mikl - Slashdot User

Study Finds Fast-Food Logos Make You Impatient 122

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday April 20, 2010 @11:14AM from the I-got-the-cowboyneal-jitters dept.

A study conducted by the University of Toronto has found that exposure to fast-food logos can cause people to feel impatient and make them more likely to buy things. Subjects in the study were exposed to nearly imperceptible flashes of images (for 12 to 80 milliseconds) which included fast-food logos for some. The subjects were then asked to read about and choose between two different kinds of skin-care treatments, one of which was a three-in-one. Those who had the logos flashed before them read "significantly faster" and chose the more time-saving skin product. From the article: "The researchers concluded 'fast food, originally designed to save time, can have the unexpected consequence of inducing haste and impatience' and 'preference for time-saving products when there are potentially other important aspects upon which to choose a product.' So, basically, driving past a McDonald's on the highway has the potential to not only make you drive faster, it will make you more likely to buy two-for-one Pantene Pro-V Shampoo and Conditioner the next time you go to Duane Reade. One, it seems, is considerably less ominous than the other." I guess this explains why my nephews will chew on their seat belts and try to get out the windows just to be first into the McDonald's Playland.

Comment Good, Fast, or Cheap? (Score 1) 456

by mikl on Monday February 22, 2010 @05:25PM (#31236148) Attached to: Things To Look For In a Web Hosting Company?

As the old saying goes,

Pick any two:
- Good
- Fast
- Cheap

Good hosting is not cheap; cheap hosting comes with sacrifices. Most people can live with cheap hosting (does your site REALLY require 99.999% uptime?) and the choices are endless for decent, affordable hosting. If you need more than that, you are going to have to spend for it.

Bandwidth, disk, redundant power, CPU cycles - those things are all finite and all still cost money.

Comment Re:A warning about 1 and 1 (Score 1) 456

by mikl on Monday February 22, 2010 @04:21PM (#31234844) Attached to: Things To Look For In a Web Hosting Company?

I posted above about an experience I had with 1and1, while still holding an open and current (paid in full) account -- they turned me over to collection for an amount that I did not owe, had already paid, and had records (credit card bills) proving I paid it.

Took days spending hours on the phone and sending a lot of faxes and letters via email to get it resolved. Nobody at 1and1 seemed to care or be bothered to do anything about it; it was always someone else's problem. The collection agency would only cease action if they got notice from 1and1 that it was resolved... Wash, rinse, repeat.

Comment Re:1and1 (Score 1) 456

by mikl on Monday February 22, 2010 @12:52PM (#31230708) Attached to: Things To Look For In a Web Hosting Company?

I also recently switched from 1&1 to Dreamhost. I had been with 1&1 since around 2002 when they came on the scene with a lot of promotions.

I had little downtime but the few times I did need support, I also had significant hassles and long hold times. It was a very "corporate" feeling, like dealing with AT&T or the government.

I had a major issue with billing circa 2005 where they turned me over for collection, on an account that was paid in full and current! It took hours on the phone over multiple days, along with a lot of official-sounding faxes on letterhead to get that resolved and I should have canceled then.

The 1&1 control panel got continuously more proprietary and locked into their own services instead of more popular standards. I just got tired of it. I still have the account open and one client domain on it because I haven't had time to stage them on the new host and verify all the old code is going to work - I had to make minor updates on a few of the older sites while moving to Dreamhost due to some deprecated PHP.

Anyway, I've been with Dreamhost now for about 6 months and have no complaints. I don't know that I would put something mission-critical there, but for my unimportant blog/personal space, our small business ecommerce site and my tiny consulting site and some free hosting for church & friends it works fine.

Comment Re:Make the damn fisherman get driver's licenses (Score 1) 162

by mikl on Tuesday March 17, 2009 @01:17PM (#27227779) Attached to: The Men Who Fix the Internet

I'm American (although an admitted Anglophile), but I've never heard or used "preventive" - always "preventative"

Researchers Warn of Possible BitTorrent Meltdown 294

Posted by kdawson on Friday February 13, 2009 @10:45AM from the domino-effect dept.

secmartin writes "Researchers at Delft University warn that large parts of the BitTorrent network might collapse if The Pirate Bay is forced to shut down. A large part of the available torrents use The Pirate Bay as tracker, and other available trackers will probably be overloaded if all traffic is shifted there. TPB is currently using eight servers for their trackers. According to the researchers, even trackerless torrents using the DHT protocol will face problems: 'One bug in a DHT sorting routine ensures that it can only "stumble upon success", meaning torrent downloads will not start in seconds or minutes if Pirate Bay goes down in flames.'"

Gamer Plays Over 30 Warcraft Characters 189

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 16, 2008 @03:42PM from the please-go-outside dept.

If your significant other complains that you play too much World of Warcraft, just show them this article about a user named "Prepared." He plays an amazing 36 World of Warcraft accounts on 11 different computers at the same time. He is his own raid group. "It costs me exactly $5711 in subscription costs per year with 36 accounts on the 6 month pay schedule," he writes. "Not bad considering I'm looking at it like it's a hobby and there are more expensive hobbies out there than World of Warcraft."

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