Classic DF – 2000 Digis Awards

Hardware Category :
Best Complete Home PC Manufacturer: Dell™ — The latest Dell™ machines throughout last year and this year have taken exceptional strides. With reliable components, software, and excellent construction you can not find a better complete machine… but don’t think it won’t cost you for the top of the line PC. The lower priced PCs are nothing to laugh at however and also make excellent buys over other low end price competitors. Dell™ did for awhile use Aztec™ software modems, which were absolutely horrible, but fixed the situation by no longer using that vendor’s products in its machines or replacing the modem in existing machines. Good job.

Worst Complete Home PC Manufacturer: E-machines™ — They ripped off the IMac™ all in one design. They didn’t have the guts to put the quality parts inside though. E-machines™ are unreliable, low quality, and poorly constructed. The parts are no name components with even less performance. Their high end machines are jokes. E-machines™ make better paper weights then home computers.

Best Commercial/Workstation Complete PC/Server Manufacturer: Dell™ — Surprised? Us neither. The top of the line Dell™ workstations feature powerful Xenon Pentium III™ processors. They have Ultra ATA hard disks. Incredible graphics and sound cards. What more could you want? Okay, they are also nicely built and tested. Good deal (and pricey too). Their servers are fast, built with expandability, and are highly scalable. Very cool (and pricey once again).

Worst Commercial/Work Complete PC/Server Manufacturer: Compaq™ — Before E-machines™ attempted to put together its first garbage PC Compaq™ was turning out inferior products by the ton. Now setting its sights on low cost hungry MIS departments they are trying to produce work stations and servers. More of glorified graphing calculators than workstations; the machines are definitely not meant for high end 3D work and more for office program users. Compaq™ is notorious for using HSP modems, which are the absolute worst modems on the market (HSPs are software modems and therefore suck). Compaq’s™ servers aren’t much better and offer extra features such as hardware failures, slow access rates, and poor uptime.

Best Processor Manufacturer: AMD™ — AMD™ a year ago had a horrible reputation. No one would buy their product. With the release of the Atholon™ processor that totally changed. The Atholon™ processor is ground breaking. While Intel’s™ Coppermine Core Pentium III™ is faster it was because of AMD™ that Intel™ had to up the bar for performance. The Atholon™ as a chip is more then good enough for gaming and normal number crunching. Some reports have complained about its server capabilities, but that isn’t the market AMD™ is after. The market, home users, will find the Atholon™ an exceptional value with excellent features.

Best Sound Card Manufacturer/Chipset: Creative Labs ™ — With the creation of Sound Blaster Live!™ 3D audio positioning took a step forward. The Sound Blaster MP3+™ and Gamer+™ both use Creative Labs’™ proprietary sound fonts technology via its EMU10K1 processor to provide realistic reverb and positioning. Aureal A3D™, their competitor, is good, but sound fonts for gaming especially shows superior realism and the MP3+™ comes with the most complete MP3 software package of any sound card. That is what puts this pick over the top for us.

Best Graphics Card Manufacturer/Chipset: nVidia™ — nVidia™ created the TNT™ Chipset and completely changed the graphics card market forever. Removing 3DFX Voodoo™ from the top spot in under a year nVidia™ then released TNT2™ finally putting Direct3D/Open GL graphics engines on the gaming map. When GeForce 256™ was released it utterly decimated the competition. Using a GNU (graphic processor) instead of the computer CPU to render graphics GeForce™ can render more triangles, pixels, and rotations per second then any other card/chipset. GeForce 256™ literally blows other chipsets away performance wise and is worth the high price for its surperior performance.

Best Modem/Communication Manufacturer: US Robotics ™ — 3Com™ used to own US Robotics™ and therefore had the best modems available for V.90/X2™. Plus X2™ is much more stable then V.90. Throughput rates are excellent and so is the error control/checking. However, when 3Com™ decided to unload US Robotics™ earlier this year every PC user shuddered. Will US Robotics™ maintain its hold on the modem market? We’ll see.

Best Hard Drive Manufacturer: Maxtor™ — Maxtor’s™ Ultra ATA hard drives are fast. Running at 7,200 RPMs with sub-9ms seek times the DiamondMax™ Series is an excellent storage choice. If bigger is better you can’t get much bigger then a 30GB hard drive. Maxtor™ hard drives have excellent reliability and a good warranty. All in all it DiamondMax™ is a great buy.

Coolest Innovation: Intellimouse™ — Microsoft™ really came through with its Intellimouse Explorer™ that uses a digital laser to track the mouse movements instead of a ball like a conventional mouse. It is very accurate and great for art, 3D, CAD, etc… Very cool idea that works well in both concept and design.

Stupidest Innovation: Diamond™ — When Diamond™ decided it didn’t want to be its own company and was bought out by S3™ no one thought there would be a problem. Then S3™ decided it would produce no new products without its proprietary chipsets. That wasn’t so bad. S3 Savage™ is an okay chipset, but the problem was then they pulled all driver support on their legacy products. Well, consumers started complaining and as cited in MaximumPC™ Diamond™ will once again start making drivers for its legacy TNT2/TNT™ and A3D™ chipset products. Too late though since consumers have already moved onto better products produced by Diamonds’™ competitors.

Software:
Best Operating System/Shell: Windows2000™ — Microsoft™ has not always been the most loved company. Windows98™ was a let down until the second edition was released, but stability was still questionable. With Windows2000™ Microsoft™ has hopefully fixed those issues. Windows2000™ is highly stable with a crash protected kernel, self repairing code, multiprocessor support, better file system, less crashes/reboots, Internet integration, and remote/server controls. If I was a home user I wouldn’t run out and buy it, but it is perfect for servers/workstations doing commercial work where up time is important.

Best Office Software Package: Star Office ™ — Sun™ did a good thing when they released their Star Office™ for free. For the first time a powerful and complete work solution package was available for under $10 on a CD. Star Office™ has an excellent word processor, spread sheet, web page authoring tool, web browser, and desktop interface. Highly recommended for business/home users who just can’t afford over priced software.

Best Graphics & Art Creation/Manipulation Software: Photoshop 5 ™ — Adobe Photoshop 5™ is a powerful solution to create graphics for the Internet or publishing. The graphics are rendered and outputted smoothly. The filters are powerful and easily expanded with cool effects plug-in packages that install easily. With a good mouse, steady hand, and some patience you can really output some great art. As always the product is great for photo manipulation. All the graphics on this site incidentally were created in Photoshop 5™.

Best Web Creation Software: Dreamweaver 2 ™ — Macromedia Dreamweaver™ has always been my WYSIWYG web creation tool of choice. It is easily expandable through other products (Flash™, Director™, or other Macromedia™ Products) and also thanks to its scripting features. This web page is made in Dreamweaver™ and everytime we go back to redesign we find something new in the product that we like, it grows with you as you learn to be a better web page designer.

Best Sound Editing/Tracking Software: Acid Pro 2™ — Back in the days of early sound production if you wanted quality sound editing you’d have to pay thousands. Forget that now. With Acid Pro™ you can have a multi-tracking and sound editing (via Sound Forge XP 2™ included in the package) to create music. Acid™ has multiple outputs, effects, and can basically do everything you want with your music. Got to love it… and yes all of DigitalFl00d’s music is done in its lower price ($99) little brother Acid Music™ and that too is a great value.

Best Internet Software: Internet Explorer 5™ — Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.02™ is stable and renders quickly. Its support for HTML 4 and DHTML is excellent. It renders what you tell it to in your design. It has Java, VBscript, and Active X (that may be its only downfall). Unfortunately early versions of Internet Explorer 5.5™ don’t look stable, but our hopes are the next version will be as good as the current one once the Beta version is finalized.

Best Software Innovation: Direct X 7™ — Microsoft™ decided to support hardware acceleration about two years ago with Direct X™. At first people laughed, but now they are choking on it. Direct X™ allows video devices (OpenGL and TNT™) or sound devices (A3D or Sound Fonts) to write from the hardware and control output. What that means is better graphics and sound if you have good hardware. Also this allows programmers to author software that can be generically dropped into a program via Direct X plug-ins™. The world will never be the same.

Worst Software Innovation: Host Signal Processing/Software Emulation Hardware — When Rockwell/Conexant™, PCTel™, Lucent™, Ambient/Cirrus™, and Telepath™ decided that software emulation would be a great way to cut costs they weren’t wrong. By taking a modem (traditionally made up of tons of chips, ROM, RAM, and resistors) and replacing those parts with software that would “pretend” to be hardware they did cut costs. In fact by simply making a modem with a circuit that transferred analog data to a digital PCI port you can then use software to interpret that data. The idea looked great on the drawing board. That was four years ago. Since then a ton of modem makers are relying on the aforementioned chip makers to provide them with PCI controllerless cards that dare sport the word 56K modem. The software is buggy, unreliable, and takes up to three times the resources of conventional hardware modem. To make things worse the completely unreliable V.90 standard doesn’t have good error control to begin with. With the majority of users residing in rural/suburban communities there is no reliable since current phone line standards aren’t high enough to allow anyone can get a true 56K connection. The most common connect speed is 24K and the throughput is usually even lower. To make the situation worse now major vendors such as Compaq™, Gateway™, and even at one point Dell™ have cut costs by using cheap modems then blaming the Internet Service Providers for their defective software modems. So what can you do? Well, software modems are useful for something… they make great coasters!

Worst Software: AOL 5™/Netzip™ — Microsoft™ gets slammed for writing software that takes over your PC, but forget about Internet Explorer™ or antitrust. America Online released version 5 of its Internet access software knowing that once you said “yes” to the install it would render all other browsers and connections to the Internet useless. A lawsuit has since ensued, but no claims or even apologizes have come out officially from AOL™. Right up there with that fiasco is Netzip™ whose product also once installed will deny web pages and file transfers by placing garbage key values in your registry. Both companies deserve to have a nice big steaming bag of shit sent to them for there service contributions to crappy products.

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Classic DF – A Parable of Pain

I get alot of e-mail and even more posts on other web pages about my social commentary posts. It’s is thrilling that people think I’m writing about them, BUT unfortunately none of the last five posts here are about any unless so noted. So stop e-mailing me about them! However, if it makes you feel special, you can pretend I’m writing about you. Today, however, I would like to write today about something specific. It pertains to something that has troubled me for approximately two days now. I want to talk to the public for a second here… the non-biased, I don’t really know you, but I do read your web page people… about some stuff I’ve been contemplating. If a friend of yours were to suffer a debilitating injury, one that in effect takes most of his life away from him due to mobility issues, how would you treat that friend? He/she is bed ridden. He/she suffers constant excruciating pain that is reminiscent of being stabbed with a knife repeatedly. The pain is so intense it keeps him/her awake at night and ruins any hope of performing manual tasks/labor the rest of their lives. In effect that injury has left them disabled. Now, would you mock someone in a wheel chair? Would you call someone a retard because they have problems adding numbers? Would beat up a paraplegic just because they couldn’t fight back? Obviously, barring personal issues, no. Now, lets say there was personal issues, but out of the goodness of their heart (and because they are a real friend) they ignore a large dispute and conduct themselves with good conduct around that person. However, the person who is picking on them won’t let things go and continues to harass your friend. They drive by your friend’s house and attempt to destroy their personal property. Now your disabled friend never fights back, in fact he turns the other cheek always. He/she always walks away and when his/her friends want to kick the crap out of the harrassers he/she pulls them away worrying that it won’t solve anything. In short, your disabled friend is a nonviolent pacifist. Now your harassing friend continues to mock your disabled friend. The harrasser won’t harass other people because he/she is scared of those other people and tends to run away from a fight crying. The harrasser knows that they can take advantage of your friend’s disability and uses it to vent their frustration with their pathetic lives. You got all this so far? Good. Now you want to be friends with both these people. You have been friends with both of them for a long time. So you never take a side. Now, one day in a public place while eating with your disabled friend the harrasser shows up and start to belittle your disabled friend. The disabled friend gets up with his other friend walks away. Well, you go to hang out with your harrasser friend and he/she starts immediately making comments about your disabled friend as he/she limps out in pain. Is that funny? No, you feel bad, but you don’t want to lose a friend. What do you do? This is what has happened to Daemon Immortalis… he suffered a horrible injury that has left him disabled indefinitely. Due to a lot of betrayal by ex-friends he has been harassed and made the butt of jokes. His friend, Rock, has found himself in a predicament where he is stuck between three groups of friends. Rock doesn’t want to lose any of them, but may have chosen his path by proxy. I don’t know how you would feel as an unbiased reader, but I know plenty of biased opinions. So here is mine: selfishness can only create the self centered disillusioned world that currently these malicious harrassers live in. With that they have sealed their fate of decadence and misaligned hopes. I hold no pity for their final judgment and damnation is their legacy. That I can do nothing about nor do I care about their fate. However, I personally hold Immy in the highest of regards. When I had been beaten down and left for dead he was there. When I turned my back on him and came back a prodigal son he took me in. When I needed guidance or some one to confide in… he was there. Ever silent, willing to listen, to turn the other cheek and forgive my sins. In the end Immy is the best friend I have ever had. Aside from my wife, Melissa, he is the only who has consistently defended my opinions and sought to hold my honor in the face of adversity. He is a what all friends should be… always faithful. Immy did not choose sides. He did not choose to be disabled. He did not choose to be harassed and continually hurt. I am angry beyond any recognition and the only thing that stops me from confrontation is that I hold his wishes in highest regards and his wish is that I too stand silent. How then can you mock him? Immy has held the world up on his back and it has destroyed him… so is the fate of all good men. Immy has been put where he is right now and does not hold any one with malice. With that in mind how come it is so hard to figure out how to choose sides? Especially when it seems you may already have… the hard path is often the one you do not choose because it doesn’t seem viable. The hard path though is the one worth taking for a friend because they would do the same for you. Treat your brother like your brother… not your enemy…

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Classic DF – 12/22/99

Dec. 22, 1999: DF2K premiers tomorrow. It has been completely tested with both IE5 and Netscape 4.7. There have been initial problems with Netscape about resizing, but that problem too has been resolved. If you use any thing less then 4.0 of any browser I recommend an immediate upgrade or else viewing may be impossible as we will be using layers. Happy Holidays and thank you for reading my senseless drivel (and believing it:)

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Classic DF – 12/21/99

Dec. 21, 1999: Been doing some editing lately on the web page and I must say the final product is awe inspiring. I truly believe I’ve authored an original work of art. I’m rather proud of it. Another thing I’m rather proud of is Melissa. She’s been sticking up for poor Immy because certain people believe that it’s fun to pick on people who have had serious debilitating injuries. Of course those are the same people who believe that acting like a child is part of making people respect you. Yet, another sign that when certain individuals wish season greetings to “friends”, only with the hope that they don’t spend the holidays alone… they will. It may be a Merry Christmas after all 🙂 Speaking of Christmas… all my shopping has been finished (all because of Mel… but ummmm… okay I’m a slacker leave me alone <G>). I’ve decided that in the “true” spirit of Christmas to pray for everyone’s’ souls… some how I doubt that will do anything to some of the assholes out there, but I have high hopes that maybe they’ll get a lump of coal or something. I’m praying for a T3 to appear in the flAnnelcAve courtesy of Santa Sprint LOL… then again what the hell am I going to do with a T3? I’m never home to use the net anyhow LOL. I’ve been trying to put the Christ back in Christmas… so I’ve been meditating on what I hope for the New Year: 1.) To produce a positive web product. 2.) To influence positively and creatively with that product. 3.) To forget about those competing pages that are merely jealous and be content with my success while learning from my failures. 4.) To hope that everything gets better while trying to make it be that way. 5.) To love Melissa just cause I can 🙂

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Classic DF – 12/16/99

Dec. 16, 1999: As the holidays approach instead of cheer it seems we run into gloom. For me, Christmas has always been a wonderful time. Sure there has been times when my Father wasn’t in a jolly mood and could be the Grinch on crack. But I never let that get me down. At times the presents may have not been the most expensive or incredible. However, it was truly the thought that counted. There are people who don’t find as much joy or happiness in this time of year as I do. Whether it’s family or personal problems, these people don’t find anything merry about Christmas. Maybe there isn’t much to be happy for; there is war, violence, and sickness. There are no reasons why such horrid things happen to such good people. I don’t think God personally chooses bad things to happen. I believe that God is rather hands off when it comes to our lives. It is our personal decisions and the decisions of others with some genetics thrown in that puts us where we are in the world. Sooner or later everything has a limit physically. That is why I hold to the spirit. The spirit of hope and love. As cheesy as it sounds, the only comfort I can offer to you my friends is this: somewhere out there is hope for a better tomorrow and an answer to the question that eludes us today. We must look forward and continue on in strength toward that day. This Christmas if anyone wants to give me a present I only want this: do a good deed for someone else without expectation of any return. That is what I want for Christmas… for everyone to try and make a better place for those who do not know the joy of this holiday season and in turn to enforce the power of the spirit of hope. Peace…

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