Episode 900

Mail Order House of a Hundred Names
J.A. Börnschaft was just one of a variety of exotic-sounding labels used by the mail-order company Raffoler, also known as Direct Marketing Enterprises Ltd, from Westbury, Long Island. Other names included Carter & Van Peel, Abernathy & Closther, Knoxx & Londonderry, Gem Collectors International, and National Historic Mint. The New York Times did an article on the company back in 1988 ("Mail Order House of a Hundred Names").

Plans for Episode 1000
Dick and Leo have hardly celebrated Episode 900 when they're already having a rethink of the arrangements for Episode 1000. They plan to do the show live on the show floor of CES 2009, in the first week of January. It's going to be a real spectacle, with show girls, Cirque du Soleil, elephants, Dick will be diving from the Stratosphere Tower, and the Beatles will reunite for the Daily Giz Wiz 1000.

Episode 900 Gifts
Dick and Leo are thrilled by the presents sent in by listeners for Episode 900:

• Howie Woo from British Columbia, who has done cartoons for the Lab with Leo, made a set of crochet creations, including Dick sitting on the Giz Wiz Logo, Leo sitting on his blue ball, a crochet Spork and a crochet Toothpick Bird. Plus a solar-powered LED for Dick. Howie also reveals that it was his girlfriend MJ who sent Dick the Handler featured in Episode 476. You can check out his works at woowork.com.

Howie Woo's Crochet Creations

• Barbara Snyder from Sebastopol (who wrote in Episode 873) made some fanny bags embroidered with the Giz Wiz Logo, the TWiT Logo, and the number "900". Her works can be seen at emb2order.smugmug.com.
  

• Sue McAllister from ColorSpotPrinting.com sent in Polo shirts for Dick and Leo. The one for Dick has embroidered on it "GizWizBiz" and the Giz Wiz Logo, while Leo's has the TWiT Logo and "Chief TWiT" and, at the end of the sleeves, a subtle "Screw You" sign! Sue has also got some sample TWiT apparel, at twit.deco-apparel.com.

Video Excerpts
Here are excerpts from Episode 900.  You can see all the gifts, Dick's "demo" of the frying pan, and the "Screw You" sign. Video from odtv.me.

More on the Leica DISTO
Jeffrey Duke used to work at Leica. When they first started selling the DISTO (Episode 880), they had a whole warehouse full of them, until Home Depot started carrying them. Also, Leica the camera and lens company had little to do with the DISTO. It was a licensing deal.

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Episode 899

Casio Exilim EX-FS10
The main features of the EX-FS10 that distinguish it from other point-and-shoots are based on a high-speed burst mode of the camera, previously available on Casio's higher-end cameras such as the EX-F1 and EX-FH20.  The camera can capture a series of images in quick succession which then makes possible the following features:

• Burst shooting mode of 30 shots per second (resolution downsized to 6 MP, still plenty for most uses).

• Best Shot and Combination Shot - The high-speed burst allows you to select the best shot from the series of images taken.  Alternatively, the series of shots can be combined into a single image, including re-aligning the position of the subject, to avoid motion blur.  Useful in quick motion scenes and night shots.  Note: the FS10 has no optical image stabilisation.

• Lag Correction or Pre-Record - The camera captures up to 25 images (again 6 MP) in a high-speed burst prior to the release of the shutter, so that you can go back in time for the shot which you missed, but was stored in the buffer of the camera for you.  You can set the amount of time lag.

• Slow Motion View - A dedicated button allows you to view the movement of the subject in Slow Motion on the LCD display, selecting the best moment to capture.

• High-speed Movie Recording - up to 1,000 fps (but only at 224 x 64 pixels, probably not very practical). There are also options for video at 420 fps (224 x 168) and at 210fps or lower (480 x 360). The output is effectively slow-motion.

• HD Movie - 720p video at 30 fps

• Image Capture during Video - Even while recording 720p video, a dedicated button allows you to capture a 6 MP still image.

For a better zoom range, there is also the Exilim EX-FC100, with the same features but a lens range of 37mm-185mm, a slightly faster lens (F2.6-F4.5), and anti-shake image stabilising CMOS.

A Warehouse Gadget Revived
Peter Ganzarski heard about a new Sony gadget, the Party-Shot Automatic Camera Dock (IPT-DS1) which tilts and swivels the camera and uses the face and smile detection of the Sony TX1 or WX1 cameras to take pictures for you: see macnn.com.  Peter thought this sounded familiar, until he realised that this is just a reincarnation of a Warehouse Gadget, the Konica Kanpai in Episode 685 (another Japanese idea).  Sony should have done a flop search first.  Another listener Toyota Boy made a similar observation.  Don't these manufacturers ever learn?  Straight to the Warehouse please, says Dick.

Sony Party-Shot Camera Dock

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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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