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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Saturday June 13, 2009
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Tech News
Facebook has a land grab
Midnight this morning, Facebook opened up its members to get their own name as a domain for their presence on Facebook. After companies and celebrities were slow to get on the domain land rush in the 90s and then the Twitter landrush, you can bet that people are more savvy when it comes to creating a specific presence on the world’s largest social network.
Leo’s fan page is http://www.facebook.com/leolaporte. His personal page is now http://www.facebook.com/chieftwit.
But if you recently started on Facebook or want to know, you’ll have to wait until later this month to get your own vanity name.
Digital Transition finally happens
And with little reported trouble. Seems like taking an extra five months has cut the number of households not ready by over half and minimized the shock of going to digital television. And if you need a digital converter box for those old analog TVs, you can still get them by going to dtv.gov and applying for your two $40 credit vouchers.
Apple announces new MacBooks
Apple announces new Macbooks with built in batteries that have longer battery life and are “greener.” The new 13″ MacBook has 8 hours of battery life. And the price has been dropped to about $1200. Check out Twit Picks for more about this cool new Mac. And you can follow TwitPicks on Twitter at http://twitter.com/twitpicks
Guests
Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine
Scott is back from the CEA Line Show. He saw a Mitsubishi 82″ Rear Projection TV. Toshiba is shipping their LED backlit LCD TVs. But the most interesting thing he saw was a conference program called “Digital Downtown” and the US CTO Anish Chopra’s talk about the future of using technological innovation to encourage economic recovery. He also wants to post a “report card” online where voters can rate the performance of the office of the CTO.
Chopra also wants to encourage other companies to follow the Google line of giving their employees 20% of the time to work on their own projects but for the use of all citizens.
Leo also wants to talk about the Digital TV transition, which happened yesterday. But the new channels are bonkers with “point” options like 7.3, etc. But was there a huge fallout? Not really. So far, taking the extra 5 months seems to have done a lot towards preparing households for the transition.
The extra time also helped manufacturers to create more converter boxes for the changeover.
Hour 1
Q Dennis, Marina Del Rey, CA - Adding music to his BlackBerry Storm
Dennis wants to have music on his BlackBerry Storm by Genre, but it’s so cumbersome. How can he do it “en masse?” Leo says that this is a common complaint with the Storm, but he has a free solution for this - Media Monkey. Manage genres, rip CDs, get album art, tag your selection. Leo also suggests updating the firmware of the Storm if you haven’t already.
Q Richard, Murphysbro, TN - piping music into several rooms
Richard has a child care business and he wants to pipe lullaby music into each classroom. Leo says in the old days, you’d wire each room. But now, wireless is far easier and cheaper. And if you have a WiFi computer, it’s even better. Put speakers and computers and network each classroom with WiFi Speakers. Leo likes the Roku Soundbridge for this. Then you can create playlists on your computer and no longer have to change CDs.
Hour 2
Q Doug, Miami Shores, FL - Facebook names
Doug got his Facebook name with no trouble at all. Leo agrees. It has been amazing how Facebook has rolled out this new naming land grab with no troubles.
Doug also wants to make his webpage easier. Suggestions? Leo says that content management systems like Wordpress are far easier to update and better looking. You create a template and then input content. The CMS then merges the two to create a new webpage. Wordpress is easy to use, there are thousands of templates to download and buy. It’s a great way to go for those who host their own site. But even easier is to have a managed hosting option like SquareSpace, TypePad, Wordpress.com and Vox. They set up and manage the CMS for you.
Doug’s website is Unnouncer.com.
Q Wayne, Coronado, CA - Scanning old negatives
Wayne wants to archive old photo negatives by scanning them into his computer. What recommendations does Leo have? Leo says you have to balance quality and scanning resolution as high resolution takes a lot of space. Leo recommends 200 dpi at 1400 long. This will give you a good resolution for printing. Epson makes a great series of scanners called the Perfection series. For negatives, you need a top loading light as well as the bottom. Pick the one you can afford, but anything in the $100–200 range is adequate. Like the Epson 4490. Make sure they’re clean and dust free. You’ll get great results.
Q Gail, Laguna Hill, CA - Laptop dies immediately
Gail has an HP Laptop and she can’t run it without an AC adapter. Leo says her battery is dead. Lithium Ion has a fixed number of times they can recharge and after which, the battery simply dies. This is usually after about 2–3 years. Suggest buying a new battery.
Q Paul, Bimington, NY - Graphics card
Paul is calling from a Palm Pre. Will there be more applications? Leo says yes. The WebOS is based on Java so it’s a pretty standard language to write to.
Paul wants a mid range graphics card. recommendations? Leo says N’Vidia is still the best video card out there. The GForce 9800 is a great choice in the $150 range.
Colleen says that there’s a newer more efficient one that uses just one connection, rather than two. That’s the G’Force GTS250. Leo says that’s need about the GTS250 is that you can do SLI by using a second video card.
Hour 3
Q Kevin, San Diego, CA - Conficker! Help!
Kevin is worried he may have Conficker. He hasn’t done a Windows update since before October and Leo says it’s almost certain he has it. This is why doing the Windows update every first Tuesday of the month is so vital.
Go to MalwareBytes.Org and download the Conficker removal tool. But if you haven’t updated Windows you can’t stop there. Change your updates to automatic. Get a router. This will protect you against a great many viruses and worms looking for vulnerable computers on the Web. And follow Leo’s Tips for Safe Computing.
In fact, you’re probably safer to just backup your data and then reformatting and installing Windows. Then update it.
Q Bob, Temple City, CA - Scanning digital TV channels
Bob is completely confused about the digital TV channel nomenclature. Leo says that some channels aren’t the same. So Channel 11 will be 11.1, etc. It largely depends on location. Some may have been assigned the same frequency. So after the DTV handover, users need to rescan their TVs if they haven’t already.
Q Mark, Slydell, LA - Trouble with Windows Media Extenders
Mark has been trying to find a good WME, but he finds that none of them are really worth the promise. Leo agrees. He thinks that they’re all kind of junky due to price. He suggests an XBox (or the XBox Arcade for those one a budget) as the best Media Extender. A lot of horsepower, functions, and you get a gaming console to boot. You just add XBMC and you’re ready to go. The downside is that the XBox is really loud.
Q Tim, Corona, CA - Hard drive “clicking” with errors
Tim is getting error messages and some “clicking” noises. Leo says that the hard drive is failing. Back up your data and replace it. You could also use Spin Rite to analyze and repair any bad sectors. But it’s cheaper to just get a new hard drive, honestly. And if your laptop is built for replacement, it can be a few screws and plug and play for as little as $50.
Q Margot, West L.A. - Kaspersky concerns
Margot wants to know why Leo isn’t thrilled with Kaspersky. Leo says that he didn’t use to recommend Kaspersky because it didn’t do “heuristics,” which was being able to infer problems based on likihoods, rather than set defintitions. But Kaspersky has changed their tune and now offer heuristics as an option. So it’s fine. But our sponsor, Nod 32, is faster and lighter.
