Hungarians are buying LCD TVs, GPS machines and netbooks for their loved ones for Christmas, while demand for last year’s favorite gift, game consoles, has fallen, writes IT news portal kutyu.hu, based on a top list compiled by depo.hu.
“While the superiority of game consoles was obvious last year – in December, five similar products were included in the top ten – this year, even the most in-demand machine only reached 19th place,” said László Szabari, business branch leader of depo.hu. “At the same time, LCD TVs occupy three places among the ten most demanded products.”
Another interesting finding of the depo.hu list is that while one of 2007′s most popular gifts, digital cameras, are no longer among favorites, a digital photo frame occupies 4th place this year.
It’s just too bad that Hungarians have to pay nearly twice the price here for the same thing as in the UK (if it is even available here). And believe me, it is often nearly twice the price!!
Never fails to amaze me. The economy is in tatters,
everyone is complaining of job insecurity, low
incomes blah blah. Meanwhile those poor Hungarians
that don’t already have LCD tvs, GPS units, and game
netbooks are snapping them up. And those that
already have all these items which don’t feature
high on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are spending
their hard-earned on one of the most useless things
I can ever imagine… digital photo frames. Me, I
have none of these and don’t plan on getting them
either. And perhaps that’s why I’m not complaining
about being poor.
@Benny:
And You and I don’t have to pay those 35 % THM…
Benny you are better off playing with your train set in a cave. No central heating bills,electricity or taxes to pay. A simple candle-lit dinner with a dwarf of your dreams, listening to Christmas carols
sung by the local choir…heaven on earth?
The alternative is buying inferior goods at CBA and Tesco and paying a fortune for them. And for your troubles getting knocked about by ignorant shoppers
doing there last-minute panic buying.
I have my palinka – 3000 forint for one and a half litres. Courtesy of my neighbour. Just enough to get me over the Xmas.
@Yuletide, bring the palinka over to my cave and
I’ll let you play with my train set.
@Yuletide:
So you also bought the palinka in a plastic mineral water bottle ?
I transfer it quickly into glass bottles, don’t know what the 50% plus (should be 120proof in english units ?) does to the plastic.
At least I can choose from my neighbours cherry and apricot – both very nice, hicks!
Wolfi. I don’t like the plastic bottles they use, either. I transfer to glass ASAP. Tastes better as well! My favorite is the palinka made from pears.
Got a delivery of the apple variety yesterday.
Reserve comment for the moment.
Fermat’s Last Theorem. What do you know about that..
being a retired mathematician?
@pythagoras:
Yes, there are are lot of good varieties of palinka around – of course also a lot of bad stuff, “szeszes ital”.
I don’t drink too much of it, but it also comes in handy for christmas presents.
Real soon now we’ll also get some apple and pear to try…
About Fermat’s theorem: It’s been proved, but in a really complicated roundabout way, I probably wouldn’t understand the detailed proof myself. It is based on something called generalized elliptic functions, real heady stuff…
Wolfi. Thanks. I recorded a program sometime ago involving an American mathematician (?) who solved
what I believe was just the Pythagoras theorem
anyway. X2 x Y2 = Z2. No other set of numbers exist that follow this equation. This is the best way I can describe it, but I’m sure you follow.
In the number crunching exercise there was one very important factor that was completely overlooked.
So simple it would make you cringe. It would need the trinity of a mathematician, a musician, and a physicist, to explain just why.
I haven’t been at the palinka yet, either.
Happy days!
I think you’re mixing up Pythagarus’ theorem about
the right-angled triangle:
a2 + b2 = c2, where c represents the length of
the hypotenuse, and a and b represent the lengths
of the other two sides
with Fermat’s:
no three positive integers a, b, and c can satisfy
the equation an + bn = cn for any integer value of
n greater than two
I guess they look superficially related.
Nevertheless I think I saw that documentary you
mentioned. It was about the very complicated proof
of Fermat’s theorem which turned out to be flawed
- later on it was corrected and now the proof is
accepted. You can read all about it on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat's_Last_Theorem
in the section “Mile’s General Proof”
@Benny and Pythagoras:
This matter is so complicated that we probably would need a few palinkas first in order to get a feel for it – I’m not saying we would understand it…
BTW it was a British mathematician and his name is Wiles…
If you want to look at something really incomprehensible look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiles%27_proof_of_Fermat%27s_Last_Theorem
Einstein’s Relativity Theory is child’s play compared to this.
So let’s just settle for the palinka, cheers everybody!
Very bright for a dwarf, Benny. But there is a common denominator that links both Fermat’s Last Theorem and the Theorem of Pythagoras.
(3×3)=9 + (4×4)=16 (5×5)= 25 The hypotenuse is the sum of the squares on the other two sides.
Fermat’s Last Theorem can be proven without resorting to just the number-crunching aspect.
Fermat said he had proof but didn’t publish. (I think he was lying.)
Factor “X” which I am referring to is only known by
myself. And shall remain that way.
There is a good reason in a “physical” sense for the logic behind the equation in which Fermat packaged it.
Forget about it, anyway. It is not a life-changing matter. Merrx Xmas. Palinka time.
The fact is, I myself discovered an elementary proof
of Fermat’s last theorem when I was out on the town
one night a few years ago. I jotted it down on a
napkin, and promptly forgot to take it home with me.
When I went back to the restaurant in the morning
there was no trace of it. And I was too hungover to
remember it.
C+B+A dumped Fermat’s Theorem and Tesco re-packaged it and dumped it on us.
Well, it’s Christmas so let’s all have a real palinka – not the szeszes ital you get from CBA or Tesco, please …
Merry Christmas or whatever holiday you might want to enjoy, to everybody, especially all the failed mathematical geniuses out there!
@P.agorus:
I hope you don’t have a headache today after drinking and writing all this heavy stuff yesterday…
Cheers to mathematics, especially geometry!
Thanks, Wolfi. I do not have a hangover.
I am sorry I ever mentioned Fermat or, for that matter, Pythagoras.
I have embarked on further investigations and, my goodness, you would not believe the amount of information directly, and indirectly related to
the Pythagoras and Fermat theories.
It is holiday time so I will relent on the “heavy”
stuff. I mean the theories – not drink.
Cheers for a bit!
@P:Agoras:
Good to hear that you are well, I wish you and everybody here the best for the rest of the holidays.
Hungary had the highest retails sales spike (ie
December sales vs adjacent months) of all the
countries surveyed by Joel Waldfogel for his recent
book Scroogenomics.
Ref Slide 12 of
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/publicEvents/pdf/20091203Scroo
genomics.pdf
Waldfogel’s thesis concerns the “deadweight loss of
Christmas”, essentially money spent on unwanted
presents. I expected Digital photo frames are well
up there.
Tesco along with CBA, as you know, Benny, are at the top of the shit heap as far as peddling over-priced rubbish is concerned.
I did not indulge myself in any of the usual leisure activities this holiday. And saved myself a fortune. My neighbor was burgled on Christmas Eve and this added to the current doom and gloom atmosphere. I don’t know what the thieves stole but it is going to cost a fortune to get the damage they
caused whilst breaking in.
Sorry to relay this news but, there you are!
Boldog Uj Évet!
Apologies. I have reconstructed a defective sentence in my last posting:
“IT is going to cost a fortune to replace the locks and doors (and iron gate) that the burglars damaged whilst breaking in.”