General

A Google Win in SearchKing Case. In SearchKing v. Google the judge has denied SearchKing’s request for preliminary injuction. In other words, SearchKing asked for their PageRank to be put back to where it was while the trial was being held, and the judge said no. LawMeme has the full story, including several interesting quotes from the judge’s dedcision. The author has an interesting thought in the comments:Let’s step over into Bizarro world, where Badgle, the leading search engine, is run by Dr. Evil. Badgle uses familiar algorithms to rank pages, except that whenever its engineers find a page they don’t like, they manually drop it down a hundred pages in the search results. And, interestingly enough, the only pages Badgle doesn’t like are those that praise Austin Powers. Thus, when you run a Badgle search on “Austin Powers,” you get back only pages making fun of his bad teeth. Whenever someone wonders why the leading Austin Powers fan page has a low ranking and asks Badgle what’s going on. Badgle replies that the page’s operator “was engaged in behavior that would lower the quality of Badgle’s search results.” Would this scenario change your point of view? Maybe not, but I suspect that there are many people who support Google whole-heartedly in this lawsuit, but who wouldn’t be so willing to support Badgle’s actions.So this decision could have much farther-reaching effects than whether search engines can demote the PageRank of “spam kings”. Stay tuned…. [Google Weblog]

Good morning Raiders fans! Some more thoughts on the new Safeway: I had no less than four employees come up to me, greet me, and ask if they could help me find things. Plus, at the front door the management was standing there greeting customers and making sure everyone could find what they need. Wouldn’t it be great if every shopping experience was like that? Not just during a grand opening?  [The Scobleizer Weblog]

I learn something new every day – often many new things each day.

I reflect often on the type of leader I am today – after ten years with my company, and six years in my present position, compared to the leader I was in earlier years. 

How different I am.

Richard Bach wrote in one of his great books – “I died to become the person I am today.  Was it worth it?”…

As long as I am learning, it is…

As a former smoker I would congregate with other smokers, and this is one of the things I miss the most about not smoking. The places smokers congregate tend to be good places for conversation that bridges social and age differences because smoking cuts across all the denominators — young and old, male and female, professional and working class. All are represented in the ranks of smokers.

I remember a conversation I had on the “smoking deck” of a resort I go to. Smoking is prohibited everywhere but there. I was talking with a man in his early 20s. We were talking about nothing at all, just one of the heaviest subjects between young and old (I was in my early 40s at the time).

The question was, why do you, Dave, think you’re smarter than me?

Or put it another way — hey old dude — you don’t know shit. “;->”

Which, of course, is mostly what young people have to say to old people. (Or so it seems.)

So is it true, am I smarter than the young guy?

Now, of course, I don’t know the answer. I couldn’t unless there was some objective measure of smartness. So all I can do is have an opinion. But that doesn’t mean I can’t use the scientific method to form the opinion. So I asked my young friend some questions.

How old are you now? 22. Do you know more than when you were 18. Oh sure! No comparison, I was really stupid then. How about at 15? I was just a kid, I didn’t know anything. (I move in for the kill.)

Do you think learning stops at 22?

Answer: Of course it doesn’t. You learn things in your late 20s that you can’t imagine in your early 20s. And the early 30s have their lessons, as do the mid 30s and the late 30s (oh boy!) and then the early 40s. And some of the learning is pegged to other people’s experiences. Like when one of your parents dies. Or a child goes to college. Or things out of your control (bypass surgery).

Ask a really old person about this. One of the sweetest things about life is that you can always learn, right up to the moment you die. And that’s part of what’s most enjoyable about being human. For some reason, if we can find the pure learning, it’s a joyful thing, whether or not we ever get to use what we learn.

[Scripting News]

U.S. Military Considers Limits on Role of the Reserve Forces. Pentagon leaders are questioning whether relying on citizen soldiers for crucial duties hamstrings urgent military operations. By Thom Shanker. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

SBC’s Jack-Booted IP Thugs Launch Shakedown Racket. Does your site use framesets for navigation? Are there navigation indicators or tabs that remain in the same location as you move from page to page on your favorite site? If so, start checking your mail and your finances–the Intellectual Property department of telecom concern SBC Communications is coming to call and they want to be paid. [kuro5hin.org]

Mars. Iâm not a fan of George Bush. But if he proposes a mission to Mars in his state of the Union speech÷as the Guardian reports he may do÷then I still wonât be a fan of George Bush, but Iâll be hugely excited about the mission to Mars.

Itâs time to do it. Weâre way behind on space travel. [inessential.com]

Now you know why Microsoft is moving toward making software a service. Everytime Microsoft gets attacked this way, it looks bad. Now, imagine if Microsoft could automatically upgrade your software without you being involved? This problem today wouldn’t have happened. You know, a lot of IT guys are worried about losing their jobs. If I was the owner of a company and my IT guy hadn’t loaded the latest security patches he would be unemployed today. It’s your job to keep up to date on patches.

[The Scobleizer Weblog]