9 posts tagged “vinyl”

Stanton has been making cartridges for turntables for many years, and with the resurgence of turntables and vinyls, it's making new USB Turntables as well.  The T.55 USB is a belt driven turntable (using the Stanton 500.v3 cartridge) with USB and RCA outputs for converting vinyl music into digital form (with the free Audacity software).  For a more expensive direct drive equivalent, there is the T.92 USB.

Vinyl Resurgence
For an ABC News report on the recent rise of the vinyl, click here.

Scoundrels and the Way They Part You from Your Money
The biggest live audience Dick's had was probably about 1,500, when he gave a cruise lecture on the QE2 on scoundrels' schemes and scams.  Check out Episode 225 again for a fuller story of the lecture, and Dick's original story on the Mitey Mixer (later covered in Episode 870).

TWiT Home Office Suggestions
Chris Walker has more suggestions for the location of the TWiT Home Office: Possum Grape in Arkansas, Siberia in California, Bloody Corners in Ohio, and Mars in Pennsylvania.

Listen to Episode 894
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The Giz Wiz Home Page
Find DGW Info on GizWizSearch

Energizer has partnered with XPAL Power to introduce their new lines of Energi To Go portable power supply products (quite different from the existing Energi To Go cellphone and iPod chargers).  All chargers use Lithium Polymer rechargeable batteries which are lighter, more stable and non-inflammable.  Most importantly, they can be shaped into any forms which accounts for the shapes of the AP line of chargers.  The 3 lines are:

• AP series (AP1000 & AP1500) - each charger is just like an ordinary iPhone case with a dock connector into which the phone is slotted.
• SP series (SP 1000 & SP2000) - they contain solar cells for using light energy to charge the batteries (which can also take AC).
• XP series (from XP600 to XP18000) - the standard line of chargers, with power capacity ratings from 600mAh to a whopping 18000mAh, weighing from 1.2 oz to 7.9 oz.

All models come with the appropriate charging cables and tips.  Dick has also been told that Energizer will offer Free Tips For Life - allowing 2 new charging tips every year for owners, during the lifetime of the chargers.



Comedy for a Wedding
Bill Gaines liked Henny Youngman so much that he hired Youngman to perform at his wedding.

That New Great Invention
A warm welcome back, to Phillip White from Chattanooga, Tennessee, who last wrote in Episode 406.  Phillip heard in Episode 798 about the Digivina, the ultimate in retro style, and snapped it up in no time.  The CD-to-vinyl press certainly impressed Phillip, who has been converting his huge CD collection to vinyls.  Check it out at digi-vina.com, and look out for Digivina Portable.

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
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

The Digivina Does Not Exist
Yesterday's gadget was a hoax, Leo reveals.  What a shocker!



My Email Buddy
"My Em@il Buddy" is a USB gadget that lights up, does a dance and plays a sound file when an email comes in, shown at CES 2009.  Dick thought it would be a really annoying gadget, one of his more bizarre selections from CES.  German writes in to correct Dick.  He says that you can configure the My Email Buddy to do the routine (itself configurable) only when mail has come in from selected senders.  For a photo of the gadget at CES, click here.

Leo has no recollection that this gadget has been covered on the Daily Giz Wiz.  It wasn't.  Dick did cover it after CES but he only did it on Leo's radio show The Tech Guy Episode 526, but not on this show.

There was a similar home-made gadget called the Availabot (for instant messenger applications).  See Episode 119.

Rubber Stamping
Bill Gaines didn't have a secretary.  He answered letters coming in for MAD using rubber stamps.  His other quirks included berating people for not sending him bills and invoices promptly, and getting upset at Dick for his using one-time only typewriter ribbons.

The Motorola Cellphone MP3 Player received an innovation award at CES 2002, before cellphones had built-in MP3 players.  It was an add-on or accessory for selected models of Motorola phones, with an SD card slot and it came with a 32MB SD card.  The music would stop if a call came in for the cellphone, and the headset had a built-in microphone for voice calls.  Complete with belt clip.

This gadget was actually covered on a previous Warehouse Friday (Episode 380).  The only other gadget featured twice on the show so far was the HydraBrush (Episodes 226 and 480).

A Death and A Resurrection
The New York Times reported on the "funeral" party at Hachette, a publisher which finally decided to stop making audio books on cassette tapes.  At the same time, however, vinyl record sales have jumped (see this report on the Washington Times).



A Mixer for Podcasting
Jacob writes to Dick for Leo's recommendation for a 3-mic mixer for amateur podcasting.  Leo uses the Mackie Onyx-1620, but suggests the Behringer Podcastudio Firewire, a reasonably priced podcast kit, even though it has only 2-mic input.  Available from ZZounds.

Podcasting Pioneers and Distant Cousins
Podcasting started in September 2004, by applying RSS feeds to downloadable content.  Leo started to offer his radio show as podcasts in October 2004 and was among the first podcasters, such as Podfather Adam Curry, Dave Slusher of Evil Genius Chronicles and Doug Kaye of IT Conversations.  Dick, as we all know, started in February 2006 with the Daily Giz Wiz, a podcasting cousin twice removed.


Listen to Episode 630
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A stereo combo complete with amplifier, AM/FM radio, speakers and a turntable, from Brookstone.  On the front panel of the iConvert is a USB port, where you can plug in a USB thumb drive, and an SD/MMC card slot, where you can insert a flash card, to convert your 33⅓ or 45 rpm vinyl records into MP3 files and store on to your flash memory.  Choice of encoding bit rate from 32 kbps to 256 kbps.  No need for a computer.  You can also connect it to your home stereo system via the line-out.

The iConvert is a cheaper option than the Crosley Songwriter in Episode 229 (which plays 78 rpm vinyls and cassette tapes as well, but records directly on to CDs).  Another option often suggested by Leo and mentioned in this episode is the ION USB Turntable (TTUSB) which is even cheaper, and plays 78 rpm records, but needs to be hooked up to a computer.

Dick also refers to the iConvert in Episode 6 of Don Reisinger's The Digital Home Podcast, and talks about many other things, including, naturally, Mad.

Dane and Dean
Recently Dick has been calling Dane Golden, TWiT's Editor-in-chief, a different name - Dean.  That hasn't dented Dane's enthusiasm for the show, who has recently posted a YouTube video of an old footage of Dick on the 50th Anniversary of Mad Magazine.  Read Dane's blog on InsideTWiT.

Favourite Days of the Week
B Schwartz writes to Dick to say that his favourite days of the week are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  He also asks Dick to forward the following email to Leo: "My favourite day of the week is Tuesday!"

Listen to Episode 529
Go to TWiT
Read Dick's Write-Up