Second Hand Smoke - You Ready To Rule?
The last time I had a column on these pages was about fourteen months ago. So, it feels a little strange to be here again, and at the same time, it is gratifying to get back into the world of hardware. Having spent the best part of the last fourteen months in the world of Internet software, I have to admit to feeling more comfortable dealing with tangible stuff, stuff that you can hold in your hands, or throw out the window when it gets you down. Who knows, maybe if people could hold a Web site in their hands, like a box, or urn, or something they could hurl and smash into a million pieces, maybe, just maybe, the tech world would be a little more stable these days.
Coming back into the hardware business after a long break, there's a lot to get excited about. For one thing, in keeping with my legislated anarchist principles, you, me, the people who have to fork out good money for hardware, have a measure of control over the destiny of the industry that is quite novel in its short history. We can be heard. We have the power. We always thought we did, but not really. It was an illusion. We wanted to get from A to B, but were told that the straightest route was through backwater Z. Pentium 4 and Rambus. Maybe you can get from A to B through Z, and it may not be much of a detour, but don't just wish, sometimes, that the hardware industry would give you the shortest route, no deviations?
Power Shifts To The User
The PC industry has kind of run roughshod over its users, and the excuse has always been tied to the inexorable march of technology. Who would have thought that a company like Intel would have to try that much harder to win over users, or that an article on this site would be viewed as instrumental in a Pentium III recall? Microsoft releases an OS, Windows ME, and it gets panned. I mean, slaughtered. Who would have a thought that?
It's good for Intel and Microsoft. It's good for the industry that these things are happening. I am saddened to see that in some areas, for example graphics, the level of competition has diminished. However, there are still so many permutations of hardware, and devices to consider that we have a long way to go before PCs become commodities. PCs from some of the major brand name vendors may be commodities, but I tend to think that being on these pages is about beating the mediocrity of systems in a box, without compromising on quality, and certainly not performance.
That's one of the reasons why I wanted to get back to Tom's Hardware Guide. The thought of being able to do some good will probably atone for my sins in selling sub-par hardware in a past life. What better way to do that than to be a part of what is still the greatest hardware site on the Web. I can say that because, I have had the benefit of coming at it from the outside. In future, modesty will probably not allow me to be as effusive about the site, but let me enjoy it for now.
Another great reason to be here is that there is just so much cool stuff out there, and we haven't even begun to figure out how to measure its potency, and its value. When one thinks about Tom's Hardware Guide, one thinks of CPUs, motherboards, memory configurations, storage systems, graphics, but there is so much other cool hardware stuff - cameras, portable digital audio players, handhelds, PIMs.
