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Weekend of May 28th, 2010

Dave and the team were traveling to Boston this week where they'll be reporting from the Games For Health Conference and prepared this encore presentation with some of our favorite calls and guests.

Listeners & Guests on the show this week:

For ALL the details ... be sure to listen to the show by downloading the MP3 or clicking the RED & WHITE "Play" button on the media player, both on the right-hand side of this page.

HOUR 1:

 

Mary in Columbia, Missouri listening on KFRU 1400 AM asked: "Having a problem getting Quicken installed on a Ubuntu system. It says it has to go through Windows. Is there a way I can get Quicken in Ubuntu, or is there something in the Ubuntu system that I might be able to use?"

It turns out you have a lot of alternatives to Quicken that will run on Ubuntu.

From our research we found:

1) GnuCash

2) KMyMoney

3) Skrooge

4) MoneyDance

5) HomeBank CPA

6) JGnash

7) ERP

For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.

 

Robert in Indianapolis, Indiana listening on Sirius Ch.108 asked: "I have an Xbox 360. I'm a truck driver. I'm wondering if I can get Xbox Live in my truck."

You should be able to plug in a USB 3G modem to your Xbox and make it work. However, you have no way to install the modem's drivers onto your Xbox, as the Xbox doesn't come with preinstalled drivers for 3G modems, and there are no 3G modem drivers specifically made for Xbox, so this becomes a little less straightforward than just plugging a modem in. You can still do it, but it takes an extra piece of equipment, a laptop.

If you have a laptop computer, you should be able to connect the USB 3G modem to one of your laptop's USB ports, and then go through the set up and check that you can access the Internet using the USB modem. After you are sure that your laptop can access the Internet via the USB modem, you should be able to connect it to your Xbox via an Ethernet network cable and set your operating system to share the USB modem's connection with the "Ethernet Wired Network" (or put, more simply, your Xbox).

For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.

 

 

The "Into Tomorrow" team discussed if Apple will break up with AT&T.

Tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast for more details.

 

Jake in Lake Head, California sent us the following email and asked: "I have bought 3 radios: Pioneer, Grundig & Cariole. I'm off the grid in a canyon in the Shasta Mountatins. Is there any radio that is really any better than another? I also have tried Sirius with little luck."

If you managed to get your Internet working at an acceptable speed, Internet radio might be a good option.

It doesn't require a very high-speed connection, there is a good amount of options in terms of content, and it doesn't have to rely on waves that can be blocked by the mountains. Otherwise, we don't think you'll pick up anything short of maybe some AM station or shortwave, since satellite didn't work.

That should be enough for internet radio, and as a plus he can try it for free on his laptop before deciding if he wants to invest on a C.Crane standalone Internet Radio.

 

 

Ray in Raleigh, North Carolina listening on WPTF 680 AM asked: "I got into the user permissions in Windows XP and didn't quite know what I was doing. I was trying to setup a user for strictly having access to two programs and nothing more. Somehow, I managed to lockout not only the users, but also the administrator, and I'll be doggonned if I can get back into it. I can take the drive out and bring it to another machine and try to work on it there, but everything I tried so far, looking at Internet suggestions, has been futile. Please help me get back into that thing."

You have created folders on your hard drive in Windows XP that you can't access, even when logged in with Administrator rights? If that's the case, you might need to take ownership of the folders.

This will usually correct a permissions problem, if that's indeed what the problem is. Microsoft has a Knowledge Base Article, explaining the procedure for this. It's not hard, but if you're running Windows XP Home Edition, you will need to start the computer up in "Safe Mode" to make this work.

 

Craig in Idaho Falls, Idaho listening on KBLY 690 AM asked: "I was wondering if you knew of any digital video recorder that will record straight off of an antenna, so I wouldn't need a satellite box or anything like that."

 

Using an on-screen program guide, you can select and record up to 150 of your favorite standard-definition shows, and up to 30 hours of high-definition programming. There’s also a “Program Search” feature. You can search by title, keyword, or themes. By the way, the program guide is free, so you won’t need to pay any subscription fees. You’ll know what’s on 7 days in advance. Remember, you’ll also be able to pause live TV, rewind, and playback recorded shows.

We featured the DTVPal DVR in our Product Spotlight back in May of this year. Click here to view the video

By the way, you can find one of these for about $300 at Sears online, and at their stores. Apparently, they have an exclusive deal with Dish. Before the DTV cut over, it costs $250 online.

 

Rich in Raleigh, North Carolina listening on WPTF 680 AM sent us the following email and asked: "Dave, I have a 6 year old HDTV tube that won't accept VGA or HDMI cable inputs. I have tried some retail store's scan converters, which show fuzzy graphics. Can you recommend a quality device that won't break my bank for watching media from my computer, such as, Netflix, MP4, other web video streaming, etc.?"

It sounds to us like what you need is a device designed for converting DVI/HDMI signals to component video for your HDTV. One that we've read good things about is the HDFury 2. It requires a DVI or HDMI input, so if your computer doesn't have one of those, you'd need to upgrade your computer's video. This device handles both copy protected (hdcp), and standard connections. You can check out more at hdfury.com.

The product's list price is $249, but it sells for $199 directly from their web site, and we saw it at several online sources for under $150. Hopefully, that won't break your bank.

 

Melissa in Marion Springs, Michigan asked: "I have a laptop that's about 6 years old. I had to wipe the hard drive and put everything back on. My problem is I can't watch movies on Real Player. I can watch YouTube movies, but it's really slow. I've downloaded a few movies from YouTube and I can't watch them on Real Player for some reason. It shows that I have the file but it won't let me watch them. Wondering if you had any answers."

You might need to install the latest version of RealPlayer.

It's also important that you've downloaded these YouTube Flash videos (or FLV files) to your computer using the RealPlayer downloader. From your web browser, right click the video and choose "Download using RealPlayer." That will fetch the file into the RealPlayer library and prepare it for playing on your computer. There are other methods for downloading videos from YouTube, but we suspect RealPlayer likes it best when it gets to download the files.

It worked fine for Mark just a few minutes ago, when he downloaded the HD video of the new Gorillaz song "Stylo" from YouTube, and played it back at ear-shattering volume.

 

HOUR 2:

 

Jay in Carlsbad, New Mexico listening on XM Ch.139 asked: "Using Skype, is there a way to do a green screen, using Skype video?"

The green screen you are referring to is called chroma-key. It's a film & video technique that let's you replace the green (or in some cases, blue) background with anything else, like a live picture or a graphic or video, for example. There are programs out there that will allow you to use a green screen background, but those programs tend to be rather expensive, and at this point, it does not appear as if you can make a live Skype call, while replacing your green-screen background.

 

Jay in Canyon Country, California listening on Sirius Ch.108 called in with a tip for radios for blind.

iBlink Radio is a free app that is available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It was specifically designed for those who are visually impaired.

Genres include oldies, 60's, 70's, 80's, Rock, Alternative, Old Time radio and narrations of newspaper, magazines, and periodicals, including USA Today, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and many more. There is even a community radio section, and all of the stations in the group are owned or operated by those who are visually impaired.

It also allows you to download podcasts that cover a wide variety of topics, and again, all of these are produced by people who are blind or visually impaired.

 

Andy in Durham, North Carolina listening on WPTF 680 AM asked: "Looking for the best VOIP for personal phone use. I'm looking at Magic Jack and Skype. I'm wondering if you had any thoughts on those two."

Skype, on the other hand, wants to be a social networking system, as well as a VoIP service. When you register for Skype, you join their network with a "Skype name." The Skype client program on your PC offers features that are similar to an IM client, like iChat, or Windows Live Messenger. You can type, voice chat, or video chat using a web cam. Skype's audio quality is outstanding when you have a good headset microphone.

For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.

 

 

Clay in Smithville, Tennessee listening on WTN 99.7 FM asked: "Calling about Photoshop. I've never used it. Curious as to how it works, if it's difficult to operate or what."

Photoshop can do pretty much anything with photos. It does all the things that free photo-editing software does, plus you can cut the background out on photographs, and you can use filters, and much more. It can also be used to design graphics and web page layouts, but it might be a little difficult software to use. It'll take some practice and tutorials.

Photoshop is clearly the most powerful image editing tool on the market, but that power makes it a very complex program to operate. It has long menus, that are packed with interesting sounding tools, and with no explanation of what a particular tool or filter does. You have to select it and try it, then see if you like what it does to your image, or buy one of those books on Photoshop. Sometimes, Mark thinks Adobe designed Photoshop to require training books, so they could get licensing rights. He respects Photoshop. It's the top of the heap in its class, but he would certainly say that it's quite complicated to use.

 

Dave asked the following on his Facebook page: "Apple's Steve Jobbs called Adobe's Flash "old technology". Do you agree? Should the various iProducts support Flash? Why, or why not?"

Tune in to Hour 2 to hear what our Facebook friends and Twitter followers had to say about that.

 

 

Matt in Las Vegas, Nevada listening on KNUU 970 AM asked: "I purchased an external hard drive, but I need to find a cheap or free backup service that will automatically backup my computer. The trial software it came with expired, so I'm looking for something that's reliable and easy to use to replace it."

You can try programs like Comodo Online Backup or, one of our favorites, Carbonite. All your files will be stored on secure servers, and you can access your data anytime over the Internet from anywhere in the world. All the files will be encrypted before they leave your PC, and then transferred to the server over an encrypted connection. You can use Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7. These programs are not free, but for about $50 a year, you can have 10 GB, or about $1 a month for 1 GB.

 

Raul in Porterville, California listening on KTIP 1450 AM sent us the following email and asked: "Hi Dave, I was wondering if there is a device I can use to watch TV on my TV using my Wi-Fi. For example, the Netflix ROKU device. Something I can just plug in and play without having to pay a subscription."

There may be a few alternatives for you, but we would recommend the ROKU Netflix Player. Other than Netflix, it also plays movies and shows available on the Amazon store. Also, you can now stream music from Pandora. The only subscription fees involved are for Netflix, and you will pay for some movies and shows from Amazon. It's available for about $80.

Another option would be to plug your laptop to your TV and watch content on sites like Hulu.com or Boxee. And coming soon from Boxee is the Boxee Box by D-link.

 

 

HOUR 3:

 

Derek in Jefferson City, Missouri listening on KLIK 1240 AM asked: "I want to buy a camcorder for my wife and was wondering which camcorder I should buy, and what the big differences are in them."

1080p, 5-megapixel stills, it's good for low light performance, has HDMI output for watching directly from the camera to your HDTV, works with Mac and PC, has up to 32GB of memory (that's about 10 hours of HD Video), and it's waterproof (up to 10ft or down to 10ft). The Kodak Playsport Zx3 will be available in April for about $150.

 

James in Cosby, Tennessee listening on XM Ch.139 asked: "Question about Satellite Internet service for my little town that doesn't believe in high speed Internet access. Are they good and which one should I use?"

When it comes to satellite Internet, the two best choices are either Wild Blue or HughesNet. But, satellite Internet is, generally, only good for general web surfing; forget trying to upload pictures or videos because it will simply take too long, and if you're a gamer, not a chance.

Satellite Internet is a great alternative when compared to dial up, but be careful before you sign anything. Both Wild Blue and HughesNet require two-year contracts and come with hefty start up costs. Also depending on what plan you select with them, they can even limit the amount of data you can view in one day.

James also had a follow-up: "You talk about all these new OS's like Windows 7, but what about Linux? Is Linux a good thing "coming into the future" and is it pretty easy to work with?"

Linux is a great system and is most commonly used as an embedded system within super computers, or as a part of servers. As far as an operating system, the Mac OS or some form of Windows are still the most common operating systems. Linux currently occupies somewhere between 1-2% of the desktop market and doesn’t seem to be focused on that area of development. Although, there has been a recent surge in the use of the Linux Operating System, as Net-books and E-books popularity has grown, and many of these utilize Linux.

 

Richard in Michigan listening on WSJV 94.9 FM asked: "I want to add memory to my older Gateway desktop machine running XP. It's 512, currently. I want to know how far I can go, how to go about it, what it would cost, or would I be better off to upgrade to a newer system?"

The fact that your computer only has 512MB of memory tells us that it's quite old, and that could present a problem in upgrading the memory. Like antiques, memory chips get more expensive as they become out of date and harder to find. So be prepared for some sticker shock.

The best way to find out how much memory your computer can accept and what chips are needed, is to use a tool like the Memory Finder at Newegg.com. You can find it on the left side of your screen when you select "Computer Hardware", then "Memory", or click here to go to the direct link. Tell it the make and model of your computer, and it will tell you how much memory it can hold, and what chips you need to buy.

Richard also had a follow-up: "I have a TV on a brick wall in my family room. The wall has no antenna jack, and right now, I have a cable running across the floor. I'd like to eliminate that cable and send the signal across the room wirelessly. Is that possible?"

There's a service called PlayOn, that lets you watch Internet videos on your TV, wirelessly. PlayOn works with your Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, or PlayStation 3 to watch your favorite movies, shows and videos from Hulu, CBS, Netflix, YouTube, and more, streamed right to your TV. Other compatible devices include: Moxi HD DVR, HP MediaSmart TV, Western Digital TV Live, and others. You can try PlayOn for free for 14 days. Then if you like it, you can buy it for a one-time fee of $40. You'll also need a networked computer to run the software.

 

Bob in Nenana, Alaska listening on KFBX 970 AM sent us the following email and asked: "Hi Dave, our old VHS machine has taken to 'eating' our tapes. We need to get a VHS/DVD recorder, but aren't sure what will best serve us. We understand JVC has good products and are trying to compare the JVC DR-MV150B DVD Video Recorder/Video Cassette recorder, and the HDMI (HD media interface) up conversion DV80B. Hard to do when we don't know what all that means.

Are there other models that will copy VHS to DVDs, and are programmable to record programs (burn a DVD) from our HDTV? (sounds like another language!)"

VHS in 2010? (Or as Rob would say: "That's so last millennium!") Honestly, VHS went out the door with the 90’s.There's more to just your machine "eating" your tapes. The oxide will eventually crumble and the content on your tapes won't even be accessible. So, moving that content to a digital format is really important.

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.

 

Mitch in Greenwich, Connecticut listening on WGCH 1490 AM asked: "I've got an AM/FM radio in both cars. Is there any way of tweaking the FM or AM side of the car radios? In one car, I cannot pickup an AM radio station, but in the other car it comes in fine."

Reception issues plague many people, especially for people with an older car. There are many things that come into play when dealing with radio reception in cars. Most of the issues are with AM stations, since they transmit on a much lower frequency than FM stations. Many of the issues have to do with electrical interference. This is evident when you're driving down the street, and as you pass underneath power lines, the radio gets very "staticky".

Another source of electrical interference comes from the car itself. Your car radio typically uses a combination of the antenna and your car's body to act like a much larger antenna. Because of this, when you have electrical problems in your car. Sometimes, it can affect your radio reception. Our friends at C. Crane say that if you hear a high-pitched whining noise that changes when you step on the gas, the noise is most likely coming from the alternator, distributor, or sparkplug wires.

If the car is a few years old or has a lot of miles on it, the cheapest and most common solution is to change the sparkplug wires on your car to original equipment, or resistor-type spark plug wires. Solid wires will cause more noise problems than you had in the first place. If this does not cure the problem, check your distributor cap for excessive wear or arcing. They say that many people have eliminated reception problems by having a complete tune-up to their vehicles.

C. Crane goes into a lot more detail on their site and have many other great articles on radio reception issues for both the car and home.

 

 

Brian in Houston, Texas listening on Sirius Ch.108 asked: "Got an iPod from somebody that already had songs on it. My girlfriend's son tried to transfer the songs to his iTunes and ended up deleting all the songs Is there a way to get them back?

Also, what do you think about the new HP touchscreen computers?"

Unfortunately, Brian if the songs were deleted from the iPod, then you can kiss them goodbye. That's why we always remind people of the importance of backing up your data. With the newer iPods, you should be able to transfer songs back to your computer, but if they were purchased from the iTunes store and have the DRM on them, your computer has to be authorized on the account they were purchased on, in order for them to play. Once they are deleted from the iPod, there's no way to recover them.

 

Juan in Los Angeles, California listening on Sirius Ch.108 asked: "Thinking about buying a gaming computer this year. Do you have any good choices?"

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.

If you have any questions about any of this week's show info, please email us here.

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