The news is (almost) official. AMD are going to acquire ATI in an estimated $5.4 billion move. This will happen approximately three hours from when this post goes live (at 8.00am EDT 24th July 2006.) So what will this mean for the industry?

I think that it can only be a good thing. Intel have long been at the top in the home and in industry and from my experience, AMD offer a comparable and in some ways better product. You tend to gain more bang for less bucks with an AMD processor. From my experience, one of the reasons AMD haven’t really been able to break into the corporate environment is because intel have the full package of chips. They have the processor, the chipset and the graphics all on the same board. Of course, if you want flashy gaming graphics you tend to get something like an Nvidia or an ATI bundled with the machine - not so for the corporate world. They neither need or care about the latest 3D technology, so long as Excel runs OK.

So hopefully we will have the opportunity soon to see a real impression by AMD into the corporate and commercial sectors with a complete package that will seriously question intel’s dominance.

>>article has been amended to include a ink to AMD’s press release<<

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As you may know if you are a regular reader of my ramblings, I am a bit of an avid podcast listener and really enjoy listening on the bus, at home and anywhere else. So when the release of a new social podcasting site for listeners was announced I thought I’d check it out - although I’ve left it a few weeks to settle down first.

The coolest thing I’ve found so far is the ability to search for your favourite podcasts, combine them into a channel and either play them at the site, which is streamed, or create an RSS file or playlist. I’ve taken my channel and dropped it straight into Juice.

I will continue to test over the next week and let you (and the owners) know of any problems I find or tips/tricks in getting the most out of it.

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I have a USB drive and I also use a lot of PCs. This is something I’ve been thinking about doing in a long time - a way to store some of the more useful programs on your USB drive to carry with you whenever you need them, with the added security that your data travels with you too. You will find versions of Firefox and Thunderbird, as well as ftp apps and full blown office suites! Worth a stop by if you have some free space on your USB drive you don’t know what to do with.

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Well I think in some countries it probably isn’t, but in ours it’s perfectly acceptable… No hang on, this is a game not the.. er.. [quiet noise of shuffling feet]

Just click the link and enjoy. I managed 123 balls on my first go and I bet nobody can beat that!!

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Bit of a filler I know! Had to share this cool video (at least if you life Star Wars & Lego!) There are some particularly good fighting scenes with Yoda. Also there are some nice effects in space with the fighters and a good lego theme! The end is pretty good with a nice touch with Chewbacca taking a photo of Obi-Wan and Anakin. Watch and be impressed! No… seriously =)

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Good news for all firefox fans. The latest 2.0 beta is out, and although quite a few people have reported crashes (well it is still beta!) the over all consensus of opinion is that the new features are pretty cool.

I’ll be testing it over the next couple of days and keep you posted on developments. After first installing it there were a few compatibility issues with a few of my plugins and my themes, but apart from that it seems a bit nippier at loading web pages and apparently a lot of the inherent memory leaks with 1.5 have been addressed too. Anyway, keep dialed in and I’ll be back with a review!! Install the English version [here]

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This is probably one of the most surreal sites I’ve been to lately. It’s full of interesting flash games, that aren’t your normal run-of-the-mill puzzle or fighting or golf games. These actually have a bit of thought behind them and are really random.

The one I picked out as my favourite is growcube. You have to select things in a certain order to do well in the game (much like all of them really) and it’s a real learning experience! Anyway, check it out and lose a couple of hours of your life.

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For those of you who don’t know, ASCII is the standardised code that defines a basic character set. All PCs and (probably) all computers full stop use ASCII. Even this webpage is written in it’s purest form as ASCII - your web browser decyphers all the html garbage and creates some nice things like graphics and boxes and nice fonts (unless you use ie.. different story!)

OK tech lesson over, what’s with the website? It takes the standard ASCII characters, such as \ / _ and uses them as graphics to create a bigger version of your text, in various fonts.. If you’re not sure what I mean look at those natty email signatures you see in forum posts and the such. If you’re still not with it, follow the link and give it a go and you’ll quickly understand what I’m on about!

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OK, firstly apologies for the huge delay in blogging. I’m trying to gear myself up to more regular posts.. No honestly, but the flat’s in a bit of a mess because the builders are in and it’s just not convenient to post while at home.. So I’m posting at work (temporarily.) But expect a huge increase in posts soon as I start to take blogging more seriously..!

So onto this website.. Watch live streaming TV stations! I don’t really understand it fully, but it appears to be community based with a voting system for working channels and non-working channels. There are also requirements for channels to appear on the website and if you think the channel has broken any, you can add a negative vote. Pretty simple. The bit I don’t understand is where they sit with copyright.. There’s a disclaimer at the bottom saying that all ownership etc. is owned by prospective copyright holders. Don’t know how long that will hold up for. =)

Anyway, enjoy it while it’s still here (I spent most of last night watching pool on ESPN!)

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