Delorios

There won't be a big WAN Show segment about this or anything. Most of what I have to say, I've already said, and I've done so privately.

To Steve, I expressed my disappointment that he didn't go through proper journalistic practices in creating this piece. He has my email and number (along with numerous other members of our team) and could have asked me for context that may have proven to be valuable (like the fact that we didn't 'sell' the monoblock, but rather auctioned it for charity due to a miscommunication... AND the fact that while we haven't sent payment yet, we have already agreed to compensate Billet Labs for the cost of their prototype). There are other issues, but I've told him that I won't be drawn into a public sniping match over this and that I'll be continuing to move forward in good faith as part of 'Team Media'. When/if he's ready to do so again I'll be ready.

To my team (and my CEO's team, but realistically I was at the helm for all of these errors, so I need to own it), I stressed the importance of diligence in our work because there are so many eyes on us. We are going through some growing pains - we've been very public about them in the interest of transparency - and it's clear we have some work to do on internal processes and communication. We have already been doing a lot of work internally to clean up our processes, but these things take time. Rome wasn't built in a day, but that's no excuse for sloppiness.

Now, for my community, all I can say is the same things I always say. We know that we're not perfect. We wear our imperfection on our sleeves in the interest of ensuring that we stay accountable to you. But it's sad and unfortunate when this transparency gets warped into a bad thing. The Labs team is hard at work hard creating processes and tools to generate data that will benefit all consumers - a work in progress that is very much not done and that we've communicated needs to be treated as such. Do we have notes under some videos? Yes. Is it because we are striving for transparency/improvement? Yeah... What we're doing hasn't been in many years, if ever.. and we would make a much larger correction if the circumstances merited it. Listing the wrong amount of cache on a table for a CPU review is sloppy, but given that our conclusions are drawn based on our testing, not the spec sheet, it doesn't materially change the recommendation. That doesn't mean these things don't matter. We've set KPIs for our writing/labs team around accuracy, and we are continually installing new checks and balances to ensure that things continue to get better. If you haven't seen the improvement, frankly I wonder if you're really looking for it... The thoroughness that we managed on our last handful of GPU videos is getting really incredible given the limited time we have for these embargoes. I'm REALLY excited about what the future will hold.
 
With all of that said, I still disagree that the Billet Labs video (not the situation with the return, which I've already addressed above) is an 'accuracy' issue. It's more like I just read the room wrong. We COULD have re-tested it with perfect accuracy, but to do so PROPERLY - accounting for which cases it could be installed in (none) and which radiators it would be plumbed with (again... mystery) would have been impossible... and also didn't affect the conclusion of the video... OR SO I THOUGHT...
 
I wanted to evaluate it as a product, and as a product, IF it could manage to compete with the temperatures of the highest end blocks on the planet, it still wouldn't make sense to buy... so from my point of view, re-testing it and finding out that yes, it did in fact run cooler made no difference to the conclusion, so it didn't really make a difference.
 
Adam and I were talking about this today. He advocated for re-testing it regardless of how non-viable it was as a product at the time and I think he expressed really well today why it mattered. It was like making a video about a supercar. It doesn't mater if no one watching will buy it. They just wanna see it rip.  I missed that, but it wasn't because I didn't care about the consumer.. it was because I was so focused on how this product impacted a potential buyer. Either way, clearly my bad, but my intention was never to harm Billet Labs. I specifically called out their incredible machining skills because I wanted to see them create something with a viable market for it and was hoping others would appreciate the fineness of the craftsmanship even if the product was impractical. I still hope they move forward building something else because they obviously have talent and I've watched countless niche water cooling vendors come and go. It's an astonishingly unforgiving market.
 
Either way, I'm sorry I got the community's priorities mixed-up on this one, and that we didn't show the Billet in the best light. Our intention wasn't to hurt anyone. We wanted no one to buy it (because it's an egregious waste of money no matter what temps it runs at) and we wanted Billet to make something marketable (so they can, y'know, eat).
 
With all of this in mind, it saddens me how quickly the pitchforks were raised over this. It also comes across a touch hypocritical when some basic due diligence could have helped clarify much of it. I have a LONG history of meeting issues head on and I've never been afraid to answer questions, which lands me in hot water regularly, but helps keep me in tune with my peers and with the community. The only reason I can think of not to ask me is because my honest response might be inconvenient. 
 
We can test that... with this post. Will the "It was a mistake (a bad one, but a mistake) and they're taking care of it" reality manage to have the same reach? Let's see if anyone actually wants to know what happened. I hope so, but it's been disheartening seeing how many people were willing to jump on us here. Believe it or not, I'm a real person and so is the rest of my team. We are trying our best, and if what we were doing was easy, everyone would do it. Today sucks.
 
Thanks for reading this.

Win 10 introduced a problem with 1803 which can prevent devices from being seen in the network. If that also caused your problem, this might help:
https://www.ghacks.net/2018/04/17/fix-pcs-no-longer-recognized-in-network-after-windows-10-version-1803-upgrade/

UPDATE: Other websites have now weighed in saying they got the same NDA and were not concerned.
 
GamersNexus also got on the phone with an attorney to talk over the points, and while he found some of the wording maybe open to interpretation, the actual NDA seemed quite normal.
I'm sure this will still make some people uneasy, but ultimately it doesn't seem to have been outside of normal practice.
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ORIGINAL POST.
 
 
 
The German site Heise.de has refused to sign a new NDA that Nvidia sent out to hardware reviewers, and instead published it in full on their website.
 
Link to article: https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/In-eigener-Sache-Nvidia-NDA-als-Maulkorb-fuer-Journalisten-4091751.html
Link to NDA: https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/In-eigener-Sache-Nvidia-NDA-als-Maulkorb-fuer-Journalisten-4091751.html?view=zoom;zoom=1
 
Under section 3 ""The recipient uses confidential information exclusively for the benefit of Nvidia"
 
This seems very vague language in a way, but after the GPP program, I'm not sure why they thought this wouldn't leak and how it would be interprited as anything other than an attempt to muzzle the press in exchange for early access. I know NDAs are a common practice, but this seems very restrictive?
 
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Rough translation to English:
In their own right: Nvidia-NDA as a muzzle for journalists

Nvidia requires the signing of a very extensive confidentiality agreement before submitting information on future products.
There is an issue that journalists seldom talk about - the so-called Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Especially in technical journalism NDAs are quite common and useful - for example, to gain access to early test copies. This allows journalists to take measurements in peace before the market launch and to get a sound idea of the new product. Many companies only issue pre-trial copies if the journalist has approved an NDA or at least a blocking period.
 
Heise scrutinizes every NDA and only agrees when it comes to a specific product, a clear and not too far-away expiration date is specified and the text of the contract contains no passages that could affect our journalistic work.

However, some companies also use NDAs as weapons. Not only do they want to get journalists to stick to release dates, but they also want to enforce cheap reporting with far-reaching agreements and horrendous penalties. Those who do not bend are cut off from the flow of information.
 
Attack on the journalistic work
Sometimes companies clearly cross borders. On 20 June, for example, Nvidia USA sent a large number of journalists - including us - a request to sign a very extensive confidentiality agreement "by 22.6.2018 at the latest".
 
The NDA should apply to all information provided by Nvidia, so it did not refer to a specific product or information. There was also no concrete expiration date. It was also full of conditions that ran counter to journalistic principles. Our legal department clapped their hands over their heads as they read the document.
 
Thus it is translated (in German translated): "the receiver uses confidential information exclusively in favor of Nvidia". In other words, journalists are allowed to write only what fits Nvidia in the junk. In doing so, Nvidia downgrades the independent press into a marketing tool.
 
And further on, "Notwithstanding the expiration of this Agreement, the recipient's obligations with respect to any Confidential Information will expire five years after the date of their disclosure to the recipient." Anyone who signs this Nvidia NDA has to bow to the will of the American manufacturer for five years - if something is released without permission during this time, the plea is threatened.
 
But Nvidia goes further: "The protection of information, which is a trade secret, never goes out." In other words, if Nvidia thinks that information is a trade secret, then in the worst case, the journalist is never allowed to talk about it.
 
We do not sign
It goes without saying that an independent media company can under no circumstances sign such an agreement. Nevertheless, Nvidia let us know that "many journalists" have already signed the agreement. No wonder, in the future only journalists should receive advance information and pre-test copies, which sign this NDA.
 
We make it clear: This and similar held NDAs are not signed by Heise online and c't - no matter which company they come from. Rather, our journalistic principles dictate that we create transparency and publish Nvidia's NDAs here in the original. ( The editors of heise online and c't ) / ( mfi ) 

Just an update.. Apparently paypal is known for issues with this.. and there is a workaround but it fails a lot? We're looking into potential alternative services and trying to fix pay pal at the same time - Haven't forgotten about you

yeah come on guys, any news? its been 3 weeks now... this is kind of annoying especially since it seemingly wouldn't be that hard to resolve. or are we german fans simply so few that LTT doesn't care ?

Hello,
 
I wanted to subscribe to the Floatplane Early-Access today but unfortunately I get a message saying that "my PayPal account is registered in a country where automatic payments are not allowed". While this message indicates otherwise, the PayPal support said the vendor has to enable other countries than their own (maybe germany specifically) for subscriptions. I was able to subscribe to Vessel and others like Crunchyroll without any issues in the past so this doesn't seem to be general "ban" on subscriptions for germany.
 
An alternative for those affected would be to offer an option to get a prepaid version of the Floatplane subscription, that should work from germany and other countries where it's currently not possible otherwise.
 
Thanks!

USB type C is not mainstream at all
hell, they didn't even finished adding features to the fucking standard
 
oh, and one more thing - the moment USB type C cables stop murdering the devices they got plugged in, that's when USB type C has a chance to go mainstream
 
guess what?! Apple does not provide docks or adapters to type A ports (shipped with the product), so your excuse of no more 10 different type of cables just went to the way of the do-do
 
you want to plug your iPhone into your MacBook PRO, buy an adapter or cable
you want to plug your printer, buy an adapter or cable
want to plug a 2nd display or TV, wait for it ... you need another cable
want to plug your LAN cable? nop! you need an adapter
and the list goes on and on
 
how well did it go when they 1st introduced the type C to MacBooks? that well, eh ...
 
the fucking things cost ~3000$ would've hurt them to add a DP or at least a HDMI, or a type A? nope
but they kept the 3.5mm jack - that should tell you something
 
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my pos HP Pavilion from 2013 has HDMI, USB2, USB3 and LAN ports, SD card reader and audio jack

I don't care if I can watch stuff before someone else can. I used Vessel because it was an ad-free possibility to support LMG. 
Sad thing is that, if LTT uses this to be 7 days further ahead of things, the next week will be a week of videos (on youtube) I've already watched (on Vessel).

I don't care if I can watch stuff before someone else can. I used Vessel because it was an ad-free possibility to support LMG. 
Sad thing is that, if LTT uses this to be 7 days further ahead of things, the next week will be a week of videos (on youtube) I've already watched (on Vessel).

ftfy
 
 

Why is a pay wall bad? I would much rather pay then have ads on. LTT need to make money and ad revenue is on the decline. I don't think it is stupid to support a content creators or platforms they use.

it's definitely not worth upgrading a 970 to 1060.  1070 or bust, imo.

This Is my recommendation- http://pcpartpicker.com/list/ccPtnn
 
i made it in a black and white theme becuase why not, and i included a monitor becuase I assume you don't have one. If you have a monitor, you should be able to fit in a gtx1080, basically just a higher end gpu. The PC I designed will dominate any modern title at the 1080p, 144hz spec of the monitor. It should easily max out battlefield. Pick up a windows 10 key online, the exact name of the site is elluding me but there is a site that sells it for like 30$. If there are any other questions you have, don't hesitate to ask!

Thats fine, but don't be linking it to someone who is a "complete noob" (his words not mine). He will not understand why that system is bad or wasteful and may be inclined to get it or some of the not-so-great parts on that list (like the GPU and PSU).

Finialy, after some digging in the Help session i found something, for anyone with the same issue:
goto: Accout and start subcription, it is the same window as before, but it works, even with your own Zip Code.
 
Thanks for your suggestions

Hello all! Long time LTT fan, new to the forum. I wanted to share my build, as it's really been a labor of love for the past month. I trash picked it from a local computer store in December, and it's come a long way since then.

It started life in 21 years ago 1995 with a 486dx2 running at a mind blistering 66mhz, with a massive 4mb ram, and 1mb video memory. The 3.5 floppy disk could hold a maximum data capacity of 1.44MB. As of a few days ago, it now has a an Intel i7 6700k running at 4.3ghz, 16GB's of 3000mhz ddr4 ram, and 8GB's video memory. The 3.5 floppy drive can read up to 512GB of data from a single diskette. This was not a plug & play build. Massive amounts of cutting, fabrication, welding, grinding, a filing were required. It was awesome.

Here's the full build with gifs for proper demonstrations of the floppy drive in action: http://imgur.com/a/fvh1M

 

So let me drop a few issues with Vessel in here. If they've happened to be discussed before, it just shows how frustrating they are.
 
1. Their website is overblown as hell. For crying out loud, I'm viewing it on a 24" 1920x1080 PC monitor, and not a goddamn tablet! The usability of the interface is negative - MMB to "Open in new tab" does NOT work, it's lagging and unresponsive due to HEAVY animation and real-time server query workload, and there are no freakin' options. Like, you can just click a video, watch it, done, move on to "more from". Where is all the useful stuff that YouTube has had for years? I can share to Facebook and Twitter - that's cool, but where the heck are all the other sharing websites? And why is it all so sloppy?
 
2. Their player is a hopeless pile of garbage. I can stream 1080p from YouTube no problem, but suddenly Vessel decides that NOPE I can't watch videos in high quality, unless I want to suffer an eternity of stuttering and buffering pauses - so I'm left trying to not have my eyes burnt while watching LTT in something near 360p, in a crappy player that drops in a HUGE frame freeze at the beginning of literally every video, has completely unresponsive UI and takes AGES to load when you get to the video playback page, so you can't even immediately pause it (and let it buffer or whatever) and switch to a different tab.
 
3. Their sidebar menu, clickable elements and video links work obscurely at best. I'm absolutely NOT happy with the experience I'm getting from trying to use Vessel like I would use a video streaming website and like I do use YouTube. Zooming out in Chrome to about 50% to be able to scroll through some shit popping up on my feed? Thanks, I'll wait those few days and watch LTT on YouTube.
 
By the way, I really love LTT, I just hope you guys can somehow let Vessel know that they're not very good coders and that they should get to work real quick, so that their platform can get usable at some point.

WAIT HOLD UP. WE DONT WANT LINUS'S PERSONAL PC. The case has a lot of meaning to him guys. It was a gift from his wife. I believe it was the first gift from her too.
EDIT: Thanks for all the likes guys! Hopefully Linus or someone from LMG will read this and this will make Linus keep his build. Even if the goal of 100k is made we should convince Linus to do another build maybe, with signatures from the whole LMG family and maybe even his wife. This would let Linus keep the build he has with the special case his wife gave him. Besides, his personal PC would be more special to him than us.