Back in days of yore, when no one had anything more than a modem, and most people who had modems at home used them simply to call BBSes, as opposed to dialing into the Internet, BBS system operators (Sysops) and experienced users were annually beset with clueless new users who found modems under the Christmas tree, dubbed "Christmas modem twits."
On
the Internet, of course, the influx of clueless newbies occurred at the
start of the academic year in September, when incoming Freshmen gained
access to things like Usenet discussion groups. When AOL began offering
its broader, less-educated userbase access to Usenet in 1993, it was
referred to as "the September that never ends."
A
research firm says this jump signals that "sales of the media player
surged during the holiday season." Oh, really? How about signaling that
sales were spread out over the holiday season, but a lot of people actually received theirs on the same day? Do research firms not understand how Christmas works or something?
Apparently
one spokesman doesn't, since he says, "iPod Touch devices must have
flooded the market over Christmas." Wait... thousands of people all
received a popular electronic gadget, and started using it, on the same day, which just happens to be a popular gift-giving holiday? I have some more shocking news for you: water is wet, fire is hot.
