ATI drivers go open source

I have seriously been waiting for this moment for quite some time. I have loved ATI products since the AIW 8500 DV, and have mourned their lack of good *nix support - certainly never as good as nVidia's (relatively) good Linux drivers, not to mention the kludge that is installing a binary driver under Linux.

Weep no more: ATI is releasing their specifications to the hardware community in order to build open-source drivers. As Anandtech points out, there are a million caveats, such as, this will take a long time, there's no guarantee ATI will actually follow through with a full-featured specification release, we are starting from scratch since they can't/won't release any of their current proprietary code. But still - it's a watershed moment. It's one more thing that actually makes me want to start diving into GNU/Linux development. And there's always that faint possibility of the dream moment, when we actually have a choice of OS to use when running 3D apps.

Job offer

I received a job offer on Friday from the place where I reported having an interview earlier. It's a 1099 gig - title is "System Administrator." I'm definitely happy with the job, as it looks like I'll have pretty broad responsibility. However, I'm really looking for a "long-term stable" job - for instance, with a contractor/consultant firm - and as such, I am still keeping my fingers crossed for a certain other position. A position which I just completed Round 3 interview for.

And mainlanders were skeptical of the job market in Hawaii... :D For me, it seems to be better than the Chicago area. However, my friend pointed out yesterday that when you find the place that you're happy to put down roots, that makes it a lot easier to find things that you really like - house, partner, job.

I'm happy to start - probably tomorrow or Wednesday - but I will kind of miss my free time. :p

Job interview

So I had a job interview today. Actually it was just stopping by and saying hi to a (potential) future coworker, since the (our?) manager is at the client headquarters in Florida. I hope she got along with me pretty well, and she's telling her boss to hire me right now.

I'm actually holding my breath for another job though, at a managed services provider. They should be getting back to me soon - I hope sooner rather than later. I don't want to be in the position of turning down a good job or risking losing an even better one. I really don't want to accept one job and leave the next week.

Micky is sleeping after a rough day. We said we'd go to the beach after work, but it doesn't look like that's happening this afternoon. Oh well - more time for me dig into VBScript. :)