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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Saturday December 05, 2009
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
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Posted one week after broadcast… | |
Tech News
Young Woman faces jail time for filming Twilight: New Moon
A 22 year old woman is facing up to 3 years in prison for inadvertently recording three minutes of the new Twilight movie “New Moon.” Part of a birthday party, theater managers have insisted on pressing charges even though the woman was recording the party.
Leo’s disgusted by the copyright police and their no prisoners approach, especially when most piracy is the result of inside jobs in the entertainment industry.
And even if her goal was to record the movie … WHO CARES? Is someone really going to want to watch three minutes of a handheld version of this movie in place of actually seeing it on DVD or in theater? Ridiculous.
Intel announces 48 core processor
After great success with their Core 2 Duo computer chips, and Xeon’s with four cores. Intel is pushing the envelope with a new concept 48 core processor.
Darpa Network Challenge is on
Attach:red_balloon.jpg Δ
If you see a red balloon with a number on it, you can play the DARPA Network Challenge, which seeks to investigate relationships between social networking and internet dynamics. Click on the link and register to play. Submit locations immediate after you find any of the red balloons (so far, 41 have been found).
You can follow all the action Twitter at http://twitter.com/darpa_news.
Also check out openredballoon.com to participate with the open source team.
Guests
Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine
Scott is about to fly Korea to visit the Samsung LCD plant. Then, when Scott gets back, he launches his new podcast here on TWiT and his first guest is Tomlison Holman, the TH in THx. Second guest is Joe Kane, one of the most serious video guys in the industry. Joe designs Samsung’s front video projectors and publishes Digital Video Essentials. Leo calls him “Calibration Man.” Then comes Andy Parsons, a heavyweight in the Blu-ray disc association. They will be discussing the upcoming Blu-ray 3D specification. Leo kinds of rolls his eyes as he thinks that 3D is nothing but a gimmick, even though he acknowledges that the goal is to make movies more realistic. But there hasn’t been a 3D movie that’s knocked his socks off yet.
Scott’s podcast is going to be called Home Theater Geeks and you’ll be able to hear it on the TWiT podcasting network.
Gene Dolgoff, inventor of the Video projector
It took Gene Dolgoff over 20 years to get the video projector working. He tried everything until settling on LCD as a medium. He found that all pixels from the LCD became really clear due to black borders around each pixel. He calls this “depixelization” as it’s important for conduction. He created the lens array to magnify each pixel so that it touches it’s neighbor to make the image more fluid.
Now Gene is working on 3D. Why is it important, Leo wonders? Gene says that our every day life is in 3D. So it’s a naturally compelling advancement that’s going to move us forward. Gene says that the current 3D TVs on the market use only half the information and hopes that it won’t be the standard. Scott says it isn’t. The upcoming spec will be full 1820×1080i to each eye.
Laura Burstein, Director, Motor Press Guild
The LA Auto Show is in full swing and Laura Burstein - director of the Motor Press Guild - joins us to talk about tech advances in the auto industry. Laura says that the auto industry is on it’s way back and is fully embracing more green ideas. The industry is of the mind that electric only cars aren’t the trend anymore. “Plug in hybrids” using a combination of electricity and a small gasoline engine to keep the lithium ion batteries charged while driving and to take over once batteries are depleted. The Chevy Volt has an onboard generator which will top off the batteries as the car travels.
Laura also says that Chevy is lobbying for infrastructure to support it with ideas like parking meters that do double duty as car charging stations.
The LA Auto Show continues until December 13th.
Hour 1
Q Elaine, Orange County - Getting a new computer
Elaine needs a new computer and wants to know what graphics card she needs for Photoshop and other graphics based programs. Leo says that more RAM is probably more important and that the reason why her experience is so slow is that her computer has too little memory and power to handle all that.
Just about any new PC you get over $500 will be able to handle it. But if you want to go with really good graphic performance, get a computer with an NVidia or ATI dedicated graphic’s card, not a motherboard that has the video card integrated into it.
Hour 2
Q Steve, Chicago, IL - Google Voice
Steve finally got a Google Voice invitation. How easy is it to import all his contacts from the MAC to Google Voice? Leo says that vCards are the best idea for Macs. Select all contacts, export to vCard. Then go to GMail and import vCard. Then you’ll have ‘em all.
Q Sally, Marin County, CA - Connecting Internet to TV
Sally wants to connect her TV to the Net without a separate computer. Leo says current models aren’t smart enough to do that … YET. In the very near future TVs will come out with features like that. In the meantime, you can use a Roku box.
If you have a TV that is Yahoo enabled (called Yahoo Widgets), you can currently get a good portion of the Net. Boxee running on a MAC or PC can work as well, but Hulu isn’t part of the equation anymore.
Q Audry, Nevada City, CA - Solar charging options and eBook readers
Audry is going to be working in the Peace Corps for a few years and needs Solar Power options to run an eBook reader. Suggestions? Leo says that the Kindle 2 is a good idea for eBook reader as it has passive pages that use very little power. IN fact, it’s ideal because latest firmware updates have caused the Kindle to run for nearly a month before recharging. It also charges up pretty fast. The Solio Charger is a great product for solar power charging. But Leo thinks that the Sony eBook Reader is another option. Is the Barnes and Noble Nook EBook Reader an option? Maybe. But the Kindle has the greatest selection. There’s even a solar charger available for the Kindle.
Doing their homework, the Chatroom reports the Solio will work just fine with the Kindle and an iPod.
Hour 3
Q Charlene, Westlake, CA - TV recommendation
Charlene wants to get an LCD TV, but she doesn’t want to spend 2,000 for a low energy LCD. Her kids suggest to get a computer that you can watch TV on. Leo says it’s possible, but a computer is a “sit forward” experience, rather than a sit back and relax experience. It’ll also cost a little more than a standard TV. Don’t LCDs give out a lot of heat? Leo says, no, they don’t. LCDs are very cool and Leo recommends the Vizio. She’d like a Sony. Leo says that Sony Bravias are very nice, but they’re not really better than Vizio. So you’re only going to be paying more for the Sony nameplate.
What’s contrast ratio? Leo says it’s the blackest blacks and whitest whites.
And just remember that with a new HDTV will come greater standards. Upgraded DVD player, HD Cable box, etc. Can you record TV on a computer? Leo says yes, but it’s complicated. Much easier to just use your cable DVR. Recording via computer (it’s called a Home Theater PC) is more for geeks, hackers and enthusiasts who like to tinker.
Q Paul, Coachella, CA - Computer issues
Paul’s son bought an ACER Laptop about a year ago and now Windows corrupted. And there’s no backup discs. He tried calling Acer, but they are no help. Leo says that they have no real support to speak of since they are in Taiwan. He got some discs from ACER but he’s getting a Type Mismatch error. Leo says at this point, it’s probably better to wipe the drive and install. But also, it sounds to Leo that the hard drive may be damaged. Try replacing the drive and restoring from there.
Q Bob, Bettanville, AR - Router speed issues
Bob’s router isn’t getting the speed that’s advertised. Leo says that’s not surprising. Speed ratings are always based on optimal conditions and very rarely reach those advertised speeds.
Also, you can’t really measure your speed by your Internet speed. You need to test your speed by copying a file from one computer to another and measuring the speed.
Q Maxine, Tyler, TX - copying VHS to DVD
Maxine loves recording TV. She has about 1,000 tapes and needs to convert them. Leo says Panasonic VHS to DVD recorders work really well. You can also go to PinnacleSystems.com for some affordable video transfer options which would record to your computer so you can edit out commercials, etc. There’s also the Press and Go. A Canopus AVDC110 is an option, but with all those tapes, a VCR-DVD option is probably the easiest.
Q Rob, Oklahoma City, CA - computer won’t come out of sleep mode
Rob has an HP Pavilion running Vista Home Premium. It won’t come out of sleep mode. Leo says there are a few possible causes. Often the easiest way to fix it is to back up your data, reformat and re-install the OS. You can find information on how to trouble shoot by going to support.microsoft.com and search for sleep mode issues.
In fact, while you’re doing that, why not just upgrade to Windows 7? You can get an upgrade disc and put it in while running Vista. It’ll then reboot and install. But don’t upgrade. Do the custom upgrade, delete the partition and install. Head over to Paul Thurott’s WinSuperSite for more information on how to do it.
See you tomorrow!
