AMD Gets Emotions
With his blog, we introduce the newest member of our ABT staff, David Makin, who will be heading up our “Insider View” as a Contributing Editor. David – aka ir0x0r – will help ABT with editorial comment. He comes to us because he shares the Alien Babel Tech vision already and you can also read his blogs here:
This is the first of many of David’s blogs and articles on the hardware industry written from a true insider point of view that we will host at ABT. David has been building computers since 1996 and has a long list of accomplishments in the HW industry:
- Owner at Get Right Computers
- Director of Marketing at Palit Multimedia
- Consumer Marketing Manager at Palit Multimedia
- El Presidente at TeamATI
- Director of Marketing at Connect3D
- Sales, Computer Products Group at SAI
We also welcome your comments on David’s articles and all of our staff are ready to serve you. Also, please remember that each editor speaks his own mind and is responsible for what he or she writes. There is no ABT “site point of view”.
Mark Poppin,
Senior ABT editor
AMD Gets Emotions
What was once Advanced Micro Devices is now Anthropomorphic Micro Devices. It started with a few AMDers on FB and MySpace before the PR Nazis knew what those places were and was just some folks talking about what they love. Enter the legal Nazis and *poof* things get a little sideways.
The concern is simple, how does one control the open forum that is Internetz? A company cannot just run around all willy-nilly with employees discussing whatever they feel like. Or can they? And so begins the great AMD uprising.
It started with terrible software and silly directives from the ever mysterious Gestapo whose job it is to watch for missing trademark symbols review samples sold on eBay. They asked certain people to blog about certain topics which was really the beginning, I think, of the first real coup d’état I’ve seen in the corporate world for a long time. If you need help with that check here.
There have been many discussions external to AMD about whether or not they, as a company, should be playing in the social media space and whether or not it is simply a pitiful marketing ploy. While these are reasonable questions and we as consumers should always be suspect of ANY marketing activity there is one thing the naysayers have failed to recognize. The coup d’état.
The AMD bloggers, tweeters and FB addicts have clearly overthrown their oppressors known as “corporate”. This is evidenced by the highly emotional nature of many of the posts AMDers are making full in the face of corporate. This is a reasonably short blog that demonstrates my point.
If you can’t tell John Taylor is pissed, you should look into the Sylvan Learning Center. Well, that’s just crazy talk. How can he get away with being pissed? That isn’t a corporate attitude, that’s human. That’s the attitude of someone working at Starbucks when a fellow employee forgets to put the milk back in the fridge. That’s me when I find someone looking at my screen during a match at a LAN party.
This is fantastic. A year ago this type of thing would never have happened; an employee with an ACTUAL opinion as opposed to simply regurgitating the party line. And it just keeps getting better as more and more AMDers get involved with Twitter and FB.
This is the way it used to be back in the day of the K6. You could find people like Ian McNaughton going to LAN parties and communicating his true feelings at great risk to himself and those around him (see Showdown LAN). True pioneers like Terry Makedon and Jeff Royle that spent many many hours showing people that technology isn’t just a business and that it takes true passion to excel.
While AMD is just a company, it is these individuals and many more like them who have risen up against the idea of simply doing their job. These folks live and breathe what they do and make AMD what it is. It is their personal opinions that when combined give AMD its direction and it is they who have rebelled against the PR machine. For the first time these people are getting credit for who they are and I count that as a win for any of us who have ever bought a CPU within a month of its release or at least would have, if we had any damn money.
What are we to think about AMD playing in social media? As with anything else, take a look at what they are actually doing. They don’t just get on and post a bunch of marketing crap no one is interested in. AMD is showing us their heart and soul in a truthful and honest way even when that’s a little messy.
If you are in the market for an upgrade or a new PC you should take a look at what these people are writing about before you make a buying decision. Now, I’m not saying that wearing your heart on your sleeve makes you process faster. But they do point out some interesting facts about AMD computing and computing in general that you should really be aware of before you put your money on the table.
Without starting up the age old argument of AMD vs. Intel, I can safely say that Intel isn’t known for giving consumers much useful information outside of blue men, aliens and irritating jingles. They certainly don’t have any meaningful and interactive presence in social media so if you have questions you can just keep them to yourself.
On the other hand, you can check out AMD’s presence, ask questions, get answers, meet other people interested in the same things you are and have a nice moment of Zen with your kindred spirits. That is assuming your laptop hasn’t run out of juice within its 6 hour battery life rating.
ir0x0r
ABT Contributing Editor
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