD broadcast signals. Ideally, you’d want a video card that does all the video encoding to save the computer power. But his computer should be powerful enough.
But what about copy protection? He’s using a Satellite dish. Leo says the satellite dish probably supports HDCP copy protection. Which means he’d have to use HDCP compliant everything to use it. He could strip it using the analog hole using component out instead of HDMI. Or, he could use Windows Media Center to capture it.
Leo thinks that if you can get component out on your Dish box and watch it on your TV, then you should be able to take that analog signal and input it into your component TV capture card. According to the chatroom, BlackMagic makes a component capture card. Encode it in H.264 and you’ll be able to play it on any device.
Edio in our chat room says he uses the ATI USB 600 Capture card for encoding broadcast HiDef with no problem.
Q Jill, Los Alamitos, CA - Smart Phone recommendation
Her Treo 700P died. Should she stick with the Treo line or jump ship to the Blackberry? The question is, are you happy with Palm? The Treo Pro is a nice looking phone. But the problem is that Jill will be going from Palm to Windows Mobile and he says it’s very cumbersome to use. Also, third party software will have to be replaced as any Palm software won’t work on the new Treo. You won’t be able to use Palm Sync, you’ll need to use Windows Active Sync.
Leo also says that if your contract is up, you can call your cell provider and work a good deal on it.
But Leo also believes that the BlackBerry Bold is the best choice for her.
Q Nagib, Redondo Beach, CA - Mac laptop recommendation
Nagib wants a MacBook with a large screen but doesn’t know what to get. Leo says you may as well buy at the Apple Store. The largest screen is a 17″ MacBook, but they haven’t been updated yet. Leo says though, to get the 15″ Macbook Pro and a 24″ Mac monitor. Then you have the best of both worlds and don’t have to lug around the hefty 17″ laptop. But Leo also suggests that if you really want the 17″ Macbook, to wait until it’s been updated with better video cards. Look for an annoucement at MacWorld in January. You can also speed it up by turning on the NVidia 9600 chip set. But it sucks up the battery life more.
Leo also says to watch the Apple Store website on Black Friday. Some discounting may be had. But then again, waiting until January may find more deals as new models are announced.
Nagib also wants to know if he can backup his Smartphone to his MAC. Leo says he could if its an iPhone. But you can get a gadget called the BACKUP PAL which will backup your data to a small “puck.”
Lastly, Nagib is looking for a voice recorder to replace his Olympus. Leo says Olympus makes great voice recorders. But if you’re upgrading your cellphone or even have an iPod, you can have recording capability there.
Q Jeff, San Rafael, CA - iTune update errors
Every time iTunes updates, he loses his CD/DVD drive in Vista. Leo says it’s a driver issue. It doesn’t affect all PCs, but it appears to be a driver conflict caused by the iTunes ATAPI driver. At the moment, there’s no long term fix. Sorry Jeff!
