Episode 908

A Podcast Fit for a Corgi
Paul Newell from Yucaipa, California asks Dick and Leo for a favour.  For his recent 50th birthday, he received from his wife Teri a new exercise machine in the form of a new corgi puppy, the Queen's favourite animal.  The corgi needs a daily walk of 45 minutes.  Paul wants to the listen to the Daily Giz Wiz on the way out, and an Audible book on the way back.  Could Dick and Leo oblige him by making the podcasts exactly 22 and a half minutes long?

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Episode 907

Axia PowerStation and Element
The new sound board at TWiT Cottage, courtesy of Telos, with the PowerStation which is a computer system, and the Element 2.0 which is the control surface.

Axia PowerStation and Element

Acoustibuds
Leo was going to do the Acoustibuds, even checked on Ludwik's GizWizSearch (which returned a negative result), only to find that they had been covered by Dick in Episode 806.  In the video here (from odtv.me), you can watch Leo search high and low for a gadget, and see the Axia console in action at the TWiT Cottage.

Prototype 3D Printer
In Episode 901, Dick referred to his tour at Wild Planet and the prototype 3D printer there, which costs $35,000.  Jayzee, or Toyota Boy, knows it well, as there is one at the engineering firm he works at.  His firm uses the Dimension Elite 1200es and suggests listeners go to Popular Mechanics‘ site where one can find Jay Leno explaining how to make replicas of old car parts.  The folks at Wild Planet use a similar model and love it, as they attest to it (and other things they love) in Make Magazine.

Dimension BST 3D Printer
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Episode 906

Terms of Endearment
When Dick and Jennifer finally met this time in Petaluma, they got on like a house on fire.  They now email each other directly, completely bypassing Leo and Eva.  Now Dick calls her Jen.  Terms of endearment?  A Cancun checking account?  Slow down, Dick!

The New Sound Board
With the help of Colleen and the Telos team including Kirk Harnack and Milos Nemcik, and a few sleepless nights later, the new digital sound board on loan from Axia is now in place, and playing the Festive Letters Jingle in stereo.  It’s Christmas time at TWiT Cottage.

The main components of the new sound system are the PowerStation and a control interface called Elements 2.  For more details, read Leo’s blog post on the new set-up, “State of the TWiT 2009″.  If you want to know more, catch the video over at odtv.me, where Leo talks to Kirk Harnack about the new system.

TWiT Palace
Kevin Selle suggests, for the TWiT Home Office, TWiT Palace in Boucherville, Quebec, Canada.  Not exactly a town or village, it’s a famous pet centre in Canada.  A good opportunity for Leo to show off his French accent.

A Pregnant Goldfish
Somehow, a “twit” also means “a pregnant goldfish”.  For more, check back at Episode 589.

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Episode 905

BNOX Binoculars
You can still get the BNOX binoculars, though not as bright and cheerful as Dick's old set, from IHSMall.com, and on eBay.  At the time of writing, there's even an old Speedo Edition available on Craig's List in Hartford selling for $20.

Leo Snaps Again
The whole internet knows Leo can't help snapping at crunchy things, but now he's snapped his Terratrike too, or more precisely the derailleur of his recumbent trike, which is being repaired.

2x Speed
Tim from Virginia listens to Leo's shows 24/7 and still can't get through them all.  He's finally worked out how Leo does it: Leo talks at 2x speed and post production slows it down to normal.

Mondegreens
Tim, like Tony and Jenny Bassett in Episode 798, also wonders what the last line of the Audible Theme is.  The Bassetts thought it might be "We love climbing on my cow," while Tim thinks it's "All of my fighting on my cow."  Dick and Leo have their own mondegreens to share:

Gladly the cross-eyed bear ...
Our Father, who art in New Haven, how did you know my name ...
We all like sheep ... (All we, like sheep, have gone astray)

Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle has a whole list of them: see Mondegreens Ripped My Flesh.  For the origin of the word "mondegreen": see Wikipedia.

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Episode 904

TV Theme Songs
Leo gets into a TV theme song mode, the Mary Tyler Moore Show and Beverly Hllbillies.  Both available on YouTube.

Mary Noble in Backstage Wife
Dick and Leo do a hammed-up episode of "Citrix Theatre", a la Mary Noble in Backstage Wife, an old time radio show.

CPP
Microsoft got a double metion this week, and so does Andrew Rodriguez in the Letters Section.  He was disappointed that Leo didn't know what CPP stood for in Episode 895, listener and inventor John Henry's title.  It's the file extension for C++!  Leo gets no geek credit from Andrew.

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