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Q Dr. Mark, Syracuse, NY - Tablet image turned 90 degrees!

Have a great geek week!

Catherine Hall is Leo’s guest to talk about how to take great digital pictures of people. Catherine recommends practice. With digital photography, you can make plenty of bad pictures until you get really good ones and then you see what works. Also, communicate with your subject. Interact with them. Kids are easier as they aren’t as intimindated with the camera. They don’t worry about how they look, etc. So, taking pictures of kids is fun. Landscapes require patience as you wait for that “magic hour” where the light hits just right.

Advice on taking better pictures for newbies … 1) get out and shoot. Only by going out and doing it will you find your style. It’s a journey. 2) get advice, share your work, and be involved in a community. 3) Listen to shows like This Week in Photography and Tips from the Top Floor that will teach you tips and help you to develop your eye.

As a backup pocket camera, Catherine uses the Powershot SD pocket camera.

Q [caller unknown] - Internet access lost after cleaning off virus

She got infected by a virus and removed it and now she can’t get access to the Internet. Leo says that some viruses and worms bury themselves really deep and attach to key system files. So, what you’ll probably need to do is take it in and have a professional take a look at it. In fact, to save money, simply backing up your data and reinstalling your OS by your recovery discs is a sure way to fix the problem.

Q Josh, Woodland Hills, CA - BIOS Password?

Josh’s laptop is asking for a bios password. Huh? Leo says that is one way to protect your computer from unauthorized use. Google Toshiba [model] bios and password and you may be able to find someone who found the Bios “backdoor” and found how to reset it.

Q Richard, Laguna Hills, CA - Switching broadband providers

Richard wants to swap broadband providers but wants to keep his yahoo email. Can he? Leo says yes. Yahoo mail isn’t tied to the ISP and so you can take it where ever you want. But he does recommend paying for the premium service to dump the ads.

Q Tony, San Pedro, CA - HDTV Antenna recommendation

Tony has a perfect line of site to transmitters and wants to know what’s the best antenna for to get HiDef broadcasts. Leo recommends AntennaWeb to take a look at what’s out there. Leo says that for marginal HDTV reception, that a YAGI is the best for those fringe areas.

Q Dr. Mark, Syracuse, NY - Tablet image turned 90degrees!

Leo says that there’s a control panel that allows the images to be in either portrait mode or landscape mode. Different tablets are made differently, but there may be a little button under the screen that will rotate it. It may also be in the display settings under Control panel.

Q Alan, Placentia, CA - Roku recommendation

Alan wants to stream his Netflicks video to his TV. Leo says the ROKU Netflix player is the best bet at $99 and if you’re already a Net Flix member. It’s best if you can connect it wired, but it can also go wireless - but it won’t be as consistent. But you need at least 2MB down to make that consistent connection at high quality.

Q Dan, Van Nuys, CA - Cellphone recommendation

Dan would like to get a smartphone for his Verizon line. Leo is a fan of the BlackBerry Curve. A very good choice with a keyboard. Good variety of software available. Too bad they don’t carry the Bold though. Leo hates exclusive deals on phones.

Q Sandy, Hemmit, CA - Copying bookmarks from one user to another

Sandy would like to run as a User, rather than Administrator in XP. She wants to know if she can transfer her bookmarks to another user. You can export your bookmarks and import them into your new account. But it’s fairly frustrating in XP.

Catherine Hall, Portrait Photographer

Catherine Hall is Leo’s guest to talk about how to take great digital pictures.

Mary wants to update her camera. She wants to avoid the shutter lag that plagues point and shoot cameras, but wants to keep her portability. She also wants a good zoom for scenery pictures. Leo recommends the Panasonic Lumix LX3. Great Zoom, 10MP, Fast Leica lens (f2). Very popular with pros who are looking for a portable backup option. The Canon G10 is also good.

Jenny wants to get her daughter a new computer for school. Leo recommends the White Plastic MacBook. 13.3″ screen. Durable. Great software she’ll enjoy like Pages (demo), Garage Band, iTunes, iMovie, etc. Leo says the Mac is ideal because of security and the additional software that comes with it. The iMac is also a good choice for a static option in the dorm.

Q Tim, Los Angeles, CA - Securing his wireless network

Tim wants to secure his wireless network. How does he? You go into your wireless router by inputting 192.168.1.1 (Linksys) into your router and turn on WPA encryption. Give it a good, difficult password. It’s completely encrypted and secure.

Q - Switching broadband providers

Q Jenny, Encino, CA - Getting a new computer

Jenny wants to get her grand daughter a new computer. Leo recommends the White Plastic MacBook. 13.3″ screen. Durable. Great software she’ll enjoy like Pages (demo), Garage Band, iTunes, iMovie, etc. Leo says the Mac is ideal because of security and the additional software that comes with it.

Patty is having trouble with her Toshiba laptop. It’s not charging. Leo says that a good way to test to see if the battery will charge in your other Toshiba. If it doesn’t, it could be dead. But it may also be something is wrong with the AC system itself. It’s a very common occurrence that the AC solder connection can break on the motherboard. If you know someone who can fix that, it can be an easy repair. But taking it to an authorized dealer and they’ll say you need to replace the motherboard which makes it cheaper to just buy a new laptop. Contact a local TV/Electronics repair man and see if they’ll do it for cheap. But backup your data first just in case.

Q Buster, Los Gatos, CA - New laptop recommendation

Buster has to get a new laptop, but wants to avoid having to transfer everything. Leo says you could use a device like the Tornado to do it, but Leo recommends just going through the pain and backing up your data, restoring the data and freshly installing all the applications you need and dumping the ones you don’t.

Q

There’s also a new feature for Windows 7, which will allow users to run XP Pro in Virtual Machine. That’s great.

Hour 2

Leo suggests investing in Apple TV, which will sync to iTunes and work ideally. But the best is also the ROKU Media Center Extender. But all the router companies make MCEs as well.

Q Tim, Ontario, CA - Building a studio

Tim, through his daughter Sarah, wants to know what he needs to build a backyard studio. Leo says soundproofing isn’t as important as it used to be. But if you use drapes covering the windows and line the room with books, it’ll dampen the extraneous sound. Also, use a directional mic like the Heil PR40. Wirecast is a great option for multiple camera support, graphics, etc. as does Mogulus and Boinx.

Q Patty, Mission Viejo, CA - laptop trouble

Patty is having trouble with her Toshiba laptop. It’s not charging. Leo says that a good way to test to see if the battery will charge in your other Toshiba. If it doesn’t, it could be dead. But it may also be something is wrong with the AC system itself. It’s a very common occurrence that the AC solder connection can break on the motherboard. If you know someone who can fix that, it can be an easy repair. But taking it to an authorized dealer and they’ll say you need to replace the motherboard which makes it cheaper to just buy a new laptop.

OTIS in Twit Conversations says also that the security of Windows Vista has greatly improved. Leo agrees. Vista and Windows 7 is a significant improvement in security.

Q Alan, Boston, MA - watching movies from his PC on his TV

Alan has heard about Media Center Extenders (MCEs) but he doesn’t want to buy yet another OS to support MCE functions. Leo says they usually work with gaming platforms like the XBOX, for example, which uses a utility called XBMC, which can also be used on your PC.

Swine flu is being found in the US and Canada after killing dozens in Mexico City. What’s particularly incideous is that it affects young kids who don’t have immunity from previous flus. The Center for Diseases Control (CDC) is posting travel alerts for ourbreaks. Check out the WHO Healthmap. Then there’s the Google Flu Map and Trends sites that puts a pin in for every reported infection.

Mary wants to update her camera. She wants to avoid the shutter lag that plagues point and shoot cameras, but wants to keep her portability. She also wants a good zoom for scenery pictures. Leo recommends the Panasonic Lumix LX3. Great Zoom, 10MP, Fast Leica lens (f2). Very popular with pros who are looking for a portable backup option. The Canon G10? is also good.

Leo says to go to DigitalCamerainfo.com and dpreview.com read up on the reviews and testing of the cameras you’re looking at.

Q Mark, Santa Ana, CA - Sanboxing his Mac

Mark is worried since he got an email about a virus for the Mac. Leo says it’s a tad disengenuous, since it was from two sources which sell AntiVirus software for the Mac, was based on a pirated copy of iWork that had a worm built into it, and then quoted a 3 month old blog entry about a “hypothetical” bot net for Macs. But there’s really no evidence that the Mac is a virus writing target.

But SandBoxie is a great virtual utility which creates a kind of “sandbox” to protect users from getting a virus as it remains within the virtual environment and once that’s closed, the virus would vanish.

But Leo also says the true source of security is to simply practice his Rules for Safe Computing.

Q Alan, Boston, MA - Putting movies on PC

Katherine Hall, Portrait Photographer

Q Mary, Torrance, CA - New Camera recommendation

Mary wants to update her camera. She wants to avoid the shutter lag that plagues point and shoot cameras, but wants to keep her portability. She also wants a good zoom for scenery pictures. Leo recommends the Panasonic Lumix LX3. Great Zoom, 10MP, Fast Leica lens (f2).

People are following the news using Twitter, Friendfeed, and Mashable. And setting up news alerts via Google News is a great idea.

Swine Flu threatens to be a pandemic?

Swine flu is being found in the US and Canada after killing dozens in Mexico City. What’s particularly incideous is that it affects young kids who don’t have immunity from previous flus. The Center for Diseases Control (CDC) is posting travel alerts for ourbreaks. Check out the WHO Healthmap. Then there’s the Google Health Map that puts a pin in for every reported infection.

People are following the news using Twitter, Friendfeed, and Mashable. And setting up news alerts via Google News is a great idea.

Guests

Chris Marquardt - Tips from the Top Floor

Sunday April 26, 2009

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