eBay Hates Sellers
I’m personally convinced that eBay hates its sellers, an ironic proposition that seems to undermine its primary business model of creating an online marketplace. My personal recent experience had a bidder win their auction for an iPod touch and then … not pay. I sent an invoice, and emailed the buyer, but got nothing but silence. Interestingly, buyers have 4 days to pay, so from 12/12, I had to wait most of the week before I could relist. I finally sold it again on the 22nd, but, what a waste of 10 days. Someone could have bought it in time for Christmas if eBay had a same-day payment policy.
Also, if your buyer doesn’t pay, you can’t submit bad feedback:
Sorry, it’s not possible to leave feedback for this transaction.
Feedback has been disabled because payment was not recorded.
I don’t see how “failure to pay” shouldn’t be a permanent black mark in their feedback history–it’s pretty egregious; sellers have a right to know.
A Better Gaming PC for Under $1000
Today in The Verge’s How-to: Build a killer gaming PC for under $1,000 they suggest putting together the following components:
| Processor | Intel Core i5-2500K | $209.99 | |
| Motherboard | Asus P8P67 Pro Rev 3.1 | $144.99 | |
| Graphics | Gigabyte GTX 560 Ti OC 900MHz 1GB | $214.99 | |
| Memory | 8GB Corsair Vengeance CL9 DDR3-1600 RAM | $44.99 | |
| Boot drive | Samsung 64GB SSD 830 | $94.99 | |
| Storage drive | WD Caviar Blue 500GB 7200RPM HDD | $99.99 | |
| Power supply | Corsair Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX | $59.99 | |
| Case | Fractal Design Core 3000 | $64.99 | |
| Optical drive | Samsung SH-B123 12x BD-ROM | $59.99 | |
| Total: $994.91 | |||
I feel that it does a few things wrong, emphasizing an nVidia graphics card that trails ATI’s mid-range offering, lacks significant RAM, and splurges on unneeded components like a DVD drive and spinning-disk hard drive. If I were to build an off the shelf gaming PC with the ample budget of $1000, using the same tricks (no peripherals, no OS, no LCD/LED monitor) as The Verge, here is what I’d buy:
| Processor / Mobo | Intel Core i5-2500K / MSI P67A-C43 combo | $314.98 | 11% cheaper |
| Graphics | XFX HD-695X-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB | $229.99 | 7% more |
| Memory | CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4×4GB) DDR3 1600 | $77.99 | 73% more |
| Drive | Samsung 128GB SSD 830 | $209.99 | 8% more |
| Power Supply | CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 V2 500W | $39.99 | 33% cheaper |
| Case | Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel | $69.99 | 8% more |
| Total: $942.93 (5% cheaper) | |||
The motherboard/CPU are virtually identical here and they are great picks–I also don’t care much about which case to use. However, I think this build is significantly stronger in the graphics/memory/drive arenas, and benefits from a cheaper 500W power supply. When you buy the ATI 6950 over the suggested nVidia 560 Ti, you get:
- Twice as much graphics RAM (2GB vs 1GB)
- 30 – 50W loaded less power consumption
- Similar performance
8 GB of RAM is OK, but when you have a 64 bit OS that can handle it all, why not put 16 GB into the system for $30 more? It’s a cheap easy win. And last, and possibly more controversially, I don’t see the need for an optical drive–everything is downloadable these days. I’d also rather have twice the SSD space than a slow spinning drive to load applications off.
Readers, what do you think? I’m sure my ATI preference will upset you…
The iPhone 4S Leaves Me Sated
Pocket Lint has an article today, Nokia: Youths are fed up with iPhone, baffled by Android. I’d like to say that it’s not true. Perhaps, at twenty-seven years old, I am no longer a youth, but my iPhone, iPhone 3GS, and now iPhone 4S have left me completely satisfied. Ever since the first iPhone that combined an mp3 player (iPod) and a phone (i thew away my Motorola Razr), I’ve been delighted to find such a wide range of functionality in a single device.
I’m well known to be a cranky Apple fan, begrudging them of praise, but the Pocket Lint article steps too far over the line:
“What we see is that youth are pretty much fed up with iPhones. Everyone has the iPhone,” he said. “So we do increasingly see that the youth that wants to be on the cutting edge and try something new are turning to the Windows phone platform.”
Yes, it is pure PR, coming from Nokia.
It’s also pure BS.
Every iPhone user I know, universally, love their phone. Apple, in producing a single phone productline, has ensured a consistent end-user experience that blows any other handset manufacturer or OS provider out of the water.