Leo Laporte
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Leo Laporte (born November 29, 1956 in New York City, New York) is a technology broadcaster and author. He studied Chinese History at Yale University (but did not earn a degree). He currently resides in Petaluma, California, with his wife Jennifer and two children, Henry and Abby. His first home PC was an Atari 400.
Television and Radio
Laporte is the host of G4techTV Canada's daily television show Call for Help, which also airs in Australia on the HOW TO Channel, and Google Video. Every month he travels to Toronto for one week to the G4TechTV Canada studios to host Call For Help (where all personnel except Laporte are Canadian). He also hosts a technology-oriented talk radio show on station KFI AM 640 in Southern California from his home studio. He appears semi-regularly on Showbiz Tonight, Live with Regis and Kelly and ABC World News Now.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. Laporte 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 hour-long newsmagazine. He created The Site, to which he also contributed daily 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 TechTV. Laporte left The Screen Savers in 2004 due to a dispute with TechTV's then-outgoing owner Vulcan Ventures over stock ownership.
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 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 book is Leo Laporte's 2006 Technology Almanac, ISBN 0789733978 (left).
Throughout his career, he has contributed to a number of periodicals such as BYTE, InfoWorld, and MacUser.
Podcasts
Laporte currently owns and operates a podcast network of shows named "TWiT.tv," named after his widely popular franchise "this WEEK in TECH" (aka TWiT). this WEEK in TECH is hosted by Laporte along with several other former co-hosts of The Screen Savers. 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 250,000 weekly downloads.In August 2005, Laporte created the podcast Security Now! with computer engineer Steve Gibson, which is dedicated exclusively to security in technology. Then in 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.
In December 2005, Laporte created Triangulation, a podcast featuring the columnist and broadcaster John C. Dvorak and another guest on a specific technology topic.
In January 2006, Laporte created "MacBreak", a video podcast which explores many interesting topics regarding Apple Computer's Macintosh computers. His co-hosts are Amber MacArthur, Alex Lindsay, and Emery Wells.
On Monday, February 20, 2006 Laporte created a daily podcast called Daily GizWiz with 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."'
In 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.
In June 2006, Laporte created a podcast called Futures in Biotech. Co-hosting with Dr. Marc F. Pelletier, they interview prominent figures in biotechnology.
Laporte refers to these additional podcasts as TWiT extensions.
See also
External links
- [Leo Laporte's official website]
- [Leo Laporte's blog]
- [Leo Laporte's message boards]
- [This Week in Tech Podcast Network official website]
- [Macbreak Vidcast] -- Leo Laporte's video podcast
- [KFI AM 640 official website]
- [Call for Help official website]
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