Official TechtalkRadio Blog

September 2, 2008 S!ickLeave a commentUncategorized

problems defragmenting a drive

Tom called the radio show and said he cannot defragment his hard drive. Based on my experiences, this may be a symptom of other issues…

My first suggestion is to check the hard disk for errors:
Check for Disk Errors in Windows XP
How to perform disk error checking in Windows XP
Check your hard disk for errors Windows Vista

Then attempt to defragment the hard drive:
How To Analyze and Defragment a Disk in Windows XP
How to Defragment Your Disk Drive Volumes in Windows XP
Features of the Windows Vista hard disk defragmentation utility

You can consider defragmenting while in Safe mode:
A description of the Safe Mode Boot options in Windows XP
Start your computer in safe mode

September 2, 2008 S!ickLeave a commentUncategorized

mobile internet service

Dave called our radio show to get more information about having internet service while he is traveling in his recreational vehicle…

There are many wireless telephone service providers (Sprint, Verizon, etcetera) that have it available. And, there are satellite dish internet service providers (WildBlue, HughesNet, etcetera).

You need to ask about: service areas, service speed, and price.

September 1, 2008 S!ick1 Commentusb

USB ports and hubs

We’ve had conversations about using USB devices…

Someone in our (Ustream.tv) chat room suggested we review “USB Hub Design and Windows”.

Per the USB Implementers Forum, the specification for cable lengths is 3 meters to 5 meters.

I have used longer cables, but only for devices that do not need to be powered by the USB port. And, I have USB devices that cannot be powered by certain computer ports because the ports do not provide enough power for the device: because of bad experiences I do not trust USB devices that use Y-cables.

When considering using powered hubs, keep in mind that what is considered to be a “compliant bus powered hub” has only four ports.

August 28, 2008 S!ickLeave a commentUncategorized

new PSP in October, PS3 in November

Sony has announced that a new PSP (PlayStation®Portable) system will be available on October 14: the PSP-3000 will have a built-in microphone, support IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi), and MPEG-4 will be playable.

Music Memory Stick Audio Format:
ATRAC3
MP3
MP4
WAVE
WMA

Photo:
JPEG
TIFF
BMP
GIF
PNG

In November, look for a 160GB PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) with Bluetooth…

Blogged with the Flock Browser

August 26, 2008 Andy TaylorLeave a commentUncategorized

Thanks for your thoughts

For those that listen to the weekly radio show, you know over the last few months I had made quite a few trips to California to visit my Mom and stepdad Micheal who was diagnosed with Cancer about a year ago. Back in May, the cancer spread to his spine leaving him unable to walk. My mom went with the doctors and put him in a rehab facility while he underwent radiation therapy to weed out and kill the cancer. Michael was a former soldier and served the country in Korea and Vietnam. The battle he was facing was unlike the ones he had ever seen before.

Michael wanted to come home and be in the house where he and my mom had led a happy and fun life for the past 18 years.

Mom made the arrangements, and brought Michael came home. He was happy to see the bird and turtle and just as happy to look out the window and see his garden that he had not been able to tend to but provided him some comfort. Michael was happy to see the neighbors who stopped by and checked on him and my mom. He was just happy to be home.

Last night at about 3:30am, peacefully in his sleep, he went home again.

Your wishes during the last year have meant alot to my mom, to Michael and our family. He will be laid to rest in the Veterans Cemetary in Riverside.

To all Veterans, thank you and to those with a loved one facing this battle, our thoughts are with you.

Andy