We’re back at CES 2012 for another year of awesome tech and new gadgets. What do you want to see? We’ll be covering the show floor from Monday through Friday to being you the most up to date content on what you like most. Be on the lookout for TONS of segments, which will be airing at the Revision3 CES 2012 stream.

Darren Kitchen and I will be co-hosting a LIVE show on Wednesday afternoon at 3PM (Vegas time, baby!). It’ll be airing LIVE at the Revision3 Youtube, so make sure to watch!!

Also, if you are in the Las Vegas area, we will be having a Revision3 meetup on Thursday night. Come over to the El Diablo Cantina at the Monte Carlo Hotel at 7PM for a meet and greet. We hope to see you there!

Shannon Morse hosts Hak5 on Revision3 and she co-hosts the audio podcast Bite Club Show. You can find her guest hosting various other internet shows now and then. When not geeking out with work, Shannon enjoys video games, anime, manga, traveling, building computers, and spending time with family and friends. Find more info about Shannon here.

This past year was full of surprises, and many of the accomplishments we made are because of you, our viewers! February 15th will mark my first year living in the Bay Area, working fulltime with Hak5. Do I regret the move? Not one bit!

Since our full team has moved here, we’ve been able to spend more time working on the things that matter most. I’ve been able to spend more time developing content and less time figuring out where to record. We’ve created a web store and added several new items this year. We’ve been able to spend more time helping customers and less time doing paperwork.

And it’s all because we have viewers like you! So thank you for being such devoted fans of Hak5 and keeping our show on the net. You’ve been with us through the hard times and the high times, and I have a feeling 2012 will bring tons of great content!

We are already booked for CES 2012 and Shmoocon in Washington DC. We will have a HakShop table at your favorite hacker cons of 2012 and we’ll have plenty of new gadgets in store. We’re always looking for ways to improve the show but keep that home-grown feel from our early days, and your feedback gives us plenty of ideas. So keep it coming!

Here’s to a Happy New Year and plenty to look forward to! Happy 2012, Season’s Greetings, and Merry Christmas!!

Shannon Morse hosts Hak5 on Revision3 and she co-hosts the audio podcast Bite Club Show. You can find her guest hosting various other internet shows now and then. When not geeking out with work, Shannon enjoys video games, anime, manga, traveling, building computers, and spending time with family and friends. Find more info about Shannon here.

I enjoy watching Hak5 and HakTip, as much as the next geek. However, I am also lucky enough to be able to call the Hak crew my close friends. Seeing them make their shows, rather than just watching the end product, is both fun and inspiring. I wanted to share some of that world with you guys.

Look at the top of this page. You see the characters up there in the banner? One of them is Paul Tobias. He shoots and edits the shows. You will see him lurking around occasionally, but you dont get to see how produces Hak5 and HakTip, almost singlehandedly.

I figured that I would point my camera him for a few minutes and try to capture how he does his work.

Pay particular attention to how much he is able to shoot and accomplish, with only a crew of one, and for very little money. Notice the VESA monitor arms used for camera mounts, the iPad teleprompter, and little screens under cameras so that Darren and Shannon can try and take care of their own shot framing.

Enjoy paying attention to the man behind the curtain.

Hak5 is packed and ready for Def Con 2011! This year, Darren, Paul, and I will be in Las Vegas all weekend- from Wednesday night through Sunday- compiling a delightful Hak5 episode for you to enjoy. We hope to get some good coverage and photos, so show off your Hak5 tshirt! If you see us, make sure to stop by and say hello!

This Def Con also marks Hak5′s first on location vendor table. Make sure to stop by the vendor area and pick up some swag! We will have Wifi Pineapple V 2′s, Ubertooth One’s, Ninja Star’s, and some other odds and ends. We’ll be accepting cash and credit card.

Since the store is going to be on site at Def Con, shipments will be delayed for this week until Monday, August 8th.

DEF CON is one of the oldest continuous running hacker conventions around, and also one of the largest. DEF CON is generally in the last week of July or first week of August in Las Vegas. DEF CON 19 will be held August 4 – August 7 at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Many people arrive a day early, and many stay a day later.

Shannon Morse is a co-host of Hak5 on Revision3 and she is on the audio podcast Bite Club Show. You can also find her guest hosting various other internet shows now and then. When not geeking out with work, Shannon enjoys video games, anime, manga, traveling, building computers, and spending time with family and friends. Find more info about Shannon here.

If you’ve ever been to Comic Con, you’ll probably already know exactly what I’m about to say. WHOA! Crazy! This year, 2011, marked my very first Comic Con. I’ve been to many anime conventions, tech expos, and geek cons in the past, but nothing compares to the San Diego Comic Con. If you haven’t been to it yet, this convention that takes place in San Diego every summer, brings together the best in comics, sci-fi, fantasy, games, anime, tv, and movies. This year was quoted at about 125,000 attendees. The con-goers were able to meet their favorite actors and artists, find rare collectibles on the show floor, dress up in cosplay, and watch some great panels on their favorite topics.

I went to Comic Con for my other podcast, Bite Club Show, an audio podcast for anyone who likes vampires, werewolves, zombies, and wine. Over the course of the weekend I got to explore some very new territory.

When I first arrived at Comic Con on my first Virgin America flight, (which was awesome, by the way!) it was way too late to do much other than pass out in my hotel room. Thursday morning, I joined my friend Eileen to get our badges and get in line for Hall H, the largest room reserved for movies and television show panels. After getting my press badge and Comic Con bag (I totally social engineered someone into trading with me so I could get the Batman Arkham City bag), we met in line and stood for only an hour to

get into the Twilight Breaking Dawn panel. The panel wasn’t as exciting as what I was expecting. There weren’t that many screaming teenagers when the three main characters walked on stage. The actors got a chance to answer some viewer questions and we saw some footage from the new movie.

After the panel, we escaped and I found my way to the exhibitor room. I was able to get my hands on a rare Tokidoki vinyl figure, some other odds and ends from exhibitors, Simone Legno’s autograph (Tokidoki creator), and I met Richard Hatch (Apollo and Tom Zarek from BSG). I met up with the girls from Bite Club Show afterwards for the Live Diggnation show at the House of Blues. The show seemed a little mellow to me, but perhaps it is because of my sore feet and upset stomach from eating candy all day.

Friday consisted of Ballroom 20. That’s it. We stood in line for 2 1/2 hours to get into Ballroom 20, where we watched 6 panels: Torchwood: Miracle Day, Walking Dead, Big Bang Theory, Eureka, Warehouse 13, and True Blood. All of the panels were fun to watch, although I will admit I don’t watch all of those shows. Eileen, Stephanie, and I specifically wanted to see True Blood, so we sat in Ballroom 20 for almost 8 hours with almost nothing to eat. By the time the True Blood cast entered the stage, we were 9 rows back and got some great photos and memories! Although we were sitting in a room all day, it was still exhausting. We dragged our feet to dinner later that night at a nice little Italian place in the Gaslamp district, had some wine and food, then went to a couple of bars for drinks.

I left on Saturday night, after a fun day of picking up swag, checking out the exhibit hall once more, and watching a few more panels. I wanted to see the Vampire Diaries panel, so we went back to Ballroom 20 for that. Surprisingly, we were only in line for 2 hours and we got in! Eileen wanted to stay to watch the Fringe panel. Feeling lazy from the convention, Stephanie and I stuck around to watch as well, although we had no clue what they were talking about!

So all in all I learned some important things from my weekend away, some of which Stephanie also mentions on her page:

1. Bring comfy stuff. Good walking shoes, pants, and shirts. You probably wouldn’t need a jacket. Check the weather before coming.
2. Portability. Bring a decent bag. The Comic Con bag makes a cool keepsake for dirty laundry or to take toys home, but it’s way too big for the convention center, and too tall for my short legs.
3. Please, for the love of whomever you worship, bring soap and deodorant. Strange wafts of smelly armpits is really gross at conventions.
4. Food. Con food is expensive. A 20 oz soda cost $4.00 USD in the con center. Save some money and put it towards a sandwich and a good breakfast. Bring tons of water and keep the candy to a minimum. Your body will thank you! And if you are in a hurry to get from one side of the hall to another during peak lunch hours, you’ll stay a happy camper because you can be on the move and eating at the same time.
5. If you get a good seat, keep it. Ballrooms and Halls fill up fast. Get in line SUPER early and be ready to spend a few hours there. If you want to see one panel at 11 and another at 5pm, you better plan on staying in that room all day.
6. If you don’t have a good seat, ninja one! After every panel, Eileen, Stephanie, or I immediately got up and swooped in on the first 3 seats we could find. By the end of the day Friday we were in the 9th row. We started around 100 back. Comic Con does not empty halls between each panel.
7. Bathroom tickets. It’s kind of like leaving class with a hall pass. You have to leave out a specific door, get a ticket, and come back during that same panel with your ticket. Or else you’re screwed.
8. Some panels give out free swag. If you want to get swag for your favorite shows, stick around during the panel and they’ll give out a ticket. Take the ticket to the fulfillment room and you get something. It can be something awesome (HBO gave out bags for True Blood and Game of Thrones) or crappy (a luggage tag from Fringe). If you like the show, it’s worth it. If you don’t, give your ticket to someone that wants it. Save yourself the walk.
9. Time yourself and plan ahead! You can’t do everything. I had to miss out on a few panels and autograph signings. I regret I didn’t get to spend as much time in the exhibit hall as I wanted to. I could spend a whole day in there.
10. Treat your body well. Get a good night of rest. Don’t party all night and get trashed. You’ll regret it the next day!

Will I go back? Definitely. But next year, I want to cosplay.

You can check out all of my Comic Con 2011 photos at my facebook profile!

Shannon Morse is a co-host of Hak5 on Revision3 and she is on the audio podcast Bite Club Show. You can also find her guest hosting various other internet shows now and then. When not geeking out with work, Shannon enjoys video games, anime, manga, traveling, building computers, and spending time with family and friends. Find more info about Shannon here.

Guess who is at E3 today and tomorrow? Mr. Darren Kitchen and Mr. Paul Tobias! While I’m back in the Bay Area holding down the fort and taking care of the HakShop, Darren and Paul are covering E3 from the show floor.
So if you’re at E3, make sure to say hi! You can probably find Mr. Kitchen somewhere near Lego games, Super Mario, or Hello Kitty. And Paul is probably either rocking out with music games, giving plenty of headshots in the newest FPS, or filming Darren talking to Hello Kitty.

If they inform me of any meetups to be had, I’ll be sure to post it here.

E3 Expo is the world’s premier trade show for computer and video games and related products.
The show is owned by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the U.S. association dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of the companies, publishing interactive games for video game consoles, handheld devices, personal computers, and the Internet.

Shannon Morse is a co-host of Hak5 on Revision3 and she is on the audio podcast Bite Club Show. You can also find her guest hosting various other internet shows now and then. When not geeking out with work, Shannon enjoys video games, anime, manga, traveling, building computers, and spending time with family and friends. Find more info about Shannon here.

Join the Hak5 crew as we celebrate our Bay Area arrival and the beginning of season 9!

LIVE PERFORMANCES from Nerdcore sensations Dual Core and Dale Chase

Saturday April 2nd at 7:00pm

The Hotsy Totsy Club
601 San Pablo Ave
Albany, CA 94706

Ring in the ninth season with cocktails, nerdcore and technolust!

21 and up. Bring your friends

RSVP at Facebook

Darren Kitchen, hacker and host of tech show Hak5, says why hacking isn’t the same thing as cyber crime. Jorge Ribas sits down with him to find out the difference.

Read on to watch the video.

Hak5 will be LIVE at Virginia Tech this Saturday, November 7th. Join us at 7:00 PM for the best of networking, hacking and homebrew and Q&A. We’ll be in Torgersen 2150 on the Virginia Tech campus in Blackburg, VA. Then later at 9:00 we’ll be for the first time experiencing Bar Golf, a VT tradition that we would love to see you at. So lock down your firewalls and get ready for some Technolust as Hak5 begins the campus invasion. See you there!

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Today I am pleased to announce Hak5 Labs, an effort to open source the show. Over the next few weeks we will be holding Hak5 Labs meetings with the goal of crowdsourcing content, open development of large projects and group discussions on every aspect of Hak5 the show and the community.

The first meeting will be held on Monday, September 28th at 8:00 PM Eastern Time (-5 GMT) in our Dimdim meeting room.

We’ll be broadcasting live via Dimdim, sharing segment ideas, answering questions and developing killer new projects.

We encourage you to join us for this first of many future Hak5 Lab events.

See you there!

See this post on the forums.

Has it really been 4 years? It seems like just yesterday I was pondering what it would take to put together a podcast. Would the built in mic on my mini-DV cam suffice, or should I spend some money on a camera with a mic-in jack and some lavs. I don’t want to spend a lot though, it is just a podcast ya know?

Little did I know… Four years, tens of thousands in equipment, two mortgages, 10 terabytes of footage and 10 or so million downloads later Hak5 is kickin’ stronger than ever — doing what we love when we’re not slaving 9-5.

This is a thank you to the fans and freaks who’ve supported us over the years. To everyone who has shook our hand at a hacker con, tipped a frosty one with us, bought a t-shirt, emailed, posted in the forums, retweeted and downloaded.

And lets not forget everyone who’s sailed the USS Technolust, past and present. You are all insane for sacrificing your weekends to research, write and perform into the wee hours of the night.

And Revision3, you’ve made us a better podcast. We’ve done more shows in the past year than the three before it combined. What a thrill teaming up with the 1st name in Internet television.

So to everyone, stay cool. Stay subscribed, and stay tuned for a nerdcore montage next week followed by the premiere of Season 6 on August 19th.

And if you’re in the area and want to meetup on August 15th at Busch Gardens Williamsburg we’d love to have ya. Check out the details.

Here’s to four more fantastic years of Hak5!

–Darren