Earlier this year, my friend, Chris Lee's, Leoville Town Square Podcast got a lot of publicity becuase of a statement former TV/current podcast star Leo Laporte made that he was still bitter about ZD selling their TV operation to Paul Allen and Vulcan Ventures. In addition, this was the grounds for Laporte not appearing on his former co-host's own ZD program, DL.TV. Later debate on TWiT between Patrick and Leo defined lines between the two (Leo all but chastising Patrick and John C. Dvorak for going back to ZD). Many believed Laporte was just being stubborn with these statements. Well, no more.
CrunchGear's John Biggs is reporting that ZD is (once again) trying to sell one of it's own. Reportedly, Ziff's "Consumer Small Business Group" is up for sale which includes 1UP.com (my favorite gaming site), but also PC Magazine (of which former TechTVers Jim Louderback, Patrick Norton, Robert Heron and John C Dvorak are all featured in), and also presumably ZD's podcasting operation and Patrick's own DL.TV video podcast.
So, what does this mean for the operation. Pat should have listened to Leo here. Even if a buyer is found, nobody can tell what they would do. Many remember the violent consequences when Comcast purchased TechTV. Either way, it would seem independent is the way to go.
What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?
Submitted by sami711.
As school wraps up in Atlanta, I'm prepping for our twice annual trip to Freehold, NJ, with a few trips to NYC within. We'll spend some time with the family and I'll also be bringing the show with me. We'll be broadcasting a few TechNight's up there as well. Brad is clearing his schedule and we'll probably do our second annual holiday show on the Saturday right before Christmas at 9 PM. Should be lots of fun for all. I hope you join us at differentdistrict.com/technight. and on talkshoe.com!
It always scares me a bit when podcasts get sponsors. Sure, it "could" be fine. Many podcasters (ie. Leo Laporte) are very firm that sponsors don't have any editorial precedence on their shows. But some netcasts are either already halfway in someone's pocket, or are so mum on the issue that you don't know where they stand; something that really stains a show's credibility.
That's why I was very concerned when Kevin Rose (of Rev3 Studios and Diggnation fame) announced that his online TV and audio podcast: Diggnation, would be sponsored by Microsoft's Zune and HD-DVD! Now normally, a sponsorship announcement would be fine with me. You have to pay the bills somehow. But this situation is very different for three key reasons.
First, Diggnation is in many ways a tech show. A large portion of their weekly stories are technology related. Now it's not that I don't trust Kevin or his co-host Alex, but they've played things so casually on their show that I've never heard them mention their stance on sponsors in an editorial context. In-fact, a number of companies (like Apple and Falcon Northwest) have been largely featured on the show because they have either given in advance, or just plain given products to the dynamic hosting duo. For example, Alex needed a new laptop a number of months ago. A rep with Falcon Northwest contacted him and sent him a PC with "Diggnation" etched on the lid.
With Zune and HD-DVD sponsoring, this mix of tech sponsors with tech show content (much of which features the two products) makes me suspicious of how future shows will treat these sponsors on-air. Will stories involving Zune or HD-DVD always get a pro stance from Kevin and Alex, or will these stories just be avoided completely.
Second, Diggnation is so popular among the tech community that anything featured on the show is provided with a huge amount of grassroots publicity. This sponsorship is a somewhat divisive move by Microsoft and HD-DVD to play off of an audience that waits with open ears to hear what Kevin or Alex think of a product. I'm scared the show hosts have already been bought off.
Third and finally, Kevin Rose not only hosts Diggnation, but he is also the CTA and founder of Digg.com. The Revision3 studios that Diggnation is produced under is run by CEO Jay Adelson, who is also the CEO of Digg.com. Digg is a social news website with a large technologically literate audince and article base. Since the success of both Digg and Rev3 Studios is in the best interest for both Adelson and Rose, than what is to say that highly algorithmic story selection process on Digg won't be "aided" by the interests of Microsoft and HD-DVD?
Now I'm blowing much of this out of proportion. Kevin is a good guy and I doubt he'd let any of what I've proposed above actually happen. Still, it's a scary thought that could be mirrored in many other podcasts to come. As far as Diggnation goes, Kevin either needs to speak up about this issue, or face endless retribution from the devoted fan-base that put him where he is now. It just scares me a bit, that's all.
In honor of Vox's launch tomorrow, what's your favorite feature or aspect of Vox?
Finally, I thought this thing would never actually make it to press time. Well, bravo Vox folks (I always forget your company name) for a pretty bang-up job on the service. It's fun, colorful, exciting, and...did I mention fun (oh yeah). A few flaws have crept into the site due to bad design advice and advertisements, but in general, Vox blows the pants off other social blogging services out there. Eat it MySpace!
How many computers do you have in your house?
Submitted by Foomper.
Simple answer...I have a 500 MHz iMac G3 from grandma off to my side with a broken installation of Ubuntu on it. My main system though, is my G4 1.5GHz Powerbook in front of me now. 3-4 years old and it still works like a beauty.
Do you listen to podcasts? Are there any you'd recommend?
Inspired by Alex.
Yes, of course I listen to podcasts! I prefer Netcasts of course (no kidding; 3-4 people a month tell me they can't listen to my show since they don't have an iPod or a mac). Ones on my list:
-Writers Almanac
-Daily Giz Wiz
-Diggnation
-DL.TV
-FLOSS Weekly
-Fly With Me
-Futures in Biotech (when I get a chance)
-GeekBrief TV
-iLifeZone
-Inside The Net
-Inside The Magic
-KFI Tech Guy
-KenRadio
-LTS Podcast
-Mac OS Ken
-MacBreak Weekly
-Macworld Podcast
-Mr. Mac Geek
-David Pogue
-Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me
-Political Inversion
-Security Now (for which I composed the opening theme)
-The Ploy
-The Laporte Report
-Gigavox's Podcast Academy
-Barack Obama
-This Week in Tech
-Windows Weekly
...and of course, I must recommend my own show "TechNight" (at http://www.differentdistrict.com/technight)! I should also say I don't listen to all of these. I simply don't have time. Fortunately, not all of them update at once and in the end I pick and choose episodes on the fly anyway. Enjoy.
John Tylko of DifferentDistrict.com was getting ready to relaunch the site and had promised a podcast to go along with it. So far, though, he had only posted one episode and the feed had been dormant for four months. I found the site around the same time and was looking to get into the whole podcasting thing myself. I sent off an email and was extremely happy to be invited onto the staff to start a weekly Mac news program. John was my co-host for the first four months of production. He was a great boss (of sorts) and allowed me amazing flexibility in producing the show from content to site management. In those first four months, we pulled off twelve fantastic shows, one event coverage program, and one interview with tech giant John C. Dvorak.
After a while, John stopped being available as often, and we shifted the show to a panel format with multiple guests on each show. I thought it was a great format and we carried on with it for a number of months. I was forced to reconsider the entire show after a somewhat devastating and scathing email from a man who will remain nameless. Show production stopped at a critical point and planned coverage of WWDC 2006 was never recorded and never aired.
I took a break for a month or so and looked at everything I was doing. I had a number of other projects clouding me and I had lost sight of how to run a show and what works and what doesn't. I started to rebuild the show I loved and I'm happy to finally announce today that the show that started it all is back.
The Different District Podcast is now TechNight! Same egotistical host, but with a new co-host, look, and feel. We're not just about Macs anymore. We're doing all tech. Thanks for the support of everyone who's helped me throughout the past year with TechNight/DD including John Tylko, Dominic Serio (ummm), Tristan Mace, Chris Lee, Alex D, Paul Tevis, Ben May, Mike Beckam, Graham, Brad Mattison, and of course all of our listeners for the past of year. It has meant a lot and we hope you all stay subscribed for another great year of podcasting.
Check it out at http://www.differentdistrict.com/technight
-What's the last thing you usually do or think about before you fall asleep?
It really takes you away. I just dream of a world. It varies. Sometimes it's clear. Other times, the world is abstract. Sometimes I just fall right to sleep. How do you fall asleep?
If you've seen my last post, you know my love of "big shows", especially Dave Letterman and the crew over at CBS. Yesterday they had their 13th birthday on CBS. It's worth noting that the show (in essance) has actually been on for more like 23 years if you count its incarnation at NBC as "Late Night". Anyway, cheers Dave and hope to see you on for a long time to come!
I'm always a fan of big shows. Big enough ones anyway. Not the circus but the ones you see on TV. "The Daily Show", Colbert, Leno, Letterman, "The Screen Savers". All of these programs have a place in my heart (especially Stewart and Letterman). On all of these shows, you get variety, you never know what may happen next, and you know whatever it is, it's been prepared by people who want to keep you informed or make you laugh, usually without cold marketing as an ulterior motive. But in addition, and partly as a result of the former, the show is a family, and you ,as the viewer, are part of the action each episode. Even when the hosts are mediocre, give the show time, and you'll find yourself longing for it when you haven't seen it for a while. Of recent, the big show has fallen victim to the attention spans of America. Shows are chopped up into segments and clips, given to the viewer completely separately, in the hopes of changing things quick enough as to not leave the viewer bored enough to change the channel. The internet encourages this even more as bandwidth costs money and shorter is cheaper online, and often times, easer to consume in a daily routine. But you loose the sense of family. You loose the power and warmth of the big show. You loose the sense of family. So the next time you're watching Letterman, or a you-tube rerun of TSS, take in the theme song, take in the hosts walking onstage, take in the chit-chat, take in the interaction, and always remember that it is something to be cherished, and something special.
