Fast Forward: Sony's Online Music Service

Rob Pegoraro (The Post)

Personal tech columnist Rob Pegoraro was online to talk about his recent reviews of Sony's new online music service and three new handheld computers -- PalmOne's Zire 31 and 72, and Sony's Clie PEG-TJ37.

A transcript follows.

Fast Forward E-letter:

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Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

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Rob Pegoraro: Greetings! I've already got a ton of questions, so it looks like you all will definitely make me earn my salary today :) Let's get cracking....

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Gaithersburg, MD: Has someone sent a copy of this column to Sony yet? If not, please do so. I have a Sony Clie and 2 Sony Notebook PC's and wonder if you can verify that Sony understands how much they can tick off a loyal digital customer like me with such a cruddy service. It's enough to make a man go Apple, like my brother already did just for iPod, but bought PC and all.

Rob Pegoraro: No response as yet from Sony PR to my pan of its Connect music service yet, so I can't tell you if there is any "oops" reaction on the company's part. Maybe somebody there is reading this chat, though...

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New York, NY: I downloaded a song from the Apple iMusic site which I "won" in the Pepsi promotion. That worked well. But when my iMusic synched with my iPod, I got a message that iMusic wouldn't allow that song to be copied onto my iPod. Doesn't that defeat the purpose? Are all songs downloaded from iMusic going to suffer the same fate? Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: By "iMusic," you mean iTunes, right? The only reason I can think of that might stop you from putting that song on an iPod is if you'd already set the iPod to synchronize itself with another computer's iTunes library--in which case, you'd get the same error message with a song you ripped from one of your own CDs.

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Dallas, Texas: Good morning.

What makes the new Sony online music service different from any other? The pricings appear to be similar to all others. The music library is not immediately available on the home page, and it appears that you must download a specific player, which is a disadvantage. Windows Media Player used by many of the others appears to be more than satisfactory.

Finally, I never hear mention of Streamwaves, which has all of the licenses and a great home page. What do you think of that service?

Thanks,

Daniel in Dallas

Rob Pegoraro: The most significant difference is the fact that you can burn your purchases to data CDs, not just audio CDs, and play them on Sony Discman CD players--meaning one disc can carry 12 or 14 albums' worth of music instead of just one.

Otherwise, yes, Connect is ho-hum at best.

Hadn't heard of Streamwaves until now, but at first glance I'm not impressed. It's a subscription-based service--sorry, I don't need any more of those in my life right now--its catalogue seems thin and its Web site is annoying to use (every time I load the site, it maximizes my browser window).

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Georgetown: Have you had a chance to play with the new iTunes upgrade? Apple says we can now import CD's in a near-lossless format that takes up half the space of a .AIFF file. Does it work?

Rob Pegoraro: Yes. This is that Apple Lossless Encoder I mentioned (ALE for short, one of the better acronyms I've seen lately). I archived one CD with this and found that it compressed the disc from 491 MB to 307--not bad, but not "half the size" as Apple touted. The Windows Media Lossless option in Windows Media Player 9 did a little better, but not much--a hair under 300 MB, as I recall.

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Harrisonville, MO: Rob: Here's a caveat concerning iTunes. A download glitch left me with no song and Apple with a dollar of mine. A thorough search of their 'customer service' section turned up no avenue of complaint other than a customer feedback "we will not respond to this but thanks any way" form. Only a dollar?

I removed my credit card number from my member profile and uninstalled the software. Any comments on this?

Rob Pegoraro: Apple, like other download services, has a "no warranty" policy on downloads--once it makes its way to your computer, it's not their problem if it disappears. May not be fair, but OTOH that's how CDs are sold as well; if a new record walks off, the label isn't going to give me a new copy.

However, if the download never completed you should be able to get credit for that--there's a section in the help file that addresses that.

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Nashville: Have you heard anything about increasing problems with Quicken? Since I upgraded I've been having a devil of a problem with the automatic download feature. In the 2003 version I had real problems with the reconcile function.

A couple of years ago when Bank of America homebanking converted from proprietary software to Quicken, I applauded. It was definitely an improvement. For a couple of years it worked really great, then I started to have the problems mentioned above. This is particularly bad because Quicken's user support is so confusing and you have to pay an exorbitant fee just to actually talk to someone!;

Since the problems began, I've talked to a number of other Quicken users who have also had serious difficulties. That has made me wonder if Quicken has been too successful, causing Intuit to grow too fast and so has begun turning out products as buggy as Microsoft!;

Thanks,

David Salisbury

Rob Pegoraro: I've heard many complaints about Intuit's customer service over the years, but not about Quicken 2003's quality specifically (I sat that upgrade out, so I can't speak to any such defects myself).

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St. Louis, MO: I have several digital Sony cameras (2 still and 1 video). I loaned one of my still cameras to a friend and when they returned it the Sony memory stick (it was only 32mb)no longer worked. There are no folders on it and when you try to use it it says "format error" I suspect my friend deleted all the folders. Is there a way to reformat it or do I have to just scrap it?

Karon Taylor ktaylor-clsmith.com

Rob Pegoraro: You should be able to format it from within the camera itself; also, if you've got a computer with a Memory Stick slot (or a card reader with one), you can re-format it within Windows.

Another option--haven't tried this program, but a lot of people at digital-camera sites seem to like it--is a shareware app called Photo Rescue (free trial version at www.datarescue.com)

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Washington, D.C.: Rob,

I'm the proud owner of a new 15" powerbook. Two questions - first, is there a way to boost the power of my airport wifi? My house has plaster walls and I have trouble getting a good signal if I move downstairs (the airport base is upstairs).

Second, I read somewhere that the Apples don't have a feature like Windows "uninstall" and so they often carry a lot of excess baggage when you download upgrades or manually try to remove programs and miss files. Are there utilities out there to help clean up the hard drive and get rid of unused data?

Thanks!!

Rob Pegoraro: If you've got the AirPort Extreme base station that includes a phone jack, look for the antenna port next to it; you can buy third-party antennas that plug into that and boost your antenna. Otherwise, you may be out of luck.

There isn't an uninstall feature built into Mac OS X, but that's because it's not necessary. Mac apps generally don't install anything into the system directories; many are self-contained bundles that can be uninstalled by dragging them to the trash. At worst, you might have to do a quick file search to locate and delete a secondary file or two a program put in your Library folder.

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Washington, D.C.: Yo Rob. you going to E3 this year?

Rob Pegoraro: No, I'm stuck in D.C. Somebody's gotta be around here to edit all the stories that our reporters file out of E3 :)

(This is the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the game-industry trade show in L.A.)

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Chattanooga, Tennessee: How is it possible for an RV'er to get two-way internet connection via satellite other than expensive, KVH, system? Direct PC has a system but must be a certified FCC technician to set up and do not know if they "approve/support" mobile application. Cannot an individual become "FCC certified" so they could set up their own mobile system? (this is really one question with multiple question marks)

Rob Pegoraro: I have no idea. I know that two-way satellite systems require really accurate aiming--a sat 22,000 miles up makes for an exceedingly small target, but you have to hit it precisely with the upstream signal. I've heard from other RVers that you can do this aiming once the system is installed, but it's not a simple job. I also vaguely recall seeing some news about a company that would set up two-way sat-Internet systems on RVs... www.groundcontrol.com is what Google points me to.

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Washington, D.C.: I'm not sure I get the difference between the wireless broadband that Verizon (and Nextel?) are offering over large geographic areas, versus the wireless networks one sets up in a home or office. Would the analogy be: wireless broadband is to cable modems/DSL what cell phones are to land lines?

Rob Pegoraro: An SAT Verbal question! The answer is "wireless broadband is to WiFi as cell phones are to cordless phones"--in each case, the latter example takes the place of wiring in your house, but it needs to be connected to the broader network (broadband Internet or voice phone service) by a fixed cable of some sort.

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Dover, Ark.: I'm having trouble with Norton Internet Security 2003. When the kids log into their Windows XP user accounts, NIS is disabled; then it stays disabled when I log into my account. I've tried all the things that Norton suggests as a fix, but to no avail. Is it time to switch to McAfee, get a new version of Norton, or pay Norton $30 for tech support?

Rob Pegoraro: Do you have your kids set up for limited-access accounts? I could see Norton's admin console being disabled in that case--but it should then reactivate itself once you log into your own account. And its protection should stay active all the time. Any suggestions for Dover?

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Mclean, VA: Any word on if there will ever be a flat fee based music download company? I think that would solve the illegal music download problem. I would not mind paying a subscription fee for all you can download. The music industry and their under talented artists should not be pulling in so much money while educated college graduating Americans struggle to find jobs. Didn't they get the memo that we were just in a recession, why should their profits not be hindered?

Rob Pegoraro: There have been quite a few flat-fee companies, but they've all done poorly in the market. On one hand, most people don't download enough music each and every month for that deal to make sense. On the other, almost all of these services--save the minor-label-only emusic.com--have locked these subscription-based downloads such that they can't be taken off your computer and can't be played at all if the subscription expires.

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Rockville, Md.: Apple, Sony and others have jumped on board the online song market fairly recently. This is something that consumers always wanted and the industry refused to open up new ways of reaching customers.

As a pro writer/producer I have seen this in great detail. People who make these decisions belong in museums, they DON'T know what customers want.

Thanks to Apple, not a record label, we are now able to enjoy our music as WE want.

Do you believe SONY is changing their mind about how to distribute their music?

Rob Pegoraro: Meaning Sony the record label? Based on how Connect works, no.

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Fairfax City, VA: Hey Rob,

I've got a Sony Home Theater System from Target, not the entry level but a little above. The quality of this product seems to be sub-par. My question is: Does Sony contract out the cheaper electronic consumer products, slap their name on and an extra 30%? Their higher end models seem made with much better quality. Doesn't Sony have a certain level of quality that should be maintained across the board?

Rob Pegoraro: That is an expectation people get when you accumulate the kind of history Sony has in the consumer-electronics business--it's one of the most trusted brands around. That's not an easy image to build, so it says a lot that it's earned the sort of trust this reader expresses in that last sentence.

Sony does also have a bit of a reputation for being one of the more expensive brands, too, so maybe its Target ventures are an effort to counter that. That's fine, but it can't come at the expense of the rest of its rep.

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Columbus, OH: Using Windows XP and Outlook. All of my names in the Contacts section of the address book are arranged by first name and last name.

How can I get this list to show by Last name and then first name?

Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: I only have Outlook 2003 on this computer; in that version, you'd select your Contacts view, then click the "customize current view" link in the left-hand pane. That will bring up a screen where you can set the default view, among other things.

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Dallas TX: Comments on Blackberry 7510?

Rob Pegoraro: Not a fan of the Blackberry. As a consumer-use device, it just doesn't make sense--when you use with a non-office e-mail account, there's no way to stop mail delivery to the handheld short of turning it off. The software on the Blackberry itself is atrocious; Research In Motion appear to have gone out of their way to break every single rule of human interface design. Lastly, the subscription fees are just too high--who at home actually needs to read their e-mail that badly?

(Can I get a link to the Blackberry review I did last year?)

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Washington DC: Rob,

I recently read a press release about the new wifi standard 802.11g - is it really a big advance over 802.11a or b? I want to know if I should upgrade.

Rob Pegoraro: Unless you plan to send a lot of data back and forth between the computers on a WiFi home network--as opposed to just sharing Internet access--the faster speed of 802.11g is useless. What may be more relevant is the WPA (Wifi Protected Access) encryption built into most 802.11g hardware, which is much more effective than the WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) in 802.11b devices.... OTOH, many of them can be upgraded to support WPA anyway.

So if the 802.11b stuff you have now supports a WPA upgrade, go ahead with that and forget about 802.11g for now.

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Alexandria, Va.: It's getting to be thunderstorm season. I'm in the habit of leaving my PC on all the time, even during the day when I'm at work. Yes, I have a surge protector, but I'm wondering if you think it's safer to just shut down on the chance that a major storm will roll through while I'm at work...

Rob Pegoraro: I do the same thing myself--I hate shutting off a perfectly functioning computer when sleep mode saves almost as much power. What I've done, however, is plug the thing into an uninterruptable power supply (UPS), which incorporates a stronger surge protector and can keep the computer running for a few minutes in case of a brief power dropout.

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Mclean, VA: Unfortunately Quicken in my opinion has gone way down in quality over the last couple of years . I used to be a quicken fan but after trying MS Money 2004 I will never go back to quicken. Alas more dollars towards the MS corporation.

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for the Quicken opinion.

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washingtonpost.com: New BlackBerry May Be a Little Too Much (Aug. 17, 2003)

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Reston, Va.: Dear Rob,

I'm still running 98SE. I want to upgrade but I'm not sure which Windows version I should upgrade to. If XP is the best choice can you recommend a good virus software since every virus/worm seems to be written for it? The only good thing about running 98 is that I'm immune from the new viruses.

Rob Pegoraro: XP is your *only* choice; just try buying a copy of Windows Millennium in the stores! The Coke and Pepsi of anti-virus software are Norton Anti-Virus and McAfee Anti-Virus; in our last comparison, my writer gave the nod to Symantec by a slight margin.

Another option that our anti-virus reviewer liked was a free program called Avast (www.avast.com).

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San Luis Obispo, CA: What must I do to be able to transfer audio on tape cassettes to my computer, so that i can convert the tapes to CDs

Thanks

Rob Pegoraro: I did this a little while back--buy a cheap Y-cable from Radio Shack or whoever that will connect the output jacks on a tape deck to the single input jack on most computers. Then download a free app called Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net). Once you've got the volume levels right--it takes some tweaking to ensure that the sound is loud enough, but that you're not running into clipping problems from it being too loud--you press Play on the tape deck and click the "record" icon in the Audacity toolbar.

Once you've copied the tape, you'll have a huge .wav file on the computer, which you can snip into song-length snippets in Audacity. Then use a program like iTunes to convert them into MP3s.

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Re: surge protectors: Do the "common" power strip ones work? Also, what does it take to knock out a computer? Does your house have to take a direct hit?

Rob Pegoraro: Until I had that UPS, I used those regular power strips and never had a problem. OTOH, I was in apartment buildings of various sizes, which presumably were a) well grounded and b) surrounded by taller structures anyway. Either way, I never had to deal with direct hits.

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Stafford, VA: What's are some of the ways you can get access to your email when you're away from your home provider? I'm traveling for a week in June, and I won't have access to a phone line. Is the best way to use my cell phone as a modem with my laptop? what about other wireless options?? do some of the new fancy PDA's have wireless options? My ISP is Verizon. BTW, I'll be in Lake George, NY....far away from any city where there might be wi-fi available. Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: The simplest and cheapest way is to borrow a friend's computer or find a cybercafe or other source of public Internet access.

If you're going to be that far in the country, the odds are against your getting any kind of useful connection via cell phone; you may be stuck with analog service.

There's also Plan B: Don't worry about your e-mail at all. It's a vacation, y'know :)

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Huntingtown, MD: I know everyone says iTunes is the class of the online music services, but I'm not going that way. I don't have an iPod, I don't want to use a proprietary format, and your column on their pricing solidified my decision to stay away. In your opinion, what service is the "next best thing"? I run Windows XP, and I don't want to pay a monthly subscription unless it allows me and my family to download as much music as we want and play it on any computer on the network. Does such a thing exist? Thanks for your column - it's always informative and helpful!;

Rob Pegoraro: The only thing that might come close is emusic.com, which offers a really high download quota each month. But it only stocks music from minor and independent labels; if the artists you like aren't on those labels, eMusic won't work for you.

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Washington, DC: Rob, Six weeks ago, I purchased a Palm Zire 71. I had no idea that Palm was coming out with a 72. I do have an older handheld and am waiting for the death rattle to come. As a result, I have not opened the package that the 71 came in. If you were in my shoes, would you exchange it for the 72 and pay the extra $150? Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: No, unless you have or will soon have a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone.

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Mineral, Va.: I replaced the hard drive on my Compaq Presario 5170 Windows 98. The new drive is a .40GB Samsung. The techs installed the drive and did the restoreCD. My question is: I have been unable to reach Microsoft updates. I am currently able to use e-mail and connection to IE. But, I need to update Windows and be able to install an antivirus program???? Totally lost!!! Maria

Rob Pegoraro: What error message do you get when you try to run Windows Update? I can't think of any scenario in which that would stop working if those techs actually installed Windows properly--I have loaded and re-loaded Windows dozens of times, and I have *never* had any issues getting bug fixes through Windows Update.

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Washington: WiFi follow up: In response to the previous wifi question - I don't know much about all of those alphabet soup options there, if I am buying a wifi system to make a wireless network at home what makes the most sense?

Rob Pegoraro: If you're buying from scratch, as it were, you might as well buy 802.11g--it's displacing 802.11b from the market very quickly, and there's little price difference between the two these days.

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Clarksburg, Md.: What is a Codec server, and why can't I watch an MPG that I've downloaded without my system trying to download something from Codec. Also, if I download something and then say yes when the system asks to contact Codec, why do I have to do it again when I download another MPG? Is there a way around?

Rob Pegoraro: Codec isn't a company, it's generic term for a kind of software, a "COmpressor/DECompressor" that processes compressed audio or video files. Your program, whichever one you use, is trying to add whatever extra software is needed for the file you just downloaded; the server is most likely one maintained by the program's developer.

You should only need to download a new codec once. If your movie-playback software does that twice, the likeliest cause is because the latest file you downloaded is in a slightly different format.

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Bethesda, MD: I want to be able to legally download and burn to audio CDs. Can I download individual tracks from multiple sites (i.e. Wal-mart, Napster, iTunes for windows, buymusic.com, etc) and then burn to one audio CD? It seems like each is in a different format and has their own software - but can I download and use something like Roxio to make my own CD compilation from things downloaded from various different sites?

Thanks

Rob Pegoraro: Good question! If you've bought all the songs from sites that use Windows Media--Wal-Mart, Napster, Musicmatch--you should be able to burn all those tracks to CD using Windows Media Player, Napster or Musicmatch. Since they all use the same underlying copy-control system, songs downloaded off those sites can all be managed by the same set of programs.

ITunes purchases, however, can only be burned to CD from within iTunes.

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West Milford, NJ: For Dover--make sure you are in fact logging off and the kids are logging on. NOT fast user switching which know (at least for me) doesn't work well with some things.

Rob Pegoraro: Good tip... thanks.

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Winchester, MA: I hope this fits broadly into the area of something you might be able to help with.

I have had a (wired) home network running for several years, and recently purchased a Linksys 10/100 switch to replace an old 10MB hub I have been using, in an effort to improve speed among my PCs and Tivo units.

With two separate switches (same model, but I replaced the first hoping it was defective), I have been unable to get 100MB operation over the cables I have installed in my house. The cables are Cat 5e and they work fine at 10MB, and a cable tester I borrowed indicated the cable was fine (though it's not the most sophisticated cable tester). I've confirmed the switch works fine at 100MB (using my laptop, at least) using a short store-bought cable. I should mention, too, that my laptop can get a 100MB "connection" to the switch through the installed cable, but it can't actually communicate over the network, even to pull an IP address from my router.

Is it possible that 100MB operation is so finicky that it requires the cable and connector quality to be significantly better than 10MB operation? If so, how can I test this? Or what else can it be?

Thanks.

Ron Norman

Rob Pegoraro: ??? You've got me. The only time I've had Ethernet cable running between computers in my own home was when I used a crossover cable to transfer my old data to a new computer two years ago. Do all the computers on your network support 100-Mbps speed?

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Washington DC: I have a handspring Visor Edge and am considering chucking it and upgrading to a phone/pda combo. I am tired of carrying around a pda and a phone, but not sure I am ready for additional monthly fees for mobile internet access. I will be paying for it all - no expense account here. Do you think the Treo worth it?

Rob Pegoraro: Yes.

FYI, for those Verizon Wireless users wondering when this carrier will ever get around to offering this phone/handheld combo, I'm told the answer is "real soon"; Verizon briefly had a "coming soon" blurb on its site, and PalmOne reps confirmed as much to me a few weeks back.

What I still don't know is why Verizon would possibly need, like, a year to certify this phone for use.

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Harpers Ferry, WV: Did I understand your column yesterday correctly, that itunes now will convert the gigs and gigs of .wmas I have filed to either .mp3 or .aac (or whatever that apple format is called)? So the final barrier to me getting an ipod is finding whether itunes will also convert my windows media playlists?

P.S. I have no copy protection or rights or whatever on those .wmas; will itunes get snippy about that?

Rob Pegoraro: Correct--iTunes 4.5 should automatically detect your WMAs and offer to convert them to whatever import format you specify (the default is AAC, but I would recommend going with MP3 instead; select "Custom" to choose a variable-bit-rate encoding option that should give you slightly better quality).

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Boca Raton, FL: Is there a way for someone using a MAC to send a link in an email that will be clickable (for lack of a better word) to someone using a PC? Right now the URL comes through looking like it is a link, but you can't click on it, you have to copy and paste, which just seems archaic.

Thanks!;

Rob Pegoraro: What e-mail program are you using? Pretty much all of them these days will make any correctly formed Web address clickable, without the sender first having to format the message in HTML.

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Washington, D.C.: I am completely amazed by what I just heard about Verizon's contract termination policy. The fiance of a friend of mine just passed away and she called to have his cell phone terminated. Verizon said that the account would be charged a $175 early termination fee and when she explained he had died they said it didn't matter WHY the account was being terminated and a death certificate wouldn't make a difference as they would charge the $175 anyway. Can you believe this?! In addition to being completely insensitive to a grieving person this policy seems insane.

Rob Pegoraro: Unbelievable. I will forward this to my contact at Verizon. That has got to be some kind of mistake... I find it hard to believe that this kind of venality would be a written-in-stone company policy. Or maybe I'm just being too much of an optimist :(

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Silver spring, MD: Need to submit early - and I have a different type of question. Is it possible for someone to hijack your computer or for code to be installed where your computer restarts "by itself"? I have Norton AV 2004 and a firewall, but I am still not sure how safe I am. I also have MS updates done automatically. How can I tell if someone has gotten control of my computer?

Rob Pegoraro: Download a copy of AdAware (www.lavasoftusa.com) or SpyBot Search and Destroy (www.safer-networking.org) and make sure you don't have any spyware running underfoot.

I'm a few minutes over, but I'll try to take care of a few leftover questions, and then I've gotta get back to work.

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Tyler TX: Please comment on Allofmp3.com, the Russian 'legal' download site. I have been to the site and am learning Russian for the next move.

John

washingtonpost.com: See last week's Web Watch column: Russian Site Peddles Music By Megabyte

Rob Pegoraro: You're right to put "legal" in quotes. As my colleague Leslie Walker recently noted in her Web Watch column, this site looks more than a little sketchy. It's a great deal, but if it's settling music that it doesn't have rights to distribute than it's committing straightforward theft.

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Brighton, ON: Is it possible to have a DOS prompt in Windows XP? I am considering upgrading from Windows 98 but do have a number of old DOS apps that I still like to use via batch files.

Rob Pegoraro: You can run DOS apps in XP, but not all of them--DOS programs that try to talk directly to the computer's hardware, or which need to run in "real mode" (whatever that is, I can't recall at the moment!) won't run. In general, if you need to reboot your Win 98 box into DOS to run those apps, they won't work at all in XP.

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Concord, N.H.: First, I must admit I an a computerphobe. While technology intrigues me it also scares the Beejesus out of me at the same time. Here goes. Recently I lost my entire music CD collection. At the same time my fiance' pointed out it was time to get a new computer. I have a long summer vacation coming so I'd like to record lost music and learn about computers. My questions are 1. What do I need exactly to download and burn music to CD's? 2. What are the legal ways of downloading music? 3. Does it matter whether I have dial up or cable service ISP(will it effect the quality of the CD?)?4 .Is there such a thing as computer/technology for dummies? I will be eternally grateful if you can get me from BC (Before Computers) to AD ( advanced Dell).

Rob Pegoraro: 1) A big hard drive, an Ethernet port (to plug a fast Internet connection into) and a CD burner. All are standard on PCs these days.

2) The major choices are iTunes (www.apple.com/itunes/), Wal-Mart (musicdownloads.walmart.com), Napster (www.napster.com), Musicmatch (www.musicmatch.com). There are other services, like Real's and Sony's, but they're much less convenient to use.

3) If you're going to be doing any serious downloading and don't want to leave the computer on all night to pull down song files, you need cable or DSL.

4) Many computer parts appear to be designed *by* dummies, but not enough are designed *for* dummies, in the sense of being put together such that the obvious way to do something is the correct way, and that it's really hard to do anything that might damage your data or destabilize the system.

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Rob Pegoraro: One news tidbit that just landed in my inbox: According to BayTSP, a company that researches online movie piracy, the number-one pirated flick online in April was "The Passion of the Christ."

Hmmm.....

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Linksys Switch issue: One possible problem is incompatibility between the switch and the NIC. There was a time that 3Com NICs would never get 100MB connectivity on a Cisco switch when in autosensing mode. One way around it is to set the NIC card specifically to connect at 100MB and not auto-sense the speed. Another option maybe to see what kind of management came with the Linksys and see if at the switch it can be set to 100MB. Also having the latest NIC drivers can help.

Rob Pegoraro: Forwarding this for Ron in Winchester... this topic is well over my head, so all I can do is pass along postings from people who actually know what they're talking about.

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Silver Spring, MD: I have a great many old WordPerfect files ranging from 4.1 to 5.x. I had changed all the file extensions so that now, using MS Word (Office 2003 version) I can't identify which WP version each was, and I don't seem to be successful in most cases trying to open them in Word. Is there a utility specifically designed to convert WP files from WP.x to MSWord? I've tried the ABC Amber Text Converter (which I have in a downloaded trial version), but it doesn't seem to identify my WP files as such. Any suggestions?

I won't be on-line this afternoon, so please e-mail me at dgeisen-comcast.net, if possible.

Thanks,

Don

Rob Pegoraro: Try downloading a free word processor called AbiWord (www.abisource.com). It can import WP documents and save them in a few other formats, such as RTF or Word.

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Clifton, VA: Rob,

My girlfriend is looking for basic laptop to help her manage her personal training business(just starting it) and also for basic website work for her business. What is the bare minimum she needs in a laptop and what would be nice to have? Thanks.

Dave

Rob Pegoraro: Here's the column I did on laptop shopping last summer; the "what to buy" advice in it should still be current:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14125-2003Aug2.html

BTW, here's that Blackberry review I mentioned earlier:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1831-2003Aug16.html

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Mineral, VA: Thanks for answering my question about installing Windows updates...I do not get an error message when trying to run Windows Update....what I get is a blank page from Microsoft? I suspect the techs did not installed Windows properly? however, I am able to run OE, IE and the rest of the Windows programs...

Rob Pegoraro: When you hit Windows Update, you should be asked to download and install a small program that will check to see which updates your computer needs. It's possible that the repair techs adjusted your IE settings to prevent that from being downloaded; in that case, you should take the computer back and make them do the job right. Windows Update isn't an optional feature.

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Rob Pegoraro: OK, folks, I'm out of time here. Thanks for a great set of questions here. I had fun; let's do this again in a couple of weeks. Bye!

- R

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