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Comcast Fires TechTV Staff
Bocaj writes "Looks like it's curtains for TechTV staff. A Leo Laporte article says that Comcast has let the entire staff go. 'Per the WARN Act (governing plant closings) all the employees of TechTV have been given 60 days notice. The San Francisco operation will be shuttered by July. 100 of the existing jobs will be posted for those willing to relocate to LA.' No word on what will happen to all the shows or the channel."
... so what will become of Playboy's proposed "Women of TechTV" photo shoot? I'm still waiting for Morgan b00bies.
Direct from Bangalore!
"Let's buy a great channel and fire everybody!"
I'd hate to see them fire everyone and relocate it.
The Screen Savers was one of the few informational shows that didn't cater to the lowest common denominator or sponsors. The hosts seemed honest with their opinions and they gave good tips. They also had good coverage of OSX and Linux, as well as interviews with people from the FCC and RIAA and other organizations of interest to slashdotters.
Dammit, now where are all the clueless newbies going to learn about the all the cool hacker tricks covered in Kevin Rose's Dark Tips?
Looks like The Man has won yet again!
Direct from the G4 press release, it looks like the only TechTV originals surviving are Anime Unleashed, X-Play, The Screen Savers, Fresh Gear, and Robot Wars. It doesn't say specifically if those are the only TechTV shows to continue or if any of the old staff will keep their position.
As long as Adam Sessler doesn't come back I won't complain too much.
That they fire the employees, and not cancel the show. The show has potential, and could be better spent than running tech support for beginner users. Think of a tv show, that was somewhat equivalent to slashdot, a discussion of new ideas, and even some conflict. The show could even be hosted by a F/OSS and a MS person.
je suis parce que j'aime
At least it's only being moved to LA, and not, like.. India.
For taking my favorite channel off the air.
I'm sure it will be replaced with something highly mediocre. Weren't they thinking of combining G4 and TechTV? Now its just going to be G4? I've personally tried to watch G4 and couldn't do it.
I don't understand why they would can the entire network.
Well, now that TechTV is gone, I've got no reason to keep the digital cable around, everything else I want is on basic cable.
Not Cat Schwartz!
Oh well, she will live on Photoshop.
The coolest voice ever.
TechTV will likely be merged with G4, a gaming channel. The new channel will have a little bit of both channels' content but will be more slanted towards gaming. Comcast bought TechTV a while back and has probably been planning this for a while.
http://www.nakednews.com
...the only place for technology in TV is coming up with better encryption schemes to stop those pesky sat pirates !
It really makes you believe in the old saying: 1,000 channels and there's nothing on.
From the FAQ:
Q: How does the merger expand G4's subscriber growth?
A: The merged network will be available to 44 million cable and satellite customers, representing every major MSO and satellite provider (28 million cable and 16 million satellite). G4, launched in April, 2002, is currently available in 15 million homes in 47 of the nation's top 50 television markets.
Q: What MSO's and satellite companies will carry the combined network?
A: Comcast; Time Warner; Mediacom; Insight; Cablevision; Charter; Adelphia; Cox; Cable One; Dish; and DirecTV.
Q: Who will be the network's chief executive?
A: Charles Hirschhorn, currently founder and CEO of G4, will oversee the merged network as CEO.
Q: Will the two services run independently of each other or be immediately combined?
A: The two channels will merge into one network. In the meantime, both G4 and TechTV will continue to air as independent channels, pending customary regulatory approvals underway.
Q: Where will the network be headquartered?
A: The merged network will be headquartered in Los Angeles.
Programming:
Q: What will a typical programming day look like?
A: The merged network will be the nation's premier 24/7 television network all about video games, technology and the gamer lifestyle. The G4 programming day will showcase many existing G4 and TechTV series such as G4's ICONS; PULSE; JUDGMENT DAY; PLAYERS, and CHEAT! as well as TechTV's ANIME UNLEASHED; X-PLAY; SCREEN SAVERS; FRESH GEAR; and ROBOT WARS. G4 will also premiere new original programming which will be announced at a later date.
Q: How many hours of original programming will the merged network produce?
A: After the networks merge, G4 will air more than 20 series and 800 episodes per year. New programs continue to be in development.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
what does this accomplish?
were they paid to much money for Compost's liking?
the Screen Savers will still have kevin Rose and David foo foo since they are single geeks who have nothing better to do but to relocate to LA. does comcast even what to keep the same format? or are they going to try to keep it to a low number of shows and jut have tech live in between documentary type programs like invent this and body hits?
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Just thinking out loud here... A Slashdot Channel would actually be pretty informative, covering lots of different aspects. Maybe even have guest Slashdoters invited to cover stories not covered already on the front page.
Then again, with TechTV's fate, maybe it wouldn't be such a success afterall.
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
Comcast drone #1: Geeks already don't like us, right?
Comcast drone #2: Right.
Comcast drone #1: Something to do with the DMCA, no?
Comcast drone #2: Most likely.
Comcast drone #1: But they all like this TechTV show, right?
Comcast drone #2: Seems like it, yes.
Comcast drone #1: I have an idea....let's let the entire cast go and relocate to LA!
Comcast drone #2: Brilliant!
But, indeed, the merged network's headquarters will be in LA, where G4 has been headquartered. No surprise there.
Still, does anyone think that Comcast is so stupid as to spend all this money on a network, and then get rid of everything that makes people watch it?
- i was on TechTV a couple years ago... the publisher flew me out to SF and i got to take a cab to the studio... - the TechTV folks were very friendly, and Leo, et al. had a great crew... fast-paced, lots of good content, and an on-line chatter available in the studio to ask and respond to questions... - but of course, i'd expect nothing less from Comcast, one of the worst and most expensive cable companies in existence...
Since I watch the Screensavers I usually go to the Screensavers website and look up stuff in the show notes. Sometimes months later... There's alot of good info in there.
I like microcars
Just for the record, (as a wikipedia admin) the TechTV people vandalized our article on monkeypox live on the air, and it has been a vandalism-magnet ever since. But it is a shame that they are cancelled - although I don't get them where I live, from what I hear, they did some good stuff.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
...on all fours, on my bed!
:-)
Come on, Morgan, I'll throw in comprehensive healthcare! Whaddaya say?
I'm wondering how many of the Slashdot crowd actually watched Tech TV?
:( I still think there is room for a technology-oriented television channel but not yet. I don't know about USA but here in Canada, Tech TV was a digital channel so until digital boxes are almost standard, I don't expect these digital channels to take off...
I never subscribed to it, over here in Canada, but watched the free promotional period. It was certainly different from the typical stuff on mainstream tech shows. I wasn't a big fan of the channel since I am not into tech as much as the rest of you here.
I guess this is the last remnant of the dot-com boom
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
SCO on the other hand seems to be making meritless accusations in court, is sueing its best clientel, and is betting everything on getting money from IP that they really don't own. This is not common buisness practices. Among the suits who approve of the comcast-style layoffs, the types of things SCO is doing would classify them as scum. No, comcast hasn't gone lower than SCO, they haven't come close.
Little Brother, watching the watchers
Finally! More broadcast bandwidth for the World's Scariest Reality Midget High School Survival Makeover Elimidate Police Fear Mini-series.
Now if we could only wipe out those damn persistant channels of informative crap like PBS, Discovery, and that other "high-brow" crap. Maybe we'll finally get a whole channel dedicated to quality shows like "The View" and "American Idol".
This one gang kept wanting me to join cause I'm pretty good with a bo staff.
Here is the correct URL for the petition:
Sign it here
The above one has a space in it by accident SIGN SIGN SIGN!!!!
How about Slashdot getting the funding to create a Slashdot TV channel and hire the fired Tech TV staff. ;)
*It's not what you can do for the Dark Side but what the Dark Side can do for you!*
That's Los Angeles, but they do stream (Realplayer, naturally.)
As far as I'm concerned, the flagship show on TechTV was The Screen Savers. When the show had Leo, Martin, and Morgan still, it was the best show on television.
I understand the desire to move successful people to their own shows, but after Leo moved off of TSS and they were left with Patrick (who is so-so), and then Kevin Rose with his elitist attitude and his little girlfriend (can't even remember her name since she is so annoying) that knows jack nothing about computers, well, I can barely stand to watch the show.
Frankly, I don't really watch it more than once a week. I used to watch it daily. That is impressive simply because I don't watch TV. Last year I didn't watch television at all for six months, after that I only watched it to see international perspective of the War in Iraq.
As such, the only reason I have for cable is TechTV. If they kill it (which they already pretty much have) then I will get rid of my cable TV in a heartbeat. Comcast is insane.
Then again, I can hope that someone else will see the potential it had, and do a TSS style show the way it was meant to be done.
Leo, Martin, and Morgan all act like people I hang out with (I'm more in Morgan/Martin's age group, but I know people in Leo's age group that I talk with about technology all the time). Kevin Rose acts like someone I'd never speak with about anything in person. I don't know the guy personally or anything, but I really feel that TSS is ruined without Leo there, and that it was even better than that before they broke up the staff.
The question is: did Comcast kill TechTV, or with it's flagship show in tatters, was it already dead?
Hmm, I think we can see why at least one employee would be "let go"... Reading your coworkers' AIM conversations and talking about it on TV would probably do it (watch the video clip). Stumbling their Wifi access points might have something to do with it, too...
News.com Article
I tell you the truth. If Stargate gets canceled, I'm giving up on TV.
Next someone will be telling me that Slashdot doesn't really run news, or that they got bought by OSDN. I'd be downhill from there, for sure. Oh, wait...
Drop me a line at:
Key ID: 0x54D1D809
I wonder what will happen to the channel's availability on DirecTV once they complete the merger... Do you think Comcast will continue to make the channel available to one of their biggest competitors?
A lot of comments here seem to be bashing Comcast for getting rid of TechTV with various sinister reasons behind the show's demise, but I also a significant number of "haven't watched it in 5 months, if ever" type of comments too. Could it be that TechTV had really low ratings and wasn't cost-effective to keep going? Naa...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
It does depend upon when you watched it. There were times and shows that frankly the world could have lived without. Internet Tonight comes to mind. I liked both people hosting the show, but the content was, well, let me put it this way, the show was supposed to be humorous, and did have good talent, but lousy material.
..." series, as well as the documentaries on the leaders of technology.
For several years Leo Lapprot hosted both Call for Help and The Screensavers. I suspect that trying to handle both audiences (the raw newbies, and the supposed non-newbies, but not supertechs) had an impact on the overall level of content in The Screensavers to it's minor detriment. I think when he handed over Call for Help to the garden gnome, The Screensavers improved tremendously.
I never was impressed with the talking heads programs, Dvorak's show on the series was something I regularly avoided. Likewise for Martin Sgt's show.
I did like the "Tech of
In the couple of years I watched it, I can say it did help me with being able to explain some of the things I knew, to people who didn't know anything about what I could have been saying.
They did do several Linux focused episodes, but I would not say that they ever were really focused on Linux. I don't think it would have made sense for them to even have an entire series devoted to Linux, there was not enough of an audience.
TechTV was one of those stations where if you were at a Best Buy, or even a Computer Renisanse, and started fielding questions that seemed below what you felt comfortable talking about, you could recomend to other customers, or even some of the staff.
The saddest moment for me related to TechTV was when they let go of Victoria Recaneo from TechTV News. Granted it was the same day they let go of Dvorak, which partially makes up for it, but it sucked all the same. In my opinion TechTV hasn't been the same since, and that ultimately leads to today's announcement, even though the station has been through a couple of changes of hands since then.
-Rusty
You never know...
CNET story is here: TechTV lays off San Francisco staff
Adam and X-Play are the only reason I really watch much anymore... I do like tech live from time to time.
If the channel quality degrades much, it might be the opportunity I needed to move to Voom - as the lack of TechTV was holding me back.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Moving to LA? Feh. Thanks for ruining the only foothold San Francisco had in TV land, Comcast.
"UP NEXT: the link between breast implants and computer chips! We'll explain right after this."
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
If Morgan accepts, will you still make an offer to Sarah?
I know I would.
I had G4 when it first came out. Hell, I got a cable box to watch it I was so excited. I can't even describe how many problems they had, from lack of programming, to robot hosts who obviously could give less than 2 shits about gaming, to just insanely pointless programming (That MMORPG show with the HAL9000 voice over). I mean, 8 hours of programming cycled a week. How many times can you watch the same bad show a week? Technically 21. Pathetic.
Want to merge G4 and TechTV? Fine. Kill G4 and take the maybe 2 hours of programming, fix it, and bring it to TechTV, the better channel.
Instead, they do the opposite. They kill the wrong channel and basically put the staff that makes TechTV in a position to not want to migrate.
Comcast should be brown-nosing Morgan Webb and Leo LaPorte like they have gold stuck up their asses. Leo is a pretty smart tech guy that is very personable, easy to understand, and loves his job (none of which are very common in the tech field lately).
Morgan has a rabid army of unsexed fanboys that would pay an extra 10 bucks a month just to see her for 10 minutes a week. Sad, but true.
Are we over-reacting? No.
Because the deal hasn't even went through and Comcast already did the exact opposite of what they SHOULD have done.
I agree with your general point. However, I think you're a little off on this particular part. Comcast hadn't been running TechTV. Comcast bought TechTV and then announced layoffs shortly after. Whether TechTV was doing well or not may not be the issue (although they did take quite a hit during the dot-bomb).
But otherwise... right now. This is no SCO-ism.
I can't say I'll miss it. I tried watching TechTV on many occasions, but it was just a little too basic. Most of the shows were nothing more than product ads. I was hoping for something more accessible like scripting and programming. A little Perl, a little C, maybe some Bash and Emacs tips, throw in a little CMD and WScript, even some VB. But most of the shows seemed like a cross between the Home Shopping Network and a ...For Dummies book. I can't stand the Thunderbirds, so that didn't grab me. Besides, that's what Cartoon Network and SciFi are more suited to. The pseudo-scientific shows they had weren't much more than "look at how great these companies are at innovating"!. Not too useful. Now, if they would have run Cosmos (with updates), maybe the original UK version of Battlebots, Dr. Who and had some hardcore programming shows, it would have struck a chord a little more.
Un-news
Everybody got notices today that says at face value that 60 days from now their jobs won't exist. However, that doesn't promise that everybody's a goner...
See, the WARN act requires that when a downsizing of this scale is going to happen, the employer must give 60 days notice to everybody they're letting go. However, imagine the moral at an office where 2/3 of the people get the notice and the other 1/3 don't... fighting is sure to ensue during the two months before the cutback.
So, in reality... today's news doesn't really tell us what Comcast is planning. They very well could keep the shows alive, but send the jobs who don't affect the content (PR people, master control techs, salespeople, etc.) to LA.
The real answer will come exactly 60 days from now...
Everybody wins :D
I mean seriously - I'm glad my mail client has the option to supress the loading of remote images. I've had spam that makes my eyes burn :-(
Click... Click... Click... *ARRGGHH!* *thump*
I'm learning to love MimeDefang, as I no longer have to field complaints from embarrassed and irritated staff asking how the hell they make this stuff _go_ _away_.
Why isn't this right? I mean, I see your point in that it sucks for all involved, but lately I keep getting the general vibe that people think companies exist to provide jobs, when really jobs are investments needed to make money. Heck, jobs are a cost center. If the work being done isn't getting done with your investments you get rid of the investments that aren't returning. That's business, and heck that's life.
Hey we're all about switching from Windows to Linux right? For $180 XP doesn't do what I want it to do, Linux does it all, for free. Will we say that this massive job loss is bad if/when the Linux desktop revolution happens and Microsoft has to layoff a bunch of workers on the OS side?
Not that I think they'll listen, but some folks went to the trouble of setting these up (they are posted on Leo's board). Hey it worked for Star Trek and Family Guy right? =)
Petition 1
Petition 2
Petition 3
Also a direct link to the Comcast complaint bucket...
Comcast Feedback
I don't know... The thing that impressed me the most about Leo is he comes across as the "teacher" type of person. He presents things well, and almost always has a quick, informed response when questions are thrown at him. He may not be quite as "technical" as some people, but most "very technical" people aren't so skilled at communicating their knowledge so others can understand them (especially when they have a small time window to do it in).
I think Patrick does a good job too, and agree that he "belongs on the show". To be honest though, I'm not sure it's possible to please "the masses" with any type of computer-centric program. It's the same problem you have if you try to get women to sit down with you and enjoy some show about hot-rodding cars. The majority of them are going to complain and ask you to change channels.
I suspect the women (Morgan, Cat, etc.) were brought in to try to cancel some of this effect out. Sort of a "Hey, look - here are women who actually LIKE this stuff. See girls, you should give it a chance!" But that's shallow and people generally see right through it.
Good point, someone DOES need to mirror their content before their site is possibly killed off. There's a plethora of information that should never die off. I've still gone back to look for things on their Internet Tonight links.
Internet Tonight... wow... I miss ZDTV. =(
Yah so what? I was told once, that there are two kinds of women in this world... There's the kind of woman you'd do, and then there is the kind of woman you'd do when you're drunk.
Right now I'm drunk, and I'd definitely do her, but that doesn't answer the question which category she fits in to.
I work (still) at TechTV, in the IT department. AFAIK, next to nothing from the website is being kept. I know that G4 posted a job for an Oracle DBA to transition our DB to their MS SQL. We contacted them on it and they took the job down (google cache: http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:E3Q1eTpUtU0J:ww w.entertainmentcareers.net/jobid.asp%3Fjcode%3D229 34+G4+DBA&hl=en )
A PHB at G4 has his blog at http://hardwarewhore.com/ Classy, no? Not hard to see that they are going to leave a big, flaming divot in the ground.
I used to watch this show fanatically when it was just Kate and Leo, but as soon as Kate left it just wasn't the same. It seems like since then they've just paraded in a whole slew of different people and none of them ever really stuck with me. Sure, a lot of the new girls are cute, but few of them seem to have Kate's personality.
:)
As far as G4 goes, I don't see why so many people knock it. To me it has the same feeling TechTV used to have (when it was still ZDTV or whatever). For the most part, the hosts aren't just pretty puppets, but actual gamers and in some cases game industry insiders (the guys on Judgement Day). Also, it's nice to see what some games look like on an actual TV screen in motion instead of just as screen shots on the web. Lastly, Icons is a really great show. It's nice hearing about video game history from the people who lived it. Anyway, enough ranting, these rays aren't going to trace themselves
Echostar is a partner with Comcast on G-4.
DirecTV is owned by Right-wing prick Rupert Murdoch.
Comcast is eying Adelphia, which owns my community's cable franchise.
Guess I'm sticking with rabbit ears.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Robot Wars sucks, Fresh Gear is ok, but TechTV was a cool channel. At least they are keeping Anime Unleashed, X-Play and the screen savers.
People don't exist to serve systems, systems exist to serve people.
Actually, Family Guy's revival was largely attributable to phenomenal DVD sales.
>I'm sure it will be replaced with something highly mediocre.
Marketing: "Can't you see, we're in the middle of a paradigm shift, we're being proactive and pro-consumer! We've got to get more eyeballs on the screen. Imminetize the Eschaton!"
Customer: "Umm, what the hell does that mean?"
Marketing: "More religious programming and infomercials."
"Where were you, when they fired the TechTV staff? Did it make you wanna cry, or did you think it was kinda gay?"
*****
Dear Mary,
I yearn for you tragically,
A.T. Tappman, Chaplain, U.S. Army.
Merging TechTV into G4 assumes all geeks are gamers. For me, TechTv was ScreenSavers, Tech Live and Call for Help and afew other non-gaming shows.
Perhaps it's just harder to find the demographics for geeks vs gamers, and thus made it easier at the boardroom to pitch a gaming show vs a tech show, but it seems to me that the silent majority has once again been shafted.
I would like to be proven wrong (with stats) that the tech crowd was a larger pool than the pure gamers; it'd give meaning to this madness.
It isn't just G4 has an even smaller niche audience, it's that G4 has an even smaller niche audience which hates it. I spend time looking at video game news/discussion sites, and G4 seems to be universally reviled as pointless, artificial and just plain stupid among the exact people who appear to be their target audience.
Obviously what I've seen isn't fully representative of the video game "fan" audience, but the thing is that G4 viewers aren't just a minority of the people I've seen-- they've been totally nonexistent. The most positive thing I've seen said about G4 ever is one person on a message board once who said they liked G4 because it made good "background noise". This as opposed to TechTV, which seems to have a relatively large, diverse, and visible favorable following.
As a non-cable subscriber, I cannot comment myself on the quality of either channel, since instead of watching television I just play video games and read Slashdot.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Satellite Dish
Comcast is a sanctioned monopoly here in Baltimore. I finally got completely fed up a few years ago after the tried to (in my opinion) scam me twice in two months, First, they tried slamming tactics to get me to sign up for cable moden (the typical one where the salesperson says one thing and the recording you say 'yes' to says another). The next time someone called and the first thing they said was, "Do you have a computer ?" My wife being the savy character that she is asked, "Who the hell are you and why are you asking me about the contents of my home!" She told the idiot telemarketer from Comcast that it was an inappropriate question and the sucker hung up on her (bad mistake). One complaint to the FCC, and a letter to the local Comcast PHBs copied to our county rep later, and they agreed to never call us again (on paper).
I signed up for DirectTV, then, rather than spend an hour on hold just to wait between '8am and 4pm' for a tech one day, I climbed the side of my house and with a pair of side cutters, and cut the cord (literally and figuratively) with the Evil Empire that is Comcast.
Questionable sales techniques, monopoly deals that overide local govt. (they are fed regulated BTW), higher prices, horrible customer service, receive-only "Internet connections", policies that are anti-customer and dare I say, anti-American ! - why would anyone give these rats a red cent ! At least if they bought Disney I could have focused my distain on one entity for a while
I can only hope we see the return of TechTV on DirectTV one day... Access provider monopolies mixed with content giants is a recipe for disaster.
"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."--Benjamin Franklin
Tech TV was about the same as /. in a lot of regards to technology.
You have Leo Laporte - about the only bearable personality and pretty much the lone Mac/Linux/P2P advocate in every situation
You have Patrick (Screensaver) - this guy was anti everything - and honestly contributes little to any show - his interview skills were only good if he had them decently written on a notecard
Morgan Webb - I never saw what Xplay itself claimed - that she was a goddess that got tons of fanmail - she looks kind of mongoloid - has a great body though
Cat Schwartz - this chick is the female version of Patrick and after seeing her Howard Stern interview only confirmed she is a real bitch in everyday life - she also was a bandwagoner - what ever was cool - she wanted it it or had it
Then there was the couple that liked each other on the screensavers. Sarah Lane was genuinely funny and Kevin Rose was genuinely knowledgeable - although a Mac hater in most regards
Originally you had the gay announcer that I think still produced and directed - I was personally aware of his live coverage of MacWorld Expo 2001 and that it WAS DEMANDED by Apple that he was fired
Then you have Fresh Gear - what happed to Sumi Daas? She was awesome - had a true platform agnostic computer bias and was actually pretty good in her reviews. She was replaced by a girl with an annorexia problem and a guy that does infomercials (really, Chris Leary does several)
Chris Parillo (former host of Call For Help) was the most annoying geek to ever be on TV and just about every show would say how much he hated the Mac platform and Linux. Although he was very knowledgeable
I'd also like to point out that the former owners were a company owned by Paul Allen. When the show Microsoft Insider popped up I knew it was a downward spiral. This wasn't a show, it was a pro Microsoft Windows propoganda. (An infomercial without the warnings)
I thought Invent This was the best show I have seen on TV in a while and I hope it either stays or finds The Discovery Channel.
I also liked Eye Drops (computer animation showcase) - yet I never understood why they didn't do more episodes after it won an emmy.
I really liked Megan Morrone and the girl that moved on to CNN - they both were knowledgeable and palettable.
I got tired of Leo constantly promoting himself like a God. I think all of this will be a good change. If the "cast" is good enough, they will find other work.
Everyone except Adam Sessler (Xplay) - that guy is honestly retarded.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
I'm not much for government interference in the market place, but the WARN Act certainly seems to be a good thing to me. Had it not been for that legislation, these guys very likely would not have found out about being fired until they came to work one morning and found their door code didn't work any longer.
I was involved in a large company that scanned and converted military documents into a SGML format. Had it not been for the WARN Act, I'm sure those SOBs would have never told us a word about them going under...until the day it happened. And I really think it pained them to have to tell us. Not because they felt sorry for us, but that they didn't want anyone to know until our freaking door codes no longer worked!
Usurper_ii
Ron Paul
So what does this have to do with TechTV? Someone with cash could start up a new TechTV style network, have "masters" classes (along with the normal stuff) to teach advanced subjects for advanced users like photoshop, networking, GIMP, etc. and sell the series on DVDs (through themselves and/or retailers like amazon. They could also build a web site that has less flash, more useful information and allow users to interact in a more useful way.
IMO DVDs could be a nice dependable revenue stream for a new network.
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
This also gets TechTV OFF of DirecTV. How better to get people from your competition than to take away their channels and put them on a channel that they can't get!
Been what? almost 2 years and STILL no Anime Network on DirecTV, what makes anyone think that G4 will show up anytime soon?
Well, double checking.. it will be on Dish Network.. so, I can watch it when I go to visit back home 2 or 3 times a year.
The funny thing is that she's better than you are going to get in your entire pathetic life.
I found a picture of the new TechTV staff
I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.
I can't count how many times his sense of humor has crossed the line into absurdly Pythonishique territory. It would be a real shame to lose this guy because not only is he funny as hell, his reviews are some of the most trusted i've ever seen. Nearly every game he's reviewed has been dead on with my thoughts. Morgan on the other hand is pretty monotone, and her reviews are not nearly as engaging as Adams. And she has zero humor. We all know what she does have though, and I think we can all agree she needs to pay up for us clicking those links over and over to get her naked in Playboy.
Some additional information:
LA == Lucknow, Avadh, India...
Sorry about any confusion. Nothing to see here, please move along and continue your offshoring/outsourcing, nothing to see here...
Thank goodness that weenie is getting booted. My God, there's a reason they don't usually stick a dude and his girlfriend on the same show... don't they know relationships make geeks uncomfortable?
Combine that with the "I'm a haxor and so much cooler than you even though I don't know much of anything" attitude and you got a real tool on TV show. I'm telling you, he was the -1 Troll of TV land. I can't believe Sarah, who seems to have an ounce of coolness is going out with this putz.
Leo, Patrick, Morgan, Adam, Cat, hell even that british dude that hosts the retarded 'bot wrestling' show... ya'll will be missed. Kevin... you will not.
LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
Wil did warn you that G4 sucked.
So now, they dicked a whole bunch of other nice people. Is this a news flash?
This might be a good time to read up on why Wil Wheaton quit hosting "Arena" on G4, the same G4 that is now merging with TechTV.
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking