My trip with AMD in San Jose, California (Photo Heavy)

[fiveub]

I have just got back home, turned on my PC and posting here right away while I can remember most of what has happened. I have taken some photos of course and I wished I had taken more however it was so busy, with lots to do and get involved in! - Plus I was out there working, so that got in the way too! However, I wanted to share with you guys my trip.

So this is how it starts...

I go to Manchester airport, fly to Philadelphia, then to San Francisco. Then a taxi to San Jose which is where I was staying, I met up with Sam that night I arrived from AMD in which we introduced each other and went out for a drink.

The first stop was a classic bar over there in San Jose, which is where they brew their own beer in the bar.

I didn't take many photos, as it was just a normal bar, I just liked how the brewery tanks where on display in there.

So that was the first evening on Monday night, didn't do a lot, just went out in a few bars to get to know each other.

The following day on Tuesday, it was a quiet day in the morning, the weather wasn't too bad, so we decided to go on a road trip, so we got this. And yes we did drive it around with the roof down pretty much everywhere.

As I have flown all the way over there for business, it made sense to spend the morning to see the main city San Francisco, so we did, we were aiming to go to something work related, however we took the longer route.

We came across this funny little car on the highway.

Carried on going for about 40 minutes, and we got to the place we wanted to be. However, we actually passed our final destination.

This area where the Flintstone house is, is pretty much where all the rich live, Mark Zuckerberg (owner of Facebook) lives there, however the Flintstone house you can see, not sure if that is just a house, or if the person who lives in it was part of the show.

So here is the city.

We saw the bridge, and due to having a convertible, we had to drive over it and take some snaps on the move! So on the bridge...

Here is Alcatraz Prison.

And some of me posing by the bridge, as it is something you have to do as a tourist! Representing OcUK of course.

So this is the first stop...

More to come...

 

[Fulax]

Jet-setting around the world for OcUK - lucky boy Although I went to San Francisco last year and thought it was ****.

 

[jorzeh]

Awesome : ) <3

 

[jkb]

I've had some great times in San Francisco, our head office is there.

 

[fiveub]

So what it leads onto now is seeing more of the city, as we are taking a detour as to where we want to go to...

So we stopped by some Roman building, it seems like it was a work of art, but I don't know the full history, but it was nice to stop by and it seemed like a popular place for people who have just got married, for photos etc.

Getting closer to our destination, we went through China Town. And it really was strange, everything was written in Chinese, you could even buy things in Chinese currency and buy products at the Chinese VAT/TAX rate. I thought it was very cool, it felt like we left the USA for 20 minutes.

From this, we drove up a very steep hill, which led to a very famous street. Lombard Street.

So we are getting closer...

 

[fiveub]

So we were getting nearer.

Pasted the Twitter HQ.

The amount of HQs I saw was unbelievable, we drove around Silicon Valley, and it is just amazing the pure size of these companies.

Saw NASA, and one or if not the largest hanger in the world:

And then we parked up, to somewhere pretty special.

 

[fiveub]

This place was restricted though unfortunately, so I couldn't take photos of everything, but I managed to ask the security to see if it was okay to take photos of just the outside, and the lobby area.

So here we are, the main HQ for AMD. There is no way I could have took a photo of the whole building, because it is like a district.

Inside the lobby was this, everything else was all locked up and very secret as you can probably imagine:

This was actually an exciting thing for me, to actually be there, at the very heart and brains of AMD. Knowing this company for so long, and not only that selling and working with them.

These are all I am uploading for now, as I do need to pop out, so I will start getting down to the main parts and as to why I was really there.

 

[Fulax]

These are all I am uploading for now, as I do need to pop out, so I will start getting down to the main parts and as to why I was really there.

You tease, you.

 

[fiveub]

I am back, so back to the lobby of the HQ:

This is what I could take photos of, everything else, unfortunately is just in my mind.

So moving on... APU13. The massive event based around AMDs products, software and development.

 

[fiveub]

So APU13, this is where I checked in:

I already had checked in that morning as you can see from the photo of me at the Golden Gate Bridge with my pass around my neck.

 

[Glanza]

Nice pics so far, lucky to get to go over there for work

 

[fiveub]

So this was the pass you need to be able to get in, and for each keynote or convention session your barcode is scanned. The first one we went to was exploring and showing hand expressions with devices by Eyesight, which was really interesting. The presenter was doing the whole presentation with hand expressions. Which will link to all devices, such as TVs, computers, tablets, phones etc. - And this is something I can see being popular, it is more high tech compared to Kinect etc.

This is what one of the smaller presentation rooms looked like, there were many of them, as throughout the week there were many presentations going on at the same time:

This is one entrance, however the building is too big to capture everything, but you will see some photos later with more details and what there was to see.

(empty too, as it was before the event actually started!)

 

[fiveub]

So there were some small stands there showing technology either by AMD themselves, or other companies who are working with AMD to develop newer and better technology, so it can grow and expand.

So AMD showing off the Eyefinity setup here:

And for example, companies working together for surround sound to work with the Oculus headunit, so when you move your head, not only the image moves, the sound moves in sync with the image, it was pretty impressive!

 

[fiveub]

So that is Monday night, and Tuesday gone. Wednesday was AMD BF4 Fan Day.

This was an excellent event running in the same exhibition as APU13 however this was for members of the public. AMD and partners were giving away over $50,000 worth of prizes, and the good thing is, all the prizes were handed out for free on the spot! - With throw out, competitions, free raffles, and fun and games.

Also there were 100 systems set up in LAN, for people to enjoy the new BF4 game, also ran competitions to win prizes on the systems too!

So this is what you see when you first walk into this event:

And then you are surrounded by hundreds of computers hooked up onto a LAN:

 

[Akagi]

All fantastic stuff. You are very lucky!

I do however have one very important question... The Camaro... 3.6 or 6.2?

 

[fiveub]

All fantastic stuff. You are very lucky!

I do however have one very important question... The Camaro... 3.6 or 6.2?

3.6 as far as I am aware! It was a pretty aggressive car.

This is actually longer than I expected, so I will update more later today!

 

[Hyburnate]

5UBBED! Not first reply this time xD

 

[Nickyyy]

Pics look well! Did you win anything?

 

[snips86x]

This is some awesome stuff. Keep it coming!

 

[gary996]

Wish I could have been there. Very interesting.