August 1995 / Letters

A Benchmark Peeve	As a scientist, I'm always irritated when numbers are given to an unnecessary and meaningless degree of accuracy.
Thanks from a Southpaw	This is just a quick note to thank Jerry Pournelle for his sensitivity to left-handed-design issues in his recent laptop evaluation ("Privacy and Liberty," June).
Conflict of Interest?	Your June "Books & CD-ROMs" section takes a look at four books relating to the information superhighway.
The Technology's the Thing	After seeing John Astreides' letter titled "BYTE: Real Food for Real People" in your June Letters section, I would just like to say that the one reason why I purchase BYTE instead of the other magazines is, to borrow Astreides' words, the "articles with meat that explain the technology.
Comments from Treat	As a mathematician, operations researcher, and computer programmer, I feel I have to respond to Raphael Needleman's March editorial ("Mutant Chips") that warns against depending on heuristic methods, because they may work, but "we don't know why.
Give or Take a Megahertz	Reader Karl Richards asked in your June Letters section whether a 100-MHz Pentium actually runs at 99 MHz.
Kudos for Coverage	I'd like to thank you for supplying computer users with intelligent, broad-based coverage of the computer industry.
The Bell Curve Controversy	Jerry Pournelle's suggestion in his February column that we can all test Murray's and Herrnstein's conclusions in The Bell Curve on our home computers makes about as much sense as testing the conclusions of Mein Kampf with a spelling checker: You would just be proofreading without thinking about the assumptions.
Observations of the Trip	I would just like to let yo u know how entertaining I found Rafe Needleman's article "Tales from the Trip" in your June Special Report on Mobile Computing.

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