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Sunday November 8, 2009

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Posted one week after broadcast…

Tech News

The Skype Lawsuit drama continues.

Friday, eBay announced lawsuits have been settled and Skype will be okay. According to eBay, Skype will now have control of the “core technology” and users will no longer need to worry about losing Skype access. Good news.

Call of Duty could be the first person shooter game yet

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 may smash all existing sales records with a Half BILLION dollars in sales expected in the first week. WOW.

Steve Jobs named CEO of the decade

Apple’s Steve Jobs has been named CEO of the Decade by Fortune Magazine. In spite of recent health problems, Jobs return to the helm at Apple this past decade has propelled the hardware company to be a leader in multimedia electronics like the iPhone and iPod, secure OS like OSX, and of course, the elegance that is the Mac computer. Well worth the accolades. Congrats, Steve!

The new Droid keeps getting more rave reviews

With it’s attractive high resolution screen, Android operating system, 5MP camera (Leo doesn’t think it’s that much better than the iPhone camera though), and it’s not on AT&T! If you’re a Verizon customer, it’s a no brainer.

Leo says that at the close of 2009, there are three smart phones that are in the running. The BlackBerry, the iPhone is the leader, and now the Droid. And the dark horse … the Nokia 900 tablet phone running MeMo Linux. Sadly, the Palm Pre just didn’t live up to expectations or the hype.

Guests

Marsha Collier, eBay expert

Marcia Collier is the expert on eBay. Author of 35 books as eBay for Dummies and Starting an eBay Business For Dummies, Marcia travels the world teaching how to make a living selling on eBay!

Marcia says that you can get just about anything on eBay. She tries clothes on in the stores and then finds them on eBay. Marcia also says you need to know the price you’re willing to buy on eBay. That way you don’t end up paying too much. And there are 88 million sellers on eBay, so there’s plenty of deals to be had if someone is charging too much.

Sellers go CostCo and outlet malls and pickup deals and sell them on eBay as a profit. Also, buying wholesale. Getting a resale license isn’t that expensive and it enables you to buy items wholesale and resell them.

What about being ripped off? Marcia says that Paypal has changed to so much that if the item arrives and it isn’t what you expect, you can apply to Paypal for a refund. Leo mentioned his experience of getting ripped off. Marcia says that Paypal has changed their policy so that everything is backed that’s bought on the site. Buyers are now only liable for shipping costs. If you get ripped off, Paypal will refund your money and go after the fraudulent seller.

What about overcharging for shipping? Marcia says you can’t really do that anymore as the search engine brings the cheaper shipping rates to the top, and over pricing shipping can affect your feedback rating.

Tips for selling on eBay: 1) Find stuff around the house you can sell and learn your way around. 2) Look on eBay’s completed listings and see how much it’s worth. 3) start at .99 and see who bites. You can set a starting price, do a buy it now price, or even a fixed price sale with an “Make an offer” option. 4) Make a budget for what you sell. eBay charges about 12% to sell, then there’s shipping. Factor those costs in. 5) Use electronic postage like Stamps.com 5) communicate with your buyers. if they ask you a question, answer promptly. Communication is now part of your feedback ratings, so be prompt and provide good service!

Chris Marquardt - Tips from the Top Floor

Today, we’re reviewing the assignment of the month: PRESSURE.

The first one that caught Chris’ eye is WAITING OR A LICK. Great example of Depth of field. And a title that tells a story.

Next is INEVITABLE by Matt Estrada. Great skewing. The green lighting. And everyone gets the fear and pressure of failure. Finally, the Picture of a fountain called PRESSURE. Not the best shot out there, but it shows the concept quite nicely.

The next assignment … Iron Photographer. Three ingredients: natural light, something round, and texture. Shoot a picture with these three shots and then join Flickr and upload it. Then tag it with Tech Guy Photo Group.

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Hour 1

Q Chris, Los Angeles, CA - No backup discs to reinstall

Bought a laptop and it came with no OS discs so he can’t reinstall his OS or reinstall his iTunes library. Leo thinks it’s unconscionable that companies still think it’s acceptable to sell laptops without the ability to reinstall the OS. Although some have the backups on a separate partition and you can use the disc utilities that came with the laptop to burn yourself a copy.

You could use your iPod in Disc mode and copy the backup to the iPod. But for under $100 you can get external hard drive that’s up to 1TB of storage. Better idea in the long term. And if your music is on your iPod, you may be able to restore the bought songs from your iPod.

Q Janet, Tustin, CA - Upgraded Mac running “wonky”

Janet’s husband upgraded some old macs to get them to run OSX. Now, they’re running “funny,” with the Clock running back to 2001. Leo says there’s a battery on the logic board that can die, which will cause it to lose time. It can also be reset back to before 2001, which will knock you off the net and affect applications. Reset your time. But it may also need to have the batteries backup replaced as well.

Janet also says the Mac will slow down unless she “jiggles” the mouse to speed it up. Leo says it’s conceivable that her MAC wasn’t really designed to run OSX and even though it was upgraded, it still runs on old hardware. You can try boosting the memory, but once you get to the max, you’re up against the wall. The clock losing it’s time is an easy indicator that the computer has reached the end of it’s useful life. Hate to say it, but it’s time to get a new Mac.

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Hour 2

Q Spencer, Calgary, AlB Can - Network Att’d Storage for MAC

Spencer wants to get a Network Attached Storage for the Mac. Leo says the Apple Airport Extreme with a USB plug can make an external hard drive available on the Mac. But any NAS will do. Leo likes the ReadyNAS.

Q James, Mantika, CA - No hard drive detected on Boot

James gets a “no hard drive detected” error message on boot up, but then it boots into the hard drive anyway. Leo says that’s pretty odd. Leo says there may be a driver that gets loaded into Windows that will see the drive when Windows boots up. No real cause for alarm.

Also, check your BIOS settings. If you have more than one drive, it’s possible the boot order may have gotten “flipped.” So double check your settings for the proper drive order.

Q Gary, Los Angeles, CA - Embedding flash Video on Website

Gary wants to do a live appearance of him walking onto his website to talk. He saw it from a service called “ISpeakVideo.” How can he do it himself? Leo says it’s done with FLASH that’s embedded. You shoot yourself on a green screen and then key the green screen out. There’s also a ton of website design that incorporates the video seamlessly using Action Script. It’s certainly an advanced flash application that’s not for the faint of heart. But Leo says it’s not very popular for the site user. They don’t really want to be interrupted by things like that. So the question you have to ask is … is it worth doing if it alienates the audience? You could make it optional with a “Meet Gary” button that launches it.

Gary’s website is called “Collect My Stimulus.”

Q Prenav, New Delhi, INDIA! - Netbook recommendation

All Netbooks are fairly the same from Dell to Asus. Intel artificially limits the RAM to 1GB when you buy it. You can add a GB, and you should. Also, make sure they run Windows 7. But there’s one a tad more expensive and that’s the Samsung NC20. For $100 more, you get a larger screen (12″) a full sized keyboard, and much easier to upgrade the RAM or hard drive. If she’s stylus, Leo says she may like the Asus Seashell.

Leo also says that the Dell and HP Mini’s are excellent as well. In fact, it may be that they are made by the same manufacturer. One thing though, if buying online, go to a local store and try it on for size to see if she likes the feel of the keyboard and the performance, which is a quite underpowered.

Q Joe, Larksburg, CA - Virus infection

Joe is getting an online popup that says he’s been infected and needs to buy their specific antivirus fix. Leo says STOP! That’s a scam. It’s a trojan designed to coopt your computer. Close your browser. And install Firefox. Run Windows update regularly to keep your computer protected.

Joe says that there’s also an icon on his computer that pops up. Leo says click Start - Run - MRT and run the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool. You can also run MalWareBytes and even run your own Anti Virus Software. But even after that you may still be infected. The only sure way to eliminate an infection is to format your hard drive and reinstall the OS from a known, good source.

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Hour 3

Q Claudia, San Francisco, CA -

Claudia’s sister is going on a mission trip to South Africa and Italy. She wants to do a video blog so that people can follow her. Where do they start? Two ways to do it. You could do it all yourself by creating your own blog on sites like Vox or Wordpress. But they’re advertising supported and you may not like the ads. Another option is to create a simpler site on Posterous and then email the content to it, and it’ll automatically update the site and then bounce the update to places like Facebook, Twitter, and even Flickr. So you send one email/text and it takes care of the rest.

What camera? Leo says that any video camera you have will work great. But today, a single still camera that shoots good video is a much easier option if you’re traveling. There’s also pocket video cameras like The Flip Mino HD, and the Kodak Zi8.
You can even use the video/camera on your iPhone (Posterous has an iPhone app). But be careful with the iPhone, the digital roaming charges could bankrupt you!

Q Bill, Ft. Collins, CO - Multiple video sources

Bill wants to have more than one monitor on his system without having to put another card in it. Leo says you can use a multi head card and get up to three monitors per card. Leo recommends EyeFinity 5870 from ATI. There’s also Matrox’ Multi Port cards.

Q Leo, Santa Ana, CA - Updates keep installing

Every time Leo shuts down his computer, it’s installing the same update. Leo says it’s going to keep installing until all the updates available are done. Sometimes the Windows updates get “stuck.” Here’s a few sources on how to clear them: PC World and Microsoft’s Note.

Q Connie, Anaheim, CA - Cheap MacBook …

$799 for a Macbook? Leo says that rarely, will you see a Macintosh discounted. It may be a refurbished computer. If it is, you’re better off getting it from Apple directly. If it’s legit, Leo says go for it!

Q Jim, Dayton, OH - Multi Simcard Cellphone

Jim wants to know if there’s any progress on creating a dual sim phone. Leo isn’t really sure how that works. Jim says what’s cool about it is that you can conference up to 5 calls using both numbers at the same time. What do you know about the Acer DX900? Leo says that most of the dual sim phones are running Windows Mobile which is a dying format. Leo says that the reason you don’t see many dual sim phones is because it’s not really popular in the US. Japan and China, sure. But not here in the States. Leo says that Motorola is doing a dual sim Android phone called the Zepplin. But no word on when it will be out or if it’ll be released in the US.

Q Steven, New York, NY - Old hard drive problems

Steven installed an older hard drive and now it won’t work. Check the cables to make sure they are installed correctly. It may also be that the controller card has blown.

Have a great geek week!

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