The Real Deal 182: All questions episode

Tom and Rafe take questions about Windows 7, MacBook Pro, SD cards, and more.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Hi Tom and Rafe,

On Real Deal # 179 you talked about upgrading Tom’s MacBook Pro hardrive with a new Seagate 500 GIG model.

I too want to replace my own 250 GB hard drive on my MBP with the Seagate, however I have SnowLeopard with VMware Fusion running XP on the same drive . If I use a program such as Carbon Copy Cloner to restore my MAC partition, do I need to do a 2nd and separate restoration of Windows XP or do I go through the original installation of VMware and rebuild the drive with two separate operating systems? Or can I do one restore of the whole drive with Carbon Copy and perform a single backup that will take care of both OS’s, Snow Leopard and XP in one image restore ?

Please advise how to go about putting both systems on the new drive in one restore session.

Scott

Answer: Just clone the Mac drive and restore it to the new drive. It should pick up the VMWare app and the Win XP installation on it. That’s the beauty of virtualization. The XP install will never know it was moved.

Also: The Seagate Momentus 7200 RPM drive is a crapshoot – mine vibrates like mad.

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Tom and Rafe-

I have a friend who keeps sending me .docx files. I don’t have Office 2007 and find this very annoying. Am I right to tell him to change the default file format to .doc because 90% of people can’t open .docx? Is there some big benefit he will be losing out on if he uses .doc in Office 2007 instead of .docx.

Yeah, I know there are ways for me to convert the file but that is a pain. And, I am worried about the next guy he send the darn .docx to.

Love the show, favorite since the late Cnet Live.

Thanks!

-Adam

Answer: Sort of a dear Abby question, eh? I don’t think it’s wrong to ask him to change the file format. And just for your own sanity, there is http://www.docx2doc.com/

If you have Microsoft Office, I believe the MS Office Compatibility Pack makes opening Docx easy: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en

The .x formats allow for more features than the older formats, but few people use them. But for sharing, the old formats are better. Ironic, since the .x formats are far more open, technically speaking.

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Hi Tom,

I heard that the Real Deal was all questions this week so I thought I’d ask one. I am considering a move to New York City and was looking at services available there. When I came to looking at Time Warner Cable I noticed that they were advertising something they call digital wideband which they say gets up to 50 Mbps. I wanted to know, other than speed, what makes this different than broadband, is it a whole new technology or just a different way of compressing the signal or something Plus is there estimate of 50 Mbps anywhere in the Ball Park? Anyway, I just basically wanted to know more about this.

I really enjoy the Show

Steve from Texas

Answer: Wideband is simply DocSis 3.0 It’s nothing new. DOCSIS stands for Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification It defines how data moves over cable systems like Time Warner’s. 3.0 is third revision to the standrad which allows for faster transmission speed and IPv6 support.

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Hi Tom & Rafe,

I’m a long time listener of the show and I finally have a couple of questions that might interest not just my geeky self.

I’m planning to “upgrade” my laptop to Windows 7 in the near future as Vista has driven me nuts (couldn’t even properly switch off the machine before SP1 came out)

What’s your take: wait till SP1 is out? Take 64bit or 32bit versions? If 64bit, can I run 32bit only apps in the legacy XP mode or would that one be 64bit as well? Upgrade or clean install? Min useful RAM (got 2 GB now)?

Thanks for your 4 cents

Love the show(s),

Geoff

A: Do it. Win 7 is very much Vista SP2. Go 64 bit — why not? It runs old apps fine. Clean install is best (and often only) option. Back up data first. Give yourself a day.

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Yo Tom and Rafe!

I was trying to install the new Windows Live movie maker program from the windows site, so I clicked download and it started running the Windows Live installer. There was a list of their programs I could install, and everything but Movie Maker was on the list. I’m fairly sure my computer has the right specs for it. Is there any way I could fix this, or any other way I could get the new Windows Live movie maker on my PC

Thanks guys! Keep on rockin!
-George

Answer: It’s not a spec issue, it’s an issue of MS pulling the program from general distribution. You can still get it — and legally — from download.com.

http://download.cnet.com/Windows-Live-Movie-Maker/3000-13631_4-10965753.html

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Hi Tom and Rafe

I am trying to start a website and I think I am finally able to put the pieces together. If I understand correctly I need:

1) a domain name – I think i can get one from godaddy.com
2) a web hosting service – my good friend recommended that I use http://www.atomicpages.net for hosting. I’m planning to install a word press blog, will it work on their servers?

Is that all I need? or is there something else that I’m missing?

I hope this is answered on the show

Thanks,
Bill

Welcome to 2009. It really is that easy. You can also get started for free on WordPress.com, and then transfer the whole blog over to your host. Talk to them first to make sure they’ve done it. Most hosting companies, I’ve found, have very friendly people who can talk you through this. If you find one that doesn’t, go elsewhere fast.

BTW I host my blog, ProPRTips.com, at WordPress. The blog host is free, i just pay $10 a year for the domain redirect (plus the domain reg fee from GoDaddy).

COMMENTS

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Hey Tom and Rafe,

I made a recording for The Real Deal that I think you might find helpful. I also did full text on it for the shownotes if you do that kind of thing.

here’s the recording:

http://podfeet.com/NosillaCast/NC_2009_09_27/mifi_charge_only_realdeal.m4a

and here’s the text:

Allison Sheridan of the NosillaCast Podcast here. On the recent road test episode you mentioned the problem with the Mifi turning into a modem when you plug it via USB to charge it, but you really want it to continue being a wifi hot spot. I had this same problem and complained about it on my podcast and listeners gave me not one, but two good solutions to this. First, you can buy a charge-only USB cable, so it simply doesn’t have the 2 data pins that cause the Mifi to change modes. I found one over at the Pre Central Store (http://store.precentral.net/seidio-micro-usb-charging-cable-5ft/5A19A5177A.htm) for $13. It’s a little long but it’s a thin cable so very easy to carry. The solution is even more elegant, you’re going to love this. You log into the Mifi (since it’s a real router, it’s the old navigate to 192.168.1.1 routine) and download a configuration file. Open the file and change the setting routeroverusb from a 0 to a 1, save the file and upload it back to the router and from now on your Mifi will only charge when you plug it in via USB. Now note that this only seems to work on the Mifi 2200, the model being sold in Europe (which is way cooler than ours, by the way) is the 2352 and the hack doesn’t work. However, the charge-only cable solution does work. Hope this helps you out!

Allison Sheridan
NosillaCast Podcast at http://podfeet.com
A technology geek podcast with an EVER so slight Macintosh bias

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