RobotSkirts

SitesCollide - Hack-A-Day - Eliot Phillips

I think my interview about Hack-A-Day went really well and I suggest you have a listen if you’ve ever wondered what we’re all about. (Yes, “I’m feeling lucky” for the word hack has been bumped by Wikipedia yet again)

UPDATE: Link fixed.

I drove down to LA this weekend to tour Mr. Jalopy’s Hoopty Rides headquarters. It was an interesting time and you can read about my experience on Hack-A-Day. A bonus was meeting Mark Frauenfelder from BoingBoing. I met Coop as well. He is heading to Mexico on Wed. to codrive a WRX in the La Carrera Panamericana rally. I think this will be at least his third year. Later this week I’m flying to San Diego for ToorCon. This will be my third one; it’s my favorite event of the year.

Hack-A-Day is looking for people to contribute how-tos and other original content to the site. It is a paid position. Let me know if you are interested. To get an idea of the type of content we’re looking for, visit Engadget’s how-to authors pages since most of them were Hack-A-Day contributors:

• Benjamin Heckendorn
• Eliot Phillips
• Fabienne Serriere
• Will O’Brien

Paul and Larry from Pauldotcom Security Weekly were in town this week for the SANS Las Vegas. I put together some schwag and donated it to their live podcast. It went fairly well and I got a review copy of their Linksys WRT54G hacking book. I plan on eventually reviewing it for Hack-A-Day. BTW, if you’ve always loved Hack-A-Day and wanted to contribute, now is the time to get a hold of me and let me know what you’d like to do.

A friend of mine is planning on picking up a paid blogging gig and asked for a little advice. I decided to write up what I’ve learned over the years. I was never the most prolific blogger, but I consider myself a fairly decent lead blogger/editor. Note that most of these ideas only apply to working for a commercially viable group blog (you’re not going to find it in practice on RobotSkirts, we’re only future proof viable as a robot accessory line). If you’re just doing a personal blog you should throw this post out and pick up some of Tony Pierce’s tips (old favorite of mine even if I don’t agree with all of it). I did cover part of this topic a year ago while talking about the blog industry. I’m curious to see what people think I’ve left out or am just entirely off base on. (more…)

The rumors are true! Bre Pettis and Eliot Phillips are actually friends. Will they collaborate on a Monsters of Hardware Hacking tour? Only time will tell. (thanks for the pic, fbz)

[Image: Nonsensor]
I had read Brian’s post—actually I caught his quip earlier in the day, but it didn’t really sink in until I saw Alex’s post illustrating that the original Weblogs, Inc. management team was now completely gone. I had a blast spending time with the entire Blogsmith team at SXSW and finally got to meet Brian; yes, I did meet him at WINStock, but being in the middle of a complete platform overhaul is no time to meet a dev. Gavin has an interesting post describing much of the platform’s growth and how the team got to where it is today. I know Brian is going to have a lot of fun over at ComicMix and I look forward to working with him in the future (I should get cracking on that Galactus WiFi helmet).

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that today is the two year anniversary of both my college graduation and my first post going live at Hack-A-Day. The second of the two keeps gaining notoriety since it was the catalyst for every thing that has happened to me since then.

I’m headed back to Nebraska for a friend’s wedding and to spend time with the folks. I’ll be there April 26th - May 6th.

While at the airport I picked up a copy of Fast Company magazine because Hack-A-Day was rumored to be in it. Well, the article is actually about some company called Facebook—I think they publish those Who’s Who books. That’s Facebook engineer Alex Moskalyuk rocking the fine Hack-A-Day threads. I met him at DEFCON last fall when he was working for Yahoo. Yes, the sombrero is required when sporting HAD gear.

I returned yesterday from SXSW and have a ton of work to get to. Which is kind of refreshing since I actually like my job. I picked up these vinyl Hack A Day stickers today. I think I’ll peel out the skull and just leave the wrenches. Shmoocon in D.C. will be your first chance to get one from me.