Episode 1073

The Shape of Things to Come
TWiT started out as a small room in the TWiT Cottage and slowly expanded to take up the entire Victorian house.  Dick still remembers the first time he saw Leo on Skype in what used to be Cavanagh Inn, when Leo’s desk was empty.  Now TWiT is going to take up more space in the building next door which is part of the same 2-building complex.  It will be called the Giz Wiz Gazebo.

Who has the Dumbest Fans?
Dick was listening in on the recording of net@night earlier and heard them discuss Tom Scott’s Stupid Fight – which measures the stupidity of fans of celebrities.  Leo’s fans, it seems, are pretty dumb.

Narcolepsy
Listener RH discovered the Daily Giz Wiz from Episode 970 onwards, downloaded all the old episodes and now listens to the old shows whenever he can.  RH has narcolepsy and his condition has fast deteriorated even since.

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Episode 1072

A Spanking Letter
Randy Cola from Long Beach chastises Leo for calling Dick “Dickie De” instead of “Dick De”.  Dick explains that people at MAD call him Dick De, but Dickie De is a bastardised version to which he deigns to respond.  Does one say “safe deposit box” or “safety deposit box”, and “non” or “nun”?  Randy has listened to every episode of the show since Episode 1, and he can genuinely say that he “sort of” likes the show, but seriously he likes the way Dick and Leo improvise on the show.  It reminds him of good old-fashioned humour.

Podcast Award
The statuette for the Podcast Award the show won has finally arrived, thanks to Todd Cochrane.  Dick and Leo won in the comedy category.  See Episode 981.

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Episode 1071

MAD Magazine Clock on eBay Auction
Dick has decided to put his MAD Magazine Clock (Episode 1065) on auction on eBay.

Andy Warhol Giz Wiz Hommage
Dick shows off his Andy Warhol style Giz Wiz Hommage T-Shirt today, from Sue McAllister of Color Spot Printing.  You can get the same or other gizwiz-themed T-shirts from gizwizgarb.com.

Giz Wiz-Themed T-Shirt
Online Gadget
Rob M Lansing from Michigan listens to so many TWiT shows that he uses an online service called Podshifter to help speed up the podcasts.  Another listener called Devon Blaugh suggested the same service back in Episode 929.  Leo gives the same comment.  Although Podshifter is a good service, TWiT doesn’t get the numbers for downloads through Podshifter (as they don’t go through the podtrac redirect).  The iPod already has the speed-up function and that’s what he suggests listeners do if they have an iPod.

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Episode 1070

A Similar Fate
The Philips Screen Phone died a quick death in 1996.  5 years later, Compaq was to release the Smart Card Keyboard (Episode 450) which suffered a similar fate.

Charlie the Cat
Leo has a new addition to his family, a cat called Charlie, a big fat feline who, other than the occasional raiding of Ozzy’s supplies, manages to get along well with the Papillon.

Travel John
Pete Burtis from North Conway, New Hampshire finds himself strangely fascinated by portable urinals, such as the Uromug (Episode 1059) and the Travel John.  Pete notes that some of these disposal urinals are very popular with pilots of small aircraft.

Travel John's Disposable Urinal
DGW Live
The live recording of DGW has been moved, not to a later time on Tuesdays as Leo says on the show, but to 14:15 hours Pacific time on Saturdays.

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Episode 1069

Remote Home Monitor
Paul Goff grew up with MAD Magazine, and has been a fan of Leo since the ZDNet days, and a contributor to Leo’s tip jar.  Like another listener in Episode 1061, Paul heard Dick talk about using the answering machine to monitor his boat’s power supply.  He has long wanted to have a device to monitor his home when he is away, especially the operation of the furnace.  He’s finally found one, Home Protectors‘ PhoneAlert Home Monitoring System.

PhoneAlert Home Monitoring System
Eddie Carroll
Leo notes that Tesla boy Daryl Holmquist has written in, about the death on 6 April of Eddie Carroll, the voice of Jiminy Cricket and the performer of the show Jack Benny: Laughter in the Bloom. 

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