JW Middleton and I are meeting and driving down to the DeKalb Peachtree Airport for the 8:30 pm event. Any other Atlantans going? We could meet there or nearby.
EDIT: John and I got to meet LastKnight (Woodrow)and his girlfriend. An amazing thing folks, he looks exactly like his Avatar :Q
PS - Here is a review of this year's AMD promo event
AMD Extreme Performance Project Promo #2 Review
AMD is dancing around the Country promoting it?s CPU line again in 2002 adding to the success of the original promotion in 2001. In 2002 they basically pulled up to various Mall parking lots with a large truck and did the show from there. They had a PA system and some tables, Promo items such as T-shirts, Coffee Mugs and the all important item, processors, about 75 of them given away in 3 successive 25 waves of randomly pulled numbers. They advertised the events well in advance, the times were before sunrise and the AMD loyal turned out in the thousands most of the time in the freezing cold at each event and as an attendee that came away with nothing at all would still say it was a tremendous success for the Company and still fun for me to be there.
For 2002 they took the event inside in large venues such as an aircraft hangar at a local Atlanta airport. They pulled out a lot more stops for showmanship such as large aluminum truss work frames normally seen at shows like Comdex with Dance Club style flashing lights. They set up kiosks that look like Video arcade machines with various demos, they catered some food in, had a Partner Vendor booth that featured $10 off on various Motherboards for AMD CPU?s, and the all important stage from which to work from.
Although during the shortened, compared to 2001, promotion on the Internet they had you fill out an online ?admission? form to bring to the event, but they didn?t take it, you had to fill out a smaller form at a table outside first to give that at the door to get a ticket inside which contained you randomly assigned number for the 3 chances to win a processor. Each ticket with your number had 3 stubs labeled Performance, Reliability and Solutions that you tear off place into 3 boxes around the area immediately to be entered in the 3 drawings. Instead of 3 waves of 25 processors they did 11, 9 and 9.
In addition to the random number chances they have a new twist this year, Battle of the boxes. There is a table near the stage where you fill out a form to enter for a chance to be a Battle Boxes contestant. Now here is where you can increase your chance of getting a processor. The event promotions guy said this, not me, I later found out there is not one AMD employee at the event, it is all the Promotion Company hired by AMD, the guy said to enter as many times as you?d like, in other words people after you get your 3 ticket stubs into the 3 boxes get over to the Battle of the Boxes table and fill out as many forms as you can up until they take the box on stage for the drawing. I?ll tell you why that is so important next.
They pick 2 waves of 5 contestants to answer questions Jeopardy style on the stage. Here is where that is key whether you want to participate in building a Battle box or not, each contestant automatically gets a processor and each of the promo items which were T-shirts, AMD shoulder bag and AMD hats! Now if you answer 5 questions right first you win that heat. Each winner of the two heats gets to pick from a list of parts up to $749 to put together the PC they believe will be the best value and best performer. They have various CPUs 1800+ or 2100+, Ram such as PC2100 or PC2700, Video cards such as onboard Nvidia or TI 4200. They get 30 minutes to assemble the machine. One guy did it 17 minutes while the other guy used the whole 30 minutes and killed the PC by forgetting the Motherboard standoffs, oops. So the guy who got his system up won the grand prize of $2,500 plus another processor and the runner up won $500 and another processor. Normally they would do a benchmark test to see which system is the winner.
So there you have it, second year of a promotion only the AMD CPU Company is doing and it is still successful, the promo Company could turn down the Rave music blasting from the new bigger and louder PA system (they had it so loud at one point that the AMP blew a breaker) and of course would like to see them give out some more processors.
On a side note that should be it but I?m not sure if it is AMD or only the Promo Company trying this. For the first time at the Atlanta show they are featuring a 22 yr old guy from Brooklyn New York that has a book out called Hacker Cracker. He admits to being a Hacker and a Cracker at the ages of 14 to 18, doing things such as the infamous AOL chat room password stealing stunts such as telling people he is an AOL Rep and they lost their password and Credit Card info and people gave it to them. Also hacking into website such as Porn sites and stealing Credit Card numbers there, some 20,000 of them worth. Although he was underage at the time I have no idea why anyone would be promoting such activity and why the guy is not at least on probation for a good part of his adult life much less promoting and profiteering from his past antics. Just my two cents worth after being prosecuted myself for being a hacker when I clearly was not hacking.
Free Computing On!
David McOwen
EDIT: John and I got to meet LastKnight (Woodrow)and his girlfriend. An amazing thing folks, he looks exactly like his Avatar :Q
PS - Here is a review of this year's AMD promo event
AMD Extreme Performance Project Promo #2 Review
AMD is dancing around the Country promoting it?s CPU line again in 2002 adding to the success of the original promotion in 2001. In 2002 they basically pulled up to various Mall parking lots with a large truck and did the show from there. They had a PA system and some tables, Promo items such as T-shirts, Coffee Mugs and the all important item, processors, about 75 of them given away in 3 successive 25 waves of randomly pulled numbers. They advertised the events well in advance, the times were before sunrise and the AMD loyal turned out in the thousands most of the time in the freezing cold at each event and as an attendee that came away with nothing at all would still say it was a tremendous success for the Company and still fun for me to be there.
For 2002 they took the event inside in large venues such as an aircraft hangar at a local Atlanta airport. They pulled out a lot more stops for showmanship such as large aluminum truss work frames normally seen at shows like Comdex with Dance Club style flashing lights. They set up kiosks that look like Video arcade machines with various demos, they catered some food in, had a Partner Vendor booth that featured $10 off on various Motherboards for AMD CPU?s, and the all important stage from which to work from.
Although during the shortened, compared to 2001, promotion on the Internet they had you fill out an online ?admission? form to bring to the event, but they didn?t take it, you had to fill out a smaller form at a table outside first to give that at the door to get a ticket inside which contained you randomly assigned number for the 3 chances to win a processor. Each ticket with your number had 3 stubs labeled Performance, Reliability and Solutions that you tear off place into 3 boxes around the area immediately to be entered in the 3 drawings. Instead of 3 waves of 25 processors they did 11, 9 and 9.
In addition to the random number chances they have a new twist this year, Battle of the boxes. There is a table near the stage where you fill out a form to enter for a chance to be a Battle Boxes contestant. Now here is where you can increase your chance of getting a processor. The event promotions guy said this, not me, I later found out there is not one AMD employee at the event, it is all the Promotion Company hired by AMD, the guy said to enter as many times as you?d like, in other words people after you get your 3 ticket stubs into the 3 boxes get over to the Battle of the Boxes table and fill out as many forms as you can up until they take the box on stage for the drawing. I?ll tell you why that is so important next.
They pick 2 waves of 5 contestants to answer questions Jeopardy style on the stage. Here is where that is key whether you want to participate in building a Battle box or not, each contestant automatically gets a processor and each of the promo items which were T-shirts, AMD shoulder bag and AMD hats! Now if you answer 5 questions right first you win that heat. Each winner of the two heats gets to pick from a list of parts up to $749 to put together the PC they believe will be the best value and best performer. They have various CPUs 1800+ or 2100+, Ram such as PC2100 or PC2700, Video cards such as onboard Nvidia or TI 4200. They get 30 minutes to assemble the machine. One guy did it 17 minutes while the other guy used the whole 30 minutes and killed the PC by forgetting the Motherboard standoffs, oops. So the guy who got his system up won the grand prize of $2,500 plus another processor and the runner up won $500 and another processor. Normally they would do a benchmark test to see which system is the winner.
So there you have it, second year of a promotion only the AMD CPU Company is doing and it is still successful, the promo Company could turn down the Rave music blasting from the new bigger and louder PA system (they had it so loud at one point that the AMP blew a breaker) and of course would like to see them give out some more processors.
On a side note that should be it but I?m not sure if it is AMD or only the Promo Company trying this. For the first time at the Atlanta show they are featuring a 22 yr old guy from Brooklyn New York that has a book out called Hacker Cracker. He admits to being a Hacker and a Cracker at the ages of 14 to 18, doing things such as the infamous AOL chat room password stealing stunts such as telling people he is an AOL Rep and they lost their password and Credit Card info and people gave it to them. Also hacking into website such as Porn sites and stealing Credit Card numbers there, some 20,000 of them worth. Although he was underage at the time I have no idea why anyone would be promoting such activity and why the guy is not at least on probation for a good part of his adult life much less promoting and profiteering from his past antics. Just my two cents worth after being prosecuted myself for being a hacker when I clearly was not hacking.
Free Computing On!
David McOwen
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