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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Sunday May 24, 2009
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Tech News
GoDaddy Indy 500 Ads verge on Soft Core porn
Leo has decided he can’t support Go Daddy’s suggestive content in their ads. It’s revolting, bad for kids, and alienating to women (come on, Danica, why are you falling for the salacious come-on?). It certainly won’t court women into technology.
Customers are too smart for the “sex sells” attitude of marketing - at least in technology. That thinking is dead. Customers want to know why a product is BETTER now. That’s the benefit of living in the information age.
Write to Bob Parson’s, Go Daddy CEO and let him know you plan to “vote with your wallet.”
Palm Pre coming out June 6
Three Days before Apple is expected to release it’s new iPhone, Palm is releasing the new Pre with a price point of $199 with Sprint. Cagey move or puttin’ it all on red?
How old should a kid be before they have a cellphone?
Leo says when kids reach about 6th grade, you need to be able to get ahold of them. There’s some good options there like The Firefly (5 buttons preprogrammed). But in today’s connected age, giving a kid a cellphone may be a good idea.
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Guests
Chris Marquardt - Tips from the Top Floor
Chris is still at Everest on his great mountain climbing photo adventure. Follow Chris’ shoot program at Everest Trek.
What helps to make a subject more appealing to the viewer? That’s our topic today. Size, for example. Make the subject big. Give it a certain portion of the frame. If it’s too small, you can lose your subject when you put it on the web. Focus. Where you put the focus can help the subject. Colors. Placing your subject in a sea of color which contrast with your subject can really make them “pop.” If bright, place them in front of something dark. Gives it a negative space kind of look. Lines can lead to the subject. Frame your subject using a doorway, a building or just shapes in the background will visually stimulate the subject and give them a good place to sit in the picture.
Hour 1
Ryan can’t plug his SPDIF digital audio into his TV, but he can’t find the out on his PC. Leo says the HDTV wants digital audio and there’s probably a digital connector on either your motherboard (for on board sound) or, sound card. You’ll need a PCI sound card. In fact a lot of sound cards have the SPDIF plugs already built on. The Audigy XFi sound card by Creative is a good example. It may be a good time to upgrade your motherboard. But it also proves why it’s no longer practical to build your own computer anymore.
Q Jackson, Oklahoma City, OK - Shooting a video podcast.
Jackson is on his 6th episode of his video podcast and his guest mentioned “VidBlaster.” What is it? It has multi-camera support for switching in the computer. Another version is Boinx. You will need multiple firewire cards though dedicated for each camera. The advantage of having a program like VidBlaster is that you don’t really have to edit, you can switch like live TV. Also, check out WireCast.
Jackson’s podcast is at Living Digitally.
Q Richard, Santa Monica, CA - Installed Windows 7, can’t get online.
Richard installed Windows 7, and now he can’t get online. Wassup? Leo thinks the issue may be in the router and his DSL account. Did he set up his login/password for his PPOE account? Leo thinks Richard may have forgotten that he has to log in to get online. Inputting it on the router means you only do it once, but it also means you can easily forget you have to do it!
Q Rob, Tarzana, CA - Backing up Network drives
Rob wants to know what he needs to do to backup. Leo says it’s best to buy two external drives for backup (they’re cheap) and set for RAID 1. That way the drive will mirror the PC itself and you can get back up quick. Using a network attached drive (plus an off site backup) is always the best backup option.
Hour 2
Q Ed, Santa Cruz, CA - Fraudulent web registrars
Ed was ripped off by a fraudulent web registerar called GKG. Leo says that getting ahold of ICANN will allow you to get your money back and will give you a list of top level domain registrars. Leo uses DotSter.
Q Angela, Nova Scotia, CAN - Apple’s Leopard compatibility
Angela has found out that CoverScout won’t work out of Demo unless she has Leopard. Leo says that’s can happen as Leopard was a major upgrade and many utilities need the background services that Leopard provides. Leo says that Snow Leopard will be coming out in the fall, so it’s probably best to wait.
Q Michael, West Covina, CA - iPhone reception
Is there a antenna booster for the iphone? Leo says that an independent cell phone provider sells signal boosters. But you still need a signal to start with. And the wireless ones aren’t cheap. The Dual Band Wireless Personal Booster uses a long wire and antenna to boost your signal. Another option is the Z Boost. The one you really want is the Wilson Direct Connect. 3 Watts!
Q Ron, CA - Roxio Photo Suite problems
Ron’s hard drive died and when he imported a new hard drive and got his backup of his photos on, Roxio isn’t seeing his photos. Leo says Roxio is seeing the thumbnails, but can’t see the full quality pictures. You’ll need rebuild your photo library. You can try putting them in the same directory as the thumbnail, but it may not work. Try looking for the file folder Roxio created for your photos and import them there and Roxio will reacquire the pictures.
Note folks. RON HAD A BACKUP.
Q Tade, Buillion, AUS - Screencasts/websites
Tade wants to get a screen catcher program and record tutorials to sell online. Leo says to check out screencastsonline.com to see how Leo’s friend Don does it for the MAC. Don uses “Screen Flow.” For Windows, Leo recommends Tech Smith’s Camtasia Studio. But it’s not cheap at $300. A cheaper version, called SnagIt does similar. A freebie is called JING.
Tade says the ones he’s tried have really slowed down his computer. Leo says if you consider what you’re doing - you really need a lot of horsepower and RAM because you’re computing, and your recording it.
Q Carlton, Los Angeles, CA - Video streaming Leo Style
Carlton is doing video streaming - what recommendation. Leo says the big three are U Stream, BitGravity, and Stickham. But how does Leo do it? Leo says that you probably won’t do HD because most can’t stream HiDef. If you look at Tom Greene’s site, you can see how good BitGravity is. Leo streams at 500KB ps and even at that, there can be buffering. The key is using a flash media encoder. Use widescreen and it gives an illusion of HD. Leo uses the Canopus AVDC 300 and AVDC 700 which encodes it into flash. Use 540p with MP3 audio for the best quality at lower bandwidth. Use Flash Media Encoder from Adobe. Vs. 3 is the latest.
His Show is called Twitter TV Live.
Hour 3
Q Chris, San Diego, CA - Go Daddy alternatives
Chris says that 101Domain.com is what he uses. They can register over 100 different extensions. Is a domain name protectable? Not really, it’s like a street address. But you can go to ICANN and initiate the process to protect your brand name/trademark.
Q Gary, New York, NY - Another Go Daddy Alternative
Gary uses 1 and 1 to register and host. Very simple. Leo agrees. 1and1 is a very good example which builds it into the cost and they offer excellent and affordable hosting. Also, it looks like ICANN is going to offer domains of just about anything as an extension, which means you can really customize and control a domain - if you’re the first to get it.
Q Lynda, Cypress, CA - Cellphones for kids
Lynda wants to get a simple cellphone which auto dials for her daughter. Leo says the FireFly is a great option for kids. They can have 4 preprogrammed calls and buttons to call directly. Great calling plans. A great option is you can track your kids with the GPS chip included (Verizon supports it, but not all do).
Bill is ready to make “The Switch” to MAC but he’s concerned with two applications that don’t seem to support the MAC so much - Quicken and Act!. Leo says Act abandoned the MAC long ago. Quicken for MAC is the Jan Brady of the Mac world. Some times it’s updated, sometimes it’s woefully behind. But you don’t really have to completely abandon the Windows platform. Install them on MAC using VMWare, Boot Camp or Parallels? and 4GB of RAM and you have the best of both worlds. That’s nice about the Intel Mac platform. Especially using the MAC Mini. You can get one of those for about $600–700.
Q Jack - Sleeping Mac won’t wake up
Jack updated the RAM in his MAC and it goes to sleep and won’t wake up. Leo suggests booting up from the OSX disk (holding “C” key down). This will eliminate the software issues. This is what Leo suspects. If it continues, you know it’s a hardware issue. If not, then it’s software. Then, you’ll need to reinstall OSX - do the upgrade installation so you don’t lose your data.
Q Rich, San Jose, CA - Comcast confusion
Rich is getting a lot of mail from Comcast about the upcoming digital transition. Leo says that Comcast is taking advantage of the confusion to try and up sell you. You don’t really need a cable box if you have a Quam tuner. Comcast is trying to get you to rent a digital cable box. Is it possible that Comcast will force the box on you? Sure. But that’s bad business and will annoy a great many customers. Leo says to wait and see. He’s bettin’ you don’t need it.
