Are there any good hacker mentors out there?
TallGuyShort: Maybe I'm misunderstanding what it is you're trying to do, and I may be misjudging your approach entirely (so forgive me if I'm way off the point), but I would recommend trying things yourself more. That is, ultimately,  a huge aspect of "hacking". It's also, IMO, a much better way to learn most of the time, than being taught by someone else.Another reason I say that is that, as someone who helps run a programming-focussed forum, I can tell you that hacker's generally help other hacker's once they've seen some of their work. I'm sure the bloggers you have contacted get a ton of requests for help by people who have made no attempt to solve their own problems - naturally they might assume the same of you, and thus gave you a rude response. When you've contacted these developers, have you shown them what you have so far? Have you asked very specific questions about the things they talk about in their blogs? If you haven't, and if those aren't the kind of questions you want to ask, I think you should try another medium. Forums, IRC, etc...edit: There's also a huge amount of discussion on this site about start ups, independent projects, hacking, etc... Just be a regular reader - you'll learn a lot!