16.7ms = free software (a silly contest)
Sometimes being obtuse is it's own reward, but this time there's something in it for you if you know what "16.7ms" is referring to. I'm curious enough to see that I'm willing to shell out my own hard-earned cash to the first non-Microsoft employee that figures it out. Post your guesses to my Comments section, please.
Your choice of:
- Perfect Dark Zero (Xbox 360)
- Kameo (Xbox 360)
- Project Gotham Racing 3 (Xbox 360)
- Age of Empires III Collector's Edition (PC)
- Dungeon Siege 2 (PC)
- Fable The Lost Chapters (PC)
For the person who comes up with the most amusing, albeit incorrect, translation, I'll award a Windows Vista stainless steel tumbler!
...and just like that, we have a silly contest!
Update: We have a winner for the "real" definition (16.7ms == 1/60 second, the time for 1 field of interlaced NTSC/ATSC video), but I'll keep the silly side of it open until tomorrorow (1/6/2006) at 5 PM PST.
Update 2: Entries are now closed, thanks! I will be considering each and every one based on their merits, feed it through my ultra-advanced HumorSensor 5000, double-check the results with the IOC, and the UN Human Rights Commission, and present the results as soon as is humanly possible. Or I may just look 'em over and choose the one that makes me laugh. Either way, I'll let you know...
Comments
- Anonymous
January 05, 2006
The lenght of time needed to "fool" our eye that something is moving? (i.e. why we have 60 frames a second) - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
1 ms duration at 60 Hz (ie. 16.7 ms per cycle) - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
The amount of time that a UI action must respond by in Vista? - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
In interlaced 30hz video, 16.7 ms would be the time between the refresh of two adjacent lines (i.e., the length of a 60 hz cycle). - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
Congrats to Blake for the first correct answer!
The factual part sure went quickly (not surprisingly). Blake, you got the 60 fps reference correct, but the other part is incorrect. The reason we have 60 fps here in the U.S., btw, is the same reason they have 50 fps (25 fps progressive) in Europe: A/C power cycles at that rate, and the power was the "clock" for TVs prior to the invention of reliable transistorized clocks ^_^ (oops, my geek is showing).
Now, there's not REALLY 60 fields per second for U.S. video... it's actually ~59.97 (unless it's black & white). - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
Isn't that the amount of energy needed to power the flux capacitor? :) - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
<most amusing, albeit incorrect, translation>...
The number of copies that Windows sells for each one copy of Linux sold. 16.7 [M]illion/[S]old. - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
The average amount of time required to get Win95 to BlueScreen? - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
The resolution of the standard Windows timer. - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
Good try, Michael, but the standard rez is 15ms ;-) - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
Geoff: you still run Win95? In the immortal words of Jesse Montgomery III and Chester Greenburg: "Dude!" - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
Of course I don't still run it, but no matter how hard I try, I can still remember what it was like :) - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
I've come up with a really good one!
If something were to travel at 60 kilometers per hour for 16.7 ms, it would travel approximately 27.7 centimeters (hey, I'm australian, i work in metric).
The impressive thing about this is that I just measured the length of my foot, and it's somewhere between 27 and 28 centimeters long.
So in fact, if I were to travel at 60km/h for 16.7ms, i'd move forward the length of my own foot! - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
Average speed of code typing in Microsoft.
If you take in view all products developed by the business day, count all characters typed, than the average period between characters will be 16.7 ms. - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
16.7 ms = The amount of time I thought that the silly prize was software before realizing it was a cup :( - Anonymous
January 05, 2006
16.7ms was the flight time of the acryl shrapnel of that exploding CD, that killed my CD-ROM drive from inside out a few days ago. - Anonymous
January 06, 2006
16.7ms is the search term for which Google recognizes an unnormal peak interest on January, 1st 2006. - Anonymous
January 06, 2006
16.7ms?
The amount of time it took me to think of this answer? - Anonymous
January 06, 2006
the ms isn't milli-seconds, it stands for "monster socks". 16.7 monster socks is the number required to fit all of the Microsoft employees around the world.
Honest! - Anonymous
January 06, 2006
speed of your broadband connection at home? - Anonymous
January 06, 2006
16.7 MicroSoft - Anonymous
January 06, 2006
The time between when the light turns green, and the guy behind you blows his horn... - Anonymous
January 06, 2006
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
January 09, 2006
Shannon: I thought that it was the time between the completion of a new (final, possibly gold) build and realizing you forgot a bugfix... - Anonymous
February 01, 2006
The average access (synaptic response) time of the human brain.... - Anonymous
June 17, 2007
(~12 hours time to answer from this post)