So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Check out http://www.ebolasaurus.com/. That's all you need to do, people!

Cool Cases @ CeBIT

Case modding, by definition, usually infers that a stock case (usually a boring beige piece) is modified into something that looks different from it’s original form. Manufacturers nowadays, are coming out with a whole slew of pre-modded cases, most of which include some form of funky lighting and cut-outs intended to display the innards of your PC for all to see. Thankfully, some manufacturers do subscribe to the belief that ‘Less is More’, as we can see from some of the following pictures, where simple curves and lines dominate the casing design, and where aesthetics rules instead of shockingly garish plastics.

Silverstone’s TJ07 casing is simply humungous, to the extent of supporting extended ATX motherboards, as can be seen with the dual CPU setup.

The two cases above are somewhat newer, and designed specifically to complement Western Digital’s latest Raptor X windowed hard disk drives, with plexiglass sheets positioned directly where the hard disks are installed, so you can see the actuator motors in action.

These two are cases designed and manufactured by a company called Testa Motari. While they do subscribe to certain standard elements found in conventional casing design, the overall package is different enough to warrant a second, or even third look. Good luck finding these on Asian shores though, as their current target market appears to only be Europe for the time being.

Thermaltake’s Mozart TX casing brings new meaning to the phrase ‘buggeringly huge’. For some odd reason, the system is designed to house multiple watercooling systems and only one computer. There’s even the option to add on a mini LCD, which looks supiciously like one of those car LCD systems adapted to fit into a 5.25″ bay. If any, i’m giving Thermaltake props for having the balls to actually make and sell a monstrosity like this.

Zalman’s line of products built around silent performance is boosted by their HD160. While technically not made by them (the HD160 is apparently made by OrigenAE) the system is as silent as can be, especially when outfitted with a couple of Zalman’s other products. This case is also extremely well made, with great care going into component layout and actual cooling performance. Reviews are aplenty online, just hit up Google.

This is Asus’ second attempt at their Vento casing. Some say the original Vento was rather beautiful, but I personally feel it was ugly and plasticky, not to mention horribly expensive. I can’t say much about the new Vento either, save for the fact that I still think Asus should stick to designing motherboards and graphics cards, or just fire the casing designer as well as the manager who approved the design for manufacture. Asus, sorry to say this, but I’d probably rank the Vento alongside Thermaltake’s Mozart TX: butt ugly and a disgrace to casing manufacturers everywhere.

Gigabyte’s trying to make some headway into the casing market with some selected aluminum designs. While not exactly pretty, their cases aren’t exactly ugly either. They’re well built, and have a reasonably decent feature list, not to mention cable-organizing friendly. Prices here are still within acceptable ranges too.

Arctic Cooling’s Silentium range isn’t exactly new, though they’re one of the few manufacturers putting emphasis on silence. Their designs are simple, and lean towards functionality over form. The use of a proprietary power supply, even if it is a silent model, is probably one of the bigger weaknesses of the Silentium range, though our pals at Arctic Cooling tell us this will be rectified in future revisions of their casing product line.

Lian Li is pretty much a mainstay in the aluminum casing industry, having made their name in selling nothing else by aluminum enclosures. Over the past year or so though, they’ve moved to designs incorporating perforated metal. it looked plenty cool in the beginning, but in my opinion, it’s getting old.

Last but not least is the Pininfarina case, made by a group called Spire. i actually saw a wooden proototype of this case back in last year’s CeBIT, and it looks like Spire have finally gotten it to market. Simple and sleek, with a side-opening motherboard tray design - I like this one.

Next up, something a little more geek-oriented: graphics cards, or maybe motherboards.

Lifestyle and Tech

Journos, like the reading public, are still human beings, and as such, we are also very much into gossip, especially if it concerns a rival publication, friendly or otherwise. Fortunately for us, we have ITJourno Asia, a portal that serves as a hub of news bytes that provides nuggets of information about what's going on in the world of journalism, especially in our little part of the world. Every once so often, IT Journo will drop a little piece of information that goes to show just how shallow, or clueless; take your pick; some journalists can be, experienced or otherwise.

Take for example, the latest person to head Stuff Malaysia, who spent some time with CHIP magazine (before and a while after they became CHIP ASEAN). To quote the fellow:

“On behalf of Stuff and as editor for the magazine, I hope to publish more articles on the neglected areas of technology, and more on re-examining the existing concepts of technology and pushing technology into new frontiers. I also hope to publish more articles on trends that affect the present and the future of technology, do stories that provide inside information on the emerging and evolving concepts in technology.”

Uh, yeah. Stuff is a gadget magazine, with it's trademark style being the shallow view of gadgets in general, and how they can help rich yuppies get laid by showing off the latest gadgets to wide eyed syeet young things with an eye for rich men with too much money to spend. By doing what you supposedly want to do, you'll be turning a gadget magazine into a tech magazine. Rich yuppies do not want to know how things work, or how tech can enrich their lives. All they really want are gadgets which look good, and more importantly, help them look good too. Make up your mind man, do you want to run a tech magazine, or a gadget magazine? Considering the title, and the history of the magazine both locally and internationally, it's got to be either one or the other. It's like saying a duck is the same thing as a chicken, with the reason being that both are birds. 

A New Beginning

I had a whole bunch of pictures uploaded for the next part of the CeBIT 'coverage', but that'll have to wait for the next time I log into WordPress. 

In my previous post, I guess it was pretty obvious what I was writing about. I came *this* close to moving on to a different job. Much bigger pay, even bigger responsibilities (or so it seemed), and a whole new environment. Some people I talked to about this said things along the lines of "Dude! It's a no brainer, man! Move!". Some said, "You sure about this? Is this what you really want?" I on the other hand, had only one thing going through my mind over the weekend: "WTF WTF WTF WTF WTF." It's the rare occasion that a weekend can be rather restful, and yet put me in one of the biggest quandaries i've ever been in. I mean, a person usually only jumps ship when conditions are ripe i.e. shitty work environment, work overload, peanuts for pay; that sort of thing. My current situation was pretty much already whole bucketload of work with easily half the month spent working late and/or on weekends, but that's as close to dissatisfaction as it got. Sure, the pay isn't exactly sky high, but I love the work I do, and I love the people I work with. Surprise, surprise; I ended up sticking to where I already was. Whoop de doo. Besides, I still haven't had a full year helming the magazine, and there are many things I want to do and prove to myself. 

I still wonder, though. Did I make the right decision, or did I let slip one of the biggest opportunities yet in my short 26 years of life. Either way, what's done is done. No other way to move, but forward. Bring it on.

Apprehension, and perhaps some relief

Today, or rather, Wednesday (yesterday! w00t!) marked the completion of whatever editorial content that had to go out to the designers. With the CeBIT trip and all, there was quite a lot to do, not to mention a supplement that was to be put in the April issue. Reviews, news, whatever; it's all done. What's left to do is check whatever my long suffering designer's laid out, and then send it all to the printers. Oh wait. There's still the cover. Bah. Still, at least the mag's 99% done, even though it's going to be horribly late this month.

What also happened earlier today was that I got word of something i'd been waiting for. Now that i've got official word, i'm kind of apprehensive about the whole thing. Am I making the right move? Will they make an effort to keep me around? In some ways, this is probably the next logical progression for me, but I can't help but feel that I owe them, and that staying is the right thing to do, even if it means living from hand to mouth for the next year or so. Times like this, maybe a return to religion would help, even if only for peace of mind. Maybe a night's sleep will help make things clearer, help me to see something I couldn't. 

CeBIT Stuff (1)

Since i'm about as brain dead as a koala sitting in a tree on a hot Sunday, I thought I might as well start off with some of the case mods presented by vendors as part of their booth decorations in CeBIT. Here are a couple of the nicer (and sharper) pictures my poor Ixus V40 managed to capture.

This was taken at CoolerMaster's booth, featuring a casing modded around what is supposed to be a Praetorian theme. Seeing as Praetorians are actually some species of Roman soldier, it's a little off that this mod incorporates what looks like bricks and some miscellaneous planks. On the other side of the case which you can't see, there is a wooden sword stuck to the side panel. Overall judgement: interesting, but lacks polish.

This is the booth of 'Point of View', a purveyor of graphics cards popular in Europe, and to some extent in the United States, but largely non existent in Malaysia. As you can see, this is nothing more than a computer built into the chest of a gigantic bat. Sure. I can make one of these easily. All I need to do is get myself a mannequin of sorts, hollow out the chest, and fit in a microATX motherboard. Take the easy way out, why don't you, POV?

These two pictures show a modded cube case, done by the people behind www.modmymachine.com. In the spirit of the popular MTV show 'Pimp My Ride', a bunch of europeans decided to pimp out, so to speak, a system of their choosing, while recording a video of it. Check out their website and download the picture. Sure, the acting is little stiff, and the English is mediocre at best, but the end product actually looks damn good. Also, the video production was pretty impressive, considering that these are a bunch of geeks who got together to build up a monster of a system. According to the guy standing by the machine, the mod took a little over 6 months to complete. Simply mind boggling.

Last but not least, is a computer built into a speaker unit. Nothing really impressive, yes, given my comments about the POV Bat Case above, but this is something new, as I haven't seen many mods of this type on the web. Too bad it was put behind a sheet of glass. Where is this, you ask? Creative's booth.

There were plenty of other mods around, especially in Hall 27, where there was a WCG-sponsored case modding competition. I didn't really bother shooting pictures there as my digital camera batteries were running flat, and none of the mods were as impressive.

More to come, later.

Sunday office blues

Writing for a computer technology title is probably a nerd's wet dream. You get to play with the latest gadgets, toys and hardware - often before the rest of the world has a chance to. Even better, you get paid for doing that. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Sadly, that kind of situation is probably only totally true when you're simply a writer. If you happen to be the Editor, or better yet, be part of a one-leg-kick office community where you are personally responsible for churning out 146 pages of content a month (OK, so maybe it's not 146 pages, about 20 odd pages are taken up by ads) with no more help than one other writer, things tend to get messy pretty quickly. Not only that, working late and on weekends ends up being a regular part of your life. It doesn't help that the job has no provisions for overtime, and that you're expected to get your shit done anyway by hook or by crook. The pay isn't all that great either.

There are perks to the job though. Once in a while, a vendor will organise junkets to faraway places, and maybe pay for your way there. So far, my passport's been to Singapore, the USA and Germany. Sometimes, those vendors will organise appreciation lunches or dinners for the media, in the hopes that a full stomach will make it easier for you to say good things about their products. Once every so often, you'll land freebies such as thumbdrives, mobile phones or even home appliances. Sometimes it's as simple as the Editor in Chief coming into the office on weekends to watch us work, and buy us writers and designers lunches or dinners.

As I write this, i'm sitting at my desk in a brain-locked state. I just finished compiling the pictures and writing out my article for CeBIT which happened earlier this month. I still have about 30 pages of hardware reviews to check, compile and write; It's already the 26th of the month, and the mag should already be at the printer's. We're horribly late, and I am in no mood to do any more work for the day. What i'd like to know, is it all worth it?

The CeBIT Visit (part 2)

More pix, of some sights and sounds, before I start on the actual stuff from the fair. The following basically details a visit to a church located about 10 minutes walk from the Hannover main rain station, also known as the Hauptbahnhoff. What the church is called, no idea I was more interested in the architecture than the name. Will do a quick Google later and update, but for now, here are the pics.

This is the view from across the street. Blithering huge place, the cathedral.

A clearer view, though from behind.

This is the entrance. I particularly like the stone carvings decorating the place.

A closeup of Saint George laying down the smackdown on a dragon.

This Martin Luther dude looks like a saint. I think. Can’t be arsed to do a Google on him right now.

Inside, the place smells a little old (doh!), but it was breathtaking nonetheless. Imagine holding Sunday mass in a place like that.

The stained glass has some history behind it. While I was standing there admiring the view, a bunch of tourists accompanied by their guide trooped right up behind me. Obviously, I listened in on what the guide was saying. Apparently the individual pieces of stained glass were taken down during the war, and moved away somewhere for safekeeping. A large number of the stained glass pieces were destroyed, not by bombs, but during the transportation process, when the wagon carrying them fell over. What you see is what’s left of the original pieces, including some replacement panels to fill in the blanks.

Below the stained glass is the altar, i think. The golden carved (wrought?) tapestry you see used to be closed up, only to be opened during special occasions such as Christmas mass. The carving apprently depicts the Last Supper. I didn’t think I was allowed to climb up and have a look, so I merely admired it from a distance.

An authentic pipe organ (I think that’s what its called). Quite the marvel of engineering, to build something that complicated. How many churches are there left that have one of these babies?

Something I noticed on the wall, depicting Saint George owning, what else, a dragon. All I can say to the dragon is, “You poor little sucker”.

This is where they hold baptism ceremonies. When i was baptised all I had was a teeny drop or two of water on the forehead by a priest toting a tiny little jug. When I have kids, i’m definitely going to get them baptised in a place like this. It’s all about the experience, man.

Outside the church were a couple of fountains such as this one. From the looks of it, it’s more of a decoration than a working fountain.

Blow that pipe, yo!

Walking off to the surrounding area, the church literally the only high rise building in that particular part of town.

From the relatively limited time I had to explore Hannover, I didn’t manage to see much. After all, I only could spare one afternoon for some walking about the town when it was not yet dark. Maybe tomorrow, pictures of the stuff that nerds want to see.

Journalism, and when to learn how to grow up

A couple of days back, I blogged about a certain somebody (read this if you have no clue to what i’m talking about). Said person made a big thing about it, making it sound like I have this vendetta against her. Someone going by the nickname ‘Kim Jong Il’ anonymously commenteded on the blog, effectively dissing her. She flipped, in the literal sense, going on an apparent office-wide rampage, resulting in major pwnage from the part of the Editor in Chief and assorted bosses (or something to that effect lah).

I have this to say: Grow Up. Don’t bitch about people bitching about you. It’s immature, it makes you look like a crybaby. If you think they have problems with you, then its either you resolve those issues, or you ignore them. If you want to win an argument, get your facts right, don’t bring in help from your family or friends just because your own argument can’t stand on its two feet. If you’re not happy about a relative newbie in your company getting the Editor post, then ask the bosses why you didn’t make it, and work to fix those issues. Don’t bitch just for the sake of bitching. If you really want something, then do something instead of whining. You’re a journalist, have some backbone. Taking things personally really shows your maturity, or lack thereof.
Either that, or i’ll just call the waaaaaahmbulance. 1800-waa-waa-waa.

The CeBIT Visit (part 1)

Well, not quite the CeBIT bits yet, but rather, some pictures of the place I stayed at, as well as a surprise snowfall on the first morning i was there. Enjoy!

This was taken on the morning of the second day, right before I roamed into the halls. This is one of the few restaurants inside the fairground, located right next to the main entrance.

Snow, baby. While this isn’t technically the first real snow i’d experienced, this was the first actual full-on snowfall i’d seen with my own eyes. I did see some snow last year, but it was so light that the snow had disappeared once it touched the ground, resulting in a wet, dirty slosh. This time around, it was the white stuff all the way baby. I might look all warm in my jacket, but my balls were quite literally freezing. The temperature: -7 degrees Celcius.

A nice shot of the tram tracks all covered in snow.

This is the house we stayed at, owned by a couple going by the name Fiks. Lovely people, very warm and friendly. Sadly, no pictures of them. Totally forgot to get them to snap a couple of pics with us, as we were only really ‘home’ in the mornings and at night. This was taken on the third day. No more snow, unfortunately, at least from the sky. Over the next couple of days. all the snow would gradually melt away. One of the people manning the booths in CeBIT told me that this was the first snowfall he’d seen in March, as according to him, snow usually only comes around December.

This is the view from my room window. You can imagine my suprise when I woke up to a world gone white. This is probably one of the best ways to wake up, ever.

Feet, snow. Snow, feet.

Look closely, and you’ll see the snow blowing past. Cold, I can take, but when there’s wind blowing at the same time, it’s a whole different kettle of fish. Windchill is no joke.

One quick shot of a portion of the fairground. The place is simply massive. Walking from one end to the other will easily take half an hour, hence the need for vans and vehicles to ferry people back and forth. There were plenty of internal buses and vans for journalists and visitors, but since most of the halls I wanted to visit were clustered close together, I opted to walk. Besides, standing at the designated pickup points in that kind of cold is not something I wanted to do.
It’s about 2.40 a.m. already, so i’ll stop here. More pics from the stash coming later, when I have the time to sit in front of Photoshop and crop everything to hell and back.