Hooked

I haven't been hooked on a non-comedy TV show since MacGyver and Knight Rider. After listening to far too many people talk about how 24 was the greatest thing ever, I decided to give it a try...and I'm fully hooked. Vinney and I have caught up on the 4th season, and we're going back and watching the 1st season between weekly episodes of season 4. It's more addicting than anything I've ever watched in the past, a large part due to the way it's constructed, but it's good nonetheless.

I've got a flight to San Francisco on Monday for IDF. I'll be meeting up with Derek and Johan in San Fran. IDF is a big favorite of mine, since you can actually learn quite a bit from the show (which is in sharp contrast to most of the trade shows out there, where the focus is mostly attention, not necessarily information). Between finishing up school and getting married last year, I couldn't make it to either of the two IDFs in the US in '04. I've been going to IDF since 2000 and now, more than ever, am I interested to get a feel for Intel. They've got market share, but they are losing mind share, the precursor to losing market share - so I'll be looking for any hints of addressing the growing problem. Intel usually uses IDF to do at least one impressive, market leading, demonstration of muscle - hopefully it'll be more than just a dual core Pentium 4.

I will be leaving with two articles ready for publication in the hands of Karen, our managing editor. The first is the long awaited Cell article, I'm working on diagrams for the article as there's quite a bit of explaining of how things work that's done in the article. But after the images and some organization, that article should be done. The second is a quick guide to Mac memory, I've got memory from Kingston, Corsair, Crucial, OCZ, PDP and Transcend and I've been putting it through tests for quite some time now. As you can expect, the testing is relatively uneventful, but the article will still be useful for those looking to upgrade their Macs, especially those worried about using memory bought from somewhere other than apple.com (which I've found that there are quite a few out there).

The updates to this blog are far too few and far between, and I hope to fix that during IDF. It's too easy to put this blog on hold while I'm tied up researching, writing or benchmarking, but it's a commitment that I want to keep a top priority. It's the only "live" conduit I have to you all, and it's a very important one for me personally.

In other news, we should start construction on our new home in NC very soon. Permits are in hand and the first contractors should be at work shortly. It's going to be a long road, but it's one that I have the highest of hopes for by the end. The first house I bought was pretty much done when my mom first found it, but this house was completely designed from the ground up by Vinney and I (and a very talented architect - my middle school architectural design experience just doesn't cut it these days). It's exciting, it's going to be tough having it built while living 600 miles away, but luckily I've got a wonderful mom that's going to make sure all goes well in NC. I've got a mom who would give anything to make sure that I never have to have a single worry in the world, yet I'd give anything to keep her free of worries for the rest of her life.

Vinney's been real busy at school lately, especially now that she's actually involved in cases going to trial, so she's soundly sleeping as I type away. I think I'm done writing for the night, so I'm going to go join her. Have a great night and a wonderful weekend.