Vox’s posts tagged leo laporte

DGW Episode 637

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:44:18 +0000

AppleCore's aTV Flash

Software Hack for the Apple TV

Turn-The-Tables-Tuesday

AppleCore's aTV Flash is a software upgrade for the Apple TV (Episode 152), which does not void the warranty for the Apple TV. It's a collection of Open Source hacks for the Apple TV. You reformat your Apple TV, put the software on your own USB flash drive, plug it to the back, reboot it, and you get added capabilities for the Apple TV, including playing various media formats which Apple TV cannot, and plugging in your own external USB hard drive.

You can also do it yourself for free, with Patchstick.

An Unbiased Comment
Leo has a letter to read, c/o Dick. An employee of Shoes.com A J Fuller is peeked that Leo has mentioned Zappos.com for getting shoes, but has never mentioned Shoes.com.

Under the Desk
Dick recently learned that Charlie Chaplin in the silent film Modern Times operated all the devices and gadgetry under the table all by himself, which reminds him of Leo. It's all under the desk, including Leo's TTTT gadgets.

More on the PurseGuard
Check up on the latest sales figures of the PurseGuard Ultra (Episode 406), and learn again about Dick's Piloti shoes (and the spelling) and speed laces. Dick wears the Spyder SV. Leo wonders if the Piloti shoes will fit, as he has feet like pancakes.

A Refund for Leo
Leo has made enough noises about his unfortunate incident with PayPal to enable him to get a refund, finally.

Listen to Episode 637
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

DGW Episode 636

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:00:47 +0000

Dress For Dinner Napkin

Apparel

Link: Spoon Sisters

Dress For Dinner Napkin

A napkin available at Spoon Sisters with a tie printed on it. Four designs to choose from. As Leo suggests, it might go with your tuxedo T-shirt.

For a much earlier implementation of the same idea, by Al Jaffee for Bill Gaines, listen to a Mad story told by Dick in Episode 21.

The Few, The Proud, the Depressed
Leo's wife Jennifer doesn't like the slogan "The worse your life is, the better we sound". She doesn't understand that the Daily Giz Wiz is made for the few, the proud, the depressed.

For the origin of the slogan, listen to the last few minutes of Episode 391, the letters section.

At Two With Nature
During his summer break at the Gray Eagle Lodge at 6,000 feet altitude, there were no internet access, no cellphone access, no subway, no buses, no Starbucks, and what's more, no oxygen, which gives Leo a headache. There were board games with missing pieces, and crushed ping pong balls. A great holiday then.

Dane in New York
Dane Golden visited Dick in New York and was given a tour of the Mad Office. He also treated Dick and his friend Dennis to lunch which Leo kindly offered to pay with the TWiT credit card (Visa of course), with a cap of $20 for 3.

Sucker City
Mad did a spoof of a Circuit City ad and called it Sucker City. An employee at Circuit City did not like the parody and decided to pull Mad off the shelves at some of the outlets. The PR found out about the bruhaha and wrote an interesting letter of apology to Mad, offering a Powerpoint presentation of at least 300 pages and a Circuit City gift card of $20 towards the purchase of a Nintendo Wii, if Mad could find one. The letter is reproduced on Dick's home page.

For some interesting reactions by people or names who have been spoofed by Mad, see Episode 74 and Episode 426.

Making Noises
Randal Schwartz's story of party lines and modems (Episode 623) has prompted a letter from a New Zealand listener David McLoughlin, who drew our attention to a 56K Modem Emulator at LazyLaces.com. If you miss that familiar dialing tone, you can click "Connect" on that page to listen to it again.

Listen to Episode 636
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Lets get this Started...

nobody@vox.com(Seth_lord) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:55:26 +0000

I've always wanted a blog, if only to get my opinions, my ramblings or even the humdrum of my life out there.

I'll be protoing a few different ideas and based on what works and what doesnt will dictate what gets more exposure.

Version One will have two sections,

Each Blog will Start with the standard What Im doing now thing:

My life under the Scope: is the basic humdrum of my life, its generic information about where I am at the point of time as well as a recap of what Ive done between the last post and this one.

The Tech Deck: I am a Technophile, I have a lot of tech I use regularly, and things I still have yet to get. this section will be about what Im using, how Im using it and what I want to get. I might even do reviews if I get something new.

Okay, here we go XD

What Im doing now:

Listening to: Music: Metallica (Master Of Puppets-Welcome Home (Sanitarium))

Netcast: This Week in Tech ep138: The Inventors Dilemna

Book: Re-Reading Halo: Contact Harvest

Game: Re-Playing BioShock

Website: twitter.com Follow me on Twitter

My life under the Scope:

This week is going to be very slow for me, as I will not be working, so it means that I'm sleeping later which is good, as I didnt like waking at 5.40, though for a reason I cant remember, I woke up at 7.30 this morning thanks to my alarm...there had to be a reason, but nothings come up so it mustn't have been important. I spent most of the day blasting Splicers and ripping sea slugs from young girls... of course I was playing Bioshock for the second time through. I rushed it last time, this time Im taking it slow, trying to get the achievements I didnt get. I was also listening to TwiT (This week in Tech) podcasts, which is a great way to get a laugh and to learn things in the tech world.

The Tech Deck:

Im upgrading my trusty and ever faithful Toshiba A200 X01 again tomorrow, going from 2gb RAM to 4gb RAM, and from Vista Basic to Home Premium, though after researching the issue, and listening to the advice of those who know better (nods to Leo Laporte and Paul Thurott from TwiT) I will not be upgrading to 64-bit as I will only be getting 3 gigs out of the four, and you only really need 64-bit if your using more than 4gig. I have been planning on doing this for a while, but I havent had the time to do so. This upgrade will assist me in connecting my 360 through Windows Media Center and to connect my Zune directly to the console as well. Though Im having some issue considering that the Console is coded to Australia and the Zune hasnt EVER been released here...but Im sure that I'll figure something out by then.

Well this is my first official blog, stay tuned for another trip through to the Dark Side XD

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I'm a TWiT, live in concert

nobody@vox.com(InsideTWiT) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:41:55 +0000

Geoff Smith performed this recently in Nashville. Video by Chris Marquardt.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

DGW Episode 635

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 09:09:01 +0000

Timex Internet Messenger Watch

Paging Watch

Link: Amazon

Dick's Gadget Warehouse

Timex Internet Messenger Watch

Timex, who made the Datalink Watch (and its later incarnation the Datalink USB Watch: Episode 20), also made this Internet Messenger Watch. It used FLEXtime to give you the correct time whichever city you were in, and through SkyTel retrieved paging/email text messages (up to 100 characters) and displayed them on the watch, and you could scroll through the messages. It came with a 12-month free subscription to the SkyTel service which gave the watch a special telephone number, and messages were sent to [telno]@skytel.com.

Timex Internet Messenger Watch Instructions

The battery it used was not the common watch battery, but the zinc-air hearing aid battery. Because it kept checking for FLEXtime and paging messages, its batteries did not last very long.

Leo's 5 Visa Cards
Leo gets a little carried away with the commercial and shows off his 5 Visa Cards on TWiTLive, then gets worried that he might have revealed too much.

Todcasts
Dan from Fontana, California, would love to watch Dick and Leo recording DGW but cannot sit in front of the computer all day long like a vegetable, and wonders if the videos will be downloadable as podcasts, or as Leo calls them, Todcasts (TWiTLive On Demand). Leo replays the live shows over the rest of each day, and has got Cachefly to agree to provide the download bandwidth for special segments (and GizWizLive would fall into that category). Leo is still working on it.

Sunday Theme
Premiere of the Sleeping-In Sunday Theme. Right at the end of the show.

Listen to Episode 635
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

Send to a friend

DGW Episode 634

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:02:50 +0000

Lexmark X9575 Professional

All-In-One Printer

Link: Lexmark

Lexmark X9575

The Lexmark X9575 Professional is an all-in-one printer aimed at the SOHO business user. It is a printer, scanner, photocopier and fax. Connection can be via USB2, ethernet or WiFi (g/b/n). The printer speed is up to 33 ppm (black) and 28 ppm (colour), up to 4800 x 2400 dpi, and can do borderless colour prints. Supports PictBridge direct printing from the camera, with a 2.4" colour screen for selection or editing. The flat-bed scanner has an optical resolution of 1200 x 4800 dpi, 24-bit colour depth. The photocopier is capable of reduction and enlargement from 25% to 200%. The fax supports black and white or colour faxes, with 99 speed dials and 100 pages of fax memory. Auto document feeder capacity of 50 pages.

The Drunk Professor
The last time Leo appeared on Regis and Kelly (which was February 2007: see Episode 246 when Leo was in New York visiting Dick's Gadget Warehouse), he was asked to wear a lab coat which made him look like a drunk professor. He's been invited to go back, but this time, Leo thinks he might insist on a tutu.

Golden Boy
Before Dick's visit to TWiT Cottage for GizWizLive, he could hardly remember Dane's name. This week Dick cannot stop talking about him, and there is now talk that Dane, "who needs to be needed", might defect to GizWiz Productions, especially with the threat of the upcoming spy-cams all over the TWiT Cottage.

Leo mentions the name of Tony among the TWiT crew. He's Tony Wang, the new TWiT netcast editor, taking the place of Dane Golden after the latter's promotion to President and BizDev Guy.

Privacy is Dead
James aka Uncle Big Bad wants to know what Dick and Leo thinks about how the internet has changed everything about your personal life. According to Leo, Google doesn't think there's such a thing as privacy any more.

The Wild Wild West
Learn about Robert Conrad playing James West in The Wild Wild West.

Listen to Episode 634
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

DGW Episode 633

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:51:48 +0000

Battery Bug

Starting Battery Monitor/Car Accessory

Link: Battery Bug

Battery Bug

The Battery Bug monitors the battery level of your car (when it needs the biggest power draw), using what it calls "CrankCheck" technology to keep track of how well the battery is performing, and gives you an alarm when your battery needs recharging or replacing.

Mama Laporte: from leoville.com

Mama Laporte Podcast
Odelia Baker is much attracted to the idea of a Mama Laporte Podcast, who finds all the suggested topics appealing. "What is one more podcast to Leo?" Odelia asks rhetorically. Leo did put Mama Laporte on audition, and she made it through.

WTHII 0807

WTHII July '08
These are Painters' Pyramids. It makes painting different surfaces of an object easier, and without having to wait for the other sides to dry first. A lot of people got the answers right (partly because it was shown recently on a DIY show). Many others have come up with wild and funny guesses. Ancient Egyptian Mobile Home Park, Protective Cover for Michael Jackson's nose, special dice used at the Luxor Hotel.Leo is so blown away by the answers that he falls off his chair (well, his fitness ball).

An Application of the Painter's Pyramid

Listen to Episode 633
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

Send to a friend

DGW Episode 632

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:36:34 +0000

Opteka 0.43x HD² Fisheye Converter Lens

Converter Lens for Panasonic HDC-SD5 Camcorder

Link: Opteka

Turn-The-Tables-Tuesday

Opteka 0.43x HD² Fisheye Converter Lens

A converter lens for for selected models of Panasonic camcorders from Opteka. Because of the small sizes of the CCDs, modern digital camcorders generally have long focal lengths, great at the telephoto end but poor at the wide-angle end. This Fisheye Lens screws on to the camcorder's lens thread and has a conversion factor of 0.43x for the focal length of the built-in lens. so that the wide-angle end of Leo's Panasonic HDC-SD5 camcorder can be converted from 42.9mm (135mm film equivalent) to about 18.5mm, which Leo's son, Henry, uses to shoot skate-boarding videos. The same lens is made for different brands and models of cameras and camcorders, such as Sony and Canon. Make sure you get the right one.

Leo's Panasonic HDC-SD5

Interestingly enough, the sample photo and video on the Opteka site are both taken of skate-boarding scenes, obviously the in-thing to do for skate-boarders.

Photo taken with the Opteka Fisheye Lens

A Letter for Leo
How about N, says Dan from Tampa who has decided to help Leo out with his lack of letters.
IND
M A D
Bruce from the chatroom asks what the "IND" in small print next to the letter in M in some Mad Magazines meant. Not MAD MIND, but just a reference to "Independent News Distribution".

Ebert and Roeper
Dick received a number of emails about the show At The Movies with Ebert and Roeper going off the air because they couldn't agree with the producers on the show's format. Years ago Dick met Siskel and Ebert and it became a meeting of the Mutual Admiration Society.

Listen to Episode 632
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

DGW Episode 631

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:13:20 +0000

Cobra MR F300 Bluetooth Handset

Bluetooth Handset

Link: Cobra

Cobra MR F300 Bluetooth Handset

Cobra's MR F300 is a bluetooth handset designed for use on boats where there is a lot of ambient noise. It pairs with your cellphone and produces loud and clear audio through its powerful speakers, with a noise-cancelling microphone which is enabled by pressing the PTT button (push to talk). It's also waterproof for 30 minutes under 1 meter deep water.

A Sleeping-in Sunday Theme Coming Soon
Dick and Leo will be playing the new Sleeping-In Sunday Theme this Friday.

A Little Weekend Accident
Dick's boat was damaged by a giant wake caused by a big Staten Island Ferry as it zoomed by the marina.

Old Movies
Listen to Dick and Leo talk about Highway Patrol starring Broderick Crawford, and Plan 9 From Outer Space directed by Ed Wood (which they referred to back in Episode 176, when talking about The Amazing Criswell).

Make Your Own Ringtones
Dick was about to read again Shane Gibson's letter about making ringtones from DGW jingles (Episode 629), when he realised he had read the letter. Leo suggests audiko.net for helping you make your own ringtones.

Pure White Noise
Regular correspondent Jim Levine thought he and his wife were the only people who couldn't sleep without the noise of the air-conditioner on, until he heard Dick (see especially Episode 559, the Marsona Sound Machine, although Dick has mentioned this habit of his in Episode 445 and most recently in Episode 612). Jim found a CD which plays air-conditioning white noise, from Pure White Noise.

Eye Fi Explore
Leo has bought the Eye Fi Explore (Episode 608), just in time for his summer break at the Gray Eagle Lodge.

Listen to Episode 631
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

DGW Episode 630

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:16:24 +0000

Motorola Cellphone MP3 Player

MP3 Player/Cellphone Accessories

Link: Business Wire Article Amazon

Dick's Gadget Warehouse

Motorola MP3 Player

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).

Leo's Mackie Onyx-1620 mixer

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.

Behringer Podcastudio Firewire

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
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

Read and post comments | Send to a friend