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Tech News & Commentary
Willie in Bristol, Virginia listens to the podcast and asked: “I have a computer with Windows XP Pro. It’s saying Windows and missing a file, please install disk and reload. Unfortunately, I bought it second-hand and I don’t have any disks. Is there any way I can get around this without taking it into a shop?”
You’ve got a problem on your hands, if Windows won’t boot at all. If you can get it to boot, and you’re just trying to get rid of an error message, then you can run the System File Checker tool included with Windows XP.
This assumes, however, that the Windows XP system files are stored on the hard drive (that’s what some OEMs do instead of giving you a CD or DVD). Use your computer’s search function to look for a folder named “i386” and if you find it, note its location.
Assuming you were able to find it, now run “sfc /scannow” (click Start, then type the command into the Run prompt). When the System File Checker runs across a missing file, it will stop and prompt you to put your Windows XP disc in. That’s the point where you can click “OK” and when the dialog box pops up asking which drive the CD is in, you can enter the location of the i386 folder you found earlier. Quite probably, however, you will need to take it to a shop, or purchase a copy of Windows for it. You can’t buy Windows XP any more, at least not as a new product, so let’s hope you have the processing power and memory to run Windows 7, if it comes down to that.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
“Into Gaming Update” Weekly Feature with Mark Lautenschlager
Russ in North Carolina listens via the podcast – calling in via the app and asked: “I wanted to do kind of a commercial to put on a website, and I’m gonna be using a simple digital camcorder and an Olympus audio recorder and I want a piece of software to put this together there’s something like Microsoft Movie I think, that ‘s one that I see some stuff on on YouTube. I’m trying to find out what the right piece of software is that will allow me to use feed from one or maybe two video devices and possibly lay in audio I would also like to put in a little banner over someone showing who they are, like they do on the news [he wants to super the name]. If you could recommend anything like Microsoft Movie or if there’s something better or easier, I’d love to hear about it.”
If you have Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can download the Windows Live software from the Microsoft Update service. That will get you the Windows Live Movie Maker, which is a fairly efficient tool for loading video and audio into a timeline and arranging them to create a movie.
If you are planning to record audio that needs to be “synched” with the video (like shooting a video of someone speaking, where the voice and the lips need to match up), you might have some trouble getting things lined up. That’s why they use the slate to create a sharp noise when shooting movies, so they can line up the audio and video. This doesn’t apply, however, if you have one device recording both, but your question made it sound as though you were planning to get your audio from a second device.
If you’re just talking about narration or voice-over work, then you don’t need to worry about this of course. Windows Live Movie Maker handles superimposing text and other video effects in a very simple and straightforward manner.
The only real downside to Windows Live Movie Maker is that you can only produce movies in Microsoft’s own WMV format. If you want to create files in a different standard like MOV or MP4, you will need different software. YouTube, however, is perfectly happy with WMV files as an upload, so you’d be fine there.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Stephen calling in via the free app asked: “Dave, I’m a cardiologist that performs cardiac catherterizations on patients. I would like to display these dicom video images to patients and the families at their besides on my iPad. Is there an iPad app that will allow me to do this?”
There are a number of apps that can display DICOM files on iPads. You can try OsiriX HD, it’s $29.99, but it’s pretty complex software, it can interact with PACS and other medical servers and workstations, and get information through encrypted VPNs through a cellular connection or WiFi. It can also use datasets received via DropBox.
For $9.99 you can try DICOM Quick Viewer, it doesn’t seem as sophisticated as OsiriX, but it might be enough to fit your needs and it could save you some money too.
For $19.99 you can look at DICOM-AVC, like the others it will display DICOM images, but it includes some extra features like video chat as well. To be honest, Stephen, we can’t really tell you which of these is best, as we have no experience with medical imaging, but hopefully one of them will help you!
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Guest in this hour:
Donna Tapellini, Senior Editor – Consumer Reports
Is the new iPad really too hot to handle in a bad way? Donna has tested the tablet and is here to tell us what they discovered.
“IFA History Feature” brought to you by Messe-Berlin
The first professional studio tape recorder came to the market in the US in 1948 with the Ampex 200; two years later in Germany, Grundig and AEG began producing the first tape recorders for home use. At the Funkausstellung in 1953, Grundig showed an open reel tape recorder with six inch reels and reverse operation. Ten years later the end had come for the complicated open reel recorders as the Compact Cassette offered easy operation with a tiny cassette housing the tape. Both technologies were introduced at IFA.
That’s this week’s IFA Update brought to you by Messe-Berlin. Be sure to visit IFA-Berlin.com.
Norman in Chattanooga, Tennessee asked: “I have an Acer Laptop and it’s showing that whenever I put in a battery, it never charges and never shows up. I was checking on the Internet and found it has a lot of problems with that type of laptop. No battery icon, no nothing. I was wondering if there was any way to fix that.”
Your battery is probably dead. Laptops tend to outlive their own batteries, and sometimes batteries that can’t hold a charge show up as “charged” and then turn out not to be, other times they’re too far gone for that and can just register as “not even there”.
There is a chance of this not being the case, you can take your battery out, clean all the contacts on your battery and your laptop and restart your computer so it’s RAM memory is clean, but odds are this won’t make your battery reappear.
If you know anyone with a similar laptop you might be able to swap batteries and check to see if the other person’s battery show up when it’s plugged into your laptop and if yours doesn’t when it’s in the other person’s computer. That obviously won’t fix your problem, but you’ll know for a fact that you need a new battery and you won’t go spending money on replacing a battery that may still be functional.
Tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast for more details.
Evan in Lewiston, Idaho listens on 840 the Max and asked: “iPad2, the new iPad. I’m a gadget freak. But, I just got the iPad2. Do I need the new iPad? Is the retina display worth it, or is it just another gimmick? I don’t do music on my iPad. I don’t really do any videos other than Netflix every once in a while. Is it worth the new retina display? Is the processor that much faster, that I should run out and spend $600 on the 64GB iPad? Sorry… The NEW iPad?”
If you just got an iPad 2, you probably don’t need the new iPad. The screen is nicer, it can process graphics better, but you will notice no difference in the quality of the movies you watch on Netflix, it’s an overall better device, but it’s not a big enough change for us to recommend you ditch your new iPad 2 and replace it for the newer model.
The real question is the difference between “need” and “want.” You say you’re a gadget freak. Although you may not need the improved screen resolution on the new iPad, we have to acknowledge that the higher resolution screen does produce a stunning display. If you put it side by side with the iPad 2, the new iPad is clearly sharper. Now, if you don’t have them right next to each other, the differences will be far less apparent, so once again — need vs. want.
What we’d really like to know is, if you’re a gadget freak and you listen to this show, why did you “just get” an iPad 2? We’ve been warning everyone for months that the new iPad was just about out. We’re sorry to hear we didn’t get to you in time!
Tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast for more details.
If you have any questions about any of this week’s show info,
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This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Creative: Live! Cam Connect HD — Webcam that records 720p video
ScanMyPhotos.com: Several $200.00 eGift Certificates that can be used towards your purchase of any of their online products, such as: Prepaid Photo Scanning Box, Prepaid Slide Box, or Prepaid VHS Transfer Box
Scott Steinberg: Copies of his new book “The Modern Parent’s Guide to Kids and Video Games”