Scott Wasson Announces His Retirement From The Tech Report
by Ryan Smith on December 3, 2015 1:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Misc
Congratulations are in order this evening for one of AnandTech’s most esteemed colleagues and peers, Scott Wasson. Scott founded The Tech Report back in 1999 and has lead it since, and in those years has operated one of the best deep technical websites in the business. However after 16 years at the helm of The Tech Report, this evening Scott has announced that he is retiring from the site at the start of next year and will be joining AMD.
Among his accomplishment, Scott was instrumental in bringing the matter of GPU frame pacing and overall frame rate consistency to the attention of the wider world of technology. And at the same time he has been equally responsible for holding AMD to task on the subject – a position that isn’t always easy – ultimately driving AMD to improve their drivers and frame delivery mechanisms to the benefit of all users. So to find out that he is joining AMD, though undoubtedly a loss to technical journalism, is wonderful news for both parties, as now AMD will have a strong advocate for quality and user experience within their ranks who can push for even more.
So with that in mind, I wish Scott congratulations and the best of luck in his new position.
As for The Tech Report, Scott has announced that his managing editor and right-hand man Jeff Kampman will be taking over the site. Jeff has done a great deal for the site since joining, so I am happy to hear that Jeff will be continuing the Report's tradition of quality journalism.
Source: The Tech Report
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ikjadoon - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link
Whew.yannigr2 - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link
Now he will have plenty of R9 Nanos to play :Dwolfemane - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link
Finally some real talent at AMD.just4U - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link
An interesting move by Amd. They need wider brand recognition, and have a non existent advertising division. Perhaps picking up people who know such things and understand how to move forward on bare bones will help with that. It's not so much their products which are fine (all things considered..) sure they have some lackluster stuff as well but Apple, Nvidia and even Intel have proven that's no really a stumbling block... Anyway guess we shall see what Scott brings to the table for their team.ImSpartacus - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link
That's a good point.I was getting the feeling that tr wasn't exactly cash flush for the past few years once they started the subscription service (I.e. they probably lost their ad sales guy), they lost their two big editors (Geoff and cyril), they lost their podcast producer, etc.
Scott probably has experience making do with a light budget, so I agree that probably made him attractive to amd.
It just makes you wonder what will happen to tr since it's now being run by a guy with less than two years experience and a team with even less than that. :/
tipoo - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link
He's in the Radeon Technology Group, so I don't think he's tied to marketing/brand recognition. Could be though I guess, if specific to Radeon.tipoo - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link
Tech company hires admired tech reviewer and site founder...Why am I having deja vu?From starting as a technology fan talking about tech, to making it a full time job, to actually /working/ for one of these companies and getting closer to the innards than he probably ever imagined, it must be a dream come true.
Second it's kind of exciting to hear AMD and Raja were specifically interested in him, particularly as TR was a big initiator and pusher in the whole frame time issue. This, to me, suggests AMD is doing some real introspection and correction, rather than trying to deny it's issues like, say, Blackberry.
Third, stop taking all the good'uns, tech companies!
typographie - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link
I'll miss his work on Tech Report, but I'm honestly very happy to see AMD take such a serious step toward acknowledging and correcting the problems they've had with frame pacing for a long time. What better way to leave than to put his work into action at a company that needs it? :)watersb - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link
Thanks very much, Scott. Congratulations!questgraves - Wednesday, April 19, 2017 - link
Sad to see you go but great work on frame times, I post this years later to express my gratitude at the fluidity of my multiple monitor/GPU setup. When I first got these panels I was using 2 6870s in crossfire and there was a ton of microstutter. Between the time Scott released his findings and the time I upgraded to the then R9 290 nearly all of the micro-stutter issue were resolved on the crossfire setup as well the R9 and I haven't had to complain about it since regardless of GPU. That's not to say the problem is solved, only that it is known and is now being taken just as seriously as FPS. Thanks Scott!