UGM 2008

May 19, 2008

Ten years ago we launched ZDTV (which later became TechTV) and The Screen Savers, its most popular show. We wanted to begin with a bang, so Kate Botello and I decided to build the “Ultimate Gaming Machine” basing it on Lloyd Case’s design from Computer Gaming World. In 1998, that meant a PII 400 Mhz, 128 MB of RAM, and a fabulously expensive widescreen Sony CRT (and a price tag of over $10,000). Here’s what it looked like back then…

There have been 9 UGMs built since then, the most recent for Attack of the Show in 2005 (which cost around $6000 and was a lot faster). Since I’m launching TWiT Live 10 years later I thought it would be fun to see what the UGM would look like these days. Only this time, we’re going to let you build it.

Starting Friday, June 6, we’ll be inviting you to pick the parts for UGM 2008. From processors, to motherboard, to video and sound system, the choice will be yours. We’ll spend a couple of hours debating the merits of each component, with expert commentary to help you decide, then when we reach consensus we’ll buy it. At the end of the month we’ll assemble our creation and then give it away to some lucky TWiT Live viewer.

I’m not sure exactly how we’ll give it away. I know I mentioned this on TWiT and proposed a crazy scheme to get me more followers on Twitter. All I can say is I must have been drunk. It won’t be necessary to follow me, or Dvorak, and it definitely won’t be necessary to unfollow Kevin. I’m going to check with the legal department and find a fair way to do this that doesn’t require anyone to join Twitter!

We’ll kick things off Friday, June 6, at 3p Pacific, 6p Eastern, 2200 UTC with a processor showdown. AMD or Intel, which will it be? I’ll have experts on both sides then I’ll ask you to decide. June 13 it’s Motherboards and Memory. June 20th, video cards and monitors. June 27th storage and peripherals. We’ll finish the machine on the 4th of July, choose the best five games for it, and award it to a lucky winner.

So join us Fridays starting in June as we recreate one of the most loved bits we ever did on The Screen Savers. It should be a lot of fun, and who knows, you could walk away with UGM 10!

(27 votes, average: 4.59 out of 5)

Loading ...

• Print •

Dave Mora Interviews Me

May 12, 2008

Video podcaster Dave Mora did this interview with me after the KGO Live event last weekend. He recorded it with a Flip camera. Thanks, Dave!

Dave’s Web site is eunknown.org and he does a great job. Gives away a lot of stuff, too!

(9 votes, average: 4.56 out of 5)

Loading ...

Tags: Interviews • Video

• 5 Comments • Print •

Tasmania Animoto Style

April 22, 2008

Amber and I interviewed Brad Jefferson of Animoto.com tonight on net@night. It’s a very cool site that auto-generates a video using pretty advanced software and your own pictures and music. During the interview I whipped this up with about three clicks of the mouse.

(41 votes, average: 4.46 out of 5)

Loading ...

Tags: Animoto • Lightroom Adventure • Tasmania • Video

• 40 Comments • Print •

Packing My Kit

April 9, 2008

Getting ready for today’s trip by boat to the Freycinet National Forest, on Tasmania’s east coast.

(40 votes, average: 4.83 out of 5)

Loading ...

Tags: Lightroom Adventure • Photography • Tasmania

• 23 Comments • Print •

On The Road To Bicheno

April 6, 2008

Bruce Dale, Winston Hendrickson, Angela Drury, and I head out of Hobart on the road to Bicheno.

Caution: this video might make you carsick!

Upcoming Events

More of ChiefTWiT’s events

(17 votes, average: 4.53 out of 5)

Loading ...

Tags: Australia • Bicheno • Lightroom Adventure • Tasmania

• 10 Comments • Print •

Lightroom Adventure - Day 1

April 2, 2008

The adventure doesn’t officially begin until Friday, but photographers are trickling into Hobart one by one. Yesterday there were only five of us, British Photographer of the Year, Jackie King, National Geographic wizard, Bruce Dale, Lightroom wiz and all around innovator, Peter Krogh, brilliant Japanese photographer and documentarian, Aihara Masaaki, and our host, Mikkel Aaland. You’ll see images from all five in the video I whipped together from our first foray into Hobart last night.

Peter did that amazing 135 image montage of our plane landing in Hobart. The infrared images are by Bruce Dale. Many of the rest of the stills are from Mikkel Aaland. I shot and edited the video using the new Canon HV30 and Apple’s iMovie ‘08. Thanks to Inverted Silence/Jim Kang for the song Berimbau.

We’ve been having so much fun, and the adventure has barely begun. If you’re in Hobart, please join us for our closing reception Sunday evening, 13 April at the Henry Jones Art Hotel. We’ll have prints on exhibition and for sale to benefit Save the Tasmanian Devil.

I spent part of the day exploring the waterfront and just got back from the Female Factory and the Cascade brewery. We’re going to do some Lightroom work tonight and I’ll start posting images tomorrow.

(27 votes, average: 4.81 out of 5)

Loading ...

Tags: lightroom • Tasmania • Video

• 47 Comments • Print •

The Next Chapter

March 22, 2008

I promised you last time I’d talk about what’s next for me, so here’s what I’ve been thinking lately.

The end of The Lab did two things (besides killing a pretty heft chunk of my income): it gave me one week a month with nothing to do, and it eliminated my only regular television exposure.

Thanks to Amber, and some work she’s passing my way, I think I’ll be able to mostly replace the income - phew - and I’m sure I can find something to do with the extra time (like make sure all the TWiT shows come out weekly from now on). But what about TV?

Our minor experiments in doing video versions of TWiT have convinced me that audio is the more popular medium. TWiT audio gets many times more downloads than video. That makes sense to me, since people have more time to listen to audio than they do to sit down and watch video. But there’s something about video that captures people’s attention. I’ll go one step further, there’s something about live video that’s very compelling for both viewers and hosts. I’ve missed live TV ever since TechTV went under four years ago, and I’ve been looking for some way to get that excitement back.

If you’ve been watching the impromptu live streams of the Tech Guy radio show, you know they’re very popular and I have a lot of fun doing them. (Tune in TWiT Live Saturday and Sunday from 2-5p Eastern.) So much fun that I’ve expanded the live broadcasts to include some of the netcast tapings including TWiT. We run an IRC chat room at irc.dslextreme.com #techguy during the video and the interactivity adds so much on both sides.

I’ve also been watching what Chris Pirillo has been doing on Ustream and Robert Scoble on Qik, and I have come to believe there’s significant interest in live streaming video.

Towards the end of last year I learned that the downstairs offices in our building would soon be vacant. I’ve always coveted this space. We’re in a quaint old cottage built by a lumber baron at the turn of the century. He paneled the entire downstairs in redwood and it’s gorgeous. We don’t really need the space - right now TWiT is just Dane and me - but I leased it anyway, three days before Rogers cancelled the show. I wasn’t sure what I’d do with the extra space at the time, but my plan now is to turn it into a streaming video studio.

Here’s a quick video tour of the new TWiT Offices. (Yes that’s my Emmy on the mantle - I’m not a complete TV newbie!)

To begin with we’re going to stream everything we do at TWiT, including the production of all our shows, live and interactive. To that end we’re adding considerable bandwidth: a T1 line and a cable modem to our existing DSL connectivity. We’ll Skype over one, stream over another, and reserve the third for surfing, uploads, etc. I’ve also started furnishing the office with antiques - I don’t want this to look like any TV show you’ve ever seen before - and we’re adding lights, cameras, microphones, and computers for video production. We hope everything will be in place and we can begin streaming daily by the end of April.

Don’t worry - the existing TWiT shows will still be available as audio downloads, but soon you’ll be able to watch them being made and interact with them live. Some of the shows may begin to offer video versions, in addition to the existing audio versions. I expect we’ll be sending two to four hours of live video out Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday - with five or six hours on the weekends, including the Tech Guy behind the scenes.

And in a month or so I plan to expand the Saturday programming to include a live show, tentatively called TWiT Live, which will be our first official video podcast. We’re still working out how this will be done, but I’m modeling it on the Tom Green show. I think what he’s doing is ground-breaking. Of course it will be entirely tech focused and feature many of the TWiT regulars you already know along with any tech celebrities we can lure to Petaluma with promises of food and wine.

I’m not interested in duplicating existing television models - I want to deconstruct TV and get to something more direct, more intimate, and much more two-way. I haven’t really looked at the business model for this, but fortunately, between my day jobs, existing TWiT advertising (thank you Audible, Astaro, and FIT!), and your generous donations through TWiT.tv we have the money to get this thing off the ground and, I believe, keep it going indefinitely. As Dvorak has always said, and I believe, a business model will emerge. My goal has never been to build an empire, or even a business. I just want to be able to make a living doing what I love: talking about technology with a community of engaged and intelligent people, and perhaps, along the way, to help people understand how to better use technology in their own lives.

So I hope you’ll join me in this grand experiment. It’s only possible because of the large and active TWiT community. Your feedback and participation is all it takes to keep us going. I’m excited about where TWiT is going and I thank you for your support through all these changes. Here’s to the next chapter - I think it’s the most exciting yet.

(115 votes, average: 4.93 out of 5)

Loading ...

Tags: Podcasting • TWiT

• 173 Comments • Print •