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Google Hacks
The book in brief Google Hacks by Tara Calishain and Rael Dornfest and published by O'Reilly will appeal to an even wider audience, I can imagine buying this for friends who haven't cottoned on to 'net searching at all and friends who complain "Google returns too many sites." People who are afraid to code shouldn't be put off by the "Hacks" in the title: O'Reilly have obviously taken a wider meaning of "hack" than just a neat piece of code. This book is a marvelous compendium of tips and tricks for Google, ranging from simple ways of getting the search results you want, through using Google's newer services such as phone books and image search, all the way to advanced ways of using scrapers and the Google API.
The book demonstrates 100 hacks, of which close to half are useful for everyone -- newbie, programmer and non-programmer alike. The first 35 hacks, in chapters one and two, will educate you about the intricacies of getting the best out of searching both Google's main web catalog and the newer 'Special Services and Collections.' This is the part of the book that should be essential reading for Google users -- in the two days I've had this book these have proved invaluable. The rest are for those who are either looking for extremely advanced search tips, increasing their web site's Google page rank, or programming an application to use the Google data -- all topics well covered in this volume.
What's Good In This Book
To start, it is well written, well laid out with a good contents section, good index, and some appropriate introductory material before getting down to the first hack. Each of the hacks are numbered and a single hack will often cross-reference other hacks that add information relevant to it. The hacks in each chapter nicely add on each other in both complexity and function.
The hacks themselves seem to cover every area of Google that you might want. They range from the downright frivolous (there is a chapter "Google Pranks and Games") to serious ways of improving your search results and excellent examples of good ways to use the Google API.
Most of the code fragments are in Perl, and among the hacks are ways of getting the job done without over extensive use of extra modules such as XML Parsers and SOAP::Lite (including a hack that uses regular expressions to parse the XML).
What's Bad In This Book
It's hard to find anything bad to say, apart from some frustration that a couple of the hacks that interested me used ASP or VB rather than a more portable language.
Oh, another minor quibble, the allied web site O'Reilly Hacks Series has been slow and has none of the code in the book or any of the URLs mentioned listed anywhere -- it seems more geared towards marketing the books than helping the readers.
(DISCLAIMER: I use Rael Dornfest's Blosxom blog software and have contributed a plugin for his software.)
You can purchase Google Hacks from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
post muah ha ha ha btw.. isn't this a repost?
Make sure to paint "NO BLOOD FOR OIL" on the donkey. Then Indymedia will post your pictures because it's a protest.
or maybe "Soy Bomb" ...
Would you like to touch my monkey? It's shaped just like your buddy michael, but with less hair.
... remove bad moderators from the M1 eligibility pool."
I'm a cop, you idiot!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
I've seen several posts recently where people complain about having "infinite" Meta-Mod points. Almost like it's a burden.
It most certainly is not. It is a gift to patient, karma-whoring trolls. Read the Meta-Mod FAQ.
Say you encounter a typical "OMG BILL GATES IS TEH SATAN!" post by, say, circletimessquare. It's been duly modded up as "Insightful" by some unknown editor or slashbot. Why not Meta-Mod that as "unfair"? Sure, you won't have any significant effect on either the poster's karma or the person who modded them up, but you will "help
Similarly, suppose you encounter a post by a troll seething with racism and hatred. It's been duly modded down as "Troll" or "Flamebait". This too is "unfair"! That post increased the noise, and as such was very valuable. It belongs in +2 territory with something by Perens, surely! Whoever modded that down should be removed from the moderation eligibility pool, post haste!
(Note that you don't have to support the racist shite in the post. The poster probably doesn't either; he's just doing it for the reaction.)
This is the same thing that happens to positive-karma troll accounts when they upmod a troll. They're found out in Meta-Mod, and lose their ability to moderate.
It's time the trolls use the same weapons as the slashbots! If you moderate, use "-1 Overrated" since those don't get Meta-Modded. And Meta-Mod whenever you get the chance! I mark almost everything as "unfair", though I occasionally see a very obvious troll being upmodded, which I mark as "fair" or leave alone.
Either that, or just have fun. Whichever.
Edit I've recently realized that my alter ego and I make up a fifth of $$$$$exyGal's foes. I am beaming with pride. Almost as much pride as nabbing 5,000,001st post, or having my sordid past with michael crapflooded by SexualAssPussy.
i'd like to slip my ultrawide cock into a young girl's anal channel. it feels soooo good to butt-fuck a tight young female asshole. i'm cumming right now just thinking about it.
are falling. how do you feel about that
fucken moderator. Mod this up you monkeyfucker!
Just heard on talk radio Paul Stojanovich slipped while stopping to pose for a picture, falling off a cliff into the Pacific ocean. Whether or not you've watched any of his insightful television programmes, you can't doubt his contributions to American culture. Truly an American icon.
VIETNAM 2 PREFLIGHT CHECK
1. Cabal of oldsters who won't listen to outside advice? Check.
2. No understanding of ethnicities of the many locals? Check.
3. Imposing country boundaries drawn in Europe, not by the locals? Check.
4. Unshakeable faith in our superior technology? Check.
5. France secretly hoping we fall on our asses? Check.
6. Russia secretly hoping we fall on our asses? Check.
7. China secretly hoping we fall on our asses? Check.
8. SecDef pushing a conflict the JCS never wanted? Check.
9. Fear we'll look bad if we back down now? Check.
10. Corrupt Texan in the WH? Check.
11. Land war in Asia? Check.
12. Right unhappy with outcome of previous war? Check.
13. Enemy easily moves in/out of neighboring countries? Check.
14. Soldiers about to be dosed with *our own* chemicals? Check.
15. Friendly fire problem ignored instead of solved? Check.
16. Anti-Americanism up sharply in Europe? Check.
17. B-52 bombers? Check.
18. Helicopters that clog up on the local dust? Check.
19. In-fighting among the branches of the military? Check.
20. Locals that cheer us by day, hate us by night? Check.
21. Local experts ignored? Check.
22. Local politicians ignored? Check.
23. Locals used to conflicts lasting longer than the USA has been a country? Check.
24. Against advice, Prez won't raise taxes to pay for war? Check.
25. Blue water navy ships operating in brown water? Check.
26. Use of nukes hinted at if things don't go our way? Check.
27. Unpopular war? Check.
Get Your Unilateral War On Iraq On
Linux and Red Communism .. in co-hoots? Richard Stallman has an axe to grind with his fellow academic types so he takes up communism? Where did you say Finland is? North EASTern Europe right by the old USSR?
.. except for charging for Help Desk service. Should profit arise for a group from selling a distro it wouldn't be *too* long before they'd be undercut by another group making a near carbon copy and selling for less. Might as well just give the software away for all the money you can make from it. But such is the Linux world ..
.. faster .. stable .. documented APIs .. and works.
Is it any wonder (Red) China is adopting Linux?
Maybe you have the godless freedom hating no-free-speech mandatory abortion Tibetan monk butchering red communism mozilla Red Star built into your distro too? So many distros do. Go ahead, approve of atrocities and terrorism by sporting the GNU/Red Star.
The GNU/Linux platform and other OSS projects basically straight jacket the coders into a non-profit communal coding formula that while' free' is also almost incapable of making a profit for the programmer
Instead, try Windows Xp or buy a Mac
Kudos for a best first post ever.
"Don't no what Orienteering is?"
Don't no?
Lol.
It's more than just logos
:-)
Well, excuse me.
[I]f you had taken the time to enter a search you might have noticed that the entire interface is in a different language, such as h4x0r, bork, Elmer Fudd or Klingon.
You don't have to enter a search. It's obvious anyway. Your point being?
If anything is over moderated [sic.] it's you
Why do you people always take everything so seriously? Three comments providing alternative logos (yeah yeah, interfaces too) were modded 4 and above. I made a jibe. So what? Who cares?
Nope, not funny. Not even remotely.
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok