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January 1

Text question-answering services

Why do services (can't remember the company's exact name) exist that, when sent a query by text message, answer the question within a minute, if this Reference desk can do the same thing for free!? The markup for a text message is insane, so why not be patient and use Wikipedia? The Reference desk is probably the most trustworthy page on the site, no offense. 75.73.225.224 (talk) 14:33, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Likely because 1. a lot of people don't know about the Ref Desk (it's not like we have an advertising budget), 2. time is a factor sometimes (e.g. if you are playing bar trivia), and 3. a lot of people are (incorrectly) more comfortable with the results of a "pay" site than a "volunteer" site, even though in this particular instance, there are factors which mean that the "volunteer" site probably is more reliable (there are more opinions than just one answerer; none of us are trying to cram as many questions in per hour as is possible; we are doing it because we find it interesting and fun, not because we're being paid minimum wage to do it; etc.). --Mr.98 (talk) 15:46, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

(e/c)Because they make money. Relatively few people know about this reference desk and answers rarely arrive within a minute here, if at all. That'll be $1 please.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 15:48, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

They may not actually make money. I suspect the margin of profit for such an enterprise is pretty low these days, when smart phones (that can just access the internet directly) are becoming extremely common. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:05, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Not everyone have internet access 24/7 (wifi/data plan/what have you), but a lot of people have 24/7 cell phone services. Royor (talk) 20:22, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Check the small print of that answer service when you remember it. It may be just mirroring Wikipedia. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 21:30, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That's very unlikely, although some might use something like trueknowledge which sourced a lot of its info from WP. (A list of services can be found here by the way). SmartSE (talk) 21:58, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

A lot of the questions these sites answer are very mundane ones like "when does the next bus leave from X?" which the Reference Desk would consider beneath its dignity (and as an aside, questions about bus times often require reading PDF timetables, which many phones cannot do very well). These also services answer much stupider questions like "will I ever find true love?" that the Reference Desk would reject even more forcefully. --Colapeninsula (talk) 10:48, 6 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Can anyone explain what's on the TV in this picture?

I was flipping through the Times photos of the week, and was wondering about the picture on the TV in the background. Does anyone know what it's about? It looks like a soldier dressed in furs, but standing in the desert. Is it an ad? Here's the link to the page:

http://www.time.com/time/picturesoftheweek/0,29409,2040239_2222682,00.html Snorgle (talk) 18:50, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

He's wearing a Ghillie suit. Dismas|^(talk) 18:58, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, well that explains about the suit! He must be a sniper then. Anyone else know what he's advertising? Is it to encourage people to join up? Snorgle (talk) 20:27, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

From the context (green headbands with Arabic script), it looks like a Hamas press conference, and perhaps they are publicizing their ability to use snipers to murder Israeli civilians. (Looking at the caption, it confirms that it's Hamas.) StuRat (talk) 23:32, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There are a number of press reports of the 25/12/2010 press conference pictured - such as this. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:44, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The text on the banner behind the guy to the left reads "Conference of the Martyr Izzuddin Qassam Brigades 25/12/2010" --Soman (talk) 16:09, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Right, and that's the military wing of Hamas. (Is there a peaceful, rather zen-like wing ?) StuRat (talk) 22:12, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There's a political wing, which is why it's necessary to make the distinction. Buddy431 (talk) 03:35, 3 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The blockade of Gaza has led to shortages of everything except microphones. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 15:33, 5 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]