The topic tonight was netbook computers. It was also our final night of fund raising during the current membership drive. We offered a password reset CD for $55, a DVD toolkit with tons of software for $75 and, finally, one year of Gold Card technical support for $200. Every pledge over $25 also gets two writeups: the first is a document on repairing Windows XP, the second is about netbook computers (what are they, how to select one, etc). There were no listener phone calls. Normal show next week.

 

We may be pre-empted next week, watch pcradioshow.org for details. HP is recalling 70,000 laptop computer batteries. The website avsim.com had both their servers hacked and they had no backup. If you have a website hosted a hosting service, what does it mean for them to have a backup? At some companies it means they maintain a mirror hard drive. This is not a good backup.

Google maps and Google reader suffered an outage recently. Then Google News had an outage a few days later. Microsoft recently fixed a bug in PowerPoint for Windows, but they did not patch the Mac version of PowerPoint. Was that on purpose? Java on Apple Macs is vulnerable to a security bug that was fixed on Windows and Linux long ago. Michael has a suggested fix. Real Networks accused Hollywood of being a monopoly.

Samsung is introducing LED backlights in their LCD televisions. Most LCD TVs are backlit using florescent tubes. LEDs are solid state and Alfred said they should produce a better picture because they offer a greater range of colors. LEDs also use much less electricity compared to florescent tubes. The downside is that they are more expensive. Alfred said an LCD television backlit by florescent tubes should last 60,000 hours. June 12 is the cutover date for digital TV.

Fund raising. We offered a password reset CD for $55, a DVD toolkit with tons of software for $75 and one year of Gold Card technical support for $200. Every pledge over $25 also gets a document on repairing Windows XP. There were no listener phone calls.

 

Many bug fixes were released yesterday by both Microsoft and Apple. More about the XP mode in the upcoming Windows 7. There will be a new graphics support chip from Nvidea. Disk imaging. A new name for Windows copy protection. Microfocus bought Borland. SCO is going out of business.

Fund raising. Our gold card tech support is $200. Anyone who donates $25 or more gets a white paper that Hank wrote on how to repair Windows XP. A Windows password bypass CD is $55. There were no listener phone calls.

 

The first half of the show was normal, in the second half we discussed our assorted premiums for your donations to WBAI. There were no listener phone calls. Anyone who donates $25 or more gets a bonus, a writeup from Hank that details how to repair Windows XP.

Amazon will shortly deliver a new Kindle with a much larger screen. The plan is for students at some schools to get textbooks in Kindle format. Now that there is a large screen, is this the future of newspapers?

Presto is an instant on operating system. It installs as a Windows application but at system startup, you get a choice of booting to Presto or to Windows. Presto boots faster. It comes with a handful of applications including Firefox and Open Office. There is a free 7 day trial at prestomypc.com It's a version of Xandros Linux. If you don't like Presto, you can remove it in the Windows control panel Add/Remove programs. It sounds much like Wubi.

The next beta version of Windows 7 was released. Hank installed it on an Asus Eee PC and elsewhere. There is an optional add-on that provides a virtual copy of Windows XP. But many people won't be able to use the add-on. When Windows 7 goes live it will only be available on the expensive editions. Also, it requires a virtualization feature in the CPU and many CPUs don't have this feature. Do you?
For Intel processors:
Download, install and run the Intel Processor Identification Utility.
http://www.intel.com/support/processors/tools/piu/
For AMD processors use the AMD Virtualization Compatibility Check Utility
http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/dynamicDetails.aspx?ListID=c5cd2c08-1432-4756-aafa-4d9dc646342f&ItemID=172

What's the future of Vista after Windows 7 is released? Microsoft extended the life of Windows XP, yet again. Alfred is sticking with XP, he asked what Windows 7 will do for him that XP does not.