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May 29 Why Live search sucks so badThis was a real email thread at work today. I think this thread is yet more evidence that From: Live Search engineer I didn't say I wanted "politically correct words" but a modicum of politeness wouldn't hurt anyone here. I would ask you to look at the search product we had in June of 2007 and the product we have now and I defy you to tell me no improvement is visible. Your attitude is ridiculous. I'm as competitive as anyone and I want to leap ahead of Google and be the best at everything but this is, as you say, the real world and these things take time -- just because you send feedback doesn't mean that the result will be fixed tomorrow. I send feedback to the IE team and it takes another year for it to see a release, but I don't feel that gives me carte blanche to call them assholes and babies and unresponsive and useless. I've never seen anyone here turn feedback down, though I do see people try to manage expectations. We don't add definitives willy-nilly, and we track every piece of feedback we get on the product and target categorical issues for fixes. I'm not sure what else it is you expect to get back. From: me That’s nice and all <Live Search engineer>, but this is the real world. Grow up. Crap is the euphemism for what I really feel about your product. You want only politically correct words? How about no words? The search team has historically done a real nice job of turning feedback down and making supporters like myself into enemies. Holier than thou? Improve your product, then come talking to me about holier than thou. From: Live Search engineer Sorry fellas, but I need to say this too: <soapbox> Did it ever occur to you that human beings also work on live search and aren't perfect? That perhaps throwing out phrases like "don't jerk [me] around with crap" (I see crap here multiple times) might be just a bit rude and unnecessary? We're sorry we don't have the six+ year head start Google has and that our results aren't perfect every time for every query you make. People are working tirelessly on this product though, and constant smatterings on a wide alias that the product is "crap" are wholly unnecessary. Your DSAT feedback is critical, but the holier than thou attitude is not. From: me MSN Messenger Mobile is #1 on the “related searches” stack on the right side of Live search. <soapbox> Honestly, I don’t know why, as a user, I still even try to give Live Search feedback, when the competition gives me what I want. I mean really, the “your search looked like these other searches” philosophy has got to go. Pure indexing works. Don’t jerk people around with the predictive crap. </soapbox> From: Well, er… give that feedback on the searchchallenge site…. From: I’m guessing that <redacted> put the quotes in the email to show the query string, and didn’t actually put the quotes in the query. Live search returning that result way down at #6 is a crap result. Once I realized it wasn’t #1 I started visually scanning the returned content for a boldfaced “messenger” and didn’t even see that. Yes, it’s in the quoted page title—I just wasn’t looking there. It’s a totally crappy result. Google nails it. Even with quotes their top result is good, even if it’s for the Yahoo messenger. From: me Because you searched for a phrase (used quotes). Phrase-based searching on Live.com is just plain broken. Always has been, always will be??? I cannot ever search for anything on Live because I am invariably looking for a phrase, whether it’s error codes, or pop culture. However, searching for Messenger Mobile does bring results. It appears to be #6. http://searchchallenge/results.aspx?lse=Windows+Live&rse=Google&q=messenger+mobile From: …and this demonstrates my frustration with Live Search. Why isn’t this page the top hit when I search for “Messenger Mobile” on Microsoft.com? From: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/software/default.mspx Click on Windows Live for Windows Mobile link…. From: I remember seeing a demo a while ago of a Messenger client that works on Windows Mobile phone. Where can I install this? I am not seeing it on <redacted> download site. May 28 Windows 7 Touch input features now publicWith a public demonstration at the WSJ's 'D:All Things Digital' conference, Windows 7 touch input is now out in the open.
I don't know who the "Microsoft employee" demonstrating was, but the feature itself is simple enough that almost anybody could do the demonstration.
May 27 It's 'that time of the month'..when Dell pulls out all the stops in order to meet their quotas. This month, it's a Quad-core desktop system for $499! I was already thinking of purchasing one of these through HP EPP for $604, but this deal came down the pike and I couldn't resist!! On top of the great deal on the system, using Dell Preferred (instead of a regular credit card) saved another 3%, bringing my total before tax and shipping, to $484! Tax and shipping pushed the price back up to $560. config: Item Number 223-5256 311-7749 310-7966 320-5878 341-4811 313-5582 310-1966 430-0412 420-7468 313-5270 313-2758 420-8085 410-1160 960-3249 310-5408 310-8626 420-7091 May 23 Are you one of the idiots causing me road rage?I regularly bitch and moan about all the "other drivers" on the roads in the Puget Sound area. At times, it seems that they have no clue where they're going, who they're inconveniencing, or how to operate their vehicle. All they want to do is lollygag or turn right from the left-most lane. People, I have places to go, and no time to get there! It drives me insane.
Well, here is your chance to do some book learnin' and prove to the world that you're not a hazard from the book learnin' side of your brain. Your actual driving skills in practice may vary.
There's only 20 questions, but they're all basic stuff culled from the Motor Vehicle Guides of various states.
I scored 90%
If you score less than 80%, I want you off the road!!!
Good luck! May 08 Mercer Mini Mart does it againLast week, mom called me up and told me of a long-time scratch ticket player who came in and won $1 million on a scratch ticket.
I remember this customer, he's a genuinely good-hearted guy who tells bad jokes :)
Good for him. I hope his mom has some realization of what happened and that they all live happily ever after.
May 05 My son has beginner's luck!About 6-7 months ago, I re-ignited my own card collecting fever by looking through all the eBay sales of old baseball cards and Wacky Packages stickers that I used to own, before they got traded away for candy or thrown out, or stuck to things (my old headboard has a small fortune's worth of stickers on it).
I started taking my son to the baseball card shop and to a little local card show in Kirkland. He's never really understood what I value in card collecting, but I thought he might learn some math (statistics!) or might be encouraged to read more by the little humourous descriptions on the backs. Well, his friends at school turned him on to Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon.
So these last couple of months, we've been buying the 'grab bag' packs of commons at the card store and his little collection has been growing. This past weekend, we went to the card show and bought 3 unopened packs of Pokemon cards, known as 'booster packs'. In the second pack, was a sparkly card featuring 'Honchkrow'. When he was looking at it, some other boys who had a table of cards said that he found a rare card, worth upwards of $25!! Wow! We went home that day and immediately put it in a plastic holder.
Yesterday, at the Target store, he kept nagging us to buy more Pokemon packs. He carried one around the store and when we were checking out, he kept nagging me "I want three". I got a bit irritated at him, and made him put them all back, but his mother gave in and let him have two packs. When he opened the packs, he found another sparkly card, this one named 'Gardevoir'. I looked this one up in a magazine and it's worth more than the first one! So again, when we got home, I put it into another plastic holder.
The odds on finding these cards is pretty low (I couldn't find published odds of finding one in a booster pack), and my lucky son found two in two days, only opening four packs altogether.
I am happy to have introduced my son to a hobby that I enjoy, and maybe someday, make a tiny profit on. It's fun to see him develop interests and hobbies. |
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