Additional notes 

Editor's comments are delimited with < >

<When I update a Zentech page, I post a tweet at twitter.com/ddhart
You don't have to join Twitter to read it
You can also search for the tag #Zentech>

Paul was in Goodyear Arizona and joined Glenn by a Skype VOIP connection. He was also broadcasting video by using Ustream. You don't have to login to just see the video, but you do if you want to chat. See the link at the top of the page at zen.kvmr.org (or here). You'll need a broadband connection.

You can go to maps.google.com fill in the "from" and "to" fields to get your distance from one place to another.

There is a new wireless internet provider <also mentioned during the last show> in the Wolf Mountain area near Nevada City.

Susanna from Hospitality House (a homeless shelter) called in looking for someone to redesign their web site. See the above link.

Dave called in to say he likes the Ustream broadcast. However, he gets periodic lock-ups using the Flash player.
– Make sure you have the latest version of the Flash plugin.
– You can find the version you're using if you google the words flash test and run the test. Paul said that currently the latest version is 10.0.32.18
 – Paul also said, he's discovered that a CPU of at least 1 giga hertz is necessary to run Flash.
– Try using Flash inside of Firefox. Dave said he did try it in Firefox and there was an improvement.
– There are different versions of the Flash plugin for different browsers.

Scott called to say he is also watching Paul on Ustream but said he can't hear any callers to the show.
– The Ustream broadcast is separate from the Zentech broadcast.

If you'd like to help Hospitality House with their web site, you can email to zen (at) kvmr.org and your message will be forwarded to Susanna. Or go to their web site.

Paul said there is the Leonid Meteor shower tonight (Tuesday morning). See the above link.

Laura called asking who the speaker was during the show preceding the Zentech show.
– Call the KVMR office at 265 9073 <area 530, I think> and leave a message for Dr. Ely. You may even be able to get a tape of the show. Check the biography page for more info and an email address.

Susanna of Hospitality House called again to clarify that they want to redesign their web site and not just do a minor improvement.

Paul turned the camera back on his laptop to show the setup for the Ustream application.

Paul also mentioned that USB 3 is coming out. It can do 5 gigaBytes/sec <maybe he meant gigaBits/sec>. It can address individual devices so a couple of devices don't soak up all of the bandwidth. There are extra wires, separate ones for transmit & receive. It's expected to be out next year. He said it appears to still be a hub technology and you may not be able to daisy-chain devices. It's not clear if there is backward compatibility for USB 2, though older drivers are supported. See the above link. You can also go to usb.org for more info.

Thor called to say the guest on the Ely show was Mike Dooley. He also says he's designed web sites and has had great success using WordPress. He thought it might be useful for Hospitality House.

Talk about the USB connector lead to the suggestion of marking one side with White-Out so you don't try to insert it backwards.

Paul quickly mentioned a few other things referenced by the above links…
There is a chemical sensor for the iPhone.
There's a way to check if Windows XP is broken. At the command line type sfc /?
He recommends the photo-editing program Picassa 3.5
There is a way to launch Firefox and Internet Explorer with more than one home page open in the tabs. Look under "Options" or "Preferences".

<Note there are a couple of other items, in the above links, that were not mentioned during the show.>

Additional notes 

Editor's comments are delimited with < >

<When I update a Zentech page, I post a tweet at twitter.com/ddhart
You don't have to join Twitter to read it
You can also search for the tag #Zentech>
 

The 3.1.2 update for the iPhone is available but it's IMPORTANT to read the instructions first.
To reboot the iPhone hold the power & home button down together for about 30sec

Both Glenn & Paul have face book accounts.
Paul's facebook
Glenn's facebook 

One of the contributors to Paul's face book is Catharine who says that there is a free web page editor called Kompozer (see the above link).

Glenn mentioned that AT&T has an option to have 10 numbers on a list that you can call without using up your minutes. But you have to have, he thinks, the 1500 minute account. So read the fine print.

Youtube is a good resource for how-to videos. Some products are hard to take apart; you have to know where to push on the case at specific points to disengage the holding tabs, and there are Youtube videos to help you with that.

You can get an iPhone for about $1000 with no commitment to AT&T.

There was an email from Katie. She has a Samsung 8-millimeter cam corder Hi-8. The only output she can find is S-video.
– If it was made in about the last 3 years it may have a USB or some other port.
– There used to be the Canopus Converter that connects to the Hi-8 port and produces output on a Firewire port for the computer.
– For $12 on ebay, Paul once found a 4 channel analog video to digital capture <mentioned on a previous show. I'll update the page if I find it>

Lee called and said he upgraded from Vista to Windows 7.
He previously used the program Transfer My PC and he tried to uninstall the program but it wasn't all deleted, as a result, the program to test compatibility issued a warning.
– Use Revo Uninstaller. But first reinstall Transfer My PC so Revo can see it.

Lee said he finally did manage to uninstall Transfer My PC and then it took a couple of hours to do the upgrade.
He also says Windows 7 is booting and running faster than Vista.
The only thing that he found incompatible is the fingerprint reader
– Be careful about uninstalling security software like the fingerprint reader or you may lose access to your computer.
– Minimum RAM to run Windows 7 is 1gig. Glenn said Vista had the same requirement but that seemed inadequate. More memory is recommended.

Eileen called. She has an iMac OS9, a scanner and Adobe Photo Shop. She wonders what their value is.
If you're interested in buying this from her, contact her at:
470 9244 <I think the area code near Nevada City is 530>
or eileen@pulserequsite.com
– Check ebay for a fair value of this setup.

Bernie called and said he can't find the phone number for AOL to cancel his trial account.
– Paul found the number 1 877 773 4462, provided by a third party.
– You can contact your credit card company & tell them not to honor payment requests form AOL.
Bernie also says he gets a status screen saying "installation package not available".
– Paul thinks it's a piece of software that needs the original disks to finish its installation.
– Call HP (his computer's vendor) at 1 800 HP INVENT and ask their customer support.

Glenn said, that previously, the AT&T $10/mo (1 year contract) DSL was problematic to subscribe to. You'd have to call them to complete the subscription. But, when you call, they'd say you can only do your sign-up online for that plan. That problem has now been resolved.

3G is the way the iPhone gets broadband internet at DSL speeds. When you're out of range it falls back to the EDGE network which runs at 9600bps.
USB wide area wireless network cards are available from AT&T or Verizon to get an internet connection thru the cellphone network.
In 2006 Kyrocera was the first to come out with a 3G router that would take a PCI Express or a USB card (one that would give 3G internet access) and provide that internet access to a network of local computers. <So, you can have more than one computer sharing the access thru one card and one account.>

This way of getting an internet connection is costly an meant for those who can't get cable or DSL but who have cellphone service. Before you buy into this, use a cell phone to be sure you have a good signal. Then try the USB card in a single computer (without the router) to confirm all is working well. After that, you can go to 3gstore.com to get a router, like the Kyrocera, and get all of your compters online. At 3gstore.com you can also get an antenna you can mount near a window to boost your signal.

The data plan for using such a USB card will cost at least $60/mo and there is cap on the amount of data you can transfer, where you'll pay extra beyond a set maximum.

Glenn received an add from digitalpath.com offering unlimited nation-wide long distance and 3meg of internet (they probably meant a rate of 3 megs per second) for $60/mo.

Gary called to say he bought a hard drive that is password protected and he's trying to crack it.
– If all of the data on the entire drive is encrypted, you may never get access unless you reformat the drive. Use the Linux operating system to reformat, if necessary.
– The drive may have a password protected BIOS (hardware) in it, in which case you're out of luck.

Susan is currently using Real VMC to connect a laptop to her main computer. She's thinking of getting a Mac laptop and wants to know if there is similar program to connect the Mac in a similar way.
– Go to showmypc,com

Today's show was focused on the membership pledge drive.

You can pledge online at $25 or more & be entered into a drawing for a Roku Soundbridge.

You can see thank you gifts & pledge here:

I put up a list of favorite programs & utilities here.
I'll likely be adding to the list as I scan thru the notes of the past couple of years.

Paul noted that Process Explorer is missing from that list. <I'll add it the next time I edit the file>
This is similar to the Task Manager but gives you more information. It's more suited for the tech savvy user.

Other than that and light banter, there wasn't much more that was tech related. The next show should be back to normal.

This page last updated 7:54 PM 10/19/2009 

Additional notes 

Editor's comments are delimited with < >

<When I update a Zentech page, I post a tweet at twitter.com/ddhart
You don't have to join Twitter to read it
You can also search for the hash tag #Zentech>

Niko called and said she has an XP laptop that runs slow and she gets the warning "DLL application is not initiated" when she tries to turn it off. She has to press the button to turn it off.
– It may not be just one cause and usually a whole set of clean-ups is need.
– First, do a backup so you don't lose your data when you do the clean-up.
– A crude way to backup is to individually drag those data files important to you to a USB flash drive. If you use Outlook, you can use the export feature in that program.
  – There is a page at zen.kvmr.org that lists some free tools for the clean up.
< ccleaner and other utilitites mentioned in these notes.
Another defrag utility mentioned here.
More programs often mentioned on Zentech; look toward the bottom of this.> 

The zapatopi.net stopabductions.com links above talk about alien defense headgear; various tin hat and aluminum headgear to shield yourself from alien <UFO type, not cross boarder type> influence. It's important to make the headgear yourself as the factories have been subverted.

A humorous audio, spoofing the variety of apps for iPhone, was played.

Gracie called and said she has a 5 year old PowerBook and said that the Airport symbol indicates it's on, but it's not connected.
– Try using the wireless communication at a different location. If that works, your wireless router has a transmitting problem.
She says the other computer is working ok, so that's not the problem.
– So then, you may need to find the wireless connection profiles and delete them so you can start fresh.
– On the Mac you can also go to the Application folder -> Utilities folder -> Disk Utilities and click the button "Find & Fix Permissions".

The US military has a project to use biofuels. See the above link.

Are Mac owners loyal only to Mac? A study suggests a vast majority of them also run Windows. See the above link to a Register article.
Sometimes a needed application is available only on one platform. An example is Adobe Audition that KVMR uses; it runs only on the PC. Mac users would have to install Windows or use the Crossover application <it was mentioned on a previous show>.

A caller said he lives outside of town and can receive an EDGE connection on his 2G iPhone. He wants to know if he'll be able to use a 3G iPhone for a tethered connection.
– You should be able to but Apple doesn't want you to.
– There are 3rd party applications to do that and you'll have to jailbreak the iPhone.
– Since Apple & AT&T don't want you to do that, a killbit is occasionally sent to the iPhone to disable those apps.
– You don't need an iPhone to do this. There are USB devices available from Verizon & AT&T that give you a 3G connection.

Paul continued reading stats about Mac users owning PCs.
Mac owners tend to be more affluent. Again, see the above link.

Monday morning blues refers to a burst of heavy usage of communication circuits on Monday. As people return to work, a wave of increased usage travels from the East Coast to the West, following the changes in the time zones. Also, network engineers have to deal with a backlog of problems. All things taken together, networks suffer the most on Monday.

Paul had some problems taking phone calls and took a short break to resolve them.

A caller said he wanted get a laptop and asked if he should get a Mac or a PC.
– It depends a lot on how much money you want to spend. If money is no object, a Mac is recommended.
– On the other end of the scale, if price is the primary concern, you can get a netbook. These are a small-format laptops under 3 pounds with a screen of 10 to 11 inches. Intel has come out with the low power Atom CPU for netbooks. They typically have no CD because that consumes a lot of power. They usually cost less than $300 and have about as much processing capacity as a desktop unit of about 5 years ago. They're adequate for most typical usage but not for video editing or 3D gaming and other similar use.
They are a bit under powered to run the Vista operating system and are the last of the computers that have XP installed.

The caller went on to ask which operating system to get if he were not to get a netbook.
– Jury is still out on Windows 7 as it's not being sold yet, but it is starting to appear on manufactured machines. The impression is that it's what Vista should have been.

Mikail called to say the Apple Store has a refurbished MacBook for $849. It comes with Snow Leopard, the latest operating system.

Paul said he's learned that retailers often have subtle price differences for discontinued products. For Fry's, the price of such products end in .95 instead of .99.

Mikail said, to find the refurb Mac units, go to the Apple Store and look for a blue icon on the bottom left that says "refurbished". <More like the middle of the page & no blue icon>
There are rumors of new iMacs, MacBooks, and MacMinis due out as early as this week.

Paul said there's a new Apple store in the Roseville Galleria.

Paul has an ad for tech support for Etch-a-Sketch. He read some of the humorous questions and answers. Read it for yourself by following the above link.

Dave called to say the iPhone 3G with version 3 of the OS has the tethering built in but AT&T has not enabled the service. He wonders why he should pay even more for this future service when he already is paying for the phone service.
– Since AT&T has the ability to keep you from using the service, that's what they do (until you pay more).
– Use the USB 3G device. <mentioned above>

He also asked how things are done in Europe.
– Their technology is similar. AT&T uses GSM. If you want to buy and use a SIM card in Europe, your phone has to be unlocked.
– In Europe the iPhone is locked in to one provider, Orange, just like it's locked in to AT&T in the US. This is not true for France.
– In Britain you can get a USB 3G device and buy a SIM card on a monthly basis to have a mobile connection.

Josh called to say his mother upgraded to Snow Leopard and lost pictures in iPhoto.
– Use the Spotlight search facility and search for "iphoto" to see if the folder was moved; it should be under "pictures". If it was moved, iPhoto may not find it. When you find the iPhoto folder, double click on it and it should open the pictures in iPhoto.
– Its suggested to do a backup using TimeMachine before trying to locate the lost pictures.

Glenn is not feeling well. If you want to send him a greeting, you can use the email address zen at kvmr dot org

Paul suggested taking periodic breaks from your computing. There is even software to help.

Web sites, like home computers, can be infiltrated. The Apache web server they run on can be subverted if it's not updated. Even high profile web sites are at risk. Malicious code can be attached to the end of a web page and sent to you, as you browse the page, and exploit vulnerabilities in your machine. See the above link for more info.

Additional notes: 

Editor's comments are delimited with < >

<When I update a Zentech page, I post a tweet at twitter.com/ddhart
You don't have to join Twitter to read it
You can also search for the tag #Zentech> 

Paul uses the site theregister.com as one source of topics for discussion on this broadcast. He also gets ideas from those who post on his Facebook account

Paul likes some music by Jonsi & Alex. It's background music to a video called "Moments". See the above link

There is very graphic British public service announcement about what happens when you use a cell phone while driving. See the above link.

Glenn got a Sony stereo with Bluetooth and microphone that connects to his cell phone.

Paul played an amusing audio from a Youtube video ad for Norton Anti-virus. The link to it is above.

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

Glenn mentioned that Norton Anti-virus could slow your computer down. Paul added that the anti-virus part itself is not a particular problem, it's the rest of the stuff that comes with it.

Paul said there is a 5 to 10% failure rate for any anti-virus program. That's often because the viruses are updated so fast that the anti-virus programs have trouble keeping up. <Here's a couple of links from previous shows about viruses>
Anatomy of interactive Worms & Viruses (AKAL BotNEts)
The Economic Returns for a Virus or Worm Infection on your PC!

A different strategy, called white listing, is to allow only approved programs to run on your computer. Some anti-virus companies have experimented with this. The problem is that the anti-virus companies have to keep track of what white listed programs are updated.

It's the 50th anniversary of the COBOL programming language. Its feature is the use of common words rather than more arcane symbols for its program statements. It's still being used, especially in the business world. See the above link.

Paul asks, what's the highest point on this planet. It's not Mount Everest whose height is measured relative to the local mean sea level. The highest point is Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador. That's because the Earth bulges at the equator <which adds to its total distance from the center of the earth>.

Glenn say be careful before installing the version 3.1 update into your iPhone, you may not be able to jailbreak it afterward. But people are working on this problem. Paul said it's more of an issue with the 3G phone than the 2G. <See Mikail's comments further down>

Glenn said there is a program on Cydia <see below for more info> that will back up your iPhone data (including the jailbeak apps) so you can restore it after you upgrade the operating system.

Paul found a FireFox addon called "About-Me" (link above) to keep statistics on your browsing habits.

Mikail called to say there is a jailbreak program that currently runs on the Mac only and works with the 2G & 3G iPhones but not the 3GS.

He said he's heard negative stories about the 3.1 upgrade (not the jailbreaking) concerning shorter battery life and slower app loading. But he's not experienced this himself.

Mikail said the backup program Glenn mentioned above is APTbackup.

The Mac program to do the jailbreaking can be found from these sites:
blog.iphone-dev.org
iphonehacks.com

Paul said he's seen an interview with Bill Gates that illustrates he's the first to use the licensing model for software sales. For much current software, you don't own it — you license it.

Along the same topic of licensing control, there is an article about how Apple is exerting more control over its products. It's called "Catching Apple's Signature Server" by Jay Freeman at Cydia.

Paul is enjoying a review copy of a book about Larry Page & Serge Brin founders of Google. "Inside Larry's & Sege's Brain" by Richard L. Brandt from the publisher Portfolio.

Mikail said PG&E has a program called SmartAC.
Call them at 866-908-4916.
or visit their web site at www.pge.com/smartac.
or pge-smartac.com
They replace your thermostat with a satellite connected wi-fi unit that can be controlled thru an iPhone or laptop via the web. Additionally, PG&E would have the right to throttle back usage to reduce demand. Mikail said there is a way to conditionally opt out after you enter the program.

Paul was reminded of a proposal, which was not implemented, to put a logging device <like a black box> in cars. The device would have also limited your speed when it passed special roadside transmitters.

Mikail asked why Mac and Linux machines don't suffer from the virus issues that plague the PCs.
Paul said it's because there is a separation of roles of the administrator, user functions and the application functions in the case of the Mac & Linux. Mac's OS is based on the Berkeley System Distribution (BSD) of Unix.

Paul asked Glenn about a site, he thought was mentioned before, that compares cell phones. Glenn couldn't recall if he ever said that. <Maybe not what Paul asked about, but for now try these sites:
http://www.phonescoop.com/
http://www.mobiledia.com/
http://www.phonedog.com/>

<With respect to PG&E reducing customer energy usage…>
 Paul mentioned that during courses he took in environment studies, he learned that the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) found that it would cost them less to subsidize people by providing low energy light bulbs than it would to build more power plant to sell more energy.

Paul has found Facebook useful to stay in touch with his family, many of who are in Spain.
Though Glenn signed up on facebook, he didn't find it useful for him.
Glenn asked what the differences are between Myspace & Facebook. He thinks Myspace requires membership to view member pages but Facebook does not.
Be careful what you reveal about yourself on the web. Once it's out there, it's nearly impossible to take it back.

Glenn reminded people to back up their data regularly. <Here are links to 2 previous shows with links to backup software:
May 18, 2009
Jan 26, 2009>

John called. He has laptop and its screen is showing a checkerboard pattern. He was told the graphics adapter had gone bad and wants to know how hard it is to replace it.
– Check your warranty (or extended warranty). If it's in effect, of course, you wouldn't have to do it yourself.
– Check with the manufacturer for recalls.
– It's almost impossible to fix a video adapter on a laptop because it's integrated into the motherboard.
– Try an external monitor to see if the problem persists, as it may be a monitor problem.
– See if it's cheaper to just buy another laptop rather than fixing the current one.

Bonnie called and asked how to turnoff the superfluous features on Facebook because she has a slow connection.
– Try "Optimize Facebook", or something with a similar name.
– Use lite.facebook.com <the better solution>

On a related note, Paul knows someone with dialup who's having trouble using Yahoo because of all the graphics & such being sent.
– Glenn suggested using m.yahoo.com. It's a light version designed for mobile users.

Ellen called to say she also has a Facebook account and likes it for maintaining contact with a childhood friend and people in the local community.
Paul suggested setting up a separate email account to be used only with Facebook.

Building on the suggestion to use m.yahoo.com, Paul said that to speed up Google's email, use the link at the bottom of your email page <I think it's the one that says "Basic HTML">. However, Glenn thinks that means you'll lose a lot of features.

Jessica called to get the link to the British video mentioned earlier. See the link above

Mary called. She has a desktop computer that makes a noise.
  – It's likely coming from the power supply fan or possibly the CPU fan.
– The program Speedfan reports on the stats of your computer like the temperature & fan RPM..