Month: June 2002

Give the Expos and Twins a Chance

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

It looks like this guy wants to try to get as many Expos and Twins players into the All-Star game as possible:

The two teams baseball wants to contract are the Expos and the Twins. If all the players from the Twins and the Expos were selected as starters this would create problems for anyone trying to get rid of such smaller market teams. I realize some of these players are not All-Star caliber, but the All Star Game is about the fans, NOT the players and owners. This is the one time of year baseball gives fans a voice.

Since I wouldn't normally care enough about the All-Star game to bother voting, I figure I’ll go along with this guy’s suggestion — let’ see what happens :).

Computer Power User Magazine

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

I was reading over AnandTech earlier today when I came across an ad that said “The Shark is back from retirement! Help welcome back Alex ‘Sharky‘ Ross.“. For those not aware, “Sharky” is an online computer-gaming journalist. I first knew of him as an editor/contributor at VoodooExtreme, a gaming news site. From there, he had some type of falling-out with the VoodooExtreme people, so he started his own gaming/hardware review site, SharkyExtreme.

Intrigued, I clicked on the link and it looks like Sharky, among others computing experts are contributing to a new magazine "Computer Power User" (or, "CPU" for short, how convenient). At any rate, the contributor list reads like a regular Who's Who of trusted experts in the online computing field:

  • Anand Lal Shimpi: Of course, this is the “Anand” in “AnandTech” — one of the web's most trusted sources for hardware news and reviews. Seriously, when it comes to hardware reviews, I trust Anand's opinion above all others (online or otherwise).
  • Alex “Sharky” Ross &mdashl; as mentioned, Sharky runs SharkyExtreme. And, SharkeyExtreme is second-only to AnandTech in terms of reliable and trustworthy tech reviews.
  • Rob “CmdrTaco” Malda &mdash yes that CmdrTaco! Yeah, Rob runs Slashdot, the site for &ldquoNews for Nerds”.
  • Chris Pirillo — this fellow runs LockerGnome, an online newsletter with tips and tricks for Windows. It's not a bad site, but Chris can come across as a bit over-caffeinated at times ;).
  • Kyle Bennett — he runs [H]ard OCP which is the the overclocking site. Want to see some guy push his AMD Thunderbird to 2.5 GHz? This is the site.

At any rate, I couldn't have asked for much more from a dead-tree magazine. I see from the page above that they have a link for a Free Issue but, you know what? I'm just going to subscribe to this one.

Wired Magazine Revamped

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

From Media Bistro, “Wired Magazine Rewires for a New Age”

Like the digital world it draws on, Wired is moving from revolution to evolution. Once known for its jarring graphics and edgy approach to culture and technology issues, the magazine today is easier to read — no crazy fonts in sight — and is settling into a more general-interest niche.[...]

Back in the early 90s, I got a few issues of Wired magazine from a free trial subscription. But, as legend accurately depicts, Wired was quirky-for-the-sake-of-quirky, and I let the trial subscription lapse. Hmm, maybe next time I'm in [B&N|Borders], I'll give Wired another look.

Update: Ah! I see that their June issue (post-update) is fully available online. That's convenient, as I'll be able to read it online (for free) to see if it really has improved.