Fox Van Allen

Front page of Yahoo!, May 7, 2012

If you’re a regular reader of the Yahoo! Technology section — or really, of Yahoo! in general — then you may have noticed something exciting lately. An increasing number of posts have been authored by one Fox Van Allen.

Most recently, my column “4 high-tech ways the federal government is spying on private citizens” was promoted to the main carousel of the Yahoo! front page, helping it to garner an eye-popping 4,081 comments (and counting). And it’s not just Yahoo! that’s syndicating Fox Van Allen content: It’s appeared on USA Today and MSNBC, as well.

USA Today: ‘Supermoon’ coming this Saturday
MSNBC: Aquatic stunt: Frickin’ sharks with frickin’ laser beams

My dad is really, really proud, y’all.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for a social media experiment. In one month — May 25, tenatively — I’ll be moving from Boston to Los Angeles. That 3,000 mile road trip is an epic journey in and of itself. But I want to make it more epic. I want to take you with me.

Now sadly, my 2005 Honda Civic is only a five-seater at best, so I can’t take you along in a literal sense. But I will be live blogging the whole trip both here and on Twitter (@Foxvanallen). To keep it interesting, I’m going to stop at some of the more unusual places America has to offer. But which ones? Well, that’s up to you.

Here’s how the experiment will work. From now until May 20, I’ll be taking your suggestions as to places you want me to visit. Anything is fair game. Want me to stop by the World’s Largest Ball of Twine? Done. Have a drink at the best bar in Austin? Why not? Meet up with you and shake your hand under the St. Louis Arch? If you insist. Take a zip line off  America’s highest suspension bridge? Why do you hate me? But no matter — from casual stops to intense challenges, nothing is off limits.

Once the suggestions have all been submitted, I’ll draw out the tentative route. Now obviously, I can’t visit all the suggested places — there’s a 10-day time constraint on the trip, and I can’t do anything that costs a ridiculous amount of money (I’m living off a blogger’s salary here). But I will map out the route that contains the most interesting suggestions, and use that as my guide. Along the way, I’ll be tweeting, recording short videos, and blogging about my adventure. And I’ll even be taking your real time suggestions as to places to eat lunch, places to visit, and deviations from the planned path. I’ll do my best to make it as if you’re right there with me, even though you’ll be sitting behind your computer screen thousands of miles away.

This is probably not the first fully interactive road trip, but this may very well be the most awesome. To suggest a place to visit, simply tweet at me or reply to this blog posting below. So, what do you think, folks? Are you in?

[Image credit: Tomoryd]

I’ve been hard at work writing for general tech news site Tecca (much of which gets syndicated to Yahoo!). My most recent column there is titled 4 high-tech ways the government is spying on private citizens, and to be honest, a lot of stuff in there is incredibly terrifying from a privacy standpoint. Did you know the federal government is building a multi-billion dollar facility in Utah to break your encryption and check all your private emails for potential terrorist activity? Did you know the government is considering a law that would require your internet service provider to keep constant tabs on what sites you visit? Did you know the government is contracting to build a system capable of sifting through tweets and Facebook messages?

It was just over 10 years ago that President Bush and a bi-partisan group of legislators forced the Patriot Act on the American people, and about six years ago that provisions of the Patriot Act were made permanent law. Supposedly, the law makes us safer. I’m just glad to have a job that offers me the ability to publicly ask, “at what cost?”

Can’t get enough Fox Van Allen? Want to expand your stalking beyond still pictures and into the realm of live-action video? Well, good news.

On my most recent trip to Los Angeles, I got a chance to meet up with WoW celebrity and horror movie actress Michele Morrow (Basement Jack, The Young and the Restless). We did what any two adults would do with a free day in Hollywood — we went to a taping of The Price is Right. If you want to learn more, Michele and I recorded a live blog (above). Enjoy.

It’s pretty unusual for me to post with this kind of frequency, but it’s just that kind of day. PC Gamer picked up my article this week about The Mogfather, @DEAzeroth. Wired UK picked it up too.

And why wouldn’t they pick it up? It’s an absolutely phenomenal interview. You should read it. You should also follow @DEAzeroth on Twitter, cause, you know … he’s awesome.

*salute*

http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/23/the-man-who-gave-away-1-000-000-gold/