Blake's Comment on Windows Search Companion

If ever there was a case against “cute” and “harmless” features, this is it. And by the way, the picture above isn’t doctored. That’s actually the question the dog poses when you click on it. And if you select “Do a trick,” he will do anything from pull out a dog bowl and ask for food to—you guessed it—scratch himself again. If the developers who programmed the dog focused instead on making sure that searching a couple hundred files on the machine next to you wasn’t ten times slower than searching 8 billion machines around the world, perhaps every search engine out there wouldn’t have to reinvent desktop search today. 好文，手痒翻译如下： Ok，问题不是出在那个别针上 当时我正在一台新的计算机上设置Firefox开发环境，并很快积攒了大约250个打开的窗口，实际上任务栏已经开始滚动。 大约3小时前，我开始每隔几分钟听到一个噪音。在配置Firefox开发环境时听到什么并不反常，它总是让你有些错觉。不过这次是个新的声音，在开发Mozilla的几年中都没听到过。 自然的，我做的第一件事是检查所有可能想吸引我注意的网络程序。但是AIM, MSN, 或者IRC上都没有人想招呼我。 最终，那个如此渴望让我关注的程序原来是Windows的搜索程序。那个坐在窗口角落里的小狗站在——我向上帝起誓——每几分钟挠他自己，那个声音就是他挠毛的声音。 花片刻来想想这事。 如果“可爱”和“无害”的特性会招人厌烦的话，这就是个例子。顺便说，上面的图片并不是捏造的，这真的是你点击它时它会给出的选择。如果你点了“耍个把戏”，它会做出从拖出一个狗食盆到——你猜到了——再挠自己的任何事。 如果编写这个狗的程序员更专注于使搜索你身边计算机上的几百个文件不比搜索全世界80亿个文件慢10倍以上的话，也许外面的每个搜索引擎（Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, MSN, AOL）就没必要重新发明桌面搜索引擎了。 评论： 好吧，如果有人都懒得在做任何正事前弄走MS的所有那些垃圾，他就只配看着（和听着！） 那只卡通狗在他的桌面上舔蛋蛋！

Search recent TV programs online.

Video		BETA

Google Video is a new product that enables you to search an index of transcripts from recent TV programs. It's just an early-stage beta product at this point; you'll only see stills and text snippets from shows that match your search terms, and you can only search shows from a few channels, dating back to December, 2004, when we started compiling the index. But we'll be steadily improving Google Video in the months to come, so as they say in the TV biz, stay tuned. Google Blog - We're tuning in to TV

Firefox Lead Joined Google

As of January 10, 2005, my source of income changed from The Mozilla Foundation to Google, Inc. of Mountain View, California. My role with Firefox and the Mozilla project will remain largely unchanged, I will continue doing much the same work as I have described above - with the new goal of successful 1.1, 1.5 and 2.0 releases. I remain devoted full-time to the advancement of Firefox, the Mozilla platform and web browsing in general. I'm sure you have many questions. While I will be spending more time at Google, I will work out of the Mozilla Foundation offices regularly as the need arises.

Firefox breaks 20,000,000 downloads!

In seventy six days, more than sixty three thousand of you have joined the effort to deliver Firefox 1.0 to more than twenty million thankful users! SFX Team You all are simply amazing!! You've engaged your friends and family, your co-workers, colleagues, and fellow students in a novel and exciting effort to take back the Web. You've helped twenty million people to get beyond the daily chaos of adware, spyware, and constant virus infections. You've created the first and the largest open source marketing effort in history. And you all are educating the world that they do have a choice and that they can take control of their Internet experience. You all have demonstrated that open source community can be powerful, committed, and capable of accomplishing once-unimaginable feats. Today, we celebrate twenty million Firefox 1.0 downloads. But more than that, we celebrate the community that you all have built and we celebrate each and every one you! --Asa, on behalf of the sfx team

Seti@home New Logo

What is SETI@home? SETI@home is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data. January 20, 2005 We're looking for a Certificate of Appreciation design based on the new SETI@home logo. If you know PHP and do graphic design, maybe you can help. January 6, 2005 The validation backlog is slowly clearing. There appears to be no problem with validation other than the slowness the backlog itself is causing. January 4, 2005 We are still running a backlog of results waiting to be validated and are looking into it. A SETI-inspired techno song (Full MP3 Download) by Dr. Love (Michael Grosch). A 0:45 preview here:

FBI Drops Carnivore

A computer system being produced by the FBI to read e-mails and other online communications has been dropped. Feds are instead turning to commercial software to eavesdrop on traffic during investigations into suspected criminals, terrorists and spies, AP reports. It's also increasingly turning to ISPs to target customers with wiretaps on its behalf. The FBI said it couldn't reveal how much had been spent on its custom-built software it no longer uses. However, experts suggested the system - known as carnivore - was likely to have cost anywhere between $6-15m. Eight net wiretaps were conducted in the fiscal 2003 year, and five in the year before - but none used Carnivore. It's understood the software was used a total of 25 times between 1998 and 2000. FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said commercial software was less expensive and had improved in its ability to copy e-mails and other communications. "We see the value in the commercially available software; we're using it more now and we're asking the internet service providers that have the capabilities to collect data in compliance with court orders," he added. View: FBI | EPIC Carnivore coverage

Music2Titan Accueil

The Music will reach Titan on January 14 2005 after a 7 year and 4 Billion Kilometer Journey. Never will human signs have traveled and landed so far. "Music2Titan reflects a wish to highlight mankind's existence in the universe through music and to familiarize people with the spatial exodus and possible existence of extra-terrestrial life," said Julien Civange, producer, musician and initiator of Music2Titan. "It also serves as a way to offer people hope for the future and to make music travel beyond normal boundaries." The four pieces of music each correspond to a stage of the mission. Lalala: built around 3 base rock chords, this song corresponds to before the beginning of the mission, the making of the space probe in an atmosphere that is both naïve and serious at the same time. The men and women of the Space Agency in lab coats and overalls, like “Playmobils”, busy building Huygens in giant hangars. Bald James Dean: this song is dramatically tense, evoking the separation of the space probes Cassini and Huygens, which will take place at Christmas before the descent of Huygens towards Titan where it will arrive on 14th January 2005. Hot Time: this piece is more space-like but also urban which corresponds to the exploration of Titan’s sun. No Love: this corresponds to the end of the mission, a calm after so many years of work. It is also slightly melancholy which raises the questions linked to the conquest and the exodus of space: “What will we export there? Our dustbins, our fast-food, our knowledge, Wall Street, Che Guevara, the Mona Lisa, Bart Simpson…?” The four pieces of music will be available over the Internet, to the public on the 21st December.

Sounds of an alien world

Audio data collected by the Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument (HASI), which includes an acoustic sensor, during Huygens' descent, 14 January 2005. 1. Speeding through Titan's haze This recording is a laboratory reconstruction of the sounds heard by Huygens' microphones. Several sound samples, taken at different times during the descent, are here combined together and give a realistic reproduction of what a traveller on board Huygens would have heard during one minute of the descent through Titan's atmosphere. File 1 : acoustic during descent 2. Radar echos from Titan's surface This recording was produced by converting into audible sounds some of the radar echoes received by Huygens during the last few kilometres of its descent onto Titan. As the probe approaches the ground, both the pitch and intensity increase. Scientists will use intensity of the echoes to speculate about the nature of the surface. File 2 : radar conversion

Huygens Probe Descent

Cassini-Huygens Landed!

Yet Another Mini

A Google search puts the Web’s information at your fingertips. The Google Mini does the same thing for your website or corporate intranet. Designed for small and medium-sized businesses, the Google Mini is a hardware and software search appliance that offers your company the power and productivity of Google search. The Google Mini: * Indexes and searches up to 50,000 documents. * Works with more than 220 different file formats, including HTML, PDF, Microsoft Office and WordPerfect. * Is easy to set up and requires minimal ongoing administration. * Costs $4,995 for all hardware and software, including a year of support and hardware replacement coverage. Just point the Google Mini at your content, add a search box to your website and you’re set. The Mini crawls your content and creates a master index of documents ready for instant retrieval whenever an employee or customer types in a search query. It's that simple to make your public website or intranet as easy to search as Google.com.

Apple - Mac mini

Live the digital life in stylish simplicity. Just 6.5 inches wide and 2 inches tall, Mac mini provides what you need to have more fun with your music, photos and movies — right out of the box. And it boasts a miniscule price to match: Mac mini starts at $499. Sometimes, the wheel really does need reinventing. How else would you end up with a computer so small you can balance it in one hand, yet powerful enough to propel you to digital nirvana? You’ll love Mac mini. Apple designers spend countless hours ensuring not only an aesthetically beautiful machine, but a technically superior instrument that puts no barriers between your dreams and onscreen visions. When you enjoy what you’re doing, from organizing photos to blissing out on your guitar, you’ll spend more time making stuff.

Time to mix things up. Meet iPod shuffle, the unpredictable new iPod. What will it play next? Can it read your mind? Can it read your moods? Load it up. Put it on. See where it takes you. Choose from pocket-size 512MB or 1G models starting at $99 and surprise yourself. The smallest iPod yet, iPod shuffle fits neatly in the palm of your hand and looks just plain neat around your neck. Prepare to make friends and influence people when you wear it biking, hiking, snowboarding, dog-walking and anywhere else that could use a great soundtrack.

精神崩溃的一年啊！

一年前的今天，突然就结婚了。 我记得那天，出门前吵架很凶，什么原因不记得了。 就是吵得很凶，然后就死活不肯去登记了 我开始哭，觉得结婚是个甩不掉的大麻烦 希望眼前的一切都消失 希望时间倒回没有谈婚论嫁的时候 结婚好像是告别父母管制的唯一途径 我觉得绝望 他突然明白过来的样子，说爸爸妈妈在登记处等着我们呢 然后就不管三七二十一把我塞进了出租车 我想我当时一定是累了，否则我一定不会被塞进去 因为我比他高一厘米，而且我喜欢穿高跟鞋 登记处有两个他的朋友在兴高采烈的举着相机等候着 我的爸爸妈妈也在 很多人在登记大厅里耐心的排着队 大家都开开心心的 我和他发现离婚办公室就在结婚办公室隔壁 结婚九块钱，离婚十块钱 登记处的老先生坚持要求九个硬币，说是这样吉利 于是，借钱办理了结婚登记

More snow at XJH from D70

Google in 2005