Monday, March 26, 2007
Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
A video by Michael Wesch (see http://www.ksu.edu/sasw/anthro…), Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, is currently the most blogged about video according to Technorati (http://www.technorati.com/pop/…).
Posted by Augustine at 11:10 PM
Writing a Digg-Style Popularity Algorithm
Theory March 26th, 2007Not so long ago I was tasked with creating a web site similar to Digg - users voted on records in the database, and those deemed “popular” were promoted to the front page. But how exactly does such an algorithm work? Let’s take a look under the hood…
Before we begin, a quick disclaimer: These are my own thoughts on such an algorithm, from scratch. I don’t know how Digg, Reddit and other such sites rank popular items, so this may be a quite different.
Records and Votes
We have a database record, whether it be a news story, picture, video, podcast, whatever. And we have voting, a method for users to place a single vote on a particular database record. We could order the “Popular” category by number of votes and be done with it.
Popularity = Votes
However records very quickly become stale, as new submissions are entered and the voting process begins again. If records from last year have 300 votes each, but popular records this year only have 100 or so, they won’t see the front page. So we need to look at time as a factor as well.
Records and Time
Let’s introduce the age of the record as another variable. If the record is newer it should have a higher prominence on the front page, yes?
Popularity = Votes / Record Age
The older the record, the more votes it requires to achieve popularity. But that’s not really fair - if a record takes a little while to receive votes, it doesn’t get the credit it deserves. This is especially a problem if your site doesn’t yet have enough traffic.
So what’s the solution? Let’s take a look at the age of each vote for the record.
Records and Vote Time
To keep the front page fresh, we can give more weight to votes placed recently. That way if a story is hasn’t yet received the credit it deserves, it’s still in for a chance if several users notice its value and vote accordingly. So let’s iterate through votes and calculate a popularity score:
Popularity = (V1/A1) + (V2/A2) + … + (Vn/An)
Vn is a vote, and An is the age of that vote (for example, in minutes). If a vote is 60 minutes old, it is worth 1/60th of a vote placed 1 minute ago. All the values of all the votes are added to achieve a popularity score.
This seems to solve the previous problem, but introduces a new one. If a single person votes on a record a year old, his vote will be worth more than 200 votes on a different record posted yesterday. Old material comes back to haunt the front page. So we’re close, but no cigar yet.
Let’s take a look again at the age of the record …
Records and Time and Vote Time
If we put together everything we’ve discussed so far, we get something that looks like this:
Popularity = [ (V1/A1) + (V2/A2) + … + (Vn/An) ] / Record Age
It’s a bit of a mouthful, but basically it adds together the weighted votes based on age, then divides that total by the age of the record. It doesn’t impose too much of a time limit on becoming popular, it dampens votes based on age, and prevents old stories from leaping back to the front page. It solves all our problems.
Dampening Popularity
Admission: In writing this article, I’ve discovered a more advanced algorithm than used previously on my project. Guess what I’m doing this evening?
But already I can see a problem - I think a dampening effect will need to be introduced to prevent wild jumps of increased popularity and back down again. I will update this post when I’ve had a chance to implement the new algorithm in the wild.
Other Variables
What other variables could we introduce to the algorithm?
- Number of page views - a form of popularity, but far less useful than voting
- Page views versus people who don’t vote - If 60% of readers vote, should it be more popular than if 10% vote? Remember this isn’t the number of votes, it’s the percentage of readers who vote
- Iterative algorithm of amount of time between individual votes
- Voting down as well as up
- Trustworthiness of user who originally submitted the record, maybe based on votes of previous submissions
- If a web URL is involved, maybe use metadata such as Google PageRank, inbound links (Google/Yahoo API), Blogosphere activity, and so forth
Further Reading
Posted by Augustine at 10:36 PM
auto-generated thumbnail grid (yes, it's actually a jpeg created on the fly)
created by FlickrCash and installable on any and all blogs with a simple image tag. the install code can be copied and pasted and it looks like this ...
Posted by Augustine at 4:54 PM
Isn't It Embarassing?
TV commercials that use the same song! Didn't their agencies check who else is using the same song? Energizer Pampers training pants Hotels.com Ford more... (sorted by song) "Just What I Needed" - The Cars (Circuit City) "Lust For Life"- Iggy Pop (Carnival Cruiselines) "U Can't Touch This"- MC Hammer (Purrell) "Picture Book"- The Kinks (Hewlett Packard)
"Weight"- The Band (Cingular) "Let My Love Open the Door"- Pete Townshend (JC Penneys) "It's Over"- Roy Orbison (Blockbuster) "Have Love, Will Travel"- The Sonics (Land Rover)
"Run Away"- Real McCoy (Lexus) "Should I Stay or Should I Go"- The Clash (Pontiac) "I Want to Break Free"- Queen (Coke) "Rock 'N' Roll"- Led Zeppelin (Cadillac)
"Got To Be Real"- Cheryl Lynn (Clairol) "Rock 'n Me"- Steve Miller Band (Wrangler) "What's new Pussycat"- Tom Jones (Special K) "I Feel Good"- James Brown (Ameriquest)
"Dream On"- Aerosmith (Buick) "Comon' Get Happy"- The Partridge Family (PA Lottery) "Rescue Me"- Aretha Franklin (Pledge) "Magic Carpet Ride"- Steppenwolf (Chevy)
"Too Hot Ta Trot"- The Commodores (Special K) "All Right Now"- Free (Tweeter) "Give it to Me, Baby"- Rick James (Papa John's) "I Can See For Miles"- The Who (Silverstar)
"Happy Together"- The Turtles (Clinique) "I Melt With You"- Modern English (Ritz) "Dream Weaver"- Gary Wright (Macy*s) "Push It"- Salt-n-Pepa (Nextel)
"She's a Lady"- Tom Jones (Commerce Bank) "Complicated"- The Rolling Stones (Lexmark) "Love Hurts"- Nazareth (Norelco) "Rebel Yell"- Billy Idol (Blockbuster)
"I've Got the Power"- Snap (Hotels.com, Pampers, Ford) "You Sexy Thing"- Hot Chocolate (Applebees) "Over Under Sideways Down"- The Yardbirds (Chevy) "Let's Get it On"- Nazareth (Chevy Mailibu)
Posted by Augustine at 1:08 PM
Apple TV OS loosed into the wilds
Apple TV will succeed like Palm and Wii because intentionally or unintentionally it is allowing the user base (their fans) to make mods and make it better.
Posted Mar 26th 2007 6:36AM by Thomas Ricker Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs
Posted by Augustine at 7:15 AM
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Hide files in JPEG images
The Tech Tray weblog has posted a tutorial for hiding secret files inside JPEG images using the popular Windows archiver, WinRAR, and a little command line magic.
Basically, you create a .rar archive of your to-be-hidden file, then run a copy command from the Windows command line (with the /b binary switch) to embed your secret file in your image. After you complete the process, you can open and view the JPEG like any other image - the only thing that might tip off that the image has got a secret is a potentially bloated file size. To grab the secret file, you just use WinRAR to extract the file from the image.
It may sound like a lot of work, but it's a pretty simple process (watch the video to see how easy it is). This is a neat trick, but if you want to get really serious about encryption, you'll want to encrypt your data with TrueCrypt. — Adam Pash
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Hiding Files in Jpg's
Introduction
Here is a tutorial on how to hide files in Jpg's. Please note it isn't the most secure method, because the information is stored in plain text but it's still cool to play with. A simple solution to make this more secure, is to use encryption on the RAR file when your create it, but thats not the point of this tutorial :) The idea is to show how files can be 'slammed' together, to stop the average PC user from finding them.Video Tutorial
Please click here to see the video tutorial.Step by Step Instructions
You will need the following..- Windows 2000 / XP (probably Vista, too!)
- Basic Knowledge of the Command Prompt
- WinRar
- Gather your image and the files you wish to lodge into it. Here I have a meeting.txt which which I will slap inside my secret.jpg
- Add the files you want to hide into a new RAR archive
- Open Command Prompt
- Go to the folder where your files are located, in this case 'C:\hidden'
- Type 'copy /b secret.jpg + meeting.txt.rar lizard.jpg' where secret.jpg is the original picture, meeting.txt.rar is the file to be hidden, and lizard.jpg is the file which contains both.
- Test the JPG by opening it, and verifying it still opens. If it does, try opening the file with WinRar!
- The completed RAR file!
- Here is the image I created when making this tutorial!
Posted by Augustine at 1:05 AM
Friday, March 23, 2007
Pavonine showcases 24-inch MIRACUBE stereoscopic LCD monitor
Posted Mar 19th 2007 7:48AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Displays
Posted by Augustine at 11:04 PM
Tesla Opening Electric Car Dealerships This Fall
If you've been waiting for your chance to buy a hot, hot Tesla electric car (such as their Roadster or Whitestar), good news. The electric car company is planning on opening 5 dealerships around the country this fall.
If you live in NYC, Chicago, Florida, Northern California or Southern California, you're in luck. They hope to open more dealerships soon after, as they're able to pump out more product. Is this the start of the age of the mainstream electric car? We sure hope so. –Adam Frucci
CNET [via Mobile Mag]Posted by Augustine at 11:03 PM
Introducing the 205-inch Technovision Luxio LED TV/HDTV : Big Enough to Park Two Mini Coopers On
LCD HDTV : Big Enough to Park Two Mini Coopers On">
Technovision is showing off their 205-inch LCD LED HDTV at CeBit, that makes the formerly buff Sharp 108-inch LCD feel downright pathetic. That's enough space to park two mini coopers on, side by side. Wait...TechnovisionWho?
[UPDATED: Aha! It's an array of LEDs, not an LCD]
The Italian company, in operation since 1987, specializes in displays for outdoor areas. Ohhh. So this is like a jumbotron. Except for inside, and HD. I refuse to believe that these are single pieces of glass. Likely they're comprised of a few panels joined together like some of the "big" TVs we saw at CES.
Regardless, that much glass -- over 15 feet by 8 feet -- forming a single picture, is rad. They unveiled them at a yacht show in February, so you can imagine the market they're aiming for. We've no idea if these will ship soon, or in the US. But that doesn't matter. You can't afford this TV. –Brian Lam
Luxio [via Techdigest]
Posted by Augustine at 11:03 PM
Panasonic 1080p Projector: Visions of Heaven, Stratospheric Price
Definitely not in the budget for most home theaters, we think this high-end Panasonic PT-DW10000U 1080p projector might fit nicely into the HGTV Dream Home that the Gizmodo team is anticipating moving into this Sunday when they announce us as the big winners.
For $75,000, it comes with 3-chip DLP, four bulbs rocking 10,000 lumens, 1080p (1920x1080), 5000:1 contrast ratio, and an "auto cleaning robot" to extend filter life to 2000 hours. The unit can operate in temps up to 113 degrees thanks to a liquid cooling system and three big exhaust fans. Could get noisy. Definitely useful for those screening rooms in hell. – Charlie White and Curtis Joe Walker
Posted by Augustine at 11:01 PM
New Video Watermark Tech Traces Bootlegs Back to Pirates
Future set-top boxes and gateways from Thomson SA are going to come with video watermarking tech that will allow investigators to pinpoint the origin of pirated videos. The tech, NexGuard, identifies "individual copies of the films distributed digitally to cinemas or on DVD as preview copies for reviewers and awards juries." Before video content leaves a gateway or set-top box, it embeds a watermark unique to each device using the box's digital video chip.
The watermarks identify both the "network operator distributing the content" and the individual device. A spokesman said that people "should not be upset about this unless they are widely redistributing content." Thomson sees it as a way to "slow down piracy without limiting the use of the consumer."
So, if you feel upset or limited, that means you're a pirate. – Matt Buchanan
DSL gateways will watermark video to catch pirates [Computer World]
Posted by Augustine at 11:00 PM
Fujitsu flaunts color e-ink, future tech concept horn o' plenty
Posted Mar 20th 2007 4:00PM by Jeannie Choe
Filed under: Displays, Misc. Gadgets
We're feelin' what Fujitsu's done so far this year, but now we've got an idea of what it might bust out with in the near future. Last week's Fujitsu North American Technology Forum 2007 was an opportunity to flaunt not-yet-real (at least not in the US) concepts like color e-paper and FPcodes, among a few others. We've seen Fujitsu's elusive e-paper prototype before, and it's still not ready, but at least now we know that the 8-inch, 640 x 480 color display is about 0.03-inches thick, with a 12-inch version in the works and an ambitious goal to reach 2.5-meters. It requires virtually no power and can operate with a teeny boost of focused energy like radio waves from a cellphone. In addition to this e-paper flight of fancy, Fujitsu was showing off a waterproof RFID tag, along with those QR-killin' FPcodes and their vein pattern identification system we've seen before.Posted by Augustine at 10:59 PM