Episode 1098

MAD is Back
In Bill Gaines’s time, MAD had 8 issues a year, then 12 issues a year when Time Warner acquired MAD.  Last year, it changed to a quarterly publication.  Now it’s decided to be bimonthly.  Dick is technically not on the staff of MAD.  He’s a “permanent freelancer” (out of choice) – basically someone who is there most of the time but with absolutely no fringe benefits.  Don’t give Leo too many ideas!

Tech Talkback
Dick enjoys the freedom of being a freelancer and working with smaller independent enterprises (such as TWiT).  Just the other day, TWiT’s video editor Erik Lanigan asked to do a show, Leo said yes, and that’s how Tech Talkback came about.

Roasting Beans
Silvio from Escondido, California, has been a listener of the show since the beginning, and in fact started listening to Leo on a radio show with John C Dvorak.  He heard Leo talk about roasting coffee the other day, and Silvio has a story to tell.  His parents immigrated to the States in 1962.  Back then it was difficult to find good espresso coffee in southern California.  His mother used to buy green coffee beans and roast them in the backyard with a roaster she brought from Italy.  The aroma was magnificent, but the neighbours thought they were nuts, and Silvio felt they were the Italian version of the Addams Family.

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Episode 1097

A Letter from Mars
Leo kills two birds with one stone today.  His gadget is a listener's suggestion in the letter of the day, from Kevin Slater from Mars, Pennsylvania.  Leo thinks that the Nokia BH905 may be better than the Bose QuietComfort (most recently QuietComfort 15 in Episode 908, which is similar in price, but the Nokia can operate in both bluetooth and wired modes).

Sense of Humour
Kevin's email was originally sent to Dick.  Kevin enjoys the show, especially Dick’s sense of humour, not so much Leo’s.  Dick gleefully passes the letter on to Leo.

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Episode 1096

One Better
Swiss Tech’s BodyGard 5-in-1 Emergency Tool has 5 utilities: automatic glass breaker, safety-blade seat belt cutter, sonic alarm, flashing red distress light, and bright-white LED flashlight.  It does one better than the 4-in-1 Safety Stick from Episode 541 (which Leo alludes to in the show, though not by name).

BodyGard 5-in-1 Auto Emergency Tool
Another DGW Marathon
Andrew T has been a listener since Episode 1 – but only since CES 2010 when he first saw Dick on TWiTLive.  Since then he has been trying to catch up, not daunted by the prospect of over 1000 episodes to listen to.  At the rate of about 50 episodes a week, he reckons he will level up by August.

Finnish Letters Jingle Revisited
Andrew T is also fascinated by the Finnish Letters Jingle (created by a Finnish listener and podcaster Henrich Antonin), which was played from Episodes 151-160, and wonders if Leo can still find and play it.  Dick and Leo simply sing it live.

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Episode 1095

Wacky Alarm Clocks
Dick has covered a number of wacky alarm clocks for the hardy sleeper, including the Clocky Walking Alarm Clock (Episode 306).  In Episode 328 when he covered the Flying Alarm Clock, he mentioned another example of the same genre, called the Rude Awakening, which is today's warehouse gadget.  It would blast out rude wake-up calls such as:

"Listen, you good for nothin' couch potato!  Drag your fat, lazy ass out from under those ... sheets, now! ... Do you wanna be flippin' burgers for the rest of your life?"

"C'mon, I said get your lazy ass out of bed, right NOW!"

"Listen, lazy bones...it's time to get your butt to work, NOW!"

Rude Awakening

Ramen Spork
Forrest from Loomis, California has been listening to DGW since the days before “I’ll be here” was introduced into the public consciousness.  He remembers fondly about the Titanium Spork (Episode 182) which became a big hit, and reports that the Japanese have made their own adaptation of the Spork for eating Ramen noodles, called the Ramen Spoon/Fork, also available from the Museum of Modern Art.

Ramen Spoon/Fork

Spknork
Dick was sent a pack of sporks with serrated edges, probably better called spknorks.  They look like the ones from Episode 294, which a listener wrote about.

Sporks from Light My Fire

Variations on the Theme of Sporks
Past shows where listeners wrote in to talk about various iterations of sporks are too numerous to tabulate, but here are some examples:

Episode 282 - knork

Episode 294 - the spork to end it all (the same spork that Dick shows in the current episode)

Episode 297 - the Nyfork

Episode 325 - the Spork Restaurant in San Francisco

Episode 587 - the Spork Family Tree cartoon

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Episode 1094

Streaming Live Events on TWiT
The success of TWiTLive’s coverage of CES and SXSW has spurred Leo on to stream more live events.  TWiT is going to lease the LiveU (Episode 1052), which gives them 30 hours of live-streamed programming every month.  Coming up will be:

E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo for gaming) in Los Angeles in June.

In July Leo hopes to cover the Maker Faire in Detroit and the Ford plant.

In September there will be the sci-fi/comic strip Dragon Con in Atlanta (with Tom Merritt and Brian Brushwood).

For October, if things work out, Dick and Leo might do Episode 1200 somewhere together.

In December Leo will be off to Paris for the European tech conference LeWeb.

Digital Tea Dunker
Marion McGrath heard in Episode 1076 about the Breville One Touch Tea Maker which dunks the tea into the water, and lifts it up, for you.  Marion has a simpler, and cheaper, solution.  She makes a smart playlist on iTunes with songs that last between 3 minutes and 3 minutes and 20 seconds.  Any song on the list will act as a timer for her tea making.

Gift List
Marion also thanks Dick and Leo for giving her gift ideas: the GizWizBiz Cap for her pilot brother, and the Pill Grinder (Episode 1074) for her dysphagic father.  She can’t wait to get the Rock Guitar T-Shirt (Episode 986) for her teenage nephew.  Last but not least, she got herself a new Ford Focus.  She hopes one day soon, they’ll give her a gift idea for her technophobic husband.  Dick suggests the Card Keyfinder from yesterday (Episode 1093).

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