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Cooler Master's Jas Pro and Notepal Ergostand II stands are worth considering for office and travel
Cool Master is a company that specializes in PC-cooling devices, but their product line doesn't end there. They also produce a number of laptop stands that serve to help display your screen better and improve your posture while typing. Depending on your particular office needs both the Jas Pro and Notepal Ergostand II deserve your consideration when picking a new Macbook stand. Jas Pro: Featuring a sleek, light, aluminum frame Cool Master's Jas Pro perfectly matches the aesthetics of the MacBook pro. The aluminum frame is lined with rubber strips to protect your computer from needless scratches and rubber pads on the bottom to keep it from sliding on your desk. While this makes a beautiful display stand for laptop based presentations, it also provides adjustable ergonomic support for improved posture while you type. Despite its minimalist design the joints of the stand allows for easy adjustment to different levels of height. Sizing up at 0.9 inches collapsed and maxing out at 6.9 inches the Jas Pro is a solidly constructed stand that's perfect for travelers who need a compact option for economic display. However, even if you just use it to help clear up space on your desk and improve your typing posture this stand is a delight to use. Notepal Ergostand II: For power users looking for a MacBook Pro stand that offers ergonomic support as well high powered cooling the Notepal Ergostand II is a solid contender. Thanks to its multifunction design the Ergostand is a perfect desktop companion. Featuring a 140mm mounted fan that's powered by your own computer via USB the stand keeps your laptop running at a reasonable temperature even when using resources heavy programs like Photoshop. The stand is adjustable to provides five different angles for display, from a slight elevation perfect for writing at a desk to it's maximum position more suited to showing your screen to a group of people. And you wont have to worry about a dusty fan leaving your audience with the wrong impression of you thanks to a removable and easy to clean mesh panel. To further endear itself into your office setting the stand throws in four USB 2.0 ports, giving this USB starved MacBook Pro user some much needed expansion for using other devices. The only downside of the stand is it's too bulky to easily throw in a travel bag. This is a device that's ideal for home office use. Conclusion: For every day use the Notepal Erostand II is the ideal combination of cooling power, useful features, and ergonomic support. However for travelers who want a solid stand without the added bulk the Jas Pro is a solidly constructed companion worth your consideration.
Researchers out faux product review groups with a lot of math and some help from Google
Ever consulted a crowdsourced review for a product or service before committing your hard-earned funds to the cause? Have you wondered how legit the opinions you read really are? Well, it seems that help is on the way to uncover paid opinion spamming and KIRF reviews. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have released detailed calculations in the report Spotting Fake Reviewer Groups in Consumer Reviews -- an effort aided by a Google Faculty Research Award. Exactly how does this work, you ask? Using the GSRank (Group Spam Rank) algorithm, behaviors of both individuals and a group as a whole are used to gather data on the suspected spammers. Factors such as content similarity, reviewing products early (to be most effective), ratio of the group size to total reviewers and the number of products the group has been in cahoots on are a few bits of data that go into the analysis. The report states, "Experimental results showed that GSRank significantly outperformed the state-of-the-art supervised classification, regression, and learning to rank algorithms." Here's to hoping this research gets wrapped into a nice software application, but for now, review mods may want to brush up on their advanced math skills. If you're curious about the full explanation, hit the source link for the full-text PDF.
