Burning the Toast
So how did Fullam end up
writing a book about hacking?
A few years ago, he was
approached by a friend of his
from grad school who was
working for O’Reilly. “And they
were looking to expand their
repertoire of books; push themselves in an area that they maybe
hadn’t approached before. My
associate, when he thought
about hardware hackers, mine was the
first name that popped into his head!
“We saw an open forum as far as
what we could do, and I just decided to
pick out some work and projects that I
had done before, even some new ones,
and look around in the community and
see what people had done that I
thought was interesting.” Fullam then
documented both those outside hacks,
as well as his own projects “to make
them readable, to make them understandable, and to make them work.”
O’Reilly’s art department added the
cherry on the cake with the book’s cover,
which features the classic black horn rim
Woody Allen glasses long associated
(rightly or wrongly) with computer geeks,
held together at the bridge with white
tape, on top of a set of schematics. The
book begins with a very ominous
disclaimer that releases O’Reilly from
any damages resultant from hacks
gone awry. But Fullam says if readers
follow the instructions carefully, they
aren’t likely to blow themselves up.
“They might burn their toast a little bit,
but that’s about it.” NV
and built close to 50 prototypes in two
years, including “Teen Talk Barbie.” He
then went to work at Apple Computer
in the Advanced Technology Group
designing digital still cameras. He
holds 15 patents, several of them for
his work in bringing some of the first
digital cameras to the marketplace.
Some of Fullam’s other patents
stem from his work with
PocketScience, which he co-founded in
1995. PocketScience (now called
PocketMail) develops mobile e-mail
communications products and services. As the chief technology officer,
Fullam personally developed all of the
algorithms for the company’s products.
Fullam now works as an
independent consultant assisting
consumer electronic companies. Not
surprisingly, he often takes his own
consumer electronics products apart
and tinkers with their features. In a
profile of Fullam, the San Jose
Mercury News described his garage
as resembling a “Hollywood movie-set version of a Silicon Valley garage,
bulging from floor to ceiling with
disemboweled gadgetry.”
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May 2007 61
