(...) they would by definition be reflecting the people who voted for them.
Not necessarily. Gerrymandering is the art of changing the boundaries to gain an advantage. In a simple way, this image shows an even distribution redivided to give one party the advantage.
What few people realize is that Dr. Batmanghelidj is really Bruce Wayneghelidj's alter ego. Everybody knows that the Wayneghelidj Water has a stranglehold on the world's water distribution networks, so who really benefits if everyone drinks more water?;)
A method and system for generating a displayable icon or emoticon form that indicates the mood or emotion of a user of the mobile station. A user of a device, such as a mobile phone, is provided with a dedicated key or shared dedicated key option that the user may select to insert an emoticon onto a display or other medium. The selection of the key or shared dedicated key may result in the insertion of the emoticon, or may also result in the display of a collection of emoticons that the user may then select from using, for example, a key mapping or navigation technique.
It's not patented yet (it's a patent application) and they aren't attempting to patent emoticons (just a system to use them, which is just as silly IMO).
Rather than thinking about word of mouth versus preference engines, think about it as preference engines vs any type of advertising.
Preference engines are just a way of introducing a product to a person. Traditional advertising does it by targeting demographics that they think the product will appeal to. A preference engine is an expert system that correlates other people's tastes and your's, and then can recommend something you will probably like. Sounds to me like more product will get sold, and the customer will be more likely to walk away with music they will enjoy. Everybody's happy.
Given a choice between "one-size fits all" mass media where everyone sees the same ad and this, I'd much rather have semi-intelligent software point me to a song that I might like.
BTW, Amazon does this too, and in my experience they are right more than they are wrong about my tastes.
I'd like to add that RealBasic announced just today that they are offering a free RealBasic license to anyone who holds a VB6 license, up to 3 per physical address.
There's a utility to convert a VB6 project to RealBasic as well as a migration guide.
I've downloaded and installed, but haven't taken the time to review it yet.
Here is a list of two other records he holds. It hasn't been updated for the one mentioned in the myway article.
Notice it took him 44.7 seconds to calculate the square root of a six digit number, but only 11.8 seconds to calculate the 13th root of a 100 digit number!!!!
He also calculated the 23rd root of a 200 digit number in 40.83 seconds.
That doesn't mean 4 out of 5 doctors total smoke them, or that 4 out of 5 doctors recommend you smoke them.
But that is the ad's intent. The point is not about the truth of the research, it's about the presentation. What do "doctors" who smoke have to do with the best/healthiest/coolest brand of cigarettes? Nothing really, but the connection Winston was trying to make is so obvious I can't believe you missed it - if doctors smoke them, they must be the right brand to smoke.
Nothing is wrong with the statement in itself. The research may have been repeatable and the methodology may be sound. Hell, they may have surveyed every doctor on the planet! None of that matters, because the way the statistic is used is the problem. It is intentionally misleading to a casual reader in order to promote Winston's best interests.
I recently saw an old copy of Popular Mechanics from around 1950 (or so). The back page was an ad that said "4 out of 5 doctors who smoke smoke Winston".
Wow, after research like that, I'd better take up smoking Winstons!
It is BS. But Oracle used to charge per "processing unit". It took into account the speed of the chip you planned to run it on as well as the number of processers in the system and the number of expected connections. Or you could purchase the "Web server" edition, which would have broken our company.
Today, Oracle's price list is 11 pages of different price plans that would confuse a car dealership!
Slashdot Mirror
mounting a rugidtized radio transmitter (a ball probably has to go through 20gs or something)
rugidtized???
Not necessarily. Gerrymandering is the art of changing the boundaries to gain an advantage. In a simple way, this image shows an even distribution redivided to give one party the advantage.
Sad but true. Check out this ad.
"More doctors smoke camels than any other cigarette..."
What's ironic about Melinda Messenger's comment is that she has two bags of man-made chemicals in her body, just to make her look better!
I'll send one too - if I can clean all the coffee rings from the coaster^H^H^H^H^H^Hd!
But the trial only lasted 10 minutes, so that's $140 / 10 min, or $840/hr!
20hrs * 840 = $16800 (+ the filing fees and such).
Painful lesson, if the numbers are right.
From the summary (emphasis mine):
What few people realize is that Dr. Batmanghelidj is really Bruce Wayneghelidj's alter ego. Everybody knows that the Wayneghelidj Water has a stranglehold on the world's water distribution networks, so who really benefits if everyone drinks more water? ;)
It's not patented yet (it's a patent application) and they aren't attempting to patent emoticons (just a system to use them, which is just as silly IMO).
Just thought I'd throw out some facts...
I have nipples, Greg. Can you milk me?
Rather than thinking about word of mouth versus preference engines, think about it as preference engines vs any type of advertising.
Preference engines are just a way of introducing a product to a person. Traditional advertising does it by targeting demographics that they think the product will appeal to. A preference engine is an expert system that correlates other people's tastes and your's, and then can recommend something you will probably like. Sounds to me like more product will get sold, and the customer will be more likely to walk away with music they will enjoy. Everybody's happy.
Given a choice between "one-size fits all" mass media where everyone sees the same ad and this, I'd much rather have semi-intelligent software point me to a song that I might like.
BTW, Amazon does this too, and in my experience they are right more than they are wrong about my tastes.
You can export to .doc - File menu, Save As, select "Microsoft..." from the File type combo box (OOo 1.1.3).
That said, I do agree #2 is misleading, because the document's formatting doesn't always look the same in Word and OOo.
I'd like to add that RealBasic announced just today that they are offering a free RealBasic license to anyone who holds a VB6 license, up to 3 per physical address.
There's a utility to convert a VB6 project to RealBasic as well as a migration guide.
I've downloaded and installed, but haven't taken the time to review it yet.
OSC's site is good way to burn an hour or more - writing advice, forums (or is it fora?), philosophy, etc. Mr. Card is an interesting fellow.
That's 5 laws... What's the sixth?
Profit?
Here is a list of two other records he holds. It hasn't been updated for the one mentioned in the myway article.
Notice it took him 44.7 seconds to calculate the square root of a six digit number, but only 11.8 seconds to calculate the 13th root of a 100 digit number!!!!
He also calculated the 23rd root of a 200 digit number in 40.83 seconds.
You hit the nail on the head. This book is humor, not a study of crappy jobs.
To anyone who is still taking this article seriously, go to amazon.co.uk and see that it is classified under "Subjecs->Humour->General".
Speaking of people of Greek descent and "Greek citizenship", how about the Greek Olympic baseball team?
People in Greece don't play much baseball, but they fielded a team for the Olympics by finding people who were "ethnically" Greek.
Here are a couple of relevant articles from the
Christian Science Monitor and MSNBC
Does anyone else think it's strange that a story about yoper has no link to their home page, but does have a link to gentoo?
Looks like I misremembered. It was Camels (not Winston) and it was "More Doctors" (not "3 out of 4")
But that is the ad's intent. The point is not about the truth of the research, it's about the presentation. What do "doctors" who smoke have to do with the best/healthiest/coolest brand of cigarettes? Nothing really, but the connection Winston was trying to make is so obvious I can't believe you missed it - if doctors smoke them, they must be the right brand to smoke.
Nothing is wrong with the statement in itself. The research may have been repeatable and the methodology may be sound. Hell, they may have surveyed every doctor on the planet! None of that matters, because the way the statistic is used is the problem. It is intentionally misleading to a casual reader in order to promote Winston's best interests.
Wow, after research like that, I'd better take up smoking Winstons!
Today, Oracle's price list is 11 pages of different price plans that would confuse a car dealership!