In the immortal words of Joni: “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” As much as I was a vocal critic of TechTV, I would give anything to have it back, now that Comcast has bought the network, gutted it, and reconstituted it as the MTV-ized and unwatchable: G4TV.
Luckily, we can get some of it back, thanks to the efforts of TechTV alums Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, and Kevin Rose. Leo and company resurfaced a month or so ago in a podcast, first dubbed “Revenge of the Screensavers,” and then renamed This Week in Tech (or TWiT), after the guys got pulled over by G4’s IP police. Up to six episodes now, TWiT basically has the same vibe and content as The Screensavers. There’s a lot of banter between the hosts and guests that might be boring to those not fans of the old show and the program will likely appeal to deep geeks only, but after watching the empty-headed G4 for months, it’s great to have Leo and the crew back. And it’s also a testament to their true geekitude that they would want to devote themselves to a free podcast like this.
You may have heard through the Blogosphere that Kevin Rose, the only remotely decent meatbot remaining at G4, left the network recently. Besides being part of TWiTs, he now has his own Torrented video show called SYSTM. Just watched the premiere episode, available for Mac in h.264 QT 7 format, in PSP format, Xvid, Theora, as well as good ol’ Windows Media. Very professionally done and hacker-friendly. The first episode details (okay, breezes over is more like it, but details are promised via the show’s website) the making of a “War Spying” rig for sniffing out wireless security cameras. Can’t wait to see what they do with future programs.