An entire month without a new 'Blog entry can only mean one thing - I've been busy. Very busy. This has indeed been the case throughout February - I don't remember ever having so many things to deal with in my life.
Top of the agenda has been my new position in my 'real' job - Despite being deceptively simple at its core, I've been driving hard for a lot of improvements and extensions to the remote management system of which I'm now in charge, which is in turn generating more work and revenue for the company. More revenue for me too - Two pay rises in as many months says I must be doing something right. ;o)
My efforts on this front have had a nasty side effect of slowing my output at Elite Bastards, but I'm now starting to regain my focus on that front I hope. I have a few reviews on the go at present, and last weekend I spent a very pleasant few hours in a Covent Garden restaurant with a couple of guys from AMD, chewing the breeze about CPUs and chipsets (With a very brief mention of R600, of course). The main focus of the chat was, of course, AMD's recently launched 690 chipset - I have all the relevant hardware sat here at the moment, so it's something else for me to crack on with.
Finally, amongst all this, I've been trying to make plenty of time for my girlfriend too. If I'm honest though, I don't think that particular relationship is going to hold out much longer - It's hard when the person you're with doesn't understand your passions in life and what drives you, and that seems to be the case here. Ah well, c'est la vie - It may sound odd and a kind of backwards way of looking at things, but I'm really keen on making myself more time for review writing again starting soon, I've really missed the challenge of growing Elite Bastards and writing definitive reviews for the site. I suppose that makes it official - I'm a workaholic.
So, that's basically my month from a 10,000 foot view - Lots of meetings, lots of running around getting stressed, and so on. I'd like to pretend March will be somewhat calmer for me, but that just isn't going to happen... ;o)
Friday, March 02, 2007
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Left Side Drive
Well, I haven't written anything here since the beginning of the year, so I figure a quick update is very much overdue.
Thus far this year, I haven't been pushing quite as hard on the content front for Elite Bastards as I need to be - We've had some awesome reviews and articles hit the site, so the quality is there (of course!), but I need to ramp up the quantity again somewhat. I certainly have plenty to be getting on with, in particular with the arrival of a couple of copies of Windows Vista on my door step this week. Thus far, it's been more of a driver-induced nightmare than anything else, with Vista RTM drivers simply not available for some of the hardware I use, which is really beyond frustration considering the long gestation period of the Operating System . Come on guys (ASUS and Hauppage, I'm looking at you), pull your fingers out!
Anyway, the main reason right now for something of a slowdown in my writings is, quite blunty, a bit of romance. :oP Yes, I've gone and fallen head over heels with a very awesome someone (who shall remain nameless at this juncture), which has left me more than a little easily distracted and short on time when it comes to doing anything else. It's all good though if you ask me.
Finally, my new position in my 'real' job starts at the beginning of next month, so I guess I'll have to wait and see how everything shakes down time-wise once I've settled into all these exciting new happenings in my world. Don't worry though, I'm sure I'll be back working myself to the bone on the review front in no time. ;o)
Thus far this year, I haven't been pushing quite as hard on the content front for Elite Bastards as I need to be - We've had some awesome reviews and articles hit the site, so the quality is there (of course!), but I need to ramp up the quantity again somewhat. I certainly have plenty to be getting on with, in particular with the arrival of a couple of copies of Windows Vista on my door step this week. Thus far, it's been more of a driver-induced nightmare than anything else, with Vista RTM drivers simply not available for some of the hardware I use, which is really beyond frustration considering the long gestation period of the Operating System . Come on guys (ASUS and Hauppage, I'm looking at you), pull your fingers out!
Anyway, the main reason right now for something of a slowdown in my writings is, quite blunty, a bit of romance. :oP Yes, I've gone and fallen head over heels with a very awesome someone (who shall remain nameless at this juncture), which has left me more than a little easily distracted and short on time when it comes to doing anything else. It's all good though if you ask me.
Finally, my new position in my 'real' job starts at the beginning of next month, so I guess I'll have to wait and see how everything shakes down time-wise once I've settled into all these exciting new happenings in my world. Don't worry though, I'm sure I'll be back working myself to the bone on the review front in no time. ;o)
Monday, January 01, 2007
No time for running away now...
Well, here we are, well and truly ensconced in 2007. Of course, New Year is traditionally a time for looking back on what has gone before, planning for the future and so on, so it would be remiss of me not to do something along those lines.
Personally, I wouldn't say 2006 was the most eventful year ever, but it was certainly a pretty successful one overall. Elite Bastards' readership grew substantially in my first full year at the helm, seeing us reach that critical mass where we actually get pretty decent pickings on the sample front. My 'real' job has been somewhat turbulent for reasons I'll explain in a bit, but in a good way at the end of it all. Oh, and I finally figured out that the ex-wife is a sociopath and pathological liar, which must count for something? It certainly makes me glad to be away from all that hassle. On the flip side of that I've met some awesome people during the year, some of whom will hopefully remain a big part of my life in this coming twelve months.
So, what of 2007? Well, one of my bigger challenges will begin in February as part of my 'real' job - With the contract I'm currently assigned to petering out at the end of January, I'll be moving into a new role, in which I've basically been given my own department (dealing with remote, proactive support) with a free reign to improve and extend it as I see fit. There's going to be a lot to learn, but it sounds like an exciting opportunity to me - I look forward to getting stuck into it.
Then, of course, there's Elite Bastards, which involves the tough job of maintaining the pattern of growth we set for ourselves in 2006. As I write this, I've basically sealed the deal on getting an additional hardware reviewer on board, and am just trying to sort out the kinks to make his life easier hopefully. I also have someone else whose promised to kick out a load of game reviews, so hopefully our editorial output should be even greater this year. Once that has settled down, it may be time to start looking into the dreaded advertising to bring some revenue back to the site. Finally, in the first weeks of the year one of our intrepid reporters (aka Jollemi) is going to be jetting off to CES in Las Vegas, which is a pretty damn good start to proceedings if you ask me.
All in all then, you could say I've set myself some pretty hefty challenges for the year, which is both exciting and a little scary. Wish me luck!
Personally, I wouldn't say 2006 was the most eventful year ever, but it was certainly a pretty successful one overall. Elite Bastards' readership grew substantially in my first full year at the helm, seeing us reach that critical mass where we actually get pretty decent pickings on the sample front. My 'real' job has been somewhat turbulent for reasons I'll explain in a bit, but in a good way at the end of it all. Oh, and I finally figured out that the ex-wife is a sociopath and pathological liar, which must count for something? It certainly makes me glad to be away from all that hassle. On the flip side of that I've met some awesome people during the year, some of whom will hopefully remain a big part of my life in this coming twelve months.
So, what of 2007? Well, one of my bigger challenges will begin in February as part of my 'real' job - With the contract I'm currently assigned to petering out at the end of January, I'll be moving into a new role, in which I've basically been given my own department (dealing with remote, proactive support) with a free reign to improve and extend it as I see fit. There's going to be a lot to learn, but it sounds like an exciting opportunity to me - I look forward to getting stuck into it.
Then, of course, there's Elite Bastards, which involves the tough job of maintaining the pattern of growth we set for ourselves in 2006. As I write this, I've basically sealed the deal on getting an additional hardware reviewer on board, and am just trying to sort out the kinks to make his life easier hopefully. I also have someone else whose promised to kick out a load of game reviews, so hopefully our editorial output should be even greater this year. Once that has settled down, it may be time to start looking into the dreaded advertising to bring some revenue back to the site. Finally, in the first weeks of the year one of our intrepid reporters (aka Jollemi) is going to be jetting off to CES in Las Vegas, which is a pretty damn good start to proceedings if you ask me.
All in all then, you could say I've set myself some pretty hefty challenges for the year, which is both exciting and a little scary. Wish me luck!
Sunday, December 17, 2006
So here it is...
At last, I'm beginning to feel those first little tingles of Christmas cheer. Let's face it, it just hasn't felt like Christmas much yet - No amount of decorations or present buying can make up for that fact that it's just felt too mild to be the middle of December. Even the shops seem to have been late to get into the swing of things.
Anyway, despite all that, my calendar is telling me that yes, it really is almost December 25th, so the past couple of weekends have involved queuing for what seems like hours to buy wrapping paper (of which I now have enough to cover the Titanic), cards and other assorted gifts, while also biting fingernails and hoping beyond hope that anything I've ordered online arrives in time. Still, I'm now 95% of the way to being ready for the big day, so all is well.
On the down side of things, I'll actually be working all over Christmas in my increasingly frustrating and confusing 'real' job, public holidays aside, although hopefully just reduced hours with any luck. Things have actually been pretty busy on the work front, which has left me with less time to plough through the backlog of review work which still remains for Elite Bastards.
Improvements are afoot on this front however, as I've finally taken the plunge with regard to looking for additional reviewers to help both share the workload and expand the site further in 2007. I've had some pretty exciting offers in the few days since making a front page request for applicants, so I'm very hopeful that we can bring some more quality staff on board to drown you guys in a cornucopia of content next year.
It may only be a few days, but I'm really looking forward to taking a proper break over Christmas, this year's exertions are most definitely starting to catch up with me, and I'm feeling pretty burned out right now.
Anyway, despite all that, my calendar is telling me that yes, it really is almost December 25th, so the past couple of weekends have involved queuing for what seems like hours to buy wrapping paper (of which I now have enough to cover the Titanic), cards and other assorted gifts, while also biting fingernails and hoping beyond hope that anything I've ordered online arrives in time. Still, I'm now 95% of the way to being ready for the big day, so all is well.
On the down side of things, I'll actually be working all over Christmas in my increasingly frustrating and confusing 'real' job, public holidays aside, although hopefully just reduced hours with any luck. Things have actually been pretty busy on the work front, which has left me with less time to plough through the backlog of review work which still remains for Elite Bastards.
Improvements are afoot on this front however, as I've finally taken the plunge with regard to looking for additional reviewers to help both share the workload and expand the site further in 2007. I've had some pretty exciting offers in the few days since making a front page request for applicants, so I'm very hopeful that we can bring some more quality staff on board to drown you guys in a cornucopia of content next year.
It may only be a few days, but I'm really looking forward to taking a proper break over Christmas, this year's exertions are most definitely starting to catch up with me, and I'm feeling pretty burned out right now.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
One foot in the world of consoles
Hmm, this entry was going to be called 'One foot in the world of next-gen consoles', but seeing as all three major devices are now available (well, somewhat) I guess we can't really use that moniker any more.
Anyway, yesterday I traded five crisp, shiny £20 notes with a guy at work, and in return I lugged home a brand-spanking new Xbox 360. Twenty minutes or so after getting home, the beast was unpacked, plugged in and ready to go. Hurrah!
Thus far my only real gaming time has been with Gears of War (the only title I actually own right now - I'm very much open for suggestions as to what to buy/beg/borrow/steal next), and I'm beginning to understand what the fuss is about - For starters, the game looks beautiful, although I have to take out my PC gaming eyes somewhat and try and ignore the abject lack of anti-aliasing and decent texture filtering. The aliasing isn't too pronounced thanks to smart world design and High Dynamic Range rendering, but the lack of full-on anisotropic filtering is really poor considering the horsepower on offer in Xenos - The obvious mip-map boundaries and shimmering is awful. Ah well... More importantly, the game has been great to play once I overcame my phobia/ineptitude with game pads, and the layout of the controller is not far short of spot on, so kudos to Epic for that. My only worry is that the whole 'duck and cover' game play that is fascinating me right now is going to wear thin after a few hours of gaming.
Apart from Gears of War, I've messed around with a couple of demos a little - Sonic The Hedgehog, just to see if they ruined the franchise again (they have), and Dead or Alive 4, which doesn't look as pretty as I might have hoped. I've also downloaded the demo for Rainbow Six: Vegas (mainly because I'm a pixel whore and I remember hearing that it looks pretty somewhere), but I haven't checked that out yet.
Aside from my console gaming fun, my return to work in my 'real' job has been insanely busy, and I've also had further confirmation that my ex is a completely unhinged psychopath after calling me out of the blue to have some weird, rambling imaginary conversation so that her boyfriend thinks that something she can't be arsed to do is actually all my fault. Err, okay....
Oh, and if anyone wants to know my Xbox Live gamer tag, it's Hanners. Imaginative, huh? I don't see myself going for a Gold subscription any time soon, but you never know, and I still have a one-month trial to burn once I've got a few more games to actually use it with so feel free to add me.
Anyway, yesterday I traded five crisp, shiny £20 notes with a guy at work, and in return I lugged home a brand-spanking new Xbox 360. Twenty minutes or so after getting home, the beast was unpacked, plugged in and ready to go. Hurrah!
Thus far my only real gaming time has been with Gears of War (the only title I actually own right now - I'm very much open for suggestions as to what to buy/beg/borrow/steal next), and I'm beginning to understand what the fuss is about - For starters, the game looks beautiful, although I have to take out my PC gaming eyes somewhat and try and ignore the abject lack of anti-aliasing and decent texture filtering. The aliasing isn't too pronounced thanks to smart world design and High Dynamic Range rendering, but the lack of full-on anisotropic filtering is really poor considering the horsepower on offer in Xenos - The obvious mip-map boundaries and shimmering is awful. Ah well... More importantly, the game has been great to play once I overcame my phobia/ineptitude with game pads, and the layout of the controller is not far short of spot on, so kudos to Epic for that. My only worry is that the whole 'duck and cover' game play that is fascinating me right now is going to wear thin after a few hours of gaming.
Apart from Gears of War, I've messed around with a couple of demos a little - Sonic The Hedgehog, just to see if they ruined the franchise again (they have), and Dead or Alive 4, which doesn't look as pretty as I might have hoped. I've also downloaded the demo for Rainbow Six: Vegas (mainly because I'm a pixel whore and I remember hearing that it looks pretty somewhere), but I haven't checked that out yet.
Aside from my console gaming fun, my return to work in my 'real' job has been insanely busy, and I've also had further confirmation that my ex is a completely unhinged psychopath after calling me out of the blue to have some weird, rambling imaginary conversation so that her boyfriend thinks that something she can't be arsed to do is actually all my fault. Err, okay....
Oh, and if anyone wants to know my Xbox Live gamer tag, it's Hanners. Imaginative, huh? I don't see myself going for a Gold subscription any time soon, but you never know, and I still have a one-month trial to burn once I've got a few more games to actually use it with so feel free to add me.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
It's fun to stay at the CCNA...
Last week saw Elite Bastards take a rare back seat in my life for once, as I was shipped off for a week of Cisco training - Of course, I'm not actually a CCNA yet (that would require taking an exam - Ugh!), but I do now have a head full of networking stacks, OSI models, routers, switches and IOS commands. All in all, it was really a good week, and I learned a tonne of stuff, so it was worth the early starts and driving to and from Southampton every day for a week.
Last week was also Christmas come early for me - My parents had decided to furnish me with a new laptop for Christmas, which was ordered last weekend, but had already turned up by Wednesday! So, I'm now the proud owner of a Dell Inspiron 6400, complete with Merom-based Core 2 Duo CPU, 1GB of RAM, Mobility Radeon X1300 and 1680x1050 wide screen LCD. All in all, it's a huge improvement over my previous laptop - It's thinner, it's quieter and it's faster. Considering the amount of DVDs and anime I watch on it these days, the wide screen LCD is a real boon, and I now have a system beefy enough to run High Definition video as well, which is becoming ever-more important. So, err.... Happy Christmas!
With a month to go before we celebrate the imaginary birth of the son of an imaginary deity, I can't help but wonder where this year has gone, it truly is frightening. I'll wax lyrical about how 2006 has gone and my expectations for 2007 some other time though, it still feels too early right now.
The coming weeks are going to be a hectic one of catch-up on the review front for me I feel, I've gotten so far behind between the Cisco training and taking time out for my G80 review that I have one Hell of a lot of work to do. Definitely time for me to refind my focus and start pushing forward with work aplenty between now and the festive season.
Last week was also Christmas come early for me - My parents had decided to furnish me with a new laptop for Christmas, which was ordered last weekend, but had already turned up by Wednesday! So, I'm now the proud owner of a Dell Inspiron 6400, complete with Merom-based Core 2 Duo CPU, 1GB of RAM, Mobility Radeon X1300 and 1680x1050 wide screen LCD. All in all, it's a huge improvement over my previous laptop - It's thinner, it's quieter and it's faster. Considering the amount of DVDs and anime I watch on it these days, the wide screen LCD is a real boon, and I now have a system beefy enough to run High Definition video as well, which is becoming ever-more important. So, err.... Happy Christmas!
With a month to go before we celebrate the imaginary birth of the son of an imaginary deity, I can't help but wonder where this year has gone, it truly is frightening. I'll wax lyrical about how 2006 has gone and my expectations for 2007 some other time though, it still feels too early right now.
The coming weeks are going to be a hectic one of catch-up on the review front for me I feel, I've gotten so far behind between the Cisco training and taking time out for my G80 review that I have one Hell of a lot of work to do. Definitely time for me to refind my focus and start pushing forward with work aplenty between now and the festive season.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
The G80 summit
Boy, has the past week been a blur... Almost non-stop benchmarking, IQ testing, reading technical documentation and writing. I've completely lost track of how much time I've sunk into my GeForce 8800 GTX review, but I just hope it's worth it! There's now light at the end of the tunnel though, and hopefully I should have the article completed and ready to go for Thursday if I can keep on trucking over the next day or so.
And that, really, is all there is to report. There's a certain love/hate relationship with such a new architecture from the reviewer's point of view - Love of playing with and understanding (and hopefully getting others to understand) the new technology, but hating the sheer quantity of work that needs to be undertaken in such a short period of time. It really does burn you out pretty quickly, but I have no time to rest once I'm finished with the piece - I now have a vast backlog of hardware to get through, ignoring other samples that are liable to come my way, and with a week long course for me next week my testing and writing time is going to be pretty limited.
Anyway, I've finally plucked up the courage to switch this 'Blog to the new beta version of Blogger (which ties in nicely to my G-Mail account), so let's see if this thing actually works!
And that, really, is all there is to report. There's a certain love/hate relationship with such a new architecture from the reviewer's point of view - Love of playing with and understanding (and hopefully getting others to understand) the new technology, but hating the sheer quantity of work that needs to be undertaken in such a short period of time. It really does burn you out pretty quickly, but I have no time to rest once I'm finished with the piece - I now have a vast backlog of hardware to get through, ignoring other samples that are liable to come my way, and with a week long course for me next week my testing and writing time is going to be pretty limited.
Anyway, I've finally plucked up the courage to switch this 'Blog to the new beta version of Blogger (which ties in nicely to my G-Mail account), so let's see if this thing actually works!
Friday, October 27, 2006
What day is it again?
You know that things are getting busy when you can't remember what day of the week it is half of the time (Although I know that today is Friday, hurrah!), and that's exactly the state I'm in at the moment. As things stand, my workload for Elite Bastards is through the roof, where I've been snowed under with graphics boards, motherboards and the like. Of course, this is a good thing, so I'm not complaining, but at the moment my life seems to revolve around 'article publishing days' rather than the metric used by most normal humans, known as 'days of the week'.
The most excellent news hardware-wise for the site has been the recent interest shown by ASUS in the sampling department, which is probably the biggest single step we've taken during my tenure in the hot seat so far. Add that in to the likes of Foxconn, PowerColor and Cyberlink, and we're really starting to build us some useful contacts.
The only thing that dampens my spirits at this particular juncture is the continued lack of communication with NVIDIA - With G80 just around the corner, I don't even have enough concrete information for a technology preview (although it sounds like all but a handful of journalists who got invited to Santa Clara are probably in that very same boat) which is, quite frankly, both hugely frustrating and disappointing. Anyway, I shall just have to suck it up, keep on trying, and look forward to (hopefully) a more fruitful time out of the R600 launch whenever that may be.
There are more exciting times around the corner for the site, but I shall keep these under my hat until they're all finished and ready to go. Suffice it to say, one of these mysterious 'exciting things' in particular will be a relief and source of happiness for our regular readers provided it goes to plan. :o)
Away from my helter-skelter life of reviews, last Tuesday was also my birthday. I'm not much of a birthday person, but one individual in particular really pulled me out of my apathy to put a big smile on my face this week. Thank you - You know who you are. ;o)
Towards the end of November I've now been booked in on a week-long CCNA course as part of my 'real' job, which means that I might have some fancy-dan Cisco-related letters to put after my name soon with any luck.
Finally, today I was offered an Xbox 360 for £100 by a work colleague. Can I resist the temptation, considering Gears of War went Gold this week? Probably not, in all honesty. Brace yourself for me raving about the wonders of next-generation console gaming sooner rather than later. Or, more likely, complaining about how rubbish I am at using gamepads.
The most excellent news hardware-wise for the site has been the recent interest shown by ASUS in the sampling department, which is probably the biggest single step we've taken during my tenure in the hot seat so far. Add that in to the likes of Foxconn, PowerColor and Cyberlink, and we're really starting to build us some useful contacts.
The only thing that dampens my spirits at this particular juncture is the continued lack of communication with NVIDIA - With G80 just around the corner, I don't even have enough concrete information for a technology preview (although it sounds like all but a handful of journalists who got invited to Santa Clara are probably in that very same boat) which is, quite frankly, both hugely frustrating and disappointing. Anyway, I shall just have to suck it up, keep on trying, and look forward to (hopefully) a more fruitful time out of the R600 launch whenever that may be.
There are more exciting times around the corner for the site, but I shall keep these under my hat until they're all finished and ready to go. Suffice it to say, one of these mysterious 'exciting things' in particular will be a relief and source of happiness for our regular readers provided it goes to plan. :o)
Away from my helter-skelter life of reviews, last Tuesday was also my birthday. I'm not much of a birthday person, but one individual in particular really pulled me out of my apathy to put a big smile on my face this week. Thank you - You know who you are. ;o)
Towards the end of November I've now been booked in on a week-long CCNA course as part of my 'real' job, which means that I might have some fancy-dan Cisco-related letters to put after my name soon with any luck.
Finally, today I was offered an Xbox 360 for £100 by a work colleague. Can I resist the temptation, considering Gears of War went Gold this week? Probably not, in all honesty. Brace yourself for me raving about the wonders of next-generation console gaming sooner rather than later. Or, more likely, complaining about how rubbish I am at using gamepads.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Learn the lesson, take the blows
So, after the best part of a week of feeling lousy with the 'flu, I'm finally back up, running and fighting fit.. Well, more or less anyway. It's pretty good timing as well, seeing as I've had to work quickly towards testing for and writing a UK exclusive (and, I have a funny feeling unless I get pipped to it, a world exclusive) review for Elite Bastards. As I seem to say far too often on this 'Blog, exciting times ahead... ;)
My personal life has also received a boost in the past few days, as I've finally swallowed my pride and embarrassment and gotten back in touch with someone who used to be a good friend of mine a couple of years ago. To cut a long story short, she was a mutual friend of mine and Tara's for quite a while, but thanks to Tara's incredible capacity for jealousy and paranoia I broke off talking to her for the sake of any further hassle (coupled with the fact that Tara had treated her like dirt in the past anyway, which made things all the more awkward). That turned out to be a big mistake of course, and I've really missed talking to Sara in the intervening period, until finally deciding to apologise for the way I just abandoned our friendship. Thankfully, my apology was accepted, so we're now talking and back to normal once again. So, that's another little bit of my life repaired for the better. Yay!
My personal life has also received a boost in the past few days, as I've finally swallowed my pride and embarrassment and gotten back in touch with someone who used to be a good friend of mine a couple of years ago. To cut a long story short, she was a mutual friend of mine and Tara's for quite a while, but thanks to Tara's incredible capacity for jealousy and paranoia I broke off talking to her for the sake of any further hassle (coupled with the fact that Tara had treated her like dirt in the past anyway, which made things all the more awkward). That turned out to be a big mistake of course, and I've really missed talking to Sara in the intervening period, until finally deciding to apologise for the way I just abandoned our friendship. Thankfully, my apology was accepted, so we're now talking and back to normal once again. So, that's another little bit of my life repaired for the better. Yay!
Monday, September 25, 2006
There's nothing worse...
...than being a guy, and being ill. It sucks. Nobody has ever been as ill as I feel now - Or so my brain tells me in a horrendous act of self-pity.
Yet, here I am, sat trying to write an article through a haze of drugs and tissues and bleary eyes. Ugh. Still, my drug-induced writing has somehow allowed me to work some Smiths lyrics into a comparison, so I guess it isn't all bad. :p
Apart from that, things aren't too shabby - We have some very excellent stuff around the corner content-wise at Elite Bastards, I have another review up at UK Anime, and so on and so forth.
Now, I would go to bed to continue my suffering, but the cat's curled up and fallen asleep on my lap while I was writing this. Crap. It's alright for some... :p
Yet, here I am, sat trying to write an article through a haze of drugs and tissues and bleary eyes. Ugh. Still, my drug-induced writing has somehow allowed me to work some Smiths lyrics into a comparison, so I guess it isn't all bad. :p
Apart from that, things aren't too shabby - We have some very excellent stuff around the corner content-wise at Elite Bastards, I have another review up at UK Anime, and so on and so forth.
Now, I would go to bed to continue my suffering, but the cat's curled up and fallen asleep on my lap while I was writing this. Crap. It's alright for some... :p
Sunday, September 17, 2006
If it takes another life, I'll wait for you on the other side...
I have to admit, I have something of a vested interest in the Scissor Sister's second album, Ta-Dah, if only because me and Laura have tickets to see them in November. I have to say though, their second album is largely disappointing. Gone is the biting wit of their eponymous debut album, replaced largely with bland 'pop by numbers' efforts that almost leave the group acting as a parody of themselves. There's nothing wrong with leaning heavily on 80s musical influences as long as you get it right, but from where I'm sitting Ta-Dah misses the mark on almost every count, with the current single I Don't Feel Like Dancin' acting as a warning sign for the watered-down cheese fest that follows.
In fairness, things do pick up a little on the second half of the album, culminating in Ta-Dah's saving musical grace - The Other Side, which turns out to be possibly one of the greatest tracks of 2006, and mixing the shoulder-shrugging melancholy you might associate with The Smiths against the kind of catchy pop sensibilities of Duran Duran and the like at their peak. Simply awesome stuff, but not enough to save this rather disappointing album. I can only hope they focus on their debut album in concert...
In fairness, things do pick up a little on the second half of the album, culminating in Ta-Dah's saving musical grace - The Other Side, which turns out to be possibly one of the greatest tracks of 2006, and mixing the shoulder-shrugging melancholy you might associate with The Smiths against the kind of catchy pop sensibilities of Duran Duran and the like at their peak. Simply awesome stuff, but not enough to save this rather disappointing album. I can only hope they focus on their debut album in concert...
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Success breeds success
I love it when a plan comes together - Particularly when I didn't even have a plan in the first place. ;o) Things seem to be moving on to yet another level at Elite Bastards very quickly - In the past week, I've had a game developer seeking an interview with us (which is done and dusted, and will see the light of day next week together with exclusive screenshots), two major graphics AIBs (one of whom I've been trying to curry favour with for a long time) sending hardware my way, and another one sounding very promising on that front. I can see it being a very busy autumn and winter for the site...
Things are still fun-packed on the anime reviewing gig too, with one new review published today and another completed and ready to go. It really is a great job to do, even reviewing the poorer quality shows.
Anyway, I really wanted to use this entry to share my excitement, so with that done, back to work!
Things are still fun-packed on the anime reviewing gig too, with one new review published today and another completed and ready to go. It really is a great job to do, even reviewing the poorer quality shows.
Anyway, I really wanted to use this entry to share my excitement, so with that done, back to work!
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Forging ahead
Boy, have I been on a roll this past week - Not only did I finish our rather popular Radeon X1650 PRO review for Elite Bastards, I've also now found myself an entire week ahead with regard to content, with two reviews sat ready to go any time I feel like it. If only I could stay in this situation all the time, it's a really great feeling to be sat atop a stack of good content. On top of that, I also had time to polish off my first review for UK Anime as well - Appaling to watch though it was, writing an anime review was a joy, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Hopefully, I can keep this state of affairs going, as I actually have a much required two week break from my 'real' job starting from now, meaning plenty of rest, relaxation and... Well, 'other things' (Use your imagination!)... for a while. It should also give me at least some time to keep up on the review front, with a fair amount of stuff in the pipeline, not least moving my test system to Core 2 Duo hopefully.
Recent weeks have also made me decide that it's finally time to bite the bullet and take serious action with regard to speed and time-out issues with Elite Bastards' server - This past week, we've had things tuned up a fair amount, with a little more tweaking on the way, but things still seem a little sluggish to me, so I'm looking very seriously at moving us to a new server and host entirely. I've seen the deal I want, so if all this tweaking doesn't get us where I want us to be performance-wise, it'll be time to move again to a very impressive sounding rig. Fun! Needless to say, I'll keep you all posted on where things go on that front as time goes on.
Hopefully, I can keep this state of affairs going, as I actually have a much required two week break from my 'real' job starting from now, meaning plenty of rest, relaxation and... Well, 'other things' (Use your imagination!)... for a while. It should also give me at least some time to keep up on the review front, with a fair amount of stuff in the pipeline, not least moving my test system to Core 2 Duo hopefully.
Recent weeks have also made me decide that it's finally time to bite the bullet and take serious action with regard to speed and time-out issues with Elite Bastards' server - This past week, we've had things tuned up a fair amount, with a little more tweaking on the way, but things still seem a little sluggish to me, so I'm looking very seriously at moving us to a new server and host entirely. I've seen the deal I want, so if all this tweaking doesn't get us where I want us to be performance-wise, it'll be time to move again to a very impressive sounding rig. Fun! Needless to say, I'll keep you all posted on where things go on that front as time goes on.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Bank Holiday
Nothing else to say really, except it's pretty much the last bank holiday of the year. Better make the most of it then I suppose....
"Bank holiday comes six times a year
Days of enjoyment to which everyone cheers
Bank holiday comes with a six pack of beer
Then its back to work a.g.a.i.n."
"Bank holiday comes six times a year
Days of enjoyment to which everyone cheers
Bank holiday comes with a six pack of beer
Then its back to work a.g.a.i.n."
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Norwegian Wood
After such a flurry of 'Blog updates recently, I seem to have gone a little quiet all of a sudden, but at last I now have a few interesting things to talk about.
Firstly, this week I finished reading Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood - An absolutely fantastic book that I found myself relating to in a number of ways as well as finding it pretty deeply moving at times. It's one of those books you finish feeling that you've learned a little more about yourself and people you've had dealings with, but without being able to quite put a finger on what you've learned. Anyway, great stuff nonetheless. Next on my 'to read' pile is Ulysses by James Joyce, weighing in at a thousand pages of not exactly easy to read prose. I like a challenge though, so wish me luck!
Speaking of challenges, the ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe board I was provided to test Radeon X1900 CrossFire has finally proved to be a challenge too far for me - To put it simply, it's been a nightmare to work with, with some horrible Serial ATA-related instabilities and quirks that I finally can't continue trying to work around, so as I write this I'm rebuilding my nForce4 system so that I can get back to working and benchmarking at a better pace. Unfortunately, this means that the X1900 CrossFire article I've been promising for so long is now on the backburner again, but I should be updating the Elite Bastards test rig to a Core 2 Duo-based system in the coming weeks, which should put me back on track on that front.
The final item of note on my agenda is that I've sealed myself another article writing gig today, this time writing for the number one UK-based anime website UK Anime. I don't actually have anything to review just yet, but everything is basically agreed with the site owner so you should be seeing reviews by me popping up there every now and then too. The great thing about this is that I spend a fair bit of my free time watching anime anyway, so it'll be a nice change of pace to get to write about it too, while at the same time not cutting into my priorities at Elite Bastards in any discernible sense. In all honesty, I can't wait to get started to try my hand at something a little different!
Firstly, this week I finished reading Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood - An absolutely fantastic book that I found myself relating to in a number of ways as well as finding it pretty deeply moving at times. It's one of those books you finish feeling that you've learned a little more about yourself and people you've had dealings with, but without being able to quite put a finger on what you've learned. Anyway, great stuff nonetheless. Next on my 'to read' pile is Ulysses by James Joyce, weighing in at a thousand pages of not exactly easy to read prose. I like a challenge though, so wish me luck!
Speaking of challenges, the ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe board I was provided to test Radeon X1900 CrossFire has finally proved to be a challenge too far for me - To put it simply, it's been a nightmare to work with, with some horrible Serial ATA-related instabilities and quirks that I finally can't continue trying to work around, so as I write this I'm rebuilding my nForce4 system so that I can get back to working and benchmarking at a better pace. Unfortunately, this means that the X1900 CrossFire article I've been promising for so long is now on the backburner again, but I should be updating the Elite Bastards test rig to a Core 2 Duo-based system in the coming weeks, which should put me back on track on that front.
The final item of note on my agenda is that I've sealed myself another article writing gig today, this time writing for the number one UK-based anime website UK Anime. I don't actually have anything to review just yet, but everything is basically agreed with the site owner so you should be seeing reviews by me popping up there every now and then too. The great thing about this is that I spend a fair bit of my free time watching anime anyway, so it'll be a nice change of pace to get to write about it too, while at the same time not cutting into my priorities at Elite Bastards in any discernible sense. In all honesty, I can't wait to get started to try my hand at something a little different!
Monday, August 14, 2006
Boom! Shake The (Server) Room
Whoops, I did it again - We got Slashdotted. Needless to say, the server is taking a pounding at the moment, the site is all but inaccessible, and our traffic is through the roof. It's nice to be popular, but sorry for all you guys and girls who are having to live without your fix of Elite Bastards for a while. Normal service will be resumed shortly... Until the next time it happens. ;)
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Losing My Religion
All my life, I've been looking for a religion that truly fits in with my worldview, and now I have found it - That's right, I am now the newest convert to 'Haruhiism'! ;)
If you're wondering what the Hell I'm on about, you'll either have to ask or watch The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Personally, I'd recommend the latter. :p
If you're wondering what the Hell I'm on about, you'll either have to ask or watch The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Personally, I'd recommend the latter. :p
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Still Alright
Well, it seems that someone up there doesn't want me to finish this Radeon X1900 CrossFire review - First I ended up with a faulty CrossFire Edition board, which ATI did an awesome job of sorting out a replacement for me. Then, once I was finally ready to sit down and start work, the bout of lethargy that hit me a couple of Blog entires ago put a stop to things. Now I'm over that - The 74GB Raptor in my test rig has died, which leaves me needing to shell out for a new one before I can proceed any further. Argh!! Any donations for the 'Buy Andy a new Raptor' fund will be gratefully received. ;)
Anyway, when I haven't been tearing my hair out troubleshooting my test system, I've been thoroughly enjoying (and this surprised me too) listening to Lily Allen's debut album, Still Alright. It's simply a fantastic record from beginning to end - The biting wit and 'poisonous' lyrics of Dubstar at their most vengeful, the street-smart delivery of The Streets or Dizzy Rascal, and at times the beats and musical constructs of Madness and two tone at their best. This could very well be one of the best pop records I've heard in years.
Anyway, when I haven't been tearing my hair out troubleshooting my test system, I've been thoroughly enjoying (and this surprised me too) listening to Lily Allen's debut album, Still Alright. It's simply a fantastic record from beginning to end - The biting wit and 'poisonous' lyrics of Dubstar at their most vengeful, the street-smart delivery of The Streets or Dizzy Rascal, and at times the beats and musical constructs of Madness and two tone at their best. This could very well be one of the best pop records I've heard in years.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
As quickly as it began...
...it ended. The day after writing about my feelings of lethargy and reviewers block, so it was gone, and I found myself having a mammoth article writing session lasting several hours. Similarly, tonight I've been hard at work benchmarking away on a high-end graphics board review and made a lot of progress on that front. No guarantees the review will be done next week as I'd like because it'll be a pretty long piece, but at least I'm getting somewhere. Oh, and I have another yet to be looked at by Elite Bastards SKU on the way next week too. :D
Mental block? What mental block?! ;)
Mental block? What mental block?! ;)
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Inner Universe
Well, been a while since my last Blog update, so it's time to throw some stuff down here I suppose - Not that there's much to talk about of note.
In all honesty, I've felt really drained these past few weeks, in no small part due to the hot weather, but also just down to a general sense of lethargy at the moment. I'm not too sure what it is, but I really haven't been able to get my teeth into anything much major Elite Bastards-wise lately, even though I still have plenty to be getting on with. I guess I'm just stuck in a bit of a writer's block-esque rut, but at the moment I can't seem to drag myself out of it. It doesn't help that I'm coming home most nights from work pretty knackered as things have been busy and stressful on that front (to the point where my blood pressure is now officially 'too high' - Eep!) - I guess I just need a holiday or something... So, if anyone has some magical ideas to pep me up and get the articles flowing again, then I'm all ears.
The one thing I have been indulging in plenty of lately is anime - Catching up on vast amounts of School Rumble (which is now officially the funniest anime ever in my book), as well as taking in all of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which was quite simply excellent. The only question now is... What to watch next?
Anyway, that really is all I can think of to type as I sit here feeling tired and altogether sorry for myself because I can't find the motivation to do much else. So, fingers crossed my next update is rather more eventful and upbeat than this one.
In all honesty, I've felt really drained these past few weeks, in no small part due to the hot weather, but also just down to a general sense of lethargy at the moment. I'm not too sure what it is, but I really haven't been able to get my teeth into anything much major Elite Bastards-wise lately, even though I still have plenty to be getting on with. I guess I'm just stuck in a bit of a writer's block-esque rut, but at the moment I can't seem to drag myself out of it. It doesn't help that I'm coming home most nights from work pretty knackered as things have been busy and stressful on that front (to the point where my blood pressure is now officially 'too high' - Eep!) - I guess I just need a holiday or something... So, if anyone has some magical ideas to pep me up and get the articles flowing again, then I'm all ears.
The one thing I have been indulging in plenty of lately is anime - Catching up on vast amounts of School Rumble (which is now officially the funniest anime ever in my book), as well as taking in all of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which was quite simply excellent. The only question now is... What to watch next?
Anyway, that really is all I can think of to type as I sit here feeling tired and altogether sorry for myself because I can't find the motivation to do much else. So, fingers crossed my next update is rather more eventful and upbeat than this one.
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