16. juli 2003

Google blasphemy A Slate article argues that we should not call google an oracle, as it has some weaknesses that renders it less than divine. To bolster this argument, it points to three problems imaginatively called googleholes. First, thanks to the pageranking system, if you search for a product, you will get pages of listings of suppliers who want to sell you the product, before you encounter the impartial review you were probably looking for. Second, synonyms. The classical example is that searching for 'apple' gives you lots about computers, very little about fruit. Third, google pushes you away from books towards articles, since the latter is more likely to be online than text books. So, yes, if it's not on the web, google doesn't find it. D'oh! The author seems unaware of the historical problems with oracles, which typically gave ambigious answeres if you didn't word it properly, as King Croesus famously learned the hard way. So, in light of this, an oracle seems a very good desciption for the world's most popular search engine. The only real problem the article has uncovered is users' inability to use a search engine properly. Naturally, if you search for 'apple' you will get more computers than fruit. Now, be a bit clever and search for "apples" plural, and there you are. In the same way, if you want a review of e.g. a specific printer, search for its name and add the word "review" to the search terms. 7:12:14 PM    comment []

Sharon in Norway The NYT has a report from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to Norway. It reflects very well the facts reported in Norwegian media, but without the hell-bent anti-Israeli twist here. It is true, as Sharon said, that Israel has many friends in Norway, including our prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, who is a Lutheran priest with a special talent for holding together minority coalition governments. Norwegians generally, however, have drifted away from pro-Israel to a mostly pro-Palestinian point of view. The press, which is unashamadly leftist, has done so to an extreme degree.  You can get more background on the Norwegian media and Israel in Bjørn Stærk's blog. 6:33:31 PM    comment []

"The Queen is overly powerful" If you've been playing Blizzard's massively popular real-time strategy games WarCraft or StarCraft, you'll enjoy this little joke: the patches to Blizzard Chess. 2:33:38 PM    comment []

Bush at odds with reality about arms inspections I was quite surprised to read that President George Bush making the claim that Saddam Hussein was removed from power because he refused arms inspectors access to Iraq. The rest of us remember that Hussein did allow the inspectors access, but that Bush and Blair decided to go to war after finding the inspection process ineffective. Now, I am used to gaffes from Bush, but this was a rather astonishing example of revisionism he must have known he could not get away with. Thus I wondered if the Washington Post article was a bit liberal with the context. Not so. Here is the whole statement directly from the White House's own web site. The larger point is, and the fundamental question is, did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is, absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power, along with other nations, so as to make sure he was not a threat to the United States and our friends and allies in the region. I firmly believe the decisions we made will make America more secure and the world more peaceful. Thanks to Rich for the WaPo link. I agree; this outragous distortion will require more than the usual amount of spin control. 3:51:47 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.08.2003; 03:03:26.