Additional notes

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart.
– They're tagged with #Zentech.
– When what's said is unclear to me (or I'm unfamiliar with a topic) I tend to quote (" ") verbatim.
– Editor's comments are delimited by < >

Paul was in the studio, Glenn called in from Sacramento

The intro music was the track Nothing Is Something Worth Doing by Shpongle

Glenn got to try the iPhone 5S & 5C at a T-Mobile store.
– It doesn't look that much different from the previous version.
– The big thing this time is the changes in the operating system — it's now iOS 7. However, it won't work on anything earlier that an iPhone 4 or 4S. Nor will it run on the original iPad — iPad 2 or later is required.
– The 5S has an new processor — the A7 chip
– The 5S has a 4" screen — iPhone 4 is said to have a 3.5" screen.
– In comparison, Glenn saw a friends newest Samsung Galaxy. It's screen is much larger — it's "almost all LCD screen".

Those who have iPhones or iPads that have the "traditional wide dock" (not the newer Lightning dock) can buy device that lets them read flash cards. The device is about $5 or $10 on Ebay. Google the words: flash dock.

Glenn had some problems getting his Asus netbook to connect to a router, even while using a direct Ethernet cable. It's an AT&T/Motorola router and Paul remembered that the cream-colored 2-wire router from AT&T is known to have had problems some time back — something to do with capacitors. Glenn's router is black.

Glenn addressed some questions that have accumulated over the past weeks. Richard wrote in asking if there is an inexpensive, reliable notebook with out wi-fi.
– Glenn didn't think that there are any notebooks sold without wi-fi. But you can just turn off the wi-fi.

Richard also asked about an inexpensive but reliable printer that doesn't cost a fortune in ink to operate.
– The ink for all of them is fairly expensive.
– Paul noted that buy.com (aka rakuten.com) has a series of Canon Laser printers with scanners whose ink cartridge can print 3000 black & white images. One of the cheaper Canons is $110. Also, the cartridges don't have any electronic chips meant to prevent refilling.

Recently, Fry's has been advertising Asus PCs with a 15.6" screen, Intel dual core processor, 4gig of memory, 300gig hard drive and Windows 8 for $258.

Paul repeated his challenge for anyone to tell him what benefit Windows 8 has over anything else. He also said that the tile interface is disliked by many. At least in Windows 8.1 that interface is optional.

The guys complained that logging off a computer often involves more than one action — it's true with many products including those from Apple. Paul gave some tips.
– With laptops, and often with desktops, if you push the off button once briefly, it doesn't shut it done but "triggers the shut down process as if you told the machine to shut down with the mouse".
– This action can be changed. Go to the Control Panel -> Power Options (sometimes under Desktop). There you can specify what to do when you press the off button — some choices are shut down, hibernate and ask me.
– Glenn noted that a pushing and holding down the off button is not the best way to turn of a computer because running programs are not terminated properly and you're not logged off of Windows.

Paul gave some tips when you have programs not responding or the mouse is jammed or things have slowed way down. In preferred order…
1) Be patient. Wait for the computer to finish something that's just taking a long time. Look at the hard drive light to see if it's busy, wait for it to finish. A busy drive light is the worst time to pull the power plug. 5 minutes is reasonable time to wait.
2) When you come back, use the mouse to close individual programs.
3) If nothing works right, not just your programs, press Control+Alt+Delete. This brings up the Task Manager. It should come up in 60 seconds and you can use it to shut down the computer <or individual programs>.
4) Push the power button briefly to see if it gives you a choice to shut down.
5) The last option is to hold the power button down for up to 30 seconds. That forces power supply to shut down.

Ingrid called to asked about places that refill ink carts.
– A few weeks ago Glenn took Epson ink cartridges into Costco for refilling. However, they didn't work right and he plans to get a refund. He said Costco has a pretty good return policy.
– Paul said it's pretty messy trying to refill them yourself. One drop of ink can leave a lot of stain. He doesn't do that anymore.
– You can buy cheap cartridges at Amazon or Ebay. <I've had good results with LD Products>
– Newer printers often have cartridges that contain a chip to prevent or make it difficult to refill. Older printers don't usually have this problem.
– Paul read up on the laser printer he bought to be sure the cartridge would be easy to refill or buy refurbished.
– Glenn said some newer laser printer cartridges come with the fuser roller & exposure mechanism so you end up replacing the high mortality parts all at once — not just the toner alone.

Paul was delighted to find that the $110 printer/scanner he bought has an automatic document feeder that can feed 40 8.5" X 11" documents to be scanned. But after using it a while it stopped feeding in the documents. It turned out that it had only a single roller that does the feeding and it would get coated with china clay and paper fibers from the documents. Business grade printer/scanners usually have multiple rollers to do the job. He solved the problem by gently using emery paper on the roller to rough up its surface. He said if you clean rubber rollers with isopropyl alcohol don't use rubbing alcohol — it contains lanolin, which leaves a slick finish.

Bruce called. He had revived a old Pentium 4 computer and after adding software to it, he found an instance of "service host" taking up much of the processor time. <Do a Control+Alt+Delete -> click the Processes tab -> see the items called svchost.exe> If he kills tha//t process, it works fine. He wants to know how to find the program that is launching that instance of service host.
– Use the Microsoft program called Process Explorer. It's like task manager but gives more information.
– To figure out what you're looking at in Process Explorer, google the terms to get more info.
<Process Explorer was mentioned in the 10-19-09 show>
Tips for Using Process Explorer>

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart.
– They're tagged with #Zentech.
– When what's said is unclear to me (or I'm unfamiliar with a topic) I tend to quote (" ") verbatim.
– Editor's comments are delimited by < >

Paul was in the studio and Glenn joined in by phone from Sacramento

Glenn noted how cool it was today in Sac, leading Paul to mention a network of citizen-run weather stations. Go to wunderground.com for more info.
<As an example, I use this one, which is local to me here in Sac>

Apple announced new products yesterday. The lower-cost model 5C iPhone is targeted for the Chinese market.
– It comes in 5 colors and you can get those same 5 colors as a cover choice for the phone.
– It has the same A6 processor as the iPhone 5.
– It's a little slimmer and has a different battery.
– It's $529 to purchase it outright for an unlocked version. <Of course, the various carriers have contract plans.>

Also debuting was the iPhone 5S. The improvement Glenn liked was its 64bit processor, apparently a first in smartphone technology. The 5S entry model is $629.
<There was much buzz about its fingerprint reader, too.
Here are some articles about the phones…
Apple Unveils Faster iPhone, and a Cheaper One, Too
Highlights and Analysis of Apple’s iPhone Event
Surprising Enhancements to Apple’s iPhone Line, by David Pogue>

The KVMR program director Steve Baker, under pretense of announcing breaking news, wished Paul a happy birthday. He turned 57. Several staff members sang the traditional birthday song.

Paul said that the new iPhones come with a new version of the operating system: iOS7. He said iOS7 will not work on iPhone 3GS or earlier. Eventually, owners of these early models will not be able to install apps — the apps will require iOS7.

Glenn noted that Mikail <the resident Apple fan> thinks Android is a "bit ahead of the game at this point".

Paul said Android & Apple products have their own "ecosystems". Apple has the iCloud, which synchronizes content across different Apple hardware. Android has Google Contacts, Gmail, Google Plus, etc.

He said that, with some effort, you can get your music list from iTunes to work Android. Alternately, you can use Google Music to store up to 20,000 songs. Also, you can cache songs on the Android device for listening when you're not on the web.

Paul went on to say that "you can actually login to iCloud and see your photo stream using Windows 7 or higher". It's not built-in to Win7 — you have to download iTunes and login with your Apple ID. Supposedly, you will also be able use iCloud to synch your contacts, events, etc. using Outlook.

Talk turned to top level domains (.com, .net, .org…). See the above link to IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) for various domains. You can register your own personal web address using one of endings in the list by typing into your address bar the letters 'nic.' followed by the top level domain you're interested in. If you want an address ending in .it, for example, type nic.it. If you look further down the IANA list, you'll see domain names in foreign languages.

Glenn acknowledged the 911 tragedy on this anniversary.
Paul put up a link above to a Wikipedia article about the event.

Paul had used Mac computers for a while and then bought one about 3 years ago. He's not an early adopter and tends get a model that's a generation behind. In that light, he appealed to listeners wanting to sell their off-contract iPhone 4 or 5 to contact him <zen at kvmr dot org>.

Paul then talked about EXIF photo data. It's the meta data that's stored in the image file along with the picture and contains info about aperture, focus, shutter speed, etc. that was used to make the photo.
<EXIF was discussed on the 2-27-13 show>

At one time, Paul got a bunch of pictures that didn't come from a camera, but from a scanner. He wanted to add EXIF data to them and found the tool to do it. See the above link for EXIFTOOL. It does batch processing to do a bunch of photos at once and runs from the command line, where you type in the commands like the old DOS operating system.

Batch processing is difficult to do in many graphical <GUI> programs. Paul asked listeners to suggest graphical programs that can do a similar job.

He also said iPhoto has some advance search ability where you can display photos based on certain criteria like the camera that was used, a particular location, a certain date and many other attributes in the EXIF data.

Paul noted that EXIFTOOL works with sound files like .mp3, too. To find out more go a Google search using the words: iphoto search options.

The Mac also has a little-known command interface. Go to the magnifying glass in the upper right & type in the word: terminal. Then hit enter and the terminal program will run and will provide the command line interface. More specifically, what you'll be looking at is a Darwin Unix prompt (loosely based on BSD Unix), where you type in your commands.

Paul had a problem circumventing the user password on a Windows 8 computer. Newer computers have firmware called UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface), which prevents booting Linux from a CD, He had gotten used to booting Linux and then accessing the Windows files without having to run Windows itself.
<UEFI was discussed on the 3-13-13 show>

The solution involved using the system recovery environment, which is accessible during a bootup by holding down a particular key. It's available in Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. In that environment, there's a place to report your problem to Microsoft and it lets you use Notepad for typing your comments. Once Notepad is running, go to the File menu & click open. Now you'll see a list of files (that Notepad assumes you want to open).

It isn't well known that this window, with the list of files, has some of the properties of the file Explorer: you can rename, delete and even move files (right click on a file). Having gained access to the files in this way, Paul was able to rename 2 files and, thereafter, boot from a Linux CD.

Paul asked listeners if anyone knows of any benefit to using Windows 8. Does it do something that nothing else can? Apparently he's had a problem locating the Control Panel and also getting Microsoft Security Essentials running (it's now called by its previous name Windows Defender). Paul thought the free Security Essentials program, though present on the Win8 machines, is turned off so as not to compete with commercial anti-virus programs that OEM vendors might want to install on their systems.

A caller wanted to know how to tether his Verizon Android phone to his computer.
– It should be possible, it's build into Android, though the carrier can turn off that feature on a phone if they don't want you to do it.
– Glenn read on the web that Verizon charges for their Mobile Broadband Connect tethering feature. So instead, look for an app to download that provides tethering. Check Google's app store.
– Glenn suggested using a data monitoring app to keep track of your data usage, if your cellular plan has a data usage allotment.
– Try going to Settings -> Data Usage to see how much traffic went over wi-fi, Bluetooth and for data usage. It even tells you how much data each app used.
– Go to PC World and search for "android tether verizon" to find the article Glenn was reading. The article also lists some apps you can use for tethering.
– Paul suggested having a talk only plan for the phone and getting a mi-fi unit for your data. Such a unit will use a 3G or 4G cellular connection and provide a wi-fi signal for up to 5 people. Paul said he's heard good reports on the IGo phone plan that gives you talk and text <txt> for about $20 per month that you can supplement with a mi-fi unit.

Paul briefly mentioned the in-ear monitor called Musicians Ear. See the above link.

Katie wrote in asking how to transfer her operating system from one Dell laptop to another.
– There's no way to do it. She'll have to reinstall the OS from scratch on the second computer.
– To reactivate the key on the 2nd machine, call Dell, Dell is pretty good about that.
– From the symptoms she stated, it sounds like someone may have removed the hard drive, supposedly to secure any personal information.

Last updated 10:37 PM 9/11/2013

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart.
– They're tagged with #Zentech.
– When what's said is unclear to me (or I'm unfamiliar with a topic) I tend to quote (" ") verbatim.
– Editor's comments are delimited by < >

Both Paul & Glenn were in the studio.
Intro & outro music was by Phoebe Legere

Paul talked about the Nexus 7 Android tablet that he bought recently.
– It has a 7" screen.
– weighs well under a pound.
– runs for about 10 hours. <Per battery charge, I assume>
– has wi-fi.
– the screen is of a type you might call "retina", though that name is owned by Apple. <That means it has a high resolution>
– retails for about $229, before discount. Paul figured that it's about half the price of an equivalent iPad Mini.
– It comes with 16gig of memory. A 32gig version is available.
– However, it does not have a flash drive port.
– It has a single standard micro USB port for charging and exchanging data with a computer.
–      This port uses a standard known as OTG USB — On The Go USB. That means you can connect different peripherals to it and they will be recognized. And if you plug in a 4-port USB hub, and the hub has a flash card reader, the Nexus can use that card reader. This is unlike the iPad, which can only use wi-fi or iTunes to transfer data.
<The Nexus 7 was mentioned in the 8-14-13 show; see those notes & link to a review article>

There's been some discussion of the relative merits of the Android & Apple "ecosystems". They are quite different but are similar in some ways:
– Both have an app store — Apple Store & Google Play.
– Many apps are created in versions that run on either platform.

Paul's current favorite app for Nexus is NavFree — free GPS software. It's useful for those that don't have a permanent <continuous> internet connection like when driving around. <The wi-fi connection is not reliable in this case>
– Without a continuous connection, the maps have to reside on the Nexus. During installation, NavFree lets you choose the maps for the states you're interested in. You can download maps for other States at a later time and they're free.
– Apps for Android tend to be fairly small — in the range of a few megabytes. The data for the California map was about 256meg.
– NavFree "should work on your phone as well", for those times when you are out of range of a cellular tower — like at the Burning Man Festival.

The other software Paul likes is X-plore. It is a file explorer and more.
– It will also connect to Picasa for exchanging photos. So, it explores files on alien systems such as Google Drive (If you use X-plore you don't need the Google Drive application).
– It also links up with Windows networks & Mac networks and many other systems that have files on them.
– Glenn wondered if there is an equivalent for Apple products. Paul thought not because Apple has such a ridged control on its ecosystem.
– Android tends to be more tolerant about where you can download apps. As such, there is no need to hack Android to make it more open, though you can do that too. However, you do need change the setting under 'Security' to permit downloads from third-party sites.
– If you download only from the Google Play store, you can be sure they are digitally signed and approved by Google.

Glenn said that, over the past several months, some people at the Curious Forge have been building a performance stage in the form of a vehicle called The Shamancycle. It's powered by 6 bicyclists sitting facing each other (3 on each side). It has a performance stage on top and is embellished with the figure of an eagle whose wings light up at night.

The Shamancycle was conceived by Phoebe along with the Shaman Dome group at Burning Man. They approached the Curious Forge for its cooperation in building it. The project was completed, and now the Shamancycle is on its way to the Burning Man Festival. Paul said he couldn't find pictures of the cycle on The Curious Forge web page. Glenn said there are pics of it in some of the blogs on their website. You can find linked to Phoebe Legere there, too.

Paul mentioned a website for the Bay Bridge and project to build a new Eastern span. Traffic on the bridge will be stopped from tonight at 8pm until Tues Sep 3, for some finishing work.

The guys talked about how public rail transportation used to be popular but eventually was scaled back as cars became more popular. Paul talked about the trolley cars in San Francisco. He said, in the past, the driver had to get out and reconnect the poles to the overhead electric wires whenever they came off. More recently, he's noticed they don't do that anymore. He said the process is now automated. He doesn't know how it works but he's seen a pole being repositioned on the wire without the apparent help of the driver.

While Paul was looking at the Bay Bridge website he found a simulation of what it would be like to go over that bridge. He said it's hard to tell if it's really a simulation or an actual video, except that it looks "hyperreal". The simulation even has some skid marks on the road.

Glenn noted the Golden Gate no longer has toll takers. Toll is paid by the use of Fastrack or by using cameras to take photos of license plates and then sending a bill to the car owners.

Paul raised the privacy issue when cameras are involved. He wondered if authorities would be able to arrest someone with an outstanding warrant if their car was photographed crossing a bridge. Glenn thought that wouldn't be feasible because the police would have to be mobilized on to short of a notice — the police would have to always be stationed at the ends of all bridges. Paul thought that someone would eventually figure out a way to do it. Technical possibility is followed by its use followed by its abuse, he said. He related what he thought was Jefferson quotation: anyone that gives up privacy for a little bit of security will lose both.

During the show, Glenn was having trouble downloading the California map for NavFree. That got Paul talking about "reciprocal backoff". If the initial download rate is fast, at some point the rate is reduced by half for, say the last 60 seconds. If you're still downloading the file after 60 seconds, the rate is reduced by half again. He says Hughes Net internet satellite service does this.
<A different type of reciprocal backoff was mentioned in the 5-08-13 show>

Mark called. He lives in the Nevada City area and has seen people trying to get to a nearby campground but are being lead astray by their navigation systems. The guys thought the maps may be based on old data and that it would be futile to get the map vendors to correct them. The best solution would be to put up a roadside sign that says, "Your GPS is wrong".

Paul add more details about his Nexus.
– It has a temperature sensor
– gravity sensor
– accelerometer
– magnetometor
– front & back facing cameras
– a GPS
– Bluetooth
– You can use a wi-fi mouse on it. And, using a replicator with the On The Go USB port, you can use a wired mouse. Unlike the Apple products, a mouse pointer actually shows up on the Nexus screen. Apple's Steve Jobs is known for eliminating things people have taken for granted; the Flash video app, floppy disks, CD drives even the mouse.

These sensors add realism and control features to some apps like the flight simulator called Picasim. This app simulates slope soaring — flying radio-controlled gliders on currents uplifted by hills. <slope soaring was mentioned in the 6-27-12 show> Search the Google Play store with the words: rc flight simulator.

Of the 800,000 or so apps at the Play store many are really good and are free. Many of them have pay versions that give you more features — Picasim gives you more maps & airplanes for an additional $2.99.

Raymond called. He recently got a remote piece of property and wondered if it's worth the expense of putting in a land phone (the phone line is already there). He wanted to know if there is an advantage to be gained. He's currently using a cellular phone and it works reasonably well.
– Unless you want high speed internet (if it's even available there), then no. There's no reason for a land phone.
– However, land phone may be a bit more reliable.

Last updated 10:01 PM 8/28/2013

Additional notes:

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart.
– They're tagged with #Zentech.
– When what's said is unclear to me (or I'm unfamiliar with a topic) I tend to quote (" ") verbatim.
– Editor's comments are delimited by < >

Both Glenn & Paul were in the studio.

Glenn said "Samsung has overtaken Apple as the leading, I believe, world wide device for a smartphone". He didn't have the figures handy but thought that included all the phones that Samsung sells, including the low end ones. Paul said patent infringement claims between the two companies are continuing. There are big bucks involved, The Samsung Galaxy S4 is $639 off the shelf without a contract or about $200 with a 2 year contract, he said.

Paul asked Glenn what his favorite Android tablet is. He didn't have a favorite one but did test a Galaxy Note about a year ago. A couple of weeks ago he was going to buy an inexpensive refurbished 7" tablet for $59.99 at Fry's but was steered away from it by indications it wouldn't be a real good product. He had thought it would be useful for exploring what Android was about.

Paul said he just got a "proper" Android TV. The Android stick he talked about on 2-27-13 show didn't work out very well. What he has now is about the size of a pack of playing cards. It's out of China and just says "Android TV" on it. He said he would put up a link about it in today's show notes.
– It's under a $100 and comes with a remote control that has pre-programmed buttons that lets you run built-in apps.
– It includes a separate power supply and doesn't rely on USB port to power it.
– It has 2 USB port and you can plug in a webcam so you can Skype with it. You can access Google Play, the Android store, where you can get apps for Skype & Netflix.
– You can plug a hard drive into one of the USB ports and watch movies from it.
– Glenn asked if one can record TO the hard drive a movie that you're watching (like from Netfix). Paul said there might be an app to save to the hard drive. But a Netfix movie goes directly the HDMI (TV port) and may not allow diversion, unless the Android operating system is hacked in a process called rooting. Paul hasn't explored the possibility and his statements were just speculation.

Paul said he's been looking a tablets and, so far, is attracted to the Google Nexus 7" for $229. It has the 2 features he was particularly interested in: front & back facing cameras and a genuine GPS chip. Some other tablets don't have a GPS chip and rely on other methods to determine your location. Though it can connect to the internet wirelessly, using a mapping service while driving around is problematic, so you have to try something else. Tom Tom for Android lets you download & keep the maps on your device so you don't need to be online to use it. <Tom Tom was mentioned in the 9-26-12 & 5-9-12 shows>
<A New and Improved Nexus 7, by David Pogue>

Paul mentioned his disappointing experience with the PD10 & PD20 tables. <Mentioned on the 11-14-12 show>

The guys talked about the ZTE Firefox smartphone.
– It will only be sold on Ebay.
– It's from China & has been sold internationally but not in the U.S. The entry price is $80 (no contract required).
– To find reviews, google the words: Firefox smartphone…or: zte open smartphone
– It runs the Firefox operating system and has a browser-like interface.
– Paul thinks it may be using the XML markup language, an extension of HTML.
– Reading from an article on the web, Glenn said it uses HTML5.
– Paul speculated that many of the apps that it runs require an internet connection.
– Glenn read, "It will not be locked to a specific mobile network operator"
– It should be a good entry-level phone that has some power behind it, if your web needs are modest.

"Professor" called about his XP laptop, which loses the internet connection when he tries to download or watch a video on Youtube. He's tried both a wireless and a wired connection. The only way to get the connection back is to restart the laptop. He's tried taking the laptop to another location (with a different modem & router) and it still misbehaved.
– Try a different computer on your home network to be sure the network is working ok.
– Visit speedtest.net to check the transfer rate you're getting. He said he did that: he gets about 3meg download speed. That speed should be adequate, Paul said, and suggested he retest periodically because the problem might be intermittent.
– Glenn suggested he consider trying a USB wireless adapter. <As an alternative to the built-in adapter, I guess>
– Paul seemed to focus on tuning up the laptop. "Professor" said he's already tried CCleaner and an AVG clean-up product. Paul said he should uninstall AVG programs <except for the (free) anti-virus>, because they tend to run in the background and put an extra burden on the computer.
– Try using the free Eusing Registry Cleaner. <I think this is it.> Paul thinks it's just as good as any commercial registry cleaner.
– The 2 tools, CCleaner & Eusing cover about 90% of your cleanup needs. <Some other utilities mentioned on 9-14-11 show
– "Professor" said he's only had this failure with Youtube — other video services work ok, at worst they only slow down a bit. Paul said he should check Youtube's video quality setting in the lower right — it may be trying to stream the video in High Def.
– Paul asked him to check the speed of his CPU. Anything slower than 1.7 gigaHz can have problems with Youtube. His is 1.6 gigaHz.
– Some laptops have Intel Speed Step; which allows the CPU to throttle back when it get over heated. Paul thought it's possible the laptop may have accumulated dust that may be causing over heating and, thereby, a slow running CPU. Try compressed air to blow out the dust.

Marilyn called. She was helping relative with their Mac and it was suggested that an anti-virus should be installed on it. Marilyn couldn't find a version of AVG for Macs but did find Avast. But while trying to install it she was required to stop the Safari browser, and she couldn't find how to do that.
– Stopping it is not very intuitive on the Mac.
– First of all, Apples can't get viruses, per se. The need for an anti-virus questionable. However, if you forward email to users of other computers, it's considerate to pre-scan the emails first. This is the only obvious need for an anti-virus.
– Technically, Paul said, a Mac can get a virus but you have to go thru a couple of confirmation steps before a Mac will allow you to install anything, including malware. A Mac won't let malware be foisted on you just by visiting a malevolent webpage. <see foistware>
– Marilyn wasn't sure where the downloaded Avast file was. Paul said it's in the folder called "Downloads". Just drag the file to the trash.
– Go up to the Apple logo and select "Check for Updates".
– Marilyn expressed difficulty finding things on the Mac and Glenn 'reassured' her that even he still has this problem.

Paul explained why companies like AVGgive away free software. It's often the case that free software collects data about your browsing habits and sends it to the company. It's usually "aggregated data" and not associated with the particular user.

The disclaimer:
The views and opinions you hear expressed on this, and probably other shows as well, are those of the speakers doing the broadcasting only at this moment, and not necessarily those of KVMR itself, even its board, or its management, its staff, its contributors or even its members.

Glenn said he's going to look into the ZTE Firefox phone. <above> It looks like it has a touch-sensitive screen similiar to the Samsung Galaxy.

Glenn's been getting some questions about Pure Talk, his current cell carrier and one that he's happy with.
– It uses the same cell towers and network as AT&T.
– Some have wondered if AT&T users get higher priority access to the network. He wasn't sure that was even possible. Paul said prioritizing is possible: amber alerts work that way as well as emergency calls by civil servants.
– Pure Talk requires a GSM phone, the type that takes a SIM card. There's a list of phones that aren't compatible. <see their website>

William called with 3 questions. He upgraded a Mac recently but it died shortly afterward.
– Remove the battery and try running without it. He's tried that.
– Hold on to the power button for 20 or 30 seconds. <I'm not sure what it's supposed to do…something about resetting it, maybe>
– The motherboard may have gone bad.
– William thought it might be the power switch. Paul said use an airgun and/or vacuum cleaner to get any dust out of it.
– Check the power transformer. He's already tried that, too.
– William wondered if the new RAM he put in might be the problem. Paul said that wouldn't normally cause it to be totally dead, but it might be worth putting the old RAM back in.

Also, William has temporary use of a PC netbook and wanted to know how to load it with software from a CD.
– You'll have to buy an external CD drive.
– Paul's seen some USB CD DVD drives that are powered from the USB interface for about $29. Check places like amazon.com. Paul looked up one on Amazon for $17.
– If the software comes as an ISO image, you can try putting it on a flash drive and running it from there.

Finally, William asked about reading a Mac hard drive on a PC. He has one in an external enclosure that he hooked up the netbook thru the USB port.
– Google the words: read mac disk on pc. Look for HFS Explorer…it's free.go to page run by Catacombae. <I think this is it>
– Going the other way, Macs will read PC drives but won't write to them without additional software.

Paul has a client who's shopping for a laptop to run Photoshop, which puts a moderate demand on the graphics chip — about 40 frames per second.
– Graphic chips are measured in how many frames per second they can render
– DVDs viewing is adequate at 29.5 frames per second

The graphics in a laptop come in 2 flavors:
1) Discrete graphics unit, which is a separate dedicated graphics processor unit, a GPU. With it, the graphics are snappier and the machine is generally faster. The down side is that it's costlier — about $150, there's more heat produced and there are more things to go wrong.
– Macs can determine when to use their GPU depending on the demand. They shut down the GPU when the workload is light.
2) Built-in, like that by Intel, where the graphics rendering is done by the chip that also does the other things.

Changelog:
spelling: smart phone to smartphone
added link: article about the Google Nexus 7"
fixed minor typos

 Last updated  2:18 PM 8/17/2013

Additional notes

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart.
– They're tagged with #Zentech.
– When what's said is unclear to me (or I'm unfamiliar with a topic) I tend to quote (" ") verbatim.
– Editor's comments are delimited by < >

NOTE: there will be NO Zentech show on 7-31-13

Both Paul & Glenn were in the studio.

Glenn thanked those who chose to become supporting members of KVMR. If you'd like to become a member, visit the KVMR web site kvmr.org . Local listeners can call 530-265-9073 to join.

As noted in on a pervious show, every word in the dictionary and many short sentences have been reserved as website names in the .com domain <names like xxx in xxx.com>. Similarly, names for the .net & .org domains are "pretty much gone".

There is a name grab going on for Facebook too. Zentech has a Facebook page and you're welcome to join.

There's gross misconduct on Facebook called "like farming". 'Likes' are worth money, the more 'likes' the more money. See the above link for more info.

Glenn was helping a friend who has a computer identical to the ones both he and Paul have: an Asus 12" notebook. <I think it's actually a netbook>. Her computer was starting to run slowly and Glenn was going to reinstall the operating system (XP). The computer didn't have separate copy of XP and Asus wanted $50 to send a copy. She only used her computer for email so Glenn thought installing the free Ubuntu operating system would work fine for her. Earlier, Paul had suggested he install X-Ubuntu, a light version of Ubuntu.

Glenn had trouble creating the required Ubuntu bootable CD until he used his Mac computer to do it. He's now using a similar process with X-Ubuntu.

Paul explained that X-Ubuntu has the X graphical user interface that goes back to a time before Windows. It's a type of windows manager that has a counterpart on the Mac as Finder and on Windows as Explorer. X-Ubuntu works well on small and underpowered netbooks.

There are many choices of windows manager for Ubuntu. One such manager is made by the Ubuntu people and is called Unity. Paul said he doesn't care much for it because it's not as intuitive as some of the others. You can get the KDE Desktop Environment, which Paul likes, or one called Gnome. If you need guidance on installing KDE, just google the words: Ubuntu KDE.

Paul said downloads & installations of "stuff" is fairly problem free in the Linux environment. However, Glenn did have trouble getting Firefox to run automatically when starting up. He said Ubuntu wouldn't let him drag the Firefox icon to the startup folder until he managed to get it on the desktop. From there he could drag it to the startup folder.

Years ago there was a windows manager called Lindows that looked & worked much like Windows. It sounded too similar to Windows and Microsoft got them to change the name. The program eventually faded into history.

Older computers are more amenable to using Linux than other operating systems. As long as they are in reasonably good shape, even machines going back to the 1990's can run Linux; where otherwise they won't run Windows XP or the Mac OS. Even a Mac Power PC can be a good canidate for Linux. Paul said he's never seen a virus in the Linux world, though they do exist.

Paul didn't think it was right that Asus tried to sell the install disk for $50. He noted that peer-to-peer networks can sometimes have copies of installation CDs that would normally come from the manufacturer; OEM CDs.

Glenn said the local maker group The Curious Forge will have its first open house at its new location on Thursday Aug 1. Its now at 12400 Loma Rica Drive <Nevada City, I guess. To get the hours, I suggest going to their website>.

Paul recommended inexpensive translucent CD protector sleeves with double-sided tape on them to keep installation CDs attached to the computer they go with. He also uses a Sharpie on white PVC tape to keep notes directly on the equipment he's working on. "A nerd and his information are soon separated", so keep the information with the computer, Paul said.

Glenn said he once used a Sharpie on masking tape for this purpose but the writing faded. Masking tape gets "crispy" and sticks permanently when it ages, Paul added. Glenn said a number 2 pencil doesn't fade, but you have to pair it up with a suitable surface: it has trouble writing on slick surfaces. Glenn claimed the writing from a Sharpie will fade, despite what many people think.

Continuing on the topic of writing permanence, Paul mentioned you can get aluminum tape at garden stores for outdoor use, where conditions are harsher. You can also cut out a coke can and write on that <the inner surface> using a scribe to indent or emboss the surface with lettering: use a semi-hard surface behind it, like wood, to aid in the embossing.

Josh called with a question about how to connect a newish, 6 month old Mac Book Pro, which doesn't have Ethernet, to an old (7 or 8 year old) Brother laser printer. The Mac doesn't have Ethernet but has wireless and the printer has Ethernet but no wireless.
– You can get an Ethernet to USB adapter.
– Or you can connect the printer to your office router. That puts them both on the same network (one attached by cable (Ethernet) and the other wirelessly).
– Then turn the printer on and go to Preferences -> Printers. The printer should be using either Bonjour or Rendezvous to announce itself to the network. The Mac should then be able to identify the printer. You then "add" the printer by clicking on the plus symbol.

Josh's other question is how to format a hard disk that was made for a PC.
– Use the disk utility called Disk Manager
– Paul also suggested the use of TimeMachine to do your backups.

Josh said he bought a 4teraByte hard drive and was thinking of partitioning it to do separate backups for him & his wife.
– You don't have to partition the drive when you use TimeMachine. What you do is first pick reasonable names for the 2 computers (JoshsMacBook & WifesLaptop, for example).
– When you plug in the drive, designate it as a TimeMachine backup drive. Wait for it to finish backing up the first computer. Then eject the drive. Next, plug it in to her machine and repeat the procedure (answer NO when it asks you if you want it to use the backups from the 1st machine).
– This should create 2 folders within a backup folder, with the names you chose in the 1st step above.
– As long as you don't touch <add or delete> anything in that backup folder (the one with the 2 subfolders), you can use the rest of the drive like it's an ordinary drive. Thus you don't have to do any partitioning.
– You can use any drive out there (including flash drive) and format it to the native HPFS+ .Go to Applications -> Folder Utilities -> Disk Utilities and erase what ever partitions are on the drive to make it just 1 partition. You can also name the drive at this time. <Note: be prepared to lose any date the drive came with>
– Ideally, the backup drive should be twice the size of the drive you're backing up. Or twice the size of the space being used, if you're not already using all of the space on the internal drive.

Glenn asked if there is a program similar to TimeMachine but for the PC. Paul asked listeners to call if they know of one. Paul has been using Cobian Backup. It's free but can be vexing to use. For one thing, it can't backup files that are currently in use — it just unceremoniously stops when it comes to such a file.

The disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed on this show are those of the speakers only and are not necessarily those of KVMR, management, staff or contributors

Many people don't write down the passwords they use because they've heard it's dangerous to do so. Glenn said it's dangerous not to write them down if you don't have an adequate system to keep track of them.

Paul said a knowledgeable technician is able to get past a password that's protecting a computer and do it without ever finding out the password. Don't think a password will protect your computer after it's stolen.

On the Mac there's something called Keychain. It stores in one place all of the passwords you use. You then need just one password for Keychain itself to use all of the passwords it contains.

Some wireless routers that use WPA passwords allow you to use a phrase (including spaces) instead of a password, making it easier to remember.

Bill called to suggest a backup program for Windows called Paragon Hard Disk Manager Pro for about $130. It is avail as in trial version at download.cnet.com . Note, Bill recommends the Pro version. <Possibly different than the one at Cnet>
– It does incremental backups and will backup files that are currently in use.
– Bill said Acronis True Image doesn't work well. It's "garbage".

Bill asked about software that can crack a password protected .rar file. <.rar files are similar to .zip files where the data is compressed>

It's been said that Microsoft uses weak passwords in its products, in some cases using the Rot13 method. See the above link <go to rot13.com, copy & paste the encrypted text (above) and it will be decoded>

Paul didn't have a specific answer to Bill's cracking question. There used to be a Unix program called Crack that would attempt to crack a password. Paul said there is a Windows version.
<More info about Crack including a whitepaper here.>

 Glenn asked the for the name of the program that would copy media files from an iPod to a PC. This assumes you no longer have access to the computer that originally put that media on the iPod.
– Search for an iPod ripper like xilisoft.
– When you plug the iPod into a computer it's never 'seen' before, make usre iTunes does not start because iTunes "would love" to format an iPod it's never seen before. Then run the iPod ripper.
<for the latest trial version go to download.cnet.com and search for words: Xilisoft iPod Rip>

<There is about a minute of dialog I missed at this point because the KVMR stream paused. The archived file at KVMR completely ended here though the stream restarted when Marilyn called in.>

Marilyn called wanting to know if a 1gig Dell Inspiron memory chip would work in a Dell Latitude. Would she do any damage if there is an incompatibility.
– Usually no damage would be done.
– There are 2 ways for it to be incompatible. It may not use the same physical plug where it plugs into the motherboard. Or, it may have a clock speed that's slower that what's required by the computer you're putting it in to. A memory chip with a faster than required speed should be ok.

Changelog:
fixed link: download.cnet.com

Last updated 6:16 PM 7/26/2013