TLS (The Linux Show!!) kicks off new funding campaign

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From their new Chicago broadcast facility, Jeff Gerhardt CEO of GeekCast Broadcasting and
host of The Linux Show!! today announced, “with our broadcast this past Tuesday Kevin Hill
and I embarked upon our 6th year of webcasting. We find it amazing that IT firms have come
and gone, the mighty have rose and fallen; and somehow we seem to keep our show going. We
are very gratified that we have listeners who have stuck with us from our Tech Talk network
days and just seem to come back week after week. Without the listeners, we would not still
be here, it is that simple. We now count listeners from every state and 52 different nations.”

“Like everyone else in IT and especially the webcasting business,” continued Gerhardt,”we
continue to struggle finding a business model that makes it all worth while. Unfortunately,
new government regulations have made it rough on webcasters who do not happen to also own
a major TV or radio broadcast network. 2002 was a difficult year, if not for the help of
Ibiblio, we might not be here today. So, 2003 is a year that mandates a number of changes
in the way we go about supporting ourselves.”

GeekCast VP Kevin Hill added, “The first change has already been put into place, and that is
a mechanism by which people can mirror our broadcast servers. Anyone becoming a mirror will
get a free insert placement into our banner ad rotation. Although its hard to
believe we are regularly maxing out the allocated bandwidth available from our 3 T-1s. A
number of people are presently experimenting with mirror sites, and we encourage anyone who
wishes, to check out the info at the
mirror document on our web site.”

“Mirroring alone will not get us through to our goal of adding more and different kinds of
programs,” Hill continued. “We have overhead bills that need covering, so we are renewing
our call for sponsors. We need sponsors for both the broadcasting of our weekly show,
and the sponsorship of trade show broadcasts. We really miss the trade show broadcasts,
we have not been able to do any in about a year. Its a shame because most of the trade show
management firms are willing to provide us with free booth space, if we can get a sponsors to
cover the other costs.”

Gerhardt noted, “another big change and the main purpose of this announcement is that we are
going to go back to a fund raising strategy from a couple years ago that seemed to work pretty
well, and that is providing the services of our friends and business alliances to our listeners
to help underwrite the high cost of the weekly show. Starting with this week, and continuing
for the next several weeks, we will introduce at least one new product or service.”

The first service that will be offered by TLS is a domain registration service created in
partnership the ISP IBSS of Naperville IL. Hill and Gerhardt have participated in the ISP
industry
for years and have had at least part interest in several ISPs. Among those they have
participated in IBSS
off and on for years (since 1995), they share offices with the ISP, and money from IBSS provided
the initial launch of the show. IBSS has kept the show on the air more than once.

The domain registration service includes domain registrations, domain transfers and domain
renewals for the TLDs;.com,.net,.org,.us,.biz,.info and.ws. To take advantage
of the registration partnership, interested parties should go to the URL
http://domain.ibssnet.com.

Take note that this service is NOT the cheapest registration service on the planet. The prices
charged are competitive, but designed to raise money for The Linux Show!!. The $9.99 fee
generates $1.50 of profit (after registration, credit card and all other fees) that will be
directed specifically to the upkeep of the TLS broadcast.

“We want everyone to be aware of two things to keep in mind,” added Gerhardt. “First
we will be offering the.us &.biz domains for the limited time for ONLY $7.00
as an introductory offer. The TLD registry owner has cut us a short term discount to get
things started with our service. We will end up only making $1.00 on the deal, but that is
the nature of introductory offers isn’t it. The second issue is a special service we will
be offering called “Private Domain Registrations.” We have contracted with Domains by
Proxy
to offer their service in conjunction with our registration service. This
service, keeps the ownership of your domain private. As far as the world knows, DBP owns
the domain. It is a great addition to the registration service.”

The Linux Show!!
TLS has been broadcasting since the 1998 to the known universe. With regular panelists:
David “Doc” Searls Sr Editor Linux Journal (author of The Clue Train Manifesto), Russ Pavlicek
author and editorialist of Infoworld, Arne Flones (community advocate, teacher & code hacker),
Ubergeek- Kevin Hill of Fermi Labs, and Jeff Gerhardt Cowboy Geek (the self titled cheerleader of
open source); they come to you every Tuesday night LIVE, broadcasting from
http://www.thelinuxshow.com using 100%
open source streaming technology.

Linux(r) is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.