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Saturday November 28, 2009

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Edited Audio

Posted one week after broadcast…

Tech News

Retailers make big effort to make Black Friday safer this year.

WalMart made a huge effort to make sure nobody got trampled or hurt during Black Friday this year. And it seems to have paid off. $250 laptops. Big Screen TVs. What’d you get?

Merchants aren’t stopping with Black Friday

The NY Times is reporting that merchants aren’t stopping with Black Friday. Many are going to keep door buster sales going on all through the Holidays and some will have better deals on big ticket items as we get closer to Christmas.

What about “Cyber Monday?” Leo says that the term was coined by a reporter looking for an angle and Cyber Monday was never really a big deal. But still, with the economy as it has been this year, it’s worth keeping an eye on when doing your online shopping.

Speaking of Black Friday, Check out this YouTube Video of Black Friday from 1987!

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 sales crack 3 BILLION DOLLARS

Solidifying it’s status as the most profitable entertainment product of all time, Activision reports that Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare 2 has sold over 3 BILLION dollars in games in the first week! 55 Million Units!

Chrome OS is out

Google comes out with their new Chrome OS. Leo downloaded it and was able to install the Chrome OS on his laptop running from a USB Key. Leo says it was amazingly speedy. It separate the contents of each tab into it’s own workspace so if a tab crashes, it doesn’t affect anything else. Leo says the more the merrier! Chrome is based on Linux, invented by Linus Torvalds.

Is this the future? Leo says that even Microsoft is moving Office to the cloud with Microsoft Live online.
Speaking of office, Users can get Office 2010 for free right now in public Beta. Microsoft says that Windows 7 Public Beta was so popular, that they’ve decided to publicly beta test Office 2010 and you can download it right now by going here.

Guests

Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine

Scott tested the Vizio 55″ LED Backlit LCD HDTV. Some great stuff, some not so great. Some of the best video processing he’s ever seen. Black levels aren’t quite as low as he expected, which is confusing because it measured really well. And in spite of being a mixed bag, it’s still a great TV for the price. But the best on the market right now for LED Backlighting is Samsung 8500. Low Black Levels, local dimming. But not cheap.

Will HDTVs be marked down later in the season? Scott says that may be true but he hasn’t heard of anything particular. Although with Pioneer getting out of the Plasma business this March, it’s a good time to pick up a Kuro for a song.

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Hour 1

Q Glenn, Winnetka - Carbonite Backup issue

Glenn’s Carbonite backup is missing some files, but he’s not sure what’s missing. How can he compare the two folders? Leo says that Folder Match is possibly a good utility. From the Chatroom - WinDiff, but Leo says that’s a file to file comparison. DiffDaff is freeware that compares, files, folders and even websites.

Q Michael, Long Beach, CA - Webcasting

Michael wants to start his own live streaming webcast. Leo says to start small, using the QuickCam 9000. On the iPhone 3Gs, you can use Qik which will send out a “tweet” when you’re live streaming. UStream has a live streaming app as well for both the iPhone and Android. Both Qik and UStream requires wifi. For higher quality, you could use a laptop running UStream, JustinTV or Stickam and hook up your DV Camera. All you need is a decent Internet connection.

Q Mary, Vista, CA - HD Camcorder recommendation

Mary wants to get an HD Camcorder for her son who’s been making youtube videos with quite some success (430,000 hits). Leo says that shooting video for online you really don’t need an very expensive camcorder. In fact, you can go overboard by giving your child more than he needs. Check out the Kodak Zi8. It has two key functions, a tripod mount and an external mic jack. Then you can get him an external microphone for some great sound (which most camcorders are missing). Leo likes the BeachTek minjack to SLR. The Shure SM58 Mic is a great microphone and not all that expensive.

Another option is to give him tools to edit his videos. Adobe Premiere Elements or Sony Vegas Movie Studio are under $100 and can really help him. If the Mac, you have all you need with iMovie.

When he’s ready to get REALLY serious, than look at the Canon EOS 7D shoots high quality HD Video and you can use various lenses for depth of field, etc.

Q Phil, Long Beach, CA - retrieving data

Phil has a drive that has been “ghosted over.” An image that has been blasted over the data. Leo says bad news … it’s not possible. Once it has been written over, you just can’t recover it. Backup. Backup. Backup. And not just one, but TWO (preferably one off site). If you only have one copy, you’re not backed up.

Q Jan, Cheyenne, WY - GPS recommendation

Jan wants to get her son a GPS device. Leo’s a fan of Garmin and TomTom. And this year, GPS devices are being discounted pretty heavily.

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Hour 2

Q Marie, Temecula, CA - Computer is running SLOW

Marie’s PC is running really slow. She’s running XP. Leo says that Windows suffers from slowing down (called “bit rot”) if you haven’t reinstall the OS in a few years. The best thing to do is backup your data, format your hard drive and reinstall. Then get all the critical patches and reinstall your applications and data. But above all else, don’t fall for those computer cleaning advertisements on TV which promise to speed up your computer.

What if you don’t have a disc? Well, then you’d have to buy the new OS and frankly, after 5 years, it may be time to just get a new computer. How to backup, Carbonite or external hard drive? Carbonite is a great long term backup solution, but for this project, it’s faster to use an external hard drive.

Q Daniel, Napier, NZ (via Skype) - Shooting Panoramas

Daniel wants to shoot panoramic photographs. Does Leo have any tips? Leo learned how to shoot panoramas from one of the best from National Geographic. Here’s a few tips - Curly edges happen when you shoot because you didn’t use a tripod. For Camera settings, use manual and expose for the exposure you want for the entire panorama to keep the exposure even. Take off auto focus and auto light metering. Set all this manually. Use a tripod. And shoot in Portrait mode, rather than landscape. You get more pixels and a larger Pano. Also try and limit the number of shots you take. Some cameras have a “mark” (called the “noidal point”)by which to orbit the shot around. Pay attention to that. And try not to shoot too wide as that affects curvature. And dont’ be afraid to crop some after you’ve stitched it together.

Daniel uses HUGIN to stitch with. Here’s the image he came up with.

Q Snow, Huntington Beach, CA - underwater photography

Snow is an underwater photographer shoots both photo and video underwater. She’s been using Pinnacle to make her DVDs. But often, her masters are corrupting and she can’t use them. Leo says it’s a common issue. She tries to save the DVD to her hard drive by ripping them, but that’s not working either. Leo says that there are two ways 1) copy the full DVD with menus, etc and 2) just get the video on there. Doing the second choice will require re-authoring the video to DVD. 123CopyDVD will do both. But Snow says it won’t work and she gets an error message.

Leo uses CloneDVD by Slysoft that works very well. You can download and try it for free.

Snow’s dive club is called the OBDC Dive Club. Check it out.

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Hour 3 -

Q Mel, Fallbrook, CA - Creating a website

Mel wants to create a website that is searchable. What search engine should she use? Leo recommends Google. And if you want your results to appear in the sponsored section, you need to pay for that. Start with creating a site. Leo likes Posterous, Wordpress, Blogger. What’s cool about Posterous is that it can populate other sites like Facebook, Twitter, and even Wordpress. It’s pretty cool.

Q Michael, Burbank, CA - imaging software recommendation

Michael wants to image his hard drive, what does Leo recommend? Leo likes /Image for Windows. Michael also wants to know if he needs an antiVirus software for his Mac. Leo says absolutely not. Hackers just don’t write viruses for Macs.

Q David, Tustin, CA - external hard drive for Mac

David composes music and needs more storage space for his MacBook. He wants to listen to music and compose. What external hard drive does Leo recommend for the Mac? Leo says that a bus powered hard drive is ideal. The largest he’s found is 750 GB. It’s called the Mercury-On-The-Go and you can get them at MacSales.com

David’s Website and Podcast is at http://david-arellano.com/.

Q Paul, Anaheim Hills, CA - Mac WiFi Upgrades

Paul has a MacBook Pro with a G Wifi card. How can he update to an N series wifi card? Leo says you can’t really. Some models, mostly older ones, enable you to upgrade the wifi card, but the latest versions don’t. You can get a USB dongle and go that way. Leo says that you can get better range by just using an “N” router with your G card. Leo says the NetGear Extender is a good option.

Q Eric, Colorado Springs, CO - Trouble updating Windows 7

Eric was having trouble upgrading Windows 7 from a WorkStation. He’s got an ATI Radeon SE and it won’t work all that well. Is there a workaround for using old school cards with Windows 7? Leo says that if they don’t make a driver for it, you’re pretty much out of luck. The good news, though, is that video cards have gotten real cheap. Eric needs one with two ports. Leo suggests ATI 5870, NVidia 5800. Both under $100. The ATI 4350 is under $40.

See you tomorrow!

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