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Comment: Re:It's all about the names (Score 1) 685

by pelago (#28423159) Attached to: Blu-ray Adoption Soft, More Still Own HD DVD

It wouldn't surprise me if a substantial number of those saying they have an "HD DVD player" actually own Blu-Ray devices.

Yes, I was thinking that too. Especially as (if the order in the results table is the same as the order in the questionnaire) the question for HD-DVD is a couple of questions before the one for Blu-Ray, so some of the respondents might not immediately realize the distinction.

Comment: Re:I always maintained blue ray was moot (Score 4, Insightful) 685

by pelago (#28423103) Attached to: Blu-ray Adoption Soft, More Still Own HD DVD

If you look at the chart, they've separated out the PS3 owners from the Blu-Ray player owners. Combine the 7% Blu-Ray owners with the 9% PS3 owners, and that's 16%. I'm sure that most PS3 owners didn't feel the need to buy a separate Blu-Ray player.

On the other hand, some of the people who owned a PS3 and no other separate BD player, might have ticked Yes to both questions. In other words, you can't necessarily add together the numbers for BD players and PS3s together, as you may be counting some devices twice.

Sci-Fi

Why Our "Amazing" Science Fiction Future Fizzled 499

Posted by Soulskill
from the i-blame-the-schools dept.
An anonymous reader sends in a story at CNN about how our predictions for the future tend to be somewhat accurate (whether or not we can do a thing) yet often too optimistic (whether or not it's practical). Obvious example: jetpacks. Quoting: "Joseph Corn, co-author of 'Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future,' found an inflated optimism about technology's impact on the future as far back as the 19th century, when writers like Jules Verne were creating wondrous versions of the future. Even then, people had a misplaced faith in the power of inventions to make life easier, Corn says. For example, the typical 19th-century American city was crowded and smelly. The problem was horses. They created traffic jams, filled the streets with their droppings and, when they died, their carcasses. But around the turn of the 20th century, Americans were predicting that another miraculous invention would deliver them from the burden of the horse and hurried urban life — the automobile, Corn says. 'There were a lot of predictions associated with early automobiles,' Corn says. 'They would help eliminate congestion in the city and the messy, unsanitary streets of the city.' Corn says Americans' faith in the power of technology to reshape the future is due in part to their history. Americans have never accepted a radical political transformation that would change their future. They prefer technology, not radical politics, to propel social change."

Comment: Off by default (in Ubuntu at least) (Score 2, Interesting) 501

by pelago (#26483129) Attached to: The Secret Lives of Ubuntu and Debian Users

> Possibly, too, those who participate in the Popularity Contests are not typical users of either Ubuntu or Debian.

I don't know about Debian, but the Popularity Contest (listed in the Software Sources window as 'Submit statistical information') is turned off by default in Ubuntu, and I don't expect many people turn it on given people's wish for privacy. So indeed, I don't think the results will be from typical users.

Thank goodness modern convenience is a thing of the remote future. -- Pogo, by Walt Kelly