Category: People

News and Updates on the hosts, staff, and people of TTV, past and present.

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Features People Programming and Podcasts Site News

Will Undo.tv Become the New TechTV?

Apparently it’s very possible that it might be!

Chris Pirillo floated the idea of a new TechTV a while ago, and Leo Laporte picked up on it as well shortly thereafter, and we covered it here, but it looks like Chris is making progress on the idea, and more media outlets are picking up the story as it gathers steam.

Chris’s post is here:

[ Chris Pirillo :: TechTV = UndoTV ]

but the story doesn’t end there. Chris explains in his post why UndoTV is a good name for such a new project (and I agree, it’s an excellent name) and why the time is now and what a new venture like this could bring to the table. He writes:

When I seeded the idea about letting the community help us centralize, the response was overwhelming – both from TechTV alumni and our ever-present supporters. I’m here to tell you now: it’s going to happen. I don’t know how it’s going to happen, but… that’s what makes it worth doing! The most difficult hurdle has already been overcome, in my opinion: we have an audience that is NOT being served effectively.

ZDTV/TechTV brought us all together, but that brand belongs to somebody else – to a completely different time and management style. It’s not the name that’s most important – it’s what we do with that name which will prove our validity and worth. The whole is always greater than the sum of its parts!

Leo agrees, and believes that the opportunity is there and the market that hungered for TechTV still exists and is waiting for the triumphant return of easily accessible technology media content. Wired News picked up the story, and it’s right here:

[ TechTV Reborn as ‘UndoTV’ ]

In the article, Leo is quoted as saying:

“TechTV burnt through almost $100 million a year trying to launch a cable channel,” Laporte wrote in an e-mail in reply to a query. “With costs like that there’s no way they could make a channel that appealed to the million or so people who really wanted it. They couldn’t survive as a niche channel, they had to make it broader, and in the attempt, killed it.

“That audience is still there, just as hungry as ever. And with production costs shrinking, cheap internet distribution, and widespread broadband, it’s possible to feed that audience for next to nothing. This is what the digital revolution is all about.”

Hear Hear.

As for the rest of us, we can sit back and wait and enjoy the ride, and help where we can. I think we’re all excited about the possibility of a rebirth of TechTV, or at least something very very similar, and with the opportunity to make it happen right there in front of us, a community willing to make it happen, and a willing audience waiting to support it, I think it’s just a matter of time.

Categories
People Sites and Downloads TechNews Bytes

Kevin Rose on the Cover of BusinessWeek!

kevin rose businessweek cover

According to BusinessWeek, Kevin Rose is worth something like $60 million US. Kevin Rose says in this week’s DiggNation [ http://diggnation.com/ ] that that couldn’t be farther from the truth and that he doesn’t even have the money for a new couch for his new place. Either way, it’s no doubt that Digg is a runaway success, doing very well, and incredibly influential in the whole social-networking/information-gathering universe; bringing the ability to aggregate news and content to a customizable interface that’s user driven and user managed and user submitted. Digg is an amazing phenomenon, and its meteoric rise to success is definitely worth note.

BusinessWeek Online has the entire story, including Kevin’s subsequent effects on other young entrepenurs looking to stake their own claim on the web and find their own successes.

[ BusinessWeek :: Valley Boys ]

Categories
Features People Site News

TechTV Forever Interviews Becky Worley; Star of Yahoo! Tech’s Hook Me Up!

gemologistworley

It’s been a while since we last had the opportunity to talk to the wondrous Becky Worley, and we’re glad she took the time out to talk to us about her most recent work, including her new show on Yahoo! Tech, Hook Me Up! [ http://tech.yahoo.com/hookmeup ] as well as her recent global travels hunting for fame, fortune, and treasure!

It’s been a while since the days of TechTV, but Becky is still definitely at it; doing gadget and gear segments for Good Morning America, travelling the world hunting treasure for the Travel Channel, working on a blog for Yahoo! Tech and working on Hook Me Up!, and staying on top of her personal life and keeping active in the community! I’m getting a little ahead of myself, and trust me, Becky lets us in on everything she’s got going on-I can’t help but wonder when she gets time to sleep!

As usual, we want to thank Becky Worley for taking the time out to sit down and talk to us about her plans and her work, and everything she’s been involved in lately; all of us at TechTV Forever appreciate her giving us the inside scoop on her activities! Again, you’ll only find this information at TechTVForever.net!

////////

TTVF: To get started, tell us about your new show on Yahoo! Tech, “Hook Me Up.” It’s slated to be released officially on May 15th, what can viewers expect from the new show?

BECKY: Well the show has been out for a few months now and I think it’s progressing pretty well. To be honest, it took me a while to get used to the format and goals of the show.

From the TechTV days, I’m used to a step by step TV show that shows you how to perform technical tasks. If Call For Help on TechTV was a meal- it was a fun and informative meat and potatoes dinner. Hook Me Up is intentionally different: it’s more like an appetizer. The show’s blog posts and Yahoo Tech articles are the meat and potatoes. Doing a show ON the web offers an interesting opportunity: the content and step by step directions, which are best explained in text and pictures, are right there on the same screen.

Hook Me Up is intended to show people some of the options for using technology. It’s about real people and tells the human story first and the technology story second. It’s intended to pique the viewer’s interest in the possibilities that technology could bring to all our lives.

TTVF: What’s it like working on the show? It reminds me a lot of “Digital Digs,” from the old TechTV days. Any similarities there?

BECKY: Digital Digs was a massive project to bring tens of thousands of dollars in top of the line gadgets and gizmos to one viewer’s home. It was a contest where someone would win the ultimate tech makeover treatment.

Hook Me Up is different because it focuses on a specific issue or problem in a viewer’s life that can be remedied with technology i.e. a 26 year old girl who has a 27 year old TV, a single mom who’s 10 year old computer has holes in the drive bays and is missing a space bar, a musician who wants to make a demo reel so that he can audition for a gig playing the cruise ship circuit. It’s real people, real problems, with technology to the rescue.

shark worley

TTVF: So before I send in my video, what kinds of videos are you looking for? Just technically challenged people, or anyone who wants to get hooked up?

BECKY: The best videos for the show will be those that have a great story. If you have a quirky dilemma, a funny lifestyle, or a poignant problem you have a good shot at being picked. Also those that ask for TV sets are least likely to be chosen- we are inundated with TV requests.

TTVF: Yahoo! Tech is pretty new on the block, just being released to the public a few weeks ago. What’s it like working with them? Anything else cool we should be on the lookout for, or any other work you’ll be doing with them?

BECKY: Yahoo Tech is new to the block, but many of the staff members are old hats in the TV biz: The big boss is Pat Houston who I worked with at ZDTV radio and ZDTV news. He was the head cheese at CNet before he came over to Yahoo. The site manager for the show, James Hamilton was a writer and editor at TechTV. Robin Raskin, one of the advisors was a frequent guest on CFH and was the editor of Family PC and Chris Null was a big ZD guy. The site has a lot of muscle and content is becoming king at Yahoo- so wait and watch, I hope we’ll be doing lots of cool projects in the future.

TTVF: We’ve been keeping up with your segments on GMA; how is that going? What’s it like doing tech segments for an audience that large?

BECKY: Well it’s great! Every time I go on national TV someone from my past calls me to reconnect- it’s like old-home week. The actual segments are pretty much the same except I get nervous when the host is Diane Sawyer. It’s pretty weird to fly across the country, be limo’d to a studio, get your makeup and hair done all for 180 seconds of work.

Learning what content GMA likes to talk about has been an interesting learning curve, too. Gadgets, Gadgets, Gadgets. I squeak in a little security now and then, but it’s mostly TVs and gift stuff.

TTVF: You mentioned that you’ve been on the road a lot for work you’re doing with the Travel Channel! Fill us in on that; where have you been jetting off to?

BECKY: I have been filming a fun series called Best Places to Find Cash and Treasure and it will either debut this fall or in January.

In all of the 16 episodes I’ve gone on real treasure hunts. From diving for treasure in the Florida Keys to dynamiting for Aquamarine in North Carolina, to searching for Truffles in Oregon I’ve had some amazing adventures. I’ve found tens of thousands of dollars worth of loot and the cool thing about this show- all the adventures are open to the public. It’s been a ton of travel, I was on the road for 25 days in June for the show, so I’ve come to rely heavily on my travel gear. My ultra-light laptop, Bose noise-cancelling headphones, EVDO card and text messaging have been lifesavers.

splitfish

TTVF: When last we spoke, you were working with sports4kids, a non profit that puts P.E., recess, and play back into schools were athletic programs have been cut from the cirriculum. Are you still working with them?

BECKY: I was on the road this summer during one of the fund drives I’ve helped out with in the past, so I couldn’t pitch in the way I would have liked. But Sports for Kids has a mission that really resonates with me: teach kids to play. Play is such an important tool for learning, social dynamics, and health. I think that we as grown-ups need to be better role-models and make it a point to play as much as possible: do it for the kids! 🙂

TTVF: We’ve heard disturbing reports that some schools are trying to cut recess altogether to save time; we thought it was a crazy idea (I can’t imagine how school would have been like if we didn’t have recess to look forward to!) but what do you think?

BECKY: My best friend is a PE teacher for high school kids. I went to work with her one day and was amazed to see kids studying while trying to play games during PE. Kids are so stressed about grades, tests and college that the balance we had growing up is a little out of whack. I also think that computer fans like most of us have to remember the importance of taking a break, doing something with our bodies and stepping away from the monitors.

TTVF: Any other projects or news you’d like to share with us?

BECKY: I’m hosting a tech special for the Fine Living Network that will air in November. It’s called Tech Check and should have some info on buying trends and ideas for the holidays.

feet!

TTVF: For those of us looking to get into technology or technology journalism like you have, and to make our mark reviewing products and sharing our geekiness with the public, what advice do you have?

BECKY: Well, there are a lot of passionate technologists who have started blogs and gone to great heights. I guess I would advise aspiring journalists to pick a niche, find your voice, and stick with it. It’s not the best that always succeed, it’s the hungriest. That’s definitely true in this business and your drive is the only thing you can control- keep at it.

////////

Thanks again Becky!

Remember, you can head over to to BeckyWorley.com [ http://www.beckyworley.com/ ] and bookmark her blog, What’s Up Worley [ http://whatsupworley.blogspot.com/ ] to keep up with Becky and see what she’s up to; and stick with TechTVForever for new and updated information on Becky’s projects as we learn about them!

Make sure you guys check out Becky Worley on her show on Yahoo! Tech, Hook Me Up! [ http://tech.yahoo.com/hookmeup ], on Good Morning America talking tech, keep an eye out for Best Places to Find Cash and Treasure coming to the Travel Channel, and also check back in a few months for Becky’s special on the Fine Living channel!

All of us here at TechTV Forever wish her the best of luck with all of her new shows and projects, and look forward to seeing her on TV wherever she might appear!

Digg our story! [ here ]

Categories
People Programming and Podcasts

Rebuilding TechTV?

pirillo

Chris Pirillo [ http://chris.pirillo.com/ ] posted an interesting idea on his blog, and a call to arms for all TechTV fans and fanatics: “Let’s Rebuild TechTV!”

Pirillo believes that any future incarnation of TechTV would have to be sourced by the fan community that would love and nuture it and insulate it from the kidns of interests that spelled doom for TechTV; and he’s looking for fans and technology enthusiasts to help put together a website or portal where the content developers, people like himself and the TWiT folks(namely Leo) and the folks at DL.TV and Revision3 and CommandN could all get together to publish their content together, upload flash video and such. From his blog:

I’m thinking we could do something a bit more permanent (at least, online). I believe the community can bring the idea of “TechTV” back to life. What we’ll need, of course, is YOUR HELP.

TechTV Forever would be more than happy to contribute resources to the project! And it looks like we’re not the only ones; lots of webmasters and hosts have replied to the post stating their willingness to get involved and get serious about a project like this. Here’s hoping soon we’ll have a new TechTV, in whatever incarnation it might be.

[ Chris Pirillo :: TechTV: Rebuilt By Community? ]

Categories
Features People Programming and Podcasts

Catch Me on This Week’s Leoville Town Square Podcast!

LTS podcast logo

Chris Lee, of LTSPodcast fame [ http://ltspodcast.com/ ] along with Jamie Diamond, Taylor, and Ben May all invited me to join in the weekly discussion at the LTS Podcast, and I happily accepted!

This week’s topics included Adam Sessler’s appearance on last week’s Weezy and The Swish, the TWiT’s vacation over Memorial Day Weekend, the spinoff of MacBreak and This Week in Media into their own little podcast network, Leoville Town Square makes it onto Wikipedia, the new new new Attack of the Show, Webgems downloads go live, and more. I had a great time with the guys on the show, and I’m hoping they’ll have me back again soon.

In the meantime, I’ve been remiss in tracking their podcast here at TechTV Forever, but we’re going to fix that right now. The Leoville Town Square podcast has some very notable episodes and some very notable guests, including the May 28th episode featuring Amber MacArthur, the May 22nd episode featuring Andy Walker, and the February 24th episode featuring the man himself, Leo Laporte!

We’ll keep you up to date from here on out on the LTS Podcast, but if you want the scoop before we get it to you, check out the iTunes subscribe link below.

Leoville Town Square Podcast Episode 24 // June 5, 2006
[ episode notes | iTunes link | download ]

Categories
People Programming and Podcasts

Call for Help Coming Back to the USA?

update: Chris, of the Leoville Town Square Podcast fame, has updated us that on a recent LTS Podcast interview, he mentioned that Rogers is very close to getting Call for Help distributed on the net, possibly for a fee, which means that Call for Help fans could download their favorite episodes! He mentioned additionally that Rogers is very close to getting Call for Help on the air internationally, which could very well mean more exposure in other international venues and potentially back in the United States. Thanks for the inside tip, Chris!

During this week’s Inside the Net with Amber MacArthur, Leo mentioned a few things, including Amber’s new project called Torrent, which is a show on G4TechTV Canada where Amber wraps up some of the best clips from the world of vodcasting (video podcasting) in one show, and they even take podcast submissions for segment material!

If that’s not cool enough though, Leo mentioned in passing that while he wasn’t planning on providing more detail quite yet, he said something to the effect that we might soon be able to “see Call for Help all over the world,” which could mean that they’ve landed an agreement with a major network, or they’ve gotten the rights to go ahead and distribute the show over bittorrent or downloaded from the G4TechTV Canada website!

We’ll keep our eyes out and ears peeled for more information so you get it from TechTV Forever first! If our loyal TTVF readers hear anything or have any inside tips, let us know in the comments!

Categories
People Programming and Podcasts

Becky Worley’s Back, with Hook Me Up on Yahoo! Tech

A TechTVForever tipster (thanks Uchendu!) passed along the note that Becky Worley is back in action with the launch of Yahoo!’s consumer-tech oriented website, Yahoo! Tech [ http://tech.yahoo.com/ ] that promises to be geared towards product reviews, buying tips and advice, and being a resource for people who are interested in a technology purchase; essentially filling the void of professional advice, reviews, talk, and tips on the web from technology professionals. Yahoo! Tech looks to be a good portal, but where Becky Worley comes in is in the network’s new show, debuting on May 15th, called Hook Me Up!

Hook Me Up promises to help reform the technically-challenged and bring people with really old tech out of the dark ages and into the present day. The show looks like it has a “Pimp My Ride” aspect to it, except users submit their videos and info on how technologically impaired they are, the Hook Me Up comes to the rescue! There’s a trailer up right now over at Yahoo! Tech:
[ http://tech.yahoo.com/ ]

And you can read more about the show and submit your own video to be on the show here:
[ http://www.ifilm.com/promo/hookmeup?htv=12 ]

So far, so good! We’ve tossed Becky a message to see if she has the time to chat with us about the new show sometime soon. Here’s hoping she’s not too busy, but even if she is, good luck to her on the new show! If it’s something we can track, you bet we will!

Categories
People Programming and Podcasts

FLOSS Weekly with Chris DiBona // Episode 1

floss logo

A brand new podcast has hit the streets! Remember back when we broke the news that a new podcast with Chris DiBona was in the works? Looks like they went ahead and decided to call it FLOSS Weekly, which will cover all things open source, chat with the open source community and stay in touch with the great technology and tech news that’s going on in the open-source world; and there’s no better host for all of that than regular Screen Savers guest host Chris Dibona, who used to visit and talk open-source on the show pretty often. From the episode notes:

Meet our host, Chris DiBona, a long-time open source advocate, former editor at Slashdot and founder of Damage Studios, he is now the Open Source Programs Manager at Google. On this episode we get to know Chris and hear about his plans for FLOSS Weekly.

Sounds good to me! We’ll be covering this one too, so make sure to check back for more information!

FLOSS Weekly Episode 1 // April 7. 2006
[ episode notess | download ]

Categories
People Programming and Podcasts Sites and Downloads

New Video Show // 10

ten logo

Ten [ http://onten.net/ ] is a show created by Microsoft that features ex-G4 personalities Laura Foy and Tina Wood, that you may or may not remember from G4’s “G4tv.com The Show” or whatever the name really was. I hate to admit it, but I was never really a fan; I thought the G4tv.com television show was kind of redundant, boring, and lacking in any real or entertaining value or content, but my opinions don’t equal your opinions, and it wouldn’t be fair to exclude this daily show from the lineup.

The show comes out every day, so we won’t be tracking it, naturally, and that combined with the fact that the show doesn’t really feature any ex-TechTV personalities puts it a little out of our realm, but you might want to subscribe to it anyway! The about page says:

10 is a place for people who want to use technology to change the world.

Every weekday at 10:00 am (PST) we’ll update this site with a new video that highlights people, their passions and often the technology they are using. At the end of each week we compile these videos into a full length show with some extra surprises for you.

In addition to the show, we’re launching a number of blogs for the enthusiast covering a wide range of topics. Our blogs will be written by Microsoft employees, members of the 10 community or a mixture of both.

Welcome to the beginning of 10, the next step starts with you!

This isn’t Microsoft’s first IPTV venture, see their Channel 9 for more content.
[ http://channel9.msdn.com/ ]

Whether or not the show will essentially be Tina and Laura picking up their bags and settling down in the next place that wants a pair of blondes to be “hip” “edgy” and “extreme” and do a little dish about technology is totally up to you, but that’s certainly what people thought about their previous show, and half the reason the show got cancelled (the other half being a lack of viewers, of course).

Okay, okay, I should stop-I’m not being fair at all to the show. It’s got several episodes under its belt so far, and they do come out reliably every single day with new and fresh content. Head over and check it out, and make the decision for yourself whether or not it’s worthwhile. If you guys love it, come back here and smack me around, and tell us to track it!

10 // Video Show from Microsoft
[ http://on10.net/ ]

Categories
People Programming and Podcasts

Weezy and The Swish Featured on iTunes!

Congratulations, Matt, Weezy, and Laura!

That’s right, your favorite comedy podcast is headed for the top 10, and should be featured on the front page of the iTunes comedy podcast section with a banner and everything, and also in the “featured podcasts” section as well, right up there with another hilarious podcast we track for you, Infected with Martin Sargent!

So raise a glass to the fine folks who give us Weezy and The Swish every week, and keep an eye out in iTunes, because the audience is likely to get quite a bit bigger in the coming weeks. Stay tuned, you should see the banner and sidebar feature sometime between 3/29 and 4/5!

Congratulations, guys!

Categories
Features People Programming and Podcasts

TWiT, Command-N, and Hak.5 Fundraiser for the EFF!

twit comic

A few weeks ago, in an Adventures of Superman comic (#648, March ’06, to be precise), there was a panel where the artist obviously appreciated podcasting and tech programming, because in one of the scenes you can see some kids looting a store in a ravaged part of Metropolis wearing a TWIT jacket, a Command-N hoodie, and a Hak.5 hat (Hak.5 is another technology videocast that’s available over at their website. [ http://www.hak5.org/ ]

Well, the stars of all of the shows are helping raise money for the Electronic Frontier Foundation by autographing a copy of the comic that their logos appear in and placing it on eBay! Go ahead and place your bid today, the item’s right here:

[ eBay.ca :: Adv of Superman 648 signed by TWiT, commandN, Hak.5 ]

More info is over at TWIT.tv:

[ TWIT.tv :: Ebay Auction to Benefit EFF ]

Categories
Opinion People

The Province Interviews Andy Walker!

The Province, part of the Canada.com network, recently interviewed Andy Walker about the eventual expansion of hacking attacks and malicious code from the desktop PC to PDAs, cellphones, and even other handheld devices like portable music players like Apple’s iPod. Andy explains that something of a “perfect storm” is brewing in the IT security world, where malicious hackers are learning more and more to target a wider swath of technology devices, from the up-to-recently considered mostly safe Apple Macintosh computer to, eventually, cellphones, PDAs, and Blackberrys that also carry information and data that could be very valuable to attackers.

He points out that the future might not even be so malicious; that downloading content to your portable music or video player might give way to you recieving spam or adware, and that specifically Apple should be more careful when it comes to security, focusing mostly on the ubiquitousness of the iPod as a portable digital device that could be targeted.

What do you think? Is Andy on point about future security risks or is he way off base and barking up the wrong tree? Let us know in the comments!

[ The Province :: Hackers Aiming at All Computer Devices ]

Categories
People Programming and Podcasts Tips and Tricks

Becky Worley’s Superbowl Tech Segment; GMA Saturday 2/4/06

Catch Becky Worley tomorrow, February 4th, 2006 on Good Morning America Weekend shooting in Detroit at Ford Field with hall-of-famer Steve Young! She’ll be on the field showing you all the awesome ways you can geek up your Super Bowl experience, with awesome stuff like wireless TV, an awesome 50-inch plasma, and the ultimate fan’s couch.

What exactly IS the ultimate fan’s couch? Well, Becky didn’t elaborate. But that just means you’ll have to tune in tomorrow morning to find out! Check your local listings for your CBS affiliate and airtimes for Good Morning America Weekend!

Categories
People Sites and Downloads

ZDNet Interviews Kevin Rose! Part II

Looks like the interview with Kevin over at ZDNet is a multi-parter! Well, part 2 is up now, and Kevin gives the interviewers (and readers) the lowdown on spam and personalization on digg, and the glory of the Digg Spy, which allows you to see a real-time version of what’s being dugg, added, or voted down on Digg. Looks awesome! Check it out:

[ ZDNet // Interview with Kevin Rose Pt. 2 ]

Categories
People Sites and Downloads

ZDNet Interviews Kevin Rose!

Kevin Rose is certainly making the rounds lately! This week we have an interview with him at ZDNet, discussing the rise of Digg, [ http://digg.com/ ] it’s meteoric success, plans for the future, features and follies, and more. Kevin discusses what’s in store for Digg and the user community behind it, and how he and the Digg team plan to make Digg an even better tool for the future. Enjoy!

[ ZDNet // Interview with Kevin Rose ]

Categories
People Sites and Downloads

Gadgetell Interviews Kevin Rose!

In an exclusive interview, the folks at Gadgetell have interviewed Kevin Rose, both of TechTV fame and now one of the faces behind the scenes at Digg [ http://digg.com/ ] and Revision3 [ http://revision3.com/ ]. The interview is really good and has a lot of excellent questions (and answers) behind them. Check it out below!

[ Gadgetell // Interview with Kevin Rose ]

Categories
People Programming and Podcasts Sites and Downloads

Half a Million Downloads for Lab Rats!

Andy Walker posted to the TechTV Forever yahoogroup [ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/techtv-forever/ ] that they’ve just logged their 500,000’s download of Lab Rats episodes, in part due to their ongoing and up to the second coverage of both the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the MacWorld Expo! He says:

Just wanted to thank everyone for their ongoing support of LabRats.tv

I am delighted to tell you we logged our 500,000th download last night. Half
a million! Sean and I are just astounded!
And 100,000 of those downloads came in the last week from our road coverage
of CES in Las Vegas and Macworld in San Fran.
(I write to you now via Wi-Fi in my hotel lobby.)

Eric suggested that viewers probably wouldn’t mind a little advertising to
help defray costs of the production — and I agree — so we’re looking at
some fun ways of integrating that.

It’s certainly been a learning experience for us. Sean is cutting the show
on his G4 iBook and then uploading wherever we can find Wi-Fi.
Our servers ran out of space this week so we had to drop the various
versions we usually post to fit all the coverage.
But we’ll remedy that next week when we move to a new dedicated server that
will house all the Cyberwalker.com properties as well as LabRats.tv.

And if you haven’t already check out today’s episode of our Macworld
coverage, please do (11.2)…Amber, Patrick, and camera guru Mikkel Aaland
all appear on the show.

You heard the man! Look forward to new and better coverage coming soon from the Lab Rats crew, and don’t forget to check out their most recent episodes from CES and MacWorld (linked below) over at LabRats.tv [ http://www.labrats.tv/ ]

Categories
People Programming and Podcasts Sites and Downloads

7 of the Top 10 Podcasts on Podnova are by Former TechTV Stars

Blatantly stolen from Digg [ http://www.digg.com/ ] it looks like the title is actually true. The digg poster of the original story wonders for a moment how the TechTV crew ever got the boot from the airwaves, and well, the answer is simple: niche marketing and the greed of G4 and Comcast execs. Luckily the folks at G4 are getting their comeuppance now that their brand new network (with their oh-so-desired 50 million extra homes) is tanking so hard they’re dying to copy Spike TV’s business model (reruns of The Man Show and Star Trek: TNG, anyone?), and even Comcast has seen the light enough to sack Charles Hirschorn, the man who orchestrated the takeover in the first place.

But even so, their loss is our gain in terms of free, quality programming and podcasts for the web, and you know we’ll help you keep track of it all at TechTVForever!

[ Digg // Original Story ]

[ PodNova // Top 40 Rankings ]

Categories
People Programming and Podcasts

G4TV Cancels CFH…Again

Rumor has it that G4 Television has cancelled Call for Help for a second time. The news isn’t particularly surprising considering CfH’s horrible timeslot (11AM EST/8AM PST, then moved even earlier) and the channel’s horrible ratings overall. The channel’s ratings have plunged way below TechTV standards and even lower than G4’s pre-merger ratings, and people are giving up on watching in droves. Add that to the hefty cost of The Man Show reruns that G4 has purchased, and you have a recipie for disaster.

I’ve long thought that G4 brought back CfH just to quiet the hatred over the merger, and then subsequently allow it to fail loudly so they could claim that technology on television is pointless. Well, of course it’s pointless when you make it completely inaccessable. Everyone saw through the ruse Comcast, we all know what your goal was from the start.

Regardless, no official statement has been made as of yet, so treat this as a rumor. More details as they become available, and keep in mind that just because G4 has made this move doesn’t mean that G4TechTV Canada has decided to cancel, or The How To channel in Australia has decided to cancel. We just might continue to see new episodes of CfH in the future anyway, and there still exists the possibility of an intelligent network picking up the show and running it in a timeslot it deserves with the promotion it deserves.

Categories
People Sites and Downloads Tips and Tricks

Good Morning America: Tech Gifts for 2005 with Becky Worly Video

John Highway over at IHeartMorganWebb [ http://www.iheartmorganwebb.com/ ] was kind enough to catch the segment on Good Morning America Weekend with Becky Worley and her fabulous suggestions for the geek in your life this holiday season (and they’re great suggestions!) and has posted the video on his site for all of us to view and enjoy. Some of Becky’s gift suggestions inlcude the Motorola Razr cellphone, the XBox 360 (if you can find one), and a huge F1 racing simulator courtesy of Neimann Marcus. Incredible! Head on over and check out the video!

[ http://www.iheartmorganwebb.com/?file=videoclips#becky_worley ]