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Saturday February 28, 2009

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Tech News

For Newspapers … It’s the beginning of the end

Recently, the Rocky Mountain News shut down. Hearst Corp. has announced that the San Francisco Chronicle may have to shut down soon if they can’t drastically cut expenses or find a buyer. Leo says that the economics of newspaper printing (ink & paper costs), revenue dropping, slanted coverage losing subscribers, and competition by Craigslist) just aren’t working anymore and with the economy as it is, the demise is just hastening.

Leo says papers like the New York Times could save 50% of their operating costs if they gave each of their subscribers a Kindle for free with a digital subscription.

Leo to interiew Woz about Dancing with the Stars

Tomorrow, Leo will be interviewing Steve Wozniak about his upcoming stint on Dancing with the Stars.

Leo will also preview the Kindle 2 … tune in tomorrow.

Guests

Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine

Scott is now serving as the online editor of with Home Theater Magazine.

Scott also wanted to clarify some of Leo’s comments about converting analog to digital audio. When sampling analog audio at 44100K, you are actually sampling the instantaneous level (think of a “dot” traveling along the audio line) and not the frequency per se. It’s actually measuring where the audio sample is, while frequency is how fast it moves up and down.

Anyway, here’s a question to Scott -

Q Jim Schultz - replacing his HDTV

Jim is nearing replacement of his 1st gen HDTV and wants to know why Mitsubishi laser TVs are so expensive? ($7,000). Well, Mitsubishi has suspended manufacture of them - so Jim isn’t the only one asking why this TV is so expensive.

Scott says that there are far better rear projection options out there from Samsung (60″ for about $2500). And for the money, rear projection TVs are still a great bargain. Also, remember that viewing angles are very important, especially in large gatherings. Plasmas are better off axis than, say LCDs which are very narrow on it’s axis. And for back levels, the LED Back-level LCDs which are about $3k for about 52″.

Leo also says that home theater sales are dropping.

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Hour 1

Q Mary, Escondido, CA - Protecting kids on the Internet

Mary has two kids that are getting into being online. She wants to be able to monitor and limit their online usage. She wants to be able to block certain sites. Leo says you can modify the settings on just the router and that will effect all the computers in the house. Sign up at OpenDNS.com and create an account. Then, input their DNS settings. You can then choose a level of blocking to prevent from going to those sites. And it’s free. You can also enable statistics to see where your kids are going. Also, make only the public computer the one that’s available to the Internet, so you can keep an eye on them.

Q Nick, Anaheim Hills, CA - Choosing broadband packages

Nick wants to know how much bandwidth he should have for broadband access in the home. Leo says the truth is that high speed internet downstream is on average for the home 1.5 MBPS. Upload stream is much slower as ISPs think downloading is much more active than uploading. But that’s changing. Should he get the 3MB down/784K up? It’s not much more than basic. Leo says that on the whole, basic is good enough. But if you watch video, then you’re going to want some “head room.” So yeah, the Pro/Express of 3MB is a better choice (especially at just another $7 a month for Nick). Video will play more smoothly, downloads are faster. But if you’re just surfing the net and emailing, then the basic package is fine. Check out BroadbandReports.com for reviews on what service is best, and don’t hesitate to ask your neighbors what they use.

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Hour 2

Q Christina, Holton, KS - Media Center problem

Christina’s Media Center PC has gotten stuck on an update. Leo says there’s a way to fix it to get the update corrected. What happens is that the file is downloaded and then installed when you shut down. What you need to do is remove the last update file, tell your update it’s done and reboot. That’s the gist. Here’s a tech note which will walk you through it.

Q Jeff, Norfolk, VA - NAS trouble

Jeff trys to create folder on his NAS (network attached storage) and he can’t create them directly on the NAS, he has to drag it onto the NAS from his desktop. Is there a workaround? Go to BuffaloTech.com and download the patch for this. It’s a known bug.

Q Ben, San Diego, CA - Spell check lost

Ben lost spell check in his Outlook Express. He was using the Demo Office utility. Leo says that Spell check doesn’t work unless you have Microsoft Office. Remove Office, you lost the spell check. Even though you may have restored office, you may have broken the link. You could invest in Office, but there’s a freebie - Spellchecker for OE which will use the same dictionaries.

But also understand that Outlook Express has been abandoned by Microsoft in favor of Windows Live Mail. So you’ll eventually want to make that transition.

Q Caller from Loss Angeles, CA - Online backup options.

Microsoft’s Skydrive is a great online backup option. As is Carbonite.

Q Matthew, Inola, PA - Rebooting to normal configuration

Windows Steady State or Faronics Deep Freeze both work great for restoring your PC and data to it’s last known state. But you need to be sure to preserve the data (preferably off the main hard drive) because they wipe out any changes in favor of the last known best configuration of the computer. Mac/Windows clients you can use to do this by remote access through remote desktop on both Windows Vista Home Premium or Mac OSX. VNC (Chicken of the VNC) is another option as is Go to My PC (one of Leo’s sponsors).

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Hour 3

Q Adam, Riverside, CA - Running cable Long Distance

Adam is running about 75′ of composite cable and the signal is degraded. Can he amplify it? Sure. Amplifying solutions run about $100. The Shiny Bow is a component video/audio booster which can boost the signal up to 300 or more. Model SB2820. Also, get better cables if you’re going long distances like that.

Q VJ, Los Angeles, CA - HD Camcorder recommendation

VJ wants to know if there’s an HD Camcorder which will change lenses. Leo says the new Sony Cine Alta XD Cam EX. About $6000. There’s also the Canon XL. But don’t forget the Canon Mk. II which shoots full frame HD video in 1080P.

Q Julie, Marina Del Rey - Boze replacement

Julie’s Boze 321 has gone on the fritz. She’d like a recommendation for something similar. Boze has great sound, but are overpriced for what you get. Leo thinks that when you spend a premium for something like Boze that Julie would get better support than “we don’t have parts for it anymore.” Leo says to go a stereo store and ask for a CD Player with an AMP to use with her existing speakers. In fact, maybe a Home Theater in a box system is better because Julie can connect her TV to it as well. Panasonic and Cambridge Sound Works make great Home Theater in a Box solutions. Polk Audio. Onkyo is also a good choice. Onkyo is probably the best, come to think of it.

Q Joe, Fullerton, CA - Network connection issues

Joe has two computers networked and one computer can’t “see” the other one. He’s using Norton 360 and Leo thinks that’s the culprit. Norton is blocking access. Leo suggests disabling 360 and see if he can see it then. In fact,you may need to completely remove the Norton in order to see it. And you don’t really need a Windows firewall, the router does that job for you. So turn off the Windows firewall as well.

Q Tom, Silverado, CO - DVD burner recommendation

Tom is hesitant in buying a DVD burner as long as multiple formats. And what about dual layers? Leo says that most recorders now work in multiple for mats, so don’t worry about that. If you’re recording commercial disks, you will need to get a dual layer burner. Or, you can use something like DVD Shrink to make the files smaller to fit on one.

As for video tapes, a single layer burner would be fine, but all burners are dual layer now.

Q John, Bowling Green, KY - Recording/capturing video

John is into capturing video online using Cam Studio. Camtasia is it’s higher priced cousin. Jing is another freebie from Camtasia. That can be another option.

Q Justin, La Mirada, CA - synching files from one laptop to another

Justin wants to synch files from one laptop to another. Leo says Synch Toy is your best bet, but you need to be sure you’re not updating the same file at the same time as one laptop will lock out the other.

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