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Sunday 4 January 2009

This week is Leo’s 5th Anniversary of the Tech Guy Show

Happy Anniversary, Leo!

Two biggest tech trade shows of the year begin …

MacWorld Expo and CES begin this week. Sadly, though, Steve Jobs will not be giving the keynote, being replaced by marketing guy Phil Schiller. He’s the demo guy. But it’s causing rumors of Steve’s health deteriorating and Apple hasn’t done much to quell the rumor mill. Cupertino’s explanation is that they’d like to get beyond the notion that Steve Jobs is Apple. Also, Apple is pulling out of MacWorld Expo after this year as they feel they get just as much runway out of their own events. Leo agrees, in the Internet age, huge trade shows don’t really make sense anymore. And really, January is a terrible time to announce a new product since the Christmas rush is over.

At CES the big news may be 3D TV. Hollywood is getting behind this technology now that it has matured past the red and blue geek glasses. And this is the first year of the Steve Ballmer Microsoft keynote.

Ssome people wonder if it’s a good idea to wait until after CES to buy tech. Leo says no. Stuff at CES is rarely available after the show. In fact, it’s usually later in the year. MacWorld Expo is different as new MAC stuff is available almost immediately after. But that’s all changing with Apple pulling out.

Guests

Chris Marquardt - Tips from the Top Floor

Today, we’re looking at the best pictures describing the word HUGE. Check out the Tech Guy Group at Flickr. Today we’re talking the best HUGE pictures from our latest assignment.

The first one Chris liked is the Catedral São Pedro de Alcântara by Fernando Chagas. Second is iPhone vs. Spinny-Thing by Michael Senechal.

The new assignment … SILHOUETTE. Take a picture and upload it to Flickr, tag it with silhouette and add it to the Tech Guy group.

Q Eugene, Vallejo, CA - Hard drive issues

Eugene went to the Geek Squad to get some work done on his PC, but his hard drive only has one file on it now. Leo thinks this may be an image file and was done by the techs. He suggests talking to the techs at the Geek Squad and finding out what they used to make the Image. Could be Norton Ghost, TruImage or Drive Snapshot. Until he knows, he won’t be able to read it.

Q Mic, Los Angeles, CA - Digital Picture Frames

SD cards for his digital picture frame are formatted in FAT32. Problem though is that FAT32 will only handle about 500 pictures. So anything above around 1GB is wasted space. Is there a workaround? Can you reformat to NTFS? Leo says it’s not a given that it will work in some picture frames.

Q Ken, Simi Valley, CA - email attachments in .htm

Ken gets emails with .htm attachments and they’re blocked. Leo says that .htm is a webpage. When someone sends you that as an attachment, you have to be careful as the .htm code could have suspect code in it for spyware or even viruses. Reading it as text is much more secure. Turn off the “preview pane” in your email program and that will prevent any nasty payload from going off. The #1 way to get infected now is preview in email of .html email.

Q Denise, Cleveland, OH - Recording streaming radio online

Denise wants to the Mark and Brian radio show streaming radio online and recording it. Leo says they need a podcast to make it easier. Leo says that the C Crane CC Witness is good option. Griffin makes one called the Radio Shark. Both are like a VCR for broadcast radio.

Recording over the Internet, Applian makes software for Windows that records Internet radio and video. On a Mac, Radio Shift (thanks JayWire).

Q Edward, Valley Glen, CA - Importing email from one PC to another

Edward got a new PC and wants to transfer his AOL email from one PC to another. He has to go online to see the stored mail in the latest version of AOL. Leo thinks that’s a heck of a flaw. One thing you can do is To check your personal filing cabinet. Once you read them, they’re stored there. This is an AOL folder inside of an application folder. C:\DOCUMENTS AND USERS\ALL USERS\APPLICATION DATA\AOL\C_AMERICA ONLINE 9.0\ORGANIZE. That folder has your email. Copy it and get it into your new PCs AOL file cabinet.

Here’s a link from About and this link as well, which may be able to talk you through recovering your email - get it off and then perhaps it’s time to move on from AOL.

Q Travis, Seattle, WA - Security on a wireless network

Travis is on a wireless network at school and is concerned about security. Leo says he’s right to be. Data on wireless is broadcast and anyone else on the network can pick it up. Travis’ best bet is to set up a VPN (virtual private network). Leo recommends HotSpotVPN (about $10 a month), then log into it and everything you do will be encrypted.

Q Andrew, Laguna Hills, CA - Bluetooth headset problems

Andrew is having trouble with his BluAnt Supertooth 3. He gets a lot of echo and troubles picking up the phone’s address book. The Supertooth does sit on the visor of your car. But it doesn’t really work well on all phones. So, chances not getting the address book is a compatibility issue with your phone. As for the echo, it may be just a bad “batch” of manufacture.

Q Marco, Los Angeles, CA - ITunes and audio books

Marco is rather annoyed that his audio books don’t get recognized as audio books, but instead as music. Leo says rip it as an aac file and then change the extension to m4b. Then, in the options under “media type” for the item, you can change it to “audiobook” (thanks Justin, chatroom) and then right click on it and select “get info.” Under options, there is a check mark for “remember playback position.”

Marco also wants to know about Bit Torrent P2P. P2P is a peer to peer networking file sharing movement started by a program called Napster. The idea being that bandwidth is shared by everyone using the system. But music piracy cropped up and took it over. Napster ended up being shut down by lawsuit. BitTorrent, however, is different in that pieces of each file are divided up amoungst several, even hundreds of users. So, instead of d/ling it from one PC, you d/l it from several at the same time.

Q Charlene, Yucaipa, CA - Windows Live Photo screensaver crashing

In XP, Right Click on desktop, select “display settings.” Click on the screensaver tab. Select the Windows Live Photo screensaver setting. But if it’s crashing, then it’s damaged and it won’t be easy to fix. The best thing to do is restore and then perform Windows update to stay secure. Afterwards, head on over to Get.live.com and it will let you reinstall the Windows Live Photo program.

Q Eric, Castro Valley, CA - 50″ HDTV suggestion

Eric’s parents are going to get a new 50″ HDTV. Plasma or LCD? Plasmas look better with deeper colors, but are very reflective - so get one only if you can make the family room dark or it has no windows. With ambient light, LCDs are a better choice, even though they’re a little more expensive. Leo says that his favorite plasmas are the Pioneer Kuro and Panasonic. LCD - Sony and Samsung are best. And probably around a 47″ is the best buy.

Q Wanda, Alta Loma, CA - Computer recommendation

Wanda’s son loves computer games and they need a new computer. Budget $1000. Leo says that unless your playing a game with serious graphics, like World of Warcraft, that just about any computer these days will handle it. Go to Dell, get an XPS or Studio Core 2 Duo with 2 GB RAM and an NVidia video card (avoid integrated video card).

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From Twitter:

Q The Jesterman - safe to use a MAC to backup to a Windows NTFS drive

Yes, because it’s a network, it just appears as a hard drive. So yes, using network attached storage is a great idea,Mac or Windows.

Q Brian, Simi Valley, CA - Cat 5 able question

Brian wants to know if a Cat 5 cable can be used for both Internet and Networking. Leo says that to a Cat 5 cable, data is data. Doesn’t matter what it is. The extra pairs of cable are to eliminate interference. If you want to see a breakdown, check out Wikipedia’s Cat 5 article. There is excess capacity and you could separate pairs and share, if you know what you’re doing.

Q David, AmericaFort, UT - HDMI output

He has a DVD/VCR combo with HDMI, but he all he gets is snow. Leo says David should select the right HDMI input. Even though it says it can “autoselect,” Leo says not to trust that. Manually select it and make sure the TV is monitoring it. Also make sure the resolution matches. Outside of that, it could be broken.

See you tomorrow!

Q Ron, Camarillo, CA - Learning to use his iMac

Ron just got a new 24″ iMac and wants to know what options he has to really get to know how to use his MAC. Leo says that a local community college may have a mac specific class. But he also recommends a Mac User Group. Southern California Mac Owners Group (SMOG) is a good one, meets on the second Saturday of the month. These are enthusiasts who will welcome you and help you to learn the MAC up close. But in the end, using the MAC is going to be much easier and faster to know your MAC up close and personal.

A good pair of books, is entitled The Little MacBook/OSX missing manual. You can get them both for about $40 from Amazon.

Q James, Cheyenne, WY - DVD movie play on the MAC

James is using his MAC, but in Windows XP Pro. Can’t play or burn a DVD. Leo says you need a DVD player software utility. Leo likes Cyberlink’s PowerDVD. or better yet, Roxio’s Easy CD & DVD Creator.

James is also having trouble accessing his Audible Account through iTunes. Leo says it’s a copy protection issue. Authorize Audible in iTunes under the Advanced menu (authorize Audible account).

Q Scott, San Diego, CA - Portable sound card trouble

Scott is trying to rip his albums using a IConnects preamp/soundcard by iKey Audio. But as he’s using Audacity, he’s not getting any sound. Leo says you need to make sure that Audacity is looking at the right device. Look in your audio settings in Audacity to be sure that it’s properly chosen. Leo suspects it’s a USB issue. Go into the device manager and remove the USB drivers. Then reboot and let Windows reacquire it.

Gina has had two bank accounts hacked and had it confirmed by the bank. Apparently there was an external account created. Somewhere, somebody got her information. There are “phishing” emails that lure people to click on links that look very official. Leo says that Gina shouldn’t assume she’s the leak of the hack. Banks get hacked all the time and merely pretend it hasn’t happened and they cover the loss. But since it was two separate banks, it may be a keystroke logger that has been installed on your machine. She may also have been “click-jacked,” where an invisible layer has been put over the web page and has harvested her information.

Ron just got a new 24″ iMac and wants to know what options he has to really get to know how to use his MAC. Leo says that a local community college may have a mac specific class. But he also recommends a Mac User Group. Southern California Mac Owners Group (SMOG) is a good one, second Saturday’s of the month. These are enthusiasts who will welcome you and help you to learn the MAC up close. But in the end, using the MAC is going to be much easier and faster to know your MAC up close and personal.

Mike day trades and is concerned about backups. What’s the best way - RAID or imaging the drive? RAID has multiple drives where the files are saved. It’s a good concept, but it shouldn’t replace multiple options including an off site backup. If the controller card fails, you lose the data. It’s not a true backup so much as a first line backup. You still need a backup that’s outside of the box and off site.

Q Ron, Camarillo, CA - Learning to use his MAC

Ron wants to know what options he has to really get to know how to use his MAC. Leo says that a local community college may have a mac specific class. But he also recommends a Mac User Group. Southern California Mac Owners Group (SMOG) is a good one, second Saturday’s of the month. These are enthusiasts who will welcome you and help you to learn the MAC up close. But in the end, using the MAC is going to be much easier and faster to know your MAC up close and personal.

Hour 3

For 3–4K, the Epson Cinema Powerlight Pro is a good one, works on LED not DLP.

Q Gina, Walnut, CA - Her Bank account may have been hacked

Gina has had two bank accounts hacked and had it confirmed by the bank. Apparently there was an external account created. Somewhere, somebody got her information. There are “phishing” emails that lure people to click on links that look very official. Leo says that Gina shouldn’t assume she’s the leak of the hack. Banks get hacked all the time and merely pretend it hasn’t happened and they cover the loss. But since it was two separate banks, it may be a keystroke logger that has been installed on your machine. She may also have been “clickjacked,” where an invisible layer has been put over the web page and has harvested her information.

Close the accounts and open new ones. Use difficult accounts that you change REGULARLY. Leo suggests having the banks to send you a text message with a code that will be needed to log in online. (called multi party or three way authentication) That way, you need both your password and your cellphone text code to log on. This is an extra measure of protection. Answer no emails OR phone calls. Social engineers are very slick at getting your information.

Q Mike, New York, NY - Backing up data on a RAID

Mike day trades and is concerned about backups. What’s the best way - RAID or imaging the drive? RAID has multiple drives where the files are saved. But if the controller card fails, you lose the data. It’s not a true backup so much as a first line backup. You still need a backup that’s outside of the box and off site.

Aaron has a 14 year old neice who plays World of Warcraft all the time. He wants to know about WoW for kids. Leo says it appeals to kids who have little social interaction and it gives them a social outlet. But Leo worries that they don’t learn anything of value or skillset. It’s just pure escapism. Better to plug the kids into MySpace or Facebook where they can find kids who have similar interests. WoW is just addictive and has no endgame. Leo recommends limiting game play and getting them interested in other things like video or digital photography, see if it peaks their interest.

Q John, Pasadena, CA - Video editing with Canon HG20

Q Rocko, Los Angeles, CA - DVD projector recommendation

Rocko wants a DVD player that projects onto a blank wall. These are DLP TVs, much like a powerpoint projector with a DVD player built in. Pros - the screen can be REALLY big. Cons - you have to darken the room - mostly for home theater. You want one that’s really bright. Epson makes them for the affordable crowd. High end - Christie DLP projectors, but they costs thousands. Read plenty reviews before you buy. Check out Ultimate AV Magazine for reviews. And don’t forget screen cost in your budget. You want a good, quality screen for the best image and they can cost you.

Q Aaron, Chino, CA - World of Warcraft for kids

Aaron wants to know about WoW for kids. Leo says it appeals to kids who have little social interaction and it gives them a social outlet. But Leo worries that they don’t learn anything of value or skillset. It’s just pure escapism. Better to plug the kids into MySpace or Facebook where they can find kids who have similar interests. WoW is just addictive and has no endgame. Leo recommends limiting game play and getting them interested in other things like video or digital photography, see if it peaks their interest.

Q Angelo, Cucamonga, CA - What happens if offsite b/u option dies out?

Attach:ddrobo.jpg Δ
Angelo is concerned that if the off-site backup option fails, what then? Leo quotes Alex Lindsay when he says “if you only have on copy of something, it doesn’t exist.” So make multiple backups. Sounds extreme, but in an absolutely worst case scenario, you’ll be glad you had extra backups. RAIDS were created for that reason, as does Networked Attached Storage like DROBO. Windows Home Server is a good option, but not necessarily cheap when you add the hardware. But you can use an older computer as your server, not a bad idea either.

Can a computer with multiple drives be vulnerable to attack? Of course they can. If the OS can see a drive, a virus can see it.

Q John, Pasadena, CA - Canon Video Camera

John just picked up the Canon HG20. How to edit? He has a 1.6 Ghz dual core. Is it fast enough for editing? Leo says it’ll be a tad slow, but it can work. More important is the RAM and how fast your hard drives are. Leo says that to be serious, avoid using the Pixela software and pick up a copy of Adobe Premiere Elements. Best $80 you’ll buy.

The Vixia shoots high def in AVCHD and takes a lot of processor power. But instead of importing at 1080p, import at 540p. Half the resolution (you won’t even notice btw) and half the size. This will take great strain off the processor and the best part is, you’ll get about 95% of the quality for half the space.

Mike wants to know if Leo has heard of BleepingComputer.com. Leo thinks that at this stage of the Spyware wars, it’s just easier to get your data off and start over, rather than try and take spyware off piecemeal. But Mike uses ComboFix first and then Adaware or Spybot to mop up the rest. He says afterwards, he rarely sees a reinfection.

The best solution, though, is to be proactive. Leo suggests getting your computer the way you like it and while it’s still clean, use Drive Snapshot to image the hard drive. Then, if you get an infection, you can just blast the image back onto your hard drive in minutes, not hours.

The thing is that the guys who write spyware have as their goal to hide the spyware to the point where you can’t disinfect your PC. They can attach to system files and it just makes it impossible. So nuke it from orbit and start over.

Q Aaron, Chino, CA - World of Warcraft

Aaron wants to know about WoW. Leo says it appeals to kids who have little social interaction and it gives them a social outlet. But Leo worries that they don’t learn anything of value or skillset. It’s just pure escapism. Better to plug the kids into MySpace or Facebook where they can find kids who have similar interests. WoW is just addictive and has no endgame. Leo recommends limiting game play and getting them interested in other things like video or digital photography, see if it peaks their interest.

Q Mike, New Bedford, MA - Spyware forum site

Mike wants to know if Leo has heard of BleepingComputer.com. Leo thinks that at this stage of the Spyware wars, it’s just easier to get your data off and start over, rather than try and take spyware off piecemeal. But Mike uses ComboFix first and then Adaware or Spybot to mop up the rest. He says afterwards, he rarely sees a reinfection.

Guests

Q David, Los Angeles, CA - Hooking up an Aquos as a PC monitor

David has his 30″ Sharp Aquos hooked up as his primary PC monitor, but he’s getting over sized text. Leo says it’s probably set at the highest resolution the computer is driving at - 1280 x 768. This is because the resolution is blowing up to twice it’s size. If you change the DPI settings and the ICON sizes in the appearance control panel, David can alter the look. But with the age of the HDTV and the power of his PC, that’s probably the largest resolution he can get.

Ryan also needs a good camera in the $200 range. Leo says that the Canon Powershot is an excellent option as is the Nikon Coolpix. Fuji’s Finepix and the Pentax Optio line are also excellent. All three are good for basic camera. Outside of that, there’s whether if they have image stabilization.

Leo’s not going to CES. It’s too difficult to see everything, too expensive, and you can get the same exposure online. He have Scott and a few other guests report next week.

Q Ryan, Attascadero, CA - streaming video from the internet

Ryan wants to stream video. Leo uses Stickam, but there’s also UStream, Justin.TV, etc. They use flash to stream the video. CamTwist (for Mac) is a utility that processes the flash video and buffers it so the video is smoother. It also allows to add title graphics. But is there another competing option? ManyCam, Webcam Max are PC options.

Ryan also needs a good camera in the $200 range. Leo says that the Canon Powershot is an excellent option as is the Nikon. Fuji’s Finepix are excellent. All three are good for basic camera. Outside of that, there’s whether if they have image stabilization.

Then, there’s the “who’s got the largest screen size war.” Panasonic currently rules the mountain with a 150″ plasma announced last year.

John wants to use his 52″ LCD HDTV as his primary display for his laptop. But there’s a stutter. Leo says he can go into the display settings, under advanced settings, and un-check the “accelerate video” option. Also, change from extended screen mode to mirrored mode so that it only has once display and the video card isn’t doing double duty.

February 19, 2009 is digital conversion day. Are you ready?

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), however, is Disneyland for techies - which will announce new gadgetry coming out later in 2009.

Guests

Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine

Scott is talking CES today. He’s leaving early to make it for press day. He’s expecting fewer attendees, fewer companies, less announcements. Leo says most companies are cutting way back because of the economy and CES will be no different.

What to expect? Scott says that LG is introducing a 480hz LCD TV, twice as fast refresh rates as Sony’s recently announced 240hz. The higher the Hz means better detail and sharpness, especially with action oriented HDTV shows. Will it look better? Scott isn’t sure as 120hz looks pretty good.

There’s also wireless HD coming. Getting rid of the connection wires - which can be an advantage for those having to run long lengths of HDMI cable, which can be expensive. There are three competing technologies at the moment, including one from Belkin, called the Flywire.

Then, there’s the “who’s got the largest screen size war.” PANASONIC currently rules the mountain with a 150″ plasma.

3D ready TVs? Scott things that 3D is going to be huge this year or next as Hollywood is seriously behind the technology now that it’s matured.

Q John, Fullerton, CA - Using HDTV as a primary display

John wants to use his 52″ LCD HDTV as his primary display for his laptop. But there’s a stutter. Leo says he can go into the display settings, under advanced settings, and un-check the “accelerate video” option. Also, change from extended screen mode to mirrored mode so that it only has once display and the video card isn’t doing double duty.

Scott Wilkinson also says you want to be sure the resolution fits the TV.

Caleb looking at the Nikon D40. Leo says it’s a very good entry level SLR camera. Better quality images over point and shoots with the advantage of changing lenses. Read reviews at digitalcamerainfo.com and dpreview.com. Leo says the D60 is also a great deal, but to save money on the body by going with the D40 is fine since the best thing about the D40 is that for $300, you’re buying into the SLR world and can use the rest of your budget on better lenses.

There’s usually a lot of announcements, but the huge news is that Apple is pulling out of MacWorld Expo after this year and Steve Jobs will not be delivering the keynote. The thinking is that they no longer need the publicity of trade shows and have been gradually scaling them back in favor of more special events put on by Apple.

Q Caleb, Beaufort, SC - Camera recommendations

Caleb would love the 5D, but he’s looking for the Nikon D40 as an entry level SLR. Leo says it’s a very good entry level SLR camera. Better quality images over point and shoots with the advantage of changing lenses. Read reviews at digitalcamerainfo.com and dpreview.com. Leo says the D60 is also a great deal, but to save money on the body by going with the D40 is fine since the best thing about the D40 is that for $300, you’re buying into the SLR world and can use the rest of your budget on better lenses.

Caleb is also having power shutdown issues on his PC. Leo says the issue is that something is running in the background that Windows doesn’t want to shut down. It could be an AVS or security software that doesn’t release it’s memory. Try shutting them down. Or, pick up a copy of AutoRuns (free by Microsoft) and turn whatever’s off in the background one at a time until you narrow it down to the culprit.

There’s also Steve Gibson’s Wizmo which will simply turn off everything in the background with one button and shut the computer down.

Digital TV Conversion right around the corner.

The Day the Zune stood still

The Zune suffered from a strange bug which froze the Zune. The Code written for a chip inside the Zune had the bug issue, which no one noticed. The bug meant that the Zune didn’t know that last year was a leap year (366 days). So, when it came to midnight, Dec. 30th, the Zune had nowhere to go and gave a blue screen of death.

Microsoft’s response, it’ll fix itself when Jan 1st rolled around. But it’ll all happen again in 2012. Redmond says it’ll release a patch, but will it?

Leo also says this same bug could happen again, but to 32 bit Unix computers. But we have some time … it won’t happen until 2038.

MacWorld and CES begin next week

There’s usually a lot of announcements, but the huge news is that Apple is pulling out of MacWorld and Steve Jobs will not be delivering the keynote.

CES, however, is Disneyland for techies - which will announce new gadgetry coming out later in 2009.

Saturday 3 January 2009

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