Random numbers

By 19:30 on 11 July 2007, my blog had been viewed 4,065 times.

By 19:30 on 11 July 2007, my Flickr stream had been viewed 5,514 times.

By 31 December 2006, 15,512 copies of my book had been sold.

On 10 October 2000, The Washington Post claimed that 1 in 140 people react severely enough to have to stop taking mefloquine, the malaria prophylaxis that I have just started.

On 11 July 2007, the BBC 24-hour weather forecast for Udaipur in Rajasthan, India, was 35°C maximum temperature with 100% relative humidity.

The 2007 eniro telephone directory online lists 193 hairdressers in Espoo and 825 in Helsinki.

Beginning to belong

Is it true? Am I really becoming part of the Flickr community? Part of the wider web world? I substantiate this tentative suggestion with three pieces of Flickr evidence.

1. A photo of mine from The Butchart Gardens, British Columbia, has been invited to not one but two invitation-only image groups. This may be normal for established ether dwellers, but it's definitely a unique twitch on the line for a first-time fisher king.

2. A web journalist has requested permission to use another photo of mine, this time of a sculpture in Vancouver, in an online news item. Groovy!

3. An artist has selected yet another photo of mine, this time of Akaka Falls in Hawai´i, to form the basis of a piece of fabric art that they're working on. Distinctly cool!

so hey now chillin', happenin', surfer-type web dudes: i is the thing arrivin', man, innit?

A surge of madness

About five years behind the trend as usual. A sudden surge of madness compels me to start what may turn out to be a series of self-portraits on Flickr. Don't ask me why, because I'm not sure why. It may be about ten years too late for it to look any good, and it may turn out to be a really bad idea. But what the heck. Call it more therapy.

Flickr: 3000 views

The number of hits on my Flickr photo stream has reached 3000, so it's time to dig out some stats again.

Actually, I've been influencing the numbers a bit recently by trying my hand at some public groups. These groups do things like rate a photo, which can be a bit disconcerting when one of your own favourites gets shot down in flames, or simply encourage views or comments. I still don't really understand what makes a hit photo on Flickr. Although the popularity of my stream would obviously benefit from pets or nudity. But I don't see that happening. Yet.

Anyway, let's look at the interestingness ratings this time. Unusually, a recently posted photograph has shot to the top of the interestingness list. This is a scanned 1998 print of the Helsinki Olympic stadium tower. In second place comes the old Finn-Brit Players favourite, T. And in third place we find an action shot from the rollercoaster at Tivoli in Copenhagen.

Conclusion: we Flickrites like sky, shadows, and plenty of content....

The mysteries of Flickr

There are two things, above others, that intrigue me about Flickr. First of all, the apparently closely guarded formula for 'interestingness'. Secondly, the comparison between 'interestingness' and the number of times a picture is viewed.

Today, the counter on my Flickr stream reached 2000 views, so it's time for a quick check of the listings. Of my 556 photos, the most 'interesting' shot is one that I took of a teapot for a short play, 'T', that was part of The Finn-Brit Players' microfestival 'Tales from the Attic'.

That's only the fourth most viewed photo, however. The most viewed photo is a 1993 shot of Dracula's castle in Bran, Romania. My conclusion would be that there are lots of people out there looking for photos of Dracula. But that doesn't explain why the second most viewed photo is a fairly dull image from the centre of Vaduz, Liechtenstein, from summer 2005, which appears on the 'interestingness' scale ... er ... nowhere.