Thursday, August 30, 2007

IRC Chat Safety and Security

http://live.pirillo.com - Ted asks "How safe is the chat room? I mean can anyone in the room somehow access someone else's computer? Is there a website that explains chat rooms and has all the commands listed to do the various things I've seen?"   

Normalizing MP3 Volume Levels

http://live.pirillo.com - Hopefully my volume stays the same during each of my videos. I try to moderate the volume, so it's always near the same. A community member wonders if there are any good solutions for editing MP3s to equalize their volume.   

Bandwidth Monitoring and Capping

http://live.pirillo.com - I push out tons of GBs of data every day. In my house, I personally don't want a bandwidth cap. However, I do believe in it as a whole. I would actually be even more in favor of it if there were a way to buy even more bandwidth.   

Travel Gear

http://live.pirillo.com - In a couple of weeks, my wife Ponzi and I are going to Germany. General Motors saw our live stream, and asked us if we would like to stream live from an auto show in Frankfort, Germany. Uhm.. DUH! Stay tuned in September, when we become an International show for awhile!  

Hard Drive Price and Capacity

http://live.pirillo.com - How fast is your hard drive? Is speed everything? YES! IT! IS! One viewer wrote in to ask why he found a 500GB hard drive for a much cheaper price than a 250GB drive. Remember, the size is not all that matters.   

Corrections on Quad Core and Multi Core CPUs

http://live.pirillo.com - I take pride in the fact that I don't know everything. I love to learn, and looking to the community for help filling in my blanks is important to me. Consider this an update... 1.1 if you will... to my earlier video on Quad and Dual Core CPUs.   

Alphagrip USB Keyboard Alternative

http://live.pirillo.com - I have discovered that I cannot type very well unless I am using a 'normal' keyboard. This new Alpha Grip USB Keyboard is designed much like a game console controller. Some of the keys are on front, some are on back. There is a little trackball for your mouse. It really works... it's just very different.   

Droid Maker by Michael Rubin

http://live.pirillo.com - Michael Rubin joins me live to talk about his new book Droid Maker. This book delves into the computer division of the Lucas Film making empire. Learn about the birth of some of todays' most impressive film technology... begun by a group of computer Geeks.   

Geek Illustrated Profile

http://live.pirillo.com - Geek Illustrated is a new Web site dedicated to presenting interesting, dynamic individuals involved in technology in such a way that the non-geek can appreciate their smarts and appeal. GI is dedicated to the fact that smart is sexy. And they want to interview... me?!  

Upgrading RAM in MacBook Pro

http://live.pirillo.com - The 17" MacBook Pro sponsored by Blue Sky Factory for Gnomedex came with (2) 1GB sticks of RAM installed. I've decided to replace those with (2) 2GB sticks.  

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Secure Email

http://live.pirillo.com - RychenCop, on a Civilian Police Assistance Training Team in Baghdad, Iraq writes: "I have been using Gmail as my main email service while stationed in Iraq. My question is how secure are online email services?"  

Solid State Hard Drives

http://live.pirillo.com - Swat sent me a video email, wondering what exactly a solid state hard drive is... and is it better than a regular hard drive.   

Safe to Delete Windows Prefetch

http://live.pirillo.com - Yes, GreekHomer, it is safe to delete your Windows Prefetch files. However, there is just no need to. Doing so can actually slow down your next startup, instead of speeding it up as you're hoping.   

Windows Recycle Bin Tips

http://live.pirillo.com - A community member at large emailed today, asking if there is a way to create a second recycle bin in Windows. The user is hoping to have two entirely separate recycle bins, for two separate drives.   

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Gleamd

http://live.pirillo.com - Tonight I got to interview Matt McInerney, the creator behind the new Social Networking site... Gleamd.com.  

Contact List Management with Plaxo

http://live.pirillo.com - I bet you've seen those emails. "Join Plaxo today! It's free!" or even from your friends "Join me at Plaxo!". Yeah. I used to delete those, and never even checked it out. Low and behold once I did try it tonight... I was seriously impressed. Excellent work, Plaxo!  

Sharing Files Between Mac OS X and Windows XP

http://live.pirillo.com - Yes, you can transfer your files from XP to Mac OS X... or back. While they are two completely separate and different Operating Systems, it's not as difficult as you would think to share your files between them.   

Lunar Eclipse August 28, 2007

http://live.pirillo.com - I was lucky enough to be able to catch the full lunar eclipse tonight, and put it out live over the Internet via uStream. Thank you, Mother Nature, for a beautiful show.  

Zango Software Spyware or Adware

http://live.pirillo.com - Imagine my surprise the other day when searching for an archived document of mine the other day. There was what I was looking for... the first two hits on Google. The third hit, however, was a link to a video of mine on Zango. Zango?!?! Whaaaaaaaaaaat?  

Is SEO Good or Bad?

http://live.pirillo.com - Search Engine Optimization (or SEO for short) is generally a very good thing. Just as there are white hat hackers and black hat hackers, there can also be black and white SEO's.   

2 or More GB of Ram for Memory

http://live.pirillo.com - Every day it seems I get a ton of questions about RAM. I chose this one to answer, because this user is a bit confused. He has a 32-bit Windows setup, and can't figure out why Windows won't recognize more than 2GB of RAM when he installs it.   

Windows Experience Index

http://live.pirillo.com - A new visitor to our chat room called in tonight. He had to completely reinstall Windows Vista 64-bit today. After the install, he noticed that his Windows Experience Index is down 1.0 points from what it had been.   

Monday, August 27, 2007

Windows Movie Maker and YouTube

http://live.pirillo.com - Wow. Pixie and Wicket sure were tiny the day we brought them home. Watching them in Windows Movie Maker reminds me of a question from a chatter recently. He wants to know how to convert a .WMM file into an .AVI file for use on YouTube.   

Recovering Windows Passwords

http://live.pirillo.com - The gal who uploads videos for me called in tonight needing help with her daughters' brand new laptop. Apparently, the daughter set a password on the ONLY Admin account, and then promptly forgot it. Kat had already installed all the programs, transferred music, etc and doesn't want to have to format.   

Manage Startup Items in OS X

http://live.pirillo.com - In Windows, if you want a program to run automatically on startup, you'll need to go to Start - Programs - and drag the program you want into the Startup folder. In OS X, Apple has made it even easier than that. Go figure.   

Phishing Filter Safety

http://live.pirillo.com - In Boy Scouts, the first badge I earned was a fishing badge. I caught a Crappie! Of course, we all know that fishing is a great pastime. But what many people don't know is that when "fishing" is spelled PHishing, it's a potentially very dangerous thing.   

LCD Monitor Problems

http://live.pirillo.com - Vince has a 17" wide screen LCD monitor, and an NVidia graphics card. Windows update detected a graphics card update and installed it. Suddenly, Vince no longer has his native resolution option for his monitor.   

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Domain Name Whois Registration Privacy

http://live.pirillo.com - Clint asks "Is it a good investment to block personal info from a whois lookup to see that I own the site. We tell our kids how dangerous it is to put personal info out there; does it apply to adults? My name, phone number and home address is out there for the world to see. What is safe to put out there? I just dont know what content to include, and what to omit."   

Amazon WebStore vs Yahoo Stores vs eBay

http://live.pirillo.com - When it comes to these three online marketplaces, there really aren't a lot of differences. When deciding which site is right for you, you'll need to decide on which features are important to you, and do your research as to what is available.   

Shared vs Dedicated Video Card Memory

http://live.pirillo.com - A shared video card is one that is built in, and shares memory with the rest of the system. A dedicated video card is independent of the system, and has its own memory that it uses.   

What is a Benchmark?

http://live.pirillo.com - A benchmark is, simply put, a measurement. Benchmarks can measure anything from your processor, to your Internet connection, to your memory and back. Benchmarking allows you to compare whatever you're measuring against others, so you can compare 'scores'.   

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Installing Java for Security Updates

http://live.pirillo.com - How much of a security risk is it to not update your Java Runtime Environment? Well, it's definitely a good idea to always update. Usually, and update addresses a security issue.   

Who Wants to Win a Webcam?

http://live.pirillo.com - Thanks to our friends at uStream, we get to give away one web cam per week. Watch as this weeks' winner almost didn't win.   

Friday, August 24, 2007

Master Password in Firefox

http://live.pirillo.com - 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Sounds like something an idiot would use on their luggage, doesn't it? Yeah. That's a quote from the movie Spaceballs. Hopefully, you have never used this as a password.   

MacSaber Fun - Jedi Duel

http://live.pirillo.com - Yes Luke, I AM your father.   

Canon Printer Installation Problem

http://live.pirillo.com - Ponzi bought a new printer... and her face turned blue!  

Halo 32 bit or 64 bit

http://live.pirillo.com - Matt is a Halo2 fanatic. He is currently running a 32-bit version of Windows Vista. He's wondering if the game will run better if he installs the 64-bit version.   

Quad Core Gaming

http://live.pirillo.com - I had a question sent in about processors. The question is whether or not a game made for single processor systems would run on a Quad Core system, only use one processor, or not work at all?  

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Troubleshooting Adobe Acrobat 8 Problems

http://live.pirillo.com - Alex has called in with a problem regarding Adobe Acrobat Pro 8. Unfortunately, it's not one I've heard of or come across. It may be a situation where he has to wait for an update from Adobe.   

Microsoft Office Windows Installer Problem

http://live.pirillo.com - Poor Big John Midland. Every time he launches a Microsoft Office application the Windows Installer box comes up. Uninstalling and re-installing hasn't helped the issue. Luckily, I have a very good idea what the problem is.   

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Adobe Photoshop Elements on Vista

http://live.pirillo.com - Yes, Photoshop Elements works on Vista. It's a good little program, with an ok user interface. There are also other good programs out there to quickly and easily edit your photographs... even some free ones!  

What is Google-Fu?

http://live.pirillo.com - No, it's not a shortened version of a curse word. Google-Fu is actually a coined phrase describing a persons' ability to use the Internet to find answers.   

Console Wars

http://live.pirillo.com - You want MY opinion on whether the Xbox360 or the Playstation3 is better? Ok, fine then. Xbox all the way. However, the gaming system that is right for you is a personal choice. Don't let the so-called 'console wars' make the decision for you.   

Video Recording Software, Overclocking, Free Hosting, PC Brands

http://live.pirillo.com - As every night, I opened up the phone lines to 888-pirillo.   

OEM System Restore Discs

http://live.pirillo.com - Do you remember the last time you went to restore your computer? Of course you do. You looked in the box, shuffled through all of the papers and discs... and found NO restore disc.   

Free Disk Space by Finding Fat Files

http://live.pirillo.com - There are many free utilities you can use to discover what files and directories are on your computer. By knowing this, you can then easily manage your disk space.   

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Vista Headaches with Cameron Reilly

http://live.pirillo.com - Cameron Reilly joins me live to discuss his problems with Vista. Apparently, kangaroos do not play nicely with Vista.   

What is UseNet?

http://live.pirillo.com - Before the Web existed... before BBS's... and yes, even before forums... all we had was UseNet.   

Black Screen of Death, 32 bit and 64 bit O/S, Instability Issues

http://live.pirillo.com - Live phone support. Today we're discussing plugging a PC directly into a wall with no type of protections. We also have calls coming in asking the difference between 32 bit and 64 bit systems, hardware instability issues, and *shudder* black screen of death! Black? Insurmountable? Stay tuned, and watch.   

Free Tech Support

http://live.pirillo.com - Opening up the phone lines to 888-pirillo.