But then, it only seems to work for some friends! For
Anyway, this set me thinking on a geek tangent...
You know how people rate devices using variables like "reliability", "features", or "ease of use"? Well, with smart devices there ought to be another variable, "loyalty". It signifies whose side the device is on.
For example, MSIE and Mozilla have similar functionality but Mozilla is on your side (it lets you block popups, force your own fonts, load pages in tabs, etc) whereas MSIE is on their side - the side of the people who serve the pages. They determine exactly what you see.
So, how would you rate the loyalty of the following devices? 1 means on your side, 5 is neutral, 9 is on "their" side.
Microsoft Internet Explorer
Mean: 7.20 Median: 8 Std. Dev 2.14
1
0(0.0%)
2
0(0.0%)
3
1(20.0%)
4
0(0.0%)
5
0(0.0%)
6
0(0.0%)
7
0(0.0%)
8
3(60.0%)
9
1(20.0%)
Netscape 6
Mean: 3.67 Median: 4 Std. Dev 1.25
1
0(0.0%)
2
1(33.3%)
3
0(0.0%)
4
1(33.3%)
5
1(33.3%)
6
0(0.0%)
7
0(0.0%)
8
0(0.0%)
9
0(0.0%)
Mozilla
Mean: 4.25 Median: 3.5 Std. Dev 2.49
1
0(0.0%)
2
2(50.0%)
3
0(0.0%)
4
0(0.0%)
5
1(25.0%)
6
0(0.0%)
7
0(0.0%)
8
1(25.0%)
9
0(0.0%)
Safari
Mean: 4.50 Median: 4.5 Std. Dev 0.50
1
0(0.0%)
2
0(0.0%)
3
0(0.0%)
4
1(50.0%)
5
1(50.0%)
6
0(0.0%)
7
0(0.0%)
8
0(0.0%)
9
0(0.0%)
Windows 2000
Mean: 5.80 Median: 5 Std. Dev 0.98
1
0(0.0%)
2
0(0.0%)
3
0(0.0%)
4
0(0.0%)
5
3(60.0%)
6
0(0.0%)
7
2(40.0%)
8
0(0.0%)
9
0(0.0%)
Windows XP
Mean: 6.67 Median: 8 Std. Dev 2.62
1
0(0.0%)
2
0(0.0%)
3
1(33.3%)
4
0(0.0%)
5
0(0.0%)
6
0(0.0%)
7
0(0.0%)
8
1(33.3%)
9
1(33.3%)
Mac OS X
Mean: 5.00 Median: 5 Std. Dev 0.00
1
0(0.0%)
2
0(0.0%)
3
0(0.0%)
4
0(0.0%)
5
2(100.0%)
6
0(0.0%)
7
0(0.0%)
8
0(0.0%)
9
0(0.0%)
Linux - Gnome
Mean: 4.00 Median: 3 Std. Dev 1.41
1
0(0.0%)
2
0(0.0%)
3
2(66.7%)
4
0(0.0%)
5
0(0.0%)
6
1(33.3%)
7
0(0.0%)
8
0(0.0%)
9
0(0.0%)
Linux - KDE
Mean: 3.50 Median: 3.5 Std. Dev 0.50
1
0(0.0%)
2
0(0.0%)
3
1(50.0%)
4
1(50.0%)
5
0(0.0%)
6
0(0.0%)
7
0(0.0%)
8
0(0.0%)
9
0(0.0%)
HTML documents
Mean: 2.60 Median: 2 Std. Dev 1.36
1
1(20.0%)
2
2(40.0%)
3
1(20.0%)
4
0(0.0%)
5
1(20.0%)
6
0(0.0%)
7
0(0.0%)
8
0(0.0%)
9
0(0.0%)
Word documents (DOC)
Mean: 5.60 Median: 7 Std. Dev 2.65
1
0(0.0%)
2
1(20.0%)
3
1(20.0%)
4
0(0.0%)
5
0(0.0%)
6
0(0.0%)
7
2(40.0%)
8
0(0.0%)
9
1(20.0%)
PDF documents
Mean: 5.20 Median: 5 Std. Dev 2.32
1
0(0.0%)
2
1(20.0%)
3
0(0.0%)
4
1(20.0%)
5
1(20.0%)
6
1(20.0%)
7
0(0.0%)
8
0(0.0%)
9
1(20.0%)
Ordinary cellphone
Mean: 4.50 Median: 5 Std. Dev 1.50
1
0(0.0%)
2
1(25.0%)
3
0(0.0%)
4
0(0.0%)
5
2(50.0%)
6
1(25.0%)
7
0(0.0%)
8
0(0.0%)
9
0(0.0%)
PalmOS phone
Mean: 4.33 Median: 5 Std. Dev 0.94
1
0(0.0%)
2
0(0.0%)
3
1(33.3%)
4
0(0.0%)
5
2(66.7%)
6
0(0.0%)
7
0(0.0%)
8
0(0.0%)
9
0(0.0%)
PocketPC phone
Mean: 6.50 Median: 6.5 Std. Dev 1.50
1
0(0.0%)
2
0(0.0%)
3
0(0.0%)
4
0(0.0%)
5
1(50.0%)
6
0(0.0%)
7
0(0.0%)
8
1(50.0%)
9
0(0.0%)
I do think also like a human, but, well, where do I start? Human update tomorrow...
Pavlos