Geek Fu #21
Sorry this is so late, but there was a beach involved.
Work, evil, toy-stealing oceans, and how I did some ethically questionable things during my brief stint as a journalism student. Oh, and as I mentioned below, I break down and beg for votes.
Show Notes:
5 Comments
1. Sid replies at 3rd May 2005 um 3:29 pm :
Hey Mighty Mur. Really liked this last essay. Telemarketers, or poll-takers or whatnot do indeed seem to get a bad deal, and I’ve always had the same opinion as you - that they are just people doing a job they probably don’t even like. I try to be as nice as possible with them and usually cringe when people shout at them and slam the phone and such.
As for waiting until polls reflect what WE want them to. It seems to me that most people that enjoy answering such polls are the ones with the biggest mouths and the smallest brains. At least, that’s how I see it.:)
later,
-Sid-
2. Oliver replies at 4th May 2005 um 12:54 am :
Couldn’t resist the pull of PodcastAlley?
It’s the hot thing right now so it’s quite understandable.
Keeping the podcasts timeless (ie not referring to current events) might add value to them… They would later be easier to archive and listen to… new users could easily get older episodes, listen to them out of order etc… It’s what I value in the Seanachai podcast.
About the essay; a good poll-taker should know the limits of the results and analyze accordingly. But someone made a mistake if the results are obviously wrong.
Oliver from Finland
3. Ed Moore replies at 4th May 2005 um 4:31 am :
My five years telemarketing kinda rang nostalgic with this podcast. I also want to say how cool it is to listen to a female who is into comics and rollplaying. I’ve been at it for almost 25 years and females that are into it have been few and far between. Also be sure to keep us up to date with all the other things and podcasts you are part of, I really like your stuff and I want to be able to support your other projects. The podcasts rock.
4. Ken Newquist replies at 4th May 2005 um 12:14 pm :
During the last election cycle, I got to experience the other end of the polling spectrum, as pollster after pollster called to find out how my wife and I were voting. Over the course of the two months leading up to the election, we easily received a dozen polling calls — maybe more (we lost count after the first six or so). I can only assume we fell into some sort of highly treasured, uber demographic; after all how many Democratic-leaning wildlife educators (like my wife) and libertarian-leaning sci-fi/tech geeks (like me) end up married? The most annoying thing was that they would inevitably call just after our daughter went down for a nap. The most amusing thing was that more than one of the pollsters didn’t have a checkbox for “libertarian”.
5. Mur replies at 5th May 2005 um 5:36 am :
Ken, it’s funny, because I forgot to mention that in the last election, we were polled, and like you, polled frequently. Only on the US Senator race, though.
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