The Atheist Blogger

A new Carnival of the Godless is up at (((Billy))) The Atheist, so go check it out! There are some excellent blog posts featured, and I recommend every atheist blogger (whether new or old) to submit something and put themselves up for hosting it! I’ve managed to forget for several carnivals, but I’ve set an alert on my computer so I should remember now.

Carnivals are a great way of getting new people to visit your blog, which means the stuff you write is spread to even more people, some of whom may have not even heard about your blog before. It’s a win-win situation for both you and the people who read the carnival!

A few weeks ago I mentioned on Twitter that I’d created a prototype atheist ranking system that automatically updates and ranks using a variation of Hemant Mehta’s original algorithm. Quite a few blogs commented on it and spread it around, and ever since I’ve been getting almost daily emails from people asking about it and sending me their blogs to add to it. So I thought it was high time I explained the project and what I plan to do with it.

Firstly, as has been mentioned many times before, this ranking system does not say which blogs are the “best”. It only ranks by popularity, and although generally speaking the more popular blogs tend to be of high quality, it isn’t always the case (just look at Ray Comfort’s blog). Some of the attributes measured will depend somewhat on the age of the blog. Older blogs tend to have more links to them, although this too isn’t always the case. The good thing about this system is that it updates every week, so as blogs get older, their rank should become more accurate.

The attributes which are calculated are:

• Google PageRank (The rank of the blog homepage as used by Google in search results)
• Google Backlinks (The number of pages Google can find that link back to the blog)
• Google Readers (The number of people who subscribe to the blog through Google Reader)
• Alexa Rank (The rank of the website as calculated by Alexa, which uses a toolbar installed on various web browsers to collect stats)
• Alexa Backlinks (Same as Google Backlinks, only calculated by Alexa)
• Alexa Reach (The rank of the website calculated by number of visits)
• Technorati Rank (The rank of the website a calculated by Technorati)
• Technorati Authority (How many websites actively link to the blog over a period of 3 months)
• Technorati Backlinks (The exact number of links coming back to the blog – no defined period)
• Yahoo Backlinks (The number of pages Yahoo can find that link back to the blog).

Of course these attributes will probably change down the line. Through doing some research for this system, I became aware that some things like Technorati ranks are calculated by using the Technorati authority and backlinks. Having all those attributes doesn’t really help with the ranking, but it might be useful to still display them. I made sure to use the word “prototype” very carefully on the rankings page, since although the system currently works, it is far from complete. A prototype should be a system that works but lacks certain features and is made up of code stubs.

An example of how the system is a prototype can be seen by looking at the database where all the values are stored. The database currently consists of only one table, which stores every single piece of information in it. A screenshot of part of this table can be seen below.

NOT the way to do it.

Database programmers out there will realise why this is such a bad way of doing it. It isn’t easy to maintain, and each time I want to add a new ranking attribute I have to change the entire table. Luckily, I already have a better database system outlined on my whiteboard at home, and it makes use of 4 distinct tables. The great thing about this new design is that it can be used to store a “history” of rankings. Whereas the above database overwrites all calculated values when it updates, the new system simply adds new rows with the updated information.

My current plans for the system are outlined below:

• Ranks atheist blogs by various attributes, and displays paginated lists of the top sites, 20 sites per page.
• Options to rank sites by different values (e.g. Google PageRank) instead of the default overall rank.
• View the history of individual sites by attributes. A graph will be generated to show how attributes have changed over time.
• Interactive “badges” will allow sites included in the rankings to display an image that tells the world about their rank.
• A submit form will enable people to add their own sites to the system (and hopefully cut down on the number of emails I get asking to be added :P)

Of course, I realise the irony of having an atheist ranking system on my own blog; it means that my blog will simply rise up the rankings as more people visit it. For this reason, the first released version of the system will have its own website, on a separate domain. I’ve also received some interest in this project generally, and so when I have a working system I will be releasing the source code so people can use it to rank other types of site (or build a competitor to mine).

Finally, if you have any questions, want to point out a mistake in my system plan, shout abuse at how ranking systems are evil, ask for your site to be added to the prototype, or generally have a chit chat, please leave a comment :D

Geoff Arnold discovered a great meme recently, so I thought I’d have a go.

Things you have done during your lifetime:
(X) Gone on a blind date
(X) Skipped school (many a time)
(X) Watched someone die (my gran)
(X) Been to Canada (when I was 1, but it counts dammit!)
( ) Been to Mexico
(X) Been to Florida
( ) Been to Hawaii
(X) Been on a plane (more times than I can remember)
(X) Been on a helicopter (once, and it was so noisy I don’t think I’d do it again)
(X) Been lost (all the time; it’s why I have GPS on my phone…)
( ) Gone to Washington, DC
(X) Swam in the ocean (Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian. Got Arctic and Antarctic left!…on second thoughts…perhaps not)
( ) Cried yourself to sleep
(X) Played cops and robbers
( ) Recently colored with crayons (I use board markers these days)
( ) Sang Karaoke
(X) Paid for a meal with coins only
( ) Been to the top of the St. Louis Arch
(X) Been to the top of the Empire State Building (froze my fingers as well)
(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn’t. (whatever you do Adrian, don’t make an atheist blog…oh f*ck)
(X) Made prank phone calls
( ) Been down Bourbon Street in New Orleans
(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose (annoyingly yes)
(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
( ) Danced in the rain-naked
(X) Gone skinny dipping
(X) Written a letter to Santa Claus (back when I was an irrational boy)
(X) Been kissed under the mistletoe
(X) Watched the sunrise with someone (watched it in Australia at the new millenium, so before most of the world!)
( ) Paid it forward
(X) Blown bubbles
(X) Gone ice-skating (didn’t do much skating. Falling?…plenty)
(X) Gone to the movies
( ) Been deep sea fishing
( ) Driven across the United States (want to though)
( ) Been in a hot air balloon
( ) Been sky diving
( ) Gone snowmobiling
( ) Lived in more than one country
(X) Lay down outside at night and admired the stars while listening to the crickets
(X) Seen a falling star and made a wish
( ) Enjoyed the beauty of Old Faithful Geyser
(X) Seen the Statue of Liberty
( ) Gone to the top of Seattle Space Needle
( ) Been on a cruise (going on a Nile cruise in August)
(X) Traveled by train
( ) Traveled by motorcycle
( ) Been horseback riding
( ) Ridden on a San Francisco CABLE CAR
(X) Been to Disneyland OR Disney World
(X) Been in a rain forest (another thing I did in Australia)
( ) Seen whales in the ocean
( ) Been to Niagara Falls
( ) Ridden on an elephant
(X) Ridden on a camel (Australia again…)
(X) Swam with dolphins (…and again)
( ) Been to the Olympics
( ) Walked on the Great Wall of China
( ) Saw and heard a glacier calf
( ) Been spinnaker flying
( ) Been water-skiing
(X) Been snow-skiing
(X) Been to Westminster Abbey
(X) Been to the Louvre
( ) Been to a bull fight in Spain (had the chance, outright refused to. Bloodsports are evil)
(X) Swam in the Mediterranean
( ) Been to a Major League Baseball game
( ) Been to a National Football League game
(X) Been moved to tears
(X) Done something to change someone else’s life

37 out of 70. Not bad for a 20 year old eh? I’m tagging everyone who reckons they can do better, and I want evidence people!

Unreasonable faith recently posted a list of the top 30 atheist / agnostic / skeptic blogs, with the top 5 being:

1. Pharyngula
2. Friendly Atheist
3. Cynical-C
4. Debunking Christianity
5. Atheist Media Blog

It’s a great idea, and there are certainly many blogs on the list that I subscribe to, and many that I have subscribed to since reading the article. I think my personal top 5 would be:

1. Pharyngula
2. Atheist Revolution
3. Friendly Atheist
4. RichardDawkins.net
5. Deep Thoughts

So what about you? What are your favourite blogs? Do you have a top 5, or a top 10 maybe? Let the mindless ranking begin!

Oz Atheist tagged me in this “six random things about you” meme that’s going around. I started writing this out this morning before lectures, and had to run out the door, leaving it incomplete. Then, when I get home, I find out that Hannah has also tagged me, and seeing as she lives in the same county of England that I come from (Wiltshire FTW!) I am honour-bound to respond to both tags. Update: Heather also tagged me! Firstly the rules:

Rules

1. Link to the person tagged you (Linked to both).
2. Post the rules on your blog (doing so now).
3. Write six random arbitrary things about yourself (that’s gonna take some thinking).
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them (hehehehehe).
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog (Geez…let me finish the meme first).
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up (in my todo list).

Six Random Arbitrary Things About Myself

1. My middle name is Michael (after my father). Not exactly a random thing but I doubt I’ve told anyone before on this blog.
2. I have a slightly crooked little finger on my right hand due to the fact that I broke it at school, and my mother refused to take me to hospital because she didn’t think anything was wrong with it. A few weeks later when it had swollen a bit she took me, and the doctor told us it had broken and fused in the wrong place. Of course, there is no point re-breaking and re-setting a little finger, so I still have the crooked thing to this day (although admittedly it isn’t as noticeable as before).
3. I have used the same small blue backpack for the last 10 years to carry stuff in. It might have a broken front pouch; its torn in places where it really shouldn’t be torn, and it probably needs another wash, but its my lucky pack dammit! (Not that I believe in luck of course, but “lucky pack” sounds cooler than anything else).
4. I installed putty on my Nokia E71 phone, just so I could log into my server from anywhere in the world. I then used putty to watch the first Star Wars movie in ascii-animation over a telnet connection whilst very bored in a Information Security lecture last week.
5. There are two distinct shelves on my bookcase. One for computing books:
   • Software Engineering 8
   • Using UML
   • 3 C++ books
   • 4 books on PHP, MySQL, and Apache
   • 2 books on CSS
   • Visual Basic 2005 (eurgh)
   • HTML 4 (awwww, so old…)
   • ASP.NET 2.0 (never touched, thank FSM)
   • Visual C# 2005
   • Database System Concepts
   • Big Java 3rd Edition
   • Design Patterns
   • 3 books on JavaScript
   • Ajax

   …and one for atheistic books:

   • The God Delusion x 2 (hardback, paperback)
   • 50 reasons people give for believing in a god
   • The Quotable Atheist
   • The End of Faith
   • Letter to a Christian Nation
   • Climbing Mount Improbable
   • The Selfish Gene
   • A Devil’s Chaplain
   • Freedom Evolves
   • The Demon Haunted World
   • Darwin’s Dangerous Idea
   • The Blind Watchmaker
   • The Jesus Puzzle
   • The Portable Atheist (not portable in any way, shape, or form)
   • God is not great
   • How to be a good atheist
   • I Sold My Soul on eBay
   • Imaginary Friend

   I am an atheist computer geek…and I love it.

6. I used to have 20:20 vision. Hours of staring at computer screens last year, coupled with horrible lighting effects used in a video game I made, finally wore my eyesight down to the point it is at today. If you work with computers, heed my words: When they tell you to take 20 minute breaks every 2 hours, do it.

My 6 victims targets choices

Friendly Atheist

The Atheist Jew

Moiz Khan

A Division By Zero

Splendid Elles

Chicken Girl

Right…now I’m off to tell people about this.