Episode 953

Steadepod
The Steadepod is another alternative to the traditional tripod, after the Gorillapod (Episode 151) and The Pod (Episode 793).

Steadepod
Canon PowerShot S90
Leo is trying to justify getting the Canon PowerShot S90 which has taken a leaf out Panasonic's book for the LX3 - a moderate 10 MP on a large sensor (for a compact camera), 28-105mm range, with a fast f/2.0 aperture at the wide end.  It was announced back in August but has only recently become available.  Leo doesn't need a reason for buying it, but if he does, there's always TTTT.

Canon PowerShot S90
Windows 7 Upgrade Loser
Both Dick and Leo had their glitches during their upgrades to Windows 7.  During one of his installations, Leo was doing a radio interview and the other fellow was mocking Leo and his house party.  When Leo had to key in his user ID, the fellow suggested "loser", which Leo did.  In the end, Leo decided to wipe it clean and do another install.

From Schenectady, New York to Rough and Ready, California
GE Product Paul McElligott, whose parents met in Schenectady (see Episode 768), lives in Lake Forest, California, and would very much like to keep the TWiT Home Office to his home state.  He suggests Rough and Steady, a historic mining town which enjoyed a short-lived secession from the Union in 1850 and rejoined 3 months later when the townsfolk realised that they couldn't do without the 4th July celebrations.

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Episode 952

This Week In eBook Reader
Opher Banarie suggests that Leo do a This Week In eBook Reader show, with the news of the announcement of the Nook from Barnes and Noble, the price cut of the Kindle by Amazon, Sony's new models, and the story of a Kindle 2 owner who got compensation for dropping his Kindle and having it replaced by Amazon for free.  See the Gizmodo report.

Leo laments the fact that he's already covered the Kindle (Episodes 472, 787), but is looking forward to reviewing the Nook on TTTT.

The Nook from Barnes and Noble
The Late Soupy Sales
Soupy Sales died at the age of 83 on 22 October 2009.  Dick and Leo have often talked about him, most recently at some length in Episode 826, including his custard pie routine, White Fang, and always wondering if the Twitter page bearing his name was actually his.  Dick, it turns out, has written for 2 of his shows.  Dick recounts a joke (first told by Dick back in Episode 161) by Soupy Sales, about a motel he was staying at, which was so bad that even in the picture postcard prepared by the motel itself, the beds were unmade.  The last time Dick met Soupy was 8 years ago at Carnegie Hall for a tap dancing special, when Soupy introduced Dick to Donald O'Connor.

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Episode 951

Windows 7 Party Time
Dick didn't reply early enough to get an invitation to the official Microsoft Windows 7 Launch Party in Manhattan, but the night before, HP had its own launch event, where Dick met Paul Thurrott of Windows Weekly.  For the record, Dick was not thrown out of the party, as Leo seems to have suggested.  The following evening Dick attended the Windows 7 party at the Antarctica in Soho in New York, organised by Paul and others.  No cold shoulders there either, and Dick got another copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, this time from Paul.

Windows 7 BestBuy
BestBuy is selling a package of 3 HP computers, a monitor and a router, complete with installation (of the router) by the Geek Squad, all for $1,200.  It includes an HP Pavilion Slimline Desktop, an HP Laptop (both with Intel Pentium processors, not the Core Series, integrated graphics, 3GB RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium), an HP Mini Netbook (Atom processor, 1GB RAM, 10" 1024 x 600 display, Windows 7 Starter Edition), an HP 18" LCD monitor, and a Netgear wifi(g) router.

The TWiTmobile and Shaker Audio
Leo was shopping for a new car 2 weeks ago, and it didn't take him long to get one.  There appears to be a sponsorship/advertising deal on the horizon or at least under discussion, and Leo can't talk about it just yet.  We know it's red, has an external antenna, and is a new version of an American classic model.  Speculation is rife about what car it is.  Leo posted on his blog a video of a test drive with fellow TWiT colleagues and a picture of the audio system in the car, which is a Shaker Audio system.  The indications are that it's one of the 2010 Ford Mustang models.

Shaker Audio in Leo's new car
Uroclub Sale
Kevin from New York City saw an episode of the ABC show Shark Tank, in which the owner of the Uroclub (made famous by Dick in Episode 598) appeared on the show to pitch his company to the panel of CEOs, $25,000 for 50% of the company.  Only one CEO made an offer, $25,000 for 75% of the company.  The deal was done.

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Update on November 4, 2009 by Inside DGW

The Uroclub on Shark Tank: Video
Thanks to SComn, who's posted in his Comment a link to the video, on the ABC website, of extracts from the show.  Here is the link.

Episode 950

Poetic Interval
Leo breaks into poetry and botches Robert Frost's Mountain Interval: The Road Not Taken - Two roads diverged in a yellow wood ...

Wacky Interval
And then Leo breaks into a wacky promotion of the product of a sponsor, for which Leo suggests rather unconventional uses.  It's almost as crazy as the Visa commercial in Episode 145.  This time, Leo is wise enough to request an editing out of the segment, which is not included on the audio download.

Another Solution for FM Transmitters in Cars
Since Episode 921 in which a listener asked for a solution to interference to FM transmitters caused by local FM signals, we've had a raft of suggestions, including breaking off the antenna (Episode 934) and tuning in to 87.7MHz left open by analogue TV channels (Episode 936).  Jason Ells has another solution to offer.  Jason notes that most car radios allow you to select the country or region for FM reception, and he sets it to Japan.  He can still tune in to American stations, but the Japan mode lets him select a much lower frequency than local stations, which does away with the interference giving him perfect sound from his FM transmitter.

A Streetcar named Deep Fryer
The New York Times recently reported on the conversions of some streetcars to use restaurant grease as fuel, and somebody called it "A Streetcar Named Deep Fryer".

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Episode 949

Another CleanWave
The CleanWave UV-C Portable Toothbrush Sanitizer is the 2nd Verilux CleanWave product that Dick has covered.  The first one was the Pocket Wand in Episode 766.

From East to West
John H Wilson from Burbank, California heard Dick talk about the incongruous stock images of Manhattan in the Mike Hammer series (Episode 935).  An even worse offender is The King Of Queens, in which whenever the characters are in a car (supposedly in the neighbourhood of Queens in New York), the background footage is always Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank, California.

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