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Statistical Accuracy of Internet Weather Forecasts
markmcb writes "Brandon Hansen considers the statistical accuracy of popular on-line weather forecast sources and shows who's on target, and on who you probably shouldn't rely. Motivated by a trip to a water park that was spoiled with hail despite a 'clear sky' forecast, he does a nice job of depicting deviations, averages, and overall accuracy in a manner that stats junkies are sure to love."
Slogging through this guy's admirable grasp of statistics, it appears that the intuitive solution is that MSN (Microsoft) is far and away the least accurate. Why does this not surprise? The company that brought us the blue screen of death, that brought us Hacker Heaven (AKA Windows) is wildly inaccurate.
But many open source projects can't even predict a release date accurately. Take the X.org project. X11R7.2 was scheduled for release on December 11, 2006. Of course, it's now nearly half-way through February of 2007, and we have yet to see this release. Does anyone know when this will actually be released?
Keep in mind that the open source developers basically have some control over when they release their software. Contrast this to the weather, which in many instances is quite unpredictable, even with years of data to work with.
Actually, former Senator Santorum was correct. I think we should go even further though, privatize or abolish the NWS. They are an unconstitutional entity that exists from money taken from people at gunpoint. Don't believe me on that, then try to avoid paying your taxes and resisting arrest when police state of America shows up. Then you will see those guns pointed at you.
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