monkmartinez

You know what? This dude has had like 40 laptops or something... he is probably the least qualified person to tell me what to buy. I don't want someone who hasn't had to deal with the computer for the long haul. I mean, shit... I can go to Bestbuy and set-up a camera and do the same shit review. I can form an opinion based on 10 minutes with the laptop, then copypasta the other reviews of that particular piece and move on to the next one.

Then 6 months from now after I've reviewed dozens of different laptops for the same amount of bullshit time, do it again with the old reviews... rinse, repeat. No day to day needed... just go over it once for a few hours, make some bullshit recommendation, then call it a day. Bullshit.

DO you even know how this works? Seems like the lot of peeps here have no friggin clue.

1. People build websites and have fiverr people write reviews then link to Amazon to reap that sweet, sweet affiliate cash.

2. People build websites and write reviews for products based on the most return using Amazon Affiliate software that ranks products.

3. People honestly link to their affiliate via a blog for a personal hobby.

Most of the affiliates are trying to make money and they don't give a shit how they do it.

Read this shit... https://www.blackhatworld.com/forums/making-money.12/

I am with you to an extent. I don't buy much of anything over $100 that isn't necessary to sustain life. When I do, perhaps to buy a laptop... I will spend some time researching mostly on forums where the enthusiasts hang out, they usually have sticky threads that cover the basics. I will also read 10 or so of the terrible reviews on Amazon or newegg (1 star) as someone else mentioned. Easy way to filter.

The Wirecutter! Get the BEST laptop, The BEST wifi router, The BEST blah, blah, blah. It's all bullshit. There is no BEST! And I doubt wirecutter is truly unbiased...

There is works and does not work. In the end, 98% of all consumer electronics are going to end up in a dump... generally right after the warranty is up. Live with that or live minimally AKA do without.

You are right... these rankings are as manipulated as the S&P with HFT. The FBA'ers use clever marketing, pay per click and paid reviews to get ranked higher. Has ZERO to do with quality.

Are you talking about buying from Banggood or Aliexpress? If you are buying directly from China via Amazon you are doing it wrong. That is, you are overpaying for the same products that one can easily find on other channels for much less if you are willing to wait for shipping from mainland China.

Wow.. and what if the reviewer sucks? That happens. What if you get a lemon? That happens. What happens if the reviewer is being paid? That happens.

Returning on Amazon is one of the easiest things to do on the planet.

What amazing products are you going to miss out on? Most of the stuff on Amazon is just re-branded FBA shit. Most of each category of consumer products come from the same factories in China. Go to Alibaba and source some stuff... It's what all the FBA'ers do.

It will change again, you can rest assured of that. I think you have the right attitude toward it, FWIW. The FBA'ers out there are in a similar position and many of them rely way too heavily on Amazon for their income. These guys/gals started with/as affiliates... and have graduated to "branding" cheap chinese stuff.

I tried doing some FBA, but it felt super scammy. Research products that people are buying then just work the pay per click, give some products away for review, and try to "out manipulate" your competition. It is going to end badly for a lot of them. China is learning how to beat them at their own game. The guys that run seminars on this stuff... uggh... nuff said.

Do you really need someone telling you why it is a good product to buy? If you buy something from Amazon and it doesn't work in the way you want it to, return it. Watching reviews is a waste of time.

Med school is super dissimilar to being a startup founder. If you pass, dead last or at the top of your class, you will be known as Doctor untilHellbanned. Also, you will most certainly have a job and lots of debt post med school, unless you can afford a couple hundred thousand dollars to finance your md. In the end, I think the risk (financially) of med school is WAY less than that of a startup founder.

Yep, I get sick almost every summer. It is 9K+ where we stay. I absolutely love the weather there, however the traffic is insane. Also, where my sister in law lives there is a really cool park where people work out, walk, and show off their dogs. I have never seen so many exoitc breeds of dogs. Also, Also, Andres carne de res!

I get my ass kicked in Bogota every summer @ 9k feet. I live at 2.5k and run 24 to 30 miles a week almost 40yo, and it hits me HARD there...

Manizales

My wife is from Colombia and I love it there. We definitely plan on living part of the year there and part of the year in the US when we retire. I will mention outside of the Mountainous cities, it is very warm and humid. The cities at say 1828m (6,000ft) and above are absolutely perfect climates year round. Bonus: You can get in shape very, very quickly in the mountains.

The vast majority of people that may buy this product might speak imperial. How do you know who the target audience is? How many recipe sites have ingredients in grams and cups/oz.?

Betty Crocker doesn't! Alton Brown? NOPE. Food Network, NAH!

Fit, attractive people exist! "Actual Real" people? Do you mean chubby and out of shape? Or morbidly obese? Or what?

If you are referring to the fact that there are more fat people than skinny people, ok. Keep this in mind; that fact is not the fault of the people whom have managed to stay fit either by luck, genes, or hard work. People need to be honest with themselves and get their butts moving.

What if the founders are attractive, fit people?

The value for a lot of people, myself included, is achieved without the video, music and books. If they went away tomorrow, I would still keep prime for shipping alone.

I absolutely agree and would add the article seems to miss a crucial aspect "unbundling" which, for a lot of people, are spending less on "entertainment" a monthly basis. Netflix and Amazon haven't spun "unbundling" into reverse. If anything, they're contributing to the acceleration of the phenomena. I didn't sign up for Amazon Prime for the movies or the music. The value for my money was there just for 2 day shipping and would keep it for that reason alone, everything else is a perk.

The article starts off with "No longer would anyone have to buy a $99-a-month triple-play package when all they wanted was the History Channel." And ends with, "the bundle is not a decaying symbol of legacy distribution. Rather, it is the new network effect: a critical strategy to amplify scale in the hope of building or deepening a moat to protect against foes everywhere."

I guess business school elites, like the author, are having a hard time wrapping their minds around what is taking place. It is pretty simple for me; Consumers want more choice and want it for less money on a monthly basis. They are more realistic about how much time they can devote to watching and/or listening to content which reflects in the winners and losers of this space. Further, the proliferation of Android set top boxes, Fire sticks, Kodi boxes, Chromecasts, and Rokus together with youtube and other streaming/free content will continue to erode all of the above.

I thought this is how Silicon Valley works. The churn|acquisition|procurement is how everyone makes money, at least that is how it looks to an outsider.

Have you seen how many people complain about carrying a 2 to 5 lb laptop a few miles? No wonder strength is down across the board.

Go dig a hole every now and again. Do some sandbag training. Play on the monkeybars with your kids. DO SHIT and lift heavy stuff when you can.

You love your new computer that has been in the shop for 13 days? May I ask, when did you buy it?

From the article:

> For YI's first attempt at a Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera they got a lot of things right, but there's still room for improvement.

Let me draw your attention to... "First attempt." It will get better and most likely less expensive.

Yi's mirrorless MFT, according to reviews as I don't own one, are half the price of competing models. I have a panasonic G10, but I'am watching Yi...

Have you watched the people that use Action cams? Drones, Dirtbikes, Mountain Bikes, Kayaking and more... A warranty doesn't generally cover "Smashed into building buttress at high rate of speed whilst attached my 250mm racing drone, will you please replace under warranty?"

It seems that most people have settled for smartphones for the bulk of their photographic needs. When you can get a similarly spec'd action cam or MFT cam for 1/2 or even 1/3 the price, a LOT of people will jump on that. Especially people that have broken a GoPro... Ask me how I know that :)

DJI has a lot of competition just getting started... The quadcopter world is absolutely on fire and moving amazingly fast.

Right, but there are literally ZERO reasons that camera needs to say GoPro, Nikon, Garmin, or Sony when the Chinese version will do the same for a fraction of the cost.

All of the manufacturers are in big trouble.

How many professional sports photographers are there? I guess all those wedding photographers need to look the part with Canon's and Nikon's too. Is that enough to keep Canon and Nikon afloat?

GoPro is not in much better shape than Nikon. [1] Nikon shouldn't even bother with the action cam market.

Yi Technologies [2] and companies like Yi are going to DOMINATE the non-smartphone camera market in short order. Just wait for MWC this year...

[1]https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/03/gopro-incs...

[2] https://www.yitechnology.com/

Don't forget about US proxy invasions and the global drone program... and so on, and so on...

I am not defending the Russians, but at least they have the audacity to be upfront about it.

> Encrypted email is pretty much over in 2017.

One could make the argument that encrypted email was never a thing outside a tiny, miniscule, group of folks.

Is it possible those same people probably bought more scrutiny than others simply because they used encryption?

I disagree. One, property taxes didn't go down materially in my jurisdiction despite housing prices dropping precipitously. Two, schools have already been hit hard with horrible admin teams and the rise of open-enrollment. Three, jobs don't have as much of an affect on home prices as they once did. That is, investors|flippers|NAR shysters| and the government control far more of the housing market prices than we give credit for.

I am not a boomer, but they have been in charge for a while and have really messed things up.