Ten Years After : LOL: The Life of Leo

Leo LaPorte is finally completely off the TV airwaves. Sad day. But, it is also a happy day because I couldn’t get the show here in these United States, and it has freed him up to think outside of the box and start putting together an online network of video-taped podcasts. I am calling it that because as it stands right now it doesn’t sound like what he will be producing will look anything like what we see on tv.

Right now, he runs the TWiT Netcast Network which produces around 12 different shows per week that are available for download from his site. Now he is looking at how to bring an element of live tv to it. At this point it appears that he will still keep producing the same shows with maybe the addition of a few more, who knows, but he will have multiple cameras aimed at him and his guests so that there will now be a live, interactive element to it.

LaPorte has always said that he likes the idea of interactive which was one of the driving forces behind many of the decisions made at the now defunct network TechTV. His desire was to always find ways for the audience to participate. TechTV lead the charge in using webcams so that the audience could actually be on the shows and asks questions and leave comments. It was an openness that we haven’t seen since.

I believe this openness is what engendered such a tight following in his audience. We have always felt that we are a part of the action, and to be honest, it doesn’t matter where Leo goes, if he is producing content, his audience will find a way to consume it.

I am looking forward to the changes in the upcoming months to TWiT and I am excited that I don’t have to bittorrent his content in order to see it.

If you are looking for interesting, well-produced podcasts that have a bit of a tech angle, check out TWiT.tv.

Veronica Belmont, Merlin Mann, and the Chief TWiT himself, Leo LaPorte joined Jonathan Coulton, the ultimate geek rocker, on stage in San Francisco this weekend to mark the release of Jonathan Coulton’s song Still Alive.

If you complete the game Portal, one of the games included in The Orange Box, you get to hear this catchy little jingle.

It is super cool to see these guys and girl get the chance to rock out. I wish I could have been there.

I just downloaded a Firefox plug-in (Add-on) called ScribeFire and I am testing it right now. My blog is a Wordpress blog, and it has a pretty good editing interface that comes part and parcel with the software that is installed on my server.

I have been using Wordpress for the last 4 months and have been completely happy with the interface, but today, I was looking at Leo LaPorte’s Wakoopa software feed, and it said that he was using MarsEdit, a blog editing software package for the Mac, and it got me to wondering if there is software available for Windows, and lo and behold, here is software that integrates right into my favorite browser, Firefox.

Powered by ScribeFire.

I am addicted to Leo LaPorte. He is a tech maven who used to be on the now defunct TechTV. TechTV was purchased by G4 and then killed it. Leo LaPorte left before G4 took over and started a radio show and then a whole podcasting network. For the past two years, the show was exclusively on an LA AM news station called KFI. The show was called KFI the Tech Guy. Incidentally, the show was on his podcasting network. That is where I listened to it.

Twit.tv, Leo’s podcasting network grew to the point that he was looking for a way to cut back. He told KFI that he was going to stop the radio show. KFI replied and said that they would help him syndicate the show nationwide.

This past weekend was the first week of the nationwide show and the podcast changed. It’s different now and I like it. I was a little skeptical when I saw the length of the show. It is quite long because the show is nearly 3 hours now. The reason is Leo has left all the back-channel chat during the breaks in the podcast. It is pretty cool.

Now, you get to hear all the conversations between Leo and the producers in the studio. It is a little like audio voyeurism. Go to the iTunes music store, click on podcasting and then search for Leo LaPorte. If you like tech talk, then you will like this show. He answers all sorts of questions and it is quite entertaining. You will especially like it if you were a TechTV fan.

Great change in the radio show Leo. I, for one, like the change. I have to go. Heroes is on. What a geek…