77 posts tagged “spork”

Dick, the Gadget Proxy
Dick and Bill Gaines used to have a special arrangement.  While Bill was not averse to gadgetry, he was not exactly a gadget geek.  He would pay for gadgets, get Dick to try them out first and work out how things worked, before they were handed over to him.

Terratrike to Beach
In Episode 815 Larry Blakely wrote about his 50-mile cycling challenge charity event, and hoped to hear about more bike gadgets on the Daily Giz Wiz.  His prayer has been answered.  It was his very letter which got Leo on to his Terratrike (Episode 837), and then Leo's other bike gadgets such as the Cateye Micro Wireless and the Delta Airzound Bike Horn (Episode 842).  Larry has a bike gadget suggestion for Leo, the iHome Bike-to-Beach Bicycle Speaker for iPods.  The iPod sits inside the tube which is water-resistant.  It comes with a mounting bracket and a wireless remote control which is also mountable on to the handle-bar.



Listen to Episode 875
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The Z Bar Desk Lamp from CCrane has 66 LED lights, using only 9.6W, giving 112 lumens focused within a 50 degrees viewing angle.  The Z shape gives it flexibility while the weighted base gives it stability.  If your desk is too cramped, it comes with a desk clamp so that it doesn't take up more desk space.

TWiT: The Early Days
Leo explains the origin of the name TWiT.  When the old gang from G4/TechTV, including Leo, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, David Prager and Robert Heron, got together for the podcast, they originally called the show Revenge of the Screen Savers.  They soon got a cease and desist letter from G4.  Eventually they asked the listeners to make suggestions for the name, and the winning entrant would get a surprise box of stuff from Patrick's garage - the "box of crap".  Entries included Revenge Of The Green Saviours, SledgeCast, Saved By The Geeks, and This Week In Geek, the last of which was closest to what Leo wanted.  In the end Leo decided on This Week In Tech, shortened to the acronym TWiT which became the name of the site and his podcasting network.

For a summary of the early episodes of TWiT (0 to 9), you can get Episode 81 of TWiT: The Early Years.  It is a collection of tidbits from the podcasts (but not a best-of) outlining how the podcast evolved in the early days, badly put together by none other than myself, which I would have called TWiTbits.

TWiT Trademark
Leo has trademarked the brand TWiT for virtually all media, including audio, video, variety show and musical.  Leo's lawyer questioned Leo about his involvement in variety shows.  Of course we do variety shows.  The Daily Giz Wiz.  What about musicals?  The Daily Giz Wiz.  The only 4 media left are vinyl, cylinder, 8-track and wire recorder.

Just don't talk to Leo or Dane Golden about TWiT and Twitter.

Leo's Life Stories
Dick and Leo have often talked about Leo's autobiography and its title, the last time in Episode 812.  Tom Pruett has 3 ideas for Leo's book, all of which lend themselves easily to TV production as well.

The PodCouple - Leo Laporte has recently lost his job at TechTV.  Despondent, he wanders aimlessly until his friend Dick DeBartolo comes to the rescue and the two do a podcast together.  The trouble is Dick is neat and tidy and Leo is a slob ...

The PodFather - An aging patriarch of an organised podcasting dynasty, Leo Laporte, wants to transfer control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant friend Dick DeBartolo.  A story of power and greed, culminating in the Toothpick Bird and Spork Episodes.

Podman Begins - Explore the Podman legend and his emergence into a force for good.  A disillusioned tech journalist Leo Laporte travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice and to turn fear against those who prey on the fearful.  He comes back as his alter ego Podman, a mass crusader who uses his strength, intelligence and vast podcasting network to fight sinister forces.  Don't forget his butler, Leo adds, Dick TheBartolo.

MAD 500
MAD 500 is out, with retrospective looks into different parts of MAD Magazine's past issues (or episodes as Leo persists in calling them).  By MAD 502, Dick will have completed 40 years of unbroken contribution to every issue of MAD.  You can get MAD 500 along with the 2 Obama-cover issues as a collection autographed by Dick from MAD Stuff.


Listen to Episode 824
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A companion to yesterday's Wonder Wash, the Mini Countertop Spin Dryer spin-dry your laundry (2.2 lbs dry laundry capacity) in 2 to 3 minutes, ready for ironing, or hang-drying.  Unlike the Wonder Wash, this does use electric power (82W).  Portable as well, 15" x 13.5" x 13.5".

Play for MAD 500
Today's the last day for Dick's WTHII contest.  We're playing for MAD 500.

Bringing down a Site, Live
When Leo did the Screen Savers, any mention of a website on the live show used to bring the site down.  It's now happening all over again with TWiTLive, but not when you use SquareSpace.

Refrigerator LED Light
John Fiedler from The Woodlands, Texas may not be a huge gadget fanatic by GizWiz standards, but shares with the crew certain gadget fascinations, such as flashlights, radios and LED lights.  Recently his 20-year-old refrigerator finally broke down.  He was surprised to find that the GE Profile Series uses an array of LED lights.  The conventional 40W incandescent bulb has been replaced by a blue LED.  Opening a fridge has never felt so comforting.

The Fixer
Leo is not exactly a handyman when it comes to fixing things like the microwave, as he has no tools, only a butter knife.  When he needs a butter knife, it's always in the garage and he uses his tongue (cf Jackie Mason, says Leo).  But when it comes to fixing a computer, he's a magician, as Dick witnessed in person while doing the Screen Savers.

What A Scandal
Leo confesses that although he has a Toothpick Bird (Episode 282), he's never owned a Spork (Episode 182) all his life.  What a scandal !

Cleaning Up after TWiT
Leo and his TWiT crew had a ball doing This Week In Tech two Sundays ago.  Wine, women, song and a lot of cleaning up after himself.

TWiT Shirts
During the intermission just before this episode, Dane Golden shows Dick some of the new shirts made for the TWiT network.  No word that they're available to fans, presumably just for the TWiT staff?  TWiT T-shirts, designed by Lori LeBeau Walsh (who designs the Album Art for the TWiT netcasts) are available, though, from Art and Tech Tees.



Listen to Episode 819
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Leo's classic coverage of the Titanium Spork (Episode 182) has generated a lot of interest in the spork.  This is another suggestion from a listener - TAD Gear's 3-in-1 Folding Titanium Spork.  Also made of titanium, this spork folds out, but is also a bottle cap lifter and tin opener.  It has a pocket clip, and a ring hole at the end for attaching a lanyard.

An Odd Couple
Not Dick and Leo, but the dog and elephant pair, Bela and Tara, at an animal sanctuary in Tennessee, whom Dick refers to.  The CBS story can be found on YouTube.


Daylight Saving

Daylight Saving time arrived yesterday this year, and Devin Hunter from Portland, Oregon is more than happy with the Neverlate Executive Alarm Clock's lack of automatic adjustment to daylight saving time (Episode 761).  He got a clock with that function, it went well until 2006 when the dates for daylight savings time were changed.  What was a feature of the clock became a real annoyance.

The ooma system started in July 2007, and the price of the package (the ooma Hub plus the ooma Scout) has come down.  The ooma Hub is connected to your router and hooked up to your own telephone, which enables you to make telephone calls via the internet using VoIP (to another telephone number).  You can keep your own land line telephone number, and if you don't have a number, you can get one from ooma (for a one-time fee of $40).  All calls within the US are free (subject to a limit of 3,000 minutes per month for outbound calls), while you can make international calls at cheaper rates through ooma.  If your friend overseas has an ooma system and a registered US number too, those international calls are also free.  Although naturally aimed at the US market, the ooma system can be used outside the US too in the same way.  If you keep your landline number, you can of course use the traditional 911 service.  If you use a number from Ooma, it includes the E911 service so that emergency staff can be given your registered address.  The ooma Scout can be connected to another phone jack in the house, and lets you make calls from another phone in the house.


Ooma's peer-to-peer technology differs from other similar services in that instead of using normal telephone exchanges to terminate calls, ooma routes calls through other ooma users' phone lines if possible, cutting out the termination fees on the calls.  If there are no ooma users with a phone line within 12 miles of where a call is terminated, only then will ooma use the normal telephone exchange.  For more details, see TechCrunch's article in 2007.  Because of the initial outlay, whether ooma is worth investing in depends on how long it stays in business.

Ooma does also have a Premier plan, for a yearly fee of $100 or $13 per month, which gives you extra functionality.

Uma?
Ooma has nothing to do with Uma Thurman, but does have something to do with Ashton Kutcher, who was involved Creative Director.

All For Nothing
Dick is always prepared for a disaster, with all his emergency kits.  Leo wonders, if at the end of Dick's life, Dick lying on his death-bed would be disappointed that nothing bad had happened, and all that engery spent on getting ready for disasters was expended for nothing.  That is indeed a frightening scenario, but Dick always looks on the bright side.  While his emergency kits may prove to be of little use to him, his beneficiaries will inherit all his kits, and God willing, they will have a disaster.

Emergency Kits at the TWiT Cottage
Leo has had his share of buying emergency kits, such as the Ready Kit Plus (Episode 29), even though he eschewed the Talking First Aid Kit (Episode 454) for not having a Swedish accent.  The TWiT Cottage is well equipped with emergency kits, only that no one is allowed to use it.

Bring Back the Jingle Singers !!
Brian Zager has noticed that Leo has been inviting celebrities lately such as Elvis and the Beatles to sing the Letters Jingle.  He hopes that Leo is not considering laying off the Jingle Singers who at this time of economic downturn cannot afford to lose their jobs.

A Public Announcement for WTHII
The next issue of MAD is going to be the April Issue (Watchmen cover).  So Dick is extending the current What The Heck Is It game to 15 March.  The next WTHII will be for another 6 weeks, and the prize will be the 500th Issue of MAD.


Listen to Episode 779
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This is the latest offering by Pinnacle Systems of a USB HDTV Tuner, for the Mac platform, from Andy Marken, an old friend of the Daily Giz Wiz .  Dick reviewed the PCTV HD Ultimate Stick for Windows back in Episode 419.  A listener wrote in about a Mac version in Episode 457, which was an old Mac version that did not support ClearQAM and could only record in MPEG-2 (and hence the recorded videos were not compatible with iPods).  Leo was told then that a new Mac version was being developed, and here it is, the Pinnacle TV for Mac HD mini Stick.




It supports ATSC (over the air digital TV signal) HDTV and ClearQAM (unencrypted cable TV signal) up to 1080i.  It comes with a remote control and a telescopic antenna (with a magnetic base).  The bundled software is Elgato's EyeTV Lite for viewing and recording TV, which also supports the Electronic Programme Guide for scheduled recording.  However, EyeTV Lite records in MPEG-2, and contains no options for exporting to other formats.  You can upgrade from the Lite version to the full EyeTV 3 version for $50 to get more functions including exporting to your iPod, iPhone, Apple TV or to other formats.  See the comparison of the features of the two versions.

Mac users might want to check out the Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus (covered on a previous TTTT in Episode 582) which has a hardware encoder (especially if you use it as a video converter), or the 2009 version of the EyeTV Hybrid (without the hardware encoding).  Both are bundled with the full version of EyeTV 3 software.

The Pinnacle TV for Mac HD mini Stick can also be used on Windows, using the bundled PC software Pinnacle TVCenter Pro and Pinnacle VideoSpin.

Skype Issue Resolved
Dick and Leo were having problems with the quality of the Skype connection while recording yesterday's episode.  Dick resolved it by switching to his HP computer from the old Atari and stopping his internet-connected blender which was madly downloading movies using bit torrent.  Rebooting his router also helped.

Feeling At Home
When Dick travels, he uses his Slingbox (Episode 11) to watch his local channel, including his Channel 7.  It makes him feel at home.
 
A Love Letter
Tom Stidham asks Leo not to sing the jingles, which is painful.  On the subject of jingles, Tom thinks that the Wednesday Jingle can be replaced at any time.  It is actually pulling down the quality of the show, as if that were possible.  Other than that, excellent.

The Authorised Dick and Leo Not Singing Album
Dick and Leo think they should release an album of them not singing.  Get the authorised version.  Don't accept substitutes.

Coming Soon: The Amazon Kindle 2
Leo was hoping he could review the Amazon Kindle 2 for today.  It is arriving soon, and he should be able to cover it next week.


Listen to Episode 777
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Dick was at the Miami Boat Show 2 weeks ago, and he has brought back some marine accessories.  The Seasucker is one of them.  It's not the marine equivalent of the Purseguard (Episode 406) to secure your anchor, nor a barnacle remover, as Leo guesses.  It's a device for mounting your gadgets and other possessions securely to the boat without drilling holes.  A SeaSucker is a vacuum cup from which you pump the air out until the red indicator disappears, when you can attach your belongings.  It can hold attachments weighing 120 lbs or 210 lbs depending on the size of the SeaSucker, available in 4.5" and 6" models.  You can also "daisychain" SeaSuckers together on an aluminium track or on a SeaSucker Bridge to increase the load.

Seat Sucker
The SeaSucker would be perfect for attaching Leo to his fitness ball, and he could parade himself too on Butter and Eggs Day.  It would be called the Seat Sucker.  Dr Mark Sukoenig (eyedocmark) from the Chatroom chips in:  If a psychic had a SeaSucker, it would be called a seersucker.

Wizneyland Guest
Leo has had his share of visitors at the TWiT Cottage while recording, and Dick has his first guest in his studio, Bob Butcher, an engineer on Metro North.

TWiT Cottage Plus
TWiT is expanding again, taking up another room upstairs.  Dick calls it TWiT Cottage Plus.

Bill's Law
According to Dick's naval architect, if water is gushing into your boat through a one-inch hole, you need to drill a 2-inch hole in order to get the water out.  The rule of thumb is to double the size of the hole.

Multi-Colour Sporks
Scott Kingsley (Chatroom handle: ibreakfortwit) loves the Daily Giz Wiz, except for Tuesdays.  It's most unflattering when the Tricaster zooms in to find Leo under his desk.  He suggests that Dick just give Leo multi-colour sporks to end his misery.

The Energy Detective
Dick and Leo have talked about the power monitor Kill A Watt and Kill A Watt PS before, most recently when a Canadian listener wrote in to say that it was available on loan from his local library in Ajax, Ontario (Epiosode 721).  Scott has an alternative, which his library also lends out.  It's The Energy Detective (TED) at theenergydetective.com.



A Gold Star for Dick
Dick wants to get a gold star (or whatever colour is available) for his icon in the IRC Chatroom, preferably with a royal crown and a sceptre.  Darth Emma will be crowning or knighting Dick as a Mod.


Listen to Episode 771
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Listener Dan McCormick, who suggested the Multi-Colour LED Light Bulb with Remote Control (also carried by Think Geek) in Episode 704, wonders if Dick, who did the original Neverlate 7-Day Alarm Clock in Episode 421, knows that there is a new upgrade model of the Neverlate clock.  Does Dick know?

"Dan, Dan, Dan," sighs Dick, "what do you think this is, sitting on my shelf right here?".  "Who do you take us for, complete amateurs?" Leo chips in.

The original Neverlate clock features a 7-day alarm schedule (different alarm time for each day).  The new Neverlate  Executive Alarm Clock, retaining the same 5" cube body design, can best be summarised as a 2x 7-Day Alarm Clock, as it allows you to set two 7-day alarm schedules, for you and your significant other.  Plus 7 extra independently configurable alarms in addition to the two banks of 7-day alarms.  The alarms can be set as one of 4 buzzers and 20 preset FM/AM radio stations.  You can also use the clock as speakers and charger for your MP3 Player via the USB port, too.  The best feature for Dick remains the nap timer fuction - one of his all-time favourites was the Westclox Nap Timer (Episode 40).

Power Needs
Dick has heard about the power cut during the ice storm in Kentucky and thinks the folks there could do with his Honda Super Quiet Generator (Episode 69).

In the Year 2020
Dick and Leo talked about doing podasts in 2020 (in Episode 750), and Tobias Robinson has some gadget suggestions, including 4D glasses and the morphing Smart Spork.

A Riddle from Leo
"What gets wetter as you get drier?" Leo asks, hoping to stump Dick.  "Leo, Leo, Leo.  Who do you take me for, a complete amateur?" - should have been Dick's riposte.  Instead, he quips, "A sponge?"

Next Recording Session
Note the change of schedule.  Dick will be off to the Miami Boat Show this week, and the next recording session has been brought forward to Monday (today) at 15.15 (Pacific time) or 18.15 Eastern time.  Dick and Leo will do 6 shows including the 3rd Anniversary show for 20th February 2009.


Listen to Episode 761
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Keyboards and mice collect all sorts of dirt, grime and bacteria over time, but are difficult to clean.  Leo is known to have put his keyboards into the dishwasher for cleaning, and listeners have tried that too, some less successfully than others (see Episode 560).

Now finally there is a consumer keyboard designed to solve that problem.  At CES this year, Seal Shield exhibited their line of Silver Seal Keyboards which are waterproof, spill-proof, dishwasher-safe and antimicrobial.  The surface of the keyboards is coated with "Silver Seal" which uses silver ions embedded in high grade plastic to create an antimicrobial solution that inhibits or slows down microbial and bacterial growth.  When the keyboards get dirty, they are can be fully submerged in a sink of sudsy water, or put into the dishwasher, for a thorough cleaning.  They come with a "Seal Cap" which protects the USB connector during cleaning.  Dick was given a sample which survived his modest dishwasher.

Dick and Leo think this is a great product, even though the name "Seal Shield Silver Seal" is a bit of a tongue-twister.  Also available are dishwasher-safe mice and universal remotes.  Leo is going to get a numer of these keyboards for the TWiT Cottage, and perhaps a dishwasher too.

Another Glowing Keyboard for Dick
Dick warns Leo that before he orders his keyboards, he should know that a new glowing backlit model is coming from Seal Shield.  It's the Silver Flex, also dishwasher-safe and anti-microbial.


In Defence of the Cell-Mate
Kevin Selle boldly goes where no one wants to tread.  He is standing up for the Cell-Mate (Episode 744), and encouraging the company to forge ahead.  Why stop with the cellphone?  Who could argue against the benefit of a giant velcro patch on your head and attaching stuff on to your head so you won't lose it again?  Keys-Mate, Spork-Mate, Flashlight-Mate, Passport-Mate (hello, Jennifer), Purse-Mate (goodbye to the Purseguard, Episode 406) come to mind.  Just don't try it with the UroClub (Episode 598).

Link: A Short History of Pocket TV

From 1984, Panasonic released this Travelvision TR-1030 in Japan, selling for ¥29,800 (which was worth about US$125, according to Wikipedia's historical exhange rate of the Yen).  It was a black and white portable television set. Its dimensions were about 3" wide, 1.5" high, and 6" deep, with a 1.5" screen.  There was also a 1.3x magnifying lens add-on which increased the screen to about 2".  Panasonic started with the model TR-1010 in 1981, and Dick got his model in 1985.  It was still using a CRT for display, and was then the world's smallest CRT TV.

With the imminent conversion to digital TV, these old analogue portable TVs are not going to work, although you can get a Winegard portable battery pack for one of their digital TV converters.  For details, go back to Episode 675.

Ken Ronckovitz heard Leo surmise that they would still be doing podcasts in 2020.  Ken suggests that they can do that now.  Just pick any current gadget, laugh about it and they will have all the Gadget Warehouse podcasts they need for 2020.

Ken started listening to some of the old shows and heard the old Visa ads.  He thinks Leo should remind the sponsors that their ads keep on getting new listeners.  Leo knows that only too well, but sadly sponsors only pay for downloads in the first 3 months, and only for those in the US (when 30% of TWiT's audience are from outside the US).

Dick has posted the DGW "Future of TWiT" Button (see Episode 747) and the Inauguration Avatar on his website.  You can't buy the Button, but you can buy GizWizBiz Caps with LED lights from Dick.