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Show of 2-18-2012

Email and Forum Questions

  • Email from Robert Tyler: Dear Dr. Shurtz: Recently I listened to one of your past podcasts in which you were talking about how to find out your IP address. Jim Russ mentioned that on his work computer for his other job that his screensaver has the IP address, subnet mask and default gateway on it. Could you explain subnet masks and default gateways and how they relate to IP addresses and networks in general? There’s a lot of information on the internet about those terms, but you have a great way of explaining technical terms so that everyone can understand them.
  • Also, I have a suggestion for Tech Talk’s “Profiles In IT”. Could you do a profile on Moxie Marlinspike. I’ve been reading a little about him and it sounds like he would be a worthy candidate for that segment of your show. Thanks for a great show every week. Loyal listener, Robert Tyler
  • P.S.: Love the David Burd stop byes and the music Jim plays when David comes in.
  • Tech Talk Responds: An IP address has two components, the network address and the host address. For example, consider the IP address 150.215.017.009. It is 32 bits in length, divided into four 8 octets or bytes. For class A networks, the first octet is the network portion. For a class B network, the first two octets are the network portion. For a class C network, the first three octets are the network portion. The subnet mask indicates the network portion (with all ones) and the host portion (with all zeros).
  • The default gateway is the final hop before being routed externally. Indicated this gateway, tells you computer to send all external traffic to this IP address. It will route it over the Internet after performing an Network Address Translation (to the assigned external IP address).
  • Email from Ralph: Dear Tech Talk, My OS is Vista and Microsoft intends to stop support on 10-Apr-2012. What does that mean? Can I continue to still use it? Love the show, Ralph
  • Tech Talk Responds: You can keep using it for quite some time. End of support doesn’t mean you can’t keep using it. Here are the life cycle stages for an typical OS
    • End of Sales. No retail or OEM product sales
    • End of Mainstream Support. Vista mainstream support end April 10, 2012. You lose no-charge incident reporting, no warranty claims, no feature requests or design changes. None of this really matters.
    • End of Extended Support. Windows XP has not reached this date yet. It’s not until 2014 for XP and 2017 for Windows Vista. This is when you lose security updates. This is significant and probably marks the time you should change your OS. So Vista should be good until 2017.
  • Email from Jackie: Dear Dr. Shurtz, I recently bought a USB headset. I have a Windows Vista. I used the headset once successfully and then unplugged it. Now when I plug it in, they don’t work and the sound goes to the normal speakers. What can I do? Thanks Jackie
  • Tech Talk Responds: You computer is selecting the wrong output devices. If you want to always use the USB headset, you need to make it the default output device. Go to control panel and select sound. Select the playback tab and then the USB Headset. Press the Make Default button. Then select the Recording tab and repeat the process. Now your USB headset will always be selected as the output device.
  • Email from Alice: Dear Dr. Shurtz, I will be going overseas next month and would like to use a cell phone what do you suggest? What are my options for a carrier? Love the show, Alice
  • Tech Talk Responds: There are two cell phone standards: GSM and CDMA. GSM was invented in Europe and is the dominant technology outside of the US. CDMA was invented in the US by Qualcomm and is dominant in the US. It can also be found in China and India (along with GSM).
  • I would recommend that you use a GSM phone for travel. Make certain that is is unlocked so that you can put in a local SIM card. If you use the SIM card of your US carrier, call will be $2 to $3 per minute. The rate for local SIM cards is typically a few cents a minute. You can buy prepaid cards at the airport. Many hotels will get them for you too. Some countries require a passport photo and take 24 hours to activate. Most countries take only a few hours to activate. The cost of a SIM card is usually $10 to $20. You can then add as many prepaid minutes as you want to the card.
  • Email from Jonathan: Dear Tech Talk, I have heard something about academic discounts for software. How can find these discounts? Thanks, Jonathan
  • Tech Talk Responds: To qualify for academic discounts, you must be a college student or work for a college. Sometimes you have to verify this by providing an email address with a .edu extension. To find the academic software vendors, just Google “Academic Software.” With academic pricing, you get a full-version for the cost of an upgrade. The software companies have these programs to cut down on software piracy on the college campus.
  • The vendor that I like is http://JourneyEd.com.

Profiles in IT: Mary Lou Jepsen

  • Mary Lou Jepsen is founder and CEO of Pixel Qi, a manufacturer of low-cost, low-power LCD screens for laptops. She was the first CTO of One Laptop per Child.
  • MaryLou Jepsen was born 1965.
  • Jepsen studied Studio Art and Electrical Engineering at Brown.
  • She received a Master of Science in Holography from the MIT Media Lab, and then returned to Brown to receive a Ph.D. in Optical Sciences.
  • Her contributions have had worldwide adoption in head-mounted display, HDTV and projector products.
  • Her PhD work combined coupled-wave analysis with lab work, in which she created large-scale, embossed surface-relief diffraction gratings with LC-filled grooves.
  • In Cologne, Germany she built a holographic replica of pre-existing buildings in the city’s historic district…and created a holographic display encompassing a city block.
  • She co-created the first holographic video system in the world at the MIT Media Lab in 1989, where the interference structure of the hologram was computed at video rates, and shown on her hand-made display. This system inspired a new subfield of holographic video and received numerous awards.
  • In 1995, she suffered from a pituitary gland tumor and had it removed. Since then she requires a twice-daily regimen of hormone replacement.
  • Jepsen helped pioneer single-panel field sequential projection display systems, co-founding Microdisplay in 1995. There she served as its CTO through 2003.
  • From 2003 until the end of the 2004, she was the CTO of Intel’s Display Division.
  • In January 2005, Jepsen joined Nicholas Negroponte to lead the design, partnering, development and manufacture of the laptop, and for the entire first year of the effort was the only employee of One Laptop per Child [OLPC].
  • By the end of 2005, she had completed the initial architecture, led the development of the first prototype, and signed up some of the world’s largest manufacturers to produce the XO-1.
  • By the end of 2007 she had led the laptop through development and into high volume mass production.
  • At OLPC, Jepsen invented the laptop’s sunlight-readable display technology and co-invented its ultra-low power management system – and – has transformed these inventions into high volume mass production rapidly.
  • The XO laptop is the lowest-power laptop ever made, and the most environmentally friendly laptop ever made. The laptop can sustain 5 foot drops, is mesh networked extending the reach of the network by letting signals hop from laptop to laptop.
  • After 3 years with OLPC, In early 2008 she left OLPC to start a for-profit company, Pixel Qi, to commercialize some of the technologies she invented at OLPC.
  • Pixel Qi’s business is based on the concept that the screen is the most critical component of a portable.
  • Pixel Qi is currently pursuing sunlight readable, low-cost and low-power screens for laptops, cellphones and digital cameras, as well as, a $75 laptop.
  • For her work in creating the laptop Time Magazine named her to its 2008 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
  • Jepsen has won the Edwin Land Medal for 2011 from the Optical Society.

iPhone 4 ‘Antennagate’ Lawsuit Settled

  • If you bought an iPhone 4 (and you live in the US) then I’ve got some good news for you. You’re entitled to $15 of a free bumper case for your handset.
  • 18 separate lawsuits that were consolidated into one relating to the ‘Antennagate‘ handset signal performance issue have now been settled.
  • You remember ‘Antennagate,’ right? Soon after the iPhone 4 as released, some users began complaining that holding the handset in a certain way caused antenna performance to drop dramatically, to the point of losing reception completely.
  • Apple issued an open letter to iPhone 4 owners and followed that up with a press conference where the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs made the claim that this was not an iPhone issue but in fact an industry-wide problem.
  • Apple also made a selection of free cases available to consumers.
  • Each lawsuit claimed that Apple was ”misrepresenting and concealing material information in the marketing, advertising, sale, and servicing of its iPhone 4 – particularly as it relates to the quality of the mobile phone antenna and reception and related software.”
  • In the next few weeks the iPhone4Settlement.com website will go live, and that will provide iPhone 4 customers with information related to the settlement, as well as information on how to make a claim.
  • Customers who bought an iPhone 4 will also receive an email informing them of the settlement before April 30, 2012.
  •  From that period, the claim period will be 120 days.

Google Chrome Browser Update

  • The new stable release of Google’s web browser Chrome brings several improvements, most importantly faster browsing and more protection from malicious downloads.
  • From now on, when you start typing in Chrome’s address box (or omnibox, as Google calls it), as soon as Chrome autocompletes the URL you’re likely to visit, it will prerender the page, making your overall browsing experience faster.
  • As far as security goes, Chrome now does checks on executable files you’ve downloaded from the net. It matches the executables against a whitelist – a list of programs known to be safe – and if it can’t find the file there, it does some additional checks. For example, if the site you’re visiting hosts a high number of malicious downloads, Chrome will let you know.
  • The update comes just one day after Google announced Chrome for Android mobile devices.
  • Google also promises some updates to Chrome OS for the “near future,” including a new image editor and an improved Verizon 3G activation portal.

High Tech Valentines

  • E-readers, iPads, and cell phones are what women want for Valentine’s Day, according to a new study from the Consumer Electronics Association.
  • The study says women prefer lightweight devices that fit smaller hands, and that color is the least important feature to women.
  • Other gifts include
    • Digital photo frame of your life together. A great way to display all your pictures.
    • Collection of your favorite MP3s to play on her iPhone or iPod. You can buy them or rip them from your CD collection.
  • But not all women agree. It did not work for me.

OOMA VoIP Now Taxed

  • I just received this letter from Ooma (www.ooma.com)
  • This notice is to alert you of a change in taxes and fees starting Mar 23, 2012.
  • These monthly taxes and fees of $3.47 are split into the following categories:
    • Regulatory Compliance Fee – $1.59
    • 911 Service Fee – $1.59
    • Federal Universal Service Charge – $0.29
  • As a customer who purchased Ooma approximately two years ago, you have paid reduced taxes and fees of $11.75 per year. Per our standard terms and conditions, these taxes and fees are subject to change and beginning Mar 23, 2012, your taxes and fees will change to $3.47 per month.