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Both Glenn & Paul were in the studio today.

Glenn brought in a MagicJack unit and the guys spent some time talking about different options for a phone service. <Wikipedia article here.>

The MagicJack is $39.95 and you can get it at retailers, or online where shipping charges may apply.
– Their service includes 1-year free unlimited domestic, U.S. & Canada, long distance and cheap international calling.
– But you do have to plug it into your computer and the computer has to remain on to make & receive calls. In addition, the computer has to be running Windows.
|- Ongoing subscriptions are $20 per year.
– "You can port your own number to it". Glenn said he'll be doing that, as he seems to like it the unit.

What Glenn actually has is a MagicJack Plus (for $69.95 initial and $40/year ongoing and an optional 5 year prepaid plan that's even cheaper per year). This unit doesn't require a computer to plug in to. Instead, it can plug directly into an Ethernet port on a router. Glenn has yet to figure out how to get all of the phones in his house connected to the MagicJack — maybe disconnecting the incoming AT&T line at the outside box and connecting an unused wall plug to the MagicJack.

Glenn's MagicJack comes with voice mail, caller ID, call waiting and call forwarding. If you prepay for international calling, calls to many countries are about 2 cents per minute.

Paul noted that in some countries cell phone customers are charged for incoming calls at a premium rate and he avoids calling cell phone numbers in such cases.

Paul went on to say that Skype is another alternative for a phone service. It uses VOIP or voice over internet protocol. He also said ooma.com has a device similar to the MagicJack. It's a decentralized peer-to-peer network similar to Skype in the way it connects. He said it's surprisingly good and asked listeners who've used it for their opinions. Glenn said Ooma costs about $200 and there are no further charges.

Talking about Skype, Paul said that the individual packets travel by different routes (they're reassembled at the destination) and they are, he thinks, encrypted, so it's nearly impossible for the NSA or FBI to snoop on users. The origin and destination of the calls, however, are easily discovered.
<Here are articles concerning privacy with Skype & BitTorrent:
Researchers uncover privacy flaws that can reveal users' identities, locations and digital files.
New MS Office, Skype Could Spy on User Conversations
Researcher claims dangerous vulnerability in Skype>

Glenn said people without a MagicJack can make free calls to someone who has one by using an online VOIP service.

Charlie called in. He had been using Gmail while letting his computer fill in the password during login, but he eventually forgot the password. Now the computer has stopped filling in the password, so now he's stuck. <I've noticed this myself on some sites, and I think it sometimes happens when the login page gets changed so much that the browser no longer associates a password with it — I guess>.
– He's using the Firefox browser and there is a way to look at the passwords that it stores. Go to Tools -> Options -> Security -> Passwords. You'll then see an option to make Firefox display the password along with the website & user name information.
– You can also go to Gmail and click on the button that says something like "I lost my password", He said he tried that but he didn't have an alternate email where an new password can be sent. It's a good idea to provide an alternate email and challenge questions when you sign up for a service.
– It's not likely Gmail (Google) will be able to help him if he calls them directly.
– Keep entering possible passwords even though it may while. After about 3 attempts they may require you to respond to a captcha at each attempt.

Paul suggested a method for creating an easily remembered password. Pick a phrase that's meaningful to you and use the fist letter of each word in that phrase for the password. E.g. using the phrase "I can fly" would yield the password: icf. <It's usually recommended to choose a password several characters long and to add some symbols (! # $ etc) or numbers>
<Password tips mentioned in shows for Aug 23, 2010, Jul 27, 2011 and Jun 8, 2011>
<Password managers mentioned in show for Dec 15, 2008>

There are web sites & browser extensions that store passwords for you and some store other info, for instance, to fill in forms. Roboform was mentioned.

Rick called with a suggestion for remembering passwords. He said he writes all of his confidential information on cards and stores them in a safe place at home. He also uses just the first couple of letters of a word that's meaningful to him and depends his memory for the rest of the word. He then said not to use passwords that are personally relevant to you but are also commonly known to people you associate with or are otherwise easily discovered — spouse's name, your phone number, etc.

Rick also said he's been dissuaded from using Facebook because it's easy to share too much with too many people.
– Sign up using a pseudonym and a fake profile (age, location, etc).
– Paul said advertisers can indeed end up with your information from Facebook.
– You can set up Facebook so only your Facebook friends but NOT friends of friends will see your posts.
– Stick to email to keep your communications private instead of posting to Facebook.
– Even when using email don't click on links in an email if it's not from someone you know.
– And be aware that the email account of someone you know may be compromised. It's best to check with them before you click on any links in email form them.
– Email from a bank asking you to click on a link to fix some problem is likely to be a phishing attack. Call the bank (using their number from a directory) to confirm — don't click such links.

Michael called. He wanted to know if he could listen to this show in the Bay Area.
– Yes, KVMR is broadcast on the internet. You can hear a .mp3 stream at the "Listen Live" link on KVMR's front page.
<Podcasts of past KVMR shows are here.>

Michael went on to ask about the reaction of the technology sector to the Occupy movement. He was wondering if the new media (the internet) will follow the old media (print & broadcast) with unfavorable views of the Occupy movement. <Paul seemed to interpret his question to be whether the movement's message can be censored>
– The internet was developed for the military to be robust.
– Such attempts are subject to failure. Paul mentioned the Streisand Effect — "attention is drawn to something the moment you do try to shut it down".
– And remember, it's because of technology that word of the Occupy movement spread.
– Paul's view is that the internet is just a tool for communication and is essentially neutral.

The disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on this show are those of the speakers only and not necessarily those of the station or its board, its management, the staff, the contributors or the animals that belong to the people concerned.

Yvonne called. She uses AT&T DSL on a LAN and it & keeps going out for her and 2 others.
– Paul said some modems, from AT&T, were bad — they would occasionally reboot. In that case the modem's red light goes on indicating a reboot. That's not true in her case.
– Call AT&T…She's done that and they attempt to service her connection, but the problem comes back.
– Talk to AT&T asking them to check their service records so they know the problem has not gone away.
– Check your contract for the minimum level of service to expect. You may be due to not only reimbursement, but also compensation for the lost service.

Lily called saying some keys on her laptop are not working — she has to push hard. She's tried to blow out and also vacuum the keyboard but that hasn't helped.
– Paul's guess is that the electrical contacts have failed.
– Paul found out that she has a Dell Inspiron 1545 and said that those 4-digit series of Dell Inspirons had this problem in common.
– Check Ebay for a used keyboard. Paul had recently replaced a friend's keyboard for only $8.
– You can try to find a Youtube video showing how to change the keyboard. You just have to pop the top panel off, undo 2 screws and a connector — that's it.
– Also, first be sure it's not under warranty.

Last updated: 10:16 PM 11/11/2011 

HEARING TEST here

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Glenn was in the studio and Paul called in from England.

The guys played around on the site for the hearing test. If you go there, be sure to read the instructions as it's possible to damage your hearing taking the test. See the above link.

Jeff called. He has MacBook as is uses the outline feature in Word for Mac. He said sometimes the A) a) 1) etc don't come up automatically — he has to enter them manually.
– Word tries to follow how you started using the indents. Jeff said it does that sometimes but not always.
– First update the Office suite of programs. It's a separate procedure from updating the Mac. Open <run> the Word program and under the Help menu look for "Check for updates" or maybe "Update Office for Mac". This will update ALL the Office programs.
– "Sometimes the menu system doesn't work" in which case you can go to Applications -> open folder called Microsoft Office 2008 -> find the Microsoft Auto Update App. Paul said he may be wrong and the location of the app is elsewhere, so try the previous method 1st.
– While you're at the update menu, it's a good idea to set it for automatic updates.
– In Word under Insert there's an item called something like 'List". Look for 'bulleted list' and you may be able to set how it behaves.

Doug called and said he's having trouble finding the link to the hearing test.
– Go to zen.kvmr.org, click on Show Notes and then on the show notes for today.

John called. He has MacBook Pro and uses Picasa to manage his photos. When he puts captions on the photos and then tries to email them, the captions don't stay with the photos.
– Paul said that he doesn't use Picasa that way. He publishes them to his Gmail account. After they're published, you can caption them.
– So, in Picasa use the "Publish" menu item and "upload" them to the web album. Then, using the "Share Album" menu, you can enter additional comments and determine whom you want to share with.
– If you insist on using email you can provide the caption in the body of the email.

Paul had a suggestion for people who travel across timezones. Instead of changing the time on your cameras, phones, laptops, etc., change the timezone setting. That way, timestamps on emails and any alarms you've set will reflect the true value.

Marilyn called about a problem with her mouse. Sometimes the arrow <pointer on the screen> doesn't move with the mouse & sometimes the red light of the optical mouse goes out.
Paul said the USB plug isn't very robust — the insert in the connector that has the contacts on it can bend or break.
– Try a different USB port.
– If that doesn't work, try a different mouse. The cable may be damaged.
– For $8 to about $20 you can get a wireless mouse. And look for a nano receiver to go with it. With the smaller receiver there's less chance of damage to the USB port.
– In general, avoid applying unnecessary pressure to anything plugged into a computer.

Next Zentech show is on Nov 9. There will be NO Zentech show on Oct 26 due to a membership drive.

Glenn lent Paul a digital video camera, for use during his trip, which uses a flash drive for storing the video. It's a Sanyo Xacti with a X30 zoom. He said he was very impressed with this small & light camera. It does 720 dots resolution, but he said it's not 'full' HD which would be 1080 pixels left to right on the screen. He also said the battery lasts at least 1 hour.
He mentioned that Youtube now accepts HD video uploads and provides a conversion to lower resolution for those with slower connections.

Glenn read an email from Brian who asked if there's better alternative to Winamp, which he currently uses on his PC, for playing his MP3 files.
– Paul used Winamp before iTunes got as good as it has. But iTunes stores the audio files where IT wants — depending on how you have it configured.
– iTunes "can make what looks like irreversible changes to your music collection…It's important to understand how iTunes works before you start using it."

Brian also asked about a stand-alone hard drive MP3 player that connects to a hi-fi.
– Paul, "The answer has got to be, I'm afraid, an iPod".
– Glenn suggested the possibility of using a $100 music player made by Jawbone that receives via Bluetooth. <wireless receiver plugged into the hi-fi, I guess> If you plug this device into you sound system, then any device that has Bluetooth (Android, iPhone, etc) will be able to play music on your stereo.

Today, Google has an animated graphic of Gumby in acknowledgement of Art Clokey's 90th Birthday. <click on the balls for more animation>

Paul speculated that the recent increase of version numbers by Mozilla's Firefox is an effort to look like it's keeping up with its competitors.

Doug called again to say Art Clokey passed away a couple of years ago.

If you want to look at previous logos by Google, go to google.com/logos. There are different ones for different countries. Be aware that the ones for April 1 may be especially interesting.

Paul mentioned the Wayback Machine at archive.org that has web pages from the past.
Paul said a court of law had ruled that cookies.txt, <later he said robots.txt> a file that controls the access to search engines, should be retroactive. Things can be retroactively removed from the Wayback Machine. The historical web pages have been used in court, for instance, to show the subversive intent of an individual.

Michael Moore will be on KVMR on Oct 29.
<from the show notes of 9-28-11:
Michael Moore will be in Nevada City on Sat Oct 29 in a benefit talk and book signing for KVMR. You can buy tickets, online or here at the station,>

Paul talked about the delay between the FM radio broadcast and the webcast of the Zentech show. The delay can be up to 15 seconds because of the time it takes for the equipment to prepare it for the webcast.

That reminded Paul about the movie "The Kings Speech" and people with a stammering problem. Recent corrective techniques employ a delay between the speaking and the hearing of what's just been spoken by these people. Earplugs with special delaying circuitry change the feedback by about .1 seconds. Though they show a remarkable improvement, the effect is not permanent. Look up "stammer correction" on Youtube to see examples.

Paul mentioned that he had some trouble using Skype & Secure Shell when he was in Prague. He thought it was because he used a public network that locked out anything that could cause trouble and only allowed port 80 to work. He didn't think that it was an institutional policy but was done to avoid complications.

Otherwise, Paul said, Prague is an interesting place to visit.
– Has the world's largest collection of Art Nouveau in the buildings, railings, lighting, statuary, etc.
– It's a haven for artists who can live there cheaply.
– The public art dates back several hundred years.
– It has a wide array of the performance arts and outside cafes.
– The people are friendly but not especially engaging.
– It's relatively inexpensive to live there.

Ross called. He thought that with phone plans getting so expansive it might make sense to get an iPod <presumably the Touch> to do video calling <using wi-fi I'm guessing>.
Without answering such a hypothetical question, the guys related their own situation…
– Paul said he has a jailbroken & unlocked iPhone using a SIM card he's had for a long time. He pays $19 per month for voice only and uses wi-fi for data.
– Glenn has an unlocked iPhone 3GS and he's using T-Mobile with voice & data for $50 per month. <more about his plan in the 9-28-11 notes >

Remember, there's no show on Oct 26. Next show on Nov 9.

 Last Updated: 9:35 PM 10/12/2011 

Amazon iPad Challanger?

Dead Sea Scrolls Alive on WEB

Additional notes 

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They're tagged with #Zentech

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Glenn was in the studio. Paul was in Southern Germany and intended to call in, but he never did.

Glenn talked about his switch from AT&T to T-Mobile. He said that though the Verizon iPhone doesn't contain a SIM card and is therefore difficult to switch to a different carrier, the switch to T-Mobile from AT&T is easy because both support the SIM card.

He purchased a 1 month trial from T-Mobile to see if reception was acceptable in the Nevada County foothills and found that, indeed, it was. For those times when he can't get reception, he plans to depend on Google Voice to forward his calls.
– He seemed to imply that T-Mobile offers unlimited voice, txt and data for $50/mo.
– He only gets the 1st 100 meg of data at 4G speed and then it goes down to 2G speed.
– He's a bit unhappy with T-Mobile's voice mail because, in addition to his out-going message, T-Mobile adds its own voice menu which charges 15 seconds or so to the caller's minutes. He plans to explore options to turn that off.

He mentioned that if you plan early termination of your phone contract, check to see if the phone company added any fees or extra assessment during the contract period. That means the phone company violated the contract and you may therefore avoid any cancellation charges.

He then talked about the AVG anti-virus program. It will soon be going to version 2012 and cautioned people about choosing either the free or paid version. In the upgrade process, you'll eventually get a screen with check boxes for either the basic free version or one with a firewall and additional features. He said the Windows firewall is adequate and you don't need to buy the extra features.

He also said that the AVG upgrade process will also want to install a toolbar and one other thing — uncheck those 2 items. The final items ask if you want to join the "feedback team and email team" — you can go either way here.

Mark called in and said he's using Firefox and it keep prompting him to upgrade to the latest version. He wanted to know if that's a good idea.
– Glenn says it's up to you.
– Glenn's using at older version on his netbook because, at about version 4, there were changes made to the interface that he doesn't like. But in version 6, he said, some of those changes have been undone.
– One thing he didn't like is having the tabs at the top instead of directly above the web page, but there is a setting to change that.

Mark wondered of there's a way to keep Firefox from nagging about the upgrade.
– There is no way to stop the upgrade prompts. Just close that window when it appears.

Mark asked if any files would be lost in the upgrade.
– Files for bookmarks, history etc. will remain unchanged.

Mark went on to say that he turned off the history feature in Firefox and that affected his email — it no longer remembered his login. He wondered if the two were actually related.
– They shouldn't be. Passwords are handled separately under Options -> Security.
But Mark said when he turned history back on, his passwords started working as before.
– Glenn said he'd have to experiment with that and asked Mark to email him later.

Mike called to say he has an older Dell desktop and thinks he needs to change the battery because the clock and calendar are way off. He wanted to know how difficult it would be.
– It's not very involved.
– Check the numbers on the battery. It's likely to be either a 3025 or a 2025. They are readily available.
– Look online for your model of computer to get instructions on opening it and locating the battery.
– Be careful not to break the tabs holding the battery.
– Afterwards, the time will need to be set. The computer will <eventually> set the clock when you go onto the internet, or you can set the time manually. <Double-click the clock in the lower right of the screen>

James called. He's having a problem with his Mac laptop (running Snow Leopard) that he got at the end of 2007. He does a lot of writing and when he drags text from the internet into Text Editor the program won't allow him to save his work and he has to turn the computer off.
– It may be that the program was not created to deal with text being dragged into it.
– Test to see if dragging text into Microsoft Word causes the same problem.

James said he went into 'disk utilities' and saw an option about clearing history. He asked Glenn what that's about — he thought it might have something to do with his problem.
– Glenn said he doesn't know enough about the Mac to advise him and asked listeners to call in with suggestions.

Help support KVMR by becoming a member.

Kate called. She has a Dell Optiplex with XP and its hard drive crashed. She wanted to know how to recover the data.
– Try putting the drive in a different machine. <presumably to be sure it's the drive, not the computer>
– There are data recovery sites, but they charge a lot — up in the $1000's.
– Remember to back up your data before a failure.
– Try using a Linux live CD that can be booted from a CD drive. You may then be able to access the hard drive. Search zen.kvmr.org for various Linux options. <e.g. Ubuntu>

Glenn mentioned that Michael Moore will be in Nevada City on Sat Oct 29 in a benefit talk and book signing for KVMR. You can buy tickets, online or here at the station, starting next week. <I bet the KVMR's main page will say something about it >

Paul called. He has a Compaq laptop and suddenly he can't boot up — the screen is all black. He wondered if he also has a problem with the battery.
– No, the battery we talked about is only for the on-board clock, so that's unlikely. But it wouldn't hurt to change it anyway
– It can be the motherboard or screen are bad.
– If there is a pattern of beeps at startup, note that pattern and look it up at the vendors web site to decipher the meaning — it's telling you what's wrong.
– Try other things like cleaning out the dust from the interior using compressed air and a soft brush. And try reinserting the memory modules.
– Connect an external monitor to help diagnose a problem with the screen.

Glenn than talked about using cell phones in cars. He mentioned this article.
"Hold the phone: Motorists warned starting Saturday"
< In a related matter there this article further down the page…
"Fact Checker: Do cellphone, texting bans decrease car crashes?">

Marilyn called about laptop batteries. She has a Dell laptop and was getting a lifespan of about a year and a half from the battery. She usually uses the AC cord and just depends on the battery in case the power goes out.
– Instead of buying batteries and given her usage strategy, Glenn suggested a UPS <uninterruptible power supply> that can be had from $35 to $75 and can give you 3 to 5 minutes to shut the computer down when power goes out.
– Glenn said the brand of the battery can matter. Sony & Dell have had problems in the past.
– Try using Ebay for your battery shopping.

Glenn signed up for Google Plus but didn't use it much to say much about it. But he did get a note from Paul who said it's better integrated than facebook and you can use Picasa, Web Albums and other apps live.
<Here are a couple of articles about it…here and here>

Next Zentech show is on Oct 12.

Last Updated: 9:04 PM 9/28/2011 

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Glenn was in the studio, Paul called in from the UK.

Paul said the new convenience for air travelers will come when they're allowed to store their boarding pass on a smartphone, making the process paperless.

That led he to talking about QR codes (Quick Response codes), aka 3-D bar code,
– They don't require a laser scanner <like at a grocery checkout> to be read. Just a picture of it with a smartphone camera can decipher its meaning.
– Up to 256 characters can be stored in 1 QR code rectangle.
– When used as a boarding pass, they can be quickly scanned at the gate.
– Though the QR code is patented, it has been released to the public domain.
<Something to think about before scanning a QR code here.>

Paul did a Google search for "QR code" and came up with a Wikipedia link and a link to a site that will generate a code for you.

There are various apps for smartphones to read QR codes. The one Paul is using is called Beetagg. He said it works with iOS 3 on the iPhone.
– The QR code can store different types of information and a prefix tells the reading app the type of info that follows. <E.g. if it says the following info is a web address, the app can tell the phone to go to that web site with no further input by you — ergo, Quick Response>.
– A typical use is to put a QR code on your business card that contains the same info that's printed on the card. Someone can then scan the code and the info on the card would go directly into their contact list.
– Paul directed listeners to the Wikipedia article, which has many interesting links.

Glenn said he tried using an app called "The UP Code". That got Paul talking about the UPC code used in merchandizing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UPC_code
– The UPC only represents a number. That number is linked to a universal database. The meaning of the number is stored in the database and manufacturers have agreed to each number's single universal meaning.
– There is a 1 to 1 relationship between that number and a particular product.
– On the other hand, the QR code is a self-contained packet of information and doesn't need a database. As a result, it doesn't have the universally agreed-to meaning like a UPC code, though a UPC number can be stored within a QR code, as a special case.
– There are QR code apps for Palm Pilot, Android and Blackberry, too.

Dennis called in and said there are also EAN & the similar JAN bar codes used in Europe & Japan. He also said that QR code boarding passes are already being using by United Airlines.

Dennis then asked if there's a Windows NTP <Network Time Protocol> server that can be used on a local network. Unlike a NTP client that gets a time signal from the internet and sets your computer's clock, the server provides the signal by which other computers would set their clocks.
– Not knowing the answer, Paul asked listeners for suggestions. <But see below for a solution>

Glenn said he's using T-Mobile now as his phone & data provider. He has an unlimited voice, txt and data plan. The plan limits data to 200 meg at 4G speeds but it's unlimited at 3G speeds, though it's throttled down after 200 meg.

Paul said there's a study showing that even hands-free use of a phone in a car, though legal, significantly increases risk.

Paul related a bit of history about one of the tunnels under the Thames River in London. It was built at a time when horses were used. The tunnel was built with some turns in it such that a horse would not see the light at the end, and thus bolt for it, until it was quite near the exit. He speculated that some US freeways, especially in the Midwest, were built with arbitrary curves to relieve driver boredom.

Ed called with a suggestion for an NTP server. It's an older program called AboutTime.

An attempt to standardize time across all time zones gave us UTC or Universal Time Coordinated, said Paul. It's an average of many atomic clocks <and it's adjusted to the nearest second using leap seconds>. UTC is different from the older GMT <Greenwich Mean Time>. Paul said that though GMT provided a common time that all clocks can agree with, it was not well synchronized with celestial events.

The guys mentioned that wristwatches are falling to disuse because people can now get the time from their cell phones.

James called & asked if the guys have heard about a unit of time called the chronon. Neither had, but looking it up, Glenn said it's a unit of quantum time <apparently different from Planck time>.

While looking up chronon, Paul found an online stopwatch.

Jim called. He had done a backup with TimeMachine on his Mac but when he lost his desktop (none of his files were there) and tried to retrieve the backup, the operation was not completed because TimeMachine said the files were "already there". This happened after an upgrade to the Lion operating system.
– Before trying to restore the backup, make sure that data is nowhere on the machine. Open finder and look underneath "Users". You should see an account with a recognizable name (like your name), If there is another account or profile, look in there and you may find your missing files.

Jim asked, if worse came to worst, could he do a clean install and then retrieve the backup.
– Yes. But be sure TimeMachine had backed up the latest files <or you may be restoring old data>.
– Before you do that, try to find the missing files as suggested.

Paul said that Apple already includes software for scanning & printing in their machines and that it's sometime better, especially with HP printers, not to install the manufacturer's software. He said there's no harm (on the Mac) plugging in the printer/scanner without installing the product's software. He suggested checking online for further info. <I find the forums at the manufacturer's web site pretty useful, as well as a Google search>

Gary called in. He has an approx. 6-year-old Toshiba laptop and it's gotten painfully slow. He took it to Staples and they tested it & said the hard drive will die soon. He wondered if he should buy another hard drive or just get another computer.
– 1st back up your data.
– Glenn disagreed with Staples and thought reloading Windows would help. He said it's been mentioned before that reloading Windows, maybe once a year, will keep it running efficiently.
– Before doing that, Paul suggested using some cleanup programs like Crap Cleaner (CCLEANER) & Registry Cleaner (EUSING Registry Cleaner or NTREGOPT registry optimizer).
– Another approach is to replace the existing hard drive with a clean one and install Windows on it. Glenn chimed in to say that serial <SATA> hard drives are reasonably priced, but older 2.5" IDE drives cost "serious bucks". Paul said to look for used drives if this computer is just for casual use.

Another James called in wanting to know if there's an easy way to remove Mozilla Thunderbird's "all mail" file.
– Google mail tends to store a lot of messages there if you use IMAP.
– Go to Tools -> Account Settings -> Synchronization & Storage then click the Advanced button and uncheck the "all mail" folder. That will prevent it from synchronizing the huge bulk of email.

Kathy called. Her daughter's laptop had a bunch of viruses and she had someone do a restore and an upgrade to Windows 7. When she went to restore her data from the Carbonite backup service, "everything froze up". Apparently Carbonite had Vista's files.
– Win7 & Vista use the same file locations but the file structures are different.
– Start Win7 in safe mode and create a different account on it.
– The answer is to restore the data to a folder of your choosing, not where it came from. E.g. restore to a folder on the desktop then manually drag the individual files "onto the new machine".
– Apparently Carbonite has not updated their software to handle such a situation.

Help support KVMR by becoming a member.

Last Updated: 11:50 PM 9/14/2011 

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Glenn has a friend who's having problems printing their bank statement, from a web browser, on an HP printer — it only prints out the portion from the middle to the left side of the statement.
– Paul said there is nothing in a web page that formats it for a printer. It may print out differently from how it looks. Paul suggested looking at the 'print preview', which you can select from the 'file' menu. Glenn said he did that and the preview looked fine.
– Update the HP software. Go to the Start Menu -> Programs -> HP and look for HP software updates.
– Paul said it's a documented problem with HP products & Internet Explorer. It happened went IE went from version 7 to 8 and again when it went to version 9.
 – If you have a dialup connection on the computer that needs the update, HP allows you to just download the files when you happen to be at a computer with a fast connection. Go to the HP website & fill in the model of your printer & download to a flash drive and take it to the computer needing the update.

Paul said that laptops have become a lot more popular in recent years and you can have a setup similar to a desktop if you plug in an external monitor, keyboard and mouse. But there are some negative attributes.
– They have "poorer cooling response than a desktop machine".
– They are less sturdy. E.g. the CD drives are more delicate and subject to errors as well as breakage just by opening & closing them.
– The USB ports prone to damage by plugging & unplugging devices.
– Glenn likes the use of the smaller Micro USB ports with newer equipment because there's less mechanical stress than the big plugs. He also suggested that people avoid the various connector sockets when picking up or moving the laptop — only handle the body of the computer.
– Paul suggested use of wireless devices rather than those that plug in directly. Bluetooth devices tend to be more expensive but the Bluetooth dongle, the part that plugs into the computer, is usually cheap.
– When you put the laptop into its case, unplug everything — cords, wires, cards, etc — to avoid stress on the sockets.
– There are places that repair laptops but check beforehand to see if they're willing to work on your model — some are just too poorly built. Look on Ebay for these services and check the feedback ratings from their former customers. Paul is under the impression that service centers you find on Amazon have the backing of Amazon itself.

Paul mentioned the 3 A's of business: availability, affability and ability
   Should be reachable — availability.
   Should be not be rude — affability
   Should know what they're doing — ability

Paul mentioned that many do-it-yourself repair tutorials are available on Youtube. For laptop repair, search Youtube for the words… teardown laptop repair.

Jeff called to suggest that KVMR have a way people can txt (text) small donations to support the station, similar to disaster relief operations <as in Haiti>.

Dennis <he was not introduced, and it sounded like he was in the studio> wanted to know how to control the order in which applications launch in Windows 7. <presumably the startup programs>
– Paul doesn't know, but in XP "you bring up the cascading menus, right click on whatever is available and left click on sort by name". <I'm not clear on this, but that's what he said. Later he said he hasn't seen a way to do it with XP>
– Glenn thought renaming the apps by putting 1,2,3… as the first characters of their names might work.
– Paul said that apps can be started several ways e.g. from the registry or an autoexec.bat file
– While talking, Paul did a search for a method but didn't come up with anything definitive. He asked listeners to give suggestions.
– Paul then thought of using 'services' for controlling the order. Services is an application that runs before the users account is started <at boot time I think>. He said that using services you can make programs run conditionally — program A has to run before program B, etc. However, he thought that the programs themselves had to have been specially created to run as a service.
– Many of the applications and service that run at startup end up in the lower right hand corner in what's called the system tray.
– Spybot Search And Destroy has a tool called System Startup that lets you decide which applications run at startup. It doesn't uninstall anything, but can keep things from running. Paul said this method is preferred over using a Windows utility called msconfig <it's implied that it does something similar>
– Paul said it's rare that unchecking (preventing) a service or app from running, using Spybot, would prevent Windows from running. Something may not work propery, but he's never seen it "kill a Windows installation". Glenn suggested unchecking 1 item at a time and restarting the computer and then evaluating the effect it has.
– Paul remembered the site blackviper.com. It offers guidance for turning off services and it tells you which are required to run.

Scott called with a couple of Mac questions. He has a mac.com mail service and has received a notice that it's ending. He wondered if the guys knew more about that.
– Paul said it is part of a subscription service called MobileMe and he doubted that Apple would suddenly end the email service. Since you paid for the service, call Apple and find out what's going on.
– Paul thought that, with the new Lion operating system, the mobile synchronization will be performed using the new service called iCloud.
– Glenn looked at the Apple site and reported that MobileMe is no longer accepting new subscribers but the service will be available to currnet users thru June 30, 2012.
– He said go to apple.com/mobileme and click the 'facts' button to get the details of the transition to iCloud.

Scott's other qestion was whether his verion of Photoshop (CS5) will continue to work with the new Lion operating system.
– Paul said, "I wouldn't worry about it". Go to the Adobe Macromedia site and check the compatibility list. Be aware that it may work even though it may not be supported (you won't get help support).
– Glenn said that Windows Vista had trouble running older programs so in Win7 Microsoft provided an XP compatibility mode to address the issue.
– Paul did a search for the words CS5 Lion and found some discussion on macrumors.com Some people said that it works (though some said it had a few bugs).
– Paul heard the recommendation that Lion be installed on a bare drive <rather than as an upgrade>. He also heard that Lion will eventually be sold on a flash drive.
– Paul suggested, after a disclaimer, that Scott back up his current hard drive using TimeMachine and then, after doing a bare installation of Lion, use TimeMachine to restore the backup.

Someone recently asked Paul why Adobe Reader, Java Runtime, etc are free. It's because those who write programs or content that utilize them pay for the privilege <or pay for the developer programs>.

Paul said that AJAX allows for web pages to have an enormous number of features without having to load special programs. For instance, users of Gmail, he said, have benefited from AJAX. The Visible Body is another example. It's a 3D human body tutorial that used to be sold as program that you load on your computer. Now, you can subscribe to it and get it over the net.

John called. He has 2008 version of Microsoft Home Office but there's no way to create a PDF file.
– Get the free program called PDF Creator at Source Forge. It acts like a printer driver but, instead of printing, it saves a PDF document.
– To use it, create a document in Word (or whatever), then use the file menu -> print and choose PDF Creator as the printer.
– PDF Creator works with all Windows programs that print, not just Microsoft Office.

John also wondered whether we are bound to use whatever operating system Microsoft comes out with next and will have to abandon XP or NT.
– XP is still available on refurbished computers.
– Eventually Microsoft will stop supporting XP. <in 2014, I think>

John said he's now struggling with Vista.
– Windows 7 succeeded Vist and works better.
– Glenn said the Home Starter Edition of Win7 doesn't come with some things he had expected — the media player won't play DVDs, just audio.
– Paul said that even XP lacked the content descrambler to play DVDs and you have to scrounge around to find free software to do that.

So, then Glenn asked what's a good free video player for XP for free?
– The best generic video player is not Media Player but one called Videolan. http://www.videolan.org
– "They all lack, unless you go thru various hoops, the ability to unscramble or descramble mass-published digital video disks…"
– You can buy a descrambler from Nvidia for about $19 or get a demo version of Nero. <Nvidia FAQ is here>

<There seems to be a claim that Videolan will decrypt DVDs on their web page. Click on the logo for your computer type to download it.
More info on Videolan (VLC) here.

If anyone has success with it or some other method of descrambleing DVDs, send an email to zen at kvmr dot org (say the mail is for me and the guys will forward it to me) and I'll add it to the Favorite Programs page.>

Lisa called. She has a Mac with version 10.68 OS and she can't delete email addresses using her email program. Each time she tries, they come back.
– Glenn tried to remember when this came up before and suggested clearing the cache, history and cookies.
– Paul thought that these addresses might be stored in a different place than the address book, that they're actually part of the preferences.
– The problem was not resolved and listeners were invited to give suggestions.

James called. He has 2007 vintage MacBook which now has Snow Leopard on it. He wondered what lifespan he could expect from it.
– Glenn thought it could last another 10 years.

He also asked what effect Steve Jobs' exit would have on Apple.
– Good question. All we can do is watch & wait

Then he said that Adobe Reader keeps popping up on his machine and demanding attention.
– Paul thought it may need updating. James has vision problems so Paul suggested he keep notes of what's going on so, when he has help from a sighted person, they can keep track of what needs to be done.

Last Update: 5:08 PM 1/13/2012