Leo Laporte
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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Sunday May 17, 2009
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Tech News
Facebook’s baffling treatment of members
They’ll ban members for posting pics of nursing mothers, but defend hate groups. Huge mistake on Facebook’s part. Leo says you can’t have it both ways. You either allow everything, or nothing. Stop cherry picking.
Epic fail for Twitter
Someone posted a “tweet” that the California Supreme Court overturned Prop 8, starting a firestorm of activity, tossing Twitter off line. The irony was that the link was to a story from over a year ago about overturning Prop 22, not Prop 8!
So while Leo thinks that Twitter is great for spreading the breaking news, does an apparent mistaken post about a controversial issue show that Twitter isn’t really ready to handle the flurry of activity that a breaking news story can generate?
Following Leo on Twitter & Facebook
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
Guests
Steve Wolfram, Wolfram Alpha
Steve Wolfram is Leo’s guest to talk about his latest search project called Wolfram Alpha. Not a direct search, per se, more like investigating the relationships between items you search for.
Chris Marquardt - Tips from the Top Floor
Part three on subjects today, mainly, what helps a subject? How do you make your subject stand out even better? Size. Make the subject bigger in the picture. Give it a large portion in the frame. Focus. Where do you put the focus in the picture? Colors. Try using a complimentary color or contrast in the background. This will help your subject stand out. Bright. If your subject is bright, make the background dark. Lines. Have lines leading to the subject. Frames. Using doorways or other shapes to frame your subject will make the subject “pop.”
See Chris’ Everest pictures at netvibes.com/everesttrek
Hour 1
Q Karen, Palo Alto, CA - TIVO dies
Karen’s TIVO died and now that she has a new one, can she copy the software and install it in a new hard drive? Leo wrote a book on Hacking TIVOs Series 1 and back then, it was rather easy to do. But with the series II, you may have some risk. Leo thinks you can image the drive to save the software. There are companies that can sell you an imaged, yet larger drive to install. Check out WeakKnees. The Chatroom also suggests DVRUpgrade.com.
Leo respects your desire to do it on your own, but there’s a chance that Windows could alter the drive making it unusable in the TIVO. Let the guys at Weak Knees do it and you’ll guarantee it. But if you feel ambitious, give it a whirl, but read up on it first. Check out DealDatabase Forums to read up on people who have done just that.
Q Rose, Thousand Oaks, CA - Laptop for writing music
Rose’s husband composes music and wants a laptop recommendation. Leo says that it largely depends on the software he currently uses. He uses Sibelius. And since Sibelius is multi platform, and with most musicians using MAC … but if he prefers Windows, there’s no reason not to use a PC. But it’ll probably need to be a powerful machine if you use more and more instruments. So, fast 7200 RPM hard drive, 4GB RAM with Windows Vista 64 Bit. 17″ screen.
Leo thinks that the Dell Studio 16 is a good choice. Another good choice is Fujitsu for their screens. Sony makes great products but have lousy support. HP has quality products but you have to get rid of all the “junkware.” If price is the object, ACER gives you the most bang for your buck.
Q Romona, Chapel Hill, SC - AntiVirus
Romona wants to know about viruses in Virtual Machine. Leo says to take a “snapshot” of your drive, then if you get a virus, simply toss out the virtual machine and go to the snapshot.
Use Virtual Box by Sun and Windows 7, and you can run Windows virtually for free for the next year.
Hour 2
Q Eric (ERIAR), Chevy Chase, MD - Windows 7
Eric hears that providing feedback for Windows 7 will get you a free copy of Win7 Ultimate. Check out NeoWin.net for more details.
Eric also wants to get a new monitor - 20–22″. He also wants a 15–20 foot cable. Signal degradation? Leo says that that long of a cable will cause sigal loss and for digital, that usually means failure. If it’s a good quality cable, it may work, but you’re pushing the envelope. As for monitors … Samsung makes the best monitors right now.
Q Carl, Newport Beach, CA - Using Facebook & Friendfeed
Friendfeed is an aggregator which pulls in content from a variety of sources. But that isn’t the end of it. Carl may be running into issues with Facebook talking to Friendfeed. There is a privacy setting which could be shutting out your Friendfeed.
You can follow Leo at Friendfeed here.
Q Henry, Yuma, AZ - Mac Printer Sharing
Henry is having trouble printing from his network. Networking printers can be quite tricky. Apple offers Bonjour networking. So if your printer is Bonjour compatible, you should be okay. If you’re still having trouble, then it’s a driver issue. Leo says that try connecting the printer to the Mac, then installing the Mac drivers. Once done and you can print, then install the printer on the network. If you can direct connect, you can print via network. But sometimes printers have separate network drivers.
Q Kyle, Carson City, NV - Computer Tune-up causes trouble
Kyle has a PC that he had a company do a “computer tune-up.” Now nothing works as it should, including his favorite programs. Leo says that clearly the computer store messed up what they promised to do and you should take it back and make them “untune the tuneup!”
Hour 3
Q Sam, San Diego, CA - Trouble with AVS software
Sam is getting an incompatible message when installing the Kasperssky AVS, saying that his old McAffee is still installed. Leo says that it’s not uncommon for AVS to not completely uninstall. Go to McAffee and run their deep removal utility. If the issue perists, then it may be that the AVS isn’t working well and it could be an issue with Kaspersky. And if they’re being problematic after doing all that, then perhaps Kaspersky is too finicky. Leo isn’t really a fan of Kaspersky and recommends our show sponsor Nod32.
Start. Run. Type MRT. This is the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool. It gets updated every time Windows update. Run the deep scan overnight and you’ll get safe from any beasties have quietly invaded your box.
Q Jonathan, Los Angeles, CA - Boots into powersave mode
Jonathan boots up and gets stuck in powersave mode. Leo hates to say it but with a computer as old as Jonathan, it’s high time to reformat the drive and reinstall the OS using your recovery discs. Leo suggests before hand, backup your data. Once recovered, run Windows Update until all updates are installed. Then reinstall your apps and data. Leo also suspects that the hard drive may be failing. Missing files, exes missing, etc. Hard drives are cheap. Just replace the drive.
Q Dave, New York, NY - Ham operator conference
Dave just got back from the Huge HAM conference in Dayton, OH. HAM has gotten computerized and Dave is excited at all the cool tech for HAMs out there. You can control your radio from your computer and have greater functions you wouldn’t get from your HAM Rig.
Q Kendra, Santa Clarita, CA - Notebook recommendation
Kendra would like to get a notebook for about $300. Leo says that it’s a great time to buy in to netbooks. Verizon has an HP Mini for about $300 subsidized. Dell Mini is good. Leo has an MSI Wind. And Asus is coming out with a new one called the Seashell. Thin and light. A little more cost, but not much. Just make sure you can live with the smaller screen and keyboard.
Have a great geek week!
