29 posts tagged “computer”
Acer Aspire One 751h
Netbook
Link: Acer
Leo has had a slew of netbooks, and Dick finally gets his first. It's the Acer Aspire One 751h. The selling point is the big screen, 11.6" LED backlit LCD wide display, 1366 x 768 dots, and a full size keyboard. It also means a larger size, 11.2" x 7.8" x 1", but remains light enough (3 lbs with a 6-cell battery), which really blurs the division between netbooks and notebooks. It also comes with its own multi-touch touchpad.
Versions of Slough
Learn all about slough from Leo: Petaluma's tidal one, and the dead skin version from his fingers. He even throws Gough Street in San Francisco into the mix. Now you ought to have a rough idea of how thoroughly thoughtful Leo is.
Dick Starts Reading
Dick is not generally into reading books, but has started reading Audible books. He was listening to Wayne Dyer's Excuses Begone on his way to Petaluma.
Irrational and Nonsensical
Alfred Chan of insideDGW has found it well nigh impossible, short of having a full transcript, to keep track of what Dick and Leo talk about on the shows (and why would anyone in his right mind want to do that?). It's not just the sheer number of shows. The real reason is, you never know what listeners would pick up from the conversation, and they would pick up the most insignficant, tangential and off-the-cuff remarks in that rambling dialogue between Dick and Leo which they call the Daily Giz Wiz podcast. A prime example is counting the number of days in each month (Episode 876), which listener Anish commented on in Episode 888 - the Knuckles Calendar. Then another listener Verena Fuchs sent an email to Dick, attaching a pictorial illustration of the Knuckles Calendar (via lifehacker.com). It's all irrational and nonsensical, and that's why we're keep listening.
Versions of Slough
Learn all about slough from Leo: Petaluma's tidal one, and the dead skin version from his fingers. He even throws Gough Street in San Francisco into the mix. Now you ought to have a rough idea of how thoroughly thoughtful Leo is.
Dick Starts Reading
Dick is not generally into reading books, but has started reading Audible books. He was listening to Wayne Dyer's Excuses Begone on his way to Petaluma.
Irrational and Nonsensical
Alfred Chan of insideDGW has found it well nigh impossible, short of having a full transcript, to keep track of what Dick and Leo talk about on the shows (and why would anyone in his right mind want to do that?). It's not just the sheer number of shows. The real reason is, you never know what listeners would pick up from the conversation, and they would pick up the most insignficant, tangential and off-the-cuff remarks in that rambling dialogue between Dick and Leo which they call the Daily Giz Wiz podcast. A prime example is counting the number of days in each month (Episode 876), which listener Anish commented on in Episode 888 - the Knuckles Calendar. Then another listener Verena Fuchs sent an email to Dick, attaching a pictorial illustration of the Knuckles Calendar (via lifehacker.com). It's all irrational and nonsensical, and that's why we're keep listening.
Samsung NC20
Netbook
Link: Samsung
Turn-The-Tables-Tuesday
These days Leo goes through his netbooks the same way he goes through his netcasts - lots of them. After his Asus Eee PC (Episode 447) and MSI Wind (Episode 762), the latest addition to Leo's line of netbooks is the Samsung NC20, with the following specs:
- VIA Nano ultra low voltage CPU (1.3GHz)
- 12.1-inch, WVGA (1280 x 800) glossy display
- 97% full-size keyboard
- Integrated 1.3MP webcam
- 160GB 5400rpm hard drive
- 1GB DDR2 memory
- Wifi b/g, bluetooth
- 3 USB ports, an SD card slot
- 11.5" x 8.5" x 1.2" and 3.3 lbs
- 6-cell Lithium Ion battery (5900 mAh)
- Windows XP Home
Leo likes the Samsung NC20 (having made quite a number of upgrades), and hulu plays fine on it. For major reviews of the Samsung NC20 on the web, check out the links on TestSeek.
The First Letters Jingle: An Encore
Andrew Rodriguez welcomes Leo home, and wants to remind everyone of the very first Letters Jingle. He is good enough to attach the jingle to his email. Dick and Leo can't remember who was responsible for it.
It's the Finnish Letters Jingle, by Henrich Antonin from Finland. Billed by Dick as the jingle with the "big finish", it was played from Episodes 151 to 160, and superseded by George Wood's Letters Jingle in Episode 166.
Listen to Episode 882
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Find DGW Info on GizWizSearch
Logitech VX Nano Mouse (Reprise)
Cordless Laser Mouse for Notebooks
Link: Logitech
Turn-The-Tables-Tuesday
When Leo starts this week's TTTT, he asks Dick if Dick has done this gadget before. Dick doesn't think so, and the chatroom, who have already dozed off at the sound of another TTTT, do not demur. On Leo goes. Leo has had this mouse for some time now, but has been prompted by Steve Gibson' recent recommendation of this mouse in Security Now! Episode 197 to cover it on TTTT. Then Dick finds out that he is already using this very mouse.
Not only that, but Dick did actually cover this gadget, in Episode 523. What's funnier is, Leo himself was half way into his introduction of this mouse in Episode 522, but when he found out that it was going to be one of Dick's gadgets for the week, he swithced to the Tom Bihn Western Flyer instead. It is a neat little mouse, and worth a reprise. Listen to excerpts of the 2 earlier episodes:
What really takes Steve Gibson's fancy, and Leo's, is the Logitech VX Nano's very fast scrolling ability, very useful these days with long web pages and verbose posts, like this blog. "Zero-friction", is how Steve describes it. For the other functions, read Episode 523 again.
Gadget Encores
With the sheer number of gadgets covered in the Daily Giz Wiz, it is a wonder that gadgets have not been repeated more often. The only other gadgets which have been featured twice were the HydraBrush in Episodes 226 and 480 (which Dick was aware of), and a Gadget Warehouse resident, the Motorola add-on MP3 player for cellphones (Episodes 380 and 630).
iTunes Misbehaving
Mike Gigabyte has found that the Daily Giz Wiz, apart from being in the Podcast category, has now gone into the iTunes Music folder, so that it gets shuffled and played at random as well as the rest of his music. Has Leo put the wrong tag on the downloads? Leo doesn't think so, but can't really figure out why this is suddenly happening. It must be because of all the jingles, or iTunes thinks that the Giz Wiz Got Talent.
Listen to Episode 847
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Not only that, but Dick did actually cover this gadget, in Episode 523. What's funnier is, Leo himself was half way into his introduction of this mouse in Episode 522, but when he found out that it was going to be one of Dick's gadgets for the week, he swithced to the Tom Bihn Western Flyer instead. It is a neat little mouse, and worth a reprise. Listen to excerpts of the 2 earlier episodes:
What really takes Steve Gibson's fancy, and Leo's, is the Logitech VX Nano's very fast scrolling ability, very useful these days with long web pages and verbose posts, like this blog. "Zero-friction", is how Steve describes it. For the other functions, read Episode 523 again.
Gadget Encores
With the sheer number of gadgets covered in the Daily Giz Wiz, it is a wonder that gadgets have not been repeated more often. The only other gadgets which have been featured twice were the HydraBrush in Episodes 226 and 480 (which Dick was aware of), and a Gadget Warehouse resident, the Motorola add-on MP3 player for cellphones (Episodes 380 and 630).
iTunes Misbehaving
Mike Gigabyte has found that the Daily Giz Wiz, apart from being in the Podcast category, has now gone into the iTunes Music folder, so that it gets shuffled and played at random as well as the rest of his music. Has Leo put the wrong tag on the downloads? Leo doesn't think so, but can't really figure out why this is suddenly happening. It must be because of all the jingles, or iTunes thinks that the Giz Wiz Got Talent.
Listen to Episode 847
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Cateye Micro Wireless
Cyclocomputer
Link: Cateye
Turn-The-Tables-Tuesday
Leo now rides his newly-acquired recumbent Terratrike Cruiser (Episode 837), and is in the middle of kitting it out with accessories. Apart from his pennons, headlights and tail-lights, he's got a loud-sounding horn recommended by kiwinerd, the Delta Airzound Bike Horn which requires no batteries and uses compressed air (refillable from any bike pump) to produce up to 115 db.
But the TTTT gadget for today is the Cateye Micro Wireless, CC-MC100W. It is a bicycle computer (sometimes called a cyclocomputer) which is a speedometer and odometer, with LED backlight, which gives you your speed, maximum speed, distance travelled etc, like a little dashboard on the handlebar of the bike. It is wireless in the sense that it does not need to be wired to the speed sensor which sits on one of the spokes of a bicycle wheel.
Coming Next on TTTT
Leo has an abundance of gadgets to talk about these days. Next week he will cover his new heart-rate monitor.
Health Warning
Many people, including doctors and nurses, have written in after Leo talked about the dangers of swallowing the BuckyBalls (Episode 827). The letter which Leo has picked is from Phil Tilsley of Ferndale, Washington. Phil's wife works as a 911 medical dispatcher, and can confirm that strong magnets pose a serious hazard to children. Strong magnets when swallowed can join together inside the intestines causing a blockage.
Listen to Episode 842
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
But the TTTT gadget for today is the Cateye Micro Wireless, CC-MC100W. It is a bicycle computer (sometimes called a cyclocomputer) which is a speedometer and odometer, with LED backlight, which gives you your speed, maximum speed, distance travelled etc, like a little dashboard on the handlebar of the bike. It is wireless in the sense that it does not need to be wired to the speed sensor which sits on one of the spokes of a bicycle wheel.
Coming Next on TTTT
Leo has an abundance of gadgets to talk about these days. Next week he will cover his new heart-rate monitor.
Health Warning
Many people, including doctors and nurses, have written in after Leo talked about the dangers of swallowing the BuckyBalls (Episode 827). The letter which Leo has picked is from Phil Tilsley of Ferndale, Washington. Phil's wife works as a 911 medical dispatcher, and can confirm that strong magnets pose a serious hazard to children. Strong magnets when swallowed can join together inside the intestines causing a blockage.
Listen to Episode 842
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Tandy 5000 MC
Vintage Computer
Link: Radio Shack Support Documents
Dick's Gadget Warehouse
Last Friday's Compac Evo (Episode 820) has generated letters from listeners, including WO (Warren Owen), who have suggested that Dick talk about the Tandy 5000 MC Professional System from Radio Shack. It used a 20 MHz Intel 386 CPU, 2MB RAM (up to 16MB), and offered 256,000-colour VGA graphics. State-of-the-Art technology, all for $8,499. Monitor and mouse not included.
GizWiz.Biz
Dick is having fun with his new website at SquareSpace, and has created pages for Ludwik Trammer of GizWizSearch and Alfred Chan of InsideDGW to play around with (the latter at Dick's Inside-DGW).
Dick's Oldest Surviving Computer
Dick's oldest computer at the Gadget Warehouse is the Atari 800 with its 16KB of memory. He could not afford the disk drive which at about $600, as Dick remembers, cost almost as much as the computer itself (about $800). Dick contented himself with the Atari data cassette drive (Episode 360).
Thank You for the iPod Touch Stand
Dan Martin thanks the listener (Andy Weight in Episode 808) who let us know that the iPod Touch comes bundled with its own stand. Now Dan carries the stand in his pocket along with his iPod Touch.
Listen to Episode 825
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Compac Evo D500 Series Ultra-Slim Desktop
Desktop Computer
Link: Tech-Republic
Dick's Gadget Warehouse
In the summer of 2002, Compac introduced the Evo D500 Ultra-Slim Desktop computer. It was one of those towers small enough to be placed either horizontally as a stand for the monitor, or vertically as a mini-tower. It was compatible with a Celeron or Pentium 4 CPU. Dick's record of his Evo D500 had a Celeron 1.3 GHz processor, 128MB RAM, and a roomy 20GB hard drive. It was a budget computer, but still cost $799. Add a 15" LCD monitor, and it would cost you another $499. About $1,300 in all. Now $499 could pay for Dick's HP 24" LCD monitor with HDMI ports.
Air Flight Complaints
People complain about the seat reclining by ony 6 inches, or about not having coffee during a flight, but at the same time, an economy-class passenger can be charged with a felony for trying to get to the business-class lavatory. Read the New York Times article on Joao Correa's unfortunate bathroom emergency.
iPuppet
Rick Ankrum also eschews Dick's iFlyz (Episode 783) and Leo's In Your Face Viewbase (Episode 802), and has yet another self-help solution to finding a stand for the iPod Touch (after a listener pointed out that one came with the iPod Touch itself in Episode 808). It's the Portable Folding Clear Plastic iPod Touch Holder, more commonly known as a cassette tape case. Leo is now reduced to using his In Your Face Viewbase for holding up his Leo Puppet - the iPuppet.
Shouting One's Way to Success
Leo tried emulating the success of Billy Mays (and Max Appel) by shouting his way through the podcasts, but realises after 820 episodes that it doesn't work.
Listen to Episode 820
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Air Flight Complaints
People complain about the seat reclining by ony 6 inches, or about not having coffee during a flight, but at the same time, an economy-class passenger can be charged with a felony for trying to get to the business-class lavatory. Read the New York Times article on Joao Correa's unfortunate bathroom emergency.
iPuppet
Rick Ankrum also eschews Dick's iFlyz (Episode 783) and Leo's In Your Face Viewbase (Episode 802), and has yet another self-help solution to finding a stand for the iPod Touch (after a listener pointed out that one came with the iPod Touch itself in Episode 808). It's the Portable Folding Clear Plastic iPod Touch Holder, more commonly known as a cassette tape case. Leo is now reduced to using his In Your Face Viewbase for holding up his Leo Puppet - the iPuppet.
Shouting One's Way to Success
Leo tried emulating the success of Billy Mays (and Max Appel) by shouting his way through the podcasts, but realises after 820 episodes that it doesn't work.
Listen to Episode 820
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
The MSI Wind
Turn-The-Tables-Tuesday
Leo was going to do this device last week, but didn't have it with him at TWiT Cottage. As promised, today he covers the new MSI Wind, a new netbook from MSI. When Leo saw TWiT Editor Tony Wang flaunting his Dell Mini running Mac OSX, Leo vowed to have his own Hackintosh, went ahead and bought the MSI Wind, which is made by the same OEM.
The Netbook category has come a long way since the Asus Eee PC (Episode 447). The MSI Wind uses an Intel Atom CPU, 1 GB of RAM, a 10" LED-backlit display (1024 x 600), a reasonable size keyboard, XP Home, 10.23" x 7.08" x 1.24" in dimensions and weighing 2.3 pounds (with a 3-cell battery). 2.5" SATA HDD, built-in webcam and microphone, speakers, WiFi (b/g), bluetooth (including stereo support), SD card slot.
Leo put Mac OSX on it too, but in the end installed the new Windows 7 Beta. Jennifer saw it, liked it, and purloined it.
Saving the Economy
Leo has been on a spending spree, buying up notebooks galore. He's planning to save the economy single-handedly.
TWiT Picks
Colleen has written up a review of the MSI Wind on TWiT Picks (or use tinyurl.com/windpick), and you can buy the picks there through the Amazon Associate programme.
The Laser-Engraved Tech Guy
Leo got a package and a typewritten letter through the snail mail. Listener John A Voss heard Leo confess to be a pen junkie many times, and has hand-crafted a "cigar pen" specially for Leo, made of South American Boxwood with the laser-engraved words "The Tech Guy".
Dell XPS Studio 16
HD Laptop
Link: Dell
Turn-The-Tables-Tuesday
For today's TTTT gadget, Leo does a "What's In The Box?", a parcel which has just arrived for him at the TWiT Cottage, with the sticker "Intel Inside". It's a new Dell Laptop, the XPS Studio 16. The standard specs (which are configurable) include an Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 (2.26 GHz, 1066MHz FSB), Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit edition), a 16" wide-screen LED glossy display (1366 x 768 pixels, 8ms response time), HD Audio, 4GB of RAM (up to 8GB), 320GB 7200 rpm HDD, ATI Mobility Radeon HD3670 video card with 512MB, wireless-N, and a DVD drive. HDMI port, display port, card reader, firewire-400, USB 2.0 ports, e-SATA port, built-in webcam, microphone, audio jacks, 7-Watt stereo speakers, Express Card slot. You can upgrade to a blu-ray drive, and a Full HD screen (1920 x 1080). Leo has taken both of these options. Nothing but the best for Leo.
Seal Shield, Kung Hei Fat Choy, and the Future of TWiT
Alfred Chan from InsideDGW watched Amber MacArthur on commandN Episode 164, who talked about the Seal Shield dishwasher-safe keyboards from CES, which he thinks Dick and Leo should try. Try they did in yesterday's Episode 756. He also says "Kung Hei Fat Choy" for Chinese New Year. "The Year of the Ox, which is suitable, coz we're full of bull," muses Leo. Alfred has photoshopped the Obama "Future of America" button to make it a "Future of TWiT" button, with the TWiT Cottage in the background. You can see it in the blog post for Episode 747, or currently on Dick's website. There's also a Chinese New Year picture of Dick and Leo, also on Dick's website at the moment. [The Chinese characters on the picture mean something like "Always with a smile on your lips".]
Crowning Glory
Before the show started, Leo showed Dick a gift from Jennifer Laporte. Leo shared with us his moment of crowning glory on TWiTLive.
Listen to Episode 757
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Seal Shield, Kung Hei Fat Choy, and the Future of TWiT
Alfred Chan from InsideDGW watched Amber MacArthur on commandN Episode 164, who talked about the Seal Shield dishwasher-safe keyboards from CES, which he thinks Dick and Leo should try. Try they did in yesterday's Episode 756. He also says "Kung Hei Fat Choy" for Chinese New Year. "The Year of the Ox, which is suitable, coz we're full of bull," muses Leo. Alfred has photoshopped the Obama "Future of America" button to make it a "Future of TWiT" button, with the TWiT Cottage in the background. You can see it in the blog post for Episode 747, or currently on Dick's website. There's also a Chinese New Year picture of Dick and Leo, also on Dick's website at the moment. [The Chinese characters on the picture mean something like "Always with a smile on your lips".]
Crowning Glory
Before the show started, Leo showed Dick a gift from Jennifer Laporte. Leo shared with us his moment of crowning glory on TWiTLive.
Listen to Episode 757
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
HP HDX-18 Premium Series
Notebook
Link: HP Shopping
A new series of notebooks from HP, the HDX-18 Premium series. Intel Core 2 Duo (from 2.26 to 2.8 GHz), 3GB memory, 512 MB nVidia GeForce 9600M GT graphics card, 18.4" LCD screen (1920 x 1080), HDMI out, with built-in webcam and blu ray player with DVD burning capability, 802.11n wifi, 2.1 Altec Lansing speakers (capable of 7.1 sound output), eSATA port. A desktop replacement.
An alternative is the HDX-16 Premium series notebooks, which have 16" screens, 1366 x 768 native resolution.
Chicken or Egg? A Nightmare on D Street
Halloween is big in Petaluma, especially around the turn of the century mansions in D Street, where children scream "Chicken or Egg?". Meanwhile Dick might dig out his Optimus Prime Voice Changer Helmet (Episode 433)and T-qualiser T-Shirt (Episode 439) again for Halloween.
A Question of Education
Runtfish runs every day, and has been doing so for 16 years, even through her Caesarean section days. Gabby wonders what education Dick and Leo have had, as they have never talked about it. Actually they have, although in bits and pieces (e.g. Episode 134 - Leo's Chinese History major; Episodes 326 and 331 - Leo's Yale reunion; Episodes 156 and 289 - Dick's attendance at a business school; and Episode 188 - Dick's speed reading class).
Dick explains a bit more about his education. Although Dick's father put him in a business school, Dick started writing for Mad Magazine when he was still in high school, and later he started working for the NBC show "Concentration". During his time at NBC, he took a evening degree course at Columbia University in New York, in broadcasting.
Coincidentally, Dick and Leo's father (who is a marine paleo-ecologist) are alumni. Leo was born when his father was a graduate student at Columbia University (that's why Leo was born in New York - see Episodes 64 and 342).
Leo, on the other hand, went to Yale, majored in Chinese History, and dropped out.
Both Dick and Leo found what they loved to do early and were too impatient to wait till the end of their education.
Listen to Episode 676
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
An alternative is the HDX-16 Premium series notebooks, which have 16" screens, 1366 x 768 native resolution.
Chicken or Egg? A Nightmare on D Street
Halloween is big in Petaluma, especially around the turn of the century mansions in D Street, where children scream "Chicken or Egg?". Meanwhile Dick might dig out his Optimus Prime Voice Changer Helmet (Episode 433)and T-qualiser T-Shirt (Episode 439) again for Halloween.
A Question of Education
Runtfish runs every day, and has been doing so for 16 years, even through her Caesarean section days. Gabby wonders what education Dick and Leo have had, as they have never talked about it. Actually they have, although in bits and pieces (e.g. Episode 134 - Leo's Chinese History major; Episodes 326 and 331 - Leo's Yale reunion; Episodes 156 and 289 - Dick's attendance at a business school; and Episode 188 - Dick's speed reading class).
Dick explains a bit more about his education. Although Dick's father put him in a business school, Dick started writing for Mad Magazine when he was still in high school, and later he started working for the NBC show "Concentration". During his time at NBC, he took a evening degree course at Columbia University in New York, in broadcasting.
Coincidentally, Dick and Leo's father (who is a marine paleo-ecologist) are alumni. Leo was born when his father was a graduate student at Columbia University (that's why Leo was born in New York - see Episodes 64 and 342).
Leo, on the other hand, went to Yale, majored in Chinese History, and dropped out.
Both Dick and Leo found what they loved to do early and were too impatient to wait till the end of their education.
Listen to Episode 676
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
The PalmPilot
Early PDA
Link: US Robotics Press Release
Dick's Gadget Warehouse
On this Friday 13th, Dick and Leo are not afraid to talk, and talk they did. The original Palm was the Palm Pilot 1000, with a higher model called Pilot 5000, released in March 1996. In March 1997, the Palm Pilot Personal and PalmPilot Professional were launched. Later the word "Pilot" was dropped from Palm's devices after Pilot Pen's trademark lawsuit.
Palm Computing was originally a division of US Robotics and then it became part of 3Com. Among Palm's early developers was Donna Dubinsky, Leo's classmate at Yale.
The screen was monochrome, not backlit, with a serial port. Among Palm's features were Graffitti (which was the subject of an extended patent lawsuit by Xerox) and Graffitti 2, handwriitng recognition software, and its synchronisation features.
Although there had been PDAs before the Palm, such as the Psion and Apple's Newton, it was the Palm which really put PDAs on the map.
Palm is not in such great shape these days, just as Hayes (Episode 245) which had the modem market cornered lost its way. Dick thinks that if there are still listeners using the Okidata dot matrix printer (Epiosde 280), there may well be people still using the Pilot 1000.
Triskaidekaphobia
More obscure words from Leo. A triskaidekaphobe is someone who is afraid of the number 13. A fear of Friday 13th specifically is paraskavedekatriaphobia, or friggatriskaidekaphobia. Fear of the number 4 (which sounds like "death" in some Asian countries), is tetraphobia.
When Bill Gaines was looking for offices for Mad, he insisted on the 13th floor, just as a lark.
Margot ...
Virgilio from Toronto, Canada fills in the blank for the last name of the female sidekick of The Shadow, an old time radio show (Episode 579, Audible section). It's Margot Lane. Leo goes on to play "The Shadow" from Internet Archives.
A Prediction-Come-True for Year 2000
Dick and Leo laughed at the prediction in Weekend Magazine (Episode 580) that by the year 2000, people would be travelling at 1,000 mph at pennies per mile. Paul Vladuchick (we can call him Vladdy) flew from San Diego to Baltimore at 600 mph for about 10 cents per mile. Close.
Listen to Episode 590
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Palm Computing was originally a division of US Robotics and then it became part of 3Com. Among Palm's early developers was Donna Dubinsky, Leo's classmate at Yale.
The screen was monochrome, not backlit, with a serial port. Among Palm's features were Graffitti (which was the subject of an extended patent lawsuit by Xerox) and Graffitti 2, handwriitng recognition software, and its synchronisation features.
Although there had been PDAs before the Palm, such as the Psion and Apple's Newton, it was the Palm which really put PDAs on the map.
Palm is not in such great shape these days, just as Hayes (Episode 245) which had the modem market cornered lost its way. Dick thinks that if there are still listeners using the Okidata dot matrix printer (Epiosde 280), there may well be people still using the Pilot 1000.
Triskaidekaphobia
More obscure words from Leo. A triskaidekaphobe is someone who is afraid of the number 13. A fear of Friday 13th specifically is paraskavedekatriaphobia, or friggatriskaidekaphobia. Fear of the number 4 (which sounds like "death" in some Asian countries), is tetraphobia.
When Bill Gaines was looking for offices for Mad, he insisted on the 13th floor, just as a lark.
Margot ...
Virgilio from Toronto, Canada fills in the blank for the last name of the female sidekick of The Shadow, an old time radio show (Episode 579, Audible section). It's Margot Lane. Leo goes on to play "The Shadow" from Internet Archives.
A Prediction-Come-True for Year 2000
Dick and Leo laughed at the prediction in Weekend Magazine (Episode 580) that by the year 2000, people would be travelling at 1,000 mph at pennies per mile. Paul Vladuchick (we can call him Vladdy) flew from San Diego to Baltimore at 600 mph for about 10 cents per mile. Close.
Listen to Episode 590
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
