Laporte Report

No posts in 3 days? I must be going crazy AND a carshare problem

2007-02-11T14:13:00.000-08:00

Well, it appears people are really warming up to my new blog. Amber said just yesterday that it was 'nice!' and laughed out loud when reading it. I do like it when people appreciate my hard work and energy. It's a nice, warm feeling. Anyway, onto the real subject of todays post:

Carpool

Firstly, let me introduce you to my car:

It was a nice, reliable little automobile. Until some guy in a hummer reversed into the front. That didn't make me particularly happy, but who cares? So, I decided to buy a new car. Thing is, it won't come 'til Wednesday, so, for two whole days, I've got to carpool. With normal people.

You see, this kind of thing really worries me, because I have specific methods of driving a car. First, I have a big CD collection, full of KFI - The Tech Guy (which had it's last KFI-only show yesterday - woot!) and TWiT, and if I don't listen to them at all times when in the car, I find myself going hyper. I start screaming things out of windows, shouting at people, and generally acting like this guy:

Yep. Scary. So, that's one problem.

Second problem with Car Sharing. I have no friends, so it looks like it'll be nearer two days of walking. See you tonight on Net@Night! Call in if you want to give me a lift

A few corrections

2007-02-08T09:37:00.000-08:00

Today, I'm correcting my Wikipedia article. I don't think it's right to change your own article, so I'll go ahead and do some tweaking here, and if someone wants to upload my corrections, feel free. My corrections will be in Blogger Orange, underneath the main article paragraph.

Leo Gordon Laporte (born November 29, 1956 in New York City, New York) ^[1] is a technology broadcaster, and author. He studied Chinese History at Yale University but did not earn a degree. He currently resides in Petaluma, California, with his wife Jennifer and two children, Henry and Abby.

Leo Gordon Big Head Laporte (born November 29, 1956 in a bin outside the hospital in New York City, New York) is a technology broadcaster (but only in Canada), a comedian, an amateur magician, and author. He studied Chinese History at Yale University but spent more of his time chatting up the girls than working, which caused him to not earn a degree. He currently resides in Petaluma, California, with his wife Jennifer and two children, Henry and Abby.

Laporte is the host of G4techTV Canada's daily television show Call for Help, now called the lab and shot in high definition (sorry for the forward looking statement) which also airs in Australia on the HOW TO Channel, and Google Video when the producers remember. Every month he travels to Toronto for one week to the G4TechTV Canada studios to host Call For Help (where all personnel except Laporte are Canadian). However, he has recently announced that soon the taping of the show will be moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. Wow! That's already happening! He also hosts a technology-oriented talk radio show on station KFI AM 640 in Southern California from his home studio. This show is now nationally syndicated. He appears semi-regularly on Showbiz Tonight, Live with Regis and Kelly and World News Now.

Laporte has created, hosted, and contributed to a number of technology-related broadcasting projects. He also runs 'Leo Laporte - A guide to Comedy Genius for just $100 a day', which is a paid podcast. He created and co-hosted Dvorak On Computers, which he feels should have bee called Laporte on Computers all along, in January 1991, and hosted Laporte On Computers on KGO Radio and KSFO in San Francisco. Laporte hosted Internet!, which won a reward for 'Worst Name for a TV show', on PBS, and The Personal Computing Show on CNBC. In 1997 he earned an Emmy Award for his work on MSNBC's The Site, a daily Monday through Saturday hour-long newsmagazine he helped create and appeared on in the role of a computer-generated character named Dev Null. Emmies, Leo says, aren't all they are cracked up to be, and are in fact kind of boring, and don't look as shiny as you would think.

In 1998, he created and co-hosted The Screen Savers and the original version of Call for Help on the cable and satellite network ZDTV (Later, TechTV). Laporte left The Screen Savers in 2004 due to a dispute with TechTV's then-outgoing owner Vulcan Ventures over stock ownership. His contract ended on March 31, and his absence from The Screen Savers on April 1 was originally believed to be an April Fool's Day joke. But it wasn't. It wasn't funny at all. On April 1, Leo sat and cried at home alone, crying to be with Kevin Rose again, on his favorite TV program.

On November 18, 2006 Laporte announced that he will not be renewing his contract with KFI. His last radio show will be on December 31, 2006.^[2]

On December 10, 2006, Mr. Laporte stated that KFI informed him that his contract is tentatively through January 31, 2007. Additionally, he reported that he will continue to do the "TechGuy" radio show provided that it is nationally syndicated. The show is going to be nationally syndicated, and 'The Tech Guy' is continuing. ^[3]

On Sunday, January 14, 2007, during the noon hour, Mr. Laporte said on KFI that he is trying to bring a new TV program to the US called "The Lab with Leo Laporte" which will be recorded in Vancouver, Canada. The show is to be shot in High Definition, and have a format more like "The Screen Savers". ^[4]

On January 21, during the 1pm hour of KFI AM 640, Laporte said "we're working on making the show more available all over the country." He hopes to have an announcement about national syndication soon. He already has one. ^[5]

Longer KFI "contract negotiations are all but done" says Laporte on his twitter.com site. ^[6]

On January 25, Laporte announced he will be on Premiere Radio Networks and is looking to redesign the radio site. Leo can't stand any web design that isn't at least Web 3.0^[7]

On January 26, he announced on his blog that he will for sure be on Premiere Radio Networks and will be syndicated nationally ^[8].

In his spare time, Leo plays racketball.

I just love my new blog

2007-02-07T13:24:00.000-08:00

It's so great to have a hidden corner of the internet, where nobody can find you, and nobody knows you. It's superb to not have the Leo-minions following me around all the time. And it's great to not be tied to twitter to share with close, select family and friends the stories of my life. I thought I'd expand on some of my twitter comments over the last couple of days, to give you, my close and loyal friends and family, a closer, more in-depth look into my life.

Uploading a best of TWiT. I need a nap

You'd be amazed how tiring cruising around the Mediterranean is. The hardest bit is finding a stable, none T-Mobile hotspot, internet connection. You have to snoop around, checking for unsecured wireless networks with very good signal strength. My TWiT uploaded dropped out like 5 times. And checking email, well that's just not going to happen!

Under 50? Playboy. Over 50? Yachting

As I'm exactly 50, this causes a bit of a problem. You've kinda got to hybrid the two areas of our culture together, which is no fun. I mean, how do you hybrid young, beautiful women wearing skinny bunny costumes and the act of falling into the sea multiple times while trying to figure out which bit the sail is together?

I've not yet figured it out, but have came up with a couple o' suggestions that I think could work.

Attach bunny girls to underside of boat
Attach bunny girls to sail (could help me figure out where it is)
Attach boat to giant bunny girl
Make boat out of bunny girl costumes
Make bunny girl costumes out of boat
Read Playboy while on boat, before capsizing to my untimely death

I think the last option is the most 'do-able'

Note to Self - Always pee before you Pzizz

You really don't want to know. No, really you don't. Ok, so maybe you do. I have some minor... err... problems holding in my... bodily fluids... not all the time, just while listening to pzizz. So, I have a routine.

Generate Pzizz and transfer to iPod
Check digg
Go to bathroom, clean teeth and get changed
Check digg
Go to bathroom and relieve self
Check digg
Repeat 5
Check digg
Check digg again, just in case
Start Pzizzing

I forgot number 7 in my routine, after finding a very interesting article on saving money while using the grocery store machine to count coins (you choose the iTunes voucher, then yank out the phone cord, and it gives you money without charging a fee), and my forgetfulness did not help my pzizzing problem.

Not at all.

Ouch.

I'd always wondered what it was like to be hit in the balls by a fast falling stage light. With the bulb facing you. Turns out, quite a lot.

It's a NETCAST, I tell you!

2007-02-07T11:08:00.000-08:00

Yep, I know the rest of the known world calls them podcasts:

iTunes PODCAST directory
iPod PODCAST menu
PODCAST Pickle
iPODder
PODshow
PODCAST voices
Libsyn PODCAST hosting

And frankly, I slip up a bit too:

TWiT's 'About' page
All the netcast pages say 'Please install flash to use the web based podcast player' if flash is not installed
Every single commenter uses podcast, and their is no filter

But it is netcast, and let me tell you why. A short time ago, Amber came to me in a dream. The year was 2037, and the evil mega-corporations had taken over the planet, and all instruments and podcasts had been banned. All that could be listened to was Radio Go-Go, and the Go-Go Girls, who listened to the station, where almost robot like in nature.

Killer Queen (a.k.a. Steve Jobs) was controlling everyone, and making billions of dollars, and not letting anyone get their Rhapsody (or Windows Media, for that matter). And his evil assistant, Balmergosshi, sent anyone who got in their way to the Seven Seas of 'Wow' to drown their sorrows, almost dead, and forgetting most everything.

But there was one group, the Boheminetcasters, that hid from the gaze of Balmergosshi and Killer Queen, and they wanted their netcasts back. And only one person, worthy enough to step up to the microphone and take peoples call for help would reveal the shining star (a great big gold statue of me) pointing to the place of rapturous applause (Libsyn's offices) to reveal the mighty unlimited-bandwidth-for-$5.00-a-month and to begin the netcasts again, ending the evil plans of Killer Queen and Balmergosshi, and presenting the nation with great entertainment, that is honest and true and sponsored by Dell.

And the ancient transcripts stated that none of this would have happened if it were netcasts all along. So that's what I did.

By the way, if my story sounds familiar, you've probably been to see the show named after this song recently.

Call for Help

2007-02-07T08:25:00.000-08:00

Please, really, you should call. I'm not telling you the number though. But really, call.

Twit - That's me!

2007-02-07T07:57:00.001-08:00

People often ask me why I called my podcast network TWiT. It's very simple. I wanted the name of the podcast network to reflect me, my friends and family. Twits. All of them. Well, not all of them. Amber MacArthur is a notable exception. I like Amber MacArthur. She should have been on the Forbes Top 25, but she isn't, and I am, so ha!

I'm on a Geek Cruise at the moment, because I'm a Geek. I'm discovering Vista. I don't know why I bother. I discovered it 5 years ago. It was called Mac OS X back then. Might sound familiar. I think they still make it. Anyway, so hopefully I'll get the chance to meet David Pogue again. He might let me wear the Pogue-Pants again. They're underpants he always wears when at special events and occasions. Like Geek Cruises.

Amber will be at work right about now, I suppose. What really annoys me is when I'm trying to work, and someone comes onto Skype, and calls me. I really hate that. Makes me feel real down. And last week, I did that to Amber. She's working late on a new TV show, and I feel so very, very bad, because I get really annoyed.

I'm a cheater, too. So I could go on this cruise I recorded KFI - The Tech Guy in advance. We had this guy sitting round the back, and he was real good at impersonating all the callers. Easiest show I've ever done. It's always easy when you know the questions. I rambled a bit about the Superbowl. I hate it really. See, I lie and cheat on KFI. Bet you won't want to syndicate my show now, will you, punk?