yahoo! vs. google: tom raggett shows how the two searches compare. A very neat idea.
Archive for February, 2004
Two interesting releases: another free PDF creator (I could never get into using PDFs properly because of the vast licensing costs) and a system info tool.
My project made a side entry in the Guardian! Hurrah!
The Washington Post’s Style Invitational has once again asked readers
to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting,
or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this
year’s winners:
Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright
ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little
sign of breaking down in the near future.
Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.
Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really
bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a
serious bummer (this contributor was clearly suffering from the Dopeler
effect - the tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at
you rapidly!)
Decafalon (n.):<:i> The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
Glibido: All talk and no action.
Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.
Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you’re eating.
Ignoranus: A person who’s both stupid and an ass****.
How to care for CDs for real. Interesting that we shouldn’t reposition labels given that the writing layer is only slightly below the label side of the disk.
Alan Mather makes the valid point that we need some form of centralisation of government IT infrastructure (it will be cheaper and more efficient, right?). Maybe LAWs is helping in some way with this.
He also mentions the
The Visual Thesaurus which is beautiful.
To paraphrase and quote: it is all to easy to say “Local government needs to be local” to scupper the former approach and “all content must be accessible” to scupper the latter. There is no simple way to manage the conflict between accessiblity requirements and maximising usability. Maybe the answer is that anything that is mandatory for dogmatic reasons must be understood, but questioned. Of course government must provide all services for differently-able people, but why should it provide worse services for standardly-able people because of this?
A new chemical culprit can make wine taste musty. It’s related to cork taint and comes from bacterial munching on a flame retardant used in cellars. Now that could explain why so many bottles are returned for taint than actually have it.
We have to do something about chewing gum. It’s not just because I’ve never really got into chewing, its the gazillion pieces of trodden in gum that are on pretty well every street in central London. Look at the fan patterns outside any tube to see which directions people tend to walk in!
Apparently online job boards don’t work. This is a bit of a surprise, as I would have expected an eBay-style matching of buyers/employers and sellers/job hunters to function pretty effectively. Although the job hunters are probably all lying on their e-CVs… The source magazine might be interesting for Caroline.
Nice idea for a business: free conference calling based on a cut from the phone calls into the facility.
Yahoo dumps Google search technology and replaces it with something else. There’a another new search on the block as well.
Russell Beattie has a good reason for not using Atom.
OPT project tool looks like a nicer version of PHPProjekt. I’m also looking forward to a Windows version of MrProject. Why do we have to spend £300 on MS Project just to do Gantt charts?
The table of equivalents / replacements / analogs of Windows software in Linux. Useful to find a suitable replacement for a not-so-favourite tool.
UK Central Government Web Archive. I wonder if there will be a local government one?
Will Gershon make e-transactions mandatory for those who can use them?
Targeted Email Newsletters Show Continued Strength suggests that personal / hobby / work overlap newsletters could work.
Caroline discovered today that there is a scientific reason for her (mercifully short-lived) thermonuclear temper moments.
"The liver is the main organ for breaking down hormones after they have served their messenger function to their target cells. For example, if the liver does nor break down insulin quickly enough, hypoglycemia results as the still circulating insulin continues to lower blood sugar. If the liver does not metabolize estrogen properly, PMS will result. Failure to dispose of adrenalin (the "fight" or"flight" hormone) after it has outlived its usefulness may lead to chronic irritability and temper explosions"
So essentially she’s drinking enough to prevent the liver digesting hormones which is causing the flare-ups. Hmmm.
Need to set up some backup of my website. Use the home PC to grab stuff from Vox, I think.
