I'm Back On ZDNET

I’m back on ZDNET as of a few days ago. Some of you are probably saying, “back?” Yes, I’m back. Maybe I should clarify. Picture it. Charlotte, North Carolina. 2012. It was about 6AM local time. I was at my humble desk in my humble abode known as “Chateau Ghetto” taking a look at what was going on for the start of Mobile World Congress which was happening in Barcelona, Spain.

I hope I don’t upset ZDNet and Red Ventures by modifying this logo for story’s sake. . . .

At the time, I’d been invited to join a startup tech blog called aNewDomain which was lead by Gina Smith. My intent was to get up early and write about anything I found interesting regarding the conference. To my surprise, I found a PDF file from Microsoft detailing the consumer preview of its Windows 8 operating system. I thought it was pretty cool to see the documentation about the “new look” of Windows and put a blog post together detailing what I had found. An hour or so passes and my Google chat window started blowing up with messages of excitement from Gina Smith. This caught me by surprise. Apparently, my blog post about the “leaked” document was a big hit. This lead to other sites picking up the story and linking back to me. In particularly, Mr. Jason Hiner of ZDNet mentioned my post.

This blew my mind because I was a big fan of the work Mr. Hiner had done over the years as tech news and tech journalism was all the buzz. To see he mentioned lil’ ol’ me in his piece was something I’ll never forget. But anyway, I’m technically “back on” ZDNet now. This time I’m on the team as a freelance contributor.


What does this mean?

As a freelance contributor, I’ll be creating content around the wonky world of consumer technology in the form of blog posts and videos. I’ll also lend a hand in shooting photography for the team as a hired camera, if you will. I look forward to working with Mr. Hiner and the ZDNet team. He and I go back quite a ways as he also gave me a freelance gig many years ago on TechRepublic. When I joined TWiT in 2019, I had to drop my contributions to TechRepublic because of some dumb ass proposition here in California. But yes, this is going to be a fun exerience. I look forward to it.


Why freelance and not full-time?

I’m freelance for a couple of reasons. First off, full-time employment isn’t offered at this time. Which is fine. Secondly, I can’t say that I’m interested in full-time work at this time. Real talk.

For pretty much most of my professional career, I’ve been a bit of a self-starter and on my own. Even though the majority of my career was in IT at a big company of some sort, I had a lot of autonomy and freedom. I “worked from home” for many years before that phrase was normalized during the 2020 pandemic. I didn’t have to deal with micro-management leadership. I’m grateful for that. So I always felt like a contractor, or freelancer in that regard.

Now in 2023 and 2024, we continue to read and hear about companies struggling financially around the country. I was laid off from TWiT in December 2023. It wasn’t personal, it was business and it made sense. I would have laid me off, too. Not to mention other huge companies such as Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, Sony and many more laying off staff in the coming months.

Are you sure?

I personally don’t believe finding full-time work in my field is going to happen. It’s a tough business. I want to be in control of my own destiny for that reason. I previously worked at a company of almost half of my life. I was given an opportunity to take another job elsewhere for better wages even though I wasn’t looking for a new job. You know what the company said to me which I worked at for 16 years?

“Are you sure?”

Not, “what can we do to keep you here” or anything of that nature. NO FREAKIN’ LOYALTY TOWARDS ME or anything I’d done for the previous 16 years as an employee. I was naive and that changed my outlook going forward. I needed to be able to control my destiny.

What I went through at TWiT was great. The Laportes were great to me. I had autonomy and was also able to learn other things during my time there. But again, it was more of a mental note to me that I need to keep pushing to have control. So I’m doing everything I can to get Ant Pruitt Media back on track and rollin’ forward.

Anyway, that’s the news. Be sure to check out ZDNet for other great consumer tech content. They do a good job of keeping it real when it comes to all the fuss about the new hotness of tech. I’ll see you soon. Thanks for all the support.

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Onward

Jumping right into it. Some people know what happened this week at TWiT. I’m not sure what I want to do, but I do have some ideas. Couple of ideas in my head:

  • Call in some favors with people in know in the creative space

  • Go to pilot school

  • Go back to being independent and/or revive my YouTube channel (probably won’t)

  • Go back to podcasting on my own (probably won’t, but it’s out there)

  • Go wash dishes again, like I did when I first moved here.

image generated with Adobe Firefly AI

My priority remains getting my last child graduated from high school and into college in addition to making sure the rest of my family is squared away and taken care of. Thanks for all the messages and kind words. I can’t reply to all of the messages, but I do see them. Thank you. In the meantime, go do something good for yourself and something good for someone else.

If you want to help me out, do your holiday shopping via my Amazon link here*. Or, check out the holiday shoe sale from Atoms here *. I’m an affiliate Amazon, Atoms and other people, but that’s another story. Far as Atoms, they hold a special place in my heart since they actually paid my son and not just give him free shoes.

Far as TWiT. I’m rooting for ‘em and forever grateful. I learned a lot from them and I know they learned a lot from me and my family. I love them. In the meantime, be an Oak tree.

*Affiliate link used. Affiliate links allow me to earn a small commission as a content creator if you purchase items using the affiliate link. Thank you for your support.

My Thoughts On Child Internet Access

Image generated with AI in Adobe Firefly*

I recently had the opportunity to host Security Now with Steve Gibson. He received a listener email which was about managing internet access for children as a parent. Mr. Gibson had his thoughts, I had my thoughts. Check it out below.

*Affiliate link used. Affiliate links allow me to earn a small commission as a content creator if you purchase items using the affiliate link. Thank you for your support.

OPINION: The Black Friday and Cyber Monday Fallacy

I shared my opinions on the recent “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday” madness on the show this week. I’m just not buying it. Even though Adobe Analytics has data showing that consumers are clearly onboard and buying more and more this year. Granted, it’s not a “door-buster” deal, I did find this camera deal* to be notable. I really enjoy being a part of our show and chatting each with with Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis and Paris Martineau.

*Affiliate link used. Affiliate links allow me to earn a small commission as a content creator if you purchase items using the affiliate link. Thank you for your support.

Thumbnail image created with generative AI via Adobe Firefly*

Big THANK YOU For Helping Rancho Cotate High School Track Team

Recently I was having a nice day, but then later had a dark cloud of anger dump on it. Coach John Anderson aka “Coach Andy” shared that one of the facilities at the Rancho Cotate High School track was broken into. This lead to a bunch of gear being stolen. Smh. Cameras be damn, the thieves went in and got what they wanted regardless. . . .

I reached out to Coach Andy to see if he was going to start a fundraiser to get the gear replaced because quite honestly, most of the gear was purchased out of his own pocket, not from school funding. Coach wasn’t sure how to set up a fundraiser so I opened a GoFundMe to help him out. I set the goal to $1000 and mentioned it on my Twitter page, then said I’d mention on one of my shows in a few days because it gets a gazillion downloads each week.

Well, the community and my online community really came through on this. Heck, the goal was met before I could even mention it on the show. Lol! I am so grateful.

I did eventually mention the fundraiser on the show and I’ve decided to keep the donations open until August 8, 2022. Then, I’ll withdraw the funds and get them over to Coach Andy. Again, THANK YOU all for the support and thanks for spreading the word even though the fund’s goal is met. Excess is always helpful. Especially to cover incidentals like added travel expenses the team incurs. Heck, #hardhead lead the way last season having to travel to the championships with a few other teammates that qualified. Anyway, thanks again, everyone. Send people to “antpruitt dot com slash help” or just click here.

I Was On Our News Show Last Week

From time to time I get the opportunity to be on our news show Tech News Weekly. I’ll be the first to mention that I’m not much of a “news guy,” but I do enjoy filling in for my co-host when they’re out of the office. Check out our discussions below. Don’t worry, no one will ever confuse me as a top-notch news anchor. Thanks for watching.

CANON C70: Not Your Average Cinema Camera

So for about two weeks, I had the chance to play around with the Canon C70* cinema camera. I wish I had more time with it because during those two weeks, I was pretty busy with some other stuff. Lol! Funny how that works out, right? Anyway, I shot a segment for our show Hands On Tech at work regarding this camera from Canon. It’s a 4K cinema camera* that’s built about like a beefy DSLR. Click on the image below to check out my video and thoughts on this. I appreciate Canon* showing me some love by sending over the loaner for me to play with. I appreciate all of you supporting me and the content I create. Be well, yall. Do well, yall.

#CreateAndDominate

Image by Ant Pruitt  all rights reserved

Image by Ant Pruitt all rights reserved

(*) Affiliate link used. When you use my affiliate links, I receive a small commission from your purchase at no additional cost to you as the consumer. Thank you for your support

Canon Controversy and More Discussed with Don Komarechka

This week I had the honor and pleasure of joining my friend Don Komarechka on his podcast, Photo Geek Weekly. The discussions ranged from light-hearted to heavy to geektastic around the world of photography. I also share my pick of the week, which is a camera I absolutely loved. I really enjoyed being on his show. Click through here to check out the show notes of the episode on his page. Or you can just click here to play the episode.

Also, make sure you check out his new book about the world of macro photography. I was gifted the book and it’s UNBELIEVABLE. Get it here. It’s truly a “universe at your feet” when it comes to macro photography

Image by Ant Pruitt  All rights reserved

Image by Ant Pruitt All rights reserved



It's In The Books. THANK YOU

So i recently recorded my 52nd episode of my podcast Hands-On Photography. Another milestone achieved. I’ve been so grateful for my job at TWiT and the continued opportunities presented to me since becoming a member of that TWiT family. When the show was developed, I have a few goals. I wanted to get ten shows done. Then I wanted to get twenty. Then I wanted to get a year’s worth. I wanted to grow the subscriber base and audience. Now, I want to focus on continuing to grow the audience while continuing to create shows each and every week. THANK YOU ALL for being a part of the journey and also thank you for SHARING the show out so the audience can continue to grow. Here’s episode 52. One more thing, it was pretty awesome to have a brand I love and use sponsor this episode. THANK YOU, Peak Design.

An Amazing Talent and Inspiration For So Many People

So on yesterday’s recording of This Week in Google, I had the opportunity to share my thoughts and respects for the late Chad Boseman. I appreciate TWiT giving me the chance to share my message. Also, I appreciate all of the support I’m seeing on Twitter. Wow. Some really kind people out there. And the messages are still coming. Thank you, everyone. I’m sure the Boseman family appreciates your kind support of his legacy.

If you’re interested in my brief acknowledgment and condolences shared, you can watch it on YouTube here. Thank you. Be well, yall. DO well, yall.