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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Episode 1068

Triking In
Leo is back on the Terratrike, and uses a Nexus One app called My Tracks to log his journey.

Spy Kite
Leo may have many cameras but Jamie Gerrard bets he does not have this one – the Spy Kite from Cobra.  The kite comes with a camera.  It’s the ultimate aerial surveillance.

Spy Kite from Cobra
Coming Up on TTTT
Leo has had a succession of decent TTTT gadgets recently and it seems the trend may well continue.  Waiting in the wings are the Eye-Fi Pro X2 and Ecamm’s BT-1 bluetooth webcam.

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Episode 1067

Gigabit to the Pillow
Yesterday Leo talked about a few colleges which Abby might be joining, one of which is Scripps in California.  Its Director of Information Technology Jeffrey Sessler is one of the show’s listeners, and promptly writes to Leo.  If Abby joins Scripps, she will have a gigabit internet connection in her dorm room.

Dropping Out
Dick went to Columbia University for an evening course on TV production.  In the end he gave it up because he was learning the ropes working for Mark Goodson Productions 3 times a week during the day anyway.

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Episode 1066

Wildly Impressed
Dick introduced himself to Scott Monty of Ford at the New York Auto Show, as someone who works for TWiT and MAD. Scott was wildly impressed.  Speaking of Ford, Leo is thinking of trading in his “old” Mustang 2010 for the new Mustang 2011.

A Collaborative Letter
Two of the most loyal and communicative listeners, Dr Mark Sukoenig and Opher Banarie, have decided to collaborate on a letter to Dick.  The former wonders if Leo will sack Andy Ihnatko from the TWiT team for failing to disclose he had an iPad (which Leo will review tomorrow) before its public release date, while the latter wonders when the Nexus One will be available on Verizon.

Sweet 30
Leo says Happy 30th Birthday to Dan Hendricks, a long-time moderator of the Chatroom.

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