there is no reason why the author couldn't be precise... Using terms like "eight times smaller" just causes unnecessary confusion.
My cynical side would say that when someone is marketing themselves, the whole point is to cause "unnecessary confusion":)
In defense of this article, they give the dimensionless, marketing "eight times smaller" up in the headline, and then the detail follows:
The pixels in the nanoresonator displays are about ten times smaller than those on a typical computer screen, and about eight times smaller than the pixels on the iPhone 4, which are about 78 microns, according to Guo.
It's pretty clear now that we are talking about 78/8 = ~10um. And in fact they have a picture just above this showing individual pixels approximately 10um apart.
I'm not a big fan of pedantry in general, but IMHO the above quoted part of the article is crystal fucking clear:)
Marketeers are always going to go with what "sounds best" or what sells. Saying that a product is one-eighth of the competing product doesn't resonate as well as saying it is 8 times better.
And to be fair, if it is smallness you are after, it may very well be 8 times better... don't blame the marketeers, blame the human brain:)
Wow, I never thought of that phrase as ambiguous in the least. "8 times smaller/slower" always means divide by 8 and "8 times larger/faster" always means multiply by 8. I wouldn't use it in a scientific paper, but it should be okay in informal usage.
Setup Crash Plan along with a friend and watch your numbers spike:)
Seriously, your entire hard drive(s) will be sent to your friend's computer and your friend's sent to yours at the same time, totally saturating your respective upload bandwidth for months unless you "seed" the download with an external drive first.
I don't see any equivalent on the left...at least not on TV.
I don't think you ever will. The extreme left wing of the Democratic Party is not the sort to be watching much TV or listening to daytime radio.
On the other hand, there are no shortage of liberal-slanted newspapers. And the more glossy, believable blogging news sites have a decidedly liberal slant. I mean, I actually know people who read the Huff Post like it is a news site, when they are really just a propaganda site. And I personally love the NY Times for non-financial news, and they do a good job fact-checking (at least compared to NO fact-checking like Huff Post). But while I find them pretty neutral - they at least TRY to be neutral - they can't help but have a bit of a leftward tilt.
Even the Tea Party is just a collection of disaffected people and not really a "movement". Like the Bush-era anti-war protests where everyone with a left-wing cause showed up, the Tea Partiers are the same group only from the right-wing.
Not that I've ever witnessed. The Republican party seems to be made up of interchangeable clones who all think, talk, and act in lockstep.
Your comment is exactly the problem with political discourse in the US - everyone is painting their opponents to be this impossible, irrational caricature with which a compromise cannot be reached.
Republicans are just people. Even the wackiest Tea Party types actually have good points mixed in with their unenlightened Obama-hating froth. During the Bush years it was the Democrats had the comically enraged masses protesting with bizarre "anti-war" rallies full of people just as weird as the Tea Partiers.
This polarization has got to stop. I'm a Republican married to a Democrat. I voted for Obama. I voted for Kerry. I regularly vote 3rd Party. When I lived in New York, I was a registered Democrat for the obvious practical reasons. Democrats and Republicans are so freaking close together politically that it simply amazes me that they can go at each other on these minor issues. It's simple human tribalism run amok, and the sooner we recognize it, the sooner we can step back and realize why it's so easy for men like Arlen Specter and Joseph Lieberman to simply switch parties when convenient.
The parties are just tools for the powerful to stay powerful. They represent very, very little difference on any real issue. There are these crazy wedge issues that make very little difference in our day-to-day lives that soak up most of the debate in this country. Can you honestly say that this stupid fucking mosque in New York will have any bearing on your life? And yet that's what these assholes have decided is going to be the big election issue. Why? It riles up our tribalism and fear, which is good for manipulating people.
Dell seems to think that there's a market for the enormous cell phone / tiny tablet with their Slate. No one is required to buy all three devices... four, actually - you forgot the iPod.
And the downloading file dialog that opens one instance per file, with a little checkbox to select whether you want to close when the download is complete:)
Why in the world would I "upgrade" my existing hardware? Even when I do replace the hardware, I'm likely to just virtualize my current XP install so that I don't have to teach my wife 7.
I think the problem is that we still require governments to take out ad space in the newspaper... Anyone so inclined should be able to log into a centralized web site listing arrests.
I guess it's a choice between allowing the government to make secret arrests and besmirching some people's reputation. Not a great choice, but I for one find secret arrests to be more frightening.
In this context I agree - the police are trying shame tactics, which is, well, shameful. There is a process for punishment, and if they want publicity to be part of it, then they should pass a damned law.
But I do need to point out that courts proceedings are in fact usually open to the public, and I disagree that papers should be forced to announce anything at all - let the government buy space or publish their own.
I'm just surprised that they can list you before you're actually convicted.
You are thinking about this in the wrong way... this is a protection, not a punishment.
How many countries arrest or detain people and then deny that the person is being held? Forcing the police department to list detainees is a protection against this abuse of power.
Yes, a "suspect" can lose their job and have other negative effects to their life... such is the price to pay for open and transparent government. You can't very well have the police arresting people in secret - and frankly your employer might wonder why you went missing anyway:)
I wasn't judging - he asked a question and I answered it.
I don't fancy myself fashionable, but don't begrudge people who like the finer things.
As for having something that your friends do - there can be a practical side to this as well... you could share knowledge/information/etc and play games against one another, so it's not necessarily an issue of growing a spine.
They had experts in other fields examine the bones and concluded they were tool marks.
Perhaps those experts need to be examined by experts? Concluding that something was made by a tool that has not been shown to exist until 100 million years or so up the strata is a bit of a stretch. I'd bet other "experts" would conclude that the same bone had been scraped against rocks when stepped on, etc.
Or was the author implying that there was a tool-using dinosaur? Seems like a stretch, but there are tool-wielding birds... so anything is possible.
Slashdot Mirror
there is no reason why the author couldn't be precise... Using terms like "eight times smaller" just causes unnecessary confusion.
My cynical side would say that when someone is marketing themselves, the whole point is to cause "unnecessary confusion" :)
In defense of this article, they give the dimensionless, marketing "eight times smaller" up in the headline, and then the detail follows:
It's pretty clear now that we are talking about 78/8 = ~10um. And in fact they have a picture just above this showing individual pixels approximately 10um apart.
I'm not a big fan of pedantry in general, but IMHO the above quoted part of the article is crystal fucking clear :)
You changed the argument. If they said "one eighth the size of an iPhone pixel" it would be no clearer whether they are talking about area or width.
Marketeers are always going to go with what "sounds best" or what sells. Saying that a product is one-eighth of the competing product doesn't resonate as well as saying it is 8 times better.
And to be fair, if it is smallness you are after, it may very well be 8 times better... don't blame the marketeers, blame the human brain :)
Wow, I never thought of that phrase as ambiguous in the least. "8 times smaller/slower" always means divide by 8 and "8 times larger/faster" always means multiply by 8. I wouldn't use it in a scientific paper, but it should be okay in informal usage.
Setup Crash Plan along with a friend and watch your numbers spike :)
Seriously, your entire hard drive(s) will be sent to your friend's computer and your friend's sent to yours at the same time, totally saturating your respective upload bandwidth for months unless you "seed" the download with an external drive first.
I don't see any equivalent on the left...at least not on TV.
I don't think you ever will. The extreme left wing of the Democratic Party is not the sort to be watching much TV or listening to daytime radio.
On the other hand, there are no shortage of liberal-slanted newspapers. And the more glossy, believable blogging news sites have a decidedly liberal slant. I mean, I actually know people who read the Huff Post like it is a news site, when they are really just a propaganda site. And I personally love the NY Times for non-financial news, and they do a good job fact-checking (at least compared to NO fact-checking like Huff Post). But while I find them pretty neutral - they at least TRY to be neutral - they can't help but have a bit of a leftward tilt.
Even the Tea Party is just a collection of disaffected people and not really a "movement". Like the Bush-era anti-war protests where everyone with a left-wing cause showed up, the Tea Partiers are the same group only from the right-wing.
Not that I've ever witnessed. The Republican party seems to be made up of interchangeable clones who all think, talk, and act in lockstep.
Your comment is exactly the problem with political discourse in the US - everyone is painting their opponents to be this impossible, irrational caricature with which a compromise cannot be reached.
Republicans are just people. Even the wackiest Tea Party types actually have good points mixed in with their unenlightened Obama-hating froth. During the Bush years it was the Democrats had the comically enraged masses protesting with bizarre "anti-war" rallies full of people just as weird as the Tea Partiers.
This polarization has got to stop. I'm a Republican married to a Democrat. I voted for Obama. I voted for Kerry. I regularly vote 3rd Party. When I lived in New York, I was a registered Democrat for the obvious practical reasons. Democrats and Republicans are so freaking close together politically that it simply amazes me that they can go at each other on these minor issues. It's simple human tribalism run amok, and the sooner we recognize it, the sooner we can step back and realize why it's so easy for men like Arlen Specter and Joseph Lieberman to simply switch parties when convenient.
The parties are just tools for the powerful to stay powerful. They represent very, very little difference on any real issue. There are these crazy wedge issues that make very little difference in our day-to-day lives that soak up most of the debate in this country. Can you honestly say that this stupid fucking mosque in New York will have any bearing on your life? And yet that's what these assholes have decided is going to be the big election issue. Why? It riles up our tribalism and fear, which is good for manipulating people.
Dell seems to think that there's a market for the enormous cell phone / tiny tablet with their Slate. No one is required to buy all three devices... four, actually - you forgot the iPod.
And the downloading file dialog that opens one instance per file, with a little checkbox to select whether you want to close when the download is complete :)
Now you know someone :)
Why in the world would I "upgrade" my existing hardware? Even when I do replace the hardware, I'm likely to just virtualize my current XP install so that I don't have to teach my wife 7.
I think the problem is that we still require governments to take out ad space in the newspaper... Anyone so inclined should be able to log into a centralized web site listing arrests.
I guess it's a choice between allowing the government to make secret arrests and besmirching some people's reputation. Not a great choice, but I for one find secret arrests to be more frightening.
In concept I think that sounds good... in practice, I think it would make a newspaper look like a bug tracker! :)
I'll make fun of Hurd if it makes your dim green plastic soul shine just for a moment.
In this context I agree - the police are trying shame tactics, which is, well, shameful. There is a process for punishment, and if they want publicity to be part of it, then they should pass a damned law.
But I do need to point out that courts proceedings are in fact usually open to the public, and I disagree that papers should be forced to announce anything at all - let the government buy space or publish their own.
Yours was better than mine... more believable. That's why you guys get the big bucks.
I tried to use .NET yesterday, but that's a funny story for another time.
I'm just surprised that they can list you before you're actually convicted.
You are thinking about this in the wrong way... this is a protection, not a punishment.
How many countries arrest or detain people and then deny that the person is being held? Forcing the police department to list detainees is a protection against this abuse of power.
Yes, a "suspect" can lose their job and have other negative effects to their life... such is the price to pay for open and transparent government. You can't very well have the police arresting people in secret - and frankly your employer might wonder why you went missing anyway :)
Intent matters.
To paraphrase you, if someone hunts you down and kills you or if you accidentally walk in front of a moving car... the result is the same.
I know, right? Whenever I use C# all of these unicorns and ponies keep popping into existence. It was literally created by the Lord Himself.
Can I come work as an astroturfer now?
LOL, yeah but that made my sentence awkward...
The developer maintains a page on the Tor network. Since that can be a pain, you can get to his software via the tor2web website.
The nice thing is that at 12 degrees, to a layman it doesn't really matter if you are talking Rankine or Kelvin...
I wasn't judging - he asked a question and I answered it.
I don't fancy myself fashionable, but don't begrudge people who like the finer things.
As for having something that your friends do - there can be a practical side to this as well... you could share knowledge/information/etc and play games against one another, so it's not necessarily an issue of growing a spine.
They had experts in other fields examine the bones and concluded they were tool marks.
Perhaps those experts need to be examined by experts? Concluding that something was made by a tool that has not been shown to exist until 100 million years or so up the strata is a bit of a stretch. I'd bet other "experts" would conclude that the same bone had been scraped against rocks when stepped on, etc.
Or was the author implying that there was a tool-using dinosaur? Seems like a stretch, but there are tool-wielding birds... so anything is possible.
That's easy to fix with Requiem. Anyone who can jailbreak an iPod/Phone/Pad is capable of obtaining and running Requiem.