Giveaways and I'm Off to Spain
by Anand Lal Shimpi on May 10, 2010 3:41 PM EST- Posted in
- Site Updates
- Anand
I want to publicly congratulate Mr. King of Jamaica Plain, MA for winning our 13th Anniversary Giveaway. He should be receiving his brand new Gulftown system shortly and hopefully he'll be kind enough to share some pics and impressions with us when he does.
A number of other companies have shipped in giveaway goodies to celebrate our 13th anniversary as well as the launch of the new site. I will be overseeing a giveaway of one product per day starting later this month. Why the delay? I'm taking a vacation.
I've been going full speed for the past several months here on AT and am nearing the point where I need a short break. So later tonight, barring any ash cloud related issues, I will be boarding a flight to Madrid, Spain. I've never been, but everyone tells me it's a great place to go so I'm going. I'll be in Madrid, Granada and Seville if you have any suggestions on things to do, places to visit or deliciousness to eat. I'll be back by the 21st (again, assuming no ash cloud related issues) and hopefully fully recharged to handle things going forward.
The HTC Incredible review was the last thing I was able to get off my plate so I suggest taking a look at that. I have Apple's new 13-inch MacBook Pro in the lab as well as some more SSDs and CPUs to deal with when I get back.
I'm leaving you all in good hands as we've got Jarred, Ryan and Raja manning the helm while I'm gone. John Campion, our web developer, will also be working on fixes and updates to the site code. We've got dozens of new features to roll out over the coming months so expect to see some appear while I'm gone.
Have fun guys, I'll promise I'll be back soon :)
P.S. For those of you asking for international giveaways, the feedback from our sweepstakes lawyer has been this: to focus on expanding the reach on a country by country basis. When I get back I'm going to go down the list based on traffic from various countries and work on adding them to the regions we're able to conduct giveaways in.
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mudgod - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link
Definitely check out the Al Hambra (I believe in Granada), one of the most beautiful palaces I've seen. Try out the high speed trains instead of driving (2-3x faster)Also not sure if you're into nightlife but they have a crazy place called Pacha in Madrid thats open till the next morning
Exodite - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link
Enjoy your vacation!Never been to Spain myself either, being situated in Sweden and a redhead who's more or less allergic to sunlight anyway, but it sounds like a nice place to visit as long as you can handle the southern temperament. :)
Looking forward to the MBP 13" review when you get back, frankly it looks like the most interesting of the new MBP's despite the old tech.
multivac - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link
im glad you are expanding the giveaways countries but according to alexa, argentina is nowhere near entering. so sadAnyways enjoy spain, and keep up the good work!
Murloc - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link
I guess that small countries like Belgium, Switzerland, Andorra, Munich principate, Malta etc. are never gonna get giveaways?GB will probably be the first...
bijeshn - Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - link
Actually its gonna be india, by a long shot...http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/anandtech.com
yippee!!
let the takeaways for india begin...
jaimeoc - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link
Hey Anand,I'm a big fan of yours, so it's nice to hear you're coming to my home country.
Anyways, while you are at Madrid, you should definitely check out Paseo de Recoletos, Gran Vía and the surroundings. If you like art, I recommend Museo del Prado.
To eat cheaply, you could go to La Gloria de Montera, in Caballero de Gracia St. (near Gran Via) and If you have plenty of money to spend, you can also try anyone at Infanta Mercedes st. (Asador Donostiarra, Casa Juan, Mesón Txistu, La Penela, etc.)
Oh, I've only been to Seville a couple times, but you must not leave without visiting La Giralda.
Hope you have a wonderful time here!
Oh, and you could start your international giveaways in Spain too, if you will
fabarati - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link
Have fun in Spain, Anand. It's a nice place. And like one of the guys above me said, visit Alhambra. Worth a detour.Will you post a the visitor statistics as well? Would be interesting to see where your readers come from.
/sweden out
nacho_jacker - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link
Hi Anand, this is my first post even though I have been reading your site for ages.I'm also from Spain, but more from the north. Pamplona. Perhaps you know this city because of San Fermin, a spanis fiesta with the famous "Running of the bulls" :)
I've been a few times to Madrid and I love having a mojito in the penthouse of the Midnight Hotel in Santa Ana square.
I also like having a few beers with something for a snack in "El Tigre", though it's usually crowded.
Also the Generalife gardens in the Alhambra in Granada is a must see.
Hope you really enjoy your visit.
Take care.
KommisMar - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link
Hope you enjoy your vacation, Anand!I hope that you'll take a little time to discuss upgrade options for the MBP 13" hard drive. That seems to be the most likely candidate for my next computer, but I'm worried that I might be disappointed because of poor hard drive performance. I'd love to see a MBP 13" article that discusses how to upgrade the hard drive with an SSD and what performance benefits can be expected.
clarkn0va - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link
When in Europe, always bring back as much chocolate and cheese as you can reasonably carry. You're a little far from the Basque region, but you should be able to find a selection of their cheeses nonetheless. It is without equal.