4 posts tagged “xian”
Lift N Lok Professional Toolbox
Self-Fastening Toolbox
Link: PDY Systems
The Lift-n-Lok is a toolbox with 3 compartmentalised drawers and a storage bin at the top. The neat feature is, when the handle is lifted, the cam connected to the ends of the handle not only fastens all the drawers but also lifts the drawers to remove the spaces between them to prevent spillage. It's best to see a demo.
Catching Up
It's been 3 weeks since Dick and Leo last talked, and they take the opportunity before the recording of the show to catch up:
- Dick has worked out that if he and Leo should take a week off for
the Christmas holidays, the recording of Episode 1000 will fall around 4th January (it should be Tuesday 5th January). Dick can then come
out to Petaluma to do the show at the TWiT Cottage, and then go on to CES in Vegas, which will take place from 7th to 10th January.
- Sunday In The Park with Leo
Leo had a walk in the park one Sunday evening in the Temple of Heaven Park in Beijing, and was ready to meet the Chinese version of the Sharks and the Jets or the Crips and the Bloods. Instead, he chanced upon a group of middle-aged Chinese women doing a co-ordinated dance, and before long, another troupe came along to perform Beijing Opera.
TV Vegas Style
Leo's account of CNN's story on the Xinjiang riots being blocked in China reminds Dick of how Howard Hughes, before the days of the VHS or DVR, used to ask his TV station to rewind parts of a TV programme - while it was being broadcast.
He Said, She Said
Comedian Steve Allen and his actress wife Jayne Meadows were a great couple. They never got an answer wrong on He Said, She Said. The story goes that one night, Jayne Meadows had a dream in which she was caught in a building on fire, and Steve Allen in his own dream rescued her from the building. Both Dick and Leo think highly of Steve Allen, and David Letterman has also admitted he has been very much influenced by Steve Allen, too.
A Fine Analogue
15-year-old Steven Rodriguez, better known by his handle optionshiftk, is in the chatroom while Dick reads his letter. Steven wonders if Dick and Leo are familiar with the raconteur and radio show host Jean Shepherd, famous to modern audience for his Christmas Story, but who for many years hosted a show on WOR Radio in New York, telling stories and anecdotes, reading poetry and making observations about life in New York. Steven has not had the benefit of spending nights with Shep, but the Daily Giz Wiz and other shows on the TWiT Network provide him with a fine analogue.
Leo grew up listening to Shep, which decided Leo's career for him. You can get Jean Shepherd on Audible, or follow the links provided in the website Flick Lives.
Weather Direct WD-3103
4-Day Internet Powered Wireless Forecaster
Link: Weather Direct
Weather Direct by La Crosse Technology makes a huge catalogue of weather stations with a whole range of different functions, which Dick first talked about in Episode 501, after CES 2008. The WD-3103 is described as a 4-Day Internet-Powered Wireless Forecaster. Hook up the Secure Weather Gateway to your router, and 24-hour weather information on your chosen location (from a choice of 60,000 locations) will be sent wirelessly (up to 330 feet) to the display unit. Also included is the TX-50U wireless temperature sensor which sits in your backyard or garden and keeps track of your own outdoor temperature.
No subscription is required for weather information on one selected location. There are subscription packages if you want to receive forecasts alerts or severe wether alerts, or just add 4 more monitored locations. You can also check whether there is a location near you from Weather Direct's list of locations.
One-Click Peril
The WD-3103 is available on Amazon, which means one-click trigger-happy Leo has ordered it through his membership of Amazon Prime. Leo has to ask TWiT intern Abby Laporte, who is around in the studio, to stop him by slapping him hard. This obsessive buying reminds Dick of Bill Gaines. When Bill learned from Dick that the Casio TE2500 Dictionary Watch (Episode 45) was available at a reduced price, he thought it was a great bargain and bought one for everyone at MAD.
A New Journey for Leo
Today, Leo and Henry will be heading to Tokyo on Northwest Airlines Flight 27, en route to his China Tour. Leo is most looking forward to seeing the Forbidden City in Beijing, which commoners were prohibited from entering, in China's imperial days.
Kung Fu
Kung Fu star David Carradine, who played Kwai Chang Caine aka Grasshopper in the show, passed away on 3 June 2009. This reminds Dick of a MAD magazine parody of Kung Fu, featuring "Mosquito" who chose a blade of grass over a sack of gold, and got slammed by his master. Hence the title of the satire - Kung Fool. Check out collectmad.com and look for Issue 164 in January 1974.
A Visit to Skywalker Ranch
Leo had the privilege of visiting the Skywalker Ranch, courtesy of Greg Edmonson and Alan Steinberger, composer and arranger respectively for the sci-fi TV series Firefly, to watch them work with a 70-piece orchestra who were recording music for the PS3 game Uncharted 2. Leo interviewed them on TWiTLive on 10 June 2009, video at odtv.me. Those of us who are less fortunate than Leo would have to content ourselves with watching the virtual tours of the Skywalker Ranch, at Skysound.com.
The Sinkable Titanic
This is the 3rd letter about Episode 844. John Paradox, a parody writer for the Daily Giz Wiz (see Episode 520), reminds Dick and Leo, who were wondering what Titanic musicals there were, about the Unsinkable Molly Brown, which was first a musical, and then a film.
Welcome to Hell
Jeff Lundberg, from Northville, Michigan and long-time listener since Episode 1, has another suggestion for the TWiT Home Office. Dick and Leo have already got Kalamazoo, but how about Hell, Michigan? For souvenirs from Hell, try hell2u.com.
Bounceback Ultimate
Backup Software
Link: CMS Products
A piece of software from CMS Products, the Bounceback Ultimate. It backs up everything (data, operating system, settings) on your hard drive to any external USB hard drive, which is a bootable backup. You can also back up to multiple drives, create versioned backups, enable encrypted backups, recover any lost data from the backup, restore your computer to a previous state, and if your hard drive has failed, even boot up from the USB hard drive (as long as your computer BIOS supports booting from a USB device). You can buy from CMS a hard drive with the software installed, or you can buy the software as a stand-alone product.
Leo's China Tour
Leo is nearing his China Tour. He'll be staying at the Raffles Hotel in Beijing first, visit the Great Wall of China from there, the terracotta warriors in Xian, the Li River in Guilin, turn back to Beijing before going on the Geek Cruise, which will visit places in Korea and Japan. He will be leaving the TWiT Cottage on 2 July and come back on 18 July.
Missing 499
Curt Estridge, whose letter was referred to in Episode 841, listens to the Daily Giz Wiz at work with one earbud, leaving half an ear for his boss. Curt does listen to a stereo podcast which it is OK to listen to with one ear, and that's "Says You", also available on Audible. Curt loves the Daily Giz Wiz, and all the MAD Magazines he's won from the WTHII game. He hasn't missed a MAD issue, except Issue 499 which he couldn't find anywhere. Dick invites Curt to send him an email to sort that out.
Leo doesn't beg
Leo is looking for cycling accessories, including the cyclocomputer-GPS Garmin Edge 705. Leo will not beg for it from Garmin, but Dick might. Dick's got Plantronics to send Leo a Voyager Pro (Episode 829) for him to review.
Pre-View Unit Controversy
Just don't talk to Leo right now about review units, as yesterday, Leo, ever the nice guy, threw an uncharacteristic fit on TWiTLive during the Gillmor Gang show, over his being one of a select group of tech journalists who had been given a review unit of the Palm Pre. Read a summary of it on John C Dvorak's blog, which also has a clip of the video that contains strong language from Leo in reaction to comments from Mike Arrington.
Anyone who has listened to Leo for any length of time knows how meticulous Leo tries to be in returning review units, and how many gadgets he's had to buy for himself, to avoid even the appearance of a possibility of conflict of interest, even though it is fairly common for journalists to keep some review units - in which case the reviewer needs to prove his credibility in the long term, and many journalists have succeeded in doing so. But it is against this background that Leo's reaction and use of language must be understood. It must have been extremely galling for Leo, who has spent so many years building up a reputation of integrity and a relationship of trust with his audience, to find himself at the wrong end of a suggestion of a possible lack of independence by another tech journalist as experienced and knowledgeable as Arrington, just because Leo got a review unit.
Arrington has put his side of the story on TechCrunch. In the midst of the explanations and justifications in that blog post, Arrington has made an apology. Leo in response has also made an apology in the comments section. Read it all for yourself.
Listen to Episode 846
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Leo's China Tour
Leo is nearing his China Tour. He'll be staying at the Raffles Hotel in Beijing first, visit the Great Wall of China from there, the terracotta warriors in Xian, the Li River in Guilin, turn back to Beijing before going on the Geek Cruise, which will visit places in Korea and Japan. He will be leaving the TWiT Cottage on 2 July and come back on 18 July.
Missing 499
Curt Estridge, whose letter was referred to in Episode 841, listens to the Daily Giz Wiz at work with one earbud, leaving half an ear for his boss. Curt does listen to a stereo podcast which it is OK to listen to with one ear, and that's "Says You", also available on Audible. Curt loves the Daily Giz Wiz, and all the MAD Magazines he's won from the WTHII game. He hasn't missed a MAD issue, except Issue 499 which he couldn't find anywhere. Dick invites Curt to send him an email to sort that out.
Leo doesn't beg
Leo is looking for cycling accessories, including the cyclocomputer-GPS Garmin Edge 705. Leo will not beg for it from Garmin, but Dick might. Dick's got Plantronics to send Leo a Voyager Pro (Episode 829) for him to review.
Pre-View Unit Controversy
Just don't talk to Leo right now about review units, as yesterday, Leo, ever the nice guy, threw an uncharacteristic fit on TWiTLive during the Gillmor Gang show, over his being one of a select group of tech journalists who had been given a review unit of the Palm Pre. Read a summary of it on John C Dvorak's blog, which also has a clip of the video that contains strong language from Leo in reaction to comments from Mike Arrington.
Anyone who has listened to Leo for any length of time knows how meticulous Leo tries to be in returning review units, and how many gadgets he's had to buy for himself, to avoid even the appearance of a possibility of conflict of interest, even though it is fairly common for journalists to keep some review units - in which case the reviewer needs to prove his credibility in the long term, and many journalists have succeeded in doing so. But it is against this background that Leo's reaction and use of language must be understood. It must have been extremely galling for Leo, who has spent so many years building up a reputation of integrity and a relationship of trust with his audience, to find himself at the wrong end of a suggestion of a possible lack of independence by another tech journalist as experienced and knowledgeable as Arrington, just because Leo got a review unit.
Arrington has put his side of the story on TechCrunch. In the midst of the explanations and justifications in that blog post, Arrington has made an apology. Leo in response has also made an apology in the comments section. Read it all for yourself.
Listen to Episode 846
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Fuzz That Wuzz
Soft Toys
Link: Mary Meyer
Fuzz That Wuzz is a line of cuddly soft toys or stuffed animals made from recycled plastic bottles, designed by Mary Meyer. Each toy contains at least the equivalent of at least 10 plastic bottles that are saved from being dumped into landfills.
The Giz Wiz Musical
Leo has taken yesterday's letter rather too literally. He's treated it as a licence to write his own libretto and sing to his heart's content.
Railroad Riding in Sonoma Valley
Dick was given a link to people having fun on a hand-car on abandoned railroad tracks in the Sonoma Valley. Dick is very jealous. Here's the link.
Dick was given a link to people having fun on a hand-car on abandoned railroad tracks in the Sonoma Valley. Dick is very jealous. Here's the link.
Whine Train
Leo is still feeling contrite about not having arranged anything for Dick when Dick last visited Petaluma for GizWizLive. Next time he's going to take Dick on the Napa Wine Train.Wine Tasting
Dick was once taken to a wine tasting event by Bill Gaines. At the end of it, he could tell red wine from white. For more on the story, see Episode 87 and Episode 718.
China Contacts
Ron Schmidt's daughter has worked in Beijing for 15 months, speaks Chinese and teaches English there. Ron has kindly offered her as a contact for Leo on his Far East tour (from 3rd to 18th July) in case he needs any help.
Leo's China Geek Cruise
Leo studied Chinese (History) at Yale but has never been to China. He's very excited about this tour, the first week of which will be a land tour, during which he will be visiting places in China including Beijing, Xian (terracotta soldiers), Guilin (the scenic Li River). The cruise, which starts at Tianjin, will include Cheju Island in South Korea, Fukuoka and Nagasaki in Japan, where Leo would like to take Henry to see the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for Atomic Bomb Victims. That's a lot of mileage to cover in 2 weeks, but then Leo is used to doing 10 things at a time.
Listen to Episode 789
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
