HOUR 2:
Tech News & Commentary
Jim in Wilmington, DE listening on WDEL called in and asked us two questions, first question: “If you wanted to drop your cable TV service, what would you be able to receive on a high quality old-style antenna – like on your chimney or in your attic?”
With a good HD antenna you would be able to receive high quality, actually the highest quality digital television. And that’s why we always recommend an antenna — even rabbit ears can work. Every cable and satellite provider compresses the HD TV signal, resulting in a loss of quality. For the most part this isn’t really noticeable, but it is most definitely there. Over the air broadcasts direct from the TV affiliate to your antenna, are uncompressed and will give you a perfect picture, assuming you have signal at all.
And, of course, that’s the rub. Signal at all. Those who live far outside of a populated area may find that they can’t get a signal. For them, satellite may be the only option. Also don’t forget, you’d be dropping back to network programming only, and foregoing all the cable and satellite network choices. You can make up a lot of that over the Internet, these days, but it’s something you should be prepared to do.
For recommendations on HD antennas, our friends at the CEA run a great site. AntennaWeb.org. Check it out for some great tips on how to best set up your antenna.
Second question: “What are the ways to absolutely protect yourself from identity theft if you are going to use your home computer to do banking related activities?”
The only way to absolutely protect yourself against identity theft is to pay for everything with cash, and probably never leave home. But the average home banking connection is using a secure link with your bank, encrypting the data from end to end. The key thing is, don’t fall prey to phishing emails. These are emails written by identity thieves who want to get your user ID and password.
Most of the time they will scream about some problem with your account and say you must log in at once to correct it. They offer a link in the email, and needless to say this doesn’t connect with your real bank. It’ll be a fake site, just to collect your user name and password, and then the thieves will quickly connect with your real bank and take all your real cash.
Defeating them is simple. Never, ever (EVER!) connect with your bank by clicking on a link in an email. Never. Did you get that? NEVER. If you do, Chris will come and beat you with a tuna fish. Seriously, though, always open your browser and connect with your bank directly. Make sure the connection is secured (you’ll see the https prefix in the address and a padlock icon on your browser status bar). Banks use all sorts of security systems to keep your connection safe.
It is far more likely that someone will steal your identity by lifting it from your credit card at a restaurant than by getting it from your online banking service. Online banking is very, very secure for the most part. Watch out for those emails, and you should be fine.
Tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast for more details.
“This Week in Tech History” Weekly Feature with Chris Graveline
Lynette in San Jose, CA listening on KLIV 1590 AM called and asked: “I was wondering if you could tell me the best way to clean a plasma screen from fingerprints is. My fiance keeps insisting Windex, but I’m sure that’s not the right thing to do. So if you can help me, it’ll help us. Thanks!”
Plasma TV screens require some special care due to their construction because picture display screen isn’t made of glass like a conventional TV.
Use a PC cleaner in a spray (sprayed onto a rag, not directly) or ready-to-clean electronic wipes for removal of fingerprints or dust from the surface of the plasma screen. PC or laptop screens wipes are another safe options for cleaning your plasma TV screen.
Fingerprints can form on the screen because your skin produces oils. Never, ever apply any spray directly to the plasma screen itself. Always apply spray screen cleaners to a soft rag and then wipe the case and screen. Windex or any glass cleaner is not an option for cleaning this kind of TV screen.
You can also use plain distilled water on a lint-free cloth to wipe the screen. A gentle wipe with a slightly damp cloth will remove dust.
We use ScreenGuard at Into Tomorrow! However, the fiber cloth included isn’t the best. If you don’t use enough product, it will leave streaks on the screen. You can try other fiber cloths if you’re not happy with it.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Guests in this hour:
• Michael Materie, Director of Product Management – Diskeeper
Diskeeper brings innovation in performance and reliability.
• Jordan Schwartz, CFO – LOREX Technology
LOREX Technology develops video monitors and security camera systems which are designed for do-it-yourself installation.
“Into Tomorrow” Product Spotlight with Rob Almanza: Motorola ATRIX 4G or on Rob’s face for details
The Motorola ATRIX 4G caught a lot of attention at the 2011 CES. Find out what features make it so special. Rob Almanza reports from Las Vegas.
Victor in Smyrna, GA listens to the podcast and asked: “Can you recommend an external hard drive and which one might be the fastest and the most reliable and convenient?”
When it comes to external hard drives, the best names are generally the same as the best names for internal hard drives. Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi, BuffaloTech & so forth. There are a few exceptions, like LaCie, who make external drives exclusively, but any of the big name models should be fine.
There are really a couple different types of external drives. The first is a standard, full speed, desktop computer type hard drive mounted in an external enclosure with a separate interface to the computer and external power source. They’re bigger and often have cooling fans. If you’re using one that has an eSATA interface (remember you need that port on your computer too, if you want to connect that way), the performance will be virtually identical to an internal hard drive. Reliability will be very similar to an internal hard drive as well. Which is to say, very reliable. Hard drive failures still happen, of course, and we always recommend you make backups of your data, but hard drives in general are extremely reliable.
The other type of external drive is the ultra portable, highly compact drives that are the very small hard drives designed for notebook or netbook use, in a small enclosure that typically gets its power from the USB interface. They will almost always be USB, which isn’t going to be anywhere near as fast as eSATA, but every computer made these days has a USB port. These drives, because they’re designed for portable computers, typically have better shock resistance and protection against being banged around and carried places. That makes them extremely reliable, but again — hard drives can and do fail, so make backups. For convenience, it’s hard to beat one of these ultra portable drives.
One final option, if you’re looking for the ultimate in speed, is to roll your own. You can buy an external eSATA enclosure, with cooling fan and power supply, all ready for you to install your own hard drive. Then grab something like a Western Digital Velociraptor drive, and you’ll have put together one awesomely fast external drive. Again, remember that you’ll need an eSATA port on your computer, so check to see if you have one first, before you suffer from “plugis interruptus.”
For those who have Mac products, Hitachi’s G-Technology Series of drives are Mac-friendly. They also work with PCs, but you have to reformat them first.
Tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast for more details.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
CCrane: Several CCradio EP Classic High Performance AM/FM Radios.
RCA: Several travel chargers with surge protection
Honestech: Copies of Audio Recorder 2.0 Deluxe – Software to convert your analog music into digital formats including MP3s and audio CDs. Save those great musical memories.