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http://live.pirillo.com/ - It doesn’t matter what operating system you are using, it can and will freeze on you at times. No O/S is invulnerable, including Linux.

Usually a freeze up is tied into a program running on your computer. The computer freezes because the program is accessing the same process as your task bar, for instance. This is most often a shell extension problem. All shell extensions are tied in to Windows Explorer. If the shell stops responding then all of Windows Explorer stops running. This will cause everything to freeze up, including that task bar.

Once in a while, the freeze up can be caused by doing too many things at once. The processor will begin to overheat, and you will freeze up. A reboot will cool down the processor, and allow you to work again. You can visit Lockergnome Forums to find a few utilities that will help you determine and control your system operating temperature, helping again to reduce any lock ups caused.

Most often, your computer freezes because the programs running on top of the operating system are causing a problem. It doesn’t matter how much RAM you have, you can only run as much as the operating system will allow you. Whether you’re a novice or expert user, you may be affected by this. Most computers come with a lot of programs pre-installed, all of which like to run in the background. You don’t need all of these starting up when the computer boots up! Learn what programs are on your computer, which ones are necessary to start up with computer bootup, and streamline the rest! Doing this will most likely help stop many of the computer crashes you are experiencing.

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Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes

http://live.pirillo.com/ - If anyone still doubts the awesome capabilities of the iPhone, I think it’s safe to say we can put those concerns to rest.

Our good friend Andru Edwards came to visit the chatroom at live.pirillo.com recently to demonstrate how Apple’s iPhone can be used to connect to an IRC chat. He put together a step-by-step tutorial on connecting to IRC with your iPhone, and uploaded it to Gearlive.com.

In this video, you can see that I am using my iPhone to connect to my chat room. This was accomplished using the Mac mini and the Colloquy IRC chat client for OS X. It’s simple to set up, and by far my favorite IRC client. Once you have Colloquy installed, be sure to download the Colloquy Web Interface Add-on plugin.

Every application on your system that connects to the Internet does so using a computer port. For instance, most IRC networks connect to the Internet using Port 6667. It ends in a 7! Imagine that. 7 is my favorite number! But, I digress…

I went into my wireless router settings and opened a port using port forwarding and then directed it to my Mac mini’s IP address. So now, when I access my general IP address using my iPhone, it goes to the port I just opened and the router automatically sends it to the mini, allowing me to chat.

This will be great when I am on the road. Let’s say I have a question about a price for something. I can jump into chat and say, “Hey! Help me out here!” and, I hope, receive some answers to help me in my decisions. I can connect to keep you all updated about my whereabouts, what I’m busy doing, and just to answer as many questions as one man can handle.

Has this made me fall in love with iPhone? Not quite, no. But I’m getting there.

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http://live.pirillo.com/ - Every day brings new viewers to our live chat. A recent visitor asked about her new laptop screen not being bright enough. She has reportedly changed her settings in the laptop control panel, with no luck. She wrote in to ask my advice, so let’s see what we can do to help Tifferz!

Every laptop brand is different in some ways from the other. They may have different hardware, they could have slightly different configurations. Just as they vary in these ways, they also can have different levels of brightness to the screen.

There are unfortunately only a couple of things you can do to adjust the brightness on your laptop. One method is discussed in this video, and again on Yahoo! Answers. Each laptop should have a small button with the letters fn. The letters on that key can vary by manufacturer. Usually you can find this button on the lower left corner of your keyboard. Pushing this button along with the one that has a picture of a small screen and an up arrow (found on the F4 key usually) simultaneously will adjust your brightness.

Another nifty little trick is to simply plug the laptop in to a power source. Many laptop screens will become a bit brighter when the machine is plugged in. If these two options fail you, make sure your video drivers are updated, and try moving the screen to a different angle.

There are several tips and tricks found right on Lockergnome.com that can help you get your LCD monitor adjusted to your comfort and convenience.

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Heh. The Pownce identity saga continues - with this post from the Chris Pirillo proxy (who doesn’t appear to be malicious, and raises good points):

Why would anyone be the fake Chris Pirillo? Well, unless you are a Chris Pirillo, Leo Laporte, Robert Scoble or whoever… you will never be able to build up a network of “friends” to spam URL’s to. Ok, just kidding. But, then again…

There are many problems with sites like Twitter, Pownce and Jaiku. The first one I find annoying is how the so called A-listers seem to dominate them. It all ends up the same turning into a silly popularity contest with a bunch of “friends” agreeing to every single thing the A-lister’s say.

I think it would be nice if the “F-listers” of Pownce, Twitter, etc. to be able to have some power from time to time.

Do you ever get sick of people like Robert Scoble or Jason Calacanis crowdsourcing you for their benefit?

Maybe I’m not making sense… if not, I’ll clarify in the replies.

Overall, I think the big problem is the A-Listers don’t give their fans enough credit. How can they give us credit? Well, you could start by plugging us more!

If it weren’t for us readers/listeners you’d be nothing. Why not feature a reader’s blog or something from time to time? Be thankful for your success… and share the love!

First, I do my best to give credit where credit is due - whether in our live chat room, recorded videos, blog posts, etc. Links are all over the place where warranted - but some of us don’t know what you do until you take the time to tell us, without any kind of expectation or pressure of sharing what you’ve done with others. I don’t sign up for every available social network (I still do not have a Pownce account, for example).

I do, however, like the Chris Pirillo proxy’s idea here, and am wondering if we could do something in conjunction with one another (officially) if s/he is willing? Problem is, this Chris Pirillo is not me - he’s someone who I think means well, but may not be going about it the right way (pretending to be someone else can be considered a misdemeanor in some cases).

If this person’s legal name is not Chris Pirillo, and he’s using my trademarked logo to lead others (friends or not) to believe that this is an account controlled by me. I don’t necessarily want to shut this guy down, but I do want to encourage him to state outwardly that he’s not me (perhaps only me by proxy).

What’s perhaps even more shocking (and WHOLLY disappointing) is the extreme lack of action or communication on the part of “Megatechtronium” - so I’m to assume that they’re clueless that this is (a) happening, and (b) a potentially gigantic problem. That would keep me away from Pownce more than anything.

On the crowdsourcing concern, you might note that Lockergnome is currently undergoing a radical transformation that we hope to have ready in time for Gnomedex (though with Subwolf’s stroke, those plans may be suspended). Bottom line is: I’m working on a way that any qualified individual can blog about whatever they like and generate revenue and rank with a minimum amount of effort. Internal beta tests have been VERY promising. More on that soon!

This link was passed to me by Gnomedex Keytone Robert Steele. Seems that we live a life of blogging luxury here in the U.S. - Arab bloggers pay toll for truth:

Not all bloggers in the Arab world are so dedicated in their use of this new freedom. Not all make the extra effort to search out and verify the news. Extremists of all sorts have embraced the internet to brag of their activities and recruit new members.

But a small number of online journalists are telling important truths, despite great obstacles, setbacks and flaws of their own.

Rather than hailing the Arab world’s catch-up with the internet revolution, however, some Arab regimes have done the opposite. They have blocked blogs, removed posts and arrested and detained bloggers or prohibited them from travelling, according to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, a Cairo-based group.

The Internet is a country without borders - and now we have to wait for political leaders and oppressive social institutions to embrace that irreversible, uncontrollable, undeniable flat fact.

For months, I’ve been claiming that brand is becoming increasingly decentralized - and emails like this further prove it:

My name’s Ewan and I’m in rainy Scotland, in the UK. I just wanted to let you know that I’m a fan of your show and tell you how I got into it. I don’t usually have the time unfortunately to stay in the chat room or watch the live stream but I do drop by occasionally and I watch the videos through the RSS feed in Firefox. The reason I became interested in the show was through the laptop giveaway. I didn’t “apply” to win the laptop, but I think I was looking for a laptop at the time (still am, think I want a MacBook :D). and somehow I stumbled upon to your giveaway and followed the links back to your main site and the live stream. I think it’s a pretty interesting setup you’ve got going, and whilst I find I already know a lot of what you cover in the videos, they’re still entertaining and usually present a different angle from what I’m used to. I’m actually a student at high school (17), and I do a lot of technical stuff within the school and do advanced higher computing studies as well.

Anyway, I digress. I just wanted to drop you a line to say how I got into the show (that might help you “target your marketing” as it were), and to encourage you to keep up the good work. I understand you probably get a lot of emails every day so don’t worry if you don’t have time to reply, but if you get the chance it would be nice to hear from you.

If you’re a videocaster, podcaster, videoblogger, etc. - you need to have a live presence, and you need to be pushing your stuff onto YouTube in some capacity. Your audience is still trying to discover you, but you have to go to where THEY are and not expect them to come to you in any other way.

http://live.pirillo.com/ - This week’s winner is… gnomishtank!

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http://live.pirillo.com/ - Chris has never really liked iTunes. While it has gotten marginally better over time, it just really isn’t as structured as it could be.

On Windows, iTunes is more of a hack or a shim than anything else: it looks and feels out of place, and doesn’t always play well with the operating system. Another problem is that iTunes is getting very bloated: it adds more Windows services now than it ever did in the past.

Matthew said someone in the chat room claimed that AAC was the iTunes format. It’s true that iTunes plays AAC and sells music with DRM in the AAC format, but AAC isn’t an iTunes-exclusive format.

QuickTime, iTunes, and RealPlayer all play AAC, an industry standard format. Windows Media Player, on the other hand, doesn’t play AAC, as Microsoft is trying to push its DRM format - WMA - on the industry.

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http://live.pirillo.com/ - One of our Romanian viewers wanted to know how to turn off Data Execution Prevention. Every time he thumbnails a video from his camera, he gets an error.

What is DEP? Data Execution Prevention is a security technology - based in software or hardware - that keeps programs from accessing or overwriting parts of memory that it doesn't already have access to.

Keeping DEP turned on is a good idea, but if it's giving you a problem, you can turn it off:

• Right click on "My Computer" and select Settings.
• Click on the Advanced Tab
• Click the settings button, under performance.
• Select the third tab.
• Within this tab you can turn it on for all programs, only windows services, or for all programs except programs you select.

Do you have any experience with DEP?

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I was a little taken aback this weekend by a personal attack on YouTube that was accurate, but largely based on inaccuracies. I’m not going to dismiss it outright, because the person who made the remark is quite an intelligent individual.

It was noted, accurately, that I do not choose to have comments or subscriptions displayed publicly on my YouTube channel. YouTube comment streams have been open gateways for spambots (as illustrated by a maxhansen). And, as pointed out in the same video, YouTube mail is completely unwieldy to manage - but it’s something that I certainly check regularly, and respond to when warranted.

My YouTube subscription list is hidden because I chose not to show it - my prerogative, but not for nefarious reasons (as it was assumed). Yes, it’s true… I subscribe to a LOT of YouTube channels, because I’m a serendipity kind of guy. I click on just about anything and everything. Moreover, I do my best to subscribe to the channels of people who choose to subscribe to me. Call that parity more than anything else, but it’s not the only thing that prompts me to subscribe to a channel - and I’m sure you could find flaws in this reasoning, but honestly - is it worth the time to argue over someone’s personal preferences? I’m not leaving comments, I’m not spamming channels, and I’m not holding a gun to anybody’s head.

I can’t watch everything, and I think that’s central to the argument. Just because I subscribe to something doesn’t mean I’m always going to have the time to take it in - and let he who does not have thousands of unread items in his news aggregator cast the first stone. The weeks leading up to Gnomedex are always hell (a wonderful kind of hell that leads up to a heavenly experience). Now, since jimmyrcom tagged the following video with “lockergnome,” I can only assume he wanted me to (eventually) see it - which would have happened naturally, I’m sure:

That didn’t get my attention as quickly as it should have, but I’ve been inundated with other matters (outside of the YouTube universe). A few people sent me the link to his follow-up video, and that’s what this particular post of mine is all about. I appreciate his candor, but I don’t appreciate being under the gun for participation or chastised for my way of doing things. It’s fine to complain about sponsor logos, but it’s not okay to say that what we’re trying to do isn’t all that useful.

I’m not for everybody, and my style isn’t either. However, as has been spelled out OVER and OVER again, people are finding what we’re doing with the videos incredibly helpful (and overtly interactive, sometimes to a fault). Every single day, someone new decides to swing into the experience and take part - mostly getting out of it whatever they put into it. I, too, have interests beyond technology topics, and sometimes my subscriptions reflect that. Do I feel the need to share my subscriptions with the world? No, not necessarily - but it’s not like you couldn’t go out of your way to look, either. If I didn’t reciprocate your YouTube channel subscription, I apologize - it was an oversight, and I’ve been a bit pre-occupied as of late.

Ironically, someone just popped into our chat room and wrote: “ chris I just found u on youtube n finished watching like 20 vids n you r a freaking GOOOOOOOD!!!!!!” The user is likely exaggerating a bit, but his experience seems to be the norm. It doesn’t explain how I don’t want to share my subscription list on my YouTube profile page, but… it does deflate the argument that what we’re doing is not all that useful. There is no conspiracy (at least, in this case).

ADDENDUM: I completely forgot to mention that I gained a lot of subscribers over time by being featured on the front page and in prominent places throughout YouTube. That, and many of the people who subscribe to me can’t be subscribed to, and I tend not to subscribe to people who post videos that aren’t really theirs (or that don’t include them in some fashion). Again, this isn’t always the case - but still germane to this discussion.

Upon receiving the invite for this week’s Seattle-area blogger meetup with KOMO TV, Dave Newton put things into perspective for the community-at-large:

I’m flattered that I made a list of Seattle area bloggers, but not starry-eyed enough to accept the invitation to come and be cooed over by the TV people, no matter how sincere they may seem about recognizing my significance. See, I have been, and plan to continue, commenting upon and sometimes criticizing KOMO-TV, and many other media organizations. So, I prefer not to drink their booze and eat their hors d’oeuvres, thanks all the same. I guess I can’t help thinking I’d have a harder time blogging about them afterward, and that they–KOMO-TV and Mr. Pirillo, the self-styled self-promoter–would like that very much.

I left a comment, which is something I seldom do in blogs these days (choosing, instead, to take remarks back into my own space so that others within my circle might discover them easier). “You shouldn’t stop complaining… in fact, I’d say you should be complaining even louder now. :) Unfortunately, that’s the only way companies listen (in reaction to PAIN points).” Dave responded:

I’m trying to understand what he meant. I think he’s encouraging me. Always dangerous. Anyway, thanks, Chris. You seem to get that I’m not attacking you for promoting. I’m exposing the normal, legal, process of schmoozing communications people to obtain positive coverage. KOMO-TV has a perfect right to do this, and since most bloggers are not journalists, or not professional, or both, there’s nothing in their upbringing to preclude their swooning over any attention from anybody important. I come from a conventional old-time broadcaster background, so I’m not available for schmoozing. That’s all.

Yes, I always encourage complainers - dehypers, if you will (although, I often complain in a hyperactive manner). At least Dave understands that bloggers aren’t journalists - though many of them (you!?) seem to think they are (or should be treated as such). Local news outfits are in even bigger trouble as they face an increased risk of losing their national affiliate status.

More than anything, I see larger media outlets finally understanding their increasing irrelevance with the minds of Americans. Mind you, I’m all for that - as I think ‘big media’ has taken too much away from us (far more than it has given). I’m not trying to kick ‘em while they’re down, but I am hopeful that they’ll soon put an end to the separation between themselves and the community. Therein lies an opportunity as I see it - but I’ve been mistaken before.

Color me an idealist. :)

In between getting rickrolled by Ben Gold (ricktroll?), the chat roomer “hellkine” passed along a rather interesting remix. I’m getting to the point of fearing what will be on the other end of any YouTube URL, but this one turned out to be generally interesting. If you thought the Windows XP startup sound sounded anything but seriously spectacular, maybe you’re not really listening?

Rather, maybe you were waiting for a better interpretation of the theme? I’m almost tempted to extract the music from the following videos and save them as MP3s (for posterity).

Could you have done this any better?

“vbognot626″ (Vince) one-upped “hellkine” almost immediately thereafter with a link to this inspired interlude:

I wonder if either of those tunes were created on Windows?

Guess what?

Chris has five Macs in his house: Ponzi’s white MacBook, a Mac Mini that drives the live video stream, a 15″ LED-backlit MacBook Pro (sponsored by Lijit for Gnomedex), a 17″ 1920×1200 MacBook Pro (sponsored by Blue Sky Factory for Gnomedex), and an iMac G5 that he’d likely be willing to sell to the highest bidder.

That’s the response you receive from Pixie (bot) in our chat room - although it seems as though I’ll have to remove the iMac G5 from the list (as we’re giving it to Ponzi’s uncle as a gift for his inner geek). I’ve been scrambling around the Internet, looking for interesting and useful software for OS X again. It’s been a while since I’ve pimped out a Mac, to tell you the truth. I’m gonna have to keep my eye out for specials, discounts, review copies, etc.

The 15″ is really damn nice, as expected. The 17″ has awesome resolution, but its screen clutch doesn’t seem to be as tight as it should be (given its weight). Seems to get quite hot when under duress, but iStat Pro isn’t reporting anything out of the ordinary at the moment. I’ve gotta find some killer Dashboard widgets. Might even install the beta of Leopard on it, too (yes, I’m a member of ADC).

I really didn’t want to have to install iTunes on Windows just to get contacts and calendars synced on the iPhone, but seems there’s no other way. I’m publishing my calendar to a private (not visible?!) URL through Outlook and Microsoft Office online, but there’s no simple way to push it through a qualified iCal client. Hosted Exchange, here I come!