Additional Notes

Jeffrey Hein joined Paul as today's co-host. Glenn called in from Chester, CA.

Jeffrey Hein runs an IT consulting business that integrates technology into your business.
Phone 530-274-2037
http://www.jphein.com/

For those keeping an eye on the weather, accuweather.com has Doppler radar including an animated mode.

drop.io was mentioned during the Nov 17 2008 show.
Zentech has set up a demo at drop.io/kvmr895.
917-512-7398 ext 54837
Sending files larger than about 5meg or .exe files can be a problem, so use this service instead.
PowerPoint files can be viewed directly a slide at a time; you don't have to have PowerPoint. The etrange file at drop.io/kvmr895 is a PowerPoint file, if you want to see how it works.

For people anticipating power outages, keep in mind computers can be set to come on when power is restored. Check your BIOS setting — you get to it during boot-up.
Cheap generators often don't provide well-regulated power. Better, more expensive, ones do. Laptops may fare better than desktops.
Check in advance what might happen when the power goes out. You may find your laptop battery may not be holding a charge.
Small UPS (uninterruptible power supply) units are not intended to keep your computer working for long, just long enough to save your work & shut down.

A UPS may not charge when the power comes from the generator because it's poorly conditioned and you'll hear the UPS beep. Better UPS's do condition the power.

If you're on a generator and you turn on a high wattage device like a heater, the generator will take time to bring the voltage back up to normal. This can send a pulse to your computer and damage it if you don't have a UPS. Belken 1100BA is used by KVMR.

A caller, who has a Mac with the Parallels Windows emulator, ran a virus check and found many of them in a folder but there were only a few files displayed in the folder's window. Changing the folder settings to show all files didn't reveal any more files.
Parallels can run some Windows applications without Windows being installed, so the recommendation is to uninstall just the Windows system. Check the Parallels web site for software that can run without Windows present. Parallels came from WINE. WINE also runs on Linux.

A caller reminds us that Parallels runs only on Intel Macs. And he asks how a Windows emulator can use serial ports on a Mac that doesn't have any.
You can use the USB port with a USB to DB9 (or DB25) serial ports adapter and use the drivers that come with it. But anything that needs to talk to the UART registers won't work,

Jeffrey mentions mint.com that keeps track of your finances & budget. You are advised to consider just how much information you can trust them with. All the usual disclaimers apply; use at your own risk.

Jeffrey also likes clipperz.com; it's a password manager.
OpenID is another password management system but hasn't been fully implemented.

Google has a business directory at 1-800-goog411.

A caller bought a machine with Vista and wants to know if reverting to XP would require a reinstall of the applications or would they be migrated.
There are ways to migrate the apps but it's not simple so it's best to reinstall them.
First get the free auditing software from Belarc & it will create a profile of your machine including the product keys of the installed applications.

Same caller said he just upgraded FireFox and now it boots slowly.
The suggestion is to reinstall the previous version.

There are more utilities listed in the notes of the Dec 31 2007 show.

Guests are Brenda & Chuck Horton
hware.com
530-268-9495
brendah@hware.com
Specializing in strategic business planning for small business, startups, non-profits and government organizations.
They will be giving a seminar on Dec 15 from 9 to 4pm called Thrival.
Register before 12-12-8 & get a $50 discount.
The seminar is about…
1) How to use technology to grow your business.
2) How to recession proof your business.
3) The emerging green economy, implementing green strategies including decentralized work
4) How to create a blueprint for a business; starting with a vision, then planning and execution.

Mentioned is an example of open source software — open office openoffice.org at version 3, It's suggested make it to read & write in Microsoft Office format, rather than the default setting.

Place independent work, like cloud computing, uses remote applications and stores your data on a remote server. It allows access from anywhere using just a web browser or, sometimes, just a phone. Examples include…
MYSQL, a database for storing structured data.
salesforce.com for storing & managing information about your customers. A Salesforce demo account is available.

37signals.com created the open-source Ruby on Rails, a development framework for creating web applications.

Rich internet applications make the interface to web applications look like a desktop graphical user interface. They update your screen only with that which has changed thereby doing it faster, with less bandwidth and allowing even dial-up users a useful experience.
An example…
Basecamp by 37signals.com is for project management & collaboration.
Gmail is another example as well as docs.google.com
At hware.com, click on Learning Center for open-source (and other) links

The seminar will also cover business social networking to draw more customers to your business.

Making your site usable on a mobile device depends on what the tool you use to create the site.
Webpress can now be used to create web sites and, using plugins, it can be used optimize for mobiles.

Other cloud computing links…
docs.google.com
google.com/apps
When using the google applications, try right clicking to get the context menu.

Google's Chrome browser is mentioned. Not ready for prime time but if you want to try it go to google.com/chrome.

Google makes an application for Blackberry to allow you to search on google by talking instead of typing your search terms.
Another speech to text service, but for business only listings is 1-800-goog411

The seminar will also cover viral marketing to bring in customers.
An example of viral marketing is willitblend.com — videos of various things put in blenders.

Be careful about clicking on links in viral emails, they may lead to nefarious sites. The URLs you go to may not be what the actual text of a message says. Instead, google for, hopefully correct, links by using keywords in the particular subject of interest.

Business should..
Minimally have a web site.
Then do an online newsletter.
Then offer your customers email alerts.
Then blog.
You can create a google website for $10/yr with your own domain.

smarterbroadband.com is available for high speed connection in the Nevada City area.

Supposedly, studies show Wikipedia is as accurate as Britannica. Also, it can be corrected quickly and has an audit trail.

Other business social networking sites:
biznik.com
meetup.com

The Christmas "star" Venus along with Jupiter (& the crescent moon on 12-1-8) put on a show in the Southwest at sunset.

Paul hosted the show, Glenn joined in later from Sacramento.

Paul asked the listeners using Windows what program they use for back-ups. Mail your replies to zen (at) kvmr.org

Using docs.google.com you can upload, store & edit MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint compatible & PDF documents, You'll need gmail account.
It works pretty well with just a dialup connection.
You can share your documents with others who don't have to have a gmail account. You can set whether they can read-only or else edit those documents.
Be careful about exposing your personal information.

Gmail can be set up to provide POP3 or IMAP access to your mail for free. This is where you can retrieve mail from your gmail account using a mail reader like Outlook or Thunderbird running on your local computer; that is without having to use your browser to login to gmail itself. Notes about this from previous shows here. IMAP has the advantage of synching your mail (but not the address book) across multiple computers. AOL also offers IMAP but unresolved is whether you need to have a paid account.

On the last show Glenn mentioned AVG was not updating properly. His solution was to uninstall it and install a fresh copy. The AVG update server is at guru.grisoft.com (not intended for browser viewing).

XP Anti-Virus 2009, see previous notes here, is very ingenious. It keeps updating itself from the net, thus morphing and evading anti-virus software. So, run your AVG in save mode (f8 key at bootup); version 8 of AVG can be run in safe mode unlike earlier versions.

drop.io allows you to send files of up to 100megs for free, bypassing the problem normal email may have with large files. You just upload your file to drop.io and you'll be given a link that you give to those who will be downloading it. It doesn't require any personal info so it can be used anonymously. Again, be careful what data you place on the net, this site may be run by a malevolent government, or even a foreign one, trying to gather incriminating evidence. Encrypting your files may just draw attention to you.

Most internet connections are asymmetrical — you can download much faster than you can upload, there's often about 6 to 10 times difference.

A new version of Open Office is available at openoffice.org. It can read & write MS Office compatible files.

Use checkip.com, see previous notes here, to find out what info about you is known to web sites you visit.
Use domaintools.com to find out about the sites you visit.

Paul uses fake info when he registers for various things on the net. Just don't forget what you tell them.

A caller asks whether the mic input connection on a laptop is mono or stereo. It's usually stereo. To test it, plug in a stereo mike and record sound coming from the left & right while viewing the level meters in a program such as Audacity (a free sound editor), see previous notes here,
Built-in mics may pick up the noise from the hard drive.
It's best to avoid putting a line-level signal into the mic port thru an attenuator because the quality can be degraded.
For computers without a mic input, search on Ebay for "usb audio" or "usb sound" for a USB device (about $5) that has a mic input & headphone output.

A caller wants his accountant to be able to carry the data between his client and the accountant's own office; will an external hard drive work? Yes, but it can be important for the accounting software be the same (and upgraded to the same level) at both locations.

Also, as the data file grows large, performance may suffer as with earlier versions of Quickbooks. The solution is to get a later version that uses SQL to access records. But with the SQL version the data is NOT portable and can't be carried between machines, as above.

To try Migration Wizard on an XP, at the command prompt; type migwiz. It's "supposed to take a snapshot of everything on your machine, permitting it to migrate onto another machine"

A message from a listener claims the HP Pavilion laptops have a mono mic input and no line-in. And the USB audio device mentioned earlier did not work with Microsoft Vista.

Mentioned is a leaked document for AT&T customer support personnel that has suggestions for countering customer complains.

Additional notes 

Paul's Guestt is Coryon Redd. Glenn is homeward bound and checks in from the Sac airport, later in the show.

Coryon is teaching a class on internet marketing
Nov 18, 6pm to 8:30pm
Sponsored by Sierra Economic Development Corp.
560 Wall Street Suite F
Auburn, CA.
530-823-4703
sedd.org

It covers basic internet marketing and how to get your web site found by Google using free or nearly free tools.

The previous show on marketing with Coryon:
notes — http://zen.kvmr.org/content/view/68/11/
Audio — http://zen.kvmr.org/archive/ZenTech_Aug_11_2008.mp3

The focus of this show is using social networking sites, e.g. Facebook.com and MySpace.com, for marketing. Offering your expertise on such sites helps promote your products & web site.

Google uses sophisticated algorithms to devalue link farming but favor legitimate blogs.

To find a suitable forum in which to participate, google using the keywords for your product and add the word 'forum', e.g. essential oils forum. Then look for those forums with high usage.

Yahoo Site Explorer
siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com
Enter the URL to the forum of interest or a competitor's web site to see who links to that site to find other relevant web sites.
2 settings in the pull-down menus are important:
Set "except this domain" to see only links coming from external sites.
Set "including all the pages" to see links to any page in the domain, not just the home page.

Webmaster tools were mentioned in the previous show.

To optimize your web site; google "keyword tool" for a free tool to find out how much people search for different phrases. Then add the relevant keywords to your web page.

Wordtracker, a tool (free trial, then a monthly subscription) looks at the content of well-rated competitor web sites and recommends keywords to use.

Other marketing resources:
Searchengine World; search engine optimizing, seoptimizing.com, selfpromotion.com

Glenn at terminal A of the Sac Airport says there are now kiosks to accommodate USB powered devices.

He also mentions trouble updating AVG anitvirus. It's suggested that the AVG company temporarily disabled that to give themselves time to correct problems with false positives involving system files. Also, the update sites themselves are sometimes targets of denile of service attacks.

MicroAV Antivirus 2009 is bogus antivirus virus. It runs a Flash animation that appears to do a virus scan and then warns people that they have an virus just to get them to click on a link which will then compromise their machine. Beware of any attempt to get you to click on a link.

Windows Xp Antivirus 2008 is another one to watch out for; it works the same way. This, and Smitfraud, were mentioned in the Aug 25, 2008 show notes

Spybot Search and Destroy has been updated to 1.6; get it at download.com. When there, type in the full name Spybot Search and Destroy and look down past the sponsored links. Same thing for "AVG" or "AVG free". AVG now has built-in spyware detection. Also, see the show notes for Dec 17, 2007 for links to antivirus, antispyware and other useful tools.

Mentioned in the previous show is the book on web site usability "Don't Make Me Think" by Steven Krug. And also the tool Google analytics.

Notes for the show

 AXIA digital technology, used in studio B at KVMR, uses ethernet to send digitized audio signals.
And Livewire is used to render sound over ethernet between various piece of equipment
www.axiaaudio.com
www.axiaaudio.com/livewire/

Alan Stahler reports there is an asteroid (2008 TC3) that's predicted to hit earth at about 7:46pm over Sudan. It's only a few meters across, so wear sweater and enjoy.
spaceweather.com
astronomy.com

Microsoft moved forward the expiration date for sale & support of Windows XP. At buy.com Paul saw XP for $149 if you buy a 100gig hard drive for $49.

AWS is Amazon Web Services, "cloud computing" for businesses.
http://aws.amazon.com/

When was FAX invented? The telegraph was the original FAX.
British patent to Alexander Bain in 1843.
http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventors/a/fax_machine.htm

DSL is coming to various areas near Nevada City; check with att.com.
Also see local DSL providers; nccn.net, spiral.com, omsoft.com fullspectrumia.com
A list of ISP providers & methods of connecting to the net:
http://zen.kvmr.org/content/view/46/

It's speculated that the PUC no longer regulates AT&T's long distance rates.
AT&T DSL has been unbundled, you no longer need a phone account to get DSL.
You will pay a premium but it's still cheaper than paying for the phone too.
Virtual FAX is available thru, e.g. myfax.com and efax.com. You can use your current FAX number at these services

Paul uses a physical VOIP unit that can be plugged into a DSL router. Can be used over satellite with some delay.

To stop telemarketers go to donotcall.gov. Your registration there will not expire due to a congressional act in 2007. Political groups, non-profits, & those businesses you've dealt with before are exempt. Otherwise, just ask solicitors & junk mailers to stop; they sometimes will.

When disputing charges it's often a good idea to pay at the point of sale and dispute later.

There is a do not mail list. Be careful not to cash checks you're not expecting. They may be scams or you may be signing a contract that's printed on the back of the check.
http://dmachoice.org/

For a free credit report freecreditreport.com is not the correct link
annualcreditreport.com

A caller asks if Magic Jack, a VOIP unit, is any good.
Yes, it seems to work well with windows XP, Vista & Intel Macs

The last few items were discussed in the 7-28-8 show.
http://zen.kvmr.org/content/view/67/11/

The same caller asks about CAD software to design landscapes on the PC
AutoSketch, an old product, may still be available; freecad.com; Google's Sketch 3D (Sketch-Up)

The same caller wants a PC based DVR setup to record off of cable and make the recordings available to devices in other rooms.
Apple TV; Media Center is unimpressive; Nero 7 nero.com has the ability to capture the data from a media card that's being fed a video signal. There's Toast for the Mac that can get the signal from a Tivo.
www.apple.com/appletv/
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/default.mspx
http://www.nero.com/

The same caller asks about a physical mp3 player that's convenient for a Parkinson patient to use. Listeners are invited to make suggestions.
afb.org, a site for the blind, may have some info. Glenn found this on eBay.

A caller wants to capture Youtube video/audio to a file on the PC.
v4f firefox add-on. Sorry I couldn't find this one, but search for similar add-ons here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

To convert flash video to, for instance, avi, search google for "flv to avi" & use at your own risk (no recommendation given).