Paul will Call In From UK after a dinner of ZIPLOC OMELET

New WebSite Cosmetics : ) Still Using four year old Joomla! Content Management System! ver 1.0.15

Trying our Twitter Feeds Today! follow "ddhart" for today's show, "kvmr" for the station in general, etc.

iPad 3G CAme Out May 01, starting at $629.  NON contract 3G from ATT (month to month) available!

Facebook: Privacy Settings TimeLine from EFF Maybe the only way to win is Not to Play??

AND some Tech Info on its elusive News Feed algorithm (thanks (::) )

Customize that funny little Icon to the left of your Web Address called: favicon.ico
http://www.favicon.cc

Armchair Wildlife Webcams!

Hate Embedded Capital letters? (CamelCAps!) More HEre! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CamelCase#Variations_and_synonyms

 What Is Next Generation HTML5? Demo Here: http://html5demos.com/ and SOME explanation HERE

Additional Notes 

Editor's comments delimited by < >

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

They're tagged with #Zentech

Today, Glenn was in the studio and Paul called in from England

The Joomla content management system has been, and is currently being used, at the Zentech web site for 4 years.

Using a Ziploc bag to make an omelet was described. See the above link. Also Glenn described a technique for microwave omelets.

The Zentech Radio Inspirations banner at the top of the zen.kvmr.org page is made using a free tool at the Cooltext web site.

In a web browser, the icon just to the left of the address in the address bar is called a favicon. It comes from a special type of gif file that has .ico as the extension. You can make one yourself, just follow the link above.

Paul said the long awaited Apple iPad has come out recently and now the 3G version is also available. It's like a giant iPhone. Go to apple.com to find out more. The 3G version works over the cellular phone network. The starting model is $629 and you pay month-to-month for the service. Though it's been out for only a few days, it's already been jailbroken so you don't have to use it with the AT&T service. The SIM card in it is much smaller than a regular one though the electrical contacts are the same.
<Article: "How to Jailbreak the iPad">

Paul talked about the changes at Facebook and privacy concerns of its users. See the above link. He went on to say that this is the result of Facebook trying to make money — after all, the service is free to the users. He also said he's considering dropping his account there.
Glenn didn't think the service was very intuitive for some features and he had to get help on finding who all of his friends are.
Paul went on to say, groups now have the 'like' icon instead of 'join'. This can be misleading because you can end up joining inadvertently.

Glenn thought Twitter might not serve him in passing on info from his Flea Market show.Twitter's one-line-at-a-time nature makes it difficult to format the info about the items for sale.

The above link about the news feed algorithm explains the difference between a news feed and the current news on Facebook.

Bo called to ask if one can have a cell phone and use it as a PDA without subscribing to a phone service provider.
– Yes, you can use a wi-fi connection.
– The iTouch from Apple might work for you. It's like an iPhone without the phone. But the iTouch doesn't have a microphone so you can't use Skype VOIP over the internet. Paul said he tried a device from China that was supposed to work as a mic for the iTouch, but it didn't work.

Paul talked about Wildlife Webcam from wildearth.tv. The subject — wild life. See the link above

Ustream.com allows you to stream video or music using Flash from your location. All you need is a laptop with a camera & microphone. Visit the site & follow the directions.
Paul used the service when he called in from Phoenix in November during one of the Zentech shows and it worked quite well.

Another version of the service is ustre.me

Julie called. She's looking for a laptop and is concerned about viruses. Her friends suggested a Mac and she asked for advice.
– The downside of a Mac is its cost, but not much else.
– An iPad might work. They start at $499. However, it doesn't have a physical keyboard, just a virtual one on the screen, and it can be difficult to type & see what you're typing.
– A netbook might be a good choice. Both Glenn & Paul have an ASUS netbook. <see Glenn's review> You can get a netbook for about $350.
– An Apple Air notebook is also a possibility. An Apple refurbished unit goes for about $1100 and a new one for about $1500
– If you're very concerned about viruses, an Apple would be a good choice.
– You can use the AVG anti-virus program, which you can get from Cnet.com. Type in "AVG free" while you're there. <or find it here> It integrates with Google when you make your searches and warns of suspicious search results.
– One problem with using the iPad is Microsoft Office may not be available but "the application suite" from Apple may be available. <she said she was using some Microsoft products>. But you can use Google Docs to do your work online. That service can work with many operating systems without having special or expensive applications on your own machine, just a web browser.

Ken called to comment about the hiss heard during Julie's call. He thinks that it came from her phone as it automatically increased the gain on the microphone. When she wasn't talking, the phone 'thought' it needed to increase the volume.

The disclaimer: The views expressed on the show are those of the speakers only

Larry, who has a G4 iMac he bought in 2004, called and said the videos he watches online and are jumpy. He has AT&T DSL that tests to about 3 megabits per sec.
– That should be plenty fast but the server of the video may not be sending it fast enough.
– The Flash player is inefficient on some platforms and gets bogged down trying to decode the video.
– Update your Mac using the Apple logo.
– Paul heard, in the PC world, that Flash would bog down a machine that's slower than a 1gigHz. Larry's Mac is 784megHz so that may be the problem.
– In the Mac's utilities folder there's a program called something like "Resource User" that shows what percent of your memory, internet speed, CPU, etc. is being used as programs run. That will help pinpoint the problem.
– Ask a friend to bring a faster machine and compare the performance.

Jerry called and he also has G4. He wondered if he can get Linux for his Power Book?
– The Ubuntu project has versions for the 3rd world where there are many older machines.
– Ubuntu can be burned to a CD that you can boot from to see if it works before installing it on your machine
The fellas surfed to the Ubuntu site and found that version 6.06 is likely what he needs

<I think this is it, otherwise you can do your own search starting here.>

A caller <sorry, I couldn't make out her name> said she upgraded from a 19" monitor to 23" and now her internet speed seems to be slower, as well as some applications.
– Some machines borrow video memory from the pool of processing memory and the bigger monitor may be using more of that memory making less available for processing.
– First determine if the video card has it's own memory or if it's borrowing memory, as just mentioned.
– To check what your computer (PC) has in it, in the start menu right click My Computer, click properties and at the bottom, in the general tab, are the specs. Doing this she found she has 1gig of memory.
– With this info, go to the manufacturer's web site and find out what type of memory you need. Glenn guessed it's DDR2 memory.
  – Find out how many memory slots the machine has…
either 2 slots and both are occupied or 4 slots with 2 occupied.
"With this type of RAM you can add just 1 more" <memory stick>.
You can add 1 1gig stick for about $25 to $30 or, for about $50, a 2gig stick ("either a 2gig single stick or, if you have room for 2 more, you can put 2 1gigabyte sticks in addition giving a 3 gigabyte total"). <That's what he said>.
The sticks go in only 1 way, don't force it, there is an indent on the memory stick. Match it up with the indent on the mother board.

Camille called. She was told if she uses Bcc (blind carbon copy) when emailing, no recipient will be able to see who the other recipients are. Others told her, no, someone can find out by going into the utilities folder (Mac), and was advised to send the mail individually.
– True, the email address you send to are viewable on your machine locally (even if sent individually) but the recipients of the emails can't see them. <That's what Bcc: was designed for>

Also her emails print out too small.
– The preference in Mac Mail (which she uses) may allow you to change the size.
– Mac Mail tends to be buggy. Switch to a different program.

  Last updated 8:26 PM 5/3/2010

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DIGITAL AUDIO PLUG-INS – EPISODE 1: WAVES 'digital signal processing pioneers'

Click HERE to listen to this show

  Join guest host Mikail Graham on the April 19 episode of ZenTech, where he will feature an interview with Shachar Gilad, Product Marketing Manager for WAVES, a company that pioneered DSP based audio plug-ins. WAVES offers the most diverse range of DSP based audio plug-ins in the world, currently featuring more than 100 different plug-in tools for both Mac and PC based Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) such as Pro Tools, Logic Studio, Cubase, Nuendo, Sonar, Ableton LIVE and Bias Peak to name just a few of the top companies supporting this kind of technology.

Seasoned pros please note: this will be a digital audio 101 type show explaining the basics of DSP audio plug-ins, what a DAW (digital audio workstation) is, the basic of digital mixing and plug-in processing using WAVES plug-ins, along with discussing WAVES role in the history of audio plug-ins and some of their groundbreaking advancements in audio DSP.
Towards the middle of the show we will be featuring audio demos of various WAVES Signature Artist plug-ins from world renowned engineers like: Tony Masserati (Tupac Shakur, Destiny's Child, Notorious B.I.G., Black Eyed Peas and others) and Chris Lord-Alge (Green Day, U2, Foo Fighters, Bon Jovi, Dave Mathews Band and many others) and Eddie Karmer (engineer for Jimi Hendrix. Led Zeppelin  & many others). We will also touch on where WAVES is heading in the future, their online education portals, YouTube videos, WAVES Update policy, plus you'll learn how you can download FREE DEMOS of any of their plug-ins to try at your leisure in your own studio.

For info on WAVES online WEBINARS click here
To check out their Online Video Support click here
To check out ther various support Books & CDs click here
To check out the WAVES YouTube channel & tutorial videos click here
To check out a YouTube video demo of Vocal Rider click here

Thanks for your support…

 Additional Notes

Editor's comments delimited by < >

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

Mikail hosted the show alone, today. For most of the hour, he played a prerecorded interview.

Early sound recording/editing programs were incompatible with each other. In the late 1980s things changed when audio plugins came along. For modern editing programs that are capable, new features can be added by installing a plugin, a relatively short piece of code, no need to replace the entire program. For instance, you can make the audio sound like it was recorded on tape or amplified with a vacuum tube amp or add reverb.
Some programs that support plugins…
On the Mac:
Digital Performer, Pro Tools, Logic, Garage Band, Bias Peak and others.
On the PC:
Nuendo, Cubase, Sonar and others.
Plugins cost vary from shareware to $1000 or more. And, since they usually focus on a small set of features, learning use them tends to be simple.

Shachar Gilad the product marketing manager for the Israeli company Waves was interviewed. The company pioneered digital sound processing using plugins. They support virtually all current editing programs with about 150 plugins.

Their first plugins were Q10 and L1 for the program called Sound Designer.

Shachar described how early mixing was done with hardware. A simple analogy is adjusting the equalizer or treble on your stereo. Then Q10 came along to do the equalization using software. L1 was a level maximizer and allowed the audio to sound as loud as it could and still be friendly to all playback mechanisms. There are plugins now that allow doing many more effects.

"Artist signature" plugins try to emulate the effects that a particular mixing engineer (usually someone well known) would use, personalizing the resulting effect and allowing you to see how they achieved it.

"Modeling" emulates, in software, particular hardware gear that sound engineers used in the past, including how it looks and sounds (filter curves, harmonic distortion, noise, etc.).

Before and after examples of edited tracks were played.

They talked about "formats" <I'm not clear on this concept, but I think it's about how the plugins handle the data internally while they're doing their thing>. They talked about time division multiplexing (TDM) and native formats, saying many people think TDM sounds better than native though native is being used more these days.

Waves has clinics, webinars & videos to help people get up to speed on using plugins. They also have an educational division at sound.org where books are available for would-be sound engineers. And they have an education program with certification.

Demos of their plugins are available that you can use free for 10 days, along with tech support.

Vocal Writer is a leveling plugin for editing vocal tracks. It's different than a compressor in that it doesn't "color" the sound. It also automatically adjusts the vocal level to sound good as other musical instruments change their volume.

Ban Piracy is an initiative, in conjunction with Waves, to discourage the pirating of audio software.

Their consumer division has psycho-acoustic technology called Maxx that tricks the mind into thinking it's hearing sound that's bigger than it really is. This is useful in the case of TV speakers, which tend to be physically small, as well as the sound from laptops & telephone speakers.

Waves also working on tools for mixing engineers who work in live venues such as concerts.

Informative videos from Waves can be found here.

There was just enough time to take one caller who asked for the best way to transfer files between various studio software programs.
– Various companies have tried to develop methods but they don't always work right.
– Mikail recommends saving separate full-length tracks so they remain synchronized. Then save them out to a drive, like a flash drive. And remember to save at a sufficiently high quality to preserve fidelity.

Mikail invited listeners with questions to email him at…
tosradio at gmail dot com

Last updated: 7:15 PM 4/19/2010 

IPAD from Apple ($499) Jailbroken

iPad Clone from China:: $290

Gas Price Survey , our area, from MotorTrends

Defer Tax Payment? Forms/Info from IRS Here

Using HUGHES.NET Satellite? Try this free utility to monitor Usage on a PC
http://sourceforge.net/projects/hnfapmon/

Additional Notes

Editor's comments delimited by < >

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

They're tagged with #Zentech

Today, Glenn was at the controls and Paul called in from England.

Both mentioned using Facebook, a social networking service. Paul can be found there by searching for Paule Castro. <A previous show listed his URL>

Facebook has changed their privacy policies numerous times. It's a good idea to check their terms of service periodically and the privacy setting for your account.

Glenn also has an account at Facebook.
<Facebook was talked about in previous shows here and here.>

The Zentech site started using a content management system called Joomla 4 years ago. The site has now had a makeover and is more user friendly.

Apple's iPad started selling this weekend at a starting price of $499. It looks like a blownup iPhone and is used more like an iPhone, not so much like a computer.

It's been jail broken; see the above link. Apple wants users to buy apps from them and jail breaking allows one to run apps acquired elsewhere and to do things like load your own ebooks into it.

There is a "clone" of the iPad from China. It doesn't run iPad apps. See the above link.
Glenn mentioned that a couple of years ago he saw a Chinese clone of the iPhone. But it too didn't run iPhone apps.
Paul said the iPad has proprietary chips in it and, though the Chinese clone has only off the shelf chips, it may actually be more useful for running common software like word processors since it's more or less a PC made to look like an iPad.
Glenn had wondered how the iPad screen is protected from damage and learned that it may come with a cover. Paul said the after market would likely provide add-ons like cases.

Paul added a link at the top to find the gas prices in area around Nevada City. Enter your own Zip Code to personalize the results.

Bob called to ask if one can load their own photos into the iPad from a camera.
– Glenn said, as far as he knows, there are no input ports or USB on the iPad but you may be able to do it if the camera has wi-fi.
– Paul said you may be able to get pictures in thru your computer if it has wi-fi.

Bob goes on to ask if there is a universal wi-fi connector for cameras
– Glenn thought, that if it were possible at all, it would be so costly it would be cheaper to buy a camera with wi-fi.

Technical specs for the iPad are at apple.com/ipad/specs.
<Also see David Pogue's iPad FAQ>

Nick called. He has a Netgear router and he loses his connection when his wife tries to use it.
– Paul said check the configuration to be sure it's not configured as a bridge. Set it for NAT or address translation.
– Call Netgear for support. Wireless router makes generally have good support.

Paul came back with an answer for loading pics into the iPad. You can link it to a Mac and use iTunes to do the transfer. Also, Apple sells an iPad Camera Connection Kit to do the job if your camera has USB; it can also read SD cards.
There is also an iPad Keyboard Dock to connect an Apple keyboard.

Glenn mentioned that a stylus can't be used with the iPhone. Paul thought it was because it has a capacitive type of input that requires something more bulky like a finger.
Using a stylus on a physical keyboard, like on a Droid, may damage the keys because it's easier to apply too much pressure.

It's tax time and a link to IRS is provided above. There, you can find a form allowing you to defer filing (not defer paying) your taxes.
And how do you confirm the authenticity of such a site? Paul said if it ends in .gov you can be pretty sure, but not completely sure, that it belongs to the US government.

The next show on Apr 19 will have Mikail talking about sound and sound recording on a computer.

The HUGHES.NET Satellite service is mentioned. Such connections have latency <due to the distance the signal has to travel> and often have a cap on the total amount of data transferred. When you exceed the cap, your connection speed is throttled back. The above link is to free software that tells you when you're approaching the allowed limit. The software is for a PC not a Mac.

Thor called and said he was using a satellite service similar to HUGHES.NET.
– Glenn suggested using a wireless service such as Digital Path or Smarter Broadband. Glenn is using Digital Path and said it's 3 megabytes/sec and no limits <no data cap>.
Thor said he used to use a provider call Sonic in Sonoma County and was very happy with them. He also likes Black Mountain Communication, a wi-fi provider.

Thor said he has a client with a "slab" Mac but the LCD monitor is too bright or washed out and it can't be corrected by adjustment.
– That can happen as the monitor gets old or damaged by heat.
– Attach an external monitor. There's a video port on the back but it needs a particular adapter (iMac VGA adapter) to allow use of a common VGA monitor.

Ralph called to ask about the router usage monitoring software. Does the machine doing the monitoring <always> have to be on?
– Some routers can determine which machine is doing the monitoring and provide the usage information. You may possibly be able to run such software on multiple machines without much harm.
– Call the maker of the router to see if the router already has monitoring functions.

Ralph wondered if the usage caps apply to wireless services as well.
– The previous conversation was about Hughes.net in particular. Wi-fi & DSL don't usually have caps but 3G phone connections do. Smarter Broadband does have limits depending on the package you buy.

Lisa called to say her father gave her a computer with Norton <anti-virus> on it. She doesn't want to hurt his feelings by deleting Norton even though she's learned, from Paul, that it's a resource hog. She'd like to install AVG but keep Norton around.
– You can try to disable it but it can still "get in the way".
– Go ahead and delete it but say it was done during servicing.

Last updated: 8:44 PM 4/5/2010 

Additional Notes

Editor's comments delimited by < >

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

They're tagged with #Zentech

The USB port provides 5v at .25amps that can be used for various things like charging a battery. A battery charger that works with the USB port came onto the market with a virus. The link above is to an article that describes how viruses can be transmitted thru the USB port.

You can now buy computer monitors that can handle cable TV & have an HDMI interface. Paul said he saw a refurbished Samsung Blue Ray DVD Netflix unit with a HDMI interface for $110. It can be used directly with a monitor, bypassing the computer.
Increasingly, such devices are internet enabled, including TVs. All of them have the HDMI interface, which is like DVI but also has a sound channel. Everyone seems to be settling on HDMI as a common interface.

Paul said, next time you have a disk with something other than DVD material on it, try putting it into your DVD player — the player may be able to present other material like photo slideshows or music.

Glenn came across video files with a .3gp filetype, which contain 3gpp movies. Paul said that format has been around for a while and are usually found on cell phones. He said, the best player for these is VLC, which is VideoLan.
If you use Download Helper that comes with Firefox to grab Google videos <from Youtube, I guess> in the raw FLV format, they won't easily play back. But the VideoLan player knows how to do it.

On a PC you can open a file in a program other than the default, right-click on the file and choose "Open With" and you'll be presented with the choice of other programs that can open that filetype.

VLC is an open source program and that is different than free programs like AVG or Spybot in that the source code is available.

An earlier email from a listener asked for free photo management software. The above link compares about 20 free programs, some of which are open source.
Paul said he likes Picasa. It's meant to be more of a viewer than an editor.
Glenn also mentioned GIMP, which is a free Photoshop type of a program that can edit pictures.
The Mac has iPhoto. The latest versions of iPhoto and Picasa do face recognition — just knows it's a face but does not identify the person.

There are upgrades for FireFox & Thunderbird. If you've been using FireFox from its early versions and have been doing updates, you may have unused portions on your hard drive. So, it's ok to completely uninstall it before installing the newest version. That should delete orphaned files.
– Go to the Control Panel -> Add and Remove Programs and uninstall FireFox.
– Then go to C:\Program Files\ and remove the Mozilla Firefox folder.
– Then install the new version.
– Do the same with Thunderbird.
<It's not strictly necessary to uninstall. Only if you want to remove old unneeded files.>
– The data for these programs — the email messages, profile files, etc — are stored in a different place. They aren't deleted if you follow the above steps.
– Readers are reminded to do regular backups.
– The disclaimer: The views expressed on the show are those of the speakers only.

James called wondering about the Google 1Gig project (mentioned on the last show) and said that Google "bailed out" of San Francisco because the population was "too diverse". For Nevada City's effort to attract Google, visit 95959google.com.

James also said he gets a poor connection using EDGE on his iPhone.
– Try Smarter Broadband for terrestrial Wi-Fi.
– There's also http://www.DigitalPath .Net

Paul continued talking about Thunderbird. Why upgrade?
– There's noticeable cosmetic change.
– Earlier version weren't especially good at searching the body of messages.
– He, again, recommends uninstalling the older version, but only if it's earlier than version 3.x.
– Glenn mentioned Revo Uninstaller. Paul said that should wipe out all trace of a program but it would ask for permission before doing so. <He never said if it wipes out the data area too. Just use the Control Panel method if you want to be cautious>
– When you install the new version, give it time to index your messages.
– If you want to revert to the earlier version, you'll be able to do that — the data files are compatible.
– Again, be sure you do your backups.

Glenn asked Paul how to make Outlook 2007 stop being the default email program.
– Go to the Control Panel -> Network and Internet Connections -> Internet Options, then click on "Programs" and change the program you want to use.

After you've installed Thunderbird, the first time you click on an email link in a web page, Thunderbird will give you the option to use a web interface like Gmail and Yahoo Mail, or use Thunderbird itself.

There is a free alternative to the Notepad program that comes with Windows. It's called Notepad ++.
– You can assign multiple filetypes for use with Notepad ++ (e.g. .txt .bat etc.).
– It highlights elements in .bat and html files and matches opening/closing braces.

Source Forge is a great resource for free open source software. Get there by going to sourceforge.net or sf.net.

The web site www.skepdic.com was mentioned and clip from an interview of Michael Shermer by Colbert was played. See the above link.

Jay wrote in to ask for a good anti-virus for his new laptop.
– Try the free version of AVG.

Jay also asked about the web browser called Chrome.
– Glenn said he uses it sometimes but doesn't like its bookmarking features and its lack of a toolbar. He also has trouble customizing it.
– Paul doesn't regularly use it but likes its speed and the fact that a crash in one tab doesn't affect other tabs.

Joshua called to say the mail program in his Mac freezes the machine and he's not happy using an alternate called Mobile Mac.
– Paul thinks it's the data (the messages) that are screwed up.
– Try deleting the mail folder. Paul thinks it might be under your profile -> library -> application data -> mail data (or something like that).
– Paul has heard that even the latest version of Apple Email has problems and it's not recommended one use the IMAP protocol.
– Use Thunderbird instead. It's available for the Mac.

John called asking about the region code of DVDs.
– For copyright reasons DVDs from one region of the world will not play in a player in another region.
– Choose the USA region to play DVDs made there.

John also wondered if the "magnetic" bar code sticker on the DVDs he gets at the library could damage his player.
– No, they're not actually magnetic but use radio frequencies.

Paul asked if anyone knows what Klaatu barada nikto! (at the top of this page) means. <Answer at the bottom>

Paul suggested, when installing AVG, to do the custom install and turn off the Link Scanner and the feature below it. And turn off scheduled scanning. When you do the custom install, you're given the chance to opt out of installing plugins that check for phishing sites, current browsers do a pretty good job of doing that already. The automatic install doesn't give you the opt out choice.

Richard called to ask if the firewall in XP is adequate.
– Yes, it came with service pack 2.

A caller said the quote is from The Day The Earth Stood Still and means the spaceman is not dead.

Last Updated 11:35 PM 9/29/2010