NavList:

   

Reply

NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM Statistics

I joined this mailing list in July of 1997.  I have saved most (not all) of
the email that has gone through the list.  I wrote an Awk script to scan the
headers of all of the postings and here is what I learned.

Here is a histogram of the posting frequencies:

[         0 ..         15)  N = 164 (86%)    Sum = 459 (32%)
[        15 ..         30)  N =  14 ( 7%)    Sum = 275 (19%)
[        30 ..         45)  N =   7 ( 3%)    Sum = 265 (18%)
[        45 ..         60)  N =   2 ( 1%)    Sum = 107 ( 7%)
[        60 ..         75)  N =   0 ( 0%)    Sum =   0 ( 0%)
[        75 ..         90)  N =   1 ( 1%)    Sum =  86 ( 6%)
[        90 ..        105)  N =   1 ( 1%)    Sum =  97 ( 7%)
[       105 ..        120)  N =   0 ( 0%)    Sum =   0 ( 0%)
[       120 ..        135)  N =   0 ( 0%)    Sum =   0 ( 0%)
[       135 ..        150)  N =   0 ( 0%)    Sum =   0 ( 0%)
[       150 ..        INF)  N =   1 ( 1%)    Sum = 151 (10%)

             Items      190
               Sum      1,440
           Minimum      1
           Maximum      151
             Range      150
              Mean      7.6
     Harmonic Mean      1.7
    Geometric Mean      2.8
          RMS Mean      18.3
      Sample Stdev      16.7
  Population Stdev      16.7

---

Here is how your read this: There were 190 different people that posted to
the group for a total of 1,440 posts.  From the first line of the
histogram you can determine that 164 people posted less than 15 times in
4 years, for a total of 459 posts.  The last line of the histogram shows
that one person posted 151 times.

Here is a list of the top posters and how many times they posted from July
of 1997 to July of 2001:

151     Dan Hogan
97      Dan Allen
86      Rick Emerson
57      Russell Sher
50      George Huxtable
44      Tony Severdia
43      Gordon Talge
39      Bill Murdoch
37      Paul Hirose
36      Rodney Myrvaagnes
34      Peter Smith
32      Chuck Taylor
27      Yves Arrouye
26      Lu Abel
26      Aubrey O'Callaghan
23      Millard Kirk
19      Steven Wepster
19      Nigel Gardner
18      Roger M. Derby
18      Michael Wescott
18      Joe Shields
18      Ed Falk
17      Mal Misuraca
16      Andres Ruiz
15      Jim Manzari
15      Dr. Geoffrey Kolbe
13      Herbert Prinz
13      Clive Sutherland
12      Geoff Kuenning
12      Barrie Hudson
11      Richard Langley
11      Henning Umland
11      Carl Herzog
10      William Trayfors
10      Thomas Schmidt
10      Sam Chan
10      R.H. van Gent
9       Pierre Boucher
9       Craig
8       John Simmonds

My Awk script actually handled the fact that many of the posters of this
list have had different signatures (email addresses, spellings of names,
with or without middle initials, order of names, etc.) and has folded
everyone many identities into a single canonical identity based on what
they posted as the most frequently.


REFLECTION
==========
This fine collection of acquaintances seems now like longtime friends!
I have found myself starting to talk to others about my friend George
Huxtable who knows the history of English navigation like the back of his
hand, of Chuck Taylor who enjoys HP calculators like I do, of Aubrey
O'Callaghan who enjoys O'Brian, of Dan Hogan the Silicon Sea man,
of Richard Emerson our pragmatist who always brings our theory back
to practice, of Russell Sher who someday if I ever get to South Africa
I would like to meet, of Peter Smith who I have learned a lot of theory
from... and to many others who have all been posting for these 4 years.

I am impressed with the amount of knowledge that we collectively have shared
in this forum.  I would bet that we account for more than 50% of the
people of the world that are seriously interested in celestial navigation,
perhaps more!


PROPOSAL
========
Maybe we should consider trying to sometime meet for a day someplace to
actually meet and get acquainted in person.  It would be especially nice to
pick someplace that is central to navigation.  Next year is the 200th
anniversary of Nathaniel Bowditch's first edition of "The American Practical
Navigator" and Bowditch was born at Salem, Massachusets.  Perhaps we should
gather there?  Or not.  Is there any interest in doing this?


REQUEST
=======
To better determine a central meeting location, could you email me your city
or lat/lon and then I'd like to find a center point where we could meet.  I
know of several of the list in Europe and Russell in Africa, but I think
most of us are in the US.  My rough guess is that a center would be
somewhere in the Eastern US.

Thanks!

Dan


Daniel K. Allen
danallen@nwlink.com
http://www.nwlink.com/~danallen/
Measure | Analyze | Communicate

   

Reply