Blog - Elisberg Industries

The Writers Workbench

11/13/2020

I haven't been doing as many of my "The Writers Workbench" columns for the Writers Guild as in the past. But I do pop in with one every once in a while. And given that I suspect the television has become a lot of people's New Best Friend during the past eight months, I thought it would be good timing to look at the new Chromecast with Google TV, a device that "casts" or basically mirrors whatever is on your mobile device onto your TV. It does more than that, but it sort of, kind of turns any television into a Smart TV.

(I also explain in the article how you can mirror your laptop to your TV extremely easily and inexpensively, with the help of only an HDMI cable, which some people may even have a spare lying around the house.)

I addition, the articles look at the Anker PowerExtend USB-C Capsule, a device that expand your outlets and serves as a surge suppressor, but I found that it can also fill a potential limitation of the Chromecast.

As I always note, because the Writers Guild has already coded the article, and it would be convoluted to read it here, this is the link to read all about it.

Writers Talk

2/23/2020

The guest on this episode of 3rd & Fairfax, the official podcast of the Writers Guild of America is screenwriter Susannah Grant, who wrote the screenplays for such films as Erin Brockovich (for which she received an Oscar nomination), 28 Days and Pochahontas, as well as four episodes of the Netflix mini-series Unbelievable, who talks about her career.

Writers Talk

11/16/2019

On this episode of 3rd & Fairfax, the official podcast of the Writers Guild of America, the guests are screenwriting partners Micah Fitzerman-Blue & Noah Harpster who have written two feature films this season, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. Needless to say, the subject matter of these two movies seem to have absolutely nothing in common, which shows a wide range of versatility...

The Writers Workbench

8/23/2019

I've decided to have another Trump-Free morning. And also catch up on another of my "The Writers Workbench" columns.

This one considers a technology called "mesh networking," but don't worry it's something that's very basic and might be of use to a lot of people. It's very similar to what a lot of people call signal boosting though works a little different -- and in this particular case, really wonderfully.

If your home is set-up in a way that you have a difficult time getting a good, clear, strong Wi-Fi signal throughout the place and have some dead spots, then this is for you. Google Wi-Fi is a mesh networking product that is surprisingly extremely easy to set up (among other things, its app walks you through it step-by step) and even better, works wonderfully well.

As always, rather than reformat the original article, here it is all ready at its home on the WGA website.

The Writers Workbench

4/9/2019

It's been a while, but time for another of my tech columns, The Writers Workbench, that I do for the Writers Guild of America, As I've noted in the past, since it's a bother to code the code column for this site and it's already coded for the Guild's site, it's SO much easier to just provide the link to it here.

The format has evolved a bit over the years -- I've been doing the column for maybe 18 years or so. What I explain in the introduction.is that I'm going to try just covering one product per column -- along with the small "TWW Notes" at the end. If any columns come along where it's convenient to compare a range of similar products, I'll continue to do that, but I think one product at a time at this point will let me post a few more columns than I've been doing and keeping them more up-to-date than having to wait on companies sending me their latest products when they're finally ready.

Anyway, this month is a a look at an oddly-designed, but very good surge protector, the Powramid, made by the company Accell. which has turned out decidedly odd, but very good products in the past. You can find the column here.

The Writers Workbench

4/9/2019

It's been a while, but time for another of my tech columns, The Writers Workbench, that I do for the Writers Guild of America, As I've noted in the past, since it's a bother to code the code column for this site and it's already coded for the Guild's site, it's SO much easier to just provide the link to it here.

The format has evolved a bit over the years -- I've been doing the column for maybe 18 years or so. What I explain in the introduction.is that I'm going to try just covering one product per column -- along with the small "TWW Notes" at the end. If any columns come along where it's convenient to compare a range of similar products, I'll continue to do that, but I think one product at a time at this point will let me post a few more columns than I've been doing and keeping them more up-to-date than having to wait on companies sending me their latest products when they're finally ready.

Anyway, this month is a a look at an oddly-designed, but very good surge protector, the Powramid, made by the company Access which has turned out decidedly odd, but very good products in the past. You can find the column here.

Writers Talk

11/18/2018

The guest on this week's 3rd and Fairfax podcast from the Writers Guild of America is TV writer Erica Messer who is the showrunner in charge of the series, Criminal Minds. She talks about that show and her career that began writing for Alias, as well as such series as Charmed (the original, not the current remake) and The O.C.

Writers Talk

8/11/2018

On this week's episode of the 3rd and Fairfax podcast from the Writers Guild, the guest is Dan Futterman who talks about starting his career as an actor, and becoming a writer of the films, Capote and Foxcatcher, and also co-creating the Hulu series, The Looming Tower (about battles between the CIA and FBI before 9/11), as well as writing extensively for HBO's In Treatment.

The Writers Workbench

8/10/2018

It's been a while since I've posted one of my "The Writers Workbench" tech review columns, so tonight we'll jump right back in. This month it's pretty low-tech at the core -- light bulbs -- though in different incarnations that you might be used to. The first device is quite low-tech but very versatile and clever, the Luminoodle -- basically a cord with lights embedded in it, though there's more to it than that. The second is a Smart bulb for those who might be interested in controlling your light bulbs but don't yet want to wire your residence as a Smart Home.

As always, since the column is written for the Writers Guild of America, and they've gone to the effort of formatting it all for their site, I'll provide the link to it there, rather than go through the headache of reformatting it all over again on these pages.

Writers Talk

4/7/2018

On this week's edition of 3rd & Fairfax, the podcast of the Writers Guild of America, the guest is writer and showrunner Jason Katims, who talks about his career as showrunner for such series as Friday Night Lights, Parenthood, Roswell and About a Boy, among others, as well as his new show, Rise, which he developed.