8 ms·
First, I like the kid's methodology. You can eyeball the various differences between font X and font Y, and see that the same passage printed in one is going t
by R_Edward 13y ago
First, I like the kid's methodology. You can eyeball the various differences between font X and font Y, and see that the same passage printed in one is going to take more ink than the other, but how do you quantify the difference? He came up with a clever hack to relate an easily measurable attribute to a not-so-easily measured one.
Second, intentionally or otherwise, he managed to divorce the savings ratio from the type of ink being used--whether you laser-print, inkjet-print, or press-print your text on paper, you're going to use x% less ink or toner with one font versus another.
However, the selection of a font should take things into consideration besides the relative amount of ink needed to produce a body of text. Human and machine readability should also be significant concerns. And I would like to point out that a cost savings of $136 million represents less than two seconds worth of spending at the US governments current spend rate of $3.5 trillion per year. I don't know about anyone else, but I can't even imagine that level of spending!
- magoghm 13y agoIsn't $3.5 trillion per year slightly less than $111K per second?
- level 13y agoOh, that makes it much easier to imagine.
- R_Edward 13y agoAw, dangit! That right there is why I should always double-check my mental math with a calculator. I should have said 20.45 minutes, not 1.## seconds. Mea culpa. It's still not a huge savings, comparatively.
- tonyhb 13y agoComparatively, bringing fiber to NYC won't be so expensive (considering the results). At this point, it's not about comparatively. Optimising $240m a year is so fucking good when it's a short switch. Low hanging fruit. How do you optimise your apps? "Oh, this 100ms optimisation that is a one-pointer is comparatively not worth it, let's not do it"?
- stevebrowne 13y ago>> I don't know about anyone else, but I can't even imagine that level of spending! You probably don't have teenage children.