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Saturday March 7, 2009

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Tech News

Are books and newspapers dying out?

With the cost of ink, paper and distribution, is the printed page going the way of the dinosaurs? Newspapers are losing a million dollars a week. The NY Times could give every subscriber a Kindle and still lose money every week.

Planes for new Marine One leaked to Iran

Blueprints, avionics, everything. According to the story, a defense contractor had all of them on the laptop and also had a file sharing program, and published his hard drive online. You can bet he’s going to be fired and maybe have jail time.

Amazon releases eBook iPhone reader

Amazon has released a Kindle application for the iPhone which would allow users to download and install the same eBooks you have on the Kindle. For FREE. It’ll sync so you can read from the Kindle to the iPhone and not lose a word.

New Macs out, confusing users

The new Macs are out, and yet, they cost more and are slower. The new Mac Pros start at 2.26 GHz and go up if you pay $2600 to go up 2.93 GHz. Apple claims there’s a Gighertz myth. But how can the software take advantage of the new Intel 7 processors? Leo doesn’t get this at all. How can slower be faster? $6,000 for a machine that’s below 3 Ghz?! Yeah, that’s certainly thinking differently!

Leo also says there’s a rumor going that Apple is working on a 28″ iMac.

Guests

Scott Wilkinson, Home Theater Magazine

Scott reminded us that this weekend, Circuit City closes it’s doors forever, leaving Best Buy the last Brick and Mortar store standing. Members have Costco and Walmart as well. Online you have Amazon. The low price guys win the war.

Scott also got a few more questions about plasma TVs. With Pioneer getting out of the business, is this a good time to buy plasma? Scott says absolutely. Pioneer will still honor the warranties and they aren’t really getting out of the game until next year. And with prices dropping on Plasma to attract customers, right now is the best time to get one. You just have to be sure you have a DARK place to put it. Otherwise, an LCD is a better choice.

What about Dolby Digital and lossless codecs? what’s the difference? Scott says the new lossless codecs have much better sound quality, but you need a Blu-ray player (like the PS3) or home theater amp to translate the codecs. DTS and Dolby sound good, but if you play them one after another, you can really tell the difference and you should use em if you can.

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Hour 1

Q Wally, Cincinnati, OH - Audio issues on new PC

Wally built a screaming new rig for producing radio shows and he’s getting strange audio whirs every hour when editing his streaming radio. Leo says to make sure you have the latest audio drivers for your motherboard and audio card. If it still persists, take a look at the Windows services. Go to Black Viper and turn off what you can turn off and see if the whirs stop.

Darth Emma, in our chatroom, wonders if it’s a GSM phone that’s causing it. Smart phones will also do it as it gets mail, etc. XP99 also says that those GSM noises can come through your router as well.

Q Walter, Corona, CA - Buying his first PC

Walters needs a laptop PC to watch DVDs, surf the net, and do online banking. He’s concerned with security, should he get Norton 360? Leo says NO! Stop! Norton 360 is like “undercoating” for a car. It’s overkill, you don’t need it, and it’ll cause compatibility issues with your PC. It’s not necessary for your protection. When you do online banking, the connection is secure and encrypted. You can protect yourself from viruses and spyware, though. Using open wiFi can be dangerous, so here’s a few steps to protect yourself:

Leo wants to know if Walter’s going with a wireless EVDO access card or open WiFi. Going with a wireless EVDO card is more secure than an open access point. If anyone can get on, then anyone can see what you’re doing. So an open access point is a bad idea. Although, your banking work will be encrypted and protected. The other risk is that hackers can get onto your hard drive and either see your personal information or zombie your laptop. And Norton 360 wouldn’t protect you from it.

Also, turn on automatic updates in Windows. This will protect you against exploits that hackers find in the holes of your OS. As Microsoft finds them, they close them and issue a patch. Automatic updates will make sure you get them as soon as they’re available.

Don’t click links or attachments in email. Don’t except files from strangers. And backup early and often.

Recommendations for security - turn on the Windows firewall and get a good antiVirus program like Nod32. Turn on Windows Defender as well.

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Hour 2

Q Caleb, Beaufort, SC - Why W?

Caleb is just curious why stations in SC start with “W?” Leo says that it’s a geographic designation left over from the days of radio. Stations east of the Mississippi begin with “W,” while stations west of the Miss, begin with “K.”

Caleb also wants to know how a microphone works. Leo says that HOW STUFF WORKS is a great place for learning stuff like that. But it comes down to this - sound waves hit a diaphram which compresses against an electro magnet. This will alter the electrical current running through it which will be transmitted to the speaker - where another magnet will re-translate the current back to vibrations which we hear. Digital microphones do it differently which turn the vibrations into bits of 1s and 0s which get transmitted and re-translated into sound by altering the current of the magnet.

Q Barbara, Spring Valley, CA - Norton 360

Barbara wants to know about Norton 360. Leo says that Nod32 is much more lightweight and fast. Norton automatically renewed her subscription. She’s got Nod32 and would like to get her subscription back. Leo says you may be able to. Just contact Norton. But having had it done, already, you can easily disable what you don’t want (like the Norton firewall) and just use it until the subscription runs out. Leo also recommends getting a router which has a hardware firewall that will protect your against attacks.

Q Vinnie, Huntington Beach, CA - the new Macs are TOO expensive!

Vinnie says he can get a loaded Alienware rig for the cost of that MacPro. Leo agrees and says the video cards in the new Mac Pros are pretty aweful. Are we experiencing the vacuum of Steve not being at the helm in Cupertino?

Vinnie also wants to know if Windows 7 is a good upgrade. Leo’s using it and says it’s just like Vista, only polished. Componentized. Leo says it’s what Vista should’ve been. And what’s great is that some items like Windows Movie Maker and Internet Explorer doesn’t have to be on installed if you won’t want them. Windows 7 is the best OS (in Beta) that Leo’s seen since Windows 2000.

Q Bill, SW New Mexico - The new I7 Chip, faster?

Leo says it depends on the software being used. Even though the new Intel 7 Chip (Nehalem) has 8 or even 16 processors, the software out there may not be able to take advantage of it and can run even slower. Before you buy, read the benchmarks.

And if all your doing is surfing the net and checking email, you don’t need it. Get a netbook instead. On the other hand, if you’re doing CPU heavy applications like video editing, and the software supports it, the Nehelem may be just what you need.

Q Chris, Santa Clarita, CA - online connection issues

Chris can’t connect to his personal website! He has one DSL provider and two lines (one static, one dynamic modem). Leo says he should try and PING his connection. Also, try plugging them directly and bypassing the Airport Extreme. Try typing in the direct IP address.

Leo thinks it’s in the host’s file. Maybe an issue with his ISP. Leo says you can do a “Trace Route” on the MAC, which will watch as you connect to the system - seeing every site you go through to get there. Also, check your router configuration. Reset your DNS settings using OpenDns.com and see if that frees it up.

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Hour 3

Q Pamela, Woodland Hills, CA - Sharing documents live

Pamela wants to share documents and preserve data links from one program to another. How does she do that? Leo says that using GoToMyPC is a very secure way to accomplish it but that Microsoft’s new OFFICE LIVE is just what she’s looking for.

Q Steve, Long Beach, CA - making backups to his DVDs

Steve makes backups to his DVDs just to be safe. But he wants to know if he can create a DVD library on his hard drive and play them. He’s on the Mac. Leo says that XBMC (formerly the XBox Media Center) point it to your media directory and it’ll play it. Another version of XBMC is Plex.

Q Ann, Elkview, West VA - Verizon EVDO

Ann lives in a rural area and is amazed by Verizon’s EVDO service. Does Leo think a router is necessary? Leo says the only way you can is to buy a special router that’s made for it and they’re not cheap. Don’t do it to add protection alone, but it will add WiFi options to network your connection.

She can turn on the Windows firewall and just practice Leo’s Rules for Safe Computing and she should be safe.

She is also running into a 5GB data cap. She hates it. Over that is .25 a MB. Leo says you’re going to have to keep an eye on your usage so you don’t break the bank. But that’s outrageous.

Q Chris, Boise, ID - Video memory problem

Chris gets a warning that keeps popping up in her 20″ iMAC, running Parallels and XP, about video memory. She can’t make the adjustment to fix it. She’s maxed out her 64MB cache. Leo says that setting the screen resolution to something higher can cause it. Set your resolution to 1042 x 768 in Windows. Try setting your RAM for the Windows to 1GB. and put 4GB in your machine so you can give 2GB to Windows. That’s what Leo suspects.

Q Chris, Placentia, CA - getting an iPhone

The only thing holding Chris up is that it doesn’t support A2DP - using bluetooth stereo headphones to enjoy the iPod. Leo says he’s been complaining about it since the iPhone first came out. But so far, they haven’t and he doesn’t know when. Leo says you can buy a third party “dongle” which does it, but you can’t use the phone portion, and it burns down the battery life - which is limited anyway.

Q Emelda, From Twitter - AVS on a Netbook?

Well, you don’t have a lot of resources in them. A lightweight one would be good. Turn off the auto matic background protection and scan once a week. Leo says you can protect yourself by practicing those Six Rules of Safe Computing.

Q Bill, Middleberry, IN - Limited laptop space

Bill’s GF is filling her hard drive up pretty fast, and it’s only a 60GB file. Leo says that Carbonite is a good option for online backup so you don’t have to crack open the laptop to upgrade the hard drive. Should he use the Windows compression tool? Leo says you won’t see much advantage with photos and videos as they have already been compressed. Text based options like emails and letters would compress greatly. Archiving the email would be good.

See you tomorrow!

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