Known as MAD's Maddest Writer, co-host of The Giz Wiz with OMGchad at www.GizWiz.TV, The Giz Wiz on ABC's World News Now, and on Tech Guy Labs with Leo Laporte on www.TWiT.TV.
Podcasting Class As if Leo wasn't already living and breathing podcasts, he's also teaching schoolchildren how to do podcasting in an Intercessions class at Henry's school.
Leo's Tip Jar Leo's Tip Jar has generated very positive response. The donations have jumped from about $900 a month to $20,000. As Leo promised, he won't take more than $10,000 a month, and the rest will go to TWiT's general funds for further development.
DGW Says Another welcome addition to the DGW Fraternity. Alessandro Julian, who calls himself Alex, has set up a Tumblr blog for quotes from the Daily Giz Wiz, called DGW Says: dgwsays.tumblr.com. It's fun!
Digisette Revisited Matthew Donnelly, a business and technology teacher who has listened to the show for about 2 years, has managed to incorporate the Daily Giz Wiz into his class by getting his students to market gadgets from the show. The recent discussion of the Zune HD (Episode 921) has got Matthew thinking about the history of the MP3 Player, and his own first MP3 Player in 2003, the Digisette Duo. Matthew goes on to describe the old gadget, and Dick has covered it on a previous Warehouse Friday, in Episode 125.
The Split Leo was at a neighbour's party to welcome in the New Year, and while he was still stone cold sober, attempted a split. He succeeded, and that was the problem. Now he can't drive the Mustang. Here's a picture of Leo just before the incident.
Leo about to do a split Another Audible Suggestion Chad Masters, aka blue green yoshi, recommends an Audible pick, Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein.
Mama Laporte Mama Laporte is no stranger to TWiTLive. She has appeared on it before by doing an audition for Leo (advertising for brain toniq) - see photo in Episode 633, and recently appeared on This Week In Tech Episode 225.
Mama Laporte can more than hold her own. For one thing, she actually has the gadget ready to show on the air, unlike her son most of the time. She's effervescent and irrepressible once she gets on air; loves the camera and has quite a turn of phrase, regaling us with stories about the Collyer Brothers (see Episode 245), Fibber McGee and James Stewart - we know where Leo got his talking genes from.
Before the recording of this show starts, Dick, Leo and Mama Laporte have a little chat. Video courtesy of Team ODTV at odtv.me:
Mary's Gadget Closet Mama Laporte has a closet full of useless gadgets - from Leo. That should be quite a match for Dick's Gadget Warehouse.
Men From UNCLE Opher Banarie heard Dick and Leo talk about The Man From Uncle the other day, and has some interesting trivia to share. Some time ago, he bought the complete series on DVD and saw in one of the episodes guest appearances by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. A couple of months later, Shatner was on a book tour of his autobiography and was at a local radio talk show. Opher called in and asked Shatner about that episode. Apparently they never got to meet at that time and it wasn't until the casting process for Star Trek that they first met.
TV Hat Back in Episode 982, a listener wrote in about the TV Hat. At CES 2010, the TV Hat is one of the exhibitors, and Dick manages to get hold of one to try it out. The idea is that you would put your own PMP or iPod inside the hat, wear the hat (with black-out cloths provided) and look at the video through what is essentially a Fresnel lens. It comes with a neck protector too so that you don’t get whiplashed by the weight of the PMP at the front of the hat. Leo is pictured above wearing the TV Hat. No, it’s not a burqa.
Leo in a TV Hat The ORB Another gadget which has caught the attention of quite a few tech journalists including Dick and Leo themselves is the ORB. Developed by Hybra Advance Technology, it is a ring that you can put on your finger which shows the Caller ID when your phone rings, sends out a text message if you’re not free to answer it, and for the coup de grace, opens up into an earpiece as a bluetooth headset. It’s just won a CES 2010 Best of Innovation award in the wireless handsets accessories category. Leo thinks he can do with some bling, while the ORB reminds Dick of the Bluevoice Bluetooth Watch in Episode 176.
The ORB - Caller ID and Bluetooth Headset
MyVolume, Go Bare Other gadgets Dick and Leo talk about include Case-Mate’s Go Barescreen protectors for iPhones and iPod Touches.
Case-Mate's Go Bare There’s also a new TV volume regulator (see Episode 804 for an old version). SRS has been putting their TruVolume technology into TV sets, but this time, it has a stand-alone dongle that will do the job, called the MyVolume Adaptor. See the video below by TechVi.
A Letter from Mama Laporte ? “Dear Dick and Leo,
Congratulations on Daily Giz Wiz Episode 1000. I haven’t missed one. They are completely amazing. Dick, don’t read this part on the air, but I think my son completely overshadows you …”
January 15, 2010 
