4:3 is probably better for certain tasks, but I actually prefer the 16:10 layout myself.
Everyone I talk to says he'd prefer one to the current wide-screen offering.
Who are you talking to? What kind of work do they do? What do they primarily use their computers for?
Personally, I couldn't wait to get rid of everything I owned that displayed video in 4:3 (CRT TV, laptop, old LCD monitor). I fell in love with widescreen format when I saw a 16:9 bigscreen Mitsubishi CRT in an electronics store 15 years ago. I remember thinking, "That makes MUCH more sense!"
They should just lump them all together and tax me to live. If I stop paying the tax, they flip a switch and a little explosion makes my brain explode. This would suck because seeing as it would be a government program there would be horrendous glitches in the system causing thousands to die needlessly each day (not to mention the pissed off government workers that would just walk in one day and randomly flip a bunch of switches 'cause they're having a bad day). The real bitch would be the death tax which they would charge because I'm no longer a contributing member of society.
This is like walking into the locker room in high school and saying, "I just slept with the head cheerleader," and then refusing to give out any details. Party foul!
I would venture to say that all of those statements point to one thing - RIM doesn't want apps that don't provide a continuous revenue stream. I don't think he's referring to added value for the customer; he's referring to added value for RIM.
I'm going on some very rough estimates, but they are informed estimates nonetheless (also, the data is heavily biased towards trends in the US). Please bear with me here...
Approximately 19% of Americans play video games on a gaming console (source here). Approximately 10% of the population is left handed. Rounding the U.S. population to 300 million, we have roughly 57 million Americans playing videogames on something other than a PC (this is important because PCs are primarily mouse and keyboard driven thus I can safely rule this population segment out). If we apply the 10% left-handedness rate to that number, we get 5.7 million left-handed people who play videogames on a game console (a DS is, in this case, a game console). Approximately 105 million current-gen game consoles have been sold in the U.S. as of December 2009 (source - here). Not counting previous generation consoles, that gives us an almost 2:1 game console to console gamer ratio (1.84:1 to be a little more precise). Also, 43% of the consoles sold were Nintendo DS's. Now, here I have a choice: I can either do some fancy statistical analysis (which I don't want to do) or I can assume that 43% of left-handed console owners have a DS. Doing that, I get approximately 2.45 million left-handed Nintendo DS owners.
That's a decent sized number; let's break it down further.
Taking into account the information provided by CmdrTaco, we are specifically talking about the DSi and a game called Base 10. 300,000 DSi's were sold as of December 2009. That gives us 0.7% of all Nintendo DS's sold are capable of playing this game. That whittles our 2.45 million left-handed DS owners down to 172,000 left-handed DSi owners. I couldn't find any sales numbers for Base 10; I'm not even going to attempt a guess there. That's an okay market size in and of itself, but it would be foolish to assume that 100% of that target market would buy that game. I'm pretty sure not even New Super Mario Bros. has that kind of attachment rate.
In summary, the answer is 42.
This "research" took me all of about thirty minutes so be kind.
Because we all know how real life adapts to each persons abilities. Now, it would be pretty sweet if my grocery store would learn which items I buy (they have this info because I use those damned rewards cards) and would rearrange itself so that all of the items I wanted were in one place. This, of course, would suck for everyone else that shopped there.
People have a hard enough time saying USB (I often hear UBS). I can imagine this conversation taking place:
Computer sales guy: Hi! Welcome to (insert name of favorite electronics store). What brings you in?
Customer: I need one of those "Leet Speak" things.
CSG: You mean a gaming headset?
Cust.: No...wait, maybe. No.
CSG: What are you trying to do with your computer?
Cust.: Oh! I remember...it's a Light Speed Drive!
CSG: You're looking for a DVD-burner with LiteScribe?
Cust.: I already have a DVD. What's LiteScribe?
CSG: Nevermind.
...another $8 cable (includes shipping). I understand the point of the article is that for the non-techy consumer of Hi-Def equipment these new requirements are going to cause problems.
Disney owns ABC. Disney owns Pixar. Steve Jobs sold Pixar to Disney. Pixar is now in charge of Disney animation studios. Steve Jobs is on the Board of Directors as part of the negotiations over Pixar. I don't think it's odd at all. In fact, if I had that much sway in a media conglomerate I would definitely use it to promote my new products or to help put out PR fires.
The customers that threw me for a loop were the ones that insisted on calling the entire computer a "modem." As in the following example:
Customer: I need to buy a new modem.
Me: All right. Who's your ISP?
Customer: (blank stare) Do I need to buy the monitor separately?
Me: (blank stare)
Customer: It keeps saying that I'm running out of memory.
Me: (light comes on) Let me show you some of the computers we have in stock.
As one of the many dissatisfied Droid Eris owners I have a couple things to say. First, Verizon has told me several times that they are "handling things differently now" when it comes to defective phones. It took three trips to two separate, local Verizon stores and two phone calls to Verizon tech support before someone finally agreed to send me a replacement Eris. I have been told by three separate Verizon reps that a software patch is being released that will "definitely fix" the sound problem, but as of last Thursday there was no ETA on said update (looks like that's changed). Between a new (well, "refurbished") handset and a software patch this week, I'm hoping I have a working phone soon.
If he...did this there would be a lot of resources being tied up...
That depends on the nature of the test. If it's just the capture and rebroadcasting of police broadcasts, there shouldn't be much if any disruption. If he's jumping turn-stiles or planting fake bombs, then sure that's a problem.
Using that logic though, by tying up the resources necessary to arrest this guy, a real threat may have slipped by unnoticed (assuming that this guy wasn't a real threat).
I would take your argument further and say that 76% of all conversations on and offline might be considered worthless chatter if the intended audience is not taken into account (as another poster already pointed out). If you're my doctor and are monitoring my diet, you do care about what I had for breakfast. Re-tweets are useful if they serve to spread a worthwhile tweet beyond its initial audience, making the re-tweet inherently valuable to its receiving audience. That's exactly why word-of-mouth advertising is so effective.
Also, I didn't notice any list of what the article's authors used as criteria to determine if a tweet was junk or not.
Slashdot Mirror
Everyone I talk to says he'd prefer one to the current wide-screen offering.
Who are you talking to? What kind of work do they do? What do they primarily use their computers for?
Personally, I couldn't wait to get rid of everything I owned that displayed video in 4:3 (CRT TV, laptop, old LCD monitor). I fell in love with widescreen format when I saw a 16:9 bigscreen Mitsubishi CRT in an electronics store 15 years ago. I remember thinking, "That makes MUCH more sense!"
I don't watch much TV anymore and what I do watch I find...ummm...online from...legitimate, yeah that's it, legitimate...sources (in Russia).
They should just lump them all together and tax me to live. If I stop paying the tax, they flip a switch and a little explosion makes my brain explode. This would suck because seeing as it would be a government program there would be horrendous glitches in the system causing thousands to die needlessly each day (not to mention the pissed off government workers that would just walk in one day and randomly flip a bunch of switches 'cause they're having a bad day). The real bitch would be the death tax which they would charge because I'm no longer a contributing member of society.
The Internet is changing and I'm scared.
This is like walking into the locker room in high school and saying, "I just slept with the head cheerleader," and then refusing to give out any details. Party foul!
I would venture to say that all of those statements point to one thing - RIM doesn't want apps that don't provide a continuous revenue stream. I don't think he's referring to added value for the customer; he's referring to added value for RIM.
You're right, my numbers are wrong.
I'm going on some very rough estimates, but they are informed estimates nonetheless (also, the data is heavily biased towards trends in the US). Please bear with me here...
Approximately 19% of Americans play video games on a gaming console (source here). Approximately 10% of the population is left handed. Rounding the U.S. population to 300 million, we have roughly 57 million Americans playing videogames on something other than a PC (this is important because PCs are primarily mouse and keyboard driven thus I can safely rule this population segment out). If we apply the 10% left-handedness rate to that number, we get 5.7 million left-handed people who play videogames on a game console (a DS is, in this case, a game console). Approximately 105 million current-gen game consoles have been sold in the U.S. as of December 2009 (source - here). Not counting previous generation consoles, that gives us an almost 2:1 game console to console gamer ratio (1.84:1 to be a little more precise). Also, 43% of the consoles sold were Nintendo DS's. Now, here I have a choice: I can either do some fancy statistical analysis (which I don't want to do) or I can assume that 43% of left-handed console owners have a DS. Doing that, I get approximately 2.45 million left-handed Nintendo DS owners.
That's a decent sized number; let's break it down further.
Taking into account the information provided by CmdrTaco, we are specifically talking about the DSi and a game called Base 10. 300,000 DSi's were sold as of December 2009. That gives us 0.7% of all Nintendo DS's sold are capable of playing this game. That whittles our 2.45 million left-handed DS owners down to 172,000 left-handed DSi owners. I couldn't find any sales numbers for Base 10; I'm not even going to attempt a guess there. That's an okay market size in and of itself, but it would be foolish to assume that 100% of that target market would buy that game. I'm pretty sure not even New Super Mario Bros. has that kind of attachment rate.
In summary, the answer is 42.
This "research" took me all of about thirty minutes so be kind.
Of course they flock to Facebook. Doesn't everybody?
Because we all know how real life adapts to each persons abilities. Now, it would be pretty sweet if my grocery store would learn which items I buy (they have this info because I use those damned rewards cards) and would rearrange itself so that all of the items I wanted were in one place. This, of course, would suck for everyone else that shopped there.
...how was he actually rescued? I see correlation between his tweets and his release but no causation.
People have a hard enough time saying USB (I often hear UBS). I can imagine this conversation taking place:
Computer sales guy: Hi! Welcome to (insert name of favorite electronics store). What brings you in?
Customer: I need one of those "Leet Speak" things.
CSG: You mean a gaming headset?
Cust.: No...wait, maybe. No.
CSG: What are you trying to do with your computer?
Cust.: Oh! I remember...it's a Light Speed Drive!
CSG: You're looking for a DVD-burner with LiteScribe?
Cust.: I already have a DVD. What's LiteScribe?
CSG: Nevermind.
The inverse must be true as well, because I actually enjoyed watching Avatar.
Must be a really shitty movie.
That stupid drum loop paired with the Super Mario Bros. theme was making my ears bleed.
...another $8 cable (includes shipping). I understand the point of the article is that for the non-techy consumer of Hi-Def equipment these new requirements are going to cause problems.
Disney owns ABC. Disney owns Pixar. Steve Jobs sold Pixar to Disney. Pixar is now in charge of Disney animation studios. Steve Jobs is on the Board of Directors as part of the negotiations over Pixar. I don't think it's odd at all. In fact, if I had that much sway in a media conglomerate I would definitely use it to promote my new products or to help put out PR fires.
Weirdly, it didn’t look out of the ordinary in visible light.
I don't see how this is weird. The room didn't get any brighter when they bombarded my knee with x-rays when they were looking at my torn meniscus.
...water is still wet.
The customers that threw me for a loop were the ones that insisted on calling the entire computer a "modem." As in the following example:
Customer: I need to buy a new modem.
Me: All right. Who's your ISP?
Customer: (blank stare) Do I need to buy the monitor separately?
Me: (blank stare)
Customer: It keeps saying that I'm running out of memory.
Me: (light comes on) Let me show you some of the computers we have in stock.
As one of the many dissatisfied Droid Eris owners I have a couple things to say. First, Verizon has told me several times that they are "handling things differently now" when it comes to defective phones. It took three trips to two separate, local Verizon stores and two phone calls to Verizon tech support before someone finally agreed to send me a replacement Eris. I have been told by three separate Verizon reps that a software patch is being released that will "definitely fix" the sound problem, but as of last Thursday there was no ETA on said update (looks like that's changed). Between a new (well, "refurbished") handset and a software patch this week, I'm hoping I have a working phone soon.
Forever? I'm pretty sure tattoos are finite considering that the host's body is finite.
...the charges against Sonne, exaggerated or not, involve weapons, explosives and intimidation...
Because no one has ever been arrested on false charges before.
If he...did this there would be a lot of resources being tied up...
That depends on the nature of the test. If it's just the capture and rebroadcasting of police broadcasts, there shouldn't be much if any disruption. If he's jumping turn-stiles or planting fake bombs, then sure that's a problem.
Using that logic though, by tying up the resources necessary to arrest this guy, a real threat may have slipped by unnoticed (assuming that this guy wasn't a real threat).
I would take your argument further and say that 76% of all conversations on and offline might be considered worthless chatter if the intended audience is not taken into account (as another poster already pointed out). If you're my doctor and are monitoring my diet, you do care about what I had for breakfast. Re-tweets are useful if they serve to spread a worthwhile tweet beyond its initial audience, making the re-tweet inherently valuable to its receiving audience. That's exactly why word-of-mouth advertising is so effective.
Also, I didn't notice any list of what the article's authors used as criteria to determine if a tweet was junk or not.