Search engines are a natural consequence of the web. A large amount of pages needs to be catalogued and indexed, and no one does this better than Google. The web is so large that it would take years for any team of humans, however large, to go through and catalogue every single web page. Many directories exist, but the categorization is relatively broad, considering how specialized some pages are. Consider the items under the "misc" category in any multemedia site, and a sense of what is happening will be understood.
The focus shifted from browsing to searching somewhere in the mid nineties. Before that, the url of a web page was all important. Google had a head start there. The famous Google crawling algorithm. It browsed through web pages, following links, and picking out "keywords" and determining "pagerank", both of which are processes little understood by anyone. This is not because their programming is difficult, all search engines use this, but the control of what pages shows up after a search has shifted from humans to computations. Now any computation can only be as good as the initial inputs from the humans, and this is where Google went wrong.
Only recently have there been efforts to understand the meaning behind the words typed into a search box. Most of the time, people are clueless what to search for, and have to go back to the search fields three or four times over before they get a bunch of pages full of something close to what they are looking for. Finding something the first time you search for it is a very rare. The search relevency is low, not because of flaws in the input, but because of flaws in the search engine.
And it is irreparable, as the internet has already been buried by Google.
# The rate at which Google can crawl the net is far behind the rate at which new content gets created
# A large portion of the new content generated is just a bunch of crosslinks, references and directories. Google is not the only middleman trying to make some easy money, it supports a lot of other middlemen - mainly those who use adsense.
# The first few sites that the user visits is a fraction of the relevent content out there on the web. (To be fair, this is slightly compensated by the user who uses a sucession of similiar search terms to find generally the same kind of content.)
# Google has yet to crawl large portions of the internet, there is a lot of content not yet indexed by Google.
There is a lot of web content that is filtered out because of new web pages spawned to meet the demands of the Google algorithm. This is the problem, the Google crawler is itself, impartial, so to speak, but web site designers looking for a quick buck have no problem in confuddling Google to spike their page rank, make their pages show near the first few search results, and generally bury all the information on the web that the user is really looking for. Google really does care a hell lot about this, but their concerns are centered around the algorithm being foolproof, not which particular websites actually show up in the search results. The internet is slowly, but surely, bowing to the demands of a search algorithm that is not under direct control of any human. Google has changed the texture of the web in a very severe way, it is customary for adsense to show up in a side bar somewhere on the page, and if it is not ad sense, then it is some competition to ad sense.
The standards of how a web page is to be presented, with the allocation of space for advertisements and information, has evolved because of the way Google integrates "relevent" business opportunities alongside with web content.
Where this is headed?
A definate step back. Somewhere along the line, people are going to stop in their tracks and say "hey! this is not what we wanted." Open content, when it arrives, will arrive in force. As surprising as it may seem, the real search capabilities of Google is hardly ever used. It is common to head to google, to fill out something in the search box knowing what results you are going to get. Instead of exchanging a url of a web site, a common way to give someone a web address is "go to the third result after searching for so-and-so". Most people who use Google do so only if they already know what they are going to get. Recreational searching is another major passtime, the beggenings of wandering about the web aimlessly, clicking whatever interests one the most at that particular point of time. It is necessary for all the bullshit to be filtered out. The future is in the wiki.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Mumbo Jumbo
NOW, LEARN THE SONG JAMBO :
So the elephant (ok, technically, a Mamalodian) trundled down watter slippery slopes its ancestors used to tumble down. It would soon die because of the tumble. It was the heart of Africa, in a time when spring was churning beneath a long ice winter. No not the ice age. At least, not the recent one in popular consciousness. It was another great flood, even before that. Back in the days of the Mamalodions. Ok, Mamalodion is to Mastadon what Mammoth is to Asian Elephant.
Now the Mamalodion, was umm... ok, just a big jolly old thing with hairy ears and stuff, but it was facing a difficulty in surviving. This was because the planet was ruled by apes. No really, just apes, before mankind like gets extinct and the apes supposedly take over. That is just a theory proposed, what already happened is that we descended from the apes. That's speaking metaphorically, like we evolved from the apes, they didn't just give birth to us. Yeah, there is a difference, each generation thought they were giving birth to themselves, but every generation changed a bit. Like they started with sticking sticky sticks into deep holes to see if ants would get stuck to it on the way out. Anteaters have a natural ability to do this with their tongues, and hence have not evolved to using microchips. Only the Raptors have done it before.
But it started with just that, a sticky stick stuck into a deep hole. Now deep holes had a surprising number of things in them. The apes of the time of the Mammalodian were still more ape than human. See, sometimes, it is just difficult to say if you are talking about man or ape in particular time periods. To be specefic, a human specimen from this time period has been missing from a long time. No one has found that piece of fossil evidence which would actually bridge the gap between man and monkey. This is not really necessary to prove that men evolved from monkeys, at least, according to most people who believe in evolution. In fact, many have gone ahead and proclaimed apes to be humans, and many early humans to be apes. In fact, after Darwin came around and suggested the idea, people rediculed him by calling him of ape descent. That is, unfortunately, exactly what Darwin wanted. So people have confused humans to be apes, and apes to be humans. Bigfoot and Yeti romp about in remote locations, some people retain fetishes for excessive body hair, and sometimes, bang in the middle of nowhere, there emerge creatures like Humanzees.
The mamalodion slipped on the mud formed under the melting ice, and slowly creeped down the gradual slope, right to a small herd of pre-humans on what would eventually be the banks of the Zambezi. The frostbite had eaten past the layers of flesh long ago. The pre-humans were afraid of it. The corpse they new, would soon stink and spread disease. The only agent of the spread of the disease they understood was the smell. They honestly believed, in their primitive minds, that the smell of rot itself was the cause of physical changes in their bodies, including those that made them retch, cough or pass out.
When they were ill, they believed, that through their noses, a spirit of death, posessed them, that drove their bodies to convolutions, and eventually death. They can be forgiven for such a thought, even forgotten. In fact, we may still, seriously believe, that people can be posessed by spirits. You can imagine the terror in the eyes that watched frostbite seeping into the corpse of the dead creature. Life was harsh in this period, one slip and you could become fossil fuel.
What happened next can be interpreted by primitive minds as an act of god, and by advanced minds as a random co-incidence. Here's the deal, its already history, its in the past none can change, so deal with it. Lightning struck a tree and it caught fire.
The humans, did not run away howling in alarm like a few ancestors before them would have done. The impulse was very much alive in most of them. Only the older pre-humans shouted in alarm. The made primitive noises of disgust. Trill with your tongue the air that comes out in a shoooooo....
Withdraw... do not venture further, return. That was the meaning of the call. The younger pre-humans dared to go where no pre-human had. They too, thought of stopping in their tracks, but hadn't expirienced life enough to actually do it. They stood their ground and gazed unto the burning tree.
And it flickered. And it burnt. The branches, the leaves, the aerial roots, all caught fire. Trees, allowed to grow wantonly, had matured for long and hard. These were the very heralds of the rain forests, for they were yet to spread life to the earth. These were the mothers of the trees of the first spring in living memory. These were the mother trees of Eden itself.
And one tree was burning. And the pre-humans, could sense the warmth in their skin. For as long as their instincts could remember, they knew of nothing but ice. They had felt nothing but cold. They had stuffed snowsoil into their mouth, and digested the grubs inside to survive. The only thing between their skin and the ice age was their hair. Clothes, were still to be designed. The heat was a new sensation for them. It was a curiosity. The male pre-humans thawed so much, that they even got involuntary erections. They were drawn to the fire, their very bodies demanded it. Those who were old, recalled of old warnings of fire spirits, anything to bright was considered harmful. The sun was a constant reminder. Every other light was a mere sliver compared to the sun. The sun slipped down to earth from between the branches, from between the openings of the cave, and even underwater. So the pre-humans had reasoned that any light had somehow slipped through there from the sun. That too, can be forgiven. Those who were old, followed suit to, protected behind the young ones.
Eventually, the herd gathered around the tree, and watched, as large parts of it fell... fell on the mammoth. The humans went to sleep, comfortably positioned around the fire, slowly made drowsy and comfortable by the dancing shadows as living flesh churned out the oils necessary to fuel the fire that burnt it - on the Mamalodion.
The next day was the first day of spring. The clouds cleared. The eagles ventured out. The Zebu searched for their lost ones. The Sabretooth tigers rested in their high perches. The Archeopterixi screeched in the blue sky laden with white clouds that had caught the early morning gold of the rising sun. The pre-humans saw a large spiral of smoke rise into the sky. They thought the fire had killed the evil spirits of the Mamlodion, and vice-versa. What happened next was unprecedented in human history. No one had expected the spirits to duel in such a manner, and both end up defeated. The fire had spread everywhere again, there were no shadows to block it. It was afterall, day. Humans, for the first time, were unafraid of animal flesh. And they were hungry. They were used to shoving anything remotely digestable into their tummies. Only, they had nothing to tear the meat into small enough pieces to actually do this. The entire herd started making all kinds of efforts, some tried beating it with rocks, others tried poking it with sticks, yet others just bit in with their mouths, and some searched for particularly tender spots to eat into... these ended up at the anus and the genitelia.
It didn't matter really, everyone ended up being full in their stomach, and everyone rested peacefully for another night. The next day, the foul spirits won, and they all came to their senses, and didnt eat any more of it. Ok, one deviant tried, and died a few days after that. That was fine really, according to the herd. He was old and fat, and had a lot of meat on him. Pity they couldn't eat him... though someday, someone would invent fire.
If you were given a piece of roasted human meat, would you eat it? Ad gurus use this: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.
So the elephant (ok, technically, a Mamalodian) trundled down watter slippery slopes its ancestors used to tumble down. It would soon die because of the tumble. It was the heart of Africa, in a time when spring was churning beneath a long ice winter. No not the ice age. At least, not the recent one in popular consciousness. It was another great flood, even before that. Back in the days of the Mamalodions. Ok, Mamalodion is to Mastadon what Mammoth is to Asian Elephant.
Now the Mamalodion, was umm... ok, just a big jolly old thing with hairy ears and stuff, but it was facing a difficulty in surviving. This was because the planet was ruled by apes. No really, just apes, before mankind like gets extinct and the apes supposedly take over. That is just a theory proposed, what already happened is that we descended from the apes. That's speaking metaphorically, like we evolved from the apes, they didn't just give birth to us. Yeah, there is a difference, each generation thought they were giving birth to themselves, but every generation changed a bit. Like they started with sticking sticky sticks into deep holes to see if ants would get stuck to it on the way out. Anteaters have a natural ability to do this with their tongues, and hence have not evolved to using microchips. Only the Raptors have done it before.
But it started with just that, a sticky stick stuck into a deep hole. Now deep holes had a surprising number of things in them. The apes of the time of the Mammalodian were still more ape than human. See, sometimes, it is just difficult to say if you are talking about man or ape in particular time periods. To be specefic, a human specimen from this time period has been missing from a long time. No one has found that piece of fossil evidence which would actually bridge the gap between man and monkey. This is not really necessary to prove that men evolved from monkeys, at least, according to most people who believe in evolution. In fact, many have gone ahead and proclaimed apes to be humans, and many early humans to be apes. In fact, after Darwin came around and suggested the idea, people rediculed him by calling him of ape descent. That is, unfortunately, exactly what Darwin wanted. So people have confused humans to be apes, and apes to be humans. Bigfoot and Yeti romp about in remote locations, some people retain fetishes for excessive body hair, and sometimes, bang in the middle of nowhere, there emerge creatures like Humanzees.
The mamalodion slipped on the mud formed under the melting ice, and slowly creeped down the gradual slope, right to a small herd of pre-humans on what would eventually be the banks of the Zambezi. The frostbite had eaten past the layers of flesh long ago. The pre-humans were afraid of it. The corpse they new, would soon stink and spread disease. The only agent of the spread of the disease they understood was the smell. They honestly believed, in their primitive minds, that the smell of rot itself was the cause of physical changes in their bodies, including those that made them retch, cough or pass out.
When they were ill, they believed, that through their noses, a spirit of death, posessed them, that drove their bodies to convolutions, and eventually death. They can be forgiven for such a thought, even forgotten. In fact, we may still, seriously believe, that people can be posessed by spirits. You can imagine the terror in the eyes that watched frostbite seeping into the corpse of the dead creature. Life was harsh in this period, one slip and you could become fossil fuel.
What happened next can be interpreted by primitive minds as an act of god, and by advanced minds as a random co-incidence. Here's the deal, its already history, its in the past none can change, so deal with it. Lightning struck a tree and it caught fire.
The humans, did not run away howling in alarm like a few ancestors before them would have done. The impulse was very much alive in most of them. Only the older pre-humans shouted in alarm. The made primitive noises of disgust. Trill with your tongue the air that comes out in a shoooooo....
Withdraw... do not venture further, return. That was the meaning of the call. The younger pre-humans dared to go where no pre-human had. They too, thought of stopping in their tracks, but hadn't expirienced life enough to actually do it. They stood their ground and gazed unto the burning tree.
And it flickered. And it burnt. The branches, the leaves, the aerial roots, all caught fire. Trees, allowed to grow wantonly, had matured for long and hard. These were the very heralds of the rain forests, for they were yet to spread life to the earth. These were the mothers of the trees of the first spring in living memory. These were the mother trees of Eden itself.
And one tree was burning. And the pre-humans, could sense the warmth in their skin. For as long as their instincts could remember, they knew of nothing but ice. They had felt nothing but cold. They had stuffed snowsoil into their mouth, and digested the grubs inside to survive. The only thing between their skin and the ice age was their hair. Clothes, were still to be designed. The heat was a new sensation for them. It was a curiosity. The male pre-humans thawed so much, that they even got involuntary erections. They were drawn to the fire, their very bodies demanded it. Those who were old, recalled of old warnings of fire spirits, anything to bright was considered harmful. The sun was a constant reminder. Every other light was a mere sliver compared to the sun. The sun slipped down to earth from between the branches, from between the openings of the cave, and even underwater. So the pre-humans had reasoned that any light had somehow slipped through there from the sun. That too, can be forgiven. Those who were old, followed suit to, protected behind the young ones.
Eventually, the herd gathered around the tree, and watched, as large parts of it fell... fell on the mammoth. The humans went to sleep, comfortably positioned around the fire, slowly made drowsy and comfortable by the dancing shadows as living flesh churned out the oils necessary to fuel the fire that burnt it - on the Mamalodion.
The next day was the first day of spring. The clouds cleared. The eagles ventured out. The Zebu searched for their lost ones. The Sabretooth tigers rested in their high perches. The Archeopterixi screeched in the blue sky laden with white clouds that had caught the early morning gold of the rising sun. The pre-humans saw a large spiral of smoke rise into the sky. They thought the fire had killed the evil spirits of the Mamlodion, and vice-versa. What happened next was unprecedented in human history. No one had expected the spirits to duel in such a manner, and both end up defeated. The fire had spread everywhere again, there were no shadows to block it. It was afterall, day. Humans, for the first time, were unafraid of animal flesh. And they were hungry. They were used to shoving anything remotely digestable into their tummies. Only, they had nothing to tear the meat into small enough pieces to actually do this. The entire herd started making all kinds of efforts, some tried beating it with rocks, others tried poking it with sticks, yet others just bit in with their mouths, and some searched for particularly tender spots to eat into... these ended up at the anus and the genitelia.
It didn't matter really, everyone ended up being full in their stomach, and everyone rested peacefully for another night. The next day, the foul spirits won, and they all came to their senses, and didnt eat any more of it. Ok, one deviant tried, and died a few days after that. That was fine really, according to the herd. He was old and fat, and had a lot of meat on him. Pity they couldn't eat him... though someday, someone would invent fire.
If you were given a piece of roasted human meat, would you eat it? Ad gurus use this: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.
अब्बे हिंदी में खुद लिख रह है यह ब्लॉगर, इसकी माँ का॥abbe एल्लिप्सेस दल ना गूगल तेरी तो ...
Use spyware doctor. I was under the impression that it was some cheap old snazzy software. Turns out that even Google recommends it. Trusted my comp to it, and it took over by popping continuous and irritating pop ups of it stopping a gazillion different Trojans from working. Trojans are all you need to be afraid of, I think, my updated symantec really takes care of the rest. It has one weakness, and that, turns out to be Trojans, which, spyware doctor can handle like no other. If you get irritated of the constant alerts telling you what it has done, just shut it down. It is safe enough to handle even stupid pricks who get irritated by its alerts. It runs in the background, showing no traces of system usage, popping up no alerts that inform you what it has stopped from working, and showing absolutely no clue whatsoever that it is still working. Use it, and you will know why it still works after you shut it down.
Monday, June 25, 2007
1st photo on an FM2
First roll on an FM2, and this is the only photo that does not end up shaken... Ah well. Friend of mine, name's Jordan, very apt at spinning a book at the tip of his index finger.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
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