The Science Behind Black Friday Madness

[JasonRox]

LORDY I just saw a news story about the black friday nonsense here and it was quite... weird. One person being interviewed was saying he bought 2 ipods, 2 digital cameras, 2 flat screen tv's, and 2 of something else expensive. What the hell, we had 17% unemployment and people are just going nuts! One guy was even saying he just buys all his electronics for the year plus his christmas gifts.

I guess "tough times" means many different things to many different people!

This is why I say good economic times are far away.

Canadian and Americans need to review their spending habits. I think that's a key element.

 

[leroyjenkens]

One person being interviewed was saying he bought 2 ipods, 2 digital cameras, 2 flat screen tv's, and 2 of something else expensive.

Yeah, you know, essentials.

 

[27Thousand]

Best way to save is not to buy. We don't need all that junk.

People have bought me stuff for Christmas the past few years and I gave pretty much all of it away. And when they give it to me, I actually do say "When am I ever going to use this?" (LOL, I just typed in a $ $ sign. Yes, typing LaTeX all day.)

Everything in my apartment is free...

The Lamp Table
The TV
The Bed
The Carpet
The Vacuum
The Single Couch
The Microwave
The Toaster Over
The Dresser
The Closet
The Coffee Table
The Towels
The Plates and Bowls and all my kitchen stuff

(All things people offered to give me and I took.)

I vowed not to buy any junk until I own a place to live (no mortgage).

I don't think I'll live up to that but I'll try.

Note: I do spend lots on vacations. Spent close to $9000 on vacations in 2008, for one person.

And you're absolutely right. So from my perspective, rather than spend $200 to fix my 2005 laptop which is already out of date or $1200 to buy an excellent laptop, I just spent $200 to get a laptop on a major sale that comes with 2GB RAM, 160GB Hard Drive, 16 bit, 15" screen, DVD burner, with Windows 7 Home Premium. Just checking it out, I should be plenty content for a while, and didn't spend much money. It runs quite nicely.

As far as necessity, out of everything with the exception of food and a place to live, I think a laptop is extremely useful.

 

[GeorginaS]

And you're absolutely right. So from my perspective, rather than spend $200 to fix my 2005 laptop which is already out of date or $1200 to buy an excellent laptop, I just spent $200 to get a laptop on a major sale that comes with 2GB RAM, 160GB Hard Drive, 16 bit, 15" screen, DVD burner, with Windows 7 Home Premium. Just checking it out, I should be plenty content for a while, and didn't spend much money. It runs quite nicely.

As far as necessity, out of everything with the exception of food and a place to live, I think a laptop is extremely useful.

Not sure where you got a "16 bit" from, because as far as I know, it comes 32 or 64 bit. But anyway, assuming you have 64 bit Windows 7, hardware requirement is 2 GB RAM for the OS. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7#Hardware_requirements" My super-dooper inexpensive (less than $400.00) full-sized, full-load laptop came with 2 GB RAM too, so I threw another 4 GB stick in for around $50.00. No big deal, and it runs like a dream.

 

[JasonRox]

And you're absolutely right. So from my perspective, rather than spend $200 to fix my 2005 laptop which is already out of date or $1200 to buy an excellent laptop, I just spent $200 to get a laptop on a major sale that comes with 2GB RAM, 160GB Hard Drive, 16 bit, 15" screen, DVD burner, with Windows 7 Home Premium. Just checking it out, I should be plenty content for a while, and didn't spend much money. It runs quite nicely.

As far as necessity, out of everything with the exception of food and a place to live, I think a laptop is extremely useful.

I agree with your purchase. Although a computer isn't a necessity, it still does rank highest in the want section so why not satisfy that want.

If something is below my 3rd or 5th "want", I don't care to have it at all. I see people with lists that never end and need to satisfy each want even if it is number 124. It's sad.

 

[27Thousand]

Not sure where you got a "16 bit" from, because as far as I know, it comes 32 or 64 bit. But anyway, assuming you have 64 bit Windows 7, hardware requirement is 2 GB RAM for the OS. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7#Hardware_requirements" My super-dooper inexpensive (less than $400.00) full-sized, full-load laptop came with 2 GB RAM too, so I threw another 4 GB stick in for around $50.00. No big deal, and it runs like a dream.

I went to various stores two days before Black Friday, to scope out the places. At that time, I hadn't seen the Walmart $198 laptop yet but had seen many review sites say the Acer Aspire One netbook was going to be on major sale for $199 at many places and although many products were rip offs the Acer Aspire One netbook was supposed to be very good deal for the actual money you pay. When I went to one of the stores, the lady said, "All of the computers on this side of the shelf are 64 bit and the ones on the other side are 32 bit. The 64 bit are going to run much faster." This http://www.lockergnome.com/windows/2009/01/07/32-bit-vs-64-bit-windows/" also talks about 64 vs. 32 bit Windows, and how 64 bit Windows runs faster. So when I came across the 15.6" screen laptop at Walmart for $198 I was very excited for 64 bit with Windows 7 Home (not that 7 Starter inferior stuff) and 2GB RAM! Plus the Acer netbooks on Black Friday sale for $199 didn't have DVD burners and only Windows XP. I'm working on my laptop right now and it's running smoothly.

When I click on properties for "Computer", it lists a bunch of stuff about the laptop. It says "System type: 64-bit Operating System", and it says "Windows Home Premium". Then the manufacter's website http://www.emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=eME627-5279" says the same thing.

My 2005 $900 laptop is already out of date, and I'm excited to only pay $198 for something much better, even if it's not one of those 4GB RAM 320GB Hard Drive laptops.

 

[27Thousand]

I agree with your purchase. Although a computer isn't a necessity, it still does rank highest in the want section so why not satisfy that want.

If something is below my 3rd or 5th "want", I don't care to have it at all. I see people with lists that never end and need to satisfy each want even if it is number 124. It's sad.

Although another purchase I made wasn't so necessary, after Walmart I went to Best Buy and bought Civilization IV for $5, normally $20.

It was a good thing I got to Walmart 10:30PM the night before, because I got the 3rd of this type of laptop and by 1AM I think the person who got the 20th one (last one) was in line. Then after I got my laptop, it was kind of fun to watch how people acted like animals grabbing at other things I know I shouldn't be entertained by that, but it was fun to watch.

 

[GeorginaS]

My 2005 $900 laptop is already out of date, and I'm excited to only pay $198 for something much better, even if it's not one of those 4GB RAM 320GB Hard Drive laptops.

Right. So it's a 64 bit, not 16. Okay. And, yes, it sounds like you got a terrific buy at $198. I'm just telling you that the Microsoft hardware specs for proper performance of your machine is to have 2 GB of memory just for Windows 7 alone. And I was saying that, I too purchased a standard-sized laptop (w/DVD burner etc.) that only had 2 GB RAM and found that an upgrade was both inexpensive and easy.

That's it. Sounds like you got a nifty keen deal. You'll likely need a memory upgrade because of the OS. But yes, you got a spiffy good deal.

 

[Critical]

Yay more Walmart stampedes for $60 digital cameras. Jesus is quite impressed with American materialism and capitalism. Christmas has long faded into a commercial hoax.

 

[27Thousand]

Right. So it's a 64 bit, not 16. Okay. And, yes, it sounds like you got a terrific buy at $198. I'm just telling you that the Microsoft hardware specs for proper performance of your machine is to have 2 GB of memory just for Windows 7 alone. And I was saying that, I too purchased a standard-sized laptop (w/DVD burner etc.) that only had 2 GB RAM and found that an upgrade was both inexpensive and easy.

That's it. Sounds like you got a nifty keen deal. You'll likely need a memory upgrade because of the OS. But yes, you got a spiffy good deal.

So if you don't mind me asking, did you need a memory upgrade right away, or was it quite a bit of time later on? So far the 2GB RAM has seemed quite good for me, but who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Maybe this laptop may even be seen as romantic by a future special someone. I'm using it to learn programming language for statistics programs and visualizing programs, which may help me create some mathematical equations for reading whether women are trying to send a guy hints or not. Newton used math to separate himself from others, so it's important to use scientific creativity. Maybe a future someone will say, "Oh, that's so romantic how you put all this time and effort into mathematical equations just for me. How thoughtful!" But I'm serious, I've heard that women like it when men can read their moods without even asking, and that they think men need to learn how to take hints about when to make a move. So in that way, this laptop could be useful for the money right there. It could be a romance machine!

 

[GeorginaS]

Maybe this laptop may even be seen as romantic by a future special someone. I'm using it to learn programming language for statistics programs and visualizing programs, which may help me create some mathematical equations for reading whether women are trying to send a guy hints or not. Newton used math to separate himself from others, so it's important to use scientific creativity. Maybe a future someone will say, "Oh, that's so romantic how you put all this time and effort into mathematical equations just for me. How thoughtful!" But I'm serious, I've heard that women like it when men can read their moods without even asking, and that they think men need to learn how to take hints about when to make a move. So in that way, this laptop could be useful for the money right there. It could be a romance machine!

Just don't want to let that go, huh? I wish you the best of luck. Zoobyshoe and Moonbear gave you fantastic feedback on this on the relationship board.

As for the memory upgrade, yes, I did it right away because of the OS specs. I wanted to do more with my laptop than just run Windows. So I did something inexpensive and easy that made my really inexpensive laptop really terrific. If you're not having issues with bare-bones memory, then I'm happy for you about that too.

 

[Sorry!]

Lol I would upgrade your RAM right away to the max amount your system can handle... make sure it's good quality RAM too, none of that cheap stuff (which you probably have in your system right now).
You keep talking about 2GB ram as if it's a big thing, it really isn't lol

The most important part to IMO about a laptop is the video card. If you buy a laptop that has all those features that they try to sell to the public, like memory and hard drive space, and DVD burners, but you have a crappy video card, then good luck using your laptop for a lot of things you wish it could do. (Such as play video games, watch movies, burn DVDS without overheating) And of course your laptop is running smooth right now, you just have your OS installed plus a few things from the whichever company you bought it from. Wait until you start installing things you need to use, do some updates to the OS...

My laptop right now runs quite smoothly and I have everything installed/upgraded but if I reinstall a fresh copy of Vista on here oh boy, I probably won't have any wait times for anything.

 

[27Thousand]

Lol I would upgrade your RAM right away to the max amount your system can handle... make sure it's good quality RAM too, none of that cheap stuff (which you probably have in your system right now).
You keep talking about 2GB ram as if it's a big thing, it really isn't lol

The most important part to IMO about a laptop is the video card. If you buy a laptop that has all those features that they try to sell to the public, like memory and hard drive space, and DVD burners, but you have a crappy video card, then good luck using your laptop for a lot of things you wish it could do. (Such as play video games, watch movies, burn DVDS without overheating) And of course your laptop is running smooth right now, you just have your OS installed plus a few things from the whichever company you bought it from. Wait until you start installing things you need to use, do some updates to the OS...

My laptop right now runs quite smoothly and I have everything installed/upgraded but if I reinstall a fresh copy of Vista on here oh boy, I probably won't have any wait times for anything.

Yes you're correct, for 2009 2GB RAM may not be the best. However, remember I thought although it's not necessary the best for 2009, I ran away with a good deal for $200. Remember I had a $900 laptop from 2005 which would cost $200 to fix the power jack from all the places I checked. Also I didn't want to pay $1200-$1500 for a good 2009 laptop, and instead of $200 to fix the old laptop I paid the same amount for a much better laptop than what I had for Black Friday. Many reviews said the Black Friday deal of $200 for the usual $300 Acer Aspire One Netbook was good, and although that particular netbook wasn't the best it had been rated by many computer review sites as one of the best for a "budget netbook". Just wanting something to last temporary until paying $1200-1500 for a good laptop, I found the even better deal of $200 for a real laptop which was better than that Black Friday netbook. So yes, not tip top for 2009, but I felt like waiting in line at Walmart the night before was extremely worth it for the eMachines laptop. I've already installed 40GB worth of programs on it, but then of course I guess I have the habit of sometimes disabling certain programs from starting up using msconfig. However it still runs much much better than the older laptop, and can have many more programs running at once. I'm excited, even if it's not a tip top 2009 product.

The best part of all is I have a computer in my hands which doesn't have a damaged power jack (old laptop) and so I have something to play around with R Statistical Computing programming language (think 3D graphics for flirting data sets which you can rotate/manipulate with the mouse!).

 

[Sorry!]

(think 3D graphics for flirting data sets which you can rotate/manipulate with the mouse!).

Ohhhh, exciting. I think you'd be better off if you just learned robotics and programing and made yourself a girlfriend.

 

[27Thousand]

Ohhhh, exciting. I think you'd be better off if you just learned robotics and programing and made yourself a girlfriend.

Dang right you better believe it's exciting! Think about it this way, are cell phones creative? How do you think they went about making new technology? Remembering back to those Science Fair days, you'd say, "If this idea is correct, we predict this will happen." If it can predict what will happen from many different angles, regardless of whether it's absolute truth it's down to Earth practical, can be applied to the real world, good for technology, you get my drift.

In Science they say the better something is at predicting, the better it is for technology. Now the reason why I care about mathematical models for flirting here, using mathematics takes a principle and maximizes its ability to predict. You know what I'm saying? If I can come up with equations that predict "If you have these values for these 5 variables, then there is a 85% probability of being between this and this range for if the woman is flirting", then it's going to be applicable. Then I can do what engineers did in coming up with cell phones, take principles mapped out with the Scientific Method and combine them together in unique/useful ways. It may be useful for trying finding the right women, just like you want to pick the right clothes when you need new ones. They especially used math when coming up with cell phones.

 

[Sorry!]

Dang right you better believe it's exciting! Think about it this way, are cell phones creative? How do you think they went about making new technology? Remembering back to those Science Fair days, you'd say, "If this idea is correct, we predict this will happen." If it can predict what will happen from many different angles, regardless of whether it's absolute truth it's down to Earth practical, can be applied to the real world, good for technology, you get my drift.

In Science they say the better something is at predicting, the better it is for technology. Now the reason why I care about mathematical models for flirting here, using mathematics takes a principle and maximizes its ability to predict. You know what I'm saying? If I can come up with equations that predict "If you have these values for these 5 variables, then there is a 85% probability of being between this and this range for if the woman is flirting", then it's going to be applicable. Then I can do what engineers did in coming up with cell phones, take principles mapped out with the Scientific Method and combine them together in unique/useful ways. It may be useful for trying finding the right women, just like you want to pick the right clothes when you need new ones. They especially used math when coming up with cell phones.

How is this anything like a cell-phone? Just because it uses math and 'predicts' something has no implications to how usefull it is... people use math all damn day to make equipment to 'predict' ghosts etc... I think that's much closer to what your trying to do here.

First things first how are you going to get your 'data sets'? You are too scared to go up and talk to a girl who is possibly flirting with you... are you going to go up to her now and be like 'are you flirting with me I need some more datasets for my mathmatical model.' I can tell you right now you are either going to get a crap load of girls calling you a creep, or you are going to get a crap load of girls telling you that they are just for garbages-and-giggles, (If I were the girl I'd go for the latter, I think that would be hilarious)

At those same science fairs you speak of, just remember along with those amazing creative designs/ideas there are 100s of others that are not of the same caliber. You think you are the gem of the science fair with this?

 

[SticksandStones]

Me and my friends went to Best Buy on black friday (at midnight) telling people we were "line enthusiasts" and that we just needed some batteries for our cameras. The best buy employees got a kick out of that last part. :)

 

[27Thousand]

How is this anything like a cell-phone? Just because it uses math and 'predicts' something has no implications to how usefull it is... people use math all damn day to make equipment to 'predict' ghosts etc... I think that's much closer to what your trying to do here.

First things first how are you going to get your 'data sets'? You are too scared to go up and talk to a girl who is possibly flirting with you... are you going to go up to her now and be like 'are you flirting with me I need some more datasets for my mathmatical model.' I can tell you right now you are either going to get a crap load of girls calling you a creep, or you are going to get a crap load of girls telling you that they are just for garbages-and-giggles, (If I were the girl I'd go for the latter, I think that would be hilarious)

At those same science fairs you speak of, just remember along with those amazing creative designs/ideas there are 100s of others that are not of the same caliber. You think you are the gem of the science fair with this?

Consider, as far as the ghost example, we can't see ghosts nor is it falsifiable so that's not Science. Something that you may possibly want to consider, in Biology they can observe cells, mitochondria, etc. Researchers putting up cameras in public areas and recording the frequency of body language and being approached by men is exactly observable; reactions of women and body language are observable and can be counted/kept as numbers. It can be replicated. In Physics, much of it they can't observe directly but it makes predictions with mathematics for what can be observed, and is also very falsifiable through what can be observed (Newton's Theory of Gravitation being a force vs. Einstein's bending of spacetime, quantum mechanics versus Einstein saying that's not reality but rather a model). If one can create mathematical models where if you have 5 variables you can predict 80% of the time "observable reactions from women" will be between this and this range, how is that not in a format which is applicable to the real world and falsifiable?

Something worthwhile to be considered, part of the Scientific Method is being humble, and that means falsification and testability. Historians say Isaac Newton using mathematical models did just that for finding truth and making predictions. For where I'd get data sets, there are already tons of peer-review studies which have basically the same patterns showing up within them. Maybe I could ask the authors really nicely and tell that it's part of the peer-review process. I emailed one of the researchers and she said she hadn't heard of any researchers coming up with a generalized mathematical model for flirting, so I guess that would mean I'm not copying someone's work if I were to come up with a "model across studies".

 

[27Thousand]

Anyway... back to the topic of Black Friday, although many or most of the things are not necessarily good deals, there are some things which are pretty good for what you pay. I thought $200 for a laptop with those type of specs, and then heading over to Best Buy afterward to buy Civilization IV for $5 (which usually costs $20 and I was interested in buying anyway) was a good deal.

 

[Pyrrhus]

I emailed one of the researchers and she said she hadn't heard of any researchers coming up with a generalized mathematical model for flirting...

Gee, I wonder why?

 

[Math Is Hard]

Let's keep this thread on topic, please.

 

[27Thousand]

Wow, I found out about last year https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=275532"

That's very unfortunate

Luckily it was much better this year. Being there at 10:30PM the night before made it less hectic, although trying to get out of the parking lot after I bought the computer was crazy.