Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mcnc!decvax!decwrl!reid
From: reid@decwrl.dec.com (Brian Reid)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Arbitron "Users" count is very wrong under BSD
Message-ID: <247@bacchus.DEC.COM>
Date: 19 Jan 88 19:32:38 GMT
References: <15538@onfcanim.UUCP>
Reply-To: reid@decwrl.UUCP (Brian Reid)
Organization: DEC Western Research
Lines: 8


Counting the number of users on the system is probably the most error-prone
of all the measurements. The various counting procedures are extremely
sensitive to local administrative policies. This is the main reason why the
script mails a copy of the results to the system administrator as well as to
me. I've never believed them to be more accurate than maybe to within half or
double the posted amount, and the comments attached to each months' Arbitron
report say as much.