23 posts tagged “remote control”

Remote Buddy (not to be confused with the Mac/iPhone app, or the TV-B-Gone in Episode 102) is a 4-compartment repository for your remote controls.  The Remote Buddy comes with 4 colour-coded receivers (one for each of the remotes) that go on to the backs of the remotes.  If you need to locate a remote, press the corresponding button on the main unit and a beep on the remote will let you know its location.

For a previous remote control locator, check out the Gadget Warehouse resident Magnavox Remote Locator (Episode 265).

More Candidates for the Home Office
Suggestions for the TWiT Home Office's location keep coming in live from the chatroom - Mud Lick in Kentucky, Bald Knob in Arkansas, Batt's Arm in Newfoundland, Toad Suck in Arkansas, Hookersville in West Virginia, Skullbone in Tennessee, Come By Chance in Newfoundland, Two Egg in Florida, and Punkeydoodles Corner, Ontario.  Leo is sticking with Cheesequake, New Jersey for the time being.

For other suggestions, see Answer Giz Wiz Questions, where Newfoundland has had the lion's share of funny names.  Way back in Episode 164, a listener has written in about some of them.  You can listen to it again on twit.tv.

The Question To The Answer
Dick and Leo do a Carnac the Magnificent session (a segment on the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson).  Prescient answer: Sis Boom Bah.  Question: Dick and Leo can't remember, but it's something to do with an exploding sheep.  Prescient answer: Butterfield ate 8000.  Question: How many hamburgers did Butterfield eat.  Here's a good example of Carnac's routine.

Another Qualification on Dick's Resumé
When Johnny Carson took his leave in the summer, the Tonight Show used rotating hosts, each taking a week.  One of them was Gene Rayburn, who once brought Dick on to the team of writers.  Dick even appeared on the show as representative of the National Safety Council, which is still on a kinescope recording somewhere.  Dick has also written for the American version of That Was The Week That Was (TW3).

Mr Podcast
As Milton Berle was called Mr Television, so Leo should be called Mr Podcast, says Dick.  Leo is not sure about that title, and Dick has asked what should Leo be called, on Answer Giz Wiz Questions.  Check out the answers there.

Titanic - A New Musical
Zud from the chatroom suggests to Leo the musical version of the Titanic on Audible.  While Zud may have been pulling Leo's leg, there was a broadway show called "Titanic - A New Musical", and you can find the original cast recording on CD.


Morbid Subjects for Cruise Lectures
Dick has been on the QE2 as a guest giving lectures and talks (see Episode 225).  He found out that apparently one of the more popular subjects for lectures is sunken ships, like the Titanic and the Carpathia.

Giz Wiz Lessons Learnt
Ken Ronkovitz from New Jersey had to resubscribe to shows on his iTunes, and rather than subscribing to individual shows, he decided to subscribe to Radio Leo.  Lesson 1: Leo has a lot of podcasts.  Ken was falling behind with the Daily Giz Wiz and was going to delete some unlistened-to DGW shows, one of which was Episode 750, the Panasonic Travelvision, until a voice told him not to, as he had actually owned the Travelvision.  He listened to the show, and to his pleasant surprise heard his previous letter being read by Dick.  Lesson 2: Never delete a Daily Giz Wiz episode.

Allen v American Apparel Inc
Woody Allen sued American Apparel for using an image of him as a Hasidic Jew from Annie Hall, with the caption "the high rabbi", on advertising billboards.  On 18 May 2009, the case was settled for $5 million.  Read the Reuters article.  For a picture of the billboard, see the Jewish Journal.


Listen to Episode 844
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

A precursor to the Harmony Remote (Episode 82), the Evolve Guide Universal Remote Control was a universal remote, which you could connect to the computer to download the programme guide.  It had an LCD dot matrix screen, and a huge number of buttons for controlling the TV, cable-box, VCR etc.  The price was pretty steep, about $200, and with the emergence of Tivo, the Evolve Guide didn't take off.

That Little Old Winemaker - Me
From time to time, Leo would call Dick "the little old gadget maker", "the little old gadget meister" or the like.  This harks back to the mascot in the ads and commercials for wines from the Italian Swiss Colony, who was called That Little Old Winemaker.  It so happens that Leo knows the people at Italian Swiss Colony.  In the TV commercials, the mascot was played by Austrian-born actor Ludwig Stössel.  For a picture of a postcard featuring the actor, click here.


Label Intensive
Dick has a box of label-makers, and has coined the phrase "label intensive".  Dick and Leo repeat their complaint about the anonymous power adapters for their gadgets.  Dick now uses a silver marker to label the power adapters.

Whatever happened to the Jingle Singers?
Top Jamaican fan Marlon Stewart had to take himself off the Daily Giz Wiz as it became too addictive.  He's now back, but is surprised to find that the Jingle Singers are missing.  He loves the Festive Letters Jingle, and it so happens that Leo decided to play it, in May.

Blame it on HQ
Leo has decided that he needs to have a headquarters for somebody to blame if anything goes wrong.  It needs to be located at a place with a funny name, like Sioux City in Iowa, Lake Rogerene in New Jersey, or Susquehanna in Pennsylvania.  But during the break, Leo decided on Pickles Gap, Arkansas.


Listen to Episode 830
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

Calisto Pro
As usual, Leo bought another gadget "for Jennifer", the Calisto Pro (Episode 803).  As usual, it's ended up with Leo, at the TWiT Cottage.

Shred It If You Can
Al Van Dyke (alvandyke on Twitter) from Burlington, Kentucky, has some information to share about Staples shredders (the last one being the 10-Sheet Micro Cut Shredder in Episode 808).  Frank Abagnale, the subject of the film Catch Me If You Can, an ex-conman turned security consultant, was involved with Staples and the design of the shredders.

In 2006, Frank Abagnale also went on a tour organised by Staples called "Shred Across America" to raise awareness of identity theft, when Staples was releasing the MailMate Shredder (Episode 223).  See the press release.

Dick has recently got himself a new high-end computer from HP, and although he still has the ClickFree Backup Drive (Episode 629) to back up stuff from his computers, he is still keeping the old computer and he finds himself having to swtich between the two.  So he has ordered the Belkin Flip, a KVM switch.  There are different versions of the Flip, but Dick's version is the Flip Wireless, which enables you to connect both computers to one set of keyboard, video monitor and mouse.

Just press the small round remote to make the switch.  You can even configure it to share speakers.

Audio Issues
Leo has been having audio issues in this recording session (Episodes 719 to 724).  He hopes that they can be removed in post-production.

Pet Project
John Cleig has adopted "The Animal Rescue Site" as his pet project.  He wants to thank Dick and Leo for generating significant traffic to the site.


WTHII 0811
The November '08 WTHII gadget is the Tube Press, for squeezing the last drop of toohtpaste out of the tube.  It turned out that Walgreens started doing a promotion of the item after Dick posted the picture for the contest, and lots of people got the correct answer.


Dick started the What The Heck Is It game before the Daily Giz Wiz, probably at the time of The Screen Savers.  Check out the Dec '08 WTHII gadget, which is a listener contribution, which stumped Dick.

Another heads-up from a listener, Dan McCormick from Sewell, New Jersey.  The Multi-Colour LED Light Bulb with Remote Control can display different colours with its 5W LED, which can be set using the remote control that also adjusts the brightness level and lets you select from a choice of 4 transition effects (flash, strobe, fade and smooth).  Think Geek has the following example of one of the uses for this light bulb.

Entertaining The Troops
Back in Episode 43, Dick told us that he received emails from listeners all over the world, including people serving in Iraq.  Here's one, if not from a soldier, then at least from a civilian in Iraq.  In Episode 694, Dick and Leo wondered if celebrities still go and entertain the troops for the USO.  Cory was in Baghdad, Iraq as a civilian from July 2006 to July 2007.  The answer is yes, and performers include WWE stars, cheer leading groups, Toby Keith, Kid Rock, and Carlos Mencia.

Dick and Leo wonder if the troops would like to see them demonstrating the use of the CartStopper (Episode 701).

Past Old
Henry Laporte thinks Leo is 20 years past old, and Dick thinks in that case it is appropriate that Leo should give Henry a piece of crap for Christmas.


Listen to Episode 704
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

In Episode 682, Leo gave Dick a choice of 2.  Dick outdoes Leo today by offering Leo a choice of 3 gadgets:  something from Cable Organizer (see Episode 553), a new watch from Casio (neither of which Dick has actually seen), or a box from Belkin (and Dick has no idea what's inside).  Leo decides to play "What's In The Box?" again.

For previous instances of "What's In the Box?", see Episodes 379, 518, 541, 557.

With his Zibra OpenIt (Episode 496), Dick opens the package and inside is the Belkin Conserve 8, an energy-saving 8-outlet power strip with surge protector and remote switch.  It has 8 power outlets, 2 of which are "Always On", while the remaining 6 widely spaced outlets are "Remote Switched", which can be turned off using the remote control, e.g. as you leave your house.  The remote switch comes with a wall mount.  Conserve 8 even comes with cable management clips.

Favourite Episodes of DGW
Blind listener Danny Noonan from Australia, whose last letter appeared on the show in Episode 465, writes in to salute Dick and his lesser sidekick called Leo.  On the subject of favourite episodes of DGW, Danny has to add Episode 598, the Uroclub, which his gadget-loathing wife Sam enjoyed, even the second time around.

Dan Lueders
Danny himself is a bass teacher, pays tribute to Dan Lueders for his themes, and wonders what musical instruments he uses in his themes.  You can check out Dan Lueders on the following websites: Why Me Studio; Dan on urSESSION.


Listen to Episode 694
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

From about 1990, the GFX-100 Indoor Antenna distinguished itself by its advertisement.  "No cable fees because you're not getting cable."  "No sateliite fees because you're not using satellite technolgy."  "Works indoors like ordinary rabbit ears."  "Captures signals right out of the air!"  Absolutely telling the truth - it was just an ordinary rabbit-ears antenna.

The ad would have belonged with the best of Mad Magazine spoof ads, had it been satire.  As it was, the GFX-100 belonged with the Electron Echo Mini Piano (Episode 465), the Bluebird AX2 Sewing Machine (Episode 455), and the miniature mirrors which Dick frequently referred to (in Episodes 13, 215, 248, 552) .  "Marketing Breakthroughs".

This scam was first mentioned by a listener Joe La Rosa in Episode 479.

The Zenith of Easy Hang-Up
Wally Holloway from Lexington, Kentucky writes to tell Dick that Easy Hang-Up (Episode 660) was also made by Zenith who made the Zenith EZ Hang-Up (actually it was licensed by Phonex, the original maker, to Zenith).  He agrees that it was a bit of pain to have to rush to the device where it was connected to the line, to push the button.  He solved the problem by hacking into a music-on-hold device from Radio Shack, and he could set off the message by pressing any key on the phone itself.  The only problem was, he couldn't use the number pad for other purposes at all (such as accessing his voice mail).  Not to be defeated, he got a remote control Christmas lights switch to disable the power for the EZ Hang-Up so he could use the number pad for his voice mail, when necessary.

Wally Holloway truly made it to the zenith of not-so-EZ Hang-Up, but obviously he enjoyed all the hacking.


Listen to Episode 670
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

Inspired by the VCR Plus in Episode 560, listener Karl M. from Phoenix, Arizona saw the VCR Co-Pilot at Goodwill for $1 and bought it for Dick's Gadget Warehouse.  The VCR Co-Pilot was designed to avoid having to set your timed recording on your VCR via the on-screen menu which was not always intuitive.  The website is still there, and there's even a quick guide for using the Co-Pilot.


Karl is obviously interested in past gadgets.  He last wrote in Episode 640 asking Dick if he had the Rabbit Video Multiplier in the Warehouse.

Make Me Mad
For his retirement fund, Dick has been storing a case each of all the Mad books he's written, kept in the Gadget Warehouse, thinking it must be a gold mine.  A recent tot-up of the rent for the Gadget Warehouse for the past 20 years (currently $380 a month) makes him realise that his retirement plan doesn't quite add up.  So he's selling a lot of his old Mad stuff.  A recently discovered case of paperback Good Days and Mad sold out in 6 hours after Dick mentioned it on Twitter.  A case of Good Days and Mad hard covers is beckoning.  Over the next few months, Dick will be offering to listeners other Mad stuff such as Mad stationery and other things Bill Gaines had, on MakeMeMad.

The Day I Fell Off My Ball
Dick thinks that Leo should one day write about his life, which should make a neat little booklet.  "The Day I Fell Off My Ball" maybe, thinks Leo.  For previous ideas about Leo's biography or autobiography, see Episodes 320, 324 and 589.


Listen to Episode 665
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

The iSoniCast enables wireless streaming from your iPod to your home stereo or other powered speakers.  Monster Cable calls it a "wireless audio bridge".


Connect the base station to AC power and to your home stereo and to one of the audio inputs of your home stereo (via the mini-jack to RCA cable provided).  Plug the transmitter into the iPod (which draws minimal power from the iPod), start playing and the music will be streamed by 2.4GHz wireless technology (with a bandwidth of 4 Mega-bits per second) to the base station receiver.  The iPod doubles up as a remote control.

Mad Currency
Randal Schwartz, Perl expert, co-host of FLOSS and long-time fan of DGW, came across an entry on Wikipedia about fake denominations of US currency and found that the Mad currency (3-dollar bill) which Dick talked about in the past (see, e.g. Episode 121) has made its way into that entry.  Dick goes on to describe the Alfred E Neuman postage stamps that Mad used to make.

Spork Cartoon
Dick and Leo mention in passing a spork cartoon which listeners have written in about.  Leo says he is going to save it for the Letters Section, but naturally he forgets.  While we wait for Dick and Leo's memory to come round, here's one which is pretty good, by Jakin J Waldock.


Listen to Episode 567
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

VCR Plus, started by Henry Yuen of Gemstar, was a system of codes for recording individual TV programmes on your VCR.  Each programme had its own code, so that you could just enter the code into the VCRPlus-supported VCR machine or remote control, and your VCR would start recording the appropriate channel at the right time.  Watch this TV commercial from 1987.

Audible Jingle
Geoff Smith has made an "Audible Pick of the Week" jingle for TWiT.  Check out his ringtones on thegeoffsmith.com/.

Keyboard Cleaning
Mike of Eagle River, Alaska took Leo's advice to heart and put his keyboard into the dishwasher, let it dry for a few days, and even put it in the oven.  The result upon reconnection?  Sparks flew.

Listen to Episode 560
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page