Leo Laporte
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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Saturday February 21, 2009
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Tech News
Internet Safety Act A Violation of Privacy
S436/HR1036 - ISPs would be required to keep two years of records to aid in police investigations of Internet crimes. This would include HotSpots and anyone with a wifi access point! Leo is convinced this isn’t about protecting children online, but to protect the film and music industry against alledged piracy. The bottom line is that the entertainment industry as we know it is changing and the industry can only legislate to slow it down, rather than innovate.
Huge Flaw in Adobe Acrobat Reader
There’s a flaw that allows for reading a poisoned PDF file in Adobe Acrobat Reader so hackers to take over your system. Adobe says there won’t be an update until March 11th.
U2s new Album shows up on BitTorrent
U2s new album, “No Line on the Horizon”, has been leaked on BitTorrent. Leo says that most people who download on BiTorrent, according to the evidence, end up buying.
Guests
Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine
Answering listener questions:
Lisa wants to insert a DVD Recorders between her DVR and TV to archive movies she wants. The best bet is to exploit the analog hole. Scott says yes, but most DVD recorders only have S-Video connections which will cause a loss of quality and could have trouble due to lack of component cables.
Leo says the Neuros OSD is a good option. That’s what you want to look for. RF is the worst, followed by Composite and S-Video. Pioneer made one a DVR-DVD recorder, but it’s probably phased out by now. What you want is a DVD recorder which has component input.
Leo says that thanks to Hollywood, we all are considered criminals just because we want to exercise our fair use rights.
Hour 1
Q Michael, Grayson, KY - using TV as a second monitor
Michael lives in a college dorm, has limited space, and wants to hook up his TV to a second monitor. But his TV only takes audio from HDMI. Suggestions? Leo says a common mistake is to take the audio out of HDMI. DVI is electrically the same as HDMI. Geffen makes a DVI with audio to HDMI box. Designed for home theater. But at $300, it isn’t cheap. MonoPrice.com makes inexpensive cables and adapters. Perhaps there. SIIG.COM has an HDMI to DVI adpater for $199.
Scott Wilkinson says that most TVs have an analog stereo audio input associated with an HDMI input. Leo suspects Michael is missing a menu command or his cheap speakers are causing the issue.
Q Paul, Ann Arbor, MI - Old movies on Blu-ray. Worth it?
Leo says that film is, in essence, Hi-Def. But it all comes down to how the film was converted. Leo suggests looking for “digital remasters.” The scan each frame of a film individually and clean them up. If it hasn’t been digitally remastered, just get the DVD. And go to Scott’s magazine and check out their new Blu-ray reviews.
Q Bill, Orange, CA - Gadget options for hiking long distance
Bill is going on a long term hike of the John Muir Trail from Mexico to Canada. Bill wants an electronic journal to upload his blog. Weight a factor. Leo says to check your coverage access along the trail. Verizon is best for SoCal, and AT&T may be the best up north. Leo thinks that a Blackberry Bold would be an ideal choice because it’s small, light, and can connect to the Internet. Another advantage is getting a smart phone with GPS capability. You can then keep track of where you’re going. Dr. Mom in the chatroom uses her Bold and MMS to post to her blog on Blogger. She even includes pictures.
There is an issue with charging, but there are small solar chargers which may help. You can also bring an extra battery or two. Zinc Air battery devices can open up and charge the phone. There are also crank chargers and wind chargers.
People can follow Bill online Trailjournals.com/bchavez
Hour 2
Questions from TWITTER:
Q VDam, India - Olympus a good entry level DSLR?
Leo says he likes the eVolt, but the thing about DSLR is that you’re committing more to a system, rather than a body. Lenses, flashes, etc. Leo prefers Canon - like the EOS Rebel XSI or the Nikon D40. Then, as you step up the quality of the camera bodies, you can then use your lenses on them.
Back to the phones:
Q Andrew, California - Snagged by AntiVirus 2009
Andrew clicked on the AVS2009 popup and clicked on it. Is he snagged? Leo says that as long as you didn’t install the application, you’re safe. But you may have gotten some sort of spyware. Check out Malwarebytes.org. Download it and it’ll remove anything it’s installed.
But here’s the thing. If you’re infected, it may be much worse than you think. Leo is now the safest and best thing you can do is back up the data, reformat the drive and reinstall from a known good source. Leo does this twice a year as preventative maintenance and to keep his box fast.
Q Dan, Chino Hills, CA - Reformatting Word docs
Dan is transferring Word docs between two computers, but he’s getting a format error. Leo says the file has been damaged. Could be his flash thumb drive has been worn out and as such, sectors are damaged. The other possibility is that the file just got corrupted. Try doing a through format on the drive, run “check disk.” But considering Dan has had it for a few years, Leo’s pretty sure it’s just plain worn out. Toss it out and get a new one. They’re dirt cheap.
Dan also has a Sonic View DVR and he can’t burn to DVD with it. Leo says that it’s probably the codec Sonic View uses isn’t compatible and Dan will need to transcode the file to a new file. Open them in a program designed to author DVDs like Adobe Premiere Elements or Tsunami MPeg Encoder (TMPENG). Then convert it out to an MPEG2 format for DVD.
Q Julian, Los Angeles, CA - Also nearly got snagged by AVS 2009
Julian also almost got snagged by the AVS2009 popup. He recognized it, but keeps getting a pop-up from Windows. Leo says that his user account control is warning him. The UAC is a great idea, but very annoying when it keeps warning you. But it does protect you against social engineering.
Julian also has an old wall mounted phone but the DSL filter doesn’t work for it as the plug sticks out of the wall. Those older phones are great for emergencies. Leo says go to Radio Shack. Chances are, they have an adapter which will change the jack. Two actually. One to convert the RJ45 and one to filter the DSL signal. A phone guy can probably do it and place them inside the wall.
Hour 3
Q KathyJo, Chino, CA - Trouble installing Programs
Kathy Jo had to have her hard drive cleaned and now many of her programs don’t work. Leo says that happens when a program isn’t “deactivated.” It’s a very Draconian DRM. Adobe is notorious for it. You’ll need to contact the software company, ask them to deactivate the old version so you can re-activate it on the hard drive. Be sweet when you talk to them.
The great irony is, an honest person gets tired of the obfuscation and runaround and just says the heck with it and goes to the Pirate Bay for a cracked version. Congrats, Adobe, you just made a pirate. Leo says that when Adobe was DRM free, more people tried it from a friend’s copy and ended up buying it. The trouble with assuming people are crooks is that you end up turning them into crooks anyway.
Q Spencer, Northern California - Software won’t back up
Spencer has an issue that most his billing software won’t back up unless every computer is logged off. He wants to know if there’s a program he can use to turn off all programs on each workstation so they can run the backup. Leo says there are remote access tools (like Microsoft’s Remote Desktop) that can do just that. But the machines have to have the access. It’s an IT function.
Other backup programs can ignore locked files, so that’s an option. Uncle Bic, in the chatroom, says Cobian Backup has a feature which will close programs before backing up. Good enterprise level backup solution.
Q Robert, Carlsbad, CA - Beyond 3G
Robert is curious about what’s beyond 3G. In Asia, they’re testing 4G (called LTE advanced with 15–30MB per sec). Leo says the US is so behind the rest of the world (even though we invented most of it) that we are barely getting 3G now so anything they doing in Asia right now won’t be available in the US for a few years.
Q Dick, Silverado, CA - Ham solution for DSL noise
Dick is a HAM Radio Operator (HAM) and has a solution for DSL filters on an old phone. You can buy and adapter wire to make the connection. Search for “Telephone Pioneers of America.” Most use filters to keep radio noise out of phone lines.
Q Steve, Columbus, SC - Buying a new computer
Steve is looking to get a new computer. What tips does he need to get going with it? Should he partition the 750GB hard drive? Leo thinks this isn’t a bad idea. You can put your data on it while the software stays on the primary drive. Putting a second hard drive is even better. Put your data on the second drive and you don’t have to worry about it.
Security wise, Leo suggests putting the software firewall turned on, spend $40 and get a good cheap Linksys router you can put between the modem and the PC. This will protect you from random attack viruses. Run Windows Update, turn on automatic updates. Update any software you’re using. And the turn on Windows Defender. Nod 32 AntiVirus. But the most important thing is you and your behavior. Follow Leo’s Rules for Safe Computing.
Q Edward, Twitter - Backup questions
Edward uses Carbonite. Does he still need an external hard drive backup? Leo likes this idea. It’s convenient and you can use Microsoft’s Sync Toy to do it automatically. And it doesn’t hurt to have a secondary backup option.
See you tomorrow!
