title: Generating a Recency Rating
body: <p>I have a data table that is periodically updated by another service.  I log when these updates occur in the database.  I'd like to be able to somehow rate the most recently updated data records.</p>
  
  <p>I don't want to select exactly the most recent, I'd like to sort of account for previous updates as well.  I'll try and explain what I mean using an example.  Suppose I have 3 data items</p>
  
  <pre><code>Item |  Updates (Days Ago)
  One  |  30, 25, 19, 1
  Two  |  5, 3, 2
  Three|  30, 25, 20, 15, 10, 5
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So judging by the above list, I'd like to have <code>Three</code> first because it appears to be the most consistent and has the most updates.  Next I would like <code>two</code> because it has been active as of late.  Then finally <code>one</code> because despite it having the most recent update, it had few updates in the iterim time window.</p>
  
  <p>I haven't outlined exactly how my algorithm will work, as I don't know yet, but I've hopefully explained what I'm generally hoping to achieve.</p>
  
  <p>I'm not explicitly looking for an implementation, I'm looking to be pointed in a helpful direction.  Are there specific algorithms that address this problem, or a similar problem?</p>