Rob Malda

• Blog: SlashDot
• Blog URL: http://www.slashdot.org/

Rob Malda is the creator of "slashdot.com", the blog whose self-descriptive logo says "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters."

Born in 1976, in Michigan, Rob got hooked on computers when he was in his teens, and he never looked back. He studied computer science in college, and, after graduating, worked for a while at installing software and fixing computers, learning as much as he could about Windows and personal computer hardware. A self-taught expert on the Internet and Linux, Rob began to design websites for businesses. He used all of these skills to put together "slashdot.com." He eventually sold the site, but continues to manage it.

Rob, who also goes by the name Cmdr. Taco, is married and lives with his wife, Kathleen, in Michigan.

In 1999, Jeff "Hemos" Bates joined Rob Malda in running "slashdot.com." He is currently vice president of editorial operations and executive editor of the site. He also works for the Open Source Development Network in Acton, MA.

Jeff was born in Holland, MI, and graduated from Hope College, with a degree in history. He is married and has two children.

Rob Malda at LinuxWorld Boston 2006

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Rob Malda (born May 10, 1976), also known as CmdrTaco, is the founder of the website Slashdot. He is a graduate of Hope College and Holland Christian High School.

His moniker originates in the Dave Barry book Claw Your Way to the Top: How to Become the Head of a Major Corporation in Roughly a Week (ISBN 0878576525). 'Commander Taco' is the final entry in a list of bad restaurants for business lunches.^[1]

In 1997 Rob Malda and Jeff Bates created Slashdot while undergraduates of Hope College.^[2] After running the site for two years "on a shoestring",^[3] they sold the site to Andover.net, which was later acquired by VA Linux Systems.^[4] Malda now runs the site out of the SourceForge, Inc. office in Dexter, MI.^[5]

Rob Malda also writes a monthly column for Computer Power User. His article is titled "The Department of Stuff" and has titles like adwords.txt and goodblog.txt. According to his magazine bio, "He spends his time fiddling with electronic gizmos, wandering the 'Net, watching anime, and trying to think of clever lies to put in his bio so that he seems cooler than he actually is." (CPU Magazine)

Malda is also infamous for his dismissive description of Apple Computer's then newly introduced iPod: "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."^[6]

On Valentine's Day of 2002, Malda proposed to Kathleen Fent using the front page of Slashdot and she accepted.^[7] They were married on December 8, 2002 in Las Vegas, Nevada.^[8] They currently have one child, Zachary, who was born in August, 2007.^[9][10]

References

1. ^ Where did the nicknames "CmdrTaco" and "Hemos" come from?, Slashdot, June 13, 2000.
2. ^ "Attack of the Blogs". Holland Sentinel. September 7, 2004. http://hollandsentinel.com/stories/090704/lif_090704042.shtml. 
3. ^ "Cmdrtaco on Slashdot Sale". Wired.com. June 29, 1999. http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1999/06/20483. 
4. ^ "VA Linux buys Andover.Net". news.com. February 3, 2000. http://www.news.com/2100-1001-236456.html. 
5. ^ "Slashdot Supremacy". spectrum.ieee.org. November 2007. http://spectrum.ieee.org/nov07/5639. 
6. ^ "Apple releases iPod". Slashdot. October 23 , 2001. http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/1816257&tid=107. Retrieved on 2007-11-23. 
7. ^ Kathleen Fent Read This Story
8. ^ "News from Hope College" (PDF). February 2003. http://www.hope.edu/pr/nfhc/archive/pdf/NFHC_Feb_03.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-11-23. 
9. ^ "Rob Malda Answers Your Questions". Slashdot. October 12, 2007. http://meta.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/1527219. Retrieved on 2007-11-23. 
10. ^ "The History of Slashdot Part 4 - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow". Slashdot. October 31 , 2007. http://meta.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/31/1631213. Retrieved on 2007-11-23. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rob Malda

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Rob Malda

• Personal homepage
• "Taco Hell"
• CmdrTaco's Slashdot.org profile page
• Marriage proposal Slashdot story
• Computer Power User Magazine Homepage
• CmdrTaco interview on the FLOSS Podcast
• CmdrTaco@Everything2.com CmdrTaco's Super Node Of Nuttiness

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