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Thursday, July 19, 2001
***this is an article I wrote for www.leolaporte.org I'm repreinting it in honour of Leo Day!!! Hello there! Robbie here, I've taken a wonderful journey through the dusty Leoville Blog Archive's and have brought some of my favorite passages back with me for your enjoyment! All excerpts from Leo's blog have are quoted at the beginning of the line. I'll comment on some of them, but Leo's the star here,so take a trip down memory lane. These entries are from the beginning of the blog, late February, through mid-April.
"Actually we had a pretty good Screen Savers tonight. I think my job is safe for another day. In truth, I'm not as insecure as all that, but I do admit that I still, after all these years, take note whenever I see a Help Wanted sign at the local McDonald's. This is not a joke."
Gee, Leo, I guess you could make extra selling pirated warez from the drive-thru...
"The cable installer is here. We can finally get TechTV in my neck of the woods. Had to upgrade to digital cable, but I guess it's worth it. It's somewhat disturbing to see myself on TV at home. I've never watched the channel like real people do before. Weird."
"I just watched an entire Screen Savers episode. Hey, it's not all that bad. Kinda funny even. But it's still wincingly painful for me to watch myself on TV. That's why it's taken me three years to get TechTV at home."
Wow!! I've been watching longer then Leo!!
"How frustrating. The digital cable box stopped working with TechTV the minute the installer left. The firmware got confused apparently. I called AT&T, they reprogrammed the box from the office and it still doesn't work. Whose idea was it to put a computer in a cable box anyway. It's probably running Windows. Grrr."
Yeah, I think TechTV Chat has been infected by Windows too...
"TechTV may not be perfect, but it's the only game in town."
Well...yeah.
"Here's the weird thing: I'm working without a contract right now. My deal expired on Monday and even though Greg and I supposedly agreed on the main points of a new contract a month ago (see the Archives), I haven't seen a single piece of paper yet. I wonder if they wanted to see how TechLive and the new Screen Savers worked out before committing to me? Of course, that cuts both ways. I can take a new job, too. Anybody got a gig for an overfed gray-haired goofy techno-geek?"
No offers that we've heard of yet...
"This new schedule is going to take some getting used to. TechLive is much more work than I thought it would be. I have to ad-lib so much that I actually need to know what I'm talking about. That means I now have to be an expert on finance and tech news, too! Well I've always enjoyed a challenge."
"Well I'm on the map now. Craig Barrett, Intel CEO, called me a "middle-aged reporter" *implying I was ignorant because I asked him who needs a 2 Ghz chip. Gee, I must have touched a nerve!"
Yeah well...Pentium 4s are stupid!!!!
"I do think we're going in the right direction. More interesting guests, more help, more projects, more appearances from our regulars Martin, Scott, Roger, Jessica, Megan, and, yes, Kate. We're working on getting her on with a game weekly. I know you all like that."
Oh Yeah!
"In the past few days we've seen a dramatic increase in the traffic on the Screen Savers site. This week we had over 250,000 impressions per day. In the past we've averaged closer to 100,000-150,000."
I'd like to end this piece with like to look at one more of Leo's entries, one that perhaps represents Leo's acceptance of the demise of HIS Call for Help...
"I'm sometimes slow to figure things out. It often takes me a week or two to really understand what's going on with me emotionally. It's taken me that long to figure out why I'm so personally bugged by the recent changes at TechTV, for instance.
I finally realized that for the past three years I've been able to do something I'm really good at: Call for Help. I fit that show like a hand in a glove. I didn't understand at the time how exceptional that was.
Now I'm doing something I'm just OK at. Something that apparently serves the company's needs better. But I miss that feeling of fitting the job perfectly.
Perhaps some day I'll feel just as fulfilled by The Screen Savers. But for now, I miss the feeling of vocation. Call for Help was my calling. This feels more like a job. A really good job, true, but still a job.
Hey, I'm not complaining. I'm very happy to be doing what I'm doing. I'd be a jerk not to be insanely grateful for the opportunities I have. Heck, I'm grateful that I had three years of Call for Help. That's more than I ever expected. But once you've had that feeling of answering a calling, it's hard to accept anything less."
We feel you, Leo. We also love you for doing what you're doing... helping hundreds of thousands of people .
I was just reading these and thought you'd enjoy a peek into Leo's psyche. I'm writing a new column now, so stay-tuned!!
posted by robbie doiron at 12:09 AM
***this is an article that was just published at www.cgnc.net go check them out after reading this!! Hi, this is Robbie again, I recently had the pleasure of interviewing "Gadget Guy", Dave Mathews via email. Dave is a wondeful geek who's been reviewing gadgets for syndicated computer television show NetTalk Interactive. His webpagae is at www.davemathews.com there are alot of great reviews there and you can read more about NetTalk Interactive at their website, www.nettalki.com He was just featured as Jessica's Site of The Night for his project on getting TechTV for Free! I found him to be a very intelligent and fun guy, and am pleased to bring you more information on the Gadget Guy!
Robbie: You're the Gadget Guy, you review enough gadgets to make most geek's
insanely jealous. What's your "favorite gadget, and why?
Dave: Well, I love wireless connectivity. I use 802.11b or WiFi at home for free
and it's great because once I get on the road I can use it in airports and
hotels for a small charge - but it's all using the same card in my laptop!
Robbie: What do you think will be the next gotta-have gadget?
Dave: I would never watch TV again without my TiVo. I was one of the first
people to put a second 30Gig drive in it that is identical to the first one.
Now I want to swap that out with a 100GB drive. :-) This week I'll be
adding a network card to it so I can "suck out" the video from the drives or
stream them to other computers within the house.
Robbie: What's the most useless gadget you've ever reviewed?
Dave: I won't touch the mousepads that have buttons on them to take you to web
sites, also I was sent the American Express Credit reader for their Blue
card and never saw the reasoning behind that either. With a weekly show
like I do, I have the luxury to question on air the validity of stuff that
has a limited consumer advantage, and then give real on-air coverage to
those things that have geek appeal!
Robbie: If you were trapped on a desert island with 3 gadgets, what would they be
and why?
Dave: A knife, a piece of magnesium and a handheld waterproof GPS receiver. I'd
use the knife to cut wood to make a boat and firewood. Get the fire burning
with magnesium shavings (it's very flamable) and once I had built enough
reserves of food and fresh water, I would take my raft out in search of
land. I guess I'd need batteries for the GPS - good thing the other two
"gadgets" don't need power!
Robbie: If you were trapped on an desert island with 3 TechTV personalities, who
would they be and why?
Dave: I'd only need two. Leo to philosophize and Patrick to fight off the
sharks. Literally. Wait, we could use Scott Harriet for bait, or our own
food. Sounds like a plan!
Robbie: Your a Macintosh Guy too, what are your thoughts on OS 10? Do you think
that Macintosh benifits from a command >line and the rock solid BSD-based
kernel?
Dave: I was an anti-Mac PC brute until I saw the Cube. What a sexy design. I'm
glad they stopped production so I can be one of "the few, the proud" with
one!. You can see my excitement over it in one of my video reviews at
www.davemathews.com/reviews and when I heard about the kernel of OS-X being
Unix based, I had to try it out and got a beta copy of OS-X. I have been
serving my personal site with FreeBSD for years, my favorite Linux is
Mandrake 7 and 8, and have had NT 3.5, 4.0 and now Win2K servers at my home
and offices. Apple has it figured out at the OS level - FINALLY. A super
clean look with a great managment system layer on top of a hard core
operating system. Microsoft beware!
Robbie: What would your recommendations be to someone who wanted to get into
hardware reviewing?
Dave: You must not get frustrated and need to have an open mind. Many of these
products require a LOT of hands-on tinkering to get them up and running
properly. Few fall into place or have easy operation like the manufacturers
would like! Staying up late at night tinkering is all a part of the fun for
me!
Robbie: The new host of Call for Help on TechTV is Chris Pirillo longtime author of
the Lockergnome Newsletters, read by a quarter million people daily, do you
subscribe to his newsletters? If so tell me what you think of the Gnomester.
Dave: I had subscribed for years and enjoyed his style and FIRST CLASS tips and
tricks. A handful of years ago Chris was surfing through TV late at night
and saw my goofy show. He made the connection to me from his mailing list
right away and we became email buddies. Now I get to laugh at him on TV!
Revenge is so sweet! :-)
I really enjoyed talking with Dave! He's an A+ geek for sure. If you want to know more please go to his webpage, www.davemathews.com/reviews he has a great archive of gadget reviews in Quicktime movie format, so you can see him in all his geeky glory!
posted by robbie doiron at 11:43 PM
Wednesday, July 18, 2001
***hey there! this is my Scott Herriott interview that appeared on www.techtvtechies.com Hello all my name is Robbie Doiron and for my first article I would like to discuss one of the most entertaining personalities at TechTV; Mr. Scott Herriott. After the cancellation of Internet Tonight and hearing about contract negotiations, one might fear we won't see much of Scott. Well after tracking down the man himself and swapping a few emails, I have found we have nothing to fear. This is what he has to say about his current involvement with TechTV-
"- Well, I've really enjoyed producing the House Call segments along with the Man-on-the-Street segments I've done. Anything involving humorous interaction with people I like. I also enjoy sitting with an editor and trying to come up with something that is both informative and entertaining, especially if there was nothing informative or entertaining that we had shot the day before. As far as Internet Tonight returning one day, who knows? I'd be interested in hearing what they'd have planned for it, but one thing's for sure, if the Surf Guru doesn't return, who will clean and press my suits? A game show might be cool."
Wheel of Tech anyone?? I was curious as to wether he was getting paid for the "House Calls" on the Screen Savers or wether it was part of his contract to which he replied-
"In reference to your second question, I really don't like to discuss how or what I get paid. But I can tell you it involves bartering and loads of canned goods. For now, I'm quite happy at TechTV."
Canned goods? I sure hope you get some spam out of it. Now that I've got those serious and important matters out of the way, I'll move on to Scott Herriot, the man. As you may or may not know, Scott has done stand-up comedy in a variety of settings including MTV and has even been a host on the Disney Channel! He told me two of his biggest influences were David Letterman and Johnny Carson. Just the thought of Scott and Dave doing a show together is enough to make me laugh for hours...
One can't help but wonder if Scott is the same off the air as he is on the air and when i asked him his response SHOWS us that he is, listen to this-
"Well Robbie, in answer to your first query, my off-camera persona is that of a comicbook crimefighter. For reasons that should be obvious, I can't reveal my identity at this time."
Also as anyone who watched Internet Tonight regularly knows, Scott has an intense personal interest in the quest to find Yeti or Bigfoot. He's a big name among Bigfoot Hunters. In fact www.bighoax.com said that the Bigfoot footage he caught on film is only 25% likely to be a hoax, those are low numbers for such a pessimestic website. He has even done a video on the mysterious beast, which anyone can order, he told me-
"Info concerning the video:
It's called "Journey toward Squatchdom"
Made it about six years ago.
It's a 22-minute quasi-mockumentary concerning the phenomenon of Bigfoot.
For your own "autographed" copy, send a check or money order for $15.95 to:
40 Harbor Oak Drive #24
Tiburon, Calif. 94920"
When I asked him to go futher into his interest and tell us a little about the theories he thought to be likely or found intriguing he said-
"The two most compelling theories concerning what the mighty Squatch is, I believe, are 1) it's a remnant of something we have a fossil record for (Gigantopithicus). The basic description of a Giganto matches nicely with your average Bigfoot sighting. Or, it could be another relic hominid which we also have a fossil record for, namely, Paranthropus. The footprints found to be credible fit this theory a little better than the Giganto one. A competing third theory that Sasquatch is nothing more than Patrick Norton's feral twin I find to be highly dubious."
In recent developmental meetings that TechTv has opened to the public, there has been alot of talk about what to do with Scott, since Internet Tonight has been taken off the air. So I firmly believe TechTv is trying to find the right "niche" for Scott in their network. Furthermore, I believe that once this is found that Scott Herriott will gain in popularity quickly. Among TechTv fans it is considered a tragedy Mr. Herriott isn't used more. And let's not forget the man went to Leeds.
posted by robbie doiron at 12:22 AM
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