LEO LAPORTE

'Leo Gordon Laporte' (born November 29, 1956 in New York City, New York)^[1] is an American technology broadcaster and author. Currently he lives in Petaluma, California, with his wife Jennifer and two children, Henry and Abby.^[2]

Contents

Early career

Television and radio

Books

Podcasting

Guest Appearances

References

External links

Early career

Laporte studied Chinese History at Yale University.^[3]
He began his association with computers with his first home PC, an Atari 400.^[4] He operated one of the first Macintosh-only bulletin board systems, MacQueue, from 1985 to 1988.^[5]

Television and radio

Laporte is the host of G4techTV Canada's daily television show ''The Lab with Leo Laporte'', formerly known as ''Call for Help''. The series also airs in Australia on the HOW TO Channel, as well as Google Video.
He also hosts a technology-oriented talk radio program titled ''Leo Laporte: The Tech Guy.'' The show, once an exclusive to KFI AM 640 (Los Angeles), is now syndicated on Premiere Radio Networks. Laporte appears semi-regularly on ''Showbiz Tonight'',^[6] ''Live with Regis and Kelly''^[7], ''World News Now'', and briefly with Bill Handel on Friday mornings on KFI.
Laporte has created, hosted, and contributed to a number of technology-related broadcasting projects. He created and co-hosted ''Dvorak On Computers'' in January 1991, and hosted ''Laporte On Computers'' on KGO Radio and KSFO in San Francisco. In addition, Laporte also hosted ''Internet!'' 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.
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.
Laporte has also pursued acting, playing Uncle Charlie in the movie ''Phoenix Rising''.^[8]
Leo now hosts a new show called ''The Lab with Leo Laporte'' which first aired on April 23, 2007. The show is produced by Greedy Productions in Vancouver and is broadcast on G4TechTV in Canada and on the HOW TO Channel in Australia.

Books

Laporte has authored a number of technology-oriented books writings such as ''101 Computer Answers You Need to Know'', ''Leo Laporte's 2005 Gadget Guide'', ''Leo Laporte's Guide to TiVo'', ''Leo Laporte's Guide to Mac OS X Tiger'' and ''Leo Laporte's PC Help Desk''.
Laporte has also published a yearly series of technology almanacs: ''Leo Laporte's Technology Almanac'' and ''Poor Leo's Computer Almanac''. Laporte's latest and last book is Leo Laporte's 2006 Technology Almanac.
Throughout his career, he has contributed to a number of periodicals such as ''BYTE'', ''InfoWorld'', and ''MacUser''.
Laporte announced in October, 2006 that he will not renew his contract with Que Publishing and has retired from publishing his long series of books. He said, "Writing books is hard work and, love starved groupies aside, the compensations are scant. I’ll put my energies into something I love to do, talking for a living."^[9]

Podcasting

Laporte currently owns and operates a podcast network named "TWiT.tv." The name is derived from the network's flagship podcast ''this WEEK in TECH'' (aka TWiT) which is hosted by Laporte along with a rotating panel of guests usually made up of several other former TechTV employees. This show remains one of the most popular podcasts on iTunes and other podcast subscription services, as evidenced by winning an award at the November 2005 Podcasting Expo in California for the year's best podcast and by its over 280,000 weekly downloads.
Laporte prefers to call his shows "netcasts," saying "I've never liked the word podcast. It causes confusion... people have told me that they can't listen to my shows because they 'don't own an iPod'... I propose the word 'netcast.' It's a little clearer that these are broadcasts over the Internet. It's catchy and even kind of a pun."^[10]

★ August 2005 - Laporte created ''Security Now!''. Laporte and computer enthusiast and software engineer Steve Gibson. Dedicated exclusively to security in technology. (This is the only TWiT podcast that hasn't missed a release date)

★ November 2005 - Laporte extended the new TWiT network with a podcast called ''Inside the Net'' with Amber MacArthur, dedicated to covering the latest trends on Web 2.0 technologies. (This show has since been renamed ''net@nite'' and is recorded live via talkshoe)

★ December 2005 - Laporte created ''Triangulation'', a podcast experiment featuring the columnist and broadcaster John C. Dvorak and Lawrence Lessig. The pilot's topic covered Google's attempt to create a search service for books; Google Book Search. Triangulation was never extended past the pilot. Dvorak moved on to host a similar show, ''CrankyGeeks'', for Ziff Davis Media.

★ January 2006 - Laporte created ''MacBreak'', a video podcast which explores many interesting topics regarding Apple Inc.'s Macintosh computers. His co-hosts include Kendra Arimoto, Alex Lindsay, Emery Wells, and Merlin Mann.

★ February 20, 2006 - Laporte created ''Daily Giz Wiz'', a daily podcast featuring Dick DeBartolo. Laporte was quoted as saying: "The Daily GizWiz is our first daily podcast. It will be released every weekday morning - high in fiber, low in calories, it's a great way to start your day."^[11]

★ April 2006 - Laporte created the podcast ''FLOSS Weekly'', a weekly podcast about Linux, BSD, and other open source software, with Chris DiBona. Laporte also added This Week in Media to the TWiT.tv lineup, a new podcast dedicated to the production of digital media. The podcast is hosted by Alex Lindsay and others. This Week in Media is now by Pixel Corps, and no longer on Twit.tv

★ June 2006 - Laporte created a podcast called ''Futures in Biotech''. Co-hosting with Dr. Marc F. Pelletier, they interview prominent figures in biotechnology.

★ August 10, 2006 - Laporte created ''MacBreak Weekly''. It was originally an audio version of ''MacBreak'' with the same topics and co-hosts as ''MacBreak''. Video normally takes longer to produce, so this audio version offers an alternative for visitors not wishing to wait for the ''MacBreak'' releases. It is now a completely separate podcast.

★ September 5, 2006 - For the first time in the history of the network, Laporte introduced advertising into the TWiT network. The first sponsors were T-Mobile, Astaro, Visa, and Dell. Each of the ad spots is typically a minute or less, and any combination of ads may appear in any TWiT program. Laporte has stated that the money will be used to pay the podcasting guests for their contributions.^[12]

★ September 28, 2006. - ''Windows Weekly With Paul Thurrott'', dedicated entirely to the new version of Microsoft Windows released in January, 2007 (prior to the release, the podcast was titled ''Countdown to Vista'').

★ October 23, 2006 - Laporte released ''This Week in Law'' (aka ''TWiL'') on the TWiT.tv network, hosted by Denise Howell and dedicated to discussion of issues in technology law.

★ November 8, 2006 - Laporte began doing a new show called ''net@nite'' with Amber MacArthur which was a replacement/continuation of ''Inside the Net''. The focus of ''net@nite'' is still on things happening on the internet, but is hosted live every Sunday night on Talkshoe[1], while the recording of the show is released as a podcast on Tuesday as with the previous show ''Inside the Net''.

★ Laporte has been releasing copies of his radio show, now syndicated on Premiere Radio Networks, as a podcast a day or two after their release. He has been involving several of the members of his other podcasts in the show as well. It is called ''The Tech Guy''.

★ March 1, 2007 - Leo Laporte started a new video podcast called ''Gear◊Media◊Tech''. On Pixelcorps.tv. The show also features Scott Bourne, and Alex Lindsay. Together, they talk and review the greatest equipment and techniques for making great internet content.

★ May 29,2007 - ''Jumping Monkeys'', a new netcast featuring Megan Morrone, is released in the TWIT network.

★ July 28,2007 - ''Munchcast'', a new netcast hosted with Cammy Blackstone that is all about "geek junk food".[2]

Guest Appearances

Laporte has also made numerous guest appearances on other technology podcasts, including:

★ Cranky Geeks Episodes: 59

★ Buzz Out Loud Episodes: November 22, 2006, August 14, 2007

★ DL.TV Episodes: April 5, 2007

★ hak.5 as evil server

References

1. Leo Laporte Information. ''TV.com''
2. Leo Laporte's Official Biography Leo Laporte
3. On the Record...Online with Leo Laporte of This Week in Tech
4. Focus On: Leo ''G4''
5. Leo Laporte back on KGO-AM, replacing Michael Finney Brad Kava
6. ''Showbiz Tonight'': Transcript for July 25, 2005
7. Leoville: Live with Regis and Kelly
8. imdb: Phoenix Rising
9. http://leoville.vox.com/library/post/dont-buy-my-book.html
10. http://www.twit.tv/2006/09/22/a_cast_by_any_other_name
11. http://www.twit.tv/dgw1
12. Welcome Dell and Visa! ''TWiT.tv''

External links

★ Leo Laporte's official website

★ Leo Laporte's blog

★ Leo Laporte's ''The Tech Guy'' radio show notes site

★ ''This Week in Tech'' Netcast/Podcast Network official website

★ ''The Lab with Leo Laporte'' official website

★ Leo Laporte's ClaimID page