G4TV

ORIGINALLY AIRED: 9/28/2004

Dick DeBartolo, High-Tech Headphones, Mag Strips

Episode #2534

Top O' the Show
Alex began the show by relating a tale of cell-phone vindication. Ever been stuck in a public place and get forced to listen to someone engage in a screaming match over their cell phone? Haven’t you hoped and prayed that a representative of the law would tell them to shut up? That’s what finally happened in Washington D.C. in a victory for mass-transit users everywhere. A woman who was allegedly cursing over her cell phone at a Metro station was arrested after refusing to lower her voice. Obnoxious people beware – the law is on our side!
 
Kevin brought up yet more user-friendly news from Microsoft: The company will discontinue access to its Hotmail accounts via Outlook – unless you pay some cash. Citing problems with spammers, Microsoft said this was the best solution. “They just want to make money – that’s all they want to do,” said Kevin. “I hate Hotmail. Jump on Gmail.” For further discourse on the issue, visit Slashdot.org.

TSS Live Calls
Call #1: Drew from Baltimore, Maryland had a vexing problem: his new Maxtor hard drives caught on fire when he turned on his computer. What can he do about that?

Kevin had a two-step recommendation for whenever this happens:

1. Take the hard drive out right away.

2. Barbecue!

In fact, the guys cut to some video of them doing just that – next to a barrel of kerosene labeled “Flammable!” Note: Don’t hard-drive cook-outs like they did. Otherwise, the guys told Drew to call Maxtor ASAP and send them the photos. He’ll probably get a new drive out of it, and may help others avoid this troubling situation.

Call #2: Daniel from Tallahassee, Florida wanted to know if there’s any good free message board software out there.

Two that don’t suck include vBulletin and the open-source phpBB. Yoshi noted that he actually switched from vBulletin because of security problems when it got hacked on his website – but that was his own fault for not keeping up with the latest version. There's a lesson there...

Safety First With The Giz Wiz
MAD Magazine writer and illustrator Dick “The Giz Wiz” DeBartolo visited to regale us with his latest gadget discoveries. This time, he trawled the aisles of the National Safety Show to find cool gizmos that keep you safe(r). Plus, he at last gets that saucy Mona Lisa to moan! Check out his list of gizmos here.

Dark Deals: Mag Stripe Secrets
Being the curious lad that he is, Kevin wanted to know what information is contained on the little magnetic stripe on his credit cards, grocery club cards, Starbucks card, etc. With the V3-4 Magstripe Reader from Omron ($40) adapted by Yoshi to a DB-15 male connector, you can swipe your own cards to see what’s on them. Just get a copy of StripeSnoop and you’re on your way; note that some stripe have multiple tracks.

Yoshi’s a Tease
Yoshi provided a sneak peak on his next mod involving a laser cutter and 13,000 individual shapes being cut – very mysterious. But he did give us a quick tip on case painting and accurately masking off areas: by using your handy X-acto blade, you can cut designs into masking tape to create layers of patterns on your case. Root around Yoshi’s forums to find out more.

Block Out Noise Pollution
Now you can avoid the outside world even more with noise-canceling headphones. Kevin and Alex passed several models out to TSS staffers to see what they thought. “They want to do their work, but they can’t because we’re constantly making giant monkey noises,” he revealed. Learn what people thought in this unscientific survey here.

Sarah’s Site of the Night: Zipdecode
Sarah at long last has found a site that makes zip codes fun. How many times have you wondered where a zip code belongs, exactly? Well, Ben Fry’s Zipdecode shows you with an extremely cool map that zooms to the right city. Try it – it’s fun!