So, this is admittedly an old man yelling at the clouds moment for me,
but I've been increasingly frustrated with the quality of my Google
search results since... well, it's *probably* been getting very slowly
but surely worse and worse since close to when I started using it almost exclusively. The search algorithm has been dumbed down soooooooooo much that it no longer feels anywhere close to accurate.
I've been wanting to chat about this for months, but I figured I'd add a few new nodes before I start up a (hopefully) big new thread.
I use Duckduckgo exclusively. I haven't used Google in years. Haven't really found anything much better than it, either, but then again.. I probably don't use it nearly as much as you say you do.
It probably does some of the same kind of stuff in regards to search results, but at least they tout that they don't track you - whether
that's what they actually do, or not, is another question.
I don't have any alternatives to offer, but what I can offer is what I
do. I put my search terms in quotes. That makes them required for
results. It's a simple thing but it's all I can figure for now until a better alternative comes along.
My only trepidation with searching out a better alternative is that
search results are contingent on properly indexed data, and I'm unsure anyone has or will have the reach of Google. Nevertheless I'd love to be proven wrong here.
Does anyone have any good (or at least, subjectively preferred) alternatives they want to pimp? Personally, I've been experimenting with
Does anyone have any good (or at least, subjectively preferred) alternativ they want to pimp? Personally, I've been experimenting with "Kagi" lately
Does anyone have any good (or at least, subjectively preferred)
jack phlash wrote to Accession <=-
I mean, I think they all do, to some extent. What extent is the key.
When Google first started getting popular, it had a much less
aggressive algorithm that would still do things like factor in
relevance and site rankings to hopefully show you better results
"Before anyone asks, yes, I know how to use various operators, but I've noticed these have been flat out ignored more and more in recent years."
That was one of my concerns as well, though with as many crawlers are
and have been out there for the last 20+ years, plus the rise in compute power and storage capacity over the years, it's probably not nearly as much of a concern than it used to be.
I use duckduckgo as do a lot of other people here. However at work
search engines other then bing are blocked for "security reasons" so
I use bing there. Bing isn't half bad, just turn off the option for
that stupid
AI nonsense and it's pretty good.
I use duckduckgo as do a lot of other people here.
DDG... seems good enough for anything I"ve looked for, but I"m also
not really searching up too many obscure things.
It's the paid ads that kill me. Search for a product and you have to
scroll through half-a-page of ads by competitors before you get to the
search result.
Hey hey nobody likes a smartass!
I wonder if these days it's best to just ask ChatGPT lol. Evidently
that's crawling more aggressively than anything else at this point.
Some of the forums that I follow (English Amiga Board, for example) keep getting flooded with these AI data scrapers for model building to the point that the sites become inaccessible. Crazy. They typically have
over a thousand (to 4k sometimes) "Visitors" online at any given time,
and it's thought that a very substantial proportion of that (like 98%)
is bot/scraper traffic.
Bing actually has pretty amazing maps! I had no idea until someone
showed me once. I was really impressed. Their imagery was so good they were able to sell their higher res sets to the government.
A few people have said that jokingly (I think?) but I'm curious about
how it would compare at this point.
Ugh. When I see some of the statistics out there about how much traffic
on certain sites, and on the Internet in general, is bot related, it's kind of fucking sickening. Ahh... sometimes I really do miss the old
days. :/
It's the paid ads that kill me. Search for a product and you have to
It's the paid ads that kill me. Search for a product and you have to
This looks like a dupe. Accidentally upload your QWK packet a second time? :
on 10 Sep 2024, poindexter FORTRAN said...
It's the paid ads that kill me. Search for a product and you have to
This looks like a dupe. Accidentally upload your QWK packet a second
time? :P
Looks like it wasn't flagged as a dupe because both had different MSGIDs. However, the PATH was the same, so they both came from 20FB.
Oddly enough, I've actually noticed something like this happen before (might have been Tiny, even) but never actually looked closely at it. There might be some kind of issue with QWK packets getting processed and then resent out via FTN - with Mystic.
Oddly enough, I've actually noticed something like this happen before (might have been Tiny, even) but never actually looked closely at it.
There might be some kind of issue with QWK packets getting processed
and then resent out via FTN - with Mystic.
Oddly enough, I've actually noticed something like this happen before
(might have been Tiny, even) but never actually looked closely at it.
That was a me mistake. I uploaded the .REP packet twice to you, once telnet side and once ftp, was a simple "Did I upload this?" moment.
There might be some kind of issue with QWK packets getting processed
and then resent out via FTN - with Mystic.
I think it's more user error when that happens now. ASSuming there is not any hard drive failures etc.
Summoning g00r00!!?
He's been pretty damn quiet lately - I emailed him a huge list of suggestions for echomail improvements months ago, and then a random question about Virtual Pascal development, and didn't get any replies,
but its worth a try... :P
But really, when it happened to you (twice even, maybe?) nobody said a
word about it at the time. Probably why I "never actually looked
closely at it." :)
I don't know if we need to go /that/ far just yet. We're 1/1 at the
moment with one being admitted user error, and the other we're not sure
of yet. :)
I mean, even if just to try to suck him back into the hobby. He has said in the past he gets pretty busy at work at times, but damn.
Honestly, he's probably just vegged out and binge watching "The
Handmaid's Tale."
LOOOOOOOL
I didn't report it to you because everything I say is so imporant people need to read it twice. <LOL!>
But really, when it happened to you (twice even, maybe?) nobodysaid a A> word about it at the time. Probably why I "never actually
looked A> closely at it." :)
I didn't report it to you because everything I say is so imporant
people need to read it twice. <LOL!> I tend to forget my glasses in
the morning and do dumb things. Like this morning, I hit the wrong
button and "edited" the QWK packet from the FTP site so that screwed everything up. Had to login to the BBS change pointer date and
voila. :)
I know he still reads messages here and elsewhere - more than most
people would probably guess. I suppose how often he replies, or even
polls at all, varies greatly with how busy he is.
Honestly, he's probably just vegged out and binge watching "The
Handmaid's Tale."
LOOOOOOOL
Err... you'll have to explain that joke to me. That one went right over
my head. :P
Oh, I know. He still picks up mail regularly, and I don't think his
board is up 24/7, so that's manual doing. Not too worried about it, he comes back around when he can, usually with a backlog of replies to important questions.
I take it you were never forced to watch that shit. My wife watched the first couple seasons, and every time I walked into the room, I turned around and walked right back out. It was wierd as all get out, and definitely something any of us most likely wouldn't watch.
It was by far some of the wierdest shit I've ever seen. You should try
it once. :D
But yes, I read everything you say twice, sometimes three times so it
makes sense! :D
I've actually seen all of it. Weird yes, but not bad unless the politics around it offend you, I suppose. I actually liked it, although it felt like it lost its way a bit in later seasons. But yeah, I just wasn't
sure how that related to g00r00 but... it doesn't sound like it did. :P
Has your wife forced Outlander on you yet? That's another weird show
with a reputation for being more popular with the ladies. Hehe.
It didn't offend me, it was just wierd. Are there groups of people that actually do that shit?
I got the whole surrogacy stuff (generalized, anyway), but to keep them captive, seriously abuse them when they're out of line, and basically
rape them is on a whole different level of wierd.
Anyway, it had nothing to do with g00r00. It was more of a joke that he would actually be watching something that stupid. :)
No. She's stuck in her old ways with cooking shows, The Challenge
series', re-runs of detective shows like Law and Order and Criminal
Minds, and some real crime type shit where people go crazy and kill people.
If I want to watch anything on my own, I go in another room. I've been watching this Netflix original lately called "Sweet Home". I think it's originally Korean, but English over the top. Halfway through the second season and it's not too bad, I suppose.
Ha! What a transition... "rape them [...] a whole different level
of weird!" to "Anyway, it had nothing to do with g00r00." :D
Good looorrrrrrddd, there's a whole lot of murder going on up in
your house. Haha! I don't hate that stuff, but we only occasionally
watch stuff like that. Pretty rare, aside from the odd, random documentary, really.
Yeah. I do the same thing, but TV alone time is at the bottom of my priority list so I rarely watch it. It took many soooooooo many
goddamn months to get through Spartacus recently, for example. Just
today I was talking to a coworker at length about Trailer Park Boys
and now I really want to re-watch it but... time?!
I vaguely know the name "Sweet Home" from somewhere. I think it was
a really old Japanese survival horror game or something along those
lines. I wonder if they're related?
When she was younger, I think she wanted to be a detective. That didn't really pan out the way she planned.
Hmm, that's a good question. Could be related I suppose, as it is about humans turning into monsters, and survival.
I just could have sworn in one of the first episodes it mentioned Korea
or something, not Japan.
I feel like there's more to unpack there... ;)
Okay, did a bit more digging and it seems that they're not related. The game I was thinking of was indeed Japanese and was released alongside a horror movie of the same name in the late 80s - they're about
poltergeists or something. The Netflix show is Korean like you first
said. There's also a Korean anime series that I believe the TV show is actually based on.
Maybe. Maybe she's slowly trying to kill me. I sometimes wonder why
the coffee tastes wierd on certain days. :)
This is what wifes do. You gotta be careful and just get up earlier
to make her coffee once a week or so and the poison will leave your
system. Thankfully they use a mild poison.
Maybe. Maybe she's slowly trying to kill me. I sometimes wonder why the coffee tastes wierd on certain days. :)
your system. Thankfully they use a mild poison.Hopefully, for her sake, I'll grow immune to it and live longer than expected. :D
I use Duckduckgo exclusively. I haven't used Google in years. Haven't really found anything much better than it, either, but then again.. I probably don't use it nearly as much as you say you do.
I haven't played with Duckduckgo since it was relatively new, but might need to check it out again. Thanks.
I actually stopped searching that much and go directly to sites I trust related to various subjects. I have my favourite news sites, I have my
fav dev/IT/engineering sites. I download more PDF magazines than browse through internet with similar content. I back up a lot on my NAS and actually considering to build my own indexing/search engine to cover my own resources better. All that and even occasional Chat GPT
halucinations are so much better than Google when you seek for organized knowledge.
If I want to search for crap/random queries I stick to DuckDuckGo as well... but again.. I found that general search is more about wasting
time than actually helping me in anything. archive.org is better and
it's a real nonsense when we talk about discoverability.
I think we're reaching the point where one discovers that part of the successful search is self-preparation and then simple indexing service
can be better than anything that tries to make you dumb and pretending
to be result-smart..
Like good old visits in the Library. When you were heading there you basically knew what you were looking for. All you needed to find was a bookshelf or librarian who knows where it is... and simple indexing
cards helped you find all you wanted in a minute.
Google is like approaching library with a dumb thought that librarian
will hit the target while you play an idiot saying: " I'd like to borrow that book that reminded me that movie I watched with a friend 5 years
ago, where actor looked like that girl from Jaws but the whole thing was less scary and basically it was a comedy in science fiction" and then being surprised hearing the answer "We have all the books you want my friend... but until you are little bit more precise... all I can offer
to you is a 10% discount for a coffee in a coffee shop you visited 2
weeks ago while traveling to Paris...
I vaguely know the name "Sweet Home" from somewhere. I think it wasI just could have sworn in one of the first episodes it mentioned Korea
a really old Japanese survival horror game or something along those lines. I wonder if they're related?
or something, not Japan.
sweet home is a semi-(in)famous famicom title. here's a fan translated rom playthrough:
sweet home is a semi-(in)famous famicom title. here's a fan translat rom playthrough:
Holy crap! This is cool! I hadn't heard of this.
Where were you guys a week ago when we talked about this? :P
Where were you guys a week ago when we talked about this? :P
Sepsis? :P hehe
On a more serious note, it feels bizarre to "complain" about this but we've had so much traffic lately (yay!) that I have probably missed a couple of messages due to trying to skim stuff. I know, I know, bad esc.
On a more serious note, it feels bizarre to "complain" about this but we've had so much traffic lately (yay!) that I have probably missed a couple of messages due to trying to skim stuff. I know, I know, bad esc.
I just could have sworn in one of the first episodes it mentioned Korea
or something, not Japan.
sweet home is a semi-(in)famous famicom title. here's a fan translated rom playthrough:
Maybe I should put TLDRs on my messages? I do tend to write a lot. ;)
Where were you guys a week ago when we talked about this? :Psweet home is a semi-(in)famous famicom title. here's a fan traHoly crap! This is cool! I hadn't heard of this.
esc wrote to jack phlash <=-
Maybe I should put TLDRs on my messages? I do tend to write a lot. ;)
Ha! Nah. That would result in the type of people that read news
headlines and formulate their opinions based on that alone doing the
same thing in message bases!
Ha! Nah. That would result in the type of people that read news
headlines and formulate their opinions based on that alone doing the
same thing in message bases!
It is funny sometimes if I don't look at discord for a bit and then come back and you'll have a page full of messages to read lol.
SIX THINGS YOU DIDN"T KNOW ABOUT FAMICOM GAMES
Number five will "surprise" you!
Better than them not reading my posts and then having the same conversation all over again a week later. ;)
It is funny sometimes if I don't look at discord for a bit and then c back and you'll have a page full of messages to read lol.
Hey, you do that to me sometimes too, bud! :P
It is funny sometimes if I don't look at discord for a bit and then come back and you'll have a page full of messages to read lol.
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