Exactly. That's why the big deal with Intel's Haswell was basically "consumes a lot less power", the rest was incremental and a few added instructions for the future. AMD seems to have the same tech analysts as Netcraft crying "The Desktop is dying, the desktop is dying!"
If you play to own anything that is a desktop, then anything like this from AMD or Intel, that can be replaced with something that is TWICE is fast using the cheapest 50$ dedicated video card, makes the advances absolutely meaningless.
In fact, the only thing this effects is that you might be able to get away from buying a 2000$ gaming laptop and buying a 500$ laptop that can marginally play most games. Congratulations for moving the mediocrity yard stick a bit further...
Also is it just me or does this sound like Phrenology. Maybe because of all the speculation based postulations made in the summary.
"Oh yes! That side to side 'brain wiring' is the cause of your problem right there. That clearly makes you better at multitasking. While your friend with the more 'front to back wiring', well there be dragons..."
Looked into these myself at one point. Two amendments. Not only do they seem not to want to compete with 15 year old cars, but 15 year old cars with both the cost of freight across the PACIFIC OCEAN and import taxes that are associated with them. Not to mention (as you probably noticed) trying to get part or service for something exotic (at least here).
Considering most people that are interested in these things, are specifically interested in obtaining a car you can't usually get outside of Japan anyway. Doesn't sound like a big crossover of lost business.
Typical knee jerk reaction to anything that *might* threaten their old antiquated business model (even if it doesn't and never could).
Only if the chimmies are able to pass the galactic standard uplift ceremony should they be treated as legal persons. Until then we are still their patrons...
Built a system in September and was looking at a number of their SSD drives. I ended up getting a MB that supported mSATA, so I went with a Mushkin instead. Glad I did now!
That said, I remember years ago there being a bit of a scandal about OCZ and their memory modules. Something about being less than honest or ethical in their dealings. Sending Reviewers one thing, shipping another for example.
I tend to ignore negative reviews unless very specific and repeatable, which is hard to maintain with items with limited number of reviews. I try to do the same (I am up to provide some soon for a new system I built).
Basically when everything works fine and a positive review is given, I find it easier to swallow. When something doesn't work, unless they show that it isn't because of their own ineptitude I don't give it much credence.
Difference: Review 1: DOA Didn't't work, POS! DO NOT BUY! Review 2: Not compatible with Linux out of the box. You will need to update your BIOS to version A10 in order for it to work. Once you update it everything works fine, however it is not included in the packages to be prepared to download it somehow prior to your install.
Review 1 is useless. Review 2 is helpful both from a technical stand point but also from a decision stand point if I want to bother buying something that I have do go through that for rather than Product B or whatever.
ebooks are too expensive by far. Excessive DRM is used to enforce. The reason is greed. Much of it influenced (forced) by the big players and publishing houses.
I know there was already an author (forget the name), who has already show that he could make more money by selling many more copies at a much reduced rate.
I will stick to my paper books thank you, and used when I can. Unless I go someplace where space is a premium and you can't easily find books. Like Space or possibly the Arctic/Antarctica, however baring that I can probably get by.
Though that is possibly the point. A protection racket so as to not compete with their paper based business. They don't want to offer a good product, as then they might supplant their paper business, and at which point is probably more susceptible to forced change from the cozy outdated business model they currently maintain.
If the idea is that this activity is being legitimized by fighting Terrorism, I don't quite buy it...
NSA: "Stop being a terrorist, or we will blackmail you by showing all your terrorist buddies all the lewd websites you visit!"
Terrorist: "I am going to stop being a lunatic and be rational for a second. A) Do you really think that is something that might dissuade a terrorist, or make a terrorist feel even more warm and fuzzy about the USA? B) Do you really think my terrorist buddies will believe the NSA (I mean come on we can get them to believe anything, but coming from you... lol)? C) Who exactly are you going to tell? Do you have lists of terrorist buddies? Because I think if you did, you might do something a bit more constructive with it. OK back to the crazy...
This seems like something that is far more likely to be politically motivated than anything to do with terrorism.
I have already commented on a bunch. However I would add this:
User reviews, obviously depend on the qualifications of the person making the comment. It also depends on the person reading it knowing enough to tell if the poster is full of BS or not. However you can get a general idea, and it will sometimes give you common known issues.
As for "general" sites: Tomshardware: I have had mixed results from. Some of it seems like industry fluff, other times it is useful. About the only thing I use consistently there are the CPU/GPU charts when trying to compare a large number of items to give a "general" idea. Then using specific at other sites to refine it. Anandtech: Solid, and has been for years. Quality stuff. Ars Technica: Solid also for years, though I tend to use less for whatever reason. [H]ardOCP: Probably my favorite and most trusted. Has a OC slant, but has other stuff as well. Good community. HotHardware, X-Bit labs, Legion hardware are all pretty trusted sites I have used a lot in the past. Hardware Canucks is not only a great site in its own right, but also offers a bit of Canadian perspective which is nice at times.
All that said, it depends on the component one is looking for reviews on. Each site will have strengths or weaknesses. Some of the more general sites are exactly that. In some cases, components being review simply are not done all that often by the general review sites and you have to find a specific site that does that best. In some instances there is no specific site.
Laptop graphics which I know very little is one example. Things like Monitors I usually don't see too much coverage.
The best example I can think of (though it is a bit better now a days) was PSU. NO ONE did PSU reviews, particularly like 5-6 years ago. One of the biggest problems with PSU were the fact that A) Brands would lie through their teeth horribly on their specs, and B) there are only a handful of actual companies that make these things that are then re-branded six ways from Sunday. Testing these things are not quite as sexy as CPU or GPU benchmarks. Anyway at one point the ONLY place that I found legitimate useful reviews was a sticky forum (on [H]ardOCP) that was maintained by a user than took it on himself to do the testing, though he didn't have his own tech site, nor was employed by one (so far as I know). I forget his user name, but he was once upon a time as far as I am concerned THE guru as far as PSU were concerned. It was really THE place for real information on PSU. This was before the whole 80Plus thing came out, which later articles (forget which site) showed a few holes in that branding process even now.
Anyway I guess what I am saying is outside the mainstream components, you may have to go "off road" a bit to find the answers you are looking for.
I find Toms not all that useful, usually not as technical, and sometimes dubiously biased. Never visited smallnetbuilder. There used to be a ton of reputable sites, however I see less now. I admit I will use Ted's charts however as they are easy and quick way to look at a more comprehensive list of components. I look at it as more of a general rule as opposed to specific testing.
I would second Anandtech. They have stood the test of time. Whenever I see an article from them I give it added weight.
I would add HardOCP as one of my goto sites. While it is heavily slanted in the overclocking crowd, they do a wide range of reviews outside of that as well, and I find that the official reviews are more technical and insightful than most. Also they have a VERY good community that is knowledgeable and technically inclined (and usually helpful).
Yes and no. I tend not to put too much stock on these crowd sourced reviews.
You don't know how qualified these people are. Many times there isn't included enough information in the little blurb provided. I have spotted many times, where a user has put a one star review, and posted how something didn't work, and I can pretty much guess what they did wrong. However this also depends on YOU knowing what the hell is being talked about at all. If you don't you will have a hard time spotting anything. I would suggest many times people don't know, which is why they are checking out reviews... so beware.
That said it is useful at times to find specific problems with a device, particularly common known issues. However again, if there are like 400 reviews, sometimes some sifting is required to get at the grains of knowledge.
Any text that has portions about critical thinking has my vote. Be it weird creationist or not. Too many text simply state accepted facts, and do not get people to question anything ever. Science is about questions and re-evaluation.
Evolution is the accepted scientific theory and as such it should be taught. I am not so sure about "alternate" explanations, they can do that on their own time.
Anyway I guess what I am trying to say is that I think too many textbooks are simply the rote memorization of accepted facts, rather than trying to teach kids how to think for themselves. Hell there should be a whole class on critical thinking with its own textbook! Add a civics class while your at it.
EVE is the only one I am considering joining. Did WOW thing for years.
Currently I can't stop playing DOTA2... which isn't an MMO, but it sort of is with the competitive and community part of it.
Likely when I tire of that, I will give EVE a serious go. I had a trial membership, however with the learning curve and busy life, hard to get into it in 14 days.
The only reason you subsidize renewable energy generation such as solar is to make it currently viable whereas otherwise it would not. The only reason you make renewable energy generation currently viable is to jump start development. The only reason you jump start development is if you want to be the one producing the technology or buying the technology.
There is also the matter that on a grand scale, infrastructure takes awhile to build, it isn't something you can just do overnight.
Anyway so long as the idea isn't that things like solar is going to solve all your energy issues because it will not. It is part of a generation mix. You can however increase its effectiveness and the percent used overall to help mitigate other energy related issues.
Agree. I forgot about that. I think it will just mean that the PS3 will be the much more desirable device to buy used for the purposes of Netflix, and that might make the 360 even cheaper...
A new TV with Smart WiFi is many hundreds of dollars. Correct about some Blu Ray Player, but then again, you have to want a thing that can play "Blu Ray"?
All I am saying is that currently a Blu Ray (which I didn't mention), a Kubo, or AppleTV, or similar device costs about 100$ or so.
With the new console wars, people will be dumping old 360's and PS3's on the open market (ebay, kijiji, etc...), and because so many will be available, you will be able to get a game console likely with a bunch of games, AND a Netflix streaming device for under 100$ I would bet. Many may be influenced by such a deal, increasing subscriber ship to NetFlix.
Although as another poster pointed out, you need a Gold account with Xbox, so I could see the PS3 (which also includes the a fore mentioned blu ray player) being the much more popular choice on the used market. Then again this might drive the 360's prices so low as to be viable anyway.
Do you know who is going to win the console wars? Netflix.
Not only is it available on both, and is a big salable feature, it is now (and has been for a bit now) available on other dedicated devices.
Couple that with the fact that BOTH the release of PS4 and Xbox One will prompt a GLUT of used PS3 and Xbox360 to become available on the used market for super cheap. While they can be used for gaming still, many may be used simply as a content streamer for Netflix.
Netflix is basically run with subscriptions. If I were an inventor, I would be looking at a lot of Netflix growth over the next 2-3 years simply as a result of the console war between MS and Sony...
Well I see this as good news for ATI really:), the GPU arm of AMD. With games becoming more and more multi-platform, being ported from PC, xbox, PS, having a consistent GPU will be a boon for developers. It also means that games designed with this in mind will likely have an advantage with AMD that nVIDIA will not have.
That said, GPU competition has been fierce for a long time (at least between the two big rivals). What we really need is a bounce back from AMD CPU division, as Intel has had it too easy for many years now in most segments (in all but the budget class). Hopefully they can use the revenue they gain from their graphics division and put it into R&D (*gasp* I know, who does that anymore! Will it effect quarter earnings?) for their CPU division so they can have something that at least gives Intel a run for their money in a few years.
However both companies seem to be focusing on laptops and integration of GPU/CPU, enhanced integrated graphics, low power efficiency, etc... (OMG! deaktop is dying!)... I hope someone retains some sanity and informs them that it is nearing saturation point, has been slowing for sometime, and that they should not completely ignore the desktop environment.
Perhaps that is how AMD can finally catch up. Realizing that to forecast the demise of the desktop, is much the same as the XKCD cartoon about getting married multiple times. At a certain point the ratio to laptops to desktops will level/balance out, not everyone nor are all tasks suitable for laptops. If Intel continues their trend of only pandering to the future of laptops, and AMD makes some advances in the ignored desktop segment, it could push them to parity again.
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Exactly. That's why the big deal with Intel's Haswell was basically "consumes a lot less power", the rest was incremental and a few added instructions for the future. AMD seems to have the same tech analysts as Netcraft crying "The Desktop is dying, the desktop is dying!"
If you play to own anything that is a desktop, then anything like this from AMD or Intel, that can be replaced with something that is TWICE is fast using the cheapest 50$ dedicated video card, makes the advances absolutely meaningless.
In fact, the only thing this effects is that you might be able to get away from buying a 2000$ gaming laptop and buying a 500$ laptop that can marginally play most games. Congratulations for moving the mediocrity yard stick a bit further...
Are we talking Star Trek wormhole, or Stargate wormhole, or Farscape wormhole...
Kim Jong Un was the first of his line, born twixt the cosmic joining of a unicorn and a space dragon.
Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus!
Also is it just me or does this sound like Phrenology. Maybe because of all the speculation based postulations made in the summary.
"Oh yes! That side to side 'brain wiring' is the cause of your problem right there. That clearly makes you better at multitasking. While your friend with the more 'front to back wiring', well there be dragons..."
Looked into these myself at one point. Two amendments. Not only do they seem not to want to compete with 15 year old cars, but 15 year old cars with both the cost of freight across the PACIFIC OCEAN and import taxes that are associated with them. Not to mention (as you probably noticed) trying to get part or service for something exotic (at least here).
Considering most people that are interested in these things, are specifically interested in obtaining a car you can't usually get outside of Japan anyway. Doesn't sound like a big crossover of lost business.
Typical knee jerk reaction to anything that *might* threaten their old antiquated business model (even if it doesn't and never could).
Only if the chimmies are able to pass the galactic standard uplift ceremony should they be treated as legal persons. Until then we are still their patrons...
Also Dolphins...
Because they are never wrong amiright?
Today I think they have about the respectability of less than a weatherman on a local news channel.
Prospective students should change their majors to something more reasonable like the "Dark Arts" or "Voodoo".
Seems to me the basic boiling down complex problems to very simply principles and mechanisms doesn't work so well.
Reminds me of the joke physics joke about a cow an a vacuum: "First assume the cow is perfectly spherical..."
Built a system in September and was looking at a number of their SSD drives. I ended up getting a MB that supported mSATA, so I went with a Mushkin instead. Glad I did now!
That said, I remember years ago there being a bit of a scandal about OCZ and their memory modules. Something about being less than honest or ethical in their dealings. Sending Reviewers one thing, shipping another for example.
I tend to ignore negative reviews unless very specific and repeatable, which is hard to maintain with items with limited number of reviews. I try to do the same (I am up to provide some soon for a new system I built).
Basically when everything works fine and a positive review is given, I find it easier to swallow. When something doesn't work, unless they show that it isn't because of their own ineptitude I don't give it much credence.
Difference:
Review 1: DOA Didn't't work, POS! DO NOT BUY!
Review 2: Not compatible with Linux out of the box. You will need to update your BIOS to version A10 in order for it to work. Once you update it everything works fine, however it is not included in the packages to be prepared to download it somehow prior to your install.
Review 1 is useless. Review 2 is helpful both from a technical stand point but also from a decision stand point if I want to bother buying something that I have do go through that for rather than Product B or whatever.
ebooks are too expensive by far. Excessive DRM is used to enforce. The reason is greed. Much of it influenced (forced) by the big players and publishing houses.
I know there was already an author (forget the name), who has already show that he could make more money by selling many more copies at a much reduced rate.
I will stick to my paper books thank you, and used when I can. Unless I go someplace where space is a premium and you can't easily find books. Like Space or possibly the Arctic/Antarctica, however baring that I can probably get by.
Though that is possibly the point. A protection racket so as to not compete with their paper based business. They don't want to offer a good product, as then they might supplant their paper business, and at which point is probably more susceptible to forced change from the cozy outdated business model they currently maintain.
Um what?
If the idea is that this activity is being legitimized by fighting Terrorism, I don't quite buy it...
NSA: "Stop being a terrorist, or we will blackmail you by showing all your terrorist buddies all the lewd websites you visit!"
Terrorist: "I am going to stop being a lunatic and be rational for a second. A) Do you really think that is something that might dissuade a terrorist, or make a terrorist feel even more warm and fuzzy about the USA? B) Do you really think my terrorist buddies will believe the NSA (I mean come on we can get them to believe anything, but coming from you... lol)? C) Who exactly are you going to tell? Do you have lists of terrorist buddies? Because I think if you did, you might do something a bit more constructive with it. OK back to the crazy...
This seems like something that is far more likely to be politically motivated than anything to do with terrorism.
I have already commented on a bunch. However I would add this:
User reviews, obviously depend on the qualifications of the person making the comment. It also depends on the person reading it knowing enough to tell if the poster is full of BS or not. However you can get a general idea, and it will sometimes give you common known issues.
As for "general" sites:
Tomshardware: I have had mixed results from. Some of it seems like industry fluff, other times it is useful. About the only thing I use consistently there are the CPU/GPU charts when trying to compare a large number of items to give a "general" idea. Then using specific at other sites to refine it.
Anandtech: Solid, and has been for years. Quality stuff.
Ars Technica: Solid also for years, though I tend to use less for whatever reason.
[H]ardOCP: Probably my favorite and most trusted. Has a OC slant, but has other stuff as well. Good community.
HotHardware, X-Bit labs, Legion hardware are all pretty trusted sites I have used a lot in the past.
Hardware Canucks is not only a great site in its own right, but also offers a bit of Canadian perspective which is nice at times.
All that said, it depends on the component one is looking for reviews on. Each site will have strengths or weaknesses. Some of the more general sites are exactly that. In some cases, components being review simply are not done all that often by the general review sites and you have to find a specific site that does that best. In some instances there is no specific site.
Laptop graphics which I know very little is one example. Things like Monitors I usually don't see too much coverage.
The best example I can think of (though it is a bit better now a days) was PSU. NO ONE did PSU reviews, particularly like 5-6 years ago. One of the biggest problems with PSU were the fact that A) Brands would lie through their teeth horribly on their specs, and B) there are only a handful of actual companies that make these things that are then re-branded six ways from Sunday. Testing these things are not quite as sexy as CPU or GPU benchmarks. Anyway at one point the ONLY place that I found legitimate useful reviews was a sticky forum (on [H]ardOCP) that was maintained by a user than took it on himself to do the testing, though he didn't have his own tech site, nor was employed by one (so far as I know). I forget his user name, but he was once upon a time as far as I am concerned THE guru as far as PSU were concerned. It was really THE place for real information on PSU. This was before the whole 80Plus thing came out, which later articles (forget which site) showed a few holes in that branding process even now.
Anyway I guess what I am saying is outside the mainstream components, you may have to go "off road" a bit to find the answers you are looking for.
I find Toms not all that useful, usually not as technical, and sometimes dubiously biased. Never visited smallnetbuilder. There used to be a ton of reputable sites, however I see less now. I admit I will use Ted's charts however as they are easy and quick way to look at a more comprehensive list of components. I look at it as more of a general rule as opposed to specific testing.
I would second Anandtech. They have stood the test of time. Whenever I see an article from them I give it added weight.
I would add HardOCP as one of my goto sites. While it is heavily slanted in the overclocking crowd, they do a wide range of reviews outside of that as well, and I find that the official reviews are more technical and insightful than most. Also they have a VERY good community that is knowledgeable and technically inclined (and usually helpful).
Yes and no. I tend not to put too much stock on these crowd sourced reviews.
You don't know how qualified these people are. Many times there isn't included enough information in the little blurb provided. I have spotted many times, where a user has put a one star review, and posted how something didn't work, and I can pretty much guess what they did wrong. However this also depends on YOU knowing what the hell is being talked about at all. If you don't you will have a hard time spotting anything. I would suggest many times people don't know, which is why they are checking out reviews... so beware.
That said it is useful at times to find specific problems with a device, particularly common known issues. However again, if there are like 400 reviews, sometimes some sifting is required to get at the grains of knowledge.
I was thinking of the "sufficiently large values"...
"You can't hold me for an indefinite time!"
"Fine, we are holding you for 100 years, or until we let you off earlier..."
Also I am pretty sure Cookie Monster would be a billionaire should he ever decided to sue the Internets on infringement on his copyrighted saying...
Better than "definite" detention and torture? "Infinite"? :) mind is weird some days.
Lies!
Any text that has portions about critical thinking has my vote. Be it weird creationist or not. Too many text simply state accepted facts, and do not get people to question anything ever. Science is about questions and re-evaluation.
Evolution is the accepted scientific theory and as such it should be taught. I am not so sure about "alternate" explanations, they can do that on their own time.
Anyway I guess what I am trying to say is that I think too many textbooks are simply the rote memorization of accepted facts, rather than trying to teach kids how to think for themselves. Hell there should be a whole class on critical thinking with its own textbook! Add a civics class while your at it.
EVE is the only one I am considering joining. Did WOW thing for years.
Currently I can't stop playing DOTA2... which isn't an MMO, but it sort of is with the competitive and community part of it.
Likely when I tire of that, I will give EVE a serious go. I had a trial membership, however with the learning curve and busy life, hard to get into it in 14 days.
I only have so many available hours for gaming :(
The only reason you subsidize renewable energy generation such as solar is to make it currently viable whereas otherwise it would not.
The only reason you make renewable energy generation currently viable is to jump start development.
The only reason you jump start development is if you want to be the one producing the technology or buying the technology.
There is also the matter that on a grand scale, infrastructure takes awhile to build, it isn't something you can just do overnight.
Anyway so long as the idea isn't that things like solar is going to solve all your energy issues because it will not. It is part of a generation mix. You can however increase its effectiveness and the percent used overall to help mitigate other energy related issues.
Agree. I forgot about that. I think it will just mean that the PS3 will be the much more desirable device to buy used for the purposes of Netflix, and that might make the 360 even cheaper...
A new TV with Smart WiFi is many hundreds of dollars.
Correct about some Blu Ray Player, but then again, you have to want a thing that can play "Blu Ray"?
All I am saying is that currently a Blu Ray (which I didn't mention), a Kubo, or AppleTV, or similar device costs about 100$ or so.
With the new console wars, people will be dumping old 360's and PS3's on the open market (ebay, kijiji, etc...), and because so many will be available, you will be able to get a game console likely with a bunch of games, AND a Netflix streaming device for under 100$ I would bet. Many may be influenced by such a deal, increasing subscriber ship to NetFlix.
Although as another poster pointed out, you need a Gold account with Xbox, so I could see the PS3 (which also includes the a fore mentioned blu ray player) being the much more popular choice on the used market. Then again this might drive the 360's prices so low as to be viable anyway.
Do you know who is going to win the console wars? Netflix.
Not only is it available on both, and is a big salable feature, it is now (and has been for a bit now) available on other dedicated devices.
Couple that with the fact that BOTH the release of PS4 and Xbox One will prompt a GLUT of used PS3 and Xbox360 to become available on the used market for super cheap. While they can be used for gaming still, many may be used simply as a content streamer for Netflix.
Netflix is basically run with subscriptions. If I were an inventor, I would be looking at a lot of Netflix growth over the next 2-3 years simply as a result of the console war between MS and Sony...
Well I see this as good news for ATI really :), the GPU arm of AMD. With games becoming more and more multi-platform, being ported from PC, xbox, PS, having a consistent GPU will be a boon for developers. It also means that games designed with this in mind will likely have an advantage with AMD that nVIDIA will not have.
That said, GPU competition has been fierce for a long time (at least between the two big rivals). What we really need is a bounce back from AMD CPU division, as Intel has had it too easy for many years now in most segments (in all but the budget class). Hopefully they can use the revenue they gain from their graphics division and put it into R&D (*gasp* I know, who does that anymore! Will it effect quarter earnings?) for their CPU division so they can have something that at least gives Intel a run for their money in a few years.
However both companies seem to be focusing on laptops and integration of GPU/CPU, enhanced integrated graphics, low power efficiency, etc... (OMG! deaktop is dying!)... I hope someone retains some sanity and informs them that it is nearing saturation point, has been slowing for sometime, and that they should not completely ignore the desktop environment.
Perhaps that is how AMD can finally catch up. Realizing that to forecast the demise of the desktop, is much the same as the XKCD cartoon about getting married multiple times. At a certain point the ratio to laptops to desktops will level/balance out, not everyone nor are all tasks suitable for laptops. If Intel continues their trend of only pandering to the future of laptops, and AMD makes some advances in the ignored desktop segment, it could push them to parity again.