I just had someone describe google search to me as a conceptual search. I know we're not privy to search algorithms, but my impression was that it's, at core, a full text search with synonyms, and also checks for your search term in documents linking to a given document (which I've never found useful, for the record). Would any of you go so far as to describe it as conceptual? I think "really good full-text with some metadata (URL, etc) capability" about covers it.

I think "really good full-text with some metadata (URL, etc) capability" about covers it.

This is my impression, but I'm also not 100% clear on what "conceptual search" is supposed to mean.

He's being hand-wavey about it, so it's hard to pin him down. His point is that you can get a google result that doesn't have any of the search terms you put in. In my experience it's because a document with those terms linked to the result, or because the document had the plural or the singular or a close spelling of what you put in--the search engine isn't doing any sort of fancy interpretation of what I type in.

Heh - http://easiertounderstandthanwave.com/

[warning: plays music automatically]

I'm with you, ita. My impression is that the fancy algorithm is mostly about the *ranking* of the search results, and less about the actual searching.

And also, if he can provide one, I would be very interested in an example of a search that returns results without any of the search terms you put in. Not that I don't believe it, but I'm pretty sure I've never seen one.

In'eresting....

Interview: The Space Station's IT guys

My color inkjet expired today. I don't print a lot of color stuff and I have a B&W laserjet I'm very happy with for volume B&W stuff. So:

So:
low volume color laser?
another inkjet?
printer fax so I can move the seldom use fax off my desktop?

Suggestions for models in each category? Because we are talking low volume printing, the added cost of a laser might make up for any saving on per page printing when it comes to cartridges. Maybe one of the brands that offers lower cost cartridges than HP? Then again laser has advantage of a longer lasting printer, even if the higher printer cost makes up for any cartridge savings.

Thoughts?

I think someone else asked about printer/all-in-ones recently too. I have the HP C7280 all-in-one and like it just fine! I have it set up wirelessly too, which is nice. And the bonus is that I recently had problems (out of the blue) with a memory card in my cameras (after taking a bunch of photos all night, woke up to the camera not being able to read the card). Out of curiosity and desperation, I stuck the memory card into the slot on the printer and the printer could read it just fine. Put it back into the camera and the camera could suddenly "see" it too. Voila!

I bought the pretty highly reviewed HP Photosmart Plus for $110 at Office Depot yesterday. I can't really give you a review yet. It doesn't fax, but I think there's one for not much more that does. I started online faxing after the fax on my last all-in-one got a bit unreliable.

I've got an HP 7780 and 7680. They are both excellent. They are network aware, quite fast and do good color. They also have high capacity in tanks available. They are typically not cheap though. I think they may have a new model replacing them about now as well. They use the 88XL cartridges which I have good luck finding at Costco in multipacks for a decent price.