8 posts tagged “engineer”
In Your Face Viewbase
iPhone/PMP Stand
Link: In Your Face USA
Airport Accommodation
Back in Episode 616, Dick and Leo complained how airports seem to have been designed to do everything to prevent you from sleeping or lying down. Shashank Sivaji recommends the Dubai Airport, which has long wide lounge chairs.
NOT PR
Phil Baker, who wrote in Episode 795 about his book From Concept to Consumer, explains that he is no PR guy, but an engineer/product developer, and offers to show Leo gadgets in production in China. Dick thinks he bought a Sham Wow towel from Phil, but he's obviously mistaken - a reference to This Week In Tech Episode 188.
NAJA King
iPod Touch/iPhone Accessory
Link: thoughout.biz
There is a similar model for the Nano, simply called the NAJA.
Colleen and Tony drove for 10 hours with all the camera gear to Vegas for New Media Expo, and had the camera on the way.
Inside the GE Genesis Diesel Locomotive
A Screensaver fan Bob, an engineer from Metro North (where Dick once lost, and found, a shoulder bag, see Episode 291), has taken Dick on an inside tour of a new diesel locomotive.
Skytel
Dick in Episode 635 thought that Skytel, the paging service, was no longer in operation. It turns out that it is alive and kicking, and a number of listeners still use its service, including DoctorMom (Twitter handle), Jeremiah from Detroit, and George Brickner.
DGW Commercials
A couple of DGW listeners are upset that the podcast is now "50% commercials" and will stop listening. There are always people who resist them, and those who support them, such as listener Trey, back in Episode 168, who wrote a nice letter to Dick about missing the first round of Visa commercials.
Listen to Episode 641
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Ziszor
Portable Paper Shredder
Link: Ziszor
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
Sandisk Sansa Fuze
MP3 Player/PMP
Link: Sandisk
Mathematically Challenged
Don Sherman, a biomedical engineer from Wayne, has been listening to DGW since its inception and enjoys the shtick.
He writes in to challenge the claim that the Desktop Earbuds Speakers 500XL (Episode 528) are 500 times the size of the iPod earbuds. He reckons that the iPod earbuds are about 1 cm in diameter, which means that the XL500 would have to be 500 cm, or 5 m long, which they cannot be.
That's only one dimension. One could of course try to calculate the volume. Let's do some (really rough) calculation.
Let's assume that the earbuds and the speakers are all semi-spheres. The volume of a sphere is 4/3 x π x (radius)³. My iPod earbuds (admittedly the more recent version, not the original ones which the 500XL resemble) are about 1.6cm in diameter, or 0.8cm radius. The 500XL speakers are about 4 inches in diameter (according to Perpetual Kid), i.e. 10.16 cm in diameter, or 5.08 cm radius. The volume ratio between the 500XL speakers and the iPod earbuds is therefore (5.08)³ ÷ (0.8)³ = 256, i.e. only 256 times. In fact, for the 500XL to be 500 times in volume, its speaker diameter will have to be 5 inches.
There is the volume of the "handles" to consider as well, but that still wouldn't push the ratio up from 256 times to 500 times. I think Fred who makes the 500XL may be mathematically challenged, but surely no one is going to mind when he's come up with such a charming idea. At least 256 is a nice binary number!
Listen to Episode 543
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
CEntrance MicPort Pro
USB Interface for Studio Grade Microphone
Link: CEntrance
Turn-The-Tables-Tuesday
After the Marky Sparky toys, Leo gets another heads-up from Dick with this gadget.
The MicPort Pro acts as a mic preamp for your professional microphone and provides a USB interface to connect to your computer. One end has an XLR port for your mic, and the other end has a USB port to connect to the computer via a USB cable.
It has a 1/8" headphones jack, and volume control buttons for the mic and headphones. USB-powered. Ideal for mobile podcasters and musicians.
Tom, or Chuck, points out that the particular voice that Leo was looking for was not that of Harold Peary in The Great Gildersleeve (Episode 382), but Frank Nelson. Leo plays a sound clip of Frank Nelson saying "Y-e-e-e-s".
InsideDGW writes in about the Free Old Time Radio Shows website where you can hear many old radiio shows including the Great Gildersleeve.
Confusion over the GEC Chimes
It remains unsettled whether the G-E-C chimes of NBC had anything to do with General Electric Company (Episode 377), despite Wikipedia. Leo thinks his NBC engineer is a more authoritative source.
Leo is Wrong
So many people are saying Leo is wrong that Dick and Leo think there should be another jingle for it.
Listen to Episode 397
Read Dick's Write-Up
Go to TWiT
Targus Flare Backpack
Laptop Backpack with Raincoat
Link: Targus Flare 17" 15" Black 15" Blue
A backpack with the usual compartments and pockets, including a laptop compartment. The Targus Flare has 2 sizes, one for 15.4" and one for 17" notebooks. It has a "raincoat" inside a zipped pocket on the bottom which unfolds up to cover the entire backpack from wet conditions.
But if you're lugging a 17" notebook around, Dick recommends the Targus Rolling Backpack TSB700, with a pull-up handle and wheels on the bottom.
Budding Opera Singer
Leo the Budding Opera Singer starts singing, which reminds Dick and Leo of his appearance as Dev Null on MSNBC singing Happy Together (Episodes 187, 149). Definitely not a replacement for the late Pavarotti.
The Great One
Talk of the Caboose (Episodes 339, 356) reminds listener Brian Drake of Jackie Gleason who had a number of private, custom-made railroad cars, as The Great One had a fear of flying. Those railroad cars are now in the National Central Railroad Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.
Dick and Leo start dreaming about the TWiT Train and the Giz Wiz Caboose.
Dick mentions in passing a new hand-dryer that blows air at a tremendous speed that was recently featured at a press event which he could not attend. This might be the Airblade, from Dyson the famous English vacuum cleaners maker. It blows air through a HEPA-filter at a whopping speed of 400 mph.
Emergency Dog Survival Kit
Survivial Kit for Dogs
Link: Pet Gadgets
Carrying on with Dick's pet theme, this emergency kit from Pet Gadgets has enough to take care of your dogs' needs (up to 2 dogs) in case of an emergency - dog collar and leash, toys and chewable bones, first aid kit, sanitation poop bags, the lot. A doggie equivalent of the Ready Kit Plus (Episode 29) which Leo ordered.
Spoiled For Choice
Dick has no difficulty picking 4 gadgets a week to cover in the Daily Giz Wiz, although sometimes he changes his mind about his initial choices, and he finds he needs to do a little more research on the gadgets. Leo has no such problem. If he finds a gadget for TTTT, that's it, and it will last him 2 weeks. "Don't work too hard", is Leo's advice to Dick.
Totino's Output
Eric, the reliability engineer at General Mills, apologised for getting Dick and Leo's hopes up. He tried but the marketing people just don't understand podcasting. See also Episode 284.
According to him Totino produces 18,000 pizza rolls a minute and 300 million a year. It has been making pizza rolls at 99 cents each for 25 years.
Listen to Episode 286
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Digital Hero 3 Sports Wrist Camera
Action Cam
Link: GoPro
The Digital Hero 3 Sports Wrist Camera takes 3MP stills, 640 x 480 video and 16MB internal memory. Waterproof. It can be worn on the wrist, or mounted on your bike, helmet or elsewhere. A similar product to the Oregon Scientific ATC-2K (Episode 258).
Debut on the Tech Guy
Dick made his debut as the Weekly Giz Wiz on the Tech Guy last week.
Usual Gang Of Idiots
Leo once said that if you want to know what Dick looks like, just imagine a guy with a long handle-bar moustache. Fernando Garcia from Monterrey, Mexico says that's the case with the Usual Gang of Idiots from Mad: Sergio Aragones, Don Edwing.
Tostino Sponsorship
Leo explains the Tostino joke started when someone working in General Mills emailed Dick and Leo and would very much like to get General Mills involved with DGW (Episode 253). It turned out he's an engineer in the company, and the matter lies in the hands of the ad agencies. Leo suggests Tostino get a website first as he can't find it on Google.
Tony the Tiger
Learn all about the voice of Tony the Tiger and Gumby (Dallas McKennon) while Leo googles for "Tostino" and keeps getting "Tony".
Listen to Episode 263
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
