What’s so interesting about a Web-based opinion poll on the Samuel Alito ( President Bush’s latest supreme court nominee) nomination? Obviously, someone’s done the math on using the Web to perform data collection, likely cheaper than staffing a call center and phoning the world via phone. My thought, though, is that the data is likely to be skewed because of a couple of factors. First, the poll is conceivably only open to those with a computer and an Internet connection (not to mention a spare ‘5-7 minutes’), leaving those across the ‘digital divide’ left in the dark. Second, those that ‘voluntarily’ take a poll by responding to an ad are likely to be more ‘activist’ in nature as opposed to the unassuming soccer mom who answered the phone while cooking dinner. Hence, the results can’t be looked at in a vacuum. Just another example of how the Web is changing things.
Archive for January, 2006
Polling Alito
Wednesday, January 11th, 2006Sign of the Apocalypse
Monday, January 9th, 2006
I saw this little $278 power strip (stylized, no less) in the Design Within Reach catalog. I wonder how many of these they sell at almost $300 each! Thought I had seen it all! Full listing is available here.
What was that? I can’t hear you.
Thursday, January 5th, 2006I was browsing MSN’s news yesterday and The Who’s Pete Townshend warns iPod users caught my attention. The article is about the guitarist’s concerns regarding headphone popularity and concern with the inevitable result of future hearing problems. He, along with some others — electricnews.net, slashdot.com, and headwize.com (see their article on “Preventing Hearing Damage When Listening With Headphones”) to name a few — all bring up important points [that should be common sense but aren't usually even top-of-mind] regarding the headphones and hearing loss. More specifically the growing popularity of headphone usage with any sort of sound interaction and the increasing likelihood of hearing damage.
With the continuing advancement and ease of technology, it’s just something to keep in mind when it involves your overall health and wellness.
Bill Gates’ Urge
Thursday, January 5th, 2006Gates has revealed his rival platform to compete with Apple’s iTunes today at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Apparently, the new service (called Urge) will distribute music and video the same way iTunes does but it won’t play on iPod devices. I’m wondering if that iPod move is a wise one or a foolish one!