[Beowulf] Sidebar: Vista Rant

[Jim Lux]

At 10:38 AM 7/18/2007, Joe Landman wrote:
>Jim Lux wrote:
>
>>The average person spends roughly 3700 hours per year consuming 
>>enetertainment, of which more than 3500 are some form of audio or 
>>video (i.e. not reading)
>
>I would love to hear where that data came from.

Why, it came from the web, and the web doesn't lie..
(I'll get you the actual reference, shortly)

>Considering a work year is about 2080 hours, this means we spend 
>more time  per week being entertained, than working.

But you only work 5 days a week, and you're entertained 7.

It did seem high, though.. But then, say you listen to the radio or 
CDs in the car during a 2 hour commute (both ways), watch TV for 3 
hours when you get home, watch TV for 4 hours on Sat and Sun, and 
you're getting up into the thousands of hours category.



>Moreover, there are 8760 hours (give or take) in a year.  3700 hours 
>represents 42% of that.
>
>Needless to say, I am ... ah ... skeptical ... about those numbers (the 3700).
>
>>Going to the theater and seeing a movie is a very tiny fraction of 
>>this (on average), but still accounts for about $10B per year in 
>>the US, and perhaps $25B world wide (2004 numbers) and this does 
>>not include "adult" entertainment.
>
>Maybe listening to the radio while driving your car counts.  Maybe 
>all the annoying little ad-blurbs on pages count.  I dunno.

The reference was to media, so clearly, listening to the radio counts.
They're probably also counting things like background music in 
stores, gyms, etc.




>3700 hours?  Unlikely at best.

CDC says 25% of children watch >4hrs/day of TV.. that's 1460 hours right there.




>--
>
>Joseph Landman, Ph.D
>Founder and CEO
>Scalable Informatics LLC,
>email: landman at scalableinformatics.com
>web  : http://www.scalableinformatics.com
>        http://jackrabbit.scalableinformatics.com
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>cell : +1 734 612 4615

James Lux, P.E.
Spacecraft Radio Frequency Subsystems Group
Flight Communications Systems Section
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mail Stop 161-213
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena CA 91109
tel: (818)354-2075
fax: (818)393-6875