Brian Sawyer

Blogging Hacks

I post to my personal blog on my own time. But over the past few months, I’ve also been blogging away quietly on company time. I’ve been building up posts at Hackszine, in anticipation of the site’s formal launch (still to come). As I mention in today’s welcome post, this blog is the new online counterpart to O’Reilly Media’s Hacks series of books, for which I’m lead editor:

We’ve developed this site to promote the philosophy of Hacks as a way to gain control of the devices and systems in our lives. To hack something is to make it work the way it should — for you. This site will bring you the best hacks we uncover in the wilds of the Internet, while at the same time delivering fresh, original content developed by our pool of Hacks authors and contributors.

To give you an idea of what Hacks is all about, here are a few early posts about the series itself:

• How to Write a Hack for O’Reilly
• Foreword to Wireless Hacks, Second Edition
• Foreword to Greasemonkey Hacks

And here’s a sprinkling of what I’ve been writing, on a variety of topics:

• 10 Government Hacks
• Auto-Correct Typos in Your Address Bar
• Personalize Your Flickr Replies
• Resize Photos with Flickr
• Chart Your Route with Virtual Pedometers
• Build a Fire with a Coke Can and Chocolate Bar
• Make Shorter iTunes Podcast Links
• YouTube Kaleidoscope
• See Better with Pinhole Eyes
• Syntax Hacks
• Traveling Toy Safety Net
• Babyproof a Banister Without Breaking the Bank

As you may have already guessed, my Map Your Books post from earlier today was originally written for Hackszine. I don’t plan on doing much double-posting across the sites, but I wanted to at least sprinkle a little of that flavor over here, to show you what I’m up to over there, with a post about a topic (books) I often address here (though, lately) not as often as I’d like).

Let me know what you think. I’m quite excited about this new part of my job and hope some readers of this avocational blog will follow me over on my vocational site.