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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Saturday April 18, 2009
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Tech News
Oprah needs help with Twitter, Fans hate it
Oprah brings in the creator of Twitter and Ashton Kutcher via Skype to talk Twitter. And tweeting in CAPS is a no-no, Oprah. Leo says that celebrities use Twitter as a broadcast medium, not back and forth with those who follow him. Twitter fans hate it that their domain has been invaded by celebs. But Leo says if you don’t care about celebrities, don’t follow them!
Pirate Bay Creators convicted of Piracy
The Pirate Bay, a bit torrent site which has both legal and illegal download torrents, will have to do without it’s founders for awhile as a court in Sweden has convicted them of piracy. They will have to pay a $1 Million fine and do a year in jail. Meanwhile, Pirate Bay is still open for business.
ZDNet says there’s Zombie Macs?
Leo says that ZDNet’s article citings Symantec’s report on Malware designed to create a BotNet on Macs is really vague. It’s most compelling evidence is a single 3 month old blog entry about a virus in pirated sofware. Leo takes it with a giant grain of salt.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=3157
Guests
Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine
Leo is using the Epson EX70 to plug into his cable box to project HBOs Gray Gardens tonight and he’s stoked he finally got a projection screen! What annoys him though is that he can’t use it to play blu-ray movies because it’s “not approved” for Blu-ray projection due to DRM! DRM?!
There’s something new from the creator of HDMI (Silicon Image). It’s an audio/video networking device that would allow any device on the network to use any audio/video device also on the Network. It’s called LiquidHD and is designed from a consumer electronics point of view, not a PC point of view. The spec will be complete sometime next year and what’s interesting is that it will not only transport audio/video, but also the user interface. So you can call up a menu from the LiquidHD interface onto the TV itself. That eliminates a lack of uniformity and is familiar no matter what TV or other display device you watch it on. It’s also discoverable, which means it will find displays on the network and set them up to use LiquidHD. Nice! Scott thinks we’ll be seeing product at CEDIA in September or CES in January.
Hour 1
Q Adam, Bronx, NY - iTunes and iPod
Every time Adam re-formats and installs, he has to redo completely his iTunes collection. How can he back it up and then just restore. Leo says that the way it works on the Mac is that you copy of the library folder and iTunes keeps everything along with an index xml file. Then you can just copy it back to the iTunes directory when you’re done. You should be able to do the same thing in Windows. Check under your home/documents & settings/music folder. If you get all of that, you should be fine.
A trick you can do is backup everything iTunes related, then reinstall iTunes. Overwrite the folder with the older folder and iTunes should be able to see it. More from Apple’s Knowledge base here.
Q Alan, Los Angeles, CA - Black Berry Storm
Alan uses the Blackberry Storm and is pleased with the new firmware update. He uses an app called Accelodex.
Q Cody, Berleville, OH - Podcasting and Game development
Cody has started a podcast on video games and is going to school to study gaming design and programming. He’s on iTunes, but the problem he has, is that he can’t update his old RSS feeds. Leo says you don’t do it in iTunes, you do it in the feed and iTunes picks it up in the RSS. That includes album art, length, etc. Leo suggests getting a podcast creation tool like “Feeder”.
Cody’s podcast is called The Barrel Roller’s Podcast.
Hour 2
Q Ellie, Honolulu, HI - driving traffic to her website
How does she get people to visit her website? Her sight is a travel site for disabled travelers. Leo says to avoid companies that offer “search engine optimization.” It’s a scam. You want to think out what search terms people will use to find you. Make sure there is content built around that. Google looks at the first 1500 characters when searching, so include those search terms in your page title. That way, those search terms point to your page. Use those again at the beginning of your page as well.
Then, cross link with similar sites. Reach out to them. Participate with communities and forums that share your interests. This will help Google pick you up. Also, if you register the domain name for more than one year, that helps.
Her website is GiantDolphin.com
Q Leslie, Washington, DC - Trojans
Leslie got word from Windows Defender and her AVS that a trojan had worked it’s way into her. She needs to run the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. She says she may also have a root kit. If you forget to update the critical updates. Leo says you may also have a “blocked update” which left you wide open. But one way they get you is to trick you into installing their video player or some special software.
But does she have to reformat her hard drive and reinstall? Leo says it’s a good idea. It will completely wipe out anything you have, including root kits. Here’s a step by step on how to do it: Geek to Live by Gina Trapani.
Q Larry, Manhattan Beach, CA - doing a good backup, how?
Larry wants to know what he really needs to backup. Leo says that there’s two ways: one is an image copy. An Image will make a known virus free version of your system ready to go and it will act as your install/restore disc. Secondly, you back up your data. This will be the [Local disc/users/]DOCUMENTS and SETTINGS folder. This will backup all your accounts, favorites and data. Leo though, backs up just the documents so when he does do a reinstall, it’s a very clean one and each time he strives to make it more efficient as he’s learned how to do it better.
Ideally, you can have this automatically backed up using a Network Attached Storage like HPs Media Vault.
Q Todd, Pasadena, CA - New iPhone or Blackberry
Todd keeps hearing there will be a new iPhone in June. Should he wait? Leo says it’s a pretty good bet an iPhone vs. 3 will be out by summer. But will it be a dramatic departure? Not likely. If you like a hard keyboard, then the Blackberry is probably a good option. If email is important to you, get a Blackberry. If you like Apps and media, get the iPhone.
Hour 3
Q Max, Palmdale, CA - Networking old USB drive
Max wants to network an old USB drive. Can he connect it to his router? Leo says that some routers have USB ports that you can connect a USB Hard drive to and turn it into Network Attached Storage. Perfectly safe and it’ll work just fine whether connected or disconnected from the Internet.
Q Larry, Birmingham, AL - Speeding up Blog publishing
Larry says his WordPress blog platform is slow. How does he speed it up? Leo says you can contact your ISP and ask them if they support cacheing. If so, you can use MemCache. But Wordpress has a plugin called WPCache. It will speed up your loading dramatically.
Larry’s webpage is called The Camping Pro
Q Tracy, Foothill Ranch, CA - Photo editing
Tracy needs a new photo editor like Microsoft’s Picture It! Leo says Picture It was great because of the Wizards. Sadly, it’s no longer being updated. There’s a few including Paint.Net, which is free. Paintshop Pro is pretty good, Leo uses it.
Microsoft may have intended to replace Picture It with Digital Image. There’s an open source utility called THE GIMP which can be made to look like Photoshop with a plug in called GIMPSHOP. But it’s about has challenging as Photoshop.
Q Chris, Redondo Beach, CA - Computer bogged down
Chris’ computer is getting REALLY SLOW. Leo says first thing to do is try SpeedTest to see how fast your internet connection is actually running. If you’re going through the router, try unplugging your router and reboot it. Sometimes they get a tad sluggish. And sometimes your system may be slowing. Do your updates, update your AVS, clean it. Sometimes, even reformatting and installing Windows will speed it up as
Windows can slow down over time (called bitrot).
Q Richard, San Marcos, CA - MacBook with More RAM?
Richard is replacing his G4 iMac. How much RAM should he get? Leo says that 2–4GB is good, but don’t get it from MAC. You can install it yourself and save a bundle if your getting a 13″ or 15″. Then again, at $100 for 4GB, just get it from Apple. And refurbished items from Apple can save you some cash as well, and you get a full warranty.
Q Sheryl, Canyon Lake, CA - BlueTooth headset recommendation.
Sheryl wants a bluetooth headset that allows her to listen to media as well as use her iPhone. Leo says he’s very disappointed that Apple didn’t create a stereo earbud (called A2DP). But it’s coming in the next update.
Leo loves the Motorola S9 which will work when the update comes. There are also headphones which have a dongle that will support A2DP, but there’s a few downsides to that including the extra weight and length of the dongle on the end of your iPhone.
Sheryl also wants to get the Panasonic TZ6. Leo says looks to be a great camera when it comes out. Wide angle, Leica lens. 10x optical zoom. Can’t wait.
