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Why bother with footnotes?

Why bother with footnotes?
We were shocked when we saw this benchmark chart. There were so many footnotes to denote how the chip being compared to was not an Opteron 2XXX (as the headings say) that we wondered why not do it the other way around? Instead of saying which chips were not an Opteron 2XXX, footnote which ones were. There would have been fewer footnotes!
Check out the top right hand quadrant of this chart. The heading says "vs. Opt 2XXX." Yet, not one single system under that was an Opteron 2XXX. We were imagining the press and analysts looking at this slide, not paying attention to any of the footnotes to realize that there wasn't a single shred of truth t the heading.

For David Berlind's write up on Intel's incredibly misleading usage of benchmarks, see his post in ZDNet's TestBed blog.
  • Talkback
  • Most Recent of 9 Talkback(s)
Lies?
Whilst in college studying Mathematics, I had a teacher who always used to throw various quotes at us, one that I remember perfectly is the following:-

There are lies, damned lies, and then sta... (Read the rest)
Posted by: hanoveral@... Posted on: 03/20/07 You are currently: a Guest | | Terms of Use
The irony of Ziff and benchmarking  oldsysprog | 03/17/07
Indpendent Review?  talkback2u | 03/19/07
Oh Well . . .  hawkeye@... | 03/19/07
Where's Karl?  Brownshoe Sailor | 03/19/07
That's marketing . . .  jutley@... | 03/19/07
Buy a Pet Rock  bcroner | 03/19/07
Intel is the worst offender...  turbohawk | 03/20/07
Intel: "We're getting our a$$ kicked"  3Dman | 03/20/07
Lies?  hanoveral@... | 03/20/07

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