Getting to know your Users
Google's SearchWiki is already attracting criticism for being easily abused.
"It's quite jarring to see a serious search result displayed along with a string of obscene banter, or in other cases just long displays of utterly inane posers' back and forth comment chatter."
Is the writing on the wall? Kees Keizer just measured the risk.
Apple through the Backdoor?
It seems Apple's Iphone is on the way to becoming the leading smartphone. Now Tim Bray noticed another hint of the inroads it is making into corporate circles. Is it time to accommodate this when [re]making web sites?
Glad Someone says It at last
The English language has many levels, stretching from the mundane, the everyday, to the divine, the level of love, worship and poetry. Used with point and a sense of pace, the profane can reinforce all of them, but it is not a language level in itself, and anyone confined to using nothing else has effectively been deprived of speech.
Clive James giving long overdue parental and career advice in the BBC Magazine.
The Numbers behind the Theory
Someone almost formulated a solid theory of what others have suspected, heuristically verified and used for many years to detect plagiarism. Those who copy don't rewrite style and expression, and this is how you catch them. Not by searching for major keywords, but for those phrases or word sequences which don't necessarily tell you the subject matter of a paper.
Aiming for Sanity
If you, like so many these days, can't stomach incompetent corruption, you might find some satisfaction reading Phil Greenspun's blog. And the Wall Street Journal remarks:
"Every dollar [Congress] injects into the economy must first be taxed or borrowed out of the economy."
Michael Lewis, Author of Liar's Poker, provides further insights - if you can afford the time.
Wrong Profession
If he had become a banker his problems would have been history by now.
Bugs or Spam?
Searching for "ibm thinkpad t43 cmos battery" - I bought a T43 to be able to work in the garden from next year on, which in itself is a long story - reveals the effect of combining bugs of some sort, or some incredibly stupid spam. When selecting "Pages from the UK only" the results reveal several domains [plural] beginning with 2008 [2008latest5.net/, 2008flashin5.net/ etc] in top positions with nothing showing up in the browser window.
It's possible that the content served by the domains in question comes from a server which keeled over last week and therefore doesn't manage more than an opening title tag and a partial title text. But then a title with more than 1000 lines is somewhat excessive, even if the closing tag is missing.
What I don't really understand is what they're trying to achieve with this sort of rubbish, especially when there is more than one domain involved, and more than one subject. In fact a site search reveals many subjects from healing to cheap travel.
I find it even more revealing though, that Google not just manages to position this, but that it gets indexed at all. Don't they have a trash can?
Congratulations
This day America jumped the first hurdle of its own shadow on the way from a bully to a true world power. It's a good start.