Hi there, Laporte Report subscriber. (Bet you forgot you were a
member!)

I just thought I'd send out a message to let you know I'm still here
and the Laporte Report lives. I've been getting an increasing number
of messages wondering what's happening with this mailing list. Maybe
I'd better explain...

I never intended for this to be a high traffic list - I mean who
needs more mail stuffing the inbox? I admit that I had hoped to send
more than one message every six months, but it's been hard to find
the time. And frankly, there hasn't been much to say. At least let me
update you on what's ahead for 2001.

The book idea still lives. Both TechTV and Access Magazine want to do
books and I think this is the year. A lot depends on what happens
with TechTV in 2001. My three-year contract runs out this April. I
expect to sit down to negotiate a new one soon, but any deal I make
with TechTV will give me more scope to do outside projects, including
books and radio.

One of my goals is to return to radio. TV is great because I can show
you how to do stuff, but it takes so many people to put on a TV show
that some of the intimacy is lost. I really miss the direct
connection of radio and I'm hoping to find a way to get back there at
least part of the time.

To get my feet wet I'll be hosting a three-hour show on my old
station, KGO 810AM in San Francisco, January 20 from 10a-1p. If
you're in the area please call in. You can also listen on the net at
http://www.kgoam810.com.

There will be some changes on TV, too. TechTV's new ownership (Paul
Allen's Vulcan Ventures) is starting to tweak things and we all
expect some substantial movement by this spring. I'm working on
designing a new show that will appeal to the widest possible range of
computer users. I'd appreciate any feedback you have about what we're
currently doing on TechTV and what you'd like to see in a new show.
Please respond to this message with your suggestions.

Things are going well with Access Magazine.
(http://www.accessmagazine.com). I wrote a cover story for the
Christmas Eve issue on what to do with your new computer. And they
seem very happy with the weekly column. The magazine is now in over
80 newspapers (mostly Sunday) nationwide. They estimate readership of
over 13 million people, making it the second most read weekly
magazine in the country! Writing is very tough for me – speaking is
so much easier – but you can't beat the exposure, and I like the idea
of helping people in print. I expect to expand my relationship with
Access in the coming year.

Personally, the last two weeks off have been great even though the
rest of the family had the flu. Henry even got a mild case of
pneumonia. But everyone has been in good spirits and we've had a
lovely, restful holiday. They're all feeling fine now. The kids are
excited about going back to school and their friends, I'm ready to go
back on the air, and Jennifer is anxious to get us all out of the
house.

Naturally, I spent some quality time over the break with my
computers. I finally replaced my old BP6 dual-Celeron motherboard
with a spanking new MicroStar 694D mobo with dual Pentium III 866s
and RAID. I spent the first few days banging my head against the wall
because the dang thing wouldn't work right, but I eventually tracked
it down to a crimped hard drive cable. Bill Canton at Cantek
(http://www.cantek.com) always told me I should treat my cables
better – and he was right. You can follow the whole saga on his
message boards, http://216.242.22.13/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000180.html.

The new system runs like a champ – it's very fast and Windows 2000 is
rock solid. It was really hating the old motherboard. It's nice to
have a system that doesn't crash. For those of you who like to know
these things my home system now contains:

* MSI 694D Pro with RAID in a no name tower case
* PC Power and Cooling Silencer 400 power supply
* Dual Pentium III 866 (not overclocked) w/ Golden Orb coolers
* 256MB Micron PC133 SDRAM
* Dual Western Digital UDMA/66 9GB drives on RAID controller, striped
(main drive for W2K and programs)
* Western Digital 20 GB Drive (UDMA 66) (secondary drive for MP3s and
other media)
* IBM Deskstar 14 GB (UDMA/33) (Backup drive for images, data backup)
* Plextor 12/10/32A CD-RW
* Kenwood 72x CD-ROM
* Creative Labs GeForce DDR video
* Creative Labs SBLive Value
* 3COM 10/100 NIC (for @home cable modem)

I canned the Castlewood Orb – it never worked right, and I don't have
the IDE capacity for an internal Zip so I replaced it with a USB Zip.
I still run the old Apple Laserwriter 16/600 PS for my main printer
we have a HP 810 inkjet downstairs if I need color, and I picked up a
Canon scanner, the N650U for $83. The image quality is just OK, but
it's USB so it works with both the PC and my Powerbook and it's very
thin and portable. From now on, I'm not buying any peripherals
unless they're USB or Firewire.

I understand they've given me a new computer at work, too. I was
using an old 180 mHz Pentium Pro computer I'd had since the days of
The Site (our old show on MSNBC) with 64 MB RAM, one 6GB hard drive,
and S3 Trio video with a Voodoo I card. I hear I'm getting a PIII-
800 with two 20 GB hard drives. I'll even have USB finally. I am
living large now.

I was going to buy one of those cool Apple Macintosh Cubes for
Jennifer this Christmas. She wants to join the modern world – or at
least exchange e-mail with it. But we both agreed the dang thing was
too expensive. I expect Apple to drop the price considerably this
quarter and I'll buy it then. We already have an Airport network in
the house so it'll be a snap to add the Cube. Fewer wires, too.

The Cube will have a DVD drive in it, so the kids can watch movies
downstairs. We've become DVD fanatics ever since I discovered
NetFlix, http://www.netflix.com. This web site lets you rent
unlimited DVDs for a flat fee of $20 a month. No late charges,
either, you can keep the discs as long as you want. You can have up
to three discs at a time. When you're done with one. mail it in and
they'll ship the next disc on your list. I have 53 movies on my list
so far! There are 9000 to choose from. The only limiting factor is
the time it takes to mail the discs and get a new one. The company
is in San Jose so there's a five-day turnaround for us (two days
snail mail each way and a day for processing). It'd be longer in
other parts of the country. I'm not sure it's cheaper than renting
them from a video store, but it's sure a lot more convenient. We
watched about a dozen movies over the break. My favorites: U-571,
Magnolia, The Usual Suspects, High Fidelity, and Gladiator.

I also spent quite a few late-night hours playing a new game from
Electronic Arts/Rogue called American McGee's Alice, a first-person
shooter based on the Quake III engine. I'm about half way through the
game and I love it. It's a very dark, twisted take on the Alice
story. She's come back from Wonderland, had a nervous breakdown after
the fiery death of her parents, and has to fight her way to sanity
through an alternate Through the Looking Glass reality. Just the kind
of cheery fare one looks for at Christmastime. This game is
definitely not for kids, but if you like creepy adventures you'll
like Alice. The game play gets a B but the design is A+ all the way.

Speaking of games, I broke down and bought the kids a Dreamcast.
(Santa couldn't find a Playstation 2 for us, alas.) Henry loves Toy
Story 2 and Sonic Adventure. Dad can't stop playing Crazy Taxi and
Jet Grind Radio. Just what we need, one more thing to waste time on!
I have to say I'm very impressed with the Dreamcast's capabilities.
My game designer friend says it's a snap to develop for, too, much
nicer than the PS2. I hope the PS2 shortage helps keep Sega afloat a
little longer.

Well that's the news from Leoville. I didn't expect to write such a
tome. I guess I have more to say than I thought. I hope you've been
enjoying this holiday season, and that you and yours have a healthy,
happy, and exciting 2001. Please accept my sincerest thanks for
letting me be a part of your world!

Leo