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 < >

Glenn was in the studio with his guest John Paul of Spiral Internet, an internet service provider. Paul was still in the UK and didn't join the conversation.
<Contact Spiral at 530-478-9822 or visit spiralinternet.com>

John started off talking about the Google fiber optics project of 2010. The intent was to test a 1gig connection in a few communities around the nation. 1100 communities submitted requests and the winners were picked by lottery, Last month, Kansas City, Kansas was the first city to have the service turned on. Glenn noted that the throughput would be limited by the distribution inside each house: if you use a wireless router, fiber optic speeds will be reduced to the speed of the router. John said, if you're having a house built, think about having the fiber cable built into the walls: you may not use it right away but in 10 years, fiber is "what's going to be happening". You can see the Nevada County video submission at http://95959google.com/.
<More info about the Google project is in the 2-22-10 show notes>
– The fiber cable in the house is almost the size of a hair. Cladding around the bare fiber adds to the diameter.
– The fiber cable is more flexible now than it used to be. Before, you couldn't do 90-degree bends. Now, you can tie it in knots.
– Later in the show, John said Google charges $70 <per month, I guess> for the 1gig fiber service. That doesn't include phone service. And TV over internet is $50 more. Kansas City residents can opt for a traditional DSL service (15meg downstream & 1.5meg upstream) for free but there's a $300 installation charge.

Glenn said he got an email from Daniel who thought his only option for internet was the Hughes satellite service. He had bought the satellite equipment but then heard that AT&T offered the internet thru their cellular network. However, he gets poor AT&T cellular reception, though Verizon cellular is better. Daniel wanted some guidance.
– If you can see Wolf Mountain or Banner Mountain, check out Digital Path (what Glenn uses) or Smarter Broadband.

John said if Spiral Internet can't supply DSL service or Digital Path (Spiral is a reseller of Digital Path) to a potential customer, they will refer that customer to other providers in the area. Sprial has a blog called Nevada County Connected. Look on the right side for the link "Nevada County services" to get a .pdf file listing providers for Western Nevada County. In order of preference, look for service from Comcast, then DSL, fixed wireless (like Digital Path and a few others in the area), next is Verizon cellular and, lastly, a satellite service.

Glenn thought Hughes is now the only provider of internet <in his area, I guess>. John said Exede also provides satellite service. Glenn noted that satellite providers are quick to throttle down your speed if they see you consuming a lot of data. In his email, Daniel said that Hughes claimed their service would be adequate for his needs, but he found out that's true only before 5am. When others get online and bandwidth drops.

The guys talked about AT&T switching from copper wires to cellular. AT&T, at a stock-holders presentation in Nov, indicated that they are not going to increase or even provide service (DSL & U-Verse) over copper in areas that aren't dense (rural areas). Instead, they will provide cellular service in those areas.

John said that's fine in flat terrain but it's a problem in "geographically diverse" areas like Nevada County. He noted that fixed wireless (Digital Path & Smarter Broadband) work differently than cellular networks. He said AT&T's move from copper could give cable companies, like Comcast, an advantage in pricing and lead to a monopoly on service. Glenn said his friend in Richmond was offered Comcast service (phone, internet & tv) at roughly $130 per month for the first 6 months, but for the remaining 18 months of the contract the price went up to over $200 per month. And, he said, he was being charged rent for every piece of equipment (routers, modems, DVR) in the house.

John noted that Sprial Internet has unlimited data, unlike some companies (like AT&T) that have tiered pricing (pay more, get a higher data limit). Also, Sprial doesn't require long-term contracts.

Glenn mentioned a cell carrier called Peertalk, <maybe he said PureTalk> a GSM service. Their highest rate is $43/mo for unlimited talk, text (txt) and data. He thought that it's an inexpensive alternative to AT&T or T-Mobile. He has plans to give them a try for a month.

Ron called. He lives in the North San Juan area and he & his neighbors got notices from AT&T that they will be switched to the U-Verse broadband service. A neighbor that did convert to U-Verse discovered that it didn't work for them and AT&T would not allow them to switch back to DSL. He wondered if switching to Sprial Internet would get DSL back.
– For some customers, the switch to U-Verse is "in name only". In that case, Sprial can switch you over to their DSL service. It's on a case-by-case basis. Call Spiral to see what they can do: 530-478-9822.
– AT&T claims U-verse is based on fiber optics, but the fiber goes only to the node <a local distribution point> not all the way to the house. Between the node & the house it's copper, which degrades performance.

Glenn related a story about a friend who wanted to switch her phone number because of harassing calls and AT&T switched her to U-Verse. She didn't like the switch and eventually convinced AT&T to give back her old phone number and DSL service. His point was that it is possible to switch back from U-Verse.

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

Mitch called to say that last year AT&T or some other contractor pulled fiber optic cables thru "the ridge" all the way to Downieville to provide service there, but there are no onramps & offramps for those along the cable's route <there are no taps into the fiber cable to provide service along its route, as I understand it>.

Smarter Broadband did get some stimulus funding to extend wireless throughout the area. They're planning to build a couple of towers on "the ridge"; the "project date is 2015".

Glenn mentioned the upcoming Zentech show dates: Jan 9th, 23rd & 30th

About a year ago Spiral helped reconvene the Nevada County broadband advisory group. They meet monthly and their goal is to come up with a Nevada County broadband plan based on the national broadband plan. That should help get all of the broadband players in the area on the same path to provide the broadband infrastructure in Nevada County.

Russell called. He has Consumer Cellular, a Portland company, for his phone service. He had trouble getting a signal when he was using Verizon & T-Mobile. He's now looking for a really good phone with 4G capability but one that will work with Consumer Cellular. He had tried a phone from Consumer Cellular but it had poor reception so he went back to an older Motorola phone model WX345 and it worked fine.
– The old Motorola phone may just have a better antenna.
– Glenn is an iPhone fan & he suggested Russell find someone with an iPhone and try his SIM card in it to see if it works.
– Check with your neighbors. If one of them is getting reception, ask them what they're using
– Check the California broadband maps from California Utilities Commision to find out what services are available in your area.
– <Also check Nevada County Connected, as mentioned above>

Spiral Internet has information on connecting your tablet to wireless.

Kirk called. He's about 1.75 miles out of Nevada City on Bloomfield Road. He said that 4 years ago AT&T laid fiber nearby but not to his house. Should he just give up waiting.
– Yes, I'm afraid so. Contact Spiral Internet, they can give you more info.

George called to say he's near one of the previous callers <he's near Sontag, I think that's what he said> and he knows that a 4G tower is being put in that will carry both Verizon & AT&T.
– John said Verizon is aggressively expanding in the area.

Bill called about PdaNet 3.5 for Android. <It sounds like app that does tethering. He said Microsoft update doesn't work when he uses Internet Explorer because the "user agent string is being masked". He asked if there's a work-around. The user agent string lets Microsoft know what browser is being used. Microsoft requires Internet Explorer for doing updates.
– Disconnect the laptop from the tether & connect it directly to the internet.
– Additionally, if you do any ordering from AT&T, you have to use Internet Explorer there too, Glenn said.

If you're looking for a broadband ISP check out spiralfusion.com
For those in the Sacramento, Davis & Woodland area check out http://sacramentofusion.com/
<See more about the Fusion service in the 8-24-11 show notes>

Last updated 11:31 PM 12/26/2012

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 < >

Glenn and Adam Brodel of Smarter Broadband were in the studio. Paul was in England and didn't participate.

Adam & his wife are co-owners of Smarter Broadband, which uses to be in the Auburn area. It has now merged with Full Spectrum in the Grass Valley area.

Glenn subscribes to Digital Path for his internet connection and is very happy with it.

Adam said that in the Crown Point & Whispering Pines area, the business are having trouble getting high speed internet so Adam has been focusing on bring them AirFiber, which can deliver 1gig/sec broadband. He expects it to be installed in the next couple of weeks.
<Some info about AirFiber here and here>

Adam said they are upgrading equipment on Wolf Mountain, and in January they'll be able to offer 12meg broadband in that area.

He also said they are putting in more towers around the county and that people who've not been able to get their service should check back with them for availability. You can call 530-272-4000

Adam explained how Smarter Broadband originally started with lower frequency equipment, which didn't have a lot of capacity but was better able to transmit thru trees. As the company expanded, they started using higher frequency equipment, which has more capacity but less penetration. Wolf Mountain has both types of transmitters.

In January they'll be testing a new type of transmitter that should provide 6meg and still have good penetration.

Glenn noted that Digital Path doesn't have data limits like AT&T & cable companies do. Adam said Smarter Broadband doesn't have strictly enforced limits, but if they notice a user is hogging a lot of the capacity, they'll try to convince that user to be more considerate of others on the network. He said many users aren't aware that they're consuming excess bandwidth, things may be running in the background — peer-to-peer data sharing or perhaps a virus.

After saying he loves his new iPad, Glenn asked Adam if such mobile equipment uses as much bandwidth for video as an internet connected TV. Adam said many of the streaming services like Netflix can detect what type of appliance is consuming the video and can send a slower stream to a mobile device.

Adam noted that Netflix allows you to set the quality of video you receive. The default is to send the highest quality at a rate of about 6meg/sec. If you set it to just "good" quality (less than 1meg/sec), it's hard to tell the difference on screen, and you can avoid "stuttering" video. <This will also help keep you from reaching your data limit.>

Glenn talked about a friend's TV that delivers a great picture, which he attributed to its plasma screen. The TV receives over the air broadcasts and he wondered about the data rate. Adam said that over-the-air signals are far far better than that of satellite providers because satellite signals use compression.

Adam went on the say that internet data usage has increased dramatically in recent years and most of it is video traffic — 60% of internet usage is streaming video.

John called. He has a Lenovo laptop that's a few years old and it "clicks off" after 10 or 15 minutes; sometimes it runs for a half-hour or so. He said this happens when running on AC power or battery.
– Glenn suspected that it might be overheating. John said it doesn't seem to be hot and it happens before it has a chance to get hot.
– Adam thought it might have over heated at some point and damaged the board, so now it takes only a little heat to cause failure.
– Since it's 6 or 7 years old, consider getting a new machine. If you watch for sales, you can find a decent laptop from under $300 on up to $500. Glenn's favorite retailer is Fry's, but also check online retailers, too.
– John said he's never used this laptop on the internet. That led Glenn to think that Windows has never been updated. So, connect to the internet and do the updates. There will likely be a lot of updating so use a broadband connection.
– Repairs on laptops can get costly.

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

Pam called. She called before looking for another computer that can use dialup, her old machine was running slow. At that time the guys told her she could get her old one refurbished. This time she asked what is done during refurbishing.
– Smarter Broadband/Full Spectrum does PC repairs now, at their Johnson Place address. Their phone # is 530-272-4000.
– Glenn recalled that what was suggested before was to have her operating system reinstalled, not refurbished. Refurbish usually means replacing hardware components.
– Since new desktop PC are under $500, it may be cheaper to buy than have her's serviced.
– New PCs don't come with dialup modems so you'll have to buy one for an additional $50 (or a bit more if it's a USB modem).
– Adam concurred that a "cleanup" may solve her problem. And adding more memory can do wonders, too.

Pam also asked if highspeed is coming to the Camptonville area.
– Smarter Broadband/Full Spectrum doesn't have any current plans for service to that area. But there may be other providers available.
– She explored getting satellite service but her neighbor's trees are in the way. However, it was suggested she check with different satellite companies and she may find one with a satellite in a different position in the sky (bypassing the trees).

Barbara called. Her problem is similar to Pam's but she's on a ridge a couple of miles from Malakoff Diggins.
– I you have a view of Oregon Peak you may be able to get service from Digital Path.
– Smarter Broadband/Full Spectrum has plans to provide service from Oregon Peak. She hoped their service would come soon as she was thinking of getting the Hughes satellite service, which requires a 2 year contract and a $400 cancellation fee.
– Call Smarter Broadband/Full Spectrum to put in a request for service. 530-272-4000

Bonnie called wondering where to get a transcript of the show.
– Go to zen.kvmr.org and click on the 'shows' link.
<Note: Obviously, I don't transcribe the shows. These are only notes>

Bonnie conflated 3G & 4G with wireless service. 3G & 4G refer to phone service. Smarter Broadband/Full Spectrum provides wireless internet service. Adam said they do wireless not wi-fi or phone networks.
– Many of their towers can do 12meg/sec
– DSL can do 1.5meg/sec, 3meg/sec and 6meg/sec, but to get 6meg/sec you have to be really close to the transmitting unit.

Also, she heard that wi-fi can be a security problem. If you're using it in a cafe, a knowledgable person may be able to snoop on what you're doing.
– Smarter Broadband/Full Spectrum's service is not like wi-fi in a coffee shop. It uses encryption to protect your privacy. And unlike wi-fi, the hardware mitigates signal interception. It's not 100% secure but better than wi-fi.
– Hackers have easier ways to get your private info — viruses, trojan horses etc. One way to defend yourself, and it's Glenn's mantra, is don't open strange emails or attachments.

Josh called to suggest that previous callers can use a Wilson phone booster for their wireless internet or phone network. You can get one on Amazon, Ebay or Banner Communication for about $200.

Brian called. He has a Wilson booster, external & internal antennas and an AT&T hotspot, but he's still getting poor results. Also, Brian offered the use of his property for Adam to put up a tower and asked of the Wilson booster would work with the equipment used by Adam's company.
– No, the Wilson booster is based on cellular signals. The broadband signals are different and require an different receiver.
– Once you have highspeed internet (1.5meg/sec or faster), you can get a microcell from AT&T or Verizon for about $200. You can plug the microcell into your internet connection, that then "makes a mini cell in the house". <So you'll be using the internet for your cell phone calls instead of the cellular network. I heard of similar devices called femtocells. See also picocell.
– Glenn suggested AT&T, Sprint or Verizon will give you a micorcell if you threaten to end your service with them.

Last updated 10:44 PM 12/12/2012

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 talked a bit about top-level domain names. That's the part of a web address that ends in .com, .org, .net, etc. He mentioned a website that lists its address as legacypresents.co. In this case it was just a typo and should have been legacypresents.com. But you can actually register your website with .co as it really exists and belongs to the country of Columbia. Country abbreviations can be top-level domains as well as the more familiar .com. He said people choose these more obscure domain names because the name they want to use with .com, for instance, may already be in use <e.g. sex.com may be taken but sex.co might be available>. To find out more about a top-level domain name, use the web address in the form of nic.co (to find out about .co).

Paul went on to say that domain name registration started back in the '70s and that the names are not case-sensitive — upper & lower case letters are treated the same. If you want to put your website's name on a business card, you can use studly caps (like PaulCastro.com) <see also camelcase> to make it easier to read. Everything to the right of the top-level domain IS case sensitive — PaulCastro.com/buyhisicecream.html treated differently from PaulCastro.com/BuyHisIceCream.html on some webservers.

Paul also said that email addresses are not case-sensitive — you can capitalize any part of zen at kvmr.org. If you have a Gmail account, you can embed periods in that portion of the your email address to the left of the @ and you will still receive the email — mail to fred.blogs@gmail.com will be received by fredblogs@gmail.com. If you use a name with periods when you signup at a website, you'll know if that website sold your email address when you start receiving spam mail that's addressed to that particular email address.

Glenn said that when he created account on his iPad, it automatically created an account at me.com. He said, "even though under 'check my email' it's not listed as an account, it comes in as mail from the iCloud, and if I do anything outside of my email client, where I'm specifically looking at something from my gmail account, which would then show my gmail account as the return address…if I click on a webpage, for example, in reply, it automatically goes to the @me.com"

Paul thought he needed to change the default settings. Go to preferences -> settings -> mail contacts & calendars; there you should find settings for the default calendar & default account. On that settings page you can also change your signature — what appears at the bottom of all your emails. This can help the recipient to verify the mail is really from you.

Glenn said he didn't intend to go anywhere for Black Friday sales but he noticed that Best Buy had an iPad on sale for $60 less than what he paid for his 15 day earlier. He contacted Apple and was told to go back to the store where he bought it to see if they will price-match. After calling the store and after some discussion, he was able to get a $60 refund. He intends to apply that amount to buying Apple Care <it's like an extended warranty>.

Glenn joined twitter but hasn't used it much yet. He said he's still not impressed with Facebook. It's gotten a little easier for him to use but he's not been able to figure out where some 'events emails' are coming from.

Paul mentioned bulletin boards of the '70s & '80s. Because some of them had questionable content, they would put up statements saying law enforcement is not welcome. He said it wasn't true then and it's not true now that you can protect yourself with such notices. This relates to recent notices appearing on Facebook pages saying "I give Facebook no right to use my pictures or likeness or words". Don't rely on making such a statement; in fact, it's your terms of service (with Facebook) that takes precedence. Snopes.com (a clearinghouse for fraudulent statements & urban legends) had a surge of interest in the legality of that statement. UrbanLegends is another site that debunks popular myths <and it's there I found an article about the Facebook postings>.

Paul wondered who would spread urban legends and Glenn speculated that they may be a form of phishing, He thought it's a way of harvesting a verified email addresses.

Paul said that the "I love you virus" from about 10 years ago was the first socially engineered virus. It was written in Visual Basic by an 18-year-old in Philippines and came as an attachment. "It only succeeded because it said I love you and the body of the message said something about send this to someone you love". He noted that these messages propagate like chain letters of the past and that they tend to come in waves about 18 months apart so the same messages get recycled but with a few words changed to avoid spam filters.

Glenn was unable to take a call to the show using his iPad. Paul reminded listeners that was because the iPad has no support for Flash or ActiveX.

Marilyn called. She had a computer crash and had to replace her hard drive with a refurbished one. It came with Windows XP but was missing Microsoft Works, which she thought normally comes with XP. She thought she needed to use Works because the people she sends documents to use that program.
– Works is not part of XP. It's up to the computer manufacturer what's installed on a machine and there's no guaranty Works is included.
– It was suggested she use Microsoft Word and save in Works format using the 'save as' option <in the 'File' menu>.
– If it's important to maintain the format, use PDFCreator & save it as a PDF document.
– You can also use the same 'save as' trick to create spreadsheets that can be read by Works.
– Use Google Docs create, edit and share documents.

Marilyn also wanted to know how to change the default program that displays a .jpg image when she click on the .jpg file. The current program is Microsoft Photo Editor but it has trouble displaying some of her larger .jpg files.

She also asked about a program that reduces the size of her photos to make them easier to send them thru email. She just got Picasa, which is supposed to be able to do the reduction, but she still needs to learn to use it.
– To change the default program: right-click on a .jpg file -> open with ->go to bottom where it says 'choose program' then select the program you want to be the default, and put a check in the box "always use this".
– There are a series of programs called PowerToys that added functionality to Windows XP. One of the programs was called Image Resizer. For Win7 & Win8 users there are similar programs for resizing but make sure they are described "acts just like the powertoy does in XP"
– There is another program in the PowerToys suit called TweekUI that Paul likes.
– Glenn said you can get it from Cnet, generally a safe site to download from, but be careful which 'download' button you use or you may get stuff you don't want. <I think this is it here>
<You can find Image Resizer, TweekUI and other useful programs here.>
– To find more resizers just google with the words: image resizer xp

Douglas, a photographer, called wondering if Facebook owns images posted to that site.
– Facebook can't do whatever they want with your image. "However, they can display it on Facebook themselves at their own will. They're just not allowed to sell it to other people or take it off Facebook or sell it to anybody else". And it's not their job to keep your images from being stolen. It's all in the terms of service agreement.
– When using Facebook post a thumbnail or a watermarked image with link to where a full size image can be found (like on a photo sharing site).

Marsdon (maybe Marston) called to ask about the Firefox plugin called DownloadHelper, which facilitates downloading of Youtube videos. He sometimes gets the error message "Javascript application: conversion requires an external application that appears to be missing on your system"
– When DownloadHelper runs it gives you several options for converting the format. Paul always downloads directly without converting.
– Paul was going to have him check the version he's using, but he's using a Mac and Paul doesn't have a Mac handy. They asked Marsdon to contact them after the show.
– Paul said the latest version of Download Helper is 4.9.12 for both PC & Mac. Marsdon may just need to update.
– After downloading a Youtube video in the native .flv format Paul uses Videolan to play the .flv file.

Dec 1 is the Nevada City Hackathon. For more info visit nevadacityhackathon.com
<Also mentioned the the 10-24-12 show notes>

Last updated 11:16 PM 11/28/2012

HDR (High Dynamic Range) PhotoFilter uses EXIF data to make "Hypereal" images

Newer CArs: Read Diagnostic Codes with ELM327 for as little as $15 : )

John McAffee of Antivirus Fame Eccentric Fugitive in Belize…

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 < >

Glenn is now an owner of an iPad "4" aka the iPad Retina Display.
New to this model is the Lightning plug, which was mentioned in the 10-24-12 show.

At one point, Glenn had a Sprint iPhone 4S but had no luck getting Sprint to unlock it. He took it to an Apple store with a complaint, hoping to eventually exchange it for an unlocked phone but they give it a clean bill of health. He only came away impressed with the short time it took them to open the phone, in light of the difficulty he's had opening earlier models of the iPhone.

The other new feature of the new iPad is the A6 quad 4 processor. It's supposed to be much faster than the A5 used in earlier models.

aul talked about the IMEI number. It contains a serial number that's unique to each phone. It also contains other information about the phone — like the manufacturer. He found an interesting site that explains the IMEI. One use for the IMEI number is for reporting a stolen phone. Every cell phone has the number, even the CDMA phones. It was noted that the iPhone 4S is dual mode (has both CDMA & GSM). Later in the show, it was implied that all iPhones from the 4S onward are dual mode.

Both Sprint & Verizon use CDMA and, Glenn said, you're stuck with using their phones with the respective carriers only. They just don't want to unlock their phones. But he said they will unlock their phones for international use without much resistance because they what to keep you as a customer. He also said there is no good jailbreak for the latest iPhone operating system IOS 6.1, yet.

Glenn said both GSM & CDMA phones can be unlocked so they can be used with a different carrier, but Sprint & Verizon choose not to. He thought the carriers were recently required to unlock out-of-contract phones, but he then remembered that might be true of AT&T due to a lawsuit it lost. AT&T will unlock a phone if you hound them enough.
<There's more about IMEI & unlocking by AT&T in the 4-18-12 show notes. And here is an article about how AT&T Will Unlock Out-of-Contract iPhones>

Paul noted his iPhone 3GS lacks Siri and panoramic photography, but "everything else works".

Paul recently upgraded his Mac to the Mountain Lion operating system and found that hitting function key (lower left of keyboard) twice enables the dictation mode. Your voice is sent to a remote server to be converted to text and is then sent back. It does one sentence at a time and you shouldn't expect that what you say will remain private. The other option is to use Dragon Naturally Speaking <discussed on a previous show> — about $100 on Amazon.

Paul then talked about high dynamic range photos (HDR). The human eye can discriminate a range of brightness by a factor of one million. In photography, the medium has even a shorter range and you tend to lose the detail in either the very dark or very light areas. HDR takes over-exposed and under-exposed pictures (of the same scene) and combines them in a way that brings out the details in both the shadows and highlights. He mentioned that Exif data, which contains things like F-stop & shutter speed, is stored along with the image. Then, programs like Photo Shop use this data to create HDR pictures. For more info, see the above link.

Glenn tried to access the Comrex in the studio with his iPad using a web browser but was having trouble. Paul said that might be because the Chrome browser Glenn was using may be relying on the Safari webkit. Apple restricts other browsers to using Safari's webkit for security reasons. Even when you think you're using a different browser, it's actually using Safari's webkit. And Safari doesn't allow Flash or ActiveX to work on the iPad, thereby leading to Glenn's problem.
<The Webkit site is here. >

Adrianna of KVMR is still looking for a donation of a Mac. It should have at least an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. <For more info see show notes for 7-25-12 & 8-29-12> You can contact her at membership at kvmr dot org (or even zen at kvmr dot org).

A caller with dialup internet is looking for a new computer that can work with it.
– Newer Macs don't support modems at all.
– Most newer PC don't come with modems.
– One option is to install an internal PCI modem <the type that plugs into a motherboard slot inside of a desktop>.
– Use a USB modem (but it won't work on a Mac with an OS later than 10.6). Make sure it supports Win7 or Win8 if that's what you have.
– Look for a refurbished PC with XP (or even an older OS). Try overstock.com, geeks.com and perhaps buy.com. Look for a 1 yr warranty (even for a refurbished unit). Paul has seen some for about $149.
– Since AT&T has no plans to bring DSL to her area, try getting broadband from Digital Path or SmarterBroadband.

Cars produced after about 2003 have a diagnostic socket, usually under the dash. When there is an error light (check engine, for example), you can determine what it means by using relatively expensive equipment or with a unit from China that Paul found for $15. It uses BlueTooth to transmit the information to an Android device, for which there is an app.

The Chinese unit is a clone and uses an early version of the firmware for the elm327 chip. It has a few bugs that later firmware corrected. But the later firmware was designed so it can't be copied <don't look for it on a Chinese knockoff>. See the above link.

Paul said he'll review the $105 PD10 Android tablet on the next show. It has an A5 dual core CPU. Earlier he had bought the PD20 and he talked about that one on the 10-31-12 show.

A caller <I think he said his name is Gus> said he's a photographer and that he appreciated the explanation of the HDR concept. <see above> Paul noted that the process is just the starting point and it's up to the user to use it creatively and not get carried away, otherwise the images can look very unnatural.

Talking about the diagnostic socket, Gus mentioned that he only had to use a crossover wire in his '89 car's socket and then the lights on his dash would signal what the problem was by blinking a certain number of times. He said you'd have to have the manual to decode the blinking and, by his recollection, there were about 50 different conditions that could be reported.

Zack called. He uses Adobe Lightroom and the Dropbox (a place to store your files on the net). When using Lightroom he can access the photos at Dropbox but when he opens Dropbox directly, he can't find the pictures.
– Paul's guess is that if the images are large, it's actually taking a long time to transfer to Dropbox. Zack said he's waited up to 36 hours.
– Paul wondered if images sent to Dropbox thru means other than Lightroom show up ok. Zack said he's tried it that and the images do show up.
– Paul ask if there are a large number of images involved and Zack said there are about 4000. Paul then suggested Zack try using a library of just a few images to see of that makes the difference.

Last update 9:55 PM 11/14/2012

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 < >

The guys talked about the new Windows 8 saying it's relatively inexpensive. Paul restated what he said in the last show, that doing an upgrade over an older version of Windows is not a good idea.
– If you've been using Vista, this is a chance to move on to a better OS.
– If you've been using XP for some time and haven't reloaded it, it may be suffering from what Paul called 'old Windows syndrome'. He said that after about 3 years it starts to go 'pear shaped' and, in a business setting, it happens even sooner. He didn't say what he meant by 'pear shaped'. <I think he meant it gets sluggish>. An upgrade to Win8 is something to consider, in this case.
– Remember to backup your data and be sure it can be restored before upgrading.
– Some versions of an operating system have a discounted price for the upgrade. You'll normally need to justify your ownership — usually you'll need to insert the disk from the older OS. Additionally, the copy of the older Windows has to be legitimate and authenticated (Microsoft has to know that it's legitimate).
– One way to go is to take out the old hard drive, put in a new one and then install the new operating system.
– When you install an operating system, unplug any external drives, including flash drives. This is especially true when installing Windows XP because you may end up with it being installed to a weird drive letter (rather than the typical C: drive) and you'll have to start over.

Rather than upgrading, consider getting a new computer. The costs of new machines are pretty low. If your machine is up to 7 years old, it should still be good for web browsing, word processing, etc. If it has a dual core CPU, so much the better. A single core CPU that's over 2 gighertz in speed is ok too. Having 1gig of memory (RAM) is advised — memory is not that expensive.

Glenn said Fry's has a 15.6" ASUS laptop dual core computer with an E2 Vision AMD chip, 4gig memory, 500gig hard drive for $278. There is usually a $16 to $18 recycling fee. It has Windows 7 and you can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $14.99. The sale lasts 2 days.

The Microsoft Surface tablet has debuted last week. Mentioned in the last show is an article about it.

The Google ChromeBook is also out. It's a 12" notebook built by Samsung. It operates on a Google operating system, similar to Android, Glenn speculated. Paul said it mainly runs the Chrome web browser and everything is done on the web. The base model is $249 that uses wi-fi. The $449 model comes with 3G connectivity <cellular and optional, as noted below> including 2 years of free 100 megabytes per month data allowance from Verizon. With both units you'll get something like 100 gigabytes of web storage, but it's free for only 2 years and you'll have to pay a subscription fee after that. So, do your homework before jumping in. <It was mentioned in the last show>

Paul mentioned that the app stores for both Android and Apple iTunes have approximately equal number of apps — at about 700,000.

Microsoft is being sued for patent violations in the Surface tablet. The problem is the tiling feature (icons are presented as tiles on the screen). Another company is claiming ownership of the idea that a running application shows a thumbnail view of what's going on in the background. <There's an article about the suit here.>

The Surface runs Windows RT and Paul wasn't sure what the RT stands for — maybe 'runtime' or 'real time'. It looks a lot like Windows 8. <As I understand it, RT is Windows 8 made to work on the ARM processor, which is popular in the tablets. >

The Mac OS from about version 10 to the current version has been pretty consistent in the user experience. However, going from Windows XP to Windows 7 has required acclimation for many people and may have caused some to migrate to the Mac. With Windows XP it was possible to make it act like an earlier version (Windows 2000 or '98) but Windows 7 or 8 can't be made to act like XP, Paul said.

Glenn read off some specs for the ChromeBook: the $449 version is the model 550, comes with apps built-in, 12.1" display, less than 1" thin, 3.3 pounds, 6 hours of battery time, boots in less than 8 seconds, dual-band wi-fi, gigabit Ethernet, a 3G modem is optional. The $249 base model has a 11.6" display, it's .7 inch thick, 2.42 pounds, 6 hours battery time, boots in less than 10 seconds and dual-band wi-fi

Glenn said he saw the Samsung Galaxy Tablet 2, mentioned in last week's show, on sale for $289. And Paul noted there is a huge shakeout going on in this market. The Android operating system is free of royalties and that contributes to lower prices.

Paul mentioned the model PD20, a 7" tablet running Android 4.03. < <I think this is the one mentioned in last week's show. This MIGHT be the unit, I'm not sure & I don't endorse the website.>. In using Android, you're tied to Google and you'll sacrifice some privacy (they'll know what files you store, what websites you visit, etc.). You can opt out of the "privacy act", but many features will no longer be available.

Glenn thanked the people who've become KVMR members.

Paul talked about cost of expertise and he related a story involving the ship Queen Mary. At one point the ship was in for repairs and the onboard engineers couldn't get the boilers running so an expert was called in. He spent a half an hour and eventually used a big wrench to bang on the pipes to get it working again. The charge for the service was $1000 and the captain was suspicious of an overcharge and asked he itemize the bill. The mechanic said it's $10 for the couple of minutes I spent banging the pipes, and $990 for knowing where to bang.

Paul said his Mac uses the Mountain Lion operating system and it has sandboxing — when you run an application, it operates inside a sandbox (it runs isolated from the rest of the apps). The Google Chrome browser is like that — if something crashes in one tab, it doesn't affect the other tabs. The Google ChromeBook inherits that trait.

Michael called. He started with computer in 1984 using the Sinclair ZX81, went to DOS, an now uses Linux. He encouraged the guys to talk more about it and promote it. He thinks it's superior to both Mac & Windows. It has 10's of thousands of programs, most of which are free or ask only for a donation.
– Paul works with Linux and Glenn had a ne tbook with Linux, but Linux just wasn't embraced by the public.
– It is useful for recovering data from a hard drive when an operating system refuses to boot. <This was talked about in the last show>.
– The guys don't think Linux will ever make it into the mainstream.
– One of the things holding it back is that it comes in different flavors. Currently, Paul prefers the Ubuntu version from ubuntu.com
– It can be used to resurrect older computers that are not adequate for running the latest Windows or Mas OSes because it's requirements are more modest.
– If you don't want to burn a CD with Linux, you can get the Ubuntu folks to mail you one for a donation of a few bucks.
– Some familiar programs run on Linux: Firefox and OpenOffice or LibreOffice and Celestia for example. <See comments about OpenOffice and LibreOffice in Favorite Programs & Utilities>
– It's a "tremendous educational resource" for the kids and there are "oodles of games".
– A number of departments at KVMR run Linux.
<Before downloading Ubuntu, you may want to read this article about the Gnome version of Ubuntu:
Don't like Ubuntu's Unity? Try the new Gnome Remix instead>
<If you want to burn the Linux CD yourself, here are a couple of programs for burning an ISO image:
Infra Recorder…download it here
ISO Recorder>

John called. He looked up chromebook & found that it runs on an ARM processor.
– The ARM has been around for awhile. The original ARM was developed in Cambridge England for the Psion organizer, as Paul recalled.
– It's been licensed out to manufactures in Asia to make CPU's based on the ARM instruction set.

John asked if there is a future for the ARM processors; is it competitive with AMD & Intel?
– Paul said no. It uses a reduced instruction set.
– It's mainly geared to portable devices (phones & tablets).

John is also a fan of Linux and wondered if it can be loaded on the ChromeBook, which runs on an ARM processor?
– Yes. Paul thinks you should be able to make Linux run on a Chromebook.
– Linux has been compiled to run on many processors.

Bongo called. His solution to maintain privacy on his cell phone is to put it into a "crown royal box", which acts like a Faraday Cage or to wrap it in aluminum foil.
– Glenn wondered if a mylar bag would do the same thing, but Bongo said he wouldn't trust it because it's so thin.
– <I wonder if turning it off would be just as effective, or would it still leak information?>

You can find out what Facebook knows about you. There's a link on the settings page. It will allow you to download all the information they know.

Webb called with his observations about experts. He's worked in the tech industry and has noticed, from the way the engineers talked, that they are "a breed of their own" and their designs are often counterintuitive and even frustrating. "It adds to the burden of having to learn how to do these things because of the way they've got it all set up". Paul thought it has more to do with 'committees' than engineers. A well-thought-out idea gets submitted to a committee that then ruins it.

Alan Stahler sent an email with another example of a Faraday Cage: the microwave oven.
– Paul said DON'T do this: Put lightbulb (the old fashion filament type) in a dish of water in a microwave <maybe he said WITH a dish of water, I couldn't tell from the audio>. You'll get a fireworks display when you turn on the microwave.
– DON'T do this either. Put uncracked chestnuts in the microwave oven — they'll explode.

The Curious Forge is located 520 East Main Street in Grass Valley
Tomorrow they'll have their monthly 1st Thursday of the month open house. And this weekend they'll have workshops. If you're interested, email Glenn: zen at kvmr dot org. The Curious Forge website is thecuriousforge.org.

Bonnie called. She wanted to know if "aluminum wallets protect card strips from being read by people who have readers", like credit cards.
– That's just a magnetic strip and one would have to get VERY close to read it.
– A more serious concern is cards that have RFID chips, which are read by radio transmitters/receivers. Metallic screens (Faraday Cages) are needed. So if you use solid aluminum, that should do it.

Paul mentioned the Nevada City Hackathon is happening Dec 1st & 2nd. Also see the notes for the last show for more info.

Last updated 7:59 PM 11/4/2012
Changes:
corrected – some rephrasing for clarity
added link – article about: Microsoft is being sued for patent violations
added link – specs for: model PD20, a 7" tablet running Android 4.03
added link – article about the Gnome version of Ubuntu
added links – a couple of programs for burning an ISO image
added link – def: instruction set & reduced instruction set
added line – def: compiled