Live Nude Authors!

I‘m getting ready to write another book. It will be the first in a series I’m doing with Que – for want of a better name, a Laporte Press. The first book in the series will be on the new Panther version of Mac OS X. Megan and I will be working on it for January release. We’re also planning some other non-Mac titles. The goal is four books a year. That means serious time slaving over a hot computer. And you know what that means… no, not more TV plugs. It’s time to resurrect the author cam!
Tursi, the fellow who wrote the program I use to capture my Windows desktop, SCWebcam2, has sent me a pre-release copy of the next version. It includes a script to embed a web cam into the desktop image, making an excellent all-in-one spycam/screencam.

I’m still using the (discontinued) 3COM USB HomeConnect camera for the spycam image but now that I have an LCD monitor (the super crisp Samsung SyncMaster 191T) I can’t sit the camera on top of the monitor. So I’m using a handy camera mount called the FlexStand. It’s designed specifically for positioning a spycam at eye level. You might notice it above the central monitor on The Screen Savers. Works great.

Once I really get writing I’ll create a cams page with several views of the suffering author at work. Hey, anything to sell a book.

The Cheese Stands Alone

My mistake. Adam tells me that Gamespot TV didn’t launch until July. So I guess I’m officially the last man standing.
OK back to watching the Apple sites for news of updated TiBooks. (Dream on, Le0.)

The Stars of ZDTV

Sumi Das’s last day was Thursday. She’s heading to a reporting job at MSNBC. That leaves Adam Sessler and me as the last original show hosts from the very first days of ZDTV. (Michaela joined the channel after only a month or so due to visa difficulties.) I’m beginning to feel like Kurt Loder. Hey it could be worse, I could be Mark Goodman. (How many of the original MTV VJs can you name?).
The good news is that everyone who has left the channel has moved on to bigger and better things. Here are the original, and now dearly departed, hosts of ZDTV on May 11, 1998 as best as I can remember.

  • Jim Louderback and Sumi Das, Fresh Gear
  • Lauren Fielder, Gamespot TV
  • Scott Herriott, Ed Marques (The Surf Guru) and SuChin Pak, Internet Tonight
  • Carmine Gallo, Money Machine
  • Kate Botello, The Screen Savers and Tilde
  • John C. Dvorak, Silicon Spin
  • Victoria Recaño, ZDTV News

Am I missing anybody?

There were hundreds of other people behind the scenes, of course, many of whom have also left. About a dozen or so of us old timers are still around, although no one has been around as long as I have.

Today begins my 10th year with ZDTV/TechTV. That’s the longest I’ve ever worked for anybody. I helped hire many of the people who started the channel. All of them are gone but I’m still standing. I can’t figure out if I’m a survivor or just too lazy to move on. I guess Adam and I will just have to head out and raise a glass to the original stars of ZDTV.

Mo’ Blogs

Blue footed boobie at restI haven’t blogged in a week in protest. Apple was supposed to announce new 15 inch Powerbooks last week and it didn’t. I’m sitting here broken hearted. But I am a little cheered by the possibility of something happening at MacWorld later this month.
Meanwhile I’ve been playing with pictures again. My snapshots from Mexico are up on the web, thanks to iPhoto. We had a wonderful time there and plan to go back. The highlight was surfing in Sayulita. Both Henry and Abby got up their very first time (while dad worked valiantly not to roll over just sitting on his board). We also saw very rare blue footed boobies during our snorkeling expedition to Las Marietas islands.

And I’ve started a new mobile photoblog using Textamerica and my camera equipped cell phone. It’s free and very easy. When I take a picture with the phone I can automatically send it to the blog.

It’s an interesting medium – very immediate and yet mysterious. Maybe cell phone cameras aren’t completely bogus after all. I wrote a little Perl script to post the latest picture from the photoblog at the top of my Cams page [hmmm maybe not. I’m moving it to the nav frame to the left]. Check it out – you never know when you might catch some blue footed boobies in action.