May 03 2010
Paul will Call In From UK after a dinner of ZIPLOC OMELET
New WebSite Cosmetics : ) Still Using four year old Joomla! Content Management System! ver 1.0.15
Trying our Twitter Feeds Today! follow "ddhart" for today's show, "kvmr" for the station in general, etc.
iPad 3G CAme Out May 01, starting at $629. NON contract 3G from ATT (month to month) available!
Facebook: Privacy Settings TimeLine from EFF Maybe the only way to win is Not to Play??
AND some Tech Info on its elusive News Feed algorithm (thanks (::) )
Customize that funny little Icon to the left of your Web Address called: favicon.ico
http://www.favicon.cc
Armchair Wildlife Webcams!
Hate Embedded Capital letters? (CamelCAps!) More HEre! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CamelCase#Variations_and_synonyms
What Is Next Generation HTML5? Demo Here: http://html5demos.com/ and SOME explanation HERE
Additional Notes
Editor's comments delimited by < >
Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart
They're tagged with #Zentech
Today, Glenn was in the studio and Paul called in from England
The Joomla content management system has been, and is currently being used, at the Zentech web site for 4 years.
Using a Ziploc bag to make an omelet was described. See the above link. Also Glenn described a technique for microwave omelets.
The Zentech Radio Inspirations banner at the top of the zen.kvmr.org page is made using a free tool at the Cooltext web site.
In a web browser, the icon just to the left of the address in the address bar is called a favicon. It comes from a special type of gif file that has .ico as the extension. You can make one yourself, just follow the link above.
Paul said the long awaited Apple iPad has come out recently and now the 3G version is also available. It's like a giant iPhone. Go to apple.com to find out more. The 3G version works over the cellular phone network. The starting model is $629 and you pay month-to-month for the service. Though it's been out for only a few days, it's already been jailbroken so you don't have to use it with the AT&T service. The SIM card in it is much smaller than a regular one though the electrical contacts are the same.
<Article: "How to Jailbreak the iPad">
Paul talked about the changes at Facebook and privacy concerns of its users. See the above link. He went on to say that this is the result of Facebook trying to make money — after all, the service is free to the users. He also said he's considering dropping his account there.
Glenn didn't think the service was very intuitive for some features and he had to get help on finding who all of his friends are.
Paul went on to say, groups now have the 'like' icon instead of 'join'. This can be misleading because you can end up joining inadvertently.
Glenn thought Twitter might not serve him in passing on info from his Flea Market show.Twitter's one-line-at-a-time nature makes it difficult to format the info about the items for sale.
The above link about the news feed algorithm explains the difference between a news feed and the current news on Facebook.
Bo called to ask if one can have a cell phone and use it as a PDA without subscribing to a phone service provider.
– Yes, you can use a wi-fi connection.
– The iTouch from Apple might work for you. It's like an iPhone without the phone. But the iTouch doesn't have a microphone so you can't use Skype VOIP over the internet. Paul said he tried a device from China that was supposed to work as a mic for the iTouch, but it didn't work.
Paul talked about Wildlife Webcam from wildearth.tv. The subject — wild life. See the link above
Ustream.com allows you to stream video or music using Flash from your location. All you need is a laptop with a camera & microphone. Visit the site & follow the directions.
Paul used the service when he called in from Phoenix in November during one of the Zentech shows and it worked quite well.
Another version of the service is ustre.me
Julie called. She's looking for a laptop and is concerned about viruses. Her friends suggested a Mac and she asked for advice.
– The downside of a Mac is its cost, but not much else.
– An iPad might work. They start at $499. However, it doesn't have a physical keyboard, just a virtual one on the screen, and it can be difficult to type & see what you're typing.
– A netbook might be a good choice. Both Glenn & Paul have an ASUS netbook. <see Glenn's review> You can get a netbook for about $350.
– An Apple Air notebook is also a possibility. An Apple refurbished unit goes for about $1100 and a new one for about $1500
– If you're very concerned about viruses, an Apple would be a good choice.
– You can use the AVG anti-virus program, which you can get from Cnet.com. Type in "AVG free" while you're there. <or find it here> It integrates with Google when you make your searches and warns of suspicious search results.
– One problem with using the iPad is Microsoft Office may not be available but "the application suite" from Apple may be available. <she said she was using some Microsoft products>. But you can use Google Docs to do your work online. That service can work with many operating systems without having special or expensive applications on your own machine, just a web browser.
Ken called to comment about the hiss heard during Julie's call. He thinks that it came from her phone as it automatically increased the gain on the microphone. When she wasn't talking, the phone 'thought' it needed to increase the volume.
The disclaimer: The views expressed on the show are those of the speakers only
Larry, who has a G4 iMac he bought in 2004, called and said the videos he watches online and are jumpy. He has AT&T DSL that tests to about 3 megabits per sec.
– That should be plenty fast but the server of the video may not be sending it fast enough.
– The Flash player is inefficient on some platforms and gets bogged down trying to decode the video.
– Update your Mac using the Apple logo.
– Paul heard, in the PC world, that Flash would bog down a machine that's slower than a 1gigHz. Larry's Mac is 784megHz so that may be the problem.
– In the Mac's utilities folder there's a program called something like "Resource User" that shows what percent of your memory, internet speed, CPU, etc. is being used as programs run. That will help pinpoint the problem.
– Ask a friend to bring a faster machine and compare the performance.
Jerry called and he also has G4. He wondered if he can get Linux for his Power Book?
– The Ubuntu project has versions for the 3rd world where there are many older machines.
– Ubuntu can be burned to a CD that you can boot from to see if it works before installing it on your machine
The fellas surfed to the Ubuntu site and found that version 6.06 is likely what he needs
<I think this is it, otherwise you can do your own search starting here.>
A caller <sorry, I couldn't make out her name> said she upgraded from a 19" monitor to 23" and now her internet speed seems to be slower, as well as some applications.
– Some machines borrow video memory from the pool of processing memory and the bigger monitor may be using more of that memory making less available for processing.
– First determine if the video card has it's own memory or if it's borrowing memory, as just mentioned.
– To check what your computer (PC) has in it, in the start menu right click My Computer, click properties and at the bottom, in the general tab, are the specs. Doing this she found she has 1gig of memory.
– With this info, go to the manufacturer's web site and find out what type of memory you need. Glenn guessed it's DDR2 memory.
– Find out how many memory slots the machine has…
either 2 slots and both are occupied or 4 slots with 2 occupied.
"With this type of RAM you can add just 1 more" <memory stick>.
You can add 1 1gig stick for about $25 to $30 or, for about $50, a 2gig stick ("either a 2gig single stick or, if you have room for 2 more, you can put 2 1gigabyte sticks in addition giving a 3 gigabyte total"). <That's what he said>.
The sticks go in only 1 way, don't force it, there is an indent on the memory stick. Match it up with the indent on the mother board.
Camille called. She was told if she uses Bcc (blind carbon copy) when emailing, no recipient will be able to see who the other recipients are. Others told her, no, someone can find out by going into the utilities folder (Mac), and was advised to send the mail individually.
– True, the email address you send to are viewable on your machine locally (even if sent individually) but the recipients of the emails can't see them. <That's what Bcc: was designed for>
Also her emails print out too small.
– The preference in Mac Mail (which she uses) may allow you to change the size.
– Mac Mail tends to be buggy. Switch to a different program.
Last updated 8:26 PM 5/3/2010