-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Michael Haggerty schrieb: Hi Michael!
If you are going to tell someone their survey displays a lack of proper grammar, please proofread your polemics before sending. The egregious errors in your spelling make my eyes hurt each time they fall upon them, and I really wish you would just buy a dictionary instead of trying to hack it all the time.
I've now let my spellchecker check the mail I wrote and it found one error (it wants mailinglist be written as mailing list). Not too shabby for a quarter to midnight. If you found more feel free to mail them to me. Generally, you should be glad I didn't reply in German.
That kid is a business major from Belgium.
"Business Engineering", I've no idea what that actually is. Wikipedia says it was invented in Belgium.
There's about a 95% chance he will be working at a bank in a year in a role where his English language skills will prove completely useless.
Currently he's trying to obtain an academic degree, a M.Sc. no less. That means he already got a B.Sc. and is probably past the age he'd accept being called a "kid". And getting any job without knowledge of English is nowadays probably not possible.
There is a good chance his major job function for the next decade will be standing outside sporting events in Eastern Europe trying to get people to sign up for credit cards.
You may call my simple letter "polemics", but this is just plain mean. I like it.
I am sure he does not care about how poorly he grasps the English language even after reading your letter.
That happens a lot to my letters.
While I don't know what he plans on doing with the data he collects, the chances of him getting real opinions from an actual representative sample of open source developers with this strategy is very low, probably less than 5%. It's clear he has not taken the time to research the people he wants to connect with or found a way to ask for information in a compelling manner that makes people want to help him. I mean, there's not even a $10 Amazon.com gift certificate up for grabs - even part time business majors from community colleges recognize the importance of incentivizing respondents.
Considering the kind of people he wants to poll, offering money might be the wrong approach. We know they are all Communists. At least his questions made me think so.
This lack of situational awareness does indicate more serious intellectual flaws which professors are exceptional at identifying. These deficits will probably be recognized before any academic institution grants a degree over this 'thesis'.
I so wish you were right, but I am quite afraid you are not.
Given these factors, the joint probability of this survey actually uncovering something interesting is terribly low (far less than 1%). Do as you wish, but I don't see where getting all uppity about a bumbling, misguided attempt at academic accomplishment is worth all the effort of critiquing it.
If I'd do judge by word count, your efforts are probably much greater than mine have been.
It is a far better thing to give him completely false data in the survey or repost his request to 4chan / Something Awful so it can be dealt with in an entertaining manner by a more appropriate agent.
I don't even know what you are talking about. Cheers, Gerhard -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkuM1l4ACgkQfg6TFvELooTMJQCeMbtxrrJmd+Hl7Hxc//Hti7Zc p9QAn1r/+0WUuwgX7uqGu2y8ImC+NXhH =Mlwt -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----