Making Sense of Specs

aka NordicTrack Sucks

Somehow this NYT headline is appropriate (more than the actual article)

Making Sense of Specs:
In many cases, product specifications may mean something different from what they appear to, or mean nothing at all.
..What's an electronics shopper to do? In many cases, product specifications may mean something different from what they appear to, or they may mean nothing at all.

Joshua Kairoff, director of display engineering for Pioneer Electronics, calls specs “the low-hanging fruit of technical information” and a tempting tool for marketing departments looking to distinguish their products, even if the specs themselves mislead or shed little light.

They also help manufacturers and retailers sell upgrades or higher-end models. A five-megapixel digital camera may seem alluring (“More Megapixels, Better Memories!” promises an ad for the retailer Good Guys), even though “most people's three-megapixel cameras are more than adequate for almost all photography use,” said Mark Rutherford, a photographer with studios in Oakland, Calif., and New York City.

Here's why: today we spent multiple hours trying to get a freakin' NordicTrack machine into our condo. D found it online a few weeks ago, and convinced me that:
a. we would actually use it, and
b. it was a good machine.

I gave in, we ordered it, and then it actually arrived. According to the salesperson at the NordicTrack online store, the widest part of the machine was 26 inchs wide. The door to our elevator is 33 inches wide, or slightly less, if you factor in the door. Plenty of room. Viva la specs.

Except when we actually tried to get the machine in, nope. The machine was 34 inches wide. Bleh.

More later.