Brij Singh's Random Musings

Smut control at your fingertips

Bush signs bill which is a big win for ClearPlay. Now the next question is why stop at smut. Now you can block any objectionable content ! Not all objectionable content is smut.

But we will not hire human beings

Thats the message from Google' s new patent application for news ranking algorithm. According to NewScientist:

Google.. plans to build a database that will compare the track record and credibility of all news sources around the world, and adjust the ranking of any search results accordingly.

The database will be built by continually monitoring the number of stories from all news sources, along with average story length, number with bylines, and number of the bureaux cited, along with how long they have been in business. Google's database will also keep track of the number of staff a news source employs, the volume of internet traffic to its website and the number of countries accessing the site.

Google will take all these parameters, weight them according to formulae it is constructing, and distil them down to create a single value. This number will then be used to rank the results of any news searchplans to build a database that will compare the track record and credibility of all news sources around the world, and adjust the ranking of any search results accordingly.

The database will be built by continually monitoring the number of stories from all news sources, along with average story length, number with bylines, and number of the bureaux cited, along with how long they have been in business. Google's database will also keep track of the number of staff a news source employs, the volume of internet traffic to its website and the number of countries accessing the site.

Google will take all these parameters, weight them according to formulae it is constructing, and distil them down to create a single value. This number will then be used to rank the results of any news searchplans to build a database that will compare the track record and credibility of all news sources around the world, and adjust the ranking of any search results accordingly.

The database will be built by continually monitoring the number of stories from all news sources, along with average story length, number with bylines, and number of the bureaux cited, along with how long they have been in business. Google's database will also keep track of the number of staff a news source employs, the volume of internet traffic to its website and the number of countries accessing the site.

Google will take all these parameters, weight them according to formulae it is constructing, and distil them down to create a single value. This number will then be used to rank the results of any news search 

Problem with this approach is that they are trying to automate the intelligence which will drive news filtering process and in that quest allowing machines to decide what's important for the readers.

Knowing their past this algorithm will be kept secret and APIs will be very restricted in what syndicated partners can do with it. I am wondering how many more years till mainstream media wakes up and realizes that Google has taken away their readers and almost on the verge of walking away with the chunk of their ad revenue.

I doubt there is much they can do except opening their newspapers for the end-user driven activism. Have blog and wiki on every newspaper and print best end-user writings on the print media as well. They have to get the readers back and get them back as  players this time. And do it fast.

Update: For those who criticize me for getting "jealous" about Google's success, my pointer to this post from Jeff Jarvis. Jeff definitely knows more about media than me. How about this to get the problem in right perspective:  "Is Google the trojan horse of the internet".

Pathfinder goes to Sourceforge

This is a significant news as it conveys the cutting edge contribution to the open source pool.

During pre-open source times, this technology would have been spun off as a promising startup. Times have definitely changed and now much of new cutting edge first goes to sourceforge.

NASA is leading the trend here.

RSS Ad Smasher

For some reason this particular thing is getting me all mad. I dont like RSS ads inthe  personal blog feeds. If a personal blog is  like  blogger's personality then why the heck you need to put ad on it.  I have yet to see people putting logos on their faces !

Do you interrupt your conversation in starbucks to do few Ad inserts before resuming your conversation? No ! Then why in the world you want to have RSS ad inserts.

Now if its a professional blog then definitely yes. You have earned all the right to include ads. That distinction is important because that will drive reader's motivation on whether to trust you as a person or a pro who is selling me something. Both models are acceptable but mixing the two puts extra load on my attention-starved mind.

Charlie Wood has some Ad stripper if you want to take out these pesky ads from the feeds.

Does open source help innovation engine

Philip Meza (over at Optimize magazine) elaborates on this question . Survey points to more innovation opportunities in the technical side

I think as more and more components come into the open source pool, you will be seeing companies innovating around business models and business processes.

Turn for BI now

After the buzz over open source CRM looks like the attention is turning towards open source business intelligence tools:

Greenplum goes open source
JasperSoft smells money in JBoss model
OpenMFG trying to add some zing in their boring portfolio by releasing the  reporting tool

Good thing is all these tools come with solid corporate backing. There will be many heartaches among all  venture firms who have invested  in this sector.

Petition for open sourcing OS/2

As always interesting insights from the slashdotters.

Potential legal issues alone will discourage IBM from going forward.

Hiring is obsolete

Good writer connects with his readers in a very comfortable way, without pretending to be an author. That alone is the reason to enjoy Paul Graham's writing. His latest result of uncanny observation leads to the idea that the days of hiring are over.

Welcome to the world where you get bought over by big companies.  His advice for graduates is to start your own startup. Master of contrarian thinking will be speaking on the changing recruitment model in Berkeley.

Most CS undergrads hope to get a good job when they graduate.  But
as the age of startup founders creeps downward, I foresee an alternative path for the most ambitious: instead of going to work  for Microsoft, start a startup and make Microsoft buy it to get you.                                                                            

This change will do more than make some young hackers richer.  It  will fuse recruitment with product development.  Instead of applying  for a job and then being told what to work on, you join the company  as a complete development team, with a beta version.  Results: (a) a shift in power from companies to hackers, and (b) an increase in the rate at which new technology gets developed.

Obviously this new model will be a better deal for the best hackers.  But I think it will also be better for the Microsofts.  The few  tens of millions extra that they'll pay will be a bargain for what  they'll get.

This is a very interesting observation. Getting hired-via-acquisition is something which we will be seeing more and more. This is where candidates will go to companies with a clear value-proposition. I think you should hire me because I can do this which will  help you save this much money [or help make you more money] and I will show you how ! .

 Candidate should be able to connect his data structure mastery or machine intelligence genius to how companies save and make money ! That too in plain English. Clear articulation of skill sets and how that connects to productivity or efficient problem solving in a differentiating way is a sure shot way to get a job.

Cisco has mastered this at the mature end of the talent chain by methodically acquiring companies for their talent pool.  Other companies are also jumping into this by having their M&A execs troll university student hangouts. Starting with Slashdot and Sourceforge off-course.  This builds on  the J-Curve mentality as well:

[What is J-Curve..]  That period of time in advance of mass-confirmation of a new idea

You get this advance notification of idea by listening and following the work of this  next generation. In this age where hunt for talent is at its peak.  Candidate's work  and his beta software becomes the resume. Google hits become more important than the references in  resume.

As open source lowers the barrier to build innovation based software companies and universities put more new ideas into the  open source pool, you will see more and more students with entrepreneurial mind-set. This is something to cheer about.

Paul sums up this nicely in his book:

you need to start doing something people want. You don't need to join a company to do that. All a company is is a group of people working together to do something people want. It's doing something people want that matters, not joining the group

Definition of "foreign"

Somebody go and tell these guys that there is nothing like  "foreign" in the new flat world:

Hundreds of newspaper and news agency employees from across the country today marched to Parliament demanding new Wage Boards and a ban on foreign direct investment in print media.

Instead of spending energy on the street, they should ask their kids how they are getting the news.

Do they know how many "journalists" are working from outside India and making money by remixing the Indian news sites "original" stories. 

Good lord !

Family business got busted.  This fellow shares the same name and that gives me another reason not to get too worked-up at the airport. I get pulled over for the physical scan 4 out of 5 times.

Pushing Viagra from the land of Taj Mahal and then getting busted makes for a nice little story. I bet they can sell the plot to some B-grade movie maker. Mahesh Bhatt are you still working ?