Forecast for 1/28/2000: Friday...partly cloudy. Low around 20. High 25 to 30.
Forecast for 1/29/2000: Saturday...fair. Low in the mid 20s. High 30 to 35.
The forecast 5 days ago for today said, “Monday…windy with a chance of snow. Low 20 to 25. High 25 to 30” and the weather is cloudy (no snow) between 28 and 36 with the wind is blowing at only 6 mph. I think it’s safe to say they were wrong. That makes ’em 1 right and 2 wrong.
meg pointed out the story about the absurd diffference between Mattel’s Hot Wheels PC and the Barbie PC, Barbie PC: Fashion Over Logic. You would think after the “Math Class is Hard” bad press they would have learned, but they didn’t. Time to boycott Mattel.
And they further infuriate me by slighting all the research and products done by Brenda Laurel and Purple Moon, assholes…
“Until Barbie software hit the market, there wasn’t really any software for girls,” Ms. Henry said. “We dispelled the myth that girls didn’t like using the computer or playing games.”
On Regret:
Counting Crows:
“I have dreamed of a black car that shimmers and drives
down the length of the evening, to the carnaval side.
In a house where regret is a carnaval ride
we are spinning and spinning and…”
Sugar Ray:
“We can go out on the weekend, cause the weekend is free.
We can go off on the deep end, if you’re thinking of me…
We make it through the week when you’re believin’ in me.
You’re the one that said to me
that we don’t regret anymore…
Love what we be about.
Love what we be about”
Forecast for 1/26/2000: Wednesday...cloudy with a chance of snow. Low 20 to 25. High in the upper 20s
Forecast for 1/27/2000: Thursday...cloudy with a chance of snow. Low 20 to 25. High in the upper 20s.
The five day forecast for yesterday had the temp right but predicted partly cloudy when it was sunny. I won’t count that one either way.
Forecast for 1/25/2000: Tuesday...partly cloudy. Low 20 to 25. High around 30.
On 1/16 they predicted today would be cloudy and in the 30s, but it’s sunny and between 16 and 24. Wrong. So far the count of the National Weather Service is 1 right and 1 wrong.
I thought I was using the word “table” wrong, in the idiomatic sense. But according to Merriam-Webster you can use it in roughly opposite meanings and still follow common usage:
Idioms:
on the table
So it can either mean, “We’re considering this now,” or it can mean, “We’ll consider this later.” Gotta love the English language.
Trust and the perception of security – one of those articles that shouldn’t surprise us so much, but does because Internet professionals are so far removed from the typical user experience. Reinforces the reasoning behind user testing.
This observation puzzled us. Discussions about security on internet seem preoccupied with technical issues such as 128-bit encryption, secure sessions, authentication, digital certificates, secure sockets layer, etc. And we observe that people feel secure because… “it’s easy”?!
It’s time to compare forecast with reality. Reality (in NYC): High of 31, low of 23, and it snowed today (woohoo, first good snow of the season).
So the forecast from 1/15 is darn close: “a chance of snow showers. Low around 20. High in the upper 20s.”
But the forecast from 1/16 didn’t mention the snow, and said the temp will be in the 30’s range. You’d think it would be more accurate, but it wasn’t. Thursday’s forecast from 1/18 was similarly too high (mid 30s).
The Slate, a pretty cool Internet (web browsing) appliance. Ya know, for me, the Internet is not only about interacting with remote servers, it’s about interacting with the people on the other side of those servers. Mostly this means I want to send email and view attachments (like Word, Excel) on the computer I’m surfing on. Not everyone will, but I will. I’m curious to see how popular these become, I predict not much more popular than WebTV.
Among the Inept, Researchers Discover, Ignorance Is Bliss. Found via brig, it’s one of those things you have to keep in mind throughout life:
One reason that the ignorant also tend to be the blissfully self-assured, the researchers believe, is that the skills required for competence often are the same skills necessary to recognize competence.
Forecast for 1/24/2000: Monday...windy with a chance of snow. Low 20 to 25. High 25 to 30.
Stop reading this. Go do something nice for someone else.
Still reading? I’ll assume you’ve plum run out of nice things to do for others and are ready to do something nice for yourself, like get a job at Razorfish. You can work with smart, talented people on broadcast, mobile, physical, and Internet stuff, travel to our Sweden office and eat weird food, and watch your stock options pay for a new home. Interested? Send me your resume.
Thoughts on my deliverable format:
“First tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em, then tell ’em, then tell ’em what you told ’em” – Teddy Roosevelt, I think.
Forecast for 1/23/2000: Sunday...cloudy with a chance of snow. Low 20 to 25. High in the mid 30s.
Forecast for 1/22/2000: Saturday...partly cloudy. Low 15 to 20. High 25 to 30.
Thursday’s high is now forecasted to be in the “mid 30s.” Basically an average of the estimates of 1/15 and 1/16. Three different forecasts for one particular day yielding 3 different estimates varying by about +/- 5 degrees.