Leo Laporte
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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Saturday March 21, 2009
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Tech News
iPhone 3.0 finally gets cut & paste and other features
Leo thinks that the improvements to iPhone 3.0 could pave the way for a Netbook like Mac Tablet running the iPhone OS.
Palm Pre still on track for release
The Palm Pre is said to need more polishing but is on track for release later this Spring. It’s the last, best hope for Palm and with WallStreet reacting negatively to the news it’s behind, could this be it for Palm?
George Stephanopolous interviews John McCain via Twitter
Leo says that even though both use Twitter, it was pretty much a stunt. At 140 characters, how can anything of substance be from it?
Redesigned Facebook page catching heat from the faithful
Feeling pressure from the success of Twitter (10x smaller, btw), Facebook redesigns their page to be more “Twitter like.” And most Facebook faithful are none too pleased.
Apple computers end up being less vulnerable
At a recent security conference, a security expert was able to take over a MacBook laptop through an exploit in Safari within SECONDS. Much faster than a Windows 7 Machine running I.E.8. He won the laptop and $10,000. It just underscores the reality that websites are the most vulnerable and exploitable way to hack and take over a computer - even a Mac. In fact, Leo believes that within a year, Apple market share will be such that it’ll become a target. So, follow Leo’s Rules of Safe Computing and keep your system safe.
Guests
Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine
Extended warranties. They’re rarely used and are a huge profit center for electronics companies. If electronics are going to fail, they’re probably going to fail within the warranty period. Leo says that when you consider an extended warranty, you need to check what is covered on it. Salesmen will lie about what is covered (like accidental breakage) because they want to make the sale.
Generally speaking, they’re not really worth it. You may be able to make a case for buying a laptop extended warranty, but TVs, receivers, etc. Not really worth it.
Hour 1
Q John, Chatsworth, CA - Video Phone questions
John wonders about the video phone that Donald Trump is pushing. Leo says the problem with the ACN video phone is that it’s based on multi-level marketing and in order for it to work, both parties have to have the same phone, which sucks the user in the multi-level marketing scheme.
911 doesn’t work accurately since it’s based on VOIP. It’ll go down during an electrical outage. If you really want a video phone, use SKYPE. It’s free and you can use a webcam or camcorder. The quality is supurb, call is free. The main warning here is that in order for a video phone to work, everyone needs to have the same exact phone.
Q Marilyn, San Diego, CA - email trouble
Every time she sends email - she gets a strange gmail address and her email doesn’t appear. She uses Outlook. Leo suspects that your settings in Outlook have been changed. Leo suspects Spyware that has modified your email return address to go to a spammers address. And if MacAfee isn’t running right, then it’s pretty much a done deal that your computer has been co-opted by a hacker. Back up your data and then reformat and reinstall the OS. Update Windows and start all over.
Q Gary, Portland, OR - Redirecting
Leo says that “browser help objects” (BHO) are co-opted by spyware to redirect your browser. But it’s worse than that. It’s a bad sign. And if the PC has been co-opted, chances are your AVS has been bypassed. Leo recommends running an online antiVirus like Trend Micro’s Housecall, or Eset’s Online Virus Scanner. Also, run the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool. Click Start - MRT and return.
Hour 2
Q Doug, Los Angeles, CA - Using the net for TV
Doug has created a vampire series and placed it on the Internet. Leo says that that beauty of the net is that it allows creatives to take their destiny into their own hands. Check out the Streamys. It awards the best in Web based television.
Shot on HD, edited on Final Cut Pro. But how are you going to make money at it? The next level is to get the numbers to draw in the sponsors. Leo said Google surprised everyone by generating traffic first before monetizing it. And look where that’s gone.
Doug’s Show can be found at http://www.vampirekillers.tv
Q Tom, Pittsburgh, PA - Email clients
Tom uses his iPhone to get his mail and wants to know if there’s a better option other than Apple Mail. Leo suggests Gmail. You can get it anywhere. Free. Unlimited storage.
Q Alex, Miami, FL - Using social media
Alex wants to win a photo contest using social media. He’s using Twitter, Facebook, etc. Leo says the problem with Twitter is that no one can see you on Twitter unless they follow you. Leo says the real key is to get people to “retweet” your posts. Repeating your tweet to get real visibility. Your first job is to build a community around your photography. Using Flickr, SmugMug. Once a day, pick a great image and put it on TwitPic as your picture of the day. Build an audience. Also, use Friendfeed. Facebook has a new fan page option. Create a Fan Page to put up images and interact with your community.
Alex also wants to use GPS to show where the pictures were taken. Leo uses the pocket GPS tracker called the Q Starz B-Q1000. Turn it on and it makes a log of everywhere you go. Then, it marries and embeds the coordinates to the image using software like “Houdah Geo.” The new iPhoto will do this as well. And there are many similar applications for Windows. Then it incorporates a map using Google Maps. Nice.
Alex’s website is Alexkolyer.com.
Q Tony, Los Angeles, CA - Backing up DVDs
Tony has a child who is very rough on DVDs. He’d like to back up his dvds and protect his masters as archived so they aren’t destroyed. Leo says that fair use would allow it, but the DMCA effectively eliminated the concept of fair use copies. Leo says you can take your DVDs and “rip” them. Check SlySoft. They have commerical software called Clone DVD which cracks and rips the DVD. Fast, efficient. It’ll copy even dual layer DVDs and shrink them to a standard DVD media disc. Then she can uses and abuse the copy while your master is safe and sound.
Freebies include DVD Decrypter, DVD Shrink, Handbrake. Technically, it’s illegal, but Leo can’t see a judge preventing a parent from protecting his investment from being scratched to uselessness by a 4 year old.
Hour 3
Q Nichole, Santa Clarita, CA - Laptop starts in safe mode
Nicole’s daughter will only boot in safe mode but won’t recover. It just sits for hours waiting to run recovery. And it won’t work with a new hard drive. Leo says to try partitioning the new hard drive. Leo thinks that the recovery disks themselves may be damaged. Contact Toshiba for another version of the recovery disks. She can get replacements rather inexpensively. Or, perhaps just reinstalling Windows with a full copy.
Q Chance, New Mexico - Multiple keyboards
Chance has multiple computers and wants to have one computer keyboard and mouse to run on all three of them. Leo says Synergy is a great option. There are KVM switches that run over an ethernet connection. They’re a little slower, but are very userful for controlling servers and multiple computers in different rooms, etc. There’s a program for the MAC called Teleport which also does a similar job.
Q Mike, Chino, CA - FTP upload problems
Leo thinks that the ISP is causing the problem. It could be the router, but if you’ve bypassed that directly to the modem, then the ISP has to be the culprit. If you change the port for FTP, that could solve the problem. Leo thinks the ISP is blocking large uploads. There is a suspicion that large uploads points to piracy.
You could try a trace route (start, command, tracert), which will tell you how long each hop in the upload takes, so you can pinpoint where it’s slowing down and let you know what service is blocking you.
Q Janet, Redondo Beach, CA - loading pictures her memory card
Janet can’t read her memory card on her PC. Leo says that memory cards can fail or even wear out causing problems with reading them. Leo says connecting it to your PC via the camera or card reader. Then, use a file recovery utility like PC Inspector’s Smart Recovery. It’ll attempt to recover the data. There are others, but no program does better.
Q Bonnie, Los Angles, CA - Lightroom display problems
Bonnie has had trouble viewing all her screen in Adobe Lightroom. Leo says to press “F.” It cycles through all full screens in Lightroom.
Bonnie also has an iPhantom and it tosses her off the Internet. The iPhantom anonimizes your traffic on the Internet. Leo says it may need a firmware update, so Bonnie needs to call in to iPhantom and get them. Plus, if they’ve brought down the iPhantom servers, it doesn’t work.
