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August 15, 2006
[Statistics] How To Lie With A Chart
The New York Times printed an article today showing the ridiculously low amount of Americans that believe in evolution compared to the rest of the world.
They pointed to the article summary in Science, but since they knew that most of their readers didn't subscribe to Science, they ran a chart as well. (This links to a local copy in case they change the chart.)
Notice anything odd about the chart? There's a hash mark at the top at the 50% mark, and an unfortunately believable curve of "Yes" answers going down. At the bottom, there's another hash mark. The position of the hash mark at the bottom would lead you to believe that just over 50% of the population of the U.S. believes in evolution. You would be wrong.
So you can compare apples to apples, here is the same chart with a straight line down from the 50% mark...notice anything different?
Now, the obvious defense here is "the bottom hash isn't a hash, it's indicating the label underneath. You know, the one that says 'White areas represent an answer of not sure.'" So why not put that label at the top with the rest of the legend? If "white" is too hard to indicate, why not use a different color?
It's a poorly designed chart, and given that most people are only going to glance at the chart rather than dissect it, it's a potentially misleading chart as well.
They pointed to the article summary in Science, but since they knew that most of their readers didn't subscribe to Science, they ran a chart as well. (This links to a local copy in case they change the chart.)
Notice anything odd about the chart? There's a hash mark at the top at the 50% mark, and an unfortunately believable curve of "Yes" answers going down. At the bottom, there's another hash mark. The position of the hash mark at the bottom would lead you to believe that just over 50% of the population of the U.S. believes in evolution. You would be wrong.
So you can compare apples to apples, here is the same chart with a straight line down from the 50% mark...notice anything different?
Now, the obvious defense here is "the bottom hash isn't a hash, it's indicating the label underneath. You know, the one that says 'White areas represent an answer of not sure.'" So why not put that label at the top with the rest of the legend? If "white" is too hard to indicate, why not use a different color?
It's a poorly designed chart, and given that most people are only going to glance at the chart rather than dissect it, it's a potentially misleading chart as well.
August 14, 2006
[GameDev] XNA Framework
By now, I'm sure you've all heard about XNA Game Studio Express. While I'm happy that some information is coming out, I'm concerned about a few items.
For example:
For example:
- The XNA Framework SDK is only going to come with XNA Game Studio Express and XNA Game Studio Professional according to the FAQ. Seems like a waste and a half for those of us who already own a higher version of Visual Studio 2005 than the Express Editions. It also scares me to have the SDK tied to the development tool.
- Last year, when I was speaking with some of the guys up at GameFest, some of the design decisions behind XACT seemed to be in place to specifically discourage modding, but I don't know what changes to XACT have occurred since then.
- While I understand the decision to not allow Live connectivity on the 360 side of things for the Express Edition, I'm worried that not even System Link connectivity seems to be included.
That said, I'm going to reserve my judgment until I see the tools. It's quite possible that my concerns are not justified. While I wish I could be up at GameFest this year so that my questions can be answered in person, I'll just have to wait for the tool and see for myself.
August 12, 2006
[Anime] "Totoro" vs. "Totoro"
Tonight, I finally watched the Disney dub of one of my favorite movies of all time, "My Neighbor Totoro."
Up until now, I'd only seen the full-screen Fox dub of the movie, so it was interesting comparing the two.
The Disney version has a more accurate dub, a crisper recording, an amazing audio mix, and is technically superior in every way to the Fox dub...so why do I feel like something was missing?
I can only put it on the performances of Dakota and Elle Fanning...they were almost too polished. While all of the adults came across as very convincing in their respective roles, Dakota and Elle came across as child actresses playing children instead of the children that they really were. It may sound like a silly distinction, but it's true.
So I'm going to keep both versions of the movie. I'll keep the Disney version for those times when I want to watch it subtitled, but for when I want to hear English, I'm going to have to stick with the Fox dub.
Up until now, I'd only seen the full-screen Fox dub of the movie, so it was interesting comparing the two.
The Disney version has a more accurate dub, a crisper recording, an amazing audio mix, and is technically superior in every way to the Fox dub...so why do I feel like something was missing?
I can only put it on the performances of Dakota and Elle Fanning...they were almost too polished. While all of the adults came across as very convincing in their respective roles, Dakota and Elle came across as child actresses playing children instead of the children that they really were. It may sound like a silly distinction, but it's true.
So I'm going to keep both versions of the movie. I'll keep the Disney version for those times when I want to watch it subtitled, but for when I want to hear English, I'm going to have to stick with the Fox dub.
[Quake] Quake III: XInput
If you use the Xbox 360 Controller for Windows and want to use it to play "Quake III: Arena," I made it very easy to do so.
Download "Quake III" XInput and follow the instructions in the enclosed readme.
Right now, it's hardcoded to only use the first controller. Code is included if that isn't good enough.
Download "Quake III" XInput and follow the instructions in the enclosed readme.
Right now, it's hardcoded to only use the first controller. Code is included if that isn't good enough.
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