Strange Google Search Results
Since the introduction of the new Hilltop algorithm at Google, and the recent Brandy update of Google's legendary server farm, I've started noticing some peculiar search results.
For example, searching on Dell Inspiron 8600 doesn't bring up any Dell sites on the first page. What's peculiar about this is that the first result is a page on how to get Linux running on a Dell Inspiron 8600.
Another is for a finance book -Marc Rivalland Swing Trading . What's noticable about this is that the author's own site isn't listed. His site does appear in a similar search on Yahoo, positioned at number 8.
And here's yet another - Compaq Armada e700 on Google, and the same on Yahoo - note that Google doesn't list compaq.com in the first page of results, and yet Compaq appear at no 7 and no 8 on the Yahoo search.
What's noticable about the Google results , particularly for specific products, is that far more price comparison sites appear in the first page of results. This is highly annoying - when I'm searching for a particular laptop, I want the company product page to find out more about it. I don't want zillions of price comparison pages.
Thursday, February 26, 2004
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
Wired - The Complete Guide to Googlemania
Wired , doing it's best to hype up the forthcoming Google IPO. Is a second mini-bubble on its way?
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
Monday, February 23, 2004
Orwellian tech support
Quote:
"When we pick up the phone we're lying. We don't really work for the company we say we work for. Because of the expense of housing and running a technical support operation, many computer manufacturers choose to outsource the work. We work for one such outsourcer, though you'd never know it just to talk to us. To the customer on the other end of the line the distinction, while important, is invisible.
Outsourcers are paid by the computer manufacturer based on the number of calls they handle. The more calls we take, the more the outsourcer is paid. So naturally everything that happens in this vast carpeted warehouse of cubicles is done with an eye toward speed. Our managers stress something called "average call time," which is simply the average amount of time a tech spends on each call. They want us to be under 12 minutes."
Thursday, February 19, 2004
Mandrake loses court case over name
King Syndicates, who own the comic "Mandrake the Magician", wins the case.
Translation of the French news item that Slashdot refer to:
"Mandrake must change names
Mandrake, the French publisher of a Linux distribution, was sentenced by TGI of Paris to a 70,000 Euro fine at the request of the American companies, Hearst Holdings and King Features Syndicate, the owners of the trademark "Mandrake the magician" and publishers of the comic of the same name. The companies had sued for "trademark dilution." The court has prohibited the French use of the name, and ordered Mandrake to transfer its domain names to the two American companies. This judgement could be a fatal blow for the French publisher, whose goodwill is tied to its distribution network. For the time being, Mandrake has appealed to suspend the judgement and thus preserve its mark and domain names. A previous judgement - concerning their logo - had already been ruled in favor of the two American companies. It is also being appealed."
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Today's Linkdump
Second Life
Online multiplayer game, with free trial. Looks intriguing. Windows only though.
Linux Live CD distro listing
Great resource.
XFree86 4.4: List of Rejecting Distributors Grows
XFree shoots itself in the foot.
Creating your own Mandrake Live CD
MKLive CD
Mandrake Live CD scripts.
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Lin---s.com
Lindows is now known as Lin---- (pronounced Lin-dash) in those countries where Microsoft has blocked the availability of the desktop Linux distribution.
Choice PC
Buy a lifetime membership of Lindows for $100 and help defend choice.
Google announces a bigger index
You can now google for over 6 billion items.
Spirit goes for longest single trip
Covers 26.4 meters (88 ft) in one day.
Monday, February 16, 2004
Welchia B scans go through the roof
A DShield and security-focus list participant, Frank Knobbe,said
"The interesting thing is that of those 20-some packets, a lot of them do not have shellcode included, just sleds of varying length. Seems like the code for the WebDAV exploit is broken. Thank God for small favors...
However, it's a noisy bugger. It's approaching the level of pollution of the SQL Slammer. Unfortunately this one can not be filtered on ISP routers. Looks like we have to learn to live with an increasing level of bandwidth wasted on noise like this."
ASN.1 Remote DoS exploit released
Proof of concept code, that crashes Win 2k systems. Based on the vunerability discovered by eEye Digital.
Outlook/XP/Bitmap exploit released
Exploit discovered in the leaked Windows source code and released on the Full Disclosure mailing list - you can see it here
Sunday, February 15, 2004
Times Square - Live
Streaming video from downtown New York city
Saturday, February 14, 2004
Unpatched Windows vunerabilites discovered by eEye Digital and reported to Microsoft
94 days and counting....
Eric Raymond - open letter to Sun - "Let Java Go"
Eric argues the case for making Java open source, and so doing, possibly save the future of Sun. Slashdot are discussing it here
Thursday, February 12, 2004
Windows NT and Windows 2000 source code leaked onto the internet
Developing story....
below is from slashdot - someone managed to grab the original story before the neowin site was slashdotted:
" Neowin has learned of shocking and potentially devastating news. It would appear that two packages are circulating on the internet, one being the source code to Windows 2000, and the other being the source code to Windows NT. At this time, it is hard to establish whether or not full code has leaked, and this will undoubtedly remain the situation until an attempt is made to compile them. Microsoft are currently unavailable for comment surrounding this leak so we have no official response from them at the time of writing.
This leak is a shock not only to Neowin, but to the wider IT industry. The ramifications of this leak are far reaching and devastating. This reporter does not wish to be sensationalist, but the number of industries and critical systems that are based around these technologies that could be damaged by new exploits found in this source code is something that doesn't bare thinking about.
We ask that for the wider benefit of the IT community that members and readers support Microsoft by forwarding anything they know about the leak to the Microsoft's Anti-Piracy department.
Please do not post any links/screenshots/hints or anything to do with the source code outbreak. Discussion is allowed but we will not condone people spreading this source code. "
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Friday, February 06, 2004
Urban Dictionary
A fascinating and "sticky" site of slang terms from around the world. Not the place to visit if you are easily offended, but for the rest of you, you'll find that you'll easily waste an hour or two on it.
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
What is this????
Strange "object" in Opportunity photo
Linus announces 2.6.2
Kernel 2.6.2 officially released
Multi Gnome Terminal
mandrake: urpmi multi-gnome
FSV - 3D directory visualizer
mandrake: urpmi fsv
How Reverse DNS works
Spammer Profile: Scott Richter
Apache Module Tour: mod_status
Interview: David Weinehall (maintainer of 2.0 kernel)
Mr Weinehall is also looking for a job.
Linux GameCube
Latest Amiga 0S4 screenshots
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
Some Linux gaming stuff I found today:
Vendetta
Massive free 3D multiplayer space game.
Linux Gaming Planet
Linux game news site.
Mandrake Busting Bugs with 10
Mandrake said the "Cooker" process doesn't uncover enough pre-release bugs. What it will now do is provide an initial release called the "Mandrake Linux Community." A few months later, it will roll a second "rock-solid" version called "Mandrake Linux Official."
KDE 3.2 released
The release we've all been waiting for. KDE.org was Slashdotted earlier on today , such was the interest in this.
Major perfomance enhancements - "Noticeable speed boosts in application start up times and webpage rendering together with many interface refinements make KDE 3.2 the most usable and performant KDE ever", support for 74 languages, major rendering improvements in Konqueror , and lots and lots of new apps.
Sunday, February 01, 2004
2.4 versus 2.6 kernel shootout
2.6 kernel blows 2.4 out of the water!
"Basically the new scheduler helps the 2.6 kernel to cream the old 2.4: Samba tests showing up to 73% speed increases, MySQL showing up to 29% and Apache serving dynamic content up to 47% faster!"
Cannot Find Stolen SCO code!!!
MyDoom knocks out SCO site
Netcraft wonder why didn't SCO just take it's site out of DNS? This would have stopped the MyDoom traffic dead in it's tracks as it would not have been able to resolve sco.com
How To build your own Live CD with mklivecd
Excellent guide on making your own bootable live cd, based on the Mandrake 9.2 distro.
LiveCD main site
The Rebel Alliance
Willamette Week (a Portland,Oregon newspaper) has an excellent 4 page on Linux, the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) and the usage of Linux in the local schools.
Quote:
"Portland Public Schools technology chief Scott Robinson says his district has outfitted 17 middle schools and three high schools with labs similar to the one at Riverdale, using Linux to power more than 600 terminals. He claims setting up a Linux lab costs the state's largest district just over half the tab for a Microsoft Windows lab--$21,000 per school, instead of $40,000."
"It's a question of ethical choices," says Riverdale's Nelson. "In a school, it's public money. How should it be spent? Is it ethical to buy software instead of hiring an art teacher? Me, I want an art teacher--not the Microsoft help assistant dancing on every student's desktop."
"Our motto is, 'It's free. It works. Duh.'"
