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It was the end of an era this week over on G4. Their Attack of the Show! series came to a close after more than 1,700 episodes on the air. The show's cancellation was announced late last year as part of the plan to rebrand G4 as the Esquire Channel, focusing on programming for "metrosexual viewers."

Back in March 2005, Attack of the Show! replaced The Screen Savers, a beloved computer and tech help show that started back when the channel was known as TechTV. Over its seven year run, the Screen Savers hosts included Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Kate Botello, Kevin Rose, Alex Albrecht, and Sarah Lane.

After it was announced that Attack of the Show! would be ending, producer Joshua Brentano contacted Laporte and Norton about filming a special sketch for the last episode.

Below, you can see the...

I was going through all my bookmarks and I came along this one that I have not shared with you all yet! Shame on me! Courtesy of GeekDad.

Whether you’ve been using Twitter since 2006, are determined never to use it unless dragged kicking and screaming, or are somewhere in between, you probably know that it’s wildly popular with all sorts of people. In addition to the celebrities who make a big deal about Twitter (e.g., Ashton Kutcher), there are tons of people, both famous and not, who tweet about lots of interesting things.

Here's a updated list of people to follow on Twitter.

Name Twitter ID Why They’re Listed Here Phil Plait BadAstronomer The Bad Astronomer himself; a source for great space-related info and a dose of healthy skepticism. James Urbaniak JamesUrbaniak The voice of Dr. Venture on The Venture Brothers, and a very funny tweeter.

Leo Laporte continues to break new ground in both the live and niche video content universe. Laporte is a crusader for net neutrality, sharing knowledge and smart conversations. His army of geeks has helped make This Week In Tech (TWiT) the mother-ship of tech talk. App Attacks! Marc Ostrick and Joshua Levine take a look at two TWiT apps - TWiT Netcast Network TWiTpad. Check out TWiTpad at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twitpad/id352805075?mt=8 Check out TWiT Netcast Network: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twit-netcast-network/id387553668?mt=8...

Here's "Extra's" roundup of talk show guests for the week of Jan. 17 - 21, including Seth Rogen on "Ellen" and Betty White stopping by "The View." Natalie Portman stays up late for "Conan," and Cameron Diaz checks-in at the "Lopez Tonight."

Daytime

"The Ellen DeGeneres Show"

Mon 1/17: Seth Rogen, Deena Nicole Cortese, Bruno Mars

Tues 1/18: Jennifer Lopez, Matt Bomer

Wed 1/19: Natalie Portman, Eric Ross

Thurs 1/20: Amy Poehler

Fri 1/21: Dr. Drew Pinsky...

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Think about the number of passwords you use. If it's just one or two, then you're probably not storing your data in a very secure way. More likely, you've got anywhere from six to a dozen different passwords for various websites, applications, and projects. In this week's edition of Work Smart 2, Kevin Povondra from Connecticut asks for a better way to store his passwords. But how do you strike a balance between convenience and security? I offer some solutions, and ask Leo Laporte of the TWiT Netcast Network for some of his.

Here is the Popplet mind map used in today's episode:

To print this mind map, click here (Pdf file).

Special thanks to Leo Laporte and to Popplet. You can download Popplet for the iPad.

A few years ago I was running a site I created called "The Movie Blog" and I wrote an article I called "20 Tips For Starting Your Own Movie Blog". Well it's a few years later now and after reading that old article a few time I thought I should update it just a little and share it with you guys here.

The original article with all of its comments can still be read online at The Movie Blog. But for now I present to you my slightly updated and revised "20 Tips For Starting Your Own Movie Blog":

I remember way back over 7 years ago when I was getting ready to launch my own movie blog ("The Movie Blog" was officially launched on July 24th 2003) I did a quick little google search for “movie blogs”. At that time it said it came up with about 11,000 results. I did that exact...

Google's annual developer conference Google I/O kicks off today in San Francisco, we're on site with live coverage of the opening keynote as it happens. Watch the live video stream on YouTube in one window, and join me, Kevin Marks, Adam Pash, and Leo Laporte in live text commentary via Google Wave right here.

Will the search giant launch Google TV? Google Storage? Android 2.2? More nifty developer tools? Follow along right here to find out.

[Note to Safari, Ie users: Try Firefox if this Wave isn't showing up for you.]

Photo by gillat.

Do you know why stand-up comics have so many lame jokes about flying? It's because we spend so much (expletive deleted) time on (expletive deleted) planes. (My own lame joke about flying involves overweight people next to you: "So much of her was on me that we hit turbulence and I technically cheated on my wife.")

That much time in coach turns your brain into pudding - you need a crutch to get you through it. I've turned into a podcast junkie. At any given time of the day or night, I'm probably flying over you, listening to some guy in his basement rant about the whether the "Blackest Night" event is good or bad for the DC universe.

I'm like an awkward, misshapen George Clooney from 'Up in the Air.' Except instead of hot sex with Vera Farmiga, I'm snuggling with Leo Laporte.

After all this podcast listening...

The smart ones did. If you are serious about creating online entertainment there is absolutely no reason that attending SXSW Interactive (SXSWi) shouldn't be on your must-go list. The five day conference, which just wrapped up Tuesday night drew 12,000 of social media and web junkies for a non-stop, bleary-eyed bender of business cards, panels, free BBQ and new connections. It was like camp for internet people. And that's my point. If you're making any kind entertainment on the web, you are internet people. Meeting other internet people is part of your job. The apps and tools that are emerging out of the developers at SXSW matter to your web series. Entertainment on the internet spent the past 5 years learning how to go from crawling to standing up and making its first wobbly steps. Now it's 2010 and mainstream eyes are gooing over this clever toddler of a medium. The really interesting...

If there was any ever doubt that a web series—without any moonlighting Hollywood celebrities or TV network backing—could galvanize throngs of faithful fans into a live rock concert adoration, well, it ended last night at SXSW. Before a sold out crowd of over 2,200 at Stubbs BBQ one of Austin's legendary outdoor concert stages, Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht took a page out of the rock star playbook at the live Diggnation taping Saturday night. The spiked hair and fire breathing magic skills of Scam School's Brian Brushwood primed the crowd, in an opening act that probably could have its own Vegas offshoot some day. Then there was the #OMGConan hoax, an organized prank led by Rev3 co-founder David Prager that generated 426 tweets from the audience blasting out that Conan O'Brien is joining Revision3. This was of course full-circle to the web network's credulous offer back in January for...

It seems like TV Squad is ruining the illusion of television lately. Last week we showed you how often ChromaKey/green screen is used on TV, and now here's a behind the scenes look at how that new Old Spice commercial was filmed (the one with the guy on the boat, then on the horse). Leo Laporte had two of the guys behind the ad on his Twit web show recently. Surprisingly, it wasn't all done with special effects.

I laugh out loud every time I hear the guy say "I'm on a horse." So quick and deadpan and funny.

 

Filed under: Video, Commercials, Reality-Free

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Even though Apple won’t be attending this year’s Macworld Expo at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, that isn’t stopping organizers Idg from having one. This year, in what they are calling ‘The Start of a new Era” the organizers have assembled a host of great speakers, panels and events for Apple and Mac enthusiasts everywhere.

Some of the highlights of the event include an evening with David Pogue, Q&A with writer/director Kevin Smith, the 20th anniversary of Photoshop event, Macworld Magizine’s “Best of Show” awards and a hands-on demo of Apple’s latest product, the iPad.

The Show Floor opens Thursday: 12:00pm to 6:00pm

Thursday’s Highlights:

Late Night with David Pogue – Join New York Times’ Columnis David Pogue for song parodies, surprise guests, jokes at Apple’s expense, and a lot of geeking out.

9:00am – 10:00am

See the...

At CES 2010, SlingBox Vice President of Marketing, Jay Tannenbaum, told Leo Laporte of TechTV fame, that the SlingBox would be supporting the PlayStation 3 in the future. This technology allows users to stream and watch their home televisions anywhere they can access the internet. Initially, the streaming was limited to computers, but now content can also be viewed on most smartphones.

Allowing the SlingBox to stream to the PS3 could be a great addition for those who would like to stream content to another television in the house sans cable/satellite hookup. You would only have to pay for the SlingBox and your internet connection in order to use it as there is no associated subscription fee.

As for watching HD-quality programming on your PS3 while on the road, don’t get your hopes up. In order for you to obtain a high-definition signal, you would need over 1.5 Mbps upstream bandwidth...

Starting Monday morning, owners of Roku devices will have access to a new channel store that increases the number of content providers from three--Netflix, Amazon, and Major League Baseball Advanced Media--to 13. Among the most prominent of the ten new "channels" are Blip.TV and TWiT.TV, two networks that were previously online-only. All of a sudden, low-production shows like Blip's sit-com "Break a Leg" will be available on big screen TVs, thanks to the device and its expanded offerings. It's a great opportunity for the networds to recruit new fans, but it's also a bit risky. People who haven't heard of Blip or TWiT will be expecting high production value "TV shows." Will the online content deliver?

The good news is that it doesn't cost as much to produce a professional-looking show as it used to. Today, amateurs can shoot their home movies on HD camcorders for less than $200. Still,...

J. Sperling Reich of Showbiz Sandbox interviewed critic James Rocchi, journo Michael Giltz and me about the controversy surrounding the FTC blogger disclosure rules. The topic of junkets got quite heated. Here’s the post that ignited quite a reaction on this blog. This past week on Leo Laporte’s This Week In Tech they discussed the junket issue from the Pov of tech journalists and the conversation also drew sparks.

There's no question the set-top box market is a crowded one. It's also a messy one, with conflicting interests with the cable co's tying up the race to true convergence in our living rooms. But Roku might be pulling off a sneak-around with its next rollout bringing on a whole new crop streaming original web content. I have one of these scrappy, nondescript $99 boxes sitting on top of my underused Apple TV. So far the Linux-based interface is light, but the real winner has to be its deftly simple clicker. That, and Roku might have found the sweet spot at $99, much less than Netgear's pricey $179 option. For the most part, Roku's swift sales, which were recently quoted in the "multiple hundreds of thousands" of units, are closely tied to the rollout of Netflix's popular streaming movie service. (It hooked me) The tech inside the box was actually developed by its...

Web geek diva temptress Shira Lazar has found the secret to making money with web video. Really, is there anything more lucrative than YouTube videos? Well maybe with a little bit of web cred alchemy. The launch today of the I Am A Geek! video on YouTube may have just found the elusive answer to getting viewers to part with their hard-earned dollars. The video is a call to action for support Room to Read, a global non-profit building literacy in the developing world. The video, which was launched this morning along with the new Society for Geek Advancement site, features a number of social media and web scenesters: Steve Wozniak, Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Pollak, Wil Wheaton, Levar Burton, Jason Calacanis, Samm Levine, Felicia Day, Kevin Rose, Alex Albrecht, Leo Laporte, IJustine, David Karp, Brian Solis, Veronica Belmont, Sarah Lacy, Pete Cashmore, Randi Zuckerberg, Ton Hsieh, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jonathan Coulton,...

TechTV is in the process of consolidating production units, an initiative that resulted in the loss of seven staff positions Thursday. A spokeswoman said the changes were to increase production efficiencies. "Some of our original programming is going to share production teams since they already share so many topics and resources," she said. Staffing now being added for Unscrewed With Martin Sargent and X-Play will result in a net growth in personnel numbers, the spokeswoman added. In a related move, Chris Pirillo was replaced by Leo Laporte as host of Call for Help. Laporte, who was the original host of the advice program, will continue as the host of Fresh Gear. Fellow host Sumi Das is unaffected by the changes."...