Jack Gangi

jackgangi.me

If you're going to skate on thin ice, you may as well dance.

I’m a hacker who’s also an independent publisher and self-hosting advocate. I run The Grist, an independent publication covering technology, civil liberties, and the systems that shape everyday life. My other projects include stickertop.art, a gallery of sticker-covered laptops from across the internet, along with zinedrop.com, a zine discovery directory and dontboo.vote, a civic information dashboard. All of it runs on my own hardware. I speak about resisting centralized control and rebuilding community at various hacker conferences. Decades in hacker and counterculture communities have taught me that the best technology is built to connect, not consume.

/Now Page

{This is a NOW page, inspired by Derek Sivers’ Now Page Movement.]

What I'm doing now - summer 2026

Got the 3d printer working again, printed out a much-needed case for my metastatic node.
I moved my Batocera install to a legit desktop machine. I'm currently converting a Wii controller into a light gun.
This year's talk for the HOPE conference got accepted. So I SHOULD be working on that.
Revamped dontboo.vote. it was originally put together to counter the SAVE act. Now it has a more general purpose.

Reading

Notes from The Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture
Stapled Before Sunrise
Girl Zines Making Media, Doing Feminism

(extra research for the HOPE talk)

A bunch of us went to the Finger Lakes for a week. I marked my post-surgery healing with a hike of the 16 waterfalls at Watkins State Park. I accidentally dropped my water bottle down waterfall number 6.