Apple is the best, even if it runs Android...

[Silent_Buddha]

Evidently for some (many?) Apple users. Android is the better OS. As long as they think it is iOS.

I wonder if this would work in reverse if you could show iOS on an Android device and then ask diehard Android users what they think? Also presenting it as the next version of Android like they did with the above video.

For added fun, they also presented McDonald's food to food critics (who would presumably demonize McDonald's food) as upcoming Organic food.

I loved this quote when asked how it would compare to McDonalds...

It definitely tastes a lot better, and the fact that it's organic is definitely a good thing.

Goes to show just how much is all in the mind and about how much people want to believe that what they believe is real. Or to put it another way, perception is 90% of reality.

Regards,
SB

 

[Sxotty]

Hilarious. Thanks for posting.

 

[milk]

Regarding the second vid, I'm sorry, but you just don't go out asking opinons about food to nordics.

 

[Grall]

Goes to show just how much is all in the mind

I once participated in a simple experiment, where I and a group of other people were all blindfolded. The woman running the experiment walked around to each of us, presenting us with small pieces of dark chocolate, different kinds each time, for us to first smell, and then taste. After about three varieties, she instead offered a piece of what later turned out to be a common supermarket milk chocolate brand.

The taste was markedly different compared to what I was used to, simply because I didn't know what it was I was eating. The smell was almost unpleasantly candy-like and cheap, and the taste numbingly sweet. Since then I've been unable to eat any more of that brand of "chocolate"...

 

[Sxotty]

Except that is the exception Grall.

Taste tests in general have shown that people prefer cheaper chocolate. The actual defining factor was the breadth of their sourcing of cocoa beans. So in spite of marketing hype saying single source yada yada it turned out people just enjoyed multiple sources more. I have participated in and done a similar experiment to what you are describing a number of times, but it is much better if you do not do do what you just described and instead randomly give out pieces to the people involved as the order could matter.

 

[Grall]

@Sxotty
I didn't mention any single source cocoa beans or anything like that. I don't think it was. Nor was it to try and put forward dark chocolate as superior I think, but rather, to illustrate how different the common supermarket brand milk chocolate bar tasted when we weren't expecting that it was forthcoming, or knew which brand it was before putting it in our mouths...

 

[Sxotty]

Well dark chocolate clearly is superior

Anyway sorry if I was not picky I just thought the whole single source cocoa thing went well with the thread.

 

[Grall]

Well dark chocolate clearly is superior

...Debatable!
Having tried Amedei milk chocolate I was like, OM NOM NOM! That entire bar disappeared frightingly fast! Lol.
Amedei is altogether too fucking expensive to buy on even a semi-regular basis for me though, even though they make some really good chocolate. Their 60% variety is probably my all-time favorite. Not too bitter, with a slight tone of acidity and a hint of roughness on the tongue, which I like.

Reminds me of my childhood's Ögoncacao (Eye Cocoa)...:

 

[Arwin]

The order in which you taste things also has a very big impact. We actually do a lot of blind tasting for fun, usually whenever one of us says they much prefer a certain (more expensive) brand, then we test if we can actually taste the difference blind folded. It's a great way to check if you aren't fooling yourself. However, it is not easy always to do correctly. For instance I have a preference for a certain type of peanut butter, but when you taste one brand, that stuff sticks so much to your mouth it is really hard to taste the next brand right after (the only different turned out to be a different type of oil, by the way).

As for Android vs iOS, they are pretty close in some ways for sure. iOS is a lot safer though, as has been proven this month again. And it's still easier to use. But the differences are getting ever more subtle, and Android has made great strides especially in providing a smooth UI (which has taken ... a while). And now that I've been playing with VR, there is definitely more support for that on Android. Gear VR is much better than anything you can get on iOS, even if simply because it has Netflix VR and such.

 

[zed]

As for Android vs iOS, they are pretty close in some ways for sure. iOS is a lot safer though, as has been proven this month again. And it's still easier to use. But the differences are getting ever more subtle, and Android has made great strides especially in providing a smooth UI (which has taken ... a while).

This month? I believe the biggest security issue was an IOS exploit http://bgr.com/2015/09/24/iphone-apps-xcodeghost-malware/
true with each IOS version it copies more from android thus is becoming more similar to it, but it still lags behind, then again I upgraded to android 6.0 a couple of days ago and theres bugger all new it brought to the table AFAIKS

 

[Sxotty]

The order in which you taste things also has a very big impact. We actually do a lot of blind tasting for fun, usually whenever one of us says they much prefer a certain (more expensive) brand, then we test if we can actually taste the difference blind folded. It's a great way to check if you aren't fooling yourself. However, it is not easy always to do correctly. For instance I have a preference for a certain type of peanut butter, but when you taste one brand, that stuff sticks so much to your mouth it is really hard to taste the next brand right after (the only different turned out to be a different type of oil, by the way).

Yes that was what I meant when I said it was better to do it in a random order .

I do this as well with store brands to see if I can tell any difference or prefer the name brand. Sometimes I prefer the store brand. The main problem of doing a good job though is what you just highlighted regarding how to cleanse the palate in between. There is definitely a lot of psychology going into our preferences that is for sure.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Yes that was what I meant when I said it was better to do it in a random order .

I do this as well with store brands to see if I can tell any difference or prefer the name brand. Sometimes I prefer the store brand. The main problem of doing a good job though is what you just highlighted regarding how to cleanse the palate in between. There is definitely a lot of psychology going into our preferences that is for sure.

Orange slices. That's why some Chinese restaurants provide those after your meal is over. To cleanse the palette. Of course that doesn't work if you're taste testing orange juice.

Either that or choose something that is relatively neutral but complimentary to what you're taste testing.

Some things will be extremely hard to test correctly though. Like anything spicy, as it's almost impossible to remove that from the palette except with a lot of time. But if you spend too much time waiting, then you can't properly compare it as (depending on the person) time dulls the memory or enhances the memory of past tastes.

What's fun is for things that are relatively close in taste. To repeat the test for multiple days or weeks to see if you consistently pick the same ones. Random taste order each time, of course. And blind, so the test administrator doesn't know what is what either. Otherwise subtle body language could give it away.

Regards,
SB

 

[Sxotty]

Double blind is too hard for me to arrange . What I did was just have the other person set them out then I picked them myself and they were not doing anything to give it away since thy were not there.

 

[pcchen]

This month? I believe the biggest security issue was an IOS exploit http://bgr.com/2015/09/24/iphone-apps-xcodeghost-malware/
true with each IOS version it copies more from android thus is becoming more similar to it, but it still lags behind, then again I upgraded to android 6.0 a couple of days ago and theres bugger all new it brought to the table AFAIKS

It's not an exploit. It's just some stupid developers who don't even know how to install genuine Xcode. MacOS X even warned when anyone tries to install the contaminated version of Xcode, but no protection is enough for people who are determined to jump into a hole.

 

[pMax]

I loved this quote when asked how it would compare to McDonalds...
Goes to show just how much is all in the mind and about how much people want to believe that what they believe is real. Or to put it another way, perception is 90% of reality.

...it depends on what kind of food you regularly eat.
Everytime I eat pizza I immediately recognize the difference in mozzarella quality by taste.
And I can recognize my favourite wines taste from cheap ones (which unfortunately I have to drink when invited by my father&father-in-law... ssh! )

 

[Grall]

And I can recognize my favourite wines taste from cheap ones (which unfortunately I have to drink when invited by my father&father-in-law... ssh! )

Wine tasting is a documented very bogus field though, when even so-called experts are unable to correctly identify wines in blind tests.

 

[zed]

It's not an exploit

Hows it not an exploit,
A person, say you or me, downloads angry birds 2, this app gains undesired access to our device, how is this not an exploit, yes the developers have been exploited but certainly also the end users.

 

[Grall]

A person, say you or me, downloads angry birds 2, this app gains undesired access to our device, how is this not an exploit

It's not an exploit, because nothing was actually exploited. You voluntarily ran a piece of malware masquerading as an Apple development tool, which then built a malware app. All exploits are malware, but not all malware are exploits.

It's partly Apple's bad though for not catching the malware apps and putting a stop to them, but downloading Xcode from some third-party site and then having OSX warn you it's an unknown piece of software should ring warning bells in your head as a developer, especially when it's an official Apple devtool to begin with. You can't be this bloody naive in this day and age.

 

[zed]

I didnt run Xcode, what you and I did was download an app from the apple appstore, are you saying angry birds 2 etc doesnt use an exploit, you better get on an correct the journalist's then

https://hacked.com/xcodeghost-ios-exploit-source-code-released/
http://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/i...odeghost-what-security-software-need-3453938/
http://researchcenter.paloaltonetwo...the-xcodeghost-malware-and-affected-ios-apps/
etc

 

[pcchen]

The reports are fine. You just need to actually read them.

The whole thing begins with some security people found out that some apps (mostly from Chinese developers) on App Store have suspicious behaviour such as sending some data to a specific server. Then they found out that all of these weird apps are built using a infected version of Xcode, which was downloaded from a 3rd party location out of Apple's control. The infected Xcode added the malware before uploading the compiled app to App Store, therefore, those developers who use the bad Xcode have their apps infected with the malware.

The problem is, since MacOS X has a built-in security check, it actually refuses to install infected Xcode. However, those developers disabled the built-in security function to install infected Xcode. So, there's very little Apple can do to prevent this from happening.

The only thing Apple didn't do but should do, IMHO, is that they should have known that it can be slow to download Xcode in China and they should set up a server in China for Chinese developers to download Xcode much more quickly.

So if you think this is "bad security" then consider that Android don't even have most of these available. It's much easier to download a infected Android SDK and have your apps infected before uploading to Google Play.