Google groups usenet search broken

Google groups usenet search is missing lots of posts: doesn't seem to be noted in many places, but here is an example.

quoted here:

From: Tim Smith
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: [OT] Someone broke Google Groups search
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Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:37:13 -0700
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Google groups search for "Tim Smith". 9 hits. Click "sort by date" and
then there are 161000 hits.

Google groups search for "Roy Schestowitz". 4 hits. Click "sort by
date" and then there are 104000 hits.

Google groups search for "Mark Kent". 46200 hits. Click "sort by date"
and it stays 46200 hits.

It used to be that you'd get about the same number of hits regardless of
whether you sorted by date or relevance. It's still doing that with
Mark, but for Roy and me, it gives far fewer hits when sorted by
relevance.

Anyone else seeing this? Or am I just hitting a bad server? (It's been
like this for a few days for me, but they seem to use some kind of
scheme to try to send you to the same server when you come back, so if
there is a broken server in their pool, I could be stuck on it).


--
--Tim Smith

sleep

Do I want to sleep at the same time as everybody else? Would I do better work if I worked at the same time everyone else slept, and slept at the same time everyone else worked? Anyway ... Brisbane City Council has noise regulations, so I took a look:

Air conditioner noise is ok from 7am to 10pm, building work noise is ok from 6.30am to 6.30pm on every day except Sunday...

Also, the Do Not Call register says:

• telemarketing calls can be made on weekdays between 9.00 am and 8.00 pm
  
• research calls can be made on weekdays between 9.00 am and 8.30 pm
  
• a telemarketing or research call can be made on a Saturday between 9.00 am and 5.00 pm
  
• research calls can be made on a Sunday between 9.00 am to 5.00pm but not on a nationally recognised public holiday
  
• telemarketing calls can not be made on a Sunday or a nationally recognised public holiday.
  

Plus, there's a 40km/h speed limit on weekends in Fortitude Valley from 10pm to 6am; the EPA legislation has references to a 6am outdoor shooting range noise exclusion; a QR development checklist writes about assessing noise impact between 10pm and 6am.

As for Brisbane Airport, there's no curfew on planes and their Noise Management Strategy suggests that ground running engines is only unlimited between 5am and 9pm. Tough if you live near the airport or under a flight path.

Basically I think the message is that you can sleep uninterrupted in Brisbane between 10pm and 6am, but that's it, really... etiquette says to be careful not to phone people after about 8pm or so.

sacrifices

It's been a long time since I wrote in my semi private scribbling space ...

I've been living alone for five months, but I don't feel I've been saving a whole lot and I want to invest regularly in the stock market instead of haphazardly. I just want someone relatively quiet to live with, I guess ... who doesn't watch much TV ... I haven't watched TV in forever and at a gathering of people last Sunday was completely out of touch with what's on. They were talking about "Medium" and "Jekyll" and various other shows I'd never heard of. While watching Eurovision I saw ads for "Salam Cafe" which looked interesting. Oh, the things I'm missing out on!

I haven't decided on where to go on my overseas trip this year, but I am inclining towards Iran and Iceland ... as I have been for a while now. It would be good to climb Mt Damavand and be 5600m above sea level -- none of my friends have been that high, I don't think. The world should look different from up there!

I have been failing pretty badly in the book reading goals; but I have managed to finish some finance books, like "The Black Swan" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, lately. That book made me wonder if all the energy modelling I've been doing at work has actually been incorrect or inaccurate. If I can write a paper and have it accepted to a conference, then my boss will support me going there; I would never decline a free overseas trip. In fact I'd never turn down a free trip to anywhere...

Investing in the US seems so unattractive right now; I had thought about investing in the Vanguard International Unhedged Shares Fund (which is like the world ex Australia) but with the Iraq war, the sub prime crisis, and the US's dependence on oil, my feeling is just that I'd rather keep my money in Australian or emerging market stocks. Consider this Reuters commentary:

Peter Schiff, president of money manager Euro Pacific Capital, warns that after years of profligate spending, the "chickens are finally coming home to roost".

"Our whole phony standard of living is imploding," he said. "We have borrowed and spent ourselves into oblivion."

"It's amazing that people can't figure out that America is broke."

...

Thanks to the "rosy spot" of exports helped by a weak dollar, plus strength in commodities like coal and grains, the UCLA Anderson Forecast Center predicts the U.S. economy will suffer only a mild recession this year.

But without that retail engine of growth, "our long-term prospect is for sluggish U.S. economic growth," Leamer said.

"Unfortunately, there is nothing on the horizon in the U.S. economy that will take over from the consumer."

Combinatorics has really gone on the back burner, and I want that to change too ... so I'll write up a new set of goals and things to do, and begin again.

the weakest link

This relationship post is just about my personal experiences. Recently in relationship and job terms I have found that it's the weakest links in my friendship networks that have got me the best results. That is, in the last six months or so, all through the net, getting back in touch with people -- so through seek, linkedin, orkut and facebook. Myspace is a pile of crap and cyworld is only for Koreans :)

So it is important to work on those weakest links if your job and relationship situation is not good...

but first, economics

A relationship post is coming. But first, economics: Apple is of course very slow to pass on the benefits of US dollar weakness to Australian consumers. And the current RAM prices are an utter ripoff. Currently at the Australian Apple store to get 4GB of RAM in a Macbook Pro costs $A1030 more than 2GB -- equivalent US store price is $US700. Whereas one 2GB RAM stick costs $A94 today so buying 4GB RAM costs $A188 -- and then you can SELL the two 1GB sticks you have left over on ebay... The other thing is Apple just changed the Macbook Pro on the US store so that a 2.6GHz upgrade costs $US250 and a 250GB HD costs $US150. I'll wait to see how and when this is passed on to Australian customers. (Current exchange rate: $A1 = $US0.93).

sexy maths

THE Queensland Government has asked for help about how to make science and maths "sexy" for students.

I don't understand. Are there people out there who don't love maths? On the one hand I think: It's fortunate I am not a maths teacher or lecturer then. If I can't identify with people who don't love maths, I will never be a good teacher. On the other hand I think: all the students need is a teacher who loves maths, and they will start to love it themselves. But because teaching and lecturing pays so poorly in Australia, the people who really love it (a similar set to the people who are really good at it) often go into other fields. (Speaking in generalisations -- no offence intended to the good teachers out there!) Hence, the teachers are second-best, the students learn to hate maths and we have a vicious circle, like the brain-drain phenomenon. Hmmmmm. I feel grateful now I went to a school where the maths teachers always encouraged me and loved maths. Because lots of people didn't go to a school with good teachers, that means there are less good mathematicians for me to compete against for jobs! Thankyou parents!!

tonight's game

At the Brisbane Chess Club tonight I played an interesting game. I had some positions which were hard to evaluate -- I didn't have much development but the computer assesses the positions as better for me.

Arash - me.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 e6 5. c5



Now that sort of move just looks bad. I looked for a way to punish him immediately.

5... b6 6. b4 h6 7. Bf4 Nbd7 8. Nf3 Nh5



I was still trying to punish him for 5. c5 and couldn't see a better way to do it. I wanted either to win a pawn on c5 or gain control over e5. Perhaps I should have played 7... Nh5.


9. Be5 f6 10. Qd3



I started to wonder if I'd missed something and thought about playing 10... Kf7 or 10... Qe7.


10... Nxe5 11. dxe5



I thought about playing 11... Nf4 too but I wasn't sure that I would gain anything from it so decided to block the b1-h7 diagonal. I have crap development, 1 badly developed piece compared to his 3 pieces in the centre, plus I have a weak kingside. But computers seem to think I'm better here.

11... f5 12. g4?



Whoa, did I miss something? I mean he is supposedly rated 1750.

12... Nf4 13. Qd4 fxg4 14. Qxf4 gxf3 15. Qxf3 Qg5 16. cxb6



Apparently not.

I should have played 16... Bxb4, not fearing 17. Rb1 c5, because after 16... Qxe5 he can play 17. b7 blocking things a bit.

16... Qxe5 17. a3 axb6 18. e3?? Bxb4? 0-1

evil

I like some of Apple's products - I'm typing this on a Macbook Pro connected to the internet with a wireless router (Apple Airport Express). The MBP is very stylish compared to other laptops and I like OS X much better than Windows. Microsoft has done many evil things and so someone has to stick it to them, you know? Hence the Mac.

But with the iPhone and the new iPod touch, Apple has been being evil. So far it's been announced in the US, UK, Germany and France - but in each case it's locked to a carrier. This feels like an attack on consumer choice to me. Granted in the UK, Germany and France you get access to wifi networks of those carriers. Still I can wish for Apple to have a flop in Europe with this product to teach them a much-needed lesson. Bring on the competition.

As for the iPod touch, apparently it doesn't come with Mail which sounds pretty dumb -- they want to differentiate it from the iPhone.