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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Sunday March 29, 2009
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Tech News
Digital Espionage prevelant all over the world
The Dali Lama suspected someone was digitally spying on them. They hired a computer security company to audit their computers and they found out that they were being spied upon and the spying network is worldwide with roots in China. The “Ghostnet” encompasses 1200 computers in 103 countries from embassies to political campaigns. Even the White House was being monitored in this fashion. It’s called “spearfishing.” Software which will turn on your webcam, your microphones, and even log your computer keyboard entries.
Game Developers Conference has great announcements
Nintendo announcing that they have sold more WiFit Balance controllers than Sony has sold PS3! But the big announcement is OnLive, which will move gaming into “the cloud.” What’s so dramatic about it is that with access the games in the cloud, players can use just about anything that has internet access to play. This will be a boon for those who don’t have super fast or powerful computers and they can still play along. And game developers will be happy as it’ll pretty much kill piracy of video games. Atari, NVideo, WBGames, and others (except Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft for obvious reasons) are signing up to be a part of it. Leo also suspects that ISPs will love it for being able to sell “gaming packages” that will prioritize gaming data over other traffic. Hello, Net Neutrality? And if gaming can do it, what’s next? Maybe video editing? Leo says “the cloud” is the future of computing.
Here’s the Gamespot.com video of the OnLive Press Conference.
Chris Marquardt - Tips from the Top Floor
Today, Chris is talking about “street photography.” Taking pictures of people on the street. People can grab the eye and make for a very compelling picture. How to get started? Some people can be shy about starting out and there are some legal concerns. You’ll need to get your subject to sign a model release if you’re planning to publish or sell it. A good trick is to ask them for an email and then email them the release later. And offer to send them a copy of the print.
Remember the assignment … DECAY. Take a picture that depicts decay and post it on Flickr. Then assign it to the Tech Guy group.
Hour 1
Q Brian, Irvine, CA - Errors running XP on his Mac
Brian is running XP on his MacBook Pro using VMWare. He’s getting “not responding” errors. How does he combat these? Leo says that XP is still sharing resources with the MAC. You can double the RAM. But you can also go into settings in VMWare and allocate more resources to XP and less to the Mac in general. Also, go into “services” and turn some things off. Download and install Autoruns and prioritize the services.
Q Elaine, Orange, CA - Windows update trouble
Elaine’s getting a Windows update every day (#967715). Why is it always installing? Leo says the install may have failed and Windows is constantly trying to install. Leo says it’s a patch as it disables the autorun capability of Windows that worms can take advantage of. Unfortunately, it’s not a very good patch. If you’re not installing USB keys onto your computer, you can probably just delete it. Microsoft has a tech note on how to do it here.
Also, run the Microsoft Malicious Softare Removal Tool (Start, Run, MRT) to get rid of any worms like Conficker.
Q Win, Cleveland, OH - Mac Kernel Panicking
Win’s wife is having trouble with his MacBook “kernel panicking.” Leo says that what’s happening is that the hard drive is dead. It’s fairly easy to install the hard drive. Check out these instructions ….Maybe even trouble with the logic board. Take it in to Apple and have them take a look at it.
Hour 2
Q John, Alameda, CA - Cleaning up his PC
John’s computer is slowing down. How can he speed it up? Leo says that the more stuff you install and uninstall, the performance can drop. It’s called “Bit rot.” The best way to speed it up is just to start over and reinstall your OS. Backup your data, then get your Windows install disks, reformat the hard drive and reinstall the OS. Update the OS and the drivers. And you’ll be back up and running.
Q Nate, Wellington, CONN - Trying Ubuntu
Nate wants to try Ubuntu but is stymied about drivers. Leo says that driver issues can be solved by using WUBI. Running it virtually inside of Windows makes it a very easy way to try Ubuntu without wiping out your OS.
Nate has an internet business called KL Paint Products.
Q David, New York, NY - Multiple sites
David has multiple sites and wants to aggregate the domain registration. Leo says to call Go Daddy and change your DNS entries to point it to where you want it to go.
Q Michael, Washington, DC - Audio in Crossloop
Mike is using Crossloop, and wants to know if he can do audio. Leo says that there may be a way. But with free services, sometimes extra features like that are lacking. But Leo will check on it for you!
Michael also has Windows on his D drive. Can he delete the information on his C drive? Leo says you have to be careful as by default, an OS looks for information on the C drive. It could put boot information on it or even drivers and if you delete it, you may loose your ability to boot. Data? Sure. Programs? Absolutely. But you gotta be careful when looking for boot information. The best solution may be just to shrink your partition to the smallest possible.
Hour 3
Q John, Los Angeles, CA - Buying a business computer from Dell
John wanted to buy a corporate class computer from Dell and they wouldn’t let him, saying he wasn’t a business. Colleen suggests calling back and see if you get someone nicer. Maybe they’ll take your money. How odd! The Chat Whisper in the chatroom says the key is finding someone willing to do it. So just keep calling.
Q Jamie, Wisconsin - Video encoders
Jamie is looking for a media encoder that will encode on the fly and store onto his hard drive. Leo suggests the Neuros OSD. It can encode from just about any video source (except maybe HD at this point) and transcode on the fly to a digital format. Great option!
Q Jason, Fullerton, CA - IO errors
Jason has been upgrading hard drives by pulling off the data and installing it. He’s running into IO device errors. Can it be due to the hard drives being password protected? Leo says it’s an ownership issue. You need to take ownership of the file or folder in order to open it. Here’s a Microsoft Knowledge base article that’ll talk you through it.
Q Sam, North Carolina - Installing LCD TVs for a school
Sam is working on a project where he’s installing about 40 LCD TVs into a school. He wants to know if he can network them for multi media. Leo says a Balun will do the trick. It converts the video to digital signals over cat 5 cable.
Q Scott, Apple Valley, CA - Laptop BSOD
Scott had a laptop that has been in storage about 9 months. Now, when he boots up, he gets a BSOD. He took some additional ram out and it started up. Leo suspects just plain bad RAM. Leo suggests just starting over on the machine. Get off the data if readable and then reformat the hard drive and reinstall. Data can become unreliable over time.
Q Grant, Glendale, CA - Dual monitors and the MAC
Grant just ordered a MAC Pro with two monitors. But he can only hook up one monitor. He even got the “dual link” monitor cable and he still can’t use it. He gets glitches and flashes. What can he do to stabilize the second monitor? Leo says Grant should contact MAC and say “what the heck?!” Should he get a second graphics card? No. You shouldn’t spend another dime. Get Apple to fix it.
Have a great geek week, and don’t forget to BACK UP!
