Hi, Laporte Report subscriber.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner for those of us in the US. I'll
be taking a week off to head back east with Jennifer and the kids to
spend Thanksgiving with my mother, sister, and in-laws in Providence
and New Haven. Then it's off to New York to do ABC's World News Now on
December 3, and Live with Regis and Kelly on December 4. Back on TSS
on December 5.

I'm trying to contain my excitement, but I'm getting to pilot a new
show tonight. We'll tape Leo Up Late (only the working title) tonight
after The Screen Savers at about 9:30p Eastern. It won't be on the
air, but you can still help out.

It's going to be an hour and it will be much more like the old Screen
Savers: all calls. Well mostly calls. We will have one guest, Steve
Gibson, but he'll be there to answer calls with me, and that's only
for a couple of segments. Morgan and Kevin will be on the show too,
monitoring the calls and chat room, and they'll both pitch in a
segment each on something they're really interested in. Morgan's going
to show me a new phone. Kevin has some cool new Winamp visualizations.
But the focus will really be on answering questions, and in a more
leisurely manner, so I can be more thorough. I don't expect to get
more than six calls on in the hour. I'll also answer some emails and
faxes, too, though. It's going to be much less produced than TSS. I'm
thinking of something like a call-in radio show, but on TV.

There's some discussion about what level the questions should be, but
I think that ultimately they'll cover the spectrum from intermediate
to advanced. We'll pick calls that are of the broadest general
interest, regardless of how high-end they are. We have some callers
lined up already, and I'm not sure how many more we'll need, but if
you'd like to help out, call during and after The Screen Savers
tonight and let Morgan know you're interested in being on the pilot.

I'm not getting my hopes up. I did a pilot a couple of months ago for
a very high-end show featuring the leading lights of tech (Linus
Torvalds, Larry Wall, Phil Zimmerman, Steve Wozniak, etc.) talking
in-depth about their creations, but that was nixed as "too boring."
Pilots these days have to get past the ownership in Seattle as well as
local management, and that's pretty tough. Marty just completed his
pilot for a late night tech humor show that's more outrageous and fun,
and I expect that will get the green light because it's
"entertainment," and that's the buzzword these days.

I pray that The Powers That Be realize that TechTV needs to air at
least one show a week that focuses directly on stuffs geeks want to
talk about. They have to realize that we find the hardcore tech stuff
most "entertaining." I'm going to give it my best shot and we'll see
what happens.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving. See you in December!

Leo