February 2004

Searching

February 5, 2004

The New York Times has a good article about searching the internet today. It points out some often overlooked techniques as well as ways that tools like Google can be used to provide better results.

It also alludes to special purpose databases and the time and expense that is associated with them. It doesn't get so deep as to mention services like West Law for doing for legal research. The article also didn't address that there are many ways of finding information on the internet. Often things that can't be found in Google, for example, might be revealed by directories like Yahoo or DMoz. In addition there are many free databases of information that are not completely searchable by google. Things like property records and marriage licenses are often in these databases.

On the same day the Times has a really saddening article about the state of people helping people. The premise of the article, supported by a handful of people they talked to is that technical people (geeks) are tiring of helping friends and family solve computer problems. Several of the people they talked to go beyond not wanting to help and are hostile towards technical neophytes.

The Chip Merchant

February 5, 2004

Macintouch (no permanent link to link to) has a note about The Chip Merchant that says their place in San Diego has a sign that it has been seized. I used to to some business with them. That is I did business with them until they sent me defective RAM and then expected me to pay for return shipping and their shipping me replacement RAM. They state that this is the standard practice for all RAM vendors. It took getting the BBB involved to get it sorted out but it soured me on doing business with them.

SCO's moving

February 2, 2004

The SCO Group made a very public show of changing the IP address of their www server. Yesterday when it was "down" it was not providing an address. The name servers on their network were reachable and were responding but did not provide a response to the request for an address for www.sco.com.

G4 on wheels

February 2, 2004

There is a really good article about mounting a G4 in a car from the Czech Republic. This would be the start of a great command post vehicle.

Maybe I'm not a prude

February 1, 2004

I thought the halftime show tonight was terrible. It was sleazy, cheap and utterly lacked class. Evidently the NFL agrees. Thankfully they took the high road and issued a statement before the game ended.

I just found out from watching the news that I missed the "event" that they were talking about. Janet Jackson did more than 'dirty dancing' and revealed her breast at the end of the show. If this is the sole complaint then I'm afraid they have missed the point. CBS and the NFL were at the rehearsals earlier in the week according to our local news.

Last Year

February 1, 2004

I remember the morning a year ago so very well. Just as I remember the morning of January 28, 1986. A year ago I was leaving the house to meet with a client in Loveland. The news had a brief story about the return of Columbia that played while I was in the shower. As I left the house the first indications of problems hit NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. On that winter morning a year ago seven astronauts from around the globe lost their lives. It would take months for NASA's leadership to admit that something could have been done to prevent the tragedy.

Perhaps this time we'll heed the les

The best so far

February 1, 2004

Budweiser's donkey who wants to be a clydesdale is the best commercial in the Super Bowl. The Fed Ex alien is a close second but doesn't match the clydesdales.

I could be mistaken but I thought the reason for not airing MoveOn.org's ad during the Super Bowl has to do with it being an issue ad. However Philip Morris just ran an issue ad about kids smoking. CBS what are the issues you're censoring? Dave Winer has a Davenet on the issue called Is CBS Lying

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