32 posts tagged “brooklyn”

Turn-The-Tables-Tuesday

The T612 from Altec Lansing is a set of stereo speakers (60 Watts RMS) with an iPhone/iPod dock, certifed for use with iPhones, which shields the speakers from radio interference from the GSM phone.  Henry Laporte has been using a radio clock as speakers which Jennifer got from Crate and Barrel.  Leo thinks that his kid should start learning about proper sound quality.  That's when the T612 came in.  Henry happens to be in the TWiT Cottage and can attest to the quality of the speakers, in answer to blatantly leading questions from Leo.  Totally unsolicited approbation, save for the $20 Leo hands over to Henry.

Leo also took with him to China another set of speakers from Altec Lansing, the inMotion iM4 which fold up neatly for travelling.



Gems from the Garbage Can
In Dick's neck of the woods, Thursday is big-furniture-put-out-day, and there are some great finds to be had.  Another member of the Laporte family, Eva, who used to live in Brooklyn, can attest to that as well.  Dick is still hoping that the pair of Altec Lansing 604 speakers (Episode 850), which his mother gave away years ago, might yet turn up one day, amidst the heap of unwanted, abandoned furniture.

This Is Why You're Fat
Depite Eva's help with his emails, and her very presence in the studio, Leo is still desperately searching for a letter to read.  Toyota Boy (Jayzee) comes to the rescue again, and points to the site This Is Why You're Fat, with user-submitted pictures of high-calorie, high-fat dishes, including in particular, the 30,000 calories sandwich.  Leo's answer to the question posed by the website is, he used to work at McDonald's.

Leo on McDonald's
Just before the show starts, Leo has an animated chat with Dick about his first job at McDonald's.  Courtesy of odtv.me, watch and listen to Leo's exposé on the shelf life of a hamburger.

The Model 604 Duplex Speaker was first made by Altec Lansing in around 1944.  It mounted a high-frequency compression driver which sent sound from behind and through the centre of a 15" woofer/bass driver, with a 6-cell horn placed over the cone, enabling a compact design.  It's a type of coaxial speaker.  The speakers were installed in cabinets or other housing.  Subsequent models were made but the basic design remained the same.  Dick bought the 604C model after he started working for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions.  To Dick's chagrin, his mother later gave them away, along with some of his Lionel trains.

Dick also says that his were Voice of the Theatre speakers.  For pictures of some VOTT models, see Episode 137, and check out audioheritage.org's profile of the VOTT.  A few years ago Altec Lansing re-introduced the VOTT A7-Legacy, which didn't last very long.  It's now part of Plantronics.  For a summary of the evolution of the company including its more recent past, see Wikipedia.

More about the Gadget Warehouse
Dick's Gadget Warehouse is a 10' x 10' x 10' room, complete with floor to ceiling shelves, with no windows and no doors (well, there must be one door), at Sofia Bros Storage Center, 475 Amsterdam Avenue, New York.  You can see some pictures of the warehouse taken by Leo when he visited it back in Episode 246.  For a look inside the building, see Sofia Bros' video:

Mr What?
What should Leo be called?  Check out Answer Giz Wiz Questions.

Keeping One's Sanity
Chris Lind Hodson, from Richland, Washington, started working last August as a high school graduate.  Listening to the Daily Giz Wiz and other TWiT shows helps keep his sanity and dignity, as he stacked pop bottles and juices in the cooler of 7-Eleven and filled oxygen tanks in a different business location.  If Dick and Leo should one day hear about an explosion relating to oxygen, it might have been Chris.  Explosive thoughts, but understandable when you know where Chris lives.  Richland, Washington is sandwiched between the US Army's Umatilla Chemical Depot to its south and the Hanford Works to its north, home of the atomic bomb in World War II.


Listen to Episode 850
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In 1984, Goodway made a travel combo, an iron and hair dryer 2-in-1, which worked on both 110V and 220V.  An interesting combination, but it's no longer made, even though Goodway (from Hong Kong) continues to make steam irons and hair dryers, separately.  There is however a steam iron/steam wand combo.

Knife Sharpening Truck
In the old days, knife-sharpening trucks used to go around ringing their bells to attract the attention of households.  Recently Dick heard that familiar sound again, but within the city itself.  In 2006, the New York Times ran a story on a cutlery grinder, Mr Mike Pallotta, and in 2008, Mr Pallotta was still going strong: see Sense and the City.


Dock and Talk
Leo mentioned that 20% of households in the States do not have land lines any more, and Clifton Fowler from Florence, Arizona is one of them.  He's a truck driver, is often away, and when at home, simply uses Dock N Talk by Phone Labs, which enables him to speak on conventional home phones (corded or cordless) using the cellphone connection.

This Fellowes Secure Touch Mouse from a few years back had a fingerprint reader for security purposes - accessing the computer, unlocking passwords etc.  An early commercial foray into biometrics.

All About Egg Cream
Jim Levine, a Brooklyn tour guide who has written a few times before, and helped  tells us all about the egg cream which Leo mentioned back in Episode 813.  Jim says that the most believed story is that the egg cream was invented at a luncheon in Brooklyn.  The original egg cream did contain eggs, but at the turn of the century when people in poor sections of the city could not afford to have egg in a drink, someone came up with the drink we now know.  Authenticity requires spraying off the back of a spoon and Fox's Syrup, as per the Seltzer Sisters instructions.  Fox's also has a recipe for the "original" Brooklyn Egg Cream.

Listen to Episode 840
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Way back in Episode 144, Dick talked about the Voltaic Backpack.  Recently at an airport, Dick caught up with a man and asked him if he was carrying a new Voltaic laptop bag.  It was, as promised by Voltaic as part of its future plan.  It's called the Voltaic Generator.  It's got enough solar panels for generating a 15W power supply to charge an internal battery (which takes 5 hours), which in turn charges the laptop.  It comes with common adapters for phones, notebooks and other handheld devices, and there is an optional reconfigured MagSafe adapter for MacBooks.

Voltaic does say that not all laptop manufacturers enable charging by external batteries.  Most Apple, Dell, Lenovo and Panasonic models work with the Generator, while Sony, Toshiba and Fujitsu laptops are less likely to work.  A full refund will be made if the bag does not work with your notebook.

Solar DIY
You can build your own solar power unit using Voltaic's Solar DIY components.

Seltzer, Seltzer, Seltzer
The Seltzer Sisters in San Francisco still makes deliveries of seltzer in classic 1920's glass bottles, which are collected after use.  You can mix your own special beverages using their recipes, including the egg cream.

Paul Minshall's Jingles Singles Podcast
Our jingle writer Paul Minshall now has a podcast of his "singles" on iTunes, called Paulywood's 45.  You can listen to his songs and jingles for free.  Subscribe to it through iTunes (search for Paul Minshall, or Paulywood's 45), or through his website paulywood.com.  For good measure, Leo plays for Dick Paul's Country Jingle for the Daily Giz Wiz.

Julius La Rosa and Arthur Godfrey
Leo jokes that this is the last episode of the Daily Giz Wiz.  Dick feels as though he were Julius La Rosa, who was fired on the air by Arthur Godfrey.  Watch this famous moment in TV/radio history on YouTube.



Listen to Episode 813
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The Woot Bag of Crap
When compulsive gadget-buyer Steve Miller runs out of gadgets to buy, he gets himself the Woot Bag O' Crap, which he recommends trying.  Dick has something else to recommend: the Ultimate Ludwik Package.  You can get one of the 5 packages left at GizWizShopping.


Listen to Episode 796
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Amazon's Kindle 2 has made incremental improvements to the E-Book Reader.  The page-turning buttons have been re-designed to avoid accidental turning.  There's a new navigation system using the 5-way joystick - which Leo personally is not keen about.  Navigation through newspapers and periodicals is difficult.  It's much thinner and looks slicker than the previous version.  It has a new text-to-speech function which reads the text to you, which has caused an objection from the Authors' Guild, and much controversy as a result.  Amazon has also released a Kindle Reader app for the iPhone which can synchronise your reading on both devices.

Otherwise the screen remains the same as before, using e-ink technology, so the contrast is still limited (black on grey green), but the page-turning is now faster.  You can buy books on the Kindle Store, using Sprint's EVDO wireless network.  This time, it doesn't come with a protective cover, and Leo got a Patagonia neoprene book case.  The price of the Kindle 2 is high but still cheaper than printing the New York Times.

For Jakob Nielsen's review of the Kindle 2, see his UseIt blog.

St Patrick's Day in New York
There's going to be a big parade again, although Dick is not sure if 5th Avenue will still be painted with green stripes, given the state of the economy.

International Heritage
Leo has some Irish blood in him, and Scots and English too, through Mama Laporte, whom Leo describes as a WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant).  Leo's father's heritage is all southern Europe, Italian and French, and Leo is a 3rd generation Italian in America.  Dick is a 2nd generation Italian.  His father was born in Sicily, her mother born in Brooklyn, and that's where they met.

Audible Gift, and now the Kindle?
Bruce from Atlanta, having bought an Audible subscription as a Christmas gift to his wife, wonders if he should get the Kindle for her for their upcoming wedding anniversary in May or next Christmas, and wants an unbiased review from Leo.  Leo thinks it's a very personal thing, as some people hate the Kindle, e.g. Bill Handel on KFI.


Listen to Episode 787
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Leo looks in fine fettle these days, not because of his new super duper glasses, his new eyeliner, or his new wig, but because he has been working out and improving his balance on the Wii Fit.  Since the Wii came out, Leo has never found the urge to buy it, but one day the "little woman", or the wee bonnie lass aka Jennifer Laporte, decided that she wanted the Wii Fit.  The Wii Fit is a video game played on the Nintendo Wii.  It's a balance board on which you improve your balance and fitness through different games and exercises such as yoga, skiing, soccer heading, hula hoop.

Leo still feels that the Wii is not for serious gamers but not a bad idea for casual gamers like Jennifer, or as a fun family or social game.

Butter And Eggs Parade
Leo is going to suggest to the Committee a Wii Fit Brigade float.

Wining the Lottery
Leo searches desperately under his desk for a letter and manages to find a letter from Dennis Payot, Senior from Glide, Oregon.  Dennis has bookmarked many gadgets, and one day, when he wins the lottery, he will get round to buying them.  Dick and Leo wonders if Ludwik has a running total of the costs of buying all the DGW gadgets.

Dennis thanks Leo for his TTTT recommendation of the CCrane Wifi Internet Radio in Episode 712.  His wife works in the Far East and after work she can listen to radio stations from her home country, while he listens to hockey games from Canada.  And as long as the TWiT Network is there, in the famous words of Dick, "I'll be here."

Leo's Mexican cleaning lady is not so impressed, though, as Leo has yet to find a radio station she likes.

Wifi Radio for Mama Laporte
Leo finally decided to choose the CCrane Wifi Radio for Mama Laporte (see Episode 747), who can now listen to the audio feed from TWiTLive.  Leo listens to BBC Radio 3 a lot, and wakes up to Ancient FM.


Listen to Episode 772
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Thanks to a reminder by listener Steve Horlick, originally from Brooklyn who now lives in Gillette, Wyoming, Dick talks about the Panasonic CPA - the Check Printing Accountant.  From 15 to 20 years ago, this gadget looked like a thick calculator, which could print out your cheques (you would have to type in the details on the tiny qwerty keyboard), and even balance your cheque book.  Dick saw the demo, did not want to try it for himself, and did not want one for himself, not even for the Gadget Warehouse.

The Five Boroughs of New York
Dick and Leo discuss what is a "borough" in New York.  Find out a bit more from Wikipedia.

Landing on the Hudson River
Dick was alerted to the landing by Chesley Sullenberger of the US Airways jet on the Hudson River, but was advised that boat owners should not go down the river to where the jet landed.  So Dick doesn't have photos of the landing for us, but he has photos of the Hudson 24 hours after the landing!  Almost as good.  See Dick's photos on smugmug.

Butter and Margarine
Leo tries to lure Dick to this year's Butter and Eggs Day at Petaluma, on Saturday, 25 April 2009, with Petaluma's Cutest Little Chick.  Leo explains again how the perpetual parade works.  Everyone in town will be in the parade, except Leo, as he has to do the radio show.  Jennifer will be in it, doing her zumba class.  The theme of this year's 28th Annual Parade is "Recycle, Reuse, Remember".

The Fragrance of Petaluma
Two times of the year, in the spring and the fall, Petaluma has a fragrance pervading the town.  It's when the farmers lay down the fertilisers.  If you can't get enough of Petaluma talk by Dick and Leo, try the Petaluma Ristorante in Manhattan.

Mad In Your Eye
Dick has uncovered a case of trade paperbacks "Here's Mad In Your Eye".  Available at BuyMadStuff.

Stop Scrolling
One used to have to keep scrolling down on Dick's website to see all his stuff.  With a little help from Ludwik and GoToMeeting, Dick has finally given his stuff its own pages.

Nerdy Pleasure
Listener Andrew started watching Leo on ZDTV back in his high school days, when it was a nerdy pleasure for him.  A few years ago he was glad to find Leo's new podcasting empire.  He has recently discovered a gadget which is exactly what he has for a long time been hoping for and would very much like Leo to do a review of it.  It's the Car Camera Voyager Pro with GPS Logger from Brick House Security.  It has an internal "event" sensor for detecting speed, braking, acceleration and impact.  It constantly records a video, with GPS logging, on to an SD card, and will retain 10 seconds prior to and 30 seconds after an "event".  Plug the SD card into a computer and you can watch the video with your car's GPS location.



Another Record
Dick and Leo are enjoying themselves in this recording session.  Yesterday was a half-hour show, and today, at 33:55, this is the longest episode of DGW.


Listen to Episode 755
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Yet another green gadget from CES 2009, the nPower PEG (Personal Energy Generator) is an electrical generator, a 9" tall baton, 1.5" diameter in the centre, and 1" in diameter at the top and bottom, and weighing 9 ounces.  You place it vertically in your backpack or briefcase, or hang it from your bicycle or even your belt if you don't mind looking like a dork, and the kinetic energy in the vibrations caused by your walking movements is harvested by the PEG and converted into electrical energy for charging your mobile electronic devices, such as an iPod, iPhone, Blackberry and other cellphones via USB.  There is no built-in rechargeable battery, and you charge the mobile device directly from the PEG.

nPower claims that the PEG can produce up to 4 Watts of power (i.e. 4 Joules per second), and can give you an 80% battery charge within one hour (though not specifying what type of battery).

Dick and Leo are sceptical about its prospects of success, and Leo would like to see how it works.  The idea of swinging a 9" baton from under your belt is too dorky even for Leo, and the projected price of $150 is perhaps too much to pay.

The Late Show Tonight
After Johnny Carson retired from the Tonight Show on NBC, David Letterman hoped that he would be given the spot but it was given to Jay Leno instead.  When CBS offered to give him his own nightly show, to be filmed in the renovated Ed Sullivan Theater, he decided to move over to CBS, hosting the Late Show to compete with NBC's Tonight Show.

The Powermat


One of products that caught a lot of attention at CES this year was the Powermat, a mat that charges up your devices using magnetic induction.  No more wires and umpteen different chargers and bricks involved.  The system consists of a mat (5 models: for Home, Bedside, Desk, Travel and PC+) and a receiver (3 types: Case, Power Disk and Dock - see image above at top right hand corner).


The mat itself is connected to an AC source as the power supply, and various mobile devices are either placed or connected to the appropriate types of receivers which are placed on the mat.  The mat first identifies the receiver and only then will the transmission of power begin, by magnetic induction.  When the device is charged, the transmission will stop.  You can charge multiple devices at the same time, all at the same rate.  The website says that Powermat products will be available in Fall 2009.


WildCharge
The Powermat reminds Dick of the WildCharger Pad which has been around for a couple of years.  Although it uses a different technology for the transmission of power, it is a similar idea, in that you give your mobile device a WildCharge Skin, place it on the WildCharger Pad, to charge up the device.  Dick has seen a lot of new products in his time and is not too excited about the Powermat, which may take a few years to find its place.  In the meantime, Dick will stick to his Callpod Chargepod (Episode 368)  for charging multiple devices at the same time from one power source.

A Librarian Enjoys a Book
Tom Angelo from Brooklyn found a copy of Good Days and Mad in the libarary he works at.  He thinks that for someone who doesn't read books, Dick has written a very entertaining one.  He promises to buy a copy if he sees one in a book store.  Or, he can get a copy directly from Dick, details on Dick's page BuyMadStuff.


Listen to Episode 748
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