Something Random

[tsullivan]

Not sure if something glitched when I made my first post, but pasting it again if something happened. Delete if duplicated.

Hey guys :flower:. Just wanted to introduce myself as Thomas from over at StorageReview.com. Was doing some old research on SR and basically looking at whatever Google found. This thread popped up and I got a bit of a laugh over seeing some of the news regarding the sale and the first hard drive review we published.

Lets just say that first review... uke-r: not really our best stuff. That was a huge transition point for us and we were taking anything we were being sent. It was also a few months before we actually got the kinks worked out in our full testing suite.

Oh no, those benchmaks are not very useful. Where is IOMeter at least?
Crystal is all over the place. Copying files - godo grief?
Subjective noise? I guess Eugene did not sell the decibel meter. :lol:

I know its about a year late at this point, but at the time Brian made that post, I wasn't really working with him yet . He is great in the marketing/PR world, not so much at benchmarks (at least at that time). Lets jsut say I ban hammered anything that wasnt up to snuff.

From http://forums.storagereview.net/index.php?showtopic=27940



Which I can guess that means Eugene has sold the site, and



Might want to check our http://www.notebookreview.com and http://www.technologyguide.com/ to see what the future may hold. (Very sad if that is the future).

PS. On technologyguide.com there is a link right at the bottom of the page to here: http://www.techtarget.com/

Now that last link is interesting.

Regarding the mention of being old co-owner, Brian sold that off way before the current owners (TechTarget) took the current direction. Brian's big claim to fame at the time was user-oriented reviews that were easy to digest by average readers, but still offer the back-end support for tech geeks in the forum.

Can you believe that their first drive to review is the 2TB Hibachi in a USB enclosure. WTF is the point?

The new writer says "It has a whopping 2.0TB of space, which is more than all the other storage I have combined."
There is nothing like an expert with no HDs under his belt. :roll:

Eugene must be turning in his grave.

Yea that review was one of those where we had to do it, kind of a chicken and egg at that point.

I am all for comments at what you guys think of us now. Compared to the transition point (and that terrible terrible first review) we now roll with tried and true IOMeter R/W and server profiles, one quick glance at CDM for the average users who want to compare, and offer a growing suite of proprietary StorageMark replay traces. That last one was probably the biggest wake-up call for us, since at the time Brian took over StorageReview, nothing was handed over except the domain. No guidance on benchmarks, no benchmarking software, nothing. We went through and created new IOMeter profiles, discovered a new HDD/SDD trace application that was customized for us by a programmer buddy of mine, and we heavily customized our first new test bed.

I know its not as in-depth as the awesome reviews Eugene offered years ago, but what do you guys think? Have any of you looked at our most recent content, say now to 6-7 months ago? Its nice to see things picking up at least internally. Few new freelancer writers, probably a full-time staffer besides Brian in the near future, part-time art director, and lots and lots of friendly hard drive and SSD manufacturers . Let me tell you that first couple of months was a big pain in the butt. No review units because little/no traffic, and no traffic because of no review units. That kind of explains some of those first reviews.:rofl:

So yea, completely open to any and all criticism (crosses fingers).

 

[Handruin]

Not sure if something glitched when I made my first post, but pasting it again if something happened. Delete if duplicated.

There was no glitch, I have the forums automatically moderate new posts from new users which have URLs included because lots of spammers join, post once with their crap, and it's then viewable all over with occasional porn image. I just had to approve the thread. This moderation will go away after a certain number of posts are made from new members, it's nothing personal.

 

[tsullivan]

Haha, well in that case could you delete one of the two "walls o text"

At first I was trying to think of what links I included, and then I looked up and saw what I quoted. Doh!

 

[Handruin]

I deleted the first one since now all these other posts of me explaining the moderation filter, etc might not make sense. The automatic moderation thing isn't smart enough to realize if the URLs in your post were quoted or even from within this site. It's not perfect, but it's better than having a page full of potential spam.

Also, welcome. Sorry for the posting confusion.

 

[LOST6200]

Well one cause of that problem was when a lot of boards were first hosted on the ancient subscription services before vB and others came about. Some either transitioned off, lost members and died or were just forgotten. right now I am pretty active (say 100+ posts) on about 10 forums, with more than half of those relating to a certain product. One is for my car, another is oriented to the computer I own, and the others are some I frequent that kind of cover all the stuff I like to talk about. SomethingAwful is a one that has been around for a loooong time that I don't see going anywhere anytime soon. I think my post count is above 10,000 there :drinka:

SR lost all my psots due to teh human errrors. Then Davin quit and Eugnege announced gong out of busitness.

 

[Mercutio]

I am Storagereview.com forum user #7. I don't visit the forum any more. It's too noisy there. I've looked a reviews a few times in the last year. I'm primarily looking at performance graphs or a reviewer's subjective opinion about drive noise. I really don't pay much attention to the verbiage of reviews any more.

 

[LunarMist]

Hey guys :flower:. Just wanted to introduce myself as Thomas from over at StorageReview.com. Was doing some old research on SR and basically looking at whatever Google found. This thread popped up and I got a bit of a laugh over seeing some of the news regarding the sale and the first hard drive review we published. I know its not as in-depth as the awesome reviews Eugene offered years ago, but what do you guys think?

So yea, completely open to any and all criticism (crosses fingers).

Mainly I wonder if Eugene died or whatever did happen?

I have lost interest in the minor differences between hard drives. When I started reading SR in 1998 hard drives were a major bottleneck in computing performance. Today with 24GB of RAM (and more to come) it really doesn't matter much for my purposes. The typical enthusiast model is to have a few SSDs for OS/apps/hot files and store bulk data on 2TB+ magnetic drives. Of course there are differences between different classes of drives, 7200 RPM performance vs. 5400/5900 RPM green for example, but not very many within a class. I mostly care about are firmware bugs, unusually high failure rates, or other significant incompatibility risks above average for the class.

Looking at the site now, there are many press releases. Although they are of interest, it is clear that you are dependent on the manufacturers and I don't know how far you can go in criticizing some of the inferior products out there.

I don't log into the forums anymore. Passwords are long forgotten and e-mail accounts closed.

 

[tsullivan]

Mainly I wonder if Eugene died or whatever did happen?

I have lost interest in the minor differences between hard drives. When I started reading SR in 1998 hard drives were a major bottleneck in computing performance. Today with 24GB of RAM (and more to come) it really doesn't matter much for my purposes. The typical enthusiast model is to have a few SSDs for OS/apps/hot files and store bulk data on 2TB+ magnetic drives. Of course there are differences between different classes of drives, 7200 RPM performance vs. 5400/5900 RPM green for example, but not very many within a class. I mostly care about are firmware bugs, unusually high failure rates, or other significant incompatibility risks above average for the class.

Looking at the site now, there are many press releases. Although they are of interest, it is clear that you are dependent on the manufacturers and I don't know how far you can go in criticizing some of the inferior products out there.

I don't log into the forums anymore. Passwords are long forgotten and e-mail accounts closed.

No idea on what happened to Eugene. Brian negotiated the sale, and after the DNS was redirected to his servers there has been no contact with him since. Initially we asked a few questions, but nothing was ever answered. I hope the guy is ok.

Well these days to get a lot of the drives from smaller vendors (SSDs) you need to cover their press releases. The big HD manufacturers love us regardless .

We have gone plenty far in terms of criticizing other manufacturers, with the biggest one being OCZ. Well ok.. we said the drive had reliability problems and was 2-3% slower than other SandForce SSDs. For that we were completely blacklisted by them (news PR feed and review units). Thankfully other manufacturers know their stuff won't be the best of the best every time they release a product.

Generally speaking though we haven't had to really go all out and bash anything just yet. We were close with a 3rd party SSD vendor, and ended up deciding to not deal with the company and returned the product on our end. Way overpriced and slow as hell. They required a credit card for the review unit, and then were threatening that if we even opened the drive they would charge it. Which considering it was a 128GB SSD for 800 bucks a couple of months ago about 1/10th the speed of a X-25M or SandForce model, it was outrageous. :arge:

But yea the reliability and performance database are big traffic drivers. On the backend Brian and his web guru are working on sorting out the bugs and bringing both of those current. There is just a lot of work needed on the site to make it modern and we have been hitting the main ones first which are needed to generate money to keep the site afloat. Once that happens (should be a couple of months) we will have more time to branch out into other side projects and expand the coverage of products. A full time staffer will also be able to help add detail to reviews and start populate the performance database with tons of new drives.

 

[Mercutio]

From an Email exchange I had with a friend, whose sister has decided that the cast of "Jersey Shore" is her fashion and behavioral template, and whose taste in literature runs to Twilight and "Teen People":

your step sister is a lame human being. You knew that before your trip and it is doubtful you can do anything to change it. It is possible that she might grow out of it at some point, but the world needs teenage sluts. You may not think so, but it does. They are part of the social order of high school, serving as a warning to good girls and giving the dopey, possibly nerdy young men an opportunity to do stuff they might not otherwise have. And then they get pregnant at 16 and create the next generation of sluts. It's all part of nature's plan.


See, the future has caused an issue with nature's plan. Because of school overcrowding there is now an online school district in my area, where they attend school digitally from home and do not see classmates. And my stepsister is in this digital school, so it's the equivalent of being a slut in Second Life."

 

[LunarMist]

Whoosh. That all went over my head. :scratch:

 

[Howell]

Where is this digital high school?!

 

[Stereodude]

Where is this digital high school?!

I'd also like to know so I can be on the lookout for people who don't really have a high school education.

 

[LunarMist]

What is the difference? You practically have to find someone with a PhD now to write a decent paragraph.

 

[ddrueding]

What is the difference? You practically have to find someone with a PhD now to write a decent paragraph.

The #1 thing I learned in high school was how to spot an approaching fight, and how to get myself out of it. That is not something you are going to learn in a virtual school.

 

[LunarMist]

There were no fights allowed when I was in high school, which was rather longer ago than you. There were only a limited number of openings for students and one had to take a bank of tests to get in. Anyone screwing around was given maybe three small strikes or one big one and then kicked out. There was always a waiting list for new students.

 

[ddrueding]

There were no fights allowed when I was in high school, which was rather longer ago than you. There were only a limited number of openings for students and one had to take a bank of tests to get in. Anyone screwing around was given maybe three small strikes or one big one and then kicked out. There was always a waiting list for new students.

Mine was a public school in an area with a significant amount of gang activity. Probably 2 arrests a day and a school population of 2,200.

 

[Mercutio]

Where is this digital high school?!

Kent, Washington.

 

[BingBangBop]

My reaction was that one won't be getting ones own personal slut, if you go around telling someones brother/sister/friend the truth that they are a slut. One needs to be slightly more tactful than that.

 

[Mercutio]

Nah. My friend hates her stepsister. Also, since my friend is 26 and has never had an official Capital R relationship, "slut" is not a word one could use to describe her.

She did tell me today that she plans to come back to visit again this spring. And I offered to take her on a vacation to be determined later. I'm still waiting to see if she thinks that's a good idea.

 

[CougTek]

Another hit to the theory that we were all created equal.

 

[LunarMist]

Anyone here been listed online as deceased? It is very strange.

 

[ddrueding]

Anyone here been listed online as deceased? It is very strange.

I don't know where I would be listed as such? The only place I can imagine is here, were someone to start an odd rumor.

 

[LunarMist]

I don't know where I would be listed as such? The only place I can imagine is here, were someone to start an odd rumor.

It is related to Uni; that's all I'll say.

 

[The_Giver]

The burning flame of CougTek vanished on this very sad day of January 18th 2011. We will always remember him as a moderate and civilized member of this community, filled with compassion for others, especially the right-wing and the simple-minded. Pardon me for being redundant ; it's the emotion. He leaves in grief his torn computers, his axe and his beloved steel-cap boots, which will never more meet the bottom of an unfortunate soul.

Rust in peace, CougTek. The World won't be the same without you.

 

[CougTek]

Done.

 

[LunarMist]

Quick, someone press reboot. :cooler:

 

[Mercutio]

Hey! The JoJo is on! Hi The JoJo! Haven't seen you in ages.

 

[Handruin]

Quote of the day:

Flash has been, and continues to be, a scourge on the Internet, much like the Vikings were on 9th Century Europe. Flash rapes the batteries of laptops and mobile devices, pillages your CPU cycles, and murders your browser's child processes.

 

[LunarMist]

Hey! The JoJo is on! Hi The JoJo! Haven't seen you in ages.

Where???

 

[ddrueding]

It showed that he was online earlier. Just lurking it looks like.

 

[LunarMist]

:Oh: I thought you meant a post.

 

[LOST6200]

I am Storagereview.com forum user #7. I don't visit the forum any more. It's too noisy there. I've looked a reviews a few times in the last year. I'm primarily looking at performance graphs or a reviewer's subjective opinion about drive noise. I really don't pay much attention to the verbiage of reviews any more.

#6 ;P

 

[LunarMist]

Anyone been to Nepal?

 

[LunarMist]

Come to think of it, most forums don't last very long. I've been posting for 12-13 years and the majority of sites no longer exist or the forums were recreated. I've probably lost over 5K of posts in 8 forums, that is not including the MBF. I'm only active on 2-3 forums now.

Looks like I've reached the top 0.01% of posters on a certain forum with over 100K members. Am I a geek now? :rabbit:

 

[Mercutio]

Do you bite the heads off of live chickens?

 

[ddrueding]

Anyone been to Nepal?

I flew in to Kathmandu, then took a bus to Pokara, trekked the Anapurna range (300+ miles in 30 days, no guide), and rode a motorcycle into India. The Anapurna range is the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life. While you are there, try to get to the islands south of Phuket for some R&R afterwards.

 

[LunarMist]

Yeah. That would be a bit much for most of us. I expect that everyone in the group will be in their 50s and yours truly is probably in the worst shape of all. We won't be staying at the 4-star hotels, but not roughing it too much either.

 

[CougTek]

I'm not that interested to go to Nepal, but at this time of the year, I'd like to try to climb any or all of the four +8000m summits of Pakistan (K2, Gasherbrum I and II and Broad Peak). No one has ever reached the top of any of them in Winter. I would be famously remembered as the sickest human being of my time.

I think entering Pakistan and trying to climb the mountains without spending the 100K$ for the professional climbing permit would be the toughest.

 

[CougTek]

I forgot the Nanga Parbat, but it is not close to the other four. I would not do it by foot.

 

[LunarMist]

It is nothing like that. Length of trip would be NMT 10 working days in Q3 and around $10K max. I'm not sure if Aug-Sep is too late in the year. Photography would be minimal if any. :alb: