Abstract:
As most users of this forum already know, our founder and head maintainer KermMartian possesses skills in programming and technology in general at a level not usually achievable for mere mortal human beings. However, research about Kerm's physical powers is very limited to this day. We conducted a detailed analysis of publicly available statistics and came to the conclusion that, based on typing speed, Kerm is physically superior to the average computer nerd.
Data:
The research is based mostly on data available at KermMartians's user profile as well as the bottom of the forum root page. At the time of research, the relevant parts of those sources contained the following information:
Analysis:
The first piece of information that immediately catches the reader's eye is that "KermMartian's posts are 23.7917% of Cemetech's forum posts". While this number is notable on its own account, the gravity of the situation does not become clear until we compare it with the "22,516 registered users" of Cemetech. A quick calculation*₁ tells us that 5,357 average users collectively generate about as much data as KermMartian does alone.
But how much data is this, exactly? A look at the user profile diagram shows us that the maximum posts per day happened some time at the beginning of 2006. While this number is certainly tempting to analyse, the data point seems like an anomaly on a single day and cannot be precisely read as it seems to go off the scale of our diagram. Instead, we should use the peak rate in the second half of 2010, at just over 120 posts per day. While the National Sleep Foundation recommends that the average adult human sleeps for about 7 - 9 hours per day*₂, well known facts about Kerm*₃ necessitate different estimates. 6 hours of sleep time and 18 hours of Internet usage seem to be reasonable guesses. However, while there is no scientific evidence available to support this assumption, it seems probable that even Kerm has basic biologic needs that need to be accounted for. Most notably, there are meals which take time to prepare and consume. A random paper on researchgate.net*₄ suggests that the average adult in the US spends about 67 minutes at meals per day, while the US Department of Agriculture cites*₅ that men in the US spend around 22 minutes per day preparing their meals. Adding various other activities preventing a person from using the Internet for their duration might add up to 2 hours per day, and leaves 16 hours per day for Kerm to use Cemetech. To get a better understanding of the numbers involved, 120 posts in 16 hours directly translate to one post every 8 minutes.
However, this does not yet yield any concrete information about KermMartian's mental processing and typing speed. The above user statistic tells us, that "KermMartian has made 63,169 posts containing 2,684,124 words", which yields an average of 42.49 words (rounded to two decimal places), which we assume was the same in 2010. A paper found on arxiv.org*₆ determines the average English word to be 5.1 letters in length. However, typing a post involves pressing the space bar and additional typography, so we may safely assume an excess of 6.1 keystrokes per word, and, by extension, 259.19 keystrokes per post or 0.54 keystrokes per second [assuming 8 posts per minute], of pure typing on Cemetech.
Conclusion:
It should be noted that Kerm's time spent on Cemetech could not have been pure typing. There must have been page load times, reading and processing replies, clicking buttons and links and likely more steps necessary to generate a post. Factoring in the times spent during these activities is near impossible, however, 0.54 keystrokes per second if accounting for such times, as well as the mental and physical speed probably required to output the data equivalent of 5,357 average users, seem worthy of special recognition.
The findings presented here seem to strongly support the popular theory that KermMartian is of extra-terrestrial nature, possibly indeed Martian in origin.
Footnotes:
*₁ 22,515 [users excluding KermMartian himself] * 0.237917 [% of posts] ≈ 5,357 [users]
*₂ https://www.sleepfoundation.org/press-release/national-sleep-foundation-recommends-new-sleep-times/page/0/1
*₃ For more information, refer to the "~kermsleep" factoid [command] on Cemetech's SAX chat or IRC channel.
*₄ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262487773_How_Much_Time_Do_Americans_Spend_on_Food
*₅ https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2016/november/americans-spend-an-average-of-37-minutes-a-day-preparing-and-serving-food-and-cleaning-up/
*₆ https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1208/1208.6109.pdf
As most users of this forum already know, our founder and head maintainer KermMartian possesses skills in programming and technology in general at a level not usually achievable for mere mortal human beings. However, research about Kerm's physical powers is very limited to this day. We conducted a detailed analysis of publicly available statistics and came to the conclusion that, based on typing speed, Kerm is physically superior to the average computer nerd.
Data:
The research is based mostly on data available at KermMartians's user profile as well as the bottom of the forum root page. At the time of research, the relevant parts of those sources contained the following information:
Cemetech wrote:
Our members have made a total of 275,170 posts consisting of 14,920,916 words in 13,598 topics
We have 22,516 registered users
We have 22,516 registered users
Cemetech wrote:
KermMartian has made 63,169 posts containing 2,684,124 words, averaging 12.7588 posts per day and 42 words per post. KermMartian's posts are 23.7917% of Cemetech's forum posts. [...]
Analysis:
The first piece of information that immediately catches the reader's eye is that "KermMartian's posts are 23.7917% of Cemetech's forum posts". While this number is notable on its own account, the gravity of the situation does not become clear until we compare it with the "22,516 registered users" of Cemetech. A quick calculation*₁ tells us that 5,357 average users collectively generate about as much data as KermMartian does alone.
But how much data is this, exactly? A look at the user profile diagram shows us that the maximum posts per day happened some time at the beginning of 2006. While this number is certainly tempting to analyse, the data point seems like an anomaly on a single day and cannot be precisely read as it seems to go off the scale of our diagram. Instead, we should use the peak rate in the second half of 2010, at just over 120 posts per day. While the National Sleep Foundation recommends that the average adult human sleeps for about 7 - 9 hours per day*₂, well known facts about Kerm*₃ necessitate different estimates. 6 hours of sleep time and 18 hours of Internet usage seem to be reasonable guesses. However, while there is no scientific evidence available to support this assumption, it seems probable that even Kerm has basic biologic needs that need to be accounted for. Most notably, there are meals which take time to prepare and consume. A random paper on researchgate.net*₄ suggests that the average adult in the US spends about 67 minutes at meals per day, while the US Department of Agriculture cites*₅ that men in the US spend around 22 minutes per day preparing their meals. Adding various other activities preventing a person from using the Internet for their duration might add up to 2 hours per day, and leaves 16 hours per day for Kerm to use Cemetech. To get a better understanding of the numbers involved, 120 posts in 16 hours directly translate to one post every 8 minutes.
However, this does not yet yield any concrete information about KermMartian's mental processing and typing speed. The above user statistic tells us, that "KermMartian has made 63,169 posts containing 2,684,124 words", which yields an average of 42.49 words (rounded to two decimal places), which we assume was the same in 2010. A paper found on arxiv.org*₆ determines the average English word to be 5.1 letters in length. However, typing a post involves pressing the space bar and additional typography, so we may safely assume an excess of 6.1 keystrokes per word, and, by extension, 259.19 keystrokes per post or 0.54 keystrokes per second [assuming 8 posts per minute], of pure typing on Cemetech.
Conclusion:
It should be noted that Kerm's time spent on Cemetech could not have been pure typing. There must have been page load times, reading and processing replies, clicking buttons and links and likely more steps necessary to generate a post. Factoring in the times spent during these activities is near impossible, however, 0.54 keystrokes per second if accounting for such times, as well as the mental and physical speed probably required to output the data equivalent of 5,357 average users, seem worthy of special recognition.
The findings presented here seem to strongly support the popular theory that KermMartian is of extra-terrestrial nature, possibly indeed Martian in origin.
Footnotes:
*₁ 22,515 [users excluding KermMartian himself] * 0.237917 [% of posts] ≈ 5,357 [users]
*₂ https://www.sleepfoundation.org/press-release/national-sleep-foundation-recommends-new-sleep-times/page/0/1
*₃ For more information, refer to the "~kermsleep" factoid [command] on Cemetech's SAX chat or IRC channel.
*₄ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262487773_How_Much_Time_Do_Americans_Spend_on_Food
*₅ https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2016/november/americans-spend-an-average-of-37-minutes-a-day-preparing-and-serving-food-and-cleaning-up/
*₆ https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1208/1208.6109.pdf
