How's my stock doing? | 13 Aug 2005 - Digest by CheDong.com

Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Blog team

The Google mailbag is filled with stories like this one, demonstrating the reach of Google across countries and between people. Occasionally we'll feature such a story here and hope you enjoy reading them. If you have a noteworthy tale about how you've used Google, write to testimonial@google.com.

Laura Escobosa is the executive director of Operation Rainbow, an all-volunteer organization which organizes medical missions to poor countries for American doctors and nurses specializing in orthopedic and plastic surgery. The people on these missions are affiliated with Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, and one regular stop for them has been Esteli, Nicaragua. Among those mentioning his Operation Rainbow experience is Dr. Elliot Krane, who cites it on his CV.

Just two weeks ago, this year's team was preparing for its annual trip to Esteli. At the same time, a quite unrelated journey was underway. A young American woman, Alice Orman, was visiting Esteli en route to her new year-long role as an English teacher in Honduras. While in Esteli, she had an accident that led to a leg break in two places. Though local doctors wanted to help, they lacked good facilities or equipment for setting a complicated break properly.

Someone at the hospital remembered the Stanford doctors. The staff knew they were coming soon, but who, and when? Alice called her parents in Nashville for help. They went to Google and typed in [Esteli Stanford] and up came Dr. Krane's reference. They emailed him late that night, and by morning he had replied from his office in Palo Alto. He told them about Dr. Larry Rinsky, an orthopedic surgeon who was packing his bags right then for Esteli. With a copy of Dr. Krane's email reply in hand, Dr. Rinsky called Alice parents and assured them he would see Alice, and that the team would do what it could for her.

So Alice rested and waited another day, hoping that the arriving team would treat her in addition to their Nicaraguan patients. Ms Escobosa says the team Stanford doctors and nurses treated her right away, gave her crutches and some TLC too. Within a short time she was able to continue on to Honduras for her year of teaching. And she's there now.

Back in Nashville, Scott and Mindy Orman were very relieved: "When we received the call from Alice," writes Mindy, "we were very worried and didn't know how we could help, being so far away. But the miraculous timing of the Stanford doctors' annual mission trip to Esteli, and the Google search that led us to them, assured us that Alice would be in good hands. We are so thankful for all the prayers and encouragement of so many folks and the excellent care she received from the Stanford team."

Ms. Escobosa wrote us to marvel at the coincidences that led to this happy ending. We're glad we could be part of it.

20:57 Phishing » English - The Real Deal

前天读到一则Oxford Dictionary of English收入一批新单词的消息。比较关键的几段摘录如下：

Among the new entries are "potty-mouthed" (meaning using or characterized by bad language), "lush" (very good) and "scopophilia" (sexual pleasure derived chiefly from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity).

Some words, such as "demographic" (a particular sector of a population) have become commonplace but only now make it into the dictionary.

They are joined by those emerging from new technology like "phishing" (fraudulently sending emails purporting to be from reputable firms to get individuals to reveal personal details).

不知是不是巧合，昨天的Dilbert漫画也是讲phishing的。

可以肯定的是，phishing已不再是什么生僻词汇。为了保护自己的利益（尤其是生活在美国的朋友），有必要搞清楚phishing到底是怎么回事。

简单地说，伪造e-mail来骗取用户信息的无耻行为就叫phishing。现在科技发达，以假乱真可谓轻而易举。有越来越多的无耻之徒假冒银行的名义，以“系统维修，需要更新资料”等理由，要求用户点击e-mail里提供的链接，重新输入重要的个人信息，如信用卡号、社会安全号（跟国内的身份证号差不多）、帐户、密码等等。

别说这招还真灵，因为国外的银行和网络不分家，通过银行网站管理自己的帐户是再常见不过的事。如果伪造的e-mail里有银行的图标，给出的链接是以银行的网址开头，的确很容易让人相信。大家可以参考Wikipedia里的图例：一，二，三。

即便上当的人不多，只要有那么几个冤大头，那些无耻之徒就发了。Phishing的发音跟fishing一样，就是取它“钓鱼”的意思。谁上钩谁倒霉。

末了，提一下跟phishing有关联的spam。有字典说它是可数名词，也有字典说它是不可数名词。按照我的经验来看，绝大多数母语者把它当不可数名词使用。如果要翻译“好多垃圾邮件”，a lot of spam肯定比a lot of spams地道。

Bonus video: Natasha Bedingfield - I Bruise Easily

11:46 苗苗和小马哥接上头贺电得到主席亲笔回复 » Anti's Blog

安替注：今晨陈永苗兄给我马英九给他们贺电的回电。这也算台海政治交往史的一件大事，特转载如下。关于我的观点，我会另文陈述，简单点就是说，马英九的胜利不是中华民主联邦的胜利、也不是台湾庶民的胜利，顶多算台湾泛蓝庶民的胜利，过分乐观解读、甚至无边发挥，那2008岌岌可危，这就是没有尝过民主胜利的台湾泛蓝和大陆人民的民主偶像崇拜幼稚病。

以下是马英九的回电全文：

***大鉴:

七月廿九日电子信箱转来大陆民间各界人士贺电敬悉。

中国国民党第十七届主席选举已于七月十六日圆满完成，英九获得近七成二的选票(375,056票)，当选党主席，承蒙大陆民间各界之关注与期许，特致诚挚谢忱。

这次党主席选举，是国民党建党110年以来首次以「竞争式党员直接选举」的方式产生新的领导人，开启了「党内民主」的先河，这也是连战主席五年来推动党内民主改革的重要成果。英九能在这场君子之争中脱颖而出，不但是个人的胜利，更是中国国民党全体党员的胜利!从选后的媒体民调可以看到，国民党的满意度达到49%(较二个月前上升6个百分点)，不满意度26%(下降11个百分点)，是2000年政党轮替后表现最好的一次，也是台湾四个主要政党声望最高的一个。英九自当在八月十九日接任后，全力落实竞选政见，把国民党打造成一个正派、清廉、改革、有竞争力的政党，期望在2008年赢回执政权。

在民主已成为普世价值的今天，近年来大陆民间各界追求民主的努力，让人印象深刻。中国国民党为中华民国的政党政治站稳了民主的脚步，期盼海内外中国人共同努力追求中国的自由民主，共创两岸和平共荣的新局面。

端此敬覆，顺颂

暑祺

　马英九敬启

　民国九十四年八月十日

以下是陈永苗等人的贺电：

中国大陆民间各界致马英九的贺电

    台北
    中国国民党第十七届全国代表大会
    中国国民党主席马英九先生：

     在您正式就任中国国民党第十七届主席之际，请接受我们，来自中国大陆民间各界的最热烈的祝贺！

     长期以来，中国大陆民间各界，凡关心中华民族命运的人，都与台湾岛内的民意一样，对马先生您寄予了极大的期待。这是因为在我们眼中，您是台湾之子，更是中华之子。长期以来您对海峡对岸人权、民主状况的持续关注，已清楚地表明了您的政治远见：没有中国大陆的民主化，台湾的民主化是不稳固的，台海的和平乃至东亚及世界的和平也都是不稳固的。

民主宪政在台湾的生根、开花、结果，已无可辩驳地证明了，现代民主制度完全可以健康地生长在中华古老文明这块土地上。事实上，台湾的民主化转型，已经为中国大陆在稳定基础上的民主化转型树立了榜样；中国国民党的民主化改造，也为中国共产党的民主化改造树立了榜样。

    如果说，在今天的台湾，谁能为台湾争得国际生存空间谁就能赢得选票，那么，也只有大胆西进、逐鹿中原而在中国的民主化转型中不缺席的台湾政治家，才有可能为台湾打拼出国际空间、国际地位和国际尊严。这不仅因为：任何一个为中国民主化作出特殊贡献的政治家都会赢得普世的尊重，这种尊重来自于：一个专制的中国还是一个民主的中国对世界和平将意义迥异；而且还尤其因为：台湾唯有背靠大陆民意，才可能具备真正的谈判地位和谈判实力，才可能在谈判桌上争得其殷殷所求。实际上，在当今世界一百多个政府中，唯有中华民国政府及其政党，才具有这种毫无“干涉内政”之虞的与北京政权打交道的政治平台；也唯有站在促进中国民主化这个政治制高点上的台湾政治家，才可能运“四两”之功迫使“千斤”之力让步。

     尽管百年老店国民党如今偏居台湾，但是她在创党之初所昭示天下的“推动中华民主事业”之使命尚未成功。这个使命也就是国民党对中华民族所承诺的义务。因此我们有理由提醒今天的中国国民党主席马英九先生，不管国民党走到天涯海角，中国人民都始终不会忘记这笔债务，都会要求国民党履行其责任。因而国民党就不可能只是台湾国民党，她是、也只能是中国国民党。为此我们衷心地希望，马英九先生能带领中国国民党回归并继承孙中山先生的伟大理想，在立足台湾，造福台湾的同时，又不局限于台湾，而是放眼中华大地，充分利用既有资源来促进中华民族的民主化转型。这也是中国国民党真正的浴火重生之路。

     因此，我们欢迎国共两党乃至两岸官方重开谈判，欢迎台湾朝野访问大陆。更尤其希望在“三通”（通航、通邮、通商）之外，还要有第四通：通政，即开通两岸政治交流。台湾可以开放中国共产党等大陆政党到台湾发展；作为对等条件，大陆也应开放中国国民党及台湾其他党派来大陆发展。同时双方均应向对方开放各类媒体，开放文、史、哲、经、法等人文社科领域的学术交流。总之，最起码，这“第四通”应当成为国共两党及两岸官方交流与谈判的一个重要议题。

马英九先生：您是台湾当代民主化进程的见证者和实践者。您的经验、胆识、操守、智慧与魅力以及您的血浓于水的民族感情，不仅使您卓然鹤立于当今台湾政坛，而且也使您名扬祖国大陆。所以我们真诚地希望您能带领台湾新一代有大理想、大抱负的政治家回祖国大陆发展，因为中国大陆的民主化需要借鉴台湾的经验，中国的民主化进程需要台湾同胞的参与。甚至中国共产党的民主化改造，也需要借鉴于曾同为威权式政党的中国国民党之民主化改造的经验。

此致

敬礼！

（执笔人：陈永苗）

11:46 搜索引擎的缓存机制 » 搜索引擎研究

以前曾经提到过搜索引擎的缓存策略, 根据搜索引擎搜索的关键词的统计分布, 可以优化设计搜索引擎的缓存策略. 就普通的缓存策略上讲, 缓存是因为在一定的时间段内的搜索的关键词集中在一定的范围内, 并且这些搜索相对稳定. 例如每天搜索"美女"的人总有10万,20万, 而结果在这段时间相对稳定, 因此没有必要每次去检索索引文件, 而将上一个人搜索的结果直接返回便可以了.

搜索引擎缓存策略也同搜索引擎的算法密切相连, 除了搜索缓存, 索引缓存也是一个好方法. 独立或者分布一些权重较高的文档也是一种提高效率的方法. 例如我们有1000万的网页的权重(可以简单的理解为pagerank)比较高, 那么这些网页的排序相比另外一些权重较低的网页相对较为稳定, 就不妨独立出来进行相对独立的索引缓存.

关于缓存的分布, 一般的小型搜索引擎不会用到, 但是如果每天处理上亿次的搜索, 缓存的分布就应当有一定的分布规划, 例如根据提交的关键词构成hash table, 然后对应于不同的搜索服务器, 实现缓存的分布.

让我们看看实际例子吧, 我们拿百度, google, yisou, 中搜, tag.bokee.com 进行简单的测试:

因为测试, 要搜索一些在过去7天没有人搜索过的关键词, 或者组合词. 为了保证没有人搜索过, 我选择在各个搜索引擎里搜索"a s d f v g h" , 这是我在键盘上随机打出的一些组合, 相信这世界上在7天没有人相同搜索, 这样保证我的第一次的搜索是 fresh search, 就是一定需要搜索引擎去检索索引文件, 而不是通过缓存策略.

以下是结果:
百度: 0.279秒
google: 0.24 秒
一搜: 0.24 秒
中搜: 0.001秒(无结果!!!!)
博客搜索: 0.041 秒

下面是第二次搜索的结果:
百度: 0.001秒
google: 0.05 秒
一搜: 0.09 秒
中搜: 0.002秒(无结果!!!!)
博客搜索: 0.019 秒

经过简单的测试, 可以看出缓存机制只有在Baidu和google搜索引擎里都有, 但是各自效率不一样, 如下是简单的比例:

百度: 100
google: 5
一搜: 没有明显的缓存
中搜: 没有明显的缓存
博客搜索: 没有明显的缓存

而在缓存效率上百度要远远大于google, 这点大概是因为google的gfs本身的分布效率已经相当不错, 因此进行缓存也不会有数量级的提升.

而百度, 根据测试可能是集中方式的数据存储, 但是根据搜索进行hash分布, 因此才会在缓存上有显著的提升. (这个属于猜测)

10:47 百度歌曲MP3 top 500批量下载script » 搜索引擎研究

百度mp3的页面流程改变了, 我也花几分钟重写一下新的脚本, bash 上运行, 批量下载 500首mp3歌曲.

baidu500.sh.txt 下载

500首mp3下载的时间大约为一个半小时, 当然你要有足够的带宽和空间.

09:42 TBL talks up blogs » ProNet

BBC News has published a short but compelling interview with Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the world wide web. In discussing his orignal vision of the web as a two-way read/write medium, Berners-Lee has a lot to say about blogging being...

09:42 Super-Customized Posting Interfaces » ProNet

ABlogLog has posted Pimp Out My Movable Type, a nice set of screenshots showing a heavily-customized Movable Type posting interface. The beautiful screens you see here were created with a combination of slick CSS and graphics work, Movable Type's alternate...

09:42 Smart New Templates » ProNet

Movable Type's often been praised for both the elegance of its user interface and the way the system's published pages look. But the current generation of default designs have gotten a little long in the tooth, and we wanted to...

09:42 Publishing Custom Pages » ProNet

Arvind Satyanarayan has published another great tutorial over at Movalog, Publishing Custom Pages with Movable Type. It's a quick look at how to create standalone pages to complement the content you're publishing on your blog. This has long been an...

09:42 Outbound TrackBack Control » ProNet

We've seen a huge increase in the number of companies using blogs within their organization, on an intranet or extranet to help their employees connect and communicate about projects. And one of the first requirements of project blogging is to...

09:42 New Template Management Screens » ProNet

Movable Type has always supported the easy publishing of as many output templates as you need, with flexible archiving styles and the ability to choose between dynamic or static publishing. But in the past, the sheer number of items listed...

09:42 LiveJournal at O'Reilly's OSCon » ProNet

If you're going to be in Portland for the O'Reilly Open Source Convention this week, be sure to check out the session on LiveJournal's backend that Brad Fitzpatrick will be presenting as part of the database track. A number of...

09:42 Entry basename control » ProNet

Those of you who have been blogging for at least a few years will remember a time all permalinks to individual weblog entries looked something like "http://www.example.com/002911.html" where 2911 was the entry ID of the entry in question. This scheme...

09:42 Define Default Templates for All Your Blogs » ProNet

One subtle but powerful new feature in Movable Type 3.2 that we're excited about is the ability to define default templates for each new blog that's created on the system. Once you've created the layout, styles, or feeds that you...

09:42 Customize Listing Screens Actions with Plugins » ProNet

We've already shown you how the powerful new listing screens in Movable Type 3.2 let you easily select any item or range of items, just by clicking anywhere on a row. And you can even shift-click to select a range...

09:42 Corporate Blogging Survey 2005 » ProNet

The team at Backbone Media has published Corporate Blogging Survey 2005 a brief but useful look at a lot of key business blogging data. From case studies to analysis, the white paper (downloadable as PDF) includes an enormous amount of...

09:42 Comedy Central Insider » ProNet

The team behind Comedy Central's lineup of mirth-inducing television has launched CC Insider, a new TypePad-powered blog that gives a look behind the scenes at the shows in their lineup, live appearances by comedians, and events in the comedy world...

09:42 Ben Trott on Design Patterns » ProNet

Our CTO and co-founder Ben Trott's just published a brief but interesting look at some of the considerations that have gone into choosing an object-relational mapper to power the database behind our platforms. There's some insights into what will be...

09:42 "Blog software has set me free" » ProNet

PC Magazine's Bill Machrone has published a great new column entitled I Blog/I Do Not Blog. In it, Bill examines how blog tools in general, and Movable Type in particular, can function as extremely powerful and flexible content management systems,...

07:29 Yahoo! Site Explorer 可以直接查反相链接的工具 » del.icio.us/chedong

通过Site Explorer可以方便的查到当前网站的所有链接和反相链接，很好的SEO工具。

07:06 超快速Del.icio.us书签 » WebLeOn's Blog

Julian Bez制作的这个Bookmarklet实在是太方便了，忍不住要介绍一下。

这个Quickpost的书签可以让你不打开Del.icio.us页面就可以迅速添加网摘，而且还支持把页面选择的文本自动作为扩展描述。

使用方法：
- 把这个链接拉到你的工具栏：quickpost。
- 修改Bookmarklet，把USERNAME改为你的Del.icio.us用户名。
- 在要收藏的网页选择一段文字作为描述。
- 点击工具栏中的quickpost。
- 依次输入Tag、标题(默认为网页标题)、描述(默认为刚刚选择的内容)。
- 添加网摘已完成。

04:34 Making books easier to find » Google Blog

Posted by Adam M. Smith, Google Print Product Manager

(Updated 8/12/05, 1:31 p.m. PDT*)

In October 2004 we announced a program called Google Print, a way for publishers to make their books discoverable by the millions of people who search on Google every day. Shortly thereafter, we added a complementary program to help find all books more easily by partnering with libraries to index their collections too. The goal of Google Print is ambitious: to make the full text of all the world's books searchable by anyone. These books are hard to find now, and for most of them, no full-text search exists. We think that making books easier to find will have a positive impact on the world, and we welcome the challenge.

As with many ambitious ideas, Google Print has sparked a healthy amount of discussion. And we've been listening. Over the last few months, we???ve been talking with numerous publishers, publishing industry organizations and authors about our Google Print Publisher Program and Google Print Library Project. Today I???d like to mention two new features that reflect these discussions and which we feel will considerably improve both programs.

If you???re in the Publisher Program (or you decide to join it), you can now give us a list of the books that, if we scan them at a library, you???d like to have added immediately to your account. This way you can have your books in Google Print, which will put them into Google.com search results, direct potential buyers to your website, provide ongoing reports about user interest in your books, and your books will also earn revenue from contextual advertising ??? even if they are out of print.

We think most publishers and authors will choose to participate in the publisher program in order to introduce their work to countless readers around the world. But we know that not everyone agrees, and we want to do our best to respect their views too. So now, any and all copyright holders ??? both Google Print partners and non-partners ??? can tell us which books they???d prefer that we not scan if we find them in a library. To allow plenty of time to review these new options, we won???t scan any in-copyright books from now until this November.

We're going to continue talking about Google Print with our partners and the publishing industry. These discussions have been crucial in helping to build a program that benefits the industry and, most important, the millions of users who'll be able to discover new books. Stay tuned.

*Update: People have been asking us how we came to this new policy for the Google Print Library Project. We consulted with a variety of constituencies and ultimately decided that this new approach would best balance the rights and needs of users and publishers while remaining consistent with our web search policy. Google automatically indexes content across the web. Most web publishers find this service convenient and useful, but we gladly offer those who prefer that we not index their site a way of telling us not to do so via a robots.txt file. Similarly, the Library Project aims to make it convenient and useful for publishers to get their books into Google Print, but those publishers who don't want to take advantage of this service can now simply tell us which books they'd like us to exclude.

03:38 Get Local Search with Maps and Directions on your phone! » MSN Search's WebLog

The MSN Search and MSN Mobile teams have recently collaborated and are excited to deliver the MSN Local Search Beta to your mobile device! Currently available in the US, Mobile Search is available on Windows Mobile devices, as well as new phones with WAP 2.0 browsers. To try out the service, launch your phone’s web browser, and go to http://mobile.msn.com/ and select "Beta Services" from the main menu.

So what does it do? You can search for a restaurant, store, school, dentist, museum – basically, anything listed in the Yellow Pages and White Pages. Just enter your search term (i.e. “coffee” or “Victrola” ) and location (zip code, city/state or full street address) and hit the Search button. Your recently used locations are even stored and easily accessible the next time you use the service. We’ll return the first handful of results, including name, address, distance from your current location and phone number – which you can dial by clicking! Select the result name and you’ll see a page with more detail, including a color map. Select “get directions” and we’ll provide turn-by-turn driving directions between your starting location and result address (both editable). All of these features have been specially designed to work on your phone, requiring minimal interaction and optimized for speed and ease of use.

We’ll be adding many more features like SMS and 'send to phone' in the coming months, so check back often. We're very interested in your feedback, so tell us what you think.

Thanks,

Aron Holzman and the MSN Mobile Search team

00:06 How's my stock doing? » MSN Search's WebLog

When you get asked the same question a half million times a day, you better have a good answer! I’m happy to announce that MSN Search has partnered with the MSN Money team to add a stock quote instant answer for stock related searches. You may ask, what’s a stock related search? Here’s how we decide:

Ticker search- If the search term is obviously a stock ticker, for example MSFT, we’ll include the quote instant answer. However, many ticker symbols can have multiple meanings. For example, a search for “Cat” could mean you are looking for the animal, or a quote for the Caterpillar, Inc. In this ambiguous case, we’ll look for something more specific, such as “CAT quote” before we include the stock quote instant answer with the web results.

Company name search - Don’t know the ticker symbol for a company? We will also show the quote answer when a company name and some part of the term “stock quote” are entered. For example, to get a quote for Whole Foods, the popular supermarket chain, you can search on “Whole Foods quote”. We also support mutual funds; try “Fidelity Magellan quote”.

International quotes - Quotes are available for exchanges in 10 countries. If you are searching from the MSN Search site in the US, you can request a quote for BMW on the Frankfurt exchange by appending the DE: country prefix to the ticker. “DE:BMW”. However, if you are looking for a stock in the same country as the MSN Search site you are using, the country prefix is not necessary. See “BMW” on the German MSN Search site. Here is the full list of countries and country prefixes: Canada (CA:), France (FR:), Germany (DE:), Great Britain (GB:), Italy (IT:), Japan (JP:), Netherlands (NL:), Spain (ES:), United States(US:), and Sweden (SE:).

Multiple Ticker symbols – You can also search on multiple tickers “MSFT GOOG YHOO” to view multiple quotes in a table.

In addition to the quote, we also show charts and news (if available) for the company. If you click on the chart in a stock answer, we link to MSN Money where a larger chart, in-depth company research, and real time quotes from NYSE and NASDAQ are available.

We plan on adding additional financial answers. As always, thanks for your feedback and suggestions!

Nils Pohlmann
Program Manager, MSN Search