4 posts tagged “catamaran”

This time, it's Leo's turn to do a "What's In the Box?" routine, and Dick's turn to guess what it is.  It's Ziszor, a portable, hand-held shredder.  It runs on 4 AA batteries, comes with 4 Ziszor catcher bags, and you shred your paper trail right into the bag.  Ziszor's slogan is, Don't let your mail be your trail.  But as Leo demonstrates, it can't shred Colleen's credit card, though it will shred your English spelling into oblivion.



A Wireless Toaster
Karen Toast Conger, of ToastFloats, used to work for WatchGuard, a network security devices company.  As a parting gift, she was given a very special toaster.  Her colleagues bought her a Cuisinart toaster, took it apart, and put a WatchGuard Firebox X Edge wireless router into it.  A wireless router, security device, and a toaster.

Listen to Episode 557
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

Leo was going to do the new Logitech VX Nano Cordless Laser Mouse, but has decided to leave it for Dick to cover.  Apart from pens and watches, Leo cannot get enough of laptop bags.  Tom Bihn specialises in bags, which are all well made, sophisticated, componentised, customisable cases with optional add-ons and inserts.



Leo has the Western Flyer, but recommends the SuperEgo for Dick, who can take an Ego Strip with it.  The SuperEgo can carry Dick's laptop with room to double up as an overnight bag.  For the ultimate briefcase, try the Empire Builder.



Extras include the Horizontal Brain Cell (an insert for storing your laptop), the Absolute Shoulder Strap (which tucks away neatly inside the bag but turns your bag into a messenger-style bag), and the Freudian Slip (a briefcase organiser).

Dick has been using a Targus bag for his laptop (probably the Targus Flare Backpack in Episode 394), but is now sorely tempted to get a Tom Bihn bag.

Toasting Don Quixote
Karen Toast Conger, who lives aboard a catamaran and travels around the world with her family (Episode 512), has taken up Leo's invitation and sent him a photo of her boat, the Don Quixote.  It's a Lagoon 380 catamaran.  You can see Toast's boat on her website, and on Flickr too.  She and her two young girls sing along to the Letters Jingle.


Listen to Episode 522
Go to TWiT
Read Dick's Write-Up

From American Recorder, this Photo Studio In A Box is 16" x 16" x 16" is ideal for taking studio style photos of small objects.  It comes with a stand for your camera, two 8" tall studio quality lights (2800K Tungsten lamps for even colour temperature), a soft light box made of woven nylon fibre mesh diffuser giving you uniform illumination and eliminating harsh shadows, and a two-sided (blue/grey) non-reflective fabric background.

New Look for Dick's Website
As reported in Episode 500's blog entry, Dick's website has a new look, and Dick has just noticed that he's put at the top of the home page: "This website no longer contains trans-fats."  But Dick thinks that the letter read out yesterday (from Bill Mulligan) came before the new website came up.  Indeed, Dick and Leo talked about DGW being free of trans-fat, cholesterol and starch in Episode 498.

Gadgets, Science and Technology
Karen Toast Conger (from Toast Floats and Toast Floats Blog) and her family are full-time live-aboard cruisers on their catamaran in the Pacific Northwest.  She regularly download TWiT podcasts to learn about all the things she can't afford any more, but DGW does offer news of affordable boat-worthy gadgets, such as the Liquid Image Underwater Camera Mask (Episode 484) and the WaterBob (Episode 319), which Karen calls the Bathtub Water Bladder.  She recommends the link on Dick's website to PowerBoat Magazine for boat gadgets.

Karen also says that the gadgets we love are a by-product of science and technology, and believes that we must get to know about the science policy and plans of the next American president.  There is a proposed presidential debate devoted to science and technology - Science Debate 2008.

Jerkstopper Unplugged
Leo also refers to a letter sent to him by Bob Harris, who was prompted by the Jerkstopper (Episode 507) to write about a piece of free software for Mac which alerts you when the power cord for your MacBook becomes unplugged, called Unplugged, from Brik Software.

Listen to Episode 512
Go to TWiT
Read Dick's Write-Up