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About Me

 

Known as MAD's Maddest Writer, co-host of The Giz Wiz with OMGchad at www.GizWiz.TV, The Giz Wiz on ABC's World News Now, and on Tech Guy Labs with Leo Laporte on www.TWiT.TV

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Dick's Blog & Log...

Here's info on stuff and photos I found interesting, and you might find them interesting too. And yes, our disclaimer too!

Entries by The Giz Wiz (117)

Saturday
Dec052015

Need an unusual holiday gift? Check this out.

POWERCAP LED Lighted Beanie Hats combine Ultra Bright LED technology with a premium Compression Fleece beanie style hat to provide you with the perfect hands free flashlight. The soft, moisture wicking lining will pull moisture away from your head and keep you warm and dry. The 4 LED's provide more than 48 Lumens. When you click the easy on/off switch hidden in the band, you'll notice that 2 of the LED's are angled down at 55 degrees to light up where your hands are for close up tasks, while the other 2 LED's are aimed forward to light the distance up to 72 feet away. 4 CR2032 Coin Cell batteries hidden in the band provide up to 68 hours of life and are easily replaceable. Under $25.00.

Company website: http://www.panthervision.com/powercap/general-use/beanies.html

 

They're $24.99 here on Amazon, plus $1.99 shipping:

 

http://amzn.to/1IuRMJJ

 

I have a limited number of these caps for sale in Navy or Olive. Mine are the same price, but you get a free autographed Feb 2016 MAD Magazine, a $5.99 value. (Assuming you like MAD!) Sorry, but only US orders. And I'll also send them by Priorty Mail for no addtional cost, another reason US orders only. Thanks!

Choose Color
Autograph MAD to:

Thursday
Jul302015

Lenovo makes an elegant All-In-One, the A540.

The Lenovo A540 All-In-One, is just like it says, All-In-One, except maybe for a disc drive, but not much use for those these days. Okay, so no disc drive, but this is what IT DOES have:

Processor – 4th Generation Intel Core i7-4558U Processor (2.80GHz 1600MHz 4MB)

Operating system – Windows 8.1 64

Display – 23.8″ FHD LED All In One with Multi-touch function (1920×1080)

Graphics – Intel® Iris™ Graphics 5100

Memory – 8.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3L 1600 MHz

Hard Drive – 1TB 5400 RPM+8GB SSHD

Optical Drive – None

Network Card – Broadcom 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi wireless

Bluetooth Version 4.0

Built in SD Card Reader

 

The A540 also ships with a very high-tech looking 2.4G Silver wireless Mouse & matching 2.4G Silver wireless Keyboard.

 

The screen is big, bright and tiltable, but it doesn't move up and down. It has a thin, rugged, heavy base so you don't have to worry about tipping the computer over if you accidentally knock against it. All the connections are at the back of the base, so from the front it all looks neat and tidy. The screen is 23+”, but big enough to just say 24”. And it's a great touch screen, one of those ten-finger touch screens Lenovo is famous for. I edit my Giz Wiz videos and even my b-roll for ABC News on this machine and the performance is perfect for that. I think the last gamed I played was the original PacMan, so I can't tell you about gaming on this, but I bet it's just fine.

 

The A540 comes with Windows 8.1, but you can upgrade to Windows 10 if you like because this machine can easily handle it. Although I use the built in speakers for editing and watching video clips, you'll probably want to use headphones or connect this system to a larger speaker system for watching movies. But for built-in speakers, they're better than average. Also with Bluetooth turned on you can get better sound without wires - assuming you have a decent Bluetooth speaker hanging around. I like the included keyboard a lot, but the mouse doesn't have the scroll wheel you normally expect. At first I thought they left it off to make the mouse look as sleek as the rest of the system. But after playing with it for a minute I realized it's uses track-pad-like scrolling. I tried to love it, but after a week, I plugged in an old 'scroll wheel' mouse. Outside of that.... the Lenovo A540 is an elegant and powerful All-In-One! Price starts at about $1,000, and will depend on the processor and sale prices. I always tell people to check the Lenovo website because they have incredible weekly deals.

 

www.lenovo.com

Friday
Apr242015

MAD Magazine tries something new.

.....a guest editor. And who better than Weird Al! Here's more info from MAD!

A VIEW TO A SHILL DEPT.


ON SALE March 21, 2015: MAD #533, Guest Edited by "Weird Al" Yankovic!

MAD's Maddest Writer, Dick DeBartolo with MAD’s Maddest Guest Editor! 

MAD #533 — featuring our first-ever Guest Editor, the one and only "Weird Al" Yankovic — is on stands now! Pick up a copy today for mandatory fun like "Pages from Weird Al's Notebook," "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions: Special Weird Al Edition," and "MAD's Tom Bunk Visits a Weird Al Concert"! Plus, Al answers readers' letters and picks his favorite classic MAD article for The MAD Vault! And it gets even worse: this big issue also features "Things You Never Want to Learn from Ancestry.com," "Things to Ask Your Sex Ed Teacher (Just to Mess with Him)," and our parody of "American Sniper"! Plus, we go off the deep end with The Strip Club, the Fold-in, Planet Tad, and Sergio Aragonés' "A MAD Look at California"!

Dare to be stupid — buy MAD #533 today! Available everywhere magazines are sold, and also on your iPad!

www.madmagazine.com

 

Tuesday
Jan272015

Congrats to TWiT's Mike Elgan who just passed 4 million followers over at Google+. Amazing!

But I have to disgree on a recent post by Mike: Worst thing ever: KFC's 'Double Down Dog' - a hot dog in a bun made out of fried chicken! And mystery "cheese sauce."

Mike must not have seen KFC's Triple By-Pass.

(I sold the idea to MAD, but KFC, not yet. But it looks like they working in that direction.)

Sunday
Jan042015

Yep, I'm on my way there!

International CES 2015 is starting in Vegas.

Last year more than 160,00 retailers, manufacturers, press, etc. attended. It's expected to be even bigger this year! (My feet are tired already.) The year I mesured my steps, I walked 17.2 miles in 3 days. Yep, CES is big!

Just from the press releases I've received, hundreds of them, they'll be a ton of "wearables" on display. Most focus on your health, exercise, sleep patterns, appointments, info on in-coming calls, all while telling the time. One of the different wearables I already saw is the Visijax, a wearable jacket for bikers with built-in LED turns signals. Second most received press releases are those pitched “smart home” gadgets. I already saw the Internet refrigerator that tells you when you're running low on milk, but I can tell that pretty easily when I pick up the container. They'll also be a LOT of 3D printers at the show. They are being used in many exciting ways. A friend of mine recently went to a techie dentist and only had to wait 40 minutes for a new 3D printed tooth. They'll be lots of car tech gadgets and far less interesting, tons of phone cases and tablet holders. I'll sort through as much as I can and report back on The Giz Wiz, The Tech Guy, World News Now and Computer America! In the photo is Jeff Joseph Sr. VP, CES Communications and Strategic Relationships. (He's also a nice guy.)

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