SHOW MOVES TO ALTERNATE WEDNESDAYS FOR NOW! after 10 years of Mondays!

Free SPECLAB PC based comprehensive SPectrum Analyser for Audio Signals

PAC MAN on a Voting machine! (Thanks JB!)

Controlling a helicopter with an iPhone!

Misleading senses of SECURITY with Passwords, and more.

Opensource Cell Telephone System: As USed at Burning man

 Flash Cookies! Not your Mother's Cookies. They come back like zombies.

FileHippo: useful repository

ITUNES now at Version 10 no problem,, But the IOS 4.1 released today should be avoided!

GOGOLE Unveils Instant Search

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 was in the studio and Glenn called in while on the road headed to Yellowstone Park.

Max called to ask for a recommendation for OCR software.
– Paul's first choice is software by Nuance. He said there are various ways of getting it free. It can read PDF files.
Max said he was looking at Abby Reader, which starts at $49. Paul said that was his second recommendation, as he's used it and didn't have much trouble with it.
Paul added that Nuance, known for its speech recognition software, <mentioned on the 8-9-10 show> recently bought Omnipage, an OCR software maker, and its software starts at $149. There may be a demo version that does one page at a time.

Some inexpensive scanners, like Canon or Brother, come with OCR software.
Higher-end OCR software has more features but it's not necessarily better at the recognition process. Some will scan pages with rows of numbers and output to a spreadsheet and some can generate forms, that can be filled in, in a PDF format.
Paul said he's seen recognition accuracy of about 98 or 99 percent.

A caller said he gets the message "fatal error was detected the application must be terminated" on his XP computer. He said this happens when he turns it on.
– Boot in safe mode. Hold down the F8 key when you turn it on. Use the arrow keys to go down to where it says safe mode and hit return.
– If you have access to another machine, look up safe mode on the internet.
– When safe mode is running, go to the start menu -> run and type in msconfig. You'll then see an option called diagnostic startup and use that. The goal is to prevent Windows from starting the application that's causing the crash. When you find what it is, you can uninstall it.
– Paul asked if there was more to the error message and the caller said it additionally said — assert: hUiresource ! NULL. Paul tried googling that but didn't come up with anything useful.

The caller also asked if playing internet Backgammon is a security risk.
– There's nothing special to playing Backgammon but, no matter what you're doing, you can be coerced into clicking a malicious link.

Someone, Glenn thought it was Marilyn, called to ask if Zentech is permanently scheduled for this new time.
– Paul wasn't sure but there will be a notice on the web site when more is known.

The caller went on to ask about a problem she has when she has several Word documents minimized. When she clicks on one, they all maximize.
– Instead of running Word multiple times, try opening multiple documents within just one instance of Word. Run Word once, then under file, use the open command multiple times, as needed, to open other documents.
– Glenn thought she may have "group similar items" turned on (in the taskbar). Right-click Start -> properties -> taskbar tab then uncheck "group similar taskbar buttons". This should apply to other programs, not just Word.
– Glenn also suggested right-clicking on 'open', while in Word, and choose open in a new page or window.

Paul asked Glenn about his GPS. When he bought it, it came with a service that provides traffic info, and Paul wanted to know how well that works. Glenn gave it a thumbs up.
– Paul said he believes the traffic data comes from terrestrial AM & FM stations and warns the user about traffic congestion, etc. Normally this is a charged service, but Glenn is using a version that's supported by advertisement.

Paul mentioned Speclab for audio enthusiasts. It's a spectrum analyzer for audio signals that come in over your PC. It monitors the signal quality and is free to use. Paul is impressed with it. See the above link.

He also said a voting machine has been hacked to install the Pacman game. Again, the link is above.

Sam called. He's using XP Pro 64 and his HP all-in-one printer won't run on the 64bit machine. He called tech support said they said they don't have 64bit drivers.
– You can use just the printer without the additional functions.
– They do have drivers for 64bit Win7 so switch to Win7 if you insist on using a 64bit machine.

Sam was also thinking of using an external hard drive with 32bit version of XP and "running his printer thru that".
– Paul tried to dissuade him. It's very difficult to do that from an external drive. You'll have to run a driver from an operating system that's not already running, in order to access the hard drive.

Paul mentioned running a radio-controlled helicopter using an iPhone. Link is above.

From the above link, you can learn that Mac users can be lured into a false sense of security. You can become a victim of social engineering.

Thor called to say the Zentech web site looks good. It's an older version of Joomla and Paul would like to upgrade to version 1.5 but didn't want to lose the accumulated content.

Glenn said this week's Fleamarket will not be transcribed but the audio should become available.

KVMR is community supported volunteer radio, so support it.

Joe called. He's redesigning a web page and would like to use Flash but the Apple mobile devices don't support it. He wants to know if there's another way to do something like a slideshow.
– Use Javascript or HTML5. Google "javascirpt photo album" or "html5 photo album" to find some free code to do the job.
– Apple computers can use flash but not their mobile devices, which have touch interface.

Bonnie called to say she has Sony Vio laptop. <the audio became very bad and I missed some of what she said. It sounded like her keyboard went bad>. She asked if it's cheaper to replace the keyboard, hard drive and motherboard, as a worst case, than buying an new laptop.
– Glenn said replacing all 3 would not be cheaper.
– If it's just a keyboard problem, you can try an external USB keyboard.
– Getting parts for highly proprietary laptops is usually very expensive.
– You can try to find a used or junker machine from which you can scavenge parts. Search on eBay for Sony Vio keyboard and you may find someone parting out their machine.
– Since it's only 2 years old, your credit card may have extended the warranty. Also, see if there is a recall on this model.

Last updated: 6:46 PM 9/8/2010 

Downgrade your System!

HOusehold Chemicls DAtabase from NIH

 Search Plugin for FireFox!

 What is Lorem Ipsum??!

Thanks Mikail for the following links about booting a Mac from a flash drive…

Install & Boot OS X Leopard from a USB Flash Drive:
http://www.maciverse.com/install-boot-os-x-leopard-from-a-usb-flash-drive.html
or
http://macs.about.com/od/diyguidesprojects/ss/usbflash.htm

A discussion thread from users…
http://hintsforums.macworld.com/archive/index.php/t-77649.html

It can be done even on a PowerPC but there are issues:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20061017084322177

USB 3.0 vs FireWire 3200:
http://www.pcfastlane.com/usb-30-vs-firewire-3200/

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 disclaimer:
Views and opinions expressed are those of the hosts and not necessarily those of anyone else.

Glenn asked previous callers, to whom solutions were suggested, to call back and share their results.

To find out why less is more, see the above link. You may not need the best computer to suit your needs.

You can get a netbook computer with an Atom CPU that's about as powerful as a CPU in a desktop machine of 5 to 8 years ago.
– Such CPUs consume much less energy and often don't require a cooling fan: one less thing to fail.
– There is less heat stress (thermal cycling) where solder joints and contacts can fail.
– Netbooks don't have CD drives: eliminating yet another thing that can go wrong. You can watch a movie on some netbooks if you copy it to a thumb drive, which can be had for about $12 for 8gig or $20 for 16gig (enough memory for 3 or 4 movies), at a place like Buy.com.
– If you need a USB floppy drive, they can be had from eBay for about $25.
– You can get an external USB CD drive for around $30, if you feel you really need one.
– You can get more storage space by storing your data online at Google Docs or Drop.io <and many other places>
– Keep in mind that floppy disks have a limited lifespan. Don't expect your data to be there after about 3 years. So, before buying a floppy drive, check that your disks are still good.
– A big thing that goes wrong with a machine with CD or floppy drives is that cooling fans draw in dust. And without a fan that's one less mechanical problem. External USB floppy drives don't have either problem.

Glenn said he finds flash drives are handy for utility programs when he services other people's computers and for carrying data.
Paul asked if he has tried booting from a flash drive. Glenn said he's tried it but wasn't successful.
  Paul said modern computers are supposed to be able to do the boot but the flash drive first has to be specially formatted. There is also a utility that can copy application software from a DVD (or CD) to a 4gig flash drive so it can be run from there.
Paul went on to say that flash drives can die suddenly; static electricity is usually the problem, especially during dry weather. He suggested discharging yourself by touching a non-metal object in the room before picking up a flash drive. <By my thinking, you SHOULD touch a metallic ground to properly discharge.>

Chris called about booting a Mac from an external drive. She said that can be done only with a Firewire connection.
Paul said Macs can be made to boot from a USB drive, but it's not straightforward.
Paul said inexpensive miniature Firewire drives can be partitioned with a special boot partition that will allow you to boot from that drive. If you also want to use the drive for backing up your data using Mac's TimeMachine, you'll need to create a separate partition.
Chris said she likes Carbon Copy Cloner better than TimeMachine for backups.
Chris also said, make sure the Firewire hard drive you buy is compatible with TimeMachine, if that's what you want to use it for. Paul said you can buy drives already formatted from LaCie or Rockstar and, if you're going to format a drive, format it as GUID.
Paul said Firewire (for PC or Mac) has the advantage over USB in that it can be cascaded or daiy chained with devices.

Mikail called to correct what Chris just said.
– You can boot from USB drive on any Intel Mac using the built-in disk utilities.
– He has poor opinion about LaCie drives because he's had many of them fail.
– He's never had problems using TimeMachine with non-Firewire drives. He likes to format the drives himself no matter whom he buys the drives from.
– He does agree that Carbon Copy Cloner is a great program. He also suggested SuperDuper.
– Paul added that the problem he's had with booting from a USB drive was on a non-Intel Mac.
– Mikail said the article about downgrading <less is more, above> applies mainly for PCs, not the older non-Intel Macs. Power PC Macs just don't handle many of today's applications.|
– Firewire is getting left behind because Apple charges manufacturers a royalty for using it, making it more expensive. Sony Betamax VCR had a similar issue with licensing.

Cleo called and said she has a 2.5-year-old HP computer with Vista and when she tries to run Word (and some other programs), she gets the message "word is not responding".
Paul asked her to find the exact version of Vista she's using: click Start, right-click Computer, left-click on properties.
Doing that, she said she has Service Pack 2 so the next thing is to update her version of Office. To do that, go to officeupdate.microsoft.com, The Office update should take care the problem.

Scott called. He has an Intel Mac Book and he confirmed that there is no problem booting from USB hard drive or using TimeMachine. Also, he hasn't had any problems with his LaSee drive.
Paul said statistical rather than anecdotal evidence of reliability is more important and that for $1 you can get test results regarding hard drives from Consumer Reports.

Gary called asking for an opinion about Microsoft Essentials, an anti-virus program.
Paul said Microsoft initially tried to sell it and then decided to give it away.
Glenn noted that Microsoft made the operating system and then tried to sell a program to protect it. He said, he and Paul just use the free version of AVG.That's just the anti-virus program and not the entire suite of utilities from AVG. They both agreed that the full suite of any similar product is not worth the bother because, for one reason, it would use up a lot of processor time while constantly running.
Paul again brought up smitfraud <mentioned in last weeks show> saying he's never seen any security software that can defeat it.

Gary went on to say his wife's machine has Avg Free and now has a lot of "crap" from Yahoo. He'd like to get rid of it.
– When installing AVG Free it's important to do it in the manual mode and uncheck the option for the Yahoo toolbar (Paul later called it AVG toolbar <maybe there's 2 of 'em>). There's another checkbox for Internet Explorer: uncheck that too.
– You can manually delete 2 folders to solve the problem. On the C: drive go to Program Files -> AVG -> AVG9 and delete the folders called Toolbars & Firefox. Make sure no web browsers are running.

Gary then ask what the guys knew about the Yippy Cloud search engine. But they haven't heard of it before.

Ben called and asked the guys if they knew anything about Kaspersky Labs, a security product. He's been using it, it runs quietly in the background, and he asked for comments.
Paul said he's seen it running but hasn't dealt with it.
Ben said he first encountered Kaspersky at Sun Micro Systems where he worked. He found out Sun and other companies were using it on their corporate networks. He bought it for $60 and is now using it at home.
Kaspersky has a trial version.

Nicole called. She bought a Thinkpad about 1yr ago but it overheated and now has blank blue screen.
– It's likely a dead computer take in for repair.
– Restart the computer with the original CD in the drive and pick the option to recover the operating system.

She also asked if it's ok to reuse passwords.
– Not a good idea. At least use different versions of a password, e.g. if one password is bottle, your Gmail password might be bottleGmail and for your bank it might be bottleChase.

Listeners were nvited to add KVMR as a friend on Facebook to get notifications of things happening at the station.

Paul said he found a website providing information about household chemicals. See the above link.

Last updated: 10:07 PM 8/23/2010 

Use almost any webcam with a MAC for Skype etc.

Dropped your Electronic into Water? Some Fixes

Cheap Cheap Preventative Maintainance: Can of Air, Surge Protector, etc. & Basic Free Software .

More on 3G Routers: DEAL  (May Be Sold Out) and pay as you go..

 Speech Recognition Dragon 10.1

64-Bit OS talk…

 SpeakEasy & Blind GreenLand Pigs as Euphemisms

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 < >

An example of iTunes 9.1 audio was played to show a problem with that version. It would skip, especially on long quiet sections.
– Get version 9.2

Glenn mentioned that there was a problem with the iPhone update 3.1.3 (as he recalled the number). He recommended you get the next version (4.0 as he recalls).
Generally, he suggests keeping up with all your updates.
Paul chimed in — "if it ain't broke don't fix it" is overruled by the fact that if you don't know it's broken it's appropriate to fix it for the sake of security.

Glenn brought up the fact that XP with Service Pack 2 is no longer supported <plenty of links in a previous show's notes regarding this>
– Upgrade to Service Pack 3 which will be supported until some time in 2014.

The disclaimer:
Views and opinions expressed are those of the hosts and not necessarily those of anyone else

The Mac, being somewhat of a closed system, hardware <and drivers> is constrained, by design, to run on it. But there is a piece of free software on Source Forge that lets Mac users use most type of web cameras on their machines. See the above link.

Don't wait for something to go wrong with your computer. See the Cheap Cheap Preventative Maintainance link above.

Paul said he had problems with Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software because his computer fan was so loud it interfered with the sound of his voice. He found that the fins <heat sink> were clogged up with dust thus preventing the cooling effect of airflow. Recommended:
– First turn off; unplug machine
– Use a can of compressed air. Keep the can upright so you don't blow refrigerant on components, which can case problems. Do it outside.
– Brush to loosen the dust and use a vacuum cleaner.
– Laptops are especially vulnerable because of their compact design, and especially Mac laptops older than a few years. You may not need to open a laptop, just direct the compressed air into the inlet or outlet (try both). In this case it may help to have the machine on, as the fan will help force the dust out.
– Some CPUs will throttle down their speed when they get too hot.

Paul mentioned the utility called Speedfan that tells you the speed of fan. <It's mentioned in the utilities list>

Another preventive measure is to use a surge protector. They generally include phone line protection for your modem and fax machine.
Make sure you're getting surge protector (often stated on the package) and not a plain outlet strip.
It's recommended that you unplug your equipment (not just computers) during a lightening storm.

AVG is offering a 30 day free trial of their for-pay software. It is not the same as the free version. After 30 days, should you decide to go back to the free version, you'll have to go to the trouble of uninstalling the paid version.
The free version of AVG is recommended. Many security software companies also offer internet security packages that include things like firewalls. This additional protection can make your computer work extra hard and slow down. The guys said they don't find this extra security is necessary. <XP since Service Pack 2 has had a built in firewall. Be sure to turn it on>

Paul said get a good email service to avoid spam. He recommended Gmail.

Paul talked about the origin of the word "speakeasy". See the above link.

Jim called to question the previous comment about blowing compressed air into a computer, instead of out.
– As much as possible blow out, that's why the vacuum cleaner is good alternative. It's not recommended you open a laptop, so blow whatever way you can to dislodge the dust.
– Jim recommended turning the nozzle tube extension 90 degrees in order to keep the can upright especially while blowing out the keyboard.
– Paul recommended using Windex or similar cleaners on keyboards. First spray a cloth with it and wipe. Don't spray directly onto the keyboard.
– Jim recommended using an anti-static dryer sheet to clean display screens. But he said use a USED one. He also said he's heard that a new dryer sheet repels mosquitoes.

Jim went on to talk about phone lines to a residence. He said about 95% of service wires (drops) have a new "net interface unit" using a chip to protect against lightning strikes. The old style had carbon that went to ground during a strike. The new type also allows the phone company to determine if the problem you're having is the inside wire or outside wire.
Paul said something about dialing 611 to run a diagnostic on the phone line.
Glenn mentioned that there's an option available to cover inside wiring repairs. He said it costs $1 per month. This may be good to know if you use a DSL service.
Jim said that those who have the new type of interface unit can go to the service box and disconnect the inside wire from the out side. Then one can plug in a hard-wired telephone to the outside wire to see if it works. If it does work, the trouble is likely with the inside wire.
Paul said that a corded phone that doesn't require a battery is worth having for such trouble-shooting purposes.

Paul said Congress passed a law saying it's not illegal to unlock your iPhone. He also said the phone company knows when you've unlock the phone.
Jim said AT&T is upgrading all of their cell sites to fiber.

Paul said there is a jailbreak of iPhone 4.01 and it's done with a web break. That means you can install 4.01 naturally whether or not your're a legitimate user of the AT&T service. It's done by exploiting a defect in the processing of PDF files.
Paul said he'll put a link up that covers the reasons for jailbreaking the iPhone.
Glenn said, in the future, iPhones will be able to take advantage of worldwide SIM card use.

Paul has been using the latest version (10.1) of Dragon Naturally Speaking speech recognition software, which runs in 64bits machines.
– He said he's impressed with it.
– It requires 1gig of memory and a 1 giga Hertz CPU.
  – It requires a good quality headset and a quiet background.
– It strings together an entire sentence at a time. It does semantic processing.
– There are dictionaries for special fields like lawyers.
– It learns by reading from your documents folder and in various file formats (pdf, excel, etc) how you tend to use the language. That helps it understand your spoken words.
– It also remembers corrections you make to its mistakes in understanding the pronunciation of words.
– You can find it at nuance.com

Lisa called. She's using Firefox and it says proxy server refusing connection.
– In Firefox go to tools -> options -> advanced -> network -> settings and it should say "no proxy".
– Do the same with Internet Explorer: go to tools -> internet options -> connections -> LAN settings and turn off all those options. **BUT** if you're using a satellite service you should turn on the proxy service setting.

Glenn said the Flea Market won't be on this Thursday — KVMR will broadcast from the county fair.

Dawn called and said she got virus on her computer.
– Use "combofix" from Bleeping Computer.
– Do backup your data first.
– This virus gets on your machine by showing a Flash animation as if your anti-virus has found a problem and then says your subscription has run out and to "click here". When you click, the real virus loads into your computer. It's a class of virus called smitfraud. <smitfraud and other virus issues were discussed on a previous show.>

Jamie called to say he has same virus as Dawn and wanted to know if Norton Anti-virus or AVG can catch it?
– No, it moves so fast that the anti-virus programs can't stay updated in order to detect it.

Gary called wanting to know the name of the voice recognition mentioned before.
– Dragon Naturally Speaking
– Voice recognition has improved over the years do in large part to modern computers being so much faster.
– It's available for the iPhone. Go to the app store and search for Dragon Dictate. It's free.

Last Updated 8:06 PM 8/14/2010 

TODAY Show 26 July 2010

Oh, look what I found while poking around on kvmr.org. It's the audio to recent Zentech shows. Looks like the web masters have been doing some work. Kudos to you, VERY COOL! And if you want to explore other programs, start, as I did, on the schedule page.
–Alex

Nevada County Board's videos and audio archive

India: $10 PC's?
ALSO: iPhone JailBreaking now OK?!  [Cred:Mikail]

some 5% of the wolrd's population now onm FAcebook!

iPhone Antenna Song..

Hard Drive backup AND Online….

SIMM Micro Card Cutter…

Eerie Ad for Face Recognition software – Thanks Alan Stahler.

Coryon Redd Internet Marketing Segment

Understanding your competitors on the web is an important step in improving your website – and your business. Regardless of your business or organization, there are likely to be other websites similar to yours.

Whether it is competitor businesses selling the same products or information sites that share your expertise or market, you can find out how the "website down the street" is selling itself.

Learn from the good websites (and the bad ones). Be inspired to create good website content and avoid the mistakes of crappy websites. Don't ever violate copyrights but you can figure out how your information can be presented in the best, most persuasive way. Pay attention to taglines, page layout, useful tools, calls to action, SEO and copywriting. Remember, your website is your digital salesperson. Once when a visitor comes to your website make it easy for them to become a customer.

Additional Notes

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

They're tagged with #Zentech

Paul said Facebook has a statistics page about people using that service. See the above link.

Paul played a song (sent by Mikail) about the problem Apple has had with the iPhone antenna. He also said that if you hold any phone in not quite the right way, you can block some of the antenna signal.
– If you don't like it, don't by it (the iPhone).
– If you already bought it, take it back.
– Get the free bumper to solve the problem.
– An update to the firmware is expected to mitigate the issue, but all it may do is boost the out-going signal and put an extra drain on the battery. So, the bumper may ultimately be a better solution.

Coryon Redd president of Batteries For Less was introduced.
To find previous show with Coryon Redd search for "redd" at the Zentech webpage.
He has been working with Sierra Economic Development Corporation to provide marketing classes to businesses, both for-profit and non-profit.
His advice for today is to research your online competition; see how they present their information on the web. Use their ideas to promote your website.
He suggested you develop a keyword list. These words are what people type into search engines to find the product/service they want.
Do a search using the most searched-for words regarding your business to find your competition. In Coryon case, he would search for "cell phone" and "batteries". See how they present themselves and present your site even better.

Paul mentioned 419eater.com which is about counter scammers. The scammers use marketing resources mentioned in these broadcasts to customize and personalize their fraudulent appeals for your money.

Coryon mentioned Yahoo Site Explorer. It's a tool to find "what links are going into a website". <Which sites have links to a particular web page, as I understand it>

Paul said he's not impressed with Microsoft's Bing search engine. It was only on the second page of the results that he found the download link to Microsoft's own Internet Explorer 8.

Coryon said Google had recently began using Caffeine. It takes into account how quickly your website responds <to clicks>.
Google said that websites with slower response times may get penalized with lower search results <I think he meant lower ranking in the search results>.
The free Web Master Tools will give you some indication of how a website responds. It gives additional info such as which pages have broken links or produce errors, what links are coming to your site, history of your ranking on keywords, etc.
<Coryon mentioned some of these tools on previous shows, in particular those on: 5-4-9, 8-11-8, 11-3-8>

Youtube is doing music recognition on what people upload. If your content has copyrighted music, you can expect a notification from them. But it may still be ok because Youtube may run an ad in conjunction with the video in order to sell that music.
Youtube is starting to do speech recognition too, and to present closed captioning to movies.

Richard called to ask how to keep the pictures on his website from being copied <stolen>.
– You can't. You can use Javascript to make it more difficult, but one can look at the Javascript to determine the ultimate location of the picture.
– You can put a waterprint <watermark, I guess> in the picture to help protect it.
– You can put, in text, the name of your website right into the picture, and thus promote your website.
– You can require people to become members of your website, free of course, before they view the pictures. <Presumably to avoid an automated program from stealing the pic>
– You can just display a low quality image, making it less desirable to steal.

Vicky called. She's an organic arborist and when she uses those 2 words as search terms, she gets just one site listed several times. She wants to know "how to get past that".
– Coryon said a well-promoted website will try to get themselves into many directories or listings which serve, in this example, arborist or organic yard care, etc.
– In this case, Coryon recommended taking the URL that's common to all these search results and using Yahoo Site Explorer or spyfu.com. Spyfu is a paid tool with a free trial that gives a lot of info about a website like where they get their links, the effectiveness of the keywords they use, etc. Again, use that info to do something similar to promote your own site.

Coryon invited listeners to write to him with marketing questions not addressed on air:

Coryon is holding classes on internet marketing:
There's a beginner class on Wed Aug 4 6pm. Go to sedcorp.biz to register.
The classes have a fee but there is a sponsorship or scholarship available for businesses with 9 or fewer people (including non-profits), in which case the fee is waived.
There's an intermediate class focused on pay-per-click advertising & link building; on Aug 9.
Classes are held at the One Stop computer center in Grassvalley.
A 2nd intermediate class is on Aug 25. This one is focused on social media marketing & Google Analytics.
Another beginner class is on Aug 16.
Visit the Sedcorp site or call 530-823-4703.

You can view/listen to a clip of the proceedings of a local government in Nevada County. See the above link.

The iPad & the latest iPhone use micro SIM cards and there's now a tool to trim SIM & mini SIM cards to the smaller micro SIM size.
Also, there are SIM card cloners available for about $10 so you don't have to do the procedure on the original card. Follow the above link for more info.

Gaylon called with Firefox problem. It's having trouble "recovering windows and tabs". He noted someone's claim that the Flash player caused their problem and he too removed the Flash plugin. As a result, his problem went away. He wanted to know how to reinstall Flash.
– Go to adobe.com and the plugins are listed on that page where it says "get Adobe Flash Player".
– If you have the same problem again, then uninstall & reinstall Firefox.

Mikail called to say the Library of Congress has ruled that jailbreakng the iPhone is ok. The ruling also included the unlocking of cell phones and the breaking of DVD copy protection. See the above link.

Paul mentioned the $10 computer from India. <actually it's $35 and link above is broken, try this one>

Joe called and said he heard a news story claiming that nearly all older iPhones are worth nothing. He noted, in fact, that the iPhones hold their value very well.

Caller Jorge said he set up his laptop to stream out video and then tried to do the same with his cell phone. However, he got the message that the username is already taken.
– Log out of the laptop application first.
– Don't try to create a new account with the cell phone but rather reuse the same login you use on the laptop.

Last updated 8:57 PM 7/26/2010

Free monitor rotation software! IROTATE

Minimizing Sheepy Methane

Apple Time CApsule Warranty Externded

Pay month to month for Mobile 3G Broadband from VirginMobileUSA.Com as little as $10 a month, up to $60 for 5GB per 30 days
$79 for hardware, EASY automaed setup with NO CD involved.

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

They're tagged with #Zentech

Paul was in the studio and Glenn called in via Google Voice

Paul recommended that people still using CRT computer monitors trade them in for flat-screen monitors. 22" or 23" monitors can be found at buy.com for as little as $179. They can cut down power consumption by as much as 2/3.

Old CRT monitors had a width to height ratio of 4:3. Modern flat-screen monitors are 16:9. There are times when it's more desirable to have a monitor taller than it is wide. Modern LCD monitors have 4 mounting screws on the back which can allow turning them sideways although the stand may not accommodate it, but you can purchase stands that will work.

All you'll then need is the video driver software that will rotate the image 90 degrees. Some, but not most, computers come with the software to do that — find the setting by going to the "control panel" -> "appearance and themes" -> "display" -> "settings" (tab) -> "advanced". There, you may find a tab for your graphics card with special settings. Intel graphics chips are more likely than others to have the rotation setting. Otherwise you can use the free software called IROTATE; follow the above link.

Spices from curry can cut emissions from flatulent sheep. See the above link.

Glenn said Microsoft will stop supporting XP with Service Pack 2 by issuing updates. Support will end on July 13 (tomorrow).
  – Updating to Service Pack 3 will mean support will continue into 2014.
– It's a big download and he thought it might be available on a CD from Microsoft. Or, if you don't have a high-speed connection, go to a friend's house or your library where a high-speed connection is available.
– <You can also upgrade to Windows 7, but check if your computer meets the hardware requirements>
– For more info go to the Microsoft page here:
– Microsoft recommends using Windows Update to do the update because it's a smaller download, but you can also get the full (316meg) update off that page or directly here:
– What to know BEFORE INSTALLING

ARTICLES ABOUT THE END OF SUPPORT HERE…
– Windows XP SP2 updates end July 13 — but don't panic:
– Enough with the Windows XP security 'red alert' nonsense
– What does it mean if my version of Windows is no longer supported?
– Windows XP SP2 users face end of IE patches
– Microsoft to end support for Windows 2000, XP SP2 July 13

Paul thought Windows 7 is better than Vista but cosmetically ugly.

The 'funny' song "Cow Fart Tax" from the CD "The Church of Climatology" was played. Jimmi Accardi provided the CD.
<satirizing Al Gore, cap-n-trade, etc., or, maybe by its silliness, satirizing the climate change deniers.>

The disclaimer: views & opinions are those of the show's hosts only.

Craig called, He has a large videotape collection of about 2,000 tapes (about 10,000 hours of video). He thought it might require about 25 terabytes of storage.
– First get them in to the computer.
– Determine how are you going to watch them on the computer.
– Get the capture and encoding software to put them on DVDs.
– 2.5 to 3 hours of video generates about 4.2 gig on a single sided DVD.
– Do a little at a time — 5 to 10 tapes.
– DVDs can be recorded is several different modes. Tapes that have been recorded at a slow rate (lower quality) can be transferred to DVD at a lower quality. You can get about 4 hours on a DVD at the lower quality.
– There's a stand-alone box made just for this project, but Paul couldn't remember the product's name. Using it you can by-pass the computer entirely.

Continuing…
Craig thought he might like to just have the video stored on a server rather than burning DVDs.
– For storage, Paul said he's aware of a media server by Netgear <I guess he was thinking about the EVA9000>at about $299.
– Look up mythtv, <similar topic on this show> it can both capture the video and serve it up. It takes work to get it running, so it's mainly for hackers, though some companies sell complete mythtv systems.

Paul realized he misheard Craig and the larger figure of 10,000 hours may require a device called a virtual array whose storage can be increased 1 terabyte at a time.
– Paul then suggested doing more with the compression rather than throwing more hardware at the problem.
– Experiment using different amounts of compression to find an acceptable quality level.

Ben called to say he has a computer he's using as a media server and he wants the output to go to his TV rather than the computer monitor. He knows he can get a VGA-to-component video adapter. But is a simple cable good enough? His TV has 2 HDMI inputs but they're both being used. It has no VGA or DVI inputs.
– Get a converter to take the VGA output from the computer and provide component output to the TV.
– Weather he needs a converter with a scaler depends on the native resolution of the TV,
– CRT displays can be driven at different rates but the LCD display is more picky. "You're trying to make the video display match the output per dot on the other display", that's what the scaler does, but scalers are expensive. Try a converter without a scaler first to see if the results are acceptable.

Glenn once tried hooking up his laptop to a 36" CRT TV and it looked really bad. Paul said it's because the TV's resolution is actually lower than a proper computer monitor.

Glenn mentioned that he's calling in using Google Voice, which was mentioned on last week's show. Sign up for free and save on your long distance calling; you have nothing to lose but a little time

Apple has extended its warranty on an early version of the Time Capsule hard drive-equipped wireless router, which was released between Feb & June 2008. See the above link. You can get more info here.

Christine called with a mouse problem; it's the new Apple Magic Mouse. She had a problem while doing a software update for her friend, so she did the update again. Now there's an extra mouse cursor showing up on the screen.
– Updates are best done using the Apple logo auto-update. It's good at handling partial or incomplete updates.
– Install the entire, rather than incremental, OS update and then reboot. She said she already did that but the problem persists.
– Test the batteries.
– Be careful where the Bluetooth mouse is being used. Be sure the top of your desk, the drawer below it and the contents of the drawer don't have metal <that can interfere with the Bluetooth signal>.
– Someone else may have Mac <with a Bluetooth mouse> and you're looking at their cursor.
– Try a using a regular wired mouse to see if the problem goes away.
– Try taking the Mac & mouse to a different part of the house.
– Since this is a new Mac, exercise your warranty.

Bob called and said he recently moved to Rough And Ready and wondered how he can find out if AT&T offers high-speed internet service in that area and what other options he has.
– Go to att.com, then to the internet services area and enter your phone number or address. You'll be told if high-speed is available to you.
– Virgin Mobile USA is just now offering Broadband To Go. It involves buying a dongle (a USB device containing all the needed software) and paying incrementally by the month or even 10 days at a time — no long-term contract. Try the lowest rate to see if it works in your area.
– There's also smarterbroadband.com and digitalpath.net.

 Last updated: 8:11 PM 7/12/2010