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Thorry84 @feddit.nl
Posts 13
Comments 845
Why do many search engines seem to ignore operators (e.g. exact phrases, term exclusions, OR, etc.)? Is there a good reason for having a dumb 1997-level search logic that I'm not seeing?
  • Most search engines have filters for stuff like filetype, limiting the search to a specific site and filters for time and location (when applicable).

    Like I said, search engines are way more complicated than one might think. Doing the kinds of things you mention would be hard and only very few people would need something like that. There are tools out there that do meta searching for analysis though, so you can use search results as data in your analysis. Most of those are highly specialized and often paid, but when you need them it's worth the price.

    Remember companies like Google invest millions (if not billions) into their search engine and have huge teams working on them. Anytime someone says: "Why don't they just..." the answer is probably very long and complicated.

  • Why do many search engines seem to ignore operators (e.g. exact phrases, term exclusions, OR, etc.)? Is there a good reason for having a dumb 1997-level search logic that I'm not seeing?
  • Because search engines are much more complicated than you seem to think. The reason the operators worked back in the day (probably later than 1997 though), was because the search engines actually searched through the contents of the pages they indexed. They used a lot of tricks to make it work, but basically they were matching keywords directly to the index.

    Modern search engines are much more complex than that, using a lot more abstraction and interesting techniques to both index and search. The amount of data being indexed has exploded since then, the number of users has exploded and the way people use the internet has changed. To keep costs down and search times low, search engines needed to change drastically. And because most people using search engines won't know how to use those features, they didn't get preserved.

    I do wonder what kind of search engines you are talking about though. I assume you mean the big ones like Google and Bing (or sites using those engines) and not like a simple product search on a small webshop. Because as frustrating as using Google and Bing have gotten, they are still amazing tech and not bare-bones at all. The reasons for their failings are only partly in their control and not even really their fault. (Except for the AI thing Google tried, that was 100% their fault and just dumb).

  • Linux during the mid to late 90s (Windows 95 and 98 era)
  • I started with Suse 5 when it came out, as something I was interested in fucking about with. I didn't have internet access at that time, but I did had a couple of books about it (the distro came with a book as well). It was a couple of CDs and a boot floppy disk (booting from CD wasn't really a thing).

    I used it for years for software development and simple tasks like Word processing. Getting my printer working on the thing was a chore, as was basically anything. Especially without internet solving issues was sometimes simply impossible. My scanner simply didn't work. Getting the desktop environment to run was very hard, I struggled with it for a long time. And once I got it working properly, I got a new videocard and it broke the whole thing again.

    The system was very painful to use, it was super cool, but almost nothing ever worked right. And trying to fix shit usually made it worse. But once you did get it working right, it was simply awesome. And the feeling of accomplishment was awesome after finally getting something right. For software development on the terminal it was pretty awesome though. Back then I did almost everything in text mode, as I was used to DOS before that. Going into Windows was something you did only sometimes with Windows 3.11 (and even 95) and I did the same in my Linux environment. The desktop environment used up a lot of memory and was pretty slow, so I preferred the console. It was only later booting into the desktop became the norm (around the Windows 98 era).

    I used Suse till version 6.1 (still have that box). I bought version 7 (still have that box as well), but never really used it.

    Back then I used Debian to create small internet routers for my friends. I got an old compact computer, put in a floppy with Debian, a couple of network cards and created small NAT boxes like that. This was before NAT routers were the norm, people just had internet on 1 machine, connected directly. But as computers became cheaper, a lot of folk had more than 1 computer in the home. With no real way to share the internet connection between the different computers. Microsoft created the Internet Connection Sharing feature, but that was pretty slow, disconnected often and ate resources on your "main" PC. So my little boxes worked great, I helped people setup a home network, connected my magic box to get every system online. Also helped them setup some port forwarding for the stuff they used.

    Because I used Debian a lot, I switched over to Debian for my main rig when Suse 7 released. Used Potato, Woody, Sarge and Etch a lot. Switched around between Debian and Ubuntu in the Lenny and Squeeze era. Have been using Ubuntu ever since, never really had a reason to switch. Debian compared to Suse was so nice, I really liked the way Debian did things. It made a lot more sense for me in my head compared to Suse.

    As I fucked around with computers a lot, I always had both Linux and DOS/Windows machines running and even had a couple of dual boot systems. For any kind of gaming DOS/Windows was required back then and I did love to game. I do think Windows 10 will be my last Microsoft OS, since Windows 11 absolutely sucks (use it at work, I hate it). Work stuff has become less and less of an issue to get stuff done on Linux just as well as on Windows. And gaming has come leaps and bounds due to the work on the Steamdeck.

    So hope to fully ditch Microsoft in the near future, even though my first ever computer in 1984 ran Microsoft firmware with Microsoft Basic being the default user interface.

  • What happens if Trump dies before the election? What impact do you think it would have for the next 4 years?
  • That's like saying your boyfriend doesn't want to hit you, you've just not done exactly as he said, so he had to hit you.

    I'm sure Putin would be happy if the whole world made him the supreme leader, without a single conflict. But that's not really the way the world works, his actions can have no other outcome than a world war. It's up to the rest of us to prevent this in whatever way possible.

  • Might be promising
  • They are not. Tesla cars are level 2 autonomous, which is basically advanced cruise control. A feature found in many luxery cars before Tesla was even founded. With this level the driver needs to be aware of everything around the car and the car itself. Keep a hand on the steering wheel and be prepared to take over at a moments notice.

    Tesla is currently facing lawsuits because they have branded one of their systems as Full Self Driving, implying level 5, but in reality only being level 2. There are also lawsuits involving the selling of an upgrade package with the car, which promised a higher level of autonomous control. Even though Tesla full and well knew that they weren't even remotely close to being able to do so. Since it was highly unlikely, borderline impossible, for the purchaser to actually obtain said upgrade, selling such a thing would be illegal. They also faked many demos and promotional material. A prominent example of this was a video of the car driving around a city, with Tesla claiming the car drove itself and the driver didn't do anything. Later footage leaked showing the car behaving erratically, veering into a cyclist, before the driver performing an emergency stop. Both occupants were shocked and nervously laughed off the incident. This was one of many incidents on that trip which didn't make it into the final video, but was leaked later.

    Other brands are well ahead of what Tesla can do. But when we look at for example the Waymo cars or the stuff Toyota has been trying out, you can see the thing has sensors all over the place. Along with a roof mounted array of equipment. Our current level of technology requires this to be able to drive safely. Tesla cars don't have any of this, they even cut back on the number of high tech sensors in order to cut costs. Especially during the chip shortages caused by logistical pipeline failures due to covid. A lot of brands can actually produce self driving cars. The problem is costs, the equipment needed would double the price of the car, pricing itself out of the market. They could add it to fancy vehicles, but to be honest, once you can afford a Rolls Royce, the price of a human driver becomes a rounding error. But many brands offer and have offered level 2 for some time now. I personally have had experience with the excellent system Volvo has been using for years.

    The only unique thing Tesla ever did was lie about what their products were capable off. And to the shock of the industry, they got away with it, with their market value exploding. It makes no real world sense to value Tesla above other big car manufacturers, even if their claims were true. It's a bubble about to go pop.

  • Hyundai Is Putting Tesla To Shame with EVs ... What Happened?
  • Plus he lied about what his company could actually do from the beginning, leading to an inflated stock price. The idea was Tesla was streets ahead of the rest of the industry, in reality they weren't all that far ahead and other brands surpassed them quickly.

  • Might be promising
  • Our tunnels are earthquake-proof TODAY. This is something we can do TODAY. It can beat rail in being earthquake-proof, TODAY!

    Still waiting on those self-driving cars Elon. How is this man not in jail yet? The stock value of his companies are based on pure lies and he has been lying for years now. Every promise has been broken, no deadline has ever been realistic. And he's beta testing deadly machines on public roads.

    Fuck Elon, me and my homies all hate Elon.

  • why do a bunch of gas stations have 88 octane cheaper than 87?
  • Problems with ethanol in gas usually happen over a longer time, not within a single tank of gas. That pump was probably faulty to begin with. I would recommend lower ethanol fuel for older vehicles though, so it's not bad advice. But it isn't like pure acid that will dissolve the car within no time.

  • Alex Jones knows his archaeology! [I know it's Twitter, but it must count!]
  • To add context: The British period for Malta is 1814 - 1964. Most sources agree these things were made about 100 - 150 years ago, but the exact date is unsure.

    This is a graph of the sea rise in the past 140 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise#/media/File:1880-_Global_average_sea_level_rise_(SLR)_-_annually.svg

    Local sea rise due to global warming is around 30cm, local tides are also around 30cm.