On the Choice of Browser and Numerical Intelligence
March 4, 2012 11:07 AM   Subscribe

We analyzed usage data of the www.calcudoku.org number puzzle website for the years 2010 and 2011, consisting of over 1 million solved puzzles, and attempted to determine the numerical intelligence of users of Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox, and Chrome. [[Full 4 page report here, PDF]]

(Insufficient data was available for users of other browsers)
posted by Blasdelb (18 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
No results for Lynx? Maybe they scored so badly that the authors didn't want to hurt their feelings by calling them stupid.
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 11:13 AM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]


Note that it does not follow that using Chrome makes you smarter

Well, obviously. What do you think we are, a bunch of IE users?
posted by Horace Rumpole at 11:18 AM on March 4, 2012 [5 favorites]


Opera users meanwhile made a bunch of convoluted mouse gestures until the problem went away.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:25 AM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]


Opera users meanwhile made a bunch of convoluted mouse gestures until the problem went away.

right-click ↳
posted by Foci for Analysis at 11:26 AM on March 4, 2012 [3 favorites]


Since I have never been able to finish a Sudoku puzzle, I really hope that this skill doesn't become a standard metric of intelligence, numerical or otherwise.
posted by chavenet at 11:33 AM on March 4, 2012 [2 favorites]


I wonder how this test factors in people like me, who think that soduku is the pen and paper equivalent of progress quest?
posted by Freen at 11:42 AM on March 4, 2012 [2 favorites]


If you do the "fill in all 9 numbers and erase" method, there's no game to it and you can solve any puzzle as fast as you can write.

On preview: What Freen said.
posted by EtzHadaat at 11:43 AM on March 4, 2012


Wait. This isn't sudoku. This looks cooler.
posted by EtzHadaat at 11:44 AM on March 4, 2012


What does sudoku have to do with numbers? The only math required to do sudoku is the ability to count to nine. Sudoku is about iteratively applying a ruleset. There is no skill involved. Well, maybe discerning what rule to apply in which situation counts as skill. But it sure ain't "numerical intelligence".

And now, having snarked, I will actually go read the links.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 11:49 AM on March 4, 2012


HEY GUYS IT'S NOT SUDOKU THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT
posted by BitterOldPunk at 11:50 AM on March 4, 2012 [2 favorites]


This paper is retarded, and as an IE user I should know.
posted by Slothrup at 11:58 AM on March 4, 2012


I'm 43 years old, spend $500 every week on gum and my favorite flavor is garlic/curry.
posted by vidur at 12:00 PM on March 4, 2012 [2 favorites]


[ previously ] Fake study by flimsy company was picked up by mainstream media circa mid 2011.

Favorited because they saw the challenge through with the data they had laying around.
posted by TangerineGurl at 12:03 PM on March 4, 2012


This is KenKen. Which I'm good at. and I use IE
posted by dabug at 12:08 PM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]


there's no game to it and you can solve any puzzle as fast as you can write

Actually, Sudoku is NP-complete, and there exist very difficult puzzles that can only be solved through branching algorithms (they have to 'guess' and backtrack). The puzzles in the newspapers are a different matter, however, since newspaper readers complain whenever truly challenging puzzles are published.
posted by Pyry at 12:49 PM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]


> If you do the "fill in all 9 numbers and erase" method, there's no game to it and you can solve any puzzle as fast as you can write.

Heh. I don't think so! As Pyry points out, Sudoku-style puzzles are NP-complete (Sudoku in specific, having a fixed size, is not technically NP-complete...) and there are individual Sudoku puzzles that have a search space of size one billion, which means that if you don't use some sort of careful logic, you'd need to try as many as one billion assignments... that's a lot of erasing!
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 1:55 PM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]


From the conclusion: maybe because IE is the default browser for Windows, people who do not choose a different browser possibly are less technically skilled

Or maybe they are at work/school where they can't choose a browser and also don't have as much time to spend. I bet the numbers would look different if they excluded games played during typical working hours.
posted by Lanark at 2:51 PM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]


Gosh what a 'revelation', though the likely conclusions are potentially illogical. Are more technically ept people more likely to stray to alternate browsers rather than stay with what Windows installs? Yes. Are technically ept people more likely to sport "Numerical Intelligence"? I think.

So what, exactly, is the plot of this ballet?
posted by Twang at 5:16 PM on March 4, 2012


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