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Saturday September 19, 2009

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Posted one week after broadcast…

Tech News

Today is “Talk Like a Pirate Day!”

Created in 1995 by John Baur (Ol’ Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap’n Slappy), of Albany, Oregon,[1] U.S., who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate. And geeks all around the world are saying “arrrrrrr” as we speak!

The Skype Saga continues

First, the creators sell Skype for nearly 4 Billion. Then, creators pull the technology after being fired by eBay. Then, eBay spins off Skype, selling to a private group of investors. And now, the Creators, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis are suing eBay, claiming the new owners don’t have the key technology either.

This worries Leo, since Skype is now practically a utility for people online. Could this drama actually kill Skype?

FCC to mandate Net Neutrality

In a major victory for data equality advocates, the FCC is expected to announce new rules which will require ISPs to treat all traffic on the internet equally. Which, Leo says, is as it should be.

Leo reviews the Zune HD

Leo has finally gotten a chance to play with the Zune HD and says it’s the best Zune ever. Very impressed. And the interesting news is that it’s sold out everywhere but Microsoft! The Zune pass allows users to subscribe to any music for $15 a month, no limit. Think HBO for music downloads. But in comparison to the iPod Touch, the OLED screen is better, but the Touch has the iTunes apps store. So it all comes down to where you’re at musically.

Guests

Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine

Scott is recorded this week as this weekend is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish High Holiday New Year. Today, Scott wants to talk about he big push to bring 3D into the home. Panasonic has a 103″ Plasma which has 3D capability. JVC has 3D. Mitsubishi has a projection TV that has 3D. Leo wonders if there’s a great interesting in 3D in the home? Scott says there isn’t much in the way of content at the moment, but that could be changing as there’s a new specification coming by end of the year, with actual product coming next year.

2 ways to do it,and you need glasses for both. Passive, polarized glasses - which make the image dimmer - and it only gives you half resolution in each eye. Then there’s active, shutter glasses where each lens closes and opens. It requires an IR emitter and a synchronizing TV. You get all the resolution, but half the frame rate. So the higher your TVs frame rate (120hz,etc) the better. The glasses are heavier and more expensive.

Scott also notices discontinuities in 3D. Leo just thinks it’s a gimmick. Scott agrees, but Hollywood is pushing it HARD. James Cameron’s Avatar is being released in 3D.

Scott also say front projectors that use superbright RGB leds to project the image. They don’t suffer from the “rainbow” effect of color wheel projectors. LEDs can cycle far faster and you don’t have to change the bulb over the life of projector. Downside - you need a really dark room because they don’t put out that much light just yet.

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Hour 1

Q Eric, Hawaii - printing high quality images

Eric wants to sell images, where shoudl he go? Leo says you can do that, but you’re much better off using SMUG MUG. It costs about $120 a year for a pro account. It’s far better to let them handle the printing and shipping. You set the price, and you get many pro features. From the Chatroom - MPix.com, which supports ZenFolio and, like SmugMug, you can embed onto your site.

Eric’s site hulaimages.com

Q Pat, Los Angeles, CA - Input signal error

Pat will be working on her PC and after awhile, she gets a “no input signal” error. Leo says check the cables from monitor to computer to be sure it’s properly “seated,” screwed in tight. Try a different cable. Next, check the video card. Connect to a different monitor. If it works, then the monitor is down. If it doesn’t, then the video card is failing. It could also be a setting in the BIOS which is causing it to send the video to the wrong port. The card could also be worked loose. Make sure it’s seated (turn off the PC first). Then, check the video driver. After that, you’re looking at a repair.

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Hour 2

Q George, Houston, TX - AOL going out of business?

George keeps hearing the rumor. Leo says, no, it’s not. Time Warner’s merger with AOL was a flop, and AOL was spun back off. Now, the “walled garden” that is the AOL experience, will probably evolve to a conventional ISP. AOL is also doing well as a website portfolio host (they own Engadget).

George is worried about his email being stuck in his filing cabinet and needing to back it up. Here’s a method.

Q Brent, San Diego, CA - Wireless HDMI connections

Brent wants to have a wireless desktop connection to his HDTV. Leo says you need a “wireless HDMI” connector and extender. You can also do DVI if you have a DVI-HDMI adapter. You can go as far as 100 feet with the Geffen Wireless for HDMI 5Ghz model. But at $900, it ain’t cheap!

Q Steve, Long Beach, CA - Upgrading his RAM

Steve upgraded his RAM, but he’s getting a missing system file error from Windows. He put the old RAM in and everything is fine Leo says the issue is probably a RAM problem. It could be too slow or even damaged. Windows can misinterpret that as a system file error because it’s getting corrupted data. You can go into the BIOS and check the settings. Reset the ESCD settings. Also, enable the RAM test on boot to see if it sees all the RAM. If so, it’s simply a BIOS setting. Also, make sure the settings for the RAM are set to default.

Q Isaac, Yuma, AZ - XP BSoD issues

Issac is getting a BSOD with XP. He can’t fix it. Leo recommends SpinRite. Downside, it’s $80. But it’s a great utility which will work every bad sector until it recovers and moves all data. It’ll then mark that bad sector so it won’t happen again. Leo then recommends that once you get all the data back, back it up and reformat. And the best thing is, that GRC will give you your money back if it doesn’t fix the problem.

This is one of the reasons why having a good on site backup going is a good idea. Laporte’s law states that a hard drive will always fail when you don’t have a good backup. So backup. Backup. BACKUP!

Q Daniel, Madison, AL - Using GMail

Daniel works at University of Alabama and they’re considering moving over to Gmail for all their communication. But there’s concern about security and privacy as they have some government projects. Leo says there’s Google Government and Google Health. But even they may not be secure enough. You should read their terms of service for those. Also, with Gmail being down several times of late, there’s concern about reliability. Sure, Google goes down sometimes, but so does every server. Frankly, Google’s is far more reliable.

But about Google docs? You can encrypt Google docs for privacy and security. High Schools are now using Google Docs for educational options. Even the Government is considering it. There are ways to secure it and the problems they are concerned about are no less with your own company’s server. Why not do a pilot program?

Q Adam, Bristol, CN - Computer recommendation

Adam is taking Computer Aided Design (CAD). Computers are now suddenly failing and they’re buying new computers. Will the NVidia GEForce GTX 280 handle it? Leo says that’s the card he used building his Ultimate Gaming Machine. It’s a killer card. And if your CAD is using OpenGL, it’ll work great.

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Hour 3

Q Gene, Los Angeles - Backing up Outlook Mail

Gene isn’t thrilled with Outlook’s “furball” email where it saves them all in one file. Also, even online it doesn’t help. Leo recommends using Thunderbird, which will work like Outlook, but will store email locally using “nbox” format - a plain text format that’s open source and used by many different email clients.

Gene is also moving to the Mac Mini but wants to upgrade the hard drive. Leo says you can and you can also add RAM, etc., but you’ll void the warranty doing it. But since the MacMini has a firewire 800 port, why not just get a Firewire 800 external drive and run OSX that way?

Q Gene - Recording audio

Gene records streaming audio using Nexus and wants to know if he edit. He can’t using Nexus. Leo says that’s probably a copy protection issue. Recording live streaming directly, you can use Audacity, a free open source audio editor. Leo also has a hunch that if you rename the file as a .mp3, you may be able to.

Q Dave, Diamond Bar, CA - Video on BlackBerry Storm

Dave has taken several video clips using the Blackberry Storm. Shorter video’s play fine, but larger videos cant be played back. Leo says that cellphone video cameras use 3GP as a format, but that shouldn’t really prevent it from being read from the phone. Leo says there may be an imposed file size limit due to bandwidth issues of a phone. Can he take the video off his phone and convert it? Leo says yes, that’s probably your best bet. Googling 3gp to avi converter will yield dozens of utilities.

Q Jack, Vancouver, CAN - Bad connector on PS3

Jack has a Playstation 3 and is dealing with a cheap, bad AV multi out connector. Jack also predicts that Sony’s PS3 will lose it’s analog out capability in the near future as will almost every gadget to close the analog hole. Leo agrees. As more boxes go digital, it becomes easier to lock everything down. But the problem is, that consumers will raise holy hell because they can’t connect with their existing TVs. But the message is … BUY ONE NOW that has it!

Q Don, Huntington Beach, CA - laptop recommendation

Don is going to be sailing down to Mexico for several months and needs a laptop with the largest WIFI range possible. Leo says getting an external WiFi controller with a directional antenna is your best bet. But WiFi is fairly limited in range. Check out RadioLabs.com for interesting gadgets that can extend your wireless range, even on boats.

Q Roger, Springhill, FL - Websites with FrontPage

Roger maintains several websites with FrontPage. But it’s long in the tooth and wants to know what Leo thinks of Joomla. Leo says that Joomla isn’t really comparble to FrontPage because it’s a content management system - which is really what you want. So Joomla is taking things to the next level. And that lets you concentrate on the content, rather than architecture. Any content management system is an improvement at this point, but Leo really likes Joomla. Go for it.

Q Jake, Lake Elsinore, CA - Game installation issues

Jake just bought a Flight Sim game and it seems that after installing it, there’s nothing happening. Leo suspects that installing the game may have corrupted your Windows. Try system restore. Also, use your Windows install discs and REPAIR Windows. Back up everything and then reinstall Windows.
You may want to attempt it in trial mode first.

Q Kathryn, Los Angeles, CA - Kodak ZI8

Kathryn is having a gas using her new Kodak ZI8. She’s recorded GBs of files. What can she use to edit them down? Leo recommends Pinnacle Studio 12. Works great.

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