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Sunday, August 22, 2004

Show #68

I’m back live! Call 1–800–520–1KFI to join the fun!

 toc | toc 

Today’s news items

According to the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Grokster and StreamCast can’t be held liable for pirated movies and music on their networks. The judges upheld a lower court ruling that threw out lawsuits brought by movie studios and music labels because Grokster and StreamCast don’t have central servers pointing users to copyrighted material, unlike Napster.

Surprise, surprise, surprise. XP SP 2 isn’t safe! Secunia has found a flaw in Internet Explorer, even if you’ve installed Service Pack 2. The flaw allows a malicious web site to install software on your computer without your permission. There’s no fix yet. Just one more reason to use Mozilla or Firefox! Some programs that have been reported to have glitches after the install of SP2 are Unreal Tournament ‘04, and Adobe’s Photoshop Elements.

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Noon-1p

Nick in RI - Different cell phones on the same network

I know that different phones have different connection quality. How can we tell before we buy? My experience is that wattage and antenna design do indeed impact the phone’s coverage. Smaller phones, low power phones, and phones without external antennas all do worse.

Chris wrote in to suggest www.howardforums.com for reviews and discussions about cell phones and carriers.

Look for Nick’s music at www.northstarmusic.com.

Jennifer in Apple Valley - best screen for DLP video projector

I don’t know because I don’t use a screen. A home theater expert once told me that a flat white wall works better than an expensive screen so that’s what I’ve been using. Anyone have a screen they like?

Mo in Van Nuys - Looking for Beta to DVD conversion service

I can find them, but has anyone actually used one? Can you recommend them?

Jeri in LA says try the professional video conversion folks used by TV stations. But beware, they mostly convert he professional version of Betamax: Beta SP, and may not have the consumer decks.

Bill in Tustin says he had a video studio for 15 years in Santa Ana and he still has a beta deck. He has volunteered to help Mo. Yay!

Will in Rancho Santa Margarita - is my Wi-Fi safe?

Will can see his neighbors’ Wi-Fi access points. He can even use them. Can they use his? Not if he has WEP or WPA turned on - the password protection will keep them off. But it’s not turned on by default.

Turning off broadcast ID will keep casual looky-loos from seeing you, but not the serious hacker. According to the experts at ICSA, there’s no need to turn off SSID broadcast to secure your wireless network. It doesn’t protect you and it can slow down the network. Read the white paper “Debunking the Myth of SSID Hiding” by Robert Moskowitz, Senior Technical Director at the ICSA Labs.

Depending on the router you’re using you might also be able to use a MAC Address filter to restrict access to your own systems and no others.

Dave in Newport Beach - Data recovery question

Crashed his hard drive, reinstalled and reformatted. Can he recover the data? Once data has been overwritten it’s gone for good. Converting the FAT-32 drive to NTFS didn’t help either! The question is what data was not overwritten by the reinstall. That data might be ok.

A listener writes: Try RT-Studio from R-TT. The free demo will let you check to see what files you can recover.

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1–2p

Kevin in Thousand Oaks - clearing the OS X passwords

He installed OS X and didn’t enter a password (because he doesn’t want to have to log in) but somehow his system now has a password! You can clear the OS X passwords by running the OS X installer. You’ll find a reset passwords command under the file menu. This won’t work if Open Firmware Password is enabled (see http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106482), but it’s not something you’ll find on most Macs.

It’s best to have a password for all accounts on OS X. If you don’t want to have to log in open the Accounts System Preference Pane, click Login Options and check the Automatically log in as: box.

Now the interesting question is: how did the accounts get passwords added to them anyway???

Bernon in Los Angeles - notebook buying advice

What is Centrino?

• Centrino is an Intel marketing term used to describe a PC with Pentium M, Intel 855 chipset, and Intel Wifi chipset.

How do I get wireless access?
What’s a good brand to buy?

Steve in Los Angeles - Firefox or Mozilla?

Steve is still using Internet Explorer and wants to know more about the alternatives
Both are derivatives of Netscape. Mozilla is, like Netscape, a full-featured browser with email and newsgroup support. Firefox is much smaller, and just a browser. I think it’s a little faster, too. I like it for the built-in Google toolbar.

Judy in San Diego - which sub $1000 digital camera has the least lag?

She has a four year old Kodak digital camera and a two year old grandson. The camera takes so long to snap a picture that she never gets the shot she wants. She’s looking for a $500 digital camera that has the least possible shutter lag.

ParrotBeak in our chat room recommends the Canon G5. I agree it’s pretty fast. I also like the Olympus C-5050.

Francis - Whistler BC… The shutter lag is generally related to the camera dealing with exposure settings and auto focus settings. I often set my Olympus C-5050 to Manual for both light meter and focus. If the subject is far enough away - you set it to focus infinity and the shoot a couple of samples until you’re happy with the exposure on the preview screen. This works great for outdoor shots, sporting events etc. With all the settings on manual there is virtually no shutter lag. Check out this hockey goaltender shot with C-5050 at 1/60th sec… autofocus (pretested and held) and through a set of binoculars handheld to the lens of a camera! I got virtually no shutter lag and was successful at capturing the puck in frozen in the photo. Pretty good for such a slow shutter speed.

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2–3p

Charles in Silverado

His favorite old game is Zork III: The Dungeon Master.
says 512MB of RAM is a must for XP - I agree.

Dan in Dana Point - using Internet Explorer safely

He visits a site that won’t work with Firefox or Mozilla - he needs Internet Explorer. You could just use IE for those sites that require it and Firefox for the rest. Or follow the instructions on Using Internet Explorer Safely

Susan in La Habra Heights - Jornada PDA, won’t sync

Susan can’t sync her PDA to her computer and needs advice.
This is not unusual with any PocketPC device. I’d recommend uninstalling ActiveSync and removing all the USB device entries from device manager. Then unplug all your USB devices and reboot. Reinstall ActiveSync (you might want to download the latest version from Microsoft) then plug in your Jornada.

Todd in Rancho Santa Margarita - wife can’t print

He installed drivers for his HP 2175 on his Windows XP user account, but his wife can’t print from her account. I suggest installing them from her account, as well.

Dean in Corona Del Mar - lost laptop and home banking

The computer store lost his laptop. He’d been doing home banking on it. Should he panic? Probably not. Most of the time the bank clears the password each time he logs in. But it’s still a good idea to call the bank on Monday and change the password.

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