THE FORUMS ARE STAYING OPEN. WE HAVE NO PLANS TO SHUT THEM DOWN OR MIGRATE YOUR DATA TO A NEW SYSTEM. ANY FUTURE PUBLICATION MENTIONED BELOW ARE NOT PART OF THE MEDIA TEAM, HEXUS OR BIT-TECH.
1998 was a great year for so many reasons – watching Titanic at the cinema, yes, it was long and cheesy but film history nonetheless - and Kate Winslet looked fantastic. Saving Private Ryan was and still is one of the greatest war and brotherhood movies ever made. I laughed my head off seeing Cameron Diaz with THAT hair in There’s Something About Mary and winced at Ben Stiller and his zipper incident in the same movie. I still know the words to the B*Witched classic “C’est la vie” and to this day love to listen to Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” on a long drive. But it was also a pivotal year for me, and for you guys too – it was the year I began publishing HEXUS.net.
Something that was a side project and intended to make my parents think I was doing homework, but I was in fact tapping away at my keyboard writing about AMD’s 3DNOW!, OpenSSL being developed, VMWare being founded and Chips and Technologies being bought by Intel and the release of its Celeron Processor too.
There were loads more stories apart from those of course – oh yes, and Google was formed that same year too. Illustrious company, right?
But now, after HEXUS being the cornerstone of my life and a consistent go-to for you guys too, I am calling time on it.
All good things come to an end, they say, and I would like to think that this is one of those good things that has to go away now too.
To publish 148,579 stories, this one is the 148,580th and final, for this amazing, engaged, bolshy and opinionated community has been a real pleasure and privilege. What an audience!
Every comment on the forums has made every story, each call (sometimes pleasant, sometimes angry) with the brands worthwhile.
These 23 years would have been absolutely nothing without you guys, and I give you my most sincere thanks and gratitude.
The moderators are true greats – all doing this for the love of tech and for the appreciation and respect they have for HEXUS – the little website that got me out of doing Physics homework in 1998. Truly, heartfelt praise and recognition must go to this group of awesome individuals.
I have to thank Tarinder as our editor, every contributor, every reviewer and benchmarker, the guys who worked alongside me on the commercial team too – they have all contributed to success and joy of HEXUS and of its rogue little modding brother bit-tech.net too. The brands which supported me and the team on this 23 year journey too – thank you to each and every one of you, for recognising what a great publication we put together for a wonderful audience who really care about good tech.
Heading to the trade shows has been exhausting and exciting in equal measure. I have forgotten how many times I have been to (let’s be honest, the quite dreary) Hanover and walked those aisles at CeBit, or been blinded by the showiness of CES Vegas, or bumped into the great tech talents and minds at Computex. All part of the mission to bring you the latest and hottest to know about and buy, and the occasional dud ‘innovations’ to avoid like the plague too!
A huge satisfaction for me has been to have worked with every major tech brand in the past 23 years. To speak to the engineers and architects, to question the CEOs and CTOs about why this and not that, to understand the new launches and why and how it will improve our tech experiences – that has been a monumental boon for me. Not just because I love the tech and I am as opinionated as you all are, but because I have been able to bring these stories to you. And you guys pass judgement on these advances and changes in tech. You do that by reading HEXUS and deciding whether or not to spend your hard-earned cash on the new.
Breaking the Intel Conroe processing story was a high for me and I have to also admit to enjoying breaking the odd embargo too. Seeing the brands slugging it out on tech performance and also at the cash registers has been exhilarating – some brands have grown and become behemoths, and as with everything there have been some which have not fared as well. But telling you all about the runners and the riders has been 23 years brilliantly spent.
As I face the final curtain, again and above all, my greatest thanks and appreciation goes to you guys, the audience, the community, the forum members and the moderators – you have made the past two decades plus, exciting and enjoyable – challenging me and the team to find better, question more and look at every bit of tech in a deeper way.
To all the lovers and the haters out there over the years – my most sincere thanks – I have enjoyed every minute and will never forget what HEXUS started as, developed into and became.
One more thing. As one door closes, another opens. Tarinder and Parm, who I’ve had the immense pleasure of working with for a combined 33 years, will be continuing the HEXUS legacy with a new website, Club386.com. Their passion for the industry, high-quality editorial and journalistic integrity remains undiminished, and I hope you continue to show them all of your love and support.
That’s all folks.
David
