Sunday, June 27, 2004
Gmail's secret weapon: spam filtering
Gmail
A few comments on Gmail:
1. If you're a terrorist and use Gmail, what kind of ads do you see? My wife (Emily) rattled off a few. Be a good "future" spot in Wired -- albeit somewhat dark. Since AdWord advertisers often take keywords and insert them into their displayed ad text, it ought not to be hard to trick Gmail into displaying ads that look something like:
eShopper -- Yellow Cake Uranium at lowest prices!!
2. Their secret weapon is spam filtering. Google will adapt the best standards for both sending-service and author identification, but they'll also implement the practices I've advocated for years (to little applause I might add! :-):
- reputation management of authenticated sending services
- differential filtering based on managed reputations of authenticated sending services
and they'll implement practices others have tried -- including collaborative spam identification.
Google will do collaborative spam identification better than anyone -- they have the knowledge and ability to leverage knowledge about the account owner, semantic ranking of content (junk spam has low semantic rankings), advertiser links (if advertiser links switch from classical music to discount viagra ...), and to combine that knowledge with subscriber identification of spam. When 10 high reputation subscribers mark very similar messages as spam, Google can remove them all.
Put all of these together with the current exponential decay of traditional email (almost 30-40% of my filtered email is now nonsense-spam) and Gmail may be the only messaging service left standing.
Historians will note that anonymity on the net ended the day Gmail recognized that reading email to generate ad links also enabled spam filtering to work.
A few comments on Gmail:
1. If you're a terrorist and use Gmail, what kind of ads do you see? My wife (Emily) rattled off a few. Be a good "future" spot in Wired -- albeit somewhat dark. Since AdWord advertisers often take keywords and insert them into their displayed ad text, it ought not to be hard to trick Gmail into displaying ads that look something like:
eShopper -- Yellow Cake Uranium at lowest prices!!
2. Their secret weapon is spam filtering. Google will adapt the best standards for both sending-service and author identification, but they'll also implement the practices I've advocated for years (to little applause I might add! :-):
- reputation management of authenticated sending services
- differential filtering based on managed reputations of authenticated sending services
and they'll implement practices others have tried -- including collaborative spam identification.
Google will do collaborative spam identification better than anyone -- they have the knowledge and ability to leverage knowledge about the account owner, semantic ranking of content (junk spam has low semantic rankings), advertiser links (if advertiser links switch from classical music to discount viagra ...), and to combine that knowledge with subscriber identification of spam. When 10 high reputation subscribers mark very similar messages as spam, Google can remove them all.
Put all of these together with the current exponential decay of traditional email (almost 30-40% of my filtered email is now nonsense-spam) and Gmail may be the only messaging service left standing.
Historians will note that anonymity on the net ended the day Gmail recognized that reading email to generate ad links also enabled spam filtering to work.
Saturday, June 26, 2004
macosxhints - Print to an Airport Extreme USB printer from WinXP
macosxhints - Print to an Airport Extreme USB printer from WinXP: "Having just set up my home network, consisting of one Windows XP Pro Workstation (Ethernet), one Apple PowerBook 12' (AirPort) and an AirPort Extreme BaseStation, the only piece of the puzzle missing was sharing my Epson USB Printer.
The PC is fairly noisy, so I didn't want to have to use it to share the printer, especially when the BaseStation can do the task. I couldn't find any documentation on the net about connecting to a shared printer on the BaseStation from Windows, so set about working out how to do it myself. After whipping out the trusty ol' Network Utility and portscanning the BaseStation, it revealed that (among others) Port 9100 was open (Raw LPR/JetDirect).
From here on, it was a simple matter of setting up the PC with the required printer drivers, and setting the port to print to as a Standard TCP/IP Port on 10.0.1.1 (the BaseStation's IP address) using Raw LPR to Port 9100."
The Airport base station is supposed to work with XP if one selects JetDirect. Doesn't work for me. I'll try Raw LPR setup and port 9100. I wonder if I need to turn on WAN printing ... I'll try port scanning too.
Update: I've found the AEBS won't detect the HP if I plug in the USB cable. I have to plug in the cable then reset the AEBS. Annoying!
The PC is fairly noisy, so I didn't want to have to use it to share the printer, especially when the BaseStation can do the task. I couldn't find any documentation on the net about connecting to a shared printer on the BaseStation from Windows, so set about working out how to do it myself. After whipping out the trusty ol' Network Utility and portscanning the BaseStation, it revealed that (among others) Port 9100 was open (Raw LPR/JetDirect).
From here on, it was a simple matter of setting up the PC with the required printer drivers, and setting the port to print to as a Standard TCP/IP Port on 10.0.1.1 (the BaseStation's IP address) using Raw LPR to Port 9100."
The Airport base station is supposed to work with XP if one selects JetDirect. Doesn't work for me. I'll try Raw LPR setup and port 9100. I wonder if I need to turn on WAN printing ... I'll try port scanning too.
Update: I've found the AEBS won't detect the HP if I plug in the USB cable. I have to plug in the cable then reset the AEBS. Annoying!
Friday, June 25, 2004
21 Rules of Software Development
21 Rules of Thumb – How Microsoft develops its Software
I am not impressed with Microsoft products in general, but I think these recommendations are important for well defined commercially succesful products -- even if they aren't great products. All 21 are interesting, but especially the above.
For great software I think one needs the opportunity to explore and experiment. That's why Google gives developers one day each week to work on their own initiatives.
Microsoft produces software that sells, albeit within a monopoly framework. Since Microsoft does not really compete, it's hard to say that it meets market needs. Google, on the other hand, does have to compete -- and it makes great software.
6. Beware of a guy in a room.
This is really just a special case of 'Don’t go dark.' Specialist developers who lock themselves away in a room, going dark for long stretches, are anathema to shipping great software on time. Without regard to their individual brilliance, before investing a developer with a significant assignment, it is essential that they understand and agree with the type of development program you intend to run. They must be capable of performing on a team, making their work visible in modest increments and subjecting it to scrutiny as it matures. Some people find this intolerable, and though there is a role for people of this disposition in the software world, it is not as part of a team devoted to shipping great software on time.
There are many pathologies at play here as well as certain healthy patterns of creative behavior. One pathology is a type of savior complex that cannot be satisfied without blowing every single deadline but the last, and then emerging victoriously with a brilliant piece of work five minutes late. A more healthy pattern is that of the true innovator who is truly designing something great, but who has no personal resources left over for anything but the work at hand. Every ounce of psychological, emotional and intellectual energy is being consumed in the work itself. Teamwork, in this case, is an insignificant factor to a person immersed in this sort of creative experience.
But whether or not the cause is healthy or bogus, the results are uniformly fatal to the professional development organization. Beware. Extricating yourself from this trap is nearly impossible.
I am not impressed with Microsoft products in general, but I think these recommendations are important for well defined commercially succesful products -- even if they aren't great products. All 21 are interesting, but especially the above.
For great software I think one needs the opportunity to explore and experiment. That's why Google gives developers one day each week to work on their own initiatives.
Microsoft produces software that sells, albeit within a monopoly framework. Since Microsoft does not really compete, it's hard to say that it meets market needs. Google, on the other hand, does have to compete -- and it makes great software.
SuperCal for ColorSync settings in OS X
SuperCal
Note mention of the Panther bug with contrast enhancement. This sounds like it might be worth a test. Macintouch reader recommends it to set white balance to DVD expectations (Windows).
Note mention of the Panther bug with contrast enhancement. This sounds like it might be worth a test. Macintouch reader recommends it to set white balance to DVD expectations (Windows).
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Another iBook problem: serviced out of warranty
iBook 2001 (Part 13): "I purchased one of the first 500 MHz 'Dual USB' iBooks in the summer of 2001. I had to send it back for service during the original warranty because the airport reception was dependent on screen position (perfect reception at 90 degrees, no reception at full screen extension). I made the mistake of not purchasing the AppleCare extended warranty.
Last fall, the screen started to misbehave. I would get blue lines across the screen, and the screen would sometimes turn black. This also seemed to be related to screen position, so I went to my local Apple store to see what it would cost to repair. I was told it would be a minimum of $300, and it might not be the video cable as I suspected, but rather a motherboard problem.
Since I figured the whole computer was not worth much more than than that, I bit the bullet and bought a refurbished 17' PowerBook (with AppleCare this time). I knew that newer iBooks than mine had logic board problems, and the repair program had been extended before.
When I saw that the repair program had been extended to include my old iBook, so I took it back to the Apple store and went to the Genius bar to see if I was eligible for the repair program. The genius took a look at it, and told me it didn't seem to have the symptoms of the logic board issue. The store was closing, so he gave me a case number, and told me I could try calling the Apple Support phone number to see if I could get them to look at it anyway.
I called Apple support, and the phone tech had me try a few things. He had me boot into open firmware and try pressing on the corners of the computer. Pressing on the upper left hand corner caused the iBook to shut off completely. That was good enough, and I dropped off my iBook at the Apple store to be shipped off for repair, with the warning that it would probably take a week, possibly two to get it back.
This morning, only two days later, DHL dropped off my iBook, with a repair notice stating that the 'ASSY, Inverter/Sleep Switch' was replaced, and my iBook seems as good as new. The video problem is completely gone."
We justly complain about iBook problems, but the new Dell corporate laptops my company uses make the iBook seem a paragon of reliability.
Last fall, the screen started to misbehave. I would get blue lines across the screen, and the screen would sometimes turn black. This also seemed to be related to screen position, so I went to my local Apple store to see what it would cost to repair. I was told it would be a minimum of $300, and it might not be the video cable as I suspected, but rather a motherboard problem.
Since I figured the whole computer was not worth much more than than that, I bit the bullet and bought a refurbished 17' PowerBook (with AppleCare this time). I knew that newer iBooks than mine had logic board problems, and the repair program had been extended before.
When I saw that the repair program had been extended to include my old iBook, so I took it back to the Apple store and went to the Genius bar to see if I was eligible for the repair program. The genius took a look at it, and told me it didn't seem to have the symptoms of the logic board issue. The store was closing, so he gave me a case number, and told me I could try calling the Apple Support phone number to see if I could get them to look at it anyway.
I called Apple support, and the phone tech had me try a few things. He had me boot into open firmware and try pressing on the corners of the computer. Pressing on the upper left hand corner caused the iBook to shut off completely. That was good enough, and I dropped off my iBook at the Apple store to be shipped off for repair, with the warning that it would probably take a week, possibly two to get it back.
This morning, only two days later, DHL dropped off my iBook, with a repair notice stating that the 'ASSY, Inverter/Sleep Switch' was replaced, and my iBook seems as good as new. The video problem is completely gone."
We justly complain about iBook problems, but the new Dell corporate laptops my company uses make the iBook seem a paragon of reliability.
SendStation - Products - PocketDock Combo
SendStation - Products - PocketDock Combo
I want to use my iPod to backup my laptop PC when I travel.
It's an XP laptop, so I need a USB solution and software that allows XP to read & write to HFS+ file systems. Choices:
MacOpener: http://www.dataviz.com/products/macopener/index.html
http://www.macwindows.com/disks2.html lists a bunch of solutions ...
I want to use my iPod to backup my laptop PC when I travel.
It's an XP laptop, so I need a USB solution and software that allows XP to read & write to HFS+ file systems. Choices:
MacOpener: http://www.dataviz.com/products/macopener/index.html
http://www.macwindows.com/disks2.html lists a bunch of solutions ...
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