January 02, 2004
FIVE THINGS THAT PLEASE ME -- THE COMPUTER EDITION
I think it's time, as a lifelong computer geek, to give credit where credit is due, and list the computer parts and peripherals makers who have always exceeded my rather cynical expectations. If anyone wants to take this as a list of "BruceR-approved" products, feel free. That's what they are.
1) AMD. Their CPU's may be little furnaces on your motherboards, but once you go Athlon, you never go back.
2) ASUS. Best computer motherboards ever made, bar none.
3) ATI. Radeon videocards changed my life. Like AMD, they've surpassed the market-leader in performance terms (in this case, the rather unscrupulous Nvidia) and they're still going. A Canadian company, BTW... wish I had bought stock.
4) ViewSonic. Also Canadian. Monitors to die for.
5) Saitek. If you have a need for a computer joystick or gamepad, and it's not a Saitek... I'm sorry, but what are you doing with your life?
The occasion for this list was the purchase recently of my very own Saitek Cyborg Evo, which is, in my considered opinion, the best joystick ever made, by about, oh, a country mile. It improves everything about the Cyborg line that needed improving, and gives handling control in flight sims like I have honestly never experienced, anywhere, ever. Longtime readers will know my amateur fascination with human-computer interfaces of all kinds, and this product is so far above any previous attempts to meld hand, mind and machine to support vectored movement in a 3D virtual space that I just had to say something. Wow.
Regular Flit goodness to resume shortly...
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