From owner-freebsd-chat Thu Feb 25 14:25:17 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from smtp04.primenet.com (smtp04.primenet.com [206.165.6.134]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D6D9A14D74 for ; Thu, 25 Feb 1999 14:25:14 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from tlambert@usr09.primenet.com) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by smtp04.primenet.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) id PAA00741; Thu, 25 Feb 1999 15:48:39 -0700 (MST) Received: from usr09.primenet.com(206.165.6.209) via SMTP by smtp04.primenet.com, id smtpd000689; Thu Feb 25 15:48:30 1999 Received: (from tlambert@localhost) by usr09.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id PAA20308; Thu, 25 Feb 1999 15:24:46 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <199902252224.PAA20308@usr09.primenet.com> Subject: Re: Commercial Tripwire available for Linux, not FreeBSD To: brett@lariat.org (Brett Glass) Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 22:24:46 +0000 (GMT) Cc: tlambert@primenet.com, grog@lemis.com, chat@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <4.1.19990225143722.03fcbf10@mail.lariat.org> from "Brett Glass" at Feb 25, 99 02:38:41 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org > >My original complaint was that you used the word "estimated". > > Well, Linux's installed base is "estimated" as well. No one knows how > big it is, or isn't. Marketing lesson #1: "Estimated" -- bad. "Bald-ass statement that may not be true" -- good. Exercise: Read an article extolling the virtues of something with which you are more familiar than the reporter. Count the relative number of estimates vs. bald-ass statements. > >But to answer the question, why is $49.95 ten dollars cheaper than $50.00? > > Hmmm. Does 2/3 seem smaller than 66%? Not to me.... But then, maybe I'm > too mathematically minded. Marketing lesson #2: Any percentage greater than 59% is "almost as much", while any fraction is smaller than one. Exercise: Ask a non-techincal person whether they would like 3/17 of as a raise, or a full 15% raise. Don't let them use a calculator or a pen and paper. Alternate exeercise: Instead of a raise, ask them if they prefer a coupon for 3/17ths off or 15% off some item. Marketing lesson #3: Ending numbers have the following collation sequence: 1 < 3 < 5 < 2 < 4 < 7 < 8 < 9 < 6 < 0 Exercise: Go through a Sears catalog or a Sharper Image store. For every item, write down the ending two digits of the price. Make a graph of the frequency count. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message