Reviewers have been going on about the natural language functions on Google Calendar, but having run some tests of my own I'm not all that impressed. Pollack Media Group ran a comparison of natural language calendars a while back and I used these same queries to compare the NLP functionality of Google's calendar and Web 2.0 upstart SpongeCell. In almost every instance SpongeCell performed better than GCal:
1. "Media Convention Friday through Sunday"
SpongeCell: Successfully added 3-Day/All Day event
GCal: Failed to add event, time, multiple days
2. "Conference call with Joe Smith monday at 2"
SpongeCell: Successfully added event
GCal: Successfully added event
3. "dinner with Jack and Cindy tonight at 7"
SpongeCell: Successfully added event at 7PM
GCal: Failed, added event at 7AM today (in past)
4. "flight to los angeles departs saturday at 9"
SpongeCell: Successfully added event
GCal: Successfully added event
5. "Call Dave at 10"
SpongeCell: Successfully added event
GCal: Failed, added event at 10AM tomorrow
9. "pick up Zoe for soccer at 4"
SpongeCell: Successfully added event
GCal: Successfully added event
SpongeCell consistently outperformed the NLP translation abilities of Google's calendar.
Seriously, I wish Google would stop spreading themselves thin and just stick to what they do best - putting ads on everything in sight.
The real truth is that God created the Universe in six days and then got bored with it all - leaving it behind to start a transdimensional peanukle league with Shiva and Loki.
Deus absentia, he's left his right-hand man Science in charge of keeping those wily Hydrogen atoms in line and making sure that that slacker Gravity doesn't start drinking on the job again.
Google is how the majority of people on the internet get around. If Google starts showing all spam instead the intended sites that's a big deal right? Sure the internet will recover but Google's basically the main hub for searching right now so it'd definitely hurt.
Adolescent sniping is all well and good (this being Slashdot and all) but this should be a big deal to you even if you refuse to take the time to understand the specifics (RTFM).
Here's what's going on. Google has a flaw in their algorithm in the way it deals with 302 redirects. Instead of following the internet standard of following the 302 redirect to the new location and indexing that, Google sometimes applies the information, PageRank, and Google ranking position of the 302 destination page back to the page doing the redirecting.
This means that a third-party (usually a shady webmaster) can steal the ranking position of a competitor's site. The original site is usually removed entirely from the Google index further compounding the damage.
Google has repeated denied that this problem exists (here on/.) but now they themselves have been a victim of a '302 hijack'
If Google can be hit by it - anybody can be hit by it. This is big enough to seriously f'up the Internet - get it?
This Week in Science is another good science podcast to check out. The hosts are pretty entertaining and pick cool science topics that they procede to rant about like deranged weasels.
I've been listening to the podcast for the last few months and it looks like they also have a couple years of older shows archived for download too. http://www.twis.org/
Try http://reason.com/bi/guns.shtml
It's a summary of gun control articles from Reason Magazine which is a magazine associated with the Libertarian Party. It's usually pretty free from most the usual ideological biases you see in the mainstream media sources.
Slashdot Mirror
Reviewers have been going on about the natural language functions on Google Calendar, but having run some tests of my own I'm not all that impressed. Pollack Media Group ran a comparison of natural language calendars a while back and I used these same queries to compare the NLP functionality of Google's calendar and Web 2.0 upstart SpongeCell. In almost every instance SpongeCell performed better than GCal:
1. "Media Convention Friday through Sunday"
SpongeCell: Successfully added 3-Day/All Day event
GCal: Failed to add event, time, multiple days
2. "Conference call with Joe Smith monday at 2"
SpongeCell: Successfully added event
GCal: Successfully added event
3. "dinner with Jack and Cindy tonight at 7"
SpongeCell: Successfully added event at 7PM
GCal: Failed, added event at 7AM today (in past)
4. "flight to los angeles departs saturday at 9"
SpongeCell: Successfully added event
GCal: Successfully added event
5. "Call Dave at 10"
SpongeCell: Successfully added event
GCal: Failed, added event at 10AM tomorrow
6. "Arrange convention travel tomorrow"
SpongeCell: Successfully added event
GCal: Successfully added event
7. "Lunch with Jeff tomorrow"
SpongeCell: Successfully added event (at noon)
GCal: Successfully added event (all day)
8. "CSI viewing party tomorrow night"
SpongeCell: Successfully added event (8-9PM)
GCal: Successfully added event (all day)
9. "pick up Zoe for soccer at 4"
SpongeCell: Successfully added event
GCal: Successfully added event
SpongeCell consistently outperformed the NLP translation abilities of Google's calendar.
Seriously, I wish Google would stop spreading themselves thin and just stick to what they do best - putting ads on everything in sight.
The real truth is that God created the Universe in six days and then got bored with it all - leaving it behind to start a transdimensional peanukle league with Shiva and Loki.
Deus absentia, he's left his right-hand man Science in charge of keeping those wily Hydrogen atoms in line and making sure that that slacker Gravity doesn't start drinking on the job again.
Listen to the This Week In Science podcast http://www.twis.org/
Google is how the majority of people on the internet get around. If Google starts showing all spam instead the intended sites that's a big deal right? Sure the internet will recover but Google's basically the main hub for searching right now so it'd definitely hurt.
they did a manual adjustment - this problem has been around for 2 years and Google still hasn't managed to fix it
Adolescent sniping is all well and good (this being Slashdot and all) but this should be a big deal to you even if you refuse to take the time to understand the specifics (RTFM).
/.) but now they themselves have been a victim of a '302 hijack'
Here's what's going on. Google has a flaw in their algorithm in the way it deals with 302 redirects. Instead of following the internet standard of following the 302 redirect to the new location and indexing that, Google sometimes applies the information, PageRank, and Google ranking position of the 302 destination page back to the page doing the redirecting.
This means that a third-party (usually a shady webmaster) can steal the ranking position of a competitor's site. The original site is usually removed entirely from the Google index further compounding the damage.
Google has repeated denied that this problem exists (here on
If Google can be hit by it - anybody can be hit by it. This is big enough to seriously f'up the Internet - get it?
This Week in Science is another good science podcast to check out. The hosts are pretty entertaining and pick cool science topics that they procede to rant about like deranged weasels.
I've been listening to the podcast for the last few months and it looks like they also have a couple years of older shows archived for download too. http://www.twis.org/
Try http://reason.com/bi/guns.shtml It's a summary of gun control articles from Reason Magazine which is a magazine associated with the Libertarian Party. It's usually pretty free from most the usual ideological biases you see in the mainstream media sources.