"Mac users a lot smarter than PC users"

[Eric]

Duh.

I know, I know, its common knowledge in these parts But you'd agree that the title of this LinuxInsider article alone would undoubtedly be able to start flame wars if someone was foolish enough to post it in an inappropriate forum--say, Pinoy PC , so read on smug Mac user.

Linux commentator Paul Murphy actually found proof of our 'superior intellect' by comparing the results of readability metrics on text content submitted by users on the more popular OS forums on the web including Slashdot, MSN Forum and Macintouch. He used software to sample and check for readability and bad usage in the postings.

Forget for the moment what the ratings mean and look at the numbers. As a baseline, he used the first 1,000 words of Henry James' novel Golden Bowl.

The results:

Sampling from Henry James novel

Kincaid: 18.2
ARI: 22.2
Coleman-Liau: 9.8
Flesch Index: 46.7
Fog Index: 21.7
Lix: 64.4 = higher than school year 11
SMOG-Grading: 13.5

Sampling from MSN PC Forum postings

Kincaid: 2.9
ARI: 1.9
Coleman-Liau: 8.0
Flesch Index: 89.5
Fog Index: 6.0
Lix: 21.5 = below school year 5
SMOG-Grading: 7.1

Sampling from Macintouch postings

Kincaid: 8.9
ARI: 9.4
Coleman-Liau: 10.0
Flesch Index: 67.8
Fog Index: 12.0
Lix: 40.5 = school year 6
SMOG-Grading: 10.7

So there you have it, scientific-sounding proof of our 'superior smarts.' So the next time a PC-using friend throws around benchmarks or technical specs, you can confound him w/ Kincaid, Flesch Index and SMOG-Grading. :P :lol:

[Edited on 7-22-2004 by Eric]

[MiKo]

what a geeky post :P

elements of a geeky post: linux article, scientific babble...

hmm, wonder why with 116 views, no one has yet replied.

[Jughead]

Perhaps it's because not too many are familiar with Henry James (I'm not, sorry), the MSN PC Forum, Macintouch or all three, Miko.

From an economical standpoint, I wouldn't exactly characterize PC users as stupid either. If you can get a powerful Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon (inferior as they may be to the latest G4 or G5 Macs) at only a fraction of the price of the latest Mac models (say, only P20K or even below), then that would be very smart from where they (emphasis on they, meaning the PC users) sit. I mean, if you can also do Photoshop, MS Office, watch DVD's, play games and just about many of the same things that you can do on a Mac on a PC, then getting a PC may not seem like a really dumb idea. But that's also assuming that you can live with the countless viruses that will infect your PC on a regular (read: daily to weekly) intervals. I can't, that's why I use a Mac myself. But PC users seem to have gotten used to it and don't mind getting rid of the bugs and viruses all the time, though.

I don't think we should really take this Linuxinsider article very seriously. As far as I'm concerned, it's really a "to each his own" sort of thing. They're happy with their PC's, we're happy with our Macs. And life goes on. :2cents:


[Edited on 7-23-2004 by Jughead]

[Edited on 7-23-2004 by Jughead]

[wpalomine]

Quoted from the article:
"Overall, the results are pretty clear: Mac users might not actually be smarter than PC users, but they certainly use better English and a larger vocabulary to express more complex thinking."

[weremermaid]

I did a little research on the Kincaid method and it turns out that (gasp!) Word has that function hidden in the Spelling and Grammar preferences!

Step 1: Choose the Spelling and Grammar preferences in Word.

Step 2: Check the Readability statistics box.

Step 3: Open an existing word document OR copy/paste a comment from a Mac User Group forum.

Step 4: Go to the Tools menu and run the spelling and grammar check.

Step 5: Take a look at the Flesch-Kincaid school level in the readability statistics window. Google "Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level" if you don't know how to interpret the results, or try this:
http://csep.psyc.memphis.edu/cohmetrix/readabilityresearch.htm

Step 6: Then copy/paste a comment from a PC user group forum (- err, do those exist at all?). Follow up with Step 5.

Step 7: Do a few times and weigh the outcome.
Of course, PC users already lose points because they think losing data to viruses and worms is a daily part of life, yada yada yada...

C

[jorweeck]

macintouch... hehehe... sounds wrong...