After E3, I'm heading up to San Francisco. Just wondering what I should look at doing in the area, haven't really acted like a pure tourist there in the past. Generally I've sworn at the traffic and bad street layout whle getting lost on the way to an empeg meet. Hopefully this trip will go better

What sort of stuff are you looking to do? Nerdy stuff? Pretty stuff? Active stuff? Historical stuff? Local vibe stuff?

Umm, just about anything. I did get a ticket to see The Screen Savers on the 19th and can bring one guest. If anyone in the SF area wants to attend, page me at (removed) with your name, I'm going to be out and about here in a bit.

Specificially, I suppose nerdy, active, and some sight seeing. All depends, my plans are pretty open. I may just end up renting a car and driving around looking at things.

I did get a ticket to see The Screen Savers on the 19th and can bring one guest

I'm so jealous of you and your guest If I'm ever in SF I'm definitely checking that out, even though Leo isn't hosting anymore.

Well, we could do the ultimate in nerdness and hit up the Ranch and do a quicky LucasArts walkthrough...

Hm. Want a third?

if you want to do that the 10th or 11th that would rock!
im driving in on the 10th

The fewer the better, 3 would be the max (meaning me and 3 guests). If Tom's not getting here til the 15th then we'd wanna do it after that.

yeah, he wont be heading there till the 15th, afaik
im driving to LA the 10th, and was going to stay in the area until the morning of the 16th, but id be willing to drive the 5 hours to go for a visit.

Awww....damn it.

Sorry about that, i just realized the 15th is a Saturday. It would have to be during the work week or else we couldn't hit up the Ranch.

> I did get a ticket to see The Screen Savers on the 19th and can bring one guest.

That is assuming there still is a Screen Savers to go to. Bad things are happening over at Tech TV.

I mean yeah, TechTV has its problems, and it has a long way to go before it can become a network that could be brought into basic cable service or something, but that's just harsh. If they do indeed plan on hiring back who they like, I can't imagine that's a good way of running your business. It sure doesn't instill confidence.

The way I see it, TechTV has about 4 very good shows that are "ready for primetime." All that needs to happen is for the rest of the programming to be pulled up at least to a satisfactory level.

Wow, that's disturbing news.

I think the problem techtv has is that they don't have anything to use for filler. Like the cartoon network can have a few new shows and fill the rest of the time with reruns but techtv doesn't have years and years of old tech shows to fill time with. G4 is in about the same situation so I though it would be good it they merged maybe between the two of them they would have enough original show to fill a day but if they are going to replace everyone at techtv it will probably end up bad.

Do you really a want to watch a thirty-minute rerun on Microsoft Bob? I think the idea or running reruns on a tech show that are more than a year old, at most, is a bit silly.

Interesting link. Reading through it looks like they probably won't fire everyone, just that they're reserving the right to. Kind of harsh, but I guess mergers and such can get messy. I used to watch the channel every once in a while back in the ZDTV days, but I was only ever mildely interested (read: it was better "background noise" than anything else on the tube). I think techies tend to get their information from a different medium than TV, which makes a techie friendly station kind of a difficult sell.

Wow, it looks like it's even more harsh than we expected. Ouch!

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RIP TechTV?

TechTV is dying on the vine. The company, owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, slapped 285 San Francisco workers with pink slips as part of its merger plans with Comcast, CNET's News.com reported. Comcast plans to merge TechTV with "its own G4 video game network when the buyout is finalized next week. David Shone, a spokesman for G4 TV, said the company plans to hire 80 people from the San Francisco office to work at the game channel's Los Angeles headquarters. Employees were given two months notice and various severance packages, he said." The Laporte Report blog has more details (thanks, Slashdot, for the link): "I've just learned that G4 has fired the entire staff of TechTV," the blog reported yesterday. "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."

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