Linux.com
Everything Linux and Open Source
An interview with ToorCon founder David "h1kari" Hulton (video)
By: Joe Barr
When I attended my first ToorCon this month, I spoke with David "h1kari" Hulton, founder and chairman of the event, to learn more about its history and intent.
Among other things, I learned that his nick "h1kari" is not l33t-sp34k for hickory, as I first thought, but rather for a Japanese word meaning "divine light." I also learned that he and a friend started the San Diego 2600 group when they were 14, and ToorCon followed a year later.
Hulton proved to be a soft-spoken, sometimes humorous, sometimes serious, always articulate spokesman for the event. In the opening keynote, Beetle referred to how easy ToorCon made it seem to organize a hacker conference. I think I saw a lot of the reason for that in this interview, conducted on Saturday afternoon, the first full day of the con, just after the afternoon talks had gotten underway.
Play a Flash version of the video by clicking on the image below to learn more about how a couple of 15-year-olds started what has become one of most respected hacker cons, or click here for Ogg Theora format.