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Tom's Hardware Investigates Michael's Computers
cojsl writes "Tom's Hardware has an extensive article raising questions about Michael's Computers and their claims of a laptop with a "3DMark03 Average Score - 15,417"." It gets funnier as you go along.
"Neighbors confirmed that Michael Gonzales used to live there, but moved out after a divorce."
Maybe his ex-wife was an unsatisfied early user?
Trolling is a art,
Never buy a computer from some guy named Michael. You're better off buying a Dell. Oh, wait.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
0.19 dB? A ticking watch is about 20dB, and it's a log scale.
Its amazing how far something has to go for a business to be considered fraudulent. Is it possible to get warnings like this before they end up in court or handcuffs? If all of this investigation only garners a buyer beware warning, what does it take to get a do not buy warning? I can understand the aversion to calling out fraud, but THG can only build the credibility by taking a stand and telling people don't buy from these guys.
I'm not trying to be overly harsh on THG. I applaud them for being willing to investigate like they did, the industry can only benefit by removing fraudsters. A few bad mechanics have given most mechanics reputations that they don't deserve, and the computer industry needs to avoid this.
Review sites, remember that your job is as much about telling people what they should not buy as it is about what they should. How many people stopped respecting PC World (once upon a time highly respected) after they endorsed Windows Me?
Usually the weaker the evidence, the more someone tries to insist they ar right.
If they actually have and present the evidence, there is no need to spell it out for you.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
You seem to be confusing 3DMark03 with 3DMark01. The system you described would be lucky to get '5000' in 3DMark03.
Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
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He'll add "As mentioned on Slashdot" to his page to add to the hype...
"it's basically the best way to make money, next to taking advantage of lonely guys (pornsites, strippers) and taking advantage of lazy people (remote control, clapper)"
Tell me about it! I made an absolute fortune off my clapper-controlled porn site!
Which also finally answered the rhetorical question, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
Back in '96 I made a fake web page(on my university account) that sold hacker/phreaker gear. Red boxes, blue boxes etc. I did my best to make it look legit. I also had some more obscure items, like Game Boy cartridges that did red box tones, and other fun things I could think of.
Mind you the product drawings were almost MS paint quality.
One of the items I sold was a "katana" laptop computer, with CPU speeds about twice of the fastest CPUs of the day. Also, it said you could buy the laptop in person at our outlet store in New Tokyo.
Needless to say regardless of how amateur the page looked, I got emails every day from people who believed it. Most of them wanted the price on the katana. To think if I was a shyster I could have been swimming in credit card numbers.
Why do sites insist on splitting articles into separate pages?
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It's even worse when the pages are short.
Hell, they often have only a few paragraphs per page.
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Some sites are kind enough to at least offer a "print article" link.
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Others don't.
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It's obvious what they're trying to do.
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They want to generate ad revenue.
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But really, the joke's on them.
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Because I use Privoxy.
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And so they don't get any ad money.
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But still have to spend money on the extra bandwidth it costs...
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...to split up the article into separate pages.
Gates' Law: Every 18 months, the speed of software halves.
[quote]it's basically the best way to make money, next to taking advantage of lonely guys (pornsites, strippers) and taking advantage of lazy people (remote control, clapper[/quote]
Uhm, isn't the point to provide something useful for people (creating value for them)? So strippers, pornsites, remote controls, and the clapper don't take advantage of people.. they simple provide a good or service that people find valuable.
Scamming people is a whole different story.. This guy is a scammer, he doesn't appear to even have a PRODUCT.
Turn s60 photos into awesome videos with mScrapbook for all S60 3rd edition phones!
Do the computers come bundled with Duke Nukem Forever?
15,000 is a very reasonable score for a decent system in the 2001 version where the world record is a few points over 30,000. It's very likely that the marketing guy just made a simple mistake.
3dMark2003 is a whole different ball game however, and a score of 15,000 is clearly impossible. The world record is just over 10,000 points (trivia: made by finnish overclocker 'Macci' with a p4 3.2 EE clocked to 4.5 ghz and a Radeon 9800XT clocked extremely high).
Extreme overclocking has gone a long way. Macci cools both his cpu and gpu with a cascade system which is two phase change coolers (like the Vapochill) connected together in some cool way I don't have the technical know-how to describe. It cools both his cpu and gpu to -100C.
The notebooks featured on Michael's site are actually Clevo (http://www.clevo.com.tw/) notebooks. They are sold in the US under the brand name Sager, available from (among others) pctorque.com. I have the 17" model (tricked out w/ P4 3.2, 1gig RAM, ATI 9600 128MB, DVD burner etc etc) and it *is* bloody quick, but not that quick (about 20 sec to boot XP to usable state). I got it to run 3D CAD/CAM, which it does, like a dream. The only downside of this is it also runs Q3A amazingly well too, so I never actually get any work done ;).
A little background: About a year and half ago I found myself needing/wanting a monster PC, P4 2.8, 5 WD drives, 4 in a raid 10 array for photography, music, video, etc. Gotta protect all those thousands of pictures. For fun I also wanted a gaming config as well, Radeon 9700 Pro, DDR 400, etc. Long story short, I wanted a top of the line Voodoo PC or Alienware, or Hypersonic, custom built for me, not built by me. But in NO WAY did I want the silly paint job or the price that came with it.
I also do enough hardware fiddling at work that I just didn't want to deal with it at home (busy + lazy). I wanted Uber Box to show up at my door. Go ahead poke fun, I wanted it, I could get it, so I got it.
Back then his site was much less over-the-top, he had a 7 year warranty, etc. I dealt with Michael over the phone and we came to a price which was quite agreeable for the parts and labor. I knew the pricegrabber price for every part in there, MB, sticks of memory, etc. The spec sheet he sent was right on.
The PC is great, nice build, no widgets, no crapware, XP Pro with all MS-Phone-Home-ware removed or disabled, all those services in XP that most of us know to turn off, he had them off, etc, etc. When I had trouble with the Firewire ports, he walked me through the pin-outs on the Audigy 2, when that didn't work due to meager support from Creative, he overnighted me a firewire card. He has been outstanding as far as customer service is concerned, I'm quite happy with the "uber-box", yes it's over the top, but i like it that way and in a few years I won't be aching for a complete replacement.
I always ignored his marketing. He's a VERY exhuberant fellow in person, and it shows! HA. He's a one-man-show. He knows how to build a nice PC, and is willing to do it, where I am not. I disapprove of the direction his marketing has taken (who wouldn't). Because of it, I've taken to sending folks here and elsewhere who want a PC built for them.
It's sad because if you remove the marketing aspect, and of course haggle on price, he DOES do just as good a job as the Alienware / Voodoo PC folks. Actually better because I hate that tricked out case stuff, and I have yet to hear of Alienware calling or emailing you back in 5 minutes with a fix or a tracking number to a free replacement part you haven't asked for yet.
Just goes to show that running a [Widget] business takes a lot more than being a [Widget] expert. You've got to have your marketing, order processing, legal angles, etc., all figured out as well.
Maybe this "expose" will help him improve. I wish him luck. He's a real nice guy.
Operator, give me the number for 911!
My great-grandfater actually bought the Brooklyn Bridge (OK so he paid for it). This was about 1910 or there-abouts. He was living in Little Italy with his sons and daughter. They were out making a living, by being sand-hogs (digging the subways for those of you who don't know) or tailoring/seamstressing, but Great-Grandpa wasn't working, evidently he got out of practice while still in the Old Country and never really got back into the swing of it (that's a separate story). So while wandering about the town, he comes into the proverbial huckster selling the Brooklyn Bridge. As this is a limited-time offer, he has to put the money down right away, i.e. before talking to his sons who have a better command of the language and know about this particular con. So that night, over the family dinner table, he say to his brood that their money troubles are over, he's just bought the bridge outside the window for $500. All they have to do is put up toll booth and they are set. At this point the kids pick up their jaws from the table and figure out how they can get Pop out of the City pronto. The next morning, they go to the train station, go to the end of the line, and find a place to move the family. So that's why my relatives live where they do. i figure out that I can tell this story, any gullibiity genes involved have been diluted 8-fold by know, so I'm probably OK.
On the other hand Michael can now add... "Featured on Tom's Hardware" ... to his credentials
And then they armed me with moderator points and the world mourned.
How about "Featured on Slashdot"