What happened to idontcare?

[2is]

This forum use to be riddled with posts (replies) from him filled with excellent technical information which I enjoyed reading even when much of it was well over my head. Haven't seen any posts from him at all recently. Hope all is ok.

 

[VirtualLarry]

He moved to the Land of the Rising Sun, IIRC. Some new project, and he wouldn't have much time for the forums anymore. Yes, he is missed.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I thought he moved to Taiwan?

 

[CHADBOGA]

The forum has suffered massively with his absence.

 

[john3850]

He posted some from his new home and then stopped.
He put much of his time into these forms.
That dude was blessed with a gift for math and graphs and enjoyed teaching.

 

[ShintaiDK]

The forum has suffered massively with his absence.

This. Freefall ever since.

 

[lehtv]

I never even noticed he left. I guess ... *puts on shades* ... Idontcare

 

[frozentundra123456]

The forum has suffered massively with his absence.

Totally agree. The forums are very polarized now between the intel/amd and amd/nVidia. There is more ranting for ones favorite team than useful information it seems sometimes.

 

[rgallant]

Totally agree. The forums are very polarized now between the intel/amd and amd/nVidia. There is more ranting for ones favorite team than useful information it seems sometimes.

this

 

[witeken]

This. Freefall ever since.

Totally agree.

this

I don't even know him .

 

[dma0991]

He's moved on into F&B business due to the decline in PC market.

:'(

 

[blackened23]

I do quite miss his informative posts as well. Oh well. He's doing his thing and I wish him well. Certainly family and real life will always trump AT, and his moderation stuff was likely taking up too much of his time I suppose.

 

[ShadowVVL]

He's been gone for a wile and I've been disappointed cause the forum just feels dead with out him.

Hopefully he returns soon because atm jesus's middle name is hume thread is the only thing keeping me in the forum and idk how long it will last.

 

[NTMBK]

I wonder whether his new employer has a social media policy preventing him from posting? I know that if I were a Taiwanese semiconductor fab, I would be wary of my employees posting on AT!

I miss him very much. He was fantastically knowledgeable, and could be relied upon to add realism and context to any debate on process tech. Us industry outsiders can only rely on marketing slides and half misunderstood rumours to try to guess at what's really going on.

 

[Idontcare]

Hi folks, a caring forum member happened upon this thread and emailed it my way to get my attention

Thanks for all your many kind words :$:$

I truly have missed the forums, or more specifically I would say I have truly missed my forum friends and the intellectually exciting discussions we held in the past.

But, as some of you mentioned, I'm now located in Taiwan which is exactly 12hrs time difference from the majority of you who live on the east coast of the USA.

I'm not prevented from posting here by technical "golden handcuffs" or any other compulsory requirements; rather, it simply became impractical to squeeze time out of what has been a crazy steep learning curve with acclimating myself and my family to our "chinese immersion" environment.

For the Zhōngwén speakers among you - 你好嗎? - and for the rest of us English speakers (be it first or third language ) - how ya been?

Regarding the present state of most things technology (or the end-consumer products as it were), is it just me or have we micro-iterated ourselves to the point of diminishing returns wherein the impetus for upgrading is practically non-existent?

My latest upgrade was to put a 1TB SSD in my laptop. Yawn.

IMO we need sub-20nm tech across the board (CPU, GPU, Ram, and SSD/Flash) to get things exciting again, we are languishing in these 2X-nm doldrums.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Regarding the present state of most things technology (or the end-consumer products as it were), is it just me or have we micro-iterated ourselves to the point of diminishing returns wherein the impetus for upgrading is practically non-existent?

My latest upgrade was to put a 1TB SSD in my laptop. Yawn.

IMO we need sub-20nm tech across the board (CPU, GPU, Ram, and SSD/Flash) to get things exciting again, we are languishing in these 2X-nm doldrums.

It's great to hear from you again!

Anyways, you are basically correct, everybody's waiting for Haswell-E, Broadwell-K (14nm), and the "real" NV Maxwell GPUs, the ones based on TSMC's 20nm.

The most excitement we've had around here was the Kabini AM1 launch, which was semi-exciting. An interesting product, low price-point, great for entry-level mini-ITX HTPC rigs. For ordinary desktop usage, not so much, when you can get a Haswell Pentium or Celeron for not much more, and have much-improved single-threaded performance.

There were some slides, indicating that Intel is going to release a "20th anniversary" (Haswell) Pentium, with an unlocked multiplier. Should be fun to play with, but not as exciting as if they had released an unlocked i3, complete with HyperThreading, AES-NI, and AVX/AVX2.

I started some somewhat-unpopular threads, about Intel's (I believe) move to BGA, and that they would start using "hardware DLC" - selling fully-capable chips, soldered onto motherboards, and in order to unlock features, you would have to pay for unlock codes. Given the success in the online gaming market of this scheme, I think that my idea has merit.

 

[Idontcare]

The most excitement we've had around here was the Kabini AM1 launch, which was semi-exciting. An interesting product, low price-point, great for entry-level mini-ITX HTPC rigs. For ordinary desktop usage, not so much, when you can get a Haswell Pentium or Celeron for not much more, and have much-improved single-threaded performance.

Kabini looks to be the savior of the memory makers, finally a product that enables a value-add opportunity for the memory makers' higher margin and higher speedbin dimms.

The downside of course is that it runs counter to the very notion of having performance on the cheap in going with Kabini in the first place. If you need ram that costs more than your CPU just to get an extra 10% performance out of said CPU then you have tasked yourself with the unenviable job of selling ice to Eskimos.

I started some somewhat-unpopular threads, about Intel's (I believe) move to BGA, and that they would start using "hardware DLC" - selling fully-capable chips, soldered onto motherboards, and in order to unlock features, you would have to pay for unlock codes. Given the success in the online gaming market of this scheme, I think that my idea has merit.

I can only imagine that marketing idea as being about as popular with this forum's constituents as a "start-bar less" windows 8

But I could definitely see it gaining traction as a viable business model for the 80+% of the consumer market that is composed of non-DIYers and non-enthusiasts who would be elated to pay just $100 down the road for a nice speed boost to their PC versus replacing it altogether.

 

[2is]

woohoo the legend lives on! Glad you and your family are doing well idc and thanks for checking in. For me, the most exciting thing has been on the software front. In particular, Mantle and DX12 to follow suit sometime next year.

 

[OCGuy]

Glad to hear reports of your self-imposed exile were apparently premature, IDC.

Settle something for us: What are your thoughts on how specific microarchitecture variations can alter the percieved "smoothness" of the computing experience for the end user?

(I kid, was a trainwreck thread here recently. Good to see you post)

 

[AtenRa]

Hi folks, a caring forum member happened upon this thread and emailed it my way to get my attention

Thanks for all your many kind words :$:$

I truly have missed the forums, or more specifically I would say I have truly missed my forum friends and the intellectually exciting discussions we held in the past.

But, as some of you mentioned, I'm now located in Taiwan which is exactly 12hrs time difference from the majority of you who live on the east coast of the USA.

I'm not prevented from posting here by technical "golden handcuffs" or any other compulsory requirements; rather, it simply became impractical to squeeze time out of what has been a crazy steep learning curve with acclimating myself and my family to our "chinese immersion" environment.

For the Zhōngwén speakers among you - 你好嗎? - and for the rest of us English speakers (be it first or third language ) - how ya been?

Regarding the present state of most things technology (or the end-consumer products as it were), is it just me or have we micro-iterated ourselves to the point of diminishing returns wherein the impetus for upgrading is practically non-existent?

My latest upgrade was to put a 1TB SSD in my laptop. Yawn.

IMO we need sub-20nm tech across the board (CPU, GPU, Ram, and SSD/Flash) to get things exciting again, we are languishing in these 2X-nm doldrums.

Nice to see you again IDC

 

[NTMBK]

I started some somewhat-unpopular threads, about Intel's (I believe) move to BGA, and that they would start using "hardware DLC" - selling fully-capable chips, soldered onto motherboards, and in order to unlock features, you would have to pay for unlock codes. Given the success in the online gaming market of this scheme, I think that my idea has merit.

They've already tried that out: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2010/09/intels-upgradable-processor-good-sense-or-utter-catastrophe/

 

[VirtualLarry]

They've already tried that out: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2010/09/intels-upgradable-processor-good-sense-or-utter-catastrophe/

Yes, I know that. My supposition, should they move to BGA-only CPUs, is that they would make customer-upgradable CPUs their primary business model.

 

[witeken]

That probably won't happen.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Nice to hear from you IDC. I agree, things are pretty boring on the hardware front. The forums right now are kind of like a "slow news day" in which the same topics get debated over and over because there is really nothing new and exciting to debate.

 

[ninaholic37]

Regarding the present state of most things technology (or the end-consumer products as it were), is it just me or have we micro-iterated ourselves to the point of diminishing returns wherein the impetus for upgrading is practically non-existent?

My latest upgrade was to put a 1TB SSD in my laptop. Yawn.

I think a lot of people here feel this way. In some ways I think we're actually going backwards (i.e. branding Atoms as Pentium/Celerons and Jaguars as A4/A6's). Someone should freeze my body/brain for 9 years (out of every 10) so I can have more interesting advancements to wake up to! My guess is that the 2004 laptop I'm typing this on will still be able to browse this forum without any issues in 2024.