Frankly I'm not very good at analyzing and theorizing about what happens in Lost, but i get some simple ideas, which I'm always afraid seem silly!
This time, i got something about the compass that Richard Alpert and Locke are all bothered about!

I read in a few forums and websites that people wondered why the compass had no 'W' for West on it and i got the answer!
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned somewhere else before, but here it goes:
There's no 'W' because the compass is in French! Instead of the 'W' there's an 'O' which is for Ouest. Ouest is French for West.
That's all i got!