Google Social Search

I first found out about this when one of my colleagues at work emailed this article around. He wanted to know whether this will have any impact on our work, which relies heavily on the way Google shows its search results. If Google starts to show different search results for everyone then it would be impossible to guarantee any kind of rankings for a particular site. In fact the whole concept of search engine marketing becomes irrelevant, because everyone's search results are being affected by their friends which we cannot manipulate.

First of all, I thing the situation is not so grim. Google can't just show content published by your friends, because they may not be as relevant as an established authority on that topic. For example, suppose you search for hotels in Melbourne. Google may well show some of your friends' recommendations, but large booking sites like wotif will definitely be listed at the top as they provide so much better information on Melbourne hotels than your friends can.

That is assuming you even see those social results in the first place. To enable this feature, a user needs to be logged into Google. That makes the feature available to what, at most 1% of the internet population? Of those, you must have told Google about your friends, which may come through your email contacts, friends connected via Google Buzz or perhaps friends on Twitter (not Facebook though). And even then, they must be blogging, posting pictures on Flickr, sending out tweets, or reviewing places on Google HotPot for some search results to show up. Honestly, how many of your friends do that? And if your answer to the last question is "most of my friends", then I promise you are in the minority.

So, I've established that until Google becomes Facebook the social search feature will never show up for most people. Now let's attack the idea of providing social search results at all!

The assumption is that your friends provides better recommendations and more relevant answers. Why is that so? Many of my friends have vastly different tastes than I do, so I might not like something that they like. The other example given in the article is if a friend posted a link to something relevant to what I am searching, that link may show up higher in the results. Now why is that useful? Does the link become more relevant to me because my friend has been there? No, in fact it is less useful because I may have read that post already!

There is a common theme here, and it is "your friend has been there, therefore you should too!" Well no, I'm not my friend and I don't have to follow after their footsteps. This social thing doesn't allow me to explore beyond my circle of friends, into the unknown, because there's where I will find many gems of information that I'm sure my friends have not the slightest interest.

Revival

I'm deciding to start blogging again. Sometimes the Facebook status update just isn't long enough for me to put down my thoughts.

Loosing My Mind…

This probably falls under the Rants category…

Why do everyone write “loose” when they really mean “lose”? It seems like only people who write for a living (authors, newspaper/magazine editors, etc.) know about the word “lose”. I can’t even recall the last time I saw someone using “lose” correctly in a comment. Probably never.

Argh!

Here are some definitions from Dictionary.com:

loose

–verb (used with object)
20. to let loose; free from bonds or restraint.
21. to release, as from constraint, obligation, or penalty.

–verb (used without object)
27. to let go a hold.
28. to hoist anchor; get under way.

Source URL

lose

–verb (used with object)
1. to come to be without (something in one's possession or care), through accident, theft, etc., so that there is little or no prospect of recovery: I'm sure I've merely misplaced my hat, not lost it.
2. to fail inadvertently to retain (something) in such a way that it cannot be immediately recovered: I just lost a dime under this sofa.
3. to suffer the deprivation of: to lose one's job; to lose one's life.

–verb (used without object)
23. to suffer loss: to lose on a contract.
24. to suffer defeat or fail to win, as in a contest, race, or game: We played well, but we lost.

Source URL

Maybe future spellcheckers should flag every instances of “loose” and “loosing” as errors, and politely ask the user “Do you mean ‘lose’ (‘losing’)?”

Lose that o!

Bittersweet

You can cry when you are sad.
You can cry when you are happy.

But when you are hit with both at the same time
Crying becomes confusing.

Your emotions are being pulled
in two opposite directions.
Yet they arrive at the same result – tears.

Maybe it’s easier to treat them as one combined feeling
No! Just ignore their meanings
the events that gave rise to the feelings
And let them overwhelming me
Take me over

And cry my eyes out

Trip to the Airport

Today I am picking up dad from the airport, so I checked Google Map for the route. (I already knew how to get there; just wanted to confirm the little details.) Here is what they showed me:

Highlights of the (proposed) journey

Step 42: 5404 km

Step 103: 6243 km

Step 119: 4436 km

Looks like dad will have to wait at the airport for some time…

PS: Apparently our airport is called Melbourne International Terminal, although putting Australia at the end also does the trick.

The Well

Walled in on all sides
The only way out is up

I tried to climb the rough walls
But every time I slipped
Or lost my balance
Or my arms got tired
Or my fingers lost their grips from pain

And I gave up

Then I thought about the man
Who saved us all
Betrayal
Humiliation
Pain
Death
He endured it all

I must follow his way
Ignore the aching muscles
Ignore the sore arms
Ignore the bleeding fingers

Up I climbed

War and Peace

Today I borrowed War and Peace from the library. I don’t know if I can get through all 1359 pages of it before it’s due in three weeks time, but the one-week trip to Sydney should give me more free time to read.

That’s my way of challenging myself.

Trip to the Beach

It seems that for Australians, 40-plus degree days are the new 30-pluses. And what better way to escape the heat than throwing myself into cool sea water?

The beach itself is very hot. The sand can literally burn your feet. The occasional hot breeze is a hair dryer pointed at my face. The beach is one giant oven.

The sea is another story altogether. It remains at a cool 20-something. Waves rushs towards me at quasi-regular intervals, pushing me back, as if knocking me down into the salty water is their goal.

The sea is made up of patches of warm and cold water. One minute the water is nice and warm (but not too hot), the next it is freezing cold, sending me off to find a warmer region. 

After a while the water soaks up my body heat and I begin to feel cold. As soon as I lift my upper body out of the water though, my back turns quite hot from the sun's radiation. Eventually, it becomes a dilemma -- hot sun or cold water?

It occurred to me that life is a bit like that. There is no such thing as a perfect situation. Every situation has its drawbacks. The decision to make is which set of problems you would rather face.

The waves themselves inspired another analogy. Life throws a lot of obstacles at you. If care is not taken, even the tiniest of them can knock you off your feet. Strategically positioning yourself can minimise that risk, but there is always that 3 metre wave you can do nothing about but brace for impact -- and some salty aftertaste. 

The patches of warm and cold water generate yet another idea. In life standing still is not an option, because everything around you is moving. You must constantly be on the move, adapting to changes.

It just happened that the lodge I was staying had an attached swimming pool. The pool has no waves. It does not make sand stick to your skin. It even has steps to let you sit in the water. It seems to be the perfect choice.

How does the pool fit into the life analogy? I wondered. Then I found the answer.

The pool is Heaven. You only get to use it after leaving the beach that is Life.

The Hard Way

I feel stupid sometimes. Why do I have to do things the hard way? By taking the difficult route, I end up taking on more risks. I'm supposed to be a risk-averse person!

It wouldn't have been a problem if this is about some RPG video games. You can always start over the game so risk-taking is almost preferred. No, this isn't a game. My future, my career, my life. They are not a game. 

I take shortcuts in a game. In fact I would research then exploit these shortcuts to the fullest extent. But when it comes to reality, I refuse to exploit shortcuts. I turn down things that are "too easy". I go for the risky path. 

Why? How is it that someone who demands nothing less than perfection, who is only satisfied when he has absolute dominance in a game, deliberately makes perfection hard to achieve in real life?

I was going to say I knew the answer to my behaviour. That I seek out challenges to make my life more interesting. This may or may not be the right answer. Meanwhile, a tiny voice deep inside my head tells me my actions are a form of torture.

I don't know why I need to torture myself, because clearly I am not enjoying it. Perhaps I did it to "remind" myself I am alive, just like you pinch yourself to make sure you are not dreaming?

Not surprisingly writing about it doesn't get me any closer to the answers. It's okay, I don't expect to get any. I just want to vent it out. All I know is that knowing what I am doing 

Document Or Live?

Technology is Great, but Are We Forgetting to Live?

This article validated what I have been doing unconsciously all these years. On any given trip there was a feeling that I could have taken more pictures. I almost felt guilty for allowing the "big moments" of my life slip by without recording them for future reference. Well, turns out I had done the best thing with these "moments" -- I lived them.

For me there is always the danger of going into extremes. Hopefully this article will not prompt me to stop recording things altogether. Rather, I will learn to make better decisions about when to take pictures and to put down the camera.

CD Album Info

Today I dug up an old CD, I Don't Want To Miss A Thing by Aerosmith. The case it came in was previously stuck and wouldn't open, but today I managed to fix it. Having taken the CD out of the case I decided to give it a play on my laptop.

So I fired up Windows Media Player 11 and out of curiosity tried to retrieve the album info online. Usually I can't get the album info because I mostly own Chinese CDs. I thought this time would be successful because the CD is English and popular. Wrong.

WMP11 found the album alright, but its record showed only 3 tracks instead of 4 (track 2 was missing). Even WMP tells me my CD has 4 tracks, but it presents to me an album with just 3. How stupid is this?

After mucking around in WMP a little longer, I found the correct album in one of the last search results. It had 4 tracks! Except it had no album art. And the year was wrong (1989 instead of 1998, probably a typo).

So today I found out what crappy software/service MS was producing, especially since this tiny CD ripper will get the correct info first try, without any clicking or choosing the right album from a list.

Screen Capturing

Just read this from a newspaper column:

Taking screen shots from a Mac is dead easy: three, and sometimes four, taps on the keyboard and you have the image captured forever...[p]ressing cmd-shift-3 takes a snapshot of the screen.

- Page 43 of Livewire, The Age, 23-10-2008

Have they never heard of the print-screen key on a PC keyboard?

Pre-crime

CCTV cameras which can 'predict' if a crime is about to take place are being introduced on Britain's streets.

The cameras can alert operators to suspicious behaviour, such as loitering and unusually slow walking. Anyone spotted could then have to explain their behaviour to a police officer. 

Source: MailOnline

Firstly I would like to know accurate these cameras are. If it gives out false alarms half the time it will only overwhelm the CCTV operator, who would simply turn off the alarms.

Secondly what are you going to do to the man lurking suspiciously in the alley? Even if he really is about to commit a crime he hasn't yet done so. Sending the police after him does nothing since they can't arrest him for standing around doing nothing constructive. Suspicious activity is not illegal activity.

Finally, and most importantly, this whole concept just will not work and here is why. If you tell would-be criminals cameras are tracking and analysing their every move, they will just do their evil deeds in some other place where the cameras can't see them. Alternatively they will figure out how to carry out their crimes without triggering the alarm. The key point here is people can change their behaviours if the rules are changed. A system that relies on spotting specific behaviours will therefore not work.

Praying for a Stranger

Today a couple from a nearby Christian church knocked on my door. They went through a brief introduction about themselves and their church. After that they did something very special. They asked if there was anything they could pray for me. Naturally I told them my exam in four days, thinking the "prayer" would be performed when they returned to church. Instead they began praying right there, outside my front door. Being a Catholic myself I am no stranger to these kind of prayers so I too bowed my head and listened to the man pray. He delivered the prayer so eloquently it was hard to believe we had known each other for less than five minutes. I could hardly tell my wants to God better than he did.

After they left I felt almost indebt to their kind actions. What stopped me short was the realisation that I too have the ability to do the same thing. Instead of repaying them directly I can do to others what they did to me: spread the Good News, pray for strangers. The prospect of actually carrying this out scares the hell out of me. It is simply not in my nature to start a conversation with a complete stranger, nor is making a request (praying for them) that has a high probability of rejection. Also I am rather slow with creating words. Slower if it is to be used in a prayer. Even slower if I have to make up stuff from thin air. However I do not totally deny myself of this wonderful task, shall the opportunity arises. Part of believing in God is about, well, believing in Him, that he will not give me a task I cannot fulfill.

Despite our (slight?) differences in beliefs, I felt our prayer had been heard. And they left me with such an emotional reactions! God bless them for sacrificing their time for such a wonderful cause. They shall always be in my prayers.

Reliable Technology

Half a week ago I was working on my final year project report, when my laptop suddenly began to behave strangely and randomly shutting down. A day later I found the problem: the CPU appeared to have died, causing the laptop to prevent overheating by shutting itself down. All my data, which resides in the harddisk, fortunately remained intact. It did gave me a good scare.

A few hours ago, I was applying final touches to the report. I was working on my laptop (with an improvised cooling system) while doing other tasks on my desktop, including writing a long todo list for the report. All of a sudden, my desktop rebooted, taking with it my unsaved todo list.

It is most frustrating when computers start shutting down or rebooting unpredictably. When you are working on an urgent piece of work, that becomes a frightening experience.

Feeling insecure about more data losses, I decided to search for a more reliable technology. The report must be word-processed, that I can do nothing about. The todo list, on the other hand...

I picked up a pen and some scrap paper and began rebuilding the list.

Blog Readability Test

Movie Reviews

Not entirely sure how accurate it is, but seems like a fun thing to try out on your blog. See if you can score a "genius" level.

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Friend Blogs RIP

A few years ago many of my friends kept their own blogs. Most wrote about their lives, essentially keeping an electronic diary, while a few had thoughtful, analytical essays on topics of their choosing. I, too, was swept up by the trend and posted first on Xanga and now here.

For the last two or three years, quite a few of these blogs were abandoned. Now, I might see one or two updates every month if I am lucky.

What does this mean? Surely blogging in general is not dead. In fact, many well-known blogs are able to capitalize on their success at capturing large numbers of subscribers. It is the causal bloggers, those who initially blogged out of curiosity or just following their friends' lead, now got bored with the responsibility and moved on. I bet a lot of them moved on to microblogging sites such as Twitter.

Hence there is nothing wrong with casual bloggers feeling disinterested in maintaining their blogs. After all, we see trends materialize and fade away daily. This is just another one.

However, I did enjoyed reading my friends' blogs, even if they just wrote about their lives. In a way it kept us connected even though we might be thousands of miles apart. The writer/reader relationship also differs from a normal conversation. The former is a one way communication (not counting comments) and the writer is in charge, wherea the latter have both friends on equal standing. This allows me the reader the see my friend in a different light. You might also turn the last sentence around, that is the writer is able to present himself in a different light to his friends.

On the subject of new trends of blogging, I hereby declare I hate microblogging. Limiting your message to 140 characters means you can't present any complex ideas, like this post does. It encourages users to tell others about what they are doing right this moment. It appeals to our desire to peep into others' lives and laziness, because we don't have to write long paragraphs anymore. That makes the content empty and without substance. You can't look into the other's mind when all they post is what they just ate for dinner or a link to a funny webpage.

I can probably rant on for another three or four paragraphs, but I better stop. One of the side-effects with friends giving up on their blogs is that they also don't read any of their friends' blogs. It is not much fun writing alot when no one reads it.

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Bad IT Systems; Stupid Customer Service

=: Late Fees And Charges Still Apply :=

My Aunt died in January. CitiBank billed her for February and March
for their monthly service charge on her credit card, and then added
late fees and interest on the monthly charge... the balance had been
$0.00 and now is $60.00.

I placed the following phone call to CitiBank:

Me: "I am calling to tell you that my aunt died in January."

CitiBank: "The account was never closed and the late fees and charges
still apply."

Me: "Maybe, you should turn it over to collections ..."

CitiBank: "Since it is two months past due, it already has been."

Me: "So, what will they do when they find out she is dead?"

CitiBank: "Either report her account to the frauds division, or
report her to the credit bureau... maybe both!"

Me: "Do you think God will be mad at her?"

CitiBank:" ... excuse me....?"

Me: "Did you just get what I was telling you... the part about her
being dead?"

CitiBank: "Sir, you'll have to speak to my supervisor!"

(Supervisor gets on the phone)

Me: ''I'm calling to tell you, my Aunt died in January."

CitiBank: "The account was never closed and the late fees and charges
still apply."

Me: "You mean you want to collect from her estate?"

CitiBank: "[stammer] Are you her lawyer?"

Me: "No, I'm her great nephew." (Lawyer info given... )

CitiBank: "Could you fax us a certificate of death?"

Me: "Sure." [Fax number is given]

(After they get the fax.)

CitiBank: "Our system just isn't set up to deal with a death."

Me: "Oh..."

CitiBank: "I don't know what more I can do to help..."

Me: "Well... if you figure it out, great! If not, you could just keep
billing her ... I suppose ... don't really think she will care ...."

CitiBank: "Well... the late fees and charges do still apply."

Me: "'Would you like her new billing address?"

CitiBank: "That might help."

Me: "Odessa Memorial Cemetery, Hwy 129 [plot number given]."

CitiBank: "Sir, that's a cemetery!"

Me: "What do you do with dead people on your planet?!!"

-- Lifted from a mailing list email

Looks like CitiBank needs a new CTO. As for the customer service reps, what were they thinking? How can they let an IT system (and a bad one at that) constrain their actions? If they can't deal with unusual situations like this, then they are not adding value on top of the system, and the company is better off firing these guys and let customers talk directly to the computer.

Technology should support our work, not the other way round.

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Facebook Friends Search

Today I was doing some research on Facebook as part of my work, when I hit upon an interesting feature. Actually it's just the friends search function. The interesting part comes from Facebook trying to show you people you are more likely to know, and it does that by looking at the number of mutual friends between the two of you. What's really cool is Facebook will show you these mutual friends.

Still, why is it interesting? Because it lets you discover connections you never thought existed. Most of time the mutual friends are from the same "group", for example my primary school friends, so it is not surprising they are all friends with that person. Occassionally, I find a person knows two of my friends but from different groups. As far as I know these two friends aren't related to each other, but they know the same person!

I wonder if this feature can be used for some kind of datamining application, such as finding out if two of your friends from different groups knows each other. I am sure more malicious applications exists. It is also remarkable that I can find these connections given I have only added about 60 friends. Imagine what you can come up with if you have hit the friends cap of 5000?

From Introvert To Extrovert

Before my Costa Rican volunteering trip, I was rather nervous. Not because I was going to a foreign place whose people speak in a language I didn't understand, nor was I worried about the security of the country. ISV assigned to me a community project, meaning I would be working closely with the locals. Being an introvert there was some concern that I would find it hard to fit into the culture. Throughout my life I was always the person no one really cared about. My friends don't totally ignore me, but I'm definitely not the most important friend, the first one that comes to mind. I am never great at creating conversations -- in fact I question the need to converse just to break the silence -- which doesn't help with attracting my friends' attention. All these experiences lead me to conclude that I will be left out in the project: the person who works in the background, and when he leave the project no one would remember him, or even notice he has departed.

My fears turned out to be unfounded. During the project I felt I was being recognised by the locals as well as my group members. You can say this was my first taste of being an extrovert. As a result I now feel more comfortable working with people. I am still a long way from becoming an outspoken person, the centre of attention. That's fine. I don't aim to be a celebrity in my life. All I need is enough courage to actively look for people I can help, rather than wait for them to seek my assistance.