For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the TWiT Netcast Network

Sunday, November 28, 2004

Show #96

 toc | toc 

Today’s news items

Mike B’s technology trivia question of the day

Tomorrow is Leo’s birthday. Which one of these technological things happened on November 29th? ¹
a) The Motorola 6502 was unveiled
b) Intel founded by executives from Fairchild Electronics
c) Micro-Soft releases its first commerical program
d) The first all Australian automobile was released

Noon-1p

Sue in Victorville - Her series 1 Tivo won’t stop changing channels

She’s done the full reset (deleting all content and recording schedules) but it still changes channels every Monday at 9p. If you’ve fully reset your Tivo and it’s still funky you’ll have to re-image the hard drive. A Tivo service center should do this for around $100. Or call Weaknees.

I do recommend my book: Leo Laporte’s Guide to Tivo for instructions on doing this yourself.

Drew in NC - looking for a new camera phone

He has AT&T service and wants a GSM phone. He’s been happy with his Sony Ericsson - I like them a lot, too. Try the inexpensive T637 - it’s a camera phone with Bluetooth. Drew’s web site is www.drewsdjservice.com.

Drew, Motorola makes a great camera phone. It works on Cingular witch you just have joined. I’m lovin this phone. -mikeszewil

Hi yall it is me Drew and I have so much fun being on the show if any one would like to ask me a qestion I would love to anser it my email is djdrew@drewsdjservice.com (please make the subject have the word LEO SHOW in it so i dont deleat it) THANKS leo you are my hero!!!

A listener says - I have the Sony Ericsson T637, the camera quality isn’t so good, but it’s fine for moblogging.

Walt in Murietta - USB 2.0

Can he use his old USB 1.1 cabling with his new USB 2.0 devices. You sure can. You should upgrade the hubs though. Read all about USB 2 at Everything USB.

He’s also looking for a new ultra lightweight notebook. He asked about the ASUS S5 - I had one for several months and loved it. Highly recommended.

I also recommended Klear Screen for cleaning laptop screens.

1–2p

Dave in Culver City - wants to use a cell phone as a land line

More and more people are doing this. The new number portability rules even let you keep your landline number with your new cell phone.

Take a look at the new docking stations that make a cell phone as practical as a land line phone.

He uses a Mac and wants to synchronize iCal and Address Book with his phone. Stick with Symbian and Palm based phones and you’ll be OK. Nearly all Bluetooth phones work with iSync.

Listener comment: Concerning dumping the land line phone and going 100% cell, I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re in an emergency prone area (like LA with quakes). If there is a general emergency, you won’t be able to get an open cell to call out while the more available land line dial tone might provide service. Another advantage is that the hard wired phone would use the phone company’s power supply and continue to work when a cell’s battery was used up.

What I did three years ago was to put “ring no answer/busy” call forwarding on my land line to my cell. Using this configuration, the caller’s wife would still be able to get her business calls on her cell.

Mike in Lake Arrowhead - Kodak digital camera

Kodak uses two lenses: the Retinar and the Schneider-Kreuznach - which is better? I’m not familiar with either company. The EasyShare LS I’ve been reviewing is actually a pretty nice camera, though. Kodak has definitely upgraded their cameras. I do recommend at least 4 megapixels.

As far as the lens is concerned, Schneider is one of the best lens manufactures in the world. I believe that the Retinar lens is a product of Kodak. By name alone I would buy Schneider if I were to purchase a lens. I believe Mike is asking which camera is better. I can’t answer that, there is a lot more involved than who makes a better lens.
- Scott

Paul in LA - monitoring Internet usage

He runs a small business network with 10 users. He’d like to monitor the network to see what kinds of things people are doing with it. There are many hacker-class and enterprise-class tools to do this. In the first category, free programs like DSniff will let you keep an eye on things. In the enterprise category you can spend a lot of money, but Intermapper offers a free version that can monitor up to five users.

Also, try Webscout and Websense
-Trent

I recommend Ethereal
-Serpent

Also try Nmap and GFI Network Server Monitoring
-Andy

Peter in LA - Ebay seller

He’s looking at the HP 1350 multifunction printer. It’s cheap - but only ok. Read CNET’s review for the pros and cons. He’s also looking for software for cropping and sizing his photos. I love Photoshop Essentials, of course, but if that’s all you want to do, try the free irfanview. It’s simple, but it’s probably all you’ll need. (IrfanView cannot “crop”, — it will resize [scale] the whole photo. Use MSPAINT to “crop”, then use IrfanView to resize it.)

Kalic you beat me to it! Yes Irfanview does cropping and a lot more! I’ve used it since ‘97 and it is a terrific programme free or not! It also allows for colour corrections unlike what Leo said earlier on the air. I have Photoshop 7.0 but I rarely use it, since Irfanview does most of the minor photo editing I need. Irfanview also can display videos and play a variety of audio including mp3′s! He will also personally answer any problems you have with it! Thanks from all of us Irfan! -Buzzrr

He’s using an old Olympus D510 to take his pictures. That’s a 2 megapixel camera, but more than enough for pictures intended for the web. I recommend eschewing the built-in flash, though. Use an old sheet for a seamless background and shoot in daylight, or create a light box for even lighting. Use a tripod, too.

Rick in Temeculah - securing his new Emachine

Rick has a host of new programs to protect himself online. Visit to my article on MustHaveSecuritySoftware for a list of free programs I recommend.

One word, Router
-Serpent

2–3p

Judy in Costa Mesa - white smoke coming out of her machine

Turn it off, unplug it, and get it to the repair shop! She had just installed a new power supply and that seems the most likely culprit. You can’t open the power supply, of course, just bring the whole thing back and let the pros handle it.

From LunaHa1o:
The computer was causing problems with the old power supply. Now my concern is that the power supply may not be the culprit. I’m guessing the motherboard is a problem now. I have myself had white smoke come from the processor. Take the heatsink and fan off and just look at the processor. Then take the processor out of the socket and LIGHTLY smell it by waving it in front of your face. Do NOT switch out components to test others in this case because that could damage the perfectly good components. Thermal compound should not burn. Make sure there was good contact between the heatsink and cpu. If you want to troubleshoot yourself you can test the power supply by using a multimeter, but unless you know what you are doing this can be very dangerous. The safest way to handle this is to take it into a repair shop or find someone that knows internal computer medicine.

Dan in Oklahoma - teacher wants to block the Internet during class time

Use the router to filter IPs. Most routers will allow you to block ports for the network as a whole (block AIM, for example, by blocking port 5190), or block the Internet on individual computers.

From mcox: More likely than not, he will not be able to access the router, nor will anyone at his school. I work in a middle school as “the tech guy” and stuff like this I have to get the gurus from “downtown.” There is software available that is built for school settings that will allow him to turn internet access on and off from his desktop, as well as see exactly what is happening on each desktop. We don’t use the software at my school, but the company’s site is codework.com and the product name is MasterEye Vision. A free demo is available, it sounds like exactly what he needs

Jessica in Costa Mesa - her wireless network won’t work

This is a tough problem under the best circumstances. First, ping the router to see if you have a physical connection. If that works, ping a web site, first by number (Yahoo.com is 216.109.112.135), then by name. If the number works but not the name, there’s a DNS problem. If neither work, your router or security software is blocking Internet access.

Check the Wi-Fi troubleshooter at Practically Networked for more suggestions.

From LunaHa1o:
I really do hate to tell you this, but a Windows machine that was on the internet without updates for even just 5 minutes is not a good thing. Whenever I buy a new computer or a friend says they just bought a new computer and asks me what they should put on it… I always reccomend a fresh install of Windows XP with SP2. This is done by reinstalling XP from the install disk and have a copy of SP2 on a CD and install from that. If there are documents, music, etc you need, back them up… which is always a good idea anyway and perform a clean install. Check out Installing Windows in the wiki and then Must Have Security Software after the install of Windows AND Service Pack 2 (SP2).

Tackie from South Coast, NSW, Australia - Fave Mac Shareware

Recommended two of his fave Mac programs: Colloquy for IRC, and Little Snitch for online protection.

To see some of Tackie’s great creations checkout Original Creations in the Leovilletownsquare forms.

Chat Logs and Show Audio

¹ Answer is d) In 1948, the first all Australian automobile was released. On this day, Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley and 1,200 hundred other people attended the unveiling of the first car to be manufactured entirely in Australia—an ivory-colored motor car officially designated the 48–215, but fondly known as the Holden FX. More at The History Channel. (↑)