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Inside the Industry - Tommy Rybak
Date: Saturday, June 14, 2003
Author: Jsgolfman
Provided By: None
Page: 1 of 1
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As a member of the on-line community and news hound for COD, I peruse a variety of websites on a daily basis. I often spend hours corralling hot topics for our members and guests. In my virtual travels I come across destinations that catch my eye and I bestow upon them the coveted title of "Favorite" in my web browser. These are the places I go when I can spend a little more time digesting the information I gather each day. I often wondered who ran these sites and what they were like. I think we all have mental images of the gurus with whom we query, cajole and trade barbs. I reasoned that if I was having these thoughts, perhaps others were as well. Then it hit me; what better way to satisfy my curiosity than to take advantage of my position as news nerd to put them under the microscope. What makes them tick? Why do they spend countless hours on a venture that, for the vast majority, will provide no substantial income and most likely become a financial burden? There's only one way to find out, ask them. So I did.
Once I made the decision to pursue this venture, I knew the first place I would go, Systemcooling. Myself, I have been involved in the computing arena for about 10 years. The majority of my time had been spent on the software side. I can still remember the satisfaction of writing my first batch file. It wasn't until last year that I became interested in the hardware side of the game. I had just built a PC and had heard about the problems with proper cooling of the AMD processors and the systems in which they reside. I did what all good researchers do, I Googled for "system cooling" and up popped Systemcooling.com. I surfed on over and have been a member ever since. So, I thought it fitting that I should start my quest with the gang at SC. Those of you who overclock or are interested in cooling are probably already familiar with SC, those that aren't should make it a point to check them out.
The two major players at SC are Bob Dyl and Tommy Rybak. Some of you might remember Scott Mikules. He was one of the founders, with Bob, but his commitment to his website forced him to relinquish his duties for SC. He will be missed at SC and I'm sure he has his own story to tell (hint at future article).
In the interest of non-redundancy, I will be conducting the interview with Tommy. Bob is getting on in years, you know, and I would hate to tax his memory when he needs it for other things. : Anyway, without further ado, let's get on with the grilling.
COD: So, tell us a little about Tommy Rybak? Where are you from? Any family you know about? Any you don't? Shoe size? Inquiring minds want to know.
Tommy: My name is Tomasz Rybak, I was born on Dec. 20th, 1974 in Libiaz, Poland, a small town situated about 8km from Oswiecim (Auschwitz) and 35km from Krakow. My mother, father, brother and I immigrated to the USA in 1980. Reason for that was because my father a mechanical engineer organized the first coalmine strike in Poland during the Solidarity movement. Because of his actions against, what was at that time a Communist government, he was expelled out of the country after spending a year in jail. I've been married for the last 4 years and I live in Boston with my wife, Maggie.
COD: How did you get involved in computers?
Tommy: I got involved with computers when I was 10 years old when my dad bought me a Commodore 128.....I can still remember when a floppy disk was really floppy. (Hehe, he said floppy)
COD: Are you currently employed in the computing arena or have you been in the past?
Tommy: I currently work as an IT Manager for an interior design company in the Boston Design Center with 16 agent showrooms through out the country. I also do some light web work with small company pages and graphic design on my days off.
COD: How did you come to get involved in running Systemcooling?
Tommy: Long, long time ago I met Bob on the amdmb.com forums. Although the age difference was more then 30 years we hit it of pretty well (must have been the Polish in us). When Bob and Scott started SC, Bob asked if I'd be interested in doing the news. Of course I said yes and when Scott departed to put all of his effort towards his site, I stepped in.
COD: What has been your favorite part of SC.c?
Tommy: That would have to be the people that write for us and the forum members. We've been extremely lucky to attract the right crowd and that's what has made the site such a success.
COD: What would you change?
Tommy: The first thing I want to change is how news is handled. As it is now, I post the news each morning, I would like to see news posted through out the day to give our readers a reason of coming back more the once during the day.
COD: We all know SC was started as a cooling fanatic's website, but lately it's seemed to evolve into more of a full service destination. Can you give us some insight as to the change?
Tommy: From the beginning it was never the intention to make SC a cooling only site. The original thought was to start off with something that we knew people would trust us on, but surely and slowly evolve the site into new areas of computing. Having said that I don't want people to think that we will stop doing cooling reviews. Cooling put us on the map, we all enjoy it and we'll continue bring our readers the latest and greatest in cooling.
COD: From your perspective, what changes/innovations do you see ahead for our industry in general and cooling specifically?
Tommy: Unless AMD or Intel develops some great technology that will allow their chips to run cooler. I only see cooling getting bigger and bigger. To me quiet is also a big issue in computing; I could never understand how people could use 40+ dBA fans. So, I also think that this is where water-cooling will become more and more popular. It will allow most users to run their computers at almost silent levels with ability to overclock and not worry about over heating.
COD: Last question, what are your thoughts on Monkee Spankin'?
Tommy: I answered this question first.....and all I can say is, I hope his name does not reflect his favourite past time :)
I would like to thank Tommy for sitting down and allowing us to come into his home, so to speak. I hope you enjoyed finding out a little more about Systemcooling, I know I did. Keep checking in for the next episode of Inside the Industry.
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