Geekcast #17

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DATE : Mon,04 Apr 2005 02:42:31 GMT
Entered in Database : 2005-04-03 22:42:31
length : 21686400
Link to the Show / Show Notes

Geekcast #17

Show Notes:

Teaser

Intro Music.

Summary of podcast.
Contact info.

Items of note:

Get your tech question answered on the show. Send mp3 attachments of your question to geekcast@gmail.com and it will be featured on the "Ask A Geek" segment.

Please help spread the word about the Geekcast. Vote for the show at podcast alley and digital podcast. Lets try to get the Geekcast to #1 on Podcast alley.

If you have a podcast and would like to trade show plugs, please e-mail me and we can set something up.

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Tech news:

Apple Hires DVD Jon. Steve Jobs has reportedly paid DVD Jon an undisclosed yet bizarrely huge amount of money to join Apple. DVD Jon has accepted the offer adding to the ever-growing list of hackers who bag security jobs in big companies.

Improved Popup Blocker Available for Testing. When the feature first debuted, it simply blocked all popups triggered by page loads, page unloads and timeouts. Since then, it has been enhanced to block popups triggered by a wide variety of events and also limit the number of simultaneous popups allowed.

Steve Jobs joins Mozilla Foundation as President. A press release at Mozilla.org also says Steve Jobs will also announce tighter integration of Mac OS X and Mozilla and says that Mozilla Firefox will be the default browser in future versions of the Mac OS X operating system. Apple is effectively dropping the development of the Safari browser.

GMail limit now infinity+1 and will offer rich text. With the 1-year anniversary of GMail passing as of April 1st, Google has announced that all accounts would be bumped up to 2 gig per account, which is an obscene amount of storage for e-mail. On top of this, they have decided the limit will forever increase to the sum of infinity + 1. A counter added to the front sign-in page shows the current limit which increases by 3.456 MB every day. On top of all this, they are also offering rich text formatting which will greatly increase the look of e-mails you send.

'Tiger' Already a Top Seller at Amazon. Ahead of its expected public release in mid-April, Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" is already a #1 seller at Amazon.com. Amazon is offering a $35.00 mail-in rebate for the $129.99 Tiger retail box, bringing the final cost down to $94.99. Windows XP Home, meanwhile, currently sits at #16 on Amazon's software chart.

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How To: PC Spring Cleaning (Part 3)

With spring upon us, it's a great time to clean out our computers not just on the harddrive, but also the physical case. This three-part segment will assist you in the areas to focus on for this project.

Rebuilding from scratch:

- Backup all data and triple-check that nothing has been overlooked.

- Make sure you have all programs on CD to reinstall onto your PC. This includes all keys and serial numbers. Don't forget to make a copy of your ISP's software installer if you use dialup.

- Verify you have your Windows CD along with the authentication key (possibly located on your case).

- Download the latest drivers for all hardware and burn that to CD.

- Check one more time that all data you want is backed up. Don't forget other users' My Documents folders.

- When installing, a quick format is fine for the drive.

- Consiter multiple partitions for data and Windows install. Partition sizes should be a multiple of 8.

- Before installing anything after Windows is back, turn on the Windows firewall for protection as soon as possible. You can turn it off once you install ZoneAlarm or other program.

- Run Windows Update before going any further, installing any service packs first and then critical updates, followed by the optional updates.

- Install a virus scanner and fully update it.

- Install a firewall and turn off the Windows firewall.

- Install all needed software then copy files back to their appropriate locations.

- Activate windows.


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Music: Melanie Disa- Ease the Pain

http://www.melaniedisa.com


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Ask A Geek:

Sam asks: How do you change the temp location where windows copies files before burning to a CDROM? When I select files to burn to CD or DVD windows puts these file on my C:\ partition, which only has 855MB free, but I want to change where it temporarily stores these files to the D:\ partition of the drive where I have 100GB free.

Sam, you will need to download TweakUI fromhttp://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspxand install it. Once you run it, select the My Computer area and then Special Folders. In this area you can change the location for the files when burning in Windows XP.


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Hack:

Segment will return on a future edition of the Geekcast.

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The geek's view:

iTunes

iTunes is one of those great products that Windows users are lucky enough to get to run on their computers. Developed by Apple, iTunes is one of the best jukeboxes out there. It's smart playlist feature is a favorite of mine and I love how you can set criteria for each song. You can rip CD's to neumorous formats and also burn CD's. On top of this is seemless integration with the iPod, the most popular mp3 player on earth. Managing an iPod is simple and easy for any user with any experience. Finally, the built-in music store makes getting new music simple and easy. When iTunes was released for Windows, I kissed Winamp goodbye and never looked back. If you haven't already, give it a whirl. It's free from www.itunes.com

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Contact info.

Outro music / sound clip.

Play in your Iphone