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The Daily Grind: Is your rig pimpin', or just plain ghetto?
We came across an interesting post at the Twenty Sided blog, titled "PC Games Retirement Home", in which Shamus Young commented on his lack of the need to purchase a new PC in recent times. Although he is certainly a gamer, the next PC games that he is looking forward to won't roll around for quite some time now that he's done with Fallout 3, and most of his video-gaming will be fulfilled by his console setup. In the past, his computer upgrades were frequent, but without major jumps in technology, or compelling PC games on the horizon to force his hand, he's managed to stay with the same PC for the last three years. He isn't saying that PC gaming is dead, but it's impossible to deny that the landscape has changed.He does acknowledge, however, that MMOs are still enjoying some success on the PC platform. Does this mean that MMO gamers have kept up the PC-enthusiast's tradition of owning all the latest hardware? Although it's possible to play many MMOs with an older PC (especially browser-based games or titles like World of Warcraft that aim to fit the masses) newer MMOs such as Age of Conan or Lord of the Rings Online have been designed to take advantage of the latest PC hardware, and you will undoubtedly have a better experience on a flashier gaming rig. A tired old PC might even be a barrier to entry when trying out the most cutting-edge MMOs. So we ask you, as MMO gamers: do you have a beastly PC that you upgrade/replace quite frequently, or have you found that a respectable older rig has been able to satisfy your MMO needs over the last few years?
Flickr Find: The Cocoon
Mitch Haile shared this set with our Flickr Pool to show us the ridiculously awesome setup he has in his office. From what we can tell, he has: a 24-inch Intel iMac a 15-inch MacBook Pro a Mac Pro with six (!) monitors several PCs a couple of Kinesis Freestyle keyboards The six monitors include four HPs, one ViewSonic, and a 30-inch Apple Cinema Display. The Mac Pro has three video cards. The whole shebang is served by two APC uninterruptible power supplies. Nice. Me, I just want a reason to keep an ice bucket on my desk. Thanks, Mitch!
Speed kills
EVE Online has evolved into a game where being fast and agile allows you to choose your fights, dictate range and thus control the course of the battle, disengage whenever you choose, and often move so quickly that you're largely unassailable. However, the era of the nano craze will soon be coming to a close, according to EVE Online developer CCP Nozh. His latest dev blog addresses the insane velocities achievable, even by previously lumbering battleships, with combinations of speed modules, rigs, pirate implants and performance-boosting drugs. (For those less familiar with EVE or its more deviant aspects, you can in fact use and sell drugs in the game.) CCP Nozh outlined the dev team's design goals in stemming the speed crisis:
Flickr Find: 11,600 horizontal pixels of heaven
What you're looking at is actually nine computers: five Macs, three PCs and one Linux machine. (Check out the Flickr page, to see what's what.) According to its owner, it's all driven with one keyboard and mouse, and switches seamlessly between machines. Incredible. Thinking about the cable management for this thing makes my head hurt. [Via Twitter]
Rig of the Year (So Far)
Digg today brings us our first TUAW rig of the day/week/month/year. Owned by flickr user washington_dc_photographer, this workstation sports three 30 inch Apple Cinema displays, 1 G5 Quad, 1 G5 Dual, 1 15 inch PowerBook, 6TB of external storage, 6 CF card readers, and a 15 inch Sony wireless TV. I can only imagine the kind of money that he must have spent on this setup, but I certainly see why this would be needed for a full time professional photographer shooting large RAW files and running Aperture. In any case, this setup certainly sets a high bar for future 2007 rigs, so don't forget to submit yours to the TUAW flickr pool.
TUAW Flickr group: Your Mac rigs
You've spent a tremendous amount of time setting up your Mac rig, arranging everything just so, selecting the perfect desk, chair, speaker system, mouse and so on. Why not show it off? To that end, we've created the TUAW Mac Rigs Flickr Pool. Upload your best shot of your rig at home, you set up at school, your mobile solution or your tower of power. Every day, we'll select one shot to feature here on TUAW as the Rig of the Day.We may also select your photos to illustrate our posts, providing full credit, of course - so be sure to include any links you'd like us to use in your Flickr profile. So let's see those sweet rigs!
Mac personalities talk about their Macs
Giles Turnbull recently spoke to some Mac personalities about their Mac rigs. He found out what Leander Kahney of the Cult of Mac uses, Jonathan Rentzsh (he of the Red Shed), Michael Tsai (SpamSieve), Joe Kissel (author), and Andy Ihnakto.It is worth a read, though sadly I wasn't included. Luckily I can just write about what I use right here!I have a brand new 20 inch iMac G5 (named Vercingetorix. Yes, named after that Vercingetorix) which is my workhorse machine, and a neglected G4 Powerbook by the name of Ambrose.
MacDevCenter Hands-Free Shooting Rig
Romain Guy has put together a very interesting Hands-Free Shooting Rig over at MacDevCenter: "Here's how to build a hands-free photography rig using an iSight, a Bluetooth headset, a backpack, and a dash of AppleScript that enables you to capture images on the go by simply speaking, 'Take shot.' Romain Guy shows you how to build it." How awesome is that? 12-inch Powerbook in a backpack with an iSight sticking out of the cellphone holder that starts taking pictures when you say, "Take shot" into your bluetooth headset.
