Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Some more thoughts on splitting the Carnival...

You may want to read the comment I posted on John Armstrong's, The Unapologetic Mathematician. It's the 23rd psalm, oops, I meant comment, listed there and it does represent my strong feelings about where we are in all of this 'bifurcation' business. I'm hoping we can move on now.

The next edition is coming out next week over at Learning Computation and I will be hosting the following one on 9-21. I will have several suggestions for the format of submissions at that time, so I'm hoping you will follow this thread over the next few weeks. Actually, Kurt over at Learning Computation has anticipated most of what I will be requesting so please read his article on the Carnival thoroughly - it's very thorough and well-written. He also has some fascinating information on the mathbloggers.com site and Social Rank. Why should we be surprised that there are computer science whizzes trying to develop new tools for ranking blogs and websites. Why would they do it other than for commercial gain? Because they can, I suppose! Why did a teenager in Glen Rock NJ spend countless errors trying to unlock the secrets of the iPhone? Because he could! (earning instant fame and a new car in the process). The opportunities for technophiles to instantly change the world are now endless...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

You'll need to assign yourself a growth rate, perhaps 200 visitors/ month, and then remove it from your stats, in order to see your summer (principally July) dip. But it's there.

This latest CoM is the first in a while where I am noticing the hits - about 10 - 20 each day, and steady. Now, I was in the first position, which helps, but I think August is turning to September.

Anyhow, I am glad more people got pulled into the discussion. It looks like the CoM will not get split, not for now.

When I scroll through older carnivals, I found that each was organized differently. I think you'll like how Alon did #1.

But mine was quasi-alphabetic. And you know what? Each entry showed about the same number of outclicks, except for Alana Tentoni's who was out in front (A - listed first). But I think everyone else was in the 50 - 75 range for the immediate post-carnival.

Dave Marain said...

joanthan--
Perhaps you're right but I'm looking particularly at the last 30 days. I'm maintaining the increase and, as I said previously, it's really about the quantity and allure of my topics. Those who write edgier, more controversial posts, will always see more readership. That has never been my intent, although my Carnival to the 2nd Power post provoked a lot of attention! If you're looking at my stats, be aware that I'm using other site meters that give me far more information about the nature of my readership. These are invisible but very useful.

Beans said...

I think it is a battle between the code makers and the code breakers, which has been raging for centuries. I think that codes are meant to be broken(!), so in this battle only one player can win. Code breakers have no real rules.

Do you think companies like Sony, and iPhone deliberately leave a gap open, just so that they can release 'upgraded models'? I mean code makers can't be that bad right?

Dave Marain said...

beans--
Ooh, you are so cynical about those major corporations. You're not suggesting that they might even build obsolescence into their products, are you?

Certainly none of us ever gets a vicarious thrill when we read about some teenage whiz kid giving some tech giant severe acid reflux?

But you're right about the age-old battle between the forces of good and evil or, for that matter, deciding which one is good or evil.

Thanks for the insightful comment - I like how your mind operates...
BTW, how did you discover this blog?

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I'm not normally cynical, but with my over-active imagination I shouldn't be allowed to watch movies like Die Hard 4 and Transformers. :D (I always like a conspiracy story!) Well I have been suspecting Microsoft of building obsolescence for sometime. ;) [I don't really know how advance technology has become, but speaking from a gamers prospective, a lot of modding is done by people. :(]

None of us probably get a thrill, but some people probably do. Dare I say that hackers etc get the same thrill mathematicians do, when solving tough problems? I don't think any side is evil, but both sides can use their 'skills' to do evil. (eg. evil people who leak viruses!!)

Lol, you're the first person to actually like how my mind operates! You wouldn't want to know what else has been said about it. ;)

I initially recall coming across your blog through the myspace links. (It was for the post about Singapore maths). Then after that through your commente on my blog; but it's mainly through the MySpace mathematics page. (I suppose you came across mine through that as well?)

Sorry for the long comment- got carried away! :o