Listen to The Personal Computer Radio Show on WBAI 99.5 in New York, NY

November 19, 2008 Show

Wed, Nov 19 Listen

PC Magazine will no longer be published in hard copy. In July 2009 Microsoft plans to release another free antispyware product. Intel released a new CPU. The lawsuit against Microsoft regarding computers being "Vista ready" is revealing interesting emails. Alfred explains some techie stuff about HDTVs. Listener phone calls.

November 12, 2008 Show

Wed, Nov 12 Listen

Circuit City filed for Chapter 11 and will continue operating, for now. Bfads.net alraedy has some Black Friday ads. Is Asus really phasing out their Netbook computers with the smallest screens, 7 and 9 inch screens? Price fixing on LCD panels. IBEC hired IBM to deliver the Internet over electric power lines in rural areas. Panasonic is considering buying Sanyo. Hank had problems getting Windows XP drivers for an HP laptop after downgrading it from Vista to XP. AMD is laying off 25% of their...

November 5, 2008 Show

Wed, Nov 5 Listen

There was another recall of Sony batteries for laptop computers. Digital Railroad, a site for professional photographers, went out of business. No more 7 and 9 inch Asus Netbooks will be sold. Windows XP can only be sold on Netbooks with a maximum screen size of 10 inches. Circuit City is closing 20% of their stores. More ISPs are testing limits on download bandwidth. Steve Bass is now at techbite.com. Vista Basic can emulate the Aero glass interface if you know where to zap the registry. For...

October 29 2008 Show

Wed, Oct 29 Listen

Google book scanning lawsuit settled. No more hard copies of the Christian Science Monitor. Netbooks are selling well. An interview with a book author on robots. Listener phone calls.

October 22 2008 Show

Wed, Oct 22 Listen

Microsoft, yet again, extended the life of Windows XP Professional. XP is fighting Microsoft's battle against Linux on Netbook computers. Apple has patented the look and feel of OS X. Open Office version 3 was released: it can read the new file formats from Office 2007 and can output PDF files. Open Office runs on Linux, Windows and Macs. What to do if you install XP or Vista and find you don't have drivers. Hank bought an MSI Wind barebones machine at Newegg. It comes with an Intel Atom...

October 15, 2008 Show

Wed, Oct 15 Listen

The show was pre-empted this week for coverage of the presidential debate.

October 8, 2008 Show

Wed, Oct 8 Listen

Building your own barebones computer system. Kathy Davis. Listener questions. Fund raising. We offered the same premiums as the prior 4 weeks: a DVD Toolkit with many free programs for $55 and Gold Card technical support for a year from the guys on the show. Also, Gold Cards come with a bonus CD that can be used to change the Windows password.

October 1, 2008 Show

Wed, Oct 1 Listen

Dell is trying to trademark "cloud computing". Real Networks is getting sued over their DVD copying software. Verizon's rollout of FIOS faces problems. Panasonic says the Intel Atom processor is too slow for Vista so they won't use it in their computers. Should you install Windows XP SP3? See Michael's take. Hank found a free duplicate file finder program that he liked. Joe discussed an undelete program from Diskeeper. Flyakite OSX by Greg Kite is a program that makes Windows XP look like Mac...

September 24, 2008 Show

Wed, Sep 24 Listen

Apple released bug fixes. Review of the bluetooth Jawbone earset. Review of scan cafe, a service that for 24 cents per negative will scan film negatives. Digital picture frames. Fund raising including a bonus CD to change the Windows password.

September 17, 2008 Show

Wed, Sep 17 Listen

Iolo System Mechanic. News of the week. Fund raising. No listener phone calls.

September 10, 2008 Show

Wed, Sep 10 Listen

United Airlines stock nosedived on very old news. Comcast is capping bandwidth. Verizon's data network now reports connectivity by street. Installing Windows XP onto a USB flash drive. Chrome web browser. New patches from Microsoft. Wireless microphone problems. Fund raising. No listener phone calls.

August 20, 2008 Show

Wed, Aug 20 Listen

The first generation of Apple Nanos had an overheating problem. The MIT students can now talk about hacking the Boston subway system. A survey found that one third of new computers that sold with Vista were downgraded to XP. People are buying smaller TV sets. Hank discussed System Mechanic version 8 from Iolo. Alfred discussed a book called Slide:ology about creating great presentations. The next weeks the show is pre-empted on the air for coverage of the political conventions. Listener phone...

August 13, 2008 Show

Wed, Aug 13 Listen

An update on color laser printers from last weeks show. Yesterday was patch Tuesday with many fixes to critical bugs in Windows, Office and other Microsoft software. Windows Media Player 11 is buggy and was not fixed. The new Latitude E6400 laptop can run for 10 hours on a single battery charge and you can an external battery that clips onto the bottom and powers the machine for another 9 hours. There were a number of recent cloud computing failures such as the closing of The LinkUp and a...

August 6, 2008 Show

Wed, Aug 6 Listen

All about printers. Special guest M. David Stone discussed how to figure what they really cost, which costs less, ink jet or laser and much more including how to choose between price, technology, and performance when it comes to picking a printer for your computer. Stories in the news. Listener phone calls.

July 30, 2008 Show

Wed, Jul 30 Listen

This was a fund raising show, there were no caller questions. About the current DNS flaw on the Internet. Assorted other stories, ripped from the headlines. A review of some of the software on our DVD toolkit, a collection of free software we offer as a membership premium.

July 23, 2008 Show

Wed, Jul 23 Listen

This was a fund raising show, there were no caller questions. A problem installing software on Windows Vista. Sandisk is losing money as the price of flash ram falls so they are expected to temporarily close a factory to limit supply and stabilize prices. A new scam email message purports to be from UPS. Andrew Cuomo is after Comcast to block 88 Usenet newsgroups that have carried child porn. eBay will make the identity of counterfeiters available to the legitimates manufacturers.

July 16, 2008 Show

Wed, Jul 16 Listen

Alfred will be on Fox Business news network discussing HDTVs. Centrino 2 is a marketing ploy. Two more ISPs will block newsgroups. A new fast computer from IBM. Is it time yet to install Windows XP SP3? Price drop on the Asus 900 Eee PC. ZoneAlarm knocked Windows XP users offline, there is a fix from vendor. eBay is changing their business model, they signed a new agreement with buy.com. The MagicJack terms of service. Who is responsible for fakes being sold on eBay? Listener phone calls.

July 9, 2008 Show

Wed, Jul 9 Listen

Kodak released a new camera sensor. Microsoft will provide bug fixes for Windows XP until 2014. Microsoft started renting Office for $70/year. Heat problems with nVidia graphics processors. Joe reviewed Magic Jack, a USB thumb drive that does VOIP for cheap. Joe reviewed the Amazon Kindle. If you use ZoneAlarm and installed bug fixes from Microsoft yesterday, you may no longer be able to get online. Listener phone calls.

July 2, 2008 Show

Wed, Jul 2 Listen

To be a computer technician in Texas you have to be a licensed private investigator. Intel is not going to install Vista on the computers of their 80,000 employees. Microsoft has to change their business model. There is a big demand for the desktop Atom CPU from Intel. Rhapsody, a download music site, will now sell non-copy protected MP3s. Prices of flash ram memory. Huge patch day yesterday for OS X Leopard. The 50 ways to still get Windows XP. Windows Vista turns off some features if your...

June 25, 2008 Show

Wed, Jun 25 Listen

A Vizio 32-inch plasma TV that sells for under $600. More on Verizon blocking usenet. A proposed FCC rule change. The Atom CPU was just released in laptop and desktop versions. Gartner estimates 35 million PCs will end up in landfills this year. We discussed re-cycling. Hank saw a new high end Toshiba laptop that's very fast because it has lots of processors. A new Sony 32 inch Bravio TV uses less power and LED backlights. Plasma TV look great in a darker environment, not so much in a bright...

June 18, 2008 Show

Wed, Jun 18 Listen

The first GA version of Wine was just released, it lets you run Windows applications on Linux or the Mac OSX without Windows and without VMs. AMD will release a new CPU to compete with the Intel Atom. IBM's version of Open Office, called Symphony, just came out of beta. We finally know why so many Xbox 360s died - bad heat dissipation from the graphics chip. Sharper Image gift certificates. Despite the popular videos, you can not cook popcorn with the radiation from four cellphones. More...

June 11, 2008 Show

Wed, Jun 11 Listen

LG sued Quanta. Apple announced a new version of OS X, v10.6 that will run only on Intel CPUs and adds support for Microsoft Exchange. There is a new iPhone coming in July. The Sharper Image is closing all of its stores, use your gift cards now. Three ISPs will block child porn. We interviewed Kathy Davis of WBAI about audio editing using Adobe Audition. Windows XP SP3 changed the meaning of the "date modified" field for a folder. Next week David Perry of Trend Micro on viruses. Listener...

June 4, 2008 Show

Wed, Jun 4 Listen

No more fund raising, this was a normal show. Newegg and Amazon are charging tax to NY state residends as of June 1st. A couple cable companies are testing charging based on the amount of data downloaded every month. Download a lot, pay more. Sandisk will release new SSDs for ultra cheap laptops. The new Netflix set-top box. Listener phone calls.

May 28, 2008 Show

Wed, May 28 Listen

This was a fund raising show. To donate to WBAI go to wbai.org/donate. As usual, we offered a Gold Card for one year of tech support for $150. We also offered a DVD toolkit - with lots of our favorite software for $55. We discussed the software on the DVD as well as a document by Hank about troubleshooting a computer. No listener phone calls.

May 21, 2008 Show

Wed, May 21 Listen

This was a fund raising show. To donate to WBAI go to wbai.org/donate. As usual, we offered a Gold Card for one year of tech support for $150. We also offered a DVD toolkit - with lots of our favorite software for $55. Much of the show was discussing the software on the DVD. Also on the DVD is Hank's guide to troubleshooting computer problems. It's a decision table. Joe installed Windows XP SP3 on a number of machines and had problems on one of them, so many problems that he suggested waiting...

May 14, 2008 Show

Wed, May 14 Listen

At laplink.com on May 15th they will be giving away free copies of PC Mover and other commercial software will be drastically reduced. Beware of computer-to-computer WiFi networks. HP tech support was rated poor by Consumer Reports. Microsoft offers free tech support for problems with XP SP3. This was a fund raising show. To donate to WBAI go to wbai.org/donate. As usual, we offered a Gold Card for one year of tech support for $150. We also offered a DVD toolkit - with lots of our favorite...

May 7, 2008 Show

Wed, May 7 Listen

The guest was Paul Ng, Senior Web Editor for Consumer Reports. The topic was their recent survey, in the just-released June issue of the magazine, on technical support and computer repairs. This was a fund raising show. To donate to WBAI go to wbai.org/donate. As usual, we offered a Gold Card for one year of tech support for $150. We also offered a DVD toolkit - with lots of our favorite software for $55. No listener phone calls.

April 30, 2008 Show

Wed, Apr 30 Listen

This is a new show, recorded on Monday April 28th because we were pre-empted over the air. Just us talking, no guest, no listener phone calls. Affiliate marketing. Paying taxes in New York on Internet purchases. Hank bought cheap stuff at TCF. A lawsuit about solid state hard disks. HP's new online backup service was broken for 6 days. Can you really get Windows XP on the new HP min-note laptops? AMD is in trouble. Apple bought a CPU processor company. Michael suggests waiting before...

April 23, 2008 Show

Wed, Apr 23 Listen

Our guest was David Perry of Trend Micro. Alfred was in the New York Times discussing HDTVs, so we discussed them a bit too. Skype lets you call overseas for a flat $10/month. Mac users may get access to a virtual clone for cheap. David warned that online banking in the US is not nearly as secure as in other countries. Listener phone calls.

April 16, 2008 Show

Wed, Apr 16 Listen

Just us talking. We were pre-empted over the air, but recorded this new show anyway. No listener phone calls, no guest.

The Personal Computer Radio Show (Computers)