PCWorld executive editor Gordon Mah Ung, a tireless journalist we once described as a founding father of hardcore tech journalism, passed away over the weekend after a hard-fought battle with pancreatic cancer. Gordon was 58, and leaves behind a loving wife, two children, older sister, and mother.
With more than 25 years’ experience covering computer tech broadly and computer chips specifically, Gordon’s dogged reporting, one-of-a-kind personality, and commitment to journalistic standards touched many, many lives. He will be profoundly missed by co-workers, industry sources, and the PC enthusiasts who read his words and followed him as a video creator.
Gordon studied journalism at San Francisco State University and then worked as a police reporter for theContra Costa Times in the late 1990s. In 1997, he joined Computerworld (a PCWorld sister publication) before I recruited him to join boot magazine (later re-launched as Maximum PC), where he would ultimately lead hardware coverage for 16 years.
At Maximum PC, Gordon developed his trademark voice that blended a hardcore passion for PC tech with non-sequiturs, deadpan humor, and occasional bursts of outrage. As a very early podcaster in the tech space, Gordon’s “Rant of the Week” segment on the Maximum PC pod became so legendary, someone made a soundboard of his best sound bytes. (Caution: It can get a bit NSFW in the finest Gordon tradition.) As I listened to his rants from my office, he always had me guessing, “Is he really thatangry, or is he playing us?”
And that was part of Gordon’s genius. His number one commitment was to investigating the story, informing the public, and helping people make the best technology decisions. But layered on top of all of this was a master showman who effortlessly connected with like-minded enthusiasts.
During much of his time at Maximum PC, Gordon was the lead designer, builder and dreamer behind the magazine’s annual Dream Machine project, which entailed creating the most outrageous, high-performing PC possible. Throughout these building endeavors, he cemented his relationships with Intel, AMD, Nvidia, and other hardware manufacturers too numerous to mention.
Gordon’s goal was to get the newest, best, most high-performing parts before anyone else. And it didn’t end with CPUs and GPUs. If a piece of technology went into a PC build, Gordon had an encyclopedic knowledge about all of it—memory, storage, PSUs, cases, cooling, and beyond.
Gordon was also the unnamed author of Maximum PC’s consumer-advocate “Watchdog” column. As the mysterious Watchdog, Gordon responded to reader complaints about fly-by-night companies and failing products, and applied all his investigative skills to help readers reach a resolution. It was a perfect merger of consumer service, deep reporting and tech smarts that only Gordon could own.
Sort of like Star Trek’s Scotty who preferred sticking to his technical manuals, Gordon resisted taking the helm of Maximum PC, but eventually agreed to become Editor-in-Chief in 2014. Flash forward to later that year, when I once again asked for his help—this time to join PCWorld as executive editor in charge of hardware.
At PCWorld, Gordon immediately began imprinting his knowledge and personality on our articles and video. His deep-dive CPU reviews were epic, and continued a legacy of no-BS chip coverage that nonetheless earned the trust and respect of the companies he covered. Some of his first segues into video took the form of our Hardcore Hardware series where he married his deep wealth of knowledge with trademark Gordon theatrics.
Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2564783/gordon-mah-ung-remembered.html
With more than 25 years’ experience covering computer tech broadly and computer chips specifically, Gordon’s dogged reporting, one-of-a-kind personality, and commitment to journalistic standards touched many, many lives. He will be profoundly missed by co-workers, industry sources, and the PC enthusiasts who read his words and followed him as a video creator.
Gordon studied journalism at San Francisco State University and then worked as a police reporter for theContra Costa Times in the late 1990s. In 1997, he joined Computerworld (a PCWorld sister publication) before I recruited him to join boot magazine (later re-launched as Maximum PC), where he would ultimately lead hardware coverage for 16 years.
At Maximum PC, Gordon developed his trademark voice that blended a hardcore passion for PC tech with non-sequiturs, deadpan humor, and occasional bursts of outrage. As a very early podcaster in the tech space, Gordon’s “Rant of the Week” segment on the Maximum PC pod became so legendary, someone made a soundboard of his best sound bytes. (Caution: It can get a bit NSFW in the finest Gordon tradition.) As I listened to his rants from my office, he always had me guessing, “Is he really thatangry, or is he playing us?”
And that was part of Gordon’s genius. His number one commitment was to investigating the story, informing the public, and helping people make the best technology decisions. But layered on top of all of this was a master showman who effortlessly connected with like-minded enthusiasts.
During much of his time at Maximum PC, Gordon was the lead designer, builder and dreamer behind the magazine’s annual Dream Machine project, which entailed creating the most outrageous, high-performing PC possible. Throughout these building endeavors, he cemented his relationships with Intel, AMD, Nvidia, and other hardware manufacturers too numerous to mention.
Gordon’s goal was to get the newest, best, most high-performing parts before anyone else. And it didn’t end with CPUs and GPUs. If a piece of technology went into a PC build, Gordon had an encyclopedic knowledge about all of it—memory, storage, PSUs, cases, cooling, and beyond.
Gordon was also the unnamed author of Maximum PC’s consumer-advocate “Watchdog” column. As the mysterious Watchdog, Gordon responded to reader complaints about fly-by-night companies and failing products, and applied all his investigative skills to help readers reach a resolution. It was a perfect merger of consumer service, deep reporting and tech smarts that only Gordon could own.
Sort of like Star Trek’s Scotty who preferred sticking to his technical manuals, Gordon resisted taking the helm of Maximum PC, but eventually agreed to become Editor-in-Chief in 2014. Flash forward to later that year, when I once again asked for his help—this time to join PCWorld as executive editor in charge of hardware.
At PCWorld, Gordon immediately began imprinting his knowledge and personality on our articles and video. His deep-dive CPU reviews were epic, and continued a legacy of no-BS chip coverage that nonetheless earned the trust and respect of the companies he covered. Some of his first segues into video took the form of our Hardcore Hardware series where he married his deep wealth of knowledge with trademark Gordon theatrics.
Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2564783/gordon-mah-ung-remembered.html
