Polymorph: Zak Greant's Blog

Lightning Talks on TV?

A few months ago, Ryan Yewell from the Lab with Leo Laporte dropped me a note to see if I was interested in presenting a segment on the show. Each segment is about six minutes - about the same length as a lightning talk.

While I've been mostly out of town when they've been shooting, I should be in town for the next shoot cycle and need to start working up ideas to cover. The audience seems to be a mixed bag of technophiles, webheads and hobbyist programmers with a Windows-centric focus - however, I should get more info from the Ryan before I go to far down the road of writing for a given audience.

I'd love input on topics! What would you want to see?

My early ideas for segments include:

Quick and Dirty Security with SSH Port Forwarding

Teach viewers how to surf securely over open networks using secure SSH port forwarding.

Safer Surfing with Mozilla Firefox

A quick overview of the best practices, settings and extensions to use with Firefox to have a safer online existence.

Apache Tricks for the Clever Webhead

Many webheads end up administering or running their own Apache web server at some point in time. This segment teaches them how to take advantage of a few little known tricks (like transparent proxying) to get the most out of Apache.

Throwing a Lightweight Conference

A quick overview of lightweight conferences (BarCamps, unconferences, etc.) and how (and why) to run one.

Getting Organized with Hiveminder

Hiveminder kicks ass. Specifically, Hiveminder kicks the collective ass of your tasks. Find out how.

Carry On Only: Flying Light for the Geeky Traveler

Commercial flying is no longer a gracious or leisurely affair - security lines are long, searches are intrusive and about 1 in 4 flights are late. If you want to get where you are going (and make the best of not getting there on time), here are the things that you need to do and to know.

What is Open Source?

If you think that Open Source is Free Love for the geek crowd, then you've got some learning to do. This segment gives a practical overview of what Open Source is, where it is used, why it works and how it is changing the face of IT.

Adding Creative Ommph on the Cheap with Creative Commons, Fair Use and the Public Domain

Whether you are building a website, self-producing a movie or producing your own podcast, there are creative materials freely or cheaply available to support your work. The materials range from photos taken by the kid down the street to classic tracks from Brian Eno and David Byrne to some of our greatest cultural treasures.

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Posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 12:24

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One Response to “Lightning Talks on TV?”

  1. Polymorph: The Lab with Leo Laporte: Draft Pitches on Hiveminder and Open Source Says:
    August 17th, 2007 at 14:08

    [...] A few days ago I heard back from Ryan Yewell at the Lab with Leo Laporte about my segment pitches for the show. [...]

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