Maximum PC

....there was absolutely nothing in any article (except the editorials) that I could really give a shit about.

Care to expand on that?

I'll get back to you on that. It may take a couple of days as I am in the middle of a move.

Had more free time today than I thought I would. So here we go:

MS Windows still relevant - uummmmm, duh?
Next: I tried Win 8 CP on my nettop. Wouldn't run due to the low end nettop specs. Tried it in a virtual desktop, ran so slow I could barely play solitaire. I realise it is beta. So I'll wait and try it again later.

Win 8 on ARM - I don't have a smart phone and don't even want one, so meh.

Study Calls Bunk on Data Throttling - not news to me. Coulda told you that myself.

Ivy Bridge Delayed, Slightly - Doesn't make me go into withdrawals. I have no current need for an Ivy Bridge.

Comcast Enters Netflix Territory - Never used Netflix, so won't be using Xfinity Streampix either.

Next-Gen WI-FI - the place I'm moving into is wired so I don't need wi-fi, wireless, etc. I'm also retired so I don't need it for when I'm jetting around for work. If I'm traveling for vacation, I'm on vacation. I might check emails but I don't need gigabit or better speed for that.

When a game isn't a game - I'm a FPS gamer. So I'm not really interested in Dear Ester and I am not going to check it out to see the 'art'.

Raspberry Pi Preorders sell out in hours - good for raspberry. I don't want one.

GPU Sales Down but not out - not in the market for a GPU at this time or in the near future unless my current GPU dies.

Onlive Desktop - don't have an iPad and probably never will. Unless someone gifts me one.

Tracking Do Not Track - nice concept, contact me when it implements. Then I'll get excited. I currently used Ghostery and Adblock Plus. I know that they are different and do different things for me. And when Do Not Track comes around I'll add that. But I also know that those that want the tracking will do all that they can to kill this idea from ever implementing. So I'm not gonna hold my breath waiting for it to happen.

Penguin Pulls Title from Ebook Lending Program - never used an ebook lending program. I do, however, buy books in hardback or for my sisters Kindle. I have found and used The Gutenburg Project also.

IBM brings Quantum Computing Closer - Ok this one did elicit a bit of wonder to me until I asked myself when one would be available for my desktop.

iTouch Touchscreen Gloves - yet another 'gadget' I won't buy.

7 ways to fight Piracy without DRM - you meant that for the developers, right? Not much I can do except not buy from the purveryors of such. Already on that.

Head to head - not interested in either mouse. While I do play FPS games almost exclusively, I'm not THAT much into the games that the mouse I use will make or break the game I'm in. I have tried online multiplayer and I suck so bad I don't try anymore. And it ain't due to the mouse I use.

Build a PC - just finished 'upgrading' the one I have. Two out of the three fall below what I already have. The other could blow me out of the water on the benchmarks but I don't live and die by benchmarks. I'm retired. Most heavy lifting I do on my computer is play FPS games or look at a PPS slideshow someone sends me.
I'll burn the occasional disc but if it takes me 20 seconds longer, so what? I'm retired, I have 20 seconds to spare.

Get the Best of Google Cloud - not interested in cloud computing, haven't been since the beginning.

AMD's 3D Gambit - I've seen various forms of 3D. None of them have looked like 3D to me. To me they look like 2D images coming at you. If anyone can start making 3D people that look like there is actually someone standing in front of you rather than a 2D image standing closer/farther than something else that is 2D in the picture, then it will be something.

Molybdenite - I could say that it is interesting as an engineering point but that would be the extent of it. It will become exciting to me when the engineering becomes available AND I could afford it. But unless the manufacturers really get moving on this, I doubt that I will be around when it does hit the shelf. (Retired = older person)

Windows Tip of the Month -
1. back up my google account - don't have one.
2. Web apps for security
a. Password security - I already use KeyPass
b. Virus scanners - already use them and know where to go if I'm out of my league, the MPC forums
c. Remote desktop - don't have a need for it

Add a Padlock to External Drives - don't have any external drives. If I have need to transfer a file to another computer I just use thumbdrives to transfer files and then I delete the files on the thumbdrive since I don't need them on the thumbdrives anymore.

Using amazing video backgrounds - I don't even download backgrounds from the 'net to use on my computer. Never have edited a video on a computer and am also not interested in doing so at this time.

New Life for a 3-Year-Old Rig - If I haven't already upgraded a 3 year old rig, it has been replaced. Although that will probably slow now that I'm retired and living on a fixed income. (A comfortable one but fixed non-the-less.)

Reviews -
alienware X51 SFF PC - cute, that is all
GPU faceoff - Two AMD video cards that can put a high quality picture on my monitor. Either one of them will pass the 'human eyeball test'.
Human Eyeball Test? Put the two cards in the same computer. Run a video/movie/game cut scene and have a human tell you which card is playing it. If they guess right, then that is what they did. They GUESSED right.
The cards put out by the manufacturers now will all pass the human eyeball test. The differentiation between any two cards is getting miniscule.
"this card will outdo this other one by 2 whole %" Yes, I do realise that this is the very job this mag is supposed to do. And previously I would buy that 2% better card. And if it used 25 watts more power to do that 2% I didn't care. I needed that 2% better card for FAH. But now that I am retired and on a fixed income, I had to stop folding too. Electrical bill was a bit high.
But now I, nor anyone else I know, couldn't tell you which card is better by watching it perform on anyones computer. My 'human eyeball test'.
So when my current card dies I will replace it with something I can afford and is easiest on the power bill.
D-Link DIR-827 Wi-Fi router - already told you the place I'm moving into is wired. So I don't need Wi-Fi.
Xigmatek Aegir Cooler - my computer is water cooled. DangerDen's my supplier.
Samsung Galaxy Nexus Android 4 Phone - also already told you I don't need or want a smart phone.
Akitio SK-3501 Super-S3 USB enclosure - don't have and don't use external drives so I am not gonna get excited about an enclosure I won't be using.
Netgear ReadyNAS Duo v2 - That's essentially an external drive right? See above.
Ceton InfiniTV 4 USB - Have never used a DVR. I never even taped a show back in the days of VHS/Beta.
Cyborg MMO 7 Gaming Mouse - already went over this earlier.
Kingdome of Amalur: Reckoning - I play FPS. I've tried Diablo, Final Fantasy and more of the like. They just didn't trip my trigger. So I don't believe this one will either. Ergo, not interested.
Lab notes - Are Portable Game Consoles Dead? I've never owned one. Again, not interested.

There you go, I think I covered them all. If I missed something it wasn't for lack of trying on my part.
I know what the mag is all about. The testing/researching/reporting/etc. (and it used to be a lot more hard edged back in the boot days). As I just mentioned, I've been a reader since it was boot. But this issue just didn't have anything for me.

That's nonsense, I'm in your age group, and you probably like me: Family calls "waaaaaaaa" Fix my computer, you go and fix it, BUT with these drive, you
save yourself a whole crapload of work next week when they call you to fix it again.
I use my external drive to download the computer(s) I just fixed, and depending on
location, I create a restore set (DVDs), so at that point in time, I can go take less than
30 minutes instead of HOURS fixing and downloading update/service packs to get their
computer back up and running, as well as earn a meal from that family member as a thank you.

If you've checked out the rest of the tech world, everything seems to have slowed down to a crawl.

Everyone cares about mobile platforms these days. And all anyone cares about there is that goddamn iProduct.

Exactly.

And probably one of the reasons the forums are a ghost town.

I really wish someone would mix up the tech world.

Someone did. They brought high speed multi-core computing to formfactors that you can easily slide in and out of your pocket or bag. They brought very high bandwidth mobile connections and spread them across the country. They did all this AND they kept it affordable.

There has been nothing but win in the tech sector over the last couple of years, imo.

Yeah, but not enough lose to make things fun

Though with Windows 8, you never know!

No family close to me. I live in TN. Closest relative is in OH.

Hmm, weird I really enjoyed the issue but then I'm not retired have lots of Wi-fi in my house and enjoyed reading about Windows 8 even though I remain skeptical about it.

So other than the mobile market saturation, supposed experts telling us the PC is dead for longer than I care to remember and the good ole iStuff everywhere what else has caused the innovation on the PC to slow down?

From a consumer perspective a lot of the tech is now "in the cloud" (I'm sorry, won't utter it again) and the need for something faster, stronger, bigger really isn't there for many people. For power users there are still interesting things to see and learn about and I'd suggest that innovation isn't dead just not in the same places we'd expect.

The continued rise of SSD and other storage media that will continue to blur the gap between what was RAM and what traditional storage was will be interesting watch. It will push the mobile and cloud markets further and give us faster access to our data and move our computing experiences one step closer to always available data anywhere.

LCD/LED tech has matured to a point where you can get a very high quality 27" monitor a couple hundred dollars. This is great but what I'm waiting for is a screen the same size that does 3D and multitouch for the same price.

I think the real reason that the tech hasn't moved forward faster is that there isn't a killer app to drive it forward. There isn't anything that has people thinking "Damn... I neeeeeed that!"

I've felt the lack of innovation in my PC shopping lately. I've recently built a new rig and it's fast, really fast but there is nothing about it that really inspires awe. There is nothing remarkable about it.

Thinking back over the upgrades that really moved things forward for me over the years:

- Soundblaster 16
- 3dfx Voodoo
- DVD-ROM drive
- 22" LCD monitor (was big at the time)
- SSD - OCZ Vertex 2

Sound,3D acceleration and SSDs have changed gaming on the PC forever, now we need something else to move the PC forward, something big to change the landscape. A killer app and some killer hardware to support it. Maximum Change.


dedgar, I hope there is something in this forum thread that you give a sh!t about, after all it's your thread.