The Real Deal Podcast

The Real Deal 169: Travel tech tips

Tom Merritt — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:35:00 PDT

Rafe and Tom share some essential things to know before you take your tech traveling abroad.

Listen now: Download today's podcast
Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video) | RSS (audio) | RSS (video)

We got an e-mail that gave us the idea for this show:

Love the show, along with the entire family of CNET podcast. I should have written you earlier as I’m heading to Europe for the first time for a two week honeymoon in two weeks. I’d be interested in any suggestions about tech while traveling to and around Europe.

I know I could just leave the tech at home, but even my fiance isn’t thrilled about 4 hours a day on a bus with little to do.

I’ve already invested in a 10″ Acer Aspire, packed with all my music and ripped all my DVD via handbrake. I also picked up a decent point and shoot camera and some extra memory cards. Any other helpful items? Get a headphone splitter

Here are a couple things I’ve looked into, but most of the writeups are not from a tech POV. If you have first hand experiences, they would be helpful.

- electrical converters – NO NO NO. plug adaptors.

- finding free or cheap wifi
- cell phones and skype (or calling cards?)
- recommendations for backup power for gadgets – extra laptop battery, USB chargers.

- online personal travel guides http://www.offbeatguides.com/

Hopefully you could use this for a show idea.

Congrats on your 1k episode of BOL!

Brian
Pittsburgh, PA

OffBeatGuides
http://www.offbeatguides.com/

Prepare your cell phone for roaming data where you’re going
-call the carrier, eyeball the plans, settle for a prepaid cell phone temporarily while you’re there. Maybe use Google Voice. Order sim cards in advance?

Prepare your laptop data for roaming too

Join a roaming WiFi club if you’re going for a long time
-iPass, Boingo etc sometimes share wifi memberships.

Consolidate your tech
-Do you really need your laptop if your smartphone will do? Can you charge your phone satisfactorily off your computer? No bluetooth headset – use your wired. Save 1 oz!

Check your power
-Make SURE you have the right power converter. You don’t want to be stuck on battery for your trip! Carry your AC adapter in your carry-on. power – USB charging. Get a power strip for travelers

Map it!
-Print or save Google maps and itineraries. Also, http://www.Tripit.com/ take a GPS, get the world maps.

Program in phone numbers
-Put embassy numbers, emergency contacts, etc. in your phone ICE – emergency contact
ICE – In Case of Emergency. Program that in your phone.

Sync
-You’ll be glad you did!

Rafe’s Useful iphone apps
Google maps (duh)
Tripit
TAxi Magic
Public Radio
Yelp
Dial Zero

TRAVELING TECH COMMENTS

Hay real deal I am europe right now traveling with tech. I find my
iPod touch brilliant for doing everything I need. It is light and easy
to carry and hide

From cian

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Hey guys. Love the show. Two real quick tips… well one and a youtube
video tip.

1) Super awesome photographer/blogger Chase Jarvis has a video on
packing photography gear, and has some good tips on dealing with air
travel, esp the TSA. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R73OJzKxUs

2) DON’T BUY THE APPLE TRAVEL ADAPTER SET THING! As with most Apple
accessories, it’s way too much money and they bundle every single plug
for the whole world together and a three dollar plug adaptor that fits
over the US plugs works just fine. BAH!

Love the show,
Gabe (RhesEbag in the chat)

QUESTIONS

VOICE MAIL
Stuart in San Diego – Why don’t I have to press one on my new cable company phone to make a long distance call?

A: The one used to indicate the number you were calling was outside of the exchange. These days the system is computerized, and although the one isn’t mechanically necessary, it’s programmed into the long distance system for the bell telephone heirs. It’s not necessary for the wholly new cell phone and voip providers.

http://www.fluther.com/disc/17399/do-we-still-need-to-dial-1-for-long-distance-calls/

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Hey Rafe and Tom,

My wife and I just bought a new home, and I have been looking at my home networking options. Running CAT-5 cable would be a nightmare and I haven’t had very good experiences with wireless G networking. At least when it comes to getting maximum speeds for my bitTorrent downloading of Linux distributions, . So my options are wireless N or trying out a Powerline AV starter kit.

The main purpose of my home network is currently for watching HD video from my desktop computer (upstairs) to my xbox360 (downstairs). Have you guys every played around with this powerline network technology?

Or would setting up a wireless N network be better? Then I would need to get a wireless N router and adapter for the xbox360 right? Thanks for any help your combined genius can offer!

Thanks,
Doug, The Buckeye Gone Wolverine

A: Rafe says powerline networking works fine but it’s not fast. update: Belkin has new GB adapter
I also have N network. it is fast.

***********************

Is there an easy way to read an XFS-formatted hard drive with Windows XP Pro?

I have a NAS (Buffalo Linkstation 320Gb) which automatically backups to a USB external HD.
This system has worked great for a few years with one minor complaint.
Both the NAS and external HD are XFS formatted, and I use XP Pro on my various home/work PC’s.

I’ve had recommendations to get a bootable Linux CD with the required USB drivers.
Then (in theory) I should be able to boot off this CD and access the data on the external HD if the NAS ever fails.
This is assuming of course that the NAS doesn’t take the external HD along for the ride off the edge of the cliff with it’s automated backup process….
I could also build a cheap Linux box and just hook up the drive directly (IDE cable).
Unfortunately, I’m pretty clueless about Linux, so I haven’t tried any of this.

Any suggestions???

- Mark the Connector Engineer

A: My best bet would be to install Virtual Box http://www.virtualbox.net then run Linux, probably Ubuntu would be my choice, in Virtual Box and share the hard drive through the virtual machine. Here’s a tutorial http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=542095

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I know one of the favorite subjects of the Cnet’s hosts is the
individual right to online media. Things like fair use and DRM. I have
been wondering about these rights when it comes to public libraries.

More and more of a library’s content is now available online: ebooks,
audiobooks and someday maybe music, movies, games.

From my understanding libraries buy a set number of licenses for each
online media offering, but need DRM to get those licenses back for
others to use. Without some form of DRM used would not everyone just
check out their free copy and the library would need to pay for every
copy checked out?

Is this not a case for DRM? I am sure we would lose the free access to
online media from the public library without DRM?

Any thoughts on this? My hope is someday my library offers everything
from the itunes store for free with DRM (checkout period timeout)

jim

A: Sure as long as the industry forces us to need DRM, then we’ll need DRM. It’s a chicken-egg situation. The fact of the matter is not whether we need DRM or not, but recognizing that DRM doesn’t stop any of the bad behavior it’s trying to stop. Free access to media is already a reality on the Internet. The question is not how to stop people who don’t realize it yet, but how to modify our industry to deal with it.

***********************

Tom and Rafe,
I have 1 quick question in reply to your smartphone episode. I have an EnV that is a great phone, but I like getting free new phones every 2 years, and would like to have a WiFi capable phone. I see that Verizon now has the HTC Ozone. I have some time and I'll wait to see what Cnet says about it, but here is my question. This phone has Windows 6.1, but when 6.5 is on the market, can I upgrade the OS on this, or if I wait, will this phone have the new version soon after?
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/06/22/complete-htc-ozone-specs-unearthed/
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/25/htc-ozone-comes-to-verizon-june-29-for-under-50/
Jeff the Analyst
Cleveland

A: The likely answer is no from your carrier. Most phones that are sold 6.0 will stay 6.0 unless they gave you a free upgrade coupon at purchase. However if you want to do it anyway, you can always look into the mod community. XDA-devs http://www.xda-developers.com/ is a likely source of ROMs for upgrading your device, although it may not be legal and could brick your phone if you don’t do it right.

***********************

Hi Tom and Rafe,

I want to start by pointing out that episode 167 proved beyond reasonable doubt that Tom is definitely not a robot with no sense of homour (take note 404 guys!) because there were more than enough mistakes in the show

Anyway, a question: What anti-virus software (free or otherwise) would you recommend to a user that has never really explored the possibilities? My Norton subscrition is due up later this month, and I’d really like to get some AV that isn’t Satan’s spawn (only used it because it came packaged with the laptop)
Thanks,

Mike from Somerset, UK

A: AVG Antivirus http://download.cnet.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html

COMMENTS

********************

by siavashghahremany June 27, 2009 1:47 PM PDT Thanks guys for answering my questions.
Tom, I have 2 other PCs and another laptop, so the DVD drive is no problem.
Rafe, it’s a very good receiver and I think you can fix the problem, open the receiver casing and you will see that the Optical input module can be removed, it has an standard slot that most of Marantz AV Receivers use, then look for the same Optical module online, i’m sure you can find a new or at least second hand one.
but just before you do all that, check the power supply board,and your other Audio inputs, when you were 100% sure that the problem is not with the power supply then change the Optical input module.

********************

My personal favorite is:
FormatFactory

It converts images, audio and video, easy to use and supports most if
not all formats.

Rafael Viaud

********************
Hi, you guys are awesome

This is regarding Episode 168 about the free phone call. I recently got a boost mobile phone that had been deactivated. I tried to call someone and it told me to call 411 which is directory assistance it played a 30 second add and it told me to type 411 again and it went through a list of things like sport news and gossip and the last one was free call. I said free call and it played a another 30 second ad and my call went through and i had free five 5 minutes of call time. I have done it several times now and it only takes 2 minutes to get my free call.

thanks,
David from Kansas

P.S. i would have called you with it but i tried logging into the account and didn’t get the pin right and it told me when i tried to make a call that my account could not be validated

********************

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Next time: Road Test. Send us *your* stories about the gear you’ve been living with!

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The Real Deal 168: Smartphones

Tom Merritt — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:08:00 PDT

We tell you everything you need to know about smartphones and answer questions about Windows 7 and more.

Listen now: Download today's podcast
Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video) | RSS (audio) | RSS (video)

Rafe’s law: Ignore the price of the phone – it’s only 5-10 percent of the total expense.

Coverage: (Tom) Data and calls.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/167391/a_day_in_the_life_of_3g.html

Apps: A big freakin’ deal… and you can’t beat the iPhone.

Speed: Matters. 3Gs versus 3G is a difference.

Battery life: These ain't a nokia 6230, but most recharge via USB.

Phone as iPod

Tethering

Accessories

Carriers

AT&T
iPhone
BlackBerry Bold

Verizon
LG enV Touch
Samsung Omnia

Sprint
Samsung Instinct
Palm Pre

T-Mobile
Samsung Memoir
BlackBerry Curve 8900
Sidekick LX
Android G1

Data Plans

Pre-iPhone-Android comparison
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=19641

Unlocked phones
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10277723-94.html

Consumer Reports: iPhone bests Pre, BlackBerry
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10278119-37.html

Insert rant here: turn-by-turn nav and AT&T’s BS

QUESTIONS

Hi Tom and Rafe -

First of all, you two ROCK! I got a Gateway 3103 netbook for my birthday and it is wonderful. The problem is it came with Windows Vista and I am wondering if I should upgrade to Windows 7 or downgrade to Windows XP. The specs for this computer are:

AMD Athlon 64 L110
2.0 GB memory
250 HDD

Thanks for your help and keep up all the good work.

Kim

Rafe: If you like Vista, you’ll love 7. I don’t advise downgrading to XP — you have to go searching for drivers and stuff.

********************

xfire0384@acedtect Tom, can you use the Win7Upgrade and do a fresh install? Going from 32 to 64bit too.

A: You can use the Windows 7 upgrade to do a fresh install. Unclear whether XP/Vista has to be on the partition or you can just use disk. You can upgrade from Vista or XP 32 -bit to Windows 7 64-bit. Pre-order the download and you can choose at download time.

Rafe: I pre-ordered. Clean install is the only way to go, but it’s not clear yet how MS will check for prev. installs.

********************

Hello Tom and Rafe,
I admit that I only just started listening to “The Real Deal.” I love your work on Buzz Out Loud, and now that I listen to the Real Deal, I love the more in depth information and focus you can give topics in this format. I know the show on telephony was a few weeks ago, but I still have a question about VoIP service. Is there any free VoIP, or do you always have to pay for the service? I have a land line that gets calls for several family members and that I have bundled with my DSL service, because the only other high speed internet provider that I know of in my area (Comcast) sucks. I also have a prepaid cell on Verizon that I barely use. I may not use the VoIP service very much either, especially if I can’t find many others who use it, and therefore don’t think it would be worth it to pay for.
Thanks in advance for your answer and I love all the work you do on CNET.
Kevin O. Thomas

A: Skype and Gizmo Project are free until you call land lines. Others are very cheap or “free” to certain numbers with a deposit and restriction. There’s also something called evaphon.come which purports to be free. I tried it and it took 10 minutes to plce the call. I had to watch an ad. But it did work adn the line was fairly clear.

Rafe: Google Voice – for US only. You can buy credits for overseas.

********************
I would like to take advantage of OS X Time Machine, but the external drive I have been using for backing up my work and storing media (Western Digital My Book; 1TB is formatted for Windows.

Is there a way to set up the external so I can use Time Machine with it, without formatting the whole thing and loosing data? (The hard drive on the Macbook is 250g)

Thanks so much!

Joel
Halifax, Nova Scotia

A: Not easily no. Time Machine needs HFS+. Windows need either Fat32 or NTFS. You can set up a drive to be both Windows and Mac and be used with Time Machine http://balloflightning.com/2009/02/dual-partition-a-usb-drive-for-time-machine-and-windows/. However the way described there uses destructive partitioning. I;ve read some reports that Time Machine doesn’t like an MBR, it prefers a partitioning scheme set up by the Mac. So you could TRY using Gparted to resize the partitions and then using the mac to make an HFS+ partition without destroying the Windows partition and THEN see if Time Machine will work with, but I’d say your chance of success is 50-50.

Rafe: External USB drives are so cheap now… just get one and dedicate it to your backup.

********************

*************

Hello Tom and Rafe:

Here is an idea for a topic, since we are being flooded with devices that stream media to our HDTVs. While some devices like the Popcorn Hour will take just about whatever you throw at it, most have a limited range of video codecs and formats, so this means conversion!!

Could you recommend software solutions for doing these video conversion as quickly and easily as possible to meet the “flavor” requirements of the particular streamer we might have? Also what settings should we be be most particular about to maintain HD quality? And, if we do have a range of options, which formats would be preferable for quality and flexibility?

In my particular case, I have an HD video camera that records in MOV (which is frustrating). My new LG BD390 does not handle this, so I must decide whether to convert to Mp4, Divx or MKV. HELP!!

Thanks!

Vance

A: MediaCoder for Windows – http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/download.htm
Handbrake for Mac. http://handbrake.m0k.org/download.php

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Hi Tom and Rafe,

I’m dual booting Linux Mint (based on Ubuntu) and Vista, and I noticed that my laptop runs a lot cooler with Vista than Linux Mint. Rafe mentioned on the last show that the same thing happens to his Mac when running Vista (or was it 7?).

I thought it might be something thats just affecting my Toshiba Satellite L300 laptop but after a quick google search and talking to people on a message board it seems that its pretty common. I remember from earlier episodes (way earlier) Tom seems to be pretty good with Linux so I thought I’d ask you guys what you think of this … any ideas on how to make my laptop run cooler with Linux?

Thanks,

Adel

PS my specs are:

Intel 2 ghz dual core
Intel 4500 series graphics
Hitachi HDD, 250gb

A: It’s the power management features in Windows that are making it run cooler. A lot of folks have success installing ACPI in Linux.

http://www.acpi.info/
http://acpi.sourceforge.net/

**ROAD TEST
Mice
Tom: Logitech 1100

Rafe: Sidewinder X8 vs Bluetooth POS (wireless laser mouse 8000)

**COMMENT

********************

Hi Tom
Just checked out your video on URL Preview. I found this one on the firefox add on page. Just search for Long URL. It seems to work really good, easy to install and you can set it up to show the full url in the options menu on the firefox add on page.

If you find a problem with it let me know.
Thanks for all the good ideas
Jimmie

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The Real Deal 167: All-questions

Tom Merritt — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:13:00 PDT

We spend all episode answering your questions, from how to pick an iPhone, to how to blog on the go.

Listen now: Download today's podcast
Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video) | RSS (audio) | RSS (video)

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Hi Tom

I’m one of the lads that met up with you in London in April (I was the (almost) bald guy sitting in front of Nate & you lol).
My wife and I are going on holiday to Seattle and Alaska on Sunday and I would really like to keep some kind of blog going while we’re there that my family and friends can follow. I’m looking for something that I can easily update and upload pictures to while being on the move. I use a laptop that has both Ubuntu and Windows 7 installed.
Have you got any suggestions to what kind of blog I should use (or web site?).

Cheers
Anders

A: Tom suggested Posterous. http://posterous.com/
A: Rafe: Check out Tumblr. You can update it via AIM. In fact, most blog platforms have mobile clients. See also Vox if you want a blog that’s not wide open to the world.

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VIDEO QUESTION
Which USB mic should I get for my MacBook

http://blip.tv/file/2272502

A: GREAT article on USB Mics – http://www.eqmag.com/article/mics-meet-usbthe/jul-08/86389
Tom uses an Alesis USB mixer so he can have more than one mic. For single mic needs, you could get an XLR to USB adapter, so if you do branch out later, you can use the mic for other things. Problem is, they’re expensive ($99-$149) and you might as well just get a mixer for that amount of money.

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AUDIO QUESTION

Gaitano from Florida. What to do with a broken iPhone?

A: DirectFix claims to be easy to use to fix iPhones. http://www.gethightech.com/

*****************************

Dear Tom/Rafe

I have a Una-body 15″ MBP without a SD card slot. And when i went to crucial it said that 4gb(over all) is all i can have. The new ones take the same type of chips and that is what is confusing to me. Is there something in the hardware that doesn’t allow me to used 4gb sticks to have the over all 8gb of RAM?

GraniteJoe (chat room) Joe Ferguson (IRL)

PS i love Rafe; without him CNET would just be a echo chamber.

A: The firmware is the limitation, and it’s unlikely to be updated from what i can tell. As far as RAM limitations, they seem to vary by model and when built. Hard to get a clear answer online

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Dear Tom:
This is Siavash, I was wondering how can I install windows XP from a USB drive, I have an old Dell laptop and the DVD drive is dead, I don't want to buy a new drive and I don't have any external USB DVD drives, so I was hopping I could boot from a USB flash drive, I have a "legal copy" of windows XP.

Siavash in Tehran

A: You can use Bart PE Builder to make a bootable copy of Windows from your setup disk. Follow instructions here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-pocket,1113.html But if you don’t have a working drive, that may be an issue.

Oops, wrong link. Thanks to Dwight for sending in this one.

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Something a listener brought up on one of your BOL podcasts on how to save the audio from YouTube. I normally write things of interest down, but thought I would remember it. Which I did not It was something you added in front of the YouTube link, was not keep or kiss but something similar 4 digits. Any help here?

A: I can’t remember which one we said on the show, but I like this service.

http://www.listentoyoutube.com/

http://www.kissyoutube.com/

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Hi Tom, I’m constantly having to playback midi files and am tired of hearing the kinky sounds that keep playing. Is there a good (free) alternative to this?

Thanks a bunch Kski

A: I haven’t used a lot of these but I hear some good things about http://wildmidi.sourceforge.net/

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I have two questions for you guys:-

1. Why won’t my friend’s iPhone headset work with my 1G iPod Touch? I
can’t use VoIP on it. It annoys me to only hear the other person on
Skype. Is there anything like a microphone which works on it?

2. I was just thinking to exchange my 1G Touch for the 2G one as
iPhone is very expensive here (around 30,000 rupees which is about
652$). Now I am getting 142$ for my iPod which is a 16GB and the new
one, 8GB costs 250$. Should I wait for the next generation touch? Or
should I go ahead and just buy it?

From,

- Jayesh Bhagchandani

Mumbai, India

P.S – Rafe is awesome.

I say that because I really want him to reply to my questions

A: They didn’t make the 1G compatible with the iPhone headset. Different headphone jack. It’s a hardware issue. 2.2 Firmware activated the dock to be able to use a mic. You would have to buy a mic that connects to the bottom port. There’s a popular one from Macally that works and is about $50 http://www.amazon.com/Macally-IVOICEPRO-Voice-Recorder-Silver/dp/B001DM5GSA/ref=pd_bbs_sr_8?ie=UTF8&s=office-products&qid=1236729929&sr=8-8
The iPod Touch has not been refreshed since September 2008, so I would wait to upgrade.

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SKIP =- NO ANSWER

Dear Tom, Jason and the rest of the Buzz

I was recently researching some of the features that were to be included in the 3.0 software upgrade. One that interested me was the support for stereo Bluetooth. What does that mean exactly for me and other people who have an ipod touch 2g? Would I be able to use my bluetooth headset and listen to music with it? Would i be able to use skype (or other VOIP) with this and make it like a phone, and not have to pay for the $80 in-ear headphones from apple? Thanks and love the show.

Jackson

A: Yes
A: Really? I couldn’t get it to work with my Jawbone headset. w iphone

COMMENTS

Hi guys,

Catching up on a few recent Real Deal podcasts, you had a question from a week or two ago from someone I think in Hawaii who has an issue with his DSL connection dropping whenever a phone call comes in. You suggested installing DSL line filters, but I experienced the same problem and figured out that it was because my cordless home phone interfered with my wireless network. I have an older 900MHz cordless phone that does not affect the Wi-Fi, but another 2.5GHz phone that shuts down the Wi-Fi as soon as I answer a call, if the handset is anywhere near my laptop or the router. Love your show!

A: I also have a cordless phone on 2.4GHz and while there’s intererence (pops on the phone), and probably it causes WiFi problems, it doesn’t *shut down* the Wi-Fi. That’s weird. It should restablish. Anyway, I thinking of replacing this world's-worst phone with a new DECT model. Anybody have one, let me know?

= Glenn
*****************************

Dear Tom and Rafe:
This is Siavash from Iran, a long-time listener. First of all for the problem you have Rafe, when you hear the static do not turn off any device just unplug the FibreOptic cable from you DVR and then reconnect it again, if that fixed the noise you have to change the cable or the AV receiver , if the noise was not fixed the problem is with the DVR.

A: THanks everyone who wrote in about this. As it happens it’s not just my DVR that gets the fuzz and static. It happened on a DVD too. So now I’m suspecting my AVR, which is a real bummer because I really like it, and it’s old and out of warranty. It’s a Marantz SR19 if anyone cares. Built like a tank, great receiver.

By the way, I'm planning to buy a new laptop, and I'm considering the new Macbook Pro, I'm going to use Vista or Windows 7 on it. I will order it with 3.0Ghz CPU and 128GB SSD, for faster performance, but I'm not sure about the SSD drive, I have seen benchmarks on the internet of the HDD and SSD version of Macbook pro and the SSD version seems pretty fast in boot time and performance in different conditions, but I really don't know what to do, all I want is performance, and I have read some places that Macbook pro has some problems with power management when using windows, is it true Tom? Have you every had any problem with the battery life when using Vista or XP?

A: SSD is a lot of extra money for not a lot of performance. Early days on this tech. I’d reconsider.

I Love the show, keep up the good work

Best Regards

Siavash

*****************************

Hey guys-

I find that OWC aka Macsales.com is the best place to check for Mac
upgrades. They have how to’s with video, configuration FAQs plus they
make some of their own tweaked hardware that often let you exceed the
Apple specs. Their customer service is tops, too. I’ve bought Mac
upgrades there for years and have never had a problem.

Sheala

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Next time: What you need to know about smart phones

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The Real Deal 166: Phone communications

Tom Merritt — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:25:00 PDT

We cover why you would or would not want to keep your landline and what the best and newest technologies are for telephony over the Internet.

Listen now: Download today's podcast
Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video) | RSS (audio) | RSS (video)

Rafe on home phones:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/23/tech/real_technology/main4886901.shtml

Why have a home phone?

* Reliability of service/emergency services
* Reliabilty of voice quality
* Extensions!
* Pretty cheap, too.

New technologies for home phones…

* Skype? Oh yeah (Rafe’s Jetsons moment)
* VoIP at home – on cell phone
* Google Voice
* Verizon Hub

PHONE QUESTION

Voice mail – Chris from Pennsylvania
What do I need to boost in order to reduce VoiP artifacting? The upload or the download?

GENERAL QUESTIONS

Tom

I just listened to this weeks episode of Real Deal and heard what you had to say about your Panasonic plasma HDTV. I’ve been helping research HDTVs for my family and am curious of the model number of yours so that I can read up on it. If you could let me know that would be great! Also, any other info about it would be great. Are there any negatives you’ve experienced that were not mentioned on the show?

Thanks!
Love all the shows

– Matt

Panasonic Viera TH-50PZ800U
A: http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/panasonic-viera-th-50pz800u/4505-6482_7-32886472.html

*************

Hey Guys,
In The Real Deal episode 164 I think it was Rafe who said that when he used to have a DSL Wi-Fi router that his ISP gave him that was both a modem and a router. I have the exact same system over here in India and although the speed isn’t great, the price is and I need to keep it cheap because I’m a student here. Now the router creates a Wi-Fi network that broadcasts my DSL connection. My question is whether i can create a local network using the same router between my computer and my Dell laptop along with the internet connection as well. My computer is connected to the router through an Ethernet cable. I want to do this because my computer has a 2TB hard disk and I have A LOT of media on it and would like to watch it on my laptop without having to use the clunky system of using an external hard drive to transfer them. I am really not good with tech so do I couldn’t figure out what to do. Do you have any ideas? Even a link to a Web site explaining what to do would be great.

Thanks guys! Love the show! Rafe isn’t that bad! And sorry for the long e-mail!

-JasonthestudenT

***************

I got a MBP in december, the unibody. I got the 4gb or ram and really want the 8gb. Is there anyway? If not why. If so how?

Reading pa From Joe

A: Yep, buy two 8 GB sticks

Go evaluate at a RAM seller like http://www.crucial.com/

*****************

Hey there Tom. I just got in to medical school. I was waiting to buy a laptop. I am really interested in the new 13-in macbook pro but I am pretty sure all of the computers and software in my new medical school is window based. I was wondering what would you recommend. I know a little about bootcamp and a bit about parallels and vm fusion ware. But I do not know which one is better(more flexible). Any suggestions?

Sincerely,

Vikash S. Gupta

*************

Moving to Thursdays at 1 p.m. Pacific starting June 25

Next time: Questions

realdeal@cnet.com

forums.cnet.com

877-600-CNET

The Real Deal 165: Road Test

Tom Merritt — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:39:00 PDT

We talk about the tech we've been using for years, like the Palm Pilot, Panasonic HDTV, and the Kindle.

Listen now: Download today's podcast
Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video) | RSS (audio) | RSS (video)

Palm Pre (briefly)

Android “cupcake” phone

and on how I miss my Palm Pilot 1.0

Kindle App sync with Kindle regular (Family trying to use Kindle account)

Panasonic Viera Plasma one-year on

Google Wave (closed beta)

MS Bing

Firefox 3.5 Beta

NoScript plugin

Fuzzy Tivo bug

MacBook pro kernel panic with WoW

LISTENER ROAD TESTS

**Switch from Mac to PC**

Hey Tom and Rafe,

I thought I would drop you guys a line about my own personal extended
Road Test. Two and a half years ago, after tiring of the constant
security flaws in Windows XP, I gave up and bought an original
Macbook; the lowest end model with 512 MB of RAM and a 60 GB hard
drive. After maxing out the RAM at 2GB and doubling the capacity of
the hard drive, I thought that I had found my dream machine, and that
I would continue on a very happy Mac user.

However, recently I have been asking myself the question: “What
exactly do I use this computer for?” I discovered that I mostly use it
for email (GMail) and web surfing (Firefox), but also for managing my
finances and a somewhat large photo library. I have always thought
that iPhoto was the best photo management app out there, but the
recent ‘09 update demands the latest and greatest hardware; my modest
library taking around 60-90 seconds to load on top of actually opening
iPhoto. Also, the Mac version of Quicken has not been updated in
several years and I found myself lusting after the PC version running
on my Dad’s notebook.

I also found myself jumping back to Windows when I wanted to play some
games. I’m by no means a heavy gamer: the few mainstays of my
collection are the Myst series, Spore, and Microsoft Flight Simulator.
But these games work best in Windows, and my loyal Macbook was
suddenly no longer appealing to me.

So last Tuesday, I did the unthinkable: I walked into Best Buy and
bought a new HP Pavilion dv4-1225 running Vista Home Premium 64-bit.
And I couldn’t be more happy with my decision. Sure, a daily virus
scan is a bit of a drag; but the machine performs as admirably as my
Macbook did. Vista is not as bad as everyone thinks. When you actually
sit down to use it every day, it’s just as safe and functional as OS
X. I love Google Picasa and in some respects I feel it outperforms
iPhoto. I love my new version of Quicken. And I love having the extra
graphics power, Flight Simulator has never looked better on any
machine I’ve owned.

I think I agree with Molly. Apple’s hardware is fantastic if you’re a
designer, a media wizard, or just getting started with computers. But
for those of us who want more out of their machines, Windows is the
way to go.

Keep up the excellent work in everything you do. You’re an asset to
the industry.

–
Phil Hendry

Warwick, Rhode Island

**Google Tasks**

Rafe & Tom,

I’ve been watching the Real Deal since you added the videos up on cnet tv and have enjoyed it thoroughly. I just thought I would write in and let you know about my experience. After watching your video podcast on To Do Lists and Cloud Computing I noticed on the comments someone mentioned Google Tasks in Gmail. Being a long time user of Gmail I checked into it and easily found the before unnoticed Tasks link under my Contacts link. I have to say this has worked absolutely wonderfully. For one I’m on Gmail all the time so it’s very convenient and easy to use. It loads quickly as a small window within Gmail similar to their Chat program. Here is what I love about it:

It allows you to immediately type in what you want without going through multiple steps.
It lets you tab over so that you can make sub-lists (indented items) under an item.
It allows you to paste in links that work so I can easily get back to a website.
It allows you to create other task lists so I can separate my list of movies I want to see from my work to-do items.
It lets you easily switch between task lists with two clicks.
It has a one click check box to mark completed items.
It allows you to add notes & due dates to any item by clicking on an arrow next to it.
It lets you see only your completed items, or your items as you arranged them, or delete all completed items easily.
It works within Gmail so there’s no software besides a browser (very portable, even onto phones).
Recently added to Google Calendar so your to-do items with a date show up on there and the list can be seen as a side tab.

I’m sure it isn’t for everyone, but you have to admit that it has a lot of ease of use while still being very functional. What I love most is just how customizable it is with the indented options and multiple lists, plus adding things to your calendar while still being easy enough that I can just type in an item and then check it off when done. I have been using it for a couple of months now and for me (a very type A, picky, and organized person) it does everything I want. Love the show guys!

– Scott Clay (Claymation in the chatroom)

***************

You asked for a gadget I couldn’t live without?

Well I probably could live without them but here are a few I use a lot.

My Ramsey electronics FM transmitter.
http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=FM25B
I use it to play Pandora, my mp3’s, any body’s mp3 player in my garage,
living room, car (in the driveway). All no wires and with radios I
already own.

The Web site Daily Rotation.
http://www.dailyrotation.com/
All the geek headlines from all over the web.

My Garmin Etrex Vista on the handle bar of my Harley
Tells me where I’ve been with a bread crumb trail but not too much about
where I’m going. It has very limited maps so I can go discover new roads
not being absolutely sure where they will take me.

Stu

***********************

QUESTIONS

Voicemail – Guytano from Florida – Every time the phone rings his Verizon Internet cuts out.
On DSL it could be abad filter. On dial-up welll…

VOICEMAIL
Anonymous – Good places to learn more about technology.
Obviously CNET but also Instructables, How It Works, TWiT, Tekzilla….
Lifehacker

*******

Hey guys, I just started watching the show a few weeks ago and have found you both a font of useful info. I have been trying to find a program or hack so that when I click mailto links in Firefox (either 3 or 3.5b4) it will open my yahoo webmail and not Outlook or Windows mail. I’m running Vista Ultimate 32-bit with Office 07. Any help would be appreciated. Keep churning out the great programming.

Side note: Tom, why haven’t you been on CNET Tech TV on TiVo lately?

Ryan Burton
Seattle, WA

A: Two ways to do it. One set Yahoo Mail as the default client in Internet options in Windows (requires you to download and install Yahoo messenger)

Or just go to options in Firefox and choose Yahoo Mail as the default.

COMMENTS ON BROWSER WAR

I wanted to throw in an additional quip on the search battle you guys were having between Chrome and Firefox. Though I recently downloaded Chrome and am liking it, one of my favorite search features in Firefox I don’t think is available in Chrome, and I’m surprised that Tom didn’t mention it: Keyword searches.

I find this to be immensely helpful, and when I first discovered it last year, I went insane xD. If you aren’t familiar with it (though I’m sure you are) Keyword search lets you assign a keyword to a certain search engine by right clicking on the text input field of a search box, and assigning a name and keyword for it. Then, you can simply type your keyword in the address bar, followed by your query, and you’ll instantly be taken to that sites search results, without first having to go to the site.

Fore example, if I want to set up a keyword search for YouTube, I just go to YouTube, right click on the YouTube search text box, and click “Add a keyword to this search” A small window pops up prompting you to add a keyword. For YouTube, I simply use the keyword “y”. Then, I can search YouTube from anywhere right in my address bar by typing “y new MacBook Pro” or whatever I want to search for. I have keywords set up for YouTube, Google, eBay, Wikipedia, and other sites. Its one of my favorite features of Firefox, and might just be what brings be back for 3.5

Thanks again for the awesome show, you have a new viewer

Demonic Pascal

You *can* do this in Chrome. So a search once on the site in question. Chrome will remember how to search. then type into the Chrome address bar “Y” and you’ll see YouTube popup. Theb press tab and type your search query. Works great and requires no setup.

****************

Moving to Thursdays at 1 PM Pacific starting June 25th

Next time: Telephones

realdeal@cnet.com

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877-600-CNET

The Real Deal 164: Chrome vs. Firefox

Tom Merritt — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:00:00 PDT

Tom and Rafe square off on whether Chrome or Firefox is best for your browsing.

Listen now: Download today's podcast
Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video) | RSS (audio) | RSS (video)

Which should you use?

Rafe and Tom discuss

Speed

Ease of use

Plug-ins-Add-ons

Downloads

Compatibility

Security

Other browsers
IE, Opera, Safari

******************COMMERCIAL*****************************

Comments on Firefox

Hi Tom and Rafe
I use Firefox because of its ability to remember what position I previously scaled the resolution to fit my TV (monitor). Example CNET TV does not scale well because of the video player. However CNET homepage scales great, so I scale the homepage to fit the screen but leave the CNET TV page set to its default size. Chrome does not remember the scaling upon restart nor does it have the ability to scale on one Web page and not another.

Chrome does not correctly display Web pages as designed. Example: Chrome does not display CNET TV tabs correctly. The tabs are displayed on two rows above the player. So I decided to use Firefox, the new 3.5 beta 4, it's fast, dependable and has features that I need. If you use a large screen HDTV to display Web pages I recommend using Firefox.

Final thought: Chrome is really fast and I think the tab features are great. For home use I would use Firefox, for work I would use Chrome.
I am looking forward to the show.

Jimmie from KC

Comments on Chrome
Tom/Rafe,

I love using Google Chrome. I tried using for my company’s internal Web site, but it displays HTML codes in some form fields, it is kind of annoying.

Love the show,

Mandeep

**********

When you do a search in Chrome, every occurrence of the string is highlighted. Not only that, but the line that each result is on is marked on the scroll bar, so you can scroll through the text normally but still see where every occurrence is.

-The way that Chrome handles searching is better than Firefox. In Firefox you have a search bar which takes up extra space. And you have to choose your search engine from a drop-down menu. And you have to remember to change it back by default.

-In Chrome, if I wanted to search Wikipedia instead of Google, I would begin to type Wikipedia. After a few letters, upon being prompted, I would press tab and then type in the search string.

-Firefox supports AdblockPlus, the best way to block ads. Chrome doesn’t have any good ad blocking program.

Tony

Questions

Dear Tom and Rafe,

First off, I’ve been a longtime listener since before Rafe was permanently on the cast. This is my first time to write in though, and this one’s mostly for Rafe.

I’ll try to make this short and to the point. I too have 2 security cameras (Axis 207W) and a WHS (homebuilt). My router is WRT54GS (which also loses internet connectivity daily) with a EZSX88W switch for more jacks. I wired the house to include the cameras so there’s no need for wireless. How do I (do you) access the cameras remotely? You briefly went over it on the real deal but I need a bit more please. You assigned them each a port number. How do you do that? You use a WHS addon to get to the cameras. Which one, and how? Please help if you have a few moments, it would be greatly appreciated. I’m in the Army and I’m gone from home for months at a time. I’d like to be able to log in and see and hear my wife and kids while deployed.

Thanks for the shows guys!

Sincerely,
Staff Sergeant Kyle Keith

RAFE: WHS

First of all, for my cams, I assigned each one a static IP on my home lan, and also a static port. So camera one is 192.168.1.199:15101 and two is 192.168.1.200:15102

For remote access to my WHS, I use the free homeserver.com DDNS service.

I added a link on my WHS home page to map to mydomain.homeserver.com:port1 and :port2 (for my two cameras)

To add the links to my WHS page, I use the WHS addon WHIIST.

The hard part was getting mydomain.homeserver.com:Port1 and :port2 to redirect to my cameras.

Using my WRT54GL, I just opened ports to them, and then the links worked. One trick: The NAT range I had on my router was lower than my cams. So my router was doing NAT from 192.168.1.1 to .149. The cameras, as i said ealier, were 192.168.1.199 and .200.

I finally got fed up with my WRT54GL and its need for constant reboots, and have just installed a DLink DIR-655. The port redirection trick didn’t work. I had to use the “virtural server” option on the DLink and not port redirection to get incoming links to go to my camera. As with the WRT, the NAT routing and the static urls of my panasaonic cameras don’t overlap.

I’m sure there’s a better way to do this, but this seems to be working for now.

My advice: If you want to talk with your family when you’re deployed, use Skype and a Webcam. Security cams are great for peeking in and for security, but not for dialog and interaction.

*******************

Hi Guys! (This is flowdd, the guy talking about chrome on the last podcast)

Well, I have just purchased a nice pocket video camcorder, that shoots in HD and I would really like to be able to edit this video and post it to the web, but my computer is pretty slow. I can’t really afford to get a new computer right now but I was wondering do you know any simple video editing software that would work well on slower computers, and that could handle HD video?
–
Thank You!
-flowdd

http://tv.isg.si/site/?q=node/873

Ultimately HD video is large and slow.

*****************

Hi guys,

I just started watching the show and find it very helpful. I have Verizon FIOS for my internet, which they include their own wireless modem/router. Up until now I have been using my own Linksys router (I believe it is the WRT54G) to keep my wireless network “locked down”. The installer suggested that I not use my own router as it may cause problems with my internet connection and that the router they include will do all of the same things I was already doing. This includes using a long WEP password, and only allowing certain MAC address to access the wireless network and also turning off the broadcasting. I feel that using their router only somehow allows them access or is not as secure as using my own router. I have changed the admin password on the router after the tech installed it.

Should I use both routers, get a new one or just continue to use the one provided by Verizon? Thoughts?

Thanks,

Rich

Next time: Road Test

realdeal@cnet.com

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The Real Deal 163: All-questions episode

Tom Merritt — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:14:00 PDT

Tom and Rafe answer questions about networking, e-mail clients, and breaking into online video.

Listen now: Download today's podcast
Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video) | RSS (audio) | RSS (video)

Is there any risk associated with controlling all e-mail accounts from one program (like Outlook)? Since I use a separate account for shopping, junk, personal, I don’t want something to start suddenly start spamming contacts from separate e-mail accounts.

Brent

Issue is corp issues
Single point of failure

************

Hi Guys,

On episode 162, Rafe mentioned that he had some security camera’s that he accessed remotely. Tonnes of questions here. I was thinking of some security/monitoring system attached to a server that can record video and be viewed remotely.

What camera’s do you have?
BL-C131A

What if any software do you use to configure them?
none

Are they hooked up to your WHS or another server?
yes via port numbers

Are the camera’s constantly recording or motion activated?
motion plys snapshots

How much space do the files take up?
dunno, use Gmail

Do they keep growing or can you configure them to roll over?
rollover every 3-4 months

Are you happy with your setup or are there better alternatives you know of?
probably, eg Logitech WILife, others

Thanks a lot, love the show.
–
Caley

************

Hi, guys.

I have an old PowerBook 165c and don’t know what to do with it. It still boots up, but is pretty featureless (ie, no usb, no cd/dvd drive, no wifi, and only MBs of hard drive space). And, the battery’s dead.

I saw a Lifehacker post about converting a laptop to a fancy digital photo frame (http://lifehacker.com/5177762/turn-an-old-laptop-into-a-wall+mounted-computer), but what do you think?

I don’t want to spend too much money, and I don’t mind opening it up…

Thanks, and as always, keep up the good work.

Vinita

Just do it, and then can I send you my old Dell with no ports.

****************

Hey Tom and Rafe, I have this 5-year-old computer lying around and I
was considering changing it into a web hosting server. How would I go
about doing that?

lightningboy7

Rafe’s take: Give up, throw it out.

**************

I’m worried about how safe a NAS would be on my network. And what’s

the baby using. First time, long time. GraniteJoe from Reading PA

keep wireless router safe, encrypt your NAS, etc.

***************

What’s going on Tom and Rafe,

I just graduated from Cal State East Bay with an emphasis in
broadcasting and I’m very much interested in Internet television
programming.

I love watching the shows on Revision 3 and of course the shows that
come on CNET TV, but I’m curious about what goes on behind the scenes.

What is the process like for pre-production, production and post? I
know Tom used to also work for Tech TV and his wife Eileen works as
producer for Scam School, but what kind of production chops does a
young, wide-eyed man like myself need to cut it in this ever-expanding
field?

Thanks for the quality programming fellas,

Joseph
HipHop4Prez

BigMikeInAustin: He should also wear sun glasses if he’s wide-eyed.

**********

Hi tom,

I need a program to list all files, dll, programs, spec of a computer, like doing a master list of everything.

best regards

Carlos Valero
Caracas, Venezuela.

Belarc!
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

***************

Aloha guys, love the show, I live on the big island of Hawaii and am

a radio group sales manager. I have a Sprint Wifi USB Stick (Sierra)

with a cradle-point router plugged into the power port on my truck. I

have justified the $60/month cost time and time again as I basically

have my office with me where I go on the island and my response time

to clients and ad agencies is almost zero. The bonus is I can update

podcasts on my iPod touch wherever I am.

For the record, I have found print’s service on this island to be

good. Great coverage, good speed and the customer service at the

Sprint Corporate store in Kona has always been good.

Randy Botti

New West Broadcasting Corp.

***************
Next time: Firefox vs. Chrome

realdeal@cnet.com

forums.cnet.com

877-600-CNET

The Real Deal 162: Cult of the Flip

Tom Merritt — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:03:00 PDT

Rafe and Tom explore just why those mini Flip type cameras are so popular and whether you should use one.

Listen now: Download today's podcast
Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video) | RSS (audio) | RSS (video)

Rafe’s story:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/14/tech/real_technology/main5015128.shtml

What is the flip
What’s it do?

What’s it not do?

Why get it?

Options:
Canon SD780IS.
Casio EX-FC100

Comments on Cult of Flip

Tom and Rafe -

Regarding the Cult of Flip, please be sure to
mention, in addition to the standard alternatives (Kodak
Vi6 and Zx1, Vado, etc.), the less considered alternatives -
pocket digicams that shoot decent or even 720p video
(not the motion JPEG ones, the H.264 ones).

I recently completed my research for a “pocket
HD cam” and decided on the Canon Powershot SD780is – 720p
video in an ultrasmall form factor, H.264 format, optical
image stabilization, etc. At $100 more than the
Zx1 I was considering, a good alternative that also
takes spectacular photos!

Thanks – Matthew

Comments on Twitter episode

Hey guys, I have a new favourite portable twitter client: dabr.co.uk
It looks really good on my Nokia 5800, basically it gives me twitterfox on my phone (with search!).
-ANkh, the Computer Engineering Student in Ireland.

Comments on dynamic DNS

Hi guys,

For your show notes, you might want to mention that for a dynamic ip
address service, you need to have some type of local process that
connects to the dynamic ip address service to update your ip.

Some home network routers have an option that will handle this for
you, so all your computers can be off, but your IP address still
updates. Or you can install a client on your computer that will
update your IP address. This is useful if you have a laptop that you
connect to several networks.

Love the show,
Thanks,
@BigMikeInAustin

***************

First off, Tom, you said that dynamic DNS pairs an IP to your IP
address. Actually, it pairs a domain name to your IP address. You do
in fact get a real domain name, though the free ones are usually
yourdomain.free.com.

Also (and this ties in with your router discussion) most versions of
DD-WRT has dynamic DNS updating built in. Ironically, I got the crappy
WRT54G that does not support the Linux-based OS, but there is a hack
for the one I had that allows you to use the micro version.

Oddly, Even though DDWRT has DynDNS on the list of presets for DDNS
services, you have to put in additional options, which you can find on
the wiki.

***************

Dyndns.org is great, I use it for free. That is how I run ankh.is-a-geek.com, and niamh.kicks-ass.net for free (on the same server).
By the way when your telling someone about server options remember that linux is an inherently server friendly technology! I use (and would recommend) Ubuntu Server Edition.
I took me a while to figure it all out, but now that I know I could probably guide someone through basic set up in an afternoon.
Email me if want any help.
-ANkh, the Computer Engineering Student in Ireland.

*******************

The router I use is the Asus WL-520GU. I like it because it has a USB port that can share a printer and I like that it can run the dd-wrt firmware.

It is possible that Rafe’s WRT54GL has a problem in the nvram. Nvram can be erased by following this procedure http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Hard_reset_or_30/30/30 Make sure you are running the latest version of the firmware. You could also try upgrading to a 3rd party firmware such as dd-wrt or tomato.

If you want to upgrade to an 802.11n router, good choices are the Linksys WRT350N and WRT600N.

Nathan

Comments

Sometimes I think it’s easier to understand my taxes than manufacturer’s claims for “bandwidth”, “data transfer rates”, “storage capacity”, etc.

Can’t we all just agree on bits or bytes for a unit of measurement for all these 0’s and 1’s us geeks love so much?

Is there a historical or technical reason why various situations (wireless/wired networks, cell phone carriers, ISP’s, disk/drive capacity, file size, etc.) sometimes use bits vs. bytes as a unit of measure?

Then again if we we still haven’t switched over to the metric system by 2009…. why should I be surprised about this…..

- Mark the Connector Engineer

*************
Hi

I live in France and here, there aren’t many free Wi-Fi hotspots around.
But I recently went to Spain with my school and I took my ipod touch and was surprised on how many Wi-Fi hotspots there are.
The town of Cadiz (where i was staying) has a WiFi Hotspot covering most of the town.
We also stopped of at Seville and I took out my iPod Touch and found a Hotspot!!!!
Conclusion: I managed to enjoy my e-mail and my Facebook, sitting in a plaza in the center of Seville in 35°C heat. Ahhhhh heaven!!!

Love the show

Nick from France

***********
Hey Buzz Crew,

I’m going to summarize as best as I can. A guy wanted to change the billing name on his iiNet DSL bill because his housemate (who’s name was on the bill) moved out. The account management webpage would let him change everything else about his account except his name (the fields were there, but were grayed out and couldn’t be changed). He called customer service and they told him they could change it, but it would cost $59.00. He went ahead and did it, but the next two bills were still addressed to his former housemate, and now he was out $59.00.

So he went back to the account management webpage and it occurred to him that he could use the Firebug plugin for Firefox to manually edit the html code for the name fields to show his name. and then submit the form. Sure enough, his name now appears correctly on his bill.

I just found this amusing and thought I’d pass it along. Love. The. Show.
http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Connect-Betterer.aspx

-Greg (”emptythevoid” in the chat)

*********

Vic the Texas Rancher Pilot has an excellent explanation of why you should do everything your flight attendant tells you. The full version is in the comments section of episode 161. Here’s an excerpt:

While I can’t explain the technological specifics. I hope that an awareness of a general process will suffice. Please bear with us. That flight attendant that makes you turn off your Kindle is following the letter of the regulation because she is not trained to differentiate between high output devices and more benign, passive electronics. There is no training because currently there is no tested and approved standard.

So for now maybe you can follow the lead of Jonathan Coulton and enjoy your copy of Sky Mall in the first 10,000 feet of climb and last 10,000 feet of descent that are referred to as the sterile environment. Need a fake rock key holder anyone?

Respectfully,
Vic the Texas Rancher Pilot

**********************

Next time: Questions!

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The Real Deal 161: Road (and air) test

Tom Merritt — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:34:00 PDT

Tom talks about the Kindle, Internet, and Web sites while traveling. Rafe rants about WHS, talks nice about Apple, and is moderately pleased with Pogoplug.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Kindle – Tom
Long start time when you begin to read
Weird prev page bug takes me back 5 pages
Can’t read during take off and landing
Hard to skim for parts. Easy to search but if you don’t know the words you’re looking for, that doesn’t help.

PogoPlug – Rafe

Internet
EVDO card and iPhone had no data plans in Malta
Direct connection at Maui hotel was slooooow. Video almost unwatchable. But Wi-Fi was super fast. Nobody using it? 3G also superfast.
Was told Hawaii declined a fiber connection a few years ago.

WRT54GL
What router should Rafe get?

Website
How did we travel before the Web?
Online check-in now standard with kiosks in many hotels (kiosks have their own problems)
Can’t check in Hawaiian on phone. Plus hassle to reprint boarding pass on Hawaiian. United better in this respect.
Bought movie tickets to Honolulu theater while in Maui.

WHS rant from Rafe
data corruption
Mac update

Genius Bar – Rafe’s experiences
iPhone
Macbook

Comments on Twitter episode

topher2041 May 6, 2009 6:22 AM PDT I love the show. All great info and I tried out DestroyTwitter and TweetDeck but i have found one that is even better. AlertThingy, http://www.alertthingy.com/ , This not only lets you do do what TweetDeck and DestroyTwiter do but also ads the ability to check Facebook, RSS and other Networks and Services, Digg, Basecamp, Flickr, Jaiku, etc. It is great. You really should try this. Why limit yourself to just Twitter info? I leave this up and can read my Facebook, Twitter and main RSS feeds all in one feed. I do not need different apps.

Comments

Tom/Rafe -

First off, thank you for hosting the Real Deal podcast. The knowledge gained from listening is great. I am in the market for adding some NAS to my home network and was wondering if you could clear up some F.U.D. for me. I have a Gigabit Switch for my house network hub that splits the internet 8 ways to the other RJ-45 outlets in my house. At the end of one of those outlets I have an Airnet Router 10/100 that has my XBOX and Vip722 Dish HD Receiver Attached to it.

My F.U.D. comes from:

1. Do I attach the NAS to the router or the switch? Does it matter, security?
2. Can I just get an NAS Enclosure and place a 1 TB HD in there, or is it better to get a Server Tower with RAID 1 or 5 setup?

Thanks again for all the insight that you have already given all of us.

Alan

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Static IPs and Dynamic DNS

In the past I have always used a Static IP address on my home internet
connection so I can access my computers remotely (Remote Desktop, SSH,
…). I have just moved and I may end up going with Comcast for my
next ISP. They want me to have a business account to have a static IP
and they charge significantly more for that. Is Dynamic DNS and
viable alternative to having to get a static IP address? How quickly
to the DNS cache update and propagate changes to my IP address? What
are some of the DDNS services out there and how much should I be
expecting to pay for one? Anything I should be looking for when
dealing with a DDNS service?

You may also want to talk about what DDNS is for the listeners that do
not even understand what it is I am asking about.

Devin Crumb

Rafe– Google Dynamic DNS. It’s not worth it to keep a static. – http://www.google.com/search?q=dynamic+dns&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Next time: Flip Camera: The cult of Flip

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The Real Deal 160: Twitter clients

Rafe Needleman — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:15:00 PDT

The best downloadable applications for accessing Twitter's social network.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

This week: Twitter. Not again! You scream. I can hear you. But yes, Twitter, and better yet, how you can love Twitter while hating Twitter.com, which I do. I find the site too simple, and too greedy for space. I want to see more data and do more on Twitter than Twitter.com allows. That's why I use Twitter apps. This week we're going to talk about the best ones.

PC / Mac apps

Windows PCs and Macs can both run applications written for the man-in-the-middle platform called Adobe Air. For the person who called in and asked what AIR is: it's an intermediate platform, called runtime, that developers write to. Why not just write for Windows, or the Mac? Because if you write for AIR, you app will run on Windows AND the Mac AND Linux, because there are AIR interpreters for all those platforms.

Air products are among the most popular Twitter apps, and give you more control and a prettier view of your Twitter universe than you'll get from Twitter itself.

What these apps do, aside from just displaying Twitter feeds, is give you some combination of these features: a wide dashboard view to show you more than one view of your feed at once; support for multiple accounts and even services other than Twitter; better ways to deal with search; Groups, which is huge; and built-in support for URL shorteners and picture posters.

If you hang out in a conference room full of geeks, you'll see that many of them are running TweetDeck on their computers. This is a Twitter application that shows multiple columns of Twitter data. Each column gets a different slice of your Twitter environment. You can set up columns to monitor just particular people or groups of people that you follow, and columns that monitor all of Twitter for keywords no matter who says them. The latest version of TweetDeck will also show you updates from your Facebook friends. I use TweetDeck myself to show me these columns: everything my friends are saying; everything people have said on Twitter in reply to me "@Rafe;" direct messages only to me; everything people say about the site I run (a search for "Webware"); and my Facebook friends' updates. When I'm tracking a breaking news story, I replace my Webware search column with a search on the keyword of the story. TweetDeck also handles the step of creating short Web links for you automatically, and it will work with the picture publishing service TwitPic to make posting images easier.

I rely on TweetDeck. It makes Twitter my social dashboard.

One of the first really big Twitter apps was Twhirl, a flexible product that lets you flip between views (all friends, replies, etc) quickly, as well as monitor Facebook and other services like FriendFeed. Twhirl also lets you monitor more than one Twitter account at a time, which TweetDeck does not. Twhirl will eventually be replaced by Seesmic Desktop, a new version of the app that blends TweetDeck's multi-column layout with some of Twhirl's best features. It adds some really nice touches, too, such as the capability to blend the updates from multiple services into one column, or break them into separate ones easily. It also lets you bookmark search queries and groups of users that you can recall in an instant even if they're not displaying in your main view. Like TweetDeck, Seesmic Desktop will create short URLs and picture links, and it will let you create pictures and videos directly from your Webcam, if you have one.

I have found the user interface for Seesmic Desktop a little confusing, but I'm warming up to it. It's not quite as space-efficient as Tweetdeck, but it's in its early days of development and getting better in release. It's worth watching. Plus, I'm having coffee with the CEO of Seesmic in about an hour from now so I don't want to be to mean to him. And I really think he's trying to take on Twitter. In fact, he's kind of a fanatic about it. So check out Seesmic Desktop.

Destroy Twitter is the popular newcomer in this group. Aesthetically and functionally, it's fantastic. New items scroll gently onto the page, and it handles multiple ad-hoc groups very well. It works in both single- and multi-column mode, but it doesn't expand to show you as much information (as many columns) as TweetDeck or Seesmic desktop.

Windows only

Most of the big Twitter apps run on the Air platform and will work on either Windows or Mac, but if you're a big user of Outlook on your Windows computer, you might (might) also want to check out OutTwit, which puts your Twitter activity into an in-box in your Outlook e-mail application. I tried it and found it overwhelming--Twitter and e-mail don't belong together, in my opinion--but people whose brains are wired into Outlook might find it valuable.

The instant-messenger client Digsby, which I have enjoyed using to access my AIM and Yahoo instant-messenger accounts, can also work as a client to Twitter (and Facebook). As OutTwit forces Twitter into an e-mail app, Digsby does for instant messaging. If you're on IM a lot and don't want yet another communications app on your desktop, it's worth a look. I do like the dedicated Twitter apps better, though.

I also want to go off on a little tangent here and mention the experimental app OutlookDeck, which gives you a Tweetdeck-like view of your incoming Outlook mail. I know, it sounds crazy, but if you want to monitor your e-mail for particular topics, it's actually useful.

Mac only

Air apps are nice, but there are some Mac-specific Twitter apps that do a better job of fitting into the operating system. Nambu is one of the biggest Mac Twitter apps. It's a very strong multi-column Twitter application (like TweetDeck) but it has a very Mac-like interface and gives you menu options to do a lot of Twitter account maintenance, such as following, un-following, or blocking users.

E-mail from Paulo says it better than me:

I have used TweetDeck, Twhirl, Twitterfox, Tweetie, and Nambu. My favorite is Nambu. It give Twitter a iTunes look and feel. I like the separation of the multiple accounts and being able to have options such as mentions, sent, groups, and permanent search phrases. Growl is a plus as well when in other applications. No need to check it because it will display the tweets. Another big plus is that I can have all this in a window that is approximately 400px by 400px (I use a 12-inch PowerBook and TweetDeck was annoying to scroll between windows). I manage a personal account and a business account for a music group in which I have permanent searches for the artists name to see who's talking about them without using their @twitter name. I also set up a group for all the artists' to see what they are saying to others and being able to RT information through the music groups twitter account. It is in beta though and I did get crashes when setting up groups and searches. Once setup, crashes seemed to stop.. Not sure about how the much memory the programs uses though. Like Tom, Rafe... eh, not so much! =]

Eventbox and Tweetie are two very Mac-ish Twitter apps you might also like. Eventbox looks like it was made by Apple. Tweetie looks even better. Neither are multi-column, though.

Mobile phones

If you have an iPhone, you can access Twitter via SMS like everyone else, through the phone's built-in browser, or you can get a Twitter app. There are several, but I strongly recommend Tweetie for the iPhone (it's made by the same people who make the Mac client, but it looks very different). It's fast and intuitive, and allows you to do useful things like save searches for later access. Many people also like Twitterfon, but Tweetie is better. BlackBerry users might want to check out UberTwitter and TwitterBerry.

Search sites

In my Beginner's Guide to Twitter, I recommended that new users should spend some time exploring Twitter Search. But like Twitter.com, the Twitter Search site search.twitter.com has serious limitations. A very good alternative is Twazzup, which shows you not just standard Twitter Search results, but also all sorts of information related to your search, like the most influential Twitter users who write about the search topic, a list of keywords for further exploration, and a list of search hits ranked by popularity, not just recently, which is the only way Twitter Search displays results. Other Twitter search tools don't measure up, so I won't even mention them here. Try Twazzup if you find yourself using Twitter Search at all.

EMAILS

Hi Rafe,

For the Twitter apps episode, I wanted to throw my hat in the ring for Tweetie. I've tried many Twitter apps on my iPhone (including Twittelator, which isn't bad), and Tweetie is by far the best. The UI is very intuative and sleek. I've also just discovered Tweetie for Mac and love it as well.

Thanks! And love the podcast!

Anthony

San Francisco

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Since the Linux sector often gets overlooked, thought I'd give you my experience with Twitter on Linux. I started off using TweetDeck, moved to DestroyTwitter soon after, and finally settled on the native Linux client Gwibber.
Gwibber doesn't have all the features of TweetDeck or DestroyTwitter, but it does have one killer feature: integration with the growl-esque notification system introduced in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope. Gwibber is based on WebKit, and also supports themes.
Looking forward to the show, and keep up the great work!
-Michael K. (asim0v in the chat room)

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Just wanted to correct a statement Rafe made, about transferring a domain in the middle of the registration period.
You don't actually lose any money doing this. Whenever you transfer a domain, you have to buy (at least) 1 year and that's added to the expiry date, not to the date when you transfer it. Same thing with a renewal: additional time is always tacked onto the expiry date.
The only thing you lose by renewing a domain earlier than the expiry date is you are giving your money to the registrar earlier than you need to.

Bruce from Peterborough

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Next time: Road Test?

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