Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2017 December 19

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

December 19

Is there a practical reason for store Muzak® to not have a sensible 1 second gap between songs?

Radio has to avoid dead air cause people change the channel, what's retail's excuse? I don't understand the kind of dopamine addict that'd switch stations just cause 1 in 240 times they turn it on there's ~0.5 seconds of silence but they're apparently enough to make it economic suicide. I can't imagine someone taking at least a few minutes and possibly gas money to switch stores just because they don't hear Muzak® within 200 milliseconds of walking in. Would some people subconsciously avoid stores with only 239/240ths the background music? Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 18:00, 19 December 2017 (UTC)

I think it's time for a ref desk ban. --Floquenbeam (talk) 18:13, 19 December 2017 (UTC)

Believe it or not I'm not tacking on a question I don't care about just for the sake of "blogging", I'd actually be interested to know. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 20:11, 19 December 2017 (UTC)

Isn't much of the point of Muzak to not be noticed? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:10, 19 December 2017 (UTC)

Are you hypothesizing that having the songs run into each other reduces how much you notice and that the buying-inducing effect works better that way? I hadn't thought of that. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 23:29, 19 December 2017 (UTC)

• SMW, I don't think a ref desk ban is appropriate, but you really do not have to ask everything that occurs tou you. I have noticed you willingly suffer the occasional hatting with grace, and you have a registered username, and don't apparently sock, and don't edit war. So, taking your question in good faith... Are you not familiar with DJ's, and how they are paid to match the beats on turntables so that one song blends into the other even if they have slightly different beats per minute?

There is a reason for that, and it probably has a lot to do with why they don't want a jarring pause between muzak adaptations--so you don't notice the pause.

On a hunch, I juss typed in "beat match" in the search window, an, Lo and Behold: "beat-matching"! μηδείς (talk) 00:02, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

To expand on Bugs' point: Muzak is supposed to effect the subconsciousness in the background; a sudden silence would be noticed consciously. For example, I don't notice when the refrigerator is running -- but when it suddenly stops, I notice. 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:16C:7A91:B68E:A1BB (talk) 05:33, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

This oldie: A farmer lives near a railroad. Every night at midnight, the train goes by and blows its whistle. The farmer always sleeps through it. One night the train doesn't go by. At midnight, the farmer wakes with a start and says, "What was that?" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:04, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

How much money could you have made by investing in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin using $1000 at the start of the year?

request for speculation, five days now without a link or reference actually answering the question
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
Suppose you had transfered $1000 to the Coinbase exchange and you used that to buy and sell bitcoins, ethers, and litecoins during the year. Taking into account fees, the differences in exchange rates for selling and buying, what would be the theoretical maximum profit given the way the exchange rates of the 3 cryptocurrencies have fluctuated during the year? Count Iblis (talk) 20:28, 19 December 2017 (UTC) This was hatted as a "request for speculation and financial advice". It is neither; it is asking for a computation based on past prices and fees. Not a computation that I'm interested in doing, for sure, but I see no way that it's not a legitimate question. --69.159.60.147 (talk) 01:02, 20 December 2017 (UTC) May I add a supplementary condition to Count Iblis's query, that the calculations have to take into account the costs of converting the notionally 'made' quantities of the said digital 'currencies' back into a conventional one? I understand that this is more difficult than is popularly supposed. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.220.212.173 (talk) 02:07, 20 December 2017 (UTC) Yes, that's right, you start with dollars and you end with dollars. E.g. you could have bought bitcoin at the start of the year, and then converted that back to dollars half a year alter with a factor of 6.25 profit, bought ether with all of the money, made a factor of 4 profit, convert everything back to dollars,, and then you could have bought litecoin and then multiply the amount by another factor 4, and when you then convert back to dollars, the net gain would have been a factor of 6.25*4*4 = 100. By using larger number of transactions you could have obtained a much larger gain factor, but you can't exploit smaller fluctuations due to transactions costs and the fact that the price you get for selling is lower than for buying. But it's clear that the factor by which you could in theory have multiplied the initial $1000 is a very large number, the question is to get to an approximate estimate of just how large this number is. Count Iblis (talk) 17:39, 20 December 2017 (UTC) Removing disruptive hat again. This is still not a request for speculation, nor for financial advice, nor is it plausible that it is a homework assignment as claimed. --69.159.60.147 (talk) 10:45, 21 December 2017 (UTC) You've got it wrong on all counts. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 11:19, 21 December 2017 (UTC) The purpose of the reference desk is to guide users towards sources of information to answer their questions. It is not the business of the reference desk to perform complex financial calculations and projections. There is plenty of software out there that will do so.--WaltCip (talk) 13:25, 21 December 2017 (UTC) But it is easy to answer. Within a year, it is very likely that wherever the person has his or her virtual money stored will be "hit by a hacker" and all the virtual currency will be gone. Because it isn't real money being lost, the investment is not insured and there is no actual crime being committed. 71.85.51.150 (talk) 13:35, 21 December 2017 (UTC) Since when are hacking and theft not crimes? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:48, 21 December 2017 (UTC) Who enforces such laws when it comes to cryptocurrency?--WaltCip (talk) 14:10, 21 December 2017 (UTC) I see no reason to doubt that the theft of cryptocurrency via hacking is a crime. Presumably enforceable, in principle, by the FBI (among others). For example, here are stories of people actually prosecuted for stealing bitcoin. [1][2][3] In practice though, most of the time cryptocurrencies are stolen, it is unlikely that the thief will get caught, and unless the thief can be identified the question of prosecution is moot. Dragons flight (talk) 14:22, 21 December 2017 (UTC) Hacking is the crime. They often throw in money laundering as well. Stealing cryptocurrency is not the crime. Right now, this specific day, cryptocurrency does not have much legal standing. Bitcoin futures are recognized, but not bitcoins themselves. I believe that by the end of 2018, cryptocurrency law will be a new and prosperous field. 71.85.51.150 (talk) 14:44, 21 December 2017 (UTC) Given your powers of prediction, maybe you could answer the OP's question. :) ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:48, 21 December 2017 (UTC) The way things are going, you'd be lucky to break even. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:30, 22 December 2017 (UTC)