[1] The nickname "maddog" was given to him by his students at Hartford State Technical College, where he was the Department Head of Computer Science.

[7] He is the co-founder of Brazilian Internet of things and Single-board computer project called Caninos Loucos based on University of São Paulo.

[8][9][10] Hall has used his experience and name recognition to promote a variety of causes, generally involving open-source hardware or software in some fashion.

In 2011 Hall gave talks and served on the planning committee for the leadership track of POSSCON Archived 2023-08-21 at the Wayback Machine in Columbia South Carolina.

In June 2012, the day after Alan Turing's birthday, Hall published an article in Linux Magazine announcing that he is gay.