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Google

Submission + - Cracking Google's 'secret sauce' algorithm

Submitted by
jcatcw
jcatcw writes: "There's more to placement in the Google results than the PageRank value. Google remains elusive about the 200 factors it uses to score pages and decide which goes to the top. One factor seems to be a ranking of the site that posts a link to the site under consideration. Is a link from slashdot worth more or less than a link from del.icio.us? The advice: pretend Google isn't there."
Google

Submission + - Who's behind the anti-Goog Information-Revolution?

Submitted by mstrom
mstrom writes: Walk on the tube (metro) in London anytime now and you'll adverts plastered around asking "Who controls 75% of the worlds information?", "Who is controlling your information?" inviting you to join the "Information Revolution" by going to information-revolution.org. Trouble is, it doesn't say who's behind this revolution. This revolutions most recent trick was to laser-beam a huge advert onto the Houses Of Parliament. It's homepage provides the answer to choice — a search box that lets you choose which search engine to use (well, one of the big-4 anyway) — this is the information revolution!

The entries on their site use hip hand-scrawled or sidewalk-chalked messages to give it a viral buzz as though this is truly a community-sourced revolution. Slick it certainly is, too slick. Hundreds of feedback comments on the site are questioning who is behind it and expressing huge disappointment that a campaign that truly got them to think led them to what seems to be a very expensive anonymous attack on Google.

The culprit looks like non other than Ask.com — the domain name information-revolution.org is registered by Performo who list Ask and Yahoo among their clients. But the actual website is otherwise shrouded in secrecy. The biggest clue is the search links on their homepage — ask.com is the first link and choose Ask as your search provider and then search for Google or Yahoo and hey presto! you get an "Information Revolution" advert courtesy of Ask. So a valid question — why does Google own most of the worlds information — but a bad answer — use Ask. The real question remains — why the secrecy, why is the Information Revolution anonymous and was Ask trying to trick us into thinking their really is a revolution against Google?
Microsoft

Submission + - NIST says No to Vista

Submitted by
sglafata
sglafata writes: "Information Week is running a story on how NIST has banned Microsoft's new operating system from their internal computing networks.

"Word of NIST's Windows Vista ban comes a week after InformationWeek revealed that the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration have both imposed similar blackouts on the operating system, as well as on Microsoft Office 2007 and Internet Explorer 7."

However, the National Security Agency (NSA) assisted in editing the Microsoft Windows Vista Security Guide based on this CNet article and covered on Slashdot."
Wireless Networking

British Military Deploys Skynet 172

Posted by CowboyNeal from the have-you-seen-sarah-connor dept.
rowleyrw writes "The BBC are reporting, 'The British military is set to take one of its most significant steps into the digital age with the launch of the first Skynet 5 satellite. The spacecraft will deliver secure, high-bandwidth communications for UK and "friendly" forces across the globe.' It's not yet the Skynet of Terminator, but how long before it becomes self aware?"
Privacy

Submission + - No passport for Britons refusing mass-surveillance

Submitted by
UpnAtom
UpnAtom writes: "From the And you thought Sweden was bad dept:

People who refuse to give up their bank records, tax records & details of any benefits they've claimed and the records of their car movements for the last year, or refuse to submit to an interrogation on whether they are the same person that this mountain of data belongs to will be denied passports from March 26th.

The Blair Govt has already admitted that this and other data will be cross-linked so that the Home Office and other officials can spy on the everyday lives of innocent Britons.

Britons were already the most spied upon nation in Western Europe. Data-mining through this unprecedented level of mass-surveillance allows any future British govt to leapfrog even countries like China and North Korea."
Businesses

Management 'Scared' by Open Source 373

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the following-with-a-firm-push dept.
A discussion panel at EclipseCon exposed how managers are freaking out over open source. Apparently a disconnect exists between managers who set corporate open source policies and developers supposed to follow them, but who end up covering their tracks to make it seem like they are not using open source. Developers, though, end up using open source because of its ubiquity and not using it 'puts them at a competitive disadvantage because their competitors are.' And the Lawyers are in a panic.
Privacy

Submission + - Subliminal messages might actually work

Submitted by
GrumpySimon
GrumpySimon writes: "New research has proven that subliminal messages may actually work. In a paper titled Attentional Load Modulates Responses of Human Primary Visual Cortex to Invisible Stimuli , Bahrani et al demonstrate that even though stimuli may not be available to consciousness, they are processed by the visual cortex. Whilst I'm sure that marketing agencies all over the world are rubbing their hands in glee at this news, the authors report that there's no evidence that this can make people buy things against their will, so with any luck the use of this in advertising will remain an urban legend."
User Journal

Journal Journal: 10 evolutionary commandments 19

Journal by penguinoid

So, what are the 10 commandments as evolution would have them?
1) I am the gene your God, who brought you out of the land of non-existance
2) Thou shalt have no other gods besides me.
3) Thou shalt not swear falsely in my name. (root word for testify is testicle)
4) Remember that your genes run in many things, to keep them alive.
5) Honour thy father and thy mother (for they share half your genes) that thy days may be long upon the land which the gene thy God giveth thee.
6)
User Journal

Journal Journal: Funny/Overrated murders karma 6

Journal by penguinoid

So I posted a joke to a story about estimating. Now it wasn't a particularly good joke, but evidentially quite a few people thought it was very funny, others didn't. Results:

* +11, Funny
* + 1, Insightful
* - 9, Overrated

* Karma:Exellent --> Karma:Good
* "Your IP has been temporarily blacklisted due to bad posting"
User Journal

Journal Journal: The scientific view of religion

Journal by penguinoid

It seems my sig,
The scientific view of religion is not atheism. The scientific view is agnosticism and simplicity.
seems to have generated quite a bit of commentary. So I will explain, and feel free to post your views.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Broken surge protector

Journal by penguinoid

I left my computer rurring during a thunderstorm recently, and I think that my surge protector got blasted. Now, the surge protector shuts off randomly (about once a day). Is it normal for broken surge protectors to do that? Is it bad for the computer/OS to be shut off like that frequently (I have EXT3 and Debian 2.4.18)? Or should I just get off my arse and buy myself a new surge protector? Thanks!
User Journal

Journal Journal: Karma == Excellent

Journal by penguinoid

I have achieved Excellent karma, on my 139th post. One of my posts was modded up +5, down to +3, now up to +4, changing my karma down to good and back to excellent.

PS: It's my first time using Slashdot. Also, I have not posted AC since I signed up.

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