tech reviews, anime news, and teh life of snubs
21 Aug
So I was jogging on the trail with Darren today, while listening to one of my favorite podcasts by the toally e-famose Molly Wood, Tom Merritt, and Jason Howell (today with Natali Del Conte). It just so happens that we decided to rest on a bench when I heard this email come up on their conversation:
Not sure how much you picked up from NME but I shamelessly think this story is pretty sweet.
My podcast Hak5, a show that’s been blending underground hacking and mainstream IT since 2005, has been picked up by Revision3. PR: http://revision3.com/blog/2008/08/14/revision3-adds-hak5-program-to-hit-lineup/
Also my girlfriend Shannon (who will be premiering on Hak5 this season) and I are big BOL fans. We’re such huge dorks that we synchronize our iPod Shuffles so that we can listen to you guys while jogging together. Wouldn’t it be crazy if we heard you mention this while we were on the trail?
Love the show, Darren the hacker from Virginia
Oh. My. God. For MONTHS we’ve joked about calling in and leaving them a voicemail about our cute jogs while listening to Buzz Out Loud, and Darren actually emailed them! I have to say, I was completely stoked to hear congratulations from one of my fav podcasts. Thanks BOL… Love the show!
Listen to the Buzz Crew’s awesome episode at http://www.cnet.com/8301-11455_1-10019325-10.html
14 Aug
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – August 14, 2008 – Revision3, the TV network for the Internet generation, today announced that it is bringing Hak5, a home-grown hit series fusing underground culture and mainstream IT, to its weekly lineup of pop culture shows. Covering everything from network security, open source software and forensics, to Do It Yourself projects and the homebrew scene, new episodes of Hak5 will launch today on Revision3 at www.revision3.com/hak5.
“Back when we launched Tekzilla, a few fans accused us of ripping off Hak5’s brick-encrusted set. The correlation was spurious, but rather than alienate the industry’s top hackers, we decided it would be better to team up with Hak5 instead,” said Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3. “Seriously, it’s great to have such a hardcore hacking show round out our coverage for tech fanatics everywhere. And given the street cred of the Hak5 team, I’d rather have them with us than against us.”
Hak5, known as a hybrid of technology and geek humor, has been put together by a band of IT ninjas, security professionals and gaming enthusiasts since 2005. Within its first few months on-air the show had become a hit among tech enthusiasts as well as mainstream media, and currently attracts fans from around the world.
“With this partnership we intend to focus solely on delivering the kind of unique and high quality content our loyal viewers have come to expect”, said Darren Kitchen, Producer, Hak5. “We’re excited to become a part of Revision3’s great lineup of shows – and to extend our devoted audience in the near future.”
The first Hak5 show will launch on Monday, September 8th. Episodes will be hosted by Darren Kitchen, Matt Lestock and Shannon Morse (<–Thats me!) and will appear regularly every Wednesday at 12 p.m. EST.
About Revision3
Revision3 is the first media company that gets it. Born from the Internet, Revision3 is a TV network for the web, creating and producing shows for a new audience: passionate fans who want to watch shows about technology, modern culture and music that entertain, educate and help to expand their life experiences.
The company was founded in 2005 by technology visionaries Kevin Rose, Jay Adelson and David Prager, because they couldn’t find anything they wanted to watch on traditional television. The company is now led by Internet TV pioneer Jim Louderback. With more than 35 million downloads to date (and 4.2 million per month), Revision3’s programs can be found everywhere from Revision3 to a wide range of platforms, including Apple iTunes, Hulu, DivX, YouTube and PyroTV. Shows can be watched on any device, from a cell phone to an Apple Nano, on a computer or a TV.
For more information or to schedule an interview, contact: Sarah Hawes, 212 255 8455 or sarah@rosengrouppr.com.
http://revision3.com/blog/2008/08/14/revision3-adds-hak5-program-to-hit-lineup/
12 Aug
Over the weekend, I secretly tripped to Toronto, Ontario, without the knowledge of anyone except for some friends. It was a grand experience, and obviously I survived the trip, because here I am now, writing a short bloggity blog about my adventure.
Darren and I decided to leave late on Wednesday night. I tried to put my own suitcase into his car, thus throwing my back out of place and delaying out trip by half an hour. Eventually we got on the road and reached Mubix’s house to let him borrow a camera for Defcon.
Eventually we got to Jenn’s house on Thursday afternoon, just in time for some delicious Italian eats at Il Paesano. Afterwards, we hung out and cleaned up a bit back at her place, then headed downtown for the big Second City show called Barack To The Future. The show was hilarious, and they served delicious beverages and appetizers!
Down the street from Second City was a nice little bar called Gabby’s, where I had many beers and delicious Caesar’s. It was here that I made sure to Twitter my friend and forum mod, Weiman, as well as Spec Ops Kerrigan- two guys from the Pure Pwnage forums.
We all hung out and had drinks for a few hours before eventually heading back to Jenn’s for much needed sleep.
On Friday, we woke up for lunch with some IPTV folk, and chilled at their workplace for a few hours. I was sooo happy to finally meet these three people who have done so much for the IPTV world. We got to talk about everything from our show at Hak5 to their shows as well. It was quite the experience, and I was lucky enough to bring an adorable squishy cow home.
After lunch, Jenn took Darren and I to the Eaton Centre in Toronto, where I found a cute miniature plushie green Yoshi and Darren bought matching Yoshi house slippers. I LOVED the Eaton Centre. Holy crap, it’s the biggest mall I’ve ever been in. I think.
After the Eaton Centre, we joined up with Pronobozo and we took off to a Sushi joint for dinner. Sushi was delicious as usual. I wanted to join up with some friends from Pure Pwnage, so I got ahold of them and we walked to their hotel. About 10 people met us outside
- this including Myren, Evan, Weiman, Dr. Toker, Gamer Chick, Aeros, Corpus, IW4, Shorteh, along with a few others… who am I forgetting? We all walked to a bar that said we had too many people in our group… So sadly, we gave up and split up. They headed to New Gen, and we headed to a bar called Einstein’s.
Einstein’s wasn’t the best bar as far as service goes, but damn, their drinks were strong! Darren, Jenn, Pronobozo, and I all had drinks and played pool together. Jenn and I kicked the boys asses in pool, and the boys rickrolled the bar by playing Rick Astley on the jukebox. Eventually Nav, a new friend, showed up and I gave her some pointers on pool (so well, in fact, that she kicked my ass!). After some beers, a punch, and meeting some random TO’s, we went back to Ponzo’s for sleep, only to wake up with a hangover the next day.
I’ve never had such a bad hangover. I felt sick throughout the whole premiere, but I tried my best to hide it and ignore the pain, because I wanted to have fun!
Darren, Ponzo, and I got to the theatre, cut the line, and gave out some free schwag from Hak5. We also got some short clips of the fans for a (hopefully) segment on the show. I was able to chat up some of the Pure Pwnage crew and cast, as well as a TON of random forum members and totally awesome PP fans. Everyone was SOOO nice and welcoming!!!
The show was awesome. Linda Gallant sang a few songs, the cast was introduced, and we watched Ep. 16, 17, and 18. This time, the eps weren’t in black and white, and there was no delay. The episodes were very funny, and totally worth the trip. I played some Tetris and got pwned by someone in teh audience. Guess it just wasn’t my day! The only thing I forgot to do was go by the n00bstore and pick up some Pure Pwnage schwag to wear on Hak5.
After the show, the two boys and I went to Labrynth bar and food for some lunch/dinner before the afterparty. We grabbed our foodz and headed back to Pauper’s Pub, where the afterparty was said to start. The afterparty was insane and fun. I met up with so many old friends, and made a ton of new ones. We all drank and had a wonderful time. The guys from PlayerFIVE.com bought me a beer, and Geoff bought me a Caesar and a shot of something… On the taxi to Pauper’s Pub, I had lost my camera, so during the whole afterparty I took pix with Shorteh’s camera (thank you!) and asked others to snap TONs of photos so I could save them when I got home.
After the afterparty and a lovely dinner with some of the PP ppl, Darren and I headed to our hotel for the night…
Apparently a propane tank blew up that night but we didn’t hear or see a thing. It looked like a frackin Atomic Bomb though, from the videos I saw.
We joined Geoff and Myren on Sunday morning for a delicious breakfast at another new place called Over Easy. After breakfast and fun talks about exciting things happening with our different shows, Darren and I went to a game store called A&C Games. Just down the road on Spadina, I found a store that selled NOTHING BUT manga and anime merchandise! HOLY CRAP!!!!
I spent so much money at Anime Extreme. I found Sailor Moon posters, various keychains, a t-shirt, some Pocky, and a Mario yellow star plushie. I probably spent way too much at this store, but it was so worth it.
We met up with Pronobozo again at a bar called Sneaky Dee’s which is one of my favorites. Their caesar drinks are terrific and they always play good music! I wasn’t really feeling like a bar on Sunday night, so we went over to Evan’s to chill with him and Weiman. Weiman pwned me at tennis, then I pwned him at bowling on the Wii. Evan showed us Skrie’s mod that he’s been working on, and OMG I can’t wait til it’s done.
Darren and I left Evan’s place and headed back to the hotel… but we passed a pub called Hoops and decided to get a pint before bed.
On Monday, we woke up early to leave Toronto. I bought some Timbits from Tim Hortons (lol, Tim’s Bits), and we checked out a lighting store in Toronto, looking for new lights for Hak5. After not finding anything perfect for our show, we headed home.
We bought some syrup, Canadian candy, and Canadian beer at the Duty Free before leaving the country.
And I miss Toronto Canada already.
3 Aug