Audience Questions

Audience QuestionsHour 1

Hour 1 Hour 2 Hour 3

How can I run both Windows and OS X on my new Mac?

Watch Bob from Rhode Island Comments

Jeff is making the switch to Mac and he's going to need to use both Windows and Mac for a while. Leo says that there's a few ways to skin that cat including running Windows with Boot Camp, where you'll get to choose between Windows and OS X at boot up. You'll need your own copy of Windows, but it works really well. The second option is to run Windows virtually inside of OS X, and that way, you can just have a little sandboxed Windows window and what's good about that is that you have several options including Virtual Box, Parallels, and VMWare Fusion. Leo uses Fusion and it has this nice feature called "Coherence mode," which allows you to just run Windows for the application you need, without loading the entire OS virtually. It's pretty clever.

What does Leo think of the One Plus One phone?

Watch David from Pennsylvania Comments

David recently got the One Plus One Android phone, it's the one where you have to get an invitation in order to buy it But Leo says the price is right at $350 for 64GB. It's rooted, running Cyanogen Mod, so there isn't really any "kruft." And David is using a kind of kluge of routing it through his vonage VOIP account to call Leo.. But Leo is concerned that One Plus One just needs to open it up for everyone to buy. It was initially good marketing, but the time has come to open it up to let people to just buy it. Why are they doing it this way? Leo says it's a loss leader to build the company identity so that the next phone will be their money maker.

Audience QuestionsHour 2

Hour 1 Hour 2 Hour 3

What is Raw in digital photography?

Watch Caleb from New Jersey Comments

Caleb loves photography and he's serious about it as a hobby. But he wants to know about shooting in raw. What is that? Leo says that's where the camera doesn't compress any of the data or process it. It just writes the raw image and it usually covers the entire area of the sensor. But in order to look at it, you have to process it later with a program that can understand the data and render it into an image. But Caleb can also choose to save as JPEG to save on space. But it's also considerably compressed. JPEG is only good if you don't want to post process it and color correct it. Pros shoot Raw, but most shutter bugs shoot JPEG. It's always better though to have more data and Raw buys you that.

How can I create a cloud storage solution that is HIPPA Compliant?

Watch Robert from San Bernadino, CA Comments

Robert is a college professor and he wants to take all his desktop files and put them in the cloud, syncing them with his laptop and desktop computers. Leo says there's several ways to accomplish that goal. ICloud will do it if you have a Mac. Both Microsoft's OneDrive and DropBox will do it for both Windows and Mac. Leo says that DropBox is probably the simplest way to go about it. The Chatroom says that Box.net is hipping compliant as well. There's also a personal cloud option called the File Transporter, which allows you to keep your data away from a third party. File Transporter will sync between your computers and even with each other. And they've very affordable. And they're HIPPA compliant, being designed for that. And you won't pay a monthly fee either since you aren't storing anything in the cloud. There's another option called BitTorrent sync, but since BitTorrent won't release the source code, it can't be Hippa since it isn't reviewed. That's why Leo recommends picking up a pair of File Transporters (they about $99 each) and allow them to sync to each other. And it's cross platform. So $200 for the Transporters, and $200 for hard drives, and you have your own personal cloud for under $500. That's a bargain.

What's the best RAID to backup media programs on my network?

Watch Stan from San Francisco, CA Comments

Stan wants to clear off his DVR with a 2 Bay RAID to save his programs. But his beef is that there isn't a lot of documentation. Leo says don't worry about all that. Just use the PC settings. You can also use a DROBO, which allows you to hot swap drives if they fail so you don't have to stop it from running. But two drives isn't best because it's mirroring and you will only get half the capacity since they're identical. Leo prefers RAID 5 with three drives which gives you 2/3 storage 1/3 redundancy. It's robust. Companies that make eSata RAID 5 include Drobo. Synology is a brand that Leo really likes and it gives you a lot of flexibility to watch programming on any computer in your network.

How can I stop using Adobe Flash?

Watch Roy from Orange County, CA Comments

Roy keeps getting requests to update Flash when listening to podcasts. And it always crashes. Leo says he hates Adobe Flash with a PASSION and everyone uses it, so he's stuck with it and all it's warts. That's why Leo recommends that if you have to use Flash, that you use it through Google's Chrome browser. What Google does in Chrome is build Flash into the browser and it's updated regularly by Google and it's isolated so it doesn't crash your browser if it crashes. It should work better for you. The good news is that everyone wants to adopt the in browser playback scheme but nobody can agree on a standard, so Flash wins by default. There's also a format called HLS (also known as HTML5) which is what's going to end up being what everyone uses.

He's also having trouble uploading files through his email client. That leaves Leo to believe there's a heck of lot more going on here than a bad Flash client. Leo recommends uninstalling and then reinstalling Firefox, or start it in safe mode. Leo says that there may be a corrupted add-on that's causing all this web based crashing. And it's likely all surrounding JavaScript.

Audience QuestionsHour 3

Hour 1 Hour 2 Hour 3

Can I replace my laptop with an iPad for school?

Watch Chris from California Comments

Chris is a grad student and is looking to replace his desktop with an iPad. Leo says it can be done, but he wouldn't. He likes to be able to open multiple windows for research while having a window for Word to write with. He wouldn't want to write a paper on an ipad since it's pretty much sandboxed.

Leo says it can be done and if you're going to , then Keynote and Pages are far better than Word and Powerpoint. And since he uses an iPad 2 currently, he's several generations behind. So upgrading to a new ipad is a good idea. And Apple is probably going to announce a new iPad next month.

But Leo says it's a bit of a stretch to say that Ipad can be a Laptop replacement. Leo says t hat the Windows Surface Pro 3 is a better option since you can use it as a laptop, a tablet, or both. And it's a real computer. So it comes down to the comfort level on how it can be used. And it's also a limited amount of space and if you have textbooks that are digital, that can take up a lot of space really fast.

There's also talk that the new iOS 8 version will have multi Windows capability. If that's true, then it's a large leap forward towards really replacing your laptop with a tablet. Speaking of replacing a laptop, a MacBook Air may be a better option.

I have a bricked One Plus One!

Watch Ron from Anchorage, AL Comments

Ron had a One Plus One, and it's a great phone, but the customer service is terrible. His phone broke and he's had a hell of a time getting his problems addressed. Leo says you'd have to send your handset overseas after logging to their website and communicate via eMail. And it's tedious. But considering the cost you paid for the phone ($350), there's no margin to offer support. Leo says it's a desirable phone, at an impressive price, but if support is bad, that's a bad thing.

How do I keep Facebook from using all my text messages?

Watch Aurelia from Burbank, CA Comments

Aurelia has Facebook on her phone and it's eating up her data plan and text messages. What gives? Leo says that's been a common complaint since Facebook took messaging out of the original app and forced users to message using their Messenger app. Leo says go into Facebook settings and turn off mobile notifications. It's buried deep in the settings. Go into settings -> Notifications -> Text messaging -. TURN THAT OFF. That will save your text messages.

Aurelia is also getting heat off her 2007 MacBook. Leo says that's because she uses it for high processor intensive activity. And laptops need airflow underneath in order to keep it cool. If it gets too hot, it will start turning itself off. Then you need to take it to Apple to clean out the dust. And update all your firmware and system software so that it runs more efficiently. The chatroom also says that using a laptop fan that plugs into your USB port will keep it up to 20 degrees cooler.

Is Google Wallet or Apple Pay safe?

Watch Cordell from Ashville, NC Comments

Leo says yes. In the past, you could only use it for loyalty cards and airpline boarding passes. But with Apple turning on Apple Pay, you can store credit card numbers securely. Google Wallet is more like iTunes, where they have your information, they debit it. And yes, it's very safe because it's encrypted.

Leo says that ultimately, all phones will have this capability thorugh a fingerprint reader. And the nice thing about Apple Pay is that if the phone gets stolen, you don't have to cancel your credit cards, you just suspend the charing priviledges of the phone through Find My iPhone. And they'd have to have your finger in order to access it anyway.

How can I recover my Hotmail password?

Watch Bob from Victorville, CA Comments

Bob has lost his hotmail password and he can't get any support to help him recover it. Leo says that it may be that the password was hacked and the account taken over. There's a two factor authentication, where if the password is changed, you have to input a code sent to your cellphone in order change the password. But in this case, it's likely they guessed your secret questions with a brute force attack and hacked your account. Secret Questions are a vulnerability because people actually answer the questions. Leo advises to change the password aNd then enable 2nd factor authentication. And then use a password vault like Last Pass.

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