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Posts tagged Interview
Micro Mart, Issue 1195
012 days
by Gareth
in Published Work
My first piece for Dennis Publishing’s weekly IT mag Micro Mart, and it’s a cover feature. Not that I’m boasting or anything. Okay, perhaps I’m boasting a bit.
As you can probably see from the cover it’s a look at AMD’s disappointing launch of its consumer-grade Bulldozer-core processors, the AMD FX Series. Completed to the tightest possible schedule – I received an email requesting a 3,500-word feature on Thursday, with a deadline of the following Monday – it forms an overview of the history of Bulldozer, its launch in the server market, its consumer launch and the complaints that have been raised over its performance.
It also includes comment from an AMD engineer in the company’s Austin facility on what is being done to address the architecture’s problems – not an easy thing to get on such short notice, and massive thanks to AMD’s André Heidekrueger and Bite PR’s Sami Makinen for organising that so quickly.
It’s a nice piece, if I do say so myself, and hopefully won’t be the last to grace Micro Mart’s cover. Fingers crossed for longer deadlines next time, though…
Linux User & Developer, Raspberry Pi Preview
013 days
by Gareth
in Published Work
While the magazine won’t be out for another couple of months, Imagine Publishing’s Linux User & Developer is running a teaser of my interview with Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton on its website.
Despite being merely a small extract of two points raised in the interview, it’s proving popular: the article has shot to the top of the ‘most read’ list and looks to be staying there for the duration. Another teaser is planned in the coming weeks, while the full interview will be found in the pages of Linux User & Developer Magazine Issue 111.
The teaser can be found over on the Linux User & Developer website.
Bit-Tech, Raspberry Pi Feature
028 days
by Gareth
in Published Work
Following an interview with Raspberry Pi co-founder Eben Upton last week, the first of two confirmed features: a look at the project, which has created a 700MHz ARM-based credit-card size computer costing just $35, from a modder’s perspective.
Will it take off? Where are the mounting holes? Is it possible to overclock the Broadcom system-on-chip at the heart of the system? What software does it run? Can it play games? Does it support 1080p video playback? Will I ever stop asking these stupid questions?
All this and more answered over on Dennis Publishing’s computing enthusiast site, Bit-Tech.
The second feature to come out of the interview, a more Linux-focused Q&A-style transcription, is scheduled to appear in Imagine Publishing’s Linux User & Developer Magazine, Issue 111.
Linux User & Developer, Issue 107
090 days
by Gareth
in Published Work
This month’s Linux User & Developer Magazine is a bumper issue for me: as well as another cover story on ten ways to fix common Linux problems, the issue includes my group test of password managers and an in-depth interview with Canonical’s Gerry Carr ahead of the launch of Ubuntu 11.10.
First, the “10 Ways to Fix Linux” piece: this was something of a departure from the norm, but proved a fun challenge. For each problem, the issue needed to be reproduced on a test-bed system – specifically, a VirtualBox environment – in order for screenshots to be taken and each fix tested for viability.
While the piece is unlikely to contain anything to surprise the hardcore among the magazine’s readership, relative newcomers should hopefully find it a useful cut-out-and-keep reference for the most likely issues they’ll come across while using Linux as a personal operating system.
The group test, as is usual, took four popular packages – Seahorse,
KeepassX, PasswordMaker and LastPass – and pitted them against each other to see which emerged the victor. As with most software-based group tests, the packages were installed in a clean Ubuntu environment within VirtualBox to ensure no conflicts were present.
Finally, the interview: conducted over the telephone with Canonical’s Gerry Carr, the piece covered the new features of Ubuntu 11.10, upcoming changes for 12.04, the backlash following the switch from GNOME to Unity on the desktop, and more.
Interviews are always a bit of a pain due to the amount of time taken up with transcription afterwards, but it’s rare they don’t make an interesting read; I’d like to think this one is no exception to that rule.
More information is available on the Linux User & Developer website.
