Episode 1145

A Locomotive to Tempt Dick
Jeff Lundberg is a huge fan of the show and has not missed a single show so far, but is ready to make an exception for Leo’s two-by-four.  Jeff would love Dick to go to Detroit, as the Henry Ford Museum has on offer for Dick an Allegheny locomotive, one of the largest ever built.  Alas, Dick already has guests visiting his studio for that weekend.

Allegheny Locomotive at the Henry Ford Museum

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Episode 1144

Bits of Land
Land By The Inch (Episode 1130) generated quite a number of responses.  John R Henry CPP remarks that back in the 1950′s, there was a TV programme Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, which was sponsored by a cereals company.  Send in two coupons and you would get a certificate of ownership of an inch of Klondike Gold land claim.  Andy Heatlie remembers the same offer from Quaker Oats.  Will Cool remembers that in a comic book in the 1970′s, you could buy a square foot of land in Florida.  Leo can boast of owning a piece of the Berlin Wall, while Dick suggests making a business of selling pieces of Petaluma.

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Episode 1143

Leo’s Camera List
Among Leo’s cameras are the Canon 5D Mark II, Canon Mark I, Olympus EP1, Panasonic GH1, the new Panasonic LX3 (for Jennifer), the Pentax K200 and the Nikon D70, and he says he's not bragging.  Let’s not start on the list of his cellphones.

American Theatre Organ Society
In Episode 1113, Dick and Leo talked about theatre organs.  A lot of them were made by Wurlitzer and are sometimes called Unit Orchestras.  Andy Dolph recommends that listeners check out the website of the American Theatre Organ Society (which Dick for some reason has been calling the Underground Organ Society), atos.org.  You can also check out Andy’s own blog post to learn more about the Wurlitzer.

American Theatre Organ Society

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Episode 1142

Hacked Firmware
In September 2008 Panasonic made the world’s first interchangeable-lens camera with an electronic viewfinder (and not SLR), the G1 – using the new Micro Four Thirds  format.  Although it did away with the mirror box, the design deliberately retained the prism “bulkhead” at the top of the camera, to make it look like a conventional SLR camera.  A significant feature missing from the G1, however, was video shooting.  In March 2009, Panasonic released the GH1 to remedy the situation, giving it 720p capability.  The reason Leo has chosen to buy and talk about the GH1 now, over a year after its initial release, is the availability of a hacked firmware by “Tester13” (Vitaliy Kiselev), which allows high bitrate 720p videos  to be taken on the GH1.  The GH1 out of the box can take a maximum of 30 minutes of video (any longer than that and it would attract a higher tax as a camcorder in Europe).  The firmware removes that restriction.  It also allows video to be taken using the Motion JPEG format (in addition to the camera’s native AVCHD format)..  Check out dvxuser.com.

Proximity Sensor
Kirk Grein from Chicago complains about the way Leo demonstrated the malfunctioning proximity sensor on his new iPhone 4 (Episode 1137), when he wasn’t even making a call.  Leo has stopped using the iPhone 4 altogether as it kept dropping calls for him.  Leo remains firmly infatuated with Android.  His latest love is the Droid X (Episode 1126).

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Episode 1141

From Kissing to Socks
Richard Dawson used to kiss every woman who appeared on Family Feud; Peter O’Toole used to wear green socks; Van Johnson used to wear red socks; and Dick just buys them in bulk.

Leo Urged to use Protection
Leo said some time ago that he never puts his iPhone in his pocket, for fear that it might be scratched by his keys.  Long-time listener and gadget hound Steve Miller suggests the Invisible Shield (which Dick covered in Episode 233) for Leo.  Leo prefers the naked feeling.

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