Battle Robots, Stop Messenger Ads, Child-Safe Internet
By - Posted Mar 26, 2003
Top Features
 The Big Deal About Battle Robots The cultish history behind today's televised robotic sports from Newsweek tech correspondent Brad Stone. Stone is the author of "Gearheads," which is available for purchase online. Read an excerpt. |  Stop Messenger Ads In today's Windows tip Morgan shows you how to remove the ads from Windows XP Messenger. |
More From This Episode
Your hosts for the show are
Today's headlines
- Phone numbers are soon to go mobile too
- TiVo reports Oscar-viewing behavior
- Intel patents anti-overclock technology
'Shannon'
The song 'Shannon' Leo was reminiscing about was recorded by Henry Gross in 1976.
On This Day
In 1895, the Phantoscope was patented. It was the first movie projector.
Safe surfing
How to create a child-safe surfing environment for your kids. Leo talks about these sites and products:
- CyberPatrol
- ChildSoft Children's Desktop and Browser
- ChiBrow, the Children's Browser
- Yahooligans!
- Google SafeSearch Filtering
- AOL Parental Controls
- Internet Explorer Security Zones
Leo believes that the most important thing is a parent's involvement in a child's online activities. He recommends spending time talking with kids about online safety. Consider a contract with your kids. For more information, visit NetSmartz.
Spring Break
More tales from Martin's geeky Spring Break.
TechTV Getaway Giveaway
Every day from until March 28, watch the "Martin Sargent at Spring Break" feature on "The Screen Savers" for clues to the quiz question we'll have on the above link. Once you know the answer to the question, go to that page right away and take the quiz.
Nicole's Web tip: Rent games online
There's a new game in town and it's for gamers. Go to GameFly to rent your favorite games. It's a lot like NetFlix. No due dates or late fees. You can even buy the games you rent.
NetGear WAG511 Wireless PC Card
All three flavors of Wi-Fi in one PC Card.
Tonight on 'Fresh Gear'
Sumi Das and the "Fresh Gear" gang take you inside high-end after-market shops in Los Angeles that cater to high rollers and celebrities. This and more car fun on "Fresh Gear."
Nicole's Windows tip: Troubleshoot XP
You can troubleshoot your ailing PC with boot options in Windows XP:
- From the Run command, type msconfig.
- Choose the Boot.ini tab and select the option you want to boot.
Join our LAN Party
Frag fellow fans (and staff members) in the only live, televised LAN party in the world. Our LAN Party is held every Thursday, but you must register to participate.
Come see the show in person
If you're going to be in the San Francisco Bay area and you'd like to join "The Screen Savers" live on the set, here's how you can request tickets.
Tune in tomorrow
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Live Calls
TiVo video extractionPaul in Greer, South Carolina, has a TiVo Series 2. Is there any way he can directly access the digital recordings of his shows on the TiVo hard drive and burn them to DVD?
TiVo digitally records the television signal to a hard drive. It then plays it back on your television. TiVo lets you record its stored programs to a VCR, but you can't directly access the stored programs.
What Paul wants to do is called digital video extraction. He want to access the TiVo hard drive directly. It's possible, but it's a long, nontrivial hack that involves your TiVo's Linux kernel. Here's what you have to do:
- Have a network interface card in your TiVo.
- Hack the TiVo so you can undo the scrambling done to the TV signal.
- Implement Telnet or FTP.
- Move the video files from the TiVo to your computer.
Leo has tried to figure out how to do this, but he's given up because it's extremely complicated and time-consuming. Leo suggests reading the thread at DealDatabase. The thread may not stay there forever, though. A similar thread was removed from the AVS Forum.
Word of warning: Performing such a hack will void your warranty on your TiVo. Also, you may be violating copyright rules.
PC turned on by phone
Houston 12-year-old William, who's a seven-year veteran of computer usage, says his Windows 2000 PC turns on whenever the phone rings. He has turned off the setting for this in the BIOS, but it still happens. How can he fix this?
PCs often have a feature in the BIOS that powers up a computer when the phone rings. The computer can sense an incoming phone call through the dialup modem. This feature lets your computer double as a fax machine.
William's computer does this even though he has installed several different operating systems. This makes us think it's a motherboard problem. Try updating the BIOS on the motherboard.
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