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1— title: date: 2020-05-18 lastmod: 2022-12-18 draft: false Author: Leo Laporte Tags: [bio, about] Categories: [Leo] Comment: enable: false

🙏 Hello. My name is Leo Laporte.

I am a US-based journalist specializing in technology coverage on the Internet.

This site (leo.fm) is a place I store quick posts. I guess it’s the closest thing I have to a blog these days. Well done finding it.

leo.fm is a static site generated from markdown files using Hugo. The site template is LoveIt. The server is running Debian and nginx out of the TWiT studios. I mirror it at Github (leolaporte.github.io) - that’s one of the many benefits of a static site!

I have several other web sites you might be more interested in:

  • I host and produce multiple technology-focused podcasts at TWiT. You can download them all on the TWiT.tv website or subscribe on iTunes. Watch us produce the shows live at TWiT Live or listen in at TWiT.am. Listen live any time on your voice assisted devices by saying “Hey [device name here], listen to TWiT Live.”

  • Chat with me and members of the TWiT community in our community-run IRC channel #twitlive at irc.twit.tv.

  • Our official forums are at TWiT.community.

  • Club TWiT members ($7/month) can chat with me and the team on our private Discord server, and get ad-free versions of all our shows, and a special TWiT+ podcast feed.

  • I don’t use Facebook or Twitter, preferring instead to use a federated social network called Mastodon. Our official TWiT Mastodon instance is at TWiT.social and I am leo@twit.social.

  • For secure messages to me (or anyone) don’t use email. My secure Signal messaging ID is 302-536-8948.

  • I’m an avid amateur photographer and post my best photos (such as they are) at www.leo.camera and Flickr. I’m @ChiefTWiT on glass.photo.

  • For information about advertising on my podcasts visit leo.fm/advertise.

  • PR professionals, please visit leo.fm/pr before pitching me.

I use GNU Privacy Guard (gpg) or S/MIME signing for email whenever possible. Mail from me will be signed with my PGP key with the short ID 4567B47C or GlobalSign S/MIME certificate ID 582BC167. Email addresses are easily spoofed, but signatures can generally be trusted. If you receive an email from me that is not signed, reply requesting a signed version before trusting it.

If you’d like to encrypt your email to me, or verify a message from me, use my public PGP key: Leo Laporte 2018-2022 (4567B47C). I create new keys every few years so be sure to use this key and not older versions. (This key is dated June 8, 2018 and identified as leo@leoville.com). It’s probably easier (and even more secure) to use Signal messenger (302-536-8948). My phone rejects calls from unknown numbers, but you can leave a text or voice message.

My full bio is posted at leo.fm/bio.

Identity verification for this and some other sites at Keyoxide.

Contact Info:

Email: info@leo.fm

Voice mail/SMS/Signal: +1 302-536-8948

Snail mail: Leo Laporte, 1351 Redwood Way, Ste. B, Petaluma, CA 94954

Answers to questions people frequently ask me:

What’s the best way to stay secure online?

Start by using a password manager.

We all need to use passwords all the time. The problem with passwords is that good ones are hard to remember. So people often use weak (but memorable passwords) and reuse them on site after site. A better way is to use a program that generates long, really random (hence unmemorable) passwords and keeps track of them so you don’t have to. That’s a password manager. If you only use your Mac and an iPhone, Apple can do this for you with the keychain. Your browser can also keep track of your passwords.

BitWarden is open-source, inexpensive, and very secure. It generates long, strong passwords and remembers them for you. Dashlane and 1Password are also excellent and work the same way.

Two more important tips:

  • If you use Gmail, follow Google’s security advice at https://google.com/security – make sure to add a recovery phone number and email.
  • Turn-on two factor authentication wherever you can.

What programming language should I learn?

If you merely want to get a job as quickly as possible go to one of the many coding camps and study Javascript. If you want to learn the art of programming. I recommend starting right with the free textbook How To Design Programs. HtDP uses the free DrRacket language and IDE. Racket is a lisp, but as they use it in the book it’s a much simplified teaching language. It’s intended to get out of the way so you can learn coding concepts without having to struggle with language syntax.

There’s a well-done free pair of online courses from the University of British Columbia that teaches HtDP at edX.org. I highly recommend them (I’ve done them myself.)

Once you’ve learned how to think about programs you can study any other language and you’ll be a better programmer for it.

Can I promote X with you?

I appreciate your sending along information about your product, service, web site, brilliant idea, or podcast proposal. I wish you all the best. I will read it and store it away for future reference. I don’t meet with vendors, so please don’t ask. TWiT.tv isn’t looking for any more podcasts either, but good luck with your show!

How do I buy ads on your shows?

Advertising Sales for TWiT is handled through Lisa Laporte, lisa@twit.tv. Our minimum buy is $25,000. Thanks so much for your support!!

Please help me!

Thanks so much for writing. Unfortunately due to the volume of mail I get I just don’t have the ability to answer individual questions. I’ll keep your question in mind for use on one of my shows, though. I’ve also found that searching Google can be helpful. If you’d like to ask your question our Ask The Tech Guys show point your browser to call.twit.tv from 11a-2p Pacific/2-5p Eastern/1900-2200 UTC on any Sunday. I appreciate hearing from you. I hope you understand why I can’t be of much help.