Tech News
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My Best Buy Sales Experience @ MHW
Published: Tuesday, May 7, 2013 | By: DennisI think we can all share a similar experiences at Best Buy, I know they mean well but the volume of people just browsing vs money in hand I'm buying something today is pretty low. Funny thing I famously call BB "The Cave of Evil" not because its a bad place but because you get people greeting you as you walk in followed by people asking if you need help. I know this is to keep down "shrinkage" but it gets annoying.
Best Buy is really not in a position to let too many customers with an envelope full of cash walk out the door. Not unless they want their doors to close for good. In this case Best Buy was its own worst enemy. If they do go out of business--and again I hope they don't--I think they will have to consider blaming themselves and their sometimes ridiculous business practices, instead of the nearly insurmountably-changing buying habits of the modern American consumer spiel that I read from them in the media all the time.
I have seen many tech stores like Best Buy fold up, the most famous was CompUSA. That was a great store but suffered from not enough stuff in stock and what was in stock sucked.
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How Intel Builds Custom Chips for Giants of the Web
Published: Monday, May 6, 2013 | By: DennisThis is a great article that proves you can sometimes cut out the middle man and go directly to the source. The Facebook servers are still assembled in Asia (likely by Foxconn or Gigabyte) and then shipped back for use in the datacenter.
According to Frank Frankovsky — who oversees hardware design at Facebook — this started as far back as 2009. That’s when the company first asked Intel for certain changes to the design of the silicon chips it builds for computer servers — the machines that drive the internet and the private computer networks inside the world’s businesses. Since then, Frankovsky says, Intel has worked hand-in-hand with the company to accommodate such changes.
For the most part, he explains, these changes are rolled into the same processors that Intel sells to the world at large, though there are cases where the changes are unlikely to benefit anyone but Facebook. “The more insight we can give our technology suppliers about what makes our software work the best, the more we’re able to influence their design roadmaps,” Frankovsky says. “We do influence their roadmaps — way upstream — but then they are able to bring these changes out to all of their customers.”-- snip --
This is really the best part of the whole article, Intel releasing purposefully overclocked CPUs.
He also says that there are cases where Intel will crank the chip clock speeds to unusually high levels at the request of certain buyers — if the buyer is willing to deal with the extra heat this generates.
I guess we now know where the K and X edition processors got their start.
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How Intel Builds Custom Chips for Giants of the Web
Published: Monday, May 6, 2013 | By: DennisThis is a great article that proves you can sometimes cut out the middle man and go directly to the source. The Facebook servers are still assembled in Asia (likely by Foxconn or Gigabyte) and then shipped back for use in the datacenter.
According to Frank Frankovsky — who oversees hardware design at Facebook — this started as far back as 2009. That’s when the company first asked Intel for certain changes to the design of the silicon chips it builds for computer servers — the machines that drive the internet and the private computer networks inside the world’s businesses. Since then, Frankovsky says, Intel has worked hand-in-hand with the company to accommodate such changes.
For the most part, he explains, these changes are rolled into the same processors that Intel sells to the world at large, though there are cases where the changes are unlikely to benefit anyone but Facebook. “The more insight we can give our technology suppliers about what makes our software work the best, the more we’re able to influence their design roadmaps,” Frankovsky says. “We do influence their roadmaps — way upstream — but then they are able to bring these changes out to all of their customers.”-- snip --
This is really the best part of the whole article, Intel releasing purposefully overclocked CPUs.
He also says that there are cases where Intel will crank the chip clock speeds to unusually high levels at the request of certain buyers — if the buyer is willing to deal with the extra heat this generates.
I guess we now know where the K and X edition processors got their start.
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Windows 8: The Microsoft New Coke Moment
Published: Monday, May 6, 2013 | By: DennisIt would seem tech writers are getting more creative when it comes to writing about the failure of Windows 8. In this ZDNet article the author is trying to parallel the cola wars claiming that Microsoft just needs to listen to their customers and they will come out on top again.
Funny thing is unless you consider apple there is very little competition for the top one spot.
How did Coke do it? They gave people what they wanted: The original "taste." As Coca-Cola chairman and CEO Roberto Goizueta said in 1995, "The most significant result of 'New Coke' by far was that it sent an incredibly powerful signal... a signal that we really were ready to do whatever was necessary to build value for the owners of our business."
I've suggested Microsoft do the equivalent by bringing back the Aero interface and dumping the Metro interface. Does Ballmer have the guts to admit he made a mistake and give users what they clearly want? We don't know.Write about and they will change, or so people think. I'm of the opinion that MS doesn't have to do anything, they could continue to push Metro and people will eventually buy into it. Lets hope that doesn't happen.
I also noticed the author claims that Coke won the cola wars. *tisk*
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Welcome to the New Hardware Asylum
Published: Sunday, May 5, 2013 | By: DennisHardware Asylum is a computer hardware review site that will bring you the latest product reviews and current industry and gaming news. This site has been established by computer hardware enthusiasts with backgrounds in professional gaming, overclocking, system building and even web programming and design.
We are sure many of you share a similar passion or simply want to learn more about your computer, if that is the case then Hardware Asylum is the right site for you.
As with any new website it will take some time to get the various sections populated so stay tuned!
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Sega And Gearbox Software Respond To Aliens Lawsuit
Published: Friday, May 3, 2013 | By: DennisI didn't know this had gone to litigation.
If you are not familiar with the story, both Gearbox Software and Sega have been sued regarding the release of Aliens: Colonial Marines.
Basically, people that owned the game felt that both companies falsely advertised the actual quality of the game. Many people are disappointed that the actual game was nothing like the excellent demo that was showcased at E3 2012.I'm not surprised though, most people (even Penny Arcade) claimed the game was garbage.
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Bunkers and Badasses - Tiny Tina Style
Published: Friday, May 3, 2013 | By: DennisThe forth and final DLC for Borderlands 2 is set for release June 25th but that hasn't stopped the wacky overwroked Gearbox employees from leaking a poster of the new DLC to the interwebs.
Borderlands 2's 4th DLC Leaked
Like an elliepant the Internet never forgets and to save face Gearbox claimed that the poster was real and will now spend the next several weeks reaping the rewards of their misfortune.
The add-on revolves around a game of Bunkers & Badasses -- Pandora’s version of Dungeons & Dragons -- led by Tiny Tina. Original Vault Hunters Brick, Mordecai and Lilith are gathered around a table playing through Bunkers & Badasses and you are a character in their game. You'll experience their game as part of Borderlands 2 with Tina serving as dungeon master, narrating the action as it happens and even changing boss attributes, location details, character names and much more on the fly.
On the Ninjalane Podcast I speculated that the DLC would take on a richer RPG element and be played like a D&D game. So instead of the back and forth chatter and rolling for damage there will be Echo chatter from the NPCs telling you where to go and what needs to be killed.
Should be fun.
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Game Site Secretly Put Bitcoin Software on Client Computers
Published: Thursday, May 2, 2013 | By: DennisNow this is low, the article is worth a read.
Bitcoin, a digital currency whose worth has been in flux of late, is still valuable enough for enterprising users to want a lot of it. One online computer gaming site administrator recently used his players to earn more than $3,600 in Bitcoins without telling them, nearly frying their computers in the process.
Reminds me of the days when system admins would get fired for running Seti on idle machines in the computer lab. We all know that Seti was rather harmless but its not up to sysadmins to decide how to use the systems they don't own. The thing that gets me is why was the Bitcoin software in there to begin with? Most programmers wouldn't spend the effort adding something like this unless they planned to use it.
Of course 3 grand in Bitcoins later they got called out and as a peace offering they decided to donate the loot and offered a small fraction as a prize to one lucky gamer.
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Giada Q11 Android OS Mini PC @ techPowerUp
Published: Thursday, May 2, 2013 | By: DennisI know several people who use these tiny android boxes as media centers but with the proper setup they could be a rather powerfui email/web station.
Assuming you don't mind viewing websites in shoddy mobile mode.
The Android operating system is starting to invade the world of PCs. Today, we will test a mini-PC from Giada, the Q11. It uses an ARM CPU and runs on an Android OS. This unit has access to numerous applications through the Google Play store and consumes very little energy, barely exceeding 10 W at full load.
10w is pretty good, near silent for the Euro folks.
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Intel Lifts Veil on Haswell Graphics Branding and Performance
Published: Thursday, May 2, 2013 | By: DennisWe are getting really close to the Haswell launch and is seems that everyone is trying to get a "scoop" on performance numbers, motherboard shots and even overclocking results. While integrated graphics has no business in an enthusiast grade machine there is no denying that Intel has gone to great lengths to increase performance and make their GPUs some of the best in the cube farm.
Intel is finally offering up details on its Haswell integrated graphics offerings after teasing it at CES 2013, including branding and some performance metrics. With the release of the company's 4th generation Core processors, Intel's new integrated graphics will go by the "Iris" moniker.
Now, we'll see Intel HD 5000 graphics along with the higher-end Intel Iris Graphics 5100 and Iris Pro Graphics 5200; previously, these were codenamed GT3 (15W), GT3 (28W), and GT3e, respectively...
Intel is also promising serious overall performance improvements over its own previous integrated graphics offerings...If anything check out the article for the pretty graphs, they have been known to do the best in the business.
