TIP: You will find links to many of the matters referred to in the notes below. All links are underlined.
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 and Mario are in the studio.
GUEST: Katlean DeMonchy - Smart House of Future
Katlean DeMonchy from www.nextpert.com talking about the Smart House of the Future. http://www.nextpert.com/tours/2007/house/house.htm
$300 tax credit for tankless water systems - heaters that only heat the water you need, and still enable back-to-back showers...
Solar energy - big tax credits are in the pipeline. Marc's solar heated pool is amazing, but the installation cost is high.
Computers in the kitchen - refrigerators made more efficient by use of computers to save power.
Caller: Mark in Santa Ana
Trying to help a friends with grainy reception on their big-screen tvs.
There are basically 3 types of big-screen tv:
1) Plasma
2) LCD
3) DLP
Marc's choice is the DLP - Digital Light Projector.
Pro's and Con's:
LCDs and Plasma Screens can be hung on the wall.
Allegedly, the gases in Plasma will fade out after a period of time.
LCD does not have quite as sharp a picture as Plasma
DLP's are too thick/heavy to hang on wall, but produce the best picture in Marc's opinion.
The graininess problem may be calibration, and a device called Spyder TV is one way to accurately calibrate the tv. http://www.colorvision.com/product-ht-stv.php
Obviously, a High Definition tuner is needed to get the best reception, and caller Mark is not sure whether his friends have HD Tuners. A standard tuner will cause a grainy picture.
FEATURE: Robert Morse - MadMen
Actor Robert Morse, longtime listener to the show, has just finished a series of MadMen, an irreverent look back at the Advertising industry in the 50's.
See clips of MadMen by clicking on the link below:
MadMen on AMC
Re-runs start on November 1.
Caller: Hillary in Pasadena
Wants to know how to print out address cards from Outlook on Office 2007.
At present, Hillary can only print the cards one at a time.
Marc says email him and he'll find the answer.
Caller: Gay in Tustin
Has an answer for the grainy tv picture - it could be the type of input cable.
There are 4 basic types of cable that can carry the signal from the tuner to the tv.
1) RF Cable - the most basic type which will produce a grainy picture
2) Video & Audio - a step up with higher bandwidth
3) Component - 5 wire
4) DVI/HDMI the best, but most expensive
Caller: Steve
Concerned about an article in the Daily News about the Feb 09 switch from Analog TV to Digital TV. Read the article here.
Advert: Bud Lite Real Men of Genius
OK. Adverts don't usually make it into the show notes, but this one was too entertaining to ignore!
Bud Lite salutes Mr. Company Computer Guy is not one of the adverts on their website, but if you want to download a copy of it, use the link below to for the .mp3 file
Bud Lite Real Men of Genius Salutes Mr. Company Computer Guy
To listen to Bud Lite's other entertaining adverts, use the link below:
Caller: Don in Pasadena
Anti-Virus Question - has a new computer that came with Norton, and wants to know if Panda is better. Marc likes Panda, Webroot's Anti Spyware, and Cyber Defender.
Make sure to completely remove Norton - go to our Yahoo Group for advice on how to completely remove it as Windows' Ad/Remove Programs does not do it completely.
Don also has a problem with his computer's clock - it does not keep time. Usually the problem is with the battery on the motherboard that needs to be replaced.
10 O'Clock Hour
GUEST: Todd Feinman CEO of IdentityFinder
Identity Finder scans your computer for personal information which could be used for ID Theft. It not only finds the information, but helps you to protect it.
There's a ton of information about ID Theft on the site, and 3 versions of the program
There's also a free trial version on the web site.
Caller: Howard in Sherman Oaks
Wants a backup program that will backup his computer to DVD so that if it crashes, he can reinstall to a new computer from the DVD. He's tried Ghost, BackupMyPC, but they don't allow you to backup directly from the DVD.
He does not want to backup to an external hard drive, as he's had one that failed.
Marc's prefered solutions to backup to a hard drive are:
Acronis True Image
One Touch from Maxtor
Feature: 40 Years of Rolling Stone Magazine
Brought to you on DVD by Bondi Digital Publishing
http://www.bondidigital.com/
Click on 'News' for details of their amazing archives of Rolling Stone magazine and Playboy.
Buy Of The Week
Super low-priced Acer Aspire 4520-5803 notebook PC for $499.99!
Go to: Staples.com
Caller: Faye
Wants to know how to get rid of all the startup programs that slow down the boot-up process and bog down her PC.
Go to 'Start,' then 'Run,' then type 'msconfig.' That will show all startup programs. Simply un-check the programs you don't want. The problem is that there isn't much of a description of what each startup program does.
Startup programs like Real Player, or Windows Media Player can be removed without problem, but other startup programs may be needed for proper operation of the PC.
Webroot's SpySweep program has StartUp Shields which gives a much better description of the startup programs.
Caller: John in West Hills
Is worried about what might happen if the Smart House of the Future is run by a HAL9000 Computer!
BTW: "H-A-L" was derived from Heuristic ALgorithmic, and not the coincidental one-letter shift from I-B-M.
Caller: Hard Drive Rescue
DriveSavers claim to be able to recover data from hard drives, as well as other storage devices, but it's an expensive solution.
Recommended replacement Hard Drive manufacturers are:
Plextor
Maxtor
Western Digital
Caller: Susan in Ojai
Wants advice on buying OEM software from a seller she found on PriceGrabber. OEM software has limitations. No documentation, but then again, most software has on-line support.
Susan is concerned that the supplier of the OEM software is legitimate. Marc suggests doing a Google search of the supplier's name followed by the word 'fraud' to see if there have been any complaints.
Next Week's Show
Tune in next Saturday at 9am for another great show.
