The NV Meeting

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• Jorgen - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link

  Keep up the great work, Anand! :)
  
  I'm also wondering what NVidia *really* did with that video-encoder on NV40.. I hope it'll be useful someday..! :/

• Anonymous - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link

  Thanks for the information Anand and Jason. Please don't take Wotan rude comments to your hearts and I have read all the online interviews by Anand and I have made Anand my idol. I would like to achieve the same things he has at an early age. Keep up the good work Anand, Jason, and all the editors at Anandtech. You guys are the best.
  
  

• Anonymous - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link

  Well said Anand.
  
  #16: People like you shouldn't deserve to live on this earth. I can't believe that even after hearing from Anand you are still not believing him. I FEEL REALLY SORRY FOR YOUR WIFE. Are you jealous because Anand is a millionair and you work your a 9:00-5:00 job and you still don't make enough money.
  
  It is natural for reviewers to get gifts from companies like Nvidia, AMD, etc. etc. especially when they are sending it to someone who is the owner of AnandTech. Their intentions are to get favorable reviews, but in the end Anand only listens to his heart and give a true impression.
  
  Let's look at the facts: If Anand was taking bribes from Nvidia, why would he discuss the failure of so many 6800 cards in his blog and in the review. He could've easily ignored that information and accepted a $10K cheque from Nvidia, but he didn't. He came straight with the facts. Now, do you think Nvidia is really mad about this information? I would bet so simply because so many people read AnandTech every month and things like these fly like crazy on the Internet. This probably cost Nvidia lots of money because now people will think twice when they go out to buy a 6800.
  
  AnandTech is a type of site who benchmarks products and if everything is working out great, they think of this as some sort of a camoflouge to cover up some mistake. Anandtech doesn't look for the right things in the products, but they look for things that are wrong with the product.
  
  If he is rich doesn't mean he can't relate with us. You don't need money to relate with people. The next thing you will say is that Anand should only run his site for company executives and not the general consumer. I think something is really wrong with your mind? You and your wife should go to a psychiatric and get yourselves checked out.
  
  I am sure that you are really really jealous of Anand's success. You can't handle the fact that Anand is only 22, getting married in couple weeks, and is a millionair with a successful life. He is basically leading a perfect a life to say the least. You, on the other hand, maybe around 45-50 years old, you work in a grocery store for 8 hours, you can't afford expensive hardware, and now you are jealous that Anand (who is basically a kid compared to your old age) is a millionair. Have you ever heard of hard work? Anand spent his teen years trying to develop AnandTech. Instead of appreciating his efforts, you are calling him a liar and someone who accepts bribes from companies like Nvidia.
  
  
  Once again, I would like to say that you need to get your facts straight. Anand has done an awesome job listing out some of the behind the scenes stuff. Besides, if you don't like this site why in the world are you reading Anand's blog and making rude comments. Go find another hardware site that suits you best. Instead of hating successful people, why don't you try and accept their success.
  
  
  
  
  Anand: it would be great if you can clear up some of these things and give us a little more behind the scenes information so people like Wotan understand what you guys really do behind AnandTech.
  
  
  Wotan: You are moron, dumbass, stupid and like someone said above, get the fuck out.

• JasonClark - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link

  Well said, I'm biased of course, but I'd stake my reputation on Anands integrity any time of the week and twice on Sunday. There are sites out there that have tainted the reputation of online publications, and that is a damn shame. But, we have and will always remain true to our goal in providing quality content and honesty in what we produce. I can't count the hours Anand has been online at 4 in the morning, when some benchmarks aren't making sense, and he does not give up until they do.
  
  Give it up.
  

• Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link

  Wotan
  
  Humility and an understanding of who you are are two of the most important characteristics a person can have in my opinion. My dad came to this country with $26 in his wallet on a borrowed plane ticket, with borrowed luggage and on a scholarship - and although he isn't a millionaire, he managed to provide for his family and give us a good life - to me, that's true success.
  
  It is his story that taught me that if he can do that, anything is possible. It's an understanding of where he came from and where I came from that I cling to every day; so while you may be used to hearing about people being changed by wealth, material goods or "success" I can assure you that there is nothing more constant in my life than my understanding that everyone, regardless of status, class, achievement, is equal.
  
  As far as your more direct questions go: I've gotten pens, sometimes a bag to keep press materials in, and that sort of stuff from the companies. Most of the time I give that stuff away, if you run into me at a trade show I'll give you whatever it is that I've gotten. I've given away bags, tshirts and just about everything that's been given to me to readers I've run into at trade shows - I don't want the stuff and if you think that I'd alter the tone of a review because someone gave me a pen or a bag you need to re-read my previous post. Trade my integrity and the 7+ years of history of this site for $20 of junk?
  
  We usually opt not to go to the parties that the companies throw (unless we have a work-related reason to be there) and by this point the major companies know not to even try to offer us the things they offer others - and trust me, some of those offerings can be *substantial*.
  
  They know not to try because they know how we've reacted to that stuff in the past. I keep it private because you all don't come here to read about a soap opera, you come here to get your hardware questions answered, you come here to learn - not to find out about how company X just offered us thousands of dollars in champagne or cigars. We don't accept that kind of stuff, end of story.
  
  I appreciate your posts and the fact that you are concerned whether or not these things are happening at AT. I can assure you, they're not. Again, you don't have to believe me and without knowing me personally I can see how you would be skeptical. Hopefully I can convince you, not through these posts but through the coming years of articles that I and the rest of my staff write.
  
  Enjoy your dinner, I'm making some right now with my fiancee :)
  
  Take care,
  Anand

• Wotan - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link

  Much props for taking a tiny Geocities website and running away a millionaire. But you are a millionaire right? How can you now relate with us the average hack these days? If the shoe fits wear it; although I'm sure many wealthy people are trying to get you to sell their particular brand of shoes. You have so many way's to go as far as making money is concerned I can't even count them, and guess what? A kickback, bribe, whatever you want to call it is very suttle..not a check for $10k. Junkets and that sort of thing...you don't accept all kinds of gifts from nVidia, ATI, Intel, AMD. Hmmm....?
  
  No time for grammer anandfanboys..wife is calling for dinner!!!!

• Anonymous - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link

  Anand, well freaking said. I'm glad you finally have the time to write stuff like that, readers really appreciate hearing from you.
  
  And #9/#10, I was AGREEING with you in post #7. I was telling you not to bother with poster #5. Just a FYI. :-)

• Anonymous - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link

  well said.

• Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link

  At this point, I've taken just about everyone to task on hardware they've released. As many of you have already replied, if the same issues existed with ATI hardware I'd be spending my days calling and emailing them - I don't care who makes a product, I just care that it does what it's supposed to do and you all get your money's worth.
  
  As far as my integrity goes, in the 7+ years that I've been doing this I've written good things and bad things about every company. ATI, NVIDIA, Intel, AMD, not to mention all the motherboard guys, the chipset folks as well as random other companies we get hardware from. To imply that I take money for good reviews (or to imply the same about any of my staff) is simply a case of not doing your homework. Look back at the articles we've written and note that we've taken everyone to task when the situation required; our loyalty always lies with the reader, not with an advertiser, not with a manufacturer. Note that AnandTech does not sell any advertising internally because of this, it's why I have a contract with a separate company to handle all sales for AT. Our editors (myself included) don't know about an advertisement until it goes live, and it's our sales guys that have to deal with upset manufacturers threatening to pull advertising when we trash someone in a review. We don't change our articles to make advertisers happy and we've definitely lost advertising because of things we've written. I've had advertisers not only cancel their contracts because of something I've written but also stop sending us product because of it; in the end it always works out, I can always buy product and there are always more advertisers - but we only have one chance to keep our integrity and our credibility.
  
  The way I look at it is like this - last month anandtech.com had 3.7 million unique visitors, that's 3.7 individual people that visited the site at least once during that month. If each one of those people is planning on upgrading just one piece of hardware in their system that month (even if just half of them are, or a third or a quarter), they are entrusting me and the rest of the AT staff with a *lot* of their hard-earned money. Average upgrades range between $100 - $300 right? Do the math, that's a lot of money to be trusting a group of people with. I owe it to the readers to keep my loyalty with them; advertisers will come and go and we can always get product from vendors, resellers or go out and buy them ourselves if we need to (and we have), but we can't get your trust anywhere else.
  
  So before you assume that everyone is inherently biased, do some research - ask us, ask manufacturers, ask NVIDIA if they've ever called me pissed off as hell about something I've written. Call ATI or Intel or AMD and ask the same question. Don't assume you know the answer, because as easy as it is to believe a lot of conspiracy theories and as interesting as they may sound, they usually aren't true.
  
  We've made mistakes in the past, we've written things that we've had to correct and we've run benchmarks that we had to rerun, but every ounce of effort we put into this site is to improve the quality of information we provide you - the readers.
  
  I don't mean to offend anyone, and I don't mean to come off as harsh - I just want to make sure what I'm trying to say gets across.
  
  Take care,
  Anand

• Anonymous - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link

  Get the fuck outta' here...
  
  
  
  No, really.
  
  Get the fuck out.