Sci-tech
Top Stories
- How would you rate Google SearchWiki?
Guardian |
google
- It's been coming for a while, but Google has launched its search listing recommendation system, SearchWiki. Right now users who are logged in can push results up, or ban them from future listings (but only for themselves)... or they can leave comments attached to listings (which anyone else can see).Here's a grab from a Guardian search I ran earlier - note the up arrow and cross icons.Have you used it yet? What do you think? Useful? Pointless? I'm very undecided - largely because, at the moment it's a very limited implementation. While I suppose it's not bad, for now the benefit is just limited to you... which seems to be a waste of the effort people will be putting in. Why wouldn't Google expand it so that your recommendations helped inform the company's famous ranking algorithm? A number of reasons spring to mind: gaming the system and spamming are just two. But perhaps there's also a philosophical problem here - after all, on many occasions before we've heard about the company's blind faith in the machines, in the religion of automation. But wouldn't improving search through human interaction undermine belief in the system? Shouldn't Google, with all its power and technical prowess, simply be able to build a better algorithm?Of course, I might be getting a little over the top. Perhaps it's simply testing how people use the system before using it to harness the wisdom of crowds. But it'll certainly be interesting to see where this one goes - especially since, as we saw just yesterday, not every new idea from Mountain View makes it out alive.GoogleSearch enginesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsRelated StoriesGoogle gives users a say on search resultsDante to dialects: EU's online renaissanceClick to download: Chris Salmon links Rihanna to King Crimson and becomes a virtual music mogulJohn Pidgeon appreciates the ever-lasting cool of a jukeboxDear Anna: Beware the perils of internet ticket sellers
- Microsoft: IE 8 won't be done until 2009
CNET News |
microsoft
- Company will do one more test version early next year before releasing the final version. Microsoft had earlier said to expect the browser to be finalized this year.
- Why Dell Can't Keep Up With HP
Forbes |
dell
- The Texas computer maker is expected to report lower earnings Thursday.
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Links
- Google to shut down virtual world website
Reuters
- Reuters - Google Inc said it would shut down its three-dimensional virtual experience website by year end to focus more on its core search, advertisements and applications business.
- Google to shut down virtual world website
Yahoo - Technology
- Reuters - Google Inc said it would shut down its three-dimensional virtual experience website by year end to focus more on its core search, advertisements and applications business.
- Virtex-5 FXT FPGAs gain PCI Express V2.0 compliance
EETimes - Xilinx Inc.'s Virtex-5 FXT FPGA platform is now fully compliant with version 2.0 of the PCI Express standard thereby supporting the 5Gbps version of the serial interconnect standard.
- How would you rate Google SearchWiki?
- It's been coming for a while, but Google has launched its search listing recommendation system, SearchWiki. Right now users who are logged in can push results up, or ban them from future listings (but only for themselves)... or they can leave comments attached to listings (which anyone else can see).Here's a grab from a Guardian search I ran earlier - note the up arrow and cross icons.Have you used it yet? What do you think? Useful? Pointless? I'm very undecided - largely because, at the moment it's a very limited implementation. While I suppose it's not bad, for now the benefit is just limited to you... which seems to be a waste of the effort people will be putting in. Why wouldn't Google expand it so that your recommendations helped inform the company's famous ranking algorithm? A number of reasons spring to mind: gaming the system and spamming are just two. But perhaps there's also a philosophical problem here - after all, on many occasions before we've heard about the company's blind faith in the machines, in the religion of automation. But wouldn't improving search through human interaction undermine belief in the system? Shouldn't Google, with all its power and technical prowess, simply be able to build a better algorithm?Of course, I might be getting a little over the top. Perhaps it's simply testing how people use the system before using it to harness the wisdom of crowds. But it'll certainly be interesting to see where this one goes - especially since, as we saw just yesterday, not every new idea from Mountain View makes it out alive.GoogleSearch enginesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsRelated StoriesGoogle gives users a say on search resultsDante to dialects: EU's online renaissanceClick to download: Chris Salmon links Rihanna to King Crimson and becomes a virtual music mogulJohn Pidgeon appreciates the ever-lasting cool of a jukeboxDear Anna: Beware the perils of internet ticket sellers
- New Facebook Panel For Xperia X1
Techtree - Contact your Facebook buddy with only the information stored in his Facebook account!
- iPhone Firmware v2.2 Update Released
Techtree - Get a whole lot of new features
- Lotus Notes comes to S60
Techtree - Nokia-IBM pact will bring Lotus Notes support to a number of Series 60 devices
- Lam Research to cut 600 jobs
EETimes | lam research jobs
- Citing the fab-tool downturn, Lam Research Corp. plans to reduce its headcount by 600 jobs, or approximately 15 percent of the company's total workforce.
- Asus Unveils New Eee Top PC
Techtree - ET1602 all-in-one computer very similar to iMac, but with a cheaper price tag
- Apple Negotiating For More DRM-Free Tunes?
Techtree | apple free tunes
- In talks with three major music labels
- Phone Chargers Cause for Concern Now
Techtree | phone chargers
- Efforts to curb energy loss soon
- MySpace app for BlackBerry a RIM record-breaker
- RIM announces more downloads in the first week for their BlackBerry-compatible MySpace application than for any before.
- TypePad updated: Better blog comments for all
- Blog platform company improves comment system, offers it for free to everybody.
- Pentax Optio W60: Rugged, Waterproof Aqua-Shooter Performs on Land, Too
Wired
- Submariners and landlubbers will love this easy-to-handle, waterproof Pentax. The 10-megapixel cam is built for abuse, is good in the water down to 13 feet and has a wide-angle zoom lens.
- Nov. 21, 1968: Love Canal Calamity Surfaces
- 1968: Karen Schroeder, a second-generation resident of the Love Canal neighborhood of Buffalo, New York, gives birth to an infant girl with multiple birth defects. The enormity of the neighborhood's affliction will take a few more years to come to light. Love Canal was a never-used, late 19th-century hydroelectric channel that was sold to the Hooker Chemical company in 1942. Between then and 1953, Hooker used the site to bury 22,000 tons of chemical wastes in barrels. Hooker sold the site to the Niagara Falls School Board for $1, and the board built an elementary school there in 1955. A blue-collar suburban neighborhood flourished around the disused industrial site. Flourished is probably the wrong word. Schroeder's parents found black sludge seeping through the walls of their basement starting in the late 1950s. A woman who ran a beauty parlor in her basement developed a debilitating weakness and had to give up working. Trees and shrubs died. Noxious chemical smells hung over the neighborhood. Schoolchildren developed strange rashes and vague, unexplained allergies. Sometimes, they played with phosphorus-laden dirt that exploded with a crackle when lumps of it were thrown to the ground. Baby Sheri Schroeder was born with an irregular heart beat and a hole in the heart wall, nasal bone blockages, partial deafness, deformed ears and a cleft palate. As she grew, her family realized she was mentally retarded. Her teeth arrived in a double row on her lower jaw, and she suffered from an enlarged liver. Heavy rains in the mid-1970s caused groundwater levels to rise. Swimming pools lifted up out of the ground. The buried waste rose closer to the surface. The Niagara Gazette began reporting in October 1976 about chemicals seeping into basements in the Love Canal neighborhood, with stories of harm to humans, pets and plant life. Chemical analyses showed 15 organic chemicals, including three toxic chlorinated hydrocarbons. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state and county health departments began to take notice, testing the neighborhood's soil, water and air, as well as blood samples from residents. Still, it was August 1978 before the state health commissioner declared a state of emergency, closed the school and ordered an evacuation ... but only of pregnant women and children under age 2. Soon it was learned that Hooker had buried 200 tons of dioxin at Love Canal, that residents suffered a high rate of miscarriages, birth defects and chromosomal damage, and that 10 percent could develop cancer. U.S. Rep. Al Gore (D-Tennessee) charged in 1979 that the tragedy had been avoidable. He publicized a 1958 internal Hooker Chemical memo, describing three or four kids burned by materials at the Love Canal waste site. The first lawsuits were filed in 1979. Early amelioration work released noxious smells in the neighborhood, and the evacuation area was widened. More schools were shut down. Government programs bought condemned homes and tore them down. Hundreds of families evacuated, but 60 families remained behind. Cleanup costs have been estimated at $250 million. A federal judge eventually found Hooker Chemical negligent but not reckless, and parent company Occidental Petroleum settled with the EPA for $129 million. An EPA regional administrator called Love Canal one of the most appalling environmental tragedies in American history. The core area around the dump is still off-limits, but new buildings have been built nearby. The neighborhood is now called Black Creek Village. Source: Various
- Missed it! MacBook Air Prototype On Ebay
Techtree | ebay prototype
- Gone for $730 - leaves behind a lingering mystery
- DVDs, Hollywood's profit source, are sagging
International Herald Tribune
- Total DVD sales are down by about 4 percent for the year, contributing to a creeping dread in the movie capital that buyer interest is plummeting as the global economic crisis worsens.
- Ailes agrees to remain at Fox News 5 more years
fox news ailes
- News Corp. announced Thursday that Roger Ailes, the chairman and chief executive of Fox News, had signed a new five-year contract with the company.
- Verizon staff had unauthorized access to Obama's cell
verizon unauthorized access
- Reuters - Verizon Wireless said Thursday some employees had gained unauthorized access and viewed a personal cell phone account held by President-elect Barack Obama that is now inactive.
- Verizon staff did not listen to Obama voicemails
verizon
- Reuters - The contents of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's voicemail messages and emails were not breached by the Verizon employees who gained unauthorized access to his cell phone account, an Obama aide said on Thursday.
- Report: Obama's cell records improperly accessed
obama
- Verizon Wireless tells Obama reps that workers improperly accessed records of a cell phone the president-elect used recently, exposing calls and phone numbers but not e-mail, according to a CNN report.
- Report: Obama's cell records improperly accessed
obama
- CNET - President-elect Barack Obama's cell phone billing records were improperly accessed by employees of Verizon Wireless, CNN reported late on Thursday.
- Phone workers peek at Obama's cell records
MSNBC - Wireless |
peek
- Verizon employees snuck a peek at President-elect Barack Obama's old cell phone records and will be reprimanded accordingly, the company said late Thursday.
- This Time, Spacewalk Is A Breeze
CBS News |
spacewalk
- To everyone's relief, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Shane Kimbrough deftly stepped through their work Thursday without any mishaps. They triple-checked their equipment to make certain everything was tied down.
