SL: Do you get a lot more of fan mail, or flame mail?

AnandTech: I get more fan mail than flame mail but the mail I truly enjoy is when a reader writes in offering thanks for the help with a purchase they recently made or when a reader offers some constructive criticism.

SL: Did you fall in love with computers the first time you saw one, or were you influenced by other people?

AnandTech: My dad was the first person to introduce me to computers as he was a professor of computer science at a college in Keene when I was growing up. He wasn't into hardware at all, but he was the one that put me in front of a computer and let me peck away at the keyboard. I eventually found myself into the box and started tinkering around in there which was influenced by newsgroups and Computer Shopper (the last 100 pages, where all the good stuff is…or used to be).

SL: What kind of advice would you give to people? What if someone wanted to start their own website, what kind of advice would you give them?

AnandTech: Running AnandTech has truly opened my eyes to the good and the bad of being a part of the "media." There is quite a bit of corruption, greed, and hatred that I as well as others take note of on a daily basis and my advice to everyone out there would be to do your best not to become a part of it. Keep your mind open and keep your thoughts free of prejudice. The internet can so easily be abused by anyone since it offers the protection of an anonymous identity, but don't use that protection to attack another individual, it really doesn't accomplish anything and only contributes to a growing problem in our society.

For someone that is looking to start their own website, more power to ya. There is a world of opportunity out there, take advantage of it. But stay true to yourself, keep in mind why you are doing this and never lose track of your goals. Just remember that money isn't everything and running a website isn't the get-rich-quick scheme of the nineties. Above all, enjoy what you are doing and contributing to those around you, be original and be yourself. We don't need a world full of copycats, we need a world filled with unique people. You are unique.

SL: What’s your favorite part of your job?

AnandTech: Communicating to my readers through my articles and posts and receiving comments back from them in the form of emails and suggestions.

SL: What’s the worst part of your job?

AnandTech: The politics, the stuff that's "behind the scenes." If at some point I stop doing AnandTech (a future I don't see happening anytime soon) I will have quite a bit to say about what I have been witness to. Until then, let the speculation roam free ;)

SL: Is AnandTech your only job, or do you do something else as well (school, work, etc)?

AnandTech: I'm a full time son, a full time friend, a full time student, a full time boyfriend, and a full time Anand. In other words, I'm a senior in High School Other than that, it's all AnandTech.

SL: How do you think the chip war between AMD and Intel will progress, who do you think will come out with the best chip after next year?

AnandTech: Next year is up for grabs, AMD has finally proven that they can not only produce but also deliver a product that is competitive with, on all grounds, Intel's greatest. Unfortunately the motherboard situation is very disappointing and AMD is going to need some increased support from motherboard manufacturers before the Athlon can truly live up to its potential. The true future does not lie in the Athlon however. It is great that AMD has a high performing part, but they need to go for the kill in order to truly come out on top. The successor to this first generation Athlon CPU is going to have a much larger impact (whether good or bad) than the original Athlon. The question then becomes, will Intel be able to counteract it?

And the answer to that would have to be yes. Intel has a very interesting project on their hands and they are very annoyed at the fact they lost the performance title to an AMD processor. The Pentium III E (Coppermine) is currently in great demand and Intel's share of the market is having a fine time gobbling up the CPUs (which is why until recently they have not been in the hands of most of us hardware enthusiasts) but it's obvious than AMD has won this round, the Athlon is simply a superior processor.

In the first quarter look for AMD's lead to be cut down slightly (if at all) but watch out for some interesting competition towards the end of the first half and into the second half of 2000. I wish I could say more.

SL: In your opinion, will macs ever be a competitor to PC's in terms of gaming technology?

AnandTech: The potential is definitely there. If anything I think idSoftware's release of the Quake 3 Test on the Macs was a step in the right direction for bringing hard core PC games over to the platform. You can't expect competing game developers to sit around while id consumes the Mac gaming market with Q3A. Will they ever be a competitor? Possibly, but not in the very near future.

SL: What do you think about the whole graphics war? The technology moves so fast, do you think that’s a good thing?

AnandTech: The 6 month product cycles are ridiculous. We will continue to see more and more product delays and an increasing amount of user frustration until the companies either wear their resources thin or give up on such short product cycles. NVIDIA seems to have their act together with the 6-mo cycles but I'm not too happy with the fact that I have to recommend a different video card every 6 months to the performance user.

In that respect, Matrox and ATI have taken very respectable stands by staying out of the 6-mo cycles and focusing their attention on other areas instead.

Technology is meant to move fast, but there are always limits. This is one of them, anything faster is going to be pushing the limits of the market, let's hope no company tries to get a little too competitive.

SL: What’s your opinion on overclocking? Do you do it? If so, what do you overclock and how much?

AnandTech: I'm all for it (naturally). It's what makes the PC so much like a car, it adds personality and offers the gratification of having a truly tweaked machine at your fingertips. I overclock my processors and video cards primarily, nothing really too obscure, but it is one of the first things I think about when a new product comes into the lab.

SL: What’s the first thing that comes to mind when I say wood? (Random question, but we need something to entertain you and the reader J )

AnandTech: Zanshin, if anyone ever talked about computers (more specifically, Quake) and wood, it would have to be Zanshin. He's the man.

SL: Who do you want to as the next United States president or what character from a computer or console game would make the best president/teacher/wife, and why?

AnandTech: Computer generated characters are just that, computer generated characters, some people need to keep that in mind ;) But in response to who I'd like to see as the next president, I think for once I'd like to see a true outsider handle the helm for four years; Not a complete idiot, just someone that isn't a politician. I'd like to see the presidential race move away from the money raising media contest it has become and go back to what it was intended to be, a method of selecting the one individual that this great country can put their entire faith behind

SL: How do you handle the time management with school?

AnandTech: When I started AnandTech I promised myself that I wouldn't sacrifice my social life for the site. High School is four years out of your life that you should enjoy, it is half academic and half social, if you miss out on either part you are cheating yourself out of a part of your life. So where did I cut the time I spend on AnandTech out of? Sleep I know, it's bad, but I'm still young, I'm allowed to make mistakes and bad decisions, right? ;)