Tuesday, August 17, 2010
JSH: But what does 94 countries really mean?
One argument on Usenet has been about the meaning of country counts from Google Analytics to my math blog, and I just checked now—gotta love technology!—and according to Google Analytics so far this year, starting from January 1st, I have visits from 94 countries/territories as Google puts it, from 1659 cities. Last year for the entire year the count was 121 countries/territories from 2486 cities, and maybe I'm less popular this year for some reason or other but 94 countries/territories is still a lot, I'd think.
One thing I get back from posters then is: why bother posting on Usenet if I have a math blog that gets hits from all over?
Simple answer is I USE Usenet, often to puzzle out problems. I talk out math problems as part of extreme mathematics and naturally turn to that method to try to understand people problems as this one is rather odd.
YEARS ago, long before those high country counts, I'd tell myself that my job was to convince one person. I had this strong feeling that if I could convince one person of the importance of my mathematical research then that could be the start, but years later I have THOUSANDS of visits to my math blog from all over the world!!! Where is that one person now?
Some posters have claimed that people go to my blog to laugh at me. That theory could explain the lack of impact of those high country counts, or the apparent lack of impact.
I mean to put it all in perspective, I don't need to go to a media outlet to send a message that will cross the world. In the last 30 days I've had hits from 46 countries/territories. That's typical. If I want to say something to the world—I can just put it on my math blog. It would seem.
But I DO put things on there and things don't seem to change much.
Another claim by posters is that all websites get that kind of traffic. One poster persistently claimed that it was robot traffic. That is, robot programs from all over the world checking my math blog and that it didn't represent humans at all.
So it's an interesting problem.
How would someone test influence on that level? Conceivably I could push just about anything I thought important across country boundaries all over the world, at will.
So far I've mostly been pushing the idea that academics lie. That math people can't be convinced all the time by mathematical proof. And that there is this big error in their field that they're hiding.
The possibility that I do have some influence is seen by Google searches, like: algebraic integers vs complex numbers
If I AM right, and the world is listening, then it hasn't figured out what to do with its academics yet.
My own suggestion has been simple: fire them.
Fire them all. Start over. The best people will rise to the top.
Leave enough professors to teach, but shut down their research completely.
It's a waste of the world's time.
And yup, I'm not just talking about mathematicians any more.
I no longer trust the entire academic system.
I'm ready to fire most professors across disciplines, worldwide—and start over.
One thing I get back from posters then is: why bother posting on Usenet if I have a math blog that gets hits from all over?
Simple answer is I USE Usenet, often to puzzle out problems. I talk out math problems as part of extreme mathematics and naturally turn to that method to try to understand people problems as this one is rather odd.
YEARS ago, long before those high country counts, I'd tell myself that my job was to convince one person. I had this strong feeling that if I could convince one person of the importance of my mathematical research then that could be the start, but years later I have THOUSANDS of visits to my math blog from all over the world!!! Where is that one person now?
Some posters have claimed that people go to my blog to laugh at me. That theory could explain the lack of impact of those high country counts, or the apparent lack of impact.
I mean to put it all in perspective, I don't need to go to a media outlet to send a message that will cross the world. In the last 30 days I've had hits from 46 countries/territories. That's typical. If I want to say something to the world—I can just put it on my math blog. It would seem.
But I DO put things on there and things don't seem to change much.
Another claim by posters is that all websites get that kind of traffic. One poster persistently claimed that it was robot traffic. That is, robot programs from all over the world checking my math blog and that it didn't represent humans at all.
So it's an interesting problem.
How would someone test influence on that level? Conceivably I could push just about anything I thought important across country boundaries all over the world, at will.
So far I've mostly been pushing the idea that academics lie. That math people can't be convinced all the time by mathematical proof. And that there is this big error in their field that they're hiding.
The possibility that I do have some influence is seen by Google searches, like: algebraic integers vs complex numbers
If I AM right, and the world is listening, then it hasn't figured out what to do with its academics yet.
My own suggestion has been simple: fire them.
Fire them all. Start over. The best people will rise to the top.
Leave enough professors to teach, but shut down their research completely.
It's a waste of the world's time.
And yup, I'm not just talking about mathematicians any more.
I no longer trust the entire academic system.
I'm ready to fire most professors across disciplines, worldwide—and start over.
# posted by James Harris @ 21:41 
