There's nothing more settling than looking at a very full editorial calendar for the month ahead. Every Thursday night we have our weekly editorial staff meetings at AT and we iron out what just about everyone at AT has on their plate for the next 2 - 4 weeks. This last month I've been so focused on Half Life 2 and all of the launches that happened that I hadn't been able to help organize December's calendar, leaving it fairly empty. But thanks to Thursday's meeting, December is nice and full of articles and I'm at ease.
I think I've inherited my mom's unshakable knack of worrying about everything all the time. But as is the case with most generation-to-generation inheritances I've received a lesser form of the worry gene. I don't worry about as much stuff, but enough to keep me nice and stressed on a regular basis. Things like making sure that we get articles up on time, making sure they are done as best as possible, business issues, the new house we're building, etc... all fall into the realm of things to worry about on a daily basis. Although I'm a firm believer that everything works out in the end (and to this date, everything has), that philosophy is not enough to overcome the worry gene.
At one point not too long ago in my life, there were two things that would take my mind away from worrying: driving and gaming. Now that I'm happily married, Vinney has stepped up to the plate as the first person capable of making me not think about anything at all. Vinney's also an avid gamer providing yet another avenue to de-stress.
I've mentioned before the lack of good driving roads up here, so we've turned to gaming quite a bit. Half Life 2 has been fun, but until recently the lack of multiplayer prevented it from being a game that we'd both enjoy. We've got a few friends back in NC and other areas that we usually game with so multiplayer is a must.
We recently took the plunge and finally signed up for Xbox live for some multiplayer Halo 2 with a couple of the aforementioned friends. We started out doing horrendously but once we realized that the point of the little Xbox live communicator headset was to actually coordinate with one another our game improved tremendously. We're still below average at best, but improving, which makes the gameplay much less stressful :)
Valve's latest Half Life 2 patch thankfully added multiplayer support (I loved the original Half Life multiplayer), but unfortunately broke all compatibility with older timedemos. So I spent Thursday night remaking all of our timedemos (as well as a new multiplayer demo). The new demos are as close to the old ones as possible, but they don't produce 100% comparable numbers (the numbers they produce are a few percent off of the originals). You can grab the new demos here and I'll be adding the updated link to the first two Half Life 2 articles shortly.
I've been working on the CPU scaling article ever since I finished up with the X850 testing and so far things are looking ok. This article has the potential to turn into much more of a Half Life 2 "scaling" investigation, looking at the effects of fill rate, memory bandwidth as well as CPU speed on Half Life 2 performance, but I haven't made the final call as to how exhaustive I'm going to make it just yet. I'm still waiting on a few more sets of results before I can determine whether or not it'll be useful information.
I will also be doing another Desktop Pentium M article (similar to the one I did back in July) using the newest batch of desktop Pentium M motherboards. The CPUs I used for that article had to be sent back, so I've got a few more on order that I'm waiting on before I can start testing for this next piece. I'm hoping to have the article done towards the end of December.
It's definitely getting cooler here in CT, but so far it's not too bad. I'm afraid that the worst won't be here until the end of the year and the beginning of next year though, so I'm not counting my chickens just yet (despite the phrase, I'm not *that* southern).
Take care and enjoy the rest of the weekend.
I think I've inherited my mom's unshakable knack of worrying about everything all the time. But as is the case with most generation-to-generation inheritances I've received a lesser form of the worry gene. I don't worry about as much stuff, but enough to keep me nice and stressed on a regular basis. Things like making sure that we get articles up on time, making sure they are done as best as possible, business issues, the new house we're building, etc... all fall into the realm of things to worry about on a daily basis. Although I'm a firm believer that everything works out in the end (and to this date, everything has), that philosophy is not enough to overcome the worry gene.
At one point not too long ago in my life, there were two things that would take my mind away from worrying: driving and gaming. Now that I'm happily married, Vinney has stepped up to the plate as the first person capable of making me not think about anything at all. Vinney's also an avid gamer providing yet another avenue to de-stress.
I've mentioned before the lack of good driving roads up here, so we've turned to gaming quite a bit. Half Life 2 has been fun, but until recently the lack of multiplayer prevented it from being a game that we'd both enjoy. We've got a few friends back in NC and other areas that we usually game with so multiplayer is a must.
We recently took the plunge and finally signed up for Xbox live for some multiplayer Halo 2 with a couple of the aforementioned friends. We started out doing horrendously but once we realized that the point of the little Xbox live communicator headset was to actually coordinate with one another our game improved tremendously. We're still below average at best, but improving, which makes the gameplay much less stressful :)
Valve's latest Half Life 2 patch thankfully added multiplayer support (I loved the original Half Life multiplayer), but unfortunately broke all compatibility with older timedemos. So I spent Thursday night remaking all of our timedemos (as well as a new multiplayer demo). The new demos are as close to the old ones as possible, but they don't produce 100% comparable numbers (the numbers they produce are a few percent off of the originals). You can grab the new demos here and I'll be adding the updated link to the first two Half Life 2 articles shortly.
I've been working on the CPU scaling article ever since I finished up with the X850 testing and so far things are looking ok. This article has the potential to turn into much more of a Half Life 2 "scaling" investigation, looking at the effects of fill rate, memory bandwidth as well as CPU speed on Half Life 2 performance, but I haven't made the final call as to how exhaustive I'm going to make it just yet. I'm still waiting on a few more sets of results before I can determine whether or not it'll be useful information.
I will also be doing another Desktop Pentium M article (similar to the one I did back in July) using the newest batch of desktop Pentium M motherboards. The CPUs I used for that article had to be sent back, so I've got a few more on order that I'm waiting on before I can start testing for this next piece. I'm hoping to have the article done towards the end of December.
It's definitely getting cooler here in CT, but so far it's not too bad. I'm afraid that the worst won't be here until the end of the year and the beginning of next year though, so I'm not counting my chickens just yet (despite the phrase, I'm not *that* southern).
Take care and enjoy the rest of the weekend.
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Wotan - Monday, December 6, 2004 - link
Oh ok...I will take your "advise" and go now. You are one of the easiest "people" (hermaphrodite?) to provoke I have ever met and proves that your a n00b =:0)Dee - Monday, December 6, 2004 - link
Hmmm...looks like someone's feelings got hurt. Since you like to do everything you own way, why don't you take someone's advise this time and go rot in hell.You damn white boy!
Wotan - Monday, December 6, 2004 - link
I go where I want, when I want, and post what I like regardless of anyone or anything. So you know what Dee? Shut yer dick sucker fuck boy.RunLikeHell - Monday, December 6, 2004 - link
good day Anand. don't waste your time on them 'stupid crap' that gets posted. you blog is real cool. I read it every other day at 3am while i'm posted out here on a Native American reservation.crtfanboy - Monday, December 6, 2004 - link
hey Anand, you should write an article about how you deal with all the stupid crap that gets posted hereand elsewhere (like that silly political flamewar that should have been about internet tax)
I mean, I know Kubicki drinks his volume in alcohol every time he gets slashdotted... but is that more effective than quality time with loved ones or gaming (with or without loved ones)?
Ashok - Monday, December 6, 2004 - link
Hey Anand, I'm eager to read the ASUS A8N-SLI Review. I remember you mentioning that you have one at hand. A review asap will be very nice my friend. Like always its very nice to read the articles on this site and you definitely do it a very personal touch with your blogs. Keep up the good work. Don't work too hard though!Dee - Monday, December 6, 2004 - link
#5: Are you feeling alright buddy? I maybe got a clue as to what you were trying to say from the first two lines, but after that your stupid comments just blurred.Care to elaborate the first two lines a bit more?
If you don't like the people on this site, maybe you shouldn't post on it then. Nobody is forcing you to post, so why waste your time?
Anyways, shut up you moron and get lost.
Wotan - Monday, December 6, 2004 - link
I bow to the infinite wisdom of Dee. Why don’t you stand outside the grocery store parking lot waiting for bums to take shopping carts so the cost of food will go down you idiot.You know, this website is so full of @#$% it is unbelievable, along with the overwhelming majority of people in it. Let’s all go out and get AMD tattoo’s…oh wait we can’t because most of us are under 18.
I suppose I click on the link because they are listed alphabetically, and why I keep coming back just proves my sadomasochistic tendencies. Well, the Cat-O-9 tails is waiting.
Dee - Sunday, December 5, 2004 - link
#3: Hmmm... I don't know how I would actually comment on your ignorant post. There are countless articles that compare PC vs. Mac. We all know PCs are better for pretty much everything, but that doesn't mean that UNIX platform (Mac) is inferior. You can do a lot of things on Mac in a better enviornment than you can do with windows. Just from the looks perspective, have you seen how OS X flows so smoothly while windows doesn't have that capability.Both platforms have their pluses and minuses, so you can't exactly compare the both together.
I guess you are one of those newbies who doesn't have a clue. First all of all, you seem to boast your PC building skills by saying, "with my home built PC". A machine from Dell can handle photoshop just fine (assuming it's fast enough). Secondly, you have no clue about the Mac platform since you say, "MAC" instead of "Mac". Mac is short for Macintosh. It is not an abbreviation. Looks like you need classes in both English and Computers.
And then you stupidly boast about your illegal software downloads. The reason why companies charge such high prices is because of dumbass people like you. Us innocent users who pay for every software we use have to pay higher prices because companies have to cover their loses from software piracy.
It's clear that you are a trash and burden on the face of earth. Just shut the hell up and get out. Why don't you commit suicide you piece of shit?
The_Necromancer - Sunday, December 5, 2004 - link
Ok, The only reason to by a mac is if you want to do editing on photos, or videos, but hey I do pretty well with my home built PC. I would like doing more but i would never buy a MAC, there is no reason! Just go out and pirate your own copy of adobe photo shop or viedo editor like i did and you will be set.out