24 posts tagged “titanium spork”
Brookstone Programmable Electronic Nameplate
Electronic Scrolling Name Plate
Link: Carilion Marketplace
Brookstone used to sell this Electronic Nameplate, one side showing the time, date and temperature, the other side is an LCD scrolling display for your name and other programmable messages up to 16 characters. Brookstone doesn't carry this any more, but Carilion Marketplace seems to be still selling it, in bulk quantities.
Hearst Tower, New York City
The original Hearst Tower was completed in 1928. Out of the old cast stone facade which has been preserved is the new building, a glass tower framed by triangular structural steel "diagrids", designed by Norman Foster and completed in 2006. Leo is thinking of building a skyscraper out of the Victorian TWiT Cottage.
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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Find DGW Info on GizWizSearch
Folding Titanium Spork
Camping Accessory
Link: TAD Gear
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
New Year Resolutions
New Year's Day Special
Twitter Offer
Leo offered a trip to France to anyone who decided to follow him. Dick thinks Leo should have added, "Transportation not included."
Withdrawal Symptoms
When Leo was away, Dick missed doing the show, and had to go on Stickam.
Listen to Episode 734
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Travelon Luggage Scale with Tape Measure
Travel Accessory
Link: Travelon Bags
Thanksgiving Eve
Dick is going to make his pineapple upside down cake again. For his recipe, take a look at the classic cookbook Joy Of Cooking and just double up the amount of butter and brown sugar for the topping.
A Tale From the Tunnel
Dick has an old tale to tell about a trailer truck which was too high for the Holland Tunnel and got stuck. A little boy had a brilliant solution. Don't saw off the top. Just let the tyres out!
Air Tickets form 1983
Recently unearthed from Dick's Gadget Warehouse are air tickets from 1983, from New York to Miami, and to Oakland.
That Blinking Idiot
While recording the show, Leo notices a blinking light behind Dick (near the top right corner of the screen), and Dick can't work out what it was. But the chatroom works it out. It's the flashing cursor of Leo's mouse on his Skype video screen.
Stromberg Carlson TV Sets
Dick and Leo find out that Stromberg Carlson, apart from the Candlestick telephone that jammerb gave Leo (Episode 696), used to make radio and television sets as well. Leo also uncovers an advertisement from 1950 on TV History.
Apocalyptic Waste
Software developer Michael O'Connor (Lepton in the Chatroom and the TWiT Army), who has followed Leo since the days of "The Site" (see Episode 187), plays Fallout 3 on the PS3 and finds, among the apocalyptic waste and wreckage in Washington DC, a spork (Episode 182), which he uses on his rocket launcher - which can do serious damage. Michael has recently developed an iPhone app called AirMote which has found its way to the iTunes App Store.
Listen to Episode 708
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T-Mobile G1
Smartphone
Link: T-Mobile G1
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 Peek
Email Device
Link: GetPeek
The Peek is a small, thin portable device that does nothing but email, not for the hardcore techie but aimed at those who find computers too complicated and just want to start using email. It's a take-off of the Blackberry in design, with a qwerty keyboard and a thumbwheel at the top right. If you use a web-based account (such as hotmail, gmail, AOL), all you need to do is key in your email address and password, and it will download your contacts for you. If you use an email account provided by your ISP, you'll need to call Peek Support. It supports up to 3 email accounts on one machine.
The backbone of the wireless service is provided by T-Mobile. You do need to open an account with the Peek, for $20 a month. It's a monthly subscription, and there's no need for a long-term contract. Available in 3 colours (aqua, red and grey) at Target stores and GetPeek itself.
20 Funniest Episodes
Eric Whistler has gone back to some of the older episodes, including the classic Episode 182, the Spork. Eric wonders if Dick and Leo have their favourite, say, 20 funniest episodes. Difficult to pick, but Dick remembers fondly the Purseguard Ultra (Episode 406), and the Talking Photo Album (Episode 463) in which Leo had a Gracie Allen moment.
The Burns & Allen Show
Dick recounts moments from the Burns & Allen Show, and Leo plays a YouTube video of an "embedded" commercial for Carnation Milk, and forgets whether they've read a letter or not.
Audio Bone
Over-the-Ears Stereo Headphones
Link: AudioBone
First Fan Mail
At the age of 69, Bill Quinlan writes his first piece of fan mail, and it's to Dick and Leo. Bill is completely hooked and listens to it on his 3-mile walk each night. It's dark and no one can see him laughing hysterically during his walk. His wife still uses the VCR Co-Pilot (Episode 665). He recently revisited Episode 182 (having received his order of the Titanium Spork from Think Geek to replace the Tony the Tiger Spoon), and Episode 590, the Palm Pilot (and he's using the latest Palm device the Palm TX).
The Psion 3a Series
Mention of Palm again excites wistful memories of the Palm Lifedrive and Psion 3a which Leo loved. If only it had calendar and address book synchronisation, which Palm did introduce.
Meanwhile, Leo is waiting for something which reminds him of the Psion andwhich he will review for us. Before Leo can tell us what it is, he's sidetracked and forgets about it. Probably the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, which Leo will get from Google and has ordered.
Eagle Creek Multi-Function Travel Clock
Travel Accessory
Link: Eagle Creek
Brand New Monday Jingle
It's a brand new week and a brand new day and a brand new Monday Jingle, from Dan Lueders again, which has incorporated Leo's Monday ditty, their occasional slogan "The worse your life is, the better we sound" and even the Gravy Slogan.
Rock My Teeth
Patrick Warn from Georgia, Vermont writes about Rock My Teeth - a musical tooth-whitening system. Attach the whitening kit to your iPod and the music, Professor Bocelli claims, helps line up the peroxide molecules to make it easier for them to penetrate through the enamel into the dentin to whiten the teeth. Watch the video here. Dick thinks the HydraBrush (Episodes 226, 480) - though Dick thinks it's called Turbo Brush - makes a lot more sense.
Cotati Accordion Festival
Dick is joing Leo at TWiTLive on Friday 20 June 2008, and Dick has had difficulty getting a room at the local hotels, because that weekend is the Cotati Accordion Festival. Dick manages to book himself a 2-night package at the Metro Cafe and Hotel, one of Leo's favourites. Kim from Wild Planet is going to demonstrate their Christmas toys and she'll come dressed as an elf.
Listen to Episode 566
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Lowepro Slingshot 200AW
Camera Backpack
Link: Lowepro
The Slingshot series gives you backpacks with a single shoulder strap, called the sling strap, ergonomically designed to evenly distribute the load over your body. It has a nice camera compartment large enough to fit your DSLR and its mounted lens, with a built-in micro-fibre cloth to protect the camera's LCD screen; storage spaces for additonal lenses and flashes; a memory card pouch; an all-weather cover which you can slip out from within the bag to protect the bag from rain, dust and other inclement conditions, and other compartments and attachment loops for further storage.
It's called the Slingshot because you can swing, or sling, the bag from your back to the front easily, giving you convenient access to the contents of the bag without having to unload the bag from your shoulder. The largest model is the Slingshot 300AW, with an extra padded waist belt to distribute the weight on to your hips. The 200AW and 100AW are smaller sizes, which have a "stability strap" for added stability.
You can watch a demo by Lowepro at this link, or better yet, watch Leo's own demonstration from the Freycinet Peninsula in Tasmania, before he set off for the Freycinet Forest.
Chicago-based Dan Lueders, who made a gravy jingle submission and the theme-free Wednesday Theme, has done a TV commerical for the TV Event of the Year, a new cop show called "The Spork". For more details on Dan, see the blog entry for Episode 528.
Listen to Episode 547
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Wake And Shake Alarm Clock
Alarm Clock
Link: Clearsounds
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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