links for 2005-11-29

links for 2005-11-28

Tool for Building Repositories of Documents

This project expands the capabilities of the SWISH-E search engine to include theme extraction or categorisation. This combines the best features of handcrafted catalogues with the benefits of a search engine. Users do not have to build and maintain complex knowledge bases of their own in order to establish relationships between topics, nor do they have to formulate complex queries to find information that may be worded differently in the documents being searched.

Knowledge Mapper

Neat.  Feed it some docs, it analyzes them and builds a theme list.  Docs are linked together by the themes.  Sounds interesting.

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links for 2005-11-24

BitTorrent, MPAA Strike Accord

In a deal aimed at reducing illegal Internet traffic in pirated films, Hollywood reached an agreement Tuesday with the creator of the popular file-sharing software BitTorrent.
The agreement requires 30-year-old software designer Bram Cohen to prevent his Web site, bittorrent.com, from locating pirated versions of popular movies, effectively frustrating people who search for illegal copies of films.

Hollywood, BitTorrent Reach Agreement – Yahoo! News

Cohen will remove links to pirated films from the bittorrent.com search engine.  While this will certainly slow traffic in pirated films, it will hardly stop it.  Although BitTorrent has enough legit use to stop it from shut down like Napster or Grokster, it certainly lacks the resources to wage a lenghty legal battle against the MPAA.  I hope that Cohen’s decision here leads to a wider adoption of BitTorrent as a way to deliver properly licensed films.

Update: Seems Variety also thinks this move may signal the beginning of a better relationship between BitTorrent and the film inudustry.

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HigherEd BlogCon

HigherEd BlogCon aims to bring together in a single Web space many of the leading players who are transforming academe with their use of the new tools of the Social Web.

Preparations for HigherEd BlogCon – Overview

An online web conference to be held in April 2006.  It is corporate driven with ProfNet, CASE, Thomson Peterson’s, and PR Newswire doing all the organizational and logistic work.  Heck, they even have a tag: higheredblogcon.  This will be worth keeping track of.

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AOL Updates Desktop Search

Unlike homegrown desktop search solutions from Microsoft and Google, AOL utilizes technology developed by Copernic. Version 2.0 will feature a full preview window for viewing entire files without opening them, and integrates with the standard Windows Open dialog box. Beta 1 of AOL Desktop Search 2.0 is available for download now, but it’s not yet feature complete, company officials say.

BetaNews | AOL Spins Off Desktop Search Product

Copernic is a favorite desktop search tool that alos does neat thinga like querying a bunch of search engines and intergrating results.  AOL is moving in the right direction to use this as a base.

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links for 2005-11-23

links for 2005-11-22

The FBI Is Not Watching You.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an alert Monday about a scam involving unsolicited e-mails, purportedly sent by theFBI, that tell computer users that their Internet surfing is being monitored by the agency.

FBI Warns of E-Mail About Surveillance – Yahoo! News

This looks a lot like a replay of the Sober.K outbreak from Feb. 2005.  At that time the FBI issued a press release that was virtually identical to the one issued today.  My scanner reported a copy I picked up as Sober.cf.  It is interesting that the major AV sites have not picked this up yet.

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