[SGVLUG] La "computer fair" only at Pomona now?

[Emerson, Tom (*IC)]

> -----Original Message----- Of Paul J. Wilkinson, Ph.D.
> 
> At the end of every month, at the corner of Aviation and 
> Marine in Redondo Beach, Northrop's Amateur Radio Club holds 
> a swap meet.

Is this the "TRW" swapmeet?  (or on the same level) If so, I've been
there a couple of times, as I recall most vendors are selling used
equipment (or more focused on radios rather than computers), but thanks
for the pointer -- I'll probably go there :)

I also found a link (that actually worked) for the ACP swapmeet, turns
out it meets the last Sunday of ODD numbered months, which would be this
month :)   (I think the mix here is 50/50 new vs used, and if nothing
else it's only a few blocks away from microcenter, so at least I can get
a little different perspective than Fry's...)

As for the online pointers, thanks, but really, I'm more of a "hands on"
guy when it comes to buying parts -- I want to SEE and TOUCH the
product, count the connectors, read the manuals, etc.

For the most part, the online sites -DO- have photos, but I've found
them to be unreliable -- case in point is the MSI Eclipse board (an
"LGA1366" board, i.e., for intel i7 processor) -- one of the close-up
photos on one of these sites has outline boxes with call-outs indicating
what is outlined, including the "AM2+ socket" ...

[though perhaps they got that photo from the manufacturer, but come on
guys -- 3 seconds of reviewing the photo would reveal the gaff...]

I even did a "side-by-side" comparison of various boards, and several
"specs" were blank for some of the boards -- specs that are LISTED in
the accompanying (boilerplate?) text for the board itself (again,
usually from the manufacturer)  This brings up my other gripe about the
state of affairs overall: zero consistency, and about 1% reliability
that the manufacturers themselves are even accurate about their own
product [ok, maybe it's all marketing's fault...]

In short, I'm finding it difficult to trust what I see on the web...

User reviews range from pitiful (incredibly bad spelling/grammer errors)
to mundane/fanboy ("this board is great - 5 stars - all I've ever owned
is brand-X and it's tops" constitutes the entire review)

Professional reviews aren't much better :(  Often they copy/paste the
manufacturer's specs without verifying these are correct.  It's worse
when they review two or more boards side-by-side since the ad-copy for
the boards rarely uses the same terminology, so the copy/paste job makes
the reviewer look worse since he or she doesn't appear consistent within
the same review.