Leo Laporte
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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Saturday May 09, 2009
- Show Audio
- Tech News
- How to Follow Leo
- Hour 1
- Hour 2
- Seth, Long Beach - Dual booting Win 7
- Bill, Hollywood, CA - Jumping multiple channels
- Courtney, Redlands, CA - updating I.E. 8
- Chris, San Antonio, TX - iPhone Apps recommendations
- Dave, McClane, VA - Backing up an old computer
- William, Simi Valley, CA - XP collapsed!
- Alonza, Long Beach, CA - Erasing the hard drive
- Hour 3
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Tech News
Leo sees Star Trek. Loves it.
Leo doesn’t consider himself a “trekker,” but he thinks that this film is pure Star Trek and that it will appeal to both die hard fans, and new viewers. The effects are pure digital - which is a departure historically from previous films that have filmed models and incorporated digital effects.
Will Internet Addiction be a condition in the future?
Or will we just be more acclimated to living our lives online? Leo thinks that as time goes on and as we get more wired and accustomed to finding out information, we’ll treat it less as a condition and more as a regular part of life.
Win 7 RC1 is out
The release candidate of Windows 7 is now available. The RC1 will work free for a year and is completely reliable. Leo says its the best Windows EVER and everyone should download it and try it out. Here’s how: Google “Technet Windows 7.” The first thing will be the result. Select and then scroll down to select either the 32 bit or 64 bit. What’s the diff? If you have 4GB of RAM or more, choose the 64 Bit. The 32Bit can’t access any RAM above 4GB. Then download it. You will need a Hotmail account, but those are easy to get.
Understand though, in a year you’ll either have to buy Win 7 or downgrade.
How to Follow Leo
If you’re still using Twitter and you can’t get through to the show on the phone, you can pose a question to Leo on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/leolaporte. Just type @leolaporte and then your question. And if you use #techguy Leo will be able to filter it much easier and see your question.
You can also follow Leo at Facebook by joining his fan page at http://www.facebook.com/LeoLaporte
Hour 1
Q Matthew, E. Petersberg, PA - Website Slows down
Matthew has created websites for Major League Baseball Coloring books. He uses a content management system like Drupal to make it easier,
but they slow down over time. Could it be that he’s using “shared hosting?” What service should he be using? In general, shared servers will be unpredictable since sites are more or less effected by the popularity of other sites on the same server, and there could be thousands.
But how do you find a good webhost? Leo says that’s the thing. Most review sites get paid by the webhost, so there’s little credibility there. The best choice is broadbandreports.com for legitimate ISP reviews.
The website is MLB Coloring Books.
Q Chuck, San Diego, CA - when electronics get wet
What to do? Leo says to get the power off ASAP. If it won’t leave residue, you can just leave it to air dry on it’s own. And let it dry longer than you think. This is the safest way possible. If it leaves a residue like milk, pop, etc., then it’ll need to be cleaned. The good news is, if you caught it and let most of it drain out (turn upside down and go out) you may be okay. Just be safe and have it checked.
Cellphones have a moisture strip that turns red when it gets wet.
Q William, Riverside, CA - Restoring his computer
William made a recovery set and now, trying to restore it the CDs won’t work. There are specific ways to burn a recovery set and it may be that if you used Windows with a drag, drop and burn style, it may not have burned the necessary UDF files.Leo hates that. It’s sad that they make you create your own set of backup disks. Call Gateway and ask them for a recovery set. It’s a good bet they’ll send you a set.
Q Ayers, Los Angeles, CA - Win 7
Ayers says what’s cool about Win 7 is that if you have more than one monitor, each monitor can have it’s own wallpaper. Leo says that’s very cool. Ayers also says that the Internet has become so important that it should really be in the same category as utilities. Leo agrees.
Hour 2
Q Seth, Long Beach - Dual booting Win 7
Seth wants to know if dual booting in Win 7 and XP will be improved. He says that Vista dual boot is terrible. Leo says that the new Win 7 compatibility mode will allow for running XP virtually.
Q Bill, Hollywood, CA - Jumping multiple channels
Bill has a DirecTV receiver that allows you to jump between 4 or 5 channels at once. Leo says he doens’t know if anyone else is doing that since Sony has the patent on that. There is the dedicated channels on DirecTV that show up to 8 channels at the same time.
Leo says the Harmony One Remote Control is programmable and can allow you to program it for a similar purpose.
Q Courtney, Redlands, CA - updating I.E. 8
Courtney is having trouble updating I.E. 8 as Windows says he has two versions of I.E. and won’t let him use either. Leo says uninstall your old Macaffee and the old beta version of I.E. 8. The problem is that Microsoft is pushing the new version of 8 and that’s where the problem is. So uninstall it and then let Windows update install it for you.
Q Chris, San Antonio, TX - iPhone Apps recommendations
Chris just got a new iPhone and wants to know what Apps to get. Leo says that there’s a great podcat application called RSS Player. It’s a freebie. It depends on what you use the iPhone for. Evernote is great because it works between the iPhone, the Mac, Windows, and it allows you to take technotes, snapshots, and voice notes. Then they save it out to the Internet. Great app. I HEART RADIO, done by Clear Channel is free, lets you listen to any radio network, even on EDGE! Pandora allows you to create custom channels. Tweetie is Leo’s favorite Twitter app. And Stanza - a great ebook reading app that’s also free. And although Mac has traditionally not been a great gaming platform, the iPhone is outstanding for it. And the apps are very inexpensive. Like MYST. $7. And it’s the same graphics as the original. The full game, too!
Leo is working on a lecture called 60 iPhone Apps in 60 minutes.
Q Dave, McClane, VA - Backing up an old computer
Dave has an old computer with a “questionable” version of XP on it. He wants to back up the computer via Carbonite and then reformat and install a legit copy. Leo says you can do that, sure. You can also use the Microsoft Transfer Files and Settings Wizard adn network it to a second computer to back it up and then you can wipe it and legitimize it! In fact, they’re cheap - get an external hard drive and drag and drop your data onto it. Then go from there.
Q William, Simi Valley, CA - XP collapsed!
William suddenly had his system processor go to 100% and now he can only log on in safe mode. Safe mode means that chances are a driver has gotten damaged. Your hard drive may have a bad sector on it as well which is preventing Windows from loading it. And if Windows Repair utility can’t, then that’s a very solid indicator you have a few bad sectors going bad. You can uses SpinRite for it. It’s $80. But you can also get the data off it and reformat the drive. Drives are also cheap, so why not replace it?
Q Alonza, Long Beach, CA - Erasing the hard drive
Alonza has two different OS on two hard drives. How does he remove Windows on the C: drive? Leo says that Windows likes to boot from the C: no matter where you install it. It will put boot loader files on it and if you wipe it, you won’t be able to boot into Windows. So do NOT erase it! Just put the version of Windows you use the most on the C: drive.
Hour 3
Q Robert, Realto, CA - Installing new DVD burner
Robert has a Dell Dimension and just got a new DVD burner, but he has no connectors or instructions on how to install it. Leo says the flat gray ribbon will have two connectors on the IDE. Dell is assuming that you already have the connector. So choose the middle connector to pop it in. Leo says you’ll need to find the Power connector - there are several inside that you can adapt. You’ll also need to set your jumpers properly to list the DVD as a secondary drive. Check Dell’s website for a PDF manual on how to install it.
Q Aaron, Florence, SC - Running Linux on the iPhone
Leo says you can’t unless you jailbreak it and Leo doesn’t recommend it. There’s a linux app for the iPOD, but it’s not worth risking messing up your iPhone, especially when the firmware vs. 3.0 is coming next month.
Q Cynthia, Sherman Oaks, CA - firing her cable company
Cynthia wants to fire her cable company and replace them with Hulu on an Apple TV. But can she hook it up to a 5 year old TV. Leo says if your TV has component, you’ll do fine.
Leo suggests getting a wireless router and add it to your network. You can secure it just as secure as your wired network. Then you can plug in a wireless access port and turn on WPA networking.
Q Harry, Buchanan, TX - Drying out an ipod Touch
Harry got an iPod Touch wet. Is he doomed? Well, the issue of the Touch is that it has a closed up battery that you can’t remove. Leo says that you may be lucky if you let it dry out for a LONG time. But chances are, it may have fried/short circuited a chip.
A hail mary to try - putting the Touch in a ziplock with a cup of uncooked rice may act as a dessicant to draw the moisture out.
Q Cheryl, Hemmit, CA - Internet access in rural areas
Cheryl is stuck with dial-up because she lives in a rural area. Leo says that this is why the Internet needs to be considered a utility and the government needs a modern day digital Tennessee Valley Authority project to wire the country.
Meantime, go to BroadbandReports.com and get a list of all the ISPs in your area with prices. Another option is HowardForums.com.
See you tomorrow!
