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nickgerlich · 7 months

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Ready, Set, Shop

Remember when Black Friday signified the beginning of the Christmas shopping season? Yeah, I do, but it is fading fast. There is little reason to camp out overnight at Best Buy these days when all the good sales are done and over with six weeks earlier.

Like what is going to happen starting real soon, a mirror of how the most aggressive (maybe I should say scared) retailers approach the first week of October. The leaves haven’t started turning, much lass fallen, and here they are going for the end zone on the first play of the game.

Once again, Target, Walmart and Best Buy will be dueling it out with Amazon. Target’s blitz starts 1st October, with Walmart on the 9th, Amazon on the 10th, and Best Buy also the same day. If there is an upside, at least you won’t have to wear a winter coat.

But if anything, these early sales once more tell us just how nervous retailers are with the current economy. In a recent blog we looked at holiday sales predictions, which, after accounting for inflation, are flat. It’s just that holiday retailing has started to mimic the old line about voting in Chicago: Vote early, and vote often.

And if we start shopping early, there is hope that we may shop often as well. A retailer can dream, right? Actually, Target is offering a deep discount item every day until Christmas Eve. And Best Buy is offering a $50 reward certificate to be used in December if you spend $500 in October.

But I am already seeing signs of pre-holiday Christmas pricing to try to lure people in. This week at the local Walmart I noticed their house brand 65” TV model for $368. I know, it’s a private label and not rated as highly as a Vizio or Samsung, but good grief, that is cheap. My first 55” TV cost about $1200. Today, they have almost become an impulse purchase.

“Honey, what do you think about getting a big screen for the kids’ room?”

It is in setting patterns like this that consumers will quickly learn that they can cherry pick, because there will almost certainly be recurring sales events every week until Christmas. Adding six weeks to the shopping season may be ridiculous at some level, but then again, it also makes it open season for shoppers. If people are willing to sit tight and make retailers even more nervous, there might be even better deals down the road, and without freezing off your nether regions camping on the sidewalk.

Not surprisingly, I wrote about this last year for my students. I also pointed out my reciprocity rule: One gift for you, one for me. To be honest, I could have been lazy and just dusted off that blog and reposted it, because I said pretty much the same things I am saying here.

I know. It’s not like the six-week lead time happened all at once. Holiday shopping has been inching longer and longer for about a decade. Initially it spread into early November, then late October. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Amazon or the others launching a Christmas-in-September sale next year.

It is when there are economic uncertainties that retailers are the most nervous. The lore is that 40% of a retailers’ sales comes in the six weeks preceding Christmas. This will have to be revised to 12 weeks now I suppose, but it does underscore just how important the holiday season is. Fail here, and you fail the entire year.

There is also the sobering fact that in our consumer-driven economy, we have almost completely lost sight of any religious significance. That is a blog for another day and worth exploring, even without dipping my feet into the pond of any specific religion. When Santa is the reason for the season, you know we have gone a little bit off the rails. It’s like none of the religious super heroes can hold a candle to the man with the white beard.

If I were you, I’d start watching all the sales announcements that will drop in the next week. There might be some great bargains to scoop up, either for your loved ones, or yourself. Reciprocity, you know.

Besides, it’s easy to justify spending money on yourself when it’s on sale. And why wait until Black Friday to venture out? It’s too cold then anyway.

Dr “Ho Ho Ho!” Gerlich

Audio Blog

#marketing #retail #Christmas #shopping

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ysbrydthespoop · 2 years

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Random, helluva boss headcanons and some Hazbin ones just because.

The imps have a bunch of crap they stole brought back from the human world. Millie has all the Dolly Parton CDs, Moxxie brings back any musicals on DVD and blu ray he can find and Blitzo has a box set of the entire series of My Little Pony, Friendship is magic. Most of their weapons come from earth too because it means they don't have to buy them in hell.

Blitzo and Millie frequently raid toy stores and steal all the plushies. Though Blitzo always claims dibs one the horse ones, of course. Moxxie tags along because Millie loves it and he loves to see her happy.

And because Millie loves to see Moxxie happy, their next hit is always the nearest music store.

When/ if Loona and Octavia meet they're going to bond over similar styles and tastes and both their dads being ridiculous dumbasses.

Loona would invite Octavia to one of Vortex's house parties as a plus one and Stella would be FURIOUS when Octavia tries to sneak back into the house at three AM.

If it was Stolas, he'd probably panic if she wasn't home one minute after she said she'd be, try to call her fifty times a second, then call everyone he knows and form a search party, if none of them knew where she was. The anger would only come after she was found safe and even then, it would be along the lines of, "Don't do that to me!"

Verosika isn't dating anyone at the moment and she doesn't want to. She's sticking it to Blitzo right now by living her best single life.

When Veroskia and Barbie Wire were in rehab, they had to be kept apart at all times because because they got along about as well as Millie and Keenie did. Fist fight and all.

After Blitz left Ozzies, the next time Verosika went to the bar, she got a drink on the house with a note saying, "Just for putting up with that asshole, you deserve a drink." She has no idea who it was from.

That bitch straw Fizz has is actually a best selling item. Verosika owns one along with, along with pretty much all of the succubae team as well as Blitzo, Loona and Octavia. Though Stella hates the sight of it and wont let her use it when they have guests. Especially if those guest are grandmother and grandfather.

Stella keeps throwing it away, pretending it went missing, but Octavia just gets another one every time. Except once, she got two, just to say fuck you.

Cherri and Angel also have one and they got is as a present from each other.

At some point, Alastor sent one to Vox, because he's petty like that. Joke was on Al though because Vox didn't even throw it away. Velvet claimed it and now she has a collection of them.

I don't know why I'm so obsessed with this one straw that can be seen for 0.01 seconds. I think I just want one. Somebody make them in real life.

#helluva boss #hazbin hotel

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dropswisdom · 4 years

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T07 review unit was sent to me courtesy of MeeGoPad, so my gratitude to Elaine, for the help and support!

MeeGoPad has been around since 2011, engaged at first in ODM and OEM service for desktops, notebooks and so on, and in 2014 moved on to branded tablets, followed by the introduction (at the end of 2014) of the world’s first PC on a stick (dongle).

The T07 Cherry Trail Stick PC is the newest Mini PC by MeeGoPad. What sets it apart is not its hardware, but the fact that its production was accompanied with a crowdfunding campaign at Indiegogo

What’s in the box?

As can be seen both in the unboxing video, and in the photo below, the included item list is short: Micro-USB power cable + power plug, short HDMI 1.4 extension cable, a quick guide leaflet, and a warranty card.

T07 Looks and design

The T07 looks like a fat USB thumb drive. It includes active cooling via a tiny fan embedded inside, and both active and passive cooling are assisted with the vents that cover the plastic-rubber enclosure from all sides but one (the HDMI connector side). It is a smart design, but the device still gets pretty hot. As for noise level – it is hardly noticeable and does not pose an issue.

Specifications

OS Windows 10 Home(See product listing for activation status) CPU Intel© Atom™ x5-Z8300 CPU Frequency 1.44Ghz Turbo Frequency 1.84Ghz Cores 4 GPU Intel© HD Graphics 12EU Gen8LP RAM LPDDR3 2/4GB Storage 32GB on-board WiFi 802.11b/g/n, 2.4GHz Bluetooth 4.0 Expandable Storage MicroSD up-to 64GB USB Data 2x USB 2.0 Display HDMI 1.4 Audio 3.5mm Power In MicroUSB 5v 2A Power Keys On/Off

Benchmarks and Testing

All benchmarks have been repeated 3 times and results have been averaged to give a more accurate reading:

Novabench

Novabench offers a mix of tests ranging between CPU and memory to GPU abilities.The T07 gets a respectable middle position in the three Atom Z8300 devices I’ve tested so far.

PC Mark 8

PC Mark 8 Basic tests go for 20-45 minutes in GPU-accelerated or standard mode and they test regular office tasks as well as memory and video performance. The test was done with Open CL acceleration, and still took last place – although not too far from the Mele PCG03 Plus that precedes it. I did have some issues running the PC Mark benchmark as it crashed a few times, and after updating became unusable to a degree that I had to uninstall it and do a system clean in order to get it back to working order.

3D Mark

3D Mark does what the name says – it tests a device’s ability to handle 3d animation and simulation. Performance is quite poor, which put the T07 in last place, and I suspect that it has to do with some CPU/GPU throttling to avoid overheating issues which plague dongle devices.

Video Playback testing (Using KODI)

Resolution Video Format Local Playback Network (WiFi) Playback 720p (1280*720) AVC ([email protected]) Okay * Occasional Buffering 1080P (1920*1080) AVC (High@L4) Okay * Occasional Buffering 4K/UHD (4096*2304) AVC ([email protected]) Okay ** Sometimes Buffering, Stutter, Audio loss 2160P (3840*2160) HEVC (H.265) Okay Okay 4K TS HEVC files HEVC (H.265) 10Bit Artifacts, audio loss, stutter Artifacts, audio loss, stutter

* Buffering occurs, but only in some of the files. It may have to do with less than perfect encodings, coupled with poor/mediocre WiFi performance.

** Some of the test files performed fine, while others (may be heavier in nature) buffered a few times.

Issues and bugs

At first boot, no picture appeared on my LG TV. Only after hooking the dongle to a Samsung TV, I was able to boot correctly. Afterwards, I shut down and reconnected it to my LG TV and it worked fine.

Network performance was not great, and since there is only WiFi – what you see is what you get.

Buffering at the beginning and also through WiFi video playback (720p video and up) is an infrequent issue. It is not consistent as some video files may play through without a hitch, while others will make the viewing experience a frustrating one. I am not sure if it is the WiFi chip’s fault, weak built-in antenna, or something else – but it is a real issue.

Network performance

Network performance has been tested using Speedtest.net Internet speed measuring website, in Wireless mode. My Internet connection is 200 Mbit Symmetric Fibre connection:

The wireless network speed is quite limiting. When most high resolution videos change in bandwidth requirement through playback, this creates a bottleneck for network playback. However, the T07 may perform better under more optimal conditions (same room as router, or even a WiFi repeater may improve performance).

Gaming performance

Two games were tested. Both were installed from Microsoft’s app store:

Asphalt 8 AirborneThe game was jerky at best, with frame rate between 10-15 frames per second.

World of Tanks BlitzWOT plays quite smoothly with no evident slow down or jerkiness.

Conclusions

Did I like it? Yes, but it could do better without throttling and a better heat dissipation solution. It may also be a good idea to include a USB hub, and maybe add a USB to LAN optional adapter.

Would I recommend it? Yes. Keep in mind that the fact that this is a dongle and not a set-top box, creates some possible issues (mostly with heat dissipation). But also that it means that the device is more portable and still offers full windows 10 experience in the palm of your hand.

So you’d like to buy this box? You can get the 4GB version for 135.59 USD (including windows 10) directly from Meegopad here: Meegopad T07 4GB/32GB Intel Cherry Trail X5-Z8300 Win 10 with Fan Intel Quad-Core HDMI Compute stick

Or the 2GB version I reviewed, also from Meegopad for 119 USD here: Meegopad T07 Official Licensed Cherry Trail Win10 with Smart Quiet Fan Z8300 2GB/32GB Intel Quad-Core HDMI Compute stick

Be aware that these sale pages will offer a special promotion starting tomorrow (Friday, March 18th).

Review | MeeGoPad T07 Atom Z8300 PC Dongle T07 review unit was sent to me courtesy of MeeGoPad, so my gratitude to Elaine, for the help and support!

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