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Things have been downhill since DEC got subsumed
by Compaq.
Oh, and this is kinda weird.
Anyone have an idea what is with MIT specific Altavista?

Sure, valid point, but you can't advertise if you don't get any hits. Therefore, if enough people say, I like your product A, but if you continue practice B I will switch to competitor C. So, if you like Alta Vista (I do) hit the mailto link. Otherwise, what do you care? In general, if the internet didn't have value to people, specifically certain pages, then companies wouldn't advertise on them. It is nice to think of an open source and free and and advertisement-free world, but it is not going to happen. Advertisements are good for the internet because it provides an influx of money to sites which *can* result in improved services, as well as providing a market for mass-appeal sites. Sure, maybe advertiser-free sites can do the same or even a better job, but the internet isn't just for hackers anymore; it is full of people who want to see Mickey Mouse dance (or whatever he does) when they go to disney.com in IE4+. That being said, let the people who put up with ads do so, it will only propagate interest in the internet and allow things that will benefit us all (ex. companies deciding it is worthwhile to provide DSL and cable modem services and compete [ie, drive prices down] with others currently offering these services)

The Wired article goes on to say, "If they have few complaints about this, then expect them to include the full first page of results in the future. If there are massive user complaints then it's possible they may cancel it."

Comments to search-support@altavista.com. It's /. time.

Disclaimer: This is not an official press release of Compaq Corp, and Compaq is not at all responsible for its content.

Hi folks --

As one of the engineers responsible for helping put together the AltaVista.de site mentioned in this article, I figured I'd clear up some of the confusion.

Yes, indeed the servers are running Linux, more specifically Red Hat 5.2. We are using kernel 2.0.36 rather than 2.2.x because we needed a stable platform which has been out long enough to be thoroughly tested.

There is a very good reason why the machines are appearing and disappearing at different times you go to test them. The site is still in BETA stage; it still has not officially been opened to the public, and is still undergoing stress testing and modifications internally. The site will not go "live" until it has the same dependability as the AltaVista.com site in Palo Alto.

The AltaVista.de site uses a combination of technologies... currently, the Linux part of it handles Web serving only, while the crawling and indexing is still being done on Tru64 Unix (AKA Digital Unix). Pending further testing, the site is scheduled to switch over to a pure Linux solution based around our AltaVista Search Intranet product within the next few months.

Our "Intranet" product is a superset, rather than a subset of the Palo Alto site's technology. It runs on many platforms, handles many different filetypes rather than just HTML, and scales cleanly and efficiently from a departmental server to the global scope of the AltaVista.com site. It is packaged up cleanly to make for easy installation, customization, and maintanance, and is available at reasonable prices for your company today. Of important note for you Slashheads is the fact that version 2.3a which just went to press last week is free (although not open source) for indexes of up to 3000 documents.

Anyway, just thought the community deserved to know what was going on in the world of AltaVista.

Div.

(Yes, I'm posting as an A.C. because I've forgotten my password again, dangit.)

ya know, it's ironic how mr gates is insisting of running everything of his operating system

i do recall him building his house around the same ideas... i also recall the tremendous amounts of problems his NT servers caused =)

"bill gates" +home +problems
the net's just full of em'...

what about x10? x10.com .. they have some pretty cool shit

companies are downsizing, governments are downsizing and the corporate work environment is getting desperate.

It's because they have to compete with me, and you. Hackers are the new source of wealth. New software and electronic products as well as the huge number of newly "software enhanced" products are generating a larger and larger percentage of the energy in the world economy.

And we can produce software in a living room for sale world-wide. I can set up a shop on Geocities with a credit card merchant account at Wells Fargo for a less than a $500.00. I can then translate my page into 5 languages at bablefish and sell world wide with no added transaction cost. If I weren't so lazy that is. The only thing that can stop us now is our own remotes. I could do all those things, but I sit here at work making somebody else's next million so I can be assured of a paycheck on the 15th and a convenient co-pay at the doctor's. All because making the money for myself would necessarily cut into my discworld time.

Speaking of which, I just mastered Pragi's Fiery Gaze and Endorphin's Floating Friend and became a 4th Level Wizard! Not to mention finding a way to use the soul commands to cast what appear to be free illusions!

Zircephate
Sages of the Unbroken Circle
Wizard's Guild
Ankh-Morpork

siete un asshole. il vostro cervello è fatto delle noci quello che shit dal vostro asino. non so hanno ottenuto là. tutto che sappia è che finalmente ritornano.