Leo Laporte
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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Sunday July 5, 2009
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Tech News
Leo gets A/C for TWiT Cottage.
Leo’s studio is nice and cool thanks to his new Sanyo Mini Split Air Conditioner. It’s very quiet since the compressor stays outside and the air comes inside. Suhweet! Check it out at TWiTPicks.
Carbon Credits for websites: Good Green or Scam?
There’s a badge that you can get for your website which enables you to buy carbon credits based on the amount of web traffic your site gets. The more traffic, the more energy you use. Going to CO2 Stats enables you to buy carbon offsets and declare your site green. Leo doesn’t know what to make of it. Is it good green livin’ or a marketing scam?
Leo’s in China
Leo’s in China, but take heart, all the calls for the next 2 1/2 weeks are brand spanking new. If you want to follow Leo’s China adventure, check out his friendfeed account at http://www.friendfeed.com/leolaporte.
Guests
Chris Marquardt - Tips from the Top Floor
Today, we’re talking about “foreground,” and “background” composition. It’s one of the key concepts when taking pictures and it’s very easy to get it wrong, even for professionals like Chris.
Leo says an example is like taking a picture of someone with a lamp post over and behind them and it looks like the lamp post is growing out of their head! A camera only sees in two dimensions, mostly, and as such, it flattens images and can easily cause that. So, make it part of your mental check list to make sure nothing odd is sticking in or out of your subjects before you take pictures.
There’s also the notion of “busy” backgrounds. Does it detract or enhance your subject? Decrease the depth of field will help as it will make the background out of focus and keep the subject sharp. Can you do that on a point and shot? Yes, with limits. Increasing depth of field is caused by opening up your aperture. You can also use your zoom decrease the depth of field by zooming in to your subject. Or, use both!
There’s also color contrasts. If your subject is wearing something green, and the background is red - the picture becomes a lot more interesting. But if you put them in front of a background that’s the same color, they can disappear.
Chris will be in San Francisco for two street shooting seminars from July 17–19. To sign up, visit ChrisMarquardt.com.
Chris also has a daily podcast now called Daily Photo Tips with Chris.
And don’t forget our assignment: Altitude. Take a shot showing this subject (please do so safely). Upload them to flickr.com with a Tech Guy group tag. One per week, please!
Dan Goldman, producer - Daytime Emmy Awards
Dan Goldman is a producer of the Daytime Emmy Awards (on the CW Network) and he’s taking a group of daytime stars to Nairobi Africa as part of a program called “Daytime Gives Back,” along with FEED THE CHILDREN. Dan wants to update fans in real time. Leo says that a dedicated FACEBOOK page would be ideal, along with a Twitter Feed, YouTube video page, and FriendFeed, where you can tie them altogether.
For live video, QIK is great to stream video, as well as UStream - which has a live video client that’s supported by certain phones. Or, you can use a laptop and a webcam, streaming right to UStream. Bring a FLIP MINO HD or better, the new iPhone 3GS which will upload directly.
Keep up with Dan on his Twitter page at http://www.twitter.com/dandangoldman and the Daytime Emmys at http://www.twitter.com/daytimeemmys
Hour 1
Q Don, California - Recovery CDs don’t work
HP sent Don two different recovery CDs and neither work. He’s missing some system files and the recovery CDs are requring a floppy! HP says it’s normal and may take 6–8 hours to complete. But it doesn’t complete! What does he do?
Leo thinks you have to boot to the recovery disc, where a “virtual floppy drive” will run during the recovery process. Most likely, the hard drive is dying and that’s why the computer isn’t finishing the restoration. It may not even be the entire drive. It may just be a small portion of the drive that’s failed and it contains critical system files.
Q Kevin, Orange, CA - Virtumonde virus?
Kevin ran Spybot and got a virus called “Virtumonde,” but no other AVS can find it. Leo thinks it may be a “false positive,” or, it just may be something new. Symantec should have a Virtumonde removal tool, and Malware Bytes will also remove it. Google is your friend.
Q Cameron, Anaheim, CA – Laptop Audio/Video problems
Cameron has a Toshiba Satellite L35, he updated the BIOS and now his computer overheats, blue screens. Leo says it’s obvious that the BIOS update has turned down or off the fans. He got a new BIOS update that got it working, but now he has audio/video problems. Usually, a BIOS upgrade doesn’t do that. Leo says to go into the BIOS and verify the settings are okay. The “enhanced system config setting” (ESCD) aren’t corrupted. Reset the ESCD. That could help as the ECSD in that laptop tracked the hardware. So it’s easy to get these symptoms. So reset it. This will clear the memory and put the correct settings. You may also have to go into the device manager and delete the drivers that don’t work. The Bios and Device manager will talk and then they’ll re-install the new drivers. IT wouldn’t hurt to reinstall your OS as well. Leo also thinks the mixer may be messed up with some codecs and wav files not enabled. Or even muted. Also, go back to the Toshiba site and get the mixer software for that particular audio card in your laptop.
Hour 2
Q Tim, Burbank, CA - Defragging a Mac?
Tim made “the switch” to a Mac and wants to know about defragging. Leo says that Macs simply don’t need it. It may be a good thing to do once or twice a year, but backing up your data is far more important. Get a backup external hard drive and SuperDuper to sync and backup your hard drive. Hard drives nowadays work until they don’t and no amount of maintenance will prolong it.
The funny thing is that Windows users are so used to spending money on utilities to keep their computer in shape. But when you go Mac, you just don’t.
Q Ian, North Carolina - Motherboard stops working
Ian has an Asus T5LD2, which he got for the multiple IDE connectors. After about a year, it stopped working. Power supply died. But when he replaced the power supply, now he can’t do anything extensive like video applications. Leo suspects overheating. Like putting too much thermal paste on the chip before attaching the heat sync. It can also be the video card, which is overheating.
But if you’ve eliminated all those things, then, it wouldn’t be a heat issue. Leo then says the next thing to check is software. Updating the video driver is a good idea. But also, the latest driver may be the problem, so stepping back to a previous driver may be a good idea. There could as be as many as 4 different video drivers for your video card if it’s N’Vidia based. Try all of them one by one to see if the problem stops. Leo suspects that the driver Windows installs has a bug in it, or the driver is having a freak interaction with another driver. Could also be bad RAM. Re-seat your memory and still if that helps.
You can also reinstall your OS.
Q Steve, Costa Mesa, CA - what to do when you’re infected?
Steve’s PC has been infected. He’s been using his wife’s Dell Latitude Laptop. Norton is telling him he’s infected. Should he reinstall the OS? He downloaded something to his computer when it said he needed to get rid of a virus. OH NO! That’s the virus, Steve! There’s a scam called AntiVirus 2009 which pops up and tells you that you have a virus and encourages that you download and run the program. But the program IS THE VIRUS! But with any luck, Norton caught it and quarantined it before it could infect you.
Leo recommends you use one of the following online scanners to get a second opinion:
- House Call, Trend Micro
- Eset Nod 32
- Norton Security Scan
- Kaspersky Online Scanner
- McAfee Online Scanner
Some may require active X installed, BTW, as well as running as an administrator.
Q Diana, Burbank, CA – keeping her SD card alive
Diana wants to know if deleting individual photos or formatting improves SD card life. In theory, it’s individual, because Leo says the way the memory works, formatting will write over all segments of the card. It’s a good idea to format it every so often. But deleting ¾ times and then format that 4th time. Leo, though, always formats to keep it safe that the card is clean and ready to use every time. Then, when it fails on format, he knows it’s bad and tosses it.
Q Karen, Goleta, CA – Haunted computer
Karen turned on her PC and hundreds of photo icons were crammed on her desktop. Leo says that her keyboard may be misbehaving. She could’ve accidentally selected all folders using CTRL A and opened all the folders at once. R/C on your desktop and select “undo move.” That may fix it. But if it happens again, then you may have an infected computer with remote access Trojan horse. Or, there’s a bad keyboard or keyboard driver. Make sure your remote desktop (ctrl panel) is set to be enabled manually, not automatically. Chances are, you may have a bad keyboard.
Hour 3
Q Matthew, Charlotte, NC - Need Wireless Headset
Matt needs to know if he can get a bluetooth wireless headset which will also work on his computer and his iPod Touch. The technology you’re looking for is A2DP. Sadly, it won’t work on your iPod Touch as Apple doesn’t support A2DP. But Leo uses a pair from Motorola S9 MotoRokr. There’s also the Plantronics Pulsar 590A, which has a boom mic for talking as well.
Q Christina, San Jose, CA – Comcast confusion
Christina says that Comcast says that they need a “digital adapter” to get stations above channel 34. Leo says that most modern TVs have Quam tuners that do what traditional cable boxes do. Now, if they give it to you for free, then you’re okay. But if they upsell you to have it, Leo’s betting you don’t need it.
Christina signed up for the “Digital Classic,” and she can’t connect it to her Sony Vaio. Leo says it depends on what connections it has. HDMI, A/V Input, ATSC. ATSC is for broadcast. It may work if it uses a coax connector. She says the sound won’t work. The Setup Box has HDMI and that is the one to use. Leo says the impedance is mismatched and that’s what causing it. If it’s out of sync, then it’s the digital box that has the issues. Call Comcast and tell them you need a box that isn’t out of sync. This is why you don’t want to use their tuner. It messes up for recording.
But since she’s using a computer as her TV, then you have to tell Windows where the sound is coming. Go into Media Center setup and set it for the same as your video. Also check your Windows Mixer for the setting in there.
