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Saturday December 13, 2008

Q Ed, Rialto, CA - “About:blank” bug

Q Dan, Chino Hills, CA - Assigning a download folder

Dan is tired of hunting around for his download folder. Go into the Firefox settings, look for the download folder. Choose or make a folder where you want stuff to be saved. Check always save to … But once you open those downloads and install, they may go elsewhere.

Dan also wants to set up a gaming configuration that he can boot into. Leo suggests going to BlackViper.com. It’s a site which will give you the best information on how to streamline your rig for hard core game play.

Hard drive recommendation, Seagate or Western Digital? Leo says that WDs are quieter. SATA? Since Dan wants an external drive, he needs eSATA. They’re fast. But you need an eSATA port to plug into them. But eSATAs are blazing fast.

Leo loves Garmin Nuvi 250. It’s updatable for both maps and points of interest. Leo also says the TOM TOM is great because of it’s community features, where users can contribute to updates.

Great time to get a GPS!

Q Ed, Rialto, CA - About bug

Ed thinks he’s got a virus called “About:Blank.” Leo says it’s a homepage hijacker that’s a variant of CoolWebSearch. Download and install Microsoft Defender and run it to clean off spyware. And pick up a good AVS like Nod32 by Eset.

But the downside is that these days, viruses are so pernicious that it’s usually easier to just start over by formatting your hard drive and reinstalling your OS.

Q Ben, Los Angeles - GPS recommendation.

Ben needs a good GPS for a road trip. He wants a large screen. Turn by turn directions with street name. Some have free and paid traffic information. They have speakers into your stereo or via bluetooth.

Leo loves Garmin Nuvi 250. It’s updatable for both maps and points of interest. Leo also says the TOM TOM is great because of it’s community features, where users can contribute to updates.

Q Michael, Washington, DC - Unlocking a cell phone

Michael wants to unlock his phone and use it with another carrier. Leo says that if you have a GSM phone, you can take out your SIM chip and put in another from your new carrier. But if you have a locked down phone, what to do then? Leo says there are websites which claim to unlock your phone for a price, you send them your phone code and they’ll give you the keys to unlock it. But really, the best way to do it is to find a local all in one guy who can unlock it for you. Buy from him and he’ll unlock any phone to where you want it. And it isn’t illegal to unlock your phone.

You can buy unlocked phones, but there’s no subsidy and as such, they cost several hundred dollars more.

Dell Inspiron 1326. His shutdown takes several minutes. Leo says that isn’t good. Windows waits for every program to end before it shuts down. You can try shutting down some of the applications running in the background and then shut down. But Leo says there is a command line instruction that does it. Wizmo by Steve Gibson is will handle this nicely. It’ll give you the ability to make an icon to force shut down the PC.

Leo also advises to go to your current carrier and tell them you’re planning on leaving to see what they will offer you. Definitely, they’ll give you a phone, but will it be good enough? You may be able to negotiate for a BlackBerry Curve or Tilt.

Q Glen, Orange County, CA - Transferring phone to phone

Glen is having trouble moving from the Treo 680 to the iPhone. Leo says the first chore is to get everything into Outlook. The iPhone can sync to Outlook, albeit not very well. Palm has a plug-in called “Pocket Mirror” to sync into Outlook. It came with your old phone. Then, once you have all your data into Outlook, you can then sync to your iPhone through iTunes.

Another option is to use Google Calendar, which will sync with both.

Syncing is a kind of black art. It’s not perfect, you may end up with duplicates, but once you get it over, you’re golden.

Q Howard, Louisville, KY - Mounting External hard drives

Howard wants to back up his Mac, and his two PCs to backup. He’s partitioned the hard drive properly. But now his PCs it won’t recognize all the drives partitions.

Leo suspects because Howard may have used the MAC program to partition, rather than FDisk. Windows won’t read the partitions MAC makes. Start over and use FDisk to partition the drives. Make one primary and three extended in FAT32. That’ll fix it.

She also wants to get a Blu-ray player. Leo says prices have plummeted to under $200 (check Walmart). But if you’re a gamer, there’s nothing better than the Sony PS3. As for upscaling standard DVDs, they all do it. So you’re okay there. Check Sony, Memorex, Phillips and LG.

Digital Camera wise. Does MP make a difference. Leo says that don’t get caught up with MP. You can have a lot of MP but if the lens isn’t great, so what? 8MP will work just fine for snapshots. Check out the Canon Powershot and the Nikon Coolpix.

She also wants to get a Blu-ray player. Leo says prices have plummeted to under $200 (check Walmart). But if you’re a gamer, there’s nothing better than the Sony PS3. As for upscaling standard DVDs, they all do it. So you’re okay there. Check Sony, Memorex, Phillips and LG.

Dell Inspiron 1326. His shutdown takes several minutes. Leo says that isn’t good. Windows waits for every program to end before it shuts down. You can try shutting down some of the applications running in the background and then shut down.

Q Dee, Vista, CA - Gadget recommendations

She also wants to get a Blu-ray player. Leo says prices have plummeted to under $200 (check Walmart). But if you’re a gamer, there’s nothing better than the Sony PS3. As for upscaling standard DVDs, they all do it. So you’re okay there. Check Sony, Magnavox, Phillips and LG.

Q Paul, Casper, WY - PC shutdown takes awhile

Dell Inspiron 1326. His shutdown takes several minutes. Leo says that isn’t good. Windows waits for every program to end before it shuts down. You can try shutting down some of your TSR applications (running in the background) and then shut down.

But Leo says there is a command line instruction that does it. Wizmo by Steve Gibson is will handle this nicely. It’ll give you the ability to make an icon to force shut down the PC.

Q Chuck, Laguna Nigel, CA - Syncing iPod with iPhoto

Chuck is using NAS (network attached storage) and is having trouble syncing his iPhoto library to the iPod. iTunes doesn’t see it. Leo says that you need to mount the NAS like a hard drive. Then, look in your iTunes settings to the Photos tab and verify the list of libraries for the iPhoto. If it doesn’t see it, Leo suspects there’s a bug in the software. Leo also wonders if there’s another iPhoto library that it’s seeing. There can be only one iPhoto library for iTunes to see. If there’s more than one, it may be pointed to the wrong one.

Check out the Apple Forums to search if anyone has a similar problem and offering a workaround. Or, make a new album alias that you can drag and drop into to sync from.

At the break, Leo has found confirmation from the forums that it is indeed a bug. Sadly, no one has a real answer to how to work around it. :(

Q Dee, Vista, CA - Phone recommendation

Dee wants a GPS smartphone. Is the iPhone a good idea? Leo says that GPS wise, it’s not a great solution. The iPhone doesn’t have voice directions. But reading, there are good turn by turn directions to read. Media player wise, there’s none better. But is it worth moving from the old carrier to AT&T? Hard to say. Check the coverage. Compare data rates. The good thing is that AT&T will let you cancel after a few weeks if you don’t think it’s the carrier/phone for you.

Leo also advises to go to your current carrier and tell them you’re planning on leaving to see what they will offer you. Definitely, they’ll give you a phone, but will it be good enough? You may be able to negotiate for a Curve or Tilt from Blackberry.

But Leo keeps coming back to the iPhone. But minimum cost of the iPhone is at least $80 a month.

She also wants to get a Blu-ray player. Leo says prices have plummeted to under $200 (check Walmart). But if you’re a gamer, there’s nothing better than the Sony PS3. As for upscaling standard DVDs, they all do it. So you’re okay there. Check Sony, Magnavox, Phillips and LG.

Digital Camera wise. Does MP make a difference. Leo says that don’t get caught up with MP. You can have a lot of MP but if the lens isn’t great, so what? 8MP will work just fine for snapshots. Check out the Canon Powershot and the Nikon Coolpix.

If you download AV360, you will co-opt your computer and turn it into a zombie for hackers. Fortunately, Janice’s Nod32 prevented her from opening it. Yea! But Leo also says that Janice has spyware. Best thing is to get Malware Bytes. Download the AntiMalware and get that Monster spyware off! Install Microsoft’s Defender and the Malicious Software Removal Tool to remove everything.

Q Brian, Tulsa, OK - Affiliate Marketing

Brian is concerned that if he sells something as an Affiliate, that it will be bogus. People won’t trust it. Leo says that when people have Associates accounts, they get paid royalties for every purchase. This is okay since, people will be buying them anyway and will be getting a commission on purchase.

But multi-level marketing obscures who’s buying what, from whom. So it’s best to avoid these as scams can abate as a result. Look for a “green bar” at the top of your browser (if in Firefox). It’s a secure site that verifies you’re at the right sight to purchase what you want.

The key is transparency.

Q Robert, Camarillo, CA - iPhone recommendation

Robet wants to buy a new iPhone, but hears rumors of an upcoming upgrade. Leo says that a new generation iPhone won’t be coming until at least the summer. Apple will announce new products at MacWorld in January, but it won’t be an iPhone, you can bank on that.

Q June, Los Angeles, CA - Camera recommendations

Q Janice, Santa Monica - AntiVirus concerns

Janice has been getting all sorts of popup alerts. She’s also discovered AntiVirus 360 shortcuts on her desktop. Leo says it’s browser popups and bogus attempts to get you to install spyware and viruses. It’s a scam.

If you download AV360, you will co-opt your computer and turn it into a zombie for hackers. Fortunately, Janice’s Nod32 prevented her from opening it. Yea! But Leo also says that Janice has spyware. Best thing is to get Malware Bytes. Download the AntiMalware and get that Monster spyware off! Install Microsoft’s Defender and the Malicious Software Removal Tool to remove everything.

LED backlit DLP TVs are great because the LEDs can be pulsed quickly to improve sharpness. Only two companies making them are Samsung and Mitsubishi. But now, Mitsu is coming out with LASER TVs. But the downside is that a similar size is $7,000!

For families on a budget, and if you have space, then DLP Rear Projection HDTVs are a good value.

Leo wonders about front projection TVs. Expensive? Scott says that they don’t have to be. Sanyo makes an LCD projector for about $2000.

Scott’s doing a concert here in L.A. this weekend. An All Tuba Christmas! Tomorrow night, 7pm at the Alex Theater. 250 Tubas playing Christmas songs and Scott will be one of them!

Check out TubaChristmas.Com for a concert near you.

Scott’s also talking DLP Rear projection TVs. Leo says that it’s a dying field, but you get so much bang for the buck. Scott does agree that they’re a dying breed, but you can still get a 65″ DLP RPTV for under $2K. It has slightly off axis issues, but no difference than LCDs which suffer from the same thing.

The thing is that people want thin, and DLR RPTVs are anything but. The current models, though, are much thinner than the old school ones from 10 years ago.

LED backlit DLP TVs are great because the LEDs can be pulsed quickly to improve sharpness. Only two companies making them are Sharp and Mitsubishi. But now, Mitsu is coming out with LASER TVs. But the downside is that a similar size is $7,000!

David Pogue says backing up to DVD is a bad idea

Q June, Los Angeles, CA -

June got a Canon G9. Takes it everywhere. But she needs longer zoom. She wonders what Leo thinks of the Nikon P80? It has 18x. Leo also thinks that longer zooms like 20x can really accentuate camera shake and at those extreme distances, you need a tripod to steady the camera. Leo says that at this point, you almost want to make the leap to DSLR. What about the Canon SX10? It has 10x. That’s pretty good. Heavier than the G9 though. Leo likes the Fuji Finepix S1000. 12x zoom. 10 MP. Very well done.

One thing you want to guard against is “digital zoom.” That’s not really zoom. It’s digital manipulation, and is used as a marketing ploy to make you think you’re getting more than you are.

Major layoffs at Yahoo.

Yahoo announces major layoffs, but nobody knows how many it will be. The first round was 1,500 this week as part of Yahoo’s plan to trim expenses up to $400 million a year.

Saturday December 12, 2008

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Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine

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