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.