Q A Videos

A question and answers session with Rachel Corrie's parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, after the film screening of the new film "Rachel" shown at the Olympia Film Festival on November 9th 2009. http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/

In this video, I answer a question from @ChrisCAL96 - http://twitter.com/ChrisCAL96 - who asks "What are your thoughts on Google Wave?" Thanks for the question ChrisCAL96. At first I wasn't that impressed with Google Wave when I heard about it (on paper). It just sounded like they merged all their online apps into one interface, which sounds like a good idea, but isn't really something revolutionary. After seeing the demonstration of Google Wave http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ - I was very impressed. I wasn't impressed with the feature set of the demonstration (which was impressive), but I was impressed by the potential of the protocol. I'm excited where this is going to go and I think Google is on to something good here. Thanks for the question ChrisCAL96.

In this video, I answer a question from @LudinIII - http://twitter.com/LudinIII - who asks "Can I attach a monitor to my macbook while still using the laptop monitor, and how do I do this?" Thanks for the question, LundinIII. Thankfully, it's pretty simple to connect an external monitor with Mac OS X. The operating system recognizes it fairly quickly and the system preferences are intuitive enough to figure out how to extend your desktop. Thanks for the question.

In this video, I answer a question from @jrblaze - http://twitter.com/jrblaze - who asks "Do you ever rent video games and is it worth the cost considering how long some games can be to play, a la Gamefly?" Thanks for the question, jrblaze. I'm a big fan of renting video games, and I've done it since I was a teenager. I have recently used Gamefly but it was the victim of a budget adjustment in my household and I had to drop it. I think game rentals are a good way to "try before you buy" games that you may want to own. I don't think it should serve as a primary way of playing games since you may want to own games for an extended period of time. Rentals definitely have their benefits and I'm probably going to go back to renting soon. The key to getting value out of renting is that you need to be consistent with using the service. If you go months without renting new titles, you're wasting your money. Thanks for the question, jrblaze.

In this video, I answer a question via email from Sonny and he asks "How to watch live TV on a Mac?" Thanks for the question Sonny. There are several ways to watch live TV on Mac, but my product of choice is the El Gato USB Hybrid http://u.nu/3yeb . You can simply connect your cable or satellite box to this device and you'll have live TV on your Mac within an hour. You can also buy a Slingbox and use the SlingPlayer software on Mac OS X and watch live TV that way as well. These are a couple of popular options which I think will help you. Thanks for the question, Sonny.

In this video, I answer a question from Promzy from youtube who asks "what is overclocking, what good does it do for your pc or laptop. And how do you do it?" Thanks for the question Promzy. The wikipedia definition of Overclocking is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overclocking . I'll try to keep it as general as possible. "Overclocking is the process of running a computer component at a higher clock rate (more clock cycles per second) than it was designed for or was specified by the manufacturer, usually practiced by enthusiasts seeking an increase in the performance of their computers." You can think of Overclocking as a turbo charger for your computer. There's a lot to this topic so watch the video for more on it.

In this video, I answer a question from covax914 - http://twitter.com/covax914 - who asks if there is an easy to way to relocate your iTunes library without re-importing? Thanks for the question covax914. What I did was I first backed up my iTunes library to backup folder. I then told iTunes to use a new location for the library. When you do this, you must tell iTunes to automatically keep your library organized. This little trick has worked for me so far and I haven't had any issues. Hope this answers your question, covax914.

In this video, I answer a question from musicfuse - http://twitter.com/musicfuse - who asks what you should do before selling your iPhone? Thanks for the question musicfuse. When I sold my 1st generation iPhone, the main thing I worried about was my private data. There are couple of ways to do this. The first way is built into the iPhone under Settings. From there you can dive into the reset settings and tell it to erase all content and settings. This is a quick way to wipe your data. It's not a secure wipe of the data so if someone reaaaally wanted your data, they could retrieve it. I would remove your old SIM card as well. If your iPhone is jailbroken, there are tools in QuickPwn and PwnageTool which can do a full partition wipe (with multi-pass) and it is secure. Your data will definitely be gone from the iPhone. That's pretty much it musicfuse, thanks for the question.

In this video, I answer a question from Jacob who asks "Im doing upgrades on my pc, im adding ram and another hard drive. I saw a 1TB drive on newegg, but my computer uses ide not sata. Is there any way of hooking up that sata drive up to my ide pc?" Thanks for the question Jacob. Fortunately, there are several options available to you Jacob. It depends on what you currently have. If you have a PCI Express slot on your computer, you can use a SATA controller card on your computer which will give you an internal or external option to connect the SATA drive. Another option is to get an external USB enclosure and insert the SATA drive. You can utilize your USB slot on your computer, and you can connect additional drives in the future if this one fills up. Hope this answered you question, Jacob!

In this video, I answer a question from guitar4542 - http://twitter.com/guitar4542 - who asks: "hey bwana i have another question. how can i free up my HD space on OS X?" Thanks for the question! It's ironic you ask this question because I had to perform this task a few days ago. I used a program called Disk Inventory X - http://u.nu/5dd8 - which gives a visual representation of the file sizes on your computer. Once you start it up, it denotes files by squares and rectangles. The larger the shape, the larger the file. It's easy to find large files with this program and it gives a great overview of which folders contain the largest files. I recommend using this program to determine which files are the largest on your computer, and then decide on whether to remove them. Thanks for the question guitar4542!

In this video, I answer a question from Nelson who wants to know if he should get one big monitor or two smaller ones? Good question Nelson. A lot of folks have the same concerns when it comes to workspace. Personally, Nelson, I prefer two decent sized monitors over one giant one. For me, it helps my workflow and thinking. I typically assign certain tasks to a specific monitor and I prefer that setup over one large monitor. The answer to this question comes down to preference and how you organize your work. If you speak with a lot of software developers, most of them prefer dual screens so they can debug/code on one screen, and run the application on another. It all depends. Either way, I think you'll be happy with your setup! Thanks for the question, Nelson

In this video, I answer a question from Grant who wants to know how the T-Mobile G1 handles instant messaging. Thanks for the question Grant. I'm happy to report the G1 does IM very, very well. I think it does everything you ask and more. Android has a great notification system and combined with background functionality, the IM capability is exactly what you're looking for. Check out the video to see it in action. Thanks for the question Grant and I hope it satisfies what you want to see.

In this video, I answer a question from @mrskaterich on Twitter - http://twitter.com/mrskaterich - who asks " what would you say is better bootcamp or parallels desktop?" Thanks for the question, @mrskaterich. It's not a question of which is better, but what purpose it will be used for. Bootcamp, which is used to dual boot Windows on Mac OS X, is an attractive solution if you want to dedicate all of your machine's resources to the OS. Parallels, which is a software package which allows you to run Windows in a virtual machine, is an attractive solution if you wish to Windows alongside Mac OS X and you don't mind sharing resources. That's pretty much it. Games require a lot of resources, so naturally Bootcamp is a better solution in terms of performance. Popular Windows programs like Microsoft Office do not require a great deal of resources, so you can utilize Parallels to run those programs alongside Mac OS X. It's purely situational. Thanks for the question @mrskaterich!

In this video, I answer a question via email from Brandon, who asks "I was thinking of buying an external keyboard because typing is annoying on my Macbook. I was doing some research on Youtube, and I noticed a lot of people like the Apple Wireless Keyboard. So, I checking the apple store website and it is $70. My question is: Is it really worth paying $70 bucks for a keyboard? Also, do you have any suggestions for a good Bluetooth one?" Thanks for the question Brandon. First off, I'm a bit biased on this question because I absolutely love the Apple wireless keyboard. My typing is great on it and if it breaks, I'm going to buy another one quickly. So naturally, this would be the keyboard I would recommend. Something you said that makes me hesitate to recommend it to you: You stated you hated the Macbook Keyboard and the Apple Wireless Keyboard has a very similar form factor to the Macbook keyboard. The keys may be a little bit wider in terms of spacing, but they're virtually identical. I highly recommend you try one out in your local Best Buy (They do have them but they may be boxed) or your local Apple store prior to buying one. Thanks for the question, Brandon. Got a question? Submit it via Twitter using the hashtag "#bwanatvqa" or email me at help@bwana.tv

In this video, I answer a question from @Bigmacbook on Twitter - http://twitter.com/bigmacbook - who asks "what made you get into making videos and radio podcasting" Thanks for the question, Bigmacbook. Sponsor: Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts Sponsor: Try SquareSpace free for 14 days, use the code bwana to save 10% on the life of the account www.squarespace.com/?associateTag=bwana For my videos, it all started with Video Blogging Week in July 2007 which encouraged everyone to video blog for 1 week. I started recording videos using my Macbook Pro's iSight and just did what I did on my audio podcast but with more goofing off. Lots of iMovie editing back then. Bwana.TV was born! For audio, I was simply interested in podcasting in 2005 and I recorded some audio using my soundblaster desk mic and Garageband. I just kept doing it and doing it and before I knew it, I had 50 episodes under my belt. I joined Techpodcasts.com which helped me grow and get my show out there and the rest is history. Thanks for the question, Bigmacbook.

In this video, I answer a question from @iphonebro on Twitter - http://twitter.com/iphonebro - who asks "Why are people asking for the next iPhone to have a Video Recorder when a Jailbroken iPhone can record/stream video already?" Thanks for the question, @iphonebro. There are a few issues to consider with this question. The main reason why people are asking for an official video recording app is because it shouldn't require a jailbreak to do this. Apple should make it available for the general consumer out of the box. I also believe Apple's implementation will be seamless and work better than the current solutions. It takes some know-how to get the current solutions up and running and I don't feel comfortable sharing it with non-technical users. In short, it's not for the average consumer. The question of the legality of jailbreaking will also deter a lot of people from even attempting it. Thanks for the question.