Friday, March 26, 2004

Am I l33t now?. I recently got an invitation to join Orkut, Google's invite-only social networking thingie, via xian. I feel so connected now. =)... [Andrew Bayer is Dreaming of China] 8:12:59 PM    comment []

Calling all students: PBS documentry seeking Gorloks. With graduation just around the corner, the question, "Now what do I do with my life?" lingers in the backs of senior minds. In 2001, four recent college graduates were thinking the same thing and decided to take a road trip. That was the beginning of Roadtrip Nation (RTN), a documentary series showing students alternative career paths. [The Journal] 8:09:39 PM    comment []

I can bomb that Google in .... A small experiment in Google-bombing (aka confusing popularity with authority).  . . . As I've noted, e.g. in discussing the miserable failure Google-bomb, the key concept is the confusion between popularity and authority. But I'm not sure how far this can be pushed in terms of giving relevance to obscure phrases. Perhaps an experiment is in order, to demonstrate a principle. Let's say I linked a certain phrase "EBig EBrother" to somewhere (such as Google ...). I've used an uncommon phrase here, so as to make it easy. The words "Big Brother" have many hits, but there's no occurrence of "EBig EBrother". Well, there wasn't until this post gets indexed. What happens?  [Infothought] 6:50:24 AM    comment []

U.S. Online Gambling Policy Violates Law, W.T.O. Rules. The World Trade Organization, in its first decision on an Internet-related fight, has ignited a political, cultural and legal tinderbox with a ruling on online gambling. By Matt Richtel. [New York Times: Business] 6:46:01 AM    comment []

Push Is On to Limit Aid to Rich Universities. House Republicans plan to overhaul a financial aid system that often sends more federal money to wealthy universities with relatively few low-income students. By Greg Winter. [New York Times: Education] 6:44:10 AM    comment []

Virus Era Hits 5-Year Milestone. The first massive Net virus infestation -- Melissa -- happened five years ago. Since then, not much has changed, except for the frequency of outbreaks. By Michelle Delio. [Wired News] 6:43:51 AM    comment []

The White House Philosophers -- because the unaltered truth is not worth giving. (Political cartoon by Mark Fiore, in Salon) 4:19:50 AM    comment []