Tech News
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Playing the Game (Editorial) @ Techgage
Published: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 | By: DennisI really do love these kinds of editorials, especially when they cover both sides of the story.
All this journalistic integrity is wonderful, but I think many people missed the boat on something - weren't reviews already being "shaped" long beforehand by delayed product shipments, paper launches, "recommended" testing procedures, blacklists, and everything else that's been prevalent in this industry (and getting more so) for years? Nobody cries when their competitor site gets shut out of a release altogether because it didn't toe the "company line" of PR. Very few, if any, choose to miss an NDA because the product didn't show up on the doorstep until the day before. Somehow that doesn't affect the quality of our reviews?
Clear your schedule because you will want to read the whole thing.
The backstory for this editorial is related to the recent AMD Trinity launch and subsequent change in what could be released "ahead of the NDA". Of course some sites took issue with the change and my first reaction was that the site in question was pissed they had to move up their testing schedule and decided to take it out on AMD. The truth (at least for them) was maybe some of the previous along with their fear that the review would be half baked and they wouldn't make their pageview quota for the month.
As a reviewer I know there are two things that kill pageviews
- When every site in existence launches a review on the same day (NDA Launches) - Readers will go to their favorite site and not bother visiting anyone else.
- Doing a review in two parts - (eg Preview followed by a full Review) - Readers have an attention span of a frog and elephant memory when it comes to reviews and if they see the same product on the same site they don't go back.
Anyhow, after reading Brett's editorial I am once again of the opinion that crying about your skinned knee doesn't work anymore because nobody cares.
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Mysterious Algorithm Commanded 4% of Trading Activity Last Week
Published: Tuesday, October 9, 2012 | By: DennisThis is an interesting story that talks about how 4% of trading traffic last week came from a mysterious source and didn't actually do anything.
The stats are alarming.
A single mysterious computer program that placed orders — and then subsequently canceled them — made up 4 percent of all quote traffic in the U.S. stock market last week, according to the top tracker of high-frequency trading activity. The motive of the algorithm is still unclear.
The program placed orders in 25-millisecond bursts involving about 500 stocks, according to Nanex, a market data firm. The algorithm never executed a single trade, and it abruptly ended at about 10:30 a.m. ET Friday.I have several friends in the industry who each have a method for timing the stock market and offered that as a service to their customers. For a while those signals were extremely accurate with maybe a 10% error rate. When I asked them what causes the errors the answer was simple, "Day Traders". As you may know a day trader is a person who buys up a stock, watches it for the day, and promptly sells it before the market closes. In a rare occasion the day trader may hold on to them for a week but the intent is to ride the waves and make money betting on the direction. (long or short)
Sounds like a good way to make some quick money until you factor in how many day traders there are and how much money they move at any given second. In fact an army of day traders can sway the market several points and create artificial "demand" for stocks that would otherwise be undesirable.
The trick to making this work is to move a lot of money in a very short amount of time, the trading floor will then respond and cause the market to no longer react as you would predict and, in rare cases, cause it to crash.Scary Stuff
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NVidia GTX 650 TI Launch Day - Rounding Out Kepler
Published: Tuesday, October 9, 2012 | By: DennisI was lucky enough to get three GTX 650 Ti cards this round and decided that instead of doing 3 individual articles I would pool them all into a single round-up and poke fun at the loser. Can you guess which one it was?
NVidia GTX 650Ti Three Way Roundup @ Ninjalane
Here are some reviews from around the web. The GTX 650 Ti isn't a super fast card but does extremely well for the price.
Web Reviews
- Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti (GV-N65TOC-2GI) Video Card Review @ Hardware Secrets
- MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti review @ Gru3D
- EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB SSC SuperSuperClocked @ Ocaholic
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Video Card Review w/ MSI and EVGA @ Legit Reviews
- HEXUS Review: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti review: Gigabyte vs MSI vs Zotac
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Round-Up: EVGA, ZOTAC, Gigabyte @ HotHardware
- NVIDIA GTX 650 Ti (2GB OC Editions) Launch Review at HardwareHeaven
- Nvidia's GeForce GTX 650 Ti graphics card @ TR
- Asus GTX 650 Ti DirectCU II TOP @ LanOC Reviews
- Nvidia GTX 650 Ti @ LanOC Reviews
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti @ PureOverclock
- Gigabyte GTX 650 Ti OC @ PureOverclock
- ASUS GTX 650 Ti DirectCU II TOP @ PureOverclock
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB Review @ Hardware Canucks
- ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Ti Direct Cu II 1 GB @ techPowerUp
- MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti Power Edition 1 GB @ techPowerUp -
Kingston Hyper X Predator Dual Channel 8GB 2400C11 Kit Review @ Madshrimps
Published: Monday, October 8, 2012 | By: DennisYou don't normally see Kingston at the forefront of performance memory options despite seeing them as the option at MOA and other overclocking competitions.
A while back Kingston introduced their brand new Hyper X gaming RAMs to the world, baptized the Predator series. The most obvious visual change is the redesign of the heatspreader. The Predator heatspreader is a bit lower and more refined then the aging blue Hyper X heatspreader. Biggest internal change however is the support for higher speeds and tighter timings out of the box. Kingston had to react to the competitors products. The insane memory speeds that Intel's latest 3rd generation Ivy Bridge support, were way higher then what Kingston had on offer. Today we look at the Hyper X Predator 2400MHz C11 8GB Dual Channel kit, optimized for the Z77 platform.
I use the HyperX memory on my test bench, its fast and stable but when it comes to overclocking I generally reach for GSKill or Corsair. Given the Predator specs it might be time to change up.
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Phj34r my Lak of N3ws
Published: Friday, October 5, 2012 | By: DennisBeen awhile since I have posted one of these but alas I haven't been posting much news lately. Sorry about that but the web attacks appear to be getting worse so I've had to take drastic measures to get the issue resolved.
Should have everyhing sorted out by the weekend at which time there should be a new overclocking related blog and memory review posted ("hint hint").
Stay tuned!
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Oh that was fun.
Published: Wednesday, October 3, 2012 | By: DennisIt would appear that the NInjalane.com servers came under fire this afternoon and completely brought down the network. Web attacks are nothing new but this one was different. Luckly I was able to bring everything back online else you wouldn't be reading this..
Now I have the task of tracking down excatly what happened and reporting those who are responsable. #phj34rMyWr4th
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XClio Touch 767 Chassis Review @ XtremeComputing
Published: Wednesday, October 3, 2012 | By: DennisThis is a different take on a chassis design and I kinda like it except for the louvers on the front panel. It would appear that you lift the panel to access the optical drive but it is hard to tell from the photo.
Today I will be reviewing the XClio Touch 767. XClio is one of those brands which have been around for a while, but isn’t the first brand I think of when considering what computer case I should get next. Hopefully by reviewing this product I’ll be able to see whether the XClio cases are worth your consideration in future, and indeed whether the Touch 767 compares well to its competition.
Be sure to check out the top touch panel.
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Mini-ITX Gaming HTPC: building the ultimate powerhouse @ XSReviews
Published: Tuesday, October 2, 2012 | By: DennisI tried building a HTPC once, the hardware choices were almost perfect and the case looked great however excess heat and crappy fans squashed the project after only a year in use. Now had I used the Silverstone Sugo SG08 things might have been different.
What’s good about a gaming rig is that it usually functions as a HTPC pretty much perfectly. The downside is the size, heat production and possibly noise issues of a gaming rig in comparison to an HTPC; so I set out on a journey to bring the best of both worlds together!
Today we’re going to take a look at a great mini-ITX HTPC-gaming build. It took quite a while to find the right components, activate sponsors and get all the parts shipped and put together, but the end result is one of the finest mini PC’s you’ve ever seen!Mini ITX motherboards are perfect for the HTPC provided you don't wish to play games or do much more than DVD/BluRay Decoding.
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Antec One Mid-Tower Case Review @ Bigbruin
Published: Tuesday, October 2, 2012 | By: DennisYour standard chassis comes in many shapes (all square) and sizes (tall to small) with some wiggle room in between. The Antec One is a solid mid-tower and comes with a few neat features to enhance your system building experience.
Some of the finer features of the Antec One mid-tower case include the two 120mm exhaust fans, tool-less drive installation, power supply intake filter, power supply anti-vibration feet, large CPU bracket cut-out, and plenty of options for cable routing. This is all offered without the premium price that enthusiast cases typically have.
The case has few provisions for watercooling but that is rarely a consideration in this price segment.
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Funky Kit Review: Antec P280 Midi Tower Case
Published: Tuesday, October 2, 2012 | By: DennisYep it would appear that Antec still makes cases, let's see what Funky Kit has to say about the Antec P280.
The Antec P280 is just absolutely great. If you are looking for a quiet and sophisticated case that doesn't break the bank look no farther. There is plenty of space for everything you can throw at it, but it does not take up huge amounts of extra space like some excessively large cases out there.
Yep, still looks like a box to me.
Be sure to check out our review of the Antec P280 Performance One, you might be suprised at what you see.
