Friday, July 21, 2017

Ethereum miners are selling their cards and rigs

After a surge in Ethereum value caused all the miners to buy graphics cards (especially AMD's Polaris architecture), they've started to sell them off. The price of Ethereum has plummeted, and they're just not as profitable anymore.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/evd7jj/etherium-miners-are-selling-their-graphics-cards

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

HyperX Alloy Elite review

I love mechanical keyboards. Kingston's new HyperX is just the kind of thing I enjoy - no fancy software, just good solid hardware. If you want macro recording and all that stuff, look elsewhere.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/07/17/kingston-hyperx-alloy-elite-review

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

GPU Makers Are Now Specifically Targeting Ethereum And Bitcoin Miners

Because of course they are! Now hopefully these cards cost a little less than the gaming cards and are in enough supply so that miners stop buying up all the graphics card stock from gamers.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/nevj4m/gpu-makers-are-now-specifically-targeting-ethereum-and-bitcoin-miners

Monday, June 26, 2017

Apple’s Upcoming iPhone May Be Causing Component Shortages

Another summer, another story about the iPhone and component shortages. This time, it's not Apple who can't get enough of whatever-the-hell thing they need. This time it's Apple buying up all the DRAM and NAND, causing the rest of the industry to adjust.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8x9pjx/apples-upcoming-iphone-may-be-causing-component-shortages

More expensive headphones don't mean better headphones

An interesting bit I wrote on a new study that measured the frequency response (using several methods) for lots of different headphones. They used an artificial head and ears, so there was no "human preference" factor.

What they found was that there was no correlation between price and quality.

Note that this doesn't mean $15 headphones will sound as good as $200 headphones. Nor does it mean that you should just buy cheap headphones - you have build quality, durability, comfort, and style to consider.  All this study says is that for accuracy of sound in particular, there is no direct correlation with price...(all more expensive headphones are not more accurate than all cheap headphones).

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qv4993/when-it-comes-to-audio-gear-price-and-quality-dont-always-correlate

Your best bet for buying headphones is to buy something comfortable, durable, and with as much accuracy as you can afford. Different people prefer different sound profiles, more bass or more mid-range or what-have-you, but you're best off just buying accurate headphones and then using an equalizer to get the sound you want.

Monday, June 19, 2017

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

With Xbox One X, Microsoft Is Killing Console 'Generations'

Microsoft is looking to make the Xbox like the iPhone. No, they won't sell a new one every year. But they will sell them more often (every 3-4 years probably), with system software, apps, and games all working across the last several models.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/with-xbox-one-x-microsoft-is-killing-console-generations

Just 3 Months In, AMD’s Ryzen Is Already Shaking Up PC Gaming

A quick thing I did on AMD's new processors, and how they have brought the benefits of real competition back to the PC space.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/just-3-months-in-amds-ryzen-is-already-shaking-up-pc-gaming

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Reference Links

Most of my work in the last several years has been as an editor: working with writing staff and freelancers, filing invoices, getting web content into shape in the CMS, planning event and product coverage, and more.

As such, you won't find my byline on most of the hundreds of articles I've been directly involved in over the last 5 or 6 years. I still did some writing from time to time, however, and you can find some examples at the links below.

A list of all my articles on PCWorld

A list of all my articles on Greenbot (most also appeared on PCWorld)

Galaxy S8 review

Google Pixel XL review

5 things you need to know about the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835

Why you will (and won’t) want a 64-bit Android phone

A few from the wayback machine...

Killer Xeno Pro Gaming Network Card Review

Build a Killer Gaming Rig

Radeon HD 4890 and GeForce GTX 275 Graphics Card Reviewed

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Resume

Here's a link to an online copy of my resume, last updated 05/23/2017. Parts of the address and phone number are blanked out for security reasons—if you need the complete resume with that information, please contact me via email.

Resume PDF