We’ve been fascinated by [Joe Grand] for years. His early talks at DEFCON, and extensive work designing badges for it, helped to put the conference on our radar. We’ve seen many pieces of hardware come from his company Grand Idea Studio over the years, and of course there was the television show Prototype This! which must have been way too awesome for some TV exec to allow it to continue.
We asked [Joe], who is a judge for The Hackaday Prize, a few a questions. He sent back the video response embedded below. He talks about what he’s doing these days, the hacker community in Boston, shows off some hardware he uses when teaching about security, and much more.
- 0:56 - Tell us what you’re doing in your professional life these days.
- He mentions his Laser Rangefinder, Speech Synthesis, RFID Reader/Writer
- 4:10 - You were a member of the early L0pht hacking group. What was that, and are you still in touch with people from that community?
- 7:30 - You teach people how to reverse engineer hardware at Blackhat and DEFCON. What is that process like?
- 10:44 - Your background with fast hacking (Prototype This!, conferences, etc.) make you perfect as a judge for The Hackaday Prize. What advice do you have to help contestants pull it together under deadline?
- 12:44 - We might go as far as calling you the grand master of conference badge designs. What is your process for developing a new badge?
- 18:10 - What’s your take on Open Design?
- 19:54 - How has the hardware scene in the Bay Area grown and changed since you’ve been living there?
- 23:03 - We love your JTAGulator (especially the name). Tell us why it’s the perfect tool for The Hackaday Prize?
- 25:00 - What can people do with their Hackaday Prize entries to impress you?
Filed under: Featured, Interviews, The Hackaday Prize
