Hak5 is a weekly "home-grown" video podcast about computers, technology and hacking produced by the Hak5 crew and distributed by Revision3. The show and it's hosts have been cited as experts by the NY Times.[1][2]Shows typically last 35 minutes to an hour and combine information, do-it-yourself projects and special guests, served up with wry humor and notable spoofs on technology. Cast members have also appeared on other more well known and mainstream shows such as Call For Help, Torrent, and Computer America.[3] The Hak5 logo appeared alongside CommandN and This Week In Tech in an issue of the “Adventures of Superman” (Issue #648).[4] Hak5 has also been featured by Wired Magazine (Issue #14.05, pg 128, May 2006) as must-see IPTV ubergeeks.[5] On August 14, 2008 Darren Kitchen, Hak5 co-host announced in IRC that Revision3 has agreed to be a distribution, business, and promotion partner. Hak5 retains all rights, focusing primarily on weekly "Technolust" and the next best hack.
The show was created in 2005 by the co-hosts Darren Kitchen and Wess Tobler in a small homemade studio in Williamsburg, Virginia. Other production members included Paul "the camera guy" Tobias and Alanna (Alli) Buehring, who airs segments including monthly trivia, questions, and polls, which are now handled by Shannon Morse. The show is known for its high production quality and independence from a studio or channel sponsor.
Contributors to the show have included Amber MacArthur, Leo Laporte, Frank Linhares, Mike Lazazzera, Kevin Mitnick, and Jenn Cutter among others.[6] The shows theme and music score is composed by Ashley Witt[7] with additional music and graphics by Pronobozo.[8] The show is primarily produced by a core of local friends who are the recurring guests.
Darren Kitchen – gained his interest in photography and film at the age of nine when he began shooting stop-motion movies with Lego and a VHScamcorder. From there, his interest in film production grew, and he devoted more of his time to working behind the camera. He started programming computers at the age of ten in QBasic, and branched out to his now favorite language, PHP. It is revealed in Episode 3 of Season 1 that he has a cat named "Kerby".
Shannon Morse a.k.a. "Snubs" – Currently a co-host of hak5. She announces this month's LAN game, the Hak5 sponsors, and usually the trivia winners and the weekly hak5 contest. She also frequently does segments such as "How to get into Windows with Kon-Boot" or "Installing homebrew on the Wii". Her website Snubsie often has the latest updates on her personal life and the newest hak5 episode.
Paul Tobias is an associate producer and technical researcher back stage and in the labs at Hak5. Tobias often hosts Linux and Macintosh related segments and can be seen running the broadcast console during live shows.
Jason Appelbaum - Currently a co-host of hak5. The coder of the group.
Matt Lestock – joined Hak5 in August 2007 after six years of hosting an internet adult talk show[9] (which he hopes to continue), and was a co-host.[10] He did many tech segments such as virtualization and how to build White Box server for under $2000. He has posted a post on his blog about his leaving. Matt is currently working on a new tech TV show called The New Tech[11]. The new show will be more aimed at the influence of technology on average life.
Wess Tobler – generally hosts segments with hardware hacks and modifications. Tobler may be better known for being the creator of Evil Server or for his repeated faux physical assaults on Darren. Since a lot of Wess' projects involve LEDs, this has become his running joke: Wess is often called Led-man or gets suggested to add LEDs to practically anything, from a toaster to various body parts and more. On the August 14, 2008, Tobler announced that he had resigned from the show through his blog hosted on Vox.[12] He states that the reasons for this were "difference of opinions and other personal differences" with other cast members, alongside a lack of "time and mentality" to do the show. There was no relationship between Wess resigning and Hak5 signing with Revision3. Wess is also signed on to be a main contributor on the new tech TV show called The New Tech[13].
Alanna Buehring – met co-hosts Darren and Wess while in high school. She has since held a number of roles in theater production and other related tasks. Since the inception of Hak5, she has brought many of these skills (L) to the monthly production. During each episode, Alli handles the monthly trivia and poll and is often a key player in the humorous sketches throughout the show.
Amber MacArthur – Amber showed up in episode #106. She co-hosted Call for Help with Leo Laporte, and currently works at CP24 as a new media specialist.
Kevin Mitnick – Kevin is a well known convicted cracker who appears in episode #107.
Dana Hanna – The self titled Software Jedi appears in episode #203.
Originally the name was a working title, meaning “Not a full hack, more like a half-assed hack." -- Darren. During their pilot production Wess referred to the show as Hak5 and unwilling to reshoot the take, they let the working title name stand. When spoken the show name is often abbreviated to "Hak5". "There's no point in Hak5," the cast frequently remark.[15]
A frequent joke on Hak5 is that Darren gets injured in every episode, which is seeming more and more accurate. In episode 2x02 (aired September 5, 2006), while trying to punch (in jest) co-host Wess Tobler, Darren hit the edge of a piece of sheet metal, slicing through one of his fingers, including severe tendon damage. On September 12, 2006, he underwent surgery to repair his finger (and later "hacked" it by installing LEDs in the bandaging). In other episodes, Darren has also managed to be hit in the tooth with a laptop, dislocate his knee (due to a previous injury) and has been hit by Wess on more than one occasion. It has recently revealed that Darren has also cut his wrists on an Apple MacBook.
