* John Tobey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2003-01-07 09:36]: > Btw, the sharp drop in C++ around 10/2002 smacks of a change in > statistics gathering methods.
Yep: <http://mshiltonj.com/sm/faq/#4> What happened on Oct 22, 2002 to cause that huge spike of more than 3500 listings? A few weeks before that date, dice.com modified their site. If you remember, they launched a redesign in early October. (Anyone remember the exact date?) I thought I had adjusted for it the day it happened, but I was wrong. What they had done, I since learned, was forked their database. The "old" database was still up and running, but no new listings were being posted to it, and their site didn't point to it anymore. As time passed, the listings that were in the database at the time started expiring out and the number of listings started to fall. After investigating the issue, that's when I realized the database I was querying was no longer thier "live" database -- the one that was getting the new listings. I adjusted my polling routine to poll the new, live database. The huge spike on Oct 22, was the data being re-aligned with the dice.com database. Unfortunately, this means that for a few weeks prior to that date, each day represents an incremental diversion from reality. I now do an eyeball check every couple of days to compare the number of overall listings, just to be sure it doesn't happen again. You'll also note that's when I was able to start tracking C# and C++ separately. Dice.com improved their search engine to support that. So, there is that one plus. (darren) -- I look for what needs to be done.... After all, that's how the universe designs itself. -- R. Buckminster Fuller _______________________________________________ Boston-pm mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm
