I was taking a little break from studying for the boards (USMLE Step 1) this evening by catching up on the latest Apple news in Google Reader. AppleInsider had a link to a story about the tight security that Apple employs at developer’s conferences, including, as this story explains, needing to have an escort to use the restroom. Really the only thing that reporters at the WWDC were allowed to report on was things talked about or shown in the keynote presentation. The remainder of the conference is strictly for developers that have signed NDA’s. I think it more had to do with the location of the restroom being near some rooms where confidential information was being discussed. Anyway, on to the funny survey part that started this post.
When I opened the link to the Computerworld article above, I was given the option to do a quick survey on Windows Vista migration. I’ve never used Vista before, but maybe they want to know for what reason, or something. It was a chance to win $250 dollars and, supposedly, only 100 people(?!) were going to be offered this survey (plus whoever receives the option to do the survey but then chooses to enter via fax without participating). The first question asked me how many people were in my organization or enterprise. Hmmm. The only valid options for me were “I don’t know” and “less than 1000.” The other options were even larger. Do I really qualify for winning the $250? I clicked on the Computerworld Prize Drawing Official Rules and, sure enough, the drawing is open to any adult legal resident in the U.S. or Canada. So I chose “less than 1000” and clicked next. And that was the end of the survey; I gave my name and email address (I used a “spam safe” email address) and clicked submit. Now I’m just waiting until June 16th when the winner is drawn; not that I’ll win because I never win these types of drawings.
The funny part (and this may because of some strange Canadian rule), is regarding the selection of the winner. From the official rules, “If the selected winner is a Canadian resident, he or she must correctly answer a time-limited mathematical skill-testing question in order to claim prize.” Wow! They sure make it difficult to win simple random drawings in Canada, eh?!. Ross, you’ll have to example it to me sometime.
That extra requirement for Canadians is to make the drawing more fair. Let me explain:
Canadians, on average, have a higher luck-per-person ( called the LpP coefficient probability circles ) number than Americans. One quantitative example of this is that there are more Tim Hortons in Canada than there are here.
So the mathematical test is meant to balance this luck factor out. My guess is that the question may have to do with how much wood a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood– a vital question that us Americans have been wondering for years.
*called the LpP coefficient in probability circles
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PERHAPS they should ask American “voters” a skill testing question the next time they go to VOTE for their elected officials so that the rest of the world doesn’t have to put up with the consequences of a STUPID electorate who put peeps like Mad Cowboy George and his cronies in power for 8 looong years leaving the rest of the planet to ponder, “WTF???” 🙂
Eh??
– Max (Canadian IT Consultant, aka MaxTheITpro)