HiWEB-Interactive Show Log

HiWEB-Interactive Show Log – 028– 091108

-Opening Comments

“Welcome to HiWEB-Interactive, bringing you information from the edge of technology”

*This is a summary of recent news and technology highlights.

HiWEB-Interactive – Show #28 – From September 11th 2008

Airing weekly Thursdays at 9p (PST) – And available on LIVE.HIWEB.NET as well as archived

*NEW SHOW TIME 9p (PST) – Summer Hours

-Hot News Topics this week (*Prepped 24 Hours Prior)

1 - iTunes 8 causes Windows Vista problems

2 - TiVo control coming to BlackBerry

3 - HP Breaks the 24-Hour Notebook Battery Life Barrier

4 - SlingCatcher and Slingbox PRO-HD finally on their way?

5 - Latest rumor points to new MacBooks on October 14

6 - Why cable operators want to become wireless ISPs

*Youtube viewers make sure to see HiWEB.NET for the live streaming, also this entire show and other past shows.

See http://live.hiweb.net

<<<CUT FOR YOUTUBE POSTS>>> IE: Stop Recording/Start Recording

-Review of Hot Topics (*Elaborate on Hot Topics)

*SEE PRINTED NOTES…..

1 - iTunes 8 causes Windows Vista problems – Not everyone is rocking to the new iTunes 8 released Tuesday. An informal poll on ZDNet suggests that a problem with the latest edition of the Apple media player is affecting some, but not all, users of the software on Microsoft's Windows Vista.

Users on an Apple forum reported seeing the so-called blue screen of death (BSOD) on their desktops running Windows Vista with iTunes 8 installed. The BSOD problem occurs shortly after connecting their iPods and iPhones.

A second, more subtle effect is that their CD/DVD drives "disappear."

ZDNet's Ed Bott offers a look at the upgrades or changes in iTunes 8.

Removing other USB devices, such as Webcams and printers, appears to resolve the problem, for the moment. Users on the forum speculate that there is an incompatibility between Apple and USB products from LogicTech and HP, as well as disc-burning software from Roxio.

We will update this post with further details, as they unfold.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10039038-83.html?tag=mncol;title

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2 - TiVo control coming to BlackBerry - TiVo and Research In Motion are teaming up to enable BlackBerry users to remotely schedule recordings of TV shows on their digital video recorder, the companies announced Thursday.

Under the partnership, BlackBerry users will be able to use their smartphones to review television schedules and set their TiVo DVRs to record select television programming.

"TiVo subscribers will soon be able to wirelessly control their TiVo DVRs using a BlackBerry smartphone--anytime, anywhere--and that is a powerful example of how our respective technologies can complement each other to serve our mutual customers," Jim Balsillie, Research In Motion co-CEO, said in a statement.

Later this year, the companies plan to jointly develop software applications to improve the simplicity of accessing video content via a BlackBerry phone. RIM's recently unveiled BlackBerry Bold, which has a higher screen resolution than its Curve predecessor, is better positioned for video.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10039099-94.html?tag=mncol;title

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3 - HP Breaks the 24-Hour Notebook Battery Life Barrier – Holy moly, talk about being charged up! HP claims its new EliteBook 6930p can deliver up to 24 hours of battery runtime, or 5 hours longer than Dell's Latitude E6400, provided it comes equipped with an optional ultra-capacity battery.

“All-day computing has been the holy grail of notebook computing,” said Ted Clark, senior vice president and general manager, Notebook Global Business Unit, HP. “With the HP EliteBook 6930p, customers no longer have to worry about their notebook battery running out before their work day is over.”

While we can't rule out a dose of voodoo magic as a contributing factor, much of the credit goes to the Intel 80GB SSD drive and 14.1-inch mercury-free Illumi-Lite LED display, both of which HP says are required add-ons to make the feat possible. And that's not with a wimpy processor either - the least powerful CPU in the 6930p's lineup is an Intel Core 2 Duo P8400. Toss a spill resistant keyboard and an inner magnesium shell into the mix and HP has one tough mother on its hands.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/hp_breaks_24hour_notebook_batter_life_barrier

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4 - SlingCatcher and Slingbox PRO-HD finally on their way? - If you've been waiting been patiently waiting for the SlingCatcher, we feel your pain. We first saw the device back at CES 2007 and were impressed, but then it never came out. Then we saw it again at CES 2008 and we were told it would be out in the second quarter of 2008--and Sling missed that deadline. Now it's September and still no SlingCatcher.

With all these delays, we're about as skeptical as you can be, but Dave Zatz (of Zatz Not Funny and former SlingMedia employee) recently noticed that both the SlingCatcher and Slingbox PRO-HD are available for preorder on Amazon. And quick zip over to SlingMedia's site shows that the company is also offering up the units for preorder, and we have to imagine Sling is close to delivering the products if they're starting to take money for them.

Maybe the bigger question is whether the SlingCatcher still appeals to us as much as it did back in 2007. The device is capable of streaming media, transmitting your PC's display to a TV and "catching" a stream from your Slingbox, but a lot of those functions are pretty limited in real-world use or already done by other devices. We've already reviewed one device--the ZvBox--the aims to bring your PC and internet video to your TV, and we were less than impressed. Sling has a good reputation for a solid user experience, but at $300, it's yet to be seen if the SlingCatcher can appeal to larger than a niche audience.

Are you still excited about the SlingCatcher or Slingbox PRO-HD, or is the thrill gone after all these delays?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10037734-1.html?tag=mncol;title

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5 - Latest rumor points to new MacBooks on October 14 - Now that the iPod update speculation is over, we can all begin pondering when Apple will update its notebook line, and what the updates will look like. Daring Fireball's John Gruber kicked things off nicely Wednesday with his wrap-up of the "Let's Rock" event, in which he revealed that "sources who... are familiar with Apple's hardware plans" have pegged October 14 for the unveiling of the new notebooks.

While rumors about a fall notebook update have been swirling for a few weeks now, I think this is the first time we've seen an actual date. We still don't know what form an announcement will take, but based on the suggestion that some reasonably large changes will be involved, I'd say another event is in the cards. The mid-October date fits quite well with the other rumors that we've seen, and falls right about where you would expect it if Apple is staggering its updates.

Sadly, Gruber doesn't have any new gossip on what the updates will be, but it's a safe bet the MacBook and MacBook Pro will be getting some love. MacRumors also thinks that the MacBook Air will get an update with the rest of the line. Newer versions of the Air's processor were introduced at the Intel Developer Forum in August, and would probably be a pretty easy upgrade for Apple, as would an upgrade to a new 120GB single-platter hard drive (similar to the one used in the iPod classic). That sounds reasonable to me, but there's still a month left before the rumored event, so hopefully someone will concoct some wild speculation as well.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/09/11/latest-rumor-points-to-new-notebooks-on-october-14th

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6 - Why cable operators want to become wireless ISPs - Clearwire is publicly stating that its proposed (but challenged) merger with Sprint's Xohm WiMAX unit will be completed before the end of the year, and cable operator Comcast (an investor in the new company) is saying the same. The 4G WiMAX systems deployed by the new company will come at least two years before the competing 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems rolled out by wireless companies like Verizon, and that means a narrow window has opened. Can the cable operators crawl through it before it comes crashing back down?

We've covered the New Clearwire merger plan extensively, and we've talked with Clearwire's CEO about the company's ambitious plans for the future. WiMAX promises good speeds, home and mobile access, a fully open pipe, ability to work with any device, and wholesale reselling of service. While the entire proposition is interesting, it's the wholesale bit that could turn out to be most disruptive, and it's an aspect of the deal that hasn't been discussed enough.

When companies like Comcast, Time Warner, and Google agreed to invest in the new company, their interest was in wholesaling its service, then rebranding it and selling it under their own names. Google will probably not take advantage of the arrangement, preferring to boost broadband availability without actually getting involved in the ISP business, but the cable companies aren't interested in anything like "boosting broadband access for everyone." Their interest is competitive; as wireless Internet gets big, how can they keep users from defecting to a telephone company?

The Clearwire deal suddenly gives them access to a nationwide spectrum footprint. Comcast and Time Warner want to make sure that when you leave the house, you don't leave their services behind. Right now, wireless broadband is offered through wireless phone carriers, but once a customer has signed on with someone like Verizon Wireless, that person is more likely to get cell phone service as well. This might cause them to ditch a landline and therefore not pay for Comcast's VoIP product. It might also mean that, as video content increasingly moves to the Internet, and wireless home Internet access becomes a reality, Comcast's video and Internet businesses could also be affected.

Under the wholesale deal, the cable operators can resell service under whatever ridiculous name they choose (and, if history is a guide, it will probably have a ridiculous name). Phones (think VoIP over WiMAX handsets) aren't the only target here; it's also about devices. Intel is also a huge, $100 million+ investor in Clearwire, and it's building WiMAX access into its new wireless chipsets.

Cable operators are facing up to the reality that it's all about the pipe that can deliver Internet Protocol, whether that pipe be cable, a telephone line, or a bit of electromagnetic spectrum. This convergence has already brought them into sharp competition with the wireline telcos, but cable hasn't yet been forced to take on wireless phone companies in the same way.

Soon, it will, and the Clearwire deal is a forward-looking attempt made by cable companies to have a wireless solution in place. The window could be brief, though, as the wireless phone operators are moving quickly to roll out 4G networks across the country. If cable operators want to establish themselves as competent providers of wireless 'Net access, something far outside their traditional core competency, the next two years give them a bit of space to make the case.

Until LTE systems come online, the Clearwire resellers will only be competing with 3G services like EV-DO—fast, but not truly "broadband" fast. Of course, the WiMAX rollout is still something of a wildcard. The tech has been talked up for years, but services like Xohm still have yet to flip the switch and demonstrate to a watching public that they can provide a compelling wireless data experience. That should begin to happen by the end of September in markets like Baltimore and by year end in other markets, at which point we'll have a better sense of whether the cable companies are likely to gain much from their investment.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080911-why-cable-operators-want-to-become-wireless-isps.html

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- Viewer Questions (*Troubleshooting, New Tech, Etc.)

How can I save Microsoft Word Document as a PDF?

Need to convert to PDF? DO not want to spend the money on Acrobat. Dowload a free utility that enables you to save MSOFFICE docs to PDF. Fast and Easy,

2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS

https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4d951911-3e7e-4ae6-b059-a2e79ed87041&DisplayLang=en

Brief Description

This download allows you to export and save to the PDF and XPS formats in eight 2007 Microsoft Office programs. It also allows you to send as e-mail attachment in the PDF and XPS formats in a subset of these programs.

FileName: SaveAsPDFandXPS.exe

Download Size: 934 KB

Overview

This Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS Add-in for 2007 Microsoft Office programs supplements and is subject to the license terms for the 2007 Microsoft Office system software. You may not use this supplement if you do not have a license for the software.

Note: Built in to MAC OS X by default see File, Print, and PDF Button then select Save as PDF.

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<Video Cut / Resume>

-New Technology to keep an Eye On

(Auto Tech, Alt. Fuel, Environment, Hacking, High Tech, etc…)

1 - CERN's big collider now in action - On Wednesday morning, the first particle beam was successfully sent around the full circuit of the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN.

“'Big Bang machine' switched on

Swiss physicists have powered up the world's largest particle

collider 300 feet below ground. The Large Hadron Collider successfully

completed its first major test. Elizabeth Palmer reports.”

The new science resulting from this grand experiment will turn up in the coming weeks and months, but what Wednesday's event did prove was that the world's largest machine works. Part of that machine is the cathedral-size Atlas detector, one of two general-purpose detectors (the other is the Compact Muon Solenoid, or CMS) in the LHC.

Atlas' development and construction benefited from a great amount of U.K. involvement, particularly that of the Science & Technology Facilities Council, which held an event in Westminster, England to see, via video link, the LHC being initiated. There, event attendees watched the first successful beam circulation in the LHC, which took just less than an hour to complete.

"This is the biggest high of my career so far," said Professor Jon Butterworth of University College London, who heads up the United Kingdom's involvement in the Atlas detector. "I didn't think they'd do it so quickly and smoothly."

"This is the first time (the LHC) has functioned as a single machine," Butterworth noted. He added that, although no new science as such came from Wednesday's events, the machine "shows a lot of cutting-edge technology, so in that sense, it is a breakthrough...We'll probably be getting science out of this thing for 20 years," Butterworth said.

"We were all a bit apprehensive, but they got the first beam around in just under an hour," said Peter Barratt, communications chief of the Science & Technology Facilities Council, which distributes U.K. government funding for scientific research. "We're now looking forward to the energy ramping up." He also added that it was "mind-blowing" for particle physics to be getting the international exposure granted by coverage of the LHC.

The STFC will continue to fund the LHC through the United Kingdom's subscription to CERN and the funding of research scientists, Barratt said. "Once we start receiving the data (from the LHC), those guys need to sit down and start analyzing it," he said. "Maybe they will overturn the physics textbooks, as they are at the moment--who knows?"

"It's getting real," David Sankey, a particle physicist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, England, said in reaction to Wednesday's successful LHC initiation. Comparing the event to starting an engine, he said: "This is the turnover, and it went well."

Sankey pointed out how the 20 years of development and preparation that had gone into the LHC continued right up until recently. "This has been a long time coming," he said. "Even last week, people were working in (the CMS detector). They were working flat out up to this deadline, and it worked."

One of the most important technological advances to come out of CERN's work has been its contributions to grid computing, which involves using large numbers of loosely coupled computers over a great area to share the load of handling large amounts of data. Such distributed methods are necessary for analyzing the anticipated 15 petabytes of data that are expected to come out of the LHC every year.

Imense is one company that has benefited from the U.K.'s part of the greater grid, GridPP. A spin-off from Cambridge University, Imense has used the technology to develop its content-based image search systems, which it hopes will catch on as a way to find images based on keywords, even from unannotated photographs. The company was helped in this by the STFC, which granted it use of 1 percent of GridPP.

Two company representatives were at Wednesday's event. Chris Town described the LHC initiation as "exciting," noting that all sorts of nonphysics applications are possible on the grid. David Sinclair added that projects such as the LHC "generate people with the skill set we (in companies such as Imense) need."

http://news.cnet.com/cerns-big-collider-now-in-action/?tag=mncol;title

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2 - The First City in the U.S. to Make Natural Gas from Our Poop - San Antonio, Texas will be the first city in the United States to produce natural gas from the methane that comes from the poop of its residents on a large, profitable scale. Our excrement is being more technically referred to as “biosolids” by the companies and agencies involved in the project. And the project is by no means a joke.

San Antonio signed a deal with a Massachusetts company that will make the city’s waste into natural gas. According to the principal operator of the city’s water system, Steve Clouse, “the private vendor will come onto the facility, construct some gas cleaning systems, remove the moisture, remove the carbon dioxide content, and then sell that gas on the open market.” The gas will then be sold to companies who can use it in power plants and fuel furnaces.

The most impressive thing of all about this decision is that more than 90% of the city’s toilet and sink water will be recycled. Some of San Antonio’s waste water is already used for irrigation. Some of the solids are used for compost.

The company that will make the plan a reality is called Ameresco, who’s website uses the slogan: “Connect to smarter energy solutions.” The company won a prestigious award from the government of Massachusetts earlier this year for a project that saves Bridgewater State College $1 million annually in energy costs. The project involved upgrades to numerous college facilities as well as the college’s air conditioning system. It also utilizes a water conservation initiative.

http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/09/11/the-first-city-in-the-us-to-make-natural-gas-from-our-poop/

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3 - Alaskan Police Pull Over Solar “UFO” Car – A bit of hilarious news: Alaska doesn’t get much action, really, so it’s no surprise that police thought they were pulling over a UFO when they saw the above solar car tooling down the road. I’d probably have thought the same thing, except that UFOs are unidentified FLYING objects…

But it was just Marcelo da Luz in his Xof1 taking a jaunt across the state to try and set a world record. A citizen dialed 911 upon seeing the vehicle, and police chased it down but didn’t do more than ask him what was up with the crazy car.

He might have responded:

The Power of One Solar Car Project, or Xof1 for short, was initially developed with the intention to compete in the prestigious World Solar Challenge. Instead their car set off to break the world distance record for a solar car. The space age looking car weighs roughly 660 lbs (300kg) with driver and the entire top body of the car is covered by solar cells and tops out at 75mph (120 km/hr).

It's just one of 7 times he's been pulled over during the race, so he might possibly have come up with something a little more creative or colorful by this point...

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2111/69/

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-Weekly Picture

Stunning images of the Large Hadron Collider

http://dvice.com/pics/CERN-LHC-Alice-inner-tracker.jpg

Since the Large Hadron Collider didn't destroy the world this morning, isn't it high time we forgive and forget? And what better way than with a meaty gallery of industrial goodness from all stages of its development, cataloging the effort to build the largest particle accelerator in the world. Of course, today's test was simply to see if the LHC's beam would successfully navigate its almost-17-mile ring. Collisions come later.

30 More images here…

http://dvice.com/archives/2008/09/exploring_the_l.php

-Tech Tip / Demo

Tweak Your Ubuntu The Easy Way

If you are confused over the command line, and wanted to look for an easy way to tweak your Ubuntu, then Ubuntu Tweak is definitely the application for you.

Ubuntu Tweak allows you to tweak many desktop and system settings without going to the terminal. It provides a single access point for you to change some of the hidden Ubuntu settings that are not available during your default desktop installation.

UT is currently designed for Ubuntu GNOME desktop only.

Install Ubuntu Tweak

Download the deb file from http://ubuntu-tweak.com/downloads. (As of this post, the latest version is ubuntu-tweak_0.3.5-1~ppa1_all.deb).

Double click on the deb file to install the package.

Once installed, go to Applications->System Tools -> Ubuntu Tweak to load Ubuntu Tweak

Tweak options

System Information

You can view your system information.

Install apps

Under the ‘Computer’ section, you can add/remove Ubuntu apps and install the widely used applications such as AWN, Opera, Skype and Compiz Fuzion.

Manage your session

Some of the session control that you can tweak include save changes to session, show logout prompt and show splash screen. In Ubuntu hardy, the splash screen is disabled by default. If you enjoy seeing splash screen, you can enable it by checking the box beside ‘Show Splash Screen‘ and click on the big image icon to insert your own image.

You can also decide which applications to autostart when you login to your Ubuntu. Unless you know what you are doing, it is not a good idea to disable some of the services.

Desktop Settings

While there are many tutorials out there teaching you how to set your home folder as the desktop, or to show the ‘My Computer‘ on the desktop, what you really need to know is how to check the option box in this desktop tweaking section.

Personal setting

If you don’t like the way Ubuntu organize your folder, you can change the setting here.

Or you can enable some of the commonly used scripts on the context menu for easy retrieval. Some useful scripts include

Open with gedit (root) - Great when you want to edit system files as root

Move to - Move files easily

Copy to - Copy files to destination faster

Configuring your own keyboard shortcut

If you want to define your own set of keyboard shortcut, rather than using the default shortcut set by Ubuntu, you can do it here:

Power Management

Configure how Ubuntu manage your hibernation and power management when you are idle

Although Ubuntu Tweak does not allow you to tweak all the settings in Ubuntu, it does gives you an easy way to play around with some of the commonly used settings, without breaking the system. I am sure many users will appreciate this application, and hopefully, it can be included as part of the default package in Ubuntu.

http://maketecheasier.com/tweak-your-ubuntu-the-easy-way/2008/09/10/

-General Talk/Discussions

1-Viewers see giveaway link on HiWEB.NET for more details. Next Giveaway Soon, Remember the eligibility requirements. Subscribe to Youtube, Register and Comment on Blog – *And then stay Tuned for Hot Giveaways

2- Future segments will include music production segments, hardware reviews and demos

3- We are currently engaging SME to produce custom segments away from live show –

4- Viewers can send show Tips / Recommendations to live@hiweb.net

5- HiWEB-Interactive Past Shows on http://www.hiweb.net/pastshows.html (past shows)

6- Talkshoe at Phone Number: (724) 444-7444 @ Call ID: 13364

-Closing Comments

This was HiWEB-Interactive – Show #28

Remember tune in anytime at live.hiweb.net and Thursdays at 9p (PST) *Summer Hours -for the HiWEB-Interactive Tech Show

“Thank You for participating in HiWEB-Interactive, we look forward to bringing you more information from the edge of technology” Until next time have Fun with your technology – GottaJiboo!

-----Outro w/ Music, Next Show Notice, Credits, Creative Commons