Leo Laporte
The Tech Guy
2–5p ET Sat & Sun
- Home
- Saturday Show?
- Sunday Show?
- Past Shows
- Audio Archives
- Stations
- Chat
- Watch Live
- Forums
- Tips
- FAQ
- Glossary
- Contact Leo
Sponsors
- Angie’s List
- Carbonite
- DSLExtreme
- ESET NOD32 Antivirus
- GoToAssist
- GoToMeeting
- GoToMyPC
- Make It Work
- Stamps.com
Leo Links
 |
For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
|
|
Saturday 26 September 2009
Show Audio
|
Edited Audio | |
|
Posted one week after broadcast… | |
Tech News
Leo’s having a “Windows House Party!”
Microsoft has launched a Windows Launch House Party to advertise Windows 7. Leo says Microsoft isn’t really known for it’s smart advertising. Churros, anyone? Three weeks away from the release of Windows 7 and there’s still a question of upgrade vs. clean install. Can you do a clean install using upgrade discs? Microsoft is mum on the subject.
There’s 9 new Windows 7 ads coming that are designed to make users feel cool using Windows. Leo says that may be a recipe for disaster since Windows users are by and large, well, geeks!
“Aero Shake” allows you to shake your mouse and move your Windows around. Cool, sure. But useful? Having said that, Leo’s a fan of Windows 7. It seems Microsoft has finally gotten it right. But cool? Leo’s not so sure. Still though, since Windows enjoys 90% of the market, they must be doing something right.
Apple Tablet Rumor refuses to die
The rumors that Apple is on the verge of releasing a tablet that will look like an oversized iPhone refuse to die. Now the talk is “sometime next year.”
Microsoft’s response… Courier, a bookish tablet with dual multi touch 7″ screens that open up. Leo says this could be a compelling device - great for reading, for instance. Whereas a supersized iPhone just isn’t interesting.
USB 3.0 on the verge of arriving
Coming out next year, USB 3.0 promises blazing speeds. The Universal Serial Bus changed everything. No more interrupt requests or configuration issues. It’s just plug and play. USB 1.1 was fairly slow. USB 2.0 which is much faster, to the point that video has used it. But now, USB 3.0 is on the way which will provide provide 4.8 GB of data per second! That’s FAST. Some boards will ship by the end of the year, but mostly by next Spring. This will probably put the final nail in firewire’s coffin, though.
Guests
Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine
Leo is drafting Scott to help him buy a stereo. Thing is, people don’t really buy HiFi Stereo’s anymore, they invest in Home Theaters. Leo got turned on to HiFi again thanks to the Beatles Remasters. It got him to miss that old vinyl experience. Old school systems can give a sense of “space” as opposed to say, an iPod or other mp3 player which has compressed the music so much, it takes the experience out of it. BnW 683 speakers are great, save the center channel. The next step down, though, the BnW HTM62, has a better center channel. The PSB Imagine System, the Revel Concerta System are great. Leo says the Revel blew him away. What budget are we talking here? Speakers like the BnW or the PSB Imagine can run from $1500–2000 a pair. Not bad considering.
Buying speakers is kind of like buying wine. You need to think what speakers sound like in a manner as to what wine tastes like. Using that kind of comparison works well for your particular tastes.
Now, onto the receiver. Scott likes receivers by Integra, a high end brand by Onkyo. They use dynamic eq, volume, and auto room correction. Another good brand is Denon. Rotel is a fine brand, however, they have lower power per channel. The Integra, however, has plenty of power.
Hour 1
Q Steve, Philadelphia, PA - Podcasting
Steve says his podcast is the best thing he’s ever done. He’s got a great community behind him. He wants to add some shows, like reviewing tech. How can he get companies to recognize his show to send him stuff to review? This is a good question. Used to be that writing reviews for magazines carried the weight to convince companies to send you things to review. But magazines are disappearing fast and it’s hard for companies to judge if your online blog or podcast has the “gravitas” to draw a large audience.
Even Leo has had difficulty. The key is to build relationships with these people. Give them a track record of reviewing and then returning. In fact, insist on returning items. Ask for return shipping labels. This will give them security that you’re legit. Leo tends to buy what he reviews so he can review them more accurately without feeling you’re not on the hook for someone who gave you an item. But some don’t have a budget for that. Leo has a page at Leoville.com just for PR people who can see Leo’s bonafides. The key … INTEGRITY.
Steve’s podcast is PodNutz.com
Hour 2
Q Rick, Rancho Santa Margarita - Website Design
Rick just built his first website using templates from “Website Tonight” by Go-Daddy. But it was fairly limited. His question is, can he “borrow” graphics from another site and incorporate them in his? Leo says that’s pretty tempting. There’s a lot of pictures out there, but it’s really stealing if you use them without permission.
You can investigate the rights of pictures you find. It never hurts to ask. Many will let you use images for photo credit and a link. You can even search of Flickr for “creative commons” photography. The very last thing you want to do is borrow images from main sites like MLB or NFL.com. Check iStockPhoto.com which for a small fee will assign rights you need for publishing. The bottom line, if there’s a logo, don’t use it.
Rick’s site is at bestnflpicks.net.
Q Ryan, Boise, ID - Windows 7 release
Ryan is running the release candidate for Windows 7 right now and is concerned that he’ll have to reinstall the entire OS once Windows 7 comes out. He would rather upgrade. Leo says that upgrading from the Beta to Windows 7 is possible with a minor change to a single text file - cversion.ini - and input a new serial number. But Leo says it’s always better to do a clean install so you don’t have any leftover code which can cause trouble down the line.
Here’s a “how to” on upgrading though, understand that Leo has no idea if this will work with the release version of Windows 7, and Microsoft is “mum” on the issue.
Q Emma, Georgetown, SC - Quicktime trouble
Emma has been playing a slideshow video using Quicktime, but it keeps quiting. She gets audio, no video. Leo says that Emma probably needs to upgrade her Quicktime in order to play it. Best way is to uninstall Quicktime, download the recent version and install it.
From the Chatroom, suggestion is to try VLC Media player. It plays just about anything.
Q Bob, Cincinnati, OH - MacBook Pro Memory management
Bob has dual booted his 4GB MacBook Pro to run both Windows and Mac running in VMWare Fusion. How should he portion his RAM to prevent slowing down? Leo says you can devote 1GB to Windows and the rest to Mac. You can split it 50–50, but you don’t want to start slowing down the MAC. VMWare gives you sliders to move them back. You can then shut down VMWare and Windows and run the Mac on all 4GB.
Bob does audio recording, using Sony Vegas, with Air Shows and he even has a gig with the Kingston Trio, awesome. Trying for free is Amadeus Pro for the MAC. Pros also use Logic Studio, but you can also run Garage Band it’s pretty good. Some like Soundtrack Pro, which comes with Vegas. Leo’s not much of a fan, but it’s pretty popular.
Q Elena, Los Angeles - Spamming from her computer?
Elena’s friends are complaining their getting spam from her. What can she do? Leo says that if it’s not in your sent folder, you didn’t send the emails. What spammers do now is put a random address in the return address field. Leo says there’s nothing you can really do about it, but the good news is that they’ll change it in a short period of time. You could “digitally sign” it from thawt.com which will give you a certificate that digitally signs it.
Hour 3
Q Tiffany, Santa Barbara, CA - driving traffic to her website
Tiffany’s husband set up a website and wants to drive more traffic her way. How? Leo suggests participates in other forums. Setup Google to index you. Comment on people’s blogs. Be as active as you can. Pay careful attention to the first 1500 characters and put searchable descriptions there so Google will pick them up. But mostly, PARTICIPATE. Have a Twitter Account. Link to your articles and others articles as well. Link underneath your comment in your sig to your forums. In the end, it’s about building “street cred,” and developing your brand.
Tiffany’s forums are about getting pregnant. Check out Miracleinthebelly.com.
Q George, Van Nuys, CA - iPhone 3G trouble
George bought an iPhone 3G, but he jail broke it and now it won’t update or install apps. Apple hates jail breakers and make every effort to frustrate the activity. Leo says that once you jailbreak an iPhone, you can’t update. You need to restore the iPhone to a standard condition in iTunes in order to update. Then you can re-jailbreak when it comes out for that update. So when you get notice of a new update, refuse it. Restore the iPhone, then update. Then re-jailbreak. This cat and mouse game is one of the reasons why Leo doesn’t jailbreak his phone. Even though he agrees that you bought it, you should be able to whatever you want, the hassle makes it just not worth it.
Q Michele, Santa Monica, CA - Getting tons of email
Michele gets a TON of email. Leo says she’s probably got her POP3 mail set to leave mail on the server and she keeps getting the same email over and over. Leo also says that Verizon may be a culprit here. The index to your email could be corrupted and is confused. Call them and ask them to take a look at your email account.
It may also be a virus issue. You could run Nod 32 to protect you from virus. Also, start using Windows Live Mail. It’s far better than Outlook Express.
And if you’re going to get a new PC to replace that old one, then Leo recommends waiting until late October in order to get one with Windows 7 installed. Then download Windows Live Mail.
Q Collins, Mayfield, KY - Surfing securely
Collins just bought a new Asus eeePC 1008 Seashell and will be traveling. How cautious does he need to be while online? Leo says VERY. When you surf online, you’re using a public space. Much like at a coffee shop. Unless you’re using a secure site - which is scrambled - you’re activity can easily be picked up by others. So always be mindful that anything you do in public areas can be seen. You can use encryption, but it may slow you down. So be mindful. Another option is to use a VPN like Hotspot VPN. And Steve Gibson is developing a utility called CyptoLink which will encrypt anything you do while in a public hotspot.
Q Ken, Bellflower, CA - Archiving screens
Ken wants watch streams at UStream. How can he archive? Leo says one way is to have UStream record it for you and then archive it. Then embed uStream’s server so they’re picking up the bandwidth cost.
How about streaming using your wireless connection like EVDO? Leo says you can, but the quality drops off some. It’ll work, but it’ll take a hit quality wise.
See you tomorrow!
