Amazon gets BURNED, or iPad puts out Fire's fire

[FloatingBones]

For Heaven's sake:
Dampening: To deaden, restrain, or depress: "trade moves . . . aimed at dampening protectionist pressures in Congress" (Christian Science Monitor).
to check or diminish the activity or vigor of : deaden <the heat dampened our spirits>
dampening: present participle of damp·en (Verb)
Verb:
Make less strong or intense: "nothing could dampen her enthusiasm".

For heaven's sake. If you're going to disagree with what Professor Brians said about damped/dampened usage, you should at least read what you think you're disagreeing with:

When the vibration of a wheel is reduced it is damped, but when you drive through a puddle your tire is dampened. “Dampened” always has to do with wetting, if only metaphorically: “The announcement that Bob’s parents were staying home after all dampened the spirits of the party-goers.” The parents are being a wet blanket.

“Dampened/dampening” always refers to wetting; “damped/damping” always has to do with reducing the amplitude. I believe the root cause of this misunderstanding is that dampening many materials will end up damping their vibrations: if you strike a tuning fork then stick it into a container of water (or beer), the tuning fork will stop vibrating much faster. The maintainers of the topics damping/dampening on the Wikipedia understand this usage error: check out what happens when you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dampening. If you find that article on damping interesting, check out the article on the Quality Factor.

Damping is a tremendously important factor in all moving systems—including the human body. Apple incorporated a damping behavior in scrolling of iOS apps (including Safari). You don't abruptly stop when you scroll off the top or bottom of a page; the screen goes a bit past the top/bottom of the document and then gently returns to the end. For me, this was one of the tiny jaw-dropping UI features added with iOS: it's a very life-like and natural function. Discussion of this patent has been in the news recently. As reported by MacRumors earlier this month, Apple has licensed this technology to Nokia and IBM, but negotiations with Samsung failed back in November 2010. One may agree or disagree with software patents, but I think that damped scrollbars is a very cool innovation.

To "damp" sales would imply that they oscillate.

Of course sales figures oscillate! A chart from this blog entry earlier this year graphically demonstrates how Microsoft's sales oscillate quarter-by-quarter. Do you note how different departments oscillate with different dynamics: how Entertainment and Devices has a distinct peak in Q4 of the year while Microsoft Business does not?

Learn to read a dictionary.

Oh, dear. Do you realize the irony of that statement?

Professor Brians's usage note is clear, and he clearly knows how to read a dictionary. “Dampening” is always about wetting, and metaphorical wetting isn't quantifiable. “Damping” is something that can be quantified. If you think his usage note is incorrect, here are the instructions on what to do to before contacting him.

I think damping behavior is rather remarkable and worthy of study. I'm grateful for things like MIT Professor Walter Lewin's Open Courseware for 8.03 (lectures available here in iTunes U). Damping behavior is a subtle but highly useful tweak in the iOS UI; I understand why it was copied into Android. This is probably close to the useful limits of a public discussion here on MR. Feel free to contact me privately, JSH.

 

[jsh1120]

Feel free to contact me privately, JSH.

No thanks. You apparently don't understand what oscillate means, either.