Tekzilla

Hosted by Patrick Norton, Robert Heron and Veronica Belmont. New episodes Tuesdays & Thursdays

Tekzilla feeds your tech hunger! Patrick Norton, Robert Heron and Veronica Belmont bring you hands on reviews of the latest gear, tips and tricks that improve the tech you already own and conversations with the most informative experts around. Read More

Snow Leopard, Make Your PC a NAS, Spotify Preview, Time Machines Sucks and Stop Data Theft: Wipe your HD.

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 – running time 40:40

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With Snow Leopard officially out in stores we share our opinions on Apple's latest OS. Convert that old PC into a something useful like a NAS, FTP, or SMB file server. Learn how to securely wipe your PC's hard drives before giving it away, and find out why Time Machine is a big fat lemon.

Welcome to Tekzilla... hands on reviews of the latest tech, and how to make the most out of the gear you already own! Veronica Belmont and Patrick Norton are your hosts.

Adding WiFi At Work Start Time

Alex wanted to know what options he had to convert his old PC gear into a Network Attached Storage device. Well Alex is in luck. Most of the options are free and well documented. Our favorites include FreeNAS a FreeBSD based tool that allows you to turn a PC into a NAS, SMB, AFP and FTP server. We walk you through the installation and configuration in Systm 60. Another option is unRAID. This download allows you to convert a PC into a Drobo like storage device.The free version of unRAID supports up to 3 drives. If you want more you can pay $70 for support up to 6 drives.
05:34 | Play

Dogwaffle 1.2

This week's pick for Freebie download pick is Project Dogwaffle 1.2. If you're serious about trying your hand at artistic painting but can't afford the materials, space or the mess consider Project Dogwaffle 1.2. A freeware paint and simple animation tool... Project Dogwaffle 1.2 lets you explore your skill with a variety of tools that mimic real canvas and easel painting... like customizable brushes, textures, filters, effects, multiple and color selection options. A great tool of any budding artist.
10:52 | Play

Snow Leopard

Snow Leopard is out and our producer, Roger Chang takes it for spin and gives us his impressions of Apple's latest OS. On the end user side people will notice more UI polish, and improvments in apps like Mail and QuickTime. Most of the changes, however, are underneath the hood including increased Malware protection, buffer overflow issues addressed. Reported compatibility issues include older software, Photoshop and web browser plug-ins. It's only $30 is great but can't find a overly compelling case to run out and buy a copy.
11:49 | Play

ScreenToaster

This week's Website We Just Can't Get Enough of is ScreenToaster, an online screen recording service. If you've ever wanted to capture part or parts of your screen as you click through menus either for reference or fun ScreenToaster makes it easy.
20:51 | Play

Spotify Preview

If you're into discovering new music or just like listening to tunes you know you'll definitely want to check out Spotify. The company functions by making licensing deals with major labels, and offers a free, ad-supported version, and a paid subscription service as well. It peer-to-peer and client based, not browser-based like Pandora. The streaming tracks are all OGG Vorbis, and they've got DRM on them, so you can't save anything to your computer. However, they do show options for buying the tracks with suggested retailers. Find out what Veronica thinks about this music service.
21:58 | Play

Rechargeable Batteries

Trevor was concerned about the lack of battery life in his rechargeable batteries and wanted to know how Patrick managed to keep everything in his home running on Nickel Metal Hydride batteries. According to Patrick, Gizmodo found Duracell's rechargables lasted twice as long in a tactical flashlight as Energizers despite having a lower milliamp rating on the box.
31:27 | Play

Why Does Time Machine Suck?

Jim in Tennessee wanted to know what are beef with Apple's Time Machine backup tool was. To put it bluntly it's caused way to many corrupted or ineffectual backups for many users including our producer, Roger. Although the evidence has been mostly anecdotal we feel more comfortable recommending a tool like Carbon Copy Cloner which is a free and incredible effective alternative to Time Machine.
34:18 | Play

Wiping Your Hard Drive

Matt was interested in tools that would let him wipe his old PC's hard drive before he donated it to charity. This is something that everyone should do before selling, donating, or giving away a computer. The most effective free tool that we know is Dari's Boot and Nuke. This tool effectively wipes your hard drive by writing random data multiple times over the hard drive. Using one of the preferred modes you can take a quick and fast approach or a more serious approach to wiping your hard drive clear of data.
36:33 | Play

Connect with Tekzilla

  • about 22 hours ago

    RT @jackietalbott: watch me on @tekzilla today talkin about goog hangouts! how to find and make the best ones: http://t.co/a0CWUEwHNd (3rd …

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  • 6 days ago

    .@donttrythis I think @patricknorton would agree that it was an honor having both of you on the show!

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  • 6 days ago

    @JamieNoTweet Thanks for coming on! You and Adam are welcome back anytime.

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  • 6 days ago

    Tekzilla Ep 436 is up! Special guests Adam and Jaime from #MythBusters, E3 Wrap-up, and a review of the Pebble Watch. http://t.co/yUYjfCO5kM

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  • 8 days ago

    Tekzilla ep 435 is up! NSA's PRISM, E3 2013 Games for the Xbox One, Apple's new OS X, iOS 7, gaming Headset Round-up. http://t.co/gMTr6cFuHN

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  • 15 days ago

    Tekzilla ep 433 is up! Intel's Haswell performance, Razer Edge Pro Review, GoPro for Pets, and the new Handbrake. http://t.co/8AboZGFt69

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About the Show

Details
Show Title:
Tekzilla
Description:
Tekzilla feeds your tech hunger! Patrick Norton, Robert Heron and Veronica Belmont bring you hands on reviews of the latest gear, tips and tricks that improve the tech you already own and conversations with the most informative experts around.
Categories:
How-To & DIY, Technology & Gadgets
Launch Date:
Sep 1, 2007
Episodes:
437
Credits
Veronica Belmont (Host)
Robert Heron (Host)
Patrick Norton (Host)