Andy Walker | |
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Born | Norwich, England |
Andy Walker is a Canadian television personality and journalist.
He is best known as having been a co-host alongside Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur of Call for Help , a technology help television program on G4techTV Canada in Canada and the HOW TO Channel in Australia. His most popular segments on the show were what he called "food demos" which use household groceries like cheese and whip cream to show how complex technology mechanisms work. In one show he built a transistor out of cheddar cheese and tomato juice.
Walker is also the owner of Cyberwalker.com , a technology advice website, and the author of The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Security, Spam, Spyware and Viruses and Windows Vista Help Desk both from Que Books. He also co-authored the book You Call This the Future? (Chicago Review Press) with Nick Sagan and Mark Frary.
In December 2013, Walker announced [1] he had signed deal with Pearson Education to write his 5th book called Super You: How Technology is Revolutionizing What it Means to Be Human. It was co-authored with blogger/entrepreneur Kay Svela (AwesomeLifeClub.com; DeathisObsolete.com Depression Zone) and Walker's longtime collaborator Sean Carruthers. Super You was published in June 2016. Walker was married to Svela in July 2014. They have a boy Carter Devon Walker, born in February 2014.
Besides channelling his two most recent books toward transhumanism and hyper longevity, Walker is also working as a futurist keynote speaker. [2]
On August 31, 2005, after hosting Call for Help with Leo Laporte for over a year, Walker announced that he was leaving the show due to an unsatisfactory pay cut in his proposed contract renewal.
Walker hosted two spin-offs to Call For Help called Web Gems and My Media. Web Gems focused on tips and tricks on navigating the Internet. My Media was focused on TV and living room technology. Both shows aired on G4techTV Canada until late 2006. He appeared as one of the first guests on Leo Laporte's old television show The Lab with Leo Laporte, which started production in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in April 2007 and aired in May 2007 on G4techTV Canada in Canada and the HOW TO Channel in Australia. Walker also co-hosted an internet technology podcast called Lab-Rats with Sean Carruthers until late 2011. But in 2012, Andy Walker and Sean Carruthers once again started the Lab Rats podcast which can be found at Lab Rats.
In January 2013, it was announced that Walker would be a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee Medal. Walker's community service includes founder of the Little Geeks Foundation, a national Canadian non-profit charity that provides computers to school children from families in need. Walker also serves as a technology advisor to His Honour David Onley on his aboriginal children literacy initiative. Walker was also a technology advisor to Kids Help Phone, a national 24-hour telephone and online counselling service for children.
The Screen Savers is an American TV show that aired on TechTV from 1998 to 2005. The show launched concurrently with the channel ZDTV on May 11, 1998. The Screen Savers originally centered on computers, new technologies, and their adaptations in the world. However, after it was taken over by G4, the show became more general-interest oriented and focused somewhat less on technology. The final episode of The Screen Savers aired on March 18, 2005. Repeat episodes continued to air until March 25, 2005 when its replacement program Attack of the Show! began 3 days later on March 28, 2005. Two spiritual successors to The Screen Savers, This Week in Tech on the TWiT Network with Leo Laporte and Tekzilla on Revision3 with Patrick Norton, were started after the original show concluded. On April 19, 2015, Leo Laporte announced The New Screen Savers, which began airing on TWiT network May 2, 2015.
TechTV is a defunct 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. In 2004, it merged with the G4 gaming channel which ultimately dissolved TechTV programming. At the height of its six-year run, TechTV was broadcast in 70 countries, reached 43 million households, and claimed 1.9 million unique visitors monthly to its website. A focus on personality-driven product reviews and technical support made it a cultural hub for technology information worldwide, still existing today online through its former hosts' webcasts, most notably the TWiT Network.
John Charles Dvorak is an American columnist and broadcaster in the areas of technology and computing. His writing extends back to the 1980s, when he was a regular columnist in a variety of magazines. Dvorak was vice president of Mevio, and has been a host on TechTV and TWiT.tv. He is currently a co-host of the No Agenda podcast.
Catherine (Cat) Michelle Schwartz is an American television presenter. She was formerly a co-host on the TechTV television program Call for Help with Chris Pirillo and Leo Laporte.
Leo Gordon Laporte is the host of The Tech Guy weekly radio show and a host on TWiT.tv, an Internet podcast network focusing on technology. He is also a former TechTV technology host (1998–2008) and technology author.
Call for Help, also known as CFH, is a computer-themed television program that first aired exclusively on TechTV, a cable and satellite television network focused on technology, and then aired on G4techTV Canada and the HOW TO Channel in Australia. The final taped episode aired on February 26, 2007, but because the episodes were taped out of order, a number of other episodes taped during the same shooting week aired through April 6, 2007. A spin-off called The Lab with Leo Laporte aired much of the same content as Call for Help and ran on the same networks. The Lab was canceled about one year later due to low viewer ratings and the final episode aired in August 2008.
G4techTV was a short-lived cable and satellite channel resulting from a merger between Comcast-owned G4 and TechTV. The headquarters was in Los Angeles. The name changed back to G4 on February 15, 2005, in the United States.
Amber Dawn MacArthur is a Canadian television and netcasting personality, bestselling author of two books, and keynote speaker. MacArthur is the former co-host of BNN's App Central and Bloomberg Brink, G4TechTV's Call for Help, and TWiT's The Social Hour. She was the most followed Canadian television personality on Twitter in 2008. In 2018, she was named DMZ's 30 inspirational women making a difference in tech.
This Week in Tech–casually referred to as TWiT, and briefly known as Revenge of the Screen Savers–is the weekly flagship podcast and namesake of the TWiT.tv network. It is hosted by Leo Laporte and many other former TechTV employees and currently produced by Jason Howell. It features round-table discussions and debates surrounding current technology news and reviews, with a particular focus on consumer electronics and the Internet. TWiT is produced in the TWiT "eastside" studios in Petaluma, California, United States, since 2016, a few miles away from the former "brickhouse" studios where it had been produced for 5 years, and earlier TWiT "cottage", where it was produced for over 6 years. The podcast is streamed live on Sundays at 2:15 P.M. PST.
Thomas Andrew Merritt is an American technology journalist, writer, and broadcaster best known as the host of several podcasts. He is the former co-host of Tech News Today on the TWiT.tv Network, and was previously an Executive Editor for CNET and developer and co-host of the daily podcast Buzz Out Loud. He currently hosts Daily Tech News Show, Cordkillers, and Sword and Laser, among other shows.
MacBreak was an internet television show hosted by Leo Laporte, Kendra Arimoto, Alex Lindsay, iJustine and Emery Wells from TWiT.tv and the Pixel Corps. The podcast was dedicated to Apple's Macintosh computers and other Apple products such as the iPod.
FLOSS Weekly is a free and open-source software (FLOSS) themed netcast from the TWiT Network. The show premiered on April 7, 2006, and features interviews with prominent guests from the free software/open source community. It was originally hosted by Leo Laporte; his cohost for the first seventeen episodes was Chris DiBona and subsequently Randal Schwartz. In May 2010, Schwartz took over from Laporte as lead host. May 2020 saw Doc Searls take over the host role in episode 578.
Mike Lazazzera is a television and video podcast personality. He is most noted for his appearances on the TV show Call For Help hosted by Leo Laporte, and for his collaborations with Amber MacArthur in video podcasting.
TWiT.tv, which is the operating trade name of TWiT LLC, is a podcast network that broadcasts many technology news podcasts, founded by technology broadcaster and author Leo Laporte in 2005, and run by his wife and company CEO Lisa Laporte. The network began operation in April 2005 with the launch of This Week in Tech. Security Now was the second podcast on the network, debuting in August of that year. The network hosts 28 podcasts though the number had fallen in half to only 14 regularly scheduled shows by January of 2021. Podcasts include The Tech Guy, This Week in Tech, This Week in Enterprise Tech, Security Now, FLOSS Weekly, and MacBreak Weekly. In addition to shows on technology news, TWiT also has podcasts like Hands-On Photography".
The Lab with Leo Laporte was a technology-based television program hosted by Leo Laporte. Episode #1 debuted on April 23, 2007 on G4techTV Canada and HOW TO Channel Australia. The program was produced by Greedy Productions in Vancouver, BC. Production was overseen by the show's producer(s), Matt Harris (ep.1-180) and Marc Lefebvre. The show also aired on Citytv after Rogers Media acquired control of the stations, and episode segments were also posted to Google Video several weeks after initial airing.
The Tech Guy is a widely syndicated US radio show hosted by Leo Laporte, formerly of TechTV and now TWiT.tv fame. The show, which was first exclusively broadcast on KFI AM 640 in Los Angeles, California, was picked up for syndication by Premiere Networks in February 2007. The show currently has over 160 terrestrial affiliates in cities including Los Angeles, California; San Francisco, California; Houston, Texas; and Washington, DC. Laporte streams video of his side of the show on TWiT Live, including caller audio. Anyone can watch the show live on weekends at 11:00 a.m. PST at twit.tv/live The show reaches 500,000 people through its affiliates, placing it second behind The Kim Komando Show in the tech radio field.
Andy Ihnatko (born November 18, 1967) is a tech author and former technology journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times,. He currently resides in Massachusetts. He is a co-host on the Material podcast, on Relay FM's network. He also appears on Leo Laporte's podcasts, specifically MacBreak Weekly and TWiT, and is a regular on the MacNotables podcast hosted by Chuck Joiner, where he often is paired with fellow technology journalist Adam Engst. In September 2011, he launched an ongoing podcast called The Ihnatko Almanac with Dan Benjamin on Benjamin's 5by5 Studios network.
Veronica Ann Belmont is an American online media personality. She was formerly the co-host of the Revision3 show Tekzilla alongside Patrick Norton. Belmont was the co-host of the former TWiT.tv gaming show Game On! along with Brian Brushwood, and the former host of the monthly PlayStation 3-based video on demand program Qore. Additionally, she was the host for the Mahalo Daily podcast and a producer and associate editor for CNET Networks, Inc. where she produced, engineered, and co-hosted the podcast Buzz Out Loud.
Patrick Norton is most commonly known as the former co-host and producer of TekThing, former co-host and managing editor of Revision3 properties Tekzilla, HD Nation, and Systm, and as the former co-host and managing editor of The Screen Savers, an interactive television program on the former TechTV network geared toward the technology enthusiast.
Justin Robert Young is a podcaster, journalist, comedian and writer. Young writes and publishes the Politics, Politics, Politics! podcast, and co-hosts the weekly comedy podcast Great Night with magician Brian Brushwood.