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Saturday March 14, 2009
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Tech News
World Wide Web celebrates it’s 20th Anniversary
It’s the 20th anniversary of the World Wide Web! In 1989, Sir Tim Berners Lee wrote the memo which envisioned the concept of the World Wide Web. The concept was based on the notion of “hyperlinks,” a concept first proposed by Dr. Vannevar Bush in 1945. The concept took the place of “Gopher” which was a utility that went out and found what you were looking for and presented it into a menu format. But you had to log into each “bulletin board” location in order to use it.
Three years later, grad student in Urbana Illinois wrote the first web browser called “Mosiac” which took advantage of the graphical user interface (GUI) of Windows. Then came “Netscape” and the rest is history.
Google Voice launches
Leo says that Google’s new service called GOOGLE VOICE blows you away. Everyone is going to want this. It could transform the phone like Google search did the Net.
Guests
Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine
Leo asks Scott about last week’s caller who wanted to know about hooking up 2 sub woofers. Scott says getting an AV receiver connected to DVD/TV which then daisy chains to another amp. The separate amp will power the extra sub woofer and must have at least 250 amps per channel.
Scott has started a new blog at Ultimate AV Mag called “Ultimate Gear.”
Hour 1
Q Carey, Los Angeles, CA - Wireless Webcams
Carey would like to connect a wireless webcam to his nursery so that grandparents out of the country can watch the baby. But he needs webcams that are Mac Compatible as most require Internet Explorer. Leo says this is largely due to dependence on “Active X.” Leo recommends AXIS webcams, which have their own built in wireless portal and website so that you can watch them from anywhere in the world.
Q Paul, Hollywood, CA - making flash animation
Paul would like to create a flash animation for a website and also create a movie to burn on DVD. He has a stack of photos and he wants to create a flash show with music. Leo says the first thing is to create a standard video slide show. Recommend U Lead’s CD & DVD Picture Show. You can also burn it to DVD.
Then, once you have the movie, you can take an FLV encoder - called Flash Video Studio - and transcode it to flash for the web. Ideally, if you can get it into H.264, flash will encode it easier and in the best quality. Adobe has one as well, but you probably have to buy Flash to get it.
Another option is a program called “SUPER,” which converts video to flash as well.
Q Lane, Signal Hill, CA - Unlocking his cell phone
Lane would like to unlock his phone and use another carrier. Leo says that cellphone companies hat unlocking because they subsidize them knowing that they have you in a contract for two years. But it isn’t illegal (although Apple thinks it is). You can buy unlocked phones, but they are substantially more expensive. Sprint/Verizon are CMA, they can’t be used with other carriers. T-Mobile AT&T uses a sim chip and as such, can be unlocked and used with other carriers.
Lane also wants to play flash on his Sony Erikson phone. There’s a utility called DaVinci. Good idea? Leo says it’ll replace the firmware and you will do it at your own risk as they aren’t authorized replacements. Check with the forums to see what the overall experience is. And use an older phone to see if it works so you aren’t bricking your new phone.
Hour 2
Q Ed, Camarillo, CA - Palm sync problems
Ed hasn’t been able to sync his old Palm for a few months. He’s caught in the old “it’s the other guys fault” sluff off. But one tech support guys suggested that his “ports were corrupted” and he’d need to wipe his hard drive. Ed uses Vista Home Premium. Leo says go to your device manager and control panel. If there’s no ports there, it may be an “IRQ conflict.” There is an “add port” command in Vista which will enable you to add a port for your PDA. Control panel, printers. Under the file menu, there’s server properties. Then look for the second tab in called Ports. Add ports button and it’ll create a port emulation.
Q Joe, Arundel, MN - Using a camcorder as a webcam
Joe has an old Handycam and wants to use it as a video webcam for Skype. Leo says as long as you can use a 4pin firewire connection, you’re good to go. When you want to get really good Skype video, a camcorder is a great option.
Q Ron, Brea, CA - Photo sharing website recommendation
Ron would like to post photos for friends and family to share. What are Leo’s recommendations? Leo says it just depends on what you need. Flickr is great for posting, getting comments, joining groups, etc. Facebook is the largest photo sharing site in the world and has built in privacy. But the quality of the image is degraded.
Picasa is another good option which gives you an album structure that’s nested and is attached to Google Photo Share. Leo personally uses a commercial site called Smug Mug which he really loves.
Q Rich, Palo Alto, CA - laptop recommendation
Rich can’t decide between two MACs for video editing. A 5400 RMP hard drive and a 7200 RPM hard drive. He does high end video. Leo says that often slower hard drives are due to heat and power considerations. But would more video RAM be important? Leo says that most video editing software doesn’t rely on the GPU video processors unless they’re doing motion based effects. But either one would work fine. What you’re really paying for is the speed of the processor. Get the faster processor with the slower hard drive and simply upgrade the hard drive. For RAM, you’re definitely going to want 4GB for editing. In Final Cut, the slowest thing is Rendering and that’s CPU. If you want fastest rendering, then a faster processor is what you’ll want, but there really isn’t much a difference in the two Rich is looking at.
Hour 3
Q Michael, Greeley, CO - Windows 7 release candidate
The new release candidate for Windows 7 is coming and Michael wants to know if he’ll be able to get it. Redmond says that probably in August and Microsoft says that those who downloaded the BETA will be able to get the release candidate as well.
What’s the difference between a release candidate and BETA? Beta is for testing. They get the software to a point and then open it up for test and commentary from a select group of users. Then, when they have the best version they think has a good chance to release, they come out with a release candidate. The next is an RTM (ready to manufacture) which they send out to partners for development of applications.
Q Joe, Kansas City, MO - Converting WAV to text
Joe would like to convert audio .wav files into transcripts. Leo says it’s one of the hardest things for a computer to do is recognizing speech and turn it into text. The best program out there is Dragon Naturally Speaking (Win) by Nuance. There’s also a MAC version. You have to train the software and you get trained on how to enunciate more clearly. The more RAM the faster processor, the better it’ll do.
Q Staci, Los Angeles, CA - New carrier recommendation
She’s having trouble with broadband connections and is very dissatisfied with it. Leo likes going with independent DSL providers like DSL Extreme because they will deal with the phone companies on your behalf. Don’t go with the bandwidth cap either as you will burn through it pretty quickly.
Should she try satellite? Leo says no. Upstream is very slow and you have to invest in a lot of equipment.
Q Debbie, Huntington Beach, CA - Losing hard disk space
Suddenly, Debbie’s hard drive is losing available space. Leo suspects her hard drive could be failing as this is a common indication of a dying hard drive. Another possibility is that her system has been compromised by a hacker who has turned her computer into a zombie to distribute files illegally.
Chances are, however, that the hard drive is beginning to fail. Recommend backing up your data right away and replacing your drive.
Debbie says that HeritageMakers.Com also allows for full-rez online photo sharing. Create photo books, print pictures, mugs, the works!
Q Von, Edmonton, CAN - Which MAC?
Mac Book or Mac Pro. No question, the Mac Pro is much faster. Especially for photo editing.
