12 posts tagged “poland”

More from the Toy Fair.  The Force Trainer from Uncle Milton consists of a wireless headset which reads your brain waves through dry sensor technology to detemine the level of focus or concentration.  The data is sent wirelessly to the main unit at the base of which is a fan.  The higher your concentration, the stronger "the Force", and the stronger the power of the fan, which will send the ball (or Training Sphere) higher up the cylinder.

Mattel's Mind Flex works in a similar way.  The setup is a little more complicated in that you are supposed to levitate the ball to different heights and sideways through an obstacle course (with the help of a control knob).  Both games use a form of EEG (electroencephalogram, as Leo explains).  The Force Trainer measures the alpha, beta, gamma and delta brian waves and uses an algorithm to interpret the data to arrive at your level of concentration, while the Mind Flex measures your theta brain waves to arrive at your degree of focus.

To see Dick trying out the Mind Flex at the Toy Fair, watch the ABC World New Now video: Toy Fair Extra.

Taking Failure To Heart
Dick and Leo are still smarting from the letter yesterday complaining about their singing (or at least Leo's).  As performers, they take any suggestion of failure to heart.  They're not singing today's jingle.

TWiT Dependants
Dick wonders if he can get 0.1% of the TWiT audience as dependants for tax deductions.

Customs Regulations
Ernest Bergstrom, 63, has been a MAD fan since forever and thanks Dick for all the laughs.  About Dick's parcel to Ludwik in Poland (see Episode 773), Ernest remarks that Dick and Ludwik have been lucky.  The Customs Regulations provide that you may not send printed matter of any kind.

The Ultimate Ludwik Package
Apart from taking failure to heart, Dick has also taken Leo's suggestion in Episode 773 to heart.  Dick has created "The Ultimate Ludwik Package", on sale at GizWizShopping.  The package contains the following GizWizBiz items: the LED Cap, the Ice Cube, the Lighted Folding Pen, the Cliphanger, the USB Smart Button, something new called the Mini-Strobe, and an autographed copy of MAD.  Since there are only 6 Ice Cubes left, only 6 of these packages are available, for just under $50 (with a saving of $24).

Byte
Leo has a "Leo Laporte Beanie Baby" - named Byte.




Listen to Episode 778
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Another gadget from the Miami Boat Show, the Garmin GPSMAP 640 is a dual mode GPS device which can be used as a marine chartplotter and a city GPS turn-by-turn navigator.  When placed in the marine mount or automotive mount (which come included with the device), it will switch automatically to the appropriate mode.  It has a 5.2-inch touch screen, 800 x 480 pixels, an SD card slot, waterproof, preloaded with BlueChart g2 marine data (such as tides and currents, depth contours) and City Navigator NA maps.

Workaholics
When TWiTLive was off the air recently for a couple of days, Leo found himself at a loose end home and became a little unbearable to Jennifer.  Dick likewise is a workaholic who has not taken a vacation for years.

A Fireplace for TWiT Cottage
Dick's friend Dennis Wunderlin (aka Dexterity Dennis) has a fireplace insert from Dimplex, and Dick recommends it to Leo for the old fireplace at TWiT Cottage.  Leo saw one in action on Valentine's Day in a San Francisco hotel and plans to get one for the Californian summer.  At least that will give him something to talk about on another TTTT.

Respect for the Sea
Dick was once out in the sea in his boat when it was hit by a huge wave and the boat was tossed straight up.  Since then, he's had a lot of respect for the sea.  He now has a smaller 22 feet boat and he seldom ventures out into the ocean unless it's really calm.

Christmas Gift on Valentine's Day
Ludwik of GizWizSearch is such a friend to DGW that Dick decided to send him a Christmas package of GizWiz goodies.  Dick sent it by priority mail and the parcel arrived safely in Poland for Ludwik on Valentine's Day.  Leo suggests that Dick sell a Ludwik Prize Pack.  Dick thinks a Bernie Madoff Treasure Pack might be a better idea.

A Choice for Tomorrow's Gadget
Dick has prepared a gadget for tomorrow's show, but a parcel has just arrived too.  Leo will have the choice.


Listen to Episode 773
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Dick has covered 2 previous Verilux products: the Full Spectrum Book Light (Episode 51) and the Rise and Shine Bedside Lamp Alarm Clock (Episode 88).  True to the Latin roots of its name, Verilux continues with the "light" theme, this time ultraviolet light.  The CleanWave≈ Pocket Wand uses UV-C to disinfect surfaces by killing germs and bacteria.  Press the big round button on the handle to release the wand and the ultraviolet rays, which emit downwards.  On the underside of the handle is another switch which turns on a built-in flashlight located at one end of the handle.  The Pocket Wand uses a rechargeable battery and comes with an AC charger.

According to the product manual, UV-A are the tanning rays, UV-B are the rays that give you sunburn, and UV-C are the germicidal rays, which at the same time are cancer-causing.  Care must be taken that you do not expose your skin or eyes to the UV-C rays emitted from the Wand.  A few safety measures come with the design of the Wand.  (1) A sensor is built into the Wand so that if the Wand is tilted upwards, the Wand will turn off the UV emission.  (2) The UV light itself is invisible to the human eye, but a blue light will come on when the UV Wand is on (as a reminder that there are UV emissions).  (3) In case you forget to turn off the Wand, it will also turn itself off after 3 minutes' operation.

You can use it on your bedding, diaper bag, keyboard, and other surfaces.  Just don't try shining the UV rays on yourself, and don't try any of the Harry Potter spells on it, like Aloha mora.

Pride And Glory Review
Dick got to see Pride And Glory over the weekend, and describes the scene in which his previous pride and glory, his houseboat, appears, complete with the famous fibre optic Christmas tree.  For Dick's account of how he came by the fibre optic tree, see Episodes 460 and 461, and more recently, the Christmas Day Special, Episode 729.

Part of You've Got Mail was also shot at the same marina.

Everything You Don't Need To Know About Dane Golden ...
... but which you might like to know, can be found on the TWiT Wiki page Dane Facts: The TrueDane.  Leo started the page, inspired by Chuck Norris Facts.

A Knuckle Handshake
The Pocket Wand is ideal for germophobes, such as Howie Mandel, who shakes hands by bumping fists (see most recently Episode 476).  Leo does it by nose-rubbing.

A Generous Offer
Kevin Selle thanks Dick and Leo for generating traffic to his website and podcast Weather Brains in Episode 746.  In return he might send 2½ listeners along to the Daily Giz Wiz.


Listen to Episode 766
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Usually one blows off candles, and one can have candles that re-ignite themselves after being blown off, but Think Geek has come up with these Bicolor LED Blow On-Off Candles.  The case is made of wax, and inside are LED lights (which can be switched between blue and a more natural yellow colour).  You can blow the candle out, and then you can blow it on.  4 or 6 inches high.



For the previous candles introduced by Dick, see Candle Impressions (Episode 211).

DGW Vote
Vote for your favourite episodes of the Daily Giz Wiz at gizwizsearch.com/vote.  Enhanced voting now available.

A Favour for Ludwik
Ludwik is planning to spend 12 months overseas for some experience and is looking for a full-time position enough to support himself.  Ludwik is a brilliant programmer, as evidenced by GizWizSearch.  So please if you're aware of any opportunities, contact Ludwik.  For his resume, contact details, and Dane Golden's TWiT Q&A Form, see gizwizsearch.com/job


Listen to Episode 738
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A heads-up from a listener, Charles from Berkeley, California.  No need to worry about your shopping cart with your child sitting in it rolling down the slope.  At one end of the CartStopper is a giant suction cup, connected to a bungee cord with a hook at the other end which you attach to the shopping cart.  The device is strong enough to hold in place a full shopping cart with a child in it.

Leo thinks the CartStopper might be another Purseguard (Episode 406).  That's not going to please Shopping Mom Dyanne who designed the device!

CES 2009 Preview
Dick was at the CES 2009 Preview last week.  CES has to hold a preview in order to announce the CES awards in January.

Busy Bee
Busy Bee Ludwik Trammer is at work again.  He has some ideas for Dick's site, and is going to show Dick on Go To Meeting.  By the way, Giz Wiz Search now has a new .com URL: www.gizwizsearch.com.

The Joy of Gadgets
The Kodak Disc Camera (Episode 690) brings back fond memories of a strong and vibrant company for Brent [Cascamenti] from Rochester, New York, who has been working for Kodak as an electrical engineer for 27 years.  Brent has been a faithful listener since Episode 1, and thanks Dick and Leo for bringing him the joy of gadgets.

Skunk Works
Brent uses the word "Skunk Works" in his letter, which Leo explains to Dick, with a little help from Wikipedia, first used by Lockheed Martin in 1938.  The name has its origin in Al Capp's comic strip L'il Abner.

Dick's Thanksgiving
No small talk for Dick's party at Thanksgiving, where his pineapple upside down cake is de rigueur (in addition to the gravy of course).  For more on Dick's Thanksgiving celebrations, go back to Episode 199.  Whenever Dick misses his Thanksgiving fare, he can go to "Good Enough To Eat", all year round.  This is also the restaurant Dick took Leo for a huge breakfast when Leo was in New York (listen to the beginning of Episode 334).

Ready for TTTT
Leo had numerous ideas for last week's TTTT (see Episode 697), but only after the recording had ended.  This time, he's ready.


Listen to Episode 701
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"Upgrade to Zen Class."  That's their slogan.  The Nirvana Organizer is a shoulder bag that unzips inside out for direct access to its contents.  Intended as a travel accessory, it can attach itself to an airplane seat tray and hangs in front of you, with customised pockets for the most common travel items that go with you while travelling, such as your passport, ticket, flash memory cards, pens, and even a bottle/cup holder.  But even when carried over your shoulder, it gives you easy access to the contents of the bag.



Apart from using it on a plane, you can also use it on a baby-stroller, in a car and other places.  Watch the demo video on YouTube, or right here:


Italian Heritage on Blu Ray
Leo is in an Italian mood as he just watched Godfather on Blu Ray over the weekend, which has much improved quality over the DVD version.  Dick and Leo share their memories of Italian home cooking.  Dick's parents are of Italian descent, as is Mama Laporte.

Leo's Challenge Well Met
In Episode 683 (starting at 18:30), while Dick was introducing his brand new GizWizBiz Cap, Leo said nonchalantly that he would give an iPod to the first surgeon who sends in a picture of himself in surgical gloves wearing the cap in the operating theatre.

Leo should have known, judging from the jingles and themes they receive from listeners whenever they ask for one, that the challenge would be met, and very promptly indeed.  2 emails came in immediately, with doctors and nurses wearing the caps in the operating theatre.

What Leo really meant was a picture of a surgeon actually performing an operation while wearing the cap.  Unfortunatley he did not say that clearly enough, although to be fair, Dick and Leo did say that given Halloween was just around the corner, mere costuming did not count.  Nevertheless, Leo wants to be a good sport, and since he can't tell which email came in first, he's going to send out iPod nanos to all the doctors and nurses.  Now Dick understands why his cheques from Leo bounced, and is quick to add that the offer is now officially over.

So Dr. Wayne Keeling from Reidsville, North Carolina, Dr. Mark Moran, and the nurses, will all be getting an iPod.  Plus a shout-out from Leo to Dr. Moran's sons Brennan and Ryan.

An interesting fact about Dr. Wayne Keeling.  He has, not just one, but two, Brannock Devices (from Episode 255).  See Episode 267.

GizWizSearch on Steroids
DGW fan, computer coder, magician and miracle worker (all right, let's stop there) Ludwik Trammer has added an exciting feature to GizWizSearch.  All the episodes of DGW have been tagged, and you can search via tags.  For example, search for products with LED lights, or just for Wacky Gadgets, which is quite a list.  The tagging has been done with a lot of help from Ryan Waterer (who did most of the tagging), and only a little help from yours truly.  Most of the credit should go to Ludwik and Ryan.



Listen to Episode 691
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As hinted at in Episode 673 and last week, Dick and Leo finally talk about T-Mobile's G1.  Made by HTC, the G1 is the first phone featuring Google's open-source smartphone operating system Android.

It has bluetooth, wifi, GPS (though not turn-by-turn), 512 MB built-in memory, although it has an microSD card slot and comes with a 1GB card; a back-lit qwerty keyboard (which is revealed by sliding out the screen) and a replaceable battery; a 3.2MP camera, but like the iPhone, it does not shoot video, and like the iPhone it does not support Flash on the internet.  Unlike the iPhone, it supports voice dialling and "cut and paste".

Physically, it weighs just under 6 ounces.  At the bottom is a panel of buttons: a big Menu button, underneath which at the centre is a trackball (for navigation and as a select button).  To the left of the trackball are the "Call/Send" button and the "Home" button; to the right of the trackball are the "Back" and "Hangup/Power" buttons.

On the left hand side of the phone is a Volume toggle, and on the right hand side the camera button.  For the earphones, unfortunately it's a microUSB connection and you'll need an adapter for your 3.5mm jack earphones.

The display is 3.2 inches at 480 x 320 resolution, with a capacitive touch-screen.  It does not support multi-touch, but does support long presses (through which you get a context menu including "cut and paste").  It has an accelerometer and is supposed to adjust itself to Portrait/Landscape mode, at least when the qwerty keyboard is open.

Since Android is open-source, many applications are expected to come out supporting the platform, and will not be filtered as in the case of the iPhone.  You can access the apps from the Android "Market", and Google will tell you in relation to each app what types of access the app may have on the phone - such as communications, your location and your personal information.

The phone comes with the standard Google apps, such as Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, and like the iPhone, offers a mobile version of YouTube.  If you don't use Gmail, there is another mail application.  Unfortunately, this other mail app cannot open attachments (which Gmail can by HTML conversion), nor save them.  The IM app supports major instant messengers such as AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo and of course Google Talk.  Like Google's desktop browser the Chrome, the Android browser is WebKit-based.  Another app that comes with the phone is AmazonMP3, with access to Amazon's DRM-free mp3 downloads - which only works with Wifi, and not 3G or Edge.  The phone also has its own music player software.

At the moment, the phone is available in T-Mobile stores only in cities which has T-Mobile's 3G coverage.

Favourite Episodes
In Episode 679, Dick and Leo were asked if they had a list of their 20 favourite/funniest episodes.  Ludwik Trammer of gizwizsearch can answer for them.  Search queries on his site show which episodes are most frequently accessed - 182 Titanium Spork, 465 Electron Echo Piano, 462 MP4 Watch, and of course 282 Toothpick Bird.

Ludwik also tells us that the accumulative length of all the DGW shows now exceeds 7 days.

One More Thing
Ludwik is going to introduce a new feature on his site.  In fact it is already operational.  Just go to his site and see if you can spot the difference.  Otherwise, just wait for an announcement through Dick and Leo in tomorrow's recording session, or in next week's episodes.

Video Podcasts To Wait
The last time Leo talked about video podcasts (with hopes of getting DGW on video) was Episode 671.  Unfortunately, with the economic downturn, Leo has decided to be a little more prudent, and maybe putting that on hold, although he may still put out a weekly "best of" video podcast.

Second Longest Episode
At 31:03, today's show is the second longest episode, just 12 seconds short of Episode 634, the Lexmark X9575 Professional.


Listen to Episode 686
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The CentralAxis is a network attached storage (with a 1TB, 7,200 rpm, 16MB buffer Maxtor hard drive).  Gigabit ethernet enabled, it plugs into your router, and it will configure itself to the network.  It automatically backs up the computers on your home network.  It comes with the Maxtor Management software which enables you to drag files to the CentralAxis, and it will sort the files into appropriate shared folders for you (Drag and Sort).  SimpleView lets you view the contents on the TB hard drive easily.  You can use it as a media server for your home network, and can stream media to any UPnP AV-compatible entertainment systems without turning on a computer.  Mac and PC compatible.

It also has 2 USB ports for connection to printers or additional external hard drives.

Dick's Sleeping Habits
Dick is a late sleeper but does get to bed by 4 a.m.

Hilarity from Ludwik
Another feed from Ludwik.  Apart from the daily feed and the all-episodes download feed, the new "all week long" RSS feed gives you the Saturday and Sunday episodes feed - with the opening and closing themes, plus the Show-Free Saturday theme, and Sleeping-In Sunday theme respectively - that is, the best of DGW.  Check out the feeds at gizwizsearch.  Ludwik is waiting for a Ludwik theme, and Leo improvises on the lyrics:

He's Polish and he's crazy
He likes to write but he's lazy
He wants to download every daisy
Just Ludwik Trammer-ly ...

And Ludwik notes that Episode 634 on the Lexmark All-in-one is the longest episode so far, and the first one over 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, you can follow Ludwik on Twitter, and he's just Ludwik on Leo's new TWiT Army Laconica service.  If you want to know more about the origin of the TWiT Army Laconica service, check out Episode 37 of Floss Weekly.


Listen to Episode 649
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Ideative, who made the Leak Frog (Episode 166), has come up with the Socket Sense, a power strip that can be extended for you to fit in those large, bulky, intractable AC adapters/transformers.  The sockets are angled at 45° to give more efficient use of space.  It also offers 2160 Joules surge protection.

An Intelligent DGW Fan
Leo ran into Paul Lawrence, director of the Yale Center for Media and Instructional Innovation, who is a fan of the TWiT network.  His favourite podcast is The Daily Giz Wiz.  There is someone intelligent at Yale after all.  Dick also met someone from Yale the other day, and he works in the Combination Lock Department.

Stripped of Power Strips
Dick and Leo wonder how many power strips (such as the Power Squid, Episode 24, and the Tributaries T10 Flexible Power Strip, Episode 449), batteries and LEDs have appeared on DGW, and how many podcasts are left.  They hope Ludwik Trammer of GizWizSearch can help.

A Trickle of Hate Mail
Leo has been doing well on TTTT recently, and the hate mail is trickling down.  Now Leo getting another kind of hate mail, for doing decent gadgets.

Tour of the Queen Mary 2
Dick's tour of the QM2 previously shown on ABC has been posted on his website, or check out the blog entry for Episode 517.

CSI Alaska - A Suspected Spork Robbery
There has been a robbery in Anchorage, Alaska, and the police are still trying to determine if the weapon used was a spork.  They should invite Dick and Leo act as the experts in the forensic investigation.  Here's one of the reports, on Yahoo News.

Dick and Leo have received a flurry of letters from listeners about the news story, including James Levine, Wayne Dickson, Kevin Madden, Jim Haygood, and even Chris Marquardt of the Tips From The Top Floor podcast.

Listen to Episode 519
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Read Dick's Write-Up

A slim external USB2 DVD burner (6.5" x 5.31" x 0.91", and just over 12 oz) for carrying around.  The USB2 enclosure contains a Panasonic DVD drive which can write DVD-RAM at 5x, DVD+RW at 8x, DVD-RW at 6x, and dual layer DVD+/-RW at 4x.  It can be powered via USB for CD-DVD-ROM use and comes with an AC adapter for burning.  It comes with Nero 7 Essentials burning software.  Leo is buying one from Amazon, for his Asus Eee PC.

Fibre Optic Christmas Tree contd ...
Dick finishes the story about his Christmas Tree, which has something to do with a film starring Colin Farrell, about cops and family honour, which has not been released.  From Dick's description, it might be Pride and Glory, which is due for release next year.  The cast includes Edward Norton, Jon Voight and Jennifer Ehle.  Look out for Dick's boat in it.

Gadget Rant
Dave Sanders writes in.  His wife's iPod battery died recently, which got him into a rant.

GizWizSearch
When Dick wants to check on a new episode of DGW, he uses Ludwik Trammer's GizWizSearch.

GizWizBiz Gadgets
Dick has made a video of his "holiday greeting" at YouTube.  Some new GizWizBiz gadgets seem to be on the way, along with the GizWizBiz Cap which is making a comeback.  Details have not appeared on Dick's site yet.

Listen to Episode 461
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Read Dick's Write-Up