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 

Editor's comments delimited by < >

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

They're tagged with #Zentech

Paul has an iPhone 3G there's an update to version 4 of the firmware coming out. He doesn't know if it's been hacked yet and recommends holding off on the update for now if you need it to be hacked <I think he means jailbroken>.

Glenn thinks you can pull the SIM card out of your previous iPhone and plug it into the new iPhone 4.

Paul gave a brief rundown of some acronyms…
– 2G networks run at the so-called EDGE speed — about 9600bps.
– 3G networks can approach DSL speeds (1.52Mbps) if the cell towers are providing the service and it's not over subscribed — the more people using the network, the lower the bandwidth.
– With 4G the sky's the limit but the infrastructure hasn't been rolled out yet.

The iPad with 3G has what's known as a micro-SIM card. An actual SIM card is about the size of a credit card. In Europe, the SIM is embedded in the plastic of a credit card and it's that mini-SIM (about 3/4" by 1/2" in size) that's used in cell phones. The micro-SIM has the same electronics and the mini-SIM can be trimmed down, with an exacto knife, to be used in its place. There are devices sold in Hong Kong for about $10 that can clone SIM cards.

Mikail called with more info about the new iPhone 4.
– He said you CAN'T take the SIM card out of the old iPhone and put it in the new one because the iPhone 4 uses the micro-SIM card.
– There is no jailbreak for the iPhone 4 yet.
– The iPhone has a reception problem supposedly due to the operating system and update 4.1 is expected to fix that.
– The camera resolution is so good that it's comparable to actual dedicated cameras.
– It does 720p HD video.

You can now get a Google Voice account without being invited. It's free.
– Go to google.com/voice.
– Choose the google voice number carefully, typically one that's local to your area so people calling it won't incur extra charges.
– Calling abroad using a Google Voice number is only $.02/min. You still pay for the airtime on the cell phone but international calling is cheap.
– AT&T is blocking the app for using Google Voice, but there is a web interface to get around that.

Then there is also Skype for low budget & free phone/video calling. Keep checking for updates to Skype as improvements are made often.

Mikail called again to say he has a Google Voice number and thinks it's great. There's a free app for jailbroken phones and one called Google Voice Plus for $2 with more features.

Paul mentioned that Google Voice can transcribe a voice mail into text and does a reasonably good job.

Google also has a pretty good language translation service at translate.google.com

Glenn also mentioned the Babelfish translation service.

Joshua called to say his iPod is not being recognized by his Mac Book Pro. It says something like "file missing".
– Download iTunes and install it again. It should be version 9.2. Go to itunes.com or apple.com/itunes.
– You might also try updating the Mac from the Apple logo.
– Try resetting the iPod. Glenn found this suggestion at support.apple.com and knowledge base article ts1410.
– Try running "file check" on the Mac.

Matt called and said that a security update for his Windows Vista machine keeps being sent to him and has been installed numerous times.
– Get the knowledge base number (beginning with the letters "kb") and use that to research a solution. Search for the kb number and the word fix or undo or backout.
– Generally, the solution involves going to the command prompt using the F8 key and deleting something.

Paul said the solution to a tech problem is out there, you just need to ask the right question. When doing a search, think of a combination of words that uniquely apply to the problem. The fewer, more specific or unusual the words, the better.

The Flee Market show now has podcasts at kvmr.org/fleemarket. There is also a PDF file there.

Michael called and said that when he plays slower music in iTunes the music stutters.
– Paul ventured a guess that because slower music, which doesn't change much, actually gets compressed more, and the CPU has to work harder to decompress it. So, unburden the CPU by closing other running programs and see if there's an improvement.
– In the utility folder (Mac) there is a program called something like "CPU Usage". It tracks how hard the CPU is working. If CPU usage goes up to 100% while playing the slower music, that's the problem.
– Check if there's a common source of the problematic music. The music files themselves may be faulty.

Jim called wondering what jailbreak means.
– Unlocking the iPhone allows it to work on any network. <Subject to the type of network (GSM or CDMA), I guess>
– Jailbreaking allows you to install software not approved by Apple.

Glenn wondered why Skype is allowed by AT&T when Google Voice is not.
– Paul said it works on wi-fi but not a 3G (cell phone) network, although there is an hack for that on a jailbroken iPhone. That it doesn't work with 3G means it doesn't directly compete with AT&T's cell service.
– Paul also mentioned that 1/5 of iPhones have been unlocked.

The disclaimer: views & opinions are those of the show's hosts only. Do the jailbreaking & unlocking at your own risk

Paul said he's found better travel deals thru means other than the web. Don't assume web searches are always your best option.

Listeners were invited to write to zen at kvmr dot org and browse the website at zen.kvmr.org.

Bill called. He's been looking for some old schematics and has been trying to educate himself in the use of advanced search syntax.
– You can just use the form provided on the advanced search page at Google. You don't have to learn anything complicated. When you complete the search, you'll see how Google constructed the query.
– On the advanced search page, there's a link to tips explaining how to use special syntax.
– Gmail also has powerful search capabilities.

Ben called to ask why one of his computers will not stream the Zentech show. It just downloads a file called kvmr.m3u.
– It's not set up to know how to deal with an .m3u playlist file.
– Right-click on the .m3u file, left-click on "open with", select "choose application", select the program you want to use for listening to the stream (like iTunes), and select the check box that says "always open with this application" to make your choice permanent.

John called with a suggestion for Bill. Russia and Czechoslovakia are good places to find old schematics. Search by using a version of Google specific to the country like google.cz (Czech) or google.ru (Russia). The US version of Google may not be able to give the same results.

Glenn offered links he's recently found for good deals. Restaurant.com and groupon.com.

Last updated: 7:50 PM 6/28/2010 

Left and right brain Martian Venution mind meld:

We talk with KVMR's Poet Laureate Molly Fisk about her use of Facebook & other social media for literally getting the word out about her creative endevours:
Poetry Boot Camps, writing workshjops and more.
Some Comments about computer punctuation, too..

 PlaceShifting TV- Watching from Elsewhere via SlingBox Solo- For Example.

netowrk Accessed Server & etc, Raid and ALL! by promise – review. Under $300 wihout drives

 Warranty Issues: Above All be Reasonable!
"Availability- affability- ability." You can get mad or get even but not both.
1) "Outage Supplement" They take 30 days to fix it? you get 30+ days
2) "Stonewalling Weaselout"- REGISTERED first date of Complaint.
3) "Not workign as advertised" Buy a boat anchor- expect a boat anchor. merchantability
4) "Lemon Laws" Your reasonable expectation of fixes Done Right (mechanically, at least!)
5) Blinded by BS- YOU should not have to be an IT guy to go figure THIER problem
6) "Inherited Liability". If you company got Bought, the buyer owes you!
7) "Class Action and design flaws": IE batteries and hardware components
8) "Outside Resort"- Home owner's Insurance, Creidt Card warranty extension, etc.

 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

The segment with Molly Fisk, about promoting her work thru Facebook, was more conversational than pedantic, so I'll just hit some of the highlights: Molly's interview ended about halfway thru the show and listener's calls were taken

Molly Fisk operates Poetry Boot Camp poetrybootcamp.com. She's done so since Jan 2002.
It's a intensive 6 day poetry workshop done thru email where people submit poems and are critiqued.

She started using Facebook Feb 4, 2009 when she lost one of her cats.
At Facebook search for molly fisk. She also has a business account — search for molly fisk writer speaker teacher.

On Facebook, you can unfriend someone you don't like or, alternately, hide their posts.

Molly puts her radio essays in the notes section of Facebook, about once a week. She puts them in the notes section, not status updates, because they can then be more easily shared by other people.

She spends about an hour a day finding the interesting content of other people, and putting it on her page.

Facebook hasn't changed the way she works but has changed her social life. It's also increased her interaction with the younger generation who are now more likely to recognize her in public.

She went on to say that being on Facebook has saved her business because she uses it to promote her classes & book. And it's put her in touch with other poets and brought her to social events.

Previous to Facebook, attempts at social networking included a site called Evite. It and other sites had no integration between themselves. Facebook solved that problem.

Coryon Redd & Brenda Horton have been on previous shows talking about marketing using social media.

There was discussion about using Facebook to find lost pets. Unlike using email (which can circulate for years by being forwarded), when the pet is found, it's easier to bring the search to a close using Facebook.

Molly said it's easy to alienate people when using Facebook for marketing. She said you have to strike a balance between being personable and promoting your product.

Molly was asked to define poety and she quoted Samuel Coleridge:
Prose, words in their best order. Poetry, the best words in the best order.

Molly mentioned that she uses a Mac computer.

On Facebook, she said, one can make a list limiting the number of friends you want to follow more closely so as not to be overwhelmed by the volume of comments.

She also said that she uses the chat feature only occasionally but finds it difficult to politely refuse a chat.

Molly can be contacted at molly@mollyfisk.com. And, as mentioned above, on Facebook. And also at poetrybootcamp.com as well as mollyfisk.com and voiceofyourown.com.

Brian called and said the guys had previously recommended Digital Path for internet service over wi-fi. But said his trees aren't high enough for their service and wondered if there were other suggestions.
– smarterbroadband.com may be a possiblility.
– Sometimes a group of people get together where one, usually the highest in elevation, would relay the signal, coming from the commercial provider, to the others.
– You can try using the internet over the cell phone network — AT&T or Verizon. This was mentioned in previous shows.

A caller asked about getting an antenna for using the internet over Verizon's cell phone network.
– You can find one on the internet or from the Verizon store. But she said the store she used didn't carry any.
– Locally, Banner Communications carries antennas. Take your unit with you to the store because it's sometimes hard to find its connector. And check their return policy in case it doesn't work for you.

Listeners were invited to write to the hosts using zen at kvmr dot org.

Paul talked about product warranties.
There's the get out period during which you return your purchase.
The warranty period itself is typically 1 year.
Your expectations for warranty service should be reasonable. E.g. your data on the hard drive you bought is not covered, only the hardware itself.

Paul thinks companies supporting their products should observe 3 principles — "Availability- affability- ability." The company..
. Should be reachable — Availability.
Should be not be rude — affability
Should know what they're doing — ability

Paul talked about the 8 points of warranty support listed above.
1) Paul thinks companies should extend your warranty by the amount of time taken to do any warranty work. If they take 30 days to fix something, you should get 30 more days of warranty.
2) "Stonewalling Weaselout" is when your warranty is about to expire and the company takes so long to process your request that you're no longer under warranty. Get a repair ticket number, get an RMA number to return merchandise, get the name of the person you talked to and take notes to document the timeline of events in your warranty request. The aim is to prove you spoke to someone about your problem.
3) You have the right to a product that does what it's advertised to do.
4) "Lemon Laws" put a finite limit on the number of times the product can be replaced due to malfunction. Software has different rules. See the above link.
5) You shouldn't have to have special knowledge to deal with a service problem. The average person should be able to understand and respond to what the service dept is talking about.
6) When one company buys another, they inherit the responsibility for warranty work.
7) Usually, a company is responsible for notifying you when a product is subject to a "class action" (normally due to a design flaw). But do check for yourself — do an internet search for class action model where for model you substitute the actual model of your product.
8) Keep in mind that something like homeowner's insurance may cover your product. Also consider using a credit card that extends the warranty.

Paul talked about place-shifting your TV programming. Using SlingBox you can receive your TV program in one place (the cable service at home) and have that program sent thru the internet to be watched elsewhere. So you don't have to be at home watch your own cable TV. See the above link.

Last Updated 8:20 PM 6/14/2010