neoporcupine: 2008/02

Update: check DiggAnalysis for the latest stats
Digg is a social news site that initially grew in popularity from its roots of a geek fanbase who poured in the science and technology articles. Digg works by having the users of the site submitting items they found interesting and if they are marked as interesting (Dugg) by enough users then the article will appear on the front page.
Some whiney buggers have been a little upset about the decline of technology based articles being posted at Digg. Not that I care where Digg goes. If you haven't worked it out yet, Kevin likes to use other people's efforts to make money. Nothing particularly wrong with that, I guess. It is his site, he can do with it as he wishes. Digg has always had value and still holds value for me, however it certainly isn't the only site I regularly read and I will admit to using filters to block out the dross.
Anyway, One guy went so far as to come up with some shoddy stats to make a wobbly old point of some vague sort. Obviously I didn't pay too much attention to his complaints, but I knew the stats could be done simply and automatically. I broke out TextMate and started playing with Python. As usual, I may have taken things too far but here you go, number-fest!

Digg articles analysis
Observed 2655 articles at 08-02-22 18:03:43 from Digg pages 3 to 180.

Top Ten most frequently published domains

Domain	#Articles	Mean #Diggs	Mean #Comments	Most Dugg article
youtube.com	116	2574	318	Google Maps.. Gone Wrong (9073)
arstechnica.com	77	1054	134	Microsoft says "sorry" with free Valentine's Zune 80 players (2086)
gizmodo.com	72	1372	153	Indiana Jones IV Trailer! (7003)
engadget.com	67	1392	211	It's official: HD DVD is dead, the format war over (7665)
cnn.com	46	1468	276	At least 18 shot at Northern Illinois University (4112)
nytimes.com	44	1417	213	A President Like My Father (2951)
dailymail.co.uk	40	1613	261	'I Decided to Die Like a Man' (4611)
yahoo.com	40	1548	265	But how? The only clues were the pictures on the camera (5051)
flickr.com	39	2671	236	Think Illegal Downloading is Free? (8524)
bbc.co.uk	38	1416	238	Fidel Castro Announces Retirement (6107)

Top Ten highest mean diggs per Site (for Sites with more than 1 article)

Site	#Articles	Mean #Diggs	Mean #Comments	Most Dugg article
nbc11.com	2	6545	468	Anonymous' War on NBC11. Dont let $cientologists bury this! (9355)
collegehumor.com	4	4646	426	Man Proposes During NBA Halftime; Doesn't Go As Planned (5320)
liveleak.com	2	4239	556	Skateboard-Hating Baltimore Cop At It Again (6028)
imageshack.us	11	4083	458	Coolness (8733)
photobucket.com	5	3751	553	Do you dress like a douchebag? [flowchart] (6224)
mediafire.com	6	3740	440	ANON release Scientology secret DOX (7424)
wikipedia.org	2	3617	330	$5 Bill from 1896 (4100)
tinypic.com	11	3484	356	You want the blocks? Best CraigsList Ad Of All Time Ever. (6262)
escapistmagazine.com	6	3448	250	Zero Punctuation: Call of Duty 4 (7054)
icanhascheezburger.com	3	3433	227	LOLzcats go after Scientology, too. (4881)

Top Ten highest mean comments per Site (for Sites with more than 1 article)

Site	#Articles	Mean #Diggs	Mean #Comments	Most commented on article
whitehouser.com	2	2856	574	I’ve Never Been More Ashamed to be an American (1024)
liveleak.com	2	4239	556	Skateboard-Hating Baltimore Cop At It Again (675)
photobucket.com	5	3751	553	Westboro Baptist planning protest Heath Ledger's funeral (1133)
breitbart.tv	4	1193	543	City of Berkeley's War on Marines Leads to Showdown (743)
cleveland.com	2	2875	498	KUCINICH DROPS OUT OF THE RACE! (538)
nbc11.com	2	6545	468	Anonymous' War on NBC11. Dont let $cientologists bury this! (668)
thestar.com	2	2083	465	MIT Prof Confirms Perpetual Motion Machine is Accelerating (666)
vgchartz.com	2	1208	463	PS3 reaches 10 million four months sooner than Xbox360 (789)
imageshack.us	11	4083	458	Coolness (801)
mediamatters.org	2	2134	441	Fox News Radio Compares Obama to Hitler [AUDIO] (492)

Top Ten most commented on articles

Article	#Diggs	#Comments
Why I Am an Abortion Doctor	2714	1673
Baltimore Cop Vs. A 14 year old Skateboarder	8679	1520
Asking Anti-Abortion Demonstrators an Important Question	4887	1407
Kid goes absolutely nuts over Myspace	4382	1317
Super Bowl XLII Champions New York Giants	7612	1276
Video: Al Qaeda in Iraq BURNS Hostages ALIVE!	1584	1275
I am a Muslim. Kill me and call it.	4817	1248
Contribute $5.01 to Obama TODAY (Feb. 12)	3459	1243
New Jersey Douche Bags!	10080	1233
At least 18 shot at Northern Illinois University	4112	1218

Top Ten most frequently published Authors

Author	#Articles	Mean #Diggs	Mean #Comments	Most Dugg article
MrBabyMan	143	1613	160	A Novel Idea! (PIC) (6341)
msaleem	82	1462	209	Atheist Sees Image of Big Bang in Piece of Toast (6778)
MakiMaki	65	2146	249	I’ve Never Been More Ashamed to be an American (4952)
zaibatsu	65	1181	147	Yahoo's Board REJECTS Microsoft takeover Offer! (5183)
supernova17	60	1340	159	20 Things I Wish I Had Known When Starting Out in Life (5598)
maheshee11	42	655	87	Paper aeroplane to be dropped from Space Station to Earth (1645)
badwithcomputer	38	2184	228	The Internet Was a Real Pile of Shit in 1996 (7637)
FameMoney	30	1674	174	The Pirate Bay: The Site is Safe, Even If We Lose in Court (4702)
suxmonkey	29	2091	177	So I guess I Got Kicked Off Another My Little Pony Forum (7211)
bamafun	29	789	158	Oldest Woman Alive (120) says - I eat, drink & Take Showers (2197)

Top Ten highest mean diggs per Author (for Authors with more than 1 article)

Author	#Articles	Mean #Diggs	Mean #Comments	Most Dugg article
mattsaw	2	4514	409	Top 40 Photoshopped Images (4642)
anonx8675309	2	4287	505	Anonymous Propaganda (4558)
dunnylovehun	3	4027	290	The 6 Cutest Animals That Can Still Destroy You (5712)
MaoistBanker	2	3999	583	Barack Obama - "Just Words?" (5272)
QGYH2	12	3980	468	How glasses affect your image [pic] (9260)
stewacide	2	3769	225	Adelaide Anon Protest $cientology (3858)
poopysnacks	2	3762	223	Photo Gallery: Anonymous' Scientology Protest in Los Angeles (3965)
nothingness00	2	3622	274	Anonymous VS Scientology Makes TV News (3864)
Gugel	3	3518	379	75,000,000,000,000 Crabs Invade an Island in Australia (4249)
benb24	3	3410	318	Coolness (8733)

Top Ten highest mean comments per Author (for Authors with more than 1 article)

Author	#Articles	Mean #Diggs	Mean #Comments	Most commented on article
wwwdot1jesdotus	2	3336	775	CNN Republican Debate Highlights- Ron Paul's Slam Dunk! Bam! (1154)
RonMexico32	2	3155	630	The Most Spoiled Girl In The World? (1051)
KonstantinLevin	2	2097	614	107,000 demand Wikipedia remove this image of Muhammed (879)
MaoistBanker	2	3999	583	Barack Obama - "Just Words?" (729)
anonx8675309	2	4287	505	anonymous 012408 1800 est expect us (639)
blackolive	5	1846	481	Bush: 19% approval (638)
QGYH2	12	3980	468	"Last Touch" - Iraqi woman and her son [pic] (826)
SeaMowse	6	1912	464	Online petition ask Wikipedia to remove pictures of Muhammad (1085)
lazycat	2	3268	453	Stanford is free to students whose families make less than$$ (711)
arTech	2	2713	449	Breaking News: Obama wins Wisconsin Democratic Primaries (487)

Topic of posted articles by count articles, mean diggs, mean comments
(Sort by placing mouse over column title)

Topic	#Articles	Mean #Diggs	Mean #Comments
US Elections 2008	264	1942	293
Tech Industry News	159	1410	164
Odd Stuff	150	2068	243
General Sciences	149	1118	159
World News	148	2275	347
Comedy	128	2552	237
Political News	114	1770	310
Environment	105	1185	157
Movies	105	1150	129
Gaming Industry News	80	1600	198
Apple	78	1475	177
Educational	77	1697	171
Space	76	1118	126
Business & Finance	72	1284	222
Health	69	1092	202
People	60	1824	266
Gadgets	60	1135	127
Design	50	2051	150
Travel & Places	50	1680	162
Nintendo	50	1599	156
Arts & Culture	46	1500	155
Music	42	1201	161
Software	41	1552	149
Political Opinion	40	1846	322
Linux/Unix	39	1492	217
Pets & Animals	32	2702	207
Television	32	1839	220
Hardware	31	1452	216
Celebrity	29	1367	196
Autos	29	1033	153
PC Games	28	1749	249
PlayStation	24	1092	249
Comics & Animation	23	1791	176
Security	23	1578	149
American & Canadian Football	23	994	159
Food & Drink	21	1557	194
Microsoft	18	1967	314
Xbox	17	1706	231
Programming	11	1382	145
Basketball	11	1150	166
Baseball	10	386	76
Mods	9	1542	119
Other Sports	9	789	134
Extreme	8	1594	191
Playable Web Games	4	1767	143
Soccer	3	1119	118
Motorsport	3	1076	176
Hockey	2	1674	267
Golf	2	1043	117
Tennis	1	672	90

I was asked to give a talk on an exciting new data warehouse system for use on a new project I am consulting for. Unfortunately the system was still under development by a group half way around the world who were too busy to talk to me. Fortunately my boss decided to send the request around to various supervisors of the developers and they responded with some information reasonably promptly; about 24 hours before I had to present it at the workshop. Initially I was put off because the documentation appeared to be rushed, but reading it all for the third time I was impressed with what they were trying to do.

Basically they are designing a system with money from the very generous Bill Gates to create a lovely open source health system using Linux, PHP, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, and QuantumGIS. Bless you Bill!

I needed to write up a presentation. I use a MacBookPro, and haven't yet purchased Microsoft Office but I do have NeoOffice (ver 2.2.2 patch10 ~ OpenOffice) installed and have used NeoOffice Writer and Calc regularly with great success. So I used Writer to compose my notes. Once I had all the content together I decided to use NeoOffice Impress for the presentation. I could have used KeyNote but I wanted to see how good the presentation software for NeoOffice is.

*** UPDATE : just updated to ver 2.2.2 patch 11, everything works as it should now. Thank OpenOffice people and "anonymous" for the update tip. People should ignore the little rant below.

NeoOffice Impress ... had some problems that appear to be solved in the current patch.

OLD COMMENT NOW OUTDATED: ... sucks hard. Bugs at nearly every turn. Text that can't be formatted until you clear formatting. Text that centres itself after you save, quit, the reload. Bullet markers that suddenly appear after reloading. Terribly aliased fonts on slideshow. It was an embarrassment. Unfortunately, it looked OK on the first run that I did at 11:30pm the night before. I saved. Went to the workshop the next morning, opened the presentation before the workshop started and saw the mess. I quickly went through and reformatted by clearing the old formatting and putting back the new (simple stuff too: left align, font-size 24pt, no bullets). Saved, but did not close the doc for fear of this mess happening again. I went up to the podium to present, plugged in the data projector, told OSX that it was NOT to mirror but to be a second window. NeoOffice didn't pick this change up and wouldn't show the slideshow on the second monitor. Crap. Close NeoOffice, open NeoOffice, yes, there is the second monitor. Load the presentation; crap! There are the bullets, there are some of the slides centred. Butt ugly. No matter. Let me give this presentation on how we are using Open Source in the project, and how good it is, except for NeoOffice Impress, of course.

I would gladly have paid for Microsoft's Powerpoint at that stage. I should have used the Keynote demo ... although it had expired some while back but you know there is always the trick:

sudo rm /Users/simon/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iW*
sudo rm /Library/Preferences/com.apple.iW*

I need to buy iWork.

I haven't tried NeoOffice's Draw or Base yet.

Moral of the story:
a) don't use new software for a presentation the next day
b) NeoOffice 2.2.2 is one third evil - but patch 11 is OK :)

neoporcupine

2008-02-22

Digg Analysis

2008-02-11

NeoOffice Impress me not

Books Read 2023