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Saturday 25 July 2009

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Tech News

Welcome back LUIZ!

Leo’s engineer,Luiz Olivera, is back at the boards. He’s still on the mend, but he’s back at the board and running the Tech Guy Show! If you’re a flickr user, you can check out Luiz’ broken bones journey at flickr.com/luiz147.

While at flickr, you can check out Leo’s China pictures at flickr.com/leoville. He took some great panoramic shots with his iPhone, stitching them together.

Leo had an epic trip to China

Leo had a wonderful time in China, Korea, and Japan. The Mac Mania Cruise, etc. He did audio broadcasts using AudioBoom. Loved it. Leo was able to Twitter and Facebook and Friendfeed. But before he left, his access was drastically scaled back and he couldn’t post on any of them.

Facebook passes 200 million

Amazing how many people are on facebook now. 200 MILLION! Makes it real easy to connect back with old friends flames. Facebook’s redesign also helped to put all the “cute,” time wasting applications in the background so that the social experience remains center stage.

The one downside is that for Leo, he’s limited to 5,000 friends. Common problem for others with notoriety or even company brands. So Fan pages have been created and you can check out Leo’s fan page at here.

Leo’s using Twitter and Friendfeed. And the irony is that bloggers are blogging less and “tweeting” more.

Google Chrome OS promises the end of Viruses

Based on a linux platform, Google’s upcoming Chrome OS promises to be the end of viruses as we know it. But considering that the Chrome browser has notable security holes, how will they do that? Don’t give up your AVS just yet.

Flash drives are dirt cheap now

In the Chatroom, CPO Al Montano has tested just about every flash drive out there and says that they’re becoming extremely fast and dirt cheap. Leo thinks that it’s only a matter of time before flash drive hard drives will be
standard equipment.

However, there’s a bug in the MG2 drive. So don’t set a BIOS password as it’ll stop working if you have to reset it.

Office 2010 to be free and in the cloud

Microsoft has announced that Microsoft Office 2010 will be free and online in the cloud. You’ll be able to use it in any browser and did we mention it’ll be free? Available for beta testing next month.

ITunes/Pre in a syncing conflict

Apple released a new update to iTunes which disables the Palm Pre’s ability to synch. Two days later, Palm released an update which restores sync. Sounds like Palm is going straight at the iPhone.

Guests

Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine

Scott asks about technology in China. Leo says that the comforts of life have pretty much placated the population who tend to take a blind eye to the oppression of the Chinese governtment. If they have their big screen TVs and
satellite dishes, they seem quite happy.

About the Apollo 11 Anniversary. The original video wasn’t lost, it was taped over! They were able to use those, and some duplicates and then asked Lowry Digital in Burbank to remaster the tapes from Kinescope, CBS Archival

Footage, and the original scanned data was stored at the Canberra Tracking Station in Australia. And as such, it has been remastered. How much better does it look? Scott says it looks pretty good thanks to interpolation that
computers can do to fix it. It’s the same technique your HDTV uses to watch a standard definition video - upconverting.

Moral of the story - DON’T ERASE HISTORICAL CONTENT!

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Hour 1

Q Angela, Dartmouth, NS CAN - Video DVD problems

Angela can’t read the DVD she made of her kid’s soccer game on her iMac. She dragged the video onto the DVD and hit burn. Leo says you can make a data DVD that way, but not a video DVD to play in your Dvd player. Some newer DVD players can read data DVDs, but generally, you can’t just drag, drop and burn. That requires “authoring” it. Go into iDVD and build your DVD. Then hit burn. iDVD will then encode the video into MPEG2 and create menus and additional information that the DVD player needs (called .VOB files). Once done, you’ll be able to play it then.

Q Richard, Novato, CA - Comcast’s confusing ”redigitizing”

Comcast cable is pushing digital by “redigitizing” the signal. But now that they have, he can’t record while watching a recorded program on TIVO. The comcast tuner box is what’s causing it. The original TIVO can’t tune to the new frequencies or are scrambled. This is why you’re supposed to use the digital box. Using a separate TUNER will handle it. But you’ll run into remote issues. And using another tuner may not work as Comcast will probably have a proprietary box. Leo suggests asking Comcast if there’s a separate tuner which runs with a different remote. Also, check out Howard Forums and the AVS Forums. There may be someone running into the same issues and have come up with a hack that you can workaround it with.

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Hour 2

Q cathy, Newport Beach, CA - AVS recommendation

Cathy needs a recommendation for a good AVS for new computers at her Non-Profit. Eset has a corporate version of Nod32, and Norton’s Corporate version is far better than the consumer version which Leo loathes. You can also get a “UTM” (unified threat management) box. But they can be pricey. A router is your first line of defense and you will need one of those for your network. Enterprise IT is far different from home networks. Specific needs for backup and security. Check out SteadyState. Free from Microsoft. It will restore your computer to it’s best known configuration every morning or should it get nailed by something nasty and should be installed on any computer used by more than one user. Microsoft also has a policy manager which will set rules for what can and cannot be installed on a computer and what activity can be approved. In fact, don’t let ANYONE other than your IT guy have the administrator account. Even yourself should run as a limited user. And don’t allow USB keys to be inserted without permission.

Astaro, makes UTMs. They may have a discount for non profits. Eset will also have a non profit discount.

Q Jeff, West LA - making his blog profitable

Jeff’s Blog on VideoGames is getting more traffic and he’s using Google AdSense. But how can he make his blog more profitable? Leo says that there are agencies like Federated Media, which will represent you (for 40%!). Microsoft and Google also does it. You can do your own. Check out the Interactive Ad Bureau (iab.net) for information and guidelines for selling online. You’ll make the most money that way.

Quantcast is another - they specialize in measuring traffic to rate websites like Neilsens or Arbitrons. You signup for free and insert some java scripts. They’ll give you verified numbers with demographics. Then you can go to clients to ad sales. You’ll also want to sign up for Google Analytics.

Three kinds is Cost per impression (CPM), Cost per click, and cost per sign up. CPM is the best for your website and it’s pretty much the only option Leo offers advertisers. Cpc is only good if users click on the banner links. And Signups is like giving away free advertising.

The key is patience. Remember that it took CNN 10 years to become profitable.

Jeff’s gaming site is at The Frag File.

Q Brian, St. Louis, MO - iTunes file storage

Where does the music go when he buys a song on iTunes? Leo says they’re stored on the hard drive in the iTunes music folder. It’s organized by artist and album.

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Hour 3

Q Derek, Los Angeles, CA - Streaming Internet radio on your phone

Would like an application player which will stream radio over his BlackBerry. Leo says that radio stations need to make it easier for their listeners to get their signal. Stations want to drive you to their website because they put ads on them. Clear Channel has a great application for the BlackBerry and iPhone called I Heart Radio. It picks up over 350 Clear Channel stations and is a good free app to have for your phone.

There is a company called Moodio that converts radio streams so you can listen to them on your phone. This is great for stations that don’t normally work with other applications and you can share it with others.

Q Paul, Whittier, CA - Search Engine Optimization a good idea?

Leo says it’s a scam. Nobody can really crack Google’s search techniques. Best they can do is create a “link farm” and that can get you banned from Google if they think you’re trying to “game” them. The best way to is to create good content and get other sites to link to you. SEOs ARE A SCAM. Period.

Nice try, Paul. But schilling doesn’t work with the Tech Guy.

Q Bobby, Atlanta, GA - Moving favorites and applications from PC to PC

Leo says you can do this with a USB drive. You can also get Portable Apps suite which works great. You can even make your own apps if they apps you like are portable.

Q Susan, Santa Monica, CA - Has an unauthorized Windows copy

Susan says Microsoft told her she’s using an unlicensed version of Windows and can’t update to Internet Explorer 8. Leo says the guy who built her computer installed an unauthorized developers version of Windows and as such Microsoft sees it as an illegal copy. You can contact Microsoft and pay for a license. Leo says it’s cheaper than buying a new copy. You can continue to use it and probably get updates since it’s a developer’s version.

The guy did the wrong thing, but it’s not your fault. But understand that from Microsoft’s point of view, that version of Windows has been illegally installed on your computer.

Q Mark, Tustin, CA - Better browser for BlackBerry?

Mark says his browser on his Blackberry leaves much to be desired. Leo says that’s changing as both the iPhone and Palm are using a browser which is almost like a desktop. You can use Opera Mini, but you can’t do anything secured on it. Skyfire is an amazing browser but ssadly it’ss for Windows Mobile and Nokia only. Bet patient. BlackBerry will see the change coming.

Q Eric, Palm Springs, CA - Putting Flash in iWeb pages

Eric wants to know if he can insert flash in an iWeb webpages. Leo says iWeb files are pretty much iWeb only but you edit the html file by editing the javascript. But that takes a lot of work. Check out this tutorial for tips on how to do it.

Q Andrew, Los Angeles, CA - Hanging Indent in Word 2007

Andrew says that his Word 2007 has suddenly started using a hanging indent. Leo says likely is that your Word 2007 Template has changed. The default ruler has a hanging indent. The file is called “normal.dotx.” This includes information on what margins to set, what font to use, etc. You can edit the template and then save it. Also, there may be a preference checked which caused the hanging indent. So check your preferences.

Q Julie, Fallbrook, CA - Getting rid of old webpages

Julie’s company has a brand new website, but old Geocities pages are still online. Leo says that Geocities will go away on October 26th, but you’ll need to contact Yahoo - owner of Geocities - to see if they’ll delete it before then.

Q Logan, San Jose, CA - Disabling java in iPod Touch

Logan wants to know if he needs to disable javascript on his iPod Touch. Leo says that Steve is right, you can disable javascript and be safer, but so many pages use java these days that your ability to use the Net is severely hampered. You could install NoScript and approve which sites that use javascript, but Leo says you don’t need to worry about it. You’re giving up too much, in Leo’s opinion. You’d be safer, but you’d lose the ability to surf most of the Net.

A bigger problem is that hackers are saying that there’s a flaw in the iPhone which enables a hacker to take over the phone and make calls remotely. So if you haven’t updated your iPhone OS, DO SO.

Q David, Ventura, CA - Proprietary laptops

David wants to know if you can update laptop hardware. Leo says there’s really no such think as a proprietary laptop, per se, but due to the design of a laptop, they are inherently proprietary in that you can pretty much just boost the memory and hard drive. There may be an upgradable laptop out there, but Leo doesn’t usually recommend them.

Q Tom, Victorville, CA - iPhone 3Gs Jailbreaking

Tom wants to know if jailbreaking his iPhone is illegal. Leo says he has jailbroken an iPhone - which he doesn’t consider illegal - but it isn’t really worth it. He said his phone was never really the same. Technically, it may be illegal, but if you buy an piece of hardware, you should be able to do anything you want. Leo says that unlocking the phone is different from jailbreaking it. Unlocking it to use with another carrier is more than fine, although Apple (and more importantly AT&T) hates that. And there are ways to jailbreak your iPhone and then restore it should something go wrong.

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