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.

German sausages, F1 racing and a possibly new change in life direction

Up to a week ago, I was nowhere near Malaysian soil, as i’d travelled all the way to Hannover to have a crack at quite possibly the world’s biggest IT trade fair – CeBIT. Just so you know, Hannover is in Germany – the land where the beer is excellent (and cheaper than water, to boot), where some of the women look like men, and where the general populace sports blonde hair and blue eyes. Like last year, the trip was sponsored by the good people over at Micro-Star International, also known as MSI; purveyor of computer nerd toys such as graphics cards, motherboards, server equipment and consumer electronics products. I’m still sifting through the pile of pictures I took, so bear with me while that particular week’s adventures and story remains untold. In a couple of days perhaps, yes?

Coming back to home ground, the first thing that I did was head straight for the Sepang International Circuit for the Malaysian chapter of the Formula 1 grand Prix, courtesy of Intel, where one of the BMW-Sauber (Intel’s sponsoring them this year) cars decided to give up the ghost midway through the race, while the other managed to at least squeak into the top 8 for some much needed points. Again, pictures and a recap of my experiences are in the works.

The next couple of months will also probably see me taking a new direction in what most of you term as ‘my career’. Not that I don’t like journalism. Being an Editor does have its perks, and I seriously love the workplace and the people I work with, but sometimes passion for writing doesn’t pay the bills, or prepare yourself for setting up a family, nor allow you to properly care for your parents when they’re older. This is still something that needs much more thought and consideration. After all, i’d be devastated if the past three years didn’t count for something.

In the meantime, here’s to spending the rest of the week working till the wee hours.

Journalism 101

Sometime before the end of the work week, this question came from a to-be-unnamed fellow journalist with a competing magazine:

“Do you think Google Ads will contribute to more spam.”

Embedded ads do not fall under the definition of spam. Even so, how does seeing Google Ads (or any other type of embedded ad in a webpage for that matter) add to spam in your mailbox? It’s an advertisement. So long as you don’t click on it to sign up for any gay porn mailing lists, you WON’T get any.

This is the same journalist, who when present at the launching ceremony for a line of notebook computers, asked the company’s managers and bosses, “So what do you do with the older models currently being sold?”

Its amazing how someone can be totally clueless, yet write for a readership of thousands.

Hello world!

It’s pretty sad that when one has access to their own hosting solution (a paid solution too, no less), one turns to free hosting for such a thing as a blog. Heck, why even blog in the first place? In hindsight, this is probably because i actually have the literary prowess of a equatorial tree monkey, and that i’m simply a facade of an Editor. Blogging might actually be good for me, if only just to let off steam on the crap that actually goes on behind the scenes when producing a print rag.

For now, i’m off to explore the inner workings of WordPress. Toodles!