The crack number-crunching staff of Al Poll Central continue to tabulate poll results 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our CEO, however, has been traveling a lot on business and hence has not been able to provide his usual level of focus and motivation to the staff. Plus, his thumbscrew is broken. Bottom line: the first meaningful poll results are still a couple days away. Your continued patience is appreciated.

To help the electorate pass the time, the CEO has produced the following table of Song Opinion Correlations. Your ballot was cross-matched against everyone else's to find (a) the voter whose opinions on Al's 139 songs are closest to your own, and (b) the voter whose opinions are furthest away.

So you can write these people to compliment them on their taste in Al music, or to tell them they don't know what their talking about, as the case may be. :-)

A few explanations are in order:

• Only song rating data (i.e., Section One of the ballot) was considered.

• Correlations were calculated by computing the covariance between each pair of normalized song rating vectors. If that sentence doesn't mean anything to you, consider yourself lucky. :-)

  Briefly, Correlation(X,Y) is a dimensionless number indicating how closely two data sets, X and Y, match. 1.0 indicates perfect correlation (i.e., the two voters have identical opinions on Al's songs), -1.0 is perfect opposition (X hates whatever Y loves and vice versa), and 0.0 means there was no correlation.

• The average correlation was 0.19, which means that we all slightly tend to like and dislike the same songs. Several pairs of voters had correlations above 0.50, a few were above 0.60, and one pair even cracked 0.70! Meanwhile, there was a pair of voters whose correlation was a dismal -0.35, suggesting they should probably be seated at opposite ends of the concert hall during AlStock '96. (The identities of these fine folks will be revealed at a later date.)

• Correlation tends to be skewed for very small data sets. For our purposes, it means that the more songs you rated "n/o" on the ballot, the more likely you are to have an exceptionally high or low correlation with someone else.

  If your ballot contained fewer than 50% numerical ratings (in other words, if more than half your ballot was "n/o"'s), I didn't include you in the cross-reference table out of fairness to the other voters. Only four of our 109 voters were so affected. BE ASSURED THAT YOUR BALLOT WAS COUNTED FOR EVERYTHING ELSE!

• I wasn't going to mention this, but I suppose I must: There was a 110th voter whose ballot I'm sorry to say I was unable to use at all. He or she (a) didn't rate the songs on a 0 to 10 scale but rather ranked them by preference, (b) didn't return them in alphabetical order [you have no idea how important this was], (c) didn't list songs of no opinion [ditto], (d) didn't fill out Sections Two, Three, or Four at all, (e) didn't supply a last name, and (f) when I E-mailed him/her last week to ask for a re-submittal, the E-mail bounced.

  My sincere apologies to this person -- I know you spent a lot of time and effort putting the songs in order, but that wasn't what the ballot asked you to do!

Nick Straguzzi
CEO, Al Poll Central

Threshold:  50% or more numerical song ratings.
            = 105 of 109 ballots.

(If you submitted a ballot but your name doesn't appear in the table, it's probably because your ballot contained 50% or more "n/o"'s. See the notes above. - NPS)

Voter	Agrees Most with	Disagrees Most with
Adam Woolfe	Andy Peterman	Douglas MacPhail
AEleen Frisch	Steven Vest	Shane Barbera
Alan Parker	Jochen Rindfrey	Bob Hofkin
Alan Wyckoff	Bob Spector	Pete Ball
Alana Landey	Ben Henwood	Pete Ball
Allan Pratt	David Capeloto	Ken LaSalle
Andy Peterman	Adam Woolfe	Pete Ball
Andy Rex	Susan Browning	Pete Ball
Anne Rasmussen	Charlie Hulme	Veronica Honer
Asya Kamsky	Marshall Wood	Rona Montag
Ben Henwood	Alana Landey	Robert Van Howe
Bill Nelson	David Artus	Matt Jarvis
Bob Hofkin	Don Greenop	Alan Parker
Bob Spector	Noel Kaplan	Robert Van Howe
Brian Carroll	Steve Smoot	Veronica Honer
Brian Chaffin	Paul Stangas	Veronica Honer
Carl Brooks	Alan Parker	Jeff Johannes
Cesare Vecchio	Steve Smoot	Bob Hofkin
Charlie Hulme	Anne Rasmussen	Veronica Honer
Chris Conway	Kim Dyer	Rona Montag
Chris Kaiser	Marina Drobnic	Chris Read
Chris Read	Lisa Davis	Douglas MacPhail
Christian Resseman	Andy Peterman	Douglas MacPhail
Colin Edwards	Adam Woolfe	Douglas MacPhail
Cort McMurray	Denis Palmer	Robert Van Howe
Dave Nachmanoff	Noel Kaplan	Pete Ball
David Artus	Adam Woolfe	Robert Van Howe
David Capeloto	John Shannon	Pete Ball
Denis Palmer	David Artus	Ela Hnizdo
Don Greenop	Marshall Wood	Jeff Johannes
Don St. John	David Capeloto	Doug Steele
Doug Steele	Rona Montag	Jochen Rindfrey
Douglas MacPhail	Jeff Porter	Chris Read
Edmund Chattoe	Paul Stangas	Steven Sharpe
Ela Hnizdo	Michael Timmons	Jeff Johannes
Emily Branson	Alan Wyckoff	Pete Ball
Erik Frost	Andy Peterman	Robert Van Howe
Geoff Arnold	Paul Stangas	Douglas MacPhail
Glenn Vallen	Mark Twomey	Jeff Johannes
Glyn Harman	Will Dossel	Jeff Johannes
Graham Rhodes	Steve Smoot	Veronica Honer
Jackie Granja	Noel Kaplan	Vicky Millar
Jeff Francom	Michael Timmons	Pete Ball
Jeff Johannes	Paul Dreifus	Matt Jarvis
Jeff Porter	Marina Drobnic	Russ Pierce
Jochen Rindfrey	Alan Parker	Doug Steele
John Carr	Kurt Schmidt	Pete Ball
John James	Erik Frost	Mark Brady
John Reid	Mike Flavin	Jeff Johannes
John Shannon	David Capeloto	Jeff Johannes
Juhani Lindqvist	Linda Artus	Douglas MacPhail
Kari Ahtiala	David Artus	Robert Van Howe
Keith Palmer	Bob Spector	Robert Van Howe
Ken LaSalle	Erik Frost	Robert Van Howe
Ken Swope	Neil Hogan	Veronica Honer
Ken Weiher	John Shannon	Jeff Johannes
Kim Dyer	David Capeloto	Veronica Honer
Kurt Schmidt	John Carr	Jeff Johannes
Linda Artus	Juhani Lindqvist	Shane Barbera
Lisa Davis	Adam Woolfe	Steven Sharpe
Lowell Kaufman	Mary Ann Carberry	John Reid
Marina Drobnic	Chris Kaiser	Jeff Johannes
Mark Brady	Charlie Hulme	Chris Read
Mark Moerman	Alan Parker	Russ Pierce
Mark Twomey	Steve Dreksler	Jeff Johannes
Marshall Wood	Don Greenop	Steven Sharpe
Martin Frischer	Mark Twomey	Jeff Johannes
Mary Ann Carberry	David Capeloto	Doug Steele
Mary Venable	David Artus	Robin Coles
Matt Jarvis	Ken Weiher	Jeff Johannes
Michael Ozer	Mark Twomey	Vicky Millar
Michael Timmons	Ela Hnizdo	Pete Ball
Mike Flavin	Don Greenop	Matt Jarvis
Neil Hogan	Kim Dyer	Jeff Johannes
Nick Straguzzi	Ben Henwood	Steven Sharpe
Nick Yutko	Jochen Rindfrey	Doug Steele
Noel Kaplan	Dave Nachmanoff	Pete Ball
Paul Dreifus	Mary Ann Carberry	Doug Steele
Paul Feldman	Andy Peterman	Shane Barbera
Paul Stangas	Edmund Chattoe	Shane Barbera
Pete Ball	Vicky Millar	Robin Coles
Randall Armor	Andy Peterman	Doug Steele
Richard Clayton	Paul Stangas	Shane Barbera
Richard Horton	Nick Straguzzi	Steven Sharpe
Rob Callum	Mark Brady	Shane Barbera
Robert Van Howe	Marshall Wood	Cort McMurray
Robin Coles	John Shannon	Pete Ball
Rona Montag	Steve Dreksler	Chris Conway
Russ Pierce	Andy Peterman	Shane Barbera
Shane Barbera	Glyn Harman	Russ Pierce
Stephen Spero	Andy Peterman	Pete Ball
Steve Dreksler	Mark Twomey	Chris Conway
Steve Fletcher	Bob Spector	Shane Barbera
Steve Smoot	Graham Rhodes	Veronica Honer
Steve Thoburn	Adam Woolfe	Steven Sharpe
Steven Sharpe	Alan Parker	Lisa Davis
Steven Vest	AEleen Frisch	Emily Branson
Sue Lindley	Alana Landey	Jackie Granja
Susan Browning	Andy Rex	Jeff Johannes
Thomas Faison	Richard Horton	Linda Artus
Tom Gill	Don Greenop	Veronica Honer
Veronica Honer	Colin Edwards	Steve Smoot
Vicky Millar	Steve Thoburn	Jackie Granja
Will Dossel	Bob Spector	Doug Steele

Nick Straguzzi
525 Macintosh Drive
Mullica Hill, NJ 08062
(609) 478-4317

nstraguzzi@snip.net