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| Authored by: DannyB on Wednesday, May 29 2013 @ 05:31 PM EDT |
My commute to work is 5 light years, 1,282,598,209 miles, 905 feet, 3 and 5/32
inches.
That is an extremely precise distance.
But the accuracy is off by over five light years.
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The price of freedom is eternal litigation.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: PolR on Wednesday, May 29 2013 @ 06:31 PM EDT |
| From dictionary.com
The definition of
accuracy:
1. the condition or quality of being true, correct,
or exact; freedom from error or defect; precision or exactness;
correctness.
The definition of
precision:
2. accuracy; exactness: to arrive at an
estimate with precision.
These two words sound synonymous to me.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 29 2013 @ 06:38 PM EDT |
accuracy in news is ... important
Sorry... I had to
laugh at that because while that is correct - the main media appear to rely more
on sensational journalism rather then accurate journalism :)
RAS[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: JonCB on Wednesday, May 29 2013 @ 07:50 PM EDT |
That all journalism SHOULD (nod to anonymous @ 6:38PM) be
accurate should go without saying.
I take PJ's point here to be that the law is a complex and
difficult topic, and so you not only need to be accurate (as
you always should be as a journalist) but also precise and
clear.
Precise because words have specific meanings(and not always
the common ones) and if you're casual with your words then
you'll end up delivering an inaccurate message. This lack of
precision is why we get mass hysteria from news headlines
like "LHC may create black holes" because they miss the fact
that they're REALLY REALLY small (and thus pop out of
existance almost immediately).
Clear because when words don't have the common meanings, you
have to make sure you're using both the right words AND
educating on what those words actually mean. In large part
this is why it's so hard to have a rational conversation
between a patent lawyer and a software engineer about
whether software is math.
All part of the Groklaw message. Education > all.
Note: these comments are my own, not PJ's. I'm sure she'll
correct me if she disagrees with what I say.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 29 2013 @ 09:10 PM EDT |
| See here, a Stack Overflow answer
detailing the difference. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: PJ on Wednesday, May 29 2013 @ 10:55 PM EDT |
| heh heh
you guys...
In law, precision is important, because there are so
many footnotes to every thought you think you know, and so carefulness comes
into the picture because you have to
research to make sure you have it exactly
right before you write something.
Accuracy is important, but it's not
enough. Precision needs to be there too. I'll give you an example:
1.
Aaron Swartz was facing 35 years if convicted of felonies under various computer
statutes.
That is true. It's accurate. But it's not precise. He was in a
worst possible case facing 35 years, but it was unlikely he'd actually get 35
years, because he was a first offender, the "victim" wasn't asking for long time
or any time, plus he had fabulous lawyers and a lot of influential friends, and
it's common for a prosecutor to state the ultimate penalty in a press release
how many years could be asked for. It's also part of the negotiation process,
trying to reach a plea deal.
Now, all that info is important, and without
it, although you would be accurate to state that he faced 35 years, you wouldn't
be precise in the way that you would be if you add all the rest.
Now,
there is actually more to it. Laws overlap, I guess you could say, in the sense
that sometimes you have to balance one type of law against another one, or one
interest against another, contrasting one. Law is complicated for that reason,
but for another: statutes don't always fit precisely the situation, without
some wiggling. That wiggling is hard to pin down sometimes, and precision there
means lawyers answering your question with "It depends." Lawyers look at more
than one level. It's not like math. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: SilverWave on Thursday, May 30 2013 @ 07:04 AM EDT |
LOL
---
RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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