Masthead
One of my photos
← →

That’s nearly 90!

July 28th, 2009 · Posted by Skuds in Technology · 2 Comments · Technology

Personally I don’t (currently) have a problem with my broadband at home and I’m quite happy with it so I don’t have an axe to grind here… but…  I did find this interview quite amusing.  I don’t know what job Mr. Ahmad does for Virgin Media but I suspect and hope it is on the marketing siade rather than anything that involves maths.  In answer to a question about broadband speeds he says:

So in the case of Virgin Media and our 10 Megabit per second (Mbps) product, we are providing 8.7 out of that, so that’s 87%. That’s nearly 90% of the actual speed we are advertising, so in our case, yes, people are getting as close to that speed as possible.

Where do I start?   You have to appreciate the attempt at sleight of hand with 8.7…  that’s 87%…  which is nearly 90%… which is nearly 100%     I would like to see him visiting the doctor to be told his temperature is 38.8, which is as good as 37 which is NEARLY 40 DEGREES! Call an ambulance!

As for the assertion that 90% is as close to 100% as possible…  has this man never heard of, say, 91%?

What he says is probably true.  You would have to be blindly optimistic to expect the full possible speed on your connection unless you were downloading files from your ISP’s own server, connecting to your modem via ethernet, not sharing your connection at all, and certain there was nothing running in the background, but that doesn’t excuse teh sloppy maths.  These days it feels like 100% is taboo: it is either “90% is as close to 100% as possible” or “I’m giving 110% effort”

Tags: ··

2 Comments so far ↓

Leave a Comment

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture. Click on the picture to hear an audio file of the word.
Click to hear an audio file of the anti-spam word

 

 
Comments Policy:

  • Comments from anyone who is unknown (ie who has not commented before) will go into a moderation queue to be approved. This is to prevent spam/advertising comments and there may be a delay before such comments appear.
  • As far as possible I will not reject moderated comments or delete published comments, even if I disagree with them or if they are criticising me.
  • I intend only to delete/reject comments which are offensive, racist, homophobic, sexist or similar or if they are in any way illegal/libellous.
  • If you think a comment meets those criteria and I might have missed it, let me know.
  • Although technically I am able to edit comments I will not do so unless it is to remove embedded code which is causing problems.
  • If it is ever necessary to edit a comment it will be made clear that it has been edited.
  • Certain words in comments will cause the whole comment to be automatically consigned to the dustbin (Aavaisha, hmmegatest, cognitive, phentermine, xanax, pharmacy, viagra, vicodin, casino, ultram, tamiflu, valium, tramadol, levitra, carisoprodol) for obvious reasons.