15 posts tagged “time warner”

On the MacMania geek cruise to China, Leo is going to do 4 lectures: 60 iPhone apps, 60 free Mac apps, social networking tips (including Twitter), and using the Mac Mini as a Home Theatre PC.  An icing on the cake for the Mac Mini Home Theatre is Elgato's Turbo.264 HD.  H.264 is one of the MPEG4 compression standards.  Its advantage is being able to compress videos into smaller files while maintaining quality.  The disadvantage is that playback is very CPU-intensive, and the encoding process takes a very long time compared with other compression standards.

The Turbo.264 HD is a hardware encoder, using a USB connection, to speed up the encoding process.  It accepts many input formats including AVCHD videos (e.g. from HD camcorders), QuickTime, AVI, DV, Xvid, WMV and Video_TS folders, encodes them using the H.264 profile, and outputs to a variety of formats for the iPhone, iPod, Sony PSP, YouTube, YouTube HD, 720p HD, and 1080p HD.  Leo's experience is that it can encode videos twice as fast.

The Turbo.264 HD comes with Elgato's software for the Mac, and when plugged in, detects and gives you instant access to the videos on a camcorder.  It also works with other video software on the Mac for importing or encoding videos, including iMovie, QuickTime Pro, Final Cut Pro and Elgato's own EyeTV.

For a similar USB hardware H.264 encoder for Windows, Leo has heard about the BlackMagic Video Recorder.


DGW Scheduling
Because Leo is going away in July on his China tour, Dick and Leo are recording 6 shows at a time, starting with this session.  Dick will have to come up with more gadgets for each session, and will be going off to Las Vegas for the National Hardware Show which starts on 5 May.  Hence the first recording session for May will be on Monday 4 May, instead of the Tuesday.  Dick is looking forward to bringing back an arm load of gadgets from the show.

The Hilton's Suffering
Conventions have been hard hit by the economic downturn, and the Hilton in Vegas is hurting.  Leo thinks that's because they've stopped the Star Trek attraction, which reminds Dick of how he was berated by a PR lady for referring to the attraction on TV as "The Star Trek Experience", when it was "Star Trek, The Experience".  For the full story, go to Episode 261.

Leo's Autobiography
Various names have been touted for Leo's autobiography (for a previous discussion, see Episode 665).  Alessandro Abate suggests "Just One More Podcast".  For Dick's, someone has suggested "I'll Be Here".  Leo loves and repeats the motto used in Sandro's signature: "Never Surrender Dreams" (see Episode 797).

Dick's Lust For Life
When Dick loves something, he doesn't just admire it from a distance, but wants to be part of it, and that's what he's done with MAD and TechTV, the latter of which led to the Daily Giz Wiz.  At the recent Turner Classics presentation at Barnes and Noble (Episode 783), Dick introduced himself to Robert Osborne, and now he's been invited to co-host a TCM special next year on A Night of Movie Satires.


Listen to Episode 812
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The LineMinder, from around 1990, was made by a company called LM Communications.  It was a call screening device, which when a call came in, a recorded message would ask the caller to key in a 4-digit code and only if the correct code was entered would your telephone ring.  Otherwise, the call would be blocked.



Here's Mad In Your Eye Again
Dick thought he had run out of his trade paperback Here's Mad In Your Eye, but he has just discovered a box of 50 of them hiding behind an old bike in Dick's Gadget Warehouse.  At the time of recording, 10 had been sold.  Act now, and buy at BuyMadStuff.  Watch this space, for Dick might one day unearth Jimmy Hoffa, or an arm and a leg of Bill Gaines in a Kodak film canister.  For the full story of Bill Gaines's ashes, listen again to Episode 680.

The Ten-Cent Plague

Today's Audible Pick is a suggestion by a listener Bill Holton.  It's David Hajdu's "The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare And How It Changed America", which covers some of the stories Dick tells from time to time on the Daily Giz Wiz about MAD's early history.  Get an account with Audible at audible.com/gizwiz.

Dane Golden of TWiT has found a link to an episode of the On The Media Podcast by NPR, in which the author David Hajdu was interviewed about the book.  During the podcast, clips were played of Bill Gaines's evidence at one of the Senate subcommittee hearings on juvenile delinquency and comic books.  You can access the podcast or read the transcript of the podcast here.

For the full transcripts of the 1954 Senate Subcommittee hearings, go to thecomicbooks.com.  For the transcript of the evidence of Bill Gaines in particular, click here.

For a previous account from Dick of how MAD turned into a comic magazine, go back to Episode 76.

Irving Berlin et al v E. C. Publications
One of the episodes of PBS's series on comedy, Make 'Em Laugh, covers the lawsuit started by Irving Berlin and other songwriters against Mad Magazine, in which they sued Mad for infringing copyright by publishing song parodies.  Frank Jacobs of Mad was responsible for some of the lyrics.  One of the songs by Irving Berlin was "Blue Skies", turned into "Blue Cross" by Frank Jacobs.  Another song was "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody".  See Episode 71.  The p3 Blog has a good summary of the lawsuit.

Another Pick
Another listener, Doug from Stanhope, New Jersey, who wrote back in Episode 300, has suggested another Audible Book to read: Spycraft, about the CIA's gadgetry.


Listen to Episode 780
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At CES, Dick saw someone apparently smoking a cigarette and wondered why.  It turned out it was not a cigarette, but some kind of cigarette substitute or alternative.  You screw a fully charged battery to an atomiser, then at the other end, insert an NJOY cartridge.  You can start enjoying the cartridge.

Each cartridge consists of water, propylene glycol, a scent, and nicotine.  It gives the flavour of smoking to the smoker but without the smell of tobacco, as the "smoke" that comes out is an odourless mist.  One NPRO cartridge is the approximate equivalent of half a pack of cigarettes.

As the cartridge contains nicotine, it is not a smoking-cessation device, but just a cigarette alternative.

A New "Voice" for Dick
Dick has started using the new microphone (Heil PR-40 Studio Microphone) that Leo sent him.  "We can't improve the quality, so we improve the sound," says Dick.

Changes at Mad
Sadly, Mad has decided to publish the magazine quarterly, instead of monthly.  Circulation and ad revenue are down, and Time Warner has had to let 800 employees go.  You can read about the news on Dick's website.  When people heard the news, the most frequent inquiry was "What's going to happen to the What The Heck Is It game?"  Dick's income is going to drop a bit, but he may start doing the Daily Giz Wiz twice a day, or have lunch with Madoff.

A Leo Jingle
Geoff Smith has done a Leo Jingle (La, la, la, Leo, Laporte), and a "Insert Name Here" Jingle for MacBreak Weekly, which Leo plays on this show.

The Hi Phone
There are scams around selling people the Hi Phone, probably made by Tangerine.

Presidential Ties
President Obama is the first president to have his portrait taken by a digital camera.  The EXIF data of the photo shows that it was taken on a Canon EOS 5D-Mark II, on 13th January, the day Leo did his TTTT gadget of the day - the Canon EOS 5D-Mark II (Episode 742).  "Does Leo have ties to the President?" asks Nick from Columbus, Ohio.  Leo has heard rumours that the new administration may be appointing Dick as the new Gadget Tsar.  Dick says they haven't got round to it yet.  They've been too busy putting off the Digital TV transition.


Listen to Episode 754
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Made by Grandma Keenan Specialty Products, the Flaming Fruitcake looked like a Christmas log but was intended for the fireplace as a combustible log.  Made of sawdust, wax, colour wood and colouring agents, it was not a food product.  "Have fun burning these calories."  "Finally a fruitcake you will enjoy."  Dick got it in 1991 from a PR agent, and the only reference to it on the web one can find is on Living On Earth, 24 December 1993.

Gadget Ideas
Steve Greenberg writes in his book Gadget Nation that it's not enough to have a good idea for a gadget.  It's all about marketing and distribution.

Mad Over Time
The Mad cover with Obama morphing into Alfred E Neuman (Yes We Can't) has been named by Time Magazine as one of the Top 10 Magazine Covers of 2008.  Obama has also been named 2008 Person of the Year.

When Mad first turned itself into a comic magazine, Time's review predicted that it would be a "short-lived satirical pulp".  Not only did Mad continue to thrive, but Warner Bros/Time Warner in due course acquired it and brought it under the same division as Time Magazine.  In the acquisition deal, Bill Gaines slipped a clause into the final draft of the contract reserving to himself the right to be unreasonable.  He also felt confident that the affairs of Mad would be totally unaffected because for the first few years, the new owners wouldn't even realise that they had acquired the new property.

For a fuller account of Mad's management after the acquisition, check back at Episode 68.  For the "unreasonable" contract clause, see Episode 106.

Book Royalty
Dick has written 11 or 12 Mad original paperback books.  For one of them, Dick got $12,000 as an advance payment from the publishers.  Dick was puzzled by the sheer size of the advance, and Bill Gaines explained that the big corporations never read the contract and he inserted a clause that the publishers had to print a million copies.

Powerline Technology
Mike Knox who has been listening to DGW since Episode 1 writes to clarify something about powerline carrier technology (PLC).  In Episode 713, Leo thought that the Belkin Powerline AV Plus Starter Kit would not work in Dick's situation as powerline technology would not work over 2 fuse boxes or power meters.  Mike points out that while there are different implementations of PLC, they will pass through fuse boxes and utilities meters and are completely transparent to the conduction of electricity and any signals multiplexed on to the power.  The signals will stop at utility transformers and will degrade over distance, but can go over to other homes.  Dick's own test has proved Mike right.

TWiG
Dick has a T-Shirt with a TWiG logo - This Week in Gadgets.


Listen to Episode 725
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Kingston has now made a 32GB version of their Elite Pro SDHC card, the highest capacity so far of SD cards, and Dick has asked a sample to be sent Leo's way.  It's a Class 6 SD card, with a minimum data transfer rate of 6MB/s.  Leo can now use it on his Panasonic HDC SD5 Camcorder (Episode 407) and his new Panasonic Lumix LX3 (which he has bought for Jennifer and which Leo may talk about on another TTTT), or as the equilvalent of an external drive by in combination with his Kingston Data Traveler SD Card Reader (see an example in Episode 353), or on his new MacBook Pro with a Belkin ExpressCard Card Reader, both of which can read SDHC cards.




Happy Birthday on the Manhattan
Dick celebrated his birthday on 19 October on the Luxury Yacht Manhattan on the Classic Habor Line with his friends.

Mad Auction
Steve Miller writes again, this time about the upcoming Mad auction at Heritage Comics Auction, the subject of an article on MSN.  It will be held tomorrow, and the artwork for the original covers (including Alfred E Neuman's first cover, by Norman Mingo in 1956) will be auctioned off.

Dick's Beloved Mad
Dick's favourite Mad issue was the one with a spoof of Poseidon Adventure on its cover, also Mad's best selling issue ever (see Episode 282).  The original artwork was auctioned off, and Dick did not bid, thinking it was beyond his means.  Annie Gaines bought it and it is now on loan to Dick for life.

Testamentary Wishes
Dick may not realise this, but he is fairly consistent with his "testamentary wishes".  See Episode 235 (Sea Urn) for Dick's previous hilarious expression of his testamentary wishes, and Episode 135.  He wants a death theme for himself.


Listen to Episode 687
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Today's gadget is also the What The Heck Is It gadget for September '08, which no one cracked, not even WTHII aficionado "Marked".  Made by Totes, maker of umbrellas, the Pocket Shave, when the cap was removed, revealed a razor that flipped up and out, and inside the cylinder was compressed shaving cream released by pressing a white button.  It was the size of a fat pen, and the cap even had a clip for your pocket.  A perfect travelling companion.  No sign of it now, but you can find an article on the New York Times still archived on their website.




A Poem for Dick's Gadget Warehouse
Ed Hansen from Rexton, Canada, long-time listener since Episode 1 (see his letter in Episode 204), has been inspired by the suggested name for Dick's mansion, "Wizneyland", to compose an opening poem for the Gadget Warehouse:


Wait For Dick
The phone rings for Dick, and Leo can't wait to play the Wait-for-Dick Jingle.

Parting With Junk
As may be expected, Dick is a real hoarder and has difficulty throwing out junk.  He tried disposing of the Atari Video Music (Episode 85), still in its sealed box, but in the end retrieved it from the trash bin.  Hence the Gadget Warehouse, where in some dark corner, there ought to be, in a little Kodak film canister, a bit of Bill Gaines, which Dick has yet to rediscover.  But Dick has unearthed an old Mad box with more original Match Game Cards from 1974 and 1975.  For more details, go to matchgamequestions.com.

Dick once even went to an Anti-Clutter Class.  You can hear the story in Episode 94.

Breaking Down Barriers
Tony Colonello, aka Kwai Nor or Kwai Naawy (little water buffalo) to his Thai wife, has been prompted by Episode 671 (the Mio Knight Rider GPS) to write about his own GPS.  The TomTom GO 720T not only has voice directions in Thai, but also can record any voice so that his wife can now nag him about his driving even when she's not in the car.

In support of the Daily Giz Wiz, he is now an Audible subscriber.  Being an Amazon Kindle (Episode 472) owner, he's got his wife to listen to Audible books on the Kindle, so she can learn English at the same time, breaking down cultural and language barriers.


Listen to Episode 680
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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
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The Socket Pocket by Perfect Curve is just a container to hold your mobile device while it is being charged, without having a great length of cable dangling down the wall and your device cluttering up the floor or your work surface.  Unscrew one of the screws on the socket plate and screw in the socket pocket through one of the openings at the back, while the cable can come through the opening at the bottom.  Available in white and beigey (or butter cream).

An idea similar to the Drinn, the WTHII gadget for November 2007.  See Episode 462.

Omentum
Learn about waist management and the omentum.

Saving Endangered Namesakes
Adam Merkley of the RSL Show (Real Salt Lake, a professional soccer club in Utah) and AYL Soccer was reminded by Leo's story of the Save The Tasmanian Devil Fund of his grandfather's experience at the old Jaguar factory in England.  Apparently Jaguar used to make donations to South America to save its namesake, and now still donates money to help preserve the rainforests in South America.  Adam suggests that Warner Brothers should help save the Tasmanian Devil because of Taz the cartoon character.  Dick says the Mad Crew first.  They're still trying to get Time Warner to give them folks at Mad a Christmas Party.

Listen to Episode 564
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The Wake and Shake from Clearsounds is an alarm clock on steroids, with jumbo numerals, phone signaller, under-the-pillow shaker (a vibration pad), and a strobe light.  Its alarm can give off up to 95 decibels (adjustable).  You can choose any combination of the alarm signals to wake up to (sound, shaker, strobe light, flash).  You can also connect your phone to the back of the clock, and it will start flashing for the hard of hearing.

For other alarm clocks for hardy sleepers, see the Clocky Walking Alarm Clock (Episode 306) and the Flying Alarm Clock (Episode 328).

What's Thursday got to do with it?
Leo likes Thursday because it's like the end of the week.  That makes sense, except it's Wednesday.

Sleeping Habits
Leo goes to bed around 10 pm and wake up at 6am.  Dick goes to bed between 3 and 4 am.

You say Potato, I say Potahto
Dick is reminded of a comedy show of an audition, in which a singer sings "You say potato, I say potato," which Dick thinks is a Cole Porter song.  The song is actually "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off" by George and Ira Gershwin from the 1937 film "Shall We Dance?" starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

At night the Sporks pick on me ...
Virginia from California was at Taco Bell when she noticed a line on the hot sauce packet which Dick and Leo would love to see: "At night, the sporks pick on me ..."  Those poor defenceless hot sauce packets.  Who would have thought that sporks were evil?  Virginia also points out that Microsoft Word does not have the word "spork" in its English dictionary.  Leo confirms that it's not in the latest Mac 2008 Word either.  Dick and Leo are justifiably peeved over this glaring omission.

Listen to Episode 508
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Connect the StealthSwitch to a USB port on the computer, place it on the floor, tap it with your foot, and all your open windows disappear showing only the default Windows desktop.  Tap the foot pedal again and your applications reappear.  You can customise it by configuring which application windows(s) should remain on the screen, such as the Excel worksheet you're supposed to be working on in the office.  Use the StealthSwitch to protect your privacy, or hide your naughty goings-on.  Windows only.  Watch an animated demo of how it works.  Available at Think Geek.

The Lemonade Girl in Manhattan
While talking about Halloween in Manhattan, Leo remembers seeing a little girl selling lemonade at a street corner in Manhattan.  He was so touched that he bought some from the girl.  Before you conclude that it was very sweet of Leo to do that, listen to how Leo paid the poor girl, in Episode 121.

Mad Computers
At the Mad Office, the computers in the Art Department are all Macs, and the Editorial Department are all PCs.

Leo as Dev Null
"The Vegas Cabbie" wants to hear the full story from Leo of how Dev Null came about in the programme "The Site" on MSNBC.  Leo has done it before (Episodes 149, 187), but this is the fullest account he has given yet on DGW.  You can see a clip of Dev Null singing Happy Together, accompanied by Andy Cahan of the Turtles on the piano, in either of those old episode blog entries, at the very end of which, you can even hear Leo doing the famous NBC G-E-C chimes.

Of Mouse And Man
Dane Golden has found an old short film done by Aaron Lubarsky in 1996 about computers and technology.  It has Leo talking about the future of portable devices and entertainment networks.  His predictions were pretty good.  Leo has posted it on his blog, or watch it here.

Listen to Episode 434
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