Dave Altavilla

With a current 18 year career in the Semiconductor industry, Dave Altavilla started HotHardware.com almost a decade ago on a vision from the inside looking out but with a passion for the wonders of system-level developments and performance that culminate into the next generation products of tomorrow.  Cultivated with the sweat-equity of time spent in the engineering backrooms and offices of Chief Architects at Wall Street bellwethers like Motorola, Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent and Nortel, Dave's insight into the design and manufacturing of leading-edge technologies, brings a laser-sharp understanding of what it takes to deliver a best-of-class product to market.  Dave currently handles final editorial responsibilities of HotHardware's content, along with the site's creative vision and business development efforts.   In addition to product launch articles at HH for major OEMs, Dave is also a published author in technology-based print publications and is featured as a guest on the PC Chat radio show along with Marco.  In his spare time Dave likes to spend time by the ocean with his young family or friends and keep mind-body fit via Korean Tae Kwon Do style martial arts.

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 some 25 years ago, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for the last 9 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on the PC Chat radio show.

Jeff Bouton

Jeff joined the HotHardware team in the Fall of 2000. He started back in the late 90's at IBM and moved to a technical support and quality assurance testing firm in Westchester County, NY. In 2004, Jeff and his wife migrated south to the Research Triangle Park region of North Carolina, where he continues his career managing a support staff while also contributing regularly to HotHardware. Jeff's interests range from the latest first person shooter or flight simulator, to increasing the size of his ever growing MP3 collection (legally), which is approaching 80GB. When not doing the tech thing, Jeff likes to tackle yard projects, restore aging furniture, or break out the table saw to build something from scratch. When all else fails, Jeff likes to kick back with a Yuengling or Sam Adams and catch the latest UFC, watch the magic of The Chrome Shop Mafia, or root for the NY Giants ' as he will always be a Yankee to the core.

Rob Maloney

While still in college, Robert had his first encounter with his roommate's IBM PC, and right then and there switched over to majoring in Computer Science. After reading a DOS 5.0 manual from cover to cover, Robert quickly moved on to installing software and hardware for family and friends. After graduation, he worked in short stints as a PC consultant, software representative, and software / hardware retailer, before finally settling in as a technical support analyst for publishing companies such as Houghton Mifflin, culminating in a trip to Oxford University in England in 2002. Switching gears, he moved up the ranks to becoming a supervisor for a quality assurance firm in Westchester County, NY, where he oversaw the production of professional medical and educational software. Currently, he serves as the QC Manager of a major financial software company, dealing with clients as large as Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, and Smith Barney.

Daniel A. Begun

Daniel has been a computer hobbyist since his early teenage years, when he saved up his allowance and dog walking earnings to buy his first computer, an Atari 800 with 8K of memory. (He saved some more and splurged it on a memory upgrade to bring the system up to a whopping 48K!) Daniel whiled away many hours playing Star Raiders, learning how to program in BASIC, and saving programs onto the temperamental cassette drive. Having been bitten by the computer bug, there was no going back and he eventually graduated to an Amiga, made the transition to the x86 Windows world, and eventually switched to an iMac, which he proudly uses as his primary computer today. Other than what he taught himself, Daniel had no formal computer training (he majored in film in college--go figure!). Rather, he learned on the job performing a myriad of editorial and technical tasks at PC Magazine, Computer Shopper magazine, ZDNet, and CNET. Daniel eventually became the Labs Director for CNET Labs where he was in charge of CNET Reviews' product testing. Daniel is currently a full-time writer, editor, and technology consultant. When he's not playing with or writing about technology, Daniel can be found spending time with his family (he's a new dad) or riding his bicycle (he's an avid cyclist).

Michael Lin

A resident of the great Canadian north, Michael is one of the newer members of the team, however, he is an old face here at HotHardware, having been a forum member since 2002. Michael has a half a decade of experience in the IT industry in positions ranging from service technician to systems administrator. He is a certified computer technician and is currently pursuing a computer engineering degree at the University of Toronto. His obsession with computers has expanded over the years to include just about anything that manipulates electricity, although computer equipment, mobile embedded devices, and home theater equipment hold special places in his heart. Michael hasn't had spare time in years, but when he used to, he enjoyed experimenting with graphics design, playing guitar, tasting beer from around the world, competing in national paintball leagues and spamming the HotHardware forum.

Shane Unrein

Shane has been a technology journalist for the better part of a decade. When covering tech, he likes to focus on reality - the real benefits to the average user - and not the marketing hype. Though that may sound a bit trite, recall that as a member of team HotHardware, he's tasked with helping folks make sound and informed buying decisions. During the day, he spends his time as a Systems Design and Integration Specialist at a company that builds huge parts for large airplanes. He has a degree in Management Information Systems and is considered an IT jack-of-all-trades."

Gregory Sullivan

Gregory is a writer and artistan who lives in Southcoast Massachusetts.  He began his tech career as test technician for guidance systems for nuclear submarines, jet planes, missiles and torpedoes. His intense hatred of computers began in 1980 running a Data General refrigerator in RDOS with reel to reel back-up tapes and a porthole sized terminal. He left the corporate life for twenty years, and when he returned, 2500 miles away from the last cubicle job, they sat him at a desk with AS-400 running on a porthole size terminal. He quit and started his own website. Just to work in a multicolor GUI.   Greg is married and has two children.  Hobbies: He's a great big adult. Adults don't have hobbies. Adults have vices. He's got all the good ones. If you play Madden Football on anything other than the All Madden setting don't bother him.

See his furniture at SippicanCottageFurniture.com and read his daily entries about architecture, small business, and music at his blog at: SippicanCottage.blogspot.com.  He is also a successful comedian. Go look at the html source code on his FrontPage edited website if you need a laugh.

Michael Santo

Michael has been working in the tech industry for over 25 years.  He was the chief architect of one of the first spreadsheets,  No, not the one you're thinking of, or that other one, either.  But he did rewrite the recomputation and memory management code, as well as added the first tabbed interface to a spreadsheet.  Currently he still works in tech, though in the mobile industry.  He also writes for a variety of on-line publications, but of course HotHardware is his favorite.

Michael also has two blogs, one a tech blog and one a blog about general SNAFUs in the world - whether politicians, celebrities, or just plain folks that have SNAFU-ed themselves. Get mad and amused at SNAFU-ed.Blogspot.com.