16.7ms = free software (a silly contest)

Comments

# Blake Handler said on January 5, 2006 10:08 PM:

The lenght of time needed to "fool" our eye that something is moving? (i.e. why we have 60 frames a second)

# Dan Diaconescu said on January 5, 2006 10:13 PM:

1 ms duration at 60 Hz (ie. 16.7 ms per cycle)

# Chris Evans said on January 5, 2006 10:13 PM:

The amount of time that a UI action must respond by in Vista?

# pl said on January 5, 2006 10:23 PM:

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).

# vern said on January 5, 2006 10:35 PM:

The number of separate Microsoft companies (divisions) there would have been if Ralph Nader and the DOJ had succeeded in breaking up Microsoft. Since IE was so integrated into Windows, it would have been a sub-co of the Windows Co.
16 MS companies + 1 sub-company = 16.7ms

P.S. Thank God that didn't happen!

# Peter Rosser said on January 5, 2006 10:40 PM:

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).

# geoff.appleby said on January 5, 2006 10:47 PM:

Isn't that the amount of energy needed to power the flux capacitor? :)

# stewart_whaley said on January 5, 2006 10:51 PM:

<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.

# geoff.appleby said on January 5, 2006 11:04 PM:

The average amount of time required to get Win95 to BlueScreen?

# Michael Carr said on January 5, 2006 11:06 PM:

The resolution of the standard Windows timer.

# Peter Rosser said on January 5, 2006 11:14 PM:

Good try, Michael, but the standard rez is 15ms ;-)

# Peter Rosser said on January 5, 2006 11:21 PM:

Geoff: you still run Win95? In the immortal words of Jesse Montgomery III and Chester Greenburg: "Dude!"

# geoff.appleby said on January 5, 2006 11:55 PM:

Of course I don't still run it, but no matter how hard I try, I can still remember what it was like :)

# Peter Rosser said on January 6, 2006 12:43 AM:

Ah, that brings back the memories, doesn't it? I remember my first impression, which was "it's a lot prettier than 3.1, but holy crap does it hog my PC". ::growf::

Thank goodness for Moore's Law, I say. And thank goodness for fewer BSODs!

# Ed Kaim said on January 6, 2006 1:01 AM:

Off the top of my head:

- 16.7ms is the upper limit for how long it takes a PM to delete a new feature email once they realize it's from marketing.
- 16.7ms is how long the average tester contemplates a new feature before telling the dev team it'll take too long to QA.
- 16.7ms is the world record for how long pair programmers can work cooperatively.
- 16.7ms is the maxmimum time you can spend reading an MSNBC.com article without finding a typo.
- 16.7ms is the average lifetime of a Vista ship schedule.

# Mike Dunn said on January 6, 2006 2:07 AM:

Continuing the Win95 theme...
16.7 ms is the time that Windows 95 takes to boot on a modern top-o'-the-line P4 machine.

# geoff.appleby said on January 6, 2006 2:30 AM:

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!

# Oleg Mihailik said on January 6, 2006 5:21 AM:

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.

# Andrew A said on January 6, 2006 7:39 AM:

16.7 ms = The amount of time I thought that the silly prize was software before realizing it was a cup :(

# Mario Goebbels said on January 6, 2006 7:52 AM:

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.

# Ralf Rottmann said on January 6, 2006 8:19 AM:

16.7ms is the search term for which Google recognizes an unnormal peak interest on January, 1st 2006.

# Lee said on January 6, 2006 8:41 AM:

16.7ms?

The amount of time it took me to think of this answer?

# Steven Workman said on January 6, 2006 8:57 AM:

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!

# mikehill33 said on January 6, 2006 10:01 AM:

speed of your broadband connection at home?

# fdezjose said on January 6, 2006 12:47 PM:

16.7 MicroSoft

# Steven J. Ackerman said on January 6, 2006 1:40 PM:

The time between when the light turns green, and the guy behind you blows his horn...

# Shannon J Hager said on January 6, 2006 6:19 PM:

16.7ms is the average time between the the moment of starting a new (final, possibly gold) build and realizing you forgot that one bugfix that was pointed out by someone sticking their head into your office (instead of the online tracking system).

# Peter Rosser said on January 9, 2006 4:23 PM:

Shannon: I thought that it was the time between the *completion* of a new (final, possibly gold) build and realizing you forgot a bugfix...

# Paul Smith said on February 1, 2006 3:34 PM:

The average access (synaptic response) time of the human brain....

# The Coffeehouse said on June 17, 2007 9:46 PM:

(~12 hours time to answer from this post)

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