May 2005  Show Summaries

The show was pre-empted this week for WBAI fund raising.
  

This was our fund raising show. WBAI is a listener supported radio station. 

For listeners that pledge $150, we offered our Gold Card membership. This entitles you to unlimited telephone or email technical support from the gang at the show. Ask us your questions. Bring us your problems. This is quite a bargain when you consider all the problems associated with personal computers and software. If Hank or Joe can't answer your question, they will find someone who will, be it Alfred, Michael or anyone else they know. If need be, we will also intercede on your behalf with the company that makes the product you are having a problem with. There is no limit to the number of questions you can ask us. 

We send you an actual Gold Card with your own personal membership number. The Gold Card is good for one year from the day you receive it. If we are late in sending it out, you benefit because we consider you a Gold Card member after your pledge is made and before we get around to sending out the cards. 

Gold card members can also get a free Gmail account. This is Google's free email service with 2 gigabytes of storage. It is an invitation-only service. 

We had a mystery guest with us, Adam Celine. :-) 

A recent problem from a Gold Card member had to with Outlook Express which would always ask for his password even though he told it to remember the password. This is due to a corrupted key in the Windows Registry. We gave the Gold Card member this answer the next day. 

The Digital Village is another computer show on the Pacifica network. They are on KPFK in L.A. Better name than us, but we have the better show. 

Yesterday Microsoft announced the initial beta release of OneCare - a service that, for a monthly fee, will keep your computer safe from viruses, Adware, Spyware, spam, Trojans, etc. etc. Pricing has not been announced. A skeptic might say that Microsoft creates the problems and then charges you for fixing them.  

In the old days there were many different word processors. Now, everyone uses Word. Hopefully this will not happen with anti-malware software. Adam said that to please their stockholders, Microsoft has to show growth. The ongoing revenue stream for OneCare looks pretty good compared to a one time purchase of Windows. 

We are the only computer show in the tri-state area. We were the first, then there was some competition, but no more. Just us. 

We discussed phishing. 

A Gold Card member asked us about an error message he saw every time he turn on his computer. Alert! System battery voltage is low. Press F1 to continue or F2 for the setup utility. He pressed F1 and everything seemed fine, but he asked us what the error message meant. The machine was a Dell Dimension and about 6 months after that machine was released, this message started appearing on many of them. Turns out Dell used a bunch of bad batteries in these machines and they only had a six month life span.  

We discussed a document Hank put together about making backups of your computer. Adam uses a Network Attached Storage device thanks to a recommendation from Hank. It is an excellent way to make backups of multiple computers if you have a LAN. 

Via, a chip manufacturer, is trying to come out with a PC that will sell for under $250. 
   VIA readies $250 PC  from CNet May 10, 2005 

Trend Micro just purchased Intermute. Trend Micro already had some anti-Spyware software but they are planning on expanding their visibility in the anti-Spyware market. 
  Trend Micro snaps up anti-spyware maker Reuters May 10, 2005 

A Gold Card holder was getting errors from ZoneAlarm that none of us could figure out. Joe contacted the vendor, ZoneLabs, and got an answer to the problem. It had to do with an earlier version of ZoneAlarm previously residing on his computer. 
  

The show was pre-empted this week for WBAI fund raising.
  

In The News

The Pentagon released a classified document with sensitive sections deleted. Or so they thought. They were wrong. It was an Adobe Acrobat document that displayed black boxes over the sections the Pentagon wanted to remain secret. However, all the data was still there. A simple text selection and pasting into Notepad revealed the classified information.
    U.S. Military's PDF Fiasco Was Avoidable by David Coursey May 3, 2005 

Apple released 20 bug fixes for Mac OS X 10.3.9 (Jaguar) just two weeks after their last round of bug fixes. 
    About Security Update 2005-005 from Apple 

There is a new 64 bit version of Windows XP that you can upgrade to for $12 if your computer has a 64 bit processor (you know who you are). However, there is no mainstream anti-virus product for it and upgrading means giving up your license for the 32 bit version of Windows that was pre-installed on your computer. There is no going back. 
  Dangers Lurk Along Windows' 64-Bit Upgrade Path eWeek  May 3, 2005 

Alfred got a hoot out of White Collar Slacker's Handbook by Marc Saltzman. It was published by Que in March of this year. Sample tips are available from Que Publishing. 

One tip has to do with sending an email message while you're sleeping. Outlook lets you set a timer so it looks like you're working late to impress the boss. Write an email message at  2 PM and have Outlook send it at 9 PM.

Hank discussed LogMeIn.com which offers remote control of PCs over the Internet. Basic remote control is free, their paid service offers extras such as file transfer. Hank likes the service, he uses it with clients of his to work on their machines remotely. Michael has used it too and documented his gripes with it.