People who do research for the US armed forces are constantly reminded that the results have to work for the people on the ground. And the term warfighter is in the process of being rolled back in favor of "soldier" right now - not sure that is the best thing. I think too many people get their notion of the military from bad 1908s movies.
Whether conservatives are more likely to be dumb than leftists (such as Communists) or not, the outcome of the leftists "intelligence"+worldview is horrific compared to the much more congenial product of more conservative frameworks.
Thanks for the well done and thought-provoking article. Thomas Cahill does a good job with variations on this concept in his various works, but yours I believe does the best job of representing the ancient experience.
Or consider data from the most recent Netcraft survey (linked below), which also says, in effect, that Apache's market share, while it declined overall, rose in the UK due to Real International Business Co. adding 1.9 million hostnames, all of which "resolve to a single IP address."
That stat on the percentage of websites which are Apache is an old one and has been debunked many times. Most of the "sites" which make up Apache's statistical lead are one-pagers, domain parks, vanity or otherwise infrequently updated or visited sites. According to the article linked below, in 2007 IIS dominated Fortune 500 sites at 50% vs. 15% for Apache. The other chart shows a 50%/30% split between Apache and IIS for "Internet-based" companies, but the methodology for that number is much murkier than the other one. For instance, Google doesn't really count as Apache in the list of servers, and Amazon and Yahoo are listed as "Unknown". In any event, the statement that "Microsoft and its partners have clearly had a strong influence over UK Government procurement decisions" is clearly bunk.
I remember using and administering deployment of Lotus Symphony ages ago - back in the antediluvian 1980's, I think (late 80s, early 90s, images of big hair and flannel confused) so this product really has an ancient history. What came out in '07 was maybe a re-launch?
It is my repeated experience that the Liberal approach to communication is to brutally reject and then deny any opposing point of view. In evidence I invite you to compare any set of comments to partisan articles on Daily Kos or Huffington Post vs. the same to articles at Red State or Free Will. The Left's dialogue (whoops, nearly put scare quotes there!) is much more profane and insular than that of the Right. And the Left considers the Right to be unintelligent much more often than the Right advances the same opinion of the Left.
With reference to the parent article, one might suppose that education in and of itself is not a predictor of the wisdom (as distinguished from the intelligence) of the person under consideration.
Generally well thought-out article, thanks Elizabeth. I had one itsy quibble:
"Maybe if we look under the hood, there is a liberal bias to popular social-media sites. But so what? It hasn't stopped conservatives one bit from using the web to promote their political agenda."
What if it were:
"Maybe if we look under the hood, there is a conservative bias to popular social-media sites. But so what?"
This almost looked like it was supposed to be a news article. Instead it's a distorted rant against Microsoft that is even more intemperate than the remarks of Google's own head of engineering. The most childish part was the assumption that Register readers most certainly use something besides IE (or in other words, "a better browser.") One wonders if El Reg's own webserver logs would bear that out?
The article (and certainly the headline) rather leaves the impression that Microsoft cut off the beta for some unexplained reason, probably a problem. In fact the program reached its 75000 download limit in one day.
Register
20 posts • joined Wednesday 11th March 2009 18:24 GMT
Way too cynical
People who do research for the US armed forces are constantly reminded that the results have to work for the people on the ground. And the term warfighter is in the process of being rolled back in favor of "soldier" right now - not sure that is the best thing. I think too many people get their notion of the military from bad 1908s movies.
Who's dumb now?
It seems that this study might have been a hoax:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/that-internet-explorer-iq-test-was-a-hoax/3642?tag=nl.e539
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14389430
Explanation required for leftist twit
Nitwit, let me explain it for you.
Whether conservatives are more likely to be dumb than leftists (such as Communists) or not, the outcome of the leftists "intelligence"+worldview is horrific compared to the much more congenial product of more conservative frameworks.
No
_No_ popups everytime I "like" something. That is ridiculous.
_No_ 2-factor auth. Most of those schemes are worthless and many actually decrease overall security.
Sophos should be named Moros.
re: it's german
dann wo is der ümlaut?
And what is that funny "e" looking symbol on the "E" key? Is it supposed to be some kind of substutute for the missing "$" sign?
Very nice
Thanks for the well done and thought-provoking article. Thomas Cahill does a good job with variations on this concept in his various works, but yours I believe does the best job of representing the ancient experience.
RIM
USofA? I thought RIM was Canadian? Surely Canadian servers would be OK?
Newer stats better stats
Or consider data from the most recent Netcraft survey (linked below), which also says, in effect, that Apache's market share, while it declined overall, rose in the UK due to Real International Business Co. adding 1.9 million hostnames, all of which "resolve to a single IP address."
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/category/web-server-survey/
2nd that
Also, SharePoint also costs "thousands of pounds, not millions." So the real cost is in the deployment and integration, training, documentation, etc.
Old stats bad stats
That stat on the percentage of websites which are Apache is an old one and has been debunked many times. Most of the "sites" which make up Apache's statistical lead are one-pagers, domain parks, vanity or otherwise infrequently updated or visited sites. According to the article linked below, in 2007 IIS dominated Fortune 500 sites at 50% vs. 15% for Apache. The other chart shows a 50%/30% split between Apache and IIS for "Internet-based" companies, but the methodology for that number is much murkier than the other one. For instance, Google doesn't really count as Apache in the list of servers, and Amazon and Yahoo are listed as "Unknown". In any event, the statement that "Microsoft and its partners have clearly had a strong influence over UK Government procurement decisions" is clearly bunk.
http://www.search-this.com/2007/06/27/microsoft-iis-vs-apache-who-serves-more/
Informative
But the dearth of definitions for the many buzzwords in the article was intimidating.
History is wrong?
I remember using and administering deployment of Lotus Symphony ages ago - back in the antediluvian 1980's, I think (late 80s, early 90s, images of big hair and flannel confused) so this product really has an ancient history. What came out in '07 was maybe a re-launch?
Unfair
It is my repeated experience that the Liberal approach to communication is to brutally reject and then deny any opposing point of view. In evidence I invite you to compare any set of comments to partisan articles on Daily Kos or Huffington Post vs. the same to articles at Red State or Free Will. The Left's dialogue (whoops, nearly put scare quotes there!) is much more profane and insular than that of the Right. And the Left considers the Right to be unintelligent much more often than the Right advances the same opinion of the Left.
With reference to the parent article, one might suppose that education in and of itself is not a predictor of the wisdom (as distinguished from the intelligence) of the person under consideration.
Good article, but...
Generally well thought-out article, thanks Elizabeth. I had one itsy quibble:
"Maybe if we look under the hood, there is a liberal bias to popular social-media sites. But so what? It hasn't stopped conservatives one bit from using the web to promote their political agenda."
What if it were:
"Maybe if we look under the hood, there is a conservative bias to popular social-media sites. But so what?"
Would it still be "So what?" Just saying.
Next step
These guys need to read up on Calvin and Hobbes: http://sengupta.posterous.com/a-special-tribute-to-calvin-hobbes-and-the-un
To Cade Metz
This almost looked like it was supposed to be a news article. Instead it's a distorted rant against Microsoft that is even more intemperate than the remarks of Google's own head of engineering. The most childish part was the assumption that Register readers most certainly use something besides IE (or in other words, "a better browser.") One wonders if El Reg's own webserver logs would bear that out?
All of the claims
are true.
A nit to pick
The article (and certainly the headline) rather leaves the impression that Microsoft cut off the beta for some unexplained reason, probably a problem. In fact the program reached its 75000 download limit in one day.
Why no Java
I'm not a Java booster but it seems wierd that this survey would not include it.
Gadzooks!
A felony rap seems way harsh for this prank. What was the worst outcome of this even if not discovered by the coppers?