Victory for the Comic Muse

Well, it's 'Blog time again (otherwise known as that time when I try to avoid review work like the Plague ;) ) - Things are still pleasantly busy here, with plenty of articles to write, and another trip to London for an ATI briefing recently. As always, some interesting stuff was on offer, and it was good to catch up face-to-face with Rys again, however briefly.

We've also finally (although somewhat temporarily) transistioned across to our new-look front page at Elite Bastards, which is a sight for sore eyes and should help us both with promoting our own content and being ready for future improvements and the like. Aside from that, not much else to report on that front.

Book-wise, I finished reading The Da Vinci Code this week (Yes, I know I must be the last living person to read it!). In all honesty, I found the final stages of the book and its twist and turns too implausible to enjoy, so all in all it was a little disappointed. Still, it's back to my Haruki Murakami reading spree after this, which I would hazard a guess at being far more down my street if it's even a patch on The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles.

Musically, far too much of my time has been spent listened to the new Boards of Canada EP, Trans Canada Highway, ad infinitum. Predictably, it's Boards of Canada so I love it. Today I got hold of a copy of the new Divine Comedy album (see this Blog entry title for its name!), which seems excellent from my first listen, almost like everything Morrissey's last album could have been but wasn't in some ways.

Arsenal lost the Champions League Final, but did their fans proud which in itself was more than I was hoping for. More importantly, the weekend before they claimed forth place in the Premiership and a Champions League spot for next season, deliciously at the expense of Tottenham. Henry is staying now too, so things are looking up again for the Gunners. :D

Finally, over the past week or so I've been somewhat taking stock of my life after everything that has gone on in the past year or so, and I came to a somewhat startling discovery - I'm actually happier now than I was a year ago. Love being blind and all that, a year ago I was largely fooling myself into thinking I'd found happiness, when in reality I was anything but. I used to go home from work every day wondering what mood swings or accusations would be thrown at me, I was constantly having to try and pick my way through the swathe of pathological lies fired in my direction, and I was unable to voice my own true opinions without being shouted down or risking the aforementioned mood swings or accusations - To put it simply, every day was a draining and stressful experience. Oh, and then there was copious periods of time listening to Bryan Ferry and pre-Avalon Roxy Music... How did I ever survive?!

Now, in contrast, I have the time to pursue my own ambitions rather than being expected to bolster someone elses, can listen to the music and watch the shows I like, and more importantly I'm surrounded by people who genuinely share my tastes in general, and have respect and time for my opinions. It's really quite liberating. Vive la difference!!! :D

Panic on the streets of Birmingham...

It's been a busy time for me Elite Bastards-wise this past week (just for a change!) - Aside from continuing to plough through the ever-growing mountain of review hardware (with some pretty cool reviews coming up I have to say), the highlight of last week was a trip to Birmingham to cover the Computer Trade Show (aka CTS) for the site, complete with press pass of course...



Needless to say, the site name got some interesting reactions throughout the day. ;) Although the show was apparantly not as packed full of items of interest as last year's offering, there was still plenty to cover, and more importantly it gave me the chance to go toe-to-toe with a bunch of marketing people with regard to getting review samples (more work for me - Yay!). I had some productive discussions on that front, so we'll have to see how they pan out in the long run, and I had a few interesting meetings during the course of the day too.

It also looks like we've found ourselves a willing provider of samples for NVIDIA graphics boards, thanks to some insanely generous and decent fellow who keeps going around recommended us and fighting our corner whenever they talk to AIB partners... You know who you are, and you know how grateful I am for it. ;)

So, all in all, the site is continuing to move onwards and upwards, to the point where I'm seriously starting to need someone to help out with some of the review workload and to let us cover more products methinks. It's something I'm still mulling over though (I'm such a control freak sometimes!), so more on that soon no doubt...

Goodbye old friend...

A few hours from now, Arsenal's close to 100 year stay at Highbury will finally come to an end, as they move on to a new stadium at Ashburton Grove next season after their final league game this afternoon. Every Gooner knows it's a necessity to progress as a football club, but I'm sure it won't stop most of us from missing the old place.

It was somewhat premature, but at least I got to say my goodbyes to the place last Summer, before it gets turned into flats and apartments in the next few months.









So many cherished memories...

You burn at both ends, yet still you're fine...

I should start by explaining today's 'Blog title - It's a line from a song on Zero 7's rather excellent new album, The Garden. The song in question is a great one, and this particular line seems to capture how life is going for me right now. Why am I burning the candle at both ends you ask? Well, it's something to do with this little lot:



Yes, thats right, I have just one or two reviews and article to write at the moment. ;o) On top of that, I'm currently trying to finalise going to CTS in Birmingham in a couple of weeks (I have my press pass already), and also arrange some other cool things for Elite Bastards. As per usual of course, this isn't me complaining so much as loving life - Call me a masochist, but I'm loving the hectic lifestyle at the moment.

Aside from that nice little pile of work, all is well in the world - The new car is great, life is smooth and relaxed despite being so busy... Oh, and there's the ever so small matter of Arsenal reaching the Champions League final on Tuesday night. Apologies to anyone in a five mile radius of me that evening for the foul-mouthed tirades and uncontrolled shouts of joy coming from my vicinity, particularly during those heart-in-mouth final few minutes. Of course, I have to go through that whole trauma all over again in three weeks time, but I wouldn't swap it for anything - As someone who never thought I'd live to watch Arsenal play in a Champions League final, it really is a dream come true, win or lose on the night.

So, I think that covers everything going on in my world for now, so back to rifling through that pile of hardware...

My new baby!

I just picked it up from the garage, and brought it home... My new pride and joy!

Apologies

I just wanted to write a quick message here to all of you who expressed concern about my last Blog entry, and/or my lack of contribution in certain places as of late. The fact that people have even taken the time out to ask has been a real comfort to me, so thanks to all of you who had me in their thoughts. :)

Anyway, I think it's only fair to tell everyone the full story of what has been going on in recent months to help you all understand what's being going on in my private life as of late, so here's the scoop:

The whole thing started just after Christmas really - Me and Tara got talking again, she said she felt like she'd made a big mistake leaving the way she did, that things weren't going well and that she really regretted and was sorry for what she'd done.

So, over the past few months, we carried on talking, even met a couple of times. It came to a head a few weeks ago, when she said that she'd really like to get things back how they were. We started talking about how to go about things, when to do it, and so on.

Until a couple of weeks ago - I got an e-mail from her out of the blue, saying that she'd been thinking about things and had decided that she wanted a divorce after all. Later that week, she called and told me she wanted me to pay at least half of the divorce fees, and basically gave me a whole lot of attitude. Of course, I gave her some back, and said no way was I paying that much after everything she'd done, and the whole thing ended rather unpleasantly.

Eventually, she agreed to pay all of the fees if I paid for and organised the initial filing (which I have to do, she can't because it was her who commited adultery), and has left it all up to me for now. Anyway, that's kind of beside the point.. The whole event has left me feeling all of the pain, anger and heartbreak of a few months ago all over again, only worse this time.

Mentally, I'm on the mend again, but it really was a big blow. So, thanks again for your support guys and girls (and you know who you are), it really has made a big difference to me bouncing back.

On a far more positive, and entirely unrelated, note; There's a new Boards of Canada EP being released in June. Can you say excited?!?!

As he faced the sun he cast no shadow...

"As they took his soul, they stole his pride..."

Cold-blooded old times

As per usual, I have to start a Blog entry with an apology as to the lack of updates. And, as per usual, I will also proceed to blame said lack of updates on being busy and so on - I've been spending quite a lot of time benchmarking for various articles recently, to the point where I've built up something of a minor backlog of actual reviews to write! I have a couple on the go right now, so if I can motivate myself sufficiently, then you might see them both this week. All this is on top of my latest review for Beyond 3D, covering ASUS' EN7800GT TOP Silent, which as I'm sure I've mentioned before is hard work but a joy to write for as a site, and I really can't feel much more proud of my efforts than when something I've written shows up on the front page of Beyond 3D.

Last week saw me pick up a nasty bout of 'flu, which laid me low for a fair while - There's nothing I hate more than my brain being willing but my body refusing point-blank to be of any use, so I'm not the most fun person to be around when I'm sick. Luckily I'm over that now, and fighting fit again.

Things have been a little strained in my personal life of late too, with things going on that I'm really not sure I can mention publically. Anyhow, it's reached the point now where I feel I'm being taken for a ride and used and abused to suit other people's designs right now, so I'm basically going to sit back, stop thinking about it, take my hands off the wheel, and see what happens. At the end of the day, there's only so much pain and upset I can take before I have to simply walk away from a situation, no matter how loathe I am to do so. :(

Anyway, aside from that there isn't a whole lot else to say... Back to Elite Bastards, things are finally coming along with the CMS, we've had one or two other cool things crop up (Not least Scott Davey's console-related articles, which are superb, and as mentioned in my last quick Blog entry, succeeded in getting us Slashdotted), so all in all we're making progress, although still not quite where I'd like things to be. Something to keep working towards is always good though.

Elite Bastards suffers the Slashdot effect...

Need I say more...

Reasons I don't spend much time in the Elite Bastards IRC channel #401

Topic is ' don't leave me alone here Quinn... arghh!!!!! * Hanners has left #sextorture *'

;)

Deadlines met, time to chill out a little...

As ever, I have to start this Blog entry by apologising for the lack of updates, but recent weeks have given me little to no time to sit down and do anything unrelated to work in some shape or form.

Thankfully, the results of all that hard work are now in the public domain, in the form of my 3DMark06 and Radeon X1900 XTX reviews. Despite how much I may moan about the amount of hours I had to put in on those two projects in this post, I can't really cover up the fact that I loved every minute of it... Playing with, testing and getting to grip with a new version of 3DMark is always an educational and informative experience, and it goes without saying to anyone who shares my level of geekiness that getting to find out about and then try out a new high-end video card is pretty much on top of the thrill-o-meter.

I won't wax too much lyrical about my day in London for the R580 briefing, but it was cool to catch up with Rys again (properly this time!), get to meet Dave Baumann at last (after I somehow missed him last time around, even though he was apparantly only sitting a couple of seats away at the AVIVO briefing in December!) and also meet Gary Jones, Club 3D's legendary lifesaver (to me anyway!) in the flesh, as well as a bundle of other people.

Anyway, after my exertions on those two articles I've been taking something of a breather for a few days to regain my composure - I have a few things I wouldn't mind investigating on the back of my recent work, so I'll probably plunge into something during next week. We also have a couple of other articles coming up which could prove pretty interesting too, but both of those are out of my hands. :)

Outside of Elite Bastards, there isn't much to report - Work has been somewhat busy lately, and I have a pay/performance review coming up, which will doubtless end in disappointment. I could really do with a week off soon, but I'm not sure if and well I'll get that sorted. I'm also looking at forking out a bundle of money on my car in the next few weeks, with an MOT coming up and it being in dire need of replacement brake pads. Truth be told, I really want to find myself something newer and better, but at the moment I just don't have the money in the bank.

Belated Happy New Year

So, here we are - 2006. Still no hover cars, teleporters, Transformers arriving from 1986... All pretty boring isn't it?! I'm not much of a New Year person in all honesty, I don't buy into a lot of the ideas of making resolutions, clean slates and the like - For me, it's just a continuation of what went before, and if there are things you want to change about yourself or your life, then you should be doing it when you realise that something's wrong, not because there's a new number in the year. But, there you go, I'm just a killjoy like that.. ;o)

Having said that, the start of a New Year always seems to be a good opportunity to set new targets and review any you've made before. As far as Elite Bastards goes, I really feel we've made progress, even just in the last couple of months - I won't bore you with statistics, but we're slowly beginning to draw in more readers on a regular basis, and certainly our 'big' articles are getting more exposure, which can only be a good thing. To continue that growth, what we need is content, content, content, and good quality content at that. We certainly should have a couple of big hitting articles showing up in the coming weeks, and I'm really hoping (with some work on my part too) that said articles will help to snowball the reputation of the site as one worth reading and/or dealing with. On that matter, I saw something over the Christmas period which brought a huge grin to my face, but you guys will see it soon enough (If you haven't already for the chosen few ;o)).

The only fly in the ointment which I was hoping would be done and dusted by the time we entered 2006 is the lack of our new Content Management System, as we're at the point where doing things as we are currently is holding us back. Hopefully we'll get something together sooner rather than later though.

On a final point of Elite Bastards business, I'll be off to London one day next week. And that's all I can say on the subject right now.

Away from web site goings-on, my Christmas and New Year was pretty cool, but quiet. Killer present of the year for me was a DAB digital radio, which has seen me glued to BBC 6 Music whenever I get the opportunity - It's almost like they can read my mind and pick up my musical tastes whenever I tune in, it's uncanny.

As for what 2006 holds for me personally? Well, there are some intriguing happenings at the moment, so even I don't know where I'm going to end up by the time the year is out.

Did I say I was going to take a break...

..over Christmas? Scratch that - Something very cool has just fallen into my lap which is going to take up a fair bit of time... ;o)

This is redirected mail...

Been a little while since I've made a proper Blog entry, things have been pretty busy the last few weeks, so there's a few things to catch up on.

Firstly, the Friday before last saw me attend my first ATI press event, a briefing in London about CATALYST 5.13 and AVIVO (The fruits of which you can read here). Hanging out with all the guys from the UK press was both overwhelming and daunting and very cool all at the same time - It's quite a head trip to meet those familiar names from the community like Fudo from The Inquirer and Rys from HEXUS (Who I probably owe some money for referring to Elite Bastards as 'the best domain name ever' at least half a dozen times in a ten minute period of introducing me to people ;)), as well as a handful of ATI guys like Andrzej, Godfrey and Richard Huddy. So, apart from feeling like the new boy in class amongst all those old hands, it was great to be part of the 'inner circle' as it were, and I'm hoping it won't be my last outing on the circuit. Now, if only NVIDIA would give me the time of day...

The big down side of the day was that I had to make a dash for the door pretty much as soon as the briefing was over (which meant I managed to miss getting a chance to say hi to Dave Baumann - D'oh!), to get back home and complete packing everything to move out of my old place early Saturday morning. Luckily, everything went smoothly (apart from breaking the sofa, which I didn't need anyway), and by Saturday evening all of my stuff was either back at my parents place or safely incarcerated in storage. Now, a week on, everything is just dandy, with my room here looking great and all my IT needs set up perfectly (better than it ever was at the bungalow). It's a big weight off my mind getting out of that dump and back here, and now I'm looking forward to entering 2006 with a renewed focus on the things that are important to me.

The past week has involved mainly sorting out the final parts of the move (mainly redirecting post, changing addresses for credit card bills and the like, hence the subject name from a Dubstar B-side), as well as working on the AVIVO article whenever I could. Saturday morning involved a race around the shops to sort out all of my Christmas shopping, which I sorted out with surprising ease. Then today has seen me working my arse off benchmarking a couple of boards to try and get the review out of the door before Christmas, as well as putting some sheen on a review from one of the other guys which should see the light of day in the next day or two. Once I'm done with writing up the video card review, there's one other short item I'd like to delve into before Christmas hits, after which I might even shock myself by taking a bit of a break for a few days (Although knowing me something else will pop up and grab my attention, and before I know it I'll be hammering away at another article).

Which brings me to tonight, and finally some proper time to kick back and relax by updating my Blog while listening to the new Belle and Sebastian album, The Life Pursuit - An excellent CD, possibly their best yet. Great stuff to chill out to.

Blog additions

Just thought I'd point it out for the less eagle-eyed amongst you - I've added a couple of things to the sidebar of this Blog in recent weeks. First up is the current state of play in my 'real' work Fantasy Football team (That's soccer to you American types). I was the office champion last season in a nail-biting finish, taking the overall lead by a meagre few points in the final week of the season. As you can see, my team (Fake Madrid, they'll always be in bold) have made a decent start to the season, and are currently sitting pretty at the top of the table. It's going to be tight though, so no room for complacency. ;)

The other item which I've added tonight is courtesy of music profiling site (and all-round 'cool thing') Last.FM, which now allows you to add HTML images showing your latest statistics wherever you please. So, I figured it would be cool to add a couple to my Blog sidebar, so you can see what tracks and artists I've been listening to for the past seven days. :o)

Anyway, I should have some cool and interesting things to write about in the coming few days, so keep your eyes peeled!

Dancing, laughing, drinking, loving...

Apologies for the lack of Blog updates, it's been a busy time for me lately. Focusing on recent events, last Friday was my new friend Katie's birthday, so I went out with her and a bunch of her friends for a night of drunken debauchery. Okay, so it wasn't quite like that... I wasn't drunk. ;o) That was then followed by waking up early(ish) the next morning to decorate what will become my room back at my parents place. Things are finally getting towards a manageable state on the move front, I'm pretty much organised apart from a handful of minor obstacles. Be warned though, I might be left without Internet access for a little while during the following few weeks, so don't worry if I disappear off the face of the planet for a while - I'll be back.

Things are equally busy on other fronts - Last week saw Beyond 3D publish my review of a couple of Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO boards, as you've probably already seen. It's always a pleasure to do some work for Dave, and the feeling of having an article up at a site which is quite simply the pinnacle of 3D hardware knowledge always gives me a real glow of achievement - It's kinda like being on Mastermind or something. ;o)

There's been no respite at Elite Bastards either - I published my review of the Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO² there today (What is it with me and those boards?!), and I should be having a couple of graphics boards show up in the next day or two for review, which should keep me juggling moving and benchmarking in an... 'Interesting' fashion. God knows how I'll pull it off, especially seeing as I have another little project that I think some of you will like that I want to sort out in the next couple of days.

The best news on the EB front lately was being shown a piece of what can only be described as 'fan mail' from someone pretty high up the hierachy at a well-known company. A quick e-mail in his direction, and things could be getting far more interesting on the sample and information front for us, all being well. So, hopefully we might be able to provide some far more comprehensive coverage of product launches very soon, fingers crossed. :o)

Having said that, the 'best news' moniker has been stolen away from that information these past couple of days, by the fact that a couple of our forum members have dug into their own pockets to donate to the site. It may sound overly emotional, but it puts a lump in my throat thinking that people are willing to part with their own hard-earned cash, entirely of their own free will, to fund our little Internet adventure. I've put a lot of time and work into various facets of the site over my time with Elite Bastards, but it's always been primarily for my own satisfaction and enjoyment (as well as helping out and empowering our readers, obviously) over any financial gain. So, it really means a lot that people think that we're worth something in cold, hard cash. That may sound weird, but that's just me.

Anyway, that's my quick catch up Blog for the day, I'm sure I've missed loads of stuff, but I'll hopefully be able to keep you all filled in during the run-up to Christmas, Internet connection permitting. :o)

In a word... Argh!!

I think this explains it all.

Right now, my house has no power, and hasn't done since about 11am this morning. So, I'm sat here at my parents right now typing away from my laptop. Which is fine, except I have a bunch of news to post that I can't get to as it's stored away in Outlook on my main computer, and some work on an article for an NDA which expires tomorrow that is also out of bounds until the power comes back, which won't be until tomorrow morning some time.

Technology is great... Until the power goes out. :P

Fitter, happier, more productive...

After my solely geek-related last entry, I figured I should really dedicate a post to how I'm doing right now. And the answer is - Pretty damn good. I'm sleeping better, exercising more (yes, that's right, exercise - I'm going for runs every evening, slowly building my fitness and stamina back to somewhere close to where they were a few years back), eating better, and generally doing well all round.

I move out of my place almost exactly a month from now, so a fair bit of my time has been taken up with trying to arrange everything - Clearing things out at my parents place, clearing things out here, arranging storage for the stuff I can't bring with me, decorating, and so on. But I'm really looking forward to leaving the dump I call my house now - It doesn't hold any real use for me now, so I can't wait to get the burden of it and bad memories that go with it off my hands. All of this has eaten up a fair bit of my reviewing and writing time, but don't worry, normal service will be resumed soon enough.

Anyway, it isn't all hard work for me - Friday night, my good friend Gemma came down from Southampton for the night, firstly to catch up on everything (I haven't seen her in the flesh in forever!) and secondly to take what would have been Tara's place going to see Jimmy Carr (a British stand-up comic, for you non-UK people) as I'd booked the tickets several months ago. If you like old-school gags and joke telling, and aren't easily offended, then it's great stuff and I thoroughly enjoyed it...

"I went to Ask Jeeves the other day. I asked Jeeves... Why is Google so much better?"

Then, of course, Saturday was the England - Argentina friendly, and one of the best games of football I've had the pleasure to witness (Helped of course by the fact that England won - Just). I've also been dedicating some 'me' time to ploughing through watching Lost - I got fed up of waiting each week for episodes in the UK to air, so I went off and found the US episodes. I finished Season One last night, so I'll probably start off the second series tonight. Good, intriguing stuff indeed.

Anyway, this seems as appropriate a place as any to finish with a word of thanks to all of you who've comiserated me, talked to me, worried about me or helped me out over the past few weeks, every one of your comments and thoughts were much appreciated. As you can hopefully see though, I'm doing just fine. ;o)

System upgrade time

Now I have more time and money afforded to me, and thanks to some irritating instability of my Pentium 4 system (When I say irritating, I mean random hardware-related reboots irritating, not stupid little application error irritating), I decided that it was time to bite the bullet and put some thought into upgrading my system. I wanted to build a machine that would last me into the future (Like that ever happens!), so here's what I ended up with.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+: As with many people right now, when it came to choosing a CPU my mind was caught between going for stellar single core performance, or more modest performance on a dual core platform. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that much of my time is spent on the desktop . On a quiet day, I'll have Outlook, Firefox and Azureus running, but it isn't unusual to have a lot more going on at one time - Take last night for instance, where in addition to the aforementioned applications I also had Excel, Frontpage, WinAmp, Paint Shop Pro, Notepad and a host of Windows Explorer windows open at one time. So, I opted to go dual core, and I haven't regretted it one iota - If the move to a HyperThreading capable CPU was a boost, the move to dual core is a giant leap. It's something you need to experience for yourself rather than have it explained to you, but things feel smooth!

Asus A8N-SLI Premium motherboard: Picking a motherboard was an easy choice for me - I've been using the 'vanilla' A8N-SLI in my test system for some time without issue, with my only niggle being the annoyingly loud southbridge fan. The A8N-SLI Premium removes this issue thanks to a passively cooled southbridge, and throws in BIOS-level SLI switching as an added bonus. A stable, decent performing motherboard with all the features I wanted at a decent price made this a more than obvious choice.

2x BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC vieo cards (SLI): When it came to picking a video card, the decision was made easy for me for a number of reasons. Firstly, I already had one of these boards sat around waiting for review, so picking up a second identical card gave me the opportunity to run an SLI configuration for a real pixel-pushing behemoth. Secondly, much as I would have loved a Radeon X1800-based board to partake in anti-aliased floating point blending abilities and other feature packed goodness with, the price difference between an X1800 XL and the £200 BFG board was too much to stomach - The price:performance ratio of this part is simply unbeatable right now. And boy do these things perform! I don't remember having such a tingly feeling playing games since I moved from a Radeon 8500 to 9700 PRO some years ago - F.E.A.R. at 1280x960 with 4x AA, 8x AF and everything on maximum (Yesy, that includes soft shadows!) is a sight to behold, as was Call of Duty 2 last night at 1280x1024, 4x AA and 8x AF with everything maxxed out.

Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatal1ty sound card: This was the biggest 'luxury' on my list, and to be honest I really haven't stretched its legs yet, but I felt that my old Audigy board was ageing and could probably do with something later and greater to take its place. The X-Fi certainly seems to have its share of nifty tools, and I haven't noticed any performance impact from sound effects in-game as I did on occasion with the Audigy, so I can't complain. The only downside right now is that I've found it impossible to get the optical output working, but that's a whole other story.

2GB Corsair XMS PC3200 RAM (CAS 2): We seem to be rapidly approaching a world where 1GB of RAM won't cut it, so this seemed as good a time as any to make the move to 2GB of memory. It's hard to appreciate how much difference the added RAM is making in the context of the whole system, but certain things certainly seem nippier when in the past there'd be a bout of hard disk thrashing, so I'd like to think it's done some good.

Enermax 535W SLI power supply: It's a power supply, and even I can't get excited about that! It has all the connectivity I need, adjustable fan speed, and it just works, which is all I ask of it. If it doesn't blow up and kill or electrocute me, then it's a good unit in my book.


So, there you have it - A little time and a lot of money later, I'm left with a system that I can be more than proud of - It performs great, feels responsive, and makes gaming more enjoyable than I remember in a long time... Mission accomplished!!

Big changes, familiar faces - The future of Elite Bastards

I mentioned a couple of days ago I'd reserve a separate post for some Elite Bastards-related goodness, so here is the news as promised.

As of Sunday, I officially took over the financial support of Elite Bastards. I now pay the bills and the server is in my name so, officially speaking, I'm the new owner (and/or Editor-in-Chief if you prefer) of the site. This won't really have any obvious impact on the day-to-day running of the site - Zarathustra will still do his thing when the server needs it, Quinn is still webmaster and all round 'making things look pretty' guy, and I'll be churning out news and content as much as possible. The big change really is that obviously running a web site such as ours isn't always a cheap business, and my recently changed circumstances mean that I can offer the site both the time and financial stability it requires to grow and prosper - Good news I'm sure you'll agree.

My first act after making this change was to sort out an issue that has plagued the site for some time - Its lack of RAM. I'm sure many of you have noticed periods of slowness or inaccessibility after new articles had been published, and this was due to the lack of memory required to handle a large number of concurrent connections. I've now had the amount of RAM in the server upgraded from 512MB to a much healthier 1.5GB, and even before we've tweaked the configuration of the server to make the most of this new memory things are looking far smoother. Our next priority is to move to a new Content Management System, but I wouldn't want to say when that'll be finished, seeing as it was originally slated for this Summer. ;o) Beyond that, I have a few ideas of things I'd like to see happen at the site, but that's one for the future.

To close, I'm sure you'll all join me in thanking Zarathustra for the considerable time and money he's ploughed into the site thus far, without which we wouldn't be here right now. And of course, thanks to all of the staff for their contributions to the development of Elite Bastards.

I'm always open to suggestions as to improvements or changes to the site from any angle, so if anyone ever has any ideas, you know where to find me.