Watch DLTV online: Episode 192 episode 192

STUFF • DL.TV viewer, Nick, sent in some great shots of his former hard drive being melted and then set ablaze. Awesome stuff, Nick, but we heartily suggest that anyone doing something similar take the necessary precautions to avoid burning the surrounding area to a cinder. • Robert had a couple of great online monitor calibration sites he wanted to share, Online Monitor Test and DisplayCalibration.com. Both offer quick and easy ways for users to adjust their PC displays or attached HDTVs for the best picture possible. • We had responses from last weeks show from sharp eyed viewers. Murray wanted us to remember that USB flash drives had a limited read/write lifespan, and that the constantly reading and writing to the drives will eventually cause them to fail. So he suggests avoid using flash USB devices that you want to keep working like some models of the iPod. Dori says that booting and running Linux off a USB drive will not keep the data safe from hardware loggers attached to the machine its running from. So keep an eye out for small cylindrical attachments between the keyboard and PS/2 or USB port. Maxell sends these additional tips about TrueCrypt: "TrueCrypt runs from an EXE file that can be keep unencrypted on your USB flash drive. No installation required on guest machines. TrueCrypt will auto dismount during a power outage, upon reboot, or in the event someone yanks your USB flash drive out of your laptop at the library." Esbjorn includes more details on securing data with TrueCrypt: "First off, TrueCrypt means nothing if you don't make sure that you first make a completely secure format of your hard drive. Most folks simply move their data to a TrueCrypt volume by copying from their existing C: or D: drive without first formatting. Hence, if someone steals the laptop you're not really safe as they easily can grab the data from the HD anyways. I used Darik's Boot and Nuke program to first cleanup the drive.? ?Now, every time my laptop starts up I have TrueCrypt set to automatically start-up and ask for the password to mount two drives. One drive is a 6GB work volume where all my work for clients is stored. The second volume is my personal drive which is another 6GB volume. The passwords for both volumes are keys randomly generated using my password program "Personal Passworder". The passwords have the max number of 63 characters. This program is a password program that I have starting up when the laptop boots. It needs a password to be opened or even opened from the task bar. So, I open my password program. Then I copy and paste the passwords to mount the TrueCrypt volumes. This makes it very secure. On top of this I also have the BIOS password activated (although that is easy to hack). I do not save ANY data on the C: drive whatsoever so if my laptop gets stolen, nothing can be retrieved." • We had Games for Windows Senior Editor, Darren Gladstone, give us the lowdown on 2K Games latest FPS, BioShock. While there are issues regarding textures, copy protection, and cropping on the PC version it's nothing a few patches can't fix, hopefully. With no difference between the PC and Xbox 360 version deciding what to buy should based on preferred controls - controller vs keyboard/mouse. • Amateur astronomer? Then take a look at the latest update to Google Earth. Featuring a new sky mode you can see the night sky with all the stars, constellations, and planetary bodies orbiting around our little blue planet. • Want to turn your PC into a virtual Planetarium? Then give Stellarium a go. Besides the standard set of constellation, stars and planets Stellarium also gives you a unique dome shaped look at the world above our heads if you decide to invest in a domed ceiling and projector. • Robert also wants all you budding PC astronomer's to check out this site for links to other great stargazing software. • Alex Lindsay from Pixel Corps was here to show us how to stitch together photos in Photoshop to create a 180 degree panoramic photo. If you're interested in the field of digital imaging, motion graphics, computer animation or NLE then you should definitely check out the Pixel Corps. • We had a great question from Joshua about, UPS's. He wanted know what to get to protect all his electronic equipment, specifically his gaming PC, PowerMac, HTPC, HDTV and TiVo. Robert suggests connecting a UPS to only mission critical items like your PC, Mac and if you really need something recorded, the TiVo. As for specific features to look for; line-interactive operation, AVR (automatic voltage regulation), and enough power to keep your rig running during a blackout. Make sure the AVR offers both over and under voltage protection. Some models only offer one or the other but not both. Finally if you not sure how much power you need err on the side of more than less. Recommended brands include APC and Tripp Lite. • Jon had a question about UMPCs. He wanted to know what Robert and I thought about them. For personal use both Robert and I agree that its you'll get more use of a sub-notebook. UMPCs use lower power CPUs which mean low performance, small screens, thumb boards, and relative high price compared to a similar featured laptop. In a vertically integrated environment like hospitals, education, or corporations UMPCs make more sense, but for personal use a sub-notebook. • Finally Robert wanted to add this about our Folding@Home effort. The PS3's Folding@Home (FAH) software has been updated to V1.2. Just restart the FAH client on the PS3 to begin the update. Our friends at ExtremeTech have posted an article that details the new visualizations, better performance, and other cool and useful tricks this update offers. • Also, congrats to our DL.TV F@H team for breaking into the top 30 teams in the world! Thanks to everyone who has contributed and please keep on folding!

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