What's more, the number of Flash users is based on a questionable internet survey of just 4,600 people -- around 0.0005% of the suggested 956,000,000 total.
That's the single dumbest thing you can say about polling results. I just asked this question on the last test of the statistics class I teach two weeks ago. Neither population size, nor ratio of the population polled, are in any way factors in the accuracy of a poll.
Opinion polling margin of error is computed as follows (95% level of confidence): E = 1/sqrt(n) = 1/sqrt(4600) = +/-1%. So the actual percent of Flash users is 95% likely to be somewhere between 98% and 100%. Again, note that population size is not a factor in the formula for margin of error.
As a side note, polling calculations are actually most accurate if you had an infinite population size (that's one of the standard mathematical assumptions in the model). If anything, a complication arises if population size gets too small, at which point a correction formula can be added if the polling ratio rises over 5% of the population or so.
There might be other legitimate critiques of any poll (like perhaps a biased sampling method). But a small polling ratio is not one of them. It's about as ignorant a thing as you can say when interpreting poll results (on the order of "the Internet is not a truck").
May I point out that the Slashdot "they're a private company, they can do whatever they want and you have no recourse but to suck it up" crowd has been proven wrong once again. Community organization and political action has once again carried the day.
Many companies have no choice but to force NDAs on lots of aspects of proposals because of this.
Comments: (1) I recommend that you plan to look for a new job because your company sucks. (2) I assume that you will ignore and/or disparage item #1. (3) I predict that we can next look forward to you whining/bitching about how prospective customers are developing the nerve to refuse your NDA requirements.
From the article: "If a vendor has a problem, they can disqualify themselves," Mirchandani writes. "Trust me, they will not."
Getting yanked around on the front end is not what the discussion is about.
Actually it, is. If you read the original article it categories "two specific areas where vendors have asserted these new stipulations". #1 is what grandparent talks about. #2 is what you're talking about -- more aggravating, yes, but more rarely encountered (only one instance mentioned in the article).
The WSJ is one of the most predictably biased editorial pages I've ever seen. Their very raison d'être is to beat the drum of laissez-faire capitalism. This allows consolidation/ buyouts and produces monopolies and higher prices to consumers.
We need to regulate and provide broadband as a utility like all the countries ahead of us do.
That's actually a pretty informative example. Google is complying with the legalities of a DMCA takedown notice, and clearly informing the blog owner. The blog owner is responding by saying that they can't narrow down what part of the blog post in question is objectionable, and therefore picking up and moving their blog to another site.
In this particular case I don't that Google could have done anything one whit better.
This is largely a misconception and propaganda. Union rules do demand concrete *evidence* before allowing a teacher to be fired. (Principals can't pull a PHB and fire a teacher arbitrarily, just because they don't like them personally.) The problem is that most principals are too lazy or busy to do any evidence-gathering in a case like this, and choose to do nothing.
Here's an article from American Educator magazine last year, pointing out that when unions are given a position on hiring/firing boards, they are *far more aggressive* than anyone else about getting rid of bad teachers, because it makes the whole profession look bad:
In general, no. As I said in the original post, I write "handouts for students". I lecture full-time at a community college where I'm entirely focused on instruction and not required to publish research papers for advancement. I am not a tenure-track professor.
Although frankly I'm skeptical of the claim "every mathematician I know uses LaTeX, not just for documents...". I'm around tenured mathematicians all the time at multiple institutions and never seen or heard anyone using LaTeX (only here on Slashdot). Perhaps I should ask around in a small survey. How many mathematicians do you know, by the way?
As an aside, there's actually a standardized way of representing x-bar in a context that has no overlining: use an apostrophe, e.g., x'. If you haven't heard of that, I'd have to guess that it's you that hasn't spent much time writing mathematics.
What the fuck? I nominate the parent post for "most incomprehensible 5-scored gibberish on Slashdot". I sure hope it's just pure bullshittery that there are any musicians signing contracts with this individual.
Here's an enormous sigh of relief. As a statistics professor, my #1 gripe with Open Office has been my inability to easily create an x-overbar (sample mean) character. That alone has been the reason I've had to keep booting up a copy of MS Office to edit student handouts.
There was a thread a few weeks ago about "stretching before exercise reduces muscle power". Oh noes! I feel like this article is very analagous.
I'm a musician/mathematician, birthed-college in rural Maine, 10 years game engineer in Boston, moved to New York 3 years ago. I've never been more delighted about where I live, and my only regret is that I didn't move here years ago (largely due to family/friends saying terrible things about NYC, turns out that's all mythology). I'm far more rested than I was before -- I could ditch the car, not get stressed out driving every day, nap on the bus/train every day, and arrive at work refreshed and energetic. I have a regular (late) sleep cycle for the first time in my life.
I feel far more intellectually stimulated and productive now than before. I'm also gotten enormously more efficient, and the city does challenge me to improve my productivity on that score. Like a lot of athletic/professional coaches will say, or the old article "How to Win a Nobel Prize", you've got to be challenged in order to improve. Surround yourself with a lot of people smarter/faster than yourself (in my case, the college where I teach and the music industry), and you will get better.
I consider the "urban street" part of my life to be the mental exercise part. I consider the "rural holiday" part to be the rest-heal-the-muscles part. You need both. If you measure muscles immediately after exercising, you will look weak and fatigued, but it's an essential part of growing stronger. Same here.
"I mean, you may be right (that they are all lying, thieving, immoral, unethical, and greedy f'ing bastards), but there's opportunity in that! Had you BET on that, you'd be rich right now."
I think the grandparent is rather saying that very "opportunity to bet" is rigged and an illusion. For example: On the day it becomes profitable to start short-selling stocks, short-selling is suspended. That sort of thing.
"Liberal economics -- not liberal politics, quite the opposite most of the time -- explicitly derives its conclusions from three assumptions: that individuals make rational decisions, that they have access to information, and that they are free to buy/sell.
Those are pretty reasonable assumptions, and, when they hold, the conclusions tend to hold."
While I agree with the rest of your post, I can never avoid saying this:
I think those are *terrible* assumptions. The "individuals make rational decisions" is almost exactly the opposite of what I see on a daily basis. Christmas season in particular.
Slashdot Mirror
What's more, the number of Flash users is based on a questionable internet survey of just 4,600 people -- around 0.0005% of the suggested 956,000,000 total.
That's the single dumbest thing you can say about polling results. I just asked this question on the last test of the statistics class I teach two weeks ago. Neither population size, nor ratio of the population polled, are in any way factors in the accuracy of a poll.
Opinion polling margin of error is computed as follows (95% level of confidence): E = 1/sqrt(n) = 1/sqrt(4600) = +/-1%. So the actual percent of Flash users is 95% likely to be somewhere between 98% and 100%. Again, note that population size is not a factor in the formula for margin of error.
As a side note, polling calculations are actually most accurate if you had an infinite population size (that's one of the standard mathematical assumptions in the model). If anything, a complication arises if population size gets too small, at which point a correction formula can be added if the polling ratio rises over 5% of the population or so.
There might be other legitimate critiques of any poll (like perhaps a biased sampling method). But a small polling ratio is not one of them. It's about as ignorant a thing as you can say when interpreting poll results (on the order of "the Internet is not a truck").
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margin_of_error#Effect_of_population_size
Duverger's Law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger's_law
May I point out that the Slashdot "they're a private company, they can do whatever they want and you have no recourse but to suck it up" crowd has been proven wrong once again. Community organization and political action has once again carried the day.
And of course, a special police force and judicial system to watch over this special police force and judicial system.
And then have branch #1 watch over branch #3, in some kind of constant checks-and-balances loop. Who makes this stuff up?!
I basically agree. If there's a death penalty, I think it should only be in cases like this of high governmental corruption. Good post.
Many companies have no choice but to force NDAs on lots of aspects of proposals because of this.
Comments: (1) I recommend that you plan to look for a new job because your company sucks. (2) I assume that you will ignore and/or disparage item #1. (3) I predict that we can next look forward to you whining/bitching about how prospective customers are developing the nerve to refuse your NDA requirements.
From the article: "If a vendor has a problem, they can disqualify themselves," Mirchandani writes. "Trust me, they will not."
Getting yanked around on the front end is not what the discussion is about.
Actually it, is. If you read the original article it categories "two specific areas where vendors have asserted these new stipulations". #1 is what grandparent talks about. #2 is what you're talking about -- more aggravating, yes, but more rarely encountered (only one instance mentioned in the article).
...illicit sharing...
The day that this phrase could be seriously discussed is one of the sadder days in my life. Strange times.
What did you think they were going to do with it?
If I had registered for Facebook, I would have thought they were going to do what they said they were going to do with it. Delete it.
The WSJ is one of the most predictably biased editorial pages I've ever seen. Their very raison d'être is to beat the drum of laissez-faire capitalism. This allows consolidation/ buyouts and produces monopolies and higher prices to consumers.
We need to regulate and provide broadband as a utility like all the countries ahead of us do.
That's actually a pretty informative example. Google is complying with the legalities of a DMCA takedown notice, and clearly informing the blog owner. The blog owner is responding by saying that they can't narrow down what part of the blog post in question is objectionable, and therefore picking up and moving their blog to another site.
In this particular case I don't that Google could have done anything one whit better.
One example: We could use a moderation system to clear out unhelpful, anti-intellectual comments.
I know, hard to believe some people still haven't heard of that, but it's true.
Does it really say "you not are allowed"?
I agree, that has the strong scent of complete bullshit all over it.
Another awesome insight from the "we'll use flying cars with AI" committee.
"They are tenured. Protected by powerful unions."
This is largely a misconception and propaganda. Union rules do demand concrete *evidence* before allowing a teacher to be fired. (Principals can't pull a PHB and fire a teacher arbitrarily, just because they don't like them personally.) The problem is that most principals are too lazy or busy to do any evidence-gathering in a case like this, and choose to do nothing.
Here's an article from American Educator magazine last year, pointing out that when unions are given a position on hiring/firing boards, they are *far more aggressive* than anyone else about getting rid of bad teachers, because it makes the whole profession look bad:
http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/fall2008/goldstein.pdf
"Do you actually write mathematical documents?"
In general, no. As I said in the original post, I write "handouts for students". I lecture full-time at a community college where I'm entirely focused on instruction and not required to publish research papers for advancement. I am not a tenure-track professor.
Although frankly I'm skeptical of the claim "every mathematician I know uses LaTeX, not just for documents...". I'm around tenured mathematicians all the time at multiple institutions and never seen or heard anyone using LaTeX (only here on Slashdot). Perhaps I should ask around in a small survey. How many mathematicians do you know, by the way?
As an aside, there's actually a standardized way of representing x-bar in a context that has no overlining: use an apostrophe, e.g., x'. If you haven't heard of that, I'd have to guess that it's you that hasn't spent much time writing mathematics.
Oh, you crazy mathematicians with your objective standards for truth.
What the fuck? I nominate the parent post for "most incomprehensible 5-scored gibberish on Slashdot". I sure hope it's just pure bullshittery that there are any musicians signing contracts with this individual.
I'm not going to learn a whole new markup language just for "x-bar". That's ridiculous.
Here's an enormous sigh of relief. As a statistics professor, my #1 gripe with Open Office has been my inability to easily create an x-overbar (sample mean) character. That alone has been the reason I've had to keep booting up a copy of MS Office to edit student handouts.
There was a thread a few weeks ago about "stretching before exercise reduces muscle power". Oh noes! I feel like this article is very analagous.
I'm a musician/mathematician, birthed-college in rural Maine, 10 years game engineer in Boston, moved to New York 3 years ago. I've never been more delighted about where I live, and my only regret is that I didn't move here years ago (largely due to family/friends saying terrible things about NYC, turns out that's all mythology). I'm far more rested than I was before -- I could ditch the car, not get stressed out driving every day, nap on the bus/train every day, and arrive at work refreshed and energetic. I have a regular (late) sleep cycle for the first time in my life.
I feel far more intellectually stimulated and productive now than before. I'm also gotten enormously more efficient, and the city does challenge me to improve my productivity on that score. Like a lot of athletic/professional coaches will say, or the old article "How to Win a Nobel Prize", you've got to be challenged in order to improve. Surround yourself with a lot of people smarter/faster than yourself (in my case, the college where I teach and the music industry), and you will get better.
I consider the "urban street" part of my life to be the mental exercise part. I consider the "rural holiday" part to be the rest-heal-the-muscles part. You need both. If you measure muscles immediately after exercising, you will look weak and fatigued, but it's an essential part of growing stronger. Same here.
"I mean, you may be right (that they are all lying, thieving, immoral, unethical, and greedy f'ing bastards), but there's opportunity in that! Had you BET on that, you'd be rich right now."
I think the grandparent is rather saying that very "opportunity to bet" is rigged and an illusion. For example: On the day it becomes profitable to start short-selling stocks, short-selling is suspended. That sort of thing.
"Liberal economics -- not liberal politics, quite the opposite most of the time -- explicitly derives its conclusions from three assumptions: that individuals make rational decisions, that they have access to information, and that they are free to buy/sell.
Those are pretty reasonable assumptions, and, when they hold, the conclusions tend to hold."
While I agree with the rest of your post, I can never avoid saying this:
I think those are *terrible* assumptions. The "individuals make rational decisions" is almost exactly the opposite of what I see on a daily basis. Christmas season in particular.
Scared cops -- a funny and yet sad thing.
About as sad as a tranny losing his wig.
Ouch.