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Sunday September 6, 2009

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Tech News

Skype Lives

In a perfect example of corporate short sightedness, eBay - which spend $3.1 billion for Skype, fired the original creators and neglected to pay for the underlying software which makes Skype works - which remains with the creators. This week, an investment group has bought Skype for $2 billion. Leo suspects that Janus Freisen and Nicolass Andoisen will eventually get control back of Skype.

Gmail down for 2 hours this week.

Gmail went down mysteriously for two hours this week. Google explained it was due to a cascade failure of Google’s routers when a few were taken off line for maintenance and next thing you know, Gmail went down.

Snow Leopard

Snow Leopard shipped with an old, buggy version ( and vulnerable to all kinds of exploits) of Flash which downgraded everyone who had the more recent and secure version. Leo recommends users go to Adobe and upgrade once again to the new version of Flash.

New iPods coming Wednesday?

Apple is having a media event this Wednesday, loosely titled “It’s only Rock n Roll to me …” Will it be new iPods coming out? Will the Beatles finally make it on iTunes? Only time will tell.

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Hour 1

Q Scott, Georgia - Download troubles

Scott wants to download music from Amazon but can’t. Leo suspects the Amazon downloader’s file association is severed. Run the Amazon Downloader installation again in order to repair that and you should be fine after that.

Scott also feels that taking the copy protection out has actually mad him WANT to buy music again. The freedom to do whatever he wants with his music only makes him want to buy more. Leo agrees and is of the opinion that making it easier to buy and use music will create more sales, not less.

Q Lynn, Dana Point, CA - Merging Data from two computers

Lynn has two separate computers running Quick Books. How can he merge the data from both? Leo says you can use the Quick Books Transfer utility. Because the data has separate accounts on both, it’s a fairly straight forward affair to bring them both together. You can also use Quickbooks Online and store it in the cloud, which you can access from any computer and transfer to your accountant.

Q Jim, Seattle, WA - Video Editing software recommendation

Jim is building a new PC with Windows 7. What video editing software should he use with his new Canon HF100? The HF100 uses AVCHD. Leo has been recommending Adobe Premiere Elements since it does support AVCHD, however, Pinnacle’s Movie Studio 12 natively supports it and it’s much faster. And since you can download a 30 day trial of both, check them both out and see which one works best for you.

Q Steve, Tennessee - XP Activation problems

Steve is getting an error message that his XP needs to be activated, but when he does, it tells him it’s already activated! What?! Leo says that’s a bug in Windows Genuine Advantage copy protection which causes about 5% of users to give a “false positive” when going through the GA process. You’ll need to call Microsoft. You could also just upgrade to Windows 7 as that problem has been solved.

Q Tipton, Las Vegas, NV - VPNs at school

Tipton wants to use a VPN (virtual private network) like HotSpotVPN while in school. He wants to be able to access wifi, but his school network won’t allow VPNs even though a VPN will make his system more secure. Leo suspects it’s because the school wants to see and control how students use their network, which is their right. You gotta follow their rules. If there’s something you’re doing which you’re not comfortable doing on the school network, don’t do it on their network, plain and simple.

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Hour 2

Q Laura Beth, Laguna Hills, CA - Hard drive crash

Laura Beth neglected to back up her hard drive and now it’s crashed causing her to lose her data. When she turns it on, it can’t find her OS. She had a computer expert get the data off, but it’s unreadable. Leo says all may not be lost. When you hear any sound coming out of your hard drive, it’s a sign of failure. Leo recommends Spin Rite. If the hard drive has bad sectors, Spin Rite will find the bad sector and get the data off that bad sector. It may also be able to recover it.

Q Barbara, San Jose, CA - Lost data

Barbara lost spreadsheet contact data on her laptop. But she has her files backed up on her networked desktop. But the problem is, she has to manually back up her laptop to her desktop. Leo says that’s a common issue. Leo thinks Barbara can recover her spreadsheet and not have to re-input the lost data. Make a backup of the corrupted file. Then follow these instructions from Microsoft, there’s several tips. There’s also a utility you can purchase from Microsoft for $150 if all else fails.

Q Bruce, VA - Multiple cameras

Bruce wants to do multi camera live video using his PC for his church. Leo says that Boinx, CamTwist and Wirecast support multiple cameras. Although, you’ll need multiple firewire cards to handle them. If you have the budget, the Tricaster that Leo uses is an ideal option, but it isn’t cheap.

Q Carolyn, San Diego, CA - Ripping her DVDs

Carolyn bought several videos and has gotten them ripped to her Mac via Handbrake. Two of them couldn’t. Leo says it’s copy protection. Download the latest version of Handbrake (.93). Unfortunately, Handbrake has taken out the software that cracks the DRM on the DVD. So you’d need to also rip it using VLC. Handbrake will then automatically use VLC to crack it so you can rip it. You may also need to upgrade your OS.

Welcome to criminal life, Carolyn! (rolling eyes)

Q Gary, Lakewood, CA - Corrupted 2ndary hard drive

Gary can’t access his secondary drive, he gets “not accessible” errors when trying to r/c on it. In properties, he gets “corrupted.” R/C Hardware and select manage. Look under drives and storage. Leo thinks the File Allocation Tables (FAT) may be corrupted. The FAT is the hard drives table of contents. Leo recommends running Spin Rite. It’ll examine every sector and move the data off bad sectors. If the hard drive works hardware wise, then run Norton Disk Doctor to fix and rebuild the file system. But make sure you image the drive FIRST (Sector by sector). Then work on that. If that fails, the data is still there. Then you want to a file recovery utility which will reconstruct file data sector by sector.

If SpinRite fixes it, you can continue using it. If not, then it’s time to get another hard drive, and they’re pretty cheap these days. $112 for 1.5 TB.

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Hour 3

Q Brian, Torrance, CA - HTC Fuse downloading problems

Brian has the HTC Fuse and he’s trying to download some of Leo’s podcasts, but he can’t. Leo’s not much of a Windows Mobile fan, but he suspects the real culprit may be AT&T. Or, the phone is confused by the URL. Try this one: http://www.leo.am/podcasts/leo.xml. Also, try MediaFly. It may do it.

Q Kevin, Ashville, NC - Drivers issue

Kevin’s friend has a Dell Dimension 300 desktop computer running Windows 7 and she has video problems. Leo says the motherboard drivers from Dell may solve the issue. Dell includes all the latest drivers, including the video card chip drivers, in those motherboard driver set.

Q Cody, North Carolina - Running Windows 7 on an older computer

Cody wants to install Windows 7 on his older Vista box. Should he? Leo says yes. Windows 7 is essentially Vista. And you can still get the Windows 7 Enterprise Edition for a try before you buy option. It’ll only work for 30 days, and after that, you’ll have to wipe it and reinstall, but you’ll know right away how well it runs on that computer before you buy it.

Q Oscar, Honolulu, HI - Printer driver issues w/ Snow Leopard

Oscar just upgraded to Snow Leopard and now his wireless printing doesn’t work. Mac or Epson issue? Leo says it probably doesn’t have the driver installed to it. Go to Epson, but they may not have updated the driver since it’s been discontiued. Too bad too, since the Stylus Photo 2200 is one of the best photo printers ever made.

For RAM, go to MACSALES.COM, and they may buy back your old RAM sticks if your buying new ram.

Q Eric, Maryland - Clean install of Windows 7

Eric contacted the Windows 7 team on Twitter about updating from XP to Windows 7 using the upgrade disc to do a clean install. According to the Windows 7 team, you can. But Paul Therrot, Windows Weekly expert, says no. Frankly, we won’t really know for sure until Redmond comments on it, and so far, they’re mum.

Q Donald, Santa Maria, CA - marketing his podcast

Donald has a new podcast abotu Anime called Otaku No Podcast. How can he spread the word? Leo says that calling the show and plugging the show is a great way to start. Leo also recommends reaching out to people who are more likely to listen - hand out cards and flyers at “cons,” go to forums and discussion boards and participate. People will come to know you and respect you for what you’ve contributed to the forums and then you can let them know. Eventually, you’ll build an audience. Go viral. And good content consistently posted is also good.

Install Google Analytics and see what search words are being used by people to find you. You can then put those words in the first 1500 characters of your site so that Google will pick it up on searches easier. Avoid Search Engine Optimization (SEO) companies. It’s snake oil and if Google thinks you’re employing someone to “game” their system, they can ban you and that’s game over.

Q Eric, England - Video Podcasting Themes and graphics

Eric wants to do a video podcast and blog using his MAC, iMovie and Final Cut Express. He need some jingles and animated video backgrounds. Leo says these professional features are the most expensive. Leo suggests contacting a local high school or college for students looking for experience. Or give it a shot yourself. It’s not that tough if you keep it simple. Also, Garage Band is a great place to try out making your own themes. From the chatroom, Podcastthemes.com and PodsafeMusic.com.

Q Don, Fontana, CA - External drive problems

Don got a secondary external drive for backing up awhile back. Now his computer can’t find the backup drive and Windows crashes if he tries to open it. Leo says to try the drive on another computer to see if the USB controller has gone bad. Then try a different cable. Try a different enclosure. If these easy things can be eliminated, you can run SpinRite to see if you can recover it, but it may be time to get a new backup hard drive.

Have a great geek week and don’t forget to backup!

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