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The xkcd survey

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Re: The xkcd survey

#171

Post by logicallee »

hudell wrote: post #102
logicallee wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But there wasn't a quotation mark. I considered starting with the words "type", "five", "random", and "words" - but I realized that that wasn't very random at all (very very low entropy.) So I truly came up with extremely random words.

can it really be considered random if you discarded all of the first words you thought of?

well technically I should have used a random process that had an equal chance of selecting those words as well. But since humans are so bad at coming up with random things, I started with gibberish sounds and then found unusual words to match them.

Re: The xkcd survey

#173

Post by Raphmedia »

a3n wrote: post #114
emidln wrote: post #4

Found out that gnome 3 has some keybinding for dynamically changing screen resolution. I don't know which keybinding that is, but I found it during the mash the keyboard test.

Did anyone mash about a fifth of the window, select all, copy, then paste until it filled up and then some?

Guilty.

Re: The xkcd survey

#174

Post by JoeAltmaier »

irishcoffee wrote: post #169
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My son just picks two in the dark and wears them. He wanted an outward sign of his nerd cred. If they matched, he used to pick again. But he stopped doing that, because if he really didn't care, he would wear matching socks too. Has he reached some higher level of Nerdvana?

I do that just because I'm too lazy to match my socks, or I only have a few clean socks left and none of them match. I can't honestly say I've ever thought about it from a 'what would someone else think?' perspective before reading your comment. Heh, maybe people think I'm colorblind and are just too polite to ask, or nobody notices. I can't say I notice other peoples socks either now that I think about it.

White vs Black pretty easy to notice :)

Re: The xkcd survey

#175

Post by octatoan »

kittenfluff wrote: post #7

=== SPOILER ALERT! === The most interesting question, to me, is the one about which words you know the meaning of. About half of them aren't real words. I assume this question is used partly as a gauge of vocabulary (how many of the real words do you recognize) and partly of honesty (how many of the fake words do you claim to recognize).

I don't know why, but I was able to recognize the non-words instantly (with one exception) even though I didn't know the meaning of every single "real" one. (Peristeronic, etc.)

Perhaps a remnant of my spelling-bee days.

Re: The xkcd survey

#176

Post by smilekzs »

lekashman wrote: post #104

I am incredibly excited by this survey specifically because of the question regarding sandwiches. I finally will have some meaningful data for my extensive definition of sandwiches as a structural form!

And all those sandwich discussions in grad school lounges/kitchens/deli ;)

Re: The xkcd survey

#177

Post by kenbellows »

kachnuv_ocasek wrote: post #133
brianwawok wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But do you curl matching socks or not? If you have many different styles, you need to go hunt around and find matches. Curl or not just delays the matching problem, it does not solve it. Having all the socks be the same makes matching an O(1) problem.

Yes, I pair them after washing, and curl them after drying. Putting them together makes searching O(n) instead of O(n^2) if you have a particular style in mind. Of course, homogeneity makes this even faster, but you lose the benefit of choice, variability and fashionableness. Quid pro quo.

I think his point was that if you're seeking out all the pairs when you curl them together, you're still spending unnecessary time and effort matching socks, just ahead of time instead of in the moment when you need socks

Re: The xkcd survey

#179

Post by zyxley »

mojuba wrote: post #139
muaddirac wrote: post #75

I can't shake the feeling that this will just measure of how willing people are to follow instructions for no reason whatsoever.

Or as an alternative theory, Randall Munroe wants to know if it's OK to tell everyone when he throws away all his socks and buys a bunch of identical ones.

This seems strangely plausible.

Re: The xkcd survey

#180

Post by gdw2 »

spacehome wrote: post #77

I spent 15 minutes filling it out only for Google to tell me "Wow, this file is really popular! It might be unavailable until the crowd clears."

I just hit the back button and resubmitted and it took it. YMMV.
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