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Sunday 27 December 2009
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Edited Audio | |
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Posted one week after broadcast… | |
Tech News
Ending the tech decade …
Some think that this year ends the first decade of the 2000s, others are of the mind that the end of the decade comes next year in 2010. Regardless, what has been the biggest tech story of this first decade of the new Millenium? The bursting of the tech bubble? HDTV and the digital transition? Apple’s switch to Intel in 2006? Drastic drop in prices for large screen TVs? Security issues with Windows? The Death of video stores thanks to Netflix, Blockbuster online and Redbox?
Is Avatar the future of motion picture?
Leo saw Avatar over the weekend and thought it may portend the future of movie making. The glasses are still annoying to wear. There are three competing technologies battling it out and Avatar is in all three formats. But Leo’s still convinced that 3D is still a gimmick. Leo says that the first hour, Leo was taken out of the movie because of the 3D. But after that, the story takes over and you’re immersed in it. Effective? sure. But we aren’t really there yet for a true 3 dimensional cinematic experience.
The true future of filmmaking is Motion Capture. This is where actors movements and expressions are captured while they act on a stage with no props or sets immersed in green screens. Animators then create a CGI character to overlay over the action that’s been captured. This makes it realistic in a fantastic setting.
Apple may finally be ready to launch a tablet computer
The NYTimes is quoting inside sources that after nearly a decade of development, Steve Jobs is finally satisfied with the designe of the much rumored Apple Tablet (dubbed iSlate). And word has it that Apple has rented space for a product announcement in January. So we may know REALLY soon.
Guests
Chris Marquardt - Tips from the Top Floor
Chris Marquardt is back and talking about cold weather photography. Chris says that wintertime usually means it gets darker earlier. Don’t be afraid of higher ISOs. If you have a choice between camera shake brought on by longer exposures and an image that is a bit noisy by choosing a higher ISO, take the higher ISO, you can always fix the noise in software. You can’t fix camera shake.
Also, the cold weather means the batteries will die faster. Take the batteries out and roll them in your hands. This will bring the batteries back to life. Also, put spare batteries closer to your body to keep them warm. Also, beware of condensation. Going from cold air to warm air, will cause that air to condense. Put the camera inside a ziplock bag before you come inside and it will warm up slowly. Also, take out your memory card first.
Lastly, shooting snow, means a lot of white snow which the camera will muddy your image making it “gray.” This will cause a loss of detail. So shoot with exposure compensation to the darker side so that the camera won’t choose settings that “muddy” your image and will keep them more natural looking.
The assignment for this month? The theme is Iron Photographer. Take an image with these three ingredients: Natural Light, Round, and Texture. Then, head on over to flickr.com, sign up, and join the Tech Guy group to post it. If it catches Chris’ eye, you may hear it on the Tech Guy show.
Hour 1
ET has linux on his box, but Windows doesn’t see the Linux partition. Leo says that often happens when you partition with Linux, rather than Windows. But since ET is wiping the hard drive and starting over, Leo recommends running the XP installer disc and delete the partitions in the XP installer utility. Then you can create a new partition that Windows understands.
E.T. also says that Windows System Restore may have been the best advancement of Windows this decade. Leo also says Driver Rollback was another one. Now if they’d just dump the registry!
Q Chroma, Placerville, CA - Migrating to Windows 7
Chroma is upgrading to Windows 7 and running virtualization for some old software and he gets error messages. Leo suggests using Windows Virtual Machine, but don’t install XP outside Virtual Machine. Otherwise, it’ll install over your Win7 OS. But Leo prefers Sun’s Virtual Box. It’s free and works great. And Much simpler for using NT on. Use Virtual Machine for XP. In fact, if you’re using more than one OS, have a separate Virtual Machine for each OS you want to use. Dynamic Disk or Fixed Disk? Leo says Fixed.
Chroma says the Canon 5D Mk. II was the big innovation of the decade. Leo agrees and says that digital photography definitely came of age this decade.
Q Tim, San Diego, CA - The Human Genome Project
Tim is a huge privacy advocate and wants to talk about Leo volunteering for The Human Genome Project. Leo says he volunteered to help researchers learn more about how Genome’s affect your medical condition. The research and data is going to be out in public and there are tremendous privacy concerns about how this data will be handled by insurers and others.
Tim says it not only will effect you, but also generations that follow you. Leo says that could happen, but then again, all that information will be widely available anyway, right? Tim said that the law of data collection states that any information used for one purpose will be used for other purposes as well, and often without your knowledge or consent. The bottom line is, information may come back to haunt you and Leo may want to reconsider.
Leo says that the genie may be out of the bottom pertaining to privacy as we move forward to the future. At least that’s what the boys at Google say.
Hour 2
Q Scott, - Sony Video Camcorders
Scott is looking at a Sony Video Camcorder which tend to suffer in poor low light. Leo also says that when editing in Final Cut Express, you’ll need to import into iMovie first and then output to a format FCE can support. Final Cut Express 4 now supports AVCHD though, so upgrade to the new version and save a step. Leo’s also moving away from camcorders in favor of pocket camcorders like the Flip Mino, or a digital SLR like the Canon 7D which shoots both digital stills and 1080p HD video for the serious shooter who’s wanting a cinematic look.
Q Judd, Los Angeles, CA - The Flip Mino
Judd’s girlfriend wants to get a Flip Mino camcorder. Can it be used on a MAC? Leo says that only if you’re using the Flip software do you need to use Windows. But you can drag and drop the video onto your Mac and convert it to a format that iMovie supports.
Another option is the Kodak Zi8, which has the extra advantage of using an external microphone. It has excellent digital image stabilization as well.
Q Dawn, Santa Monica, CA - Magic Jack
Dawn is using Magic Jack to make her phone calls, but her friends say that it’s not real. Leo says that being in a rural area may be a limitation as far as internet access, which you need for Voice over IP calling, which is what Magic Jack does. But it’s the real deal and Leo says it works great. Keep pluggin’ on it, Dawn. You’re saving a bundle!
But you don’t really need a Magic Jack, you can also use SKYPE, which is free for computer to computer calls. Using it to make calls to telephones is pretty cheap. Magic Jack is the best deal though.
Q Jim, Sam Mateo, CA - Hardware recommendations
Jim uses Quickbooks Pro Server and wants to know Leo’s recommendation for hardware to get as he upgrades his computers. Leo’s happy with Dell, and gets the gold support option. Any Core 2 Duo will work, get the 4 GB of RAM to handle the load. And Windows 7 networking stack is far superior than Vista. Uses less memory. A fast, 7200 RPM or above hard drive would be a good idea. But if you want to look for the future, get a solid state disc (SSD) which is lightning quick as a boot drive.
Q Paul, Garden Grove, CA - online backup
Is Carbonite a good choice? It seems to take forever to run that initial backup. Leo says they’re a sponsor of the show but he’d recommend them anyway. The thing though, is that it works in the background and backs up quite slowly in order not to overtax your computer while you’re using it. So it can take several days to back up your data. Works great though.
Paul also has trouble with NOD32, which isn’t installing on his computer. Leo says you have to completely clean your computer from any lingering files from your old AVS or NOD32 won’t install. And AVS programs like Norton don’t uninstall cleanly. So after you uninstall something like Norton, go get their dedicated cleaner which will take out any lingering files or registry entries. Then you should be able to install NOD32 with no trouble.
Q Mark, Salt Lake City, UT - Next wave of social networking
Mark wants to know what the future holds for social networking? First off, online socializing should never replace socializing in real life. But geeks, who tend to be anti-social, have embraced it with wild abandon.
But Social Media is a great way to extend your circle of friends. So Leo says that the tele-presence of social networking will improve. And social media will be used as a marketing tool. It is now. Location based networking may be the next wave. Google has Latitude, there’s Loopt, Foursquare. This is where you check in using one of these and it shows you where your friends are and if they are nearby, you can hook up. This will encourage physical networking as people move from being online to the occassional “meet up.”
And Leo says that the story of the decade may just very well be FACEBOOK and how it’s grown from a tiny college application to a utility used by more people around the world than the population of most countries.
Hour 3
Q Victor, Long Island, NY - stack programming
Victor has a new game which does emulates computer multistacking. You can check it out at http://www.multistacktowersofhanoi.com or as an iPhone app named Hanoi204. Leo says that MultiStack Towers is a great way to learn computer programming and that it’s one of the assignments while learning stack programming.
Q Christine, Lake Forest, CA - Getting a Mac
Christine has finally been able to save money to buy a MacPro. Is it a waste of money for her? Leo says that unless you’re doing video editing or 3D graphics, a Mac Pro is probably overkill. You can easily get an iMac, and you don’t even need a top level iMac. The 27″ iMac with a 3Ghz Core 2 for $1700 is a very powerful machine and far less money than a Mac pro. Leo also recommends checking with your school, you may get a student discount at around 10%, so it pays to talk to your school as well.
Q Ron, Fountain Valley, CA - Security Alert Pop-ups
Ron gets a pop up window saying “Security Alert!” when he comes to a site, it says there’s a problem with the security certificate. Leo says that isn’t to worry about. Sometimes, a website’s certificate doesn’t match the site. If you’ve been there before, you can simply dismiss it and continue. But if it’s your first time visiting a site, you may want to pause and think about it. Any site that has eCommerce, they use a security certificate that is validated by your browswer and companies buy them. If a site’s certificate is expired, that means they’ve allowed their certificate to expire. But it may also be that the site has been co-opted. So unless you’re absolutely sure you’re on the site you want to be, it’s probably a good idea to head elseware.
Gary thinks that Chris was speaking the opposite, and that you should take AWAY light, not add it. This will stop down the lens to darken it, otherwise the white amplies the light and you lose detail. The camera thinks everything is gray, so you have to limit the light in order to improve the “whiteness” of the surroundings without overexposing the situation. So, with bright colors, take away light.
Have a great geek week and HAPPY NEW YEAR! See you in 2010!
