October 2007
5 posts
On Stemming
I recently added stemming to my search action, and I noticed a really big gotcha that is not immediately obvious: when performing full-text searches, you can’t just search for the stem, you also need to search for the original word.
Perhaps you learn this in CompSci? At any rate, searching for just the stem fails because word stems are not always included in the original word: therapy...
The Day I Stopped Using Windows
This evening I sat down to pick up a game of Civilization where I left off, except that I couldn’t, because my copy of Microsoft Windows XP violated the second law of robotics. Specifically, it turned on a disabled interface (wifi), connected to a remote server (presumably Microsoft’s), patched itself, and rebooted without saving my game. Nope. I told you not to go online and you did....
HCF - Halt and Catch Fire →
A real opcode, used for processor testing back in the day. I recently discovered an HCF in my calendar system. It was possible to create a subcalendar that was an alias of a remote subcalendar that was an alias of the current calendar. Trying to sync your new subcalendar resulted in an HCF. As a programmer, I live for those moments.
Big music bites.
“When Jammie Thomas downloaded Rhythm is Gonna Get You by Gloria Estefan, it was to prove eerily prophetic.” - The Guardian Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Big music bites. It’s time for our society to recognize that there is a fundamental difference between selling information and sharing it. Selling is commercial, and subject to law and license. Sharing, if non-commercial,...
“This does send a message, I hope, that downloading and distributing our...”
– Actually, the message it sends is that you and the companies you represent are greedy sleezebags. Oops. Woman fined £100,000 for illegal file sharing