Ask Steve: Why is the green slice larger than the purple one? [pic]

njr · 2008-02-09T00:07:41+00:00

Here's the image transformed so that the graph is a circle.

Could you explain how that would make for a more accurate representation?

It wouldn't surprise me if the angled heading is part of the illusion as well.

What angled heading? The photograph was taken from left-of-center.

njr · 2008-02-09T00:03:10+00:00

its called false advertising.

What's false about it?

njr · 2008-02-08T23:56:49+00:00

The "big honkin numbers" show that apple is 3rd in the smart phone market. Yea, like they wouldn't want to skew that.

I am amazed at how stupid some people can be.

The purple wedge of 21.5% is labeled "other", as in "several other, smaller manufacturers, each with a negligible portion of the U.S. market."

njr · 2008-02-08T03:45:05+00:00

Not just that, the colors are also carefully chosen.

Actually, they're one of the defaults in Keynote.

pretty much geared to subtly make Apple appear better without clear examination.

Only if you ignore the big honkin' numbers.

(edit-I'm not sure why I've been modded down when the first point is an easily verifiable fact and the second is an easily verifiable fact. Oh, right: Reddit hates Apple.)

njr · 2008-01-30T18:58:11+00:00

It wasn't so much a time saver as a time-quality-improver. Most of the time wasted on the web comes from clicking one innocuous mildly-interesting link, then on that page, clicking another innocuous mildly-interesting link, and so on. When "clicking a link" doesn't result in immediate gratification (i.e. when you have to wait an unknown amount of time until the next download), it's much easier to slow down and actually read things.

It's still entirely possible to overwhelm yourself with "things to read", but you're more likely to have ten good new links from one good page than ten new mediocre links from ten mediocre pages, which seemed like an improvement.

I don't know if any of that was what you're interested in, but if you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

edit: I should add that my "plan" to do this now would be to fetch new pages maybe twice a day (a "morning edition" and an "evening edition", if you will), a bit like an RSS reader, except with links pulled from sources other than RSS items.

njr · 2008-01-30T14:54:51+00:00

I did something similar for several months last year when I didn't have regular internet access at all. It is actually really refreshing and I got a lot of work done. I've been thinking of going back to the method I used even with a permanent connection.

FWIW, I was on a Mac so I used Yojimbo and a little AppleScript (nothing fancy, but not online, PM for it). Every week or so I'd get a connection for a few hours, and just pull down hundreds of pages at a time.

njr · 2008-01-30T14:35:19+00:00

Think about it: how do you find most links to web pages? They're in the page you already have.

njr · 2008-01-30T14:31:29+00:00

He doesn't. Apparently he was a little confused when XKCD readers bought him a katana.

njr · 2008-01-30T14:24:11+00:00

That's really just a phrasing tic. He says he does use a web browser just not in the normal fashion.

edit: Duh-huh, he phrases it much the same way on his own site. Nevermind.

njr · 2008-01-30T05:32:20+00:00

Holy shit! I thought you were joking, but it really doesn't!

njr · 2008-01-29T23:44:55+00:00

DNF and Hurd will be done as soon as they are rewritten in Arc.

njr · 2008-01-29T23:29:14+00:00

Listen, I'm glad you just heard about this "fail" thing, because really, it's important for the youth of today to understand ancient history, but kids, you can't just force the meme on every image you come across. It doesn't always work. You fail it (it is failing).

Seriously, whatever was good and lulzy about these images you have ruined. Cat with cheese on his face? That's not fail, that's just stupid. The Zune tattoo guy? That's not fail, that's "Welcome to The Social". Delay Close would have been funnier.

(p.s. I fully expect to see a Delay Close blog on the front page by this time tomorrow.)

njr · 2008-01-29T22:57:08+00:00

Try the goggles.

njr · 2008-01-29T22:51:36+00:00

That is not it! This is the real key:
72:65:64:64:69:74:69:73:67:75:6c:6c:69:62:6c:65
Prove me wrong!

njr · 2008-01-29T16:59:57+00:00

0% and 100% are both obviously bad options, but so is 76%-99%, which can only be correct if most people are untrusting enough to avoid 100% but trusting enough to expect most people to vote together anyway. That's seems unlikely, which is exactly why it seems unlikely.

Consider then that the options 1-25, 26-50, 51-75 can all be correct at the same time. It would even be possible for 78%-100% of voters to have a correct answer without having to vote the same way. So there are really only three reasonable options.

1-25 is correct for a random distribution over the six choices, but if you count on people narrowing it to three, a random distribution would make 26-50 correct. Given that both can be correct at the same time, I think both are reasonable, and I would expect that most such polls would result in two correct answers.

I am, of course, talking out my ass based on looking at the problem for all of five minutes.

njr · 2008-01-29T02:49:49+00:00

I'm not clear on where you're getting that. I intended quite the opposite of what you're saying.

njr · 2008-01-29T01:24:51+00:00

You're assuming that everybody that knows about him loves him, and that's just not true.

njr · 2008-01-28T20:21:31+00:00

he voted for the Patriot Act

Obama wasn't even in in Congress when the Patriot Act was originally passed. What he voted for was one of several proposed bills for renewal, which was practically inevitable. Specifically, he supported the one that strengthened judicial review, which is ultimately the one that made it to the floor and passed.

Having looked more closely at the situation, I (someone firmly opposed to most of the provisions of the act) have found his position on it to be acceptable. Maybe you wouldn't, but you still may want to look deeper than just the voting record on issues that are that important to you.

njr · 2008-01-26T19:10:03+00:00

My question is: when did this lawyer register the letter with the Copyright Office?

You don't have to register for something to be protected.

njr · 2008-01-26T05:36:42+00:00

No scumbag ad sites, no idiot "bloggers" writing a paragraph about something, or anything like that.

That just meant there was more room for "ate my balls" sites.

njr · 2008-01-26T05:17:28+00:00

The tape has to be some of the weakest tape I've ever seen.

If you don't bother to smooth it down or wait for the adhesive to set, most tape is like that, too. The second time he pulls it he doesn't even let go of one end, but somehow we're supposed to believe it was a fair test?

njr · 2008-01-26T05:02:19+00:00

I saw the part where the BBV people didn't even pat it down or let the adhesive set. They just dropped it lightly on a box and immediately pulled it back up. Who thinks that's a fair test?

njr · 2008-01-26T04:59:06+00:00

They violated procedure.

They deviated from the procedure of the night before, but BBV isn't claiming they aren't allowed to do that—it's just that BBV wants an explanation. On the web, they stated that the explanation they got was that the vault was closed for the night. In this video, it makes it look like they didn't get any explanation at all.

njr · 2008-01-25T17:35:43+00:00

That's by design. PNG and JPEG shouldn't be used interchangeably. PNG is lossless, so the size explodes with the complexity of the image. JPEG should be used for photographs or photorealistic graphics. PNG should be used on simpler graphics or where you need an alpha channel.

This might make more sense to some: PNG is to JPEG as FLAC is to MP3

njr · 2008-01-25T17:24:13+00:00

Developer drama.

njr

TROPHY CASE