Thanks for the reports on the Detroit event. I was there so I am especially interested to now know what happened. I couldn't make out much of what the announcers said. I couldn't see what the box builders were doing, although they did have some video shots on the stage screen, of which I could see the top third. Looked like one guy had a flashlight and manual in one hand and his other hand in total blackness inside the case. Both builders looked like they knew what they were doing, but they were not working fast. Probably if they could see it would have gone quicker. No one wanted to get the HD light wrong and be eliminated, I am sure.
The sound system delivered a sort of intermittant buzz which was the unintelligible amplification of the announcers voice. Imagine the worst sound card you could ever imagine, turned up to the point that there is nothing but clipping, till it sounds more like distortion guitar than speech, but the speaker cones have been torn up. I'm not exaggerating.
The main thing I could tell was the announcer kept yelling that the crowd was not loud enough. I could tell that's what he must have said because the crowd would have to scream three of four times before the announcer would let any stuff be tossed into the crowd.
Do not plan on getting any of the thrown stuff unless you get off physically intimidating strangers. Apparently a lot of AMD fanboys do. One burly 40ish gentleman adopted the stance of a football player and charged, flailing elbows, six or eight feet to whichever side a shirt was sailing through the air. He kept it up until he intercepted one, when he looked POed that he had been interferred with.
Two gentlemen wrestled to the floor both unwilling to yield their grasps on a tossed AMD bag. One was yelling, "Take me to the hospital!" For a while people in the area thought it was serious. The two remained on the floor for about five minutes before one's grip cramped and the other gentleman got it. It turned out they were buddies.
I did not want any of the junk. I moved around to three main places. At the beginning I was way in the back on one side, no one in front of me for ten feet. I fiigured it was safe. But a shirt came sailing right into my face. So I put my hands up to catch it. A gentleman scrambled backwards like an outfielder, leaped into the air backwards, falling into me as he scrambled trying to stay on his feet. I stepped backward to avoid being knocked over, and the gentleman fell on his back, one of my knees breaking his fall. I thought he might have hit his head on the concrete. I was sure he was hurt, but he got up immediately. He turned around and looked at me defiantly. I was kind of irked to miss getting the shirt. Then I thought, "At least a person that really wanted it got it". I had no idea fanboys were that into it. I would have given it to some one if I had got it, but it might not have been him.
>Battle of the Boxes, was easy sh!t, mostly same questions..
How did you know? I could only make out two or three words in a sentence. This goes for both the questions and answers. Although the questions may have been easy -I couldn't make out what very many of them were- three quarters of them went to at least to a second try, one half to a third try, and several went to the last answer remaining. People may have been pressing the buzzer before the questions were finished, but I don't know; I didn't hear a buzzer.
BTW, the answers can be given as A, B, C, or D and I'd recommend doing that when you can. I'm pretty sure one contestant just said the "PCI" answer wrong because he misunderstood one of the words. They asked him to repeat his answer and he was wrong. If he would have said "X" he would have been all set. Myself, I couldn't make out the words.
One answer was 1969, and I'm fairly sure the question was what year was AMD founded. Know the names of the former and present AMD leaders. AMD headquarters is in Sunnyvale, CA, not Austin.
It took about 20 minutes to find a spot to park and get to the line. The line up to the door at 8:00 was from the hanger to a fence -at least the length of a football field- and several people wide. By 8:10 it had doubled and was running the same distance along the fence up to the entrance guard shack. I imagine it turned into the parking lot after that. Hopes of getting a processor were nil among the people near me as they saw what was happening. We were cheered up at one point waiting in the blowing rain when the line had to open up to let a small jet be towed through to another runway. Later were were engulfed in kerosene fumes when the jet took off. I didn't know jet fumes were that strong you could get that effect from maybe a half mile away.
At 8:20 the line began to move. As we got to the hangar entrance, outside in the light rain we filled out forms identical to the ones we filled out at the AMD site in order to get in. They accepted printouts politely if you offered, no doubt to be tossed in the trash uselessly. They apologized for the circumstances and thanked us for coming.
I did not come across any food or mints. If there was any, I don't think any would have been left by the time I got inside.
It was interesting to be inside an aircraft hangar. Large.
Since the event is over, I don't gain anything by discouraging people. I hope this comes through as accurate and not nasty. It was not bad. People were not openly hostile, and often people excused themselves when they pushed you. It was not interesting. It was not fun. There was no feeling of community or friendship. People did not interact with anyone but the people they came with; there was not much opportunity with all the screaming and shirt throwing and the deafening squawks from the PA. If the event were held a mile from me, the weather was perfect, and the inside temperature ideal, I would not go. There was nothing there.
Facebook
Twitter