This Week in Tech

This Week in Tech (often called this WEEK in TECH, TWiT, or the TWiTcast, and formerly known as Revenge of the Screen Savers or ROTSS) is a weekly podcast (Internet radio show) hosted by several former hosts and cast members of the TechTV television program The Screen Savers (now Attack of the Show). Regular hosts include Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, John C. Dvorak, Kevin Rose, Roger Chang, David Prager, and Steve Gibson. Occasional hosts include Yoshi DeHerrera and Robert Heron, and special guests have included Jessica Corbin, Jenn Cutter, Dan Huard, Doug Kaye, Alex Lindsay, Amber MacArthur, Roger McGuinn, Sarah Norton, Chris Pirillo, Arlo Rose, Sal Soghoian, Jon van Tetzner, Andy Walker, Bob Young, and Mike Lazazzera.

Distribution and licensing

The show is available in four formats: 64 kbit/s MP3, 32 kbit/s MP3, AAC, and Ogg Vorbis. The files are primarily distributed via BitTorrent, since this puts little strain on the offical server. The website also offers ZIPped MP3s of the show for listeners who cannot run BitTorrent—such as people downloading the show at work and members of the US Military.

Related Topics:
Kbit/s - MP3 - AAC - Ogg Vorbis - BitTorrent - Server - ZIP - US Military

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The server load went up significantly when iTunes 4.9 was released, since it has built-in support for podcasting but no support for BitTorrent. This causes each listener to download the entire audio files directly from the web server, instead of from other listeners, like they would if they used BitTorrent.

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Because of the issue of server load, Laporte has been in talks with at least two companies about hosting the audio files for TWiT. On July 4, 2005, he announced that America Online will be hosting the 64 kbit/s MP3 version of the show. Users will not be required to sign up for any AOL services, and Leo only needs to mention that this show is hosted by AOL Radio and refrain from using profanity (or bleep it out).

Related Topics:
July 4 - 2005 - America Online

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All episodes are licensed under the Creative Commons share-alike license.

Related Topics:
Creative Commons - Share-alike - License

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