"To get the embarrassing statistics out of the way first, the survey found that 51 percent of respondents believe that stormy weather can interfere with cloud computing"
If the 1000 subjects are chosen well, it's mathematically legitimate -- and the authors give appropriate error bounds based on the ratio of the sample to the population. More detail here:
Furthermore, the author is implying that this is a condition specific to Americans when there is no evidence comparing US citizens to other nationalities in this regard.
Most polls you see on TV are around this sample size... it's often that you see 1000 person polls on news networks (look at the small print on the screen).
> For example, it is reported, when asked what “the cloud” is, a majority responded it’s either an actual cloud (specifically a “fluffy white thing”), the sky or something related to the weather (29%). Only 16% said they think of a computer network to store, access and share data from Internet-connected devices. (That’s the right answer.)
Hrm... sounds like the survey was engineered from the start to elicit a specific response
> The clincher is that 95% actually already use cloud in some form, from online banking for social networks.
Every one of those answers is correct because the question is vague. It is a "fluffy white thing"; it is "related to the weather", and it is a "computer network".
So the title is grossly misleading, then. There was never a question about how 'cloud computing' worked, there was only a group of people that didn't know the term 'the cloud'.
Honestly, I'm going to flag this article because of that.
I assume they're thinking of things like automatic bill payments. From what I can tell these days, if it involves storing your private information on a computer you don't own via the internet, it counts as "cloud computing."
Honestly though, maybe they just have a sense of humour... You know, if I received a survey like that I would definitely say that cloud computing has something to do with real clouds... I mean, who could resist?!
It may as well be true. Cloud is just an over-gloried term for "hosted on virtual servers" and yeah, it's all supposed be very fluid and squishy and automatically scalable but really most of the stuff hosted in the cloud isn't being built that way.
The weather can effect anything that runs on electricity. I'd like to know what the wording of that question was. I love how this article goes on and on about how important it is for us stupid Americans to know what cloud computing is but doesn't offer a single link or explanation to help out with that. Must've been written by an American.
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[ 7.1 ms ] story [ 298 ms ] threadDidn't stormy weather take out amazon recently?
>Severe storms cause Amazon Web Services Outage
http://gigaom.com/cloud/some-of-amazon-web-services-are-down...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_(statistics)
While not saying that this person did ever beat them before, someone might make that connection.
So "Americans think" (and others might think, but we have not queried them). It's at least ambiguous in that it allows for easy misinterpretation.
http://www.citrix.com/English/NE/news/news.asp?newsID=232830...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2012/08/29/most-am...
> For example, it is reported, when asked what “the cloud” is, a majority responded it’s either an actual cloud (specifically a “fluffy white thing”), the sky or something related to the weather (29%). Only 16% said they think of a computer network to store, access and share data from Internet-connected devices. (That’s the right answer.)
Hrm... sounds like the survey was engineered from the start to elicit a specific response
> The clincher is that 95% actually already use cloud in some form, from online banking for social networks.
wha..?
Every one of those answers is correct because the question is vague. It is a "fluffy white thing"; it is "related to the weather", and it is a "computer network".
Honestly, I'm going to flag this article because of that.
Also, AmeriKKKa, if you're being traditional.
Did I miss something? It doesn't say April 1st on my calendar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLdHnMG4Wlk