Episode 898

Dick Starts Reading?
Dick is not generally into reading books, but has started reading Audible books. He was listening to Wayne Dyer's Excuses Begone on his way to Petaluma.

Irrational and Nonsensical
Alfred Chan of insideDGW has found it well nigh impossible, short of having a full transcript, to keep track of what Dick and Leo talk about on the shows (and why would anyone in his right mind want to do that?).  It's not just the sheer number of shows.  The real reason is, you never know what listeners would pick up from the conversation, and they would pick up the most insignficant, tangential and off-the-cuff remarks in that rambling dialogue between Dick and Leo which they call the Daily Giz Wiz podcast.  A prime example is counting the number of days in each month (Episode 876), which listener Anish commented on in Episode 888 - the Knuckles Calendar.  Then another listener Verena Fuchs sent an email to Dick, attaching a pictorial illustration of the Knuckles Calendar (via lifehacker.com).  It's all irrational and nonsensical, and that's why we're keep listening.

Pictorial Illustration of the Knuckles Calendar

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Epiosde 897

Leo and his Olympus E-P1
Leo has taken some pictures and videos on the Wine Train using the E-P1, which he may post to Smugmug in the fullness of time.  Meanwhile, you can check out another set of photos taken by Leo, as a "test-run" of his E-P1, on Smugmug.

More Home Office Locations
More suggestions by Denny Pyott from Glide, Oregon for relocating the TWiT Home Office: Remote, Oregon, and Boring, Oregon.

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Episode 896

Dick at the TWiT Cottage
After the Wine Train on Monday and a drive in a Tesla Roadster on Tuesday, Dick settled down with Leo in the TWiT studio to record this week's Giz Wizzes.  Here are the highlights of today's show, where you can see, among other things, Dick demonstrating how you can protect yourself from a bear with the First Alert FX-1 Multi-Colour LED Flashlight.  Video from odtv.me.  Sitting in the background is FunCrunch Julie Bernstein.



Wine Train
Dick, being a train enthusiast, thoroughly enjoyed the Napa Wine Train.  Dick and Leo's party were given a private railroad car.  Dick finally met Jennifer, and they got on like a train on fire.  For pics and videos of the train journey, go back to the Episode 892 post.

WebLoyalty
Dick bought his new flashlight from Buy.com, and Leo warns him and listeners about the danger of inadvertently joining the "webloyalty" programme and getting charged on your credit card.  Other websites including Fandango and Orbitz are partners of webloyalty.  For Steve Gibson's coverage of this issue, listen to Security Now! Episode 207.

Shoot-It
Listener Seth Combs finally gets his first iPhone app on to the App Store.  It's called Shoot-It.  You take your photo on the iPhone, send it to Shoot-It together with your message and addressee (in the US and Western Europe), and a proper postcard with your pic and message will be posted for you.  It so happens that Leo has just bought the app, and Leo wonders if Seth is related to Sean Puffy Combs, aka P. Diddy.

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Episode 895

Lock De-Icers
Little can be found on the web of the StarCase Lock De-Icer.  hwrountrees.com still has a listing of an out-of-stock Starcase model which seems to fit Dick's description.  On Amazon, you can still find both the "heated pick"-style de-icers (including some which look remarkably similar to the StarCase model) and "aerosol"-style de-icers.

StarCase Lock De-Icer PS3845BK
Savage Winter
Dick makes light of Roz Savage's voyage across the Pacific.  So she rows through the Pacific in the warmth of the tropics, but has she tried the savage winter on the Hudson River?

Trademarks and Patents
While Leo is having issues with the TWiT trademark, listener John R Henry CPP has been busy patenting his own invention, which serves the purpose similar to that of the Shake-It-Up Milk Bottle (Episode 835).  His idea is a container with 2 chambers keeping 2 types of ingredients separate, but with a mechanism for mixing them only when you need to do so.  Cereals and milk is one application.  You can check out his patent filings here and there.

CPP Again
The first time John R Henry had his letter read out on the show was Episode 439.  Dick and Leo had fun guessing what CPP stood for.  This time around, they had even more fun guessing what CPP stands for.  The answer can be found in Episode 490 - Certified Packaging Professional.

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Episode 894

Vinyl Resurgence
For an ABC News report on the recent rise of the vinyl, click here for the video.

Scoundrels and the Way They Part You from Your Money
The biggest live audience Dick's had was probably about 1,500, when he gave a cruise lecture on the QE2 on scoundrels' schemes and scams.  Listen again to Episode 225 for a fuller story of the lecture, and Dick's original story on the Mitey Mixer (later covered in Episode 870).

TWiT Home Office Suggestions
Chris Walker has more suggestions for the location of the TWiT Home Office: Possum Grape in Arkansas, Siberia in California, Bloody Corners in Ohio, and Mars in Pennsylvania.

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