Leo Laporte
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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Sunday October 18, 2009
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
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Posted one week after broadcast… | |
Tech News
Finland discovers Internet rights
Finland has determined that it’s everyone’s right to have at least 1 mbps down of Internet access. Leo says that the Internet has become a utility now and is very important to people’s everyday life. While maybe not a “right,” per se, it’s certainly important enough that like the Tennessee Valley Authority, there should be Internet access made available for everyone.
Sidekick gets some good news.
T-Mobile’s Sidekick users lost all their data due to a complete system failure at Microsoft. This prompted critics of cloud computing to say “See?! The Cloud isn’t safe!”
Well now, Redmond has announced they have managed to rebuild and recover most, if not all data for users.
Windows 7 Reviews Glowing, but some aren’t so impressed
Walt Mossberg of the NYT shouts to out to Cupertino … watch out, Apple, Windows 7 is the best version ever! Course, Leo’s been saying this for months now.
But some critics, like Jim Louderback says it’s just a cleaned up Vista. Leo’s been saying that as well. Some are reporting some compatibility issue. As always, Leo suggests a fresh install, or get it on a new computer, and to run Microsoft’s compatibility checker before hand.
Verizon takes a shot at the iPhone.
Check out DroidDoes.com. It’s Verizon’s new site hyping the Android system and a new phone called Droid. Does this mean the Verizon/iPhone is dead? Was it ever alive?
Google increases share of Internet traffic
Google’s internet traffic has increased to 10% according to Arbor Network’s latest study on global internet traffic. That’s a lot of YouTube videos. And in all likelihood, the bandwidth of all that traffic isn’t costing Google much thanks to their fiber optic infrastructure investment last decade, which is largely responsible to their latest $6 BILLION quarter.
Guests
Chris Marquardt - Tips from the Top Floor
Halloween is coming and Chris has a cool gadget to use with your camera for Halloween … the Lens Baby! Chris wants to talk about “Tilt Shift” photography. It’s a common technique used to prevent tall buildings to skew as if they are falling on you. It also allows you to tilt the focal plane which can add depth of field or even limit depth of field to create a toy like look to the subject. It’s a cool effect. The Lens Baby kind of a poor man’s tilt shift lens. Chris recommends the MUSE model. Leo says there’s also an iPhone app called “Tilt Shift Gen” that does tilt shift on the iPhone camera. Really fun.
Don’t forget this week’s assignment … PRESSURE. Take a picture and upload to Flickr, tagging for the Tech Guy Group.
Hour 1
Q Franny, Glostertown, NJ - Scanner software
Frannie just got a her mom a new computer and scanner and wants a recommendation for scanning software. Leo says that the software that comes with the Epson Perfection Scanners comes in two modes, one pro and one basic. The basic is practically one button touch. You can try VuScan, it’s free to try.
What resolution? That greatly depends on your printer. But it’s a good idea to scan at a high resolution - 300 dpi resolution at least, but no bigger than 600 dpi. That’ll get you to poster size.
Al is experiencing latency in iChat. Leo says it’s a common problem in video conferencing and is usually a bandwidth issue. And if it got worse after upgrading to Snow Leopard, while the video is clearer with Snow Leopard, the latency has increased.
Leo recommends Skype. It’s very good at reducing latency by compressing the audio with killer compression codecs. How can he go from Screen Share back to iChat without ending the conversation and restarting it?
Q Thomas, San Diego, CA - Windows on a MacBook Pro
Thomas recently got a MacBook Pro, can he run Vista on it dual boot? Leo says that installing your current Vista OS will be not problem. But you may have to contact Microsoft to switch the license to your new MacBook. If it’s OEM software, you may be out of luck. And running virtually (Leo likes Sun’s VirtualBox) is a good idea, though using BootCamp and choosing what version you want at bootup works as well.
Q Rebecca, Anaheim, CA - Cordless phone dying
Rebecca has a Panasonic Dekt phone answering system and has a problem with dying handsets forcing her to recharge before using it again. Leo says it sound like there’s something wrong with that line of phone, too bad too because Leo likes the “Dect” technology. Could be a bad batch off the production line. You could try VTech, they have similar features but the build quality isn’t that great. Uniden. Sony makes them as well, but Panasonic is the best and maybe going with a different model is a good idea. But they all now largely have the Dect technology, so if one brand isn’t working, try another.
Hour 2
Q Pam, Azusa, CA - Dead hard drive
Pam’s computer hard drive died after a huge upgrade. What can she do with it? Leo says that all hard drives fail sooner or later. The most common is a messed up master boot record or table of contents. Bad sectors. These things can be fixed by software like SpinRite. But the hard error, the drive bearings freeze up, or the platter gets “gouged,” or even the head gets bent. Even the controller could have gone belly up. These hardware errors usually require expert help and they aren’t cheap. Leo recommends Drive Savers, but you really have to want the data bad cause it’ll cost thousands. But replacing the controller card is easy and won’t require thousands.
Q Lyle, Clairmont, CA - 64 bit Windows 7?
Lyle is trying to decide 32 of 64 bit of Windows 7? Leo says that 64 bit is mostly advantageous if you have 4GB of RAM or above. Thats’ really it’s own advantage.
Q Bob, Los Angeles, CA - Digital Voice Recorder
Bob is looking for a pocket sized digital voice recorder that works with MAC. Leo says that most phones have a voice recorder. Olympus owns the field, but their format is non-standard and the mic isn’t very good. The Zoom H2 Handy Recorder is fantastic but it’s not as small. The DS330, and the DM20 supports MAC. Recording to an SD card would eliminate the issue of compatibility. The Kodak ZI8 video recorder has an external mic jack which works and you can take video to boot.
Q Henry, Douglasville, KY - Installing Windows
Henry wants to install Windows 7 onto a new hard drive. Leo says no worries. Just do it after you install in the computer. And it’ll be a good idea to use the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to verify you have compatible hardware. But if it ran Vista, it’ll run Windows 7.
Q Al, Corona, CA - Multiple Monitor graphics issues
Al built a killer multiple monitor flight simulator with IFinity Cards. Leo says that some games don’t really do well with multiple monitors as the “bezzel” can cause visibility problems.
Al’s problem is that running multiple monitors using the IFinity 4870 card can only work with one monitor, multiples cause degraded graphics and crashes. Leo says crashing usually means a driver issue. But if it works at a low resolution, it could point to a problem with the card overheating, or some bad memory that doesn’t get used until you max out the memory. Could also be driver issues not playing well with the iFinity card. Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X is also having problems in multi-monitor setup. Check the forums, there’s probably someone who has a workaround. Welcome to the bleeding edge, Al!
Hour 3
Q Eric, Palm Springs, CA - New computer, CD issues
Eric just recently bought a new computer with Vista. Leo says you can still install Windows 7 easily, though you’d have to buy it. Eric complains that he’s having trouble getting software CDs being recognized and some won’t run the AutoRun feature. Leo says that autorun may be disabled. But browse Explorer to the CD and look for the setup file manually. Click on it and it’ll install the program. If no CDs are being seen, then your CD driver may be suspect. Could be a bad cable or a lose cable. But sometimes, Windows “loses” discs. Go to the Microsoft Support Site for article 314060. Run the FIX IT utility.
Q Bill, CA - upgrading from Windows 2000
Bill is using Windows 2000 with Office and has been happy as a clam. But his P4 is running out of gas and it’s time to upgrade. Leo agrees since Microsoft doesn’t support Windows 2000 anymore. Leo says that Microsoft only offers the the upgrade price to users of XP and Vista. But will Bill be able to read his Office 2000 files? Leo says absolutely. No worries there. But it may not run on 64 bit Windows 7. Leo also says it’s worth upgrading to Office 2007 as well. One thing you may not like is the new ribbon interface. But the files will be read with little trouble. Try before you buy though!
Q Harry, Seal Beach, CA - Booting up XP Pro
Harry is having trouble booting up his PC using XP Pro. He can’t activate it. Leo says that’s Microsoft Genuine Advantage. Sometimes they create a false positive 5% of the time, preventing legitimate users from activating their copy of Windows. And when it sees changes of substantive kind, like and upgrade, WGA freaks out thinking you’re moving it to another computer. Call Microsoft and let them know and they’ll activate it for you. What. a. hassle!
Q Samuel, Brooklyn, NY - Game designing
Samuel wants to know what’s the best lanugage to learn to create a game program about card playing? Leo says that Visual Basic is a good place to start. It’s not free though except the stripped down version (Visual Studio Express).
Q Mark, Lake Forest, CA - Software compatibility
Mark has an old software utility which won’t run on Vista. What can he do? Leo says to try “compatibility mode.” This will “trick” the application to think it’s running on the old OS while it’s actually working in Vista. Right click on the icon and select compatibility mode, then select the OS from the pull down menu. Start - Control Panel - Programs - Use and Older Program.
You can also run XP Compatibility Mode, which requires Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate. This is a virtual version of XP within Windows 7.
Have a great geek week!
