Compare Stuff News http://blog.compare-stuff.com Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:39:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 en Head to head: EU-based airlines http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/07/22/head-to-head-eu-based-airlines/ http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/07/22/head-to-head-eu-based-airlines/#comments Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:35:27 +0000 Bob http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/07/22/head-to-head-eu-based-airlines/ With Ryanair in the news “blaming high passenger taxes and rising charges” for its cutbacks at London Stansted, you might be thinking “Hang on a minute, but Ryanair are the masters of hidden taxes and charges!”. Well let’s see who is most moaned about on the web in this respect:

Surprisingly, BMI Baby tops the charts for “hidden charges”, with Ryanair and EasyJet coming in a close second and third. The results for “stranded” aren’t as you might expect. It seems that Lufthansa had a well reported strike which left thousands stranded. I doubt the unions are very strong at Ryanair… I guess you want to try the phrase “I was stranded”, that should reflect customer opinion better.

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]]> http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/07/22/head-to-head-eu-based-airlines/feed/ Even dead people have lawyers http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/06/26/even-dead-people-have-lawyers/ http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/06/26/even-dead-people-have-lawyers/#comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:06:00 +0000 Bob http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/06/26/even-dead-people-have-lawyers/ However, none of the following graphs will make any accusations of misconduct or mental instability whatsoever.

To mark the passing of the King of Pop, I have introduced a new category for the X-axis: “famous dead people”. By this I mean famous people who died a bit too soon.

Recently deceased Michael Jackson won’t be remembered for his musical talents, at least in comparison to Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley.

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]]> http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/06/26/even-dead-people-have-lawyers/feed/ Punch Bob Crow http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/06/10/punch-bob-crow/ http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/06/10/punch-bob-crow/#comments Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:56:52 +0000 Bob http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/06/10/punch-bob-crow/ Well I’ll add a token graph but most of you probably want to punch Bob Crow for ruining your day (if you live or work in London, UK).

The graph below sums him up perfectly. Bob Crow is a hostile, pessimistic ~@^&er. Click on the plot to get a (slightly more) legible version!

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]]> http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/06/10/punch-bob-crow/feed/ More flu graphs http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/04/28/more-flu-graphs/ http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/04/28/more-flu-graphs/#comments Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:28:02 +0000 Bob http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/04/28/more-flu-graphs/ Well this swine flu really caught us by surprise didn’t it? After months of worry about avian flu a while back, now it’s really happening, but coming from the other side of the planet.

Here’s a plot of “swine flu” and “avian flu” vs. recent months:

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]]> http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/04/28/more-flu-graphs/feed/ Google Flu Trends http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/02/19/google-flu-trends/ http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/02/19/google-flu-trends/#comments Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:50:53 +0000 Bob http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/02/19/google-flu-trends/ Well here’s a nice bit of search engine trend news: search engine query traffic detects outbreaks, and there’s accompanying paper in Nature. Can we compete with that? Not really, but here’s a plot anyway:

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]]> http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/02/19/google-flu-trends/feed/ The slow rise of the e-book. http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/02/11/the-slow-rise-of-the-e-book/ http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/02/11/the-slow-rise-of-the-e-book/#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:51:36 +0000 Bob http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/02/11/the-slow-rise-of-the-e-book/ In the week that Amazon announce their new Kindle 2 ebook reader, let’s look to see how ebooks are doing vs. their more established paper counterparts:

ebook vs. paperback

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]]> http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2009/02/11/the-slow-rise-of-the-e-book/feed/ Pollution is prime cause of torture… http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2008/08/10/pollution-is-prime-cause-of-torture/ http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2008/08/10/pollution-is-prime-cause-of-torture/#comments Sun, 10 Aug 2008 11:29:37 +0000 Bob http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2008/08/10/pollution-is-prime-cause-of-torture/ Not really, it’s just a catchy headline to point out the problem with correlation being confused with causation. Here’s a plot I just made with the current sporting event (better not name it in case I get sued) in mind:

There’s a strong correlation between smog and human rights abuses, but we can’t say that one is causing the other!

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]]> http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2008/08/10/pollution-is-prime-cause-of-torture/feed/ High resolution screenshots from Firefox for Powerpoint on a Mac http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2008/07/02/hi-res-firefox-screenshots/ http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2008/07/02/hi-res-firefox-screenshots/#comments Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:00:56 +0000 Bob http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2008/07/02/hi-res-firefox-screenshots/ Here’s a quick “how to” because I don’t have another blog to put it on.

If you are making a poster with web browser screenshots on it, they will look poor quality when eventually printed out at A0 size. This is because unless your screen is absolutely huge, there aren’t enough dots there to look good on a poster. Ideally you should work with vector graphics formats (like EPS, PDF) in a proper drawing program like Adobe Illustrator (since PDF is imported as an ugly low-res bitmap into Powerpoint), but if you can’t do that, then the following may work for you.
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]]> http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2008/07/02/hi-res-firefox-screenshots/feed/ To quote or not to quote http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2008/06/25/to-quote-or-not-to-quote/ http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2008/06/25/to-quote-or-not-to-quote/#comments Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:51:14 +0000 Bob http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2008/06/25/to-quote-or-not-to-quote/ For some reason, I thought it would be interesting to follow “hay fever” through the days of the week. I couldn’t think of another good query to compare it against so I typed the same thing without quotes. The result was quite interesting:

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]]> http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2008/06/25/to-quote-or-not-to-quote/feed/ Cripes, Boris is ahead! http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2008/04/02/cripes-boris-is-ahead/ http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2008/04/02/cripes-boris-is-ahead/#comments Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:18:07 +0000 Bob http://blog.compare-stuff.com/2008/04/02/cripes-boris-is-ahead/ Forget the US elections, things are hotting up in London’s mayoral race. Any PR is good PR for Boris Johnson it seems. His web visibility is rising faster than Ken Livingstone’s…

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