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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Sunday July 19, 2009
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Tech News
Welcome back, Leo!
Leo returns from his epic journey to China, Japan and Korea and ready to take your calls!
Traveling with the iPhone
Leo said that traveling with the iPhone was a great experience in spite of the censorship in China. Even 10 years after the Tienanmen Square uprising, the Chinese government is very restrictive on what you can and can’t get online. Leo saw blocking of Twitter and Facebook while he was there and resorted to tweeting through a “back channel” via Tweet Reel and Posterous.
But what really surprised Leo was the complicity of the Chinese people who are just now enjoying the creature comforts of economic expansion and just don’t want to rock the boat politically. Nevertheless, it was an interesting experience that reminded Leo how precious freedom is and the power of technology to wield it.
Leo has a beef with AT&T though. Leo’s iPhone usage meter says he used just over 100 MB of his Int’l Roaming package. AT&T says he used 251MB and as such, it’s going to smack Leo with an $700 overage bill. HUH?!
You can see Leo’s China Photos on SmugMug.
Walter Cronkite dies at 92
The Most Trusted Man in America, who not only set the standard for television news reporting, but often broke a few rules in the process has died at 92.
40 years ago, Man walked on the moon
Man landed on the moon 40 years ago today, taking that “one small step …” A great site to celebrate this epic event is WE CHOOSE THE MOON, which has great images, video, and real time audio being broadcast of the entire Apollo 11 mission. Fantastic.
Hour 1
Q Alan, Kansas - Stuck backspace key
Alan is having the issue of his backspace key being stuck. He’s replaced keyboards and it still happens, even in space mode. A sure way to verify it’s a software issue - could be a Windows driver going awry - take a Linux boot disc and see if the problem stops. If it does, then Windows has a bad driver. Should probably back up your data and reinstall the OS.
But it if it doesn’t, then the bad news is that the keyboard controller chip on the motherboard has gone bad. And that means replacing the motherboard. You could try replacing it with a USB keyboard and see if that does the trick.
Q Louie, Arleta, CA - Syncing email
Louie would like to sync his iPhone with Yahoo Mail. Leo says you can, but you would probably want to set it to delete the mail on your phone and the inbox. Leo uses Gmail’s Exchange server for Google Calendar and Address Book. And you can sync cross platform with Google which is a great, free, option.
Hour 2
Q Ted, San Diego, CA - Land Lines, necessary?
Does Ted really need a land line anymore? Seems like he only uses it for faxing. Leo says that if your stuff starts on a computer, eFax makes a lot more sense, although they are expensive at $15 a month. Can you connect a cellphone to a fax machine and send a fax that way? Leo says that early on, you could, but faxing has rather gone out of fashion and as such, it’s a feature that’s largely extinct. From the chatroom, Magic Jack will work with a fax machine to send over the internet via VOIP. Works better w/ “slower” fax settings. SKYPE also has faxing capability - which is interesting.
One option, get an Epson all in one fax and printer. It’s a great choice to get rid of your fax machine and have a printer to boot.
Caller Jake recommends CallWave.
David thinks there’s a bug in Norton that won’t allow for scanning of multiple drives. Leo says that’s not a bug, it’s a feature of the Corporate version. And Leo has a better solution - Eset’s Nod32 Corporate edition. But it may be moot anyway, since Microsoft is going to be releasing a free AVS which is going to change the landscape pertaining to AVS.
Q Juan, Sherman Oaks, CA - Wireless printing
Juan wants to set up a network printer that he can print wirelessly too from his laptop. Leo uses the Epson Artisan, because it has wireless printing capability built in.
Adam wants to create online signs for advertising his internet. From our Chatroom - XIBO. It’s free and open source!
Q Louis, Hattaras Island, CA - CellPhone problems
Louis cellphone running Windows Mobile shifts time zones on him. Outlook stores all of it’s time data in UTC/Greenwich Mean Time. It then compares the time in the computer. In order for it all to work right, you need to set your computer time correctly as well as the time zone for Outlook. More information can be found here.
Q TJ, Portola, CA - building his own PC
TJ has hit a roadblock on building his PC. Should he just install Windows XP or go with Windows 7? You can download the release candidate 1 of Windows 7 and then upgrade to an active version in October or even March. It’s the best version of Windows that Leo has ever used. So download the free RC1 and then upgrade when you have to pay for it.
Will he save money building his own? Not any more. It used to be that way, but now any OEM manufacturer can get better deals on parts and they’ll be your support system.
Hour 3
Q Jim, Iowa - Digital TV reception issues
Jim is a truck driver who travels a lot and there’s some areas where he just can’t pick up anything! Leo says that analog signals degraded gracefully. Whereas, with digital - it either works or it doesn’t. And people who are in marginal areas just won’t get anything. A better antenna can sometimes help. Check out AntennaWeb.org. Leo recommends the Yagi.
Q Jim, Freemont, CA - Sony BSoD
Jim’s Sony computer is experiencing a “rattling” and BSoD. Leo says that the hard drive is starting to fail. Leo says you should go out and get an external hard drive today and back up your data immediately.
Q Lee, West Hills, CA - “Broken” Windows by AVS
Lee has discovered that the Computer Associates AVS software can sometimes quarantine whole sections of Windows and list them as a virus. Leo says “false positives” can sometimes happen. CA users should restore files from quarantine, but if you’ve deleted the files, reinstalling your OS is pretty much your only recourse.
Q Chris, Los Angeles, CA - iPhone on other carriers
Chris would like to unlock the iPhone 3GS and use it on TMobile. Leo says that you may have to jailbreak it. You will lose features like visual voice mail, high speed 3G network, etc. but it will work. Leo doesn’t recommend it though as he jailbroke his and it never really worked as good. Leo suggests the Android TMobile G1. If you’re more into the Net and not phone, you can also use the iPod Touch for the Wifi connection.
Q Alan, Anaheim, CA - Computer recommendation
Alan has two of his girls who are attending college in the fall. Leo says that a Netbook is a good option if they can handle the smaller screen. He suggests the Samsung NC20. 12″ screen. Full size keyboard. It’ll work great for school work, but it doesn’t have a DVD drive or CD drive. Many college kids will use their computers as their entertainment centers in college and as such, you may want to consider going with a full laptop like the Dell. But for buying multiple computers for kids at school, a netbook is a viable option.
Jake would like to merge an AVI file and subtitle files and merge them together to burn to DVD and watch on TV. Leo says there are many that do this, he likes AUTOGK (aka Auto Gordian Knot).
Q Rusty, Orange, CA - Slide presentations for Windows
Rusty would like to create a slide presentation which adds an audio track and runs slide presentations stand alone. Leo says you can make a powerpoint presentation and export it into a video editing program, then add the audio that way. Adobe Premiere Elements can do it natively.
Have a great geek week!
