Yes, you guessed it. People who played Calcudoku using Chrome completed more puzzles and did them faster. Firefox users were slightly less proficient, though a bit better at the larger and more complex puzzles. And Internet Explorer users? Well, maybe math just isn't their subject.
IE users took almost 40 percent longer than Chromeheads to complete the simplest puzzles; roughly twice as many IE players abandoned the simplest puzzles without completing them. The numbers get closer as the puzzles get harder, but the pattern still holds.
For the record: I've been in touch with Patrick Min, who assures me this is not a hoax. His site has been up for about three years in one form or another, and he provides a lot more data and statistical documentation than Gill did for his bogus survey.
The reasons for these results? You tell me. Maybe the sample size was too small. Maybe IE users are more likely to abandon puzzles because they're busy people with important jobs, versus those Chrome slackers who can spend all day playing games and tweeting about their cats. Maybe it was IE itself and not the people using it that proved too slow for Calcudoku.
All the same, this post does not constitute an endorsement of Min's results. I'm not saying IE users couldn't spell "cat" if you spotted them the "c" and the "t," or that they couldn't locate their own buttocks with both hands and a GPS unit. I'm not at all implying that when it comes to intellectual cutlery IE users are duller than spoons, or that they like to pal around with half-wits so that they can have someone to look up to.
I'm not going there. As far as I'm concerned, IE users (especially those who continue to read this blog despite my many swipes at Microsoft) are la creme de la creme. If you have a bone to pick with this survey, pick it with Min -- not me.
So have at it, Cringesters: Why do IE users appear to do worse at math puzzles? Posit your theories below or email me: cringe@infoworld.com.
This article, "Internet Explorer users: Don't call them dumb," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the crazy twists and turns of the tech industry with Robert X. Cringely's Notes from the Field blog, and subscribe to Cringely's Notes from the Underground newsletter.
