kr15t0f

I think we all know that.

Lot's of hl2 topics these days

jmke

please forgive me for any typos are weird phrases

1) How did you come up with the name Madshrimps?

I did not come up with the name actually, it was a name created by the combined imagination of several hardware geeks at a local Belgian forum called "spelletjesgarnaal" in English "Gaming Shrimp", since most of the people over there were not into PC hardware they called us "mad" and "crazy" when we were talking about our overclocking adventures. We decided to try and get our name in the top 10 lists at Futuremark's website and were looking for a tag to add to our nicknames. MADshrimps was an obvious choice in the end

2) JMke, how do people normally call you and tell us something about yourself? Married; have kids; single with lots of girl friends.....

Most people refer to me by my first name, John, as JMke proved too challenging for most; the first LAN parties people try to come with a pronunciations on my nickname, but none of them sounded right, so let's keep the nickname as written only, not said

I'm not married, no kids, and I'm very partial to my girlfriend, so I'm currently not looking to expand in that area


3) What language do people speak in Belgium and is there a second language?

In Belgium there are 3 equal languages: Dutch, French and German, the northern part of the country speaks Dutch, the southern speaks French, and somewhere near the border with Germany.. well you can guess that one. In most large cities English is spoken widely as most international companies use it as their primary language.

4) Share with us how and when you started the Website; and do you get pay to do the job?

At the start of 2002 I decided to publish our overclocking efforts done at those Belgian forums at a new site, together with my cousin I began coding the website in PHP, as I liked the fact of a having a dynamical website. I know little of PHP or Mysql but learned a lot from my cousin who's more experienced in that area. The community spirit is very strong here, and the whole project can hardly be defined as a one man operation. With the help of lots of members we opened the Madshrimps doors in March/April 2002.

We had troubles with our hosting in the beginning; the site was down once in a while, and not very fast. One of our faithful visitors and freelance reviewers had a friend who worked at a hosting company ( www.priorweb.be ) which made us a very interesting offer. We went from a shared hosting to our own dedicated server in less then a year due to the site's popularity.

This hobby so far has only cost me money, as buying the latest hardware gear to test even newer hardware on is quite expensive. I do not make money from this site, and don't see this will happen in the future either.

5) If you have to choose; Intel or AMD? Please no both or may be for answer.

Well, it depends, General Office PC with some multimedia applications: Intel. Gaming: AMD.
Prove me wrong

6) What is your favorite game nowadays?

I'm not a one game man; or at least not anymore. I was quite addicted to Quake 1 when it was released in 1995, and played it for 2 years straight, every single day for at least 4 hours. I ended up with my own Team Fortress clan which had 30+ members from EU and US and we were known for a fun clan, rather then a competitive one. In the end I had to take a step back big-time from gaming as it was interfering with my schoolwork. I did end up with a soft spot for FPS shooters, so my current top game is of course HL2. Closely followed by the excellent racer Flat-Out which features some amazing physics and damage model.

7) Being Belgian, how much BEER do you consume daily?

0cl. I don't drink, only at parties, when I'm not driving, which is about once every year. And I don't like beer. Next!

8) What kind of sports do you enjoy or participate in?

A full time job and this hobby + girlfriend leaves very little spare time, I tried picking up Karate and have succeeded going a full year, but I'm missing more trainings nowadays. I started karate with a fellow Madshrimper, TerAngreal, who's still attending regularly; I think he can beat me up quite good by now

9) Do you think water cooling be in every desktop soon?

Nope, people in the street don't even know how to handle a heatsink, don't want to imagine what would happen if water cooled PC's fell into their laps.

10) What do you think of Tomshardware?

Being able to work fulltime, with a large crew, reviewing hardware gives them plenty of resources to deliver some very interesting articles and reviews; although their imago got screwed up in the past due to Intel favoritism.

11) What will you see [M] two years from now? And, if change is for the better, what would you like to change?

I'd like to start working part time to dedicate more time to [M] and deliver more and better content, in 2 years, this might be possible, then again, in 2 years my girlfriend finishes university, so it's still not written in stone what will happen then

11) How do you feel about your supporting staffs in the area of Web design; Adminstration; News; Reviewers; Forum ideas ......

Web design: I lend on my cousin for the PHP code, and learn from his writing to figure things out, it's okay, but the site does not warrant a full time coder.

ADministration: The site features a completely online administration backend which allows any member to add new content, so this takes of quite a load on the editor, but not every member is familiar with the tips and tricks on how to produce an optimized webpage with good and clear layout. But this will change soon in the future as I'm teaching them the tricks of the trade.

Reviewers: With many reviewers in the group ideas are freely expressed and people are very willing to help out where needed, they are very open minded and they make this site work!

Forum: there is a very friendly atmosphere at the forums with lots of people sharing ideas and posting their crazy hardware adventures, a good group to fall into as newcomers are always welcomed and helped out.

12) What do you think if Internet access will be "taxed"?

I already pay tax on the price I pay monthly to my provider; In Belgium they put tax on everything, or in this case they just "thought ahead"

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easypanic

nice interview

btw, "their imago" ?

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|^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^\||____
|....The BEER TRUCK.... ||||'""|""°\_,__
|___Just for You___l||__|__|___|) _____|
|(@)(@)""""""""""""**|(@)(@)****|(@)|

StaRflaM

hehe

Sidney

Thank you JMke for your candid answers.

If I may have a follow up questions, that will be;

1) Would there be a chance that we could see a picture of your girlfriend? We wouldn't mind at all if both of you are in the picture.

2) Does she know the Babe thread by any chance?

I'm sure others may have follow up questions.

Again, thank you.

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lazyman

Opteron 165 (2) @2.85 1.42 vcore AMD Stock HSF + Chill Vent II

jmke

1)

2) she doesn't like PCs, only uses them for schoolwork, or the occasional MSN chat


no no thank you for your interest

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easypanic

She sure looks like an angel.

Lazyman, can't you interview her too?

__________________
|^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^\||____
|....The BEER TRUCK.... ||||'""|""°\_,__
|___Just for You___l||__|__|___|) _____|
|(@)(@)""""""""""""**|(@)(@)****|(@)|