SparkFun Electronics Commentsurn:uuid:214d0e4e-f1b1-d287-ce26-ac5b4c9f82492024-03-28T18:18:53-06:00SparkFun ElectronicsMadbodger on Free Day Documentary Part IIMadbodgerurn:uuid:eab44fb6-6483-6ac1-0ba7-b671dbef64612012-03-31T07:43:43-06:00<p>There was a train? People could watch the train? I thought it was a geiger counter!</p>
Calif on Free Day Documentary Part IICalifurn:uuid:59aea012-9983-083b-852c-a69d622cd8262012-03-29T15:56:43-06:00<p>Can't believe how tiny the age window to work in a place like that is. That tiny period between 22-30 is it.</p>
NorthStreetLabs on Free Day Documentary Part IINorthStreetLabsurn:uuid:a13cdcdb-cdda-5bdf-ad35-61229198f4152012-03-28T09:16:26-06:00<p>FreeDay was awesome, no matter how it is implemented. I liked that it was different, that we didn't know what to expect, you should keep it that way and it'll allow for new things each year.</p>
Ted M on Free Day Documentary Part IITed Murn:uuid:f3a4dd00-b9e5-ab80-d375-d1046c6a20e12012-03-28T08:40:33-06:00<p>Point is, after six hours, the odds are very much in favor of anyone winning, if they stuck with it for that long (ie much better than 50 percent -- as you pointed out).</p>
sindre on Free Day Documentary Part IIsindreurn:uuid:f1f7685d-ffde-fe24-5cb4-a5d8f491b60d2012-03-28T05:56:18-06:00<p>What's with the massive overdose of out-of-focus shots?</p>
Customer #105131 on Free Day Documentary Part IICustomer #105131urn:uuid:d17892d8-88e0-be9f-615f-44d14c1fede42012-03-28T02:06:05-06:00<p>Dude, your numbers are misleading, and I don't know if I have the patience tonight to clarify sufficiently. Most nights I would.<p>Assuming your numbers are right (sorry, I don't remember) your <em>post hoc</em> chance of winning on your FIRST captcha was p=1/3250 (IIRC, at least one guy on IRC reported doing so -- but most who did would be unlikely to stick around, except for giggles) At 10 captchas/min, you'd have a 50% chance of winning after 2252.38 tries (about 3 hrs 45 minutes) or a 2/3 chance of winning in 6 hrs, assuming my watch calculator carries a sufficient number of digits of internal precision (12-14 IIRC) and I typed the digits correctly. It's a Poisson distribution or 1-p, because the right way to calculate it is by iteratively multiplying the odds of losing (3249/3250) not the chances of winning. The # of trials for 50% is e^(ln(0.5)/ln(1-p)) [or 10^/Log, if you prefer that to e^/ln] The chances of NOT winning in 3600 tries (6 hrs @ 10/min) are e^(3600* ln(1-p)) If you don't get why, I hope someone will explain. It just won't be me. Not tonight. Sorry. Also I may have it wrong (hardly unheard of), but that number accords with a lifetime of experience, and my Free Day observations. I ran the math in Sparkfun's IRC chat when I was in a better frame of mind, and a lot of folks got it.</p><p>I realize that doesn't dull your pain, and I sympathize</p><p>Also: kudos to Sparkfun on your site's excellent automatic superscripting of exponents. None of the servers I run handle that as well without explicit superscript tags -- but dammit, Jim, I've been a physician, not a programmer, for decades.</p></p>
BB on Free Day Documentary Part IIBBurn:uuid:490954b7-0a25-aef3-2373-60293b53cd232012-03-28T00:43:46-06:00<p>I'd be satisfied if the Free Day would just stop resurfacing months after the event.<p>Why does it keep receiving air time? The results were announced in <em>January.</em> Some people won; some people didn't. Great, but it's <em>done.</em> Get over it. We don't need inane "documentaries" on Free Day. It's almost masturbatory.</p></p>
DanZ on Free Day Documentary Part IIDanZurn:uuid:efadf236-2dd2-2193-433f-0d8cbd7c9c852012-03-27T23:00:59-06:00<p>My time is not free. We were spending time to save money.<p>At some point, it made more sense to spend time doing my normal job a bit longer to get the extra dough. I decided I'd much rather code than solve captchcas.</p><p>It's an intellectual rationalization, and not everyone sees it that way.</p><p>However, it is a great experience and caused us to interact with spf more. Even this comment about the event draws more attention to spf.</p><p>It's like The Game: By thinking and discussing about Freeday, we 'lose' and end up helping spf. Not sure that's losing, but anyways.</p></p>
Ted M on Free Day Documentary Part IITed Murn:uuid:224e61c5-05ec-aec1-aa5a-d61d66c39ef82012-03-27T22:39:46-06:00<p>6.5 Million Captchas, 2000 winners: odds of winning = 1 in 3250. Say 10 Captchas per minute; it would take 5.5 hours to win (on average). Free day lasted 6 hours; should have won, if not for the mental breakdown. Still feeling uncomfortable every time I see a captcha, and longing for next FreeDay!</p>
@djaniel on Free Day Documentary Part II@djanielurn:uuid:3d582eea-b8a1-6b80-2dea-105457c892dc2012-03-27T18:03:13-06:00<p>All those capcha's... absolutely worth it! Thanks for your free-day!</p>
war_spigot on Free Day Documentary Part IIwar_spigoturn:uuid:150a9317-e183-be3b-1a85-b7bfc711ac1d2012-03-27T17:02:03-06:00<p>Here's an idea: sale day.<p>Who knows how your popularity will grow, but by free day time next year, I figured(with avg sales/day, using order # and days between my orders) that there will be 2100 orders/day(about 630 right now, I figure. How close am I Sparkfun?). Boost that by about 400(since you'll be having a sale), and you've got 2500 orders. If you give away $250,000, you could take $100 off of every order over $150(or even over $100 if you're feeling REALLY generous) for the first 2500 orders.</p></p>
Robomaniac on Free Day Documentary Part IIRobomaniacurn:uuid:bbeb45a2-59a3-fa0c-18b0-9c192716fea92012-03-27T16:25:59-06:00<p>How many WRONG CAPTCHA?</p>
CF on Free Day Documentary Part IICFurn:uuid:dc84cc57-bf5c-553d-f044-622285ca95062012-03-27T16:12:05-06:00<p>If I had the money......</p>
TECH GEEK on Free Day Documentary Part IITECH GEEKurn:uuid:8582d594-d143-6a27-6f62-40f09dcb73e62012-03-27T16:06:49-06:00<p>Can I pay SparkFun to work at Sparkfun? Please?</p>
todd on Free Day Documentary Part IItoddurn:uuid:2205cb8a-d724-2e31-70ec-02ebb3022a282012-03-27T15:08:18-06:00<p>I'm going to write a blog post about how it works at some point in the next couple weeks. As of right now the only recording I have of it is from a test before Free Day. You can find that here: <a href="http://vimeo.com/34868946" rel="nofollow">vimeo.com/34868946</a></p>
Ookseer on Free Day Documentary Part IIOokseerurn:uuid:20c84f6f-8bdd-e796-0ed2-36832534ff2b2012-03-27T15:05:27-06:00<p>Reading the comments I can't believe how many people seem to hate free.<p>Next year lets do Double Price Day so we can give those people something to appreciate.</p></p>
superkittens on Free Day Documentary Part IIsuperkittensurn:uuid:09a5cde5-877b-db7c-4636-1c8f437fc9522012-03-27T14:38:35-06:00<p>Hey Sparkfun! Would I be able to get an audio snippet of the monome in action during free day? It was really pleasant to listen to.</p>
BB on Free Day Documentary Part IIBBurn:uuid:e9b9ecf8-cef9-dfe8-7af2-6d994147ca632012-03-27T13:45:26-06:00<p>Yet another "news" article on Free Day?</p>
SASinestro on Free Day Documentary Part IISASinestrourn:uuid:33d0fe8a-fa2f-b0b5-102e-72a455e5ed832012-03-27T12:51:59-06:00<p>I preferred the quiz. That one was fun.</p>
Lefty4000 on Free Day Documentary Part IILefty4000urn:uuid:2396a741-0d46-b150-1c4b-e1f50f6d54ba2012-03-27T12:45:49-06:00<p>I hated this years FreeDay. So boring.</p>
Lefty4000 on Free Day Documentary Part IILefty4000urn:uuid:c88d8a1c-3035-0178-142e-1fb0bab4500c2012-03-27T12:44:44-06:00<p>I wish i got the first 100</p>
LordFawful on Free Day Documentary Part IILordFawfulurn:uuid:0ed2a19e-12ca-e1ef-54d5-cf3d97f7bef62012-03-27T11:16:25-06:00<p>As much as i hate CAPCHAs ill do it over if it means i get another $100 free. :-)</p>
jago lee on Free Day Documentary Part IIjago leeurn:uuid:04fafe9c-f178-d4fd-d71d-d0c2b3b79b9d2012-03-27T11:04:28-06:00<p>Thanks Emcee!</p>