Hoonigan
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Canada
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Barred From the Apple Store
Just came across this interesting article. Seems that BareFeats' "Chief Mad Scientist", Rob-ART Morgan, has been banned from using his local Apple Store as a test lab for his site. Looks like it was because of his less than stellar comments on the new iMac G5... but then again, they could just be tired of the dude doing performance tests on in-store Macs, which are probably not a well maintained as a computer should be prior to testing. Just thought it would be an interesting tidbit to toss out. Another interesting thing - his site is the sole source of his income? I'm surprised he could generate that kind of money from there, though I don't know squat about running sites, ads, etc. I should get off my butt and get www.appleinsideher.com running! |
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Not sayin', just sayin'
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From what I read, he's not banned from the store, just from using the store machines for his tests. I'm surprised they let him do that in the first place.
Bare Feats' testing isn't what I would call scientific either, and this kind of proves as much too. |
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Mr. Vieira
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
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That's pretty funny. I do wonder what the outcome would've been if he'd given the iMac glowing praise?
Would be like going to the local Audi dealership, taking multiple test drives (with never any intention of actually BUYING one), then writing a damning review of the new model. I'd ban his silly ass too, frankly. |
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Multi-touch Piñata
Join Date: May 2004
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Not defending him at all, but...
Shouldn't any of us be able to test Macs to our liking (within reason, I don't mean putting in 8 hour shifts)? Purchase is not a requirement for dabbling, testing, playing on Macs in an Apple Store. A potential buyer will want to run them through their paces, even make comparisons between each model. Wonder what he did that made it obvious he was running tests. Usually you can work on the Macs for quite a while without being pestered. Hell, I waited for 45 minutes to get someone's attention to buy a damn Mac. His Apple Store must have been dead slow and had too many overly helpful staffers standing around. "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." - Albert Einstein |
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I shot the sherrif.
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i think the problem is that by using in-store models to run his "tests" on, he's giving people the impression that he's actually testing these machines to some respectable standards.
i mean, when you're supposed to be testing gaming performance on a machine, you can't just walk up to a demo model, that had god knows what running on it, test it out and then say "Apple's numbers are way different than mine, are they fudging it?" cripes, every store model has ARD installed on it. if nothing else you could easily have store staff watching him when he's on the machines, assuming they don't exactly trust him not to try and break crap. that right there would skew your supposed results, and he'd never know it. why? because he didn't set the machines up and doesn't know for sure what all is on them and running. i always knew barefeats had crappy testing methods, but this just puts another nail in an already buried coffin. Google is your frenemy. Caveat Emptor - Latin for tough titty I tend to interpret things in the way that's most hilarious to me |
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Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location:
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Last edited by AirSluf : 2004-11-15 at 23:54. |
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Multi-touch Piñata
Join Date: May 2004
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Right I agree with all of that, I just wonder, what, from Apple's perspective, differentiated this guy from a serious prospective buyer. Maybe the Cambridge store here is more tolerant of people (MIT kids) coming in and stress testing things in arcane ways than the store he went to.
I'm just picturing him wearing a BareFeats t-shirt, running a program called BareFeats TESTZ 1.0 on all the machines simultaneously and loudly saying "Man, these iMacs suck for performance!" with the powerdrain from the CPUs making the store lights dim to a brownout. "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." - Albert Einstein |
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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And IIRC, the purchase of a "Pro" machine from an Apple Store comes with a 'pro' card which equates to a 30 day money-back guarantee for you to take it home and test drive it all you want. Sounds like he's too cheap to buy machines or buy and return like some other reviewers do. Real reviewers ask Apple for machines to test and often get machines for test drive, sometimes for weeks. Maybe he's just lazy. |
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Banging the Bottom End
Join Date: Jun 2004
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It's obvious you didn't read the article which you should probably do first before replying. I say this because it's clearly stated in the article that Rob brings in a bootable firewire hard drive with OS X + benching programs. So it doesn't matter how the store set it up, Rob has a consistant OS / program setup. Also (in the article but not directed at you, alcimedes) there was a memo from One Infinite Loop right after Rob's iMac G5 benchmark results specifically stating that Apple store Macs could not be used for benchmarking purposes. Please people, read the article, then post. |
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Mr. Vieira
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
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That's what I was thinking earlier. If you're a legit, credentialed (is that the right word?) writer/reviewer type, you can get machines for review, right? Everytime I read an article from MacMinute (there's one there today, actually, from the Detroit Free Press and a guy reviewing the iMac G5), the reviewer often mentions "before I returned the machine" or "upon receiving the review unit" and so forth.
So he could work toward going through legit channels, doing it a bit more professionally and scientifically. I wouldn't walk into Guitar Center, plink around on four or five Strats for 20 minutes and use that to right a serious, indepth review. I'd arrange to have one sent to me, and I'd play it for a month in all kinds of situations. Otherwise, you're just a dork in a store, putzing around with stuff in an uncontrolled, subjective environment. Bassplayer, bringing his own FireWire drive in - exposing the floor models to God-knows-what, probably irks the employees and Apple, regardless of how "good" that makes his testing. Does he ask permission, or just start hooking his shit up to their stuff? I'd DOUBLE ban him for that! You make it sound like a plus. "Well, he farted all over the place, but he DID bring some scented candles, bless his heart...". Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2004-10-05 at 14:02. |
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Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location:
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Last edited by AirSluf : 2004-11-15 at 23:54. |
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I shot the sherrif.
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anything that can't load completely into RAM is going to give you different results when running off external vs. internal drives. Google is your frenemy. Caveat Emptor - Latin for tough titty I tend to interpret things in the way that's most hilarious to me |
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Member
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which article are you all reading?
the one i read implied a) he had a good working relationship with the employees of the store, often letting him modify the hardware (e.g. memory) b) it was company policy not to allow testing of store machines. apple finding out about his tests were the cause for enforcement, rather than new policy being instituted as a reaction to the findings. and last (and certainly not least) c) apple will be giving him a imac G5 for testing purposes. from wired: Quote:
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Mr. Vieira
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
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Well that's good. If he gets his own machine and can test it properly and reliably, maybe he'll have something to contribute.
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Join Date: May 2004
Location:
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Last edited by AirSluf : 2004-11-15 at 23:54. |
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Hates the Infotainment
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
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Barefeats has always been a completely non-rigorous operation IMO anyway. Their benchmarks are skewed / worthless most of the time, and their conclusions all of the time.
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Phoenix, AZ
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Tough crowed you all are. I don't know of many good benchmarking site period. His is no different.
I'll bet if someone wanted to place all bias aside, and was able to get machines without relying of freebies from the manufacturers, then we could have a really good benchmark site to reference. But A) we're not gonna find someone with time and money to invest in this money loosing venture, and B) everyone is biased! |
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I shot the sherrif.
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Hates the Infotainment
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
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Ditto that, and storagereview.com also, though they're not systems benchmarkers obviously.
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Phoenix, AZ
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