Rob O'Hara

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Rob O’Hara (born August 22, 1973) is an American author, blogger, and podcaster from Oklahoma. He writes about technology, games, and pop culture and has published several books and hosted multiple podcasts.

Books
- Commodork: Sordid Tales from a BBS Junkie (2006) — a memoir about his time with BBS systems. It was praised by Jason Scott and Brett Weiss.
- Invading Spaces: A Beginner’s Guide to Collecting Arcade Games (2008) — a guide for people new to collecting arcade games.
- The Human Library (2018) — his first full-length fiction novel, written as his Master of Professional Writing project at the University of Oklahoma; it has a high rating on Amazon.

Articles and writing
- Started with music, movie, and video game reviews on sites like Review to a Kill and Review-o-Matic.
- Wrote DVD reviews for IGN in 2000 and later moved into fiction writing.

Podcasts
- You Don’t Know Flack (began 2008) — a retro-themed podcast with high ratings.
- Co-founded Throwback Network in 2013 with Sean Johnson; the network hosts many retro podcasts.
- Current podcasts include You Don’t Know Flack, Sprite Castle, Cactus Flack’s, Multiple Sadness, and Throwback Reviews.
- Former podcasts include No Quarter and Rusted Metal.

Presentations
- An expert on Commodore computers, vintage video games, arcade collecting, and self-publishing.
- Has spoken at Def Con (2007), Notacon (2009), and the Oklahoma Electronic Gaming Expo (2009).

Software
- Created freeware tools: GP32 Renamer, ShadowPrint, Batch-O-Matic, and eCoder Ring.
- eCoder Ring featured a crack-the-code challenge and drew attention from the era’s interest in cryptography; the code remains unbroken.

Personal life
- Lives in Yukon, Oklahoma, with his wife and two children, and a large collection of vintage electronics. He also blogs about his Star Wars collection and runs a home arcade with about 30 cabinets.

Work
- Works for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in various IT roles, including helpdesk, LAN administration, network engineering, and IT security.

Education
- Yukon High School graduate (1991).
- Redlands Community College — edited the student newspaper and yearbook (1991–1993).
- Oklahoma City Community College — AA in Journalism (2001).
- Southern Nazarene University — BS in Organizational Leadership (2005).
- Master of Professional Writing from the University of Oklahoma.