Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart
They're tagged with #Zentech

Editor comments are delimited by < >

Paul referred listeners to the notes from the last show and recapped a couple of items.
– AT&T will be capping the DSL usage because of the huge amount of traffic on the internet, especially video from Netflix.
– Adam from Smarter Broadband was again invited to be on a future show.

Glenn brought up Bernie's phone call from the last show. Glenn said he did some speed testing of Digital Path and found that the rate varied widely depending on the time of day. At 7pm Monday it was at about 8%; at 2am Tuesday he was getting a speed approaching that of dialup.

He was using speedtest.phonepower.com that measures not only speed but also the quality of your connection.
Glenn speculated that Digital Path may be paying less to its provider for the late night hours so they can buy more bandwidth during the day — but this was just speculation. On Tuesday at about 3pm he was getting 90% and was able to download at 4 megabits/sec even though he was paying for up to 3 megabits/sec. He said he'd continue to collect more speed data.

Paul said that AT&T, when their caps go into effect, will notify their users using the sbcglobal, att.net or pacbell mail accounts you get with their service, so keep an eye on those mailboxes — many people tend to ignore them.

When the guys help people setup new email accounts, they encourage the use of one of more popular web based services rather than the one from the provider because if you change providers the email address will no longer be valid. Online services like Yahoo, Gmail or Hotmail will give you a longer lasting address.

Also mentioned in the last show, Glenn reminded people to be aware of overextending the use of their voice or data cell phone plans. The phone companies are not yet required to notify you when you're getting close to or are over your limit, so it's your responsibility to keep track. In the case of AT&T, any notification you get may go to the email address they have provided — another reason not to ignore that mailbox.

Paul said that Gmail allows you to add a POP account that will pull in mail from that account. You can set it up to retrieve mail from the previously mentioned sbcglobal or att.net mailboxes and read it along with the rest of your Gmail.

Glenn questioned Paul about setting up Gmail to use the IMAP protocol <more about IMAP> so it will pull in mail from other mailboxes and retain them on the Gmail server.
– Gmail gives you 7.5 gigabytes of mail storage and any mail it pulls in from other accounts are marked as coming from a external location.
– To set it up, go to the upper right of the Gmail page and click on 'Settings' and under 'General settings' you'll see the POP & IMAP options. Paul recommended using IMAP.
– If you use the Thunderbird mail program, it will detect IMAP automatically if you have it turned on. But you have to tell Gmail to use it.
– For more info do a google search for the words: gmail imap.
<more about POP & IMAP in the Aug 25, 2008 show>

Jeff called to say he did some research on the AT&T bandwidth throttling. He said AT&T provides a link in email notifications to its users that leads to a graph of their usage statistics.
He also said he found a Nevada County site that "discussed servers & websites" <& presumably issues regarding internet speed>
– He said AT&T may be throttling usage because they are acquiring a cable company and want people to view content over cable rather than the internet.
– The Nevada County website also said the monthly limit is reached by watching regular video for just 3 hours a day. And if you're watching high def, you'll reach the cap with just 1.5 hours a day.
– AT&T Uverse provides movies on-demand, but the piggyback providers will be booted from the Uverse cable, Jeff said. Paul called them 2nd tier providers.

The disclaimer:
The thoughts and opinions and the words spoken are those of this speaker and not necessarily those of KVMR, its staff, broadcasters or board of directors.

Paul recalled a great site he'd found years ago called internettrafficreport.com which shows the worldwide "index of connectivity" — the speed and reliability of major hosts like Telus US.

KVMR has 2 separate internet feeds — Comcast and AT&T. And there's a device called a dual WAN router, which they haven't configured yet, that takes both feeds and combines them for distribution to various devices (like computers) at the station. Comcast provides 15 megabits/sec & AT&T 5 megabits/sec. That gives a bigger bandwidth and provides redundancy in case one source goes down.

Talk turned to battery backups or UPS. Their purpose is to provide power long enough to allow you to properly shut down your computer. A smart UPS will tell the computer to shut down and, in the process, do an orderly closing of running programs. And the software that comes with it will give you interesting usage statistics. Paul recommended smart UPSs over regular ones.

Glenn said that after a power outage he disconnects his appliances, And after it comes back on he plugs them back in one at a time so "that the whole system doesn't get hit with an instant spike".

Paul talked about backup generators.
– They don't produce a clean alternating current, but anything from a square wave to a lumpy sine wave.
– This poor alternating current can cause problems with a UPS — the UPS may cut itself from the generator and start drawing on the battery.
– Better generators will state that they're suitable "for computers and things like that".
– Older generators, under a big load, can vary from the standard 60 cycles and cause brownouts. Unplugging an inductive load <consisting of coils of wire like a motor> from them can make the cause a spike.

Dennis called. He used to work for Southern Pacific railroad back in the 80s. He worked on a team that laid plastic conduits, for carrying fiber optic cables, that went to many cities in the US. The cables eventually ended up in the hands of Quest Communications. His point is that there's a huge amount of bandwidth — 8 4-inch tubes each holding over 1000 fiber optic cables.

Also mentioned on the last show, Paul reminded people that KVMR now has podcasts. You can listen to many shows at anytime, not just during the broadcast. Find the link on the main KVMR page or directly here.

Don called about generators. He recently got a Yamaha 2800 inverter style generator. He said it's important to get an inverter style if you're going to run electronic equipment on it. It isolates the output of the alternator, that's hooked to the motor, from the actual AC output so the motor speed can vary somewhat and you still have a stable output.
The Yamaha has an economy mode where the motor speed comes down when there's no load, thus saving fuel. If you then put a big load on it, the power will lag until the motor regains speed; but working at full speed it had no problems.
Don said he bought the Yamaha used for $800. There was speculation that a new one would be in the $1300 to $1500 range.

Paul stated that during a brownout equipment can over heat because cooling fans can slow down and lose effectiveness. Don added that, in a motor, when the voltage goes down the amperage goes up, resulting in resistive heating.

Art called wanting to know how to get the content in his address book into a Word document on his Mac.
– Try going into the address book application and look for 'export' in the 'file' menu. Art said he had no success with that.
– Paul googled 'export mac address book' and found Export Address Book 1.5.3 It can export to comma separated (CSV), tab separated and html table formats. The html table is probably the most useful for pasting into a Word doc.

Paul often goes to download.com for utilities such as the address book exporter. Their search facility allows you to narrow the search to your type of computer. Paul said he's never seen software at download.com that had a virus — "these things are, to some extent, tested".
Glenn added that at download.com you'll see a lot of ads and you'll need to scroll down the page to see your search results.

Charlie called about Craigslist. He wanted to know how to search across multiple geographic locations — if you don't mind traveling to retrieve your purchase.
– Use 'site:' in a google search to restrict it to the craigslist domain. E.g. if you want to search for an RV, enter RV site:craigslist.com. But remember, Google scans the web periodically and the results may not be the latest Craiglist ads.
– Listeners were asked to call in with other suggestions.
– Later in the show, Paul found the site crazedlist.org that might do what he wanted. You'll have to change your browser setting to turn off referrers.

A caller thought that the site quince.com would do the desired Craigslist search but Paul checked and it doesn't. The caller thought the name might be only similar to quince.com.

The same Caller also said he has Toshiba laptop that's just recently started booting up in Dos while beeping an error code. It would ask which operating system to start up in, with Vista the only choice. He would choose Vista but then the password prompt would come up with a password already filled in. He'd put in his true password and continue as normal.
– Listen to the pattern of the beep code and ask Toshiba what it means.

Listeners were advised that the next Zentech show is April 13.

Last updated: 9:13 PM 3/30/2011 

KVMR Podcasts and Back Broadcasts  (Time Shifted Community Radio!)

ATT hard wired DSL will be capping traffic: starting May, at aout 150gb

Additional notes:

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart
They're tagged with #Zentech

Editor comments are delimited by < >

Paul talked about podcasts, which is a way to listen to programs at your convenience rather than at the time of the broadcasts. KVMR has many show podcasts and you can find them by using the above link or, better yet, you can start at the KVMR main page where it talks about podcasts and allows you to subscribe to them.

A couple of years ago AT&T was required to allow customers to take their phone numbers and use them with other carriers — a process called number porting.

Now it's possible to have copper phone wires, originating at AT&T, coming to your house without a dial tone (let alone the phone number).
– This mean you can have what's been called Dark DSL or Naked DSL.
– There was always the assumption that a dial tone was needed to get DSL — not true. You can have DSL without phone service. To find out more go to att.com/dsl and look for "just DSL".

The disclaimer:

The views and opinions expressed on this show belong to the hosts only.

Paul wondered if a person with phone service & DSL could just drop the phone service. Glenn guessed there would be no penalty, but listeners were invited to call if they've had experience with this.

In response, Thea called to say she ported her phone number to her cell phone and was told her DSL was no longer valid and she had to switch to AT&T Uverse. As a result, her charge went from $15 to $19.
Glenn asked her if she gets TV over Uvers, but Thea didn't know — she doesn't watch TV. Glenn said he'd do more research into the matter.

After she gets set up with the new account, Glenn said she could test her connection speed with Speed Test and also search the Zentech site with the words 'check speed' for other speed testing info.

Thea went on to ask about increasing the volume on her iPhone.
– Be sure the arrow on the left-hand side is pushed to the top. She said it is.
– Glenn said the original intent for the speaker is to ring the phone and it's a futile effort to get decent volume for conversation.
– Use a Bluetooth headset instead of the phone's speaker.
– The guys mentioned Bluetooth car radios that squelch the radio program when a call comes in, allowing you to talk hands-free. Glenn said the ones with built-in microphones aren't as good, due to ambient noise, as the ones with external mics, which can be positioned closer.
– Check if the speaker holes are clogged up.

Stephanie called. She has Hughes Net (a satellite service) for her internet connection and wanted to know how to extend the usage limit on incoming data — the connection slows down when the limit is exceeded. She said she gets spotty service with her Verizon account but was thinking of getting an aircard to use with it, to replace Hughes Net.
– The Verizon air card has monthly cap.
– You can pay Hughes Net more to increase the limit.
– Get a terrestrial wireless service like Smarter Broadband or Digital Path. Terrestrial wireless uses transmitters on the ground (vs. satellite) and requires a clear, direct path from transmitter to receiver. Glenn said, unlike satellite networks, terrestrial wireless is not affected by rain & snow.
– Hughes Net subscribers can check the status of the network by typing in 192.168.0.1 into their browser's address bar.

AT&T is going to start capping DSL service — you'll have a limit in how much data you can receive. Paul thinks it will begin in May.
– In general, beware of charges for exceeding data limits.
– Keep an eye on your cell phone bills. Glenn said he got billed a roaming charge for 3 calls he didn't even answer. The charge was forgiven after he complained.

Up until about 2 or 3 years ago, the only way to know if you were getting close to your cell plan limits is to call AT&T. Now you can punch in *min# to find out.
Paul said he found a free iPhone app called myat&t that allows you to keep track of your usage for voice, data and text. It also allows you to subscribe or unsubscribe for services like roaming, blocking, 411, etc.
Glenn said the FCC might soon require the phone companies to notify you when you're getting close to your usage limits.

Paul said his bank gives him the option to get messages on the cell phone when activity in his account approaches the limits he designates — e.g. when there's an ATM withdrawal of more than $300.

Glenn said bank overdraft protection is now opt-in. If you want your bank to cover your overdrafts, you have to set that up in advance. And be aware of the fees that go along with that. He also said that charges for using ATMs that don't belong to your bank are going up.

Bernie called to say that Digital Path is the least ethical of all the communication companies he's encountered. His tru-put was not measuring up to what he was paying for, even using their top tier plan. They give him the run-around for about 6 months. They agreed to send a technician out, but in the mean time his complaint to the Attorney General resulted in that office sending a letter to Digital Path fingering him as a whistle-blower. Shortly afterward, Digital Path disconnected him without prior notice — though he got his money back.
– It's very important to keep thorough logs of what's going on as evidence.
– Blog about your experience. An example was given of a blogger having trouble unsubscribing from AOL. Blogging about it eventually lead to AOL officials being grilled in front of the national TV audience (possibly the Today Show). When blogging, always remain factual.
– Remember, most internet services share bandwidth among many users. Satellite especially and cable are like that, DSL too, but to a lesser degree. You're not always going to get the highest speed.
– Write back to the Attorney General explaining what happened as a result of your initial complaint. Also complain to the Dept of Consumer Affairs.

Lorraine came into the studio and told a story about the success she had using the Credo Mobile cell phone service when other people couldn't use their Verizon & AT&T phones. At the time, she was in a remote part of Hawaii with a bad tire.
Credo uses the Sprint network and does not charge for roaming. She said they are a conscientious company, give good customer service and a percentage of their profits go to progressive causes. Locally, she said, she's been getting good connections. Glenn said he'd heard that the Sprint service has improved.

Glenn mentioned that Sprint had been sharing some cell towers with T-Mobile and wondered what would happen when AT&T acquires T-Mobile. Glenn said the reason AT&T is buying T-Mobile is to acquire their 4G network.

Glenn wondered if Sprint used GSM. Paul said it does, but they opened Lorraine's phone and it didn't have a SIM card.

Paul quipped that Alexander Graham Bell made the ring of the early phones sound discordant as possible so people would be more likely to pick up — they were charged only if they picked up.

Adam of Smarter Broadband called to explain why they have usage limits (caps). There are limitations on the bandwidth of a wireless system. He said the limits are to make it fair for all of their users.

Until recently Smarter Broadband was paying $80 per meg of bandwidth and his customers are paying less than that, so the bandwidth has to be shared. He said people watching movies from Netfilx hog the bandwidth (Netflix usage accounts for approx. 40% of internet bandwidth). He said people are often unaware of the impact of their activity on the overall cost of providing the connection.

He went on to say that, in the 5 or so years they've been in business, they haven't yet charged anyone for going over the limit but that they do send out notices if someone is going way over their limit.

A tentative agreement was made to have Adam on a future show.

Neko called for recommendations in buying a smartphone or iPhone and the best service plans. There wasn't enough time to answer & she was asked to call the studio after the show.

Last updated: 8:40 PM 3/23/2011 

Top 10 PC Speedup ideas!

Recorder Software:
http://www.roemersoftware.com/

Using a conventional Wireless Access Point as a Range Extender

 Android MalWare: & Remedy

Today's show will use a Horoscope for your Technical Future the Next 2 weeks!

 GMAIL Outage.. . Or Not

Transfer a WebSite! 

Additional notes

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart
They're tagged with #Zentech

Editor comments are delimited by < >

The guys talked about state of technology at KVMR when Paul first started working there — around 1999 or 2000. Paul said there was 1 Mac SE and the station just got an ISDN line. The station started streaming over the internet to users who had dialup connections, giving them audio similar to AM radio.

Glenn said KVMR had other computers, they were Macs, and they weren't networked. The station gradually migrated to PCs because, in part, they were less expensive.

Glenn said there are nice refurbished computers at geeks.com, buy.com or ebay.com. And there are a lot of Dell computers that have come off lease at overstock.com. When you buy cheep computers, check to see if they come with the operating system. If not, you'll have to factor that into the price.

Paul talked about laptop computers becoming more popular. Their price has come down and they're on par with their desktop equivalents. Paul has seen Lenovo laptops for under $300 at overstock.com. He also said Staples is reselling refurbished units with XP on them. Glenn came in to say that netbooks are priced from $300 to $450 depending on their power and hard drive size.

Glenn said he really likes using a wireless mouse and a nano receiver, which sticks out less than a 1/4". On the other hand, he said, bluetooth mice are expensive by contrast. However, Paul said, that a while ago, he found a bluetooth mouse at buy.com for $12.

Glenn went on to say that Mac users can get extra features by using a generic PC mouse. Paul said Mac users with only 1 button can get the equivalent of a right button by holding down the control key while clicking. If you have a Mac Book made in the last year, you can get the right click by touching the track pad with a second finger.

Some people try to figure out what Apple is coming out with next by noting what companies they buy. The multi-gesture track pads came from a company Apple bought years ago and it was an academic project for Multitouch.

Since the iPad 2 came out, other companies have been trying to come out with competing tablets approaching the $200 mark. Better tablets are the Samsung Galexy at about $699 and the Motorola Xoom at $799 (including service) from Verizon. Glenn heard a rumor that you can buy the Xoom from Verizon with 1 month cellular contract, cancel the contract and keep the unit.

Paul said he learned something clever about the Tracfone pay-as-you-go cell phone, which you can buy at many general retailers. You can unlock it and put in another SIM card, but the firmware itself has a counter to keep track of the number of minutes you use and will lock up went you use up the minutes you originally bought. You'll then have to get back on the network you were supposed to be on and buy more minutes. <Defeating the purpose of having a different SIM card>

Glenn told a tale of someone who broke into a house to take a shower. While in the shower, he heard what he thought was noise from someone breaking into the house and called 911 to report a burglary. The noise was from the house owner. Paul then told a story of bank robber who, having been marked by an exploding dye pack, hailed the police responding to the event.

Paul referred to the above link regarding 'Top 10 PC Speedup ideas!'. However he thought that adding more memory should come before getting a hard drive. It's easier to put in and is pretty cheap.

Paul then talked about software for recording radio broadcasts you receive over the net. The one by Roemer Software is 7megs, costs $30 to download and runs on both Macs & PCs. See the above link.

Glenn suggested using a program like Audacity <see the Favorite Files & Utilities page> and using the line-in port. Paul said that's fine if the audio you're getting comes from line-in but it's a different situation when you're getting it over the net. <Actually, Glenn's idea might work if you use a cable to connect line-out to line-in, but I haven't tried it myself>.

Paul said there's a trick with Window's own mixer program. It's called something like 'stereo mix' and allows you to record the audio. <See the Favorite Programs & Utilities file for instructions> And he also reminded people that there are an increasing number of KVMR shows that make their podcasts available. <You might start at the schedule page and click on the show of interest>

Brian called to say he took a Motorola Razr cell phone to England where he thought he could get a SIM card and use it on their networks, but he couldn't find anyone to unlock the phone.
– Try going to a different shop for the unlocking service, they may need to replace the firmware.
– There are different versions of the Razr and Motorola may have made later models unlockable.
– Buy another make of GSM phone on Ebay, for instance. And buy it already unlocked to save headaches.

Brian then asked where he could go in the U.S. to get a phone unlocked.
– Search the net for websites that provide unlock codes.
– Theoretically, the law says after you met your contract obligation, the cellular provider should allow you to unlock it.

The Android operating system recently got it's first malware (or virus) thru an app. But Google, maker of Android, can remotely kill such apps. Apple keeps rigid control over their apps for the iPhone, but if you jailbreak your iPhone and then use a site like Cydia to download apps, you're exposing yourself to malware. For more about the Android malware, see the above link. Android users shouldn't have to do anything because of Google's remote kill switch.

Some Gmail users (about 200,000 or .02% of all Gmail users) weren't able to get some of their mail recently. See the above link.

Yahoo has been a major target of stolen email accounts resulting in spam/phishing attacks from that domain. Though he couldn't confirm it, Paul thought that at some point 10% of Yahoo's accounts were compromised. Yahoo users shouldn't assume their accounts are safe and should regularly change their passwords.

Do you want to know how to write a horoscope see the above link.

Michael called to say he has a computer that's about 10 years old and it's gotten so full of viruses that it won't start. He's taken it in for service but the tech couldn't get it going either and was told to get a new computer. He's had it stored away for a while and wondered if there was now anti-virus technology available to fix his problem.
– You may get it fixed but you'll still end up with an old computer that may have been fine 10 years ago but inadequate now.

Michael said he just wants to get data off of it.
– What may seem like a symptom of a virus may be a hardware problem.
Explaining further, Michael said that it goes thru the boot up process and then just reboots.
– When it starts press F8 (possibly several times) to get to the safe mode selections. Choose the selection 'Safe mode with command prompt'. If it proceeds without rebooting, That should get you a dos-like screen (black screen with a prompt). Then type in: chkdsk /f. That can fix file errors that are the common reason his symptoms.
– If you can't get to the safe mode screen with the dos prompt, then reload your operating system.

Michael said someone suggested he boot from a Linux CD.
– His computer may be too old to be able to do that. As CD drives get older they have more trouble booting an operating system.
– Even if you could, you still need to know what to do using Linux.

Since Michael is mostly interested in getting the data off the hard drive he can get an external USB hard drive enclosure or just the cables. Then plug the cables into the hard drive, after taking it out of the old machine. He'll then be able to plug it into a more modern computer. But before accessing the hard drive with this new setup, he should scan it for viruses. Finally, transfer the data to this second computer. Some anti-virus software was mentioned: AVG, Microsoft Essentials, Norton if you already have it, or Malware Bytes. Also, be sure you get the correct cable for the hard drive. The older drives are parallel (PATA, likely what he has), the newer ones are serial (SATA).

Paul went on to talk about how to copy or backup a website. The software you get by going to the above link is known as a 'web sucker'. It's called WINWSD and is free.
– It will mark empty links (those that don't point to content).
– It will de-orphanize the website, exclude parts that are no longer accessible.
– It's smart enough to convert absolute links to relative ones. So, when using a browser, you can then click a link and end up going to a location in the copied website instead of the original one.

Some drawbacks of WINWSD…
– It will have trouble following links that are the result of JavaScript.
– Won't pick up password protected web pages.
– Some web hosts don't like web sucking. If WINWSD stops after a minute or two, the website has 'bandwidth throttling'.
– It's written in Hungary so not all the menus are in good English, but the price is right — free.

There's a link above that shows how to convert a wireless router to a range booster for when you have trouble getting a signal at a remote part of your house.

ehow is a great site for explanations on a wide range of topics.

The disclaimer:
The views expressed by us on this show don't represent those of anyone except the speakers, not KVMR, the board, staff or contributors.

Last update: 4:01 PM 3/15/2011 

Noon – 2 PM — Wed: Extended Show!

Free online Optical Character Recognition !

Nevada County Weather & Commentary

iPad, iPhone and more: Printing to your Printer! http://www.printeranywhere.com/

Speed Traps Nationswide?! http://www.speedtrap.org

Nomad Brush Artistry for iPads, Etc.. HERE

Better Deals by Searching than Directly by Website?
IE http://www.vistaprint.com for business cards, etc

small budget fund raising ? Try KICKSTARTER

More Google DOCS formats- Now most Office Docs can be read on the Web

Global Unarchiver for MAC (TheUnArchiver) and for PC (IzArc)

Comparing Various Streaming Media Options

Additional notes

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart

They're tagged with #Zentech

Editor comments are delimited by < >

Paul said if you don't like the way Facebook displays photos, hit F5 and it will go back to the way it previously worked

Glenn doesn't like Facebook because he keeps getting "I love you" types messages from people he doesn't know.
Paul likes it for sharing photos.

Many applications running on the web like Gmail or Google Docs will respond to shortcut keys. E.g. in Gmail if you hit the C key, you'll be able to create a new email.
There are shortcut key for programs you run locally; like in Firefox you can switch tabs with cntrl-1 to go to tab 1, cntrl-2…to go to tab 2, etc.
You can often find out about the shortcut keys using the help facility of the program you're running.

Glenn likes to set his mouse so it will be over the default button in a dialog box. <In XP go to Control Panel -> mouse -> 'pointer options' tab and set the 'Automatically move pointer to the default button in a dialog box'

Paul made the comparison between how Facebook & the internet gained popularity. As both gained users, the amount of useless info increased. So, you need to be more discriminating and find what's useful for you.

Paul said social sites like Facebook work differently from email in that you broadcast information without expecting a reply. He compared it to Usenet where people post & read messages on topics of particular interest. <To experience Usenet go to groups.google.com or use Thunderbird or similar programs>

Glenn mentioned that social media like Facebook & Twitter facilitated the recent social unrest in Egypt.

Paul talked about flash mobs where people gather together in response to posts in the social media sites. Type in the words "flash mob" on Youtube to get video of mobs. Paul thinks that's how dissidents in Egypt got together.

Due to a need at KVMR to convert a picture of text, inside of a PDF file, to plain text, Paul discovered an online site that does optical character recognition (OCR). You don't have to extract the pictures from the PDF individually, you can just send the entire PDF and the site will do the extraction & conversion to text (or a Word document). See the above link.
Paul said the recognition was extremely accurate.

Glenn recalled that the IBM computer called Watson won the Jeopardy contest last week. He said Watson might have had an advantage by being able to press the button quickly. You can find the Watson at ibm.com/watson

You can find an interesting weather site for Nevada County by following the above link. It's privately run and has Doppler radar and photos of local scenes in the blog.

Paul talked about printing from an iPad or iPhone. One way is to copy the text and paste it into an email and then later print the email.
There are 3 apps to print from an iPad. They do best when using an HP printer on a network, but you have to use software called Bonjour (Rendezvous in the PC world) on the computer connected to the printer. The process is simplified by going to the website printeranywhere.com. See the above link.

Glenn again mentioned the $150 Coby tablet model md7015 running Android version 2.1 (see previous show notes). Though it was fine for downloading & reading ebooks, he found, for instance, that when it was in Mexico, the menus switched to Spanish and it was hard to figure out how to switch back. Other problems included poor response and difficulty working with the touch screen. He said he will be returning the unit.

Paul said that there is a hack of the Android operating system but it's not straightforward.

Thanks to Mikail for revealing a new website for hacking the iPhone called whited00r.com. The info for hacking the phone is widely scattered and this site brings it all together. It's especially useful for older iPhones.

Phil called to asked about OCR, He has a project to scan documents of different formats.
– You can try the previously mentioned onlineocr.net.
– There are 2 professional products:
  1) nuance.com Omnipage at $149 and a better one called Omnipage Pro at $499, which will do a better job of maintaining the format (like putting tables of numbers into a spreadsheet).
  2) Canon & Panasonic have special printers/scanners for document management in large projects. Some use keywords that you assign to documents to make them easier to find later. Finding what you've scanned can become a problem in large projects.
– Glenn recommended scanners with a document feeder to do a large number of pages.
– Glenn said most scanners come a light version of OCR software which can then be upgraded.
– Nuance also makes Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software.

Mikail called in to say Apple will be announcing new stuff, possibly tomorrow. Word of a new Macbook Pro is expected. And the iPad 2 should be announced on Wed March 2nd.
He said the iPad 3G has been discounted heavily in Britain for 99 pounds including service. That's in anticipation of the new model.
The new Macbook Pro will include Intel's Lightpeak (named Thunderbold by Apple). This is a connection port that gives you 10 gigabits/sec.
Mikail said, if you're planning to buy a Macbook or iPad, wait for the new models.
Paul said that Apple used a custom chip in the iPad and that makes it more responsive than any other tablet he's seen, avoiding problems like Glenn had with the Coby.
Mikail also suggest you go to the Apple Store & get a referb of a current model, if you want to save money.

Paul mentioned you can get a 'touch stylus' on Ebay for use on touch screens. Some people may find a stylus easier to use than a finger. They go for $2 or $3.

A company called Nomad has come out with a brush for use on touch screens. It's for artists and is supposed to simulate using a brush for painting. It costs about $24. See the above link.

Greg called and said he's tried to read from a floppy disk but he gets an error. And he has some CDs with files that end in .pft <I think that's what he said> that he hasn't been able to open.
– The .pft files can be opened in Outlook. You have to have a copy of Outlook that hasn't been used. You can then use the import function.
– Or, you can create a new profile, a new user, on your computer. Then log out as the current user and log in as this new user. Then run Outlook. It will create a new .pft file. Close Outlook and replace the newly created .pft file with the one you're trying to open. You should then have access to it. This is most reliable way to do what you want.

For Greg's floppy problem:
– Before replacing the floppy drive, try reading your floppy in friends computer.
– Buy another floppy drive. You can get a USB connected floppy drive from Ebay for about $25.
Greg said he can read other floppies in his drive.
– Disks written on one drive may not be readable on another drive due to alignment problems. You'll be able to read disks created on your drive but not others.
– Go back to the computer that created the questionable floppy and see if it will read the disk. Then copy the files off of it.

Mike called. He has a desktop with XP that's running slow. And he asked if the Macs are subject to same problem.
– Maybe it needs a cleanup; vacuum up the dust. <Dust may make the CPU run slower. A control mechanism throttles it down to prevent overheating because dust keeps the heat in>

The disclaimer:
Everything you hear on KVMR is that of the speaker, not necessarily of KVMR staff, board, or underwriters or volunteers.
– Reinstall the operating system (XP). Then it'll run as fast as when you bought it.
– Give it more memory (RAM).
– Clean out the scratch files and redundant files. See the Favorite Files & Utilities page for things like Ccleaner & defrag programs.
– Glenn said some programs that do cleanup, like Weatherbug, install unneeded file and can actually slow down your machine.
– You can check how much RAM you have if you right-click on your desktop and choose properties and then the General tab. Check your manual for the maximum you can install.
– The Mac doesn't have similar problems though you may need to do occasional maintenance by running the disk utilities.
Off topic: Paul mentioned The Unarchiver for file compression on the Mac and IzArch for the PC. See the above link.
Paul said refurbished or used Macs are a good choice but don't use anything less than OS 10.

Paul talked about podcasts as a way of time shifting your listening activity. He recommended iTunes for podcasts even if you don't have an iPod. Many items on the iTunes store are free. He said he enjoys podcasts from Radio Lab and The Moth. He then played a sample from Radio Lab.

If you'd like to know where the speed traps are, visit speedtrap.org.

Paul was recently shopping for business cards at vistaprint.com but then tried cheapbusinesscards.com. Eventually he was directed back to Vistaprint which then detected he'd been shopping around, and so, offered a substantial discount. You may take advantage of similar tactics for other products, just don't delete your cookies.

kickstarter.com is an interesting site for raising funds for small projects. See above link.

Google Docs now supports more formats. See the above link.

Pamala called to confirm the name of the previously mentioned unarchiver. It's Theunarchiver for the Mac & IzArc for the PC. IzArc can open ISO image files too. The links are up above.
The guys highly recommended these programs; they have been using IzArc for a long time.

Roman called wanting to know how to have big documents display on an iPad or some other more cost-effective device.
– You can use Microsoft Word to create HTML documents.
– Save as a PDF file. Android devices should be able to read that format.
Is anything cheaper than iPad that will work for this?
– The Coby unit talked about earlier, Coby also makes units called Velocity, and Cruse. Many companies are currently coming out with similar products running the Android operating system.

Brian called wanting to know how get email to be automatically forwarded from an SBC Global account to a Yahoo account.
– Create a Yahoo account and activate the option to pull in mail from an external account.
– As a paying user of sbcglobal you're entitled to a paid account at Yahoo; call them & ask.

2/3 of Netflix subscriptions are for streaming media as opposed to DVDs.
– There are a couple hundred units that can stream Netfilx, Roku was the first at about $69 base price.|
– Not all titles are available for streaming.
– You need about 2 megabit connection.
– Some DVD players & TVs have Ethernet port & chip that can stream in Netfilx.
– Amazon just started a streaming service.
– See the above link.
– Apple TV has dropped to $99. It does streaming too, from iTunes but maybe not Netflix.
– The Slingbox takes its input from a video source of your choice (usually at home) and then sends the video over the internet to be seen wherever you happen to be. But, sometimes you may get the error "you're in the wrong country". So, there are limitations.

Gary called to ask if can you get special content over the internet like the extra content of DVD'S?
– No, not yet. But the firmware in the Roku boxes can be updated so eventually it may be possible.
– The Roku unit won't work with the older non-Intel Macs and you'll need the Silverlight plugin.

Gary also asked about Mac clones, aka the hackintosh. That is, running Mac software on a PC.

Ways to hackintosh:
– Download an illegal version of the Mac operating system.
– Change the BIOS on the PC so the Mac OS will think it's running on a Mac. This is the best way to go.
– It's not for the faint of heart. Don't do anything serious with a hackintosh because OS updates can disable it. Turn off the update feature.
– Paul tried it using something called Kinoma but it's not for all models of PC's.

Next show is March 9

Last updated: 3:00 PM 2/24/2011 

There should be some talk about Verizon's iPhone

Audiophiles that hate Digital Music Read HERE

My Internet's Not Working (SouthPark) Thanks, Dennis B!

Apple's 9.7" iPad is getting Increasing Competition from "Android Pads"  for as little as $149.00such as these Coby Models

 AutoTune Pitch Quantiser – Any better than Lipsyncing or Sid Vicious's Bass Playing
the Photoshop of the Audio World? Haters will always Hate…
Mesnwhile: Get the iPhone App!

Additional notes

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart

They're tagged with #Zentech

Editor comments are delimited by < >

Paul said the next show, in 2 weeks, will be 2 hours long.

2 pieces of free software were mentioned:
Cobian Backup can backup to just about any drive except a CD, and it runs in the background. It's open source and is available on Sourceforge and comes with good tutorials. It also has compression & encryption options. It has a nice balance between simplicity of use and the ability of the user to configure it.
More info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobian_Backup

The other free software is Synchback to synchronize folders which, in effect, backs up the files. It does require some configuration for your preferences.

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

Glenn talked about Teamviewer, a program that allows 2 computers to communicate such that a user on one can run the other computer remotely over the internet. There are free and commercial versions. Security is provided by a password and an ID number.

Glenn offered kudos to Norton Securities because they were able to quickly solve a problem his friend was having which Glenn, try as he might, was unable to solve. This allowed a newly purchased CD drive to install the new System Works 2011. Norton used a remote access program, similar to Teamviewer, to effect the fix. Such remote software is much easier to use than it used to be, though using a satellite service for your ISP may cause it to be sluggish.

Paul again mentioned the 2 hour show coming up in 2 weeks.

Paul talked about Microsoft Essentials, which is an anti-virus, but not an internet security, program. Paul thinks anyone with Windows XP (with service pack 3) or later operating system has adequate firewall protection. And, he said, modern browsers have fine anti-phishing protection.

So, he said the only other necessity is an anti-virus and recommended AVG for the job. And, he said, all anti-virus programs can fail 1% to 5% of the time. AVG comes in free and commercial version. You can find it here.

About 2 years ago Microsoft bought an anti-virus company and tried to sell the software itself. Glenn thought it ironic that Microsoft was selling software to protect its own operating system.

Paul went on to say that Microsoft Essentials will only work on legitimate versions of Windows — not pirated versions.
<This looks like the link to Essentials>

Paul mentioned that AMD is no longer making 32bit CPUs, only 64bit. Microsoft Essentials is optimized for 64bit machines though it runs on 32bit hardware too.

Feb 10 marks the start of sale of the Verizon iPhone for new customers. Current customers were able to order it last week. Though coverage is better with Verizon, the big gottcha is that it doesn't use the world standard GSM network. Instead, it uses CDMA which does not use a SIM card. As such, it's activated by taking it to the retailer, not by changing the SIM card. World travelers should find it easier to get their GSM phones working in foreign markets just by changing the SIM.

Paul went on to say the Verzion phone can be jailbroken — you will be able to load third party software. Unlocking means you will be able to use it with various providers, but you'll not be able to unlock the Verizon phone to use it on the AT&T network.

Glenn bought the Coby Kyros 7" tablet for someone else. It runs version 2.1 of the Android operating system. He's a bit disappointed because the apps for the Android phones may not run on the tablet. For instance, he tried to get Skype for the tablet but it required the mobile number — which the tablet doesn't have. So, it's unlike the iPod Touch, the later generations of which can use Skype if you plug in an external mic and headset. See the above links for Coby.

Glenn also said there was a problem with the Kyros not being able to send new email, though replying to email worked fine. And when typing a reply, it would put occasionally "ANDROID" into the text of the message. Paul suggested an upgrade of the operating system.

Paul said that Nokia market share has dropped from about 30% to around 25% due, in part, to the popularity of the Android market.

The Android operating system is being used in many products by many manufacturers, unlike Apple's operating system, which is limited to Apple products.

Nokia released their operating system, called Symbian, as open source so developers wouldn't have to wait for the licensing agreements, but this was after the Android OS came out and they couldn't overcome Android's popularity.

Don called to say that the quiz show Jeopardy will match their 2 best former contestants against the IBM Watson computer. <From what I can tell the broadcasts will be Feb 14 thru 16.>

Paul told a story of an early research project for translating English into Russian. The test phrase was "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak". When it was translated back from Russian to English the result was "the vodka is good but the meat is off"

John called with a question about different USB connectors. Does it matter which cable to use as long as it fits?
– There are 3 different type of connectors for such things a cameras and mp3 players. If it doesn't fit don't shove it.
– High power devices don't like skinny cables.
– Some of older cables were designed for USB-1 or USB-2.
– Some cables were made just to provide power and not transfer data.
– Some cables have a cylinder at some point along the length. It's a ferrite core to filter out radio frequency noise. These are a better quality cable.
– The cables operate on 5volts and up to about .5 amps.
– If you plug in many devices into the USB, you may not have enough power for all of them.

John also asked if there was a danger of over charging while using a solar charger.
– If it has a regulator on board there shouldn't be that danger.

Joshua called wanting to know how to use a 3 year old MacBook Pro to drive a TV display.
– On Ebay you can find a cable with mini DVI on one end (connect this end to the MacBook) and HDVI on the other (goes to the TV). A 6' long cable like this cost about $3.
– Modern MacBooks have 2 types of connectors — about 3mm & about 7mm. Make sure the measurement matches your computer before you buy.
– Using such a cable you can connect extend your Mac desktop. <See the show notes of 12-8-10>

Laurel called. She has Windows 7 and is using Gmail. She's having trouble attaching a Word document to her email. Paul walked her thru the process.

When Gmail asks her for the file to attach, she thinks she needs to open Word. What she needs to do is find the files that Word created, and attach that. She thinks she needs to open the Word program when in fact she needs to find the file created by Word.

She was invited to use the Zentech email to continue the tutoring — zen at kvmr dot org

Ellen called to comment about Verizon. She has trouble getting a signal in the house.
– Glenn said the signal strength depends where you are.
– He wondered if Verizon's performance will degrade when they get a lot of new iPhone users.

Ellen is trying to configure her Blackberry email. She said she receives mail just fine but "it will only save return responses as draft".
– Try att.blackberry.com
– Update the Blackberry.
– Use the Blackberry desktop.
– If you've done the above (she has), it's time to call Blackberry for help.
– Glenn thought the SMTP setting might be wrong.

Last updated: 9:00 PM 2/9/2011