Hey, it’s time for another holiday!  I woke up this morning to my Facebook feed cluttered with people greeting each other “Happy World Statistics Day!”  To be honest with you, I would rather NOT celebrate this holiday.  I will never claim to be good at math (friends will attest to that) but I can hold my own (my university grades will at least back me up).  When it comes to statistics, however, I was – and am – a total failure.  Still, just because I don’t like a subject, it doesn’t mean we can’t feature it here on ForeverGeek, right?  After all, I am sure that there are many stat geeks out there who would love nothing more but to celebrate their favorite branch of mathematics.So it’s 20.10.2010 and it’s World Statistics Day. What’s the point? (A part of my brain says: does there have to be a point?) Here’s what the holiday is for:

The celebration of the World Statistics Day will acknowledge the service provided by the global statistical system at national and international level, and hope to help strengthen the awareness and trust of the public in official statistics. It serves as an advocacy tool to further support the work of statisticians across different settings, cultures, and domains.

I may not have the aptitude or patience for the math, but I certainly can appreciate the results that brilliant statisticians come up with!

There are events being held all over the world, and you can look for more information from events page of the WSD web site.  In any case, if you are hankering for some numbers, check out these infographics – definitely something worth looking at on World Statistics Day, don’t you think?

However, I am wondering if the fact is that the collection of its users are just more careless / stupid.

Security firm Sophos reckons there has been a 70% rise in attacks on social network sites, while nearly three out of four companies think workers’ behaviour online puts their business at risk.

Three out of five users say they have been spammed via social networking sites, while one in three says they’ve been sent malware: both up around 70% on last year.

Worrying statistics, or proof that the increasing popularity of social networks with the less computer-literate is the reason they seem less secure?

Given that many novice computer users don’t know what firewalls and anti-virus software are, far less actually use them or practice personal safety online, it’s hardly surprising that threats seem to have increased.

It’s true that social network spam is particularly insipid, because it purports to come from someone you know. Perhaps that’s a good reason to only befriend people you trust — I know the Facebook spam I receive would never have genuinely come from those whose accounts have been compromised because it’s not in their character to try to sell me Viagra. Really.

Should social networks be doing more to educate users on what are real threats and what are fake? The recent “unnamed app” scare, for example, has in fact been hijacked by criminals, preying on those worried about their online security.

Maybe people shouldn’t be allowed to go online without knowing at least the basics of Internet safety. Yeah, OK, that’s never going to happen, but it’s a thought.

What do you think?

Results vary from continent to continent, with Firefox being a lot more popular in Europe than North America, for example.

The complete Internet Explorer collection still significantly outranks Firefox. IE6 alone is still in use by nearly one in six users.

I decided to take a look at a couple of our websites.

Firstly, Forever Geek, which you’d expect to be frequented by a more tech-savvy crowd, confirmed my belief.

Last month, Firefox overall had 50% visitor share, compared to Internet Explorer’s 30%, while in November ’08, IE had been sitting with 35% and FF still at 50%.

Moving to a site concerned with celebrity gossip, and likely to be frequented by a wider range of users, I found that IE took at 46% share compared to FF on 35%.

Again, Firefox had held its 35% share since November ’08, whereas IE had slipped from 51%.

Not particularly scientific, I grant you, but it’s interesting that in both cases, Microsoft’s browser has slipped five percentage points, while Mozilla’s baby has held its share.

There are a few more interesting numbers for those who enjoy this sort of thing.

Via

Male geeks looking to pull by sharing their favourite links and photos need to be careful where they do it, though, for men still outnumber women on Slashdot, Reddit and Digg. Unfortunately, this is probably where most of the true geeks are hanging out a lot of the time.

There’s also no age breakdown, so while you might fancy your chances are higher on the likes of Bebo and MySpace, you could find yourself in a bit of trouble if you’re not too careful.

However, you might be safest on Facebook, provided you’re happy to play Farmville all evening, or perhaps on Twitter.

Take a look at the “evidence” for yourself. OK, it’s just a bar chart with yellow and red shading.

The stats are based on US demographics, so your mileage may vary elsewhere in the world.

There’s also no accounting for liars.

Via

Internet Explorer 7x is close behind, with Firefox version 3 claiming one in ten users and the rest straggling behind.

It’s news that’s sure to wind up web developers, like those behind the Kill IE6 project.

These results come from Stat Owl. Other web measuring tools might get the numbers slightly different, but there’s no denying that a lot more needs to happen to eradicate IE6 from the world.

Part of the problem is corporations that haven’t upgraded their systems, as well as home users who aren’t very computer literate and just don’t know or care about web browser versions and the like. It’s just the Internet, right?

Unsurprisingly, you Forever Geek readers are a web savvy lot – well over half are using Firefox. The 6% or so of IE6 users probably arrived here by mistake.

Though Microsoft has recently announced that it is to roll out Internet Explorer 8 via automatic software upgrade, I’ve still got a nasty feeling that IE6 could take some time to eradicate.