Ho John Lee’s Weblog

Batelle’s Searchblog mentions an article by Raul Valdes-Perez of Vivisimo citing 5 reasons why search personalization won’t work very well. Paraphrasing his list:

1. Individual users interests / search intent changes over time
2. The click and viewing data available to do the personalization is limited
3. Inferring user intent from pages viewed after search can be misleading because the click is driven by a snippet in search results, not the whole page
4. Computers are often shared among multiple users with varying intent
5. Queries are too short to accurately infer intent

Vivismo (Clusty) is taking an approach in which groups of search results are clustered together and presented to the user for further exploration. The idea is to allow the user to explicitly direct the search towards results which they find relevant, and I have found it can work quite well for uncovering groups of search results that I might otherwise overlook.

• Genuine VC: Seven Common Tactical Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in their Initial VC Pitch which are Simple to Fix
  Another good list in David Beisel’s series of lists of seven.
  (tags: startups entrepreneurship vc)

Comcast just announced that they’re raising their monthly fee by around 7% starting in January:

The package price will rise by an average of $3.13 per month, or about $44.80 to $47.93. Prices vary depending on the community.

I already pay $49.61 per month (with tax) here in Palo Alto, so the new rate will be around $53 per month. The old rate seems too high for what little we watch in our household, and the new rate is worse.

“Comcast’s Bay Area market prices reflect increasing operating expenses,'’ said spokesman Andrew Johnson, “as well as investments that Comcast is making to improve the value of the service.'’ He cited improvements in customer service as well as more programming choices that have come through advances in technology and partnerships with new programming providers.

• Contentious » Women in Podcasting: 40 New Shows Listed
  OPML list of podcasts by women
  (tags: podcasting women media publishing society)
• The Web Standards Project
  A long discussion of assorted CSS hacks and browser issues
  (tags: css hacks standards design web usability)
• Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection: Flickr and WebShots - A Classic Web2.0 Case
  interesting discussion comparing the two photo sharing sites and the growth of traffic at Flickr vs Webshots
  (tags: web2.0 flickr webshots photos social marketing business)
• evhead: Ten Rules for Web Startups
  yet another list of good ideas
  (tags: startups lists management web2.0)
• OPML Editor support:
  How to convert bloglines subscription lists for use with OPML editor
  (tags: opml xml rss bloglines editor software tools howto)
• Firefox Extensions For Bloggers | Performancing.com
  list of favorite extensions and add ons, some I hadn’t heard of
  (tags: blogging firefox extensions tools)
• Cancer detection a spin-off of war on terror

  Method used to track the source of illegal drugs, explosives, counterfeit bills and biological warfare agents may detect rapidly growing cancers, and track obesity and eating disorders.

  The method, known as “stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry,” can

  (tags: science research health)
• SHOP.MMS.COM > CUSTOM PRINTING > STEP 1 & 2
  Make your own custom printed M&M in your choice of colors. Only 2 lines of 8 characters on each side, though
  (tags: fun candy food marketing)

• Charlotte Observer | 11/06/2005 | Korean pop culture is now the new cool
  Everyone loves Korean soap operas and K-pop now!
  (tags: korea korean culture)
• Search engine robots
  list of search engine user agents, robots.txt, and related
  (tags: search seo sysadmin software development)
• Main Page - FeedMesh
  wiki for the FeedMesh project to coordinate ping servers
  (tags: feedmesh wiki blogs syndication rss development)
• The Outfoxed Idea | Outfoxed
  Series of posts on the theoretical aspects of Outfoxed, and using social networks for metadata distribution.
  (tags: social software collaboration trust theory outfoxed)
• Jon Udell: Dueling simplicities
  comments on Microsoft’s SSE synchronization extensions for RSS
  (tags: sse rss xml synchronization syndication web2.0)
• How Simple Sharing Extensions Will Change the Web (web2.wsj2.com)
  comments and diagram on Microsoft’s SSE synchronization extension for RSS
  (tags: sse rss xml synchronization syndication web2.0)
• der-mo.net _ Moritz Stefaner
  demonstration of graph visualization / browser similar to LivePlasma, uses XML input data. Sample data is from cia world fact book. Another version is used in outfoxed for social graph visualization.
  (tags: flash network graph visualization)

• Here, here for a site that had it there (San Francisco Chronicle, November 27, 2005)
• Stanford Stadium web site
• Andy’s photo of construction equipment ready to go

• HOW TO Quickie: Embedded Flickr Slideshows at PaulStamatiou.com
  detailed instructions for placing a Flickr slideshow on a blog post or other web page.
  (tags: flickr howto slideshow blogging photo gallery)
• Now What? » How Can David Beat Goliath?- Strategy #7: Attenuate Goliath’s Strengths!
  Part of a series of posts on areas of comparative advantage for small companies vs large incumbents, includes links to the other posts in the series
  (tags: startup strategy management lists business)
• Supr.c.ilio.us: The Blog » The Great Web 2.0 Joke List
  comprehensive (?) list of web2.0 related hacks and humor
  (tags: web2.0 humor culture)
• The Bicycle Forest
  Makers of odd bicycles, including the Couch bike, Treadmill bike, Hula bike, and other experiments
  (tags: design bicycle hacking transportation)
• VoipSpeak - Running Asterisk@Home Under Windows
  This looks a bit fragile, but might be useful in some situations. Basically installs the system on a VMware emulator. Most of the time you could probably just spend $100 for a used x86 box instead, though
  (tags: asterisk voip windows virtualization hack howto)
• Matrix: Explanations, symbols, theories (fans only)
  Huge collection of trivia, speculation, proposed background stories and ideas related to the Matrix universe.
  (tags: matrix movies geek culture scifi)

This project seems like it could be a good fit for developing but urban settings where there is fairly high population density, a budget for deploying infrastructure, and enough community support to limit problems with vandalism or theft of the equipment.

Starsight (Starsightproject.com) is a project designed to supercharge street lighting and power in developing counties. Essentially it is a network of pylons, each with a solar panel, linked not by cables but by antennae which use wireless internet protocol.

The Starsight idea came out of the involvement of London-based sustainable development specialist the Kolam Partnership in an urban street lighting initiative in Cameroon.

Reliable street lighting can help a country to develop – a study by the Kenyan government recently found that street lighting reduced crime by 65 per cent. The benefits are even more widespread – aid workers and foreign businesses are more likely to stay on in a country if they feel secure.

• A Vigil Against Faith in N. Korea - Los Angeles Times, November 15, 2005
  “Some North Koreans are testing prohibitions against religious activity,” Michael Cromartie, chairman of the commission, said in a statement. At the same time, “there is renewed government interest in ensuring that North Koreans coming back from China are
  (tags: northkorea korea korean religion policy society culture)
• Who Has Time For This?: How To NOT Write A Business Plan
  David Cowan’s guidelines for 10 slide startup pitches that get to the point. Good advice for proposals in existing businesses, too.
  (tags: startups vc business plan writing)
• Inventor’s Handbook
  This handbook was created by the Lemelson-MIT Program to address the independent inventor’s and aspiring entrepreneur’s most frequently asked questions regarding United States patents.
  (tags: patent howto legal reference startups)
• Chuquet
  Experimental feed scanner, looks for popular items from top feeds, also flickr photos. Kind of like memeorandum, without the front end.
  (tags: search social collaboration filtering flickr feed tools)
• MoMB
  The Museum of Modern Betas - postings of web 2.0 betas, alphas, and related projects as they release
  (tags: web2.0 beta software blog)
• » Eastman Kodak: The Spreadsheet Ate My Homework
  A case of procedural problems with review of spreadsheets that include new or hanged formulas. Kodak files 8K indicating a “material weakness,” as defined by Auditing Standard No. 2.
  (tags: kodak accounting spreadsheet sec risk)
• freesound :: home page
  The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Audio clips, not MP3 tracks.
  (tags: audio music sounds free samples creativecommons collection)

I haven’t noticed getting one of these in my e-mail before:

Becouse of a lot of complaints about our malings
we need to buy expensive balk bullet-prof hosting
for our sites. It costs a lot, please, send us
small donation to:

Nordea Bank AB, Sweden, Surte, SWIFT: NDEASESS
to Isa Dzhabrailov, account number: SE 163 000000000 6510032599

I’ve added a local tag cosmos, which shows a tag cloud for posts on this site. Unfortunately, I’m also using tags and bookmarks scattered across del.icio.us, Flickr, Technorati, and other services, which aren’t integrated into the cloud, but this provides a different view of what’s been posted here since I’ve started tagging things.

I’m still evolving my personal use of tags. You can see that I’ve started tagging some posts with “web2.0“, although I’ve been reluctant to turn it into a site category. I don’t like the label, but I recognize that it’s the most popular tag for a lot of “new” stuff at the moment. So exposing the tag makes it more findable.

• CNN.com - China reports 2nd bird flu death - Nov 23, 2005
  A second Chinese woman is reported to have died from bird flu in the eastern Anhui province, the third confirmed human case in the country.The 35-year-old female farmer with the surname Xu died Tuesday after falling ill on November 11
  (tags: china avianflu h5n1 health)
• World News Article | Reuters.co.uk - China rulers face “major test” in bird flu fight
  Since mid-October, China has reported 20 outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. Millions of birds have been culled, the military called in to impose quarantine zones and a mass vaccination campaign for poultry has been launched.
  (tags: china avianflu h5n1)
• Remembering Manjunath (Machan to his friends…)
  Manju Nathan, a 27-year-old IIM graduate and inspector for Indian Oil Company was shot and killed after inspecting and failing a tampered petrol pump in Uttar Pradesh last Saturday.
  (tags: india society business)
• Gov.cn: The Chinese Central Government’s Official Web Portal
  Beijing, Nov. 22 (Xinhuanet) — Gov.cn, the official web portal of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China, launched today on a trial basis its English version, English.gov.cn.
  (tags: china government reference)
• FDA Public Health Advisory: Serevent Diskus, Advair Diskus and Foradil (Long Acting Beta Agonists)
  The information in FDA’s proposed changes to the product labels explains that, even though LABAs decrease the number of asthma episodes, these medicines may increase the chances of a severe asthma episode when they do occur.
  (tags: health medicine advair fda warning)
• Silicon Valley Watcher - Healthline: The search for pharma online gold
  It uses doctors, rather than just servers, to help create a dictionary that translates medical terms into common words, and doctors rank the quality of the medical information the search engine links to. (Healthline has a patent on the process of a doctor
  (tags: healthline medicine health vertical search)
• Saving the Net: How to Keep the Carriers from Flushing the Net Down the Tubes
  Doc Searls essay on business interests of carriers vs content publishers and users at the edge of the network.
  (tags: internet business politics media telecom publishing)

Unlike Mr. Bean , turkey preparation is going smoothly at our house this morning. I’ve been making Thanksgiving meals nearly every year since coming out to California as a grad student. A Thanksgiving feast can be fairly simple to put together, primarily requiring planning and organization skills, as opposed to creative seasoning skills. Once the bird’s in the oven, there isn’t much to do for a few hours, leaving time to hang out, get in a good run, or catch up on feed reading while looking at the parade on television.

The hardest trick is getting everything to come out at the same time, since the bird has a somewhat variable 4-5 hour lead time on it, and there’s a limited supply of stove burners and pans for cooking the vegetables and side dishes during the last hour. We normally have salad, along with corn, peas, yams, potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and the traditional Thanksgiving kimchee (highly recommended, even if you aren’t Korean). Plus pumpkin and French apple pies for dessert.

• Виртуальные открытки II - Вся коллекция - Flash Cards II
  Collection of flash animations of sketches and caricatures drawn as you watch. via Tim Bray.
  (tags: art drawing flash animation)
• UC/Stanford Map Libraries Group
  Pointers to map collections at UC and Stanford, including assorted Soviet military topographic maps (not available online, you need to go in person).
  (tags: maps mapping ruraldevelopment military topography)
• IceSpy
  Rolling list of recent (but not real time) search queries on Icerocket
  (tags: icerocket search seo fun)
• drx: PHP [Computers: Programming: Languages: PHP] - loadaverageZero
  Extensive list of PHP development resources and open source applications
  (tags: php programming software development opensource directory)
• ssahn.com
  Photoblog project, people with a hand covering one eye.
  (tags: art photo photos faces meme hacking)
• Nutrition and Health News
  Articles and links on nutrition, family health, fitness, weight management, and topics related to healthy lifestyles
  (tags: nutrition health fitness blog)
• Eating Disorder News
  Articles and links on anorexia, bulemia, binge eating, recovery, body image and topics related to eating disorders
  (tags: anorexia bulemia binge eating disorder blog)
• Business Week - Sony’s Escalating “Spyware” Fiasco
  Along with lawyers, prosecutors, and furious fans, artists are joining the backlash against the label for slipping a hidden, anti-theft program into users’ computers
  (tags: drm media publishing security privacy policy pr sony spyware)

I asked Emily to think about what she’s thankful for this year, here’s the list she came up with this afternoon:

1. A loving family
2. A warm house
3. Delicious food
4. Life in people
5. My precious belongings

My list started out a lot more complicated, but I think I’ll go with hers.

• The Great Google Wipeout - Chronicle of a corporate death foretold. By Jack Shafer
  Speculative future history of the decline of Google and the rise of MySpace under Rupert Murdoch, etc.
  (tags: google myspace future)
• How-To: Build a WiFi biquad dish antenna - Engadget - www.engadget.com
  Another DIY wireless antenna project, this one a biquad design in a recycled satellite TV dish antenna
  (tags: wireless wifi diy antenna howto)
• Light Field Photography with a Hand-Held Plenoptic Camera
  Refocus a digital photograph after the fact, using knowledge of the direction of light arrival obtained by using a lens microarray in front of the sensor.
  (tags: digital photography optics graphics science research signal processing)
• Diggdot.us - digg / slashdot / del.icio.us popular
  merges digg, slashdot, and del.icio.us popular link feeds onto one page
  (tags: del.icio.us slashdot digg aggregator)
• TurboGears: Front-to-Back Web Development
  Python web development framework, sort of like Ruby on Rails.
  (tags: python web development programming framework)
• XML Developer Center: Simple Sharing Extensions for RSS and OPML
  Microsoft’s proposed “SSE” extensions for read-write RSS and OPML, released under CC license
  (tags: rss opml sse xml microsoft social software sharing syndication)
• Getting MyWeb
  User comments on how Yahoo MyWeb is useful for bookmarks, page caching, sharing
  (tags: yahoo myweb social software personal search)
• From Web Site to Web Platform (zend_platform.pdf)
  Joyce Park’s presentation on web implementation approach
  (tags: web architecture software development php)

…the business and technology magazines are getting thicker again. The latest issue of Wired magazine is 294 pages, Forbes is 280. Not in the phonebook-sized range yet, but noticeably heavier than they’ve been in a while.

Apparently, Adsense hasn’t sucked up all the advertising money. Plus there’s no way to put cardboard inserts and perfume samples onto a web page yet.

Update 12-03-2005 19:15 PST: This guy plotted Wired page counts vs the Nasdaq index, and some similar comments here as well.

I dropped my subscription to the ACM Graphics SIG some time back, so this is the first I’ve heard of this project, which is very cool. Take your photos now, and decide what to focus on later.

From Wired News, via A Venture Forth:

A computer science Ph.D. student at Stanford University has outfitted a 16-megapixel camera with a bevy of micro lenses that allows users to take photos and later refocus them on a computer using software he wrote.

The system works by capturing information about the direction of the incoming light, as well as the intensity. This is then used to compute the image that would have been formed if the sensor was in a slightly different plane, effectively changing the focal length. The paper published by Ren Ng and team observes:

Today’s Wall Street Journal mentions that some hotels are offering to place exercise equipment in your room. For $20, the Westin will provide a treadmill or stationary bike, and several others will provide yoga mats and DVDs.

I’d be interested to hear if anyone has first hand experience with this. On the one hand, it might save a few minutes finding / getting in and out of the gym, as well as fixing the problem of gym hours not lining up with when you’re actually at the hotel during business travel. I routinely find that the published hours don’t reflect reality, although I can usually get someone to open the gym if it’s a real hotel (i.e. well equipped but overpriced).

During the initial planning and survey phase of the Kuppam project a few years ago, I discovered it was nearly impossible to obtain high resolution topographic maps (or any other sort) for rural India. The government-operated Survey of India has high quality data, but it hasn’t generally made its way into the equivalent of US Geological Survey 15-minute quadrangles on paper or the DTM / DEM data sets. The best I was able to come up with was some old Soviet military maps from the 1950s.

Hadn’t thought about it for a while, but I see someone else has found out about these:

Paul sez, “Soviets mapped the entire world at various scales between 1940 and 1990.In some areas the Russian maps are still the best available maps. Amazingly, none of the maps are copyright.

BoingBoing, Soviet Military Maps of Britain