Goodbye Hackaday, I’ll Miss You.

Farewell Hackaday, the time has come for me to move on. Don’t worry, hackaday will keep going, just like it did when [Eliot] moved on, and [Phil] before him.

I wrote my first post on July 9th, 2008. Since then I’ve had so much fun, and written a total of 1,552 posts (including this one). In my opinion, there is simply no other site like Hackaday.com, our readers are passionate and knowledgeable and it shows, even if some of you are incredibly rude to each other(that’s a sign of passion right?).

While some projects stand out in my mind, it is the people I have enjoyed the most. The people I met when I went to all the different hackerspaces, my co-writers[Mike Szczys] and[Brian Benchoff], past hackaday employees, our commenters,  and even my boss [Jason Calacanis].

If you want to find me, I’ll be at calebkraft.com or on facebook or G+. I have a twitter too, that I guess I’ll start using today.

Join me after the break just one more time while a take a trip down memory lane with a few of my favorite moments from the last few years.  Oh, and yes, I think saying “after the break” is stupid. What else do you say though?

I built some really fun things.

and some things I feel I can be proud of

This controller didn’t help [Thomas] that much, but it gave me the idea for Thecontrollerproject.com which I’m proud to say has already begun helping people.

I drove almost all the way across the country visiting hackerspaces.

map

I can’t describe how amazing this was for me. I met people from Arizona all the way to South Carolina. I saw hackerspaces that were 110 degrees inside and hackerspaces that were old masonic temples. The people I met were always enthusiastic, helpful and pleasant.

I jammed stuff up my nose for April fools

hackaday-kickstarter

I made this thing a long time ago and was waiting for a reason to do something ridiculous.  I thought it was a great chance to make fun of the kickstarter emails we get all the time. Yes, I did actually shove that thing into my nasal passage.The links actually went to my personal paypal account too.   I think I actually got about $3 in donations off that form!

I got tazed.

We thought maybe you guys would like some coverage of the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas back in January of 2010. Turns out we didn’t see a whole lot there that we thought you’d be interested in. I stepped up to the plate to take the blame and the punishment.

I had a bunch of other posts in mind, but as I started adding I couldn’t stop. Maybe I should just leave it here.

I’d like to thank the readers again. If it weren’t for your projects happening in your homes, businesses, and hackerspaces, this site wouldn’t exist. You guys are freaking awesome.

139 thoughts on “Goodbye Hackaday, I’ll Miss You.

  1. I know I hate on arduinos a lot, and I think the editors here suck for the most part because of the relentless arduloven’, It’s nothing personal though. Good luck and best wishes and thanks for getting kids hooked on the magic blue smoke and soldering iron burns! (yes, that was a compliment)

  2. Ah well, still got the other two. Caleb’s replacement’s going to have to be pretty good, dedicated, and energetic!

    Ta for all the work and for sharing all those brain-contents, Caleb. You’re a big chunk of why this is my favourite website (since Geek Site Of The Day closed down 15 years ago!). You might want to stay in science / tech journalism, you’re very good at it. Or maybe research, or teaching. Either way, make sure it’s in the high end and they pay you at least some small percentage of what you’re worth.

    1. Wouldn’t it be nice if Caleb and Jeri Ellsworth got married? And had teeny little part-cybernetic babies? They could spend the months of the pregnancy poring over circuit diagrams instead of stupid baby-name books. There’s so much to choose, do they couple the nerves inductively, or capactively? A custom low-latency Internet connection, or just a lot of buffering? Imagine being able to give your children modules for xmas. They could outsource their class assignments live to India, and have their assignments ready and printed by the end of class. Then home to debug ASICs with Mom. “The hydrofluoric acid’s where you LEFT it, how many times!?”

      Ahhh, dreams.

  3. Wow, where to start?

    HaD in general and your posts in particular have always been the go-to web site for me. Stuck for an idea, bored with work, or looking for coolness done by other hackers, HaD always delivered. I know HaD will continue on, and Mike and Brian (and others??) will continue with the first-rate posts, but it’s still tough to see you go.

    Best of luck in all you do, and thanks for all the good work!

  4. There comes a time when every man needs to move on, but it still sucks you are leaving. I’ll be keeping an eye out for ya, don’t disappear completely eh?

  5. gonna miss you, you’ve been a great admin for the site. on the site under the next owner, let’s hope the good stays good and some parts get better. i wish you luck in your future projects and and endeavors!

  6. So what happens to the 3D printer – is it being passed on to another member of the hack-a-day staff? As an aside, learning that this site is as profitable as it is leaves a bad taste really, when I recall you having the gall to ask for donations!

  7. HaD censoring comments again – so just what is happening to that 3D printer you acquired, is it being passed on to another member of staff? Surely if you have nothing to hide, there’s no reason to delete the comment?

  8. Ah that sucks! Going to miss you Caleb – your posts always made Hackaday for me, particularly the video on the worst movie hacks (guilty pleasure). Good luck with everything!

  9. I’ll miss you a lot. Your projects were a great source of inspiration for me, and you really encouraged me to keep hacking and building cool stuff. Thank you for all the great work you did and for the great posts. I really like hackaday, it’s an amazing site. I learned a lot here.

  10. Something has been said on the order of; the only thing that doesn’t change, is that change will take place. I’ll miss your hackerspace tours, what I probably not miss is seeing that ugly ass mannikin you have as a shop mascot. Hackaday & Hackaday fans will adapt. Hope whatever it was that precipitated your decision means better things for you & your family. With just 71 tweet it should be safe to assume you don’t abuse twitter, I just followed you to see what new projects you create Best of everything…

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