The results of the study were drawn from data gathered from a few hundred people who are part of comScore’s database of 2 million computer users worldwide. The firm, which has permission to monitor the computer users’ online behavior, did not provide a margin of error for the study’s results. [From Most fans paid $0 for Radiohead album - Yahoo! News]
In what world does a “few out of a hundred” translate to “Most”??????
Can someone answer to me how mainstream journalism has survived this long?
UPDATE: To be clear to my bloggy brethren, I’m not saying a damn thing about Radiohead in this post, but just saying that mainstream journalism is ridiculous and stupid. NO RADIOHEAD COMMENTARY!!!!!! No Comscore commentary either (other than to say sampling theory doesn’t work when it applies to an intrinsically probabalistic sampling pool, ie people)
Wow. That’s horrible.
Most #1 releases in CD format in the US sell 100k - 200k in the first week. Let’s say conservativley that 100,000 people downloaded the Radiohead album in an entire *month*. So they surveyed “a few hundred” — we’ll say that’s 400 — leaving us a sample size of .4%. Perhaps not horrible by itself, but ComScore has a database of only 2 million users *worldwide*. Thus, we’re working with a sample of a sample of a population. There’s also no mention of margins of error.
Veiga apparently has no taste for statistical follow through.
The problem is journalists come up with an angle and then look for sources that support their idea.
I don’t know what the fuss is all about. It’s called sampling theory and it’s been around for years — and it works. If you don’t believe in the validity of sampling, next time you go to the doctor and he wants to “take a little blood”, you should tell him to “take it all”!
@Stuart: Thanks, but I understand statistics. However, I have a problem with the way this information was reported — no mention of who ComScore is, how they compile their database (which could already be biased data), or why their information should be trusted, in addition to a lack of other information like margins of error. When you’re talking about a sample size of “a few hundred” margins of error can be huge. And about that sample, “a few hundred” doesn’t seem like a sample size that would result in a proper representation of the entire world population.
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yeah, Dries, what's with that?
[From Has been... | Willy Dobbe]- #
The XMPP feed was really cool. Why Twitter won't allow relaying is beyond me. If twitter decentralized and did a node/hub based architecture with a good toolkit, things would be much different.
[From No XMPP: What Is Twitter Protecting?]- #
So why couldn't a loosely coupled, queue based system using XMPP work as a twitter clone? Hash table lookups for @replies, a good OSPF type routing table for interserver communication and asynchronous messaging propagation. Lets get cracking!
]- #
The dutch certainly like their Twitters! That's better twitter coverage than we got at most of the US shows.
[From July 2nd, Amsterdam, Netherlands | R.E.M. Tour, 2008]- #
For the past ten years "tapped for web series" has usually been synonymous for "lots of money on stuff no one will want to watch." Can Google + MacFarlane reverse this? Probably not, because they don't understand the concept of Windowing. Content is successful when not built up with expectations.
[From Google taps 'Family Guy' guy for Web series | Tech news blog - CNET News.com]- #
so this reminds me that Indigo Home Automation software + native iPhone App is going to absolutely MURDER as a home automation device. IndigoIndigo has an IP protocol and Zeroconf support. Our iPod Touch in our house is already doing this using a web based interface for us. Also consider the possibilities of using the iPod to control a wider array of devices, like your home stereo (using IRTransIRTrans), your air conditioner, etc. The iPod Touch suddenly kills the Phillips Prestigo, Logitech Harmony, etc. The Touch costs less than the Harmony, but IRTrans is not that cheap.
[From Apple to Offer iTunes Remote Control App for iPhone and iPod Touch - Mac Rumors]- #
Crystal was a great asset to the team and it will be sad to lose her, but our loss is many other people's gains and I wish her well in Seattle!
[From Clever, Clever Girl » Big Changes and a Bigger Move]- #
This is severely retarded. Honestly. In Orange County, a city with a plentiful population of people needing jobs and wanting to work and invested in their communities, a paper instead opts to crowdsource through Indian outsourcing than maybe offering to give something back to the community by crowd sourcing through, maybe parts of the city with high unemployment? Fuck. The stupidity abounds.
[From OC Register to outsource some editing to India]- #
So this is another in the line of REM experiments. With this one, fans can help create the animations for the tour backdrop in the European leg, through October. The animations will get assembled and shipped off to Blue Leach, who is doing the background video.
[From -- R.E.M. HOLLOW MAN --]- #
Bill Gates = a personal hero. I love this e-mail. Microsoft is also a case of spreading things too thin.
[From Full text: An epic Bill Gates e-mail rant]- #
- Has been… | Willy Dobbe
- No XMPP: What Is Twitter Protecting?
- Identi.ca: May A Million Twitters Bloom - ReadWriteWeb
- July 2nd, Amsterdam, Netherlands | R.E.M. Tour, 2008
- Google taps ‘Family Guy’ guy for Web series | Tech news blog - CNET News.com
- Wall-E
- ENOUGH with the parties, where is the innovation? What the fuck are we celebrating anyhow?
- Apple to Offer iTunes Remote Control App for iPhone and iPod Touch - Mac Rumors
- Clever, Clever Girl » Big Changes and a Bigger Move
- OC Register to outsource some editing to India
- – R.E.M. HOLLOW MAN –
- Full text: An epic Bill Gates e-mail rant
- Oh forgot…
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