h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A668630

Not quite sure if this makes it - it's perilously close to an pinion piece, but it does have a serious point to make.

Personnaly, I like it.

I hope it gets through.

Another example of bad statistics is microsoft using it's share of the home market to advertise their server product.

I rather like this piece, it made me smile.

The title however, needs looking at (tyrrany should be tyranny, by the way). The article has two major things:

1. People fix their statistics by having biased baseline data; and
2. The firms with the biggest market share can spend vast amounts of money to promote their products and smaller firms can't match the spending.

The title reflects the second, but not necessarity the first. Have I any better ideas at the moment? No.

By the way, I heard the other day that in the UK, an average £1200 of the price of a new car is spent on advertising.

Two more typos - doinant (about halfway down) should be dominant and budgeet (in footnote 5) should be budget.

Finally, I feel the piece lacks a conclusion. It hints at one, but does not give it.

Anyway, that's my 2p worth.

Interesting piece.

Another typo in the footnote - aagainst.

Hi,

yeah, I enjoyed reading this too, but I'm afraid I don't really go for it as an entry. It just strikes me that this seems to begin as a fairly general comment on statistics and advertising but rapidly develops into a more focused attack on MS and lamentation of the lack of competition in the OS market.

I would tend to agree that the title is misleading (though wonderful! ). Also I'm afraid I think it lacks balance and as such could be accused of verging on the rant. I'm not knocking the content or style, I'm really just suggesting that this is not what I would think of as edited guide material.

Of course, that's just the way *I* saw it. Many may feel otherwise!

Spiff

I agree that the title is misleading. I was all set for a piece about economies of scale and market placement. In fact market share is a minor side issue in the article. This does need changing.

I'm not sure the scope is wide enough. I agree with the point about concentrating on MS. There's so much more to the evils of marketing:- the use of celebrities, the deliberate hoodwinking of the consumer, multiple brands for the same base product by the same company, etc.

I also agree...though MS is one of the most guilty parties of these strongarm tactics, there are many other very bad examples of this...

Long-distance phone companies are guilty of a thing called "slamming" where they attempt to gain a tyrannical market share by signing up customers and switching their service without asking

perhaps a look at other companies, as well as examples of those who use ethical means to sell their products, would make this more balanced... for instance their is a brand named "No-Ad" which claims lower prices because the customer is not paying anything for advertising costs...they make sunscreen for one thing, though I'm unaware of their other products.....

Otherwise I like this entry.... maybe just tone down the assault on MS and temper it with other information

keep up the good work

uk gas and electric suppliers have also been caught doing "slamming".

I am sure there are other companies that could be used instead of microsoft for those bits already here, but if you extend it to cover things like "fud" (fear, uncertainty and doubt) and the adopt end extend approach to standards, then microsoft have the field pretty much to themselves.

For those who care to look, the entry has been updated in line with comments. But I like the title too much to change it yet....

Hi again,

Like the changes. Certainly less focused on MS now.

I like the comparison of Apple's 10% M share and BMW and M-B! Really good.

Maybe have time to look more closely at the rest tom. Beware though, there are at least a couple of typos from the re-write.

Seeya
Spiff

Just a thought but I liked it...just change the title...maybe something like "mircosoft's makerting tactics"

The enormous hype over Harry Potter movie springs to mind. I thought it was an incredible anti-climax, but as you say had the big bucks to make some of us anyway feel duped.
Thumbs up to this highly readable and informative piece.

Like it. Big improvement over what went before. Except the ending!
I can understand why it is like it is, but ...

What's the actual message (apart from don't accept all you're told)?

How is the average consumer going to know who to believe? And if the answer's 'look at the scientific journals' - is that practical? How are we to know who is telling the truth and whose advertisements are mere 'puff'?

Potter movie was actually quite good - very close to the books. I wait to see what the Lord of the Rings film will be like.

Who do you believe? Anyone you pay, rather than anyone who is paying to talk to you.

you use apple as an example of microsoft fud, but if you search google for "microsoft fud" you will find many examples that you can link to of it being used against linux.

I'm sure that Microsoft (R) Fud (TM) will be a licensed product soon....

Three types of falsehood: lies, damned lies and statistics.
Forget who said that.
Admire you sticking to your guns, Guy, and your enthusiasm.
In my ignorance, seeing you name on the entry, I, too, expected something of a slightly higher standard than a genteel rant.
Some of the Gatesian arguments were also used by Edison against alternating current, by the steam automobile people against the gas autmobile, and the horse people against the bicycle.
Other examples might be IBM's own arguments against the Wang, CDC, and later the entire idea of a PC.
The vacuum tube supposedly went away in the seventies, because of the lack of market share, but now it is bigger than ever and there are new factories pumping them out.
The manual typewriter is supposedly a good doorstop. Yet, they are still being used all over the world and still being manufactured.
Snail mail is supposed to be crawling out of our lives.
The 'paperless office' is just around the corner.
The 'South Will Rise Again'!
See the New Delorean
at a dealer near
you!

I like this much better now...more balanced...

you might want to include some places where reliable information *can* be found, for instance Consumer Reports....

Certainly don't believe those who pay to talk to you, but is it wise to believe those who you pay? They are likely to tell you what you want to hear just to keep the checks coming.... Better not to believe anyone but to think things through for yourself, using whatever reliable and unbiased information may be available...

H.A.

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'The Writing Workshop'.

Ooohh! This is going to be great Edited Guide entry... but it's not *quite* ready yet (nearly, though!). We think a little spell in the Writing Workshop may well see it achieve the sense of balance that at the moment we feel it lacks; rightly or wrongly, it still reads like a thinly-veiled attack on Microsoft. It also needs factual back-up to support the claims made (otherwise we'll be looking down the barrel of some cigar smokin' lawyer's shotgun).