10 ms·

This is very relevant to our interests - specifically the part where prices of spinning disks more than doubled for a time earlier this year. As we dove into t

by rsync 5y ago

This is very relevant to our interests - specifically the part where prices of spinning disks more than doubled for a time earlier this year. As we dove into the chia coin rabbit hole to figure out just what was going on, it came to our attention that people are using firmware tools to reset SMART counters on drives … rolling back the odometer, so to speak. Just terrible behavior all around.

londons_explore 5y ago
I bought an SSD on eBay recently that massively underperformed my expectations. But I have no real proof to send it back for a refund. Instead I'll just have to suffer with super slow writes.
- Cacti 5y ago
  1. verify it against published benchmarks for that model 2. open up the case and see if it’s actually what you bought
- kkielhofner 5y ago
  In my experience the eBay/Paypal resolution process is so heavily weighted to the buyer you shouldn't have any issues returning it and/or getting a refund.
  - dheera 5y ago
    Also, if someone is selling anything on eBay for above MSRP I report them for price gouging. Masks, sanitizer, drives, Ubiquiti cameras, anything. All reported.
    - avalys 5y ago
      What will you do if the manufacturer increases the MSRP because demand exceeds supply? Report them for price gouging?
      - dheera 5y ago
        If it's an emergency situation they they're assholes for trying to profit off the emergency and should be reported. If it's not an emergency situation then I'm okay with them increasing MSRP. They're the ones who make it, they set the price. I'm talking about the hoarder-resellers. I have zero sympathy for them.
        ericyan 5y ago
        You need to revisit Economics 101. High demand -> price rise -> more supply -> price drop. If you set a price ceiling, this will make the shortage worse as the market cannot properly function.
        dheera 5y ago
        > You need to revisit Economics 101. Personal attacks not appreciated here. > If you set a price ceiling, this will make the shortage worse No. You may perceive the shortage as worse, but in reality, 100% of the supplies will be going to people who need them, as opposed to 30% sitting unused in hoarders' warehouses not helping anyone. Having 70% of the supplies in the field and 30% sitting in a warehouse, appearing for sale, but outside anyone's budget, is not an efficient use of supplies in an emergency. If there is a mask shortage, I want every single mask strapped to a face, somewhere, somehow, and zero masks in a warehouse. If you don't regulate it, it means the rich get essential items while the poor don't. Instead of the people who have the greatest legitimate need for the essential items getting access to them.
        avalys 5y ago
        > as opposed to 30% sitting unused in hoarders' warehouses not helping anyone. Having 70% of the supplies in the field and 30% sitting in a warehouse, appearing for sale, but outside anyone's budget, is not an efficient use of supplies in an emergency. If the items are "outside anyone's budget", then the price gouger will not make money and they will lower the price until someone buys them. Thus, your goal of 100% usage of supplies is still eventually achieved. > If you don't regulate it, it means the rich get essential items while the poor don't. If the items are truly essential, and there are not enough to go around, what difference does it make if the rich get them and the poor don't? This seems like you just want to find an excuse to stick it to the rich. > Instead of the people who have the greatest legitimate need for the essential items getting access to them. How do you propose determining who has the "greatest legitimate need" more accurately than just seeing who is willing to pay the most? > as opposed to 30% sitting unused in hoarders' warehouses It's interesting that you started off talking about price gouging but have now switched to using the term "hoarding". The thing is, "price gouging" discourages hoarding. If the price is not increased in response to a shortage, then everyone (rich and poor) is incentivized to buy as much as they can whenever an item is available for sale (even if it's well in excess of their actual need). This is basically the definition of "hoarding". Whereas, if the price were allowed to increase, people are discouraged from buying more than they need, and more supply is available for all. This is almost exactly what happened with toilet paper last year. Toilet paper costs about $1 / roll. Most people can afford to buy extra toilet paper, and so very quickly the entire stock of toilet paper was bought up and there was none available for sale. If the price had increased to (say) $5 / roll, people would have been disincentivized from hoarding it. As it was, the people who had the "greatest legitimate need" - those that actually ran out of TP - were unable to purchase any. Additionally, the fact that people like you demonize manufacturers and retailers who raise prices in emergencies as "price gouging" also provides a disincentive for manufacturers and retailers to invest in spare capacity for these very emergencies. If "price gouging" is illegal, there is no good way for manufacturers and retailers to recoup the cost of temporarily increasing production, or maintaining a buffer of inventory for temporary spikes in demand.
    - Woden501 5y ago
      Apparently you don't understand what the word Suggested means. Do you also report every single classic car that is selling for higher value that it was initially sold for? If not then you're pretty much just being an asshole for no reason.
  - AussieWog93 5y ago
    This. I sell an eBay for a living and unless I have proof beyond reasonable doubt that the buyer is lying, I am required to provide a refund. Since I started telling buyers that I log serial numbers for every item I sell, though, a surprising number of them started closing their own cases.
    - UI_at_80x24 5y ago
      Count this as another anti-ebay opinion. My company (I) posted a used printer (HP Laser) for sale. In the listing I included the printer report showing the number of pages printed. I even had USED in the description 3 times (and title once). The buyer filed a complaint that the printer wasn't new. I responded with "Of course it's not, look at the title & description." Ebay made us pay for them to ship it back and refund the money. When we got it back there were 2,000 more pages printed on it. I'll NEVER do any business through ebay. You are either braver then I or have a higher tolerance for bullshit then I do.
      - AussieWog93 5y ago
        It sucks, but it's a cost of doing business. Physical retailers get shoplifters, we get friendly fraud. Fortunately, most people do the right thing and with the mitigation strategies we have in place we lose only around 0.5% of revenue to (suspected) fraud. eBay's ~10% processing fee makes a much, much bigger dent in our bottom line.
        Cullinet 5y ago
        I've forgotten the source but it was credible that over 50 percent of UK online purchases are returned. No way is this not costing everyone who tries to be a careful customer and choose wisely etc
        AussieWog93 5y ago
        I would be shocked if it where anywhere near that high. For us, it's around 2% on both of our businesses, and we have very generous returns policies!
- hsbauauvhabzb 5y ago
  I don’t think SSDs drop in performance after substantial proof. Linus tech tips YouTube channel has done a few articles on vendors quietly switching components to lower performing parts recently, it’s worth googling around to see if others with the same make/model are reporting vastly different performance from official benchmarks
- derekp7 5y ago
  A big item is making sure your filesystem partition is aligned properly. For example, by default the first partition begins on sector 63, which causes logical 4K blocks to straddle two different write blocks on the drive (causing both blocks to be read and re-written). Simple thing is to make sure the partition begins on sector 2048 (since it can begin on sector 0 due to the need to reserve the boot sectors).
  - colejohnson66 5y ago
    Sector 63 used to be common, but I think every modern OS defaults to 2048 now. I know Windows does when installing fresh.
bserge 5y ago
Just great. I mean, drives are the only things I'd rather buy new, but how hard can it be to fake the whole packaging these days.
- 55873445216111 5y ago
  Buy direct from manufacturer. Samsung, Western Digital, etc all have their own online stores.
  - bogwog 5y ago
    And sidestep the monopolist at the same time. Its a win-win!
  - Nexxxeh 5y ago
    Having purchased an "in stock" SSD directly from WD at the end of last year, it's not something I'm keen to repeat. Their store seemed to operate primarily on incompetence. I finally got my invoice two weeks later, still with no working shipping information, and the drive turned up days later still. On top of their scummy behaviour around SMR disks, and their NAS solution, I think I'll be steering as clear as possible.
    - woofie11 5y ago
      One of my worst experiences was ordering direct from a little vendor (not HDD) to avoid Amazon scams. The vendor added a markup to Amazon prices, and fulfilled with Amazon. I'm pretty sure I got a fake, ordering direct from the manufacturer. I'll withhold names, so as not to embarrass anyone.
      - loloquwowndueo 5y ago
        Shame away!
      - ravel-bar-foo 5y ago
        That's actually a brilliant arbitrage plan in the short term. If the trademark-infringing knockoffs on Amazon come from a country where the trademark cannot be enforced and the original manufacturer cannot compete, the original manufacturer could slow the collapse of their business by reselling knockoffs.
ksec 5y ago
HDD price hasn't been lowered for quite some time due to technological bottleneck. Even with OptiNAND only give us the same density as SMR. And EAMR are no where to be seen or tested by consumers. And now this.
- kasabali 5y ago
  Technological bottleneck might be passed but HDD manufacturers intend to keep prices up [1]: > Value-based pricing > This led Sivaram to discuss pricing; “Disk capacities are scaling beautifully. We want to move towards value pricing.” Customers are getting substantial added value from the linear scaling in disk drive capacity to the current levels, according to Sivaram. They would get even more from future capacities. > With larger capacity drives the manufacturing cost in $/TB terms comes down. He suggested that, perhaps, it is time to think about moving from manufacturing cost-based pricing centred on $/TB towards value-based pricing: “$/TB is no longer the right metric.” > A customers gets more value from a larger capacity drive, he said. “They can monetise more data.” This extra value could be larger than the sheer savings of the lower $/TB cost that WD can pass on. In that case WD could pass on only a proportion of that cost-saving to the customer and so charge for some of the extra value [1] https://blocksandfiles.com/2019/12/17/western-digital-disk-drive-roadmap/ https://blocksandfiles.com/2019/12/17/western-digital-disk-d...
- silexia 5y ago
  All of these digital coins have failed to fulfill their promise to be used as digital currency, but each has caused serious problems. Bitcoin is wasting a titanic amount of energy, and this coin is destroying SSDs. Maybe we should just use our conventional currencies and elect governments we trust to run those currencies in an intelligent way?
  - randomhodler84 5y ago
    No thank you. I don’t think you can trust folks seeking power to have your best interests was at heart. Every civilization before has destroyed their fiat currency through debasement. It is inevitable. Bitcoin is the first time in history folks have been able to opt out of this. I’m sorry you don’t get it today, but you will :-)
api 5y ago
It’s cryptocurrency, what else do you expect?

by rsync 5y ago

londons_explore 5y ago

I bought an SSD on eBay recently that massively underperformed my expectations. But I have no real proof to send it back for a refund. Instead I'll just have to suffer with super slow writes.

Cacti 5y ago
1. verify it against published benchmarks for that model 2. open up the case and see if it’s actually what you bought
kkielhofner 5y ago
In my experience the eBay/Paypal resolution process is so heavily weighted to the buyer you shouldn't have any issues returning it and/or getting a refund.
- dheera 5y ago
  Also, if someone is selling anything on eBay for above MSRP I report them for price gouging. Masks, sanitizer, drives, Ubiquiti cameras, anything. All reported.
  - avalys 5y ago
    What will you do if the manufacturer increases the MSRP because demand exceeds supply? Report them for price gouging?
    - dheera 5y ago
      If it's an emergency situation they they're assholes for trying to profit off the emergency and should be reported. If it's not an emergency situation then I'm okay with them increasing MSRP. They're the ones who make it, they set the price. I'm talking about the hoarder-resellers. I have zero sympathy for them.
      - ericyan 5y ago
        You need to revisit Economics 101. High demand -> price rise -> more supply -> price drop. If you set a price ceiling, this will make the shortage worse as the market cannot properly function.
        dheera 5y ago
        > You need to revisit Economics 101. Personal attacks not appreciated here. > If you set a price ceiling, this will make the shortage worse No. You may perceive the shortage as worse, but in reality, 100% of the supplies will be going to people who need them, as opposed to 30% sitting unused in hoarders' warehouses not helping anyone. Having 70% of the supplies in the field and 30% sitting in a warehouse, appearing for sale, but outside anyone's budget, is not an efficient use of supplies in an emergency. If there is a mask shortage, I want every single mask strapped to a face, somewhere, somehow, and zero masks in a warehouse. If you don't regulate it, it means the rich get essential items while the poor don't. Instead of the people who have the greatest legitimate need for the essential items getting access to them.
        avalys 5y ago
        > as opposed to 30% sitting unused in hoarders' warehouses not helping anyone. Having 70% of the supplies in the field and 30% sitting in a warehouse, appearing for sale, but outside anyone's budget, is not an efficient use of supplies in an emergency. If the items are "outside anyone's budget", then the price gouger will not make money and they will lower the price until someone buys them. Thus, your goal of 100% usage of supplies is still eventually achieved. > If you don't regulate it, it means the rich get essential items while the poor don't. If the items are truly essential, and there are not enough to go around, what difference does it make if the rich get them and the poor don't? This seems like you just want to find an excuse to stick it to the rich. > Instead of the people who have the greatest legitimate need for the essential items getting access to them. How do you propose determining who has the "greatest legitimate need" more accurately than just seeing who is willing to pay the most? > as opposed to 30% sitting unused in hoarders' warehouses It's interesting that you started off talking about price gouging but have now switched to using the term "hoarding". The thing is, "price gouging" discourages hoarding. If the price is not increased in response to a shortage, then everyone (rich and poor) is incentivized to buy as much as they can whenever an item is available for sale (even if it's well in excess of their actual need). This is basically the definition of "hoarding". Whereas, if the price were allowed to increase, people are discouraged from buying more than they need, and more supply is available for all. This is almost exactly what happened with toilet paper last year. Toilet paper costs about $1 / roll. Most people can afford to buy extra toilet paper, and so very quickly the entire stock of toilet paper was bought up and there was none available for sale. If the price had increased to (say) $5 / roll, people would have been disincentivized from hoarding it. As it was, the people who had the "greatest legitimate need" - those that actually ran out of TP - were unable to purchase any. Additionally, the fact that people like you demonize manufacturers and retailers who raise prices in emergencies as "price gouging" also provides a disincentive for manufacturers and retailers to invest in spare capacity for these very emergencies. If "price gouging" is illegal, there is no good way for manufacturers and retailers to recoup the cost of temporarily increasing production, or maintaining a buffer of inventory for temporary spikes in demand.
  - Woden501 5y ago
    Apparently you don't understand what the word Suggested means. Do you also report every single classic car that is selling for higher value that it was initially sold for? If not then you're pretty much just being an asshole for no reason.
- AussieWog93 5y ago
  This. I sell an eBay for a living and unless I have proof beyond reasonable doubt that the buyer is lying, I am required to provide a refund. Since I started telling buyers that I log serial numbers for every item I sell, though, a surprising number of them started closing their own cases.
  - UI_at_80x24 5y ago
    Count this as another anti-ebay opinion. My company (I) posted a used printer (HP Laser) for sale. In the listing I included the printer report showing the number of pages printed. I even had USED in the description 3 times (and title once). The buyer filed a complaint that the printer wasn't new. I responded with "Of course it's not, look at the title & description." Ebay made us pay for them to ship it back and refund the money. When we got it back there were 2,000 more pages printed on it. I'll NEVER do any business through ebay. You are either braver then I or have a higher tolerance for bullshit then I do.
    - AussieWog93 5y ago
      It sucks, but it's a cost of doing business. Physical retailers get shoplifters, we get friendly fraud. Fortunately, most people do the right thing and with the mitigation strategies we have in place we lose only around 0.5% of revenue to (suspected) fraud. eBay's ~10% processing fee makes a much, much bigger dent in our bottom line.
      - Cullinet 5y ago
        I've forgotten the source but it was credible that over 50 percent of UK online purchases are returned. No way is this not costing everyone who tries to be a careful customer and choose wisely etc
        AussieWog93 5y ago
        I would be shocked if it where anywhere near that high. For us, it's around 2% on both of our businesses, and we have very generous returns policies!
hsbauauvhabzb 5y ago
I don’t think SSDs drop in performance after substantial proof. Linus tech tips YouTube channel has done a few articles on vendors quietly switching components to lower performing parts recently, it’s worth googling around to see if others with the same make/model are reporting vastly different performance from official benchmarks
derekp7 5y ago
A big item is making sure your filesystem partition is aligned properly. For example, by default the first partition begins on sector 63, which causes logical 4K blocks to straddle two different write blocks on the drive (causing both blocks to be read and re-written). Simple thing is to make sure the partition begins on sector 2048 (since it can begin on sector 0 due to the need to reserve the boot sectors).
- colejohnson66 5y ago
  Sector 63 used to be common, but I think every modern OS defaults to 2048 now. I know Windows does when installing fresh.

bserge 5y ago

Just great. I mean, drives are the only things I'd rather buy new, but how hard can it be to fake the whole packaging these days.

55873445216111 5y ago
Buy direct from manufacturer. Samsung, Western Digital, etc all have their own online stores.
- bogwog 5y ago
  And sidestep the monopolist at the same time. Its a win-win!
- Nexxxeh 5y ago
  Having purchased an "in stock" SSD directly from WD at the end of last year, it's not something I'm keen to repeat. Their store seemed to operate primarily on incompetence. I finally got my invoice two weeks later, still with no working shipping information, and the drive turned up days later still. On top of their scummy behaviour around SMR disks, and their NAS solution, I think I'll be steering as clear as possible.
  - woofie11 5y ago
    One of my worst experiences was ordering direct from a little vendor (not HDD) to avoid Amazon scams. The vendor added a markup to Amazon prices, and fulfilled with Amazon. I'm pretty sure I got a fake, ordering direct from the manufacturer. I'll withhold names, so as not to embarrass anyone.
    - loloquwowndueo 5y ago
      Shame away!
    - ravel-bar-foo 5y ago
      That's actually a brilliant arbitrage plan in the short term. If the trademark-infringing knockoffs on Amazon come from a country where the trademark cannot be enforced and the original manufacturer cannot compete, the original manufacturer could slow the collapse of their business by reselling knockoffs.

ksec 5y ago

HDD price hasn't been lowered for quite some time due to technological bottleneck. Even with OptiNAND only give us the same density as SMR. And EAMR are no where to be seen or tested by consumers. And now this.

kasabali 5y ago
Technological bottleneck might be passed but HDD manufacturers intend to keep prices up [1]: > Value-based pricing > This led Sivaram to discuss pricing; “Disk capacities are scaling beautifully. We want to move towards value pricing.” Customers are getting substantial added value from the linear scaling in disk drive capacity to the current levels, according to Sivaram. They would get even more from future capacities. > With larger capacity drives the manufacturing cost in $/TB terms comes down. He suggested that, perhaps, it is time to think about moving from manufacturing cost-based pricing centred on $/TB towards value-based pricing: “$/TB is no longer the right metric.” > A customers gets more value from a larger capacity drive, he said. “They can monetise more data.” This extra value could be larger than the sheer savings of the lower $/TB cost that WD can pass on. In that case WD could pass on only a proportion of that cost-saving to the customer and so charge for some of the extra value [1] https://blocksandfiles.com/2019/12/17/western-digital-disk-drive-roadmap/ https://blocksandfiles.com/2019/12/17/western-digital-disk-d...
silexia 5y ago
All of these digital coins have failed to fulfill their promise to be used as digital currency, but each has caused serious problems. Bitcoin is wasting a titanic amount of energy, and this coin is destroying SSDs. Maybe we should just use our conventional currencies and elect governments we trust to run those currencies in an intelligent way?
- randomhodler84 5y ago
  No thank you. I don’t think you can trust folks seeking power to have your best interests was at heart. Every civilization before has destroyed their fiat currency through debasement. It is inevitable. Bitcoin is the first time in history folks have been able to opt out of this. I’m sorry you don’t get it today, but you will :-)

api 5y ago

It’s cryptocurrency, what else do you expect?