It seems that spotify is doing well. At a recent press event, Daniel Ek(CEO) announced that the music streaming service now has 5 million for-pay subscribers. He also announced that there are now 20 million active users.
note: For-pay is a term given to a service or product which you have to pay for to use.
(to download this episode, right-click the above link and select “Save link as” or “Save target as”).
We want to give a big shout out to Blain Tarvish listening to us from New Zealand. It’s good to know that we have people that are listening to us worldwide. We will have a new website coming soon so stay tuned for more info.
The news:
Amazon recently announced some new tablets. The Kindle(minus the keyboard) the Kindle touch(similar to the kindle with an e-ink touch screen) and the Kindle Fire, an e-reader powered by Google’s Android operating system
US mobile phone carrier Cincinnati Bell had prematurely leaked the hardware specifications for Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5.
http://www.slashgear.com/iphone-5-specs-leaked-by-cincinnati-bell-01184707/
Finally, Dell seems to be readying some new laptops which are allegedly a direct shot at Apple’s MacBook range.
http://cnet.co/pS9w2B
Mailbag:
Ravi wants to repair the master boot record(MBR) on his hard drive. He would want to use the installation disk for his operating system. If he is on Windows XP, the installation disk will allow you to enter the recovery console and use the fixmbr command. If he is on windows 7, he will need to load the installation disk to launch the command prompt and type in the command bootrec.exe /fixmbr.
Mic wants to image the hard drive on his laptop, so he could use it on another computer and use it as normal. There is some good news and some bad news on this one. The on the software side of things, you can look at Acronis True Image(click here for a free trial). It may cost $50US(or £40), but it’s worth it. There is a free alternative called clonezilla.
Now here is the bad news: In short, Windows will detect instantly that you have changed your hardware and you will need to activate it again before you can access the Windows desktop.
Finally, Blain Tarvish wants to set up a simple website where people can leave messages for each other. We recommend that he gets a domain name and some paid web hosting from Fasthosts. Sure, there are some free web hosting solutions out there, but we recommended that you do it right and get a paid hosting solution from fasthosts. Most of the paid web hosting solutions will give you an easy one click installer for message board systems such as phpbb. To learn the code, you can get tutorials from the W3Schools website(click here). W3 Schools have easy to follow tutorials on PHP, CSS and HTML.
Into the past:
We looked at DOS(disk operating system). The original iteration of it was called PC DOS, which was made for IBM’s 8088 microprocessor. There was also another iteration called QDOS(quick and dirty operating system) for Intel’s 16-bit 8086 CPU card for the S-100 bus, before it was made available to the public as 86-DOS.
Microsoft then purchased it and called it MS-DOS(Microsoft DOS) and introduced it in 1981, which also drove IBM’s OS/2. The final version of MS-DOS was then renamed as PC DOS 7.10 and it was released in 2003. MS-DOS was also the basis for Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Millennium Edition. Now is it still available today, of course you can. If you are on Windows XP, Windows 7 or Windows Vista, then you can still access DOS from your start menu. If you are using the Windows 8 developer preview, then you can type “CMD” and you can get back to the command line.
OddBox: We looked at the DIY air drones which have the capability of breaking into Wi-Fi networks and control computers remotely for $600(nearly £400). It sports a GPS unit, a 3G card, two Wi-Fi cards and a Linux computer.
The drone can fly through any urban area in surch of Wi-Fi networks through the control of a botmaster using 3G. This means that they could be flying over you as you read this, so keep on the look out.
The pace of the discovery of candidate planets(planets that can support human life) has recently increased. Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory in Chile announced the discovery of 16 “Super-Earths”.
Be sure to follow us on twitter.com/mhftechnet and subscribe to us by looking for “The MHF Tech Network” on iTunes.
Sponsor: CUBS The Computer Warehouse – For more information, call 0208 343 8223 or visit cubsuk.com.
Where possible, please visit mhftechnet.adiman423.co.uk and click the “donate” button to donate anything you can so we can continue to make these great shows, which sound awesome.
(to download this episode, right-click on the link above and select “save target as” or “save link as”.)
Big shout outs to Zoe fisher and Paul. Our new website is up and running, so click here to go it. Whilst you are there, please sign up for your free account. Alternatively, you can connect with your facebook, twitter, gmail or yahoo account and leave your comments, questions, suggestions and feedback below.
News:
The tech world is in mourning, as Steve Jobs(Former Apple CEO) has passed away.
Book seller barnes and noble have decided to stop selling some books from some of their stores. http://cnet.co/pMzXey
The Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu had a google plus hangout(Google’s Video conferencing system within google plus). http://engt.co/qD6cr4
Odd box: In today’s odd box, we covered 10 of the worst computing disasters which are listed below.
1.Laptop shot in anger
2.PC thrown out the window to destroy evidence before police arrived
3.Laptop fell off a moped and was run over by lorry
4.Laptop dropped in bath while doing company accounts
5.Stolen PCs rescued after three weeks in a river
6.Red wine spilt on laptop over dinner
7.Server rescued after running unchecked 24/7 for years under layers of dust and dirt 8.Computer thrown against a wall
9.Latte-covered laptop rescued
10. Laptop left on car roof as owner drives off
Feature(A tribute to Steve Jobs):
We came to learn that Steve Jobs had passed away on the morning of Thursday 6th October 2011(UK Time).
Steve was an amazing man and we want to take look back at his works.
We started with 1984, and the Macintosh 128k. Back then, the idea of having a computer in the home was a new one. There were no flash drives or hard drives, you had to load your applications and games onto 5.25” floppy disks. The last one was called the Macintosh TV(one of the first colour screen Macintoshes. However, Steve Jobs was fired shortly after the release from Apple and started a company called NeXT, which made the NeXT computer. They also made an operating system called “NeXTSTEP”, if you are interested in it, you can download something called “GNUSTEP”(click here).
In 1997, Apple bought NeXT and bought Steve Jobs back with him. In 2001, Jobs changed the world with the release of the iPod and iTunes(a free music management and music store application). iTunes then made the jump from just being an Mac application to a Windows application.
In 2007, Jobs introduced the iPhone and turned the smartphone market on it’s head. However, he wanted to have a go at the Tablet market. In 2010, Jobs introduced the iPad, which showed the world how a tablet should be done.
Of course there were some other works such as FaceTime(a video calling solution.
Sponsor: CUBS The Computer Warehouse. When you buy a Western Digital 1.5TB hard drive for your desktop PC or a 750-watt power supply for your desktop PC, use the password MHF and you will get a discount on each of them. Fore more information about the other great products, visit cubsuk.com or call them on 0208 343 8223.
@Adiman423 on Leo Laporte: The Tech Guy On Saturdays and Sundays, Leo Laporte hosts a US radio show called The Tech Guy. This show starts at 6 minutes past 7PM. The live audio and video feeds for the show are available at live.twit.tv . For those of you in the USA, please check www.techguylabs.com to see if your local radio station is one of the many that broadcast this show. Every weekend Leo asks listeners to call in and either ask a question, or discuss anything going on in technology. I decided to call in once and get Leo’s recommendations for a podcasting microphone. I should warn you that I when I called in, I was a nervous wreck. I am on at approximately 51 minutes and 40 seconds. As you will hear I am not great at radio appearances. For those of you who don’t know him, Leo Laporte is a tech journalist. Between 2000 and 2010, he hosted two TV shows: The Screen Savers and Call for Help. He also did another show called The Lab with Leo Laporte. Leo also has his own podcast network called “This Week in Tech”(TWiT). You can find all of the shows that his podcast network does by going to www.twit.tv You can read the show notes for this episode by clicking here You can download the audio for this show by clicking here You can download the video for this show by clicking here I hope you enjoy it.
MHF How-Tos Episode 1: How to Make a Mac OSX Lion Install USB Flash Drive or DVD
You will need:
- A mac running OSX Snow Leopard 10.6.8
- An 8GB USB Flash Drive or a Blank Dual-Layer DVD
- Your downloaded copy of OSX Lion
The steps:
Open a new finder window
Select applications and find the icon saying “Install OSX Lion”, right-click or control-click it and select “show package contents.
double-click contents, double click SharedSupport and select InstallESD.dmg. Copy InstallESD.dmg to your desktop.
Launch disk utility and select your USB flash drive. Select the “erase” tab.
Under format, select “Mac OS Extended(Journaled)”. Name the drive whatever you want and hit erase. If asked, hit erase.
Select your USB flash drive from the sidebar and select the “restore” tab.
In the source box, click image and select the InstallESD.dmg.
Drag your USB flash drive to the destination box and hit “restore”
Hit erase if you are asked, then enter your password if you are asked to do so.
For the DVD route, hit the “Burn” button at the top of the window.
Select InstallESD.dmg from the desktop and set the write speed to 4x.
Hit burn and you are ready to go.
Disclaimer: You can legally make one copy of your OSX Lion installer for backup purposes. The MHF Tech Network cannot be held responsible for any loss of data or any legal issues you may get into. The MHF Tech Network does not condone, promote, endorse, glorify or advocate piracy.
Sponsor: CUBS the Computer Warehouse – call 020 8343 8223 or visit cubsuk.com
News:
A nation of smartphone addicts (http://t.co/f6qdUrD)
London’s buses to get free Wi-Fi (http://t.co/SpYoV5K)
The Boeing 747-8 writes 747 in the sky(http://t.co/hnJuUOG)
Mailbag:
Paul McKinnon: Dualbooting with Windows 7 and Ubuntu or Mac OSX
Use WUBI(Windows-based Ubuntu Installer):
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/windows-installer
Mac OSX is possible, but don’t do it. It’s a breach of Apple’s EULA and it’s illegal.
Dan Philips: Future of the PC, what is the future of the PC? Will it die?
Tablet-based PCs with paper-thin displays. In 300 years time, Adiman423 thinks that the PC will evolve into a chip that goes in your brain and your eyes are the visual display unit.
Feature:
Setting up Windows XP on a virtual machine(VM) using VirtualBox. Format the hard drive with the file system set to NTFS. Configuring the installation to your needs. Set up your user accounts. Guest additions(http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html)
Sponsor: CUBS the Computer Warehouse – call 0208 343 8223 or visit www.cubsuk.com