Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2008 October 9

= October 9 =

7 p's of marketing
Can someone please help me compare the 7p'f of marketing for macdonalds and burger king?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.225.79.210 (talk) 14:32, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

7 p's - it's not something specific to Macdonalds/Burger King it's a marketing 'concept' or 'theory' or whatever you call it. Either way it should be under Seven P's or 7 p's - was when I searched anyways 194.221.133.226 (talk) 14:36, 9 October 2008 (UTC)


 * While there's a policy here not to do peoples' homework for them, you should read through the Seven Ps and marketing mix articles to familiar yourself with them. When you've done that, consider analysing the two companies using SWOT and/or PEST analysis.  When you've finished those, you should have a good understanding of the internal and external factors of each business, and how the marketing mix is relevant to each (and how they differ).  Booglamay ( talk ) - 14:41, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

OCR on Java or http pages
I am trying to find a program that will allow me to ocr words on jave or http pages, anyone know of any?thanksCanacatcancan (talk) 14:42, 9 October 2008 (UTC)


 * The only even vaguely plausible meaning you might intend for OCR is optical character recognition. But if that is what you mean, why would you want to recognise characters which you already have in electronic form? --ColinFine (talk) 22:46, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

I do mean optical character recognition. I am unable to select the text on the webpage by highlighting, I have only been able to copy the page. When the page is copied to other programs, i.e., word- the text comes in as a picture. I am trying to find a simple way to get the ingredients listed on a product, such as cheetos from the frito-lay site, into text form. I need to enlarge the text for seniors to be able to be read easily, enlarging it on the computer screen, has been fine for some seniors, but others need a printout.thanksCanacatcancan (talk) 05:11, 10 October 2008 (UTC)


 * OK, I see. It's nothing to do with HTML (or HTTP) then - you don't have text, but only a picture of text. If you have a scanner, you have software that will do this (after all, they scan in the picture whether it is a photograph or a document, and then run an OCR process on it. Whether your scanner system makes the OCR program available to you for files already on your computer or not, I don't know.
 * But googling for "OCR software", I find that the second and fourth hits are for free OCR packages: http://www.simpleocr.com/ and http://www.softi.co.uk/freeocr.htm. I have no idea how these are, but it won't cost you anything to try them. --ColinFine (talk) 07:32, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't know how many times I've had to manually type in a company/organization address because the contact page is an image. Web designers of the world—think of the end user. Darkspots (talk) 11:46, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
 * The image prevents spammers from "harvesting" the email address. --Nricardo (talk) 04:03, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

Jeep Wrangler Unlimited
Hello

2 door Jeep wrangler unlimited's were made from 2004 1/2 to 2006 i was curious how many were made all together and how many were made avaliable with the "H" package these were made from 2005-2006

Thank you Brian —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.229.248.70 (talk) 16:06, 9 October 2008 (UTC)


 * The article Jeep Wrangler is pretty comprehensive. If the article itself does not contain the specific information you are looking for, there are references and external links at the bottom that may.  Good luck --Jayron32. talk . contribs  17:35, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Fly spray
Do flies suffer pain when killed with fly spray? --Richardrj talkemail 17:57, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I think what you're really asking is, what is it like to be a fly? --Trovatore (talk) 21:51, 9 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Maybe Kafka´s Metamorphosis may provide some insight into insecticidal angst. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 23:11, 9 October 2008 (UTC)


 * There's no need to get metaphysical on the poor fellow! Surely there is a biological answer. For instance, while the fly is dying by fly spray do any unusual signals flow to its brain?  Plasticup  T / C  00:59, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Actually, there is a need to get metaphysical. In fact your (apparent) identification of the neurological correlates of perception, with perception itself, is a metaphysical position. --Trovatore (talk) 01:10, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Neurological response is a necessary condition for perception. If the fly has no neurological response to insecticide then the metaphysical argument is moot.  Plasticup  T / C  03:44, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Perhaps -- but what if it does have a response? Let's see you try to get outta doing metaphysics then. Wittgenstein and others of his ilk unfortunately managed to convince a bunch of folks that metaphysics is dispensable, but they were wrong. --Trovatore (talk) 05:50, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Blimey, I didn't mean this question to stir up a bout of metaphysical fisticuffs. OK, let me rephrase the question.  Do flies have a neurological response to insecticide?  I would take it to the science desk, but they're a bunch of geeks over there who can't get girlfriends :) --Richardrj talkemail 09:20, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
 * You are right, Trovatore, but I was hoping that we could find a metaphysics-free answer. Philosophy is usually my last refuge, after all empirical methods have failed.  Plasticup  T / C  14:58, 10 October 2008 (UTC)


 * When I was a kid, I remember losing sleep and having nightmares after seeing a photograph in some kind of science book in which a fly had has half of it's abdomen chopped off - and yet was still eating sugar-water that had been laid out for it. This suggests (albeit superficially) that the fly really isn't smart enough to feel pain. But it's an extremely tough question to answer. SteveBaker (talk) 03:24, 10 October 2008 (UTC)


 * As I'm sure you've observed, spraying fly spray onto a fly elicits an aversive response. The fly either flies away or writhes if it has received a killing dose. Whether you wish to interpret that as pain or not is up to you. Clearly the fly is suffering some discomfort, alternatively its neural and motor systems are reacting to an aversive stimulus. Pick you word, or read up on your philosophy. As to a specific question above - the signals flowing to the fly's brain are not unusual - they are the standard "I'm dying" signals. Franamax (talk) 10:57, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Are they? Surely the twitching could be a motor response over which the brain has no control. Some bug sprays are neurotoxins, so they could act by killing neurons and shutting down the brain without eliciting any neurological response at all.  Plasticup  T / C  14:58, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

Extension of earlier Question re; USA Congress(es)
I followed the link given in answer to the earlier question and noticed that following JFK's assassination, the 88th Congress House of Representatives' numbers fell BACK to 435 from its higher numbers in 2 previous Congresses. Why was that? 92.20.0.126 (talk) 18:50, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
 * From United States House of Representatives:
 * The number was temporarily increased to 437 in 1959 upon the admission of Alaska and Hawaii (seating one representative from each of those states without changing existing apportionment), and returned to 435 four years later, after the reapportionment consequent to the 1960 census.
 * --71.106.183.17 (talk) 18:57, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Security of Obama relatives
With Barack Obama's relatives spread out in various places, including some living in Kenya slums, if Obama was elected president, wouldn't it be easy for terrorist groups to, say, kidnap one of them and make demands on the U.S.? How would Obama handle such a situation? --71.106.183.17 (talk) 19:00, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't get the impression that he's particularly close to his Kenyan relations; didn't his Kenyan father leave his mother to raise him from a very early age? -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 19:18, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
 * That does not necessarily mean that, should there lives be threatened, he would lack any compassion towards the situation. --Jayron32. talk . contribs  19:42, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Certainly not, but it seems that he would react more as a President reacting to the threatening of civilians' lives, and less like a man whose family has been threatened, in my personal opinion. . -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 22:18, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
 * What members of the US President's family usually get protection? Isn't it just spouses, children and grandchildren? says "immeadiate family". --Tango (talk) 21:07, 9 October 2008 (UTC)


 * You might as well ask about terrorists taking anybody hostage—all political figures have family, friends, etc. spread out over a wide area, like most people (perhaps even more so given their resources). No leader worth their salt would let their personal feelings override the needs of the nation. I've seen no evidence that Obama (or McCain) would be irrational in this particular regard. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 23:31, 9 October 2008 (UTC)


 * It seems to me that relatives without coverage from the security folks are pretty much as at risk no matter where they live. It's really not going to be any harder to kidnap someone in the rural parts of the USA than in the plains of Kenya - and the cities in Kenya are really fairly modern and well-policed.  I can't see why it's a special deal in this case.  At any rate - if one used this rather remote risk as a reason not to vote for Obama, then you'd be giving the terrorists power over your ability to choose your own president - which is even more damaging than what a president might or might not do in order to secure the safe release of a relative.  SteveBaker (talk) 03:20, 10 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Seems to me that kidnapping a family member of the President of the USA would get you simultaneous demonstrations of "we don't negotiate with kidnappers" and "we used our advanced intelligence capability to locate you, then used our advanced imaging and weapon systems to put a bullet through your head". It's not like the Secret Service is unaware of these possibilities and doesn't plan for them. Country-wide invasion and counter-insurgency may not be a US strong point, but solving a point crisis - my money would be on the US, Franamax (talk) 10:40, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

Does university turn you into a illness resistant machine?
I've been thinking, having started University I, like pretty much everyone have got Freshers' Flu. I'm just about coming to the end of the bout but can't help thinking - even after only 3 weeks - I must've picked up some pretty strong immunity to various illnesses. My thinking goes, by the time a student finishes university, will they be immune to pretty much every common strain of every common illness under the sun? With a healthy intake of new ill freshers every year a student must build up one hell of an immune system. What do you think? -Benbread (talk) 20:50, 9 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Unfortunately there are so many strains of illnesses and they are constantly mutating into new strains that you can never be immune to everything (or even close). People that are exposed to lots of infections (which includes people living in Uni halls) do develop more immunities, though. --Tango (talk) 21:10, 9 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Where I live we get a lot of immigrants and visitors. At any one time about 30% of the population here is both foreign and temporary, mostly from Europe, North America, South America, India/Pakistan, and the Caribbean. They all bring their bugs with them, and as a result I probably have one of the most experienced immune systems in the world. Universities (especially those with geographically diverse populations) do a very similar thing.  Plasticup  T / C  00:52, 10 October 2008 (UTC)