albertmcwilliams's posterous

a bit iffy at times, but generally a good idea

Google, Gerbils, Vanity, Habenerno

You should read this article by Eric Clemons, a smart guy at a smart place. Yeah, I know most of you aren't "readers" but it's well written, funny and it talks about gerbils and their relation to Google's handling of queries.

THE ARTICLE

After reading this, the part that bothered me most is that the number of search results goes up as you place exclusions on a query ... which doesn't make any sense. So I did my own research using my name and excluding things like, -dirigible and -astronaut and sure enough the #results went up.

I thought perhaps if I could see what those extra results were, it would offer some insight into the anomaly, so I found where the results "start" was in the URL and changed it to 7000. Let's see what result #7,000 is for "al mcwilliams" -astronaut. 

What I found is that Google's "about xxxxxx results found" is just totally arbitrary. They only report the first 1,000 anyway. So, the number of results actually going up when restrictions are added is simply because those aren't actual results. That number is just an assumption on the part of Skynet ... er, Google based on, like, how many letters in your query multiplied by your processor speed minus how many nerds you pissed off in high school... or something.

Now, does anyone care? Absolutely not. Hell, I don't even care and I care about a lot of things that I probably shouldn't.

Douglas Fire is better than you

Yesterday Zach got this email from a very sincere gentleman named Douglas Fire.

I sing since several years to perfect my voice , which I am capable of singing on any sorts of intonations of various live vocal stamps and without special effect.

However, as a compositor, I create my titles sound capable of making the public dance Or of bewitch them by the feelings provoke implying a rise of adrenalin of the most intense

My musical knowledge is very rich because of the experience(experiment) of my childhood, And its style is popular, alive but can be soft and dynamic or  baffling .

By the way , i  have my record  studio .

   Here my website of different tracks and videos

   NO SPAM 

 Of all the things to say about Mr. Fire, I come away with only one very strong emotion: Jealousy. Douglas Fire has the best life.

I watched TV

I see a lot of TV.

Since the move, and my current tiff with Comcast I don't have TV at home so I see most of my TV on iTunes or Netflix. Usually I watch the premium shows like Dexter, the one-hour gritsoaps like Mad Men, and of course I have to see Tracey Jordan mumble ridiculousness on 30 Rock. 

Watching TV is different. Last night at my girlfriend's house (yes, I'm bragging) I watched TV and in the last four months apparently it has gone completely insane/awesome. Perhaps when you have access to it all the time your brain settles into a nice pudding, desensitized to the words scrolling by in the on-screen menu, or perhaps TV is really on some sort of infinity-spiral into absurdity. Of course, I say this having pitched some of the most shit-brained ideas ever, but it definitely seems that with the expansion of channels, basic cable is strapped to a rocket burning towards Bixby Snyder*.

Getting to the point, when I hit the "guide" button last night I was in awe.

While we did actually spend about 30 minutes watching Jewelry TV: TANZANITE TUESDAY  which is remarkably captivating, there below it on National Geographic Wild was the show called:

My Dog Ate What?

In the episode I watched the answer to that incredible mystery was "13 cents."

Can you put yourself in the creative meeting for this show?
---
"Hi, welcome, can I get you some water?"
"My Dog Ate What?"
"I'll have legal affairs draw up the papers."
----

*if you get this reference, kill yourself.

Google Image Search: Travel Edition

As much as I try to avoid it, I rely on Google. I use it for just about everything - research, education, laughter, how late is the burrito store open... everything. The pitfalls in relying on Google for everything are obvious, but we all just bounce through anyway. 

What if we got all our information from Google image search?

The Quack!Media crew is heading to Guatemala next week. We're shooting a couple of cultural videos that will eventually end up in high school classrooms all over the U.S. to educate the young folks. While education is a little more permanent than news gathering, this project draws an interesting correlation to the hot topic of "oh shit, the Internet may have ruined information forever."

According to Google Image Search Guatemala is:

Beautiful vistas!

421199731_e530bbf717

Central American customs!

 
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local costumes!

20071216140609990008

Families!

Dukenmj

A hot chick photo-shopped over a volcano!

Guatemala_lake_atitlan_l

A Week in Pictures

More on AT&T later, but I have to like, edit that, which takes "time" which I don't have. So, here are some pictures from my phone from last week. They're interesting to me, and my girlfriend, and people who think toys shaped like dicks are funny. I do. My girlfriend does not.

1. I built a table. As a joke, I tossed a level on it. In a surprise development, both to me and The Universe, it was perfectly level.
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2. This is the wonderful Maggie. She drank a beer with a displacement similar to that of her head. I thought this was funny/interesting. Try the Cowboy Reuben at the Blue Tractor, and make sure you put the TEXAS sauce on it.
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3. Do not google this game.
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4. A dick shaped like a toy.
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