Caution: Man Working

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, and it's getting crazier. I just got back from New Haven where I was serving on a Yale University advisory committee working on a strategy for online distribution. This week Yale announced that it's putting seven courses online complete with lectures (video and audio), transcripts, problem sets, and solutions, but that's just the beginning. Yale is committed to offering free access to many of its assets. Bravo! It's a great honor to be asked to help with this task along with luminaries (and fellow Yalies) like David Pogue, Mitch Kapor, Real Networks' Rob Glaser, EA's Bing Gordon, and my '77 classmate Donna Dubinsky of Claris, Palm, Handspring, and Numenta. While at Yale I did my radio show from its beautiful CMI2 broadcast center. Thanks to Paul Lawrence and his team for hosting me. And to Yale's associate secretary, Stephanie Schwartz, for smoothing my way in New Haven. Spending five days in Connecticut means I have to jam three weeks of podcast production into three days, because next week I head to Vancouver to tape 15 more Lab with Leo episodes. Then I come back to do the radio show the following weekend. Christmas Eve, Jennifer, Abby, Henry and I are flying to Rhode Island for Christmas with my mom and sister. Two days later we fly to Egypt to see the Pyramids. This has been a dream of mine for years and is literally the trip of a lifetime. We'll be gone and completely out of touch until January 7. I think our hotel has Internet access, however, so I'll try to post pictures and video from the trip as we go. This crazy schedule is already impacting some of the shows.

• Because I was in New Haven doing the radio show last weekend, I don't have a recording of the audio. That means there will be no Tech Guy netcast for December 8 and 9. Sorry.
• As you may have noticed, there was no TWiT this week, but we'll do two more this year on December 17 and 24 (if I can get a cast together).
• The other news-based shows, MacBreak Weekly and Windows Weekly - will slow down, too. We should have new shows next week, but then it's two weeks off. Both shows will be back the week of January 6 and watch for special Macworld Expo coverage the week of January 14 on MacBreak Weekly.
• We're taking this week off on The Daily Giz Wiz but we'll have all new shows through the rest of the holiday season.
• There'll be a new net@nite this week, but then we're taking the rest of the year off. We'll return January 9.

Dane will be here posting the shows while I'm overseas, so everything should come out on time. He's much more reliable than I am. I am also working on a redesign of the blog and Leoville.com. The new design will merge them both. It's based on the very nice Revolution theme by Brian Gardner that makes Wordpress as suitable for a magazine style site as a blog. I'll probably put the new sites up in the next day or two and will be tweaking them until I leave. Please pardon the construction dust. One thing the new design will do is move my Twitter Tweets out of the main blog. (All together now... Yay!) They'll still be here, but they won't fill the page with 140 character drivel. It will also put the blog back into the main Leoville site where it belongs. You can still go to leoville.com/blog, but leoville.com will work, too. Finally, InBusiness.tv has posted my Blogworld keynote address from last month on Brightcove. Six Apart's Anil Dash begins the talk with a survey of Google's Open Social platform; I start around 15 minutes in. As we wrap up 2007 I want to take a moment to thank you. This year has been a watershed for me both personally and professionally, and none of it could have happened without the love and support of my family. That means Jennifer, Abby, and Henry, of course, but it also means you, my extended family. I have so very many friends, those with whom I create the shows, and those of you who watch, listen, and collaborate. None of this could have happened without your encouragement and support. Thanks so very much. Happy holidays. I hope you find your heart's desire in 2008. Thanks to you, I already have.

Comments

[Josh Honeycutt]

Leo your an inspiration to all of us.

I hope you and your family have a merry Christmas, and a great time in Egypt, as well as some time to rest, you need it.

I'm really looking forward to the new show, I'm sure it will be great!

P.S. The redesign looks great!

[decjr]

Happy Holidays Leo and family. Have a rockin vacation, going back in time in Egypt. No humming the Bangles song :) Don't spend too much time behind the camera and camcorder. Enjoy the sights-n-sounds. Can't wait for your photos. cheers

[John]

I love it. Dane's much more reliable. :D

[tamara]

Have a great trip to Egypt! We went about 8 years ago -it was totally amazing-!
If you can - go for a walk a ways into the desert and look back at them. It helps to put them in perspective. They are so dang big. :)

If they still have a night show that was fun (a little cheesy, but pretty to see the sphinx all light up!)

Have Fun!

[Andrew Lim]

Leo, have a great time at Egypt with your family! Thanks for your update, and great keynote on Blogworld.

You're part of the inspiration where I started a netcast as well (or podcast). Thanks for everything, Merry Christmas, again, have a nice trip, and Happy New Year.

[bill dengler]

ATTN LISTENERS!
I m An Intermediate podcAster I tAlkAbout pcs And phones.check out computersAndmoreroom.com sorry my lower cAse A will not work. or subscribe to this rss feedhttp://recordings.tAlkshoe.com/rss38744.xml

[SteveB]

Leo, we'll miss the podcasts, but there's always the archives!

Your work with Yale has motivated me to talk to my alma mater about doing something similar. Let's hope they bite.

Happy Holidays - and thanks for everything you've done - you're an inspiration!

Steve B.

[Daniel]

That is the nice thing about WordPress, really. Change it up with a new theme, then tweak to need. Throw in a couple plug-ins, and all is happy in the world.

[mostafa esmail]

hello Leo , i.m an Egyptian and a big fan for twit.You will have a great time here in cairo nice trip and of course there is Internet access in your hotel.

[kingtravelling]

Good work, Leo, i just came back from Egypt. Ben, thank you for link.