Calibration: Number of Printed Pages in a Downloaded Memory File (“hit”)

Using Webalizer 2.10 feedback data from 14th to 18th January 2016 the average ratio of printed pages to memory files downloaded was 77.70. It fluctuates as follows: 60.64, 72.31, 50.22, 146.92 and 58.39. So a very rough estimate is about eighty printed pages per hit, or memory file downloaded. This calibration is needed to convert the numbers given each early morning after each item from hits to the equivalent in printed pages – multiply by eighty, or order of magnitude 100, a figure that it easy to remember. For UFT326 for example this gives 16,560 printed pages of the article downloaded so far in January. The printed page is defined as A4, twelve point, single spaced. Each page of this type is 3646 bytes of memory, i.e. 3.646 kilobytes. Webalizer 2.10 also gives the number of bytes downloaded for each item. For UFT326 this is 45.972 megabytes so far in January 2016. This gives 12,609 printed pages, on good agreement with the hits estimate, which is a very rough one. The bytes estimate is of course the accurate one. Assume for argument that the article is ten pages long, then it has been read over a thousand times to date in January 2016. This calibration shows the massive amount of downloading that takes place every day off www.aias.us. This is just one article out of 3081 items on www.aias.us at present. In addition to this is the reading that takes place off www.upitec.org, and also the readings off the blog. The downloading takes place by human reading and by computer, but in both cases the downloaded material is stored and ultimately studied by humans of course. To me this is delightful and exhilarating. As Victor Hugo wrote, one cannot stop the march of ideas, and nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has arrived. This could never have been achieved without many years of dedicated and voluntary international cooperation and AIAS / UPITEC can take justifiable pride in this achievement. Compared with this, the Nobel Prize is inevitably human and subjective, often quite arbitrary as the ghastly case of Sommerfeld shows. The really important thing is the archiving on www.archive.org and www.webarchive.org.uk. That gives the true story, certainly not the Nobel Prize. It would be very nice to win a big N, having been nominated several times, but I would not be heartbroken if I didn’t. Members of the group should also share in a Nobel Prize or any kudos.

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