If the search engine was run by a small start-up and not by Microsoft people would be praising them for leveraging the "wisdom of the crowd".
This "issue" is like having a bunch of people agree to answer the same way on a survey. In this case Google set it up so their employees were the only ones answering the survey, so the results only show how the employees answered.
I think what Microsoft is collecting with their toolbar is perfectly reasonable. In short, they're using users who opt-in to train their algorithms. There is nothing sneaky about this - the Bing toolbar installer says, on the first install panel (where you also choose your language),
Help Microsoft improve your online experience with personalized content by allowing us to collect additional information about your system configuration, the searches you do, websites you visit, and how you use our software. We will also use this information to help improve our products and services.
Opting out is as easy as clearing a checkbox.
Google employees installed the Bing toolbar, opted in to data collection, loaded their database with results for unique, nonsensical search terms and then clicked on those results using IE with the Bing toolbar. Since the terms were unique the clicked results became the only data points associated with those terms and thus showed up in the Bing results.
This is no more nefarioius then a restauranteur eating at a competitor's restaurant on a Saturday night and noticing what other patrons are ordering. You find out what the people want then give them what they want.
No copying was involved. Just a bunch of Google employees sitting around telling Microsoft (through the Bing toolbar), "when we search for [unique nonsense], we find [Google's preloaded link] to be the most useful result". Bing was collecting the "wisdom of the crowd" but Google gamed it so the crowd was made up of only Google employees.
Thanks for taking the time to post a thoughtful response. I say this because I agree with you, and since I don't have any mod points today you'll have to make do with my comment.
I don't know that others will take the time to read what you wrote or understand your reasoning, but you're correct. This was not copying.
Here's the flaw in your prophecy of doom: you are free to start your own digital Library of Alexandria. Put your censorship/DRM-free collection on the web. Put it on TOR as a hidden service. Put it on Freenet. Keep your material in a TrueCrypt volume on a standalone computer and trade DVDs with others.
It may be easier for some entities to restrict some content, but it's also never been easier for an individual to distribute and protect content.
There's nothing wrong with a company that has standards. If you don't like those standards then you are free to patronize another company or start your own.
As a publicly-traded company Amazon also needs to be profitable. It's a smart business decision to reject pedophilia - the amount of money made selling pedophile-friendly products would not make up for the sales lost by those boycotting Amazon for carrying those products.
Exactly. Or better yet, seize this business opportunity and serve the market segment Amazon is rejecting. Don't just speak up for the underserved pedophilia and gay rape market, be an entrepreneur and serve them yourself. Publish DRM-free PDFs and accept all submissions for sale. Link to a print-on-demand service for those that prefer physical media.
Amazon is not the only book vendor, and nothing prevents a competing company from also selling books.
You're correct. The 1st amendment doesn't apply here. The documents are still classified even though they've been leaked to the public. Illegal distribution of classified material is not protected by the U.S. Constitution. I don't think Apple wanted to be in a position where they were profiting off an app that aided the distribution of classified material.
Classified documents leaked to the public are still classified. Apple is subject to US laws, so it's likely they're protecting themselves from possible legal action. Making money off an app used to distribute classified US government documents probably wouldn't sound good in court, if it ever came to that.
...anyone can claim to be the spokesman. If you have some modest Photoshop skills and an ax to grind, go ahead and declare war on something. Don't like the word "hacktivism"? Speak out as Anonymous and threaten to take down news websites. Pick a topic and have at it.
The cool thing is that with enough of these proclamations from "Anonymous" no one will be able to tell the real from the fake. Well, unless you go to 4chan/b/...in which case you can distract them with boob shots.
I don't think the article had any more information than the summary. The article read like a middle school research project. The discussion on the topic is only slightly more interesting...
I'm sure the kids on 4chan/b/ are enjoying the attention...until they find out the "hacking" kit they installed just uploaded all of dad's financial information.
When Amazon stays up, Anonymous loses credibility. Not that they have any to start...they make a lot of noise and put on a show which the media loves but that's about the extent of their value.
No one seems to be concerned over Wikileaks' agenda, which is unknown. They selectively release material over time...why not just put it all up as they get it?
It's good to have a few sick days on the books but not too many. I can't speak for every company in the world, but it's been my experience without exception that if you leave a company you will be paid for unused vacation time. You will forfeit unused sick time. In the last 20+ years I've been sick for longer than a week only once (and it may not have been even that long). I keep 5-10 sick days handy (sometimes the kids get sick too) and use the rest from time to time. If I know I'll be leaving a company I'll take a day here and a day there to slowly bring down my balance to 0. No, I don't feel bad about doing this...sick days are a benefit that I accrue and the company used as an enticement to work for it. I'm just cashing it in, and as I said in another post, mental health days are important too (aka "I'm sick of my job").
I've treated my sick days as personal days, but I consider them to be mental health days. After all, my mental well-being is as important (if not more so) to my job performance as my physical health.
You do get sick days in the military, unlimited sick days in fact. You just have to go to sick call in the morning, though it's been loosened somewhat in recent years (in the Air Force anyway).
And though the leave rules require one to take leave on weekends in some cases, the extra unscheduled days off (like "down days" before a 3 day weekend) make up for it. Of course, the hours are longer in the military than in the civilian world and there's the small matter of deployments...
I've finally reached a point in my civilian job where my time off is about equal to what I had when I was active duty. I get 10 holidays (6 fixed, 4 floating), 5 sick days, and 20 vacation days a year. I also get unpaid time off for Reserves too, though my employer makes up any difference between my military and civilian pay.
When Bloglines first annouced the shutdown I looked for a good replacment (didn't like Google Reader) and found an open source solution. I installed Tiny Tiny RSS on a shared hosting account and it's as good as Bloglines, better, actually because the uptime is greater. http://tt-rss.org/redmine/
I never understood why BeeOS didn't catch on, since it was clearly the most clever of the bunch. I guess their salesmen traveled efficiently, but not effectively.
As Alec Baldwin pointed out in Glengarry Glen Ross: A...B...C - Always Bee Closing!
Slashdot Mirror
This "issue" is like having a bunch of people agree to answer the same way on a survey. In this case Google set it up so their employees were the only ones answering the survey, so the results only show how the employees answered.
I think what Microsoft is collecting with their toolbar is perfectly reasonable. In short, they're using users who opt-in to train their algorithms. There is nothing sneaky about this - the Bing toolbar installer says, on the first install panel (where you also choose your language),
Opting out is as easy as clearing a checkbox.
Google employees installed the Bing toolbar, opted in to data collection, loaded their database with results for unique, nonsensical search terms and then clicked on those results using IE with the Bing toolbar. Since the terms were unique the clicked results became the only data points associated with those terms and thus showed up in the Bing results.
This is no more nefarioius then a restauranteur eating at a competitor's restaurant on a Saturday night and noticing what other patrons are ordering. You find out what the people want then give them what they want.
No copying was involved. Just a bunch of Google employees sitting around telling Microsoft (through the Bing toolbar), "when we search for [unique nonsense], we find [Google's preloaded link] to be the most useful result". Bing was collecting the "wisdom of the crowd" but Google gamed it so the crowd was made up of only Google employees.
Thanks for taking the time to post a thoughtful response. I say this because I agree with you, and since I don't have any mod points today you'll have to make do with my comment.
I don't know that others will take the time to read what you wrote or understand your reasoning, but you're correct. This was not copying.
Such drama. Bravo.
Here's the flaw in your prophecy of doom: you are free to start your own digital Library of Alexandria. Put your censorship/DRM-free collection on the web. Put it on TOR as a hidden service. Put it on Freenet. Keep your material in a TrueCrypt volume on a standalone computer and trade DVDs with others.
It may be easier for some entities to restrict some content, but it's also never been easier for an individual to distribute and protect content.
There's nothing wrong with a company that has standards. If you don't like those standards then you are free to patronize another company or start your own.
As a publicly-traded company Amazon also needs to be profitable. It's a smart business decision to reject pedophilia - the amount of money made selling pedophile-friendly products would not make up for the sales lost by those boycotting Amazon for carrying those products.
Exactly. Or better yet, seize this business opportunity and serve the market segment Amazon is rejecting. Don't just speak up for the underserved pedophilia and gay rape market, be an entrepreneur and serve them yourself. Publish DRM-free PDFs and accept all submissions for sale. Link to a print-on-demand service for those that prefer physical media.
Amazon is not the only book vendor, and nothing prevents a competing company from also selling books.
Medvedev will continue to use Microsoft Windows to demonstrate he's really not Putin's puppet...
Richard Stallman looks like Karl Marx?
Ok, Marxism is dead in Russia...joke doesn't work now. Still, I couldn't pass up the RMS reference...
You're correct. The 1st amendment doesn't apply here. The documents are still classified even though they've been leaked to the public. Illegal distribution of classified material is not protected by the U.S. Constitution. I don't think Apple wanted to be in a position where they were profiting off an app that aided the distribution of classified material.
Classified documents leaked to the public are still classified. Apple is subject to US laws, so it's likely they're protecting themselves from possible legal action. Making money off an app used to distribute classified US government documents probably wouldn't sound good in court, if it ever came to that.
A boycott won't work...I doubt these
A better boycott would be if Slashdot stopped running 3 stories a day about them...
isn't this just a roundabout way to say that they don't support "The Cloud"?
I wish I had mod points for you...bravo.
...anyone can claim to be the spokesman. If you have some modest Photoshop skills and an ax to grind, go ahead and declare war on something. Don't like the word "hacktivism"? Speak out as Anonymous and threaten to take down news websites. Pick a topic and have at it.
The cool thing is that with enough of these proclamations from "Anonymous" no one will be able to tell the real from the fake. Well, unless you go to 4chan/b/...in which case you can distract them with boob shots.
Brilliant assessment, spot on too. Somewhere in there they'd get distracted with "tits or gtfo" though...
I don't think the article had any more information than the summary. The article read like a middle school research project. The discussion on the topic is only slightly more interesting...
I'm sure the kids on 4chan/b/ are enjoying the attention...until they find out the "hacking" kit they installed just uploaded all of dad's financial information.
When Amazon stays up, Anonymous loses credibility. Not that they have any to start...they make a lot of noise and put on a show which the media loves but that's about the extent of their value.
No one seems to be concerned over Wikileaks' agenda, which is unknown. They selectively release material over time...why not just put it all up as they get it?
At least we don't have any journalists in jail: http://www.wpfc.org/map.php
This is irony...try to read any of the publications on the WPFC site: http://www.wpfc.org/index.php?q=publication_list
None of the links work, and "request by mail" gives "access denied."
"We have the freedom to distribute reports about freedom...but we don't". Maybe it's not irony, but it's amusing.
Then we'll trump up some charges and call you a rapist.
"We"? So you're Swedish, then?
That's full retail price...only suckers pay that. I found a few sweet coupon codes online
10% off to new customers: GAGARIN
Free upgrade to first class: IKNOWELON
Kids fly free!: WESLEY
Be smart shoppers, people!
It's good to have a few sick days on the books but not too many. I can't speak for every company in the world, but it's been my experience without exception that if you leave a company you will be paid for unused vacation time. You will forfeit unused sick time. In the last 20+ years I've been sick for longer than a week only once (and it may not have been even that long). I keep 5-10 sick days handy (sometimes the kids get sick too) and use the rest from time to time. If I know I'll be leaving a company I'll take a day here and a day there to slowly bring down my balance to 0. No, I don't feel bad about doing this...sick days are a benefit that I accrue and the company used as an enticement to work for it. I'm just cashing it in, and as I said in another post, mental health days are important too (aka "I'm sick of my job").
I've treated my sick days as personal days, but I consider them to be mental health days. After all, my mental well-being is as important (if not more so) to my job performance as my physical health.
You do get sick days in the military, unlimited sick days in fact. You just have to go to sick call in the morning, though it's been loosened somewhat in recent years (in the Air Force anyway).
And though the leave rules require one to take leave on weekends in some cases, the extra unscheduled days off (like "down days" before a 3 day weekend) make up for it. Of course, the hours are longer in the military than in the civilian world and there's the small matter of deployments...
I've finally reached a point in my civilian job where my time off is about equal to what I had when I was active duty. I get 10 holidays (6 fixed, 4 floating), 5 sick days, and 20 vacation days a year. I also get unpaid time off for Reserves too, though my employer makes up any difference between my military and civilian pay.
This is why I use gopher.
When Bloglines first annouced the shutdown I looked for a good replacment (didn't like Google Reader) and found an open source solution. I installed Tiny Tiny RSS on a shared hosting account and it's as good as Bloglines, better, actually because the uptime is greater. http://tt-rss.org/redmine/
I never understood why BeeOS didn't catch on, since it was clearly the most clever of the bunch. I guess their salesmen traveled efficiently, but not effectively.
As Alec Baldwin pointed out in Glengarry Glen Ross: A...B...C - Always Bee Closing!