GabeMcG

Ladies and Gentlemen, geeks and nerds across the globe. I come to you today brimming with excitement, and drunk on the power of the Ultimate Gaming Machine, which I am thrilled to announce at long last I can call my own!

Leo announced his plans to build and give-away the Ultimate Gaming Machine almost a year and a half ago. Every step of the way since then the TWiT community has helped the project take shape. From selecting components to troubleshooting bsod's, from lusting over its performance to picking me as its winner. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to everyone who helped make my this contest possible.

While UGM is undeniably a community achievement; without the talent, dedication, and passion of one person in particular it definitely would not be what it is today, and probably would have never have happened at all. Colleen Kelly is the one person above all others who made UGM a reality. Her hard work, literally her blood, sweat and tears crafted this work of art that I most graciously accept. She is the one who sifted through hundreds of contest entries to find the ten finalists, and thanks to her persistence the competition was not abandoned. I only hope I can prove to be a worthy recipient of such heroic efforts. Thank you Colleen.

Of course it is the vision and leadership of our Chief TWiT Leo Laporte that gave Colleen the direction to create this masterpiece of modern technology.Thank you Leo for turning this dream into a reality.

Thanks to Ryan Shrout for lending his technical expertise, and an occasionaly nudging Leo when it looked like the contest was starting to drag on.

I'd also like to thank the entire TWiT Community. From the very beginning, I wanted this campaign to be a tongue-in-cheek jab at politics. I think most of you got that, and appreciated it as a fun and different way to participate in a contest; thank you to those folks for your support.

I realize that some of you did not enjoy my approach. I would like to thank my detractors for keeping me honest, and putting up with me when I got too excited, or started to pandered too much. I apologize if I annoyed or offended anyone along the way, I hope there are no hard feelings.

Without those who voted for me, I would be congratulating one of the other finalists right now, Syd, Meghan, Nmerichi, Ryan, Alana, Cameron, Jared, and Ken all had outstanding entries. Cameron 's iPhone app kept me sweating throughout the voting period.

Thanks to my family for voting for me, and my Facebook friends, Twitter followers, and everyone at ATOT for doing so as well. I could not have done it without you!

As for my campaign site, I plan to keep it online and update it with my adventures in Ultimate Gaming, and to track my progress on fulfilling my campaign promises, so keep checking back at http://ugm.gabmcg.com, and thanks again!

Voting for the TWiT Ultimate Gaming Machine contest officially ended at 11:59pm PST on 9/25. By my unofficial count I've won the online vote 92-66.

Per contest rules, the winner will be notified by email on or about Thursday, October 1 2009. I'm hoping we'll get results sooner than this.  

The only factors that might effect the outcome of this contest are postal votes, and disqualified online votes. My count omits several duplicate votes, and I believe that the margin of victory, which has been confirmed by 2 other contestants is enough to withstand all but a substantial incidence of postal voting/vote disqualification.

I don't want to be too presumptuous, but by the looks of it there will soon be cause for celebration!

That's right folks. A few hours ago Ultimate Gaming Machine builder, and contest organizer Colleen Kelly announced the official rules and finalists to win the TWiT UGM contest via simultaneous posts on the Inside TWiT Blog, TWiT Army Canteen, and her Twitter page.

Your's truly is on the list of finalists, option (lucky) number 7! Congrats to all of the other finalists!

•  View the Finalists
• Cast your vote

Voting ends at exactly one week from tonight, so cast your vote now, and then tell all of your friends to do the same! It's been a long campaign, and I'm incredibly honored to have gotten to know the entire TWiT Community along the way. Thank you all for your support.

This was a special week for me, both as a contestant to win the TWiT Ultimate Gaming Machine, and a long time fan of Leo Laporte and his work.  

If this campaign is about anything besides winning the UGM; it is about giving something back to the TWiT community, and shameless self promotion.  I'm blessed to have had the opportunity to do both this week.

On Wednesday's episode of This Week in Computer Hardware, (TWiCH, formerly PC Perspective, not to be confused with PC Perspective Podcast) with Ryan Shrout (also an UGM Judge) Leo offered, "a prize" to whomever could figure out how to turn off the small picture-in-picture video in his Skype call.  The loyal masses, myself included, called out the answer.  I was able to catch Leo's attention with it in the newly opened TWiT Conversations FriendFeed room.

As If I wasn't thrilled enough for the mention, and some direct info on the status of the TWiT UGM contest, Leo delivered on that prize promise the very next day.  On Thursday, after Dr.Kiki's Science Hour, Leo took some TalkShoe calls as a way to get everyone re-acquainted with the service.  Leo was gracious enough to take my call, and fill me in on his plans for UGM.  I've interacted with Leo online for quite some time, but I had never actually spoken with him.  I think you can tell from the video that I was actually a little nervous!

My Chat with Leo Laporte from Gabe McGuinness on Vimeo.

I apologize for the shameless plug, it was a bit rude, but I couldn't help myself...  I think Leo understood ;) .

I mentioned my developing plans for taking this campaign on the road.  I'll have more on this later, but start thinking, "GabeMcG for UGM meets Strait-Talk-Express meets a station wagon packed with camping gear and a few friends dicking around the North Western US.  Also, if you are in Salt Lake City, Lake Tahoe, Seattle, Portland, or the Bay Area and would like to meet up for a 'Campaign Ralley' or. 'Townhall Meeting' (me buying a round of beer at the bar) just let me know!

I'd also like to take a second to thank everyone who has wished me well, or connected with the campaign somehow, I really appreciate it.  And another huge thanks to Leo for the years of quality information and entertainment, and putting up with me always bugging him about the UGM contest.  Of course without the help of the fantastic ODTV team I wouldn't have a recording of this memory, thank you all, especially Kiwinerd and DIX for all that you do.  I encourage everyone to subscribe to the ODTV RSS feed for all of the latest releases as soon as they are available!

PETALUMA, CA--  TWiT Network hosts Leo Laporte and Ryan Shrout have discussed hard dates to announce voting details for the Ultimate Gaming Machine contest for the first time in almost two months since the entry deadline.  On the April 23 recording of PC Perspective, Shrout proposed an April, 29th date to announce a winner.  Laporte pointed out that such a date would not leave enough time for audience voting.

Shrout suggested the time slot on the 29th instead be used to announce finalists, and begin the voting process.

Ryan Shrout asks Leo Laporte about the TWiT UGM Contest from Gabe McGuinness on Vimeo.

Watch Leo's reaction. Its funny how as soon as Ryan brings up the UGM contest Leo throws off the headphones, and scrambles to adjust the camera.

While it was good to see he hadn't completely forgot about it, this clip didn't offer much hope for contestants wondering what is happening with the soon-to-be year old project.

We got a little more info this week, but no announcement yet. My bet is for a mid-May vote, and actual delivery to the winner sometime by 2010...

While at the writing of this story the 29th has come without any official announcement out of the TWiT Camp, some additional information, and a bit of positive press coverage for this campaign blog came from Ryan Shrout's PC Perspective Podcast recorded that evening. 

Co-Host Alyn Melventano picked my question from the Official TWiT IRC to answer on the show, and was even kind enough to give me a big ol' plug too! Thanks Al!

You can hear the plug and question, and really in depth answer in the clips below:

Update: Download the video here

Thanks agian to the PC Perspective (Soon to be This Week in Computer Hardware, or TWiCH) for the hardware help, and keeping the UGM contest alive! I'll let you guys know if the suggestions work.

When I decided to run this campaign to win the Ultimate Gaming Machine I knew it would not be an easy task.  I knew there would be those who would not believe in me, and those who would try to derail my efforts.  Every step of the way I've tried to be up-front with members of the TWiT community, and honest about my intentions.  While I had hoped the tongue-in-cheek nature of my quest would be enough to put potential critics at ease, this has not been the case.

It has come to my attention that at least two individuals have chosen to make public their frustrations with the attention and traction this campaign has received, via the TWiT Wiki.  Individuals posting from IP addresses: 67.159.5.99 and 76.204.101.47 have added a, "Controversies" section to the wiki entry for the Ultimate Gaming Machine.  These anonymous users list several criticisms of the contest, and more specifically the way I've chosen to run a campaign for votes.  While they do not mention me or this campaign by name, it will be immediately obvious to anyone familiar with the contest to whom they refer.

My first instinct was to delete the section entirely, as I feel it is an inappropriate place for personal attacks.  At the risk of being seen as too heavy handed a response to some arguably relevant grievances, I've chosen to leave the section in place as it is, and instead respond point-for-point in this post.

Here are the complaints as they are listed in the wiki, followed by my response:

• Entry judgment takes an immense amount of time, especially compared to the time participants had for submitting them.
• Some "entries" have gained a life of their own, expanding into campaigns running well beyond the deadline of Feb 28. It can be argued that some participants have devoted much more effort to rallying voters than for the entries themselves. This way a contest for singularly interesting entries turns into a popularity contest, favoring those who have a strong presence in the TWiT community and alienating newcomers.
• This also defeats the purpose of having an enforceable deadline if one could put in late entries anytime after the deadline.

On the first point we agree, it has taken quite some time to judge these entries. I've discussed this point before, so I'll avoid further elaboration.

I see this second point as a valid frustration, voiced in the wrong direction. I'll admit to spending as much or more time post-deadline on this campaign as I did in crafting my entry to the contest. I also understand that in order for the judges to choose their finalists fairly they must compare apples to apples. That is why I mentioned this issue specifically in the email that contained my submission. I acknowledged that the website and entry should be judged as it existed on the contest deadline. Since then, any changes made have been clearly marked, and the dates and times of content added to the site have remained public and unaltered.

For example, a few days after the contest deadline NiteInJail added some special effects to one of my videos. I posted it right away, in a post that clearly shows it was added after the contest deadline. When I wanted to add that version of the video in place of the one in my original entry slide show, I added in a clearly visible note beside the video informing judges, and viewers that the effects had been added after the deadline for the contest. I think my actions in this regard have been completely above board and that I've met the test of full disclosure every step of the way.

As for the "singularly interesting" vs. "popularity contest" argument, I'm afraid our anonymous critics have misunderstood the contest.  Were the intention to select the most interesting entry, there would have been no public voting phase; our judges would have simply selected the entry they liked best.  I believe that by leaving the final decision to their audience, Leo, Colleen, and Ryan are hoping to give the UGM to the contestant the audience likes best. It will be up to each individual voter to decide what qualities they will take into consideration when voting.

I believe I've already covered the third point for the most part, but allow me to reiterate. The judges had my entry, clearly defined, by the deadline for the contest.  Anything I've done since then could have been done by anyone else with the time, commitment, and desire to win the Ultimate Gaming Machine.

Thank you for allowing me to respond to these criticisms, and if I am a finalist, I hope I can have your vote!

GabeMcG for UGM

P.S.

I'd like to hear what you have to say on this, leave a comment below, email me, or call (616) 499-4469 and let me know what you think. Am I completely wrong? Or do I have a good point?

Update on Sunday, April 19, 2009 at 12:11AM by Gabe

Just a quick follow-up to the controversy, or lack there of unfolding on the TWiT Wiki.  Due to edit warring, the discussion has moved to the, "talk" page for that article, here. If you have anything you would like to say on the matter, please do so there.

Thanks,

Gabe

Well, here we are a full month and a half into the judgment portion of the UGM competition.  I've been trying not to annoy Leo, Colleen, and Ryan too much by asking for updates... Perhaps I've been too polite, as I've heard virtually nothing for weeks on the subject.

I just wanted to let those of you who are continuing to check back, and keep asking me if I've won yet that the campaign is still going strong, and ready to transition into a full-on campaign if and when the finalists are announced.

Here's a picture Colleen took of iJustine using the UGM at the TWiT cottage:

Hey there friends,

We're now over three weeks into the judging phase of the UGM Competition, and I'm sure all of us who entered are waiting on pins and needles for more news out of the TWiT Camp.  There hasn't been much news in the past week or so, which is why I haven't posted. I figure it's better to update when I've got something new or interesting to say, rather than bore you all with daily minutiae.

Word on the street is that Leo hopes to announce the finalists (however many there end up being) this month. With just a week left in March, we should know very soon if I'll be continuing on to the voting phase of the UGM contest.  I've got some great stuff planned for that eventuality, and you can expect the campaign to be in full force, out there working the tubes to earn every vote I can. I'm also really excited that the venerable Kiwinerd has agreed in principle to moderate a public debate among finalists, and I will actively recruit endorsements from prominent community members.

In the mean time, there is plenty you can do to: help spread the word. My favorite contribution is when fans take an idea and run with it like NiteInJail did.  Now Daniels from the TWiT Live IRC chat has stepped it up a notch and produced a Campaign Commercial for me! How cool is that?!?! Please give it a bunch of views, and tweet it, and let Daniels know how much you liked it in the comments section, or email him (captcha prevents spam).

Daniels Campaign Commercial from Gabe McGuinness on Vimeo.

On a side note, I've registered, and set up a place holder site at PopTheBall.Org as a place to make it easier for folks who would like to pool their TWiT donations to take advantage of one of the new events large donations will trigger.  Leo has mentioned, for instance, that a $1000 donation might pop the ball he sits on.  I'd love to get your feedback on the idea, and if any web-devs out there are familiar with Paypal's IPN (Instant Payment Notification) system, and would like to help out with the site, I'd love to talk, please email me at: PopTheBall@Gmail.com

Tomorrow evening will mark a full two weeks since the UGM contest entry deadline. Many folks I've talked to have been asking, "Did you win yet?" and, "When can I vote for you?" It should come as no surprise that the three hundred or so entries would take a while to go through, but many (myself included) have been starting to wonder, "What's Next?"

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who have been checking back here regularly for updates, subscribing to my RSS, and Twitter feeds, and giving me your feedback.  While I don't have much new information to report about the status of the contest, I have gleaned a few updates from watching the live stream all week, and pinging Leo, and Colleen with some questions.

Early in the week, Colleen said she had finished going through the entries, and had chosen her favorites, but that Leo and Ryan still had to go over them.  Later, Leo mentioned that there were so many good entries that they might have a hard time narrowing it down to 10 finalists, let alone the 5 they had originally planned. Then during the taping of PC Perspective yesterday, Leo asked Ryan Shrout if he had looked at the entries he had emailed him.  Ryan said he never even received the email, which Leo said was probably because with all the attachment's forwarded it may have been over 20 MB. Again Leo mentioned a total of perhaps 10-15 finalists, emphasizing how many good ones they received.

Some in the IRC asked what I thought of the contest rules changing to accommodate an increased number of finalists (one even wondered aloud about the legality of such a thing). First let me be clear, this is Leo's contest, and he can do whatever he wants. If he wants to change the rules, I think that is his prerogative, and that he has every right (legal and otherwise) to do so. That said, I would probably prefer the rules stay the same, and that 5 finalists be picked for the community to vote on. I realise that allowing more finalists increases the chance that I'll be among that group, but I think its only fair to select a winner in the manner the contest was announced. Just my opinion, and I'm confident I'll be among the finalists regardless of how many are made available to the TWiT Community to pick from. I won't say anything more about this.

Please keep checking back, as we could hear an announcment of the finalists any day now. When I know something, you will.

I'll use the bundled software (including Songsmith) to record a, "Thank You" video to all who made my victory possible (before I bury myself in Fallout 3 and COD 4)

UGM is obviously all about the games. I'm not the guy who wants it primarily to do 3d rendering, or compiling code, or editing video.  I want to win the UGM so I can game.  That said, I think I'll be able to postpone my excitement for long enough to produce a fun, "thank you" video.

I'm open to ideas on what kind of video would be appropriate, but I know it should include a Microsoft Songsmith soundtrack.  I'm seeing something like this, but with the UGM instead of a wagon full of pancakes:

UGM will be a top producer for the Leoville/TWiT Folding@Home Team for a long long time

The Leoville/TWiT team is a top perormer on the volunteer computing project Folding@Home.  This distributed computing platform harnesses the idle power of millions of computers to unlock the secrets of protein folding. Better understanding of the ways proteins assemble themselves could lead to treatments or cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes.

I'm new to the project, but as someone who has a family member with Alzheimer's, I'm excited to continue contributing to the Leoville/TWiT team regardless of whether I win UGM or not. I can promise if I do win UGM, the Folding@Home app will be a start-up service, and will continue to contribute to this worthy cause for quite a long time.  Given my commitment to keeping UGM up to date in terms of hardware, the performance is only going to improve with time. I realize this is a pretty obvious reason, one that I'm sure many other entries picked as well, but it is still a good reason, and one that helps an important project.

This Week in Fun Theme by GabeMcG

To offset the extra energy UGM will consume, I'll purchase carbon elimination credits from Climate Friendly

At 1200w continuous power, the PC Power and Cooling power supply in UGM is capable of handling just about anything I can throw at it. That said, every thing I throw at it is going to have a cost. Along with a bigger energy bill, comes a bigger impact on the environment in the form of extra pollution.

As I described yesterday, my current system is no slouch. At 750w running continuously, mostly at idle, I don't expect a dramatic increase in my carbon footprint. And right now, I pay extra on my energy bill to have some of my juice come from renewable sources. However, I do want to be be sensitive to what impact my increased attention to gaming will have.

I've been basing my calculations so far on the calculator at Climate Friendly. because I don't own the Kill-A-Watt, or the UGM (yet) I have to work on estimates at this point. Once I win the UGM, I'll purchase the Kill-A-Watt and get an accurate reading to make my carbon offset purchase.

If my current 750w power supply were maxed-out 24/7 I would be using about 18 kwh/day rounding up to 20 kwh/day would produce about 4.2 Tonnes/yr of carbon, which I could offset for $69.07 from Climate Friendly. If I make the same calculation with the UGM's 1200w, and round up to 30kwh/day, the cost to offset the 6.3 Tonnes/yr UGM would be $103.61. The difference of $34.54 would hypothetically offset my increase carbon use for the first year UGM is in my possession.

Of course, I'll be able to give much more accurate numbers when I win, and for that I'll need your help. Check here for things you can do to chip in.

Proceeds from the sale of my current desktop will benefit the charity of Leo's choosing

Pay it forward from Gabe McGuinness on Vimeo.

Uncle Ben said it best, "With great power, comes great responsibility." Just as this contest is a fantastic way to give back to the TWiT community, I was inspired to give back to my other communities, and those less fortunate. Aside from the fact that I've promised to hold a TWiT Lan Party for anyone who wants to come to West Michigan, I've decided to donate the proceeds from the sale of my current desktop to the charity of Leo's choosing. 

While I've heard that some contestants suggested they would donate the UGM to a children's hospital, I took a more practical approach. The power, size and level of knowledge needed to own and operate UGM responsibly is well beyond the capacity of overworked hospital employees.  These selfless folks have much more important things to worry about than bleeding a custom water cooling setup, and replacing the fluid.

There is a way for this contest to benefit these special kids. Child's Play is one well known non-profit that donates gaming gear to kids in the hospital. I'd be willing to guide my donation any number of ways. I could pick a charity myself, add a community poll here on the campaign site, or just let Leo choose. Whatever way its done, a deserving organization will receive several hundred dollars.

The desktop I'll be donating has these specs:

• DFI Lanparty UT NF4 SLI-DR
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ 939, 1mb L2
• 2GB OCZ Platinum Rev. 2 DDR PC2700
• nVidia GeForce 8800GT 512mb
• 36GB WD Raptor 10K Rpm System drive
• 2x300GB Sata Raid 0 storage array
• 750W Cooler Master Silent PSU
• ATI HDTV wonder ATSC HD tuner with antenna
• Hauppauge PVR-150 SD tuner
• DVD-Rom
• Antech P180 enclosure

The plan is to sell the computer itself, or part it out on Craigslist, or eBay. Then donate the money to Child's Play, or whatever charity is selected.

I'll Give the UGM a dedicated circuit (maybe)

At 1200 watts, the UGM's PC Power and Cooling power supply is a titan, one that requires a consistent and ample supply of juice.  I plan on doing my best to give the UGM it a dedicated circuit, even if it means hiring a professional.

I'm not just promising to do this because the entire upstairs of my house is on the same circuit right now, and we blow a fuse every time my roommate turns on her hair dryer.  I'm merely citing this as one relevant example of how I will make a good home for the UGM, one deserving of the blood, sweat, tears, time, and money that went into crafting this piece of art.

Being a system builder myself, I know that when you put together a box for someone, a part of you always wonders if they'll treat it right.  Not because you're worried you'll have to fix it if they muck something up, but because its your baby. You worked hard to troubleshoot every incompatibility, to squeeze every last mhz out of your hardware, to make sure the cables were neat and organized for maximum airflow. And as you pass it off, it always hurts just a little.

I'm writing this to assure not only Colleen, Leo, and Ryan that their baby will be in good hands, but to appeal to all those out there considering who they should vote for.  Think about how many of the other contestants will risk ruining such a sublime piece of technical beauty by mucking arround with the setup.

I'm not the one who will fry the system trying to remove one of the video cards so that I can install a TV tuner, or a special I/O card for doing audio recording or video editing.  This machine is designed for gaming, and with me gaming is what it will do, my friends. I'll also get a UPS to make sure that if a circuit is blown, the UGM is safe. I'll regularly pull out the can of compressed air to make sure that dust doesn't doom my overclocked treasure.

That's not to say the Ultimate Gaming Machine will remain a stagnant piece of art, something to hang on the wall, a snapshot of the peak performance at the time it was built. No, this is a living work of art. One that will grow, and evolve. This machine will become no relic for the Smithsonian, it will continue to pwn, for generations to come!

The first system I built was an original Athlon, with PC133 ram. Since then I've built, configured, overclocked and repaired dozens of systems. I'm at home inside a PC.  I know that with the proper introduction from Colleen, I will soon be just as familiar with the UGM's custom water cooling. Not only am I well qualified to use and maintain the UGM, I believe I'm worthy of filling Colleen's (very big) shoes when it comes time for an upgrade.

Not to say an upgrade will be in order any time soon, that is.  But eventually, even the best hardware, and the fastest overclocks get out paced by progress.  Moore's law is both a friend and an enemy. I'm sure it gives the judges pause to think what devilish things the UGM winner might do to their labor of love, but I also know they would rather trust it to a worthy successor who will care for it, and protect its legacy by keeping it current, instead of letting it wither and die.