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CES 09 Flashback: What made the Cabrtosr Cool List

Ian McNaughton — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:18:00 +0000

For anyone who hasn’t figured it out yet, I officially have the best job in the IT world. For those of you still unconvinced, just read this post.

Walked the floor with none other than Charlie from The Inq…

After I spent 4 solid days locked in a 10x10ft white room briefing journalists and analysts and after a grueling panel discussion @Digital Hollywood, I was finally freed to walk the show floor…

It just so happened that the infamous Charlie D notoriously known as the slayer of “Corporate Pirates”, the destroyer of “Marketing Fluff” and the wearer of “the coolest t-shirts” from The Inquirer was in the AMD press area and agreed to accompany me on my technology pilgrimage.

Set forth young men and wander…

First stop The Sands Convention Centre:

Charlie wearing a stylish pair of Vuzix 3D Glasses

We stopped by the Vuzix booth and took a look at their “3D glasses for gaming” to experience the difference between their glasses and the other 3D glasses at the show, I have to admit, playing CRYSIS with these glasses rocked…You feel like you are in the game, you are able to play games and watch movies at 16:9 widescreen aspect ratios. The model we tried was only 4ozs and had an amazing 11hr battery life. I think these products have a future with the gaming community.

Before we left The Sands, I ran into an old friend, I took a quick pic of him lazing away watching a movie in 3D.

Tarindar from Hexus.net chill’in @CES09

Next stop North Hall:

Had a quick stop @ Dolby and saw some really cool technology, they really know how to max out the audio experience, more on that in a separate blog.

Moving on we came across D-Box and saw some very cool racing simulators. I jumped in one of these and took it for a spin, wow what a heart pounding racing sim experience.

d-box D-Box and it’s "true to life" racecar cockpit

Side view of the Cockpit awesomeness

After our brush with greatness on the virtual track, we headed off to hunt down Thermaltake’s booth.

Thermaltake had an amazing amount of hardware and peripherals on display, I had to narrow down the really cool tech as they had so much, here are the two top products (IMO):

Dual slot external HDD

Thermaltake SpinQ – Mix between Art and Design

This SpinQ cooler is practically silent and it does have uniqueness about it in terms of design. Notice the shiny award behind it, the SpinQ won a covenanted innovations award for Design & Engineering, Congrats TT.

The next stop was iZ3D:

3D Monitors in all their glory

Now these guys are hardcore 3D gamers…I had no choice but to sit-down and experience MSFT FlightSim (RIP) in all its 3D glory.

Yes, your immediate assumptions is correct, I tried to crash the plane, but MSFT does not allow that anymore

Check out these guys, they have some interesting technology, both with glasses and in monitor. I had a blast playing FlightSim in 3D to be honest. No worries, these 3D monitors are regular monitors as well; just exit 3D mode and take off the cool shades and you are back in “normal” everyday business.

When we were @iZ3D there was a loud brouhaha happening right outside so Charlie and I had to check it out…to our amazement.

Welcome to Race Car Sim heaven – $40,000 of pure bliss

The guys next door were Simcraft they are the proud makers of REAL full-motion simulators. Three monitors, multiple hydraulics a lifelike roll cage and 100% adrenaline fed gaming bliss.

Neither Charlie nor I had the nerve to jump in this badboy (mostly because the line stretched on for 400ft) so we didn’t actually try it out, but based on the sheer massive amount of people in line to do a few laps I am convinced this is a winner.

Oh, did I mention they are priced around $40,000 USD and professional race car drivers practice in them?

Moving along:

Over @ the Creative booth, I ran into my old (me not him) pal Fata1ty showing off his new Creative usb headset for gaming, gotta get me one of those.

Also, I noticed a few outliers in their booth check these out:

"Wetter is Better" goes the tagline – The World's first desktop personal computer cooled by patented total liquid submersion – ReactorTM

“

This beast is a fully submerged PC, yes, fully submerged in LIQUID, patented LIQUID, but still liquid, imagine.

The TEAM ATI guys did this back in 2004 @ a LAN party in Dallas, but their chassis was a fishtank and the liquid was mineral oil, who knew it would be commercialized. Wow.

Also, in the creative booth, we saw this:

NEC CRVD-42WX Curved Display

As they say – A picture is worth a thousand words, or in this case, 10,000 words

AMD Dragon Platform was everywhere

The show was a success for us @ AMD, here are some highlights in case you missed all the media during the show:

ATI Radeon^TM Mobility 4-series GPUs
Dragon platform and Phenom II
- Watch the Phenom II X4 940 set the world record 6.5GHz overclock using liquid helium!
- You say you want even more overclocking vids?
  Watch Team Finland break 3DMark06 records with the Phenom II X4 overclocked on liquid nitrogen.
HP Pavilion dv2 (which won Best Laptop of CES – Laptop Magazine)
- AMD’s CEO Dirk Meyer and Satjiv S. Chahil of HP introduce the New HP Pavilion dv2 Ultra Thin Notebook
Tremendously successful keynote with CEO Dirk Meyer

See you next year!

Cheers!

Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton

Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

Dinner and drink with The Inq

Ian McNaughton — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:41:00 +0000

Cry “Oi!” when empty

The day started for me like any other. I was at our AMD offices in Frimley, busy marketing, PR’ing, and peddling our market-leading products. Happy and humming to myself – until a meeting reminder popped up. “Dinner with The Inq @ Gordon Ramsey’s tonight at 7pm.”

Huh? What? WHO? Oh, nooooo!

For those of you who recognized “The Inq,” you are probably familiar with The Inquirer. Reporters of tech industry tales, news, players, and products. Kingmakers and breakers. Inflaters and deflaters of reputations. Major stockholders in creating industry laughingstocks. And I am about to have dinner with The Inq’s Chief Editor and Grand Inquisitor himself: Paul Hales.

The Inquirer is one of the most influential publications in our industry because they seem to get their facts correct at least HALF the time. The other half is delivered with tongue firmly in cheek. I recalled what happened the last time The Inq shined their spotlight on me. My paranoia bubbled.

After I fought off my first inclination to develop a sudden debilitating illness or family emergency, an idea came to me. Maybe I could witness some blackmailable behaviour and hold it over them at some crucial moment. Better still, why not turn the tables a little bit by blogging about my evening with the infamous Inq?

I arrived promptly forty minutes late, and noticed their bar bill was already over 100 quid. We made introductions. Paul Hales, The Inq’s “Chief Architect of Flufferoo and Spin,” and Mark Ballard, introduced as “the cabbie who drove Paul here tonight.” I foolishly believed this, and several minutes went by until the laughter died down. Mark is actually a writer for The Inq – and an “INQaholic,” as he reveals in a YouTube video.

Paul Hales was a true gentleman, an entertaining conversationalist – and a relentless interrogator. He did it the old-fashioned way: force-feeding me alcohol in an attempt at lubricating ye olde tongue-flapper, while asking dozens of penetrating questions about confidential product roadmaps and competitive strategy in variety of different ways. I realized that the true “INQaholics” were their hapless dinner guests, but my Highland blood gave me the edge. I learned more about Paul than he did about AMD’s eyes-only secrets. I filled my pockets with some professional and personal “Halesy” facts:

Professional:

Has an absolute passion for our industry.
Serenely certain he has the perfect job, and believes “stirring it up” is his mandate.
Loves to use The Inq to humanize and personalize the sometimes “faceless” IT industry.
Does not allow large blue or green companies to brainwash him with aggressive spinner-spinning.
Thinks it’s hilarious that he posted an online picture of me hiding inside a large plastic bag.

Personal:

Loves his family and children – and they clearly love him.
Dresses in leather, and dances nights away at Spanish cha-cha bars.
Hates beer, but loves fru-fru beverages and cocktails.
Maintains that yelling “Oi!” across a crowded restaurant is permissible if your mug is empty.
Will never eat at a Gordon Ramsey’s again.

I’m forced to admit that I was wrong about the boys from The Inq. They are not merely journalistic jackals feasting on the industry herd. I enjoyed a night of wit, charm, and humour with one of the most influential journalists in the IT industry. Paul Hales is smart, insightful, and unpretentious, someone who loves to discuss the inner workings and goings-on within our industry. Just the kind of guy I like to tip a beer with – if only he liked beer. Mark Ballard is a tremendously talented writer and devoted INQaholic – or the most industry-savvy cab driver I have ever met. I’m still investigating.

The people I meet in this industry are often so much more than they seem.


Down and out at Gordon Ramsey’s	Paul and his son

Cheers!

Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton

Ian McNaughton is senior manager of product and platform marketing EMEA at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.