TIP: You will find links to many of the matters referred to in the notes below.
Clicking on the link will take you away from this page, so if you want to be able to return easily, Right Click the link and select "Open in New Window."
Marc is joined in the studio by Mark Iscowitz from Support.com, Marc's favorite support solution for PC problems, and Mario.
GUEST: Bob from Polymer Technology Systems
Bob is the CEO of Polymer Technology Systems, and is talking about his company's $100 CardioCheck. A device that checks your LDL, HDL, Cholesterol and Triglycerides and all with a virtually painless drop of blood.
Avoid time consuming and costly visits to the Doctor's Office and get results in minutes instead of days.
Available at Walmart, CVS and Target, as well as on-line from www.cardiochek.com
CALLER: Richard in West L.A.
Wants to buy a sub-compact digital camera, but wants to get one with a fast recycle time when taking flash photos.
There are two things to consider about a digital camera's flash - one is the time between being able to take flash shots, and the other is the power of the flash. In other words, Flash Time and Flash Distance.
CNET.com carries great reviews of digital cameras, and is one of the few review sites that includes flash recycle time and flash distance.
Richard is looking for an inexpensive camera, and Marc is a huge fan of Canon's digital cameras.
Go to www.canonusa.com for details of their range of inexpensive quality sub-compact cameras, and check out www.buy.com for great prices on Canon cameras.
For specific advice and a great price, call Mark Commons at Paul's Photo in Torrance (310) 375-7014, and make sure to say that Marc Cohen from the Computer & Technology Show told you to call.
CALLER: Gerry in Brentwood
Tried to get a cartridge for her 14 year old Canon Style Writer printer from Amazon.com and got sent the wrong cartridge. The vendor (EMO) exchanged it without argument, but the replacement was also wrong!
Imagine Gerry's surprise when she walked into Staples and picked up a compatible replacement for half the on-line price!
Buy Of The Week:
It's a Sandisk SANSA C140 1GB MP3 Player, Recorder and FM Radio and it's $29.95!
Better still, if you use Google CheckOut, you get $10.00 off!
Go to www.buy.com but be quick!
CALLER: Chip in Long Beach
His PC is freezing up when on the internet. He only has 512MB of RAM, Marc recommends at least 1GB these days.
But there could be more than just a lack of memory that's causing problems. Support.com can do a System Tune Up that will check hundreds of settings, including whether there's a Virus problem.
The cost is $59.00, but if you use the code "KABC15" you will get a 15% discount.
If your cannot get on-line, call 1-800-PC-SUPPORT and be sure to mention the discount code.
For those brave enough to try to sort out a problem like this by themselves, there's a great free program called Tweak UI that will perform all sorts of adjustments to your system, but it's not for the faint hearted!
It's also worthwhile clearing your browser's cache as that can slow down internet browsing.
CALLER: Tim - MAC or PC?
Tim's PC is 6 years old, and it time for a change. PC or MAC?
Tim wants to transfer his VHS tapes to digital format. One thing to consider, regardless of whether to buy a PC or a MAC is how to transfer VHS to digital format.
The LiteOn is a stand-alone device that allows you to play a VHS tape and burn it to a DVD. Once in DVD format, you can use your PC or MAC to edit the digitized content on the DVD.
So, MAC or PC? Tim's budget is $1,000, but he would go to $1,500 for an all bells and whistles setup.
The PC's generally offer more hardware for the buck, but MAC's come with much of the software that you need especially when it comes to multimedia editing.
$1,500 will get you a decent powerful desktop PC, but you also need a good monitor like Gateway's 24-inch LCD flat screen monitor ($600), so the price may be higher than Apple's 24-inch iMac by the time you've finished, especially when you consider that the iMac comes bundled with Apple's outstanding iLife '08 suite of software that includes integrated digital photo and video editing programs.
One drawback for Tim is that he's been using PC's and is used to the Operating System. Getting a MAC means learning a new Operating System, although that's not really all that hard, it just takes time.
CALLER: Mark - Mario's Brother
Mark has a Sony video camera that uses mini DVD's. Some of his recordings are unreadable including family holiday videos. Is this a camera issue?
Probably a problem with the videocam as Mark has tried mini DVD's from various manufacturers. But what about data recovery for the existing DVD's?
Marc warns that data recovery is very, very expensive.
Try www.acodisc.com for data recovery, they'll give you a quote for recovery, and long-term get a new videocam!
Other possible solutions:
and
www.cdroller.com, but Mario says CD Roller did not work!
CALLER: Joe in Albuquerque
Wants to digitize his old collection of vinyl records to CD's.
Ion makes a great USB device, as does TEAC which offers a one-touch solution and is a really cool piece of high-tech furniture as well!
But even though these mechanical solutions can capture analogue audio from your old vinyl, they will not eliminate the hissing and popping that is inherent with records. To clean up the audio, you need to use something like Cool Edit Pro, to make your recordings crisp and clean.
CALLER: Dell in Long Beach
Is buying his first computer. Has a coupon from Costco for an HP Desktop with a 22-inch monitor for $899.00.
Marc likes Costco but notes that their return policy has changed.
Mario likes HP Laptops, but is not so fond of their desktops.
Bottom line, it's a fair price for a starter PC.
CALLER: Neal in Homeland
Has MS Automatic Updates, updated and then got an error report that will not go away. Rebooting will not get rid of the error message.
Marc suggests going to Windows update page to manually get the update.
If all else fails, go to Safe Mode by holding F8 while booting up, and install the update from there.
If that fails, go to www.support.com and they will fix it!
Next week's show is live.
Click here to go back to the Show Notes Archive.
