rob was here.

and not a drop to drink. Today was day 1 of computex. For those unfamiliar with this, it is the annual trade show where hardware developers show to the public what they intend on releasing in the upcoming months. Similar to the E3 trade show which happened last week (except that was about video games).

This years announcements seem a lot more revolutionary than previous years. In the last few years, the biggest breakthroughs seemed to be focused around advancements in mobile computing (centrino, low power mobile cpu's, etc) and the movement from 32bit to 64bit architectures.

The exciting thing about this year is the announcements of multi-core cpu's and gpu's intended for home users.

AMD has announced their AMD64-X2 lineup, which are dual-core 64bit athlons. Four models will be debuted in the near future (4200+, 4400+, 4600+, 4800+).. From what I've read, it appears that these new dual-core cpus are conformant with current socket 939 (Athlon64) motherboards. Very cool. This is AMD's answer to Intels recent Pentium 4D dual-core processor.

I've heard multiple rumors that intel has included some hardware DRM into their Pentium 4D processors, which may be employed to prevent piracy or copying of certain media. This combined with the fact that AMD's X2's have greater performance and run cooler than the Pentium 4 D make me inclined to stick with AMD upon my next computer upgrade.

Also today, in video card land, ATi announced it's new technology, dubbed crossfire, which allows for multiple videocards to distribute the graphics processing load. It seems that future motherboards have to support a new crossfire for this feature to work. Seems a bit expensive to me: 2 high-performance video cards and a high-end mobo to trick out your latest games! I won't be into that barrel until this stuff becomes standard, but it's intriging none-the-less.

well.. the day before last i was convocated (ceremony where I walk across the stage to recieve my diploma), and last night was a dinner-and-dance held by my engineering class at the fairmont hotel.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable weekend - although i'm not really into these formal type dressing-up events. But a good time was had anyways!

The dinner-and-dance marked the last time (perhaps ever) that my entire engineering class will be at the same event. Over the course of the summer a lot of people will be departing newfoundland to start their new lives in other places. The first to go will be a good friend, naeim, who will be departing tommorow. I wish him all the best in his persuit of grad studies in america. Good luck and best wishes go to all the others who will follow him into the working world over the next few weeks.

As for me, I'm continuing to search for employment here in newfoundland. There seems to be at least some opporunities for a computer engineer, and i'm continuously sending out applications.

Susan supprised me yesterday afternoon with pearl jam tickets for september 25th at mile one stadium. I can't wait for that show.

Here are some snaps from last night:


ice cream cake


susan and I


alain, me and mike


me, jeremy, mike, and reido


post-party burger king

mad props goto kun li, who drew everyone the class to form a mini-mural. I, myself, was rendered as megaman: an honour for sure. :)

check out the blog of the minimural that he set up to see the scans.

Well, it's almost june, and its been just over a month since I wrote my last final exam and secured my university degree. I convocate this coming friday; thats where i gotta throw on the robe and walk across the stage.

I've been searching for employment (pretty casually mind you) at the local software companies here in St. John's.. Just pretty much been sending resumes and emails out. No interviews yet. Most places just say that they will file my resume. I'll keep up the hunt, and in the meantime, i'm thinking about some of my own projects as well.

E3 for 2005 happened last week, and I followed it pretty closely. The 3 next-gen consoles have been announced and prototypes were displayed, however nothing really took me off guard as new and groundbreaking. Everything just seemed to be stepped up to try to have huge gains in computational performance, and ridiculous amounts mind you. I will have to wait to see them in action before i can really make any decisions about them. I, myself, am leaning towards the Nintendo Revolution, mainly because its backwards compatible with my current gamecube games and it will probably be the cheapest of the three.

In terms of the PC developers that were there, id software announced that they are making a sequel to wolfenstien: enemy territory called quake wars, which will mix and match characters and game styles from the wolfenstien series with the alien-esque quake series. It seems like a really fun concept: wwII-modern era earth forces vs. invading aliens, and you can choose which side you can be on and what not. We'll see how that goes. I'm also looking forward to the new zelda game (twilight princess) being developed for the gamecube.

I watched Star Wars: Episode III yesterday, and I must say, I really really enjoyed it. Then again, I'm not as picky as most people when it comes to these movies. I enjoyed episodes I and II as well. I did find that the special effects, fight scenes, and overall plot was a lot more streamlined that the first two, which I felt concentrated too much on political development. Perhaps that was necessary to get the full effect of what happens in episode III, though.

It is rumored that George Lucas is giving the go-ahead for 2 new TV series based on the star wrs universe. One is to be a cartoon, and the other is said to be live action. Sounds interesting, and he definitly has the money to back it up!

i've ditched the black and gray colour scheme and made up a more pleasent one. I figure that this one is more pleasing on the eyes.

What have I been up to lately? Not much, just getting into job-hunt mode.. doing up and sending out coverletters/resumes. Playing a few games. Watched a lot of movies this week. Unexpectedly ran into a lot of people from class this last week; Crane and Gloria at the airport, Phil at empire 12, Ricketts at sobey's square.

Saw the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with some friends tonight. I thought it was pretty humerous, and I just sat back and enjoyed the absurdity and wit of the movie for what it was worth.

Also, something odd has struck me just now, as I was skimming over some digital photos. I think i'm seriously beginning to actually miss what it was to be a student. No matter how much of a workload i had to do over the last few years, it always kept me on my toes and I was challeneged to do the best I could. And all the while I was surrounded by some of the best friends I've ever known.

Perhaps getting a challenging job will help rekindle some of those type of connections and experiences. On with the hunt!

I returned home from my trip to cuba on thursday. Overall, the resort was fantastic. The hotel, the beach, the weather, the food, and the drinks were all top notch. I have a large pile (more than 30) of cigars sitting next to me here, waiting to be smoked! Two renound brands are montecristo (just like the count), and romeo y julieta..

Susan and I took a trip to Havana (Habana) one day in the middle of the vacation. I must say, it is an experience which opened my eyes to something I have never ever seen before. I have only left canada once before, and that was a trip to america when I was a child, so I have never really witnessed poverty with my own eyes. The majority of people in cuba have what is provided to them by the government. The houses are little more than shacks, most cars and trucks on the road are government vehicles or "camel" buses blocked with people. I witnessed how many resort employees get back and forth to work: in the back of a large cargo truck.

I must say, thinking about this did make me feel guilty about enjoying myself at a resort built on the backs of hundreds of overworked and underpaid cubans. The only bright side about it (if its considered a bright side) is that, according to our havana tourguide, cubans working in the tourism industry tend to "eat better than other occupations due to tips." .. Ungh.

at any rate, here are some assorted pics:


our hotel.

the beach.

cemetary in Havana.

Ernesto "Che" Guevara's old office.

As of the last couple of days, i've been taking it easy. I bought a wireless router and set up a wireless network to my computer. I already had a wireless PCI card lying around since christmas time. I've been playing a lot of games lately (Empire Earth II), and catching up on some movies. I bought Donnie Darko at HMV for 8 bucks. I just finished watching it, and I must say, it was quite off-the-wall and involving. I'm going to have to watch it again to try to iron out exactly everything that's going on.. I enjoy intelligently crafted movies like this.

I've updated my resume and wrote up some new cover letters this "morning" when I got up.. Morning is in quotes because I got up like 1:30 or something. I'll begin sending them out tommorow, probobably in between games.