G4TV

ORIGINALLY AIRED: 9/24/2004

Humorist Mike Daisey, Yoshi's Projector Screen, Overclocked Toothbrush

Episode #2514

Top O’ the Show
Alex and Kevin started the show by trading tales of video games with hidden tricks up their sleeves.

Kevin had purchased the new Star Wars Trilogy DVD box set that included an Xbox demo of Star Wars Battlefront. (Which, he says, looks pretty cool.) But when you start up the demo, the game actually installs the newest version of the Xbox dashboard – which overwrites your Xbox’s executables, thus disabling any soft mods. (Such as the EvolutionX dashboard.) Kevin took issue with the fact that there is no prompt for the install – the game does it without your knowledge.

“In theory, though, you’re not supposed to control the dashboard anyway,” noted Alex, who received only a blank look from Kevin.

Alex brought up an issue with The Sims 2 that a viewer had pointed out. “Apparently, EA has put in Macrovision-style protection software on The Sims 2,” he said, which will prevent the game from running if it detects CD emulation software installed. However, we got it to run with Alcohol installed. According to our technical editor Robert Heron, “The Sims 2 actually uses Safedisk 3.2 and does not blacklist Alcohol. You can create an image of disk 1 and run it from the Virtual drive. The problem is not Alcohol but the limitations of CD burners to successfully backup Safedisk 3.2.” For more on this issue, read this forum discussion at Alcohol Software’s site.

Call #1: Ken from Grain Valley, Missouri wants to know how to get Java to work better with the Firefox web browser.

Kevin said Ken must make sure he’s got the latest version of the Java Runtime Environment. Kevin recommended a manual download

For FAQs on Firefox plug-ins and their issues, check these helpful sites out:
http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/faqs
http://texturizer.net/firefox/faq.html

Call #2: Greg from LaGrange, Texas is having some problems with Cascading Style Sheets for his website, http://warrentontx.com/. Firefox and Mozilla browsers have problems with it. How can he fix it?

Kevin explained that Internet Explorer is a forgiving web browser, but that means it’s not sticking to web standards as stringently as Firefox, which is why Greg’s site works okay with IE but not other browsers. There’s probably a coding error in Greg’s CSS that needs to be fixed to make it up to snuff. Kevin pointed Greg to Web Standards Solutions author Dan Cederholm’s website which has lots of tips about making your website compliant. Greg can also check his CSS code at this free Markup Validation Service.


Picking On Daisey
Humorist Mike Daisey visited The Screen Savers to talk about his trials and tribulations while attempting to sell his Apple PowerBook. Mike is the author of 21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com, a coming-of-age memoir set in the offices of the giant online vendor.

In the course of trying to sell his TiBook, Mike has discovered a whole sub-culture of Mac non-buyers. “The thing about Mac users is that they view themselves as a special sub-elite,” Mike said. “I’m down with that, but the trouble is that have very exacting standards in the Mac community.”

This means that one scratch on a TiBook can mean the difference between sale and no-sale. “And if you breath on a Titanium PowerBook, scratches spread like wildfire,” Mike said.

Meanwhile, Mike says, the PowerBook is the #1 most fraudulent item to be found on eBay, with possibly shady sellers trying to lure in vulnerable Mac buyers. He recounted the tale of a friend who was in the market for a PowerBook, and who responded to an advertiser of craigslist.org. The seller insisted the friend come to pick it up in the Sheep’s Head Bay area of Brooklyn – and to bring cash only. “Yes, bring cash and a roll of duct tape,” suggested Alex.

Mike thinks the root problem is the Mac users feel their computers are investments rather than machines that decrease in value every year. “The people who bid on these computers are pretty obsessive,” he said.

To learn more about the world of Mike Daisey, visit his personal website: www.mikedaisey.com/

Also, you can buy Mike’s humorous expose of working at Amazon.com – at Amazon.com!

Mystery Bag or Net Cam!
Ah, another weekly round of Mystery Bag or Net Cam, the game of chance you can only play as an audience member of The Screen Savers. Last week, one lucky guest received an ATI X800 graphics card. What was the thrilling prize today? “Does it come with the bag?” Joe from Pasadena asked, and Alex assured him he could take the bag with whatever it held. Joe wisely selected the Mystery Bag instead of the Windows 95 compliant netcam. And what did appear but a box for a new 80 motherboard! Unfortunately, it only contained a toothbrush. In a rare gesture of mercy, Alex threw in the netcam as well. “I’m don’t know how this turned into Mystery Bag AND Net Cam,” he muttered, no doubt holding back a tear of sympathy.

Join our studio audience, and perhaps YOU will be the next guest to play Mystery Bag or Net Cam!

Toothbrush of Terror
While in a drug store one day, Kevin noticed the sudden proliferation of electric toothbrushes on the market, from $6 cheapos to the $100 Philips Sonicare. And then inspiration struck: What if he bought the $6 model, and tried to overclock it to perform like the $100 model? He did this by simply adding more batteries. “The motor is actually rated for more power,” he said. Kevin took apart the case, added wires to the battery terminals, then added a battery pack (available at Radio Shack) on the outside. A little less attractive, perhaps, but it did exhibit speeded up performance.

First, Kevin demonstrated his two-battery model. It made a slightly louder than standard whine. Then he demonstrated the super four-battery version. It emitted a small electric roar not unlike a jet turbine.

“I tried this out and it was a little rough on the gums,” Kevin admitted.

“You have a lot of time on your hands,” replied Alex.

Yoshi’s DIY Projector Screen
Although Yoshi is a home theater connoisseur, he isn’t quite ready to pony up the $5,000 needed for a top-of-the-line projection screen for his digital projector. So why doesn’t he just use a TV set like most other humans? “I don’t like teeny screens,” he said. “If it’s a home theater, I want a theater screen!”

So, he made one himself, naturally. With $5 of wood, some blackout cloth at $6-$8 a yard, and some projection screen paint, he put one together for about $150-$200. For pics of his creation and the parts he used, read his article

Destroy Stuff More Comfortably
Tech editor Robert Heron presented the latest and greatest in PC gaming peripherals from Saitek.

First, he showed off the Cyborg Evo Force, a force-feedback USB joystick ($69.99). “Everything about this joystick is adjustable,” Robert said with some measure of product lust. “You can get it to fit your hand however you want – right or left handed.” The only problem he experienced was some buggy interaction with a few titles, though he says Saitek is promising a software update by the time it hits shelves.

Next up was the PC Gamers Keyboard, a back-lit keyboard with programmable gaming pad attachment ($59.99). Once again, Robert found it delightfully adaptable, with a built-in adjustable hand rest. “I’ve been playing with it all day,” he assured the audience.
 

Online Cinema Sites
Cat Schwartz makes your movie-watching all the more enjoyable with her website suggestions. She promises to help you score, but we think she was talking about getting DVDs and movie files.