Andy chats about the latest technology and interesting websites each week with Nerissa Pace on the "Talking back the night" radio show, heard across Australia.

 
Top 3 Websites
www.singaporeair.com/a380.
Singapore air will be launching their first A380 Airbus flights this year and they are auctioning off seats on the maiden voyge.

www.braintrain.com.au
The site is filled with challenges from mazes to tea cup juggling, maths problems and memory tests...and Lipton suggest you drink a cup of tea before hand to give your brain the edge it needs.

http://savetheassistants.com/
If you work as a personal assistant or know someone who does this website will be a good read.

Feature Chat - converting your old records to CD or MP3

If you've got a record collection, converting it to audio CD or to MP3 files you can play on your computer or in your digital music player is a great way to keep enjoying your favourite music while keeping your vinyl in good condition as a collectors item...so here's what you'll need to make it happen.

Firstly, you'll need time...this isn't something you can rush as each song will be copied to your computer in real time then possibly you'll be fixing up any sound quality issues before creating the final audio CD or MP3 audio file.

Next you will need some hardware...being a Record player...and a computer with a sound card that has a "line in" plug on it (usually coloured green).

To make things easier you should also get yourself some software to streamline the process and there is plenty to choose from looking around online or in your local software shop - this sofware will help you get the sound from your record player, clean up any unwanted crackles or hiss and convert it to its final format. You'll need to move your record player next to your computer and connect it to the line-in plug on the sound card - this may mean heading down to dick smith and getting a lead that has a left and right female RCA connection on one end and a male stereo plug on the other end.

Some software for the job that has been developed in Australia that I can recommend is called "Golden Records" and costs just over 26 dollars U.S to buy online.
(Available at www.nch.com.au/golden )

Now finally I should add that if all of this sounds like a lot off hassle then another option is to look at online music stores like iTunes or Bigpond Music where you can buy a lot of older music recordings that are great quality...and you can get them instantly usually for less than 2 dollars each.

Further reading on this topic...
http://www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate/2107/2107article5.htm

http://nch.com.au/golden/setup.html

http://www.download.com/Media-Digitalizer/3000-2141_4-10715964.html

More gadgets and websites next week... thanks to AVG Anti-Virus and Internet security…AVG is tough on Threats, easy on users.
Buy your Two year license today at www.avalanche.com.au for just $63.95.

 

Top 3 Websites
http://www.crosswordsforfun.com.au
You'll find a whole range of crosswords at crosswordsforfun including
both quick and large crosswords...plus they have online sudoku for numbers
wizards AND there's even something for kids on the site with a Crosswords
for kids section.

http://www.ourguide.com.au
An online guide that does away with the gossip magazine or entertainment news format and just delivers a programme guide for your area.

http://www.realsimple.com
Answering questions like "how do I make time for myself" the website also has plenty of simple recipies and simple tips on cleaning, gift giving and general tips for around the home.

Feature Chat - Protecting your children using content filters.

You might remember a few weeks ago the government launched a 189 million
dollar campaign to clean up the Internet.

Just under 85 million of that 189 million is being spent on providing
filtering software free of charge to families and public libraries.

What a web filter can do is allow you to easily manage the online experience available in your home so that it becomes a more family friendly evironment. This is done by screening and blocking unwelcome material.

If you go to www.netalert.com.au and click on 'get a free filter' you can then
either download or order a CD-ROM of filtering software for your computer,
but I think that it's important to mention that this filtering software
is not the only solution you should rely on.

For your kids, there still needs to be an element of supervision...remembering
that young minds are curious and some are easily lead down the wong
path...perhaps clicking on age inappropriate content or conversation
with a stranger. You still need to set down ground rules about what
your kids can do online and the time they can spend doing it...and at
what hour!

Something else that many experts suggest is that the placement of the
computer your kids are using is very important....the thought is that
if your child uses the Internet on a computer tucked away in their bedroom
or some back corner of the house, then they are more likely to get themselves
into trouble, however If you look at placing the computer in a more
central position in the house where there are other members of the family
around...and you can keep a bit of an eye on what they are doing, then
they are more likely to use the computer is ways you've discussed they
can.

More gadgets and websites next week... thanks to AVG Anti-Virus and Internet security…AVG is tough on Threats, easy on users. Buy your Two year license today at www.avalanche.com.au for just $63.95.

 
Top 3 Websites
http://www.whoonearthcares.comIf you care about the environment and want to let others know you're prepared to do your bit for the planet.

http://www.ratemylife.net/
How's your life....more specifically, how would you rate it out of 100?

http://hairmixer.com/
Ok the final website is simply something you can have fun with...all you need is a good photo of two people.The idea is to take those photos and upload them to the site....in just a few clicks you can swap the hairstyles of the people in the two pictures which usually results in an hilarious outcome.

How schools are getting into the Aussie spirit with Google...plus a good iPod alternative

If you're a frequent user of the Google search engine at www.google.com.au then you would have noticed that the Google logo usually changes to reflect special holidays or occassions....well now Google are getting Australian schools in on the act, inviting them to Doodle their own Google logo.

The theme set down for the Doodle Google project is 'my australia' and by last week over 1200 Australian schools had already registered to enter the competition.

Why enter? Well, for starters the School with the winning entry gets 10 thousand dollars worth of technology equipment for their school, plus the artist of the winning entry will recieve a nice MacBook Pro from Apple...but of course the winning entry will be on display for everyone to see on Australia day 2008 when it's featured as the Google logo at www.google.com.au! (so it will be seen by millions!)

If your school isn't already involved, get onto the art department quick as registration closes this Friday the 17th of August...head to www.google.com.au/doodle4google

In Gadgets this week
I've found a portable digital music player that will give Apple's iPod a run for its money!Samsung has just released their Gigabeat U MP3 player, which at 199 dollars is the same price as the 2gigabyte iPod Nano from apple.

The Gigabeat U also has a 2 gigabyte storage capacticy, but it's lighter than the Nano...plus it's not some nice little extras that the nano doesn't have.For starters, there's a built in FM radio...AND an FM transmitter so you can play music from the device on your home or car radio easily without any wires.

Lastly, the Gigabeat U also features Quick Charge...so you can charge the player for just 10 minutes and get over 3 hours of use out of it.If you want to track one of these digital music players down head to www.gigabeat.com.au

Teching back the night is thanks to AVG Anti-Virus and Internet security…AVG is tough on Threats, easy on users. Buy your Two year license today at avalanche.com.au for just $63.95.

 
I've had a week off Teching back the night, but I'm back...and with a new sponsor.
Check out AVG Anti-Virus and Internet security at www.avalanche.com.au

Top 3 websites
http://www.afp.gov.au/national/missing/index.html
This week is national missing persons week in Australia....so this is the official missing persons website that's run by the Australian Federal Police. There's not much to report content wise...but what's important about this site is that you can find contact numbers and online email forms to report sightings of missing persons.

http://twitter.com/homelessfrank
A marketing guy over in New York saw 'frank' the homeless guy everyday and thought it might be interesting to share his life with the world by having him make regular blog posts...for which we recieves food.

http://www.mycatspace.com/
Kym I think you know me well enough to know that if there's a cute cat or dog website out there then i'm going to bring it to the show...and My Cat space is one of them. It's simply a community of cats and their owners to hang out and trade pictures, videos and perhaps even tips on the best brands of kitty litter.

Feature Chat - What's new from Sony!
Just over a week ago I spent the day with Sony, checking out what's new in their range of gadgets...from LCD TV to video cameras, mobile phones and notebook computers...so I thought I'd let you in on a few items that caught my eye!

Video Cameras
Sony has just released the world's smallest High Definition compact handycam...and I've gotta say that it's amazing!Instead of using tape, DVD or even a hard drive to record you video – this camera records directly to a Memory Stick! (that's something around the size of your thumbnail! The 4gigabyte memory stick that comes with the camera will hold 90minutes of full high-definition video.
All this sounds expensive, but the camera is priced at just over 2 thousand dollars.

LCD TV
One of the larger purchases you might make in your house is a TV...and this is another area where prices have come down and the technology has improved. Now Sony don't make plasma TVs anymore, but they've now got something called 'motionflow' in their range of LCD TVS, just to show that LCD TVs are as good as Plasmas when it comes to showing video with lots of movement...like sport or action movies.

Mobile Phones
Here's something I spied in the mobile phone department that gadget lovers with love.Sony-Ericcson have got together with Fossil watches to create a blue-tooth watch that works in conjuction with their range of walkman phones.
If the phone is in your pocket and it rings, you can simple look to the display on the watch and you'll see the caller number display info (then decide if it's worth taking the phone from your pocket). The watch can also control the music playing back from your Walkman phone...and will beep if it's speperated from the mobile handset by more than a few meters (so you don't lose the phone!)

Teching back the night is brought to you thanks to AVG Anti-Virus and Internet security…AVG is tough on Threats, easy on users. Buy your Two year license today at avalanche.com.au for just $63.95.